Ouch

Tuesday dawned wet, rainy, and cold.

So I blew off running till noon. Hmm, still raining, and still in the 60’s. I’m in a quandry now – back in Houston, running in July in the rain would have been completely and totally cathartic. In costal New England, it’s painful. So, I blow it off until close of business.

Close of business, I finally decided to hit the road. And it sucked.

First gripe: I’m still hurting from Saturday’s assault on the perimeter road. But that’s just whining. Summon up image of Staff Sergant Hyler, United States Marine Corps and scent of cigarette and coffee breath way back in Pensacola and trudge on.

Second gripe: There’s a reason sailing’s popular in Newport – there’s always great wind in the afternoon during the summer. Blowing in my face all the way out.

Last gripe – it’s raining, and with the wind and the moderate temperatures, it’s too cold to run without some sort of wind breaker. However, the windbreaker turns me into a sail. Plus, when I turn around, it’s a tad warm without the wind.

Ah well.

The small dog syndrome struck right as I hit the turn to head back with the wind (~ 2/3 of the way through the run due to having mostly quartering winds on the first two legs). As I crested a hill, I saw two guys running at a very leisurely pace about 200 yards up ahead of me. Crap, I think – I’m mostly spent, don’t waste energy chasing them.

Yeah, right.

I recover while fighting into the wind, make the turn, and suddenly, I’ve found a new reserve of energy. Very nice. I pass the guys with a “pardon”, and kick it just a little bit more. About an eighth of a mile down the road, I sneak a peek to see what’s going, and see that one of the guys suffers from small dog himself, and he’s dropped his partner and started chasing. He’s about 10 yards back. I’m aching, and for a minute consider dropping a little speed, but ultimately decide not to, as I’m almost to the end of the run.

So I kick it a little more, and finish strong. All in all, a very nice run. I was also about 5 minutes faster than the last time I ran the loop.

One last whining note: I think I’ve caught up cardiovascularly to where I was the last time I ran. I am not feeling winded any longer, which is nice. I am, however, at the point where I am stressing my muscles, so the nice nagging soreness that I’ve learned to associate with continued running is back. Sounds bad, but I’m really kind of happy with it. The only thing that needs to kick in is the accelerated weight loss.