Red Rock on a Tuesday

I feel that I should be posting this as another long run don't. In hindsight I feel that I did a very foolish thing...

On Tuesday I was on the west side of town (which I am hardly ever on this side of town) I was on this end of town for a computer learning course, we were given an hour lunch break so I brought my running gear with me for a short 45 min run during lunch. Instead of taking a lunch break we decided to push through lunch and our afternoon break so we could get out of class early. I decided to go and run the Red Rock loop. I love this loop it is 15 miles of punshing beauty (1500ft of climbing uphill over 15 miles.)

I parked my car at the back entrance and I ran to the begining of the loop which is two miles away. I started the loop and the climb began. The first 5 miles of the loop climb over 1000ft. I took my time and plugged away like a mountain goat. I stopped at the top of the loop to take pictures. The next 8 miles were a downhill ride but, there were not easy. I was thirsty, cold, and tired. I also started to worry about the what if's. What if I roll my ankle? What if I see a coyote? What if I can't finish the loop before dark? It was dangerous to run this without a buddy and without hydration. Even though it was cold I was still thirsty. I didn't fuel or hydrate properly before this run and I'm lucky nothing happened. Cell phone reception is really spotty or nonexsistent at Red Rock.

I made it back to my car and I was happy to have finished the route.  I streched out my legs and hopped into the car to go pick up my son and do some grocery shopping. I was still driving home an hour and half later and my body cramped up so bad. I had such a bad cramp in my abdomen. My core is still weak from being pregnant and gaining weight.  That night I had the chills and it was hard to get liquids down. My body was rebelling on me for being so foolish. This was my third long run in less than a week. I'm going to back off for the next couple of days and try to get some core work in.