Run interruptions, indoors and out

Tether and lace

Today's run (street): 3.6 miles
Yesterday's workout (elliptical): 30 minutes
Thursday's run (treadmill): 3.3 miles
Last Sunday's run (street): 3.2 miles

This week has been busy. For a change, it wasn't due to work. I took Wednesday and Thursday off for some family stuff, but that didn't give me much workout time. I did manage to squeeze in a treadmill run, but accidentally pulled out the safety tether halfway through. That brought the machine to an abrupt halt. I was upset for a moment because it caused my time and distance to disappear from the display. Fortunately, I'd set my Garmin for an indoor run that captured all that information.

The worst part of interrupting a good run is the drop in heart rate that follows. I've had occasions when a perfectly good workout became a struggle after an unscheduled stop. A few years ago I was on a brisk lunchtime run in Central Park with a friend who asked me to stop so he could shed a top layer. We were at the halfway point on Cat Hill when we stopped. I struggled from that moment on, and ended up cutting our five miler to three.

This morning I was anxious to get outside after yesterday's elliptical session and Thursday's treadmill run. The weather was pleasant, 52° and overcast, and the pavement felt good under my NB Zantes. I hadn't run in them for over a month due to their low platform and my plantar issue. I figured that I'd made enough progress to try them again. They really are great shoes and I had no post run heel problems.

Like the treadmill tether problem I had on Thursday, I found myself needing to stop a couple of times on my run. I hadn't double knotted my laces and they were whipping annoyingly around my ankles. It was no big deal, but I did feel light headed after bending down to retie the Zantes. My recovery from those stops went better than that time in Central Park but it did throw off my momentum.

Today's run

This morning, around the time I was doing my little run around the neighborhood, Runsketeer SIOR was running the Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon. She snagged an age group award and next month SIOR and KWL will be in Hopkinton, MA for the Boston Marathon.

Tomorrow will be colder than today and I'll decide in the morning whether to brave the outdoors or retreat to the treadmill. Either way, I'm hoping to get through my run without any tether or tying issues.

Runs interrupted, for different reasons

Today's run (street): 3.5 miles

Yesterday's workout (run): 1.6 miles, (elliptical): 30 minutes

Yesterday's run did not go according to plan and I ended up cutting it short. I like to work from home on Fridays because -- after four days of commuting to my office north of NYC -- I need a break from the road. Every Friday I naively go out for a run before the start of my work day. And almost every time I'm out, I get work call on my cell. Yesterday was no exception.

After spending an hour catching up on email, I geared up and headed outside to do my usual loop. I struggled initially, but started gaining strength near the end of my first mile. I thought I was in for a decent run but, like clockwork, my phone began to ring. I fished  it out of my SPIbelt and saw it was a call I needed to take.

I work for a media organization and the caller was the Editor and Chief. She loves to call me while she's driving into the office because she knows I'm at home on Fridays. I always tease her about sabotaging my running routine. She offered to wait for me to call her back, but we usually cover things quickly and I figured I'd be done and running again in few minutes. Yesterday the conversation went longer. Much longer. I stood on the corner of a random road in my high visibility running clothes, talking on my phone and nodding to my neighbors as they walked by.

Once that was done, I saw that my window of opportunity had slammed shut. I made my way back home as fast as possible to ensure that I'd be showered and ready for my first meeting. I ended up 50% short of my targeted distance and felt so guilty that I did an elliptical session after I'd finished my work day.

This morning I had an early dental checkup and didn't feel like going for a run at the crack of dawn. I made the poor decision to have lunch rather than do a late morning run. I finally got out around 2:00 PM. It had been chilly in the morning and I neglected to check the weather before I dressed for my run. I wore track pants and a long sleeve shirt, too much clothing for the 52° conditions that I encountered.

Worse than the heat was running so soon after lunch. I quickly realized that I hadn't given myself enough rest time. I developed a cramp after about 15 minutes and tried to remember what I'd read in Runners World about dealing with them. Nothing came to mind, but I wasn't going to cut another run short. I took down the pace and pressed on. Eventually the cramping went away.

Things didn't get much better after that, but I finally got through it. I felt ready to hit the sack when I got home but recovered well after a quick shower. I hope today's experience was due only to bad timing and bad decisions. I plan to go out for more distance tomorrow and I will do my best to keep cramping off the menu.