Staci asked me to write about going running with my Dad.
The runs I do with my Dad are intense and very unconventional, even for a cross country runner. Dad calls them adventure runs. These aren't runs that I'd take very many people on. I always wish more people could come and see because there fun to do, we see incredible sites, and they'd be as fun to watch as a chase seen in a movie - (with a little of cut and paste to take out the slow parts). However, I don't know many people outside of my dad that I could take with me on this kind of run. It requires a lot of cross country, off the trail experience and a love of hills. It also requires flexible and strong ankles, good eye-foot control, and phenomenal balance while traveling at a decent pace. Finally it requires the ability to run for about 3 hours in that kind of condition. Without out all of these abilities a person would get injured very easily. For example: today, I twisted my ankle about 3 times due to bad eye-foot co-ordination (twists are going to happen on a run like this -every step won't be perfect). However, thanks to my ankle's strength, flexibility, and good cerebellar balance, I rolled with my ankle and rolled right out of the twist - in other words: no pain. You could get hurt a lot of other ways too. For example: I did a 10 foot jump (not the longest) down a steep incline and as I landed I slipped in the soft dirt for about 7 feet. Now if you threw your weight around incorrectly you'd probably throw it right over a cliff while trying to do such a landing. Due to experience, not only was this not a scary experience, it was a blast because I knew I had total control, and yet it was something out of a movie. You could take a nasty fall while running down hill through rocky terrain at a 7 min. mile pace. Scary because there's cactus and little lava rocks all over to fall on.
Dad does the down hill cross country running part so much better than I do.
Truly, my Dad is one of the only people I can think of that I feel comfortable doing this with, where I don't need to worry about him.
Well today we decided to make it interesting by going deer hunting - or more like deer herding. In Africa they jog behind the animals. the animal will sprint ahead of the tribal hunters and then rest. The runners just keep jogging. What happens is the runners are able to jog for a long time, but the poor animal gets tired of doing wind sprints (sprint, rest, sprint, rest). Eventually the animal collapses and the runners just take out a knife and slit the animals throat. No struggle, no guns, - just a nice morning jog.
So one of the mountains we frequently run/climb/scamper all over happens to have a ton of deer that call it home. We didn't bring a knife or anything, but we wanted to try and just herd the deer all over the mountain. We started out chasing one right off the bat. Then there were 2, then 15, and then 30 deer.
We realized something. This would be a lot easier if we were on the flat plains of Africa. The deer in the mountains were so elusive, but we managed to stay on top of them. They would bound out of sight and down into a ravine. There are so many ravines on the mountain. that the deer could duck into any of them and hide. This makes keeping track of them challenging and a lot of luck is needed since they camouflage so nicely with their surroundings. The other thing is that we were basically doing hill sprints, which is not quite the way we were supposed to be doing this run based on the African hunting method. Nevertheless, we enjoyed chasing them to all corners of the mountain. Before it was time to go home 2.5 hours later. To finish out the workout we had a blast jumping in and out of the fingers of the mountain.
Some mountains have these finger like projections that are steep at first and create a series of ravines. Well, we were on a side of the mountain. we hadn't been on before and there were these long, and extremely steep hills jutting out in rows away from the mountain. We needed to get back down so there was one safe option - traverse. By going mostly along side the mountain. we could gradually drop down. The dirt here was really soft so it made for amazingly safe landings. We could drop down 15ft or so onto a very steep, and very soft incline. We had so much fun going down this way. It was like running sideways on a wall and then throwing your body into the air and flying. It was nice because with the soft dirt we didn't have to worry about the landing, you could just throw your body in the air, pretend you're flying, and then when you land rely on your body's balancing reflexes to make for a controlled landing.
The other thing I like about these runs is the need to use our arms and hands to scramble up a hill. This allows for a more upper body and core workout then we typically get with just running.
The best part of these runs though is getting to talk to my Dad. I always enjoy and learn from his example and his perspectives.
Seriously though - everyone needs to try this type of run- when they're ready. It is sooooo much fun to bounce, run, and slide all over a mountain. It's like a roller coaster ride that they serve healthy endorphins on.
Well, that's probably too detailed a description for most people. Sorry, I Love talking about working out, but especially this kind of work out.
3 comments:
I second that idea that not everyone can keep up! I remember twisting my ankle with a pop at the start of the Subway in Zion and then I was a babying it the rest of the time! Some people are just more hard core than others! :) I loved joining you, though, even though it was beyond my reach at the time. Also, it's hard to get used to that "check your common sense at the door" requirement. :) Just teasing, Ryan. Love you!
oh man just reading that sounded awesome, but made me think about my poor beat up ankles, how cool is that that your dad can run with you (or you can run with your dad) Awesome, thanks for sharing, I didn't know that there were people that could actually run for fun for 3 hours. :) Tell stacy we all need to meet before you all more out of hurricane.
Hey Stacey, I just wanted to say Hello realy quick! I miss seeing ya!
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