This past twenty(ish) days was a crazy flurry of insanity and business. I did not find a dull moment for myself to curl up into a chair and read a book or take a nap or anything besides to keep on, keepin’ on. But I like weeks like that. It also was an emotionally strenuous time for me and so some of these entries may be different (read as darker and/or sadder) than their predecessors. Please bear with me through the grim entries and fully enjoy the happier ones. So for this period of time, I will do my best to highlight some of the good exercise bits while I was out and about for the last half month.
Day 64 was Tuesday, which is supposed to be a swim and bike day, however, my eye was still on the mend and I didn’t want to chance the healing process with chlorinated water. So I skipped the swimming (actually I skipped swimming all week, bad I know), and decided to go on the spinner bike at the gym at work. These bikes are certainly helpful, but not as much as actually riding your bike. However, on rainy days it is better than nothing. After messing around on my bike for a while, I went on the elliptical and cranked out a few miles. Afterward I lifted weights and was late getting back up to work. Having a 9-5 job, or in my case an 8:30 to 5:30 job, really gets in the way of enjoying the outdoors and outdoor activities. If anyone can think of a better occupation for me to seek out, by all means do tell. I am thinking mail carrier. Although, there is one good thing about that gym. There is an old man who goes to the gym every day, just like me. Seeing this old man, who is probably 70 or even 85, going strong every day is pretty inspirational. He sometimes run or goes outside to bike or lifts weights. And while I am sure he struggles with things I don’t have to deal with, he is still there every day. Very cool. Old athletes really impress me, more so than younger ones. They have to work harder and fight against more to do well. I am looking forward to being old, not like I want it to be here tomorrow, but I think it will be a good time in my life.
Day 65 was a Wednesday, my favorite day of the week. It was a beautiful wonderful gorgeous day. It was very warm and sunny outside and I was very much looking forward to my run. It was a 4 mile day and I was planning on heading out around 1:30 pm and taking the hard route. The hard route is a set of hills in Arlington that I like to torture myself on. It’s mildly funny to me that I don’t mind killing myself with hill workouts on my feet, but on the bike I avoid the hills. I ended up not getting outside until 2ish, which is better because it’s warmer and there is less traffic on my route. I think I changed into my workout clothes in under 3 minutes, a new record for me, and rushed out the door. It was warmer than I expected and I started working up a sweat almost immediately. I tried to run nice and slow in the beginning, but it never works. I have never failed to pace myself perfectly during a race, but during training I almost always go too hard in the beginning. As I cruised down my newly determined route, I felt a strong sense of pride for what I am trying to accomplish over these next few months. When I was training for the MCM, while I was enthusiastic about what I was striving toward, I was not proud. In fact I often had to tackle the fear that I wouldn’t be able to do it. 26.2 miles is a long way and I was very concerned about finishing that race. However, now it seems like the sky is the limit. It has been clearly proven to me that anything you set your mind on and train for you can accomplish. While I was running and soaking up the beautiful weather, I began to try to visualize the task that lay way far ahead in the future.
Over the last few months I have read damn near every blog, article, book, and every other tidbit of information regarding ultra distance running. I have accumulated, now in my head, this store pile of info about these races; the ultramarathon which are a race totaling 50k or more in distance and usually run on or mostly on a trail. It is truly amazing that there are people who can complete these amazing feats of endurance and over such (often) harsh terrain. I have my personal favorites Ann Transon (course record holder for Western States), Scott Jurek (who can run 9:20 min per mile steady for 100 miles), Devon Crosby-Helms (course record holder for the JFK 50 miler), Jenn Shelton (general racing bad-ass), David Horton (ultra legend), and Pam Reed (once completed a 300 mile race in one sitting, no stopping). I do not like Dean Karnazes; do not try and talk to me about him. I think he is a cheap skate and an ass, dramatizing the sport for his own personal (read as "monetary") gains. The other guys, they are just amazing runners who I admire. I think it is important to have people in your sport that you admire; it gives you something to look towards. I know I will never be as good as any of them, but the thought of what they can accomplish, drives me to do better. Anyway when I start to look forward, as nervous as I am, it is much more a high degree of excitement for this race and all it entails. Anyway, Wednesday’s run was wonderful and by the time I was finished I just wanted to run more. But that’s how it always is for me. If I could, I would spend my life running.
