Monday, September 3, 2012

Riding and running at Family Camp...

Sunday morning before breakfast, my eldest daughter took me out for a bike ride. She wanted me to experience the ride that she did earlier in the summer while working at the camp. It was a crazy, hilly route!

It started out nicely enough with a long downhill to the river. Then there was a mile or so of completely flat road. Beautiful! Then there was this hill! It actually had a switchback or two! It was incredibly steep and the gravel under-tire was not at all helpful. I struggled to keep my wheels from spinning out. I made it about twenty feet from the stop and finally had to stop and walk the rest of the way up. It was that bad!

Once the two of us were on the less steep part of the hill, we remounted our bikes and continued on our merry way. We rode past a couple of pretty friendly dogs who ran out to say hi.

At around four miles, we hit a paved road and rode west for awhile. It was there that we encountered a number of short rollers. I had to stop and wait at the top of a few of them for my daughter to catch up. She was geared all the way down.

We eventually made our way back to the other end of the camp road and headed east. Yes, there was a bit of northbound road to get us there. On the gravelly camp road we enjoyed a couple of really big hills, a steep downhill followed by an equally steep uphill. and then a slow grind up to the camp entrance. I didn't have to stop to walk, but it was close.

When we turned back onto the campgrounds, we enjoyed the little roll down the hill back to our cabin. (garmin data)

My wife wanted to go running together Monday morning, so we both got dressed and headed out the door of our cabin. We walked up the hill to the start of the camp's cross country course and began our run there.

We weren't sure of the route, so we kind of faked our way around and ended up missing the correct route. We eventually ran the whole thing, but did most of it in the opposite direction of the college and high school runners who do it every fall.

No problem for us. We weren't racing anyway. (garmin data)

After I ran with my wife, I decided to go out and run a bit myself. My plan was to run the same loop that my daughter and I had taken on our bikes Sunday. It was a stupid plan!

My run started out well enough. I felt pretty good running up to the camp entrance and speeding down the hill. Then my left foot hit a rock and the enjoyment went out of the run. I didn't stop though.

I ran along the river headed for the nasty switchbacky hill. I thought, "Surely my foot will quit hurting." I was wrong.

I turned onto the road that the hill resides on and started climbing. I ran a little two hard and found myself stopping to keep from puking at about the same place I had to stop and walk my bike. I hate that spot.

I walked long enough for the nausea to subside a bit and then started to run again. I ran to the 2.5 mile mark and turned around. Things didn't get better. In exchange for the lack of nausea, I got the urge to poop my pants. I could NOT run through it, but had to walk not once, but multiple times on the way back to camp. In addition to this less than enjoyable urge, I found every large pointy rock on the road with my left foot. I was almost limping by the time I re-climbed the hill, walking for much of it and ran back into camp.

I hope things heal up quickly. I don't have time for a stone-bruised foot! (garmin data)

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