Altair: love the yellow dandelions, so colorful. And it's really uplifting when you start seeing wild flowers along your way. The road with the hill on a curve and the elevation profile looks pretty challenging, good job on getting it done. Legs will get use to the climb each time you do it, then speed will kick in. Legs will benefit from the bike rides as well, using different muscles. Way to go on the cross-training! Are you the only runner on these roads? People must be getting use to you by now especially since retirement. The Greenway trail looked like a flat trail but you're right, if you trip, it's a soft landing ......if you just go with the fall, not get all tensed up. Your run sounded like it was a nice run with different views. I get my "blah" days as well, and sometimes I just get in a few miles just to see if I can snap out of it. Then other days, I just decide to call it an unscheduled rest day (URD). Talk about acronyms......LOL!
Led: we are still waiting on the RR
Runs in the rain
az - Sounds like you had a great getaway! Drinking wine and margaritas, listening to flamenco music, seeing your friends, going on trail hikes and runs, a lot of fun! See any interesting birds through the windows of Up The Creek? Quite a change from weather warm enough for your friend to swim only to return home to find snow flurries! Good 7 mile run yesterday!
Yesterday I had ordered a grocery pickup and decided to do a little yardwork in the morning instead of a run. Temperatures were warm and the weather report said it got up to 78 degrees in Rochester! Before I get too excited I have to remember possible snow is predicted for the weekend! By the time I had picked up the groceries and put them away it started to rain and thunder was heard not too far away. After the shower passed I decided not to run, legs were still sore from the hills I ran Tuesday. The toes of my left foot have a burning sensation in the joints, I'm sure due to arthritis, not too bad, but annoying. My lower back still hurts in the morning from overturning the garden soil. I guess you have to learn to live with some pain as you get older.
The cold front was expected to move in at 11 am this morning with some showers. So I got out early about 9:20 for a short run. I was 66 degrees so I wore shorts and no shirt. I was mostly cloudy, but some sun and also some winds. I saw a lot of people out walking or running. It was nice to get out early. There was a slight downhill at the two mile point and I had intended to do an acceleration until I reached a 7 mm pace, but just did not feel ready! Perhaps more recovery is best, maybe I'll do some fast pace work during the weekend! I completed 3.88 miles. As predicted rain came shortly after 11 am and temperatures have now dropped to 53 degrees.
Looking down the road where I bailed on doing the speedwork!
Some fields and clouds. There was some sun, but also dark clouds moving in. Interesting that some fields remain brown and others look green.
I like all the textures in this photo, the tree, the old shed, bushes and grasses, the cloudy sky and you can just make out a little stream! The was also a goldfinch in one of the trees on the right, but it only appears as a tiny yellow dot in the picture.
I think you will enjoy more flower pictures from my yard! Just now blooming, the forsythia and the gladiolus!
I don't know the name of this tree but in spring it has these fluffy buds, almost like a pussy willow!
Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
not bad for mile 25
Hi Everyone, I'm back and finally getting caught up enough to post again. My RR is here, so no need to copy it into this thread. You can click if you're interested. Thanks for cheering for me from your remote locations! The rest of the trip was spent at MIL's and SIL's places, where the kids had a grand time bottle feeding a calf and chasing chickens! Fun, fun! My GDs got together with 2 cousins (once removed, technically), ages 2 and 1 week. MIL wanted pictures of her 4 GGDs all in a group, and we got plenty of them! All fun, but the return trip was not fun, as we dealt with the windstorms that az mentioned, and managed to dodge thunder and hailstorms, too. Dodged bunches of deer as well, one by inches. That drive took FOREVER! Got home too late to pick up our dog from doggie day care, too, so she had to spend an extra night there.
But we're home, and resuming normal activities, more or less. I have tomorrow off and DD does not, so I'll have GDs to play with all day.
az - "Monster Mountain" would probably be nothing to you - you do it every week! Something like that would sure build up my legs if I could do it. Sounds like you had lots of fun at your sleepover! The winery visits are something that DW & I would enjoy. The flamenco music, too.
Altair - Thanks for checking on my results - on the race website, I presume. I was happy; 10:00 pace was pretty much my goal. I'm going to try to get a better time in the next half, in 3 weeks. Your Greenway trail run sounds and looks lovely! I am lucky in terms of running shorts - I get a new pair every year from one of the races I do, so I have plenty! I kind of "found" a CD recently. There is a "freebie" table at work where people put stuff that is no longer needed by the company, or sometimes stuff that departing employees have left. In this case, it was a CD called "Jock Rock" that caught my eye! I think it's a compilation of music designed to get athletes fired up, but I don't know the specifics yet. I haven't even read the cover yet. I'll let you know.
