Running Despite

I really didn't want to run yesterday. I mean, I did voluntary do 200 meter runs outside in the cold on Sunday morning, wasn't that enough for one week already? I ran like half a mile in 200 meter stretches. But that was during CrossFit. And CrossFit is what CrossFit is, but it is not dedicated running time. And since I can't go hiking during the workday, running is what I need for training for the coming backpacking season.

I mean, I will be doing some hikes, but they'll have to be weekend affairs.

So for exercise release at work, I've been putting a focus on running for January. I've run so far for most of my twice weekly work day fitness breaks. Last week I did some incline treadmill walking instead. I just wasn't feeling the run, and I was going to let myself have a run break periodically anyway.

But twice in two weeks? Nuh-uh.

That meant that yesterday, no matter that I sooooo did not want to run, it was run day. I ran.

20 outside laps of the indoor track, which is just shy of two miles. It took me longer than when I timed 20 laps earlier in January, but, I may have mentioned, I'm just not sure, I really didn't want to run yesterday, so I took even a slow 20 laps as a triumph.

Besides, I wouldn't have encountered the reverse runner if I hadn't run. The track has specific direction of flow depending on the day of the week. I could understand how someone might get confused and run the wrong way yesterday, because it was the Tuesday following a holiday Monday. It's possible that this young woman got onto the track and thought that I was going the wrong way for a Monday when in reality she was going the wrong way for a Tuesday. I tried to subtly gesture at her that she was running the wrong way, but I was, perhaps, a bit too subtle. She continued to run in the reverse direction, even when another runner and a walker joined us on the track and went my direction.

My husband is always striking up conversations with people in the gym. That's not my thing, but I do wonder what she might have said if I had at least asked her why she was running the wrong way...