"No, it's just pissing me off."

For those of you who have been following this blog it's no surprise that I've been training for the Cleveland Half Marathon. The Viper has been with me every step of the way, encouraging but tough- exactly what a good coach should be. I've surprised myself by being consistent and by maintaining high spirits on most of my runs. Running together has provided us with opportunities to talk about the wedding, on one such run I spent the whole first mile jabbering on and on about hydrangeas, roses, seeded eucalyptus, lisianthus and hypericum berries. The Viper was oddly quiet during that conversation, he may have perfected the art of running while sleeping. But needless to say, I really have been enjoying the company and the encouraging words - until last night.

My training plan involves running and cross training with no days off. This is not my norm, so there have been some growing pains. On Monday we ran 4 miles, and yesterday we were slotted to do a mile of hill repeats with a nice little warm up/down. The run was put off till later evening as we met with yet another photographer after work. Around 8 p.m. we finally got out the door, I went to activate my spiffy workout app on my super cool android phone, but the gps was not "initializing." Boo. I finally put the phone away, and the Viper and I took off down our street in the slushy cold mess. (We had some sweet freezing rain last night, awesome!)

We finally arrived at the bottom of the designated hilly street, the plan was to run the hill five times. Viper gave me some encouraging words and then we were off. The first time up Viper and I stood side by side, he was focusing on form and encouraged me to do the same. I tried. It was hard. We walked back down the hill and continued doing the same. My legs were on fire by the third pass. I was losing focus on form and just trying to stay upright without puking. Viper was all bouncy happy in his Vibrams going on and on about form and "picking up knees" and "blah, blah blah." By the fourth time up the hill I was really reaching for energy and motivation. I stopped at the top of the hill with my hands on my hips panting like a dog. I didn't want to do anymore. I looked at Viper, he was waving his arms expectantly, eager to do our last pass. He made it look so easy. I was getting angry. I mustered all my energy and joined him for the walk downhill. I turned to him and asked "Sweetheart, could you please not talk to me while we're running up the hill?" He replied, "OK, does it make you feel like you need to respond?" I had to be honest, "No, it's just pissing me off." He laughed.

So Viper, thank you for understanding.

Running is hard, but I'm not going to stop because of that. Even if at times, it pisses me off.