New Rules

Yesterday, I awoke to sunshine. I remember thinking how wrong Hubby was on his forecast. There's no rain. By 11am, I was sick of looking at the sunshine and not doing anything about it. Matt was obviously still asleep, since he worked until 8am. I tiptoed into the bedroom and sat on the bed next to my Dragon Breath husband. "I think I'm going to try and beat the rain, it's sunny right now...want to come?" A grumpy voice from beneath the covers replied, "No, it's gonna rain all day. And it's really windy. Let's go at 4pm when I get up." I retreated from the darkened bedroom and got dressed for my run. Moments later, a bleary-eyed Matt joined me. "You said it was sunny. Look at that." Dark clouds had come out of nowhere and a light rain began. "But I'd rather run with you in the rain than by myself, let's go." Matt ate a quick breakfast, dressed and we headed out.

The rain turned to sprinkles and then disappeared. The wind, however, did not. We tried to make the run as easy as possible, by running in zig-zags and not going in the same direction for too long. We ran through Sequoia Park and the redwood trees, to reappear in a treeless residential neighborhood again. We discussed our training plan as we trotted along.

Our route according to Garmy.

Discussing training plans with someone who has had only three hours of sleep is pretty useless. Matt wanted to scrap all training plans and take up a different sport entirely. "I want to just take six weeks off and not run at all," he demanded after our first mile. Terrified that all our training thus far would be wasted if we did that, I offered several different solutions. He wasn't accepting any of them. I changed the subject, but he ran along silently, not replying to anything I said. He was either still thinking about our training or he was falling asleep. Either one, it was best not to talk to him.

About mile four and a slight downhill on a completely deserted side street, he perked up. "This past week has been really hard on us. Let's just make sure we do our long runs 5-7 days apart". He was thinking about how we did a 20 miler just four days after racing a half marathon and it resulting in disaster and lots of walking. "Sounds good", I agreed, glad that his mood had changed. We decided to make some rules for ourselves and see how things go.

Nearing our car at mile six, and straight into a headwind, I was glad that I had gone out to run. Matt's runner's high had kicked in and he was finally chatty. When we got home, we wrote down our list of rules, stretched, and showered. Then the rain started. Water sprayed onto our windows as if someone were outside with a garden hose. The rain continued in varying degrees of intensity until darkness returned that night. We didn't run in the rain at all.

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We needed rules because of my recurring IT band problems and his knee is starting to bother him. Running felt more like a chore and less like a voluntary activity. What would bring back the fun?

Rules until Green Bay :
1. Strength train twice a week. We both are really bad at this. Since running takes up so much time already, who wants to do extra workouts!? I will Shred with Anna and Matt will do circuits.
2. Stretch Everyday. We will roll each other's legs with The Stick. Loose muscles are key to keeping both of our injuries at bay.
3. Long runs must be done in the Ariels (Karen). I was too quick to go back to my more comfortable and lightweight shoes when my knee felt better. The 20 mile run definitely would have been less painful in my Ariels.
4. Ice injuries. After the shower, ice the knee. Hopefully we stick to that. We both run too often for an injury to go away on it's own. Ice will help the swelling go away faster so it can heal.
5. Get eight hours of sleep (Matt). Shift work is killer on his sleep schedule. He gets plenty of sleep when he works days, but when he works mids, he often sacrifices his zzzzz's for hangout time, and doesn't notice it until he's really cranky.
6. Long run must be 5-7 days after the previous one. Completely uncomfortable 20-milers on tired legs are no fun at all. Let's not repeat that again.
7. Trail run once a week (dry trail permitting). Our nearest trail run is often inaccessible in the winter because flood waters rising above the only road out there. Need trails for sanity. We discovered that last summer we were able to keep up with high mileage because there were pretty things to look at. It was like hiking, but faster. We're starting to miss hiking. Trail running is the perfect solution. Once a week so we don't get sick of the trail or sacrifice our road training.