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November 22, 2005
Eating Humble Pie
I got my butt kicked today. It was horrible. It happened at structural firefighter training. We were practicing searching a second story building for a victim and carrying them out via ladder. We used a 200 pound, 6 foot tall dummy. I can drag that sucker's butt to kingdom come, I can put him over my shoulder in a traditional fireman's carry and walk out of a building, but I nearly died when I had to lower him down a 2-story ladder with him precariously balanced across my forearms. I did it, though you could say I did it by the skins of my teeth. If it were a real test, though, I wouldn't have passed because I wasn't fast or fluid and it was momentarily unclear whether I was going to be able to do it or not. And god forbid if it was a real life situation, I don't even want to think about that. I've done it successfully before, and I do recall it being difficult, but not so much as today. I was okay cardiovascularly, much better than some of my cohorts in crime, but my arms are now like pieces of spaghetti, so tired! I learned 2 things today: 1) the art of being humble, and 2) that I need to work much, much, much harder on my upper body strength. Not just because upper body strength is good and because it will make me a better runner and all that crap, but because I'm supposed to be helping save people and buildings for my job, not be a liability out there. Can you tell I'm a little fired up and dissapointed in myself at the moment?
Anyhow, before being served the world's largest piece of humble pie this afternoon, I did run for 40 minutes, or 5 miles. It was another gorgeous day out there, sunny and probably 45 degrees. All the snow is melting and everything is muddy. I was filthy when I got home, but splashing in the mud was fun. I did 2 checks on the dirt track for my pace, a 1/2 mile near the beginning and a 1/2 mile near the end of my run, and I was right on 8:00 pace both times. Wildlife sightings on this run were limited to a single coyote. But it was really cute! It's fur was really light colored, thick, and fuzzy, definitely ready for winter!
Leilani politely inquired the other day about my future running plans. Well, more like she was tempting me with marathoning and triathloning ideas, but I didn't really know how to answer her. Basically I told her that I'm running from month to month right now. My immediate goal is to get back up to 50 miles/week, and then to sit there for a while before adding anything else in. I'm itching to run, but I'm more concerned with staying healthy all along. So, I guess that's where my running is going for the moment. Perhaps I will run 35 miles this week, which would be outstanding for me right now.
I'm sore today from doing 800 sit-up-type core exercises last night (It took 30 minutes, but I said I wanted to make myself sore!). And my arms are all jelly-like from fire training. But regardless of how I feel tomorrow, I'm going to the weight room. I think for a while I'm going to keep my upper body the focus in the weight room, at least until I can get a handle on my upper body strength again. None of this ridiculous weakness, no more. It wasn't a good feeling.
Posted by Meghan at November 22, 2005 9:42 PM
Comments
Carrying the dummy that way sounds hard! I know what you mean about working the upper body strength not only for running but for your job. It's good to be balanced anyhow. One benefit will be that you'll never have to worry about being a hunchbacked runner (weak back/upper body muscles).
Posted by: Leilani at November 23, 2005 6:46 AM
yeouch...i could feel the burn in the arms as i was reading that. good luck getting a new routine!
Posted by: jeff at November 23, 2005 3:45 PM
Talk about real motivation to lift weights... Good luck with it!
Posted by: Alison at November 23, 2005 8:13 PM