Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts

Monday, February 18, 2013

Cramps and the Weather

Saturday morning I went out for a run. That lasted about a mile and a half. Then the small maybe knot in my calf I had been feeling became a full-blown giant ball bearing ruining my ability to run at all. I stopped and stretched and walked and stretched and nothing worked. I had to walk all the way back home, cutting my run distance as short as I could. I was out for just over forty minutes so that's something. But still.
To recap-
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And yesterday The Grey, Diesel, and I planned a ride that Mother Nature ruined. Crazy high winds made the thought of being out there scary. Basically, if you went out on a bike you were asking to become a kite. We even had Forrest Gump's sideways rain. Same thing this morning.
**EDIT** I made it our for a 22 mile ride this afternoon! Yay! Baby boy was having a good day, Super Awesome Wife was up, and the weather was clear. Woohoo! It was brutal windy, not dangerous but not fun. There were a few points on the way up where a gust would kick up and I barely moved an inch for a moment. It was slow, it wasn't great, but it was a ride. That's important.
Was not a good workout weekend for the Dirtbag. I did get a swim in Thursday morning that was pretty good, and a ride Wednesday that wasn't awful.
Looking ahead to my race schedule, I am not confident in my training. These are going to be slow ass races. Warrior Dash is Saturday, and that should be fun. The boys and I are relaying the Haleiwa Tri and even out of shape I can nail down a decent 500m open water swim. And I want to register for Lanikai Sprint as a tune up for the Honolulu Olympic, since I haven't put together an entire tri since the Honu. Trying hard not to be too frustrated about my workout attitude and my ability to get out there. I'm getting better.

ALSO- Ultrarunner, friend, and former active.com editor Vanessa Runs just wrote a book called The Summit Seeker. It's on amazon right now as a Kindle download and will soon be out as a physical book. You should pick it up. I'll write a review as soon as I get a hardcopy since Kindle I do not have. Support runners who write!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Weather Its Good Or Weather Its Bad

Run
time- 1:18
distance- 7.08mi

I am conflicted on the subject of weather. You know, the subject everyone supposedly automatically reverts to whenever there is nothing else to talk about. Yeah, on that topic I experience cognitive dissonance.
It's not the weather's fault, per say. I would never blame Thor. He's James Tiberius Kirk's daddy. He is above complaint.
SAME DUDE! Kirk's dad is the God of Thunder!
My conflict stems from challenge vs training. You see, storms are blowing in again over my part of Oahu and temperatures are dropping. Running is so much easier when it's cool out. The heat sucks your will to live faster than any planned distance and more effectively than any climb. I feel better, faster, smoother when it's a little overcast, maybe even sprinkling. It's great. Plus, that means more opportunities to skip through mud. A Dirtbag never passes up a chance like that.
BUT, the Honu will NOT be cold. It will NOT be cool. Odds are very high it will NOT be overcast. It is going to be life-suckingly hot. That side of Big Island in June? Life. Suckingly. Hot. There are no trees over there, the lava destroyed them and they never grew back because Kona gets half an inch of rain a decade*.
What that means is, while I'm getting in good runs and I'm feeling strong for the most part during them, my training is only half complete. I am not really being heat trained right now. Oh, I have an advantage over those triathletes flying in from the mainland for the race. The humidity alone is going to draw their souls from their skins. And I'm well aware that melting will occur on the run, its unavoidable. But I'd like to get a little time under the hot hot sun in.
...That felt like a really stupid thing to ask for. Please tune back in two weeks from now when I'm bitching and moaning about how hot it is.
As for today's run, it went really well up until half a mile from home. A mile from home I decided I was feeling strong and I wanted to pick up the pace a little, see if I could stir it up for a mile. And after half a mile my left calf said, "I have had enough of this," and POOF like magic turned into a softball. Which is ok, I guess, since my right AT was also beginning to whine. So I limped home, hoping for the ominous clouds to hold their water for just a few more minutes.
Foam roller- I love you, I hate you, please keep fixing this knot.
(*all numbers approximate)