The Hurt Shop

My coaches gave me some inspiration this weekend that I have to share. First, on Saturday I worked with Coach Keith on my run. At this point, I'm still only running about 2 miles at a time but Coach had an idea. We would strengthen all the muscles around the "healing" muscle so when it's time for us to run.... I will be strong enough! SO... we did spent some quality time on run exercises!! And I left there with some very very sore quad muscles. I am going to incorporate these drills into my workouts in the upcoming weeks.

THEN... TODAY! There was much discussion of where we would ride out 3 1/2 hour ride today. There were lots of options. We decided on a ride in Barrington with the Lifetime Fitness crew. I was told we would find the killer hill loop and learn to love it! Well.. I got "stuck" on the killer hill loop today. M and I lost the group we were riding with so we thought... we'll just go around again and meet the slower riders we were with. WE never found them... so on and on we go! After three times around the loop, we were on our way to "base" when we found our group. AND.. guess what they wanted to do!? The Killer Hill Loop one more time.. we groveled but agreed. Off we went and as we were climbing those hills again..... I remembered my other coach. She says, "Go to the hurt shop and buy whatever they have." This really means you should work hard every time you are out there to push your maxium to the next level. So.. to the hurt shop I went and I DIDNOT walk up any of the hills, I climbed them on my precious. Even though it was the fourth time!! And we headed home to "base" after the loop. I was a bit behind the group, as my legs were really screaming at me!! When I got to the parking lot, my riding partner M had put her bike on the back of her car. I was aghast... we had 45 minutes left, but she was done. SO.. I told her.. take that bike down, we got 45 minutes left... let's go. She didn't want to..but guess what...she did! And off we went. At this point a flat road would have made me grin from ear to ear... but there are none to be had in Barrington, IL and the wind was picking up. SO... as much as I was looking for an easy 45 minutes to finish this ride, it wasn't going to happen. BACK to the hurt shop I went and I finished that ride with a smile on my face. I'm icing heavily tonight. I think my run tomorrow will help get the kinks out... at least I hope so!

Total Hurt Shop Purchase... Priceless!