February | 2021 | Motion and Momentum

It’s been a minute. But I just haven’t had the bandwith to do more than make it through each day.

After running my first attempt at the JFR 5K a couple of Tuesdays ago, I did end up going out to the track on Thursday and tried again. I took 40 seconds off my Tuesday time, so I was marginally pleased with that. Then on Saturday, I intended to run 8ish but bailed at 6ish.

Then this week, I started off reasonably strong. Tuesday night’s workout was challenging: 2-3 sets of 3:00 hard/1:00 recovery/2:00 hard/2:00 recovery/1:00 hard/ 3:00 recovery. I even went the extra mile (literally) by doing that third set. It was Groundhog Day, and I’d signed up for a groundhog-themed virtual race, so I dedicated my workout miles to Punxatawny Phil.

But Wednesday I came home and immediately put on my jammies. Thursday, I spent most of the day with a monster headache, and it hadn’t really abated much by the time I went to run. I tried, but it was a struggle. Then, a 1.5 miles in, my shorts ripped. And that was the last straw.

I sat down on the curb. I was done. Unfortunately I was a mile and a half from home.

The dog is a little alarmed at my sitting on the curb mid-run.

I walked more than ran, but eventually I made it back.

It was especially disappointing because my legs felt pretty good and I could have run a lot longer. But my head (and my shorts) weren’t having it.

The headache wasn’t really gone on Friday, although it didn’t stop me from my Friday Night Lights driveway get-together after work. It’s a small group of people I went to high school with who make me laugh and forget about the awfulness of the world for a while.

My headache wasn’t even gone Saturday morning. But I got up and met up with a Quaranteam friend–we decided to skip the Rogue field trip and stay closer to home–for six miles. Six whole miles. Some of which were walking. We are not currently making a lot of progress on our Trans-Texas virtual run–I think I contributed 15.5 miles this week, and 2.5 of those were walks with the dog, not even a run. Sheesh.

Still, I awarded myself the Bernie medal that came in the mail this week. And a couple of us enjoyed breakfast tacos and coffee in the Starbucks parking lot.

Our Trans-Texas team name is Holy Quokkamole! because one teammate recently learned that quokkas exist and are adorable. So another teammate adopted a quokka and we now have a mascot.