No - that's not a mis-spell. I haven't turned to alcohol to dull my pain. But come to think of it, it might not be that bad an idea.
And what pain is it that I want to dull? The pain of a body that's not used to running at speed. Sure, I run and run regularly but it's kind of an economical shuffle. Where my legs lift as little as possible to achieve my goal of moving forward. And where my feet barely leave the ground - as evidenced by the numerous times that I've almost tripped on uneven surfaces.
Yesterday, before we really got going on our speed session, Coach Chris had us do a couple of short, sharp sprints. He calls them stride-outs but we all know that they're sprints. Not more than 20m and building in pace. We only did four and today I hurt. Pathetic!
I know this might be a little confusing for the non-runners out there because it's a speed session and surely that must mean we're running really fast. But our speed sessions are aimed at building up endurance speed and generally the lengths of our repetitions are longer. So our pace is slightly more than our normal running pace but nowhere near a sprint. Yesterday the reps were 1k and you can't run 45 mins of 1k reps at sprint pace.
Sprinting is a whole different beast to endurance running. You have to hold your body more erect, engage your core and lift your legs higher. But I didn't think that 80m of sprinting (and not even that fast) would have me crippled the next day.
I'm not sure if the best way to stop this from happening is to do them more often or never do them at all. The way my legs are feeling today I'd vote for the 'never do them at all' option. But I rarely get a vote about what we're doing at speed. Even when I try to bribe the coach with cake.
On to other newsworthy events.
I have a new hobby. It's one that involves exercise and environmental issues and is aimed at preventing a fly infestation that could possibly take over the entire city of Brisbane.
Have you guessed it yet?
Give up? Okay - I'll tell you. My new hobby is collecting dog poo. Every couple of days I'm in the back yard with a small trowel and a plastic bag walking the grid. Today's haul was almost 500g. And yes, I did weigh it. Three dogs can produce a substantial amount of excrement.
Don't hate me for having such a fun life.
And, that is one of the main reasons we don't have a dog - I know that I'm the one who would get stuck cleaning up the dog crap!!!
ReplyDeleteThe last time I did a speed workout I was pretty much in tears for days going up and down the stairs (and walking!!).
I love this pic of you with your posse. If it makes you feel any better, I have to chisel the dog poo out of the snow. I suppose it smells less in its frozen state so I won't complain. Beats them going in the house I guess.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is you are so lucky you can run flat out... I would love to be able to do that again...
ReplyDeleteDog poo and I are old friends. I pick it up every day. We have an excellent little contraption. It's weird the way slightly changing your style of exercise can make different muscles hurt. I still think you're awesome.
ReplyDeleteLove the picture at the bottom, at least that dog poo buys you a whole lot of love! Hang in there with the speed sessions - I think I'd stop doing them but you're a tougher woman than I am!
ReplyDeleteI am crowning you queen of the poo! That's a shit-ton of dog crap. But we love our dogs, so it must be done. And if and when I ever return to speed work, my body will completely revolt, so you are ahead of me!
ReplyDeleteI too am struggling with my speed, after just coming off a month with no running. Hang in there, and a glass of wine just might help! <3 xo
ReplyDeleteThat is, indeed, a lot of crap! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so impressed by your speedwork. I don't mind doing mile repeats because the fact is, I'm still running rather slow. Sprints are brutal!
Not to make you jealous but oh the joys of owning a field :-)
ReplyDeleteMan, strides AND dog poo collecting? A charmed life you live!!
ReplyDeleteHeh, I feel the same way every time I do speed work after a long break. And holy crap, that is a LOT of crap!
ReplyDeleteI love love love that photo, it shows peace, rest and love to me. I love it how the doggies are all around you. I saw it on FB and it made me smile and seeing it again makes me smile again.
ReplyDeleteIn Winter Bella doesn't get out in the garden much so not much collecting than. She usually does it on our walks (have to clean it up too) but sometimes she really needs to go badly :) and the garden is the place for it then.
I used to hate sprints but I was better at them (agility wise - stopping & starting) than running longer distances. Mostly I hated them because they were competitive and vs others!
ReplyDeleteMy body would break completely and hurt like hell if I had to do a session like that. With 6 dogs you can imagine how busy that hobby keeps me... :)
ReplyDeleteAccording to the American magazine "Runners World", we should do running drills once a week.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful picture of you! Easy to see how you feel good :)
Ugh. I hate, hate, hate speedwork. I just won't do it. After I'd been running about a year, I stopped in the middle of a speed session and told the leader, "I'm an adult and I don't have to do this if I don't want to. And I don't want to."
ReplyDeleteI've had this quoted back to me about 862 times in the last 10 years. But I still mean it.
Ummm, why did you weigh it? Do you sell it for something?
ReplyDelete