Friday, September 19, 2008

Shadow Ninja Warrior

I will go on ahead and apologize for the title but it pretty much sums up my training last night. Normally, I do not blog about my the specifics of my training but last night's run was too weird not too.

Coming out of Duke, I felt completely recovered from my race the following day/afternoon and fully ready to resume the normal workload. However, Marc calmed me down and we took two days of moderate volume to get me back to where I could tear the roof of it again.

Yesterday was a normal volume of training with a two and half - three hour ride in the middle of the day with long, hard intervals. The legs were not 100% right off the bat but once I had climbed over Grandfather Mtn. they started to loosen and I ended up destroying the final long interval sets. Good stuff! Note: the weather is starting to get cooler and the leaves are starting to turn! Freaking rocks training up here right now (not looking forward to Feb though)

I decided after the ride to try and give my body a fighting chance at recovery and took the afternoon off, planning to run after my Health Professionals meeting (I know, just the way I want to spend my TR night). I ended up getting home late (~8:20pm) and throwing on my running gear for 'quick' 8miler. I turned on my headlamp, threw on my arm warmers and stepped out into the darkness.

After a quick 2mi warm up I was stopped at the covered bridge by two hoodlums asking directions to the 'nearest trailer park.' I swear, I could not make this stuff up. Obviously not knowing where the nearest trailer park was I told them that needed to get back to running and that they were simply out of luck. This answer seemed to not sit well with them as they turned their bikes around and attempted, attempted to follow me. I had three miles of tempo and I felt good, dropping low 5:20/mi pace in the pitch black with Leroy and Dicky peddling close behind. So it went on like this for three miles! They followed me all the way through State Farm and then out the other side and onto the flats. WTF! At the end of three miles I turned around and politely asked if I could assist them further to which they replied 'Hot damn man, you are flyin' Got to love Appalachian!

About this time I started to feel the downward push and knew I needed to find a bathroom asap. In the distance like a bright glowing mirage stood a Citco. I managed to get to the bathroom alright and just the brown trouts were about to spawn I hear someone else walk in through the door. This man walked around in the bathroom for about five minutes before finally settling on a urinal. Then there was a long moment of quiet (to which I thought the guy might have left or passed out or a combination of the both) followed by the loudest fart I have ever heard. I swear it nearly shook the building! The man replied, 'Oh my!' Taking this as my cue to leave, this shadowing ninja warrior quietly excused himself from the bathroom and slipped back out into the night. The final four/five miles were thankfully uneventful!

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