Wednesday, March 9, 2011

It's MADNESS I tell you!

Week 6-7

Yes, it's been awhile since I last wrote, but only because there was nothing to write about!  Last time we were with our superhero, Art had injured himself yet again on the indoor track, duplicating his pulled calf muscle fiasco.  That was a week ago last Thursday, so he decided on a self-imposed hiatus of no physical activity until the pain completely vanished.  There was no Saturday morning run, no after work gym dates, no cross training of any kind until all hints of muscled twinges ceased and desisted. 

No lie, I was limping around through the whole weekend, doing the RICE treatments, drinking Xtend and basically allowing a full recovery before trying to run again.  So it was an interesting moment to actually get my million dollar running shoes back on again and attempt the dreaded 5 mile run last Saturday morning.   The weather was still cool but sunny and there was a good sized crowd of trainees still in attendence in the Jefferson hotel parking lot at the 8 o'clock hour.   After our standard warm-up, we followed in line like sheep to the slaughter and headed out back toward Monument Avenue, only this time no turning around until we had run all the way to Thompson Street which is at the head of Carytown! 

Surprisingly, the first couple of miles were the normal breeze.  I settled into my comfort zone leaving wifey and the rest of the slower ones behind as I found my space apart from the others.  I was very aware of my calf and meticulously monitored any hints of twinging or pain as I stepped gingerly on and off curbs when crossing the streets at each block.  I wasn't trying for any land speed records, that's for sure, but I did want to test my stamina since it'd been over a week since I last ran.  Funny how you pass landmarks that used to be the turning pints from lesser milage runs from weeks past and remembering how tired I was when I first started on this quest.  Now I was zipping by them thinking how completely out of shape I was then, and though I'm no triathelte, I'm better now than then, that's for sure. 

Well that thought all changed when I crossed the Boulevard which used to be the three mile turn around point.  I got real winded after crossing that street and running into virgin territory I had not yet experienced.  We had missed the 4 mile run from the previous week and I had no idea where that turnaround point was but I kept slogging away hoping Thompson Street showed up quickly.  I didn't.  I was nearing the end of my rope, in deep need of a breather when, out of nowhere, I saw the lead group crossing the street and heading back for home base.  Thank GOD!  I was just about to hit the breaks and walk for a few, but seeing that re-energized my motivation, plus I didn't want to look like a wimp walking past the trainers helping us with traffic. 

It was a good thing I wore running shorts instead of warm-up pants.  I had the new matching warm-up jacket on top of a long sleeve lycra workout shirt thingy.  No hat, no gloves, just my iPod in my hand since it jiggled around too much in no matter what pocket I tried to put it in.  I was definitely burning some ass-fat calories as my soaking shirt atttested, sweat seeping through to discolor my warm-up jacket as well.  I tried to look for wifey from across the road but no dice.  Monument Avenue is a tree-lined road with a large median between the two-lanes heading in each direction.  Large monuments were erected at intersections from long ago espousing heros from the Lost Cause.  I have a picture book of Richmond from 1865-1970 that shows the Lee Monument in a great large empty expanse as the Richmond Howiter's fired a volley for some sort of celebration from 1907.  What is now full of brick mini-mansions and huge trees was then a great big field with no real visable sight of a Richmond skyline.  Kinda weird, but this was what I was thinking about as I tried to focus on anything but the searing fire that was once my legs.

I was definately losing steam on the return trip back to the parking lot.  I finally succumbed to the overwelming desire to walk for a bit, letting some ladies pass me by and figuring they didn't have as much weight to haul as me.  A guy bigger than me passed me too telling me I'll catch up to him soon enough when he had to take his 'break' and sure enough it wasn't soon after that I did when I resumed my agony.  This actually happened a few times on the way back.  I'd stop, he'd pass me.  He'd stop, I'd pass him.  Never did re-pass any ladies but one though....must be an estrogen complex.  Eventually I decided that I needed to suck it up and once I got back to the VCU campus I finished out the run without walking again.  I was stoked to find out there wasn't THAT many people ahead of me after 5 miles of self-induced torture.  What was better though was my calf had not given me any discernable problems.  I walked and sipped water so not to give my body any chance to begin a full body cramp if allowed to sit and rest, waiting for wifey.

I waited for a good 10 minutes or so before finally seeing her silhouette emerge from Monroe Park in the distance.  She was struggling, but maintaining form as she made the last few hundred yards up the slight incline.  It as by far her longest run ever in her life and it showed.  Still, she was ever-so proud of the accomplishment regardless of her newly acquired hip, hamstring and achilles pain.  After a few cups of water and finding what time it was, we managed to figure out I'd made the run in around an hour and hers around an hour and fifteen perhaps.  Good stuff considering if I had a gun put to my head, I'd could have probably squeezed out another mile and thusly successfully finishing a 10K.  However, my goal of finishing in less than an hour had me wondering if that was realistic considering how I felt.  Then again, it had been nine days since I last did any running/exercise so I'm figuring a recommittment to the training regimine for the rest of this month might actually get me to attaining that goal?  So long as I don't walk any part of the course, I might have half a chance.

Well, that being said, wifey is in Atlanta for a week for work so who knows how she'll get in any workouts with daily traffic jams from her parents house where she's staying consumming hours of commute time both to and from.  I'm going solo this week and am thinking road work if the weather holds might be a better suit for me.  Else the gym again and the dreaded treadmill--no more tracks!  Daylight savings time is this weekend so I know the sun won't go down until later in the evening which will make after work runs more viable.  We shall see.  It's a tough call when I can actually have the remote all week long, too!

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