Tight butt

I KNOW there are plenty of people who have had this condition. It's not exactly piriformis syndrome, but it's something similar. Actually, it might be that, but my sciatic nerve doesn't seem to be involved too much at this point. All I know is that my butt is tight, really tight. It's so wadded up, in fact, that it limits my stride, and going uphill is difficult. Did you all hear that? Going UPHILL is difficult. AAK ~ I can't have that! This tightness is what I experienced in the Aids 5K race. My body tightened up, and I couldn't find my stride. All my zoom was gone. In an effort to correct this problem, I'm rolling, strengthening and stretching, and these actions are helping, I think. However, I can tell that I lose strength the tighter my poor butt becomes.

Doing the ouch shuffle.

The situation with my inflexible behind didn't cause me too many problems when I ran on Saturday. Despite feeling drained from getting my period after the race, I decided I would warm up into a nice tempo run on the trails. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. On the other hand, I got to run with some speedy girls for a little while, which was fun, even though it hurt. I guess I was not mentally into pushing myself that day, because I was having some thoughts about being easy on myself before and quitting during my run. Sometimes I feel like I get emotional about pushing it, so my goal was to ease into things. Instead, two former CU runners breezed by me on my warm-up jog. I decided to try to keep up, because their easy pace looked like it might be close to my tempo pace, and it had been forever since I last had company on a run. I sort of got in over my head, even though we were talking while heading up a big hill on the trails. One of the girls went ahead, and the other was nice enough to run with me. 12 minutes into it, I was feeling like I was beat. Fortunately, the two turned off onto a different path, and I continued up the hill after thanking them for the company. Wow, I was feeling whiny at the end of my 20-minute effort. I pretty much slowed to a slog after they turned off, and my grand plans of gradually getting faster as the session continued were shot. It's not so much that I was hurting, it was more that I didn't have the opmph I needed to get to the end feeling strong. Well, I'm glad I got through it. The girls were an inspiration. They looked so smooth and comfortable at their faster pace. Sigh.

AAK!

I'm convinced spiders know my deep fear. They seem to taunt me and appear out of nowhere just to make me shudder. Tonight, one sneaky little bugger climbed up to the top of my computer where it sat behind my the screen with two of its legs barely hanging over the edge. At first I thought I was seeing things. Hoping it was dust or some oddly shaped and colored cat hair (but knowing it probably wasn't), I scooted away from the table and leapt into action, throwing the newspaper at it and then fleeing the scene. I have no idea where it is now, and I assume it will find and eat me while I sleep. No wonder I'm an insomniac. The last time I had an encounter with a spider, I was doing sit-ups, and one magically appeared from the ceiling to torment me, riding its little silken rope down close to my face, its legs spread wide in full "let's scare humans" mode. I bet he was anticipating a mid-afternoon snack. Before he could attack me though, I pulled a wild ninja move, doing some kind of flip roll which landed me on my feet running. Probably my worst spider experience was waking up to one on my shoulder. I don't think I have ever jumped so high. I hate those things.

I would post a picture of an icky spider here, but I couldn't even look at the google images that came up when I searched for one. That reminds me about my trip to McGuckin Hardware store a few years ago when I was searching for one of those gadgets that plug into the wall and emit a sound that is supposed to keep creepy critters away but is also safe for pets. When I asked the sales clerk about these humane products, he said they didn't carry them and insisted I take a look at the spider traps in the pest control aisle instead. I don't know who the genius in marketing is who decided that putting an ugly, dangerous looking spider on the box of a bug trap was a good idea, but I will say that I probably made a fool of myself when I squealed and turned, backing out of the area with my hands shielding my eyes. Needless to say, I did not walk out of the store with anything that day. GAH!

Back to running...

It looks like the results of the 5K are in, and I ran 21:39. I'm OK with that for now. The two ladies who were ahead were 14 and 19. last year I ran 21:41, so yay to two seconds faster this year!