I mean, I’ve had those nightmares where I’m trying to run but it’s like I’m slogging through the thickest mud ever and I can barely move but that’s not the same thing.
This was joyous and free and FUN!
I guess I’ve solved my potential identity crisis – I am DEFINITELY a runner!
(seriously, like I didn’t REALLY know that down deep inside. sheesh.) 😉
In fact, the desire for me to get out the door is pretty overwhelming these days.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to. The doc says I need to wait and I’m going to wait.
I might even add a couple of extra weeks to the wait just to be safe.
That’s how important it is to me.
I don’t want to run on my foot until it’s ready to be run on.
But, boy oh boy, do I want to run!
I’ve even, and don’t everyone start yelling at me at once, started thinking about what 50k I might want to train for.
*ducks head*
Stop throwing things! I’m not going to run until I can and then I’ll take it slow! I’m not talking about running a 50k in a couple of months from now.
Maybe Springtime – are there any 50ks (boy, that word looks weird but I refuse to make it ‘s because it’s most definitely not possessive!) in the Spring or are those mostly Fall races? I’ll have to research! I definitely want to run the one that I can’t next month.
I just can’t imagine my life without running.
It’s been such a big part!
It’s given me so much and I love being outside and seeing the world (or my cute little town, even though there are bears). 🙂
And, I’m definitely going to be doing a CrossFit Endurance training plan once I start back up.
I really enjoy the blend of the two sports.
My running definitely benefits from CrossFit and my CrossFit workouts benefit from my running – hello, endurance! 🙂
I feel a little bit like I have a new lease on life, as silly as that may seem, and I cannot wait (but, I will. patiently, even.) to get back out the door with my running shoes on.
Talk to me: Do you dream about the sport you love? Are you a good patient? Are you patient?
Week 4 of my 50k training is in the books and boy, oh boy, did it end with a BANG!
Monday
Monday was track work – 5x1000m at 4:30 with a 400m rest interval.
I did a mile warm-up and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise. 🙂
My times looked like this: 4:30, 4:30, 4:30, 4:34, 4:25.
Not sure what happened on the 4th one but I made up for it on the 5th!
I actually felt really, really good. Physically, I probably could have done a couple more! But, I didn’t.
Did 3/4 mile cool down jog and about 5 minutes of good stretching.
No CrossFit tonight.
Tuesday
I’m officially at the 6pm class at CrossFit. My work schedule has been changed (accommodates my running without me having to bounce back and forth between two different schedules!) and the 4pm class is out of the question. Hard to be in 2 places at once!
So, Tuesday, I didn’t know ANYBODY. Not even the Coach! It was a little awkward but at least next time, the faces will be a little familiar. 🙂
We started off with an EMOM workout of rope climbs.
Every minute on the minute, we had to do 2 rope climbs for 10 minutes. 10!
I tried to get 2 climbs done on the first minute but I only managed 1 1/2 before I realized I wouldn’t have any rest before the next minute.
So, I scaled back and did 1 climb every minute. Which was really, really hard.
I can climb okay but I’m really slow and I need to work on my kip so I make the motion more legs and less arms. The coming back down part is where I struggle. I’m a little afraid of heights so I don’t trust myself to let go of my legs and just go hand over hand using my feet as a guide.
Can you say rope burn?
Then, we followed that up with a 5k row.
Finished mine in 24:38. When I got up, I felt like I’d been riding a horse. Haha!
Wednesday
Tempo run day!
I really wasn’t sure how it was going to work out after having rowed a 5k just last night but I was going to give it my all.
I had 6 miles – 1 mile warm-up @ 9:32, 4 miles @ 8:12, 1 mile cool down @ 9:32.
Um, yeah.
My tempo miles looked like this: 8:01, 8:11, 7:58, 8:08.
I was pretty much all over the place! Whenever I slowed down, I felt like I was going too slow. Clearly, I wasn’t but I was having a really difficult time judging my speed.
And, honestly, I didn’t think I had a 7:58 in me because I was so darned tired!
Wednesday night CrossFit started with overhead squat work. 5 sets of 2 reps.
I started with 35#, moved up to 45#, tried and sucked at 55#, and went back down to 45# to work on form.
You wouldn’t think 10# would make such a big difference but it really does. I couldn’t even get to parallel with 55#.
Then, the WOD was a 10 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of 5 snatches (full squat snatch) and 10 burpees over the bar.
Coach wanted me to work on my squat more than the snatch so he modified my workout to weighted squats – I held a 10# plate out in front of me and squatted. Then, I dropped the plate and did my burpees and jumped onto the plate.
