Brett & Megan

Here’s Brett’s recipe for the week. Go out into your garden, find two large stones about the size of footballs. Grab some heavy strapping or utility rope and tie them to your thighs. Now keep them on for about 4 days and walk around. Then, remove the stones, fill a small bathtub with ice and the coldest water available from the faucet and soak for 20minutes.

I did this except I didn’t need the stones because they were already under my skin in the form of my quadriceps muscles. At least they felt like stones after running a half-marathon. Last weekend I ran the Boney Mountain trail run as part of the XTERRA Trail Race series.  It with about 2,400ft. of climbing (that’s uphill running for the regular not-so-crazy you would do this kind of thing with your weekend crowd). Here’s what the profile looked like:

Normally I would endure such a trail run along with the accompanying heat and wind with vigor but I wasn’t completely trained for it, about 70% I would estimate. I had done several trail runs before including some steep switchbacks right here in La Crescenta but when you get into the race and people are moving fast you tend to forget your pacing and just go with the crowds. I felt good for the first few miles, even through the steeper climb from mile 3 to 4, passing several people walking on the switchbacks. But I overuse the quads in pulling up that climb that by the time I got up the long hill from miles 6 to 10, they were cooked. Cramps began to burn through my thighs. At least the last part was downhill, right? Except that almost hurt worse than going uphill. When I finally got to the last 1/2 mile we made a sharp right turn straight into 40mph winds – a final and literal slap in the face to humble you.

Megan also ran the 6K although she fared better. She had already eaten the complementary fruit and scrambled eggs (right on XTERRA!) and was wondering why I didn’t make my 2hour estimate. When I came in she wanted to talk right away but I would have none of it. Had to lie on the pavement in pain for a while and catch my breath.

After spending a few hours with Jen & Steve (cousins) in Newbury Park we headed home. We stopped at a Costco to return an item and as I walked in to the store my legs began cramping again – must have been sitting in the car for a while that got them. The customer service guy looked pretty bewildered as I used a hurried, bent-at-the-knees and hunched-over stride to get to the counter like I was bowling for a spare.

Five days and several liters of chocolate milk later, my quads are back to normal. You live, you cramp, you suffer. Oh and learn, yeah, learn.