not 100% into it

Well, today hasn't been the greatest. It could have been much better, especially since I didn't have work today. I woke up, did some studying, and then did errands. It was still kind of too cold for the dog.

One of my errands was getting a thyroid ultrasound. I'd never heard of such a thing until my doctor gave me the requisition form a few days ago, and I assumed that it was the sort of thing I could just roll into the lab for...LOL. I couldn't even make an appointment because a certain someone wasn't there, so I will have to phone on Tuesday.

Anyway, that had me a bit bummed. Apparently I might have nodules or something, and I'd like to make sure they're harmless (most are) asap...there's more than enough to worry about already, like my husband in Iraq. eh.

On the way home, I had two drivers cut me off--I was walking, and had the right of way. This sort of thing has gotten a lot worse since the bus strike, and the buses are back, and there's still more cars on the road...I'm getting more and more fed up with seeing drivers roll through stop signs in my neighbourhood, cut pedestrians off by making right turns on red, etc. I live downtown so fifty zillion extra cars pour in every day and fuck up my action, to quote Al Swearengen.

Well, after a bit more of studying, I grabbed the dog and headed out. About a half mile later, he was nearly hit by a car. Well, us, technically, but he was about a foot closer to the car, so I didn't think of myself. It was someone driving out of a parking garage. I saw them moving, about ten or so metres away, and figured, ok, we'll be out of the way by then and what moron doesn't stop or at least slow down before driving over a sidewalk into a street, just to make sure? Well, I looked over again and that car was awfully close and getting closer--it was a fraction of a second, but I saw this car less than a foot away from my dog and this woman looking off to the right, she might have just momentarily glanced there to make sure nobody was walking the other way, but she was looking there when she needed to be looking where her car was going. There was no way she could see my dog as he was practically under her bumper, so I yelled. Not a scream, more like a bellow. It was really loud, too. It echoed, I think. It all happened so quickly that I was like, wow, that came out of me? I hadn't even thought of yelling...it wasn't one of those cases, like so many others, where I have time to realize that I'm angry and need to yell something pithy. This just came out: "Watch my dog!" Thank goodness there was no profanity. And the driver finally looked our way and I saw that she was an old woman and part of me felt pity, but mostly anger. I was pissed. And embarrased. My yell bounced off of buildings and was followed by a weird moment where everything was stopped. Including the car, thank God, but also everyone else on the street. People had stopped, turned to look, were on alert. What has just happened? And I'm the crazy runner with the mean-looking dog screaming at a poor old lady....so I decided just to keep going. By the time the echoes had died down, the car had stopped and we were already out of the way anyway.

We ran on and I tried to grapple with the anger, and eventually things mellowed out a bit beside the Canal. I decided to run back through the Glebe...that was much more relaxing than my neighbourhood. Hardly any traffic.

Still, it wasn't a good run. I just kept replaying that incident in my mind. That was the closest call we've had yet. She hadn't been going very fast, but she could have still injured my dog, and definitely spooked him. I got him when he was a year and a half old--he was a pound dog and had evidently not been outside much, wasn't used to cars, etc...it's taken quite a bit of work to get him used to being outside, being downtown, around traffic and people and other dogs....he's done quite well. But he has a good memory. The first time he saw a big truck, it freaked him out--he slammed into me, I tripped over him, and yelled in pain--it hurt. I went down hard. Not his fault, but he took it badly. And, nearly two years later, the damage still isn't quite undone--he still fliches and sometimes backs away when large vehicles go by. If he'd been clipped by this car, I can't imagine how he'd react to cars after that. And, of course, I wouldn't want him to get hurt. If he had been, I was already so angry, I might have hit the driver. To have such a high level of rage flare up so quickly was sickening. I'm cranky, but I'm not used to that.

Anyway, we went home and I ate something then got ready for track practice. I didn't feel all there.

workout 2(2X400M/2min rest, 2X 200M/1min rest).

I really wanted more rest time after the 400M....it was hard to pace myself...I'm still not used to how these workouts are set up. I was used to running a bit harder but then taking my sweet time recovering.

1:20--too fast to sustain--it went by quickly and took a while to catch up on me. But, oh, it did.
1:29
:40
:40

1:29--felt reasonable
1:32--not happy about this; I pushed more than the first interval again, but was tired.
:41
:41

It was deceptively tough. One minute was enough for the 200M, I felt, but 2 min between 400M was tough. I could get my breathing down, no problem, but I felt like my legs weren't completely cleared of lactic acid. Which is possibly the whole point of setting it up like this. We're not training to be sprinters. We're training for longer races. Maybe this sort of workout raises the lactic acid point or whatever so that we can maintain a higher pace below it. Not really sure. At any rate, I wasn't happy about it. I wasn't as strong as I could have been mentally, and physically, I felt like my form was off. I tried to keep things light and high, but I felt off kilter.

It doesn't help that I don't have good shoes for track/speed work anymore. I had a great pair of NB 826s which I wore for speedwork and races for six months (yeah, a little past their prime, but that was ok), and I retired these after the Philly marathon and got a new pair online. Exact same model and all, but they fit differently. I don't like them as much. So, today, I decided to wear my Nike Frees again, but they are probably miles beyond what they should be (hard to tell with a shoe that doesn't have much cushioning to begin with, until it begins to fall apart in earnest). I've run up to 35K in them, no problem, but the wide heel flare and so forth don't feel right when going faster. I'm hoping to try new shoes on in the States. There's a great running store close to my FIL's house--Bryn Mawr Running. I might even try on racing flats! I'm always looking for lighter and lighter shoes...this would be the next step.

Admittedly, I'm not the most symmetrical person, either--I have slight scoliosis and, more and more, I feel like my neck is tight and this throws things off, plus my right hand/arm has gotten too used to holding a dog leash....but I feel like my shoes are getting in the way and making it worse. I was herding cats out there, everything going in different directions. I'm not happy with how my form felt at all. Room for improvement.

At any rate, even with taking yesterday off, I'm at 53.xx miles today, so not much more to do tomorrow. Will probably go over, as next week will probably be under...I had a vague idea of doing 55/week in February.