"Long Run"

Friday's test run was the route up and down my hill. Just from looking at the splits, it's not too obvious that anything was wrong. In fact, I think that's the fastest I've come down the hill all winter. And I wasn't really trying to run fast, just tried to run comfortably

What I learned on the test run, was that my knee bothered my on the way up. But didn't hurt at all on the way down. That's got to be a clue.

Based on that observation, I decided to give it a go for my long run this morning. I was originally planning to run 10. I had already decided to cut back and try for 8-9 instead. Also decided that I would walk any uphill portions. And if my knee started to bother my on the flats, I would stop immediately and walk the rest of the way in.

I planned to meet my running buddies about 2 miles into their run. Based on their planned distance, that would give me about 9 miles to play with. And part of our route was going to be on dirt, which is a big plus for me.

Our coach was running with the others in the group who had shorter distances planned, then would come out to meet us on our way back.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan. I was a little disturbed to find that my knee bothered me even walking the uphills. That's not a good sign. When Coach met up with us at about mile 5, he commented that he could tell that my knee was acting up as soon as he saw me running, even from a distance. That's not a good sign either.

When I got to about 7.5 miles, my knee started to ache even on flats. Just as I had promised myself, I stopped running and walked the rest of the way in. So I ended the morning with ~7.5 miles running and 1.8 miles walking.

My running splits aren't very encouraging either. I'm guessing the slowing down trend is mostly related to whatever is going on to my knee and is not a sign of my fitness level. I really didn't feel particularly tired or sluggish.

So where does that leave me? Well, for starters I'm icing it as I type. I've taken the 10 mile race off my calendar. I'll be scaling back my activity for the next few weeks. I'll call the orthopedic and try to make an appointment for right after the half marathon.

I'm discouraged that this is happening right when my running was going so well, but it reminds me that my main goal is to be able to run feeling good and cross the finish line with a smile on my face. If that means shorter distances for now, so be it. It sure beats not running at all.

Not this again...

I haven't run since last Friday. As I mentioned in my last post, we were in Pagosa Springs for the weekend. My knee was bothering me. I thought maybe it was from the snow storm coming through. Plus we spent a lot of time soaking in the hot springs, which is probably the opposite of what I should do when my knee is bothering me (should ice it).

Well, we've been home since Monday afternoon/evening and it's continued to bother me. A few days ago, I noticed that it was crunchy again. This is not a good sign.

If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I have a recurring issue with my left knee. The Euflexxa injections help a lot, and technically I could go back in for another round already. I hope that I'm not at that point because it would also mean that it's time for another break. And I really don't want to take a break quite yet. I'd be a lot happier if I could get through this half-marathon cycle first.

If nothing else, I've learned that nothing good comes from running when my knee is acting up. Sometimes running on it makes my knee worse. Other times it affects my gait and I end up hurting something else. Been there, done that. So, I've been a good girl and have been letting it rest.

Anyway, this weekend I'm scheduled for a ten miler, which is really only important if I wan to do the ten mile race in a few weeks. But I can cut back the mileage if I need to, and still be okay for the half-marathon. So the plan is to test out the knee with a short (2-3 mile) run today. If that goes okay, I'll join the running group Saturday morning and see what I can do...

Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday afternoon I went out for my 8 mile long run. Solo. I really don't care for running anything over 6 miles solo, but I didn't want to miss my long run and we had plans to go out of town for the weekend. So solo it was. And it was a nice enough day that I was actually running in a skirt, compression socks, and a short sleeve shirt. No tights, no jacket, no long sleeves. Spring-like weather was in the air.

We woke up early Saturday morning to drop the dogs off at the kennel. I kennel them at a place that has doggy day care, which is something they absolutely love. So it was like the dogs were going on a vacation too. Then we finished packing and started our road trip.

We were heading to Pagosa Springs, which is in Southern Colorado. It's about a 4 hour scenic drive through Northern New Mexico. As we drove north, the spring-like weather was replaced with winter and there was snow on the ground. I made a mental note to take some photos on the trip home. It really was interesting watching the landscape change.

The Springs Resort is on the San Juan river. They have 23 hot spring pools on the grounds. We must have gone for a soak at least three times on the day we arrived. So relaxing! On Sunday, Husband spent the day skiing at Wolf Creek. I started my day off by a nature walk along the river. My knee was bothering me and I wonder if it was because of the snow storm that was passing through. Daughter and I explored the shops of Pagosa Springs and spent some time at the day spa (salt scrub is my new favorite treatment). We also saw some brave/crazy souls jumping in the the San Juan River. Brrrr.

Then I got a call from the kennel. That's never a good thing. My older dog, Bandit, was peeing blood and wimpering. I did not handle that news very well. Since this was happening Sunday evening, they were going to try to have him seen by a vet Monday. We decided to leave early enough to make it home in time to pick the dogs back up Monday afternoon instead of Tuesday morning.

I was happy to get a call back late Monday morning telling me that it had actually cleared up and he appeared in good spirits so they weren't going to take him to the vet after all. I was extremely relieved that he got better instead of worse. Right now he's home with me and we have an appt for the vet to see him tomorrow. I'm wondering if maybe he passed a stone?

All in all, it was a nice weekend get-away (except for Bandit's troubles). I took a few photos while we were there and also remembered to take some photos on the drive home, but you'll have to check on FB to see them if you are interested.

Back to the grind tomorrow...

Thoughts from the night-stand

It's 4:00am and I should be sleeping. I often have difficulties sleeping and don't know why. This time, I had a disturbing dream and couldn't get back to sleep. After tossing and turning for an hour and a half, I decided to get up and do something.

Anyway, Sunday's 5K was intended to be a fun run on my way to the Zoo Half Marathon. Next potential race on the schedule is a 10-miler that is 3.5 short weeks away. I haven't signed up for it yet and probably won't make a final decision on it for another 3 weeks. After that, I'm thinking of doing a 10K in April. Then the Half-Marathon on May 1.

I've been trying to figure out what went right on Sunday. Maybe it was the winter running. Maybe it's fact that I'm not injured for a change. Maybe it was the cake in the morning Maybe it was a relaxed attitude. Probably a combination of the above.

I plugged the results into the MacMillan race calculator and had several observations.

1) My long/easy paces are right on. It always seems like I'm running too slow, but apparently not. That's good to know.

2) Macmillan predicts that I could run a 10K in 58:30. I don't know about that, but I'm definitely hoping to break an hour next time.

3) Macmillan predicts a 2:10:00 Half Marathon. To be honest, If I can get trained up and achieve anything under 2:15:00, I'd be happy.

4) Macmillan suggests tempo runs in the 9:30-9:55 range. That sounds difficult to me. It also has something that it calls steady-state runs that are 9:55-10:12. That sounds more achievable. I'm not sure what the difference is between tempo and steady-state is. Does Anyone know?

Ran 4.5 miles solo on Monday with another half-mile walking. Ran 4.0 miles with the group after work yesterday. That makes three days in a row of running with the race on Sunday. Surprisingly, I feel okay. But today I will 'rest' and do yoga.

Okay, enough rambling for now. I'm going to try to get back to sleep. My alarm doesn't go off until 5:45. I can almost guarantee that I'll be sleeping soundly when it goes off and won't want to get up. Isn't that how it always goes?

