Zeno's Greatest Hits: Paradox Remix

I don't remember it happening, but two days ago I must have stubbed my big toe. Out of nowhere it started aching, with sharp pains whenever I tried to apply pressure to test to see if it still hurt. I tested it a lot, and it hurt every time. Ultimately, I decided to give myself an extra day of rest. Although yesterday would have been a weekend run (my favorite type, since I can start later and go through the park), I passed. My toe ached throughout the day, but by nightfall it seemed a bit better. This morning when I woke up it was feeling fine, so I ran. The run didn't seem to hurt it at all, so it looks like I made the right choice.

Today's running music was brought to me by The Sound of the Smiths (Deluxe Edition), an album I would highly recommend as running music with just a few exceptions*. Unfortunately, a string of those exceptions fell over the course of this run. Running to the live version of "Meat is Murder," or "Asleep"? Not so much. Hearing lowing cows and buzzsaws while running through deserted streets in the still-dark morning was an experience, but not quite the experience I was looking for. I actually looked to my left and to my right to find out where the cows were when the song began.

As far as the run itself went, it was fine. I sprayed myself down with plenty of mosquito repellent before heading out. It may have kept the mosquitos away, but it made me as sticky as flypaper and when I came home I noticed I had a legion of kamikaze gnats suck to me.

Today was Week 5, Day 2, which is the last week of "short" intervals. W5D3 features a 20 minute uninterrupted run. Whee! Today, in comparison, was just:

• 5 minute warmup walk
• 8 minute run
• 5 minute walk
• 8 minute run
• 5 minute walk
• 5 minute cooldown walk

I started anticipating Runkeeper playing the "halfway" chime, my signal to turn back, just before the half-way point of the run. When the halfway mark came and went without the chime, I figured maybe I had done the math wrong. I decided to run a bit more. I ran about half of the rest of the workout, until I was at about what I estimated to be the 3/4 mark, every step expecting to hear the half-way chime. As I ran, I mentally composed a post to the runkeeper forum. I would, in the post, talk about how the half-way chime is inconsistent and doesn't play every time. It was right about then that I recalled my last post to the runkeeper forum, just a few days prior: a post in which I suggested that they implement a half-way point chime since the app doesn't currently feature one. It's the C25kapp application that does. Argh! I turned back around and headed for home.

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*Yes, album. And let me tell you, getting the record player strapped to my arm was quite a trick. The needle kept skipping and scratching the vinyl with every step.