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September 20, 2006
Try Harder
If at first you act like a wimp, then just try harder.
There was no excuse for my childish, wimpy behavior today. The workout was rather simple, a 3 mile hill climb at tempo effort. I have previously done this workout several times on a forest service road with a steady, well-graded, uphill climb. I decided it was time to graduate to doing this workout on a trail, with the increased challenges of a steeper grade, variable undulations, and uneven surfaces.
I had almost psyched myself out on the warmup, a 10 minute uphill jog. I felt physically off from the get-go; I let my mind wrap itself too strongly around that thought, instead of letting my body warm up and feel better. Once I reached the trailhead, I started the workout. The trail was in a most beautiful setting; it climbed through a high, sagebrush meadow broken up here and there by groves of aspen trees whose leaves had turned various shades of yellow, orange, and red. Around a corner up the trail, I encountered an elk carcass, a likely dinner for a bear a month or so ago. Even though this carcass was very old, I began to get nervous about wildlife, furthering my workout pysche-out. Around yet another corner, there was a second elk carcass, newer but at least a few weeks old. Once I saw this second carcass, any determination to work hard disintegrated into wimpy fearfulness. The trail passed through two aspen groves, and you should have seen how wigged out I was going through those with their limited visibility! All my shouting at non-existent predators and unneccessary fearfulness even made my dog look back at me curiously.
After 3 miles, this trail intersects a forest service logging road, and I couldn't have been happier to reach the road. My heart rate was so high, but it wasn't from working at a tempo effort, it was from feeling very wimpy.
It was a 40 minute downhill jaunt via forest service road back to my car. In that time, I managed to get angry at myself for acting ridiculously and performing poorly. Also in that time, I began to psyche myself up to do the hill climb again, and I refueled with some Gatorade and a Gu along the way as well.
Once I reached the lower trailhead, I headed uphill at tempo effort. This time around, I climbed strongly. I listened to my breathing, deep, even, and controlled. I focused on my quad muscles, lifting my knees up high with each step. I noticed my arms, driving forward with determination and fluidity. I smelled the unmistakable scent that sagebrush exudes when you brush up against it. I remarked to myself that the aspen trees were beautiful in their fall colors. I watched their multi-colored leaves quake as I ran through those 2 aspen groves. I reached the top of the trail at the forest service road and I felt good, damn good.
It was 30 minutes by trail or 40 minutes by road back to my car, and so I took the shortest route back down. By the time I made it back to my car, I had long run out of fuel and the proverbial engines were running on empty. But I was still feeling like I had tried much harder the second time around.
Posted by Meghan at September 20, 2006 5:03 PM