This weekend I ran in mountains of Tennessee. The mountains there are like mountain hills,
or at least that is one of the things I thought to call them when I was running
up and down. They are steep in both
directions and instead of being long and winding they are quick and abrupt. You
are going straight up and then right back down at the same kind of steep angle.
Much has been written about running uphill and downhill and the rigors. How
tough it is on you, and it is tough to be sure.
I will only say that afterwards I really felt it in my butt. OK, I will say one more thing; I was taught
that when running uphill to use your arms like you are pulling your billfold
out of your back pockets. OK, just one
more; also taught that going uphill is a good place to pass people if you have
trained for it.
Along the way, in this very rural area you have plenty of
time for your mind to wander. Being a
city boy, my mind sometimes goes off on what is lurking in those woods. This means big scary things like bears. Big scary bears. Along the side of the road I did see several
samples of bear poop. How do I
know? Because we have seen bears up in
this area and so we Googled what to look for as far as bear poop. The big berries are a definite clue.
As I was coming downhill at a pretty good pace, starting
around a curve, and just about to start another uphill climb it hit me. Distracted by watching a lizard with a really
pretty blue tail run across the road in front of me I had no idea of what was
coming. It just suddenly hit the back of
my throat. Bam! A bug. Darn! I gagged, and spit and gagged, and
spit. It really threw off my rhythm, so
important to this hill running thing. It
took a while to settle down and get back into a rhythm. Hope I got some protein out of it.
The mountain running was good training. It certainly works some muscles and resolve. These type of training runs will help prepare
me for my next Ragnar race coming up in late October in Tennessee. More on Ragnars to come.
What do you think?
Zippy
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