Albuquerque pt 1: Training

Now I live at an elevation of 6000 feet. On the other hand, my old training grounds were somewhere in the 600 ft range with elevations changes few and far between. This was not obviously a problem until I arrived in New Mexico and tried to walk. Or ride the motorcycle.

In fairness, grad school left my fitness laughable, so the disadvantage was all mine. Perhaps accounting for this, the cosmic forces chose to relocate me to a great mecca of fitness, with bikers, hikers and yoggers all around. And more importantly, geographically interesting and diverse challenges upon which to bike, hike and yog. Of course "geographically interesting" means "elevation changes." Big 'ems. Now that I've had a couple weeks to hike around and acquaint my calves with the steepness of this place, it was time to get back to running.

Today's run went some thing like this: First, we live on a hill. So upon entering the street, one can run up or down the hill. Unfortunately down doesn't lead anywhere you might particularly want to run to. Plus, there are amazing, mountainous trails that start just 3/4 of a mile away. So you (I) start by venturing up the hill. This is my second attempt at jogging here and last time i made the mistake of running right off, as I would in, say, Ohio. This made me quite useless once I'd reached the trails, so I start today by walking up the hill.

Shortly there is a cross street that travels along the mountain, rather than towards or away from it, so this street is relatively flat. It's the only street I know of in the area that behaves as such, and this is where I begin my run. I'm at almost exactly 6000 feet above sea level and I want to ease my body into the suffering, starting with a flat surface. But soon, another cross street and I turn again, up hill, towards the mountain. This is the road to the trail head, about half a mile up. This is also where the locals with their hiking canes and $5k mountain bikes part their (old school) VW Beetles and (new school) 350Z's. I'm already feeling the uphill/high altitude punch, but I need to maintain the facade at least long enough to pass by these well-tanned, well-to-dos, and make it fully off the pavement.

I've been jogging for near half a mile and it's been a while since I've looked up... But now I'm running in gravely. Noting the change, i look up and see the geography ahead now fills my field view. Some the left extreme to the right and most of the way up, is the mountain. It is the type of grandeur that cannot be captured in a photograph, but It looks something like this: the base (except closer, and bigger)

Now that I've arrived at the mountain, all trails will be, well, up hill. Exhausted, now I take a walking break. As I slow down i realize i have a headache and my calf muscles are burning. And walking up hill is putting extra stress on my knee caps. either way, i continue around the gradual, back path behind Nipple Hill. I don't think that's is the official name, but it is what we know it as. Walking, walking, walking... Finally i reach the crest hind Nipple Hill, meaning a down hill stint and back towards the trail head... TIME TO RUN! (This time is also called "why does it hurt do much when i breath?) Either way running down the hill feels like a breeze, but that might be the 30mph spring time wind, which seems to always be fighting my progress. Now i just need to make sure my feet move fast enough to keep my down hill jog from turning into a down hill stumble.

At this point i like to black out for a while, until I near the house. If I time things right (which i never do) I could arrive right in time to catch the Albuquerque Sun set over the city, as seen from our street. It looks something like (but not quite as good as) this: