I’ve been so tired lately. I didn’t turn my alarm clock on for this morning, because I was up a bit late last night. ‘Late’ being after 10pm. Yes, I’m Ned Flanders. The secret is out.
Anyway, if I was so determined to wake up late, I probably should have also been determined not to run this morning. But I did run. Wow, 8am is a lot hotter than 5am, genius. What a great idea. Next time, try running at midday and see how you like that. Felt like dashing off and throwing myself in the pond. Note to Gungahlin: Where’s my aquatic centre, bitch? Seriously, you could have made a lot of money by now, solely from me.
I did make the effort to completely smother myself in sunscreen from head to foot, trying to ignore the searing pain I got when the sunscreen went on my eyelids. Yeah, think that might be an allergy. I totally did my part though. Slip, slop, slap, and all that crap. Even though I’m probably going to have a big swelled-up face all day. And what did the sunscreen do for me? Diddly, and shit. The few parts of my body that aren’t lobster red look like I’ve been caught in a tragic spray-tan factory explosion. All blotchy, and weird. I’m hoping that the skin tone will even out when I’ve cooled down a bit. Hopefully the red is just a reaction to the heat, and isn’t actually sunburn.
It was an enjoyable run, though. I got to try out my new toy, a Polar H7 Bluetooth heart rate monitor strap which so far has just been tested out on a couple of Insanity workouts. It integrates with Runkeeper, which is pretty sweet. I don’t need to wear a watch. I can just pair it with my phone and run. Anything which helps cut down on unnecessary gadget weight is great with me. And I just can’t seem to stand wearing a watch these days, for some reason.
Out on the run, my heart rate stayed at about 145 for the first couple of kilometres until I threw in a sprint. Not a hard and gruelling, lungs-screaming sort of sprint, just more of a full, hair-blowing-in-the-wind stride. I call it a hero stride. When your whole body is moving with perfect form, and you glide over the path like a track superstar. It’s ego-boosty, although it probably doesn’t look as good to anyone else as it feels.
At this point, my heart rate hopped up to about 165-170 and didn’t go any lower for the remainder of my run, rather stubbornly I might add. At least this proves my new heart rate strap isn’t broken. After three days of maximum effort in my Insanity workouts and a pitiful max HR of 160, I was starting to think that maybe it was defective. In my run today I got to about 189 while sprinting for a little variety. I love the way that the Runkeeper audio cue voice gave me a hard time when I was in the 90-100% max HR bracket. She sort of exclaimed it, indignantly. As in, slow down, you stupid person. Or you’ll die!
I’ve come to a realisation. Even though I was dehydrated and my knee hurt and it was a little too hot to run, I wanted to get out there because when I’m running, that’s the one day of the week where I can crank up terrible music and listen to it without shame. I can bounce down the road happily blasting Top 40 crap, horrible pop sludge. It’s blissful. This is my one opportunity to hold my head high and listen to Taylor Swift without fear of recrimination. I still don’t get this whole Nicki Minaj thing, and to be honest she scares me a little, but if my streaming radio station plays one of her songs, I won’t necessarily turn it off. I can listen to Gaga, if I want to. I don’t usually want to. But I can. And I won’t feel embarrassed if I do. I can also give Justin free rein to bring sexy back. That’s Timberlake, mind you. Not Beiber. I do have to uphold SOME basic moral code. Ooh, and One Direction. *shudder* No. Never.
But up to a certain point, I can play the most abysmal crap while I’m running, and enjoy it immensely.
When I got in the door after my 12km run (in about an hour and seventeen minutes, not bad but not brilliant) I only had enough energy left to down a quick glass of water, turn on my bedroom fan and stick a towel down on the bed before collapsing in a puddle of sweat. I still haven’t eaten, or had a shower. So I should probably do that now. Because I smell.
Oh, and before I forget to mention. I’ve got a race coming up! Canberra Half Marathon, which I think is in April. I don’t think I can do another full Mara any time soon.
So, yeah. Whee!
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