The Thing I’m Doing This Year #4
On Friday, I got my new REI socks. They are the natural mates for my new magic trail shoes. So I put them on after work and drove over to the mountain. Me in my new magic shoes and socks decided to hike on Barr Trail for the first time in a long time. It was a beautiful day. The sun cascaded down on the tress up the hill and down the valley.
There was a woman at the trailhead who was spectacularly fit. The sun hit her perfect. Tanned torso. She was like a human version of a margarita, but with ripped abs. The universe is conspiring to distract me. And that only makes sense, if I am literally able to turn back the hands of time and beat my 2006 performance, there might be a rip in the space-time continuum.
And we all know what happens when that happens. A disaster of biblical proportions. Real wrath-of-God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria!
And the universe don’t want that …
So I said hey to Sexy Britches, gave her my patented head nod and hopped on the trail. I love the Barr Trail and the bared ladies (I just thought of that one). Those first few steps, I ran. I couldn’t wait to get on the trail. I bounded up the steps right at the beginning. I felt good.
The trail had gotten easier!
Well, for the first four minutes anyway. About five minutes in, I felt the outside of my hips and then my lower back. Nothing too serious; it didn’t slow me down. Everything hard takes a long while for your body to adjust, to become accustomed to that reality. I feel like I did a good job, was moving at a good clip. Typically on this trail, I will take breaks, but I didn’t do that today. So my time to the top of the W’s – a big open space on the trail at the top of the switchbacks about two miles up – wasn’t all that fast. It was just great to be out there.
Coming down I felt sluggish, graceless. Nothing hurt bad, but I felt like an out-of-shape guy. Got passed a few times. Hate that.
On Saturday, I biked 30 miles, my first outside ride in six months. About five miles more than I needed I think.
On Sunday, the hike and then the bike had some lingering effects. My calves are very sore; my quads are just sore. Getting out of bed on Sunday was interesting. Walking to the bathroom, I must have looked like I was walking on hot coals.
Like a good spaghetti sauce, which is always better the second day, the pain that comes from hiking on Barr Trail always hits hardest on the second day. It’s been a while since walking down the stairs was such a painful ordeal. Thankfully it’s just the calves.
After the bike ride, Caroline messaged me. She has to cancel for this Wednesday. That’s a relief. I could use the extra time to get more hikes in and get my body used to the pounding that is running down a mountain.
The next installment … ‘I Think I Cut a Nerve’
I’m doing the Tour de Cure this fall.
For more information, to join or donate, go here.
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