Wow! Today was a coach's hills training. For those of you who don't know San Francisco very well it's hilly. So the marathon course has two hills in it therefore, we have to train for hills.
Before I go into details, I have to say that my teammates are supportive, beautiful people because they sacrificed their own training to make sure I was ok.
Basically, our first mile was the horse trail with a lot of small hills, which is ok. But when you have to run hills continuously it becomes a practice in masochism. You just have to love pain, love to push yourself. The coach's practice really helps us to push ourselves and to realize that this pain will eventually subside. So that when it comes time to do 26.2, we will approach it with confidence.
I have to say that I was able to go back to my sprinting roots. One of our exercises was to run two sets of 100m wind sprints. Something I love and something that I did all throughout high school. Short distance sprinting has always been relaxing for me.
So I loved doing the sprints because I have to do a lot of wind sprints to tire. This gave me renewed confidence in my ability to get back into physical shape.
Then the coach took us to a crazy big hill and we had to run up it twice, which was okay until we had to run backwards up the hill. That burned my glutes and hamstrings big time and unfortunately, all the blood rushing to my very "meaty" thighs meant that the blood was rushing from my head. Which in turn made me light-headed to the point of dizziness. Luckily, that was our last activity because afterwards, I nearly passed out.
First I got the shakes, then I got the "hearing through a tunnel," then the blackness started to close in, so I sat down immediately. That's when the coach told us to jog back. But I knew if I stood up I would just end up on the ground and seriously needing some CPR. And since we all had runner's breath I thought I would be polite to my teammates and stay on the ground and conscious. So my two teammates Donna & Casimiro sat with me until I could get up with passing out, which meant that they didn't get to jog back and they didn't get to do all of their workout.
I was so appreciative and touched that they forewent their own training to make sure I was ok. Coach even ran back to make sure I was ok, and he reassured me it was going to be ok. That sometimes this happens, but the more we train the less this will happen.
Exhaustion today tasted like camaraderie, exhaustion tastes best when it's shared with people who understand that even if your mind can go on, your body may not agree.
So once again to my teammates THANK YOU!
Please donate to LLS. My teammates and I are all training to help find a cure.
Show your camaraderie by working with LLS and donating to a worthy cause!
Roxanne Villaluz's Team in Training Website
http://pages.teamintraining.org/cca/nikesf08/rvillaluz
Casimiro Llamas, Jr.'s Team in Training Website
http://pages.teamintraining.org/cca/nikesf08/cllamas
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment