I haven’t been much of a runner lately. The recent “injury” is just a memory now, but
everything from summer still cruelly teases me.
I ice, I foam-roll, I am upping my mileage slower than what would be my
trail marathon pace (read: SLOW) and something is still not right. While it’s not enough for me to go for
another round of tests, I just hope I can keep it at bay to get through my
upcoming races.
In the meantime, I’ve been keeping active with other
activities, ones which I didn’t expect to take to so well, such as:
Yoga: I’m still
keeping up with it! My first DVD was
getting a bit too familiar as I found myself holding most of the poses pretty well, so I
upgraded to the Power Yoga workout, next in series. I am now doing that workout once a week and
feeling stiff as a board once again!
But, I know in a few weeks, I will (hopefully) conquer this tape as
well. I’m not sure what this yoga is
really doing for me, other than I like it when I am in the workout and my hips
feel “freer” afterwards..
Hubby Hiking: I am
not sure what has taken over me lately, but I have been craving nature. I’m constantly wanting to be outside, near
trees, brush and wildlife. It’s odd – I chalk it up to the fact that I have no
real cities next to me, and when I am in a busy area, I find myself getting
anxious… anyways. My husband Greg has
been having back issues as well – so, we both have been taking to the trails
and getting in some hiking on the weekends to get some exercise.
Why does this rock? For one
thing, it’s “us time”, and if you know Greg and I, we don’t get a ton of time
together because as a farmer, his work isn’t a 9-5 block of time. It’s whenever, almost all the time, or hardly
at all – you just never know. Taking an
hour or two to hike with him is nice, and good for us (sweet!) What’s also super awesome is that living in
central NY, there is never a lack of trails.
In fact, right in our backyard is Fillmore Glen state park
a somewhat treacherous climb up vast gorges that take your breath away. Other options include Ithaca’s numerous
trails, the Cornell Plantations (part of the University I work at), Beaver Lake up in Syracuse and our own
true backyard – which, while short in distance, is kick ass because we own 20
acres. Not many people can say they took
a nice 20 minute walk in the woods without crossing any borders! Most of all, hiking is a different, yet
effective way to practice moving my legs and take in nature.
Biking: This sport
has become more tolerable for me with the accession of an actual road bike –
buh bye husky mountain bike up pavement hills!
Added bonus: It’s white with mint
green and so chic this spring :) I’ve been taking it out for spins at least
once a week, despite it being quite cold – thankfully my heavy winter running
clothes work well while biking in freezing winds. Learning the bike is a different feeling
though. With running, I just had to go
out there and DO it, but cycling introduces a whole ‘nother instrument – your
bike, the gears, chains, shifts, flat tires, blown tires, tumbles and
falls. In fact, it was only a few weeks
back where I embarrassingly posted on facebook that basically I didn’t know how
to use the damn thing because my only bike experience had been fun kid bikes. Yes ladies and gentlemen, turns out you truly can
forget how to ride a bike.
I can bike for about an hour, 14-16 miles at a time
which isn’t bad. I’m avoiding questions
of “when is your first tri?!” like the plague.
Frankly, if I did want to do a tri, or a duathlon (more likely), I’m out
of race funds anyways so we’ll have to wait until next year. And I don’t know if I am that brave… yet.
What I was brave enough to do was join some strangers for my
first brick workout. The plan was to
bike 15, then run 2-4, from the popular tri store, Endurance Monster, in
Skaneatles, NY. The day before, I worked
a huge day-long event from 7am until 10:30 that night through a networking
dinner (with wine!). Plus, the weather
for the brick was 40’s and rainy.
Needless to say, I was well prepared to skip this nonsense, but when I
woke the next morning feeling oddly refreshed, and the weather was just cloudy,
I loaded my bike in the back of Greg’s pickup and headed out to the
Brick&BBQ group event. I was nervous, scared and
felt like I did with my first few group runs when I first started running, thinking I didn’t
belong anywhere near other “runners”, or in this case “cyclists”. When I got there (which by Jill Time is 20
minutes early), I sought out a few other cyclists looking up at the sky and
pondering an early start before the rain started. I thought it was a good idea, so I asked how
fast they rode.
“Oh, psh. Not fast”
said one woman.
“Nah, we go about, I don’t know, 25, or so” said the second woman.
“Ohh..” I trailed off, with a big gulp to force down the dose
of Instant Tears that came about me.
The first woman started to chuckle, nudging the second one.
“no way, we go slow, 14 or so, if that.
We’ll see what the conditions are too.” She said. Thank the Lord, I thought – I can deal with this.
So out we headed, and I stayed with them for the most part,
passing them sometimes on the hills, tentative down the inclines as some rain
had started to fall. I wasn’t cold and
the others in our 5-person group complained their hands were icicles. I joked that my $1 cotton walmart gloves were
doing the trick at keeping my fingers warm, which may or may not have won me
“new person is cool” points.
We ended up getting lost on the route and accomplished 12 miles,
including hills up main route 20 (!)
Back at the store, I felt I could have gone farther, but I saved the
energy for the second portion – a nice 3.5 mile run with my LE running buddy,
Todd. I had completed my first brick –
and it was neat!
While these other activities are enjoyable, I’m still
grumbling about not running up to par.
It’s hard not to compare myself to others, but it’s so tough seeing
everyone else slam down races and I’m back to my “4 mile long run”
bracket. My next race in Boilermaker in
July, a 15K. I should be ready by then,
but only time – and ankles – will tell.
