“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” (Maria Robinson)
Rest day for me. I also got my last four weeks of training before Mt. Hood. This is the big week, then taper will start.
Also, on the Good News front - I can't stay with my current coach because he's too expensive. His coaching from April thru July was a gift. I contacted a friend who's a good trail runner and basically begged to have him coach me for a rocket bottom monthly fee, AND HE AGREED! I am so happy!!
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
jfa
Leslie- congrats on the coach! Sounds like your plan is going well.
Anyone heard from Cindy?
Been on vacation for a week. Went 8 days without a single run which is a new record in my 4.5 years in this business. Had a very enjoyable staycation/honeymoon. Did a lot of sailing, beaching, and well, honeymooning. Ran a 6er last night that was fantastic. Felt like a kid again.
Hope everyone enjoys their Independence Day!
Did a lot of . . . well, honeymooning. Felt like a kid again.
Mm hm. Now we know why we've seen neither hide nor hair of ya.
I've been wondering about Cindy, too. I have no idea who close she lives relative to the fires. Praying she and her family are okay.
This morning it was 6 EZ miles, which I tried really hard to keep easy/slow. Okay, I'm already slow, so slower than normal. It was beautifully clear; alas, the full moon, was at my back and had already dipped below the horizon by the time I turned around.
Leaving work at 3:00 today and am looking forward to (1) a day off in the middle of the week and (2) the boss being gone 'til Monday.
Queen of 3rd Place
Cindy is a facebook friend of mine and last I heard was that they're not anywhere near the danger zone.
Leslie - you've been getting fast, you've been running strong overall. Have a great final week of pushing! Exciting news about the coaching!
Joe - I was thinking about you and wondering where you were when that nasty storm hit. Glad you were safe, uh, honeymooning or something.
Rest day yesterday, first one in almost 4 weeks. Just felt like taking one. Then a kicker of a workout today, ran roughly 1.5 to the local HS track, then did 8 x 800m at 7:45/mi pace with one lap jogs in between, and jogged very slowly home. Dang, that was hard! Almost threw up after the last one!
Ex runner
. . . then did 8 x 800m at 7:45/mi pace . . .
Dang, girl!!
9 hill fartlek miles out at Headwaters. My average pace wasn't pretty, but I worked the hills as hard as I could and was soaked thru and thru by the end. After, we went downtown and spent 5 hours sitting in a parking lot with some of Shorty's friends watching all their kids go crazy and watching the people enjoying all the 4th of July festivities (I walked around and checked things out a couple of times when the mayhem with the kids got to be too much). Finally BBQ'd, then Shorty and I came home. It was going to be another 3.5+ hrs before the fireworks started, and neither of us were up for staying longer. I said a silent "hallelujah!" when he said he was ready to go home.
Leslie - gettin' too old to stay up for the fireworks? Missed them here, too, but could hear them continuing until midnight. Yeah, you never know how a fartlek workout is going to go, I feel like they shouldn't be that hard, but usually they are. Of course yours sounds more like hill repeats.
People I've worried about this week: Joe, with those nasty storms; Cindy, scary fires; and now Jim because it sounds like the mid-country heat is really affecting the crops. Joe's ok, last I heard from Cindy they were out of reach of the fire, now we need to hear from Jim! Thinking good thoughts for everyone!
Hot run last night and cool run this am. I wish it wasn't so, but I just run better in the evening. Ran comfortably under 10 min pace yesterday when it was 99F, and pushed hard but didn't even get close to 10 min pace when it was a comfortable 65F this am. Does am running get easier if you do it enough?
Trails are hard!
Happy post-4th to everyone. And I'm really not jealous of those lucky (smart?) folks that don't have to work today.
This is Max the dog's least favorite time of the year--fireworks and thunderstorms are much too frequent for his (and our) taste. And he got a double hit yesterday--thunderstorms from dinnertime to dark. Then they cleared up just in time to allow everyone around the lake to celebrate the 4th with newly leaglized fireworks (in Maine). Quite the battlezone with Max sort of quivering under a towel. DW just ordered him a Thundershirt, which is supposed to make him feel like he's being continually hugged and comfort him. We shall see.
