Kicking my own Ass

I've been kicking it up this week. Not so much the number of miles run, but the quality and difficulty of the runs mixed in with lots of cross training (allied to the by-now usual lack of sleep, courtesy of my favorite 2 month old :-) ).

Here are the highlights.

On Sunday I followed up a crappy early morning run with a full hour of nonstop lunges, squats and crunches. Eventually quit when my legs wouldn't stop shaking.

Monday evening I ran Walnut Creek with Eric and Alan. The recent rains had made it really slippery, and at one point I made a tight corner and slid, but managed to stay upright. I turned around to watch Eric sliding completely off the trail into the brush, then we both turned around to watch Alan fall flat on his face. Of course, we then had to point out every bit of mud for the rest of the run. I think he was ready to kill us by the end - classic!!!

Tuesday evening I hammered road hill repeats for a solid hour - I did 21 repeats, including 3 backwards and ran myself into the ground. I was still a little sore from Sunday's mega leg session, and summer made an unwelcome temporary return - the temperature was in the mid-90s and I went home soaked.

Wednesday morning I had some welcome relief and did an early morning Danish run with Clea. I always enjoy these - just running and chatting with friends - and as an added bonus she had kindly stopped by the club meeting the night before and picked up my HCTR shirt order.

Note to Marcia - they are awesome!!!

Thursday morning I did some yoga because my neck/upper back was feeling a little stiff. Then in the evening I did some more leg work, which consisted of 30 minutes of nothing but squats. Up, down, hold, pulse, sink lower and hold again then repeat. Wide stance, narrow stance, feet pointing out, feet pointing forward, with and without weights, two legs, one leg and every variation thereof.

Friday the neck was worse, and I woke up unable to turn my head to the right. I'm not certain but I think I did it while avoiding a headbutt from baby Dylan during one of our midnight jaunts around the living room.

Then this morning I skipped my early run and just went out for 10 miles of road with my group. My neck is still sore, but I was feeling frisky so I hammered the 10 miles and left my group way behind while collecting 10 sub-7:30 miles in a row (finishing with a 6:50 last mile). Then I drove down to St Eds to meet up with Alan and did another 10 miles of trail hill repeats. That slowed me down, and not having eaten anything this morning finally caught up with me. On the last loop I was pulling myself up the hills by imagining a large bacon sandwich with mushroom and cheese sprinting up the trail ahead of me.

I never caught it so I made one when I got home - it was delicious, so I had another. And some toast. And some trail mix. And I'm still hungry.

16 miles of trails at Bastrop State park planned for tomorrow morning. Nap planned for this afternoon.

Loving this cooler weather.


***Sunday update: cut the Bastrop run short at 10 miles due to torrential rain. Still an enjoyable run though.