By Sunday morning, my body was waving the surrender
flag. Although my allergy symptoms were
completely erased in the arid desert climate, I was now suffering from being
too dry. My sinuses went into over-drive and it my nose ran constantly. We had a pretty low-key day that I enjoyed
from the back seat of the car. Trying to
recall what else happened is difficult.
It is all a hazy blur now.
Early Monday, I finally got the rest day I was craving. For most of the Amtrak train ride from
Flagstaff to Albuquerque, I got about six naps.
I awoke for some leftover pizza, water, and little else. I wish I could have seen more of the
landscape as we zoomed across the desert, but this day was exactly what I
needed.
I find that visiting high altitude
places stresses my body cumulatively. It
never recovers much until I return to zero feet. Basically, it feels like doing all activities
in the same day. But I love the
challenges it presents at the same time.
For example, it requires about ten zillion glasses of water. Every morning I awake with a hangover-like
headache. It takes a gallon of water to
get it to go away. Putting water in
doesn’t pose a problem, but finding a place to pee while sightseeing is a bit
dicey. Haha.
When we arrived in Santa Fe, both Matt and I were rested
enough that we craved a run. We went out
with Chris along the Rail Trail path we spotted from the train from
Albuquerque. It was interesting how
Chris’s acclimation to the 7,500 ft. city leveled our endurance to his. We were gasping for air in the same way as he
did even though we have much more solid endurance base. It would be awesome to spend a few months training
there and then run a sea-level 5K.
My lungs and throat burned in protest. My head pounded a throbbing rhythm. We stopped at a stoplight near the end of the
run and a rush of blood flooded my head.
It came on like an intense ice cream headache. We took a long cool-down to avoid further
head rush.
It felt more like a 7:48/mi
pace.
3 comments:
I've always been intrigued by the southwest. Ed Abbey. Georgia O'Keefe. Wild landscape. Your photos heighten my interest. Plus you guys looks so happy!
I hear so many people describe what it's like to work out at high altitude, but I've never experienced it. It sounds really tough! Beautiful pictures, as always...
I've been to Colorado once, for two weeks, and ran the whole time. The first week was just awful, but I was in college at the time and seemed to adapt fast. When I went home my father, brother, and I hike Mt. Washington (in NH). When we were about a mile from the summit, I just started jogging, and left my poor family in the dust. And ever since they have absolutely refused to hike with me. I am sure running at high altitude made a huge difference in my aerobic fitness (at least briefly). Very pretty pictures BTW!
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