C25k: Week 8, Day 1

Despite the title of my blog, very seldom do I have dreams about running. In fact, I don't think I've ever had one. Last night was an exception:

My morning began at 3:30 AM, a full hour before the early alarm went off. At that point, for some reason, I started sleepwalking. I sat bolt upright in bed then started across the room for my running kit. Luckily, my moving about the room woke up Stacy and she asked me what I was doing. I crawled back into bed and fell back to sleep until the first alarm, at 4:30 AM. In that hour, I had dreams about running. I dreamt that I went downstairs with my running kit, and that I took it out onto the back patio where I proceeded to get undressed, outdoors. Nobody was about. I changed into my running clothes and did some stretching out on the back patio. I remember putting on a blue Superman-emblem shirt (that I never wear while running), but I don't think I put on any running shorts. My parents came around and we talked about how impressed they were with my getting up early despite not being a morning person. By that time it was sunrise (in the dream) and I started out for my run. I ran my normal route. I recall feeling that the run was unusually difficult, but uneventful. On the way back, I felt like I was moving very slowly. At one point I stumbled. Other than that, the dream run went well. I woke up feeling exhausted, just in time for my real run to begin.

Out of curiosity, I tried looking up the interpretation of dreams about running. Most of them talk about running from something, or running to something. They talk about fear, and pursuit. My dream wasn't really characterized by any of those things, though. It was just me, running my normal route. Not toward something, or from something. No sense of fear or dread or pursuit. I don't think there necessarily was any deeper significance to the dream, though it did seem to have a residual effect on the quality of my actual run this morning.

My real run was almost what I'd categorize as a "bad" run: I felt like I was pushing it the whole way and I never got into any sort of zone. At some points I seriously considered stopping and walking. My calves, and even the soles of my feet, were burning. At one point I thought I might be courting a shin splint. I perservered, slowly, and when the run finally ended and I started my cooldown walk I felt like I was walking at the same speed I had been running. Some runs it just feels like I'm not really propelling myself forward - that all of my energy is going vertically, none horizontally - this was one of those. Regardless, I finished it. I wore pants. I didn't stumble. So, in my book, it was still a good run.