Sweetheart Run 5K

Today Husband & I ran the Sweetheart Run. We've done this one many times because it's always near our birthdays. This year Husband was running in his brand new age group (50-59) and I was running on my actual birthday.

After the crazy cold weather we've had in the last few weeks, I was happy to see that it would be about 30deg at race time. The race started at 9am, which gave me time for a little extra treat (leftover cake) after breakfast. I joked that it might give me an extra kick near the finish line, and it might have just worked:

I'll skip the rest of the race details and cut to the chase. My Garmin says 28:05, which is well over two minutes faster than my time at this race last year. The icing on the cake? I beat my 5K PR from way back in 2006 by 43 seconds!!!! Un-freaking-believable!!!!!

How does that make me feel? They say that a picture's worth a thousand words, and this one says it all:

It's worth noting, Husband had a great race as well and got 2nd in his new AG. :-)

I was 4th of 26 F40-49, which makes me very happy don't get me wrong, but darn, so close to getting bling of my own...

Captain Obvious saves the day!

"If it's cold outside in the morning, wait until it warms up."

I really wanted to run outside on Friday rather than succumb to the treadmill yet again, but it was 17deg or so in the morning. Checked out the weather forecast and saw that it was expected to get to ~45deg in the afternoon. So I planned my day to allow running in the afternoon.

I'm happy to say that my run occurred outside on a dirt trail. Yes!

"Long runs tire you out. Not a good idea 2 days before a race."

Overall, I didn't do a very good job sticking to my training schedule this week. I was supposed to run 4 miles total on Thursday with 1 mile at 10K pace. That didn't happen at all. Rather than skip yet another run, I decided to run long on Friday. I actually wanted to run 8.0 miles on Friday, but finally listed to those wiser than myself and ran 6.2 miles easy instead.

Okay, so it would have been better to do the prescribed run on Thursday instead of this longer run on Friday, but at least I didn't go too far or too fast.

"The key to negative splits is to start off slow and then speed up."

It always sounds so simple, but is never easy to implement. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not so good at pacing in general. Add to the mix a tendency to start out too fast, and it ends up being difficult to pick up the pace after putting several miles on the legs.

I made a concerted effort to start out slow and managed to pull off negative splits while sticking with easy paces overall. From that perspective, the run was a success.

Back-up Plan

Runners have different opinions on a lot of things. One of those things is the treadmill. I'm in the "hate the treadmill" camp. Last year I ran one and only one time on a treadmill. That's how much I dislike them.

Having said that, I *am* training for a half-marathon. And the weather is *not* cooperating. It's time to make a tough decision. Do I despise treadmills enough to sabotage my half-marathon training? Or can I tolerate it as a back-up plan while the weather isn't playing nice? Decided to find out.

Monday morning I packed up some running clothes with the plan to stop at the gym after work on my way home. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my ipod. There wasn't any music playing at the gym, so I found myself slogging away silently on the dreaded machine. After what seemed like an eternity, I checked the distance. 0.75 miles. Are you kidding me?!? Is this thing some sort of time machine? Anyway, I finally made it to 2.0 miles and just couldn't take it anymore.

At that point I was ready to swear off treadmills for good. Maybe I do hate treadmill running enough to sabotage my half-marathon training. But I decided to be fair, I really ought to give it another chance, this time with music. Reluctantly packed up my running clothes again Tuesday morning. This time I was darn sure to toss the ipod into the bag. Stopped at the gym on my way home from work. And I must say, my Tuesday treadmill experience was more tolerable. Although not necessarily because I brought my ipod.

The thing about the gym at work is that the elliptical machines, treadmills, and spin bikes are all in the same room. I was probably 5 minutes into my run when some lady came bouncing into the room energetically. She started messing with some speakers, a microphone, and turned on some music. It didn't take long for me to realize that she was preparing to teach SPIN class.

I turned up the volume on my music and kept plodding away. Students started showing up. Soon she cranked up the volume on her music and class began. Glanced down at the treadmill. I was roughtly 2 miles into my run in at this point.

I gave up on my music (I would have gone deaf trying to drown her out). This lady was LOUD. She was telling them to breathe. Telling them to count.Randomly screaming out words to the song. Grunting. I sweat it sounded like she was giving birth. I played with my speed a little while she was telling them to change resistance or increase cadence. Didn't really care for that, but it was a distraction. Glanced at the treadmill. 3.5 miles done. Half mile to go. Yes!

Stuck it out for another half mile while she led them through a few more drills, then decreased my speed for a short cool down. When it was all said and done, 4.1 miles were accomplished.

I still don't like the treadmill. Clearly, my preference would be for the weather to cooperate with my schedule so that I could simply resume outdoor running. But it's good to have a back-up plan. At this point, I know that I *can* get through a 4.0 mile run on a treadmill. At least during SPIN class.

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Weather took a turn for the better. We're expecting a high in the low 40s today. Gas company is working on restoring service to those who have gone without for several days. Things are slowly getting back to normal.

However, the running group canceled today. Luckily, our small group of winter warriors agreed to meet a little later (at 10am instead of 8am) when it was supposed to be in the mid-twenties. The three others were running 10, I met them a mile into their run and did 8.

I was glad to get out there, but this run was a struggle. I hadn't run all week, and that's never a good thing. The bigger problem is that they were running at a faster pace that I could maintain. A mile in, I decided to drop back. I would have been okay running solo, but one of them stayed with me. I felt good about the run overall because I was still able to kick it up a notch at the end. I always like it when I can finish strong.

Next weekend is the Sweetheart Run. At this point, I'm not feeling very confident about being able to run 'fast' for a 5K. I think I'm going to try to run long on Friday and let the 5K be what it may. After all, I'll be running that one on my birthday, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate another year on this earth.

Have a great weekend folks. And stay warm!

Med accountability:

Sun: 2 mile hill walk

Mon: 1.2 mile walk, yoga

Tue: yoga

Wed: yoga, 30min snow shoveling, yoga

Thu: yoga

Fri: nada :-(

Sat: 8 mile run, 0.5 mile walk

State of Emergency

I realize that everyone is tired of talking about the weather, but I don't think most people realize how bad things are in NM right now. We've had some of the coldest days on record, it was -9 when I woke up yesterday. And that was one of the warmer areas of the state. It started off as a somewhat of a novelty, but things got really bad really fast.

The problem is that the unusual cold temperatures combined with rolling blackouts in neighboring states has caused demand for natural gas to exceed the available supply. As a result, residents in some of the coldest part of the state (-20s) have been without natural gas to heat their homes. Water lines are freezing and pipes are bursting.

Just think about that for a moment. This situation has certainly caused me to take pause and be thankful for things that I normally take for granted.

The governor declared a state of emergency yesterday. Government offices, private businesses, schools are closed to conserve gas. Residents have been asked to turn down the thermostats 10deg. Today it's actually supposed to get above freezing for a few hours. That's a good thing, but I think it will be several days before things get back to normal

I haven't been running. A combination of icy roads, frigid temps, and the uncertainty of whether a warm shower is even going to be possible has kept me inside. And while we're being urged to conserve energy, I certainly don't need to be doing extra loads of laundry for sweaty running clothes.

