O is not _ptional

Today I attempted to run while fighting with my lungs.  I do N_T recommend this as a hobby.  It's irresponsible.  Knowing this did not stop me from lacing on my shoes and going for a spin.  I'm too stressed with the pending entrance exams (tomorrow) and I am not a fan of missing miles for my marathon training plan (can you say alliteration?).  I'm a little _CD about my running.  It's _K because it allows me to not be _CD about other things.

I needed 10 miles to make my marathon plan.  10 was going to be too long in my condition, so I thought, "I'll do 8".

At mile 2 I knew that 8 was going to be impossible, so I turned off my course and looped through my surrounding neighborhoods, right down TMB's FAVORITE street in all of the Greater Richmond Area.  (seriously, she hates this one road so passionately that it made me smile to run on it today).

The thing with running while O2 deprived is that your body fights very hard to use what it gets.  It pumps your heart rate faster than it normally would, and your muscles (specifically the diaphragm muscle and the intercostal muscles) work very hard to pull in as much air as possible, and push out whatever is left over.  It's tiring and painful.

By mile 3 I was starting to warm up a bit and knew I could at least manage 5.  So that's what I did.  I managed 4.9 and ran home from that point to finish with 5.32 in 52minutes/change.  Tomorrow is a rest day, and I'm going to medicate and protect my lungs in anticipation for my 20 miler on Sunday.  I will probably be the stupid runner sucking on my inhaler while running... won't that be awesome?

On other notes, a SHOUT OUT to one of my coaches, Ellie, who is running STEAMTOWN marathon this weekend!  And another SHOUT OUT to SPEEDEE, because she is running her 20 on Saturday and then Tri-ing on Sunday!

I'll see you all on Monday, when I can hopefully tell you about how awesome I did on my entrance exams on Saturday, and how fabulous my 20 miler went on Sunday.  Or.  We'll be talking about taking the entrance exam again on Wednesday, and/or the fact that I get to do another 20 miler later this month.