Hooray warmer weather is finally headed our way! As the slush began to melt away from the already precarious sidewalks on 15th Ave, I thought that going for a run would be the perfect early evening activity. However, I managed to make a few errors, which lead to my run being a little less than ideal.
If I were you, I would avoid some of the following if you want to have a more pleasant cardio experience.
1. I let the woes of daylight savings time convince me to run in the evening as opposed to the morning. The earlier you run, the less aware of everything your body is and it just to tends cooperate better.
2. I then made sure I was nice and sore from my workout the previous day. The day you decide to try lifting weights and squatting again probably shouldn't be the day before you decide to start running again.
3. Instead of running right after work I decided to sit down and crank out an easy homework assignment. Then I began to remember just how much I enjoy sitting down. It's a very underrated hobby.
4. I thought the perfect pre-workout snack was a spoonful of peanut butter. Turns out it just ends up feeling like dead weight in your stomach as you jog along, partially questioning if some of it is still sticking to your throat.
5. I made sure to wear a pair of leggings that I forgot tend to fall down. Nothing says good form like consistently trying to hike up your pants.
6. When I finally laced up and got one foot moving in front of the other (another highly underrated skill), I decided to take my normal route up the hill of Indianola to Lane Avenue. I was delightfully surprised by the residual slush squishing in my socks and just how “in shape" months of winter, chocolate chip cookies and embracing the great indoors has left me. The word run is a relative term. 90% of the time it was still faster than walking.
7. Going down Lane Avenue I began to see huge throngs of people taking up the entire sidewalk. It was just then that I realized I was “running" directly towards everyone who had just left the OSU versus Wisconsin basketball game. I became a salmon swimming upstream.
8. In an attempt to avoid the oodles of unhappy basketball fans I tried to scoot onto the grass next to the sidewalk. I then proceeded to wipeout on said muddy grass. I'm pretty sure my awkward fall cheered up a good amount of the crowd as I then resorted to walking until I passed the mob.
9. After making sure I was only muddy and not bleeding after my tumble, it was about time to turn around and head home. While struggling my way down the hill of Indianola Ave and narrowly missed as a target for cars I see my friend waving from her car. How nice, she got to see me run straight through a puddle as I made it to the home stretch.
While that hour was a strugglebus for certain, I know my next run at least can't be that bad. Or if it is, I will have quite a doozy of a story.
