Talking Too Much

Warning: This post contains sexist stereotypes and comments that will be offensive to some. Especially women. Women who like to talk. But I repeat myself.

Today was another absolutely gorgeous day and I could hardly wait to get home and run. I had to make a detour on the way home to pick up some kids, who happened to be mine, so I was a few minutes later than normal. Mindful of the rapidly setting sun I hurriedly changed into running clothes. The Wife wanted to run, too, so I told her to hustle. We made it out in good time and hit stride at the bottom of the hill.

I was interested in warming up a little since it was colder than I thought. I was glad there was very little breeze, maybe 5 mph at the most, but it was enough to cool me off. I should have worn a cotton shirt over my long-sleeved technical t. The Wife was telling me about the happenings of the day and then moved on to other related stories. As we got close to a mile into our run I realized I wasn't warming up and the sun was headed below the horizon within a short time. Then it hit me: she's talking too much!

I looked at my Garmin and sure enough, our pace was close to 14 minutes/mile. I took the opportunity to give her a bark that would make the Biggest Loser trainers proud (without the cussing). "Pick it up! You're slowing down too much!"

She increased her speed and continued talking. Now, I know women like to talk. It's who they are. But it was clear this was causing her to slow down. After another half mile I prompted her again in the same fashion, "Move it! We're at a 14 minute pace! If we're going to go at that pace we might as well walk!" To her credit she did speed up and we split at just over 2 miles into the run.

By this time the sun was sinking below the horizon and I could feel more frequent pockets of cold air. Passing vehicles didn't help by creating their own temporary breeze. I quickened my pace to get in a tempo run. It was probably a good two miles before I felt warmer. My overall run was 6 miles, as normal, and in spite of the slow beginning I came in at just under 60 minutes for the total time. I decided that wasn't too bad as I kept my tempo pace between 8:30-9 minutes/mile.

I enjoyed running with The Wife, but this is one of those days I could have headed out and been a lot further down the road before the sun went down. But that's okay. It was a worthwhile sacrifice to make in order to spend some time with her. And I would never discourage anyone from running, but I would encourage them to run faster.