toughocracy

More snow!  This is incredible because our last snowfall, which lasted for about three days, was apparently a once-every-5-10-years thing down here, and here we go again!    This batch won't probably last as long, but we're supposed to get ice pellets over the next two days.  It might get kind of ugly.  I suppose it's already ugly...but not for me!  Nope, I love winter, and usually (not always), the nastier it is, the more I get out of it.  There's a sort of comradeship while running in foul weather.  Actually, down here, that happens pretty much with any run because there just aren't that many runners, or people out of their cars here, but when it has been just me and one or two others running through a sharp blizzard on the frozen Canal back home, the nods and waves between us were warmer.  Yeah, you're tough as shit too. 

I was supposed to do a tempo run...well, already, I've altered my training schedule.  The conditions were much better for hill sprints, especially since there were no footprints going into the forest.  It was on.  We were going to get demented and bust up this joint.  So I unclipped the dog.  The snow was still falling but wasn't a complete blanket at that point; it clung to the pine needles, branches, and to itself, creating a gorgeous lattice.   It was really hard to focus on the trail, but fortunately no roots tripped me up.  The dog, meanwhile, was distracted by freedom.  He started his sprints early (I waited until we got to the Triplet) and they were an even lovelier sight.  There are faster dogs, and there are larger and more muscular dogs, but he's perhaps at the topmost point of each parameter without cross-interference, if that makes sense.  He's 60 lbs of pure bulky muscle that moves very fast and tears through and bounds over underbrush like, man, there are no words for it.  It's gorgeous.  I used to call him the Carl Lewis of the dog world, but that doesn't do justice to his bulk.  Maybe he's Vernon Davis or Ray Lewis.  I'll have to consult with my husband.

Anyway, the little dude's warmup was much more than my workout.  I jogged 1.5 miles as a warm up, and he easily ripped three times that distance at least, yet he was still fresh when we got to the Triplet.  Surely I've described that topographical beauty before on this blog, but here goes: it's a series of three small but very steep hills.  It's almost a perfect sine wave, and it takes me about a minute to get through it, I think.  It feels tough and beneficial, and I especially like it because the rapid alternation between uphill and downhill helps me keep my cadence up and makes the thing mentally go by so quickly.  I'm not sure how it compares physiologically to more traditional hill sprints and flat sprints, but it's the best option I got here, and I will honestly miss it when we go.  Those downhills are so steep that I feel like I'm flying sometimes--sometimes when I get to the top of one of the hills and look at the trough at my feet, it seems that I'm about to dive rather than run.  It's a lot of fun.  Fortunately, a recent path-clearing smoothed the surface and took off the needles and a few roots; unfortunately, it also uncovered a layer of sand/mud/clay which is even more slippery when wet, or when covered with snow.

Which is ok for hill sprints.  I could still try to maintain drive and cadence, although it sort of sucked that it took me 4 tries to find just a so-so line up the second hill---that one was the slickest.  Meanwhile, the dog ran laps around me, pretty much.  He loves loves loves sprints.  He got so hyper that, between the third and fourth reps, he grabbed a branch, tore around with it for a few minutes, and then ripped it in half.  It was about a metre long and as thick as my wrist, but I suspect it was a bit rotten.  But he's a meathead, and he was in special beast mode today, so who knows? And then he found something rank and rolled in it.  So we both got showers today.

We did just 4 reps, and the total workout was about an hour...it was quite tiring and I feel sort of shredded now.  It's been a long time since I've had a more anaerobic run/workout like this, and I'd forgotten the muscle fatigue afterward.  It's entirely different from that of an ultramarathon.  It's more satisfying.  I feel progressive, not geriatric. 

Once I got home, I did some resistance exercises too:

3 sets of

1 (almost) chin up with slow descent--can't quite do one from scratch, but I'm getting closer
delt raises
4 pistol squats each side
20 clamshells each side

As we were leaving the forest, I saw the fresh footprints of a man (or woman with rather large feet) and a dog.  So I guess I'm not the only one in the local toughocracy after all!  Yeah, you're tough as shit too. 

Edit: extra details.  This was such a special run because I got to do hills sprints with my dog during a snowfall, and see him in full flight!