After a less than ideal Spring running season, I think I am
finally back in action and ready to get back into training mode. Perfect
timing, after receiving my first ever official “elite invitation” to the UROC 100K race in Charlottesville, VA.
Dealing with my shin injury that forced me to cut out running completely for 6
weeks has been tough, but I will be stronger for it coming into this upcoming
season as my body has had ample time to recover and I will train smarter
because of it. Plus I have gotten to spend lots of quality time outside on my
new Cannondale road bike and have become a (relatively) bad-ass cyclist J
I started running again in mid-June, but the come-back has
been a slow process. At first it felt so great to be out on the trails again,
even out on the roads again and I fell in love with everything I had missed
about running all over again…for the first 4 miles. Then suddenly, and rather
unexpectedly, everything would get a lot harder. Kind of just felt like my legs
were just heavy. Just nothing left in them. And then there come the hills. I
can’t remember my body ever feeling so heavy. I went on (what turned into) an 8
mile trail run with Steve about three weeks after staring up agianat WCC and I
felt like a fat kid as I pushed my hands on my quads in a desperate attempt coming
up the steep grassy hill at the very end. I thought that I would drastically
drop my mileage cycling now that I could run again, but as cycling is still an
endurance event that I can actually do for many hours, I stuck with long rides
on the weekends, followed by whatever run I could muster out of my legs soon to
follow. It served to be a good training strategy, as it kept me religious with
my slow mileage buildup for running while satisfying my crave for endurance and
companionship with cycling.
Last weekend I had my first “long” run on the Appalachian
trail after I finished off a week of finals and stopped at my parents house to
stay for a couple nights on my way to Kentucky, where I will be for the next
six weeks of the summer for my first full time internship. I was a bit
apprehensive about this run since I seemed to be hitting “the wall” in all my
training runs up to this time at around mile 10. But after a couple of inspiring
runs that week, I was ready to give it a shot. Tom joined me that morning and
we ran 18 miles on the trail, including the first section of the JFK. Minus the
crazy steep hills which I power hiked a few miles in (where I still felt kinda
like a fat kid) the rest of the run went very smoothly and was rather
enjoyable. I got into a rhythm (likely a slow rhythm, but nonetheless) and
everything started feeling comfortable again. And I was back out in the woods,
in my home territory, and running again! It was a very happy day. Unfortunately
Tom wasn’t feeling as great as I was and my brother and I went back to pick him
up where he stopped short at Gapland gap. It was the perfect run for me though,
because I got company for the first half and then just enjoyed some quality
nature time and set myself loose going down some of those hills (also nearly
breaking my ankle). And for the first time since I could remember, I felt like
I could keep running when I came out of the trail and probably would have if my
brother hadn’t been there to pick me up.
My first week in Kentucky could have gone better. It started
with what was intended to be a leisurely bike ride around town on my commuter
to check out the area when I arrived on Sunday, which turned into me ending up
lost in the ghetto for 10 miles, flat tire and phone dying. Next I started
feeling sick all week, which brought on a horrible stomach ache that came on at
work and during my runs that I couldn’t shake. And although I still attempted,
it made any type of physical activity pretty miserable. I only followed one
7-mile running route which I found online around the city through a
development, due to my 10-11 hour/day work schedule and fear of getting lost
again in the ghetto. I don’t like running through the city, with its uneven
sidewalks, traffic lights and unconsiderate motorists. I liked the woods and
back country roads and solitude from the craziness. But I worked with what I
had.
On Tuesday night I had had enough of the city and was going
to do everything it took to find some of these Kentucky horse farms that
everyone was talking about. It was a bit sketchy riding my bike on some roads
out of the city, but when I found them, they just kept coming. It was beautiful
out there. Just endless miles of rolling back country roads surrounded by
grassy fields and horse farms. Only horses too; no cows, sheep, goats to be found.
I had a planned route that I had studied
on google maps a couple of times the night before, but soon enough, I was just
exploring roads, turning whenever something looked interesting or had a cool
name. And the roads are unbelievably smooth. It felt like my skinny road tires
were riding on velvet. I saw several
other cyclists out there at the time, all looking like they were going not much
less than 30mph. When I was headed back in, I saw a group of them in the
parking lot of the airport. I rolled up to the group and chatted for a few
minutes. That’s how I found out about the Blue Grass Cycling club ride calendar.
