Treadmill: Holy Schmoly

Given the heat and my lackadaisical mornings lately, I decided to give my brother-in-law a call and ask to use the treadmill again. Well, actually I was about to take an afternoon nap but Justin convinced me that I'd have more energy by exercising than by begging for sleep. He was (said in muffled undertones...) right. So I drove over and mentally prepared myself for a good run. I did my warm up walk and stretched and was ready to get moving.

Just as I was starting to run, I remembered reading a blog post recently by a very active runner. Not just a runner, but a marathoner. And not just a marathoner, but a really, REALLY fast marathoner. I can't even begin to figure out how I ended up on her blog in the first place, but I read a post about intervals and how important they are to her training. In my naivete (please excuse - no clue how to make accent marks on here), I figured, what the heck? So I decided to aim for three minutes at my normal pace (11:06/mi) flanked by one minute at a 10:00/mi. My guess is that my marathoning blogger friend probably walks to the bathroom in the middle of the night faster than my 11:06/mi pace but whatever. At least I had a plan.

So anyway, once again I found myself singing the bone song - if there is an official name I don't know it. You know, "the hip bone is connected to the... thigh bone" for the first several minutes of exercise. Justin tells me that I am several decades too young for this, but so far his adamant stance has done nothing to curb my aches and pains. So I'm starting to run and my hip is throbbing and then my knee starts hurting - blast, I remember that I haven't taken any ibuprophen today - so I spend the next few minutes contemplating physical therapy again but really wishing that there was a better/faster/easier fix. After my first mile my hip thankfully loosened up, and the next mile was actually fun in a weird and twisted way that I never thought I would enjoy.

But then came Holy Schmoly.

Cramps and I go way back. Toe cramps in the pool, Charlies in my legs from pregnancy and rowing, monthly frustrations, and occasionally I will get mild abdominal cramps when I run. Today was the grail that I never wanted to find. OMG. I tried. I'm not even lying or exaggerating. I really did try to keep going through it. It kicked my butt. After five minutes of trying to overcome it and keep running, I spent the next five minutes just trying to walk it off, breathe, stretch, poke and prod to make it go away. Finally, I was very tempted to turn off the machine and curl up on the floor but managed instead to walk VERY SLOWLY until I'd met my time goal.

Crazy interval training.