Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Sunday, October 4, 2015

9/21/15-9/25/15

Monday- Knowing I had the VT50 coming up at the end of the week, I decided to take it easy after Lone Gull. Unfortunately, when I woke up on Monday, I noticed that my left glute was bothering me a little bit. Nothing major, just noticeable. My left groin, as well. Hmm. It didn't really surprise me. I had this same pain before, a lot of it due to driving, and I had been driving a lot in the last week. Ambulances, too. Ever since we switched from A6 to A3 for our regular Wednesday truck (when I do the transfers), I've noticed this glute (sciatica maybe?) pain return. It was nothing new to me. I had it back in 2011 when we bought an old car with a messed up seat. I solved it by visiting the chiropractor and sitting on a pillow. No big deal. So I thought this was probably the same thing.

I ran easy on a flat road from the Tamworth base after work, since I was on call. I ran two loops through that Aviation Community again. It's actually a great place to run for me, since it's off the main road, and I can get back to the base quickly if I get called in. Due to the road being so flat, my taking-it-easy pace was semi-fast. 9.6 miles in 7:21/mi pace. I had planned to do some Strava art on the runway, but just as I got on there, a plane had landed and went right to one of the houses where I was. I wasn't, technically, supposed to be on the runway, so I had to stay in a smaller space than planned. Needless to say, it was an epic fail. My smilie face came out drunk. I can't stop laughing every time I look at it. Haha.

Strava art FAIL
Tuesday- Slept in a little, then drove over to the Moat Mineral Site for a short trail run. Once again, noticing the ache in the butt, but it didn't hinder my run at all. Just noticeable. Nice run with Spot. 6.7 miles. 950ft of elevation gain. Nothing crazy.
Thompson Falls. Pre-deluge so it was looking a bit low.
John came home that morning, and since I had a few errands to do in town, we ended up going to Echo Lake for a walk on new-to-me mountain bike trails from Cathedral Ledge Rd. Mr. I-Hate-Running ran almost the entire way. Haha.




Wednesday- I got up early for a treadmill run, but as planned for an easy week, I cut it back to 3.1 miles in 7:07/mi pace. I felt the glute pain a little more, but still, it didn't hinder my run. Definitely more noticeable, though. Kind of got nervous thinking about VT50, but I knew I would be taking it easy for my 24 hour shift, so I thought it would be good rest.

When I got to work, I went in the ambulance bay and found my boss's car parked in there. Awesome. :) How I could I resist not doing something to it?

We turned out to be pretty busy all day, and then I was up ALL NIGHT. Not good, knowing what was coming up on Thursday night and then VT50. We had to take a patient to Central Maine Medical Hospital. Talk about the WORST drive you can take in the middle of the night. Dark, back roads of Maine. So hard to stay awake. We made sure to stop at Dunkin' Donuts in Lewiston before going back, but coffee only keeps me awake as I'm drinking it. As soon as it's gone, I'm ready to sleep. Yeah, I'm one of those people who can drink a lot of coffee then go right to sleep.
Middle of the night selfie at DDs in Lewiston, ME.
We got back around 5am, so I was able to get about 1.5 hours of sleep, but it was not enough. I actually came home and slept for another 2 hours still in my uniform, which I never do. I was beat.

Thursday- After my nap, I got up and drove over to Hemlock Lane to do a nice loop in the Green Hills. Still, feeling the glute, but it didn't bother me on the run at all. I was able to fly downhill as usual. I ran Corridor 19 to the Mason Brook Trail, then up that to the Black Cap Connector Trail. That turns into the Peaked Mt Trail which I ran over to the Sidehill MTB Trail and back to my car. 9 miles, 1685ft of elevation gain. It was an ok run, mainly because I was just so tired; I felt good otherwise. BUT, I decided that I should probably take Friday and Saturday off from running. The ache in the glute had me concerned, and I thought 2 days off would fix it. Hahaha. I was dumb.

After my run, I had to meet up with a friend, who also happens to be a CPR instructor, to get my CPR recertification that I remembered was expiring at the end of September. Oops! I grabbed lunch at #PieWholeStuffer with my gift certificate from the Whitaker Woods Snowshoe Scramble (I tend to hold on to these things for a long time), and then we sat on the porch at her work in the sun to do the CPR recert. My kind of CPR class! Haha.

I was running short on time after that because I was heading down to Dover to catch a charter bus with Six03 to the Red Sox game. At this point, I was SO tired and just wanted to stay home, but I had already paid for my bus and game tickets and knew I would have fun. And, yes, it was a lot of fun. Dangerous with the free beer from Smuttynose on the way down and the beers that were handed to me at the game. Plus, all I ate was a pretzel. I don't think I even watched a second of the game. Haha. At some point a beer was spilled all over my bag, and the peanuts that were being thrown in my cup splashed beer all over me. I smelled awesome.
Eric Narcisi was pretending to take a selfie, but it was actually a picture of me. Haha.
I stopped drinking early enough so that I had about 3.5 hours to sober up for the drive home. Talk about a brutal ride home. No sleep, and my car smelled like a beer can. I don't know how I would have brushed that off if I had gotten pulled over. I was completely sober, but he would have had me out of the car, for sure. I got home at 2am. Once again, beating myself up 4 days before the VT50. Yeah, I like to push my limits.

Friday- I slept in until 8:30am. I think I needed that. I called the chiropractor to schedule an appt that morning. I told him about the left glute pain I was having, but other than a regular adjustment, he didn't do much for me. He said it appeared to be a piriformis issue and that I needed to stretch it. Hmm. Ok. I walked out of there feeling a little uneasy. I knew that this was going to bother me during the VT50, but I still wasn't concerned about it actually hurting my race. Boy, was I wrong and completely blindsided by it on Sunday.

John came home early since his dad had an early meeting at work, so I drove him up to Tin Mountain for his homeschool class and then took a walk backwards on my Dirty Girl course with all 3 dogs. This would be the first time I would feel a few sharp pains in my left glute as I walked downhill. Still nothing I thought would hurt me on Sunday to the point it did. John had walked with his dad that morning and again at his homeschool group, so we didn't do anything the rest of the day. He had his own race the next morning, so we just hung at home the rest of the night.
Woke up looking awesome after Thursday's night

I think I was scaring Chill. My front door needs cleaning.

One of the 4 missed Dirty Girl course markings I found on my walk. I just left them for next year. :)



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