Di - I do hate flying. I might not do it again if the destination is in the USA.
Trails
Led, if I was retired and not confined by the time I have for PTO I'd drive down to MS rather than fly. I'd drive to ID to visit DD and DGD but alas I still work for a living so I fly. TBH I wish I had a dragon to fly down and avoid airports but that's not practical either.
Led - I read your race report and have a couple of comments. 40 degrees does not seem too cold when you are running, but I'm surprised you did not feel chilled waiting 40 minutes for the race to start. I guess it could feel warm if it was calm and the sun was out. I suppose it warmed up into the 50's during the race. Your splits show a really decent pace on those hill, just slowed you down a little. That Monster one must have sapped some of you strength, but you kept going! I typically will try to jog up all hills, but perhaps could walk them faster! So were you passing walkers with your quick, short strides? Wind is great when at your back! Watch out for falling trees! Great to have your family cheering you on! Good job with the finish time, I'm sure you will be ready to improve in the next half! Glad you enjoyed visiting with family. I saw grapefruit sized hailstones on the news this week! I think out in Texas. The Greenway was a nice change from my usual roads. I have plenty of running shorts, but only one with a liner! If you get shorts with a liner as race swag you are lucky! I looked up the "Jock Rock" Cd, actually they have 5 volumes of songs typically played for sports games! Of course it would be difficult to use a CD player when running, best to have a digital music player. I guess that fancy smartphone you have could play through Bluetooth earbuds. Sometime I may make a running playlist.
Di - Your comment about wishing you had a dragon to fly you reminded me of a picture book they had in my grade school about a kid who went on a journey flying on a dragon and he had a bag of tangerines he took for his food supply. I did a search for it not expecting to find the book, but I did and it was part of a three book series called "My Father's Dragon" published back in the 40's and a Newberry award winner!
After my shower today I was looking at those left foot toes that felt like they are burning and saw what looked like a blister on the toe next to the big toe. Perhaps this is the source of the pain rather than an issue with the joints of the toes. The "blister" does seem to be hard rather than a fluid filled bump, so I'm not sure what is going on. Hopefully it will go away soon.
Got out around 11 am for my run. It was 55 degrees so I figured shorts and a cotton tee shirt. As I started the run it was overcast with a chilly wind. I had planed almost an 8 miler, but said to myself if the sun does not come out I'll cut the run short. Luckily the sun came out after a mile and the wind calmed down! However it alternated with calm and sun and dark clouds and winds through the first half of my run. This was the uphill part and I was glad to have the wind at my back. At mile 4 it got very overcast and the wind became a steady roar, even at one point causing a whistling in the powerlines. Lucky I was in the open so no worries about trees falling! The last half was downhill and the winds dropped as I got to lower elevations with more trees and houses for a windbreak. The last mile some rain drops began to fall, not more than a very light drizzle. The weather was a bit challenging, but I'm glad I finished 7.97 miles since for the next 4 days we can expect to get rain with a mix of wet snow, maybe not good for outdoor runs!Here you can see some blue sky, but the dark cloud is moving in!
If you look at this puddle in the field you may make out the ripples caused by the heavy winds
Time to catch up a little.
Last week was in Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin for my Dad's Celebration of Life and visiting family. It was cold, cloudy, windy, drizzly, light snow most of the time. I was certainly glad to get back home to better weather. Did get a couple of runs in despite the weather but there were a couple of 'rest' days as well. Weekend was busy busy catching up with things around the house. This work week has been busy with a couple of days of getting out and the other 'rest' days because of early starts. So far, next week looks like back to normal.
I skimmed the entries but will read more later.
Led - Nice job on your race.
AZ - Sounds like your Sedona trip was fun.
Altair - Nice pics as usual.
Di - If I had the time I would have drove there instead of flying. The trip out wasn't bad except for the hard seat. The trip back was delayed an hour, noisy and another hard seat. Not the worst flight but let's say 2-3 out of 5. About what I expected.
Art in AZ
Mesa, AZ
Art: your dad's 'celebration of life' event? Did I miss something? Lucky you didn't have any cancellations or longer delays due to weather. What airline did you fly on? Doesn't sound very comfortable. It does take a few days or even longer (due to work) to readjust to 'normal' routine in your world. I always feel like that when I get back to MN or AZ after a long stay. The weather sounds like you were especially glad you don't live there anymore, totally get that. Even in that weather that you're not use to anymore, good job on getting some runs in.