Day 66 was my first evening run in a long long time. I decided, because I would be running into the dusky part of the evening, I would take my dog on the run with me. He loves going on runs, so I thought it would be fun for him as well. So after suiting up, I pulled out the leash and Lee, that’s my dog’s name, went bezerk. He really loves to come with me (or anyone) on runs. I tossed my keys in my pocket and headed off. It was really warm out and I quickly realized that my sweater was a bit too much. After noting that taking off the sweater and tying it around my waist would waste too much time I decided to just deal with the excess heat and keep going. I tried to take Lee on the trail as much as possible since I know he loves to run on softer ground as opposed to asphalt. So we bumbled about on the trail, down a hill, stopped to pee (him not me), and then went back up the massive hill and back through the minimal trail. On the way back I tried doing sprints, but Lee thought I was trying to play with him and kept grabbing the leash and pulling it (damn near) out of my hands. It was great fun, running and heart attacks all in one day. Upon arriving back at my house I discovered that my keys had gone away. The pocket where I placed them had either come undone, I hadn’t closed it sufficiently, or it has a secret hole. Any way around it I was short a set of keys. There are spares and I was fine, but it still irked me that I had lost them due to some kind of stupidity on my part. However, the day was done and I (and lee) would live to run another day. Day 67 was a 1.5 long walk (con Lee) that was entirely dedicated to searching for the lost keys. I did not find them and was extremely annoyed.
Day 68 was another lovely beautiful morning in mid-Maryland. I woke up early and gathered my Saturday racing crew. This Saturday the racing crew included myself, Lee (who is a 1.5 year old black lab pup and loves EVERYTHING), my friend Rae and the dog she dog-sits, Carmel (a lovely lady golden doodle). We loaded up the dogs in the back of my Volvo and headed down to Rock Creek Park. I will have to take some pictures of this park and post them, because it is a beautiful area. The trail we were to run on was a really fantastic one, very cushy underfoot and yet winding and sturdy. I did not have to pay much attention to my foot work, unless Lee went off bounding into the wooded off-trail area. My friend Rae is one of those people you are extremely grateful to have a as a running partner. She runs at just about the same pace as me and I can either do a shorter distance with her, or meet up with her for a portion of a longer run. She helps push me to keep moving, and she seems to become tired and need to walk right around the same times I do. She is a great friend and listener, a valued quality to having in a running partner. She also tells good stories and, more often than not, makes me laugh. Our Saturday run was perfect, the temperature was hovering around 60 degrees and I wasn’t hot or cold in what I was wearing. The sun was out, but it is mostly blocked out from the trees, thus leaving the runner comfortable, but cool. The two dogs were having a blast. Once we started running, they formed our little pack and we moved much like a cohesive unit.
This is one of the things I really love about running with a dog; they make you feel like part of a team. My dog, Lee, loves to run. He often will go from a week of no running, to a 5 miler with no trouble at all. He will, however, whine about the hills on the way back. I find this cute though. So Lee and Carmel (or Cara-moosh!) dashed ahead in front of us (leashed) and we calmly followed behind. I find that Lee often runs beside or just slightly behind me when it’s the two of us, but with other dogs, and runners he likes to be in the lead. We quickly knocked out the first half of the run which dead-ended at a parking lot, and turned around to go the other way. While I know Sligo Creek forwards and back, I am still getting used to the other trails and often end up at dead ends. So we back-tracked and past the looming crowd of walkers and their dogs and sprinted onward. We finally hit a bit of trail that was much smaller and required us to be in a line. This was kind of fun because we had to follow one another. While the drop off on the right hand side was no mountain, I still felt like I was traversing canyons in Mexico (See Born to Run). Lee slipped off the side two times before he got the message that he was to stay behind Rae and not try to cut around her. Then we came to a spot where we could head down to the water. I thought this would be a good time to cool of my panting pup and let him play around in the nasty creek. I love that dogs have no problem slopping about in a creek, while their owners look at them thinking, ‘not me, not a chance.’ Lee must have read my mind because when he came trotting out of the water, he came straight up to me and shook. Thanks. So now I was covered in nasty water, dirt, grit, sand, and sweat. Joy. After me and Rae attempted to brush off our legs, we headed back onto the trail. The trail took us up and down a few sets of hills and down to another lovely watering hole. This time there were some grouchy dogs that didn’t much care for our dogs, so we high tailed it out of there.
The way back we decided to take the route along the road despite the few and far between passing cars. Really we were more concerned about the bikers who didn’t seem to notice that we existed. I love bikers or cyclists, because I am slowly but surely becoming one. However, 200 lb guys on a Schwinn trying to run me off the road, pisses me off in the same way that a hot rod driving a tricked out mustang coming to close to bikers to scare them pisses me off. Let’s just say I am only a fan of your car or bike when it’s far away and giving me space on the road. If you wave, I like you even more. Anyway the rest of the run was wonderful. Our conversation changed hands from relationships to friendships to stupid things people do while driving to careers, dream lives, and dogs. I love running with a partner because you learn so much about them, but you also get to enjoy the company of another individual while being productive outdoors. So that was Saturday’s run, about 5 miles total and a whole bunch of fun.
There are more days I wanted to highlight, but my computer closed unexpectedly and I lost about 2 hours worth of writing. So because I am tired and not feeling the love from this PC, there will have to be a Highlights 2 post coming up soon. So look forward to the epic exercise day (which included a morning run and a 2 hour bike ride), a run to the National Mall, overcoming emotional obstacles while running, the out-and-back 8 miler, and a very angry runner on Easter Sunday.
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