It's been a very weird week of running.
Last week wildfire smoke from Canadian fires wafted over the state. The first day, I didn't really pay attention to it and pushed through a marathon-pace practice session. I didn't think too much about it, but things got worse as the day progressed and into the next day.
I didn't know quite what to do because I don't own a treadmill or gym membership to use one. Then I thought about the largest indoor space I could.
The Mall.
I knew it would be against the rules, but I also have a contact who worked there with the authority to give me the go-ahead. Thankfully he did.
The goal was a 7-mile easy effort run. I estimated the mail to be about a quarter mile around, which would mean 28 laps around the perimeter. What I didn't account for was how my watch GPS wouldn't function the same indoors as it did outdoors. Unfortunately, I didn't figure this out until several laps around. I hadn't been counting exactly how many laps and didn't want to put the mental energy into it, so I decided to run for an hour and call it good.
There are lots of things to see by going in loops around the mall. It didn't end up being as boring as you might think. In some ways it felt like running on the urban street with pedestrian traffic. I gingerly avoided collisions and was conscious that I was the anomaly in this environment.
I passed a woman on a zoom call during several laps
A family playing a board game
A group of teenagers around a table all on their phones
The guy in the massage chair
What looked like a grandma with her punk grandkid.
Security stopped me for a minute, but things were cleared up, and I went on my way.
The whole scenario reminded me that problems create the opportunity to develop solutions. There will always be excuses, but developing a training mindset that breaks down barriers is as important as the training itself. No one would have blamed me if I dialed it in and took the day off, but this solution resulted in just a touch more resiliance.
And that is just part 1 of the weirdness.
Part of the reason for my eagerness to run on Friday last week was the understanding that I'd be sailing for the next few days and miss some training time. Certainly working a sailboat is strenuous, but it isn't running. I was doing my best to maintain a semblance of order to my schedule.
To say sailing would be strenuous is actually a huge understatement.
I woke up in Port Huron without an alarm and decided the air was clear enough for a few miles before breakfast even though I knew it would be a long day on the boat. I ended up going for 4 easy-effort miles just to burn some time and stay nimble. The sailing adventure deserves a post unto itself, but I will say that it was a wild and exhausting ride. We ended on Monday around 10:30 am. I was wiped out and made the call not to run but looked forward to being fresh on Tuesday to run around Mackinac Island.
Sure enough, a warm shower and night sleep freshened me up for the 8 miles around the island at sunrise, which included a rainbow over the Mackinac Bridge.
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