Brrr...it’s 18 degrees and gusty wind outside...who’s idea was it for me to become a runner anyway? Why didn’t I start on swimming or body building or some other pleasant way to keep fit? Do I really have to work hard?
Those questions met me at 6 am on my way to pick up Gail. Oleg just walked in to the door to give me car key after his unsuccessful attempt to go for Mt. Hood climb (50 mph winds turned them around at 9,000 feet) and proposed to get naughty and skip a run in favor of breakfast out. He even gave me 10 bucks! :) Silly boy. I drove to gail and told her that, and she looked at me with her eyes half-closed and asked: so? What restaurant do we go to? Sure, we went to Forest Park. Besides a run, she, been a director of Friends of Forest park organization (check out www.friendsofforestpark.org), needed to see the damage done by high winds lately. We picked a loop and started slowly out, neither one of us having “a spark” as she pointed out. I was fine with this development, sometimes runs are not meant to be a workouts, but just that - runs. After first 3-4 miles we finally warmed up enough to start talking. We always have an abundance of things to discuss! I value her opinion on just about anything, but especially on raising children. She’s got two great kids, a girl 22 and a young man 25, smart, witty, kind, fun, and just all I want my kids to be. She is very smart and have a way to deliver her knowledge in non-pushing yet engaging manner. There were lots and lots of blow-downs we had to step over carefully, land slides and over-turned trees we walked around, even once making a trip to the top of it to see if the road eroded, and were quite happy with how it was going. It’s not that I was tired per se, more like no urge to push. So we get back on Wildwood and I start running simply because I want to be done sooner. At 7 miles to go I pulled away a bit from Gail, and it began a game we play, when I work hard to get away, and she works hard to try and catch or not be too far off. SO I averaged 9:40s on the last stretch and she came 5 min behind. There was a long climb at about 3 miles left, and I forgot how long and steep it is. My quads turned mush and almost exploded, but I just trudged along. Funny how I tend to talk to myself as if it’s a different person (split personality? Bipolar? Crazy?) I’d be like: ok, honey, you’re tired, so am I, so if you just go for this little hill, then you turn to that small decline, last two miles will be flat, I promise to you, you would finish soon...
I had frozen my butt pretty badly, but it’s all thawed now. Tomorrow is an 18 miler, but it should be at easy pace, yeah! We’re meeting again, same time, 18 degrees and all...
A Mountain Soul
7 comments:
yay I was right! what do I win? ;)
I do the talking to myself too!!! I tried to change it awhile back to be first-person, but it did NOT have the same effect. So now I just do it and smile. "C'mon, honey, just a little bit further. You can do it. I know how hard you've trained for this." :)
Way to go Olga! I can't imagine how cold it was for you - I thought my face, toes and fingers were going to fall off at 25 degrees!
I don't think you're bipolar, just crazy, but that is one of the things that makes you so special. If you weren't so crazy we may not have clicked so well.
I think you're very normal, don't care what anyone says. :) The weird people only get out there to run when they don't have to put up with winds, rain, snow, etc.
that's some great running there, good job.
Diagonals are done on a football field. Start at one corner and sprint to the other corner and jog along the goal lines. You are running an "X" and jogging the straight lines.
You gave up breakfast out on an 18 degree day...wow, I would have folded.
I certaintly do the talking to myself thing, I was an only child for a long time. I do it all the time but more so when I'm running. Lately it has been a problem though, I've started doing it around people.
As for having a spark, I think you're right about putting on too much mileage too quickly, my legs have been dead all week. No spark in my runs. When they recover I'll treat them better...really.
Nice job getting the runs done even when you're not feeling into them! I always struggle to determine if I'm not pushing hard enough or too much - where's the right balance, you know? Right now I'm so sick of training even though I'm doing well. If things don't change, I won't want to train enough to get 13 at Zane Grey. That's if it even happens; it's been burning again this year and there's no rain in sight. The forest service has completely shut down the forests in past years.
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