Sunday, July 5, 2009

Track Work, a tennis ball, 8 golf balls, 2 ticks and sore hammys!

Most people over the 4th of July weekend, over indulge in fireworks, BBQ, beer, and picnics.

I choose those and added my son's all star baseball games, and running!

Let's start with Friday. My running buds over at TrailRuns decided to do something different and meet early at the track. I knew we were in for it, when they said "track". We did a mile warm up, and got into the meat of the work out.
I'll give you the condensed version.
4 laps, w/ 110 sprints, 15 push-ups, back on the track for a 50yrd dash, up and down the bleachers, and finish with a variety of squats, lunges, etc.
Let's just say it was a killer! I realized that I am the most out of shape, in shape person I know!

When I got up Saturday, to meet the trail group to run in Mercer County Park, I could barely walk. My hamstrings were killing me, and the right hammy is still tight today!

Now I figured that since we killed ourselves on Friday, the trail run would be a nice easy run.
Well, the pace was fine, but the trails, well, if you could call them trails were a killer!
At the start, I found a tennis ball, close to the courts, and since I knew it was a loop we were running, I couldn't leave it there and pick it up later, so I took it.

The first 3+ miles were the usual course, in and out of the trails, whirl bird, no big deal. As we entered the woods and headed towards the dam, that's were the trails became severely overgrown,and we became "bushwhackers"! Now we have had a ton of rain here in June, so on the overgrown trails, some were a mud mess, and you had to be real careful of your footing.

As we navigated the mud, swamps, brush, you name and we ran thru it, we finally hit the dam. Now there were 2 routes we could take, the nice clear trails that we have run hundreds of times, and get back easily to our start, or take the overgrown mud mess trails? You guessed it, we took the route less traveled.

The 2nd half was worse than the 1st. We ran close to the county golf course, and I found 8 golf balls along the way, so I had to run with 3 in each hand, and 2 in my pocket. Which leads to the next mess. I felt something on the side of my face, which turned out to be a tick. Well, that freaked me out, so I started checking myself, and found another one on my leg. Now I was really freaked, and since I was running with a visor, and not a hat, I was sure I was going to find more in my hair. Luckily when I got home, I showered and my wife gave me the once over, and I was found to be tick free!

Our round the lake bushwhacker trail run debacle turned out to be 8.4 miles. I was glad for the length of the run, but those trails were a disaster. It was tough, we had a few close calls, on rolled ankles, and falls, but we managed to survive!

I was hoping to get out and do a long run this morning, before my son's game, but when the right hammy still felt tight, I thought it best to take the day off, and rest. I'll get back out there either Monday or Tuesday. The weather for these parts looks great, so no rain excuses this week!

One bummer that got dropped on my this past week, was I have to go to Dallas for work in Sept. AND don't you know it's the weekend of the ING Philadelphia Distance Run, so looks like I am out for that one. If you are close to Philly, and want to run a 1/2 marathon, by all means this is the race for you! Trust me, it's done right... bands every mile, and pretty flat. It'll give you a glimpse into what the Philly Marathon course is like.
I will be packing the running clothes when I hit Dallas, and will make sure to get my runs in before our seminars!

6 comments:

sneakersister said...

So what did you end up doing with the tennis ball and golf balls?

Smart move to rest the hamstrings. That is the last muscle group you want to damage.

Ticks ... let's not even go there. They freak me out, too. Back in the day as a bushwacking archaeologist I use to come out of the woods and count upwards of 20 ticks on me. As long as you get them while they're still crawling you're fine. But they are still freaky little buggers.

Too bad you'll miss PDR. You can meet me in Harrisburg the week before if you want to run a HM.

Crazy track workout there!

Denise said...

Weather does look great for this week!! I can't wait to get out there in it. sounds like taking the day off was a smart decision.

BommaMama said...

Wow 8.4? That must be a new record for the HATRs? Bill so sorry to hear that you can't do the Philly run now. It's the risk we take when pre-registering! I hate when I have to miss a run I'm already signed up for. Guess what? I've been taking Nate's class so I was not very sore at all after Friday! See - you need to come back to the gym after all!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

O, man! I have had ticks in some embarrassing places ... but I'll spare you.

So you recommend the Phila. Distance run, hmm?

I'll have to look into that ...

Rest those hammies, brother!

Darrell said...

Those kinds of adventure runs are a lot of fun every once in a while.

Like sneakersister I wonder what happened to all those balls.

Congrats on the Philly entry, train well.

Unknown said...

I must warn you that it is still sizzling HOT in Dallas during the month of September. You might not even want to bring any running clothes with you. Just kidding. You might want to use the air conditioned hotel gym.