At Least the Weather Was A Pleasant Surprise

Took advantage of the blue sky this morning to get Spot out for her walk. When we got back and there still was no rain and snow, I thought I'd better hurry up and run. I was driving a friend to Portland in the afternoon for a doctors appointment and figured the "poopie" weather would have returned by the time I got home.

The fields were extremely soggy. I'd get wet feet, but, my feet have been wet before. With the temperature well on its way to forty, I wasn't too worried about them getting too cold. Since I was sticking close to home, I could always cut it short if I had to. There are no more rock solid clumps to bother ankle and toe joints. The rain and warmth has solved that. My left foot was quickly flooded by two poor foot placement choices. Didn't matter, just running a little longer the right one was equally saturated.

WARNING: The following will contain women issues not suitable for all readers. I don't care, but you might.

I was enjoying the mud and course, but couldn't believe how much my cardio was being taxed. Without a heart rate monitor, I can't say for sure, but I think I was nearly maxed out for much of my run. My breathing was, of course, the same; I was sucking wind. It wasn't till I had my second tampon blowout during the barely six mile run that I started putting some things together. I was also on day 11.

Just over a year ago I had my period for much longer and much heavier. I was really anemic and diagnosed with a ovarian cyst. What amazes me is that there seems to be this threshold between feeling fine cardio-vascular wise and not. One day you can run fine, the next 1/2 mile and your heart is about to explode.

I seem to have extremely bad luck with this. I've had my period for three of the four Pineland Challenges. At least I got some good advice from seasoned ultra-runners:. There's nothing you can really do about it. Just carry a ziplock baggy and plenty of tampons. With out that advice, I wouldn't have been able to run today. This woman was so matter of fact about it - She helped. I'm so glad to not be kept from the thing that makes me feel better, but, you need to have some red blood cells to get the oxygen to all the muscles! I'm hoping that isn't that bad this time and that I was just sucking wind because of the wet, wet, field absorbing all my energy. I'll make the doctor's appointment on Monday if things aren't better. My 18 mile long run should be interesting Sunday : (