Week 5: Damn Map24!

Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday: 3 miles
Thursday: 4 miles
Saturday: skipped 3 miles (Mardi Gras parade!)
Sunday: 12 miles

Come on down!
For Tuesday's run I went to location of my gym that I'd never tried before. It was me and the mostly elderly folks, several treadmills wedged into a room with a few bikes and stairmasters. Instead on a TV and headphones at each machine there was one TV up in the corner inviting all of to guess the price of the showcase showdown. That's exercise entertainment.

On Wednesday the class met at a physical therapist's office and I learned about all kinds of aches, pains and causes for paranoia. Tried not to think about them on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

I fully intended to run 3 miles on Saturday morning, before the Mardi Gras parade. My second intention was to leave the after the parade to go running (this one was truly fool-hardy). Alas, no Satruday short run this week either.

Map24 lets me down
Heeding advice to get out of town and run on the country roads, I planned a 12-mile run in near a friend's house. (The same friend who told me about Map24, now that I think about it.) I remembered it being not too hilly - faulty memory - and Map24 presented an option for a loop that had a few spurs going out in different directions along the way. But as I drove out there, I realized that one key road in the loop did not actually exist. Huh.

I then commenced driving around and around, relying my odometer to figure out a new route. As retraced a few roads, I kept driving by the same runner. The first time I saw him I felt excited and inspired. We are the same! I'll be out there running too, in just a few minutes! I swung wide into the other lane to give him a wide berth on the snowy shoulder of the road. The second I passed him, I smiled goofily and wondered what route he'd planned and how far he was running, and maybe I should ask him where to run? The third time I was irritated at myself because it was getting late in the afternoon, and colder, and still hadn't figured out a place to park, route to run and way to get in the required miles on these godforsaken backcountry farmfields. The fourth time I passed him, I couldn't mistake the look on his face for anything other than, "why is that weirdo driving in circles around me?"

I was able to get in 8 miles, finally. But as it got later and colder, I felt less inclined to live the dream of running on the open road. A treadmill with the promise of a sauna afterward seemed a better fit. So I ran the last 4 miles at the gym and called it a day.