After my half marathon, I took Sunday - Tuesday off for recovery. I'm not sure if I needed that many days, but I figured I'd play it smart and reduce chance for injury. Especially since I still don't know how to go downhill without hurting my knees.
So I ran Wednesday and Thursday. Both about 5 miles, and both in South Valley where my very first trail runs began. Thursday I tried to meet up with the Denver Trail Runners but got there late due to a house fiasco (a roomate discovered something icky we all felt we needed to deal with).
Then Saturday morning there was a nice early A.M. run with DTR and so I decided I'd try again. This time I made it early and had a lot of fun in White Ranch Park with the few people crazy enough to wake up at 5:30am to run these beautiful hills.
So I ran Wednesday and Thursday. Both about 5 miles, and both in South Valley where my very first trail runs began. Thursday I tried to meet up with the Denver Trail Runners but got there late due to a house fiasco (a roomate discovered something icky we all felt we needed to deal with).
Then Saturday morning there was a nice early A.M. run with DTR and so I decided I'd try again. This time I made it early and had a lot of fun in White Ranch Park with the few people crazy enough to wake up at 5:30am to run these beautiful hills.
Sunday I think I took it easy again because I wanted to run on Monday with the Rocky Mountain Runners and I figured I'd get back into my old routine with Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday runs. I also expected to add in Wednesday this week since my RunKeeper app has added a short run those days now.
Well all of that kind of went haywire after Monday's run. The RMR group met up in Boulder around 6pm and because it was raining and thundering pretty bad, only 4 of us showed up to run. We figured the rain would subside soon since it never lasts too long and started up our planned 6 mile route into Chautaqua Park.
Well all of that kind of went haywire after Monday's run. The RMR group met up in Boulder around 6pm and because it was raining and thundering pretty bad, only 4 of us showed up to run. We figured the rain would subside soon since it never lasts too long and started up our planned 6 mile route into Chautaqua Park.
My run was basically hell the entire time. I was actually having a lot of fun because everyone running was so nice. But I was definitely the weakest link and kept everyone behind. The storm never eased up and by the time we reached the top it was dark and gross. Our main goal was then to get down as quickly as possible because we were running through a river on a very steep slope and a lot of technical rocky terrain. Our only light source was the lightning strikes, which were actually fairly frequent, but with it so hard to see, I was kind of just tumbling down rocks and jumping hard, which did not help my knee issues.
By the time we got to the top, I absolutely fucking hated anything uphill. And by the time we reached the bottom, I felt the same for anything downhill. Everything sucked and my mental state was completely wrecked by the time we got to our cars. Had I not been with a group, I probably would have opted to stay at the top of the hill and cry myself to sleep.
By the time we got to the top, I absolutely fucking hated anything uphill. And by the time we reached the bottom, I felt the same for anything downhill. Everything sucked and my mental state was completely wrecked by the time we got to our cars. Had I not been with a group, I probably would have opted to stay at the top of the hill and cry myself to sleep.
I came home shivering and soaked and luckily Jake was prepared to take care of me as he physically put me in a hot shower and made me tea. I felt better after warming up in the shower and woke up Tuesday fine as could be. I still took the day off from running, though, knowing my knees needed time.
Wednesday, however, is when problems occurred. I woke up at 4am to go to work and it felt like I didn't get ANY sleep except for the 10 minute snooze I gave myself when my alarm went off. I downed two cups of coffee to no avail and just generally felt sore throughout my body and zero energy. I thought maybe I was getting sick or maybe Monday finally caught up to me, but I just didn't feel right and became more miserable as the day went on.
My 20 minute drive home from work at 4pm was absolutely agonizing and when I got in, I went straight into PJs in my bed and curled up with a movie. I stayed there all night, getting worse and worse. I tossed and turned that night, and half the next day before finally getting out of bed and being a normal person.
And that's all it was. a full 24 hours of feeling like absolute crap and now I'm fine.
Yet this weekend Jake and I are going to do 4 of the 14ers in an 8 mile race and I'm just now dreading it because of the latest weather we've been having and I just now realized that 14,000 ft of elevation means it's going to be cold and possibly snowy, and omg what did I get myself into? At least this race is no pressure and I hope to at least climb to the first peak before feeling out my body and if I'll be able to do more.
Wednesday, however, is when problems occurred. I woke up at 4am to go to work and it felt like I didn't get ANY sleep except for the 10 minute snooze I gave myself when my alarm went off. I downed two cups of coffee to no avail and just generally felt sore throughout my body and zero energy. I thought maybe I was getting sick or maybe Monday finally caught up to me, but I just didn't feel right and became more miserable as the day went on.
My 20 minute drive home from work at 4pm was absolutely agonizing and when I got in, I went straight into PJs in my bed and curled up with a movie. I stayed there all night, getting worse and worse. I tossed and turned that night, and half the next day before finally getting out of bed and being a normal person.
And that's all it was. a full 24 hours of feeling like absolute crap and now I'm fine.
Yet this weekend Jake and I are going to do 4 of the 14ers in an 8 mile race and I'm just now dreading it because of the latest weather we've been having and I just now realized that 14,000 ft of elevation means it's going to be cold and possibly snowy, and omg what did I get myself into? At least this race is no pressure and I hope to at least climb to the first peak before feeling out my body and if I'll be able to do more.
**UPDATE ON 14er RACE**
I meant to post this blog post days ago but kept having trouble with the pictures. So now there's an update on the 8 mile race we were supposed to do.
It was postponed. To this coming weekend, Saturday the 21st.
This Monday's run weather was the beginning of some crazy weather in Colorado, so a lot of roads are washed out, flash floods everywhere. And the race got affected. It keeps monsooning so I don't even know if this weekend will happen, but we'll see. Sucks because training is kind of out the window too. We'll see how it all goes I guess!!
I meant to post this blog post days ago but kept having trouble with the pictures. So now there's an update on the 8 mile race we were supposed to do.
It was postponed. To this coming weekend, Saturday the 21st.
This Monday's run weather was the beginning of some crazy weather in Colorado, so a lot of roads are washed out, flash floods everywhere. And the race got affected. It keeps monsooning so I don't even know if this weekend will happen, but we'll see. Sucks because training is kind of out the window too. We'll see how it all goes I guess!!