MM#209 / JapanJoyful#803
Have you ever made any running vows?
I’ve vowed never to run if it got so cold I’d need tights and I never have..As a skier all my life and still at heart, I’ve vowed never to run in the snow and I never have, . . . until today when it started snowing about half-way up the first pass in the Hakone Pass Marathon over here in Japan. .The marathon course tracked the daimyo travels of centuries past on the Tokkaido Road and I was having the time of my life running in the two-pronged wooden geta sandals of the times. With the prongs elevating my foot about two inches up off the ground, I kind of relished it as the heavy wet flakes started falling. Unfortunately, the wet stuff caked like wet snowballs between the prongs making it as if I were running on top of a baseball, slipping and sliding without much control. The ludicrous scene has us laughing all the way down the other side to Lake Ashiko at the half way mark where, mercifully, a hot springs lodge beckoned.some of the other runners too who were having just as much trouble in their slippery sneakers. .No wonder I like running so much even when I don’t. .I didn’t even care that it broke my vow for the third month in a row never to DNF again
"Enjoy yourself. Your younger days never come again." 100yo T. Igarashi to me in geta at top of Mt. Fuji (8/2/87)
MM #5615
I have never made a running vow...but I will now: I vow to never run in two-pronged wooden geta sandals...in a marathon...when it snows.
I've vowed many times never to run a marathon again.
Usually around mile 23.
Ran a local 4-mile race today. Ouch. My slowest time ever.
I'm convinced that my signing up for a race was the source of today's temperature shift. Mid-60s today!
I'm behind here, so I don't know if you already discussed this but the study calling into question the health benefits of running more than 4 hours a week was interesting. A pretty good response here.
Be safe. Be kind.
This morning, it was in the low 30s and there was a light wind. I got in 3 miles at an 11:43 pace. Shortly, we're off to Brighton where we will baby sit for two days instead of our normal one day. As enjoyable as it is, I hope we can survive.
A good day and good runs for all.
TomS
Thanks, Tramps! I've been getting so much crap from everybody about that original article it was driving me crazy. I pointed out that it if it had any merit, it only applied to "joggers" and since I'm a runner, I didn't care. And yes, I've made that vow before but I always seem to get over it at mile 26!
Mariposai, I've never heard of anyone doing that, but it makes perfect sense. Probably helps with the whole sense of closure and acceptance? I hope everything goes well for your friend.
Aamos, interesting way to look at it. And I'm sure your DH meant well (but funny, I can see him saying that....).
Carolyn, do you ever worry about getting lost? When DH and I were heading from Scottsdale to Jemez Springs, NM, we stopped at Flagstaff and I ran on some trails there. At one point, I got turned around and couldn't remember which of the criss-crossing trails to take back. Brief moment of panic, then followed sound of other runners/hikers and made my way back. But I'm always worried about getting lost on trails in unfamiliar areas. You must have a compass in your head or something....
Nice racing for Dave, Tselbs, Tammy and even Tet with the snowy getas! DNFs suck but sometimes they're the right choice.
Holly, I'm with you on the not racing in winter thing. We have several races around here in the winter and I might think "that'd be kind of fun to do" but when the time comes, I just blow it off. They're all sign up right before the race casual things, and I just can't be bothered I guess.
It was -42° in town yesterday morning, -25° here at the house. Bleh. Getting pretty tired of this! Got my haircut, did some errands, came home and ran 6.5 on the treadmill. Today is a little bit warmer (yay, -16° at home!) so maybe it'll warm up enough today to tempt me outside for a run.
No running vows that I can recall or that stick anyway....and sometimes breaking those running vows can work out just great!
Tough slog of a 19 miler for me....in between snow storms, but oatmeal like surface with a fresh layer of snow over ice and lots more on the way. Oh well. Yak Tracks helped a lot! Ran 12 yesterday, so a good weekend of miles even if I kept repeating "Time to move south, Time to move south" in my head. You must mutter that at times too Erika!?
Maraposai---you are a wonderful and loving friend and best wishes to your friend and her journey ahead.
I loved that response to the non-study/study Tramps. Glad that you linked it here.
Aamos! I did catch up a bit and saw all those fabulous Upstate NY photos. Thanks :-) Seems like you are mending well, hurray.
