Life & Culture

My New Stride

I accidentally ran 13 miles yesterday. Accidentally because I set out to do about an 8-mile run up Tiger Mt., to start extending my miles for some sort of summer event, but we (LaRoo and I) made a wrong turn and ended up doing 13 miles. Eight miles just to reach the top of West Tiger 3, then another 5 taking the shortest route I knew back down to Issaquah. At five miles in we came across a trail sign that told me we were still three miles from the summit. I could have turned back, but I didn’t want to retrace my steps, so we pushed onward. The trail hugged the side of West Tiger 2, with several sets of switchbacks taking us higher until we finally came out on a saddle between the two peaks. At the summit I had a PowerBar and gave LaRoo a chicken stick, then we headed down. At first it felt good losing altitude, but at some point it began to seem endless. This was the main trail, which is broad and fairly smooth, but a bit too steep to just let yourself fly. Consequently you’re fighting gravity both ways, up and down. On the final descent into town my legs were so tired they felt rubbery and out-of-control. I was glad to get back to the truck. Here’s what has surprised me, though: this morning I woke up with no pain. It was kind of glorious. A couple of years ago I would have been hobbling around the house for two days. Back then I had a knee problem and an Achilles tendon that was constantly swollen and sore, a situation that had been developing for three or four years. So I began altering my running stride. It wasn’t easy, and required a lot of concentration at first, but the absence of pain today seems to indicate that it has paid off. As a test I took LaRoo and Jody for a run at Cougar Mt. It was good. If I weren’t so lazy I think I could run every day.

Posted on June 4, 2013 at 12:33 am under Life & Culture

Comments closed.