Like last week, this week started out well, but soon turned sour. It was another stressful week at work and there were physical manifestations: tightness in my chest, lightheartedness during runs, lack of sleep, etc. I ended up taking Thursday off out of pure lack of enthusiasm. I tried to come back with a ten miler Friday morning, but the shortness of breath held me to 6 miles. I did have a pretty solid four miler that afternoon so I still got 10 for the day. Not knowing how I was going to deal with the long run, I reluctantly opted for the treadmill Saturday morning. Richie was nice enough to join me, despite having run on the treadmill all week (he did 20 on the ‘mill Monday morning).
That run went pretty well. I varied my pace between 10 min/mile and 8:30 min/mile. Around mile 8, I started to smell myself. I was wearing shoes I had worn during a rainy run on Tuesday and they smelled really, really bad. I pointed this out to Richie.
“Oh, that’s you?” he said, “I thought it was that guy over there.” A few seconds later, he was laughing.
“Man, that’s pretty putrid, I might have to call this one at 12 miles.”
He did indeed call it at 12 miles. Once he had ceased running, he was able to use all his energy to rip on me.
“You know what you’ve got?” he asked. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “You’ve got the stanky leg. You ever heard that song?”
I had to confess that I hadn’t. Meanwhile, Richie tried to recall the beat while stretching. Sadly, he was unable to pull it up on his cell phone so he just had to work out the music and lyrics himself. He turned his back to me to stretch his quads.
“Yeah, you got the stanky leg!” he exclaimed, laughing just as a woman walked in front of him with her head phones on. She paused and removed her headphones.
“Excuse me?” She asked. Niiice. I couldn’t wait to see how this would play out.
“Oh, I was talking to him,” Richie said pointing to me. Somehow, she was satisfied with that.
“So, what do you think they’re doing down there?” she asked, pointing to a group of people downstairs doing jumping jacks.
“Looks like some kind of exercise class, ” replied Richie. I’m flabbergasted at this point. He tells her she’s got the “stanky leg” and now she’s trying to flirt with him? That’s bunk.
I polished my run off at 12.5 miles (a new personal treadmill distance record) and stretched. For those who are curious, this is the stanky leg:
Here’s how the rest of the week went:
Monday AM: Threshold intervals totalling 7 miles
Monday PM: 3 miles at 8:06 pace
Tuesday AM: 6.4 miles at 8:49 pace
Tuesday PM: 3.8 miles in the pouring rain at 7:53 pace
Wednesday AM: 1200 and 800 m intervals at 9:20 pace
Wednesday PM: 3 miles at 8:31 pace
Friday AM: 6 miles at 9:59 pace
Friday PM: 4 miles at 8:13 pace
Saturday: 12.5 miles at 9:36 pace
Total: 53.7 miles
Hey, another 2 days off and I still got 53.7 miles!
Hows the running with alice going? She still into it? great job on the week of runs. I dont know how your friend did 20 miles on the treadmill – that is epic!
Dude– I have the entire newsroom laughing their ass off at this– What a great post– and the video??? priceless.
Considering your “Stanky leg” and all– not a bad week– Take care of yourself though- lightheartedness– never good. Nothing wrong with taking a day off to recharge.
somehow i stumbled upon your blog and had to share this with you: about three weeks ago i was having lunch with a co-worker and brought up the stanky leg… she had no idea what i was talking about so we went to my office, pulled up youtube, and sat back laughing… me, being totally uncooridnated me, decided to try it and just as i did i hear a pop in my knee! soooooo dumb! and my knee has been bothering me ever since… so from runner to runner, it’s best to stick to what we know and laughing at them is better than with them.
wow the stanky leg. i’m not all that familiar with the song but my best friend teaches 7th grade so she keeps me up-to-date with all the current events. i’ve *heard* of the stanky leg… will you be busting out those moves soon?
nice week esp with 2 days off! 53+ miles is nothing to snuff at.
HAHAHAHHAHAHA. Oh wow. Seriously, this post made me laugh. I WISH I could play that video right now but I’m in a place where I can’t play music, because seriously, I don’t know what the stanky leg is either. I’ve heard of it, and know there’s some dance involved, but that’s about it. That is HILARIOUS your running buddy said that. Wow, that’s classic!
Too funny! However, I think 12.5 miles on a treadmill is way more horrifying than stinky shoes.