If the human equivalent of a rat running on a wheel is the treadmill, then then I guess I'm a lab rat with privelegs. That is, I wasn't forced to resort to a dreadmill to get in my run today (thank God), but I was forced indoors thanks to Mother Nature (the dirty hobag) and her several inches of snow and wicked windchills. I have the "luxury" of an indoor track at the local gym (kinda like a lab rat who gets to run around a maze or something....except I didn't get lost...nor did I get any cheese out of the deal). The track is a step up from the dreadmill because at least you get the illusion that you're actually going somewhere, even if it is in many, many circles.
To make matters worse, I had a 20 miler scheduled today. The track is 11.5 laps per mile so that comes out to a grand total of 230 laps to get 20 miles. That's a lot. Needless to say, I wasn't all that thrilled with the idea and went to the gym with the thought of "only" doing a 15 miler in my head. Why 15? I have no freakin clue. Anyhow, I started out and the first two miles or so sucked the big one.... I wanted to bag it right there. When you've run 23 laps, which sounds like a lot, and you still have 207 to go, which sounds like a gajillion more, it's hard to find the motivation to keep going. But, I eventually got into a groove where my body went on autopilot and my brain basically just checked out (except to click the lap counter every lap) and before I knew it I had 10 miles done. Well, I thought, I've already done 10, what's 10 more? So, I did the full 20 miler, mostly just to spite Mother Nature. You're gonna have to do better than that, beeyatch (just kidding, don't try).
One advantage I've found of running on the indoor track is that the senior citizens walking on it make it seem like you're going really fast. I like to pretend they are racing me and I'm passing them with a wicked fast (I like the word wicked today) finishing kick right at the line. They probably think that I'm a few cards short of deck, but when you've got 230 laps worth of time to kill, you've got to keep yourself entertained somehow. If I have to scare some old people in the process, then so be it. They'll have something to tell there friends about over bridge at the Senior Center tomorrow.
2 comments:
How the hell did you keep track of the laps?!
I'm really good at keeping track of numbers in my head.....just kidding; I'd lose track after like 3 laps if I tried that. The gym has handheld lap counters that I can borrow, which just requires that I remember to click the thing every lap. Even that is kind of hard to remember if I really start to space out, then I spend the rest of the next lap trying to figure out if I counted the last lap. Gives me something to do, anyhow.
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