The Journey – 238.2 Miles:
The A2B Route cut a few more miles into the Mojave Desert along Kelbaker Road. This highway is quiet and lonely. From online photos, the road looks desolate. However, every place has its own beauty as can be seen in the attached photo.
Just a few more miles left to enter the Mojave National Preserve.
The Run:
Heeding the Heat Wave Running Rules of Thumb, I got up extra early this morning. Mr. Heatmiser got an early start as well. The temperature was already a few notches above ‘unseasonably warm!’
Having recently spent a day zip-lining and doing obstacle courses, I woke up very sore and tight. I made sure to properly stretch. Especially, my calves and my IT Bands. Afterwards, I grabbed bottle of water out of the icebox and headed out. (As mentioned in previous, I keep a small pile of bottled water in the freezer during the warm summer months.) After a few minutes of running, my lingering soreness began to subside somewhat. As it did, I could feel my stride start to stretch and lengthen.
I finished the remainder of the run at normal pace. Though the soreness never completely yielded, I thoroughly enjoyed my run!!!
The Mind:
I spent the first part of my run concentrating on my body. Though I had stretched plenty, I want to avoid any running injury. So I monitored for any potential injury indicators while managing muscle soreness.
I thought about how I don’t mind the sorenss. In fact most of the time, I kind of dig it!
To me it is sign that my body is alive and has been active! It is a reminder that I did something challenging and/or difficult (and usually fun)!
Soreness is also one small example of how amazing the human body is. A good, hard work out will put a lot of stress and pressure on muscle cells. It causes damage, known as microtears, to the weak muscle cells. This is where much of the achiness comes from. At this point the body does the most amazing thing. While it is repairing itself, it also makes itself stronger. Put another way, instead of restoring the muscle cells to their earlier state, they innately repair AND strengthen themselves. So the soreness that you feel after working out is evidence that you are reprogramming your muscle structure and getting fitter.
Most of the time, the best thing for soreness is movement. Among other things, movement loosens your muscles up a bit. It also works the lactic acid out of your muscles which is some of the source of the soreness. Knowing this, I waited and watched as I ran. As my muscles warmed up and started working some of the sting out, I enjoyed feeling my legs, arms, and back adapt and adjust to each level of release. It is a remarkable process. I love moments like this where I am both the observer and the participant. Kind of cool!
As a side note, I leveraged some of this last year after a car accident. I was pretty sore. Intensely at first! Then slowly fading over the next couple of months. I watched with fascination as my body worked to repair itself. I actively managed the balance of letting my body repair and strengthen itself and applying movement to help it heal itself. For a little more information, check out the A2B Story. Otherwise feel free to email me at a2b@sub4minds.com or direct message @RunA2B on Twitter.