Today I am a sore, sore loser

Even though this is a recovery week my coach still has me working out. The volume is just much, much lower. Today I was scheduled for strength training and I met my workout buddies at the stairs. Someone (who will remain unnamed) made a stupid, stupid, stupid bet and it was time to either win or lose...

My workout buddies heading towards the stairs....

So, here's a little background info on the bet...

All winter long we've been working out together and every now and then we have little competitions. As you can imagine I usually win, but over the course of the winter I've managed to rack up a debt to Jason of four coffees. Expensive coffees, like mochas with extra shots and stuff.

Anyways, right before Yankee I decided that it would be a good idea to challenge Jason to a sprint up the stairs for double or nothing. The deal was that he would give me a big head start and if I could make it to the top before him then my debt would be wiped clean. However, if Jason beat me to the top I would then owe him eight coffees. I wish I could go back in time because I'm not sure what I was thinking. I think that it had something to do with me having an advantage the day after Yankee since he would be tired (from racing). I guess I should have factored in the fact that I would also be tired, and the fact that I was doing 22 extra miles then him. Also, sometimes I get really whacked out when lifting weights and I think I was really whacked out that day.

As I headed out the door Scott tried to reason with me with something along the line like, "Jason is a sprinter and you are not...you will not win." Of course I didn't listen :-)

That's me doing warm-up stretches down there. Actually there's nothing stretchy about it. It's just the pose I always do anytime I'm about to do a run. Weird.

 Then I was off...GOOOOO!!!!!

The rule was that Jason couldn't start until I reached the third platform...as you can see I had quite the lead. In fact, looking at this picture now I'm like, HOW COULD I NOT WIN??????

 Finally Jason could start...

For a brief second I thought that I was going to win but something happened towards the top. I could hear everyone cheering that Jason was catching me and I could hear his footsteps. And then my legs just stopped. Complete failure.....

These pictures make it look close but I think I got beat by about two flights of stairs. Crap!

Yeah, so now I have a huge coffee debt and I can't even complain about it since the bet was my idea in the first place. Let me tell you...those stairs are EVIL!!! Especially if you don't do them on a regular basis. I couldn't even make it up an entire flight once without coming to a complete stop. 

Hmmmm....how can I blame this on my rigid fork? Well, technically it was hard to run because my arms WERE sore :-)

Gareth also had a rough day at the stairs. He was in this position for the majority of our workout...

It's always a successful workout when someone pukes...I'm just glad it wasn't me :-)

I have to admit that I came home a very SORE loser...literally and figuratively. Scott just shook his head at me, but at least he was smart enough not to say "I told you so." For the rest of the week I really am doing some serious recovering. So coach, if you are reading this, I promise that I will not try to sprint up any more stairs :-)

Now I just need to come up with a better bet that is more on the endurance side of things!