Good Morning,

Enjoying a day off work, and getting ready to hit the trails. Lovely weather here, but rain is expected by noon, so I might have to throw in a few fartleks along the way.

I had an painful sunset run last night.

I started out with DS on his bike, and we visited our "tree which had swallowed a guy". It was uphill, and with my right arm, I pushed DS over several humps. This put a lot of strain on my right leg, and after a while, my foot and calf started to tighten up and hurt. It felt as if it would cramp up any moment, but never did. Made it difficult to run on the sharp rocks, especially downhill.

I ran some trails I hadn't been on in many months, and for a while, it was fun cruising over the rocks and hills. Crossed a deep creek, then ran into a group of trail runners who had lost their way and were desperate to make it back to their car before dark. As their car was parked where I was heading, I led them back. Running with them was weird: 1/10 of a mile sprint, then another 1/10 of a mile steady, then some walking, repeat. For me, it was just some intervals thrown in, for them, it was probably a desperate effort to conceal their embarrassment at losing their way. 

After I had safely dropped them off at their car, I went further up the mountain, when suddenly a medium-size moth flew right into my ear and got stuck in there.  Anyone ever had that happen to them? It's horrible. The moth tried to either get further in, or make its way out, flapping its wings and crawling and squirming. Every few seconds, it hit the membrane in my ear, producing a loud, uncomfortable noise, and it tickled and hurt. Drove me crazy.

So while I was trying to keep calm, telling myself it's nothing to worry about, not life-threatening, nor an immediate danger to my health, just uncomfortable, but fixable later, I still freaked out every now and then, screaming and howling as I was stumbling and wobbling further uphill toward the crest. I tried to crush the moth, but it did not work. I did not want to flush my ear yet (with water from my bottle), as the moth was still alive and flapping and squirming, and I was afraid it would just get in further and cause more pain.

When I got up to the top of the mountain, there were four young campers standing around a fire. They had come running when they heard me screaming, then stopped when they saw me wobbling along, every few seconds letting out a scream, twisting and twirking, hitting my head... they were not sure what this elderly lady in short shorts was trying to accomplish? 

I told them what had happened, and that I was ok, and they were visibly relieved. Still, I was quite a bit embarrassed.

Kept on going, turned on my light - and found that the combination of my new (non-sports-) glasses with the headlamp (no second light) does not work well. The glasses were not sitting right, so due to the progressive lenses, I had no depth perception at all, the image kept distorting and blurring, and I constantly tripped over the rocks and almost fell a few times. The strap of the lamp pressed my ears against the temples of the glasses, which hurt (one more painful spot on my body), so I pushed it up, and the lamp slid up, causing it to wobble, which did not really improve my vision.

I was surprised that I managed to get down the hill over the rocks unharmed.

Finally, I succeeded at my attempts to crush the moth, but the crushing was just gross. Gross sound, and then the goey, goopy insides of the moth started dripping out from my ear. 

But at least it was quiet now.

So eventually I decided to skip the last 1-mile loop on the trails and get back to the car (and DH and DS waiting for me in the dark) on the road.

DH and DS were just starting to get worried, as I had been out longer than expeced (thanks to the strained muscle on my leg, the moth in my ear, and the bad vision with the light/glasses combo).

On our way home we saw a skunk, and DS was excited, yay!

QOTD: It usually is 3-4 miles, but when I go out with DD, I can be happy with just 2 miles as well. 2 miles of quality time.

Morning!  My left glute/hamstring/piriformis (take your pick) has been acting up this past week, so I'm heading to yoga today to see if that will work it's magic.  And looking back on my log, I've been slacking on strength training so that also might be a factor (usually is).  Maybe I'll get in one of those short runs today, who knows.

Yesterday's run ended up close to 7 and with an animal encounter.  Came around the bend just shy of the car and heard a loud 'hissing' before I almost ran into a Canada goose.  Who, I think, was protecting a nest since it was solo and they are not normally seen here.  Those are birds not to be messed with. Scared me almost as much as Couch's moth story.

Couch- after that story, I am giving up night running and definitely night running on the trails.     Just reading gave me the heebie-geebies.

qotd:  In my head, 3 miles, but in practice, usually 4.  Now, if I'm trying to run a streak, then it goes down to 1 or 2 miles, and that is just a mental game.

I did not get up to run today.  I should have.  Nuff said.

TT - you never do QOTDs but this is a good one.

FTYC - that does sound like a sucky run. Too many weird things rolled into one run.  You'd better get the glasses and headlamp thing figured out here soon.  You don't want that mess during MMT.

QOTD: To me it's not really worth it for anything less than 4.  Although I sometimes convince myself if I do 3 speedy miles, it's "ok".

Have a great day!

Back to the trail last night with the Lady. We just ran our standard 7 mile loop at Coventry Woods snaking up to the ridge down the other side and back. One of my favorite runs as of late. Good to be off the pavement again. Nice warm evening and shirtless running season has kicked off up here in PA. Today will likely just be a short 5 miler over at Green Lane as I need to get the lawn mowed as well.

QOTD: Typically 5 miles is my shortest run unless I am tapering or recovering, or get out there and don't feel right for one reason or another.

Couch - Yikes, that sounds like a crazy run but good practice for the unexpected. Hope you find a good solution for the night vision. I always have problems at night too and I think it's because of my glasses. As long as my light is churning out it's full force of lumens I do ok, but once it's starts to fade my depth perception falters too. I found at Superior (my last 100) just changing batteries every 2 hours brightened things up.

Lot's of driving (ok riding) today.  Then shopping for food, early to bed and more driving tomorrow.  So no runs fir next two days because when we hit the beach I'll be cracking a cold one.  Wish I had bud Lite since it would take no out of my vocabulary.   Google it if ya haven't heard.

QOTD:  Funny you should ask this question TT.  I used to think if I couldn't get. 6 miles it wasn't worth it.  Then awhile back we posted our monthly total and your's was pretty impressive.  It convinced me that those shorter runs add up.  so now I will run 3 at least.  Plus with the new dog 3 is all he can do right now.

Qotd2: May mileage?  118....happy with that but time to ramp up.  Oh Mandy....

FTYC:  Crazy.... Coukdn't the kids at the fire help get it out?

Oh the signs of spring arriving......Allergies and the dandelions in my yard. I hate 'em both. But as they say, "better living through chemistry". With that In mind I'm headed out to apply some spray to the dandelions. See if I can kill the little buggers off.

Planning about 7-8 miles on the road later this afternoon.

Couch --

they were not sure what this elderly lady in short shorts was trying to accomplish? 

I hate to break it to you but you're now on my bad poop list .  If I remember correctly you're about the same age as me and you're calling yourself ELDERLY.  Really?????  .  We're just hitting early middle age .    You should have told them you were going through a training ritual for your next 100 miler!!

QOTD: Anything less then my 4.5 mile loop and I'll either just go for a walk with DW or put in a half hour on the elliptical. On very rare occasions I'll do a 3 miler but that is very rare.

 

LB2 - Did you make reservations for Madison yet? Those turkeys look ready for the taking.

 

I am all hunted out for this spring. But there is always next year. I will probably go to Texas next year, though.

QOTD 2: The accuracy is questionable because I didn't really do a very good job of keeping track of mileage in April. I would say about 100 miles, give or take. I'll jack it up to 130 to 140 in May and keep on doing that until I hit around 200+ for a few months before my next 100 miler, which probably won't be until March 2016. We'll see.