I hope you survive as well Tselbs!
tetsujin209 I am going with Mike E's vow. To that I am going to add never to go the Fairbanks Alaska in February, especially after seeing what evanflein was living through! Man, I think next week it is going to be really, really cold here in CT! We got nothing on them! Nothing! As in 0º nothing is way warmer than Fairbanks! Brrrr.
Today was the local Boston Buildup 20k race. I am quite happy with my overall pace of about 7:41. The official times are not in so about is what I have for now. Absent some horrible miscalculation on my part, my 20k pace was over 20 seconds per mile faster than my 15k race pace two weeks ago. At some point in the near future I think I am going to have to go back and do some speed work. That or enter some 5k races. But given how cold it will be here in the next week I foresee TM runs in my future and speed work on a TM is as good a way to pass the minutes as any.
Live like you are dying not like you are afraid to die.
Drunken Irish Soda Bread and Irish Brown Bread this way --> http://allrecipes.com/cook/4379041/
Leaving Tucson to spend 3 days in Scottsdale -then home unless planes aren't flying back to Boston
We did a fun race this morning-a 2 mile couples relay at the U of A. 1st runner carried a flower baton -at the change we kissed. We finished 3/3 in our AG.
Trails are hard!
Nice racing for winter time to the 4 T's - Tet, Tom, Tramps, and TC. And then Dave, Henry, and Marj to screw up the alliteration. Although M&H are stretching the "winter" part.
about 6" of snow for the warm up event of the weekend. Not willing to try and find a spot outside, so 3.6 miles on the TM at the gym this morning. Not quite as painful as some that I remember, but I apparentaly am not good at charging my MP3, as it was dead again,
Then home for my upper body work even sooner than I expected--the plow had come by and left a big enough pile that I didn't want to risk driving through it. Then while I was doing that, DW got a call from our across the street neighbor to ask if we could shovel theirs a bit so the PT that was coming to work on his newly replaced knee could get in. Because he's not quite up to using it, I got out his snow blower and did the rest of his, ours, and one other neighbor's driveway to prepare for the main event, which is looking like another 12-18" between now and Tuesday.
Looks like another Monday snow day from work. Can't say I'm crushed.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
King of PhotoShop
Difficult conditions for you Tet. No running vows for me ever. Just do what feels right.
Yes Tramps, I did see that rebuttal. Almost all my FB friends are runners so you can be sure it's being posted.
Got home Friday night from Cleveland and not doing much since. Jogged 1.5 yesterday with Lucy, then ran 8 at the Lake with the Saint this morning.
Low 70's and sunny here so I'm roasting a chicken on the grill by the pool this afternoon. Spareribs
Marathon Maniac #957
and +1
Tet - what Mike said.
Ok, I was attacked by a pit bull on my run today. However, it did not bite me, but rather knocked me off my feet. I was running along the levee when all of a sudden a snarling blur came from my right and torpedoed into me, knocking me to the pavement, skinning both knees and hands. I looked up, realizing that my face was on the same level as this snarling beast, when it suddenly turned and ran back down the levee. I saw a woman at a house below, maybe the owner who had let the dog out, but after staring at me for a moment, she disappeared into the house. I creaked to my feet, peeled up my pants' legs to look at my skinned knees, glared down at the house, and then hobbled off. Could have been a lot worse, though.
The unexpected 48 degrees made my heart light, but the wind, strong enough to have my pony tail blowing out behind me like a wind sock, took some effort to run against. Still, better than snow and ice!
16 miles total.
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
Tet - you are amazing.
Holly wow, that is nuts. But at least there were no teeth involved. In my experience, it is the little ones that like to chomp into you.
I didn't want to be away from RA for so long. I wasn't running much, like 1 x week or 1 x per fortnight, and too much life angst getting in the way. Letting this knee injury heal. Not sure where it is now, except I went for a mudtascular!! 5 mile run today at Cougar Mtn, and it felt fine the whole way. It is amazing how taking 2 weeks off from running feels like a CENTURY! My endurance was abysmal! I had to walk so much! But it was capris and T-shirt weather at 50F to 54F on my run. I am so glad I went out. The thing with not running much for the past 2 - 3 months is you completely lose the addiction to it, or at least I did during my winter funk/hardly any running. But when I smelled that fresh air today.....I just had to go.
