There’s a huge difference between being thoughtful  and over thinking things ad nauseam.   I often have a hard time discriminating between the two, which is why its taken me so long to complete this post.  While I live in fear of writing crap (and disappointing readers), I also don’t take myself completely seriously.   Because my blog has recently been  blowin’ up, I’m putting even more pressure on myself to make it mind-blowing.   However, after careful consideration I’ve decided that if I’m deliberating more than I’m actually writing, I’ll never post an entry again and that would be heartbreaking (to me, at least).

Just when I’m sure I have myself all figured out, BAM! I go and blow my own mind.  It turns out I’m much less predictable and a lot more full of surprises than I’d thought.  Due to my recent vacation track (or lack thereof) record, I could not be any more pleasantly shocked to report that I, VJB, ran not 1, not 2, but 3 different stamina-and-sanity-testing times during my 7 day stay in Lake Tahoe last week several weeks ago!

If you’re an endurance reader and actually made it through my entire painstakingly detailed post about how I systematically resisted succumbing to any bit of training (in appropriate footwear) on my last trip to Tahoe, you’ll understand what a big deal this really is.  When I purposely packed my suitcase full  by including 3 sets of running clothes, 2 pairs of sneakers, sport sunglasses, a Spibelt, a Garmin, a rain jacket  and a whole bunch of  lofty aspirations, even I believed I was full of shit.

Who cares?  Lots of people go on vacation and don’t work out or go on vacation and do work out or go on vacation and do whatever they do and don’t need to blog about it one way or another.   On our previous trip to Tahoe, although I mostly kept it to myself,  I think I spent just as much time (if not more) beating myself up for not working out as I did traipsing around in flip flops hauling heavy loads.  I was determined to not repeat either my many sedentary mistakes, nor the greedy conception of a beer and pizza fetus  which I carried home last month.  Both errors in judgement took quite some time to get over.

The morning of our departure, the Tahoe forecast called for rain all day long.  I decided to squeeze in a quick, dry 5-miler before heading out since the likelihood of me running at high altitude AND in a torrential downpour was  slim to none (even with the rain jacket I had the foresight to jam into my suitcase).  As you can see, I was unwavering in my intention to start this vacation out on the right foot (with the proper footwear) and since I’m so new to CrossFit, running was the best chance I had at sticking to this resolve.  I’ve heard tales of people who go on vacation and work out at foreign CrossFit boxes while they’re away.  They proudly represent their CrossFit gym by sporting their attire, and often come home with a shirt from the place where they were a visiting athlete.  I’d been doing CrossFit for about 10 weeks at this point, but was nowhere near ready to take my “skills” outside the comfort of my home box.  If I’m ever to be so bold, I’ll need to have a special t-shirt made listing the many personal disclaimers for my performance,

*CrossFit Newbie*   *Box Jumps Are Scary*  *Think My Squat is Bad?  You Should See My Snatch.*  *Mobility Challenged*  *iModify*  *Who the hell is Fran?*   .. etc.

so that I won’t embarrass myself too much.  But anyway, I’ll finally stop going off on tangents and get to the part that you really can’t wait to read-  about how I became Queen of the Mountain.  No,  I’m not going to document all the family fun  that was had, or describe the stellar tan I cultivated (once it stopped raining), or boast about the mostly conscientious food choices I made.  Instead, I’m going to get back to basics and only tell you about running.

The town I call home, and where I log most of my miles, is at an elevation of 30 feet above sea level.   Truckee, CA, where my family vacationed, is at an elevation of 5,936 feet.  Now I’m no math whiz, but that’s a really, really, really big difference in altitude.  Plus it’s not like Truckee is perched  atop the world on flat terrain, so high one could peek over the edge and see forever.  No.  There are many, many, many, many hills which make running in these parts quite challenging.  So why, pray tell, would anyone want to run here, while on vacation no less? Hold on.  I’ll show you in a  second.

Unfortunately, the only photo I have from Run #1 is a screen shot from Map My Run.  I’d never used this app while running, only to map out routes in advance, but quickly downloaded it to my iPhone when minutes before I was ready to lace up I found that I’d forgotten to charge my Garmin.  Once I zipped my phone in to my Spibelt (a glorified fanny pack) and clipped it in place, there was no turning back.  I began with a steady 2- mile ascent, and since I’d forgotten my headphones back in Marin, I had no distraction from the sound of my strangled breath other than the muffled barking of the Map My Run lady from my netherlands.   Only 2 miles in and I was already second guessing myself, well mostly just my choice of routes and the decision to run with my iPhone volume clicked on.  But I was more than a little frustrated as I climbed that hill and attempted to strike all kinds of deals with myself:

OK.  When you get to the top of this hill, you can turn around and go home.  A 4-mile run at high altitude is just fine.  You need to ease in to running at this elevation.  You can do a longer run tomorrow once you’ve adjusted. 

But once I reached the top of the hill, I didn’t want to turn around or stop to take a picture.  I wish I could say it was because I felt strong and omnipotent but it was really because I thought it would be dumb to only  do a 4-miler when half of it was an easy, downhill, momentum-propelled  sprint.  And had I stopped to snap some photos, I probably would have changed my mind again, because that’s how fickle I can be.  I completed the planned 6.28 mile loop without collapsing during the final 1 mile steep climb home.  I’m completely aware that this mileage is nowhere near awe-inspiring, especially for someone who’s run marathons.  But what I’m choosing to focus on, and what I love about this picture, are both how it captures the reality of the conditions under which I performed (see elevation graph)  and the fact that you can’t see what my pace was.

Run #2 was much more exciting since it was also a date with my man.  CMB had run around Donner Lake (twice) last summer when he competed in a half-Ironman triathlon.  Since he was familiar with the route, he gave me a pep talk and a heads up as to where the most challenging climbs fell along the way.  It turns out that even after almost 17 years of marriage, the guy can still surprise me.  Supposedly, according to CMB, there were only 2 major hills on this route.  However, after our second ascent, the love of my life began preparing me for the next elevation increase.  I had been bamboozled.  Needless to say, there were more than 2 endurance/marriage-testing climbs on this route.  But CMB redeemed himself by running me ragged to this view, and was even so kind as to snap a picture

which quickly reminded me of why we do these things while on vacation.

I know  I said that I wasn’t going to bore you with more accounts of how my family is the most fun, but since Run #3 was a direct result of our idea of entertainment, I’ve gotsta tell you about it.   Last summer, one of the highlights (at least that’s the way some of us remembered it) of our Tahoe trip was a family bike ride/run along the Truckee River.  We parked at Squaw Valley and began our high-adventure trek along a paved path, the kids on bikes and adults on foot.  CMB and I decided that we’d be satisfied with logging 6 1/2 miles, and figured that was all our pit crew would tolerate.  While it was the most physically pleasant run of the week, it was probably the most mentally taxing.  Someone, who shall remain nameless, was not happy about letting the good times roll longer than 10 minutes.  Said person was tired (after a great night’s sleep), hungry (just had breakfast AND a snack), hot (even though it was early/cool), and bored (I’ve got nothing).  But we pressed on, despite the complaining and pauses in motion (not sure which drove me more insane), and made it back to the car( 6 1/2 miles later) without losing anyone in the river.

 

Some of us were smiling..

For the most part it was a great week!  I had several hours for reflection on the car ride home, in between torturing my kids by singing along with the ’90s Alternative satellite radio station.  I thought about all of the earth shattering and  world rocking stuff we had done on vacation, but was mostly blown away that this time around I had conquered one huge obstacle- myself.

 

 

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