Serious Runners Club

Yeah, that's right. Today I was an honorary member of the Serious Runners Club. Ever hear of them? Well, me neither, but apparently when you show up to run 3 miles around a lake in February at 7:30am before work when its raining out, you are in the club.

I thought up this plan yesterday while completely bored out of my mind on the elliptical machine. Instead of going to the gym, I would just go to the lake and run outside. Well, just like many of my genius ideas turn out, this was much better in concept then in practice, but not because of any lack of effort on my part.

Last night, I made sure to wash and DRY my workout clothes. I made "Violet's Ass Kickin' Run Mix" playlist. I dug out the weird neoprene arm band iphone holder. I packed my lunch. I went to bed at a reasonable hour. I drank a lot of water yesterday. Essentially, I made sure I had zero excuses.

I woke up one minute before my alarm. I fetched my clean clothes out of the dryer, got dressed, looked outside, and....RAIN. Of course. A thought flashed through my mind about going to the gym. No, I'll just put on my light weight rain jacket and go, after all, I made a playlist. I pull up to the lake and my brain continues with the following dialogue:
1. Damn. Nowhere to put my car keys. Forgot about that.
2. This arm band feels like its taking my blood pressure too.
3. Dodge puddle. Dodge puddle.
4. Oooh, good song, who made this mix?
5. Wow, already to the stadium, I can do this.
6. Ouch.
7. New gravel, nice.
8. Dodge puddle.
9. Left leg cramp...can't stop...blog will be better if I can run this whole thing.
10. Must stop. 2 minutes max.
11. Ok, starting up NOW.
12. Breathing controlled, legs feel good.
13. Ouch.
14. Almost done.
15. Last song on mix, must be close now.
16. Last song is too slow, must delete and replace with something more motivating.
17. I see my car!
18. Wow, can't believe I did that. Go me.

This run was no where as great/satisfying as the one two weeks ago. Running in the morning is hard for me, always has been. However, I much rather get my workouts over with in the morning, and I ALWAYS feel so good after a morning run. In the car on the way to work, I felt almost euphoric. Of course it was worth it. I'm not sure that I'm ready to trade all my morning gym visits for Greenlake runs, but it for sure cured my workout boredom for today!