I Take On the Universe

Ever have a morning where you are pretty sure the cogs of the universe are moving against you?  Well I think that is the best way to describe this morning's workout.

I went to bed last night with a plan.  Go to the local high school track and do sprint intervals, simple enough.  Alarm goes off at 3am, get up and make my way to the kitchen to get breakfast started.  All of a sudden a bright flash followed by a loud crash of thunder.  I look out the picture window in the living room and it's a full-on thunder storm.  I had planned for this, I had a cardio routine of burpees and box jumps I could do at the gym.  I told myself, "just make breakfast and see if the storm moves on."

Finished breakfast got my workout gear together and looked outside.  No thunder or lightning, but it was still raining.  "I can run in this", I told myself.  Got in the car and drove to the local high school track.

When I arrived at the track it wasn't even 5am yet, and I noticed the parking lot was full and there where people walking into the track area, a lot of people.  I park and walk up to the track and realize it's the High School football team.  Apparently they have been conducting early morning practices to avoid the extreme heat we've had the last several days.  Just as the coaches where trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing there, I turned around and got back in my car.

Slowed up but not defeated, I thought I will go to the neighboring high school track and run there.  I knew I wouldn't run into there football team as I work for that school district and I knew they were out of town at a football camp.

Ten minutes later I am nearly to High School as I turned onto the street in front of the track I see a barricade across the road.

 
I had forgotten the city was repaving the street in front of the school.  Still not beaten, I decide to drive down a few blocks and come in the back way.  Another road closed.

Frustrated but not ready to quit, I park as close as I can and walk the rest of the way to the track.

As I approach the entrance to the track I see a big metal gate going all the way across.  I couldn't believe it.  I was used to most of the local schools keeping there tracks open to the public, I never considered that it might be closed off.

I am nearly ready to give up, (actually I did give up and was walking back to my car), when I noticed a section of fence missing near the stands.  This was my chance.  I walked through and was finally ready to start my workout.

I did 1/2 mile warm-up and then ran 2 more miles sprinting on the straight away and recovering on the curved part of the track.  I did 16 sprints followed by another 1/2 mile cool down, for a total of 3 miles.

I forgot to wear my Garmin so I didn't keep track of my time, but I did manage to run through a swarm of gnats and got both a face and mouth full of them, so that was great.

Maybe I should have just went to the gym, but when I finished I felt good and was glad I didn't give up.  I won this round universe.  Better luck next time.

P.S.  Happy Birthday to Millie, my favorite 4 year old!