Heading Back Down the Hard Hot Highway

I ran 24 road miles last weekend, and it was difficult. My legs were not up to the pounding and I had to push through the pain. The hardest part however was simply being out there on my own. It calls for a willingness to pretty much waste a day. I’ve listened to myself for too long to be much interesting in what I have to say.

This week Don took pity on me and we met in Hawaii Kai. I’d run out there which was about 11 miles from Manoa, and I was ready for some company. Since Don and I hadn’t seen each other much for weeks it was a good opportunity to catch up on the happenings in each others lives. And we have a good synergy that allows us to push each other whenever one weakens.

It was a lot like the Hard Hot Highways of last summer when we were getting Don ready to run the Badwater, only now I am the one in need of training as HURT looms only weeks away.

We ran from Hawaii Kai, out to Makapu’u and then up to the light, and then through Waimanalo to the edge of Kailua at Keolu road. We turned there and returned the same path. On the way out Makapu’u was pumping hard and it looked like it was one of those ‘survival’ days. By the time we returned it had dropped off and was looking fairly tame. It is about how we felt on that last climb up toward the top of the bay--we too were played out. But when we turned into the Light road everything changed and I tried hard to bury Don with a fast race walk. He kept up, just as he had done the first time, and I was forced to run some of the move level sections. I hit the top with my heart rate monitor hitting 173 and Don right on my heels.

So Don and I did about 20 miles and I added on an additional 11 or so to get to Kalama in Hawaii Kai. We finished up with my clock reading Nine hours of training. I could have gone on back to Manoa, but I was developing a hot spot on my left heel and thought the better of it, and caught a ride back with Don.

It helped. I am beginning to feel better about doing 100 miles in a few weeks. We hope to go out on Wednesday and do much the same thing. I want to do a fifty somewhere along the way. Perhaps the trails will dry enough for it to be feasible to do a few hurt loops before race day.

Either way today was important. It needed to be done, and getting it done has opened the door to running the HURT despite the horrible conditions in the hills.