Perhaps training will resume next week, but it's no big deal either way. Honestly, my training schedule is fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

New Yoga DVDs in my collection

When I gave away two of my least favorite yoga DVDs, I replaced them in my collection with two others. Ended up getting two more from Ana & Ravi, just because it's what I'm accustomed to. Plus I like that they come chaptered with a design your own workout option where you can pick and choose the sections to do on any particular day.

The first one that I got was "Fat Free Yoga - Lose Weight, Feel Great". This happens to be their best selling DVD, and was only $12 on Amazon, so I figured what the heck. My assessment, two thumbs up with a disclaimer. If you are looking for a relaxing yoga dvd, this is not the one for you. But if you are looking for a way to get in some upper and lower body work and some low impact cardio while improving flexibility then you might like this. My arms and abs hurt the day after doing this (in a good way), and it gets my heart rate up. Seems like a reasonable alternative to circuit work at the gym.

The second one that I got was "Yoga for Beginners and Beyond" not to be confused with "Kundalini Yoga for Beginners and Beyond" which I already have. They say this is a combination of Hatha Yoga, Power Yoga, and Kundalini Yoga. I'm guessing that yoga purists wouldn't like this at all. Doesn't bother me though. I like this one for stretching, strengthening, and balance. I find it to be a particularly good "after workout" on days that I run.

Now excuse me as I roll out my yoga mat...

Tuesday Two

1) The weather decided to play some cruel joke on us. It was 57 deg on Sunday. Then the threat of rain on Monday. Now this. It does not go unnoticed that the worst day is on Feb 2, Ground Hogs day. If I was Punxsutawney Phil, I wouldn't even bother to come out of my hole until Thursday.


2) When life gives you snow and ice, stay inside and do yoga! School is on a 2 hour delay because of icy conditions (based on the weather forecast, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up closed today and tomorrow), so the brief thought of heading out to the gym for a dreaded treadmill run was even less appealing than usual. Besides, I realized during my January stats that my half-marathon training actually got off to an early start due to a change in my target race, so I have already stopped fretting about getting in all my scheduled runs this week.

Jan Totals

Numbers

• 64.7 miles by feet (47.2 miles running, 17.5 miles walking)
• 28 yoga sessions (or roughly 21 hours of yoga)
• 4 trips up the hill
• 12 days on antibiotics

Thoughts

• Man, that was lot of yoga. The yoga numbers will drop as I switch my focus to half-marathon training, but I should keep at it even at a reduced frequency.
• Half marathon training got off to a good start. Actually, since I changed my target race, I guess it got off to an early start (by two weeks). That just means I can get a few more long runs in before the race.
• Being sick sucks, but I'm thankful that it really didn't slow me down too much.

Plans for Feb

• Yoga 3x per week
• Sweetheart 5K Run
• Continue half-marathon training

Monday Madness

Here is is the last day of January and the second week of half-marathon training. On schedule today is 5 miles easy. I had such great luck last week running immediately after work that I planned to do the same today. It's typically a good 20-30 deg warmer that time of day than in the early morning and I have just enough daylight left to finish my run before it gets dark.

Then I looked at the weather forecast. 37 deg chance of rain/snow showers. Crap. It's not the 37 deg that has me unhappy, it's the rain/snow showers. Now I realize many of you are thinking "What's the big deal, it's just a little rain/snow. Get out and run."

Yeah, well I live in the desert. We get something like 11 inches of rain per year. Some of you are accustomed to running in "liquid sunshine". I, however, have developed an aversion to the rain/snow much like that of a cat. That's what's the big deal. And if the weather forecast is correct, this stuff is supposed to hang around for a few days. Shudder.

I'm trying not to freak out. Too much.

[edited to add: I did NOT run. Was windy, cold, rainy with thunder/lightning when I got home; the lightning was a deal breaker]

[Side note, my son who moved to the Bay area for college, complained to his father that we never taught him how to use an umbrella. It's not our fault. We never *needed* to teach him how to use an umbrella. That's how little it rains around here.]

Slight Change in Plans

Earlier this week I announced that I was training for the Albuquerque Half Marathon. Yesterday I learned that the local Run for the Zoo is adding a half-marathon. It's two week later than the other event. The Zoo runs are ALWAYS well organized (and for a good cause and awesome logos as seen in my t-shirt quilt). The other event, not so much. Read my report from last year when they routed us across a one lane foot bridge less than a quarter mile from the start line.

Anyway, since I hadn't registered for the other event yet, I'm training for the Zoo half-marathon instead. And I couldn't be happier!!

Training is still going well. Got in my Thursday run even though I didn't think that I would. And I got my 8 miler in this morning. Wore my new pink skirt too, sadly I didn't think to get a photo to share. Trust me it is very cute.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Med Accountability:

Wed: Yoga

Thu: 4 mile easy run

Fri: 2 mile hill walk with dogs

Sat: 8 mile long run

Let the Training Begin!

I'm officially training for the Albuquerque Half Marathon, as of Monday. Woot! Coach asked for my goal and I told him that my primary objective is to be able to run this race, finishing pain-free and uninjured. A PR would be nice, but not at the expense of the primary objective. And so it begins...

I got my training schedule and immediately felt that I was behind schedule because I didn't run Monday before work. Luckily, I was able to get out of work a little early and get my run in before the sun went down. One thing that I noticed was that my schedule has me running 4x week. I need to talk to Coach about that because I usually stick to a 3x week running plan for injury prevention. For now I will try to hit two of the three mid-week runs and consider the third a bonus. And of course, be sure to do the long runs on the weekend.

Monday: 4 miles easy.

I chose a dirt trail for this one and took it nice and easy. I was so happy to be running after work again even if I was kind of in a rush to beat the sunset. I ended up running a pace of 11:43.

Tuesday: 2 miles steady (at half marathon pace, 10:20-10:40) with one mile warm-up & cool down.

For this one I opted to run on a hard surface in order to to hit the steady paces. It seems I overshot my pace targets a bit and ended up at 10K pace instead. I attribute this to not having a pacing buddy with me. When the running group starts mid-week runs, it will be easier to stay on pace. At least I got the benefit of two faster miles. And it was a nice confidence boost for kicking off my training.

mile 1: 11:02

mile 2: 9:55

mile 3: 9:58

mile 4: 11:35

Next run scheduled for Thursday.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get the Thursday run in, but that's okay. I have 8 miles on the schedule for Saturday, I don't anticipate any issues with that one.

p.s. Thanks for the compliments on the t-shirt quilt. I've given details on who created it to a few of you who asked if I had your email. For anyone else who's interested, just email me.

Cold Weather + Event Shirts = ??

Something cozy to snuggle in!!

Like many of you, I have way too many cotton running shirts from various events that I've participated in. I never wear them, but it's a shame to get rid of them. I was going through my closet recently and realized that some of them are actually pretty cool looking. I'm particularly fond of warm colors, so I gathered up several shirts with interesting emblems that had warm colors in them (plus one that I wasn't crazy about but worked with the color scheme) and shipped them off to be made into a throw size, t-shirt quilt.