Altair: another good days of running before weather turns stormy there again. Does the area get tornadoes? Planning long runs ahead of bad storms is smart and makes one feel relieved you got a run in. Hopefully, the 'wait' for better running days will be short. I usually get in some 'speed work' at the end of each mile or two, about 40 secs or a minute or two. I'm still working on endurance so speed isn't my main focus right now, not that I'm speedy anyway, ha! I think I'm one of the few who doesn't listen to music when I run, not even on hiking/camping, it's too distracting for me. I tend to listen to news shows/podcasts when I drive, rarely music. Love the closeup of colorful flowers. I'm still amazed by what the camera conveys through your eyes. Kinda seeing more green than brown landscapes as it's trying to make it's transition to spring.
I'm not that familiar with types of birds but I did catch common ones that populate the area: gold finch, red house finch, couple of robins and sparrows, and hummingbirds.
Di: dragon flying ...... so game of thrones.....that would be awesome!! You would rule the sky, LOL! How are you?
Led: CONGRATS!! 5th in AG is amazing considering you don't really train at that elevation or on hills. Woohoo!! That sounds like a super race! Having a cheering squad is super duper cool, and to have then cheer on other runners had to have been highly appreciated It sounds like you met your expectation of a finish time. That's make it all worth it and fun, right? There's always waiting for races to start so that doesn't bother me.......and we can't control the weather. I think that's why it just makes sense to train in all kinds of weather. It doesn't look like you really slowed down on Monster Mountain. Maybe it's good that it was at the beginning when you have fresh legs. It's amazing to actually see strong runners just make it look like a cake walk, right? Was it scenic enough that made the run more fun? Sometimes, I like having someone who is running close to my pace to keep me going ..... especially a road race, and you find yourself 'leap frogging.' How did you feel after a day? Were you the driver to and from? Any photos? That sounds like it was a LONG drive back with the windstorms to thunderstorms, and avoiding the typical deer who are crossing just when you're driving in that location. I swear they do it on purpose, ha! Yikes!! That's so scary though. You'll be ready for the FM!!
Thurs: 4 miles. Nice sunny light breezy day.
Fri: took rest day so I can get a long run in on Saturday ..........but I should have run long today due to HIGH wind advisory on Saturday.
It was too late in the day to get a run in after working around the house and two zoom meetings.
Sat (today): Didn't get the good sleep I wanted ..... oh well. Got on the trail at 7 am, ugh! Not an early morning runner but will do it on race days and if weather is not going to cooperate. Yes, I hear all the reasons WHY getting a run over with will give you time to do other stuff. Nah, never worked for me, LOL! By 8 am, the wind started up. Glad I got the 'big hill' over with around 4 miles. Then, kept to trails that are sort of in a ravine alongside smaller hills which offered some wind protection. Finished 10.1 miles, tough run in the wind.
DH didn't even hear me leave but I left a note. He and Bones left when I got back, he's helping the elderly friend again.
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!
az - Good early 10 mile run run despite the wind and lack of sleep. It can be hard to pick the best day or time for a long run, often the sun comes out right after I finish or the following day has the perfect weather. It does make it interesting being out in various conditions. This area can get tornados and even waterspouts over Lake Ontario, but I've never actually seen a tornado. I would like to, but only from a safe distance. I live close to Geneseo State University and the high school as well, so in the village there are lots of young runners or even groups of runners and they often run down my street. However once I leave the village and am out on country roads it becomes very rare to see other runners, cyclists are a bit more common, but usually I don't see anyone. I've been expanding the different roads I run on, often traveling to run on roads I've never been on. Although these are mostly within a ten mile radius of my home I think the residents out in the country probably see few runners. However people I know tell me they see me running in the village area all the time! I rarely listen to music when running, but fast beats can encourage me to keep up a quicker pace!
Art - Did your dad recently pass away? If so, I hope he had a rewarding life! Anyway, great you visited with family. It must have felt different running with snow.
Yesterday it did not rain all day as I expected, nor did I see any snow. At 1 pm the light drizzle stopped and I got out for a run about 2:30 pm. It was 43 degrees and overcast for the first mile and then there were periods of some sun. This seems to be a typical pattern lately with nice blue skies with fluffy white clouds and then big dark clouds moving over making it feel much colder. I did nearly 5 miles.
Well my thermometer read 26 degrees this Easter morning and there was some light snow falling! Here you can see some snow on the leaves.
And something more spring-like for Easter morning! This tree has droopy branches that bloom with white flowers, looks almost like popcorn! A few of them have opened.
The sun is now shining and it's starting to warm up! I'll see what I feel like doing later, maybe a short run or a bike ride. My weekly mileage for the past six weeks has been around 22 miles and this week I already have 31 miles, an improvement, but not up to the distance I want to reach which could be 45 miles or more per week. Hopefully I'll be doing longer runs as my fitness improves and the weather continues to warm!
