Day 38: No Bluffing

I'm in Vegas. What happens here, says here, right? So do I really need to run today? Couldn't I "bluff" just this once?

No way! I had to fight with myself tooth and nail to get to the treadmill this afternoon but I did it. I was so tired (up at 4AM to catch a flight) and not feeling well (combination of having eaten a beef burrito for breakfast at the airport, followed by Mentos for lunch - and the stress I'm under right now to pass a professional exam tomorrow, which is the reason I'm in town).

In the taxi to my hotel I started to plan out my afternoon - all the work I needed to get done and then how to squeeze in a quick run before a night of business commitments. I considered how taking another day off would feel... Who would know?

Just then an email came in from my friend Cat thanking me for my support of her latest fundraising run in which she'd beaten her own best time by over an HOUR. Whoa. Cat also ran this year's Marathon in record time; what an inspiration. She's another person who promises I'll soon love the feeling of running... (I'm waiting, people!) Anyway, the email asked how my training was going; she couldn't wait to cheer me on at the 2010 Marathon! (Of course, she'll be able to finish, go home and shower, have a 5 course celebratory brunch, and then return to stand on the finish line to wave at me as I crawl across the finish line!) But anyway, the unintended guilt trip worked.

When I got to the hotel registration desk, the first thing I asked about was the fitness center. I made the guy behind the desk show it to me on the resort's map. It looked far away... I asked if there were rooms closer to the fitness center and he explained that yes, there were, but they weren't as nice as the one I'd been assigned. I said I didn't care and made him put me literally in the same pavilion, and on the same floor, as the gym! Extra bonus - the gym has a bottled water cooler so I can fill up there and not die from Vegas tap water.

Around 5PM I made it to the gym - with the intention of running 3 miles. Easier said than done. My burrito bonanza breakfast was still giving me heartburn and my legs simply wouldn't move - worn out I guess from 3 hours of skiing yesterday. Additionally, my breathing felt really strained. A friend gave me some nose:mouth / in:out breathing ratios to try and I got so caught up in my head attempting to meet the paradigm, and failing, that it undermined my ability to keep going. Maybe I'll just keeping breathing in and out of my mouth for a while. Is that so bad?

I only ended up running 1.3 miles but did it at 5.5 the entire time. No warm up before or after. I don't feel great about it, but there's always tomorrow.