What to do on a bad day?

Some days you have it and some days you don't. This morning I didn't have it but it was an interesting run.

I ran back in Lebanon Hills and expected the light rain to have made the snow wet and slushy and I was not disappointed. I feared going into it that it wasn't going to be a good day as I woke up not feeling great and to add to my misery my left foot started hurting within the first 100 yards. I thought about just aborting but instead I just tightened up the laces and to use Londell's phrase chose to "Carry On". I seem to be getting a lot of practice at running when things go bad, it would be nice to have a good day sometime soon.

Anyway, my plan was to run about 4 and 1/2 hours. Good plan except that I struggled to maintain my pace right from the start. I thought it was either from what I ate at dinner the night before or it might have been from the heavy snow so after about an hour of struggle, I decided to run out of Lebanon Hills and try the pavement along Cliff Road. That helped but I still didn't feel very good. So that meant it wasn't just the snow, oh well, so I went back into the park. I figured I would try and go at least a 1/2 hour longer and then probably call it a day.

One thing I had tried when I headed out to the road was switching to music versus my normal podcasts, I figured it would be different and since it took no mental energy to listen it was worth a chance to get me going but it wasn't really helping until a weird sequence of songs.

A number of songs had played and I was kind of zoning them out and simply struggling on with the run and then a song came on "No More No More - Aerosmith" which got me thinking that I had had enough but I decided to go one more song before I headed back to the car. The next song is an odd one in a way, it's called "I'm not running anymore - John Mellencamp". Today, I was thinking that this song's title was probably right and quite predictive of how I felt but sure enough I picked up the pace and felt a bit more energy. I decided to take a left and head out on a favorite loop thinking I could make it through 40 more minutes which is what the loop normally takes. The next song was "Fire on the Mountain - The Marshall Tucker Band" which helped to pass the time but the footing was starting to bug me and my energy burst was over and then the next song came on, "Long Way Back - Kim Richey" which of course got me to thinking that I was getting pretty far out again and that maybe I should turn around or shorten up the loop as I wasn't sure I had enough left to continue on, what a disappointing day. I thought to myself that I was just being stupid to even continue at all.

When the next song came on and it caught my attention, "Have a little Faith - Jewel" so I had no choice but to continue on. The next song was "Don't look Back - Boston" and the one that followed "Past the Point of Rescue - the original Dixie Chicks". A number of songs followed some that seemed appropriate for the day and some that didn't but they all helped me to continue on, when "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad - The Marshall Tucker Band" came on, so I took it as the time to head on back to the car. I should add that I think their version of this song is one of the best but then again I am a bit partial to the MTB, who in my opinion, is the best of all the southern rock bands.

Sometimes music helps pass the time and sometimes it seems to send another message. I can say that today I was ready to pack it in at 2 hours and then through a series of songs I went for another 1 1/2 hours. So a bad day still had me on the trails for 3 and 1/2 hours, sloshing my way through the snow, playing mental games, trying many things to distract myself, what a delightful day all things considered. Sometimes, you just got to take it all in stride.........