Racing horses in the park.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

The weather couldn’t have been any better for a ride, but I knew that the time was limited. Once on the bike, I rarely ride less than 90 minutes and I would not have that kind of time this day. I did have an hour though, and decided I’d give running just one more day.

Leaves are beginning to fall and are covering the roots and rocks that like to trip me up on a run. I ran carefully over the first part of the trail, which has the most roots and hazards and with this intense, downward focus, almost didn’t notice the two horses dead ahead.

Having spent considerable time at Fieldstone Farm Therapeutic Riding Center, I know the importance of not coming up behind horses and startling them. Since these two were walking, I was gaining on them rapidly. I cleared my throat loudly and one of the riders turned and saw me. She said something to her partner, clucked to her horse and they broke into a cantor and moved ahead. Problem was, the pace they were now moving was almost identical to my running pace…and maybe a little slower. An occasional glance back told the riders this and they went into a gallop to pull away. After a couple of turns in the trail, I lost sight of them, but I knew what was going to happen. These were not your thoroughbred racing horses and the riders on them were…well…wide. After reading ‘Born to Run’ and learning how elite runners can outrun elite horses over longer distances, I figured a mediocre runner (me) could outrun mediocre horses with big humans on their backs…eventually.

I continued my plod for five minutes before I again had them in my sights. They’d slowed as I’d expected and this time as I gained on them, it occurred to them that they should let me pass…and I did. They thanked me for not spooking their mounts as I went around, which I acknowledged and pulled away. So yeah…I beat the horses. Fortunately, this all happened in the first part of my run. By the time I reached 40 minutes, I was beginning to feel the accumulation of the last five days of running and knew that I was slowing. My left buttocks was sore and I was trying to evaluate it against the right to determine if it was somehow related to the hip injury, but concluded that it was not and continued on. I returned to the car at the 50-minute mark, extremely pleased with having run my longest time on my fifth consecutive day of running and with no hip pain. I’m convinced…I’m cured.

I really need for Holly to return. My eating sucks lately. I went to my sister’s and had split pea soup, which would have been okay, but she never has just one thing to eat…and it’s usually more like seven. I had a couple of slices of pizza, some corn bread, a second bowl of soup and finished it all off with a slice of Baker’s Square Apple Pie…which had some kind of whipped cream topping to boot. Whatever I’d burned during the run, I added back and then some. We came home with a bunch of leftovers, which I’ll annihilate tomorrow.

Run duration: 50 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 850.