running: the dawn

My parents own a treadmill.  Most of the time it stays folded up in the corner of the room and is usually covered in coats, hats, or other items that were too much of a nuisance to put away properly.  His reasoning is: “Well, I get on and get going.  But then I look over and see the couch.  And I end up choosing the couch.  It wins every time.”  He’s explained this to me several times.  I laugh every time.

Yesterday the couch almost won.  After a long day in my stats meetings (where I had to wear my glasses-ugh) the last thing I wanted to do was hop on a treadmill and go 9 miles.  For some reason, all my usual tricks just weren’t working.  I put a towel over the time/distance counter.  I put in a Friends dvd.  I put the fan right in front of me.  I decided to break up the run into 3 sets of 3 miles each.  But no matter what I did my head never got in the game.  I never found my zone, I never hit my stride.  I had to think about each step and I heard each gasping breath.  It was miserable.  I got it done, sure, but wow it took way more mental energy than is usually necessary.

The good news was that I was able to wear my contacts for my run!  All day long I was dreading trying to run with my glasses on.  The idea of sweating with something on my nose and touching my ears made me want to cry.  I’ve been wearing contacts since 8th grade.  I never wear my glasses except for right before I go to bed.  So my body assumes that when I’m wearing glasses it’s time for rest.  I also don’t like that my glasses make me feel like I’m separated from the rest of the world.  It’s like I’m perpetually looking through a window.  Leaving me on the inside and everything else “outside”.  It’s sad.  So the one redeeming quality was that I was able to wear my contacts with no discomfort!  That means both that the inflammation has gone down and the new solution is not causing an allergic reaction.  Yay and Yay!