May 22

FIT:
A run that almost didn't happen...

I flew in to Mexico City this morning, and I'm now in Toluca (50ish minutes away), sitting at 1.65 miles of elevation (vs. Denver - the mile-high city, and vs. Iten, Kenya - 1.5 mi).  I thought I wouldn't have any issues with the elevation, but even just driving in, my head/brain area can feel it.  At first, I thought that some of it may be that I got 4 hours of sleep last night after a long night of packing a and getting my apartment ready for my new roommate and general cleaning.  But I've been sleep-deprived before (see : my life), so I don't think that's it.  It's a bit more.

Not much around where the hotel is, since it's not really a touristy spot, and it's generally not as safe here, so I won't be doing any running outside while I'm here.  I had been looking foward to getting in a small dose of altitude trainng, though.  But ooooh, man.

After dinner (good - veggie soup, corn tortillas with chicken and tomato sauce and cottage cheese, bottled water b/c you don't eat raw veg here b/c it's been washed in tap water), I kind of just wanted to rest (catch up on sleep) and stay clean feeling.  But after finishing Prince Caspian in Spanish, I got a small energy burst and decided to go to the gym before it closed. 

I started on the stairstepper, b/c I usually don't have access to a properly functioning step machine.  But after a minute, it stepped strangely, so I stopped that and went for the treadmill.  It was warm.  I had visited earlier in the day, but it was super warm and humid and chloriney in there b/c it's in the same "greenhouse" as the pool.  I thought it would be cooler later.  Unfortunately, the greenhouse kind of traps the heat in there, so even though it was a bit cooler outside, it was still hot in the greenhouse and especially hot in the fitness area. 

So I started up at 14kph... not too sure how that was in Imperical-land, but I just remembered that I had used that at some point in AR.  But... it must've been during my intervals session, haha, b/c it was brutal, and I quickly brought it dow.  But even at 12kph, it took such effort, that I stopped after like 2 min... let's see.... 7.45mph.  So I stopped.  Started walking back to my room, still sweat-free and relatively clean.  But then, I told myself that if I just waited until tomorrow to try again, it wouldn't feel any easier.  It takes at least 2-3 days to adjust to altitude.  But more than that, tonight would be the most care-free night with the most predictable schedule.  With big group dinners and post-work work (blaaaaaaah), it would probably only get worse.

So I turned around and started again, this time a little bit slower (11.4kph) and decided to just make it through 5K (which I can actually measure in Ks this time).  So heat + altitude... maybe air pollution - it's an issue in MexCity, but we're some distance outside of the city center, and we're at a higher altitude, so I don't know if that's much of an issue here... anyway... I made it. 

Super hard just to do a 5K in 26:05, 8:25 ave.  Splits> 5:13, 5:18, 5:11, 5:13, 5:08... not sure why there's variation.  I only increased pace the whole time... I know I did slightly miss pushing the button a couple times... eh.  It was a good, heavy-duty treadmill.  Slightest wobble, but so slight that I forgot about it quickly.  Mostly just stared at myself making the ugly face in the mirror as I toughed it out.

RANDOM THOUGHTS OF THE DAY...

1. FAMILY
I wonder... if I was the same class year as my sister, and we were in MS or HS together, and we weren't related, would we have become friends?  I love my sister very much, and we're good friends and joke around.  It's just an interesing though.  I asked her on Skype, and she said, "hahahha i think that we would be / if you showed that you were funny/weird / if you didnt let people see that then maybe not."

2. FUN
You know how there are monsters in your closet?  Wouldn't it be so funny/cute if a live Elmo was standing in there?  I want to buy a stuffed animal Elmo... a cuddly one, not a hard mechanical one that dances or something.