Then I rode with a couple of the guys, who are UK grad students, back into town
towards the university where my apartment is and they took me a much less
sketchy way.
On Saturday morning I got up early to meet the BG running
club for a weekly group at 6:20am, which turned out to be on some of the same
back roads I had ridden on that week. Some of the runners were just introducing
themselves to me when a few others ran up and I realized that I knew one of the
guys in the group. I could not recall how, but I was sure that I had had
extensive conversations with him at some point in time. When I asked how I knew
him he replied in a thick Southern inflected tone “Well, I don’t know, I’m from
Texas.”
Then it clicked. “BANDERA!!!” This was the guy that had run
in the last 20 miles of Bandera with Matt and Alex and then, not wanting to
drive the 2+ hours back to his hotel, had come back to our house and hung out
after the race. Thrilled that I now had not only seen a familiar face for the
first time in a week, but had found a fellow ultrarunner and potential training
partner in the weeks to come, I ran 17 miles that morning, the first 7 with the
group, then when they left another 10 on my own. I felt pretty decent the whole
time. Definitely lost some leg speed and strength up the hills, but minus the
chaffing (apparently back to the rookie mistakes of forgetting the body glide).
Afterwards I went into my PT clinic to use the gym and do some hip and core
strengthening, a part coming-back rehab I am trying to keep honest with. (And
if you need a good core workout I have three letters for you: T.R.X. Ouch).
After I was finished my run and workout for the day, my instinct was to go
home, get out my books and start studying for the next 7-8 hours or until I
fell asleep. And as stressful and exhausting as it can be to put in 10-12 hour
workdays every day of the week, it is sure nice to go into a weekend with literally
nothing to do until Monday morning. I plan on enjoying this luxury to the
fullest while it lasts!
On Sunday I got up to meet up the the BG cycling club’s
annual “Tour de Pancakes” 45mile ride, which I had found on the ride calendar.
I was feeling my legs a bit from the day before, but somehow I was still able
to stay strong with a group of about 15 cyclists, averaging nearly 20mph for 45
miles. I really didn’t know I was even capable of such speed, even with riding
the wheels of the group, but the rolling hills of the back Kentucky roads are
not nearly as steep as those of PA an MD, so the effort didn’t seem like a 20
mph effort. I even pulled for my share of miles, and helped some old guys
riding my wheel to catch back up with the group when they fell off. The ride
was really fun and I met some nice people, who I will hopefully get to ride
with again in the next few weeks. And the crazy lady leading the ride was,
well, crazy, but once you got over the first feelings of annoyance as she
barked at you to “Delaware, is that all you got?! Pick it up!!” it was almost
sort of motivating. Or at least made me pick up some speed to shut her up. And
the pancake breakfast afterwards was amazing and I don’t think I have ever seen
such a large buffet of breakfast food at a breakfast potluck. I kept things
light though, because from there I was going to meet up with Ed for a trail
run…
When locating a good single track trail around the area, we
settled on Raven Run, one of the “longer” trails consisting of a whole 10 miles
of single track. Apparently there are a few good long trails, but they are over
an hour drive and since we didn’t get started till the afternoon we decided to
keep it local for today and just run the thing twice or something like that.
The trail itself was pretty nice for most parts, but we had soon covered all
the single track there was in less than 90 minutes, so headed out again for
more. I liked Lexington, but it felt so good to feel like I was out of the
city, away from all the people and just lost in the middle of the woods again.
It was beautiful out there, with the trail running alongside the Kentucky river
and a small stream, and mostly in cool shaded areas out of the mid afternoon
heat. Even with the shade though, we were both going through water pretty fast
and when we stopped around 4:00 we were both pretty tired and dehydrated. 13
miles according to Ed’s Nike chip.
Raven Run training run
with Ed.
Loving the trails
again.
View of the
KY river.
No comments:
Post a Comment