I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. :-)

What do you do with your event t-shirts?

Turtle Powers....Activate!

Saturday was the debut of the 2011 season for my running group, Turtle Club. The group starts several years ago as a small club of about six runners. Yesterday there were sixteen of us, and apparently another four that just couldn't make it on that particular day.

The majority of the group started out with a 30 minute run. I stuck with my marathon friends and did six miles easy. I would have suggested a slightly longer run (7 or 8 miles) except that I had been battling illness all week and really didn't want to push it. In fact, I wasn't even sure I'd make it out at all the night before, but felt good enough to give it a go when I woke up.

The larger group usually sticks together for the first mile, then everyone breaks off at their own pace (with a few pace groups that stick together), but by the time we had hit the half mile point most of the short distance runners had dropped us like a hot potato. I suspect this is foreshadowing of things to come - I'll be spending another season at the back of the pack. No worries, it's fun back there and the company is great.

At the conclusion of our run, four of us (the two that I trained with all winter plus faster runner who is running a marathon this coming weekend) stuck around a little longer. This little group of winter warriors met for breakfast. After running with them all winter and tracking them like crazy on race day, I really enjoyed hearing tales of their marathon experience.

Biggest surprise for me was when my marathon friends presented me with a gift that they picked up for me at the expo. It's a pink Brooks PR running skort. I was not expecting that at all! It fits well, has a zippered pocket in the back, plus a pocket on the leg of the compression shorts underneath. Pardon the lousy camera phone photo, hopefully I'll be able to model it soon.

The larger group of Turtles is nice, but our small group of winter warriors is really something special.

edited to add my MED accountability for the week:

Mon: yoga

Tue: 0.5 mi walk, 2 mi hill run, yoga

Wed: yoga

Thu: yoga

Fri: 1.5 mi walk

Sat: 6 mi run, yoga

Sun: 2 mi hill walk

Stylin'

When I get tagged, I usually don't end up doing the post not because I don't want to, but because by the time I get around to it, I can't find the information from the tag. D'oh! Anyway, was tagged recently by both Sunflowers 'N Daisies and Trying is for Little Girls, and am playing along this time.

The rules of the tag indicate that I need to link back to the person who awarded this. Done! See up above. Then share 7 things about myself. Okay, here we go:

1) I am lacking depth perception, therefore I'm lousy at things like parking in the garage, catching a frisbee, hitting a tennis ball, etc. This means I also can't see in 3D even with the 3D glasses at a movie theater. Luckily, running works out just fine in the 2D world that I live in.

2) I've melted not one, but two tea kettles on the stove by walking away and forgetting about them. Husband bought me one that whistles so that this will never happen again.

3) I also burned up a bamboo steamer the same way. Sadly, they don't make steamers that whistle.

4) I drive a 2009 diesel VW Jetta Sportwagen and I love it. Today's diesel isn't like the diesel from 30 yrs ago. It's quiet and has low emissions. I get about 35mpg around town, better mileage on the freeway, and it has almost as much storage space as my old SUV.

5) It's easy for me to find motivation to move every day, because I can now, and there was a time when I couldn't. I experienced a few years where it was difficult to stand for long periods of times due to vericose veins caused from child-birth. Had them treated in my mid-thirties. Shortly afterwards, I experienced a full year with difficulties doing normal daily activities due to an auto-immune disorder which is currently in remission.

6) I started running, learned to swim, & bought a bike all around my 40th birthday. Over the past 5 years I've completed sprint and olympic distance triathlons, metric century bike rides, 5Ks, 10ks, & half-marathons. Trust me, if I can do this, anyone can.

7) I quit drinking alcohol entirely in early April 2010 and have honestly never felt better. You never know how strong you really are until it's the only choice you have.

Finally, I'm supposed to award 4 recently discovered great bloggers. I'm going to skip this part. Not because you're not great bloggers, you are. It's because I'd have a hard time just picking four and it always seems I'm one of the last to be tagged, so many of you have already done this.

Have a great weekend folks!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for (in no particular order):

1) The Cal dining crew. Even though their website is down and I haven't paid for it yet, they took my order over the phone to deliver a Birthday Care pack to my son who's away at college. Really outstanding customer service.

2) Healing. Started the day yesterday at Urgent Care. It's amazing what antibiotics, plenty of fluid, and good night's rest can do. I'm feeling better, not great, but better is a good thing.

3) My dogs. Dogs love their masters unconditionally. Every day I strive to be as good of a person as my dogs think I am. And they live in the moment. Every walk is the best walk ever. Every meal is the best meal ever. Today is the best day ever.

4) My cats. Cats are different than dogs. But by snuggling up and not saying a word, they've taught me that just being present is enough sometimes.

5) My friends and family. I'm still crazy about my husband after nearly 22 years of marriage. We have two children who are turning into amazing young people; I've very proud of both of them. I have running friends, church friends, school friends, work friends, blog friends, all of whom are pretty darn wonderful and supportive.

6) Being able to make a difference. A friend of mine from college was diagnosed with ALS 2 years ago. Early next week her battle will come to a close as she is removed from the ventilator. A fund has been set up in her honor to help families dealing with late-stage ALS to receive much needed home care. I've sat by helplessly as this terrible disease wreaked havoc in the lives of my friend and her family. Now I can do something to help others.

Ready for a new season

This morning was beautiful. 41 deg, a downright heat wave compared to the single digit and low teen temps that we've been experiencing in the mornings lately. I wish I would have had time for a longer run, but two miles up my hill and back was all that I could fit in before needing to get ready for work. I'm amazed at how easy the hill seems now. It was only a few months ago that I had to stop one or more times to get to the top. And a few months prior to that, I wasn't running at all due to issues with my knee.

I'm crazy happy that my running group officially starts back up this Saturday. I've run with my marathon friends to help them out, and now I'm ready for my own season to begin. I haven't registered for any races, but added some target races to my sidebar. The sweetheart run (5K or 10K) is on my 46th birthday. Definitely hope to do that one with Husband. There is a 10-miler in March that I would like to try. I've never run that distance in a race before. And if my knee cooperates, I'd like another shot at the Albuquerque Half Marathon. It's not particularly scenic, but the course runs along familiar territory and that is often a mental plus. The race I'm most hopeful about is the Dirty Half Marathon in September, a trail half marathon in the foothills of the Sandias. This is assuming that the race happens again this year, last year was it's first running.

There are other things I hope to do this year (including a trail event in CA), but I learned last year not to plan too far in advance. The most important thing for me is to stay injury-free so that I can keep running.

Six Thoughts Sunday

1) Husband was blushing from the comments to my facebook post about our ten thousand waves excursion. I don’t think he reads my blog regularly or he’d be blushing from these comments as well. He told me that he first thought of this 2 years ago, but didn't know if I'd enjoy it. Finally scheduled a day off coinciding with Son's flight back to CA, and decided to put the plan in motion and surprise me.

2) After not running all week (yikes!), I got out for a 5 mile solo run today. I miss my running partners, but have been cheering them on as they Rock-n-Roll to the marathon finish line in AZ. At the time of this writing, they are almost there…

3) I have completed 17 yoga sessions in the first 15 days of the month. Each session ranges from 35-55 minutes in duration. Using 45 minutes as an average, I’ve completed 12 hours 15 mins of yoga in 15 days. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a LOT of yoga to me.

