Piece of Cake

A couple days ago, I was staring down a tempo run and I could feel a little cloud of dread hanging over me.  These workouts are tough in general but tack on the heat and humidity and they are torture.  I do love running.  I do.  Anyway, rather than dwell on the difficulty of this run, I decided to try to embrace it.  Or, if I'm being honest, I tried to do anything I could to distract myself during the hard part.  During my warmup, I thought about breaking up the next four miles, which I was going to try to run around 6:45 pace, into single, more digestible segments.  A piece of a cake came to mind, so I rolled with that.  Four miles.  Four bites.  It's on.  Turns out, as I ran each mile I realized that the comparison was perfect.  You can't always stomach a whole piece of cake, but if it's really good, and you really want it, you're gonna take it down.  As I shuffled home, I reflected on my cake workout.  Here's how it played out:

BITE/MILE 1: The first bite was the BEST.  A total taste explosion.  In fact, I could not WAIT to eat the rest.  Yes, I might have been taking down too much too soon, but it didn't matter because it tasted so...damn...good.

BITE/MILE 2: The second bite was okay.  The cake still tasted pretty good, but the novelty of eating cake had worn off a bit.  I wasn't quite as eager for my next bite, but I was still enjoying the different flavors and textures.  That said, I was not sure I had two more bites in me.

BITE/MILE 3: The third bite was rough.  I was getting really full and even though I knew I only had ONE last bite to go, my mind was telling me to stop eating.  But then, I kept going because, well, it's cake.

BITE/MILE 4: The last bite was the hardest to digest.  Taste wasn't even a factor anymore.  I was just eating to eat.  But, I was not leaving anything on that plate.  I didn't care what it took at that point.  It was my party and I was gonna cry if I wanted to.

And, poof, just like that, my cake was done.  Er, um, my run was over.  And later, when I told my coach about it, I didn't even mention the fact that I'd thought I might not have finished it.  Because I did.  And the funny thing was, I didn't really even remember that third bite.  It was just really good cake. That was all that mattered.  Much like cake, or any dessert, really, a workout is only as good as the sum of its parts.  The cake part is good, but can be dry and maybe not worth finishing.  The frosting is heaven, but alone it will probably make you sick.  And once it's done, all you have left is a really good taste in your mouth and the desire for more.  Mmmmmm cake.

Listen to this:
Static Lines - Creases