Monday… X 2

Distance: 8mi

Miles to go: 1831

After two REEEEEALLLY frustrating days of screw ups and miscues, I finally did something positive. See… on Monday I was supposed to ride my bike to work… but I forgot my bike shoes at work on Friday so… no ride. I decided to go in late so I could get my hair cut, but the shop was closed. This morning, I was going to go for a run with the club… but the alarm didn’t go off (read: I screwed up and didn’t turn it on…). In addition, I am buried up to my ears in my home remodel and am completely overwhelmed right now. The mere THOUGHT of it all makes me a bit dizzy. So when lunch time rolled around today, I was looking forward to our planned group outing to my favorite spot for wings… and it got cancelled.

So… I gave up… Left work early… and decided to get my hair cut and go for a run. After success on the hair cut end of things I hopped on the trail and took off. On what amounted to the perfect running day (55 degrees, light wind, bright sun… the works), I ran over 7 miles (at about a 9:30 pace) for the first time since before Thanksgiving. No pain… No exhaustion… No fading at the end… Just a nice, confidence building long run.

…and it’s AMAZING how much brighter the world looks now…

Later…

Screw that last line… I just washed my cellphone…

Dear Truck

Distance: 10mi

Miles to go: 1839

Dear Truck,

I have a confession to make…

I have been cheating…

I have a new BFF (bicycle friend forever)…

I have soiled our friendship garden (Spongebob reference)…

I have defiled all that is sacred…

I have diluted the pure water that was our love…

with…

this…

…please don’t hate me…

I couldn’t help myself… I was weak…

Gas hit $3.39 a gallon and I just lost all control.

I tried to stop… Really… But it hurt so much to fill you up… over… and over… and you just kept asking for more…

Don’t worry… you will always be my truck… but I need to go in a different direction… A “greener” direction…

I’ll still visit you from time to time, if you’ll let me… But your addiction to fossil fuels is just too much… See ya’ around…

B

Playing catch up

Oops… just realized this post never made it out of draft.  Gotta go back and revise some numbers too!

Distance: 6.5 mi (today), 3 mi yesterday at Traknight

4.5 mi and 3.5 mi in two runs in Oklahoma

Miles to go: 1849

To begin with, thanks for the kind words. I’m not saying I’m not sad to see him go. I loved him very much. I just know how much pain he was in for such a long time and I think watching that hurt me more than losing him…

Now, on with the runs… (wait… that didn’t sound good… hmm…)

Being in Oklahoma gave me a chance to run at one of my old favorite places which I highly recommend if you are ever in the Oklahoma City area. It is in a city called Edmond and is a park called Hafer. It’s very pretty for an urban park and has a paved 1.25 mile trail that winds through hills and playgrounds. I nice little gem if you are ever around that area. I ran it twice and, although feeling stiff and sore from the 8 hour drive, managed to get in a total of 8 miles. It was good to get out and relax a bit under such stressful circumstances.

We got back on Tuesday night and I was exhausted so I didn’t run even though I had time. Then yesterday I went to Traknight, expecting to feel miserable. Surprisingly despite being a little stiff and sore, I ran comfortably, if a bit slow. I can tell, however, that I am getting back in shape because I felt fine afterwards. We did out and back pace work (run 5K pace out 3 minutes, then turn around and try to come back at the exact same pace, then 2 out and 2 back, then 1… etc.). I was WAY off (slow) on the first one but managed to be within a second on the last two so I am getting the “feel” for running at pace again.

This morning was a pace run on the trail. It was PERFECT weather for running. About 60 degrees and a light breeze. I took off easy but felt strong… surprisingly strong for having just run 12 hours before… I decided to run to the 5.5 mile turnaround and see how I felt. When I got there I had enough gas left to add another mile so I ended up running 6.5 miles. I got a little tired toward the end but was happy with the result. I averaged about a 9:07 mile and the pace felt easy. Now I get to take the rest of today and all of tomorrow off before attempting 8-10 on Saturday. It’s fun to see the mileages creeping up again!!

So long, pop…

Distance: 5mi

Miles to go: 1867

Nice, slow, steady, cruise today.  Cold… about 40 and a wind of about 30mph… oh… and drizzling.  Sound lovely?  Actually, it wasn’t bad.  The way the trail runs through the woods by the creek (which looks like the Mississippi right now with all the rain we’ve gotten) you are pretty sheltered except for a few places where the trail goes through a field.  I did manage to get hit with a couple of gusts that nearly stopped me dead but those same gusts became tailwinds on the way back, so it balanced out.

I’m finding the slow and steady approach feels much better during and after the runs than pushing it.  So for now I’m averaging just under 10 minute mile pace and that is fine.  I’m moving forward.  That’s a good thing.