4) My Garmin seems to be completely dead. I’ve resigned myself to buying a new one. Just need to decide whether to replace it with another 205 or spend more money on one of the newer models. I’m leaning toward sticking with the tried and true 205.

5) Daughter was starting to feel better after three days sick with Strep and got her hair cut on Friday. She had about 4 inches cut off. It looks super cute on her. She also bought a dress for Winter Ball. I'm heading out soon to meet her at the fabric store to see if we can come up with a way to modify/personalize it. Should be fun!

6) Today I was thinking about something. Sometimes the idea of a long run (9 or 10 or 12 or 13.1 miles) or running up a hill seems daunting, but the idea of taking just one more step often seems achievable. And really, that's all it takes. Just one more step, then another, and another, until you reach the end.

MED Accountability:
Fri: yoga
Sat: yoga
Sun: yoga, 5 mile run

The Surprise

We dropped off Son at the airport for a 10:15 flight and said goodbye again. This made me sad although it's worth mentioning that I'm very proud of him and happy that he is doing well on his own. But I still miss him when he's gone.

We came home and I was told to be ready to leave by 12:15. And make sure that I had a good lunch before we left. I asked if I needed to do anything to get ready. The answer was no, we just needed to leave at that time as we were expected to be somewhere at a certain time. Oh, and maybe bring my knitting.

When we got in the car, he told me we were headed to Santa Fe. The knitting was to give me something to do on the drive, but instead I just enjoyed the scenery. The farther north we went, the more frequently we saw patches of snow on the southwest corner of the hills. It was really pretty.

In Santa Fe, we needed to fill up. We took my car, which is diesel, and finding a gas station with diesel proved to be a bit challenging. I've never had a problem near Albuquerque, but apparently in the Santa Fe, it is a different story.

With a full tank, we headed up into the mountains. About 5 minutes before we arrived at our destination, he got a phone call on his cell from Ten Thousand Waves. Apparently we had an appt at 2:00 and had been advised to be there a bit early and hadn't shown up yet. We informed them that we were running just a bit late (due to the diesel hunt) and were almost there.

What is Ten Thousand Waves, you ask? It is a mountain spa resort that is designed to feel like a Japanese onsen. They have both communal and private baths (outdoor hot tubs) and offer a large array of spa and massage services. In the paragraph above, I linked to their facebook photo album. Humor me, if you will, and take a peek so that you have a better understanding what this lovely resort is like.

I've heard great things about Ten Thousand Waves and was excited to learn that this was our destination. Upon arrival, we were given kimonos, directions to a private outdoor hot tub, and escorted to the changing rooms. It wasn't until we were in the the hot tub that he informed me that he had scheduled us for a full afternoon of services and this was just the beginning...

They notified us (through an intercom system) when our time for the soak was almost up and directed us to wait in a lobby area. When we checked in at the lobby, they instructed us to head to the sauna. From there, two therapists took us to a large double room with two massage tables. We were cocooned in hot, herb-soaked linens and given a head/shoulder massage while the herbs seeped into our skin. When that was over, we were instructed to take a COLD shower to close our pores.

After the cold shower, back to the tables for a long therapeutic massage. My therapist spent most of her time working out some tension in my right shoulder. It wasn't exactly fun at the time, but I must say that my shoulder is feeling much better this morning. So it seemed to have worked well for me. After the massage, we were covered in hot oil, sprinkled with salt, and given a salt scrub. After this another shower and some instruction not to use soap for the next 24hrs to give the oil time to really penetrate the skin. From there we had the option to visit the sauna again (which Husband did, but I declined). And then back to the dressing room as our afternoon services were over.

All tolled, we were pampered for about 3.5 hours. It was a wonderful and relaxing afternoon together and a real surprise. That's something I'd probably never splurge on for myself. Experiencing it together was quite special. I'm still not quite sure what gave him the idea to surprise me like that on this particular day, but it's most certainly an afternoon I won't soon forget...

Friday, finally!

This has been one of those weeks. I knew it would be bad from a work perspective (and it was - three full days of face-to-face meetings). I've had the added stress of Daughter being sick again (Urgent care Wednesday, treated for strep, still not feeling well two days later), and Son packing up again to head back to California for spring semester. I've been struggling to be my exercise in, and haven't had time to catch up on blogs.

Earlier in the week I had mixed feelings about Friday. On the one hand, my workweek is over. But on the other hand, it means we are taking Son to the airport in the morning and saying goodbye again. Originally, I expected that I would be dropping him off at the airport by myself. Husband asked if I'd like him to come with me. Yes, I most definitely would! Then later he told me not to make any plans for Friday afternoon. At first I thought maybe he had scheduled a delivery or something and I needed to be home to sign for something. Then it became clear that he has taken the day off and has some sort of surprise planned for me.

At this point, I still don't know what the plan is exactly, but I look forward to finding out what the day will bring...

MED accountability

Sun: yoga

Mon: yoga, 5.1 mi walk

Tue: yoga

Wed: yoga

Thu: yoga

FYTO and MED

This morning I joined my marathon training friends for their final long run before the Rock-n-Roll next weekend in Arizona. Although I was a late entrant, I decided to dedicate 3.1 miles of the 5.2 miles that I ran to The Boring Runner's Freeze Your Thorns Off (FYTO) Virtual Race.

Thankfully, It wasn't quite as cold as last weekend, today it was about 31deg when I started. A fitting temp for a 3.1mi race, no?

My marathon runners were doing 12 miles today. They devised a T-shaped route where I could walk out about 1.2 miles to meet them, then run their final 5 miles or so with them. Although this was a virtual 'race', my pace was determined by my friends. They must have been feeling pretty good, because my Garmin says it took me about 33:47 to run 3.1 miles. That's a 10:54 pace, which is a good 25sec/mile faster than what we've been running on these long runs lately. [edited to correct overall pace]

Speaking of my Garmin, does anyone know if it is possible to replace the battery on a forerunner 205 or if I should just give up and buy a new Garmin? I've had this one for about 4 years, and lately the charge only lasts about an hour anymore.

Finally, I'm going to list my activities starting on the 1st for Move Every Day (MED). In the future I'm going to try to list this out at the end of each week or so. It's worth mentioning that the kundalin yoga sessions that I do have a lot of movement and are generally 35-50min in duration. I started with the goal of doing it 3x per week, you'll notice that I've done it almost every day and twice on a few days. I think I'll up my goal to 5x week yoga until the weather warms up and I can resume my normal morning walks.

sun: yoga

sat: yoga, 7mi run, yoga

mon: yoga x2 (am & pm)

tue: yoga x2 (am & pm)

wed: 2 mi run, 1 mi walk

thu: yoga

fri: yoga

sat: yoga, 1.2 mi walk, 5.2 mi run

Three Things Thursday

1 - I have joined JoLynn and others in committing to MED (Move Every Day)! This means that I vow to move every single day for at least 30 mins. It can be anything including walking, running, yoga, bowling, cycling, etc. I'm off to a good start, but next week will be a real challenge with an anticipated crazy work schedule. Of course that's what makes this so wonderful. Now I have an extra reason to find time to move every day!

