I’m not sure whether it’s the training volume, the wind, or just my 59 year old body, but after today’s run, I’m feeling the stress. Yesterday’s ride was supposed to be a 2 to 3 hour heart rate 3 (aerobic, but almost to the point of going anaerobic) ride, but I ended up riding 3:35.

We went straight West from Hastings to Hopkins, rode the hills past Hopkins to the stone house, and came back for a total of 58.59 miles. The wind was, according to Channel 8 weather, to be from the West at anywhere from 10 to 20 mph. There were some areas where the road went through open fields and the wind seemed to be at the high end of the forecast. There’s something about riding into an unrelenting wind that takes the starch out of you, and it did that to me.

When I got back home, I had planned to do a 30 to 40 minute transition run, but had a message from the raccoon guy (Wildlife Wranglers LLC…not a guy dressed up in a raccoon costume) that he would be at the cottage to wrap everything up at 3:30. It was 3:10, so I threw on some clothes with no stretching, no transition run and no shower, kept the car windows open, and drove down to the lake. We are now 99% raccoon proof. We did what we could to keep the furry little creatures out so we’ll see how that goes. Although it was covered by insurance, it still cost me 1,000.00 out of pocket between the deductible and the future raccoon exclusion items. (b/t/w Hastings Mutual is an excellent insurance company to work with).

Today’s run was supposed to be a 90 to 120 minute heart rate 1 or 2 run, so I went 12 miles at 10 minute per mile pace for, you guessed it, 120 minutes. Everyone else in the group ran shorter since next week is the Bayshore Marathon and this week is a taper week. I ran with Brian for the first two miles, then ran alone all the rest. I kept my pace right where I wanted it, but the heart rate was difficult to keep in zones 1 and 2 with all the hills.

By the time I got back, it was about 46 degrees and the wind had to be blowing at least 20 mph from the Northwest. I was tired…I was cold…I was kicking myself for running 12 miles when 9 would have been just fine…I was, and still am, tuckered out.

Just in case the question comes up on Jeopardy as to the word origin of “tuckered out”, I looked it up on Google on the site http://www.word-detective.com/ . I expected it to be a story about a guy named Tucker who always complained about being tired, hence the slang word “tuckered”. Had I been born a hundred years ago, it could be “walkered” with all the whining I’ve done (I’m still cold!!!). Anyway it’s:

“Tucker” meaning “to tire, to weary” is an Americanism dating back to the early 19th century, based on the verb “to tuck,” which comes from an ancient Germanic root meaning “to pull” (also the source of our “to tug”). Although “tuck” meant “punish” when it appeared in Old English, by the 13th century it had taken on the sense of “to finish cloth” and later came to mean “to gather up in folds or pleats,” “to put away or hide” and the modern “to fold in the ends of material” sense we use in “tuck in a sheet.” One of the slang meanings “to tuck” acquired in the 18th century was “to consume food” (i.e., “tuck” it into one’s stomach), eventually giving us the Australian “tucker bag” as well as “tuck” and “tucker” as slang for “food.”

Midway though the 19th century, it became common to speak of a dog or horse whose flanks were drawn in from hunger or fatigue as being “tucked” or “tuckered,” likening the animal’s gaunt and haggard appearance to folds in fabric. So to be “tuckered out” today is to be profoundly and visibly exhausted.

Luckily I didn’t strip down in front of anyone today, but if I had the running group would have seen “my flanks drawn in by fatigue” and I really did have a “gaunt and haggered appearance”, so the word and the word origin fit.

It looks like the cold snap will give way to near normal temperatures this next week so Memorial Day weekend should be great. Good luck to all the running group doing the Bayshore Marathon, Half-Marathon or 10-K. You’ve all trained hard so you’ll do well. No matter what, have a good time!

Just (I’m Tired And I Want To Go To Bed) Jack