I made it through almost 6 rounds – was 4 burpees shy of finishing the full 6.
Holy. Sweaty. Mess.
Thursday
I was so blissfully happy that I didn’t have running on the schedule for today! I had just done 3 tough workouts in a 24 hour period and my body was begging for a little break!
Sleeping in (until 5:45!) was blissful. 🙂
Thursday night CrossFit started with deadlifts – 3 sets of 5.
I started with 125#, then moved up to 175#.
That may have been a little aggressive.
I tried 195# but could only manage 2, dropped down to 185# and knocked out 2 more and called it. Oof!
Deadlifts were also a part of the WOD so I didn’t want to do too much more than I already had.
195# is a PR!!!!
Hell, pretty much ALL of that was a PR! 175# five times?!?! Heck yeah!!
So, the WOD was 9, 7, 5 of deadliest (145#), strict ring dips, and pistols (each leg).
After doing the heavy deadlifts to start, you would think 145# would feel light. Yeah. Not so much.
I downsized my band for the strict ring dips from purple to red (YAY!) and modified the pistols.
I added one more modification in that my heel was also elevated on a plate.
I don’t know how holding a weight out in front of you makes them easier rather than harder but it really does! I still struggled a little and learned that my left hip is a lot less flexible than my right hip. My left knee kept wanting to drop in and I really had to work hard to not let it otherwise I would fall over.
But, I made great progression and I’m proud of myself!
I can’t remember my finish time. I was just happy to be done!
Friday
Blissful, happy, FULL rest day!!!
Saturday
I had my first 20-miler on the schedule for today and I was just full of emotions.
Part of me didn’t want to run at all – sleeping just sounded so nice!
But, I got up and went. My prescribed pace was 9:49 and I kept that for a while.
The weather was absolutely perfect! It was about 68 degrees, the humidity wasn’t too high, and there was a breeze. Sweet, blissful, beautiful BREEZE!
I was tooling along, minding my own business, lost in my thoughts as I made my way through the local park. I run to the park, then around the trails in the park, and then away from the park to neighborhoods near my house.
It all sounds so far away but it really isn’t. The park is a mile up the road – I just take the extended way there – and the neighborhoods I run in are right across the street but they go back pretty far and I can get some good mileage out of them.
Anyway, I’m cruising along through the park, enjoying my morning and thinking about our hike a couple of weeks ago. I was thinking about the things we saw and the things we didn’t see (like bears) and I rounded a corner and stopped dead in my tracks.
There was a bear on the path.
He was a young bear and I startled him pretty good. Although, I have to admit, he startled ME pretty good.
He bolted up a hill, running and thrashing through the brush. I just stood there watching, waiting to see if an even larger mama bear appeared at the top of that hill – which, by the way, led to some HOUSES!!!
The park I run in is right in town, has a dog park, walking and mountain bike trails, you can rent kayaks and go out on the river, etc. It’s not a state park or wildlife conservation area or anything. The most I see in there is squirrels and sometimes deer. I saw a raccoon once. Otherwise, I just see people and their dogs.
Anyway, I didn’t see signs of more bears so I decided to keep on going. I stopped a couple of times to warn some dog walkers but I kept tooling on around the park.
I finished my loop and was heading out the way I came in, turned a corner on the road and holy shit, the bear came out of the treeline bordering the park.
(after some thought, my sailor thinks it might have been 2 bears but I think it was just the one)
He crossed the street in front of me, not really seeing me, and tried to get through the shrubbery on the right. Unfortunately, there’s a fence – like barbed wire – that prevents idiot kids from hopping the fence out onto the state road that’s right there. And, that meant bears couldn’t get through it either.
Since he couldn’t get through, he came back out to the road.
Where I was standing.
And he started heading my way!
Then, he started to GALLOP down the road!
I freaked out and started to back up.
I didn’t run because I didn’t want him to chase me. That would have been very very bad.
I seriously couldn’t believe there weren’t ANY cars coming or anything!
I dialed 911 as I was backing up.
Darn bear backed me up probably a good 250-300 feet before he stopped and headed back into the treeline.
I got dispatch on the phone and told them what was going on.
I think some of the words I used were, “I’m just a girl! I’m just a runner!”
LOL
We discussed what I should do and she suggested going an alternate route. Except my alternate route was BACK THROUGH THE PARK. Where the bear JUST WENT!!!
She said she would get people out there – guess it’s the Virginia Department of Game & Wildlife that had to be called.
After I got off the phone, I debated for a few minutes on what I should do.
Then, a car drove down the road.
So, I decided I would keep going. Surely the bear wouldn’t come out now because there was a car.
