Training: Would You Look At the Size of That Hill?

Steeper? Are you kidding me?

“It’s steeper than it looks,” said my friend, as we stared at the vertical climb ahead of us. This, my friends, is bad, bad marketing spin.

The Plan

Monday: Travel (off)
Tuesday: ~~Kickboxing~~ Gym
Wednesday: ~~Pilates~~ Run and gym
Thursday: Kickboxing
Friday: Gym
Saturday: 5-mile hilly hike at Lafayette Reservoir
Sunday: Driving range (first time since 1999)

My running efforts have been kind of appalling. I ran/walked on Wednesday, managed only 1.08 miles before returning home, feeling like a dismal failure and wondering if I’d ever really be able to run again. Is the obstacle my foot? My mind? My loss of physical conditioning? I was so grumpy about it that I went to the gym as soon as the boy was asleep so I could run on the soft surface of the treadmill. I discovered that the problem is really a combination of the three: I can still feel an ache in my foot, which causes me to overcompensate, ruining my form and making me feel like a running loser… a winded running loser.

I’ve decided that even though I have only six weeks until my first scheduled 5K, I should focus less on actual running and more on core strength and cardio conditioning, the two things that will carry me through. Kickboxing will help me make significant progress, as will my TRX workouts, Pilates sessions and long endurance walks or hikes.

Which brings us to Saturday. On Saturday morning my friend, Kristin, posted to Facebook that she was looking for someone to hike Lafayette Reservoir with her. Since the boys already had plans for the day, I jumped at the chance. We agreed to do the tougher, hillier, unpaved fire trail above the reservoir; she was familiar with the trail, but I wasn’t.

As we came up a smallish rise in the trail, I was confronted by the steep vertical path ahead. I gave her my best, “You’ve got to be kidding me” face and she said, “It’s steeper than it looks.” Steeper? STEEPER? It was at that moment when I wondered if she was secretly trying to kill me.

But as with any workout, once it was done I was elated. I came home exhausted, sweaty and feeling physically and mentally better than I have in months.

Later that evening, my Mother-in-Law asked me how my foot was feeling, and I’m sure that anyone who’s been following this blog since before the injury is probably asking the same thing. The truth is, it was kind of achy. It never hurts, exactly, but I can always feel an aching, and even more so after an hour of kickboxing or even walking. Is it enough to stop me? No, but it is enough to cause a pretty serious mental block in my running (see above). I’m hoping to get past that sometime between now and the 5K in Oakland.