About 3.5 miles this morning on the nice rolling hills of Maine at 5:15. Not quite Jay time, but it's a little farther into the office from the lake as opposed to home, so a little earlier start.
Arla--running in 99? I've never been anything but a morning runner. I hate the heat, and if I don't make it out in the morning, all the excuses pile up and I don't go out, even if it's cool. So mornings it is.
As much as I love fireworks, i really don't like crowds--so a fundimental conflict right there. We just listened, as Max needed company. Most years, our town does a display over our lake and when we're home and not in Maine, we walk about 100 yards from our house and set up chairs along the shore in the morning and feel highly superior to all the folks that have to drive in when we walk back across the street and enjoy the front row.
BTW, Leslie--setting a yearly milage PR halfway through said year is very impressive. Sure hope you can keep going this strong.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Thanks, Stumpy. I just realized the other day that I'd hit the 1000 mile mark. Makes me wonder if I could ever reach the 2000 mark . . .
I wouldn't have minded staying for the fireworks if it weren't for the fact we'd been downtown since about 1:00 and they weren't scheduled to start until almost 10:00. I can sit in a parking lot only so long with mayhem going on around me. Makes us sound like fuddy duddies, but when you're not used to being around kids, 5 straight hours can seem like an eternity. By that time, I'd already taken a couple of walks to check out the goings on and get away from the ruckus.
Arla - It may just take awhile for your body to get used to being up and exerting itself that early. I find it harder to run in the late afternoons/ evenings than in the mornings. I'm usually tired and would much rather be home, showered, and in my PJs.
I had planned to get up and do strength training this morning, but I slept terrible last night. Shorty oiled the back deck a couple of days ago. What a stinker! The smell gives me a headache. And since the deck is near our bedroom window, we've had to keep it closed and it gets stuffy in our bedroom. I do, however, plan to workout when I get home this evening since I am suppose to run tomorrow evening as oppose to tomorrow morning.
It's dead around here at work. We have new tenants moving in the first of August, so Lynsey, our receptionist, and I are going to tackle cleaning the upstairs kitchen. The fridge up there is disgusting! How people can be so piggy is beyond me. I may need a haz mat suit. I told Lyns that after this, there needs to be a sign on the fridge indicating that the first Friday of every month the fridge is going to be completely cleaned out. If anybody wants something to stay, they better date and mark it or it's going in the garbage.
Stumpy - poor Max!! I'll be interested to hear if that Thundershirt thing helps.
Leslie - ugh, the dreaded Office Stinky Fridge! BT,DT! I'm very lucky that our office peeps keep a tidy fridge and kitchen, it just takes everyone pitching in a little.
Did something to my back Tuesday night - slept wrong, maybe? It's not resolving very well, and I can't bend over or really even move very well. Fortunately, running doesn't seem to bother it too much. I had saved a bottle of vicodin that I never used after getting oral surgery a couple years ago, and that one little pill sure gave a lot of relief...but it scares me, so I'm not taking it today...ow...hope this heals soon.
Happy Friday everyone else!!
Arla - Be kind to your back. Maybe try some walking for a day or two instead if running, but keep moving. Can you get in to someone you trust for a massage?
Thankfully, the woman who made the mess in the fridge in the first place cleaned it a few days ago, unbeknownst to us, so Lyns and I tackled the rest of the kitchen. We threw away four garbage bags of crap that had obviously been in the cupboards for ever. I then tackled the downstairs kitchen and got rid of even more crap and marked some things with "use by" dates or I'm chucking it. It felt good!
Then 6 miles after work that went really well, followed by 4 x 100m strides. Tomorrow I'm hitting the Community Forest for the first time in a long time for 20 and 14 on Sunday.
Now I'm ready for bed.
Leslie - that's a crazy-looking new avatar! Those yours by any chance? Good luck on your back-to-back long trail runs. Is this your last round of those?
Hope everyone is having as good a week as possible and staying as cool as possible!
