I Accidently Ran 4 Miles

Ok, I probably need to add a little background to this. As anyone who has every tried to do everything will tell you, you just can't do everything. However, you can die trying. After months of sitting on my tail trying to get the world to call me Doctor I realized I had a problem. That problem has been compounded by this being one of the rainiest summers I can ever remember. So to my point, I have not been able to get out and ride my bike like I really want and need to. Between having more schoolwork than I could have ever imagined possible and rain killing riding plans and...well, you get the picture. Let's just say I was beginning to draw small items toward me as my ever increasing mass was creating its own gravity. "No, Spot, don't go near the fat, bald, pasty blob...oh well, time to get a new dog."

So then what does one do if they have too much of one thing and not enough of another? Well if the too much is blubber and the not enough is time you give up the one thing you are loathe to give up - sleep. Yup, I get my large keister (actually documented with its shadow weighing in at 10 lbs 14 oz) out of bed. For my wife who gets up earlier than I do this was no big deal. For me it is a massive feat. I actually have a medical condition that explains it. My back produces a glue like substance when I am sleeping making it nigh impossible to get out of bed in the morning.

The first few mornings I tried to ride my bike only to find that the only thing more dangerous than riding a bike in Texas is riding a bike in the early morning in Texas. I would even be willing to put up with the idiots heading toward me who decide to leave their bright headlights on, blinding me, if it would ever stop raining. Actually, I found that between a bicycle headlight that kept failing and the rain I was good for gaining another 3 pounds. I have to measure these things appropriately. I am not sure about the logic of that argument or the hypothesis involved but it is my story and I am sticking to it.

So anyway, I realized that my once a week run with folks from work was not getting the job done and I was not likely to get a lot of cycling in for the foreseeable future. The only option was to rethink my running paradigm. You know it is that thought process that goes something like this. I am a man. I own a gun. I do not have to run when I can kill whatever is chasing me making me run. Simple! Not quite, I was built with this inability to give up. I decided that despite the number of times I have made comments about how dumb it was to get out a run when you could get on a bike, I was going to have to run if I wanted any exercise. I also realized that it would have to be in the morning.

That brings me to the beginning. I have been doing my best to build up my running distance a little each week. This easier than I thought it would be. This morning my plan was to get up and run 5K (3.1 mile) run. I was not planning on it being particularly fast just working on distance. I am still slow but have improved my speed each week. So, this morning when I got out into the fog I figured I would make my miles but would be slower than normal. When I got back to the house I looked at the stopwatch and something was wrong. I knew I had run a little bit further than normal but not enough to be out that long. To make this story short, too late, I mapped the run and found out I had my longest run and best pace so far - 4 miles at 11:04 avg pace. I realize it will not get me in to the Olympics but it is helping lose some weight, get back into shape (other than round), and keeps from going crazy while I finish up school. After all, who needs another crazy doctor?