Decided to end my week with a bike ride! It was 41 degrees at 2 pm when I started, but would feel chilly when clouds blocked the sun and the wind blew. Good thing I dressed warm and wore some gloves. The gloves also prevented my hands getting sore leaning over the handlebars. A couple of hills to climb, good exercise. The last mile there were snowflakes falling, even if it was above freezing! I rode over 10 1/2 miles.Here are some views of fields and clouds. There were a lot of clouds in the sky.
Not sure, but may be a form of willow tree on the right showing a bit of color.
Altair: thanks for the photos especially the easter bunny, LOL! Always love the ones with the clouds, gives the elements a different perspective. Nice change in running a 5 miler to biking over 10 miles to take advantage of the nice weather........till the next storm, yikes!
Sunday: 4.3 miles, nice slow easy run with some decent hills. Legs still felt a bit tired from the 10 miler that day before but I was happy they pulled me though on the hills. The wind finally died down and turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day. DH helped his elderly friend and we invited him over for salmon/veggies/rice dinner.
Monday (today): Scheduled rest day although with the Boston marathon today, I felt like going for a short run at least........but didn't.
Another beautiful day in northern AZ. Had coffee while watching the Boston marathon.
The women's race was exciting to the end. American Nell Rojas squeezed in her finish in 10th place. Des Linden finished in 13th, and Molly Siedel DNF. Was rooting for them both. Glad Des hung in there to the finish.
The men's race was tight till around mile 23. Two Americans finished in the top 10. CJ Albertson finished 13th despite being with the front pack for about 20 miles, using same strategy from last year. Thought he would do it differently this year. He's a strong runner, trains in northern AZ, was rooting for him. Wheelchair races were a runaway with the winners. Glad the weather was cooperative this year for the lucky runners.
Question to all: Are you doing anything different as preparation in case there is a cyberattack due to the Russian/Ukraine war? Yes, there will be ppl who will panic. There has always been that threat. So I'm just asking.
Saturday morning got a little ambitious and did 5.5 miles. Weather was nice and sunny. I need to get a pair of sunglasses since the last pair broke. I keep forgetting when I am out. Spent the rest of the day doing things around the house and garden.
Sunday morning was a rest day because we had a family Easter morning breakfast. After that I trimmed one of the trees in the front yard, worked on a couple of car projects and trying to decide where to put a new garden section.
Monday morning did the usual 4.2 miles and then headed off to work for the day.
AZ - You didn't miss anything. My dad passed away a couple of months ago. His wish was to be cremated and because of the crappy weather they were having at the time there the ceremony was delayed to later. Nice couple of runs in the beautiful Northern Arizona weather. The flight was on Allegiant out of Mesa Gateway. I have flown them before and the flight was as expected. Except for that hard seat. Overall not much different from the other airlines. I do not miss that midwestern weather at all. I'm not worried too much about a cyber attack. They have been ongoing for quite a while but don't get much news coverage. What I am concerned with is what if they escalate and Russia decides to up the game with bigger weapons. Something they are starting to do in Ukraine.
Altair - Nice run and bike ride. When I saw the top of your Easter bunny photo I thought of the energizer bunny until I remembered it was Easter time. The flower pics show that spring is starting to show.
Art: I’m sorry I didn’t know about your dad or I forgot when you mentioned it here. It’s always comforting to be around family for such events. My sympathies. Nice to get ambitious now and then, right? How did the longer distance feel? Oh, the Shiprock Marathon 2023 sounds like it’s going to be a road race, and a Boston Qualifier….. for those whose goal is to do that. If you’re interested to run the FM or the HM next year, I’ll run it too. Yes, my concern is definitely Russian’s escalation which in turn targets the U.S. (and Allie’s), which leads to the cyber attacks. That will affect banks (ATM), power, etc. It’s getting worse and political parties are just pointing fingers at each other. I’m not sure if we should be traveling back to MN at this time. I rather stay in AZ. Anyway, just wondering if anyone is doing any preparation or it’s a “wait & see.”
Az, I'm doing fine. Finished up at the Wichita casino and am now at the KC one this week. Working hard to find food low in sodium but it's there if you look hard. As for the war as prior military I worry about if Putin crosses into NATO territory which could potentially kick off WWIII with nuclear option. Since nobody did anything about Crimea and then Belarus Putin thought invading Ukraine would be the same. He's found out the hard way it's not but he can't back out now without losing "face" and that's important to him. All the while the people of Ukraine will suffer, ordinary Russians will suffer but the oligarchs and Putin will now suffer and so there's no incentive to back off. I'm too old to be recalled to active duty but my SIL and DH could be if the US goes to war. The thing that pisses me off now and in the past if the politicians who have never served, have no children in the military are making decisions that could lead to soldiers dying.