Being Creative

Phew! My busy work stretch is drawing to a close. 12 hour shifts and on-call nights gives way to a long stretch off at 8AM tomorrow morning! Training of any type has been hard to squeeze in over the last several days, but I managed to do a bit of quality running each day. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Friday evening found me sitting in my car in Sanford waiting for a phone call. For reasons I won't go into, I had to remain right where I was. I could be waiting for hours for all I knew. If there is one thing I hate, it's wasting time! Then I realized the high school track was right there! I could run some laps and still be ready to jump in the car, pull some work clothes on over my workout clothes, and be where I needed to be in a minute!

Well after one mile I was going nuts. Funny, because I have probably logged about a thousand miles on the track in my lifetime and used to actually enjoy it. Then I discovered trails and I guess there is no turning back. I decided to run up and down the bleachers, like I used to do in high school and college. Well, it was a good hard workout when I was in my teens and twenties, but it didn't take me many trips up and down those bleachers to discover that in my late 40's it is not a great workout, it is a suicide wish. Those slippery metal bleachers could kill someone! So I moved on down to a nice 50 yard steep dirt hill on the far end of the track. 25 repeats at top speed up and a slow jog down really felt hard...and good!

I wondered what to do next, then I saw a set of 31 steep narrow cement stairs beside the bleachers. I planned on 20 repeats. they were killers! On my 20th repeat, a runner on the track complimented me on the hard workout I was doing. I never knew I was a show off, but apparently I am. Because instead of stopping at twenty, I did two extra ones and the only reason I can come up with for this is that I was showing off.

By the time my phone call finally came, my thighs were feeling like jello and my calves were cramping. I felt great, knowing I hadn't made any excuses and had managed to fit a good workout in.