The Weakness and the Pain

I almost didn't go.

Wandering around a bodega on 16th, squinting at the merchandise with my no-glasses eyes and pretending to be very interested that they sold 'guarana plus' sports drinks and a huge amount of Red Bull, I thought, "You are freezing and really stressed. Pressure seems to be coming from everywhere. Plus, it's raining. And cold. Go home!"

I might have, except I was nowhere near a subway that would take me there. Plus, it was almost time to start. And I had raced out of work to be there on time. So I trudged over to Bartell-Pritchard Square, glad that I had put on that extra long-sleeved shirt I keep in my office, as rank as it smelled.

Leaving my backpack with the Coach, I huddled around myself while milling about. Thre were some familiar faces but, I realized, with my schedule interfering with my social running, there were also a lot of people greeting each other whom I didn't recognize.

I miss group runs. "That's why you are here, in part!" I admonished myself.

It being rainy, Coach had us do fartleks, something I still don't really understand. As far as I can tell, you run some random amount of time, then someone decides you are going to run really, really fast and then you keep doing that until someone decides you stop. It seems pretty stupid, if you ask me. Why not have some standard? That way, when you are running in between groups, as I seemed to be doing, and you are also blind, which I was, you could still figure out when you were supposed to go or not go.

Sure, I could and did sort of figure out how to do this myself but that kind of defeats the purpose of group speed work. I guess it helped me get out there.

Too slow. That's what I am. Too slow for the fast group. Too slow for several other people, as well, who passed me and kept going. I ended up running with Chiseled, who kindly waited at the Coney Island turn-around for a second until she was sure that my asthma attack wasn't bad enough that I was going to keel over.

Did I mention I hate doing speedwork in rainy, cold weather? Does wonders for the asthma.

But, I need my lungs to get stronger. They are weak. And group speedwork is the only way that I can see that this will happen. Pushing myself to an asthma attack on my own is highly unlikely to happen, it being a rather unpleasant experience. But, I'm hoping, each time I do it will cause the next time to be a little bit later, when I am going a little bit faster.

Now, if only I could get a kick!

After 5 miles of this wonderfulness, I collected my backpack, listened to some last words, and trundled off home with Ivy League and my backpack. Met two new, cute, nice people who were also doing speedwork and who were running back in the direction I came.

Maybe that's why it's good I'm doing speedwork, too. Got in likely about 7 and 1/4. Felt like more.

Today's run to school is going to be fun!