Wordless Wednesday

More Than I Can Chew

You’re at a buffet, one of those fancy buffets with steamed crab legs and prime rib, so you fill your plate with everything that looks good.  Do you keep eating until you hurt and have to unbutton your eatin’ pants or do you quit before your stomach looks like an overinflated beach ball? What is the clue that maybe, just maybe, you have bitten off more than you can chew?

Late last year when I decided I was going to attempt the Ouachita 50k, I didn’t immediately set out on a training schedule to maximize my “feet on dirt & rocks” time. For a few weeks I kept doing what I’ve always done, a lot of circuit training with a mix of interval cardio sessions and strength training. I did very little long steady state cardio, occasionally running or biking when weather and time permitted. It is winter after all and though the weather is typically moderate here, it was often the availability of time that kept me from going on multi-hour runs or rides. So about 15 weeks ago I started on a marathon schedule, but keeping mainly to the once a week long runs, while incorporating more of the same circuit training/sprints/short tempo runs during the week instead of shorter mileage runs. I’m not sure if this has backfired on me or not. I’ve been running a route that is not the race route because it is more convenient and less isolated. This weekend I went out and tried the actual race route including  up and over the boulder scramble on Pinnacle Mountain.

The next challenge would be up the hill to the Vista over Lake Maumelle at about mile 9 where I stopped to fuel and take in the view of Pinnacle in the distance.

The first couple of miles was slowed by the steep descent and ascent from the trail head to the scramble then up and over Pinnacle Mountain but coming down from the Vista, I was still feeling strong. And then it went to hell. On the return I started having some pain in my knee. It has happened before but not recently. I just got new shoes so that’s not the issue and this time it was definitely unilateral. The pain slowed my pace to a hike for much of the return trip and the same mileage I had accomplished the week before on a different trail took more than an hour and a half longer to complete. Am I out of my gourd? What have I done? Can I do this? I’m still only doing about half the mileage of the race and having issues like this, what will race day bring? I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Maybe I shouldn’t have put the extra crab rangoon on my plate.

The Adventures of Other People

It’s getting busy round here. In addition to all the “normal” hubub, I’m wishing I could clone myself so that on the weekends I could get my own training in AND go out and cover stories about all the other cool events and races going on. Managing time so that I can do it all seems like an impossible task. I spend a lot of time watching, photographing, cheering and writing about other people’s adventures.

Instead of blogging I’ve been out doing stuff like climbing Pinnacle Mountain before dawn to take photos of people doing that 50K/ 50Mile race I “thought” I wanted to do. On no training. I’m not sure if I’m glad the opportunity to photograph it became more important than doing it when the regular photog had a family emergency. I really think I’d like to give events like this one a try.

This is my favorite photo that doesn’t have people in it, just as the sun was rising and the racers hadn’t made it up the boulders:

Coming up over this boulder scramble from the East was the first real test of what would be a very long day for some, a matter of a few hours for others. Either way I really appreciated those who took the time to mug for my camera, they made me laugh.

He's got a little Cap'n in 'im.

So fitness for that day was confined to the climb up the West Summit, which took less than 30 minutes for me, even in the darkness of  5:30 a.m in the forest. While waiting for the first finishers to come off the trail for the short road section to the finish, I entertained myself (and probably a few others) with lunges, squats and pushups on the sidewalk.

That afternoon I drove out to Perryville just in time to watch my husband finish 58 miles of Forest Service Road racing in the Slobberknocker. I was so glad I made it there in time to see him finish even though it meant leaving the Ouachita race before even 1/2 the racers had finished, I do have priorities. And I got to take this photo:

While life is hectic and crazy and manic and chaotic I must remember that a full life is never boring and I am thankful that I am able to do all that I do, even if I sometimes complain that I don’t have enough time for myself. And I have to remember that I am having my own adventures, even when it seems I’m helping others live and document theirs.

Scramble This

Up and more Up

I love a good scramble. I like the kind with eggs but I love the kind with gnarly rocks, roots or other obstacles along a trail. This picture was taken 6 years ago, on Christmas Day in the midst of a great rock scramble. This is my preferred route to the summit of Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock. With connections off the Ouachita Trail, the base trail around the mountain and 2 choices for the summit, not to mention the availability of the 7 miles of mountain bike trail or the shorter trails nearer the visitor’s center, the variety of routes is almost endless. Saturday I used one of my favorite routes with a time goal in mind. During the days when I was able to do this route 3 times a month or more, I was getting it close to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Saturday I managed 5 miles with the 700 ft gain in the middle over the top of the mountain, around the base trail and back to the steep uphill to the visitor center in 1 hour 32 minutes, with 2 photo stops and one stop for a turned ankle (Don’t look up from the trail dummy). The temperature was perfect, low 40s and sunny. The trail ducks in and out of what is left of the shade and there was still quite a bit of mud from the rains during the week. I left the headphones at home and enjoyed the quiet of the woods all alone for the first mile on the Ouachita Trail section and saw my first people at the trailhead of the East Summit. I caught up to a guy who was just ahead of me on the scramble. He asked “are you training for something?”. Nope, “this is just something I like to do, for fun” is the answer.

My Mountain Bike is Broken, so I climbed one instead

So it seems my mountain bike is not unfixable but a part has to be sent in to the manufacturer to be rebuilt so no riding for a while. I guess that’s better than the option I was offered of calling the bike a loss and buying a brand new one. I think Joe is still worried that fixing the old one is the wrong move since the price of bikes seems to be heading up up up with the interest in biking increasing and the cost of EVERYTHING going up from transportation and manufacturing cost increases. Amazing how the price of gas affects things.

 

Holidays around here usually find us out at Pinnacle. Birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving…I think the only major holiday that hasn’t seen us at Pinnacle at least once is Easter. Yesterday Joe and I headed over to Pinnacle for a climb. There was a big party in the main parking/park area so we parked farther away at the visitor’s center and hopped on the Ouachita Trail to get over to the park. J had said he wasn’t feeling quite up to this so I took it easy on him and we walked most of the trail instead of running. Then he took off up the mountain on the rocky sections and I was a full 30 seconds behind him to the top. Darn him. So I had to beat him down. And make him run. We hit the new part of the trail and ran up until the ugly switchbacks started, walked for a while then started running again when it met back up with the Ouachita. I ran him back to the steep steps below the visitor center. I heard him ask ” you’re just getting your wind aren’t you?” then I think there was a cuss word. An afternoon of yard work, cleaning the garage, making homemade individual cheesecakes and cooking dinner left me spent. We didn’t even leave the house for fireworks.

This morning J and the small one are accompanying the oldest kid to set up her new apartment in Fayettville. We loaded her up with furniture in a Uhaul. Wow, our garage and storage room seem so much bigger now. I’m headed out to do a little more work stripping a desk that I’ve been avoiding for weeks and then I’m off to help a friend paint at her new house. If my people aren’t back by the time I wear out painting, I’m going to go sit my butt by the pool.