2 - I ran yesterday up the hill and back down. It was pretty darn cold so I was dressed like a pink ninja in my balaclava, black tights, and pink sporthill pullover. Got a few funny looks, but was definitely dressed appropriately for the weather. Oh, and that hill is mine I tell you, all mine. Ha!

3 - I didn't get a lot of entrants in my give-away, but that just means the chances were higher for those of you who did enter. The winner selected by Random.org was Groover who said "One girl's trash is another girl's treasure ... right? I just rediscovered Yoga again, too, and fully understand the AM/PM addiction. But, hell girl, how did you get into the possession of these? I've never done Kundalini Yoga but heard a lot about it. Would love to find out more and give it a try. And you do know who I am and where I live, right?" Yes, of course I do. And the DVDs will be on their way to Australia once I get your mailing address. Hope you enjoy!

Return to Yoga (part 2)

So as you gathered from my last post, I'm not all that good at staying focussed on yoga while I'm doing it. And I'm not that great at it. However, that doesn't mean that I'm not able to enjoy it. Or at least I enjoy most of it. So much, in fact, that I've done it twice a day (AM & PM) several times already. Shocking, isn't it?

With that being said, I have also verified that two of the DVDs in my collection just aren't doing it for me. One of them is too hard, and the other seems too weird. While I like my other DVDs quite a bit, I have no desire to do these particular ones ever again.

I thought about donating them to the local library, but then I decided to "pay-it-forward" and do a give-away. So...up for grabs to one of my readers are the following two Yoga DVDs in gently used condition from my personal collection:

Maybe you're an avid yoga follower and want to try something new. Maybe you've never tried yoga and want to give it a go. Maybe you love other workouts in their collection and want to try these specific ones. Whatever the situation, my loss is your gain. If the winner enjoys these in a way that I haven't been able to, that's great. If the winner learns that these aren't really their thing either, that's fine too.

Entering my give-away is simple. All you need to do is find something out about these or other Ana & Ravi workouts (perhaps check reviews on amazon) and leave a comment on this post telling me why you are interested in checking them out. It's that easy!

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Fine Print:

• One entry per person.
• If you are a regular reader/commenter (aka, someone I will recognize) feel free to enter no matter where you live. However, if you are a lurker/infrequent commenter (aka, someone I will not recognize) please refrain from entering unless you live within the USA.
• I'll choose someone randomly on Thursday. I'd love to be able to get these off in the mail on Friday if I can get the winner's address quickly.

Return to Yoga (part 1)

Recently, one of my marathon friends mentioned that he was going to add yoga and strength into his routine. This reminded me that I have taken quite a long break from my yoga DVDs over the past several months. I decided to turn that around with a goal of add yoga back into my routine at least 3x per week for the next month.

When I originally got started with yoga back in 2008, I took a few classes and determined that Hatha yoga was too slow and boring. Without knowing too much about the various styles of yoga, I decided to try something else. I looked at reviewed on amazon for various yoga styles and decided to try Ana and Ravi Kundalini Yoga. Yeah, you read that right. The extent of my research was checking reviews on Amazon.com.

Anyway, I found a good deal on about half a dozen of their DVDs through a combination of ebay and amazon. Together, the DVDs together were about the cost of a month and a half at the gym. It seemed like a good deal even though most of the DVDs that have several sections that I don’t care for. They conveniently have a Matrix option that allows me to customize which parts of the DVD to include in each workout (and which parts to skip) which works out well for me.

Anyway, I now have a few yoga sessions behind me after returning to it. Here are my thoughts thus far. I also noted which DVD I put in and which sections I included in my workout.

Session 1: Yoga Beauty Body. warm up, set 1, set 2, & deep relaxation

“There must be three dog toys under the couch. I better get those out now while I’m thinking about it”

“Half the stuff they say is crazy talk. Connect with your inner. What does that even mean?!?”

“Are you kidding me? I think I needed to modify the last 6 poses. I suck.”

“There is a LOT of dog and cat fur on the rug. I really ought to vacuum. Wait, what did she just say to do? Crud, where's the remote? I need to rewind.”

“Did she just say not to let anyone or anything cause us to doubt ourselves?!? Hahahahahaha. How funny, since my inability to keep up is causing me to do just that.”

"I don't remember this workout being so difficult. I must really be out of practice."

“I’m sooooo not flexible or strong. And I can’t relax. No wonder I took an extended break from Yoga.”

Session 2: Beginners and Beyond. warm-up, set 2, & deep relaxation

“Wow, my arms and my abs are quite sore from yesterday. That must have been a good workout."

"I'm glad she just said to go at your own pace, rest if you need to, and begin again when you feel ready. This is killing me.”

“I like what she just said - don’t focus on what you think the pose is supposed to look like, but to experience it right where you are – Okay, I can do that.”

“I think I get it now. This isn’t just about exercise; it’s about being present. When my mind wanders, I shouldn’t follow it.”

“I feel strong, stretched, relaxed, and somehow more peaceful”

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have skipped set 1. Actually, maybe I’ll do that part later today. Next time I do this DVD, I’m definitely doing both sets”

“You know...there are a few DVDs in my collection that I really don't care for. I should pay-it-forward and do a give-away" [likely foreshadowing for a future post later this week]

So there you have it. I'm not the typical yoga type. But I'm working on it. And I really do feel better afterwards. Having said that, I have a few questions for my readers.

• Can you think of a yoga DVD of any style that you think I would *love* and therefore should consider adding to my collection?
• Have any of you also tried Ana & Ravi or other Kundalini yogi DVDs? What do you think about this particular style of yoga compared to others?

Dec Tally and 2010 Summary

December Tally

Numbers:

• 67.6 miles by feet (48.0 miles running, 19.6 miles walking)
• 8 trips up the hill
• 1 5K race

Thoughts:

• My walking mileage suffered due to inclement weather. My running was right where I wanted it to be though
• Vitamin D3 experiment was successful. Felt more like myself after starting supplements regularly.
• Really enjoyed training with my marathon friends.

Plans for January:

• Keep running outside!
• Begin half-marathon training for possible April race.

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2010 Summary (Running version, bullet style)

• Kicked off year with half-marathon training
• Ran consistently, had fun, felt great
• Achieved a half marathon PR
• Experienced sudden recurrence of PFS in left knee
• Tripped and suffered road rash and fractured radial head in left elbow
• Quit running for three full months
• Spent lots of time walking dogs and climbing hills
• Received Euflexxa injections
• Started over with running
• Discovered trails and off-road races
• Joined marathon friends on long runs

2010 sure didn't unfold the way I anticipated, but I learned to adapt and enjoy each day as it came. I'm not sure what 2011 has in store for me, but I'm ready to do the same.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

A few of my favorite things - cold weather edition

I hate the treadmill and love running outside. It's a bit of a challenge with the cold weather, but not impossible. Here are a few things, in no particular order, that have made a big difference for me.

[p.s. It's been a bit busy this week with the in-laws visiting. I should be back to normal posting and commenting soon.]

