I can never live anywhere flat

I was in Easton, Maryland this weekend for the wedding of one a good friend from Sweet Briar.  She was my first Sweet Tones "baby." (when new members are accepted into the accapella group, they are assigned a "mom.")  I'm really glad I was able to be there to celebrate her special day with her!  I also enjoyed being near the water for a day or two, and the fresh crab cake I had for lunch on Saturday was divine.  No seafood like that in WV!  However, my run Saturday morning left much to be desired.

I mapped out a route from the hotel to a 2.5 mile rail trail in Easton.  I was going to hit the trail roughly 1 mile from the southern end.  There was a strava segment for the trail in each direction.  I figured I would hit the trail, go to the near end, then run the segment to the other end, run back to where I originally joined the trail, and head back to the hotel.  I hit the trail just under 3 miles from the hotel.  I was already starting to feel the effects of the unendingly flat terrain, but was determined to make the most of it. By the time I reached the end of the trail, I was really dragging myself, but turned around and sped up, still telling myself I had to commit to the strava segment.  But my stupid asthmatic lungs were struggling, my legs were dragging, and I lost all will power.  I realized that if I did run all the way to the end of the trail, my run would end up close to 9 miles.  My foot was starting to complain on top of everything else, and it just didn't seem like a bright idea.  So I abandoned my plan and just backtracked straight back to the hotel.  It ended up being a 7.4 mile run, with only 33 ft of elevation gain.  The 7.4 mile run I did in Lewisburg earlier in the week had a much more reasonable 551 ft of elevation gain.

I wish I could enjoy flat runs.  They could be so useful for long fast runs.  But I just can't seem to mentally or physically survive them.  As I slogged through those 7+ flat miles in Easton, I couldn't help thinking about the 7 flat miles in the Charleston Distance run, and how much I didn't want to endure that again.

In other news, I saw the T-Rex Runner at the Tidewater Inn where the wedding was held on Saturday!  I recognized her almost immediately, but was too shy to say hi, just in case I was wrong...  Turns out it really was her and I totally should have manned up and said hello.  Oh well.

This week:

T: 7.4 run

W : 16.4 bike

R :  20.5 bike

Sa : 7.4 run

total run : 14.8

total bike : 36.9

In other news, to compensate for last week's low mileage, I biked 29 miles yesterday and another 20 today.  It's only the second day of the week and I've already surpassed last week's mileage.