Saturday, January 06, 2007

Pain and suffering

We went back to the trails today. Sharon picked the route. The plan was to start at the beginning of the Wildwood trail and run to mile 8 and back. We arrived at the zoo parking lot at about 7:20 am. The clouds were heavy and it was still quite dark. We didn't have lights so we took our time getting ready. I was really not in the mood. Sharon realized that she had selected one of the hilliest routes on Wildwood. "Yes! and no complaining, because YOU picked it!", I joked.

Sharon usually brings sesame candies for our immediate post-run snack. She had a bag of fresh ones she had picked up from a Russian candy store in Brooklyn. I stuck my nose in the bag and took a long, delicious sniff. "Screw this run! Let's go get coffee!" We laughed, but it was 7:30 now and getting significantly lighter, so we headed out on our way.

The beginning of Wildwood starts at about 700 ft. The 8 miles to our turnaround involved lots of ups and downs: up to 900, down to 600, up to 800, down to 600, up to 900, waaay down to 200 and back up to 700 at the 8 mile marker. Of course, going back to the zoo meant that the waaay down section from 900 to 200 became waaay up. Sharon was on fire today and ran this whole 1-1/2 mile section. Actually she stopped for a minute about a quarter mile from the top. I walked some sections but she definitely motivated me to run portions that I might otherwise have walked. When I caught up to her at the top she asked me if it counted as running the whole hill since she had stopped. In my book...Absolutely!

I was very diligent about completing my strength training workouts this week. So by the end of this run my hamstrings and calves were burning. But I say bring on the pain and suffering. Give me rain, cold, wind, mud, hills, rock, roots. I want to face it all head on now. And hopefully that will pay off when my races roll around this year.

12 comments:

Backofpack said...

You sound pretty enthusiastic about the pain and suffering...like it might have even been fun! It really sounds like a good training run.

Those sesame candies - like little sesame and honey squares? I haven't had those in ages and they are so good! I'll have to go looking for them now.

Darrell said...

Hurray for motivating partners! You make pain and suffering sound like quite a bit of a good time.

Olga said...

Head on, Sarah! That's the attitude!

Ryan said...

Trail running buddies are the best! The coffee idea did sound enticing = ) Great attitude Sarah, I'm looking forward to following your trail running adventures in the coming months and of course running the big PCT50!

matt said...

i love how psyched you are...you masochist, you :)

pretty strong mileage for the beginning of the year, sarah...way to go!!

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

GOOD Attitude Sarah!! Like the Energy!

Anonymous said...

right on!

Journey to a Centum said...

Dear partner in pain,

Your running route sounds more like an extreme roller coaster ride than a run. Those hills are going to strengthen your legs and give you the aerobic capacity of Lance Armstrong! Keep up the good work and please be nice when you pass me at the races.

Eric

Rick Gaston said...

Absolutely it will pay off later. Great job. That's the attitude.

seagull junker said...

Michelle,
CCC, NO FRICKEN WAY! NOT WITH M.D. AT THE HELM.
tom

seagull junker said...

Sarah,
Opps, I posted to the wrong blog.
Sorry about that. I don't know how to retract entries.
tom

seagull junker said...

Sarah,
The wedding dress is at just before the 6.5 mile marker. So, if you went up Wildcherry turn left and it isn't too far on your right heading towards the zoo. There used to be two, one must have fallen. Have you seen the woodpecker up in the tree? Same kinda thing.
tom