5-10K week 4, day 1 {6.4.2013}

While my intentions for this week are good, I don’t have the highest hopes.

The weather has been flat-out dismal. Thunder, lightning, pounding rain, high humidity.

And did you know about yellow flies? No? We’ll talk about that nonsense in a bit.

So Monday was nothing special. As with all Day 1s in this program, the assignment was a steady 20 minute run. The challenge isn’t the distance anymore. It’s breathing the thick, humid air well enough to keep going without collapsing. I didn’t do anything magical or inspiring on this day. I put one foot in front of the other, and finished 2.34 miles in 25 minutes (I accidentally deleted the info for my warm up, so this includes the 20 minute run and 5 minute cool down).

Last night, we were hoping to do a group run with 1st Place Sports. Mr PugRunner and I planned to participate with my walking partners,  and one of them had even offered to push little man in a borrowed jogging stroller (Since I had never run with one and was more than likely to fall and break my face. And possibly the stroller). It was a fantastic plan, until the clouds rolled in, the thunder rumbled, and we all decided to stay closer to home.

To make up for it, my walking partners and I decided to do a smaller four mile loop in between rain showers. We figured something was better than nothing and if the heavens did open, we could take cover in the trees until a husband was able to come retrieve us.

Ah, the best-laid plans.

What we did NOT expect was an attack of yellow flies. As we left the neighborhood, en route to our loop, I felt something on the back of one leg. I brushed it off, and it was about the size and texture of a beetle. And then something clamped down on the back of the other leg! My one, very nature-knwoledgeable girlfriend, identified it as a yellow fly. Which is clearly code for Asshole Bloodthirsty Winged Creatures of Doom, if you ask me.

We continued on our way, considering it a fluke, but when we got to the back of our loop, they came out in force.

Now, I imagine it was pretty hilarious. Three grown women, spinning in circles and shrieking, swatting at each other and themselves, in an attempt to make the madness stop. We discovered that the best way to halt the flies’ designs on us was to stop in our tracks, let them land, and then smack them before they chowed down. Of course, we were dancing and hopping all over the place, because these little jerks mostly wanted our backsides and it was far harder to get them there. At one point, we even tried to outrun them, but they just regrouped and found us again. Ugh.

So, that particular loop is out for evenings, until we can figure out a way to combat them. Apparently, they are so evil that regular bug spray doesn’t deter them, so we’re going to have to come up with something.

And people wonder why I don’t like it outside.

It was raining this morning when I got up to run, so I am hoping to get out later for my speed work. I don’t mind (much) if it starts drizzling while I’m actually out there, but I’m just not at the point where I can start out in precipitation. Maybe one day. But it is National Running Day so I feel like I need to do it, regardless.

What local pests drive you crazy if you run or walk outside? How do you manage them?

Have you put in your time for National Running Day? If not, do you plan to?