I have to go out of town for a few days to attend my father’s funeral.  He was a great man who’s body failed him and left him an invalid for nearly 20 years.  In many ways, his death is a blessing, both to him and my mother.  He is no longer in pain and has his body and mind back.  My mother, who is in poor health herself, is free from the burden of giving him total care and can now relax and heal herself.  I’m sad to see him go but I said my good byes to him years ago and mourned his passing then.  Since then I have loved him the same but I guess I’ve distanced myself from him.  It’s not a good thing or a bad thing…  It’s just a thing.  I watched him slowly fade for 17 years after his stroke and was tough, but it was actually a strong motivator for me to get back in shape.  I’ve always said (forgive the Def Leppard reference… it’s unintentional) it’s better to burn out than fade away… and this is just more ammo in my defense.  I would much rather have people say “Dude!  Bob died doing WHAT?!!!” rather than “Oh… I thought Bob died a long time ago?”  It’s just my personal philosophy.

Sorry to be so morbid.  Honestly, I’m actually upbeat right now.  My pop doesn’t hurt anymore, my mom can finally take it easy and I’m more confident than ever that I’m doing the right thing.  Don’t mourn the loss… celebrate the life!  He was a cool guy, he loved mom and us kids very much and his sense of humor was legendary.  That’s what I’ll always remember…

See… I told ya…

*sigh*

Glimpses of normal

Distance: 3 mi

Miles to go: 1972

Traknight baby!!  GAWD I’m slow.  It’s funny, though.  I could feel those occasional bursts of what it used to be like tonight.  Usually immediately followed by pain and wheezing… but still…  it’s there…

Of course, tomorrow we are supposed to get the mother of all storms… again…  They are predicting up to 6 inches of rain, hail, tornadoes, frogs, locusts and the earth splitting open… er somthin’…  Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be running with the group… again…  dammit.  If the weather does as they predict, I don’t think anyone will be running.  It’s supposed to be nasty.  Ahh well… I might take tomorrow off and, if we survive, run on Friday instead.

I think I finally guilted myself into volunteering for the big race this weekend.  After all, it IS the only event solely sponsored by the club… and I DID renew my membership… and I’m NOT racing… soo… I offered.  I haven’t heard anything from the volunteer coordinator yet, but I probably will.  It’s fun to volunteer and at least I’m out there.  Even if it IS supposed to snow/rain… *sigh*

I’m a wimp…

Distance: 3 mi.

Miles to go: 1975

Woke up Tuesday morning to the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning.  This, coupled with a temperature of 42 degrees was enough to get me to wimp out on the morning run.  I felt bad until the sky opened up one more time and I remembered that I’m still really tentative and cautious from the injury and the trail gets pretty snotty when it’s wet.  Anyway… I went back to bed.  With only a little guilt…

When I got off work it seemed that most of the rain had stopped so I decided to go run at a local park that has a concrete path but when I walked out the door I got hit in the face with rain and wind, for which I was not prepared (gear wise).  So I abandoned plan B and headed straight for the treadmill.  Three glorious miles later all my guilt went away.  I ran the majority of it at about a 9 minute pace and then pushed the last half mile down to 8:30.  Not fast (for me) but good enough for now.

I thought about running the Jay Dix 5/10K this weekend but I still just don’t think I’m ready.  Not that I want to run fast, because I don’t really care about that.  I’m just not comfortable yet and it’s supposed to be 38 degrees and rain/snow.  Not interested.  I still get twinges and can’t move quickly enough to recover from a stumble in the crowd so I think I’ll just wait and maybe look at doing an organized run in May.  It’ll happen.  I’m not worried about it.  I’m still just happy to be running again.

Man! I’m glad THAT’S over…

Distance: 16 mi (4 runs)

Miles to go: 1978

First… I caught a cold…  then… I coughed a lot…  then it rained…  then I presented two days straight at a conference…  then I got the hairbrained idea that I should build a raised garden bed or two using dry stacked stone that I “harvested” from my yard (read: toss really freakin heavy rocks into the back of my truck… drive to plot… dump and then stack rocks… then repeat)…  then I woke up this morning and realized that I really could scream like a 5 year old girl if I lifted my arms over tried to lift my arms over my head…

So…?  How was YOUR weekend…?

I only managed a few runs between the raindrops and the drippy nose but I still managed to get 16 miles in.  One of which, my last one, finally broke the 6 mile mark again for the first time since Thanksgiving.  ‘Bout frickin’ time!  Anyway, I’m encouraged for several reasons.  First, I felt good (ok… the last mile sucked… but doesn’t it always?).  Second, my injury didn’t hurt.  And finally, my conference “season” is over for the year so I can get back to my regularly scheduled programming.

I’ve pretty much decided to just run for a while.  In other words, no goals, no races, no times… just run.  I figure I’m just now to the point where I “can” again so I’m really not in to spoiling it by pushing myself too hard right now.  I may try to squeeze a late spring 5K in just for kicks but I’m really looking at the fall for more races.  There are some really fun ones and I should be good to go by then.

I guess if I have a running “goal” (besides as much mileage as I can get in) it would be to PR in our local half marathon.  I got a PR in it last year of 1:54.40 but I got really bad blisters on both feet due to wet socks at about mile 7.  I would really like to get below 1:50 and think I can if I plan it right and take my time.  If I run 8 minute miles I would come in just under 1:45, which would be awesome… Something to shoot for!