1) CEP compression socks:

I was lucky enough to win these from a blog giveaway back in November. It took quite a while for them to arrive, but it was worth the wait. It does take a bit of effort to get them on, but that's due to the compression which is where the benefit comes from. They come in different sizes based on calf circumference which makes it easy enough to choose the correct size.

To be honest, I think they were my secret weapon in helping to conquer the hills recently. From the moment I put them on, my legs felt 'fresh.' I noticed an improvement in recovery after my long run as well. As a bonus, it is nice to have an extra layer under my tights in the cold weather

I got them in black which is a 'safe' color, but would love to get a pair in one of the fun colors (pink or neon green) for when the weather warms up.

2) Sugoi Mid-Zero Tights:I bought a pair of these several years ago and they are my "go-to" tights when the weather turns chilly. I picked up an extra pair this year so that I don't have to rush these through the laundry. In my experience, these run small. I recommend sizing up.

3) SportHill Infusion Splice pullover:Got one of these on clearance this year and love it so much that I bought a second one in another color as well as one for Husband. It's rated for weather 0-40deg and winds up to 30mph. I can vouch for it being wind-proof up to ~20mph winds. If you are looking for it, Sierra Trading post is the only place that I've seen it online.

4) Descente Coldout Balaclava:It had gotten to the point where the cold air on my face was the weak link when it came to getting out to run in the cold weather. Problem solved with this balaclava. My only complaint is that I wish it were longer in the back so that it would stay tucked into my collar.

Tenacity pays off

Tenacity (n): doggedness: persistent determination

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Ours was quite merry, but to be honest, at this point I'm sick of Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and Christmas treats. How long do most of you leave your trees and other decorations up? I was seriously tempted to take ours down today. But that seemed a bit drastic. Especially since the in-laws are coming on Monday. I'm thinking I really should leave it up until they arrive. But don't be surprised if I take everything down on Tuesday. Just saying...

Anyway, that wasn't what I really wanted to blog about. I wanted to blog about a couple of recent runs. The first of which occurred on none other than Christmas Eve morning. It wasn't a long run, only two miles, but it was a special run. Remember me talking about the hill that I wanted to be able to run up without stopping? Well on that morning, I *owned* the hill, at least by my standards. And boy did that feel good!

Then this afternoon, I met one of my marathon training friends for the back portion of his long run. He was running 15, I met up for the final 7 miles. We took a different route than we usually do. This one had us out on some rolling hills. At first I was a bit nervous about whether or not I could keep up with the hills. But guess what? The hills were no problem. They were very mild compared to "my" hill. I actually felt terrific throughout the run.

All-in-all,I think it's just another reminder that hard work and tenacity pays off. And that's a great lesson as we contemplate all the possibilities that lie ahead in the upcoming new year...

Merry Christmas, everyone!

"Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles." ~Author Unknown



These are the photos that are going out in our Christmas New Years Cards. The cards may be going out late, but the smiles are genuine. Merry Christmas, everyone!

For unto us a child is born

Off to a good start

Normally, I'm not a fan of Mondays. But I'm off work all week, so today is different. Instead of the start of my workweek, it is the start of a week off. First on the agenda, a morning run.

I chose a loop for my route today. Two sections of it are on trails, and two sections are on asphalt. I figured it would be a nice way to mix things up.Unfortunately, the trail sections were a muddy mess. But it worked out okay.

The total distance was just a little shy of 5.5 miles. I went easy on the pace and planned in a few 90 second walk breaks. I was happy to see that the last two run sections were a bit faster than the first two. I always like it when I feel strong at the end.

This is what the splits graph looks like with the walk sections broken out separately.

That was a nice way to kick off the week. Next I'm going to spend a little time doing some much neglected yard work. Then a shower and off to lunch with the kids!

And then it snowed

When we last left our superhero, she had gone on a nice 3.5 mile test run in new shoes. I was thinking of going out again Friday for a short run before heading out for a long run with my marathon-training friends Saturday morning.

However, Mother Nature had different plans. Thursday evening, it started to snow. Nice heavy slushy snow. It was pretty, but the roads and trails were a mess Friday morning. Most of the schools were cancelled or on a 2 hr delay.

Not so good for running, that's for sure. But it made for a nice backdrop for me to get some really nice photos of Daughter and her Boyfriend. One in particular turned out excellent. Fun times.

By late Friday afternoon, the roads were in pretty good shape. That was good news for us as we needed to get to the airport to pick up Son, who I hadn't seen since late August. I am happy to have him home for a few weeks over the holidays. His first request was to stop for some authentic New Mexican food.

This morning, the marathon-training friends were running 18-20 miles and I planned to join for the final 8-9 miles. When I walked out to the trail to meet up with them at the back of their run, I was happy to see that it was mostly clear of ice. My distance was 8.5 miles running plus another mile walking from the warm-up/cool-down. I think that's my farthest run since March. And the marathon runners really appreciated the company for those final miles, so it worked out well for everyone.

[correction, it's the farthest I've run since April. But still...]

test run in new shoes

I woke up to find temps of 42 deg at 6:30am this morning. Excellent! Must have been cloudy for a change last night, that's the only reason I can imagine for why it wasn't in the 20s as it has been lately. I did a happy dance, put on my running clothes, and was out the door before 7am. My intention was to get in a nice 3 mile run.

I had cleared up the confusion with Husband about the shoes that I bought over Thanksgiving. It seems he never had any intention of making this into a gift, so I decided that today was as good a day as any to put them on and test them out. They are Saucony Triumph 8s, a neutral cushion shoe. I have been wearing the Triumph for a few seasons now, but didn't care for the update from the 5s to the 6s and never tried the 7s.

First impression is quite positive. The 8s are notably lighter, have good cushion, and fit my feet well. Plus they don't have the wimpy laces that the earlier models did. I'm looking forward to taking them out on a longer run this weekend.

I must have been feeling pretty good this morning because 3 miles easily became 3.5 miles. It was a much appreciated opportunity to run outside in comfortable temperatures. I would have kept going if I wasn't short on time.

Looking Back to Look Forward

This morning, our sunrise was scheduled for 7:07am. No amount of positive self-talk was enough to motivate me to get outside to run in the dark cold morning at 6:30. I just wasn't feeling it. And I hate treadmills. Hate.Them. I've only run on a treadmill ONCE this entire year and I'm not changing that now.

So I started wondering how I managed last year. So I went back to my log book to find out.

Observation #1) I logged a whopping two days of running in December 2009. On Dec 30 and 31. The rest of the month...nothing. Looks like I was working through the push-up challenge, but not running. Okay, that's not going to work for me. Need to figure out something else.

Observation #2) In Jan 2010, I ran on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday. Did walking during the week. I presume that is due to the dark cold mornings. While this is not ideal, it is certainly something that I can see working well enough for a few months while trying to stay afloat.

Observation #3) In Feb 2010, I picked up once mid week run, but still ran consecutive days on Sat and Sun. It wasn't until March that I returned to my normal Tues/Thu/Sat running schedule. And this must have worked just fine for me, because I PR'd at my spring half-marathon in April and felt terrific at the finish line.

Okay, now I have a plan. Don't worry so much about the mid week runs for the next few months. Run consecutive days over the weekend if necessary. Keep walking. And have faith. Just one more week of the ever increasing darkness; the days will start getting longer soon enough.