So now, we will see if I can ramp up. I know when to call it off now, any niggling pain in that area is a big red flag! I completely messed my knee up by running on it when it was hurting pretty badly. Some injuries can handle a bit of abuse, some can't and this was one of the latter. Hard lesson to learn.
Dating life sucks. Date last night with Door#26. He was fine, but no sparks. I've made a spreadsheet of the data. Summary: 50% chance that I get asked out again after an initial meet-up (usually there is mutual disinterest). Half I turn down so 25% chance I will meet them again. 4% chance any kind of relationship comes out of it. It's a numbers game, and my feeling is, there are a lot of messed up people out there, and the guys have the advantage of lots of cool women to date. But, I'm jaded obviously!
"During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."
Hello everybody
Holly--I am really glad you weren't hurt any worse than a couple skinned knees. That is really scary. I think I told you how I had a brief encounter with a huge dog, myself, couple months ago. It is scary.
enke...you'll meet somebody...but keep your standards high because you deserve somebody great.
Well...after two weeks of no running, I went for an easy 6 miles, today. I might as well have never taken off a single day. From the very first step, my Achilles sent shooting pains up my leg. I am really discouraged. I have big plans for this year. I really think that something more than my Achilles is going on. My right shoulder has been hurting for months, too. I have a feeling that when I figure out what is causing that pain, I'll have figured out the Achilles, as well. I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go see a doctor.
While I was stretching out, after my run, I got a call from Ryan..."Dad, I have a problem." I hate those words. He was in the middle of an intersection and his car died. He put the car in park and tried to start it again, and nothing. He couldn't even get the car out of park so he couldn't push it out of the way. Figuring it was the battery I, quickly, got cleaned up, went to the auto store, bought a new battery, picked up my son-in-law along the way, and we went to rescue Ryan. My son-in-law, switched the batteries, did a quick test to make sure the battery was charging, and Ryan was on his way.
Okay--I guess that's enough whining and complaining out of me for the day...believe, me...I could go on--but I really gotta go. Tomorrow is Monday...yippee. See ya!
Hey Mike, pretty cool you could diagnose the problem from that little bit of information! I'd be a total mess and not know what to do. I'm pretty sure my DH would. See? You guys are very good to have around!
Holly, I'm really glad you weren't hurt more than that, and please, please, please report that dog to animal control. Just think, next time it could be much worse, like it'll follow through on it's threats or hurt a child. Really... figure out the address and report the incident. Good run for you today, even with the dog event.
Nice 19 miler CNYrunner! wow... I just can't imagine doing that in those conditions.
Enke, another vote for not settling. You'll find who you're looking for. You just haven't found him yet. Glad you got out for a run today.
I was puttering around the house today, cleaning and sorting this and that (my favorite way to spend a lazy day!) and saw the temp was +1.5° and the sun was shining! Well, that did it. Bundle up and out I went to run the local roads (i.e., hills). There was a bit of a breeze from the NE which made the return trip on the upper road kind of chilly, but not bad. I could really feel it get colder as I went on the lower roads though. Quite the difference a few feet (like maybe 50?) of elevation made. By the time I got home, temp at the house was -6° and I wasn't really cold, just a little chilled. The inside of my jacket though was all icy! It's made for wind and rain, and I figured it'd be a good layer because of the wind, but maybe not so much? Anyway, I got in 8.2 miles of hills today, outside and it felt really good! I was thinking about Holly's run, and how she'd gone twice the distance and thought about hopping on the treadmill for 4 more miles to make it 12, but no, I was done. 42.9 miles for the week (ok, yeah, I was miffed about that .1 to make 43, but oh well!).
Tetsujin, you are my hero! It is so much fun to read your postings from Japan.
Tramps, mid 60s, incredible.
Marj and Henry sure are having fun during their retirement. Glad to see that they saw McSolar and Debbie.
My marathon driving weekend was well worth it. The mutual friends who drove with me to the party really enjoyed our time together in the car. The party was just as my friend envisioned, celebrating friendship and life. Jlynne, yes, I made a cute boobies cake that everyone enjoyed.
We are back home now and ready for another week.
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard