I was recently thinking (I know, I know, I shouldn’t) about this whole lumbering thing I’ve been doing for the past two years, which has sometimes morphed into attempts at trail running, especially recently, and why I have been enjoying it despite not being good at it.
I was eager for a lumber at Deerfield on Thursday morning and was in bed Wednesday night just as the sun set.
Sadly, I was wide awake about 4 hours later and would remain so for hours before briefly falling asleep and dreaming about legs covered in mosquito bites that I squeezed like pimples and orange centipede-like worms came out. Needless to say, I passed on breakfast. And I almost thought about passing on the hike.
I did not.
It was nice to return to the Hall’s Lake Natural Area for a hike in the woods on Tuesday, and it did wonders to improve my mood as well as help get my creative juices flowing despite not seeing much to photograph.
I was also eager to get back to running1 on Wednesday and mapped out a new 5-mile on-the-nose course using Mapmyride.com. Apparently, they don’t discriminate against you if don’t plan on riding a bike.
Before I start typing shit that no one, including me, cares about, I am coming clean that I missed my already shortened goal of 25 miles lumbered last week by 5 miles. It was the second failed week in a row.
Or was it?
After I recovered from Thursday’s lumber/run and lawn mowing, I was eager to get back into the woods on Friday morning, especially since the horn-happy UPS dude dropped off some new shoes that I was anxious to break in.
After months of going back and forth between the Speedgoat 52 and the New Balance Fresh Foams3, along with reading and watching shoe reviews, I finally found a running shoe that appears to fit my needs as a shoe to hike and lumber in, but more importantly, are light and supportive enough for my version of trail running. That shoe is the North Face Altamesa 500.
I had a loose plan to do my version of running on Thursday and found myself at the trailhead parking lot and ready to go at 7:45.
After three lumberless days, I was back in the woods early Wednesday morning for a slow but much-needed 5-mile hike. It felt swell. Not great, but swell.
I was up and in the woods by 7:15 Saturday morning, looking to stomp out 5 miles, hit my 25-mile weekly goal, and get home for breakfast and coffee while watching the USWNT quarter-final game.
That was the plan, until it wasn’t.
Wednesday’s “runber” was a mild success for me (I don’t run), but it came with a painful cost, and that meant skipping a lumber/run altogether on Thursday to concentrate on mowing the lawn and a variety of other tasks about the Cul De Sac Shack that required functioning feet.
Tuesday night was a horrible night’s sleep, and I found myself wide awake at 2 AM and unable to get in the temperature zone: too hot, then too cold, then needing to pee, then falling asleep, then repeating the process until 6 AM when I could finally end the cycle and get out of bed.
