One Clydesdale’s Journey

Well this week had a few low points and a few high points.

I managed to make sure that I stayed very well hydrated during Tri-Fit this past week. But that did not mean that I stayed injury free from it.

The weather was nice, so for the run portion we ran outside. This weeks drills; wind sprints up a very steep hill here in Tosa! Well I foolishly started out trying to keep up with the coach on the first one. By the third one I had a lung cramp that was almost unbearable, but it went away after a little while.

It just didn’t stay away. I woke up Friday morning with the worst stitch on the right side of my back. And although I can get it to go away for a little while, it won’t stay away

Luckily, I had a little relief from it on Saturday when I was getting ready to run the Sarah’s Stride 5k.

But that doesn’t mean that it stayed away for the whole run either.

Just before the 1 mile mark it came back. It didn’t stop me in my tracks like it did on Thursday night, but it did slow me down to a walk for a little while.

From that point on I would push on with the running as long as I could before I had to slow down to a walk so that I could catch my breath again. I have to admit that I walked a lot more than I would have liked, but there was just nothing that I could do about it.

But, despite all the extra walking I was still able to finish the race with a new personal record (PR)! I haven’t been able to find the official times posted yet, but my own unofficial time had me across the finish at 31:10.

That’s down some 9 minutes off my first race last year at the Grape Stomp which this Clydesdale is feeling pretty good about.

And almost to my goal for this summer of a sub 30 minute 5k.

That’s a stand alone 5k, there is still no telling what my time will be once I attempt that after the swim and a bike. But I’ll see what I can do in a bike / run brick in one of the coming weekends.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training