Working it on the Trail!

This morning as I rolled over to see what time it was I was surprised that I was almost pain free in my back. It was 5am, but I wasn't ready to get up yet. I relaxed here for a bit and then decided to get ready and meet trailmomma for our morning run. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to run this morning. I have been battling some serious lower back issues which had me walking around pretty funny. I could hardly pick up Lil Man.

As I got ready Toby was by my side the entire time, hoping to be able to come along. I haven't been able to run with him this week because it has been too hot , and with my recent back situation I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hold onto the leash. So sadly he had to stay behind.

Toby's new spot!

Off I went hoping I would be able to complete our scheduled 12 mile run. It has been 2 weeks now since TRT 50k and my next event is in September the Sierra Nevada Endurance Run, I signed up for the double. Ohh Boy! 52.4 miles and this would be my third ultra.

As I pulled up trailmomma was relaxing in the back of her car half a sleep, as she is battling the no sleep because of the two year old phase. I hobbled out of my car and was in some real pain now. I gathered my things and hobbled over to her hoping she wouldn't notice my limp and stiff body. Today I wasn't running with my Garmin, I had forgotten to charge it. Off we went, only we both were walking. Or I should say I was limping along praying that everything would loosen up.

We hit the fire road and off we went, OK so it didn't exactly happen like that. We started running on the fire road and quickly came upon our first climb and we had to walk it. Usually we can run at least half of it if not all of it. So both of us were not feeling too great. But we carried on, not wanting to turn around.

Way to work the sock pose

The fire road was pretty uneventful, but trailmomma did comment that was I running pretty stiff. As we started on the single track toward the horse staging area I cut my finger on the stickers and was bleeding. Not long after that we came across Bambi's dad. Literally 5ft away. It startled me so much that I screamed and also forgot to get a picture before the deer ran away. After those two encounters I told trailmomma "this is going to be a interesting and exciting run." Sure enough it was.

I lead most of the time and we were both really quite as it took to much energy to talk. When all of a sudden I am screaming and jumping about and sprinting. Trailmomma has no clue what was going on. It was a huge line of ants. I am not a fan of ants every sense I was little kid. We haven't even run 4 miles and I had cut my finger, ran into a deer, had to jump over a log and now ants. Pretty comical I might add luckily there were no other runners around that I could see to see it.

Log jumping. Not good enough do it again!

That is better

As we came upon our photo spot, I was really feeling the run. I took in a salt to see if that would help me. We also took a few minutes to capture some great poses. Instead of JC Penny Catalog poses -they haven't called us yet- trailmomma had the idea to call it Trail Runner's Pose or something close to that. Check out her blog see the rest of the photos. trailmomma

Nice Smile!

There is trailmomma, trying to take a self portrait

Work It

This point was mile 5, and we both checked in with each other. I was feeling stronger now, she was feeling good to continue on with one more mile till our turn around. Off we went. I was in the lead and I really challenged and pushed myself on the rolling terrain. I was running or from trailmomma's perspective I was sprinting the hills and charging the descents. I really wanted to push my body, so my body could remember what it felt like to run out of my comfort zone. It worked, my legs were getting stronger each climb and it mentally gave me a boost. As we approached the turn around point I kept asking her "now? are we there yet?" Trailmomma just laughed and said "not yet." I pushed harder when all of a sudden I heard her say "not to fast we are almost there." Yes we had reached the turn around.

The way back in trailmomma took the lead, I was a little spent from sprinting the hills. She looked strong even though she wasn' t feeling to great. I surprised her once, I had fallen behind and next thing she new I was on her heels. I had her pull me for a bit and then I retook the lead. I did have to take in a GU and also another s-cap.

As we cruising back we came upon the horse staging area and we were both focused on just getting back. I heard a reselling in the bushes up ahead and as I approached I saw a herd of turkeys. I quickly turned around and told trailmomma "umm you don't want to go that way."

At least 20 of them! Caution Turkey Crossing!

As I am saying this she looks over my shoulder and sees all the turkeys crossing the trail and starts hyperventilating.

 "Breath, just breath." I told her "stay put I will clear the trail." As I am approaching them they scurry across and next thing I new the momma turkey puffs out her wings and starts coming my way. I look back and trailmomma is frozen because I think she saw them. I told her "I told you to stay put." We quickly ran past them and I was laughing pretty hard. Thank goodness she wasn't in the lead.

As we reached the fire road we had about 2 miles to go. We were talking about training and I had mentioned that I needed to start incorporating some temp and possibly hill repeats into my work outs. The fire road for me is very runnable if I let it and it can also defeat me if I let it. But today I didn't. I was pushing hard up the hills. I had pushed myself pretty hard today, I had told myself before we started running I wanted to run some if not all the hills I normally walk. I think I did that. That was a great feeling.

Overall I ran pretty strong, pushed myself on this 12 mile run and my back for the time being is feeling pretty good. Hey, who knows maybe this run helped loosen me up a bit. I guess only time will tell.

Back on the home front, Lil Man and Toby had a photo shoot yesterday. Lil Man is getting so big and Toby is just so lovable. 

He is flying like a super hero.

I think they do a double pose better then the adults.

I am looking forward to just relaxing the rest of the day. I am sure I will be out running again tomorrow. I don't let things slow me down. This week I will be working on a tempo run or a hills. I don't know which one yet, maybe I can get trailmomma to join me.