A Beeping Street With a Kankled Runner on it

Beep. Honk. Squeal. Ya, there was a car that peeled out and the squeal sent me jumping out of my skin (mind you the car was probably about 50 meters away and nowhere coming near me! haha),  but I did it. Street traffic…faced the fear for 11.14 miles.

Definitly broke the '20 min. limit' rule 🙂

If you’ve been reading along on this blog you probably realized that I do most all of my running on the treadmill. That was up until the last few days. After I got hit by the car it took me over a year to get over the surgeries and then actually get back to running period, and when I did I really only felt ‘safe’ on a treadmill.

I could have gone to trails I guess, but there weren’t all that many close-by and I had a treadmill in my apartment complex so I just stuck to what was easier. A few times I would ‘man-up’ and run the less than two miles outside to get to a track and finish my run around there, but I think that was about two or three times. The streets scared the bejeezus out of me.

This coming from the girl you used to consider treadmill running ‘weenie running.’ But I moved to a place where there is a great bike trail and I figured I could handle that. Bikes whizzing by me is about the fastest thing around, I can handle that.

Moving to the outdoors was refreshing (far less boring…haha) but it was a SLAP in the face too. That 1.5% treadmill grade is easier than actual outdoor running even though that’s the accepted equivalent. I did a few days of bike trail runs and today, instead, I hit the roads.

I stuck to a short loop around my house, only crossed through some stop signs and decided to just turn right at stop-lights, but I did it. Most of the streets weren’t too busy but for a few of them I passed some shopping centers and there was a good amount of traffic…haha.

It felt good. Sorry, treadmill, I love you, you honestly have been a bestie for so long and I’m sure I will return to you at times, but for the time being I have my sights set on being a ‘real’ runner again. 🙂

1) Last random thing that you saw outside that made you do a double take?

There was a man about 50, reeeeally tan, totally shaved head except for a spiked, blue mohawk that was at least 6 inches high.

2) Do you have any strange fears?

3) How is your Tuesday plugging along?