OK, I know this sounds bit crazy, but I am crazy, so what? As you can guess from the title of my post, some annoying (I called him "f*cking" cop when tagging my run in my Nike+ app) cop caused me to run faster hills on my Thursday workout. Contrary from what you might think, he actually didn't chase me and I didn't even see him while running. So how could he made my unplanned hills workout faster?
It's all in your head as wise men say. First things first, on Thursday late afternoon I went for a 6 miler. What used to be kind of longish distance few weeks/months ago is now normal weekday run. I have to clear out that I already played 6 sets of squash with my dad in the morning. Usually when I do this, I can feel the morning effort on my evening run and you cannot expect any miracle results. I wanted to manage to go under 8:50/mile pace, but wasn't sure about it. It was pretty warm and I was in a bit of time press (dinner with my dad celebrating his birthday...).
When I don't want to go too hard on myself, I use a loop in a very nice park where they also have in line skating / cycling track. The doggie now knows how to avoid the skaters and that he shouldn't cross the track unless told or unless totally necessary (= cute lady dog on the opposite side). OK, I know that the dogs should be there on a leach, but the high speed skaters shouldn't be there as well and still they are. So my dog goes without a leach - surprisingly, no big deal at 6 or 7 am in the morning. It was this time.
I finished my first loop (2.5 miles) and still had one and half to go. The time was looking something around the possibility of nailing my goal going under 8:50/mile on average. There I go in the second loop and guy on skates is signaling to me to put my headphones down. I noticed him before because he was skating with really well behaving dog of course also without a leach. So he tells me that a cop is waiting for me next to the terrace restaurant in the center of the park in order to tell me that I cannot go with my dog without the leach. The guy already had to put his dog in the car. I thanked him and knew that I need to use the not that crowded and way more hilly paths in different part of the park.
I did not think about the time, I was upset that it is for sure that I will not be fast enough on the hilly route. I did not want to, the hills were tough. The unforeseen hills ... OK, I am not great fan of hills, but I have no other choice (don't want to close the dog in the car when it's above 25 °C). So I just went for it and had to deal with it. The hilly loop is shorter so I had to repeat the hills several times. What a surprise when I finished my 6 miles with the average pace of 8:44/mile. Instant switch in my mood, from feeling angry about the cop I was thankful that he virtually made me work harder and do better quality workout without even knowing about it.
What a wise minimalists and people who try to live consciously and more simply say ... there is no need to get angry about the things you cannot change and influence. You just need to face them and deal with them as soon as possible. That way you deal with them faster and they don't bother you any more. Dealing with things at peaceful attitude makes you stronger.
Enough wisdom, I am off for my Sunday 13 miler. Happy running everyone!
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