Monday Miscellany

1) I've upped my Vitamin D to 4000 IUs for this week, then will drop down to 2000 IU. This is different that the 1000 IU that I reported in my last post. I personally feel safe in doing this because the sun supplies 10,000 IU Vitamin D in 30 mins sun exposure wearing shorts and short sleeves. However, I am not a doctor so I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone else do this without drawing their own conclusions about it first.

I'm going to hold off on any conclusions until I've had at least a week of vitamin D supplements in my system.

2) Saturday I went out for my "long" run. I hadn't been feeling well, so I scaled everything back. The distance ended up being 4.7 miles with a 2 minute walk break every 1.2 miles. I certainly wasn't setting any speed records during the 'run' segments, but I did head out on my favorite dirt path, so it was nice.

Afterwards, I grabbed the leashes and walked the dogs for an additional 1.3 miles. When it was all done, I had 7 miles by feet.

3) Yesterday afternoon I decided to make my most favorite of all Christmas cookies, old fashioned thumb prints just like my Grama used to make. I have fond memories of going to her house to make these treats every year at Christmas. I put in my favorite Frank Sinatra Christmas album and went to work in the kitchen.

I guess I should have spent a little less time being nostalgic and paid closer attention to what I was doing. As it turns out, if one grabs the bisquick instead of the flour, there is pretty much nothing that can be done to save the batch of cookies that are being made. Not only will the texture be all wrong, the taste will be terrible from the extra salt and baking powder. Oops.

4) Daughter and Boyfriend came home after taking the ACT on Saturday and asked if I wanted to play RockBand. Heck yeah! It's been too long since I'd had a chance to throw any remaining dignity out the window and channel my inner rock star.

Despite being the only one playing on easy and routinely getting the lowest accuracy of the three of us, it was a lot of fun.

5) Don't get me started on the whole gifting thing at Christmas. Not only does it detract from the holiday, it just adds undue stress on both sides. Anyway...

I bought a new pair of running shoes online during Thanksgiving weekend and suggested that Husband wrap them up and give them to me for Christmas. It doesn't seem like he wants to go with the plan of turning this into my Christmas gift. Now I'm not sure if I should just lace them up and run or wait to see if they turn up under the tree. Either way, I've got a new pair of Sauconys Triumph 8s waiting to be broken in. Maybe a review before the year ends.

Winter Blahs

I have really struggled this week. Haven't blogged because I haven't had much to say. In general, I have felt like I'm fighting something all week. I've been tired, with body aches but no fever. And my energy and motivation has been at an all time low. I'd think it was a flu or cold, except for the no fever thing. At times I think maybe it's just the Winter Blahs and all in my head.

Yesterday I read some interesting articles. In summary, it is estimated that up to 60% of adults have insufficient vitamin D during the winter months. As it turns out, the best way to get vitamin D is from ~30 minutes direct sunlight on your skin. However, that's difficult, if not impossible, in winter when days are short, sun is low, and temps are cold.

This is what really caught my attention. Low vitamin D levels can lead to fatigue, depression, aches, and pains. That's pretty much what I'm complaining about. Hmmmmm. Maybe it isn't in my head; I might just be solar powered after all.

I'm sure the best way to find out if there is a relationship between my Winter Blah symptoms and vitamin D levels would be to see a doctor and have my blood tested. But I figured it would be much easier just to add 1000 IU vitamin D in with my daily supplements and see if it helps. I'm pretty sure it won't hurt.

The experiment has begun. Stay tuned...

Tuesday Thoughts

I wrote a post around this time last year about being solar powered. I think it's becoming true again. These short days are really zapping my motivation and energy. December 21st can't come soon enough. This solar-powered runner needs the days to start getting longer again!

This morning I went out for a 2.2 mile run. I really didn't want to tackle the hill today, so I took another route. That last .2 was tough, I was heading east just as the sun was coming up over the mountains. Ack! Blinded! Note to self, next time do the route in reverse.

I generally only run 3x week and add in another 3 days of walking. This is a strategy for injury prevention because I have a chronic issue with my left knee. However, I also generally run 4 miles on my mid week runs and lately I've only been going out for 2 milers. I don't like running in the dark and by the time it's light enough, I don't have time for more than a couple miles. As a compromise, I think I may add in another day of running in the short term. I feel bad for my dogs though, they do LOVE our morning walks.

Jingle Bell Run

Background

This was my fifth running of the local Jingle Bell run. The first three years that I ran it, it was at Balloon Fiesta park. Last year they moved to Mariposa Park with an out and back section at the beginning, then a loop around the park. This year they changed it to be a three loops around the park with a little straight section at the beginning and end. It's the kind of terrain where you are either going up or down the whole time, no part of it is actually flat except for a short section right near the finish line. It's worth mentioning that the course also measured short. According to my Garmin, this is a 3 mile route, not a 5K. Here's the elevation chart:

What went well

• Despite being a very small event, maybe 150-200 runners and walkers combined, collectively everyone involved managed to raise $19K for the Arthritis Foundation.
• You could sign up as a runner or walker, with or without a dog. I believe this encouraged more people to participate than they would have if it was just a race.
• Our swag included a pair of running socks from Lady FootLocker. Husband gave me his (I guess he didn't want to keep the women's socks).
• Husband had a great race. His finish time was 25:17. That's a good couple minutes faster than last year and good enough for him to place 2nd M40-49. Really impressive because he's just coming back from a hip injury.
• The weather was great. Sunny, 40s, no wind. I wore capris and long sleeves over a tank top and was quite comfortable.
• Lots of people dressed seasonally. They had a band & music the whole time. The event oozes fun.

What didn't go so well

• All those runners, walkers, and dogs started at the same time. Since this was a three loop course, I found it to be very frustrating at times. Walkers are notorious for taking up the entire width of the path.
• I had a very mediocre race, especially compared to the recent events on dirt. Not horribly disappointed in my finish time, but not particularly happy about it either.
• Perhaps I'm getting spoiled, but I really didn't enjoy running on a hard surface this time (I have really liked those last few races on dirt).
• I was passed by a poodle. Wearing a sweater. I think that was more humiliating than the time I was passed by a chihuahua a few years ago.

Summary

Husband had a great race; I'm thrilled for him about that. I'll most likely do this one again next year, but perhaps I'll consider entering as a walker with a dog rather than as a runner. Short races on hard surfaces just aren't my thing anymore. I'd rather run on dirt or go longer (or both!)

Three Things Thursday

1) I'm pleased to announce that I have successfully started the month without being a weather wimp. I was determined to get out and run no matter what on Wednesday morning. I was thrilled that it was in the low 20s rather than teens, that certainly made it easier. Then I got out again this morning for another chilly run. Go me!

2) Am I the only one counting down the days until Dec 21st? Just need to survive a few more weeks until the days start getting longer again. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

3) The local Jingle Bell 5K run is on Saturday. This is always such a fun event and for a great cause. While I've had good intentions of dressing up seasonally for the run, I've failed to act on that AGAIN. So unless I get motivated to go out tomorrow during lunch to find some fun accessories, I'll just be wearing normal running clothes. Oh well. There's always next year, right?