My Worst Run Yet

It was horrible. Seven miles in one hour, four minutes. That's a pace of over nine minutes per mile. Mind you, if I can maintain that for 26.2 miles, I'll still come in at just about four hours, but I want to be doing better for my shorter practice runs. Let me tell you why it sucked.

Over the weekend, I rode my mountain bike 11 miles on a cool race out in Santa Margarita. Eleven miles on a bike is a lot like 44 miles on a road bike. I think a 1:4 ratio is about right because on a road bike, you're pushing muscle, but the bike itself is lighter. Mountain bikes are heavier, plus you're going down mountains with rocks and switchbacks and roots and it beats a rider up a lot more.

It was my first mountain bike ride in about a year, and it beat me up. I don't think I was fully recovered yet. Running seven miles on the heels of that ride was hard.

Also, I'm both a writer and a runner. I don't follow your advice when I'm writing because you're not a writer. Thus, your advice is worthless. But for some reason, I followed the advise of my wife, a non-runner, when it came to my route last night, and it hosed me.

I took a different street, past friend Hilary's house, and then I had a steep uphill for about 1/2 to 2/3 of a mile. Then I ran 3/4 of a mile around the lake which was horrible because of the traffic and also the uneven treacherous ground. So that portion was inconvenient, irritating, and scary. I was able to get back onto my normal route, but the damage had been done.

I'm not upset at my wife. It's not like she was being malicious. But again, I wouldn't follow your advice for writing, I should not have followed her advice for running.

Lastly, life being what life is, I missed my last two runs. (Thanks, life — jerk.) I hated the idea of just not doing them, so I played catchup by doing my big run on Monday evening. So aside from the bike ride and the stupid lake, I just wasn't as conditioned as I'd have liked to be.

But let's be clear on this: I ran seven miles successfully and without dying. I listened to some great metal while doing it. And it was my longest run since I started again. And here it is the next day and while I am a little sore, I'm not cursing the world. And you know what they say: a bad day running is better than a good day at work.

And it was. And I'll do it again.