Winging it.

I apologize  for my high and mighty post at 5:00 this morning about no excuses!  Just do it! Clearly I'm full of shit.  

After I was ready to run, mismatched socks and all, I open the door to go into the garage (baby monitor in hand) and my genius dog assumes someone must be breaking into the house.  Bark! Woof! Waaaaaaaaaaaaah! Guess who is suddenly awake? 

Although I had the absolute best of intentions, my plans were thwarted by an evil dog and a teething baby.  For 4 hours I kept my runners on, rocking Henry and hoping to find my time to slip away and get my sweat on. For 4 hours Henry psyched me out.   Slowly, he'd stop playing with his toys and rub his eyes and give me obvious sleepy cues.  As soon as I picked him up to prepare him for a nap, he morphed into a spazzy, rabid raccoon with the body of a snake;  wriggly, manic and full of energy.  

I was about to give in and kick my shoes off, when it came to me.  Lets run outside.  We are going to run outside. 

Now, this thought had occurred to me.  It occurred to me every half hour or so until I actually went.   I enjoy running outside.  I do.   For the most part.  There are a few things that throw me off. 

Mainly, I'm an awkward person.  No, no! It's cool, I've come to terms with this.   Meeting other people on the street gives me an incredible sense of anxiety.  Should I say hello? What happens if they say hello- what do I say then? Do I wave? What happens if they want to talk? As if waving and speaking weren't enough to instill a deep sense of dread in the pit of my stomach, there is also The Face. 

I can feel The Face happen.  I see someone down the trail and I think "Dont make The Face, don't make The Face!" No matter how many times I repeat this mantra, my face refuses to listen. I can feel my lips twist up and my eyes begin to scrunch and widen at the same time.   It is a strange face that I can only imagine resembles a deer in the headlights, if that deer were also The Joker. I've caught a glimpse of The Face only once before, reflected back at me from a car window.  Even as a muted reflection, it was frightening, sad and laughable all at once- like a 3 legged dog with rabies wearing a tutu.  The look is recognizable by a wide, anxious smile, desperate eyes- one opened wide, the other squinted up and twitching slightly.  

I look normal about 80 percent of the one.  The rest of the time I make this anxiety face. I believe The Face may be fuelled by endorphins because it seems to emerge only when I am running in public.  For this reason, I try to stick to rarely used trails and paths where I am unlikely to encounter anyone from the general public.  

That is what I did this morning.  I corralled my rabid racoon snake and strapped him into the stroller. I set up my C25K app and off we went.  I finished Day 3 of Week One, and we made great time.  After I knocked that out, I just kept going and we ended up running over 7kms (with a quick stop at home to exchange dogs).  

One good thing about trails is that you see things that other people may miss, like this blue heron. 

It was sitting there on a log, beautiful and quiet.  You don't see that on a treadmill! 

The moral of the story? It's almost impossible to plan things when you have an unpredictable, teething baby. But you can work with what you've got. 

Even if what you've got is a face that gives small children nightmares....