When I have bad weeks, I need to get my aggression out in some way. I try to never get too angry in situations and sometimes I tend to hold it in until I feel like I'm going to explode. That said, running really helps me reorganize. However, I cannot do so with other people. I clear my mind and cleanse my soul out in nature on my own. So I did not run with the Nerds this morning for that reason. I hope nobody took it personally, but I needed my solo time.
I went into today's run knowing that I'm going to run until I hurt, simply because of my week. I feel when one has a bad week, go hard and get your aggression out without yelling or involving anyone else. I have never done a complete loop at Clinton and so I knew today was as good a day as any to discover the full loop. I'm not sure what the full distance is; maybe something like 24 or 24.5 miles. It did feel good going into unknown territory and having new scenery. The sun was nice and warm, but nothing excessive. I was able to maintain a moderate pace even though I got a little thrown off at a few point. One in particular is at the very end because it doesn't look like the end. So I kept on, which brought me up a hill to an apparent party zone. Not seeing any trails from that point, I knew that the point I had passed was the turn-around.
Another point was still on the west end when you follow the blue trail back and somehow it disappears and merges to white. This was no problem as I just took white back to an open road which you need to travel on to get back to blue anyway, so this wasn't too confusing.
As I closed in on reaching Land's End from blue, I came across a guy, Jonathan, who was out there for the first time and new to Lawrence. He just wanted to know where to go to get between 18-20 miles. After giving him directions and speaking for a few minutes, I was on my way.
When I reached LE, I took my break to have my Clif Bar and some water. I sat on the log for this and I think this was a bad move on my part. I usually never sit, but for some reason I did. When I got up I could feel some strain in my right calf but thought this would heal itself as I started running. Not so much. For a few extra suffering miles, I decided to take white trail back. Of the 6+ miles or so on white from LE, I walked about half of it because of that pain. It wasn't terrible, but I ran what I could on it just so I could make sure I suffer some but not wanting to get hurt. I'd say I was pretty successful since I was hurting, as I initially wanted to feel, but it wasn't anything serious. Most of it was probably my two days off again--yeah, again!
Overall, I ran about 26M and it felt really good to run to the point where you hurt. It's good for the soul, if you ask me. It's good for our well-being. I'll be out again tomorrow morning for another 12-15M but I don't plan on as much suffering since I feel much better after today's run. I've also gotta prepare for the April 4th Rockin K. I hope I feel as good for that race as I did for WyCo. Assuming all conditions normal, I think I've come up with a time to finish the race in: 9:45:00. I haven't had a time up to this point simply because I didn't know what to expect form myself and the course. I think my 9:45:00 is reasonable since that makes about 11:43 mile averages. Totally doable. But, again, assuming all conditions "normal" (with myself and the course).
I hope everyone had a better week than I did.
Go out hard.
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