Oh, and where the heck was that car when I needed it?!?!?!?!?!
I started running again, keeping my eyes peeled on the treeline.
I passed the trees and got to the big open field.
I looked out there and that darned bear was galloping through the field!
I kinda ducked (yep, still running) and said, “please don’t see me, please don’t see me, please don’t see me.”
He didn’t see me.
PHEW!!!
I made it to the next treeline, picked up my pace a little, and got to where the houses were.
People and cars! Safety! No bears!!
Miles 10-16 were a little quicker than my prescribed pace.
I looked down at my watch at one point and saw my pace was 9:15. Pure adrenaline.
Miles 16-20, though? Those pretty much sucked.
But, I finished them.
And I had quite a story to tell when I got home!
Wouldn’t have been such a good story if I got gobbled by that bear though.
Overall, my pace ended up being slower than prescribed but I knocked out the whole 20 miles AND survived a bear scare.
For what it’s worth, if you encounter a black bear, make yourself as BIG as possible and lower your voice and try to sound scary.
Or, you can call 911 and say, “I’m just a girl!”
That’ll work, too.
Talk to me: Have you ever encountered a bear? What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you while you were out on a run?
1 mile warm up, 5 miles at 8:30 pace, and then my cool down.
I love when I nail the pace on my tempo runs – such a confidence booster!
And you just can’t beat the good old “runner’s high.” #endorphins
Have you ever noticed that, when it comes to running, there really isn’t any sort of middle ground of emotion for people?
I mean, you either love it or you hate it.
I was talking to some friends at CrossFit last night (and don’t EVEN get me started on how some CrossFit folks feel about running!) about some upcoming CrossFit events and why I wasn’t participating. I have some really big long runs coming up in the next few weeks and I have to focus on the mileage. That 50k ain’t gonna run itself!
*sidebar* – I had the opportunity to meet Jeff Galloway at FitBloggin’ and was talking with him about training for my first ultra. He asked what kind of training plan I was following and I told him about the hybrid CrossFit Endurance/Run Less Run Faster plan Coach had built for me. His first response? He told me to be careful because he’s heard of a lot of people getting injured doing CrossFit. Not, “sounds like you’re in good hands,” or “wow, that’s an aggressive training plan,” or “yeah, I like the training plans in Run Less Run Faster.” I was a little disappointed in him. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t really know anybody who does CrossFit because he would know that wasn’t true. That the negative publicity gets more airtime than the positive. I mean, it’s true, people do get hurt but that’s usually because they’re not scaling appropriately or aren’t being trained properly by a coach who is worth his/her salt. Rhabdo is not just a CrossFit problem. And besides, people get hurt running, too! All the time! I would like to state though, because I still respect him majorly as a runner, before I started at this new box, I had spoken to one of the coaches at my previous box (the one that closed out of the blue) about running and CrossFit Endurance and he basically spat all over running, touted it as the worst thing ever, etc. Whatever. I like my happy blend. 🙂 *okay, I’m done*
Anyway, back to the convo with my friends, I mentioned to one (who has done a half-marathon, I might add) that I had a 17-miler on the schedule for this weekend. I think the conversation went a little like this,
“I’ve got 17 on Saturday. You should come run with me!”
“MILES?!?!”
And that was from a couple of other people standing at the table where we were! 😉
Then I hear, “I ran 8 miles once. Only because I was tricked. I was told it was a 2-3 mile course, but, nope. Wasn’t.”
And then the general consensus was that everybody hates running (except me, of course). Even the one who ran a half marathon. On purpose!
I love the responses I get at work when people ask why I’m working later than normal. I tell them, “I ran this morning so I came in a little later.”
What do they say?
“On purpose?!?!” or “Was someone chasing you?!?” or even just plain old, “Why?”
Even the runners that just do it for the fitness despise it.
How can that be? How can they not experience that runner’s high, that glorious moment where the heavens open up and shine their light down upon you and make you feel invincible? How can they not love the freedom and the peace and the joy that comes from covering miles lost in thought or listening to the sounds of nature?
Is it because running is considered “punishment” in other sports?
I think that’s so unfair. I mean, really. Burpees are SO much like punishment than running.
But seriously, have you ever met anyone who didn’t have a strong opinion about it? Anyone ever say to you, “oh, hey, yeah, running’s cool. It’s not my favorite but I don’t hate it.”
Nope. Probably not. Because that person doesn’t exist.
Talk to me: How do you feel about running? If you’re a runner, what kind of responses do you get to any sort of running statement you make? Have you ever met someone who just “liked” running? Take his/her picture – I’m pretty sure he/she is an enigma!
A Hungry Runner 