Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Raaawwwrrrr!

WY I RUN... to run from animals

While I didn't need too, this seems to be a theme in my life right now. Between bears, roaming in-town Mountain Lions and stories of Pitbulls, suddenly kitties and puppies aren't sounding so cute.

Workout:
8/29:  8 Miles and 4 Miles
8/30: 10 Miles and Swim
8/31: 10 Miles Steady and 4 Miles
9/1: Camped outside of Park city and did my 20 Miles in small town Coalville, UT. Did first 10 with Adam and then 2nd 10 Miles with 9 x 90 second surges. Avg. an 8:04 pace and managed to keep momentum until the end.
9/2:  REAL REST
9/3: First night at Camp Richardson in Utah. 10 Miles with 4 x20 and 4 MIles in the afternoon. A Mountain bike ride in between.
9/4: After a scary bear night, woke up to go to South Lake Tahoe track to bang out 10 x 800 with Adam as my pacer.
Weekly Highlights:
As usual Adam and I always create bangin' campsite with bangin' meals. Here a few...
Park City site

Camp Richardson, site #1

Camp Richardson site #2, to try to escape the bears
Unfortunately, the bears weren't of a fan of our set-up and despite no food around, they came a knockin' We were disrupted two nights in a row and I had had it. I was so scared, shaking uncontrollably as the bear roamed outside the tent, scratching and rubbing up against us. The first night, I called 9-1-1 and the second, made enough noise to sneak to my car. After reading a terrible Pitbull attack story in Runner's World, my senses were sensitive and it seemed like I was running scared the whole week.

A day time Mountain bike tour of the Fallen Leaf trail in South Lake Tahoe was anything but scary and a perfect trail for an afternoon ride before we hit the beach.



Workouts in Tahoe
While getting our butts out of bed (the car where we had retreated after the bear incident) was hard. I never doubted my trip to the track or flat road to get in my 800's. Some may call this crazy and say "you're on vacation for heaven's sake." To me, this was the norm. This was my workout with an ultimate goal of the NY Marathon and I wasn't going to let much deter me. Not even bears. Perhaps working out on vacation is even more pleasurable then on work days, because I know I have the beach along with the satisfaction of dead legs, lactic build up and a beer ahead of me. As a task/goal oriented, type-A gal, getting in 800s, gaining the fitness, working towards a future goal was never a question in my mind when I signed up for vacation. So while one may think of it as an oxymoron to work hard on vacation, I'd like to think I reap the benefits.
We ended the evening out dinner for some, Chicken Thai pizza

How do you feel about getting in those runs, swim or bikes on vacation?

Post- vacation, I found this. An article documenting a random attack of man in a tent with no food at the same campsite we were in. While he only suffered scratches, this solidifies my fear.
Another article was featured in Backpacker Magazine on how to survive, Bear and Cougar attacks.
http://www.backpacker.com/survival-animal-attacks/survival/16817
I am off to get my jogging mace.

2 comments:

  1. I came across this blog when I met your sister in LuLuLemon. It looks like you live a pretty exciting life! I am super jealous of your adventures and training... not so jealous of your run in with bears though. Be careful out there!

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  2. That's too funny. Thanks for stopping by! The bear were definitely an unwelcome surprised trying to get in our tent. Happy running

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