Saturday, I was surprisingly unsore after my 10k. Sure, my knees ached a little, but not bad, considering. My thighs, calves, back – all fine. Sunday morning I woke up and could hardly move. My legs were still fine, my knees had recovered, but my hips, oh those bastards felt like someone had poured crushed glass into them!
After lamenting with Corrie over why neither of us (or anyone we knew) had a hot tub, I settled for taking short laps around the house and took a long hot shower. By the afternoon, I had loosened up enough to keep a date I had planned: hiking through a local park.
Yes, I know, maybe not my smartest idea, scheduling a long walk so soon after my run. But I knew I would probably be a little sore, and I knew the best thing for it was probably a short walk at a leisurely pace. I’d force my muscles to warm up a little bit and I’d feel better. Which is exactly what happened.
Almost.
I mean, I felt great after I walked! I felt even better than when I started and I wasn’t even out of breath. (My walking partner, on the other hand was limping slightly and panting.) Of course, that might be because we didn’t exactly keep to the short-ish portion of the plan – we walked 5 miles. I guess when you’re running four miles three times a week, walking five is…well, a walk in the park.
But that wasn’t the interesting part! The interesting part was what I refer to as the Tunnel of Death: a stretch where alllll of the trees on either side of us seemed to have clots of dried leaves. The trees are still bare down here (although a few are starting to bud) so we could see the branches very clearly, although my distance sight is shot. So it took me a minute to realize that the clots of dead leaves were actually nests. Wasps’ nests. And there were hundreds of them.
Creeeeeepy. Even though none of the nests was that big (yet), I hope they were there because everything was dead and not being minded and not because park rangers were trying to create some sort of reality TV show, Deadliest Walk, or something. Because that park is known for its giant spiders that like to cross the path right in front of you, so I have to keep my eyes on the ground at all times – no time to keep an eye out for aerial assaults, thankyouverymuch.
February 26, 2013 at 9:12 am |
Creepy!! Glad you were able to walk. Hope you had a nice time.
February 26, 2013 at 12:32 pm |
LOL – I thought at first that these were roosting vultures, a la Disney.
February 26, 2013 at 8:38 pm |
Creepy indeed.
And yes, long walks feel not so long nowadays.