"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Thursday, April 1, 2010

Last Chance Workout

It's never a good idea to do a really hard workout a few days before a race, but it was 70 degrees in Minnesota in March and I just had to take advantage of that, so I headed out to Afton State Park. So did a million other people and their dogs. I decided the thing to do was to run the loop between Nigel's hill and the KOA hill (almost exactly 2 miles with 260 feet of climb).

I felt good, so I hit the first hill hard and cruised down the steep Nigel's, averaging under 7 minute miles. Then I pushed uphill as hard as I could, maxing my heartrate half-way up and keeping it there for a bit. I was feeling a little wobbly on the downhill and I was already having trouble focusing my eyes, which usually only happens when really tired. The third time, I rolled my right ankle (always the right one), but not too badly. The fourth time, I was suffering in the heat, not having acclimated from the previous cold weather and, of course, I didn't bring water with me. On number five, I caught a tree root on the way down and did a header, but after scraping off the dirt, had only scraped some skin off my knees and hands. Number six was brutal. Number seven, I was getting worried, but wanted to make it to 20 miles - after all, this weekend's race isn't the goal and I need my long runs.

Number eight was when it happened. The trail on the downhill bends a bit to the left and I just kept going straight - I was too tired to brake - and I went down into the ravine, windmilling my arms while trying to remain upright - and there was a sickening CRACK! as I rolled the ankle again. I ended up in some raspberry bushes, arms and legs at odd angles, trying to extricate myself. I couldn't put any weight on the ankle. I felt around the ankle, which was already swelling and turning purple, and there was a protrusion just above the ankle.

Broken fibula.

I crawled on my hands and knees back to the trail and waited for someone else to come by. All those people in the park, and I'm out there waiting for someone, anyone, for what seemed forever. I picked up a long stick, wrapped my arm around it and used it as a crutch and hobbled the three miles back to the car.

Looks like I found my excuse for not doing well early this year. Oh, and April Fools!

18 comments:

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

You joking about hurting yourself is like me saying "I scratched my n*ts@ck today - April Fools!" Or Dr. Nic saying, "Obama's a Kenyan - April Fools!"

It's just too close to the norm to fully work.

Full Disclosure: I read only one line of this whole post and it was somewhere in the middle.

April F-

O, forget it!

SteveQ said...

Yeah, it's not my best work. But then, what else could I do? Bad dating story? Home invasion by wildlife? I live magical realism, so every day's kinda Fool'sish.

Christopher Swenke said...

Well Played - You had me there!

SteveQ said...

Chris, we're going to have to meet up on a trail someday, so I can officially link to your site.

Anonymous said...

I would really have expected you to reset the leg and hold it in place with some duck tape. Now that I would believe...crawling to look for help...like anyone would believe that one.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Am I crazy or did you just ask me:

"Who's your Dada?"

SteveQ said...

Yes, yes, and "Tristan the Night Away"

RBR said...

OMFG!!!!

grrrr....

Walrus girl does not like jokes about her friend's getting hurt.

RBR said...

ignore the apostrophe

My friends do not typically own any 'getting hurt'

Scream'n Turtle said...

Damn
Thought I had,"How's this blood taste Steve"? wrapped up and in the mail. CHIT!!

Jean said...

I bought this simply because of the line, "So did a million other people and their dogs." You perfectly described the trails in my neighborhood the last two days. I was nearly assaulted by two little terriers!

wildknits said...

Perfect... real enough to be believed even by the less than gullible amongst your readers!

Carilyn said...

Yeah! You are thinking about Nationals! That would be great!

Londell said...

The best April fools joke is one we could actually believe... Great job!

Matthew Patten said...

I heard the hill is called KOM, not KOA.

Reason I remember is beacuse I asked "What does it stand for?"

John answered "Not sure, but I think it stands for Kill Off Mother#$%@&*@"

Kevin Grabowski got me to call the Wisconsin Zoo yesterday looking for Mr. Lyon.

Psyche said...

I ALMOST fell for it...Would have, if not for Half Fast's story of falling off the treadmill.

Fool'sish...isn't that the verification word today?

SteveQ said...

Matt, that hill has a lot of names, but my understanding is that it's the back route to the campground, which used to be a KOA campground and the other route was called the campground hill, so it got called KOA instead.

KurtN said...

Maybe we should shorten it to just KO to satisfy both camps?