Flashback Friday: Faster, Weaker

My arms were powerless. My body hung squirming from the bar. There would be no more pull-ups today. Had the urge to rediscover the puke threshold sabotaged the rest of the workout? Or was it that these weeklong breaks between workouts keep forcing me to take a step back after a step forward? Maybe it was just the heat.

Yesterday's visit to the Sand Run Parcours Trail occurred on Northeast Ohio's return to summery weather, with a temperature in the high 70s, which is probably the hottest it's been during a run this year. Can you say "sweaty mess"? I knew that you could.

Although running the par course has become a weekly event this month, breaks of five or more days between runs remains a fairly regular thing, because obviously these short runs are really tiring. My own frustration over my lack of consistency sometimes causes me to do something really stupid like seeing if I can get myself to puke by starting off the workout in a near sprint. By the time I got to the pull-up bar, my body felt wobbly.

It seems those prescribed walk breaks along the course help you recover from each exercise before getting to the next station. Furthermore, I had forgotten my watch, which I use to time my recovery between each rep at the pull-up bar, and I know I usually spend a good five minutes there. Instead I rushed myself and wasn't able to match my previous outings. My arms crapped out after six pull-ups. OK, maybe it was more like five and a half.

By this time, sweat was spurting from my brow. My  body sagged like it had a sad. My mind wandered to cope with the total bummer that were the remaining exercise stations. Do you know what this nice weather reminds me of doing? Running barefoot. I haven't done that in a really long time.

Doing 10 push-ups felt the way it would if you were William "Refrigerator" Perry but had the arms of Kate Moss. Leg lifts seemed to be rupturing my quadriceps. Forget about not embarrassing myself on the balance beam. In the end, though, it was another course record, shaving a full three minutes off last time. Sadly, the puke threshold eluded me.