Call me a wimp: temps this week are supposed to be 103, 104....well, turns out the local gym was offering a free, 7-day membership, so I signed up. Asked them if it was ok if I used the treadmill for 2 1/2 - 3 hours, they said no problem! So now I don't have to always run in the dark of the am or pm. Tried it out yesterday for 6 mi and it wasn't too bad, their treadmills have a built-in fan and the building has good air circulation. Wouldn't want to do it all the time but it's a nice change.
. . . temps this week are supposed to be 103, 104.... used the treadmill for 2 1/2 - 3 hours,
I'm not sure which sounds more hellish.
No, those aren't my kitties, but I really liked the pic for the avatar.
I have back-to-back weekend runs for the next two weeks, but they decrease considerably. This is my peak week (unfortunately - see below).
Last night had a nice 6 miles after work. Today, had a terrible 18.60 miles. I've had in the back of my mind for some time that it was not a good idea to quit running in the Community Forest. It's a prime place to do hill running. Today proved my point. The Forest chewed me up, spit me out, then ground me into the trail with its heel. Between the dead legs and the stomach issues, it totally sucked. I ended up at Mile 12.50 moving down to the marsh (flat) to finish up, but the bad time continued down there, as well. Even ended up briefly crying at one point. Just had a really hard time ingesting anything, and I had cotton mouth really bad the entire day.
It boggles me that things went so well over Memorial Day Weekend (almost 70 miles total), and now I've had two crappy Saturday runs in a row. I've been thinking on it, though, and I'm pretty sure part of it is my nutrition/hydration in the days leading up to the run.
Two weeks ago, my confidence level to do okay at Mt. Hood was high. With the issues of the last two weekends, my confidence level is in the toilet.
Tomorrow 15.5 instead of 14 as I need to make up for not getting to 20 today.
Leslie--sorry to hear of the sucky runs. but it sure sound like your base has been building well the past few weeks. are you just not drinking enough during the week when you don't have exercise to inspire you.....................or is it all those trips to Micky D's I don't know--I don't put in enough miles for that to seem to matter a great deal. I do try to avoid anything majorly spicey the night before, but even that doesn't alsways have much effect if I forget. Hope you can get it figured out soon--you've worked too hard to get this far. BTW, even crappy miles count and 18.60 is nothing to sneeze (or cry) at.
Arla--Hope the back is back behaving itself. never any fun to be laid up like that. And I'll second Les on the running choices--what's that called? Hobson's choice? I've also heard of a much more disgusting way of putting it--Picking up the clean end of the turd.
5.75 miles up in Maine this morning. It was also slow, but a lot more satisfying than the last couple really slow ones. It was already 70 when I went out at 7:30 (I know--no sympathy from the left coast) and so starting out already out of my comfort zone. At 2 miles in, there's a snowmobile trail that cuts up through the woods to another road that I run on. when I got there , I thought I heard Leslie saying "Trails are neat". Turns out that it was actually several thousand deer flies saying "Oh boy, fresh meat". Ended up making a switch out of a branch and must have looked really cool waving it around my head for a mile or so. Good part is that it gives me a mile downhill to loop back to the camp.
Hope everyone else is doing well. Now I have to pack up and head home early--off for a couple days in NC that didn't get planned until about 3pm on firday afternoon. Only good thing was that I thought I might have to be there for Saturday morning. Life goes on.
Stumpy - Maybe you should start carrying dryer sheets just in case you hit the trails again. It's my understanding that tucking one into your hat helps to ward off the deer flies. And they sound fierce!
I think it's more I'm not hydrating well enough during the week. The last couple of days, I've found myself constantly thirsty and have been waking up during the night thirsty. In listening to a podcast with a nutritionist, she said folks who run a lot should be taking in 60-80 oz of water a day. I'm definitely not drinking that much.
Today's run went better than yesterday, but it's a fairly flat logging road. I decided to stick with the planned 14 and forgo the 1.50 I didn't do yesterday. My legs are really pooped, though, and I'm glad I have tomorrow off. . . . . . I need a nap.