Zombies, Run!

Relevant background information:

When I am chased, I have neither a fight nor a flight response. I simply sit down, essentially presenting myself as bait. I believe it was my brother who summarized it so eloquently: 'So, you basically have no survival skills at all?'

I'm not proud of this fact (nor amused when people try to test the theory), so I decided to work on it. I downloaded the Zombies, Run! app on my phone, the 5K program. I've been sidelined from making any progress due to the toe situation for a few weeks, but by this morning I was itching to get out into the fresh air and get back on track.

At first it was a disaster. I woke up at 7am wide awake and ready to rock and roll, but then thought that since I had 4 shots of tequila last night I MUST be hungover (I wasn't) and therefore should return to bed for a bit. 'A bit' turned into four hours. Whatever, I'm more than rested now. I got up, took a quick shower, chugged some V8 and water and put on my running clothes. Toe felt good in the sneakers. Phone had just enough charge to get me through the run. But then I couldn't find my headphones, my new iPhone holder strap-on thingie was too big and awkward, and I couldn't get my house key off the ring. I spent 20 minutes looking for the headphones to no avail, then just said screw it and grabbed the buds that came with my iPod (which I hate). I also said screw it to the iPhone holder and shoved the phone in my bra instead. Got my ass out the door. SUCCESS.

It's damp and slightly rainy and chilly today--my favorite running weather! I started up the app, which incorporates a story into your run in between songs from your own phone, and headed out. The story is essentially that you are in a helicopter, heading to a human town in a zombie-infested post apocalyptic land or something to that effect. The helicopter crashes, and people from the human town are speaking to you over the radio. They guide you back to base, letting you know when to speed up because zombies are chasing you (they tell you not to turn around and to run as fast as you can, all while zombie sounds are fading in and out--CREEPY.) I had my Garmin on, along with the heart rate monitor, so it was kind of funny to see my heart rate spike throughout the run when the voices came on.

The chart above is my elevation (in green) overlayed with my heart rate (in red). I basically walked/ran up a giant hill and then turned around and ran back down. The amusing part is that the heart rate elevation at the end where the elevation is decreasing is sort of because I was running rather than walking, but  mainly due to the fact that I was running FAST because that was the part where the zombie was right behind me. I got all panicky and I would have loved to watch myself, silently chanting 'ohshit ohshit' while I ran home. At least I didn't sit down, right?