Two for Tuesday

...both unrelated to running, we'll see how well this works...

365 Photo Project - I've mentioned a few times about joining a 365 photo group that started on March 1.  The idea is to post one and only one photo taken each day.  At first I tried to find interesting photos to share with others. That didn't work out too well. I've since learned that it's best to stick with what I know:  just take photos of subjects that are interesting to me, and try to learn how to better use my camera in the process.  I'm much happier with the results now that I'm staying true to myself.  Here are a few of my photos from the past few weeks: a pretty sunset, one of my cats napping, and a flower starting to bloom in our back courtyard.

Santa Fe Century - I also mentioned that Husband & I drove up to Santa Fe to check out the 50 miles routes for the Santa Fe Century.  To be clear, we drove the loop and I captured it on my Garmin; we did not ride our bikes.  As far as I can tell, the half-century loop is pretty close to 50 miles.  The marker in the center is the turn point for the out&back, which is also described as a 50 mile route.  On the graph, that one would be from the end, to the marker, then back.  From my measurements, that route looks more like 42 miles.  My conclusion was that the loop is definitely more scenic, the stretch in the center has some rolling hills that are a bit intimidating, and the climb at the end will be a struggle no matter which route we sign up for.  Its also worth noting that the *starting* elevation is ~6000 ft above sea level.  Aye carumba!

Then on Sunday we went for a 38.4 mile bike ride, almost the distance of the out & back, but no climb.  We don't need to sign up quite yet, but right now I'm learning toward the out & back simply because it's shorter and the event is only 4 weeks away.

Finding my way back

Earlier this week I was contemplating quitting two things:  running and blogging.  Running because I suck at it and I can't confidently train for anything because I never know when my knee is going to act up. Blogging because without running, I seem to have nothing to blog about.

I still might quit blogging, but I probably won't be so fast to give up running.  I just need to find my way back to my happy place.  I'm frustrated because it seems that I take two steps forward, then one step back.  I'm not seeing the progress that I want.  But I think if I can measure success in some way other than speed or distance, I may be on to something.  Generally, my goal at a race is to finish with a smile on my face and feeling strong.  I think I need to take the same approach to all my running right now. Keep the pace and distance reigned in so that I can finish strong.  Choose my routes to maximize smile time.  Things like that.

Well, I had my first bit of success with this approach on Saturday morning.  Rather than run the crazy hill route with my friend, we choose someplace where we haven't run for awhile.  It's mostly flat, rather than crazy hills, and partly shady, rather than relentless sun.  We also shortened the route and went 4 miles instead of 6. The result was astounding.  I *almost* enjoyed it.  Plus we managed negative splits (granted we started at a fairly easy pace), which allows us to finish strong.  That, my friends, is how you turn a frown upside down.

Later in the day, we went up to Santa Fe to check out two of the 50 mile route options for the Santa Fe Century (more about that later).  While we were there, we stopped at the Nike outlet.  If I hadn't had such a nice run earlier in the day, I probably wouldn't have even wanted to walk into the store.  But since I did, I decided to do just a little bit of shopping.  I came away with a black featherlight cap which I already love, and blue dri-fit shirt with reflective bits. Score!  Now I have something to wear on my next "fun" run, right?

Hopefully I'll be able to find my way back to my happy place with running.  I wouldn't exactly say that I'm totally there yet, but I think I'm headed in the right direction.

How about you?  Have any of you had to reset expectations and/or totally redo your training plan to find your way back to the love of the sport?  Or maybe a little retail therapy to help find the mojo?  

Excuses and walking buddies

Not sure what was going on exactly, it might have been the weather (seriously, I think I have a barometer knee), but my knee was not happy on Tuesday so I ended up skipping my run.  If nothing else, I have learned to listen to my body.  I also didn't run on Wednesday (same reason) or Thursday.  Thursday's excuse was that my running partner bailed, and I was too lazy to head out on my own.

But I *did* walk a good 3.5 miles on Friday and ran a measly 3.2 on Saturday.   It was supposed to be longer, but my running partner has that insane uphill race today, and I convinced her to save her legs for that.  Again, I could have gone longer, but was too lazy to run on my own after that.  Yes, there seems to be a theme.

Side note/rant:  Wanted to go out on a bike ride yesterday, but the winds were CrAzY. Seems like it's going to be the same problem today. Uggh.  Why is it that the weather can be beautiful during the week and then the weekend comes around and the weather straight up SUCKS!?! 

Anyway, decided to go for another walk today.  This time on the two mile hill route that I like to do with the dogs.  Thought I'd share a couple photos from the walk.  As it turns out, with one hand busy holding the leashes, trying to get a decent photo from a cell phone camera with the other hand is no easy feat.  But I did manage to get a couple of photos worth sharing.

This next one needs some explanation.  Right before we get to the base of the hill, we pass a house with three things that always do the same thing as we walk by. The white dog (far right) barks at us as we walk by.  The brown dog (also right), barks at the white dog.  The puppy (center), uninterested in all this barking,  runs around with some sort of stuffed animal in his mouth.  Here they are doing their thing.  It totally cracks me up!

In the final photo, we're back home, right outside the front door.

So, it wasn't a great training week for me.  But it wasn't a total bust either.  Granted, I may have some motivation issues running solo, but I have some great walking buddies that don't complain about the weather and have *never* once turned down the chance to head out with me.

I wish I could take them out running with me. I've tried on several occasions, but Stymie runs too fast and Bandit doesn't have the stamina to go more than a couple of miles.  So they are my walking buddies instead.

Double Trouble

If you read my previous post, you know that I ran 6 hilly miles Saturday morning as part of the jelly bean virtual race (and it you didn't read it, you missed out on one of my more colorful posts).

Well, decided to follow that up with a bike ride with Husband later in the afternoon. We had a 28 mile route on the agenda.  It was my first double workout in 2012.  Go me!

Felt pretty good on the bike.  Afterwards, however, I was tired and sore. 

On Sunday, decided to go for another short ride.  The goal was a 16 mile route with 2 hills.  I guess that was too much for my body, because I pretty much ran out of steam heading up hill #1.  Ended up calling it at day at 9.5 miles, skipping hill #2.  

I was bummed out about cutting the ride short, but in the end I realized that I still managed to get in over 37 miles by bike for the weekend. Plus a 6 mile hilly run.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Today, however, I am REALLY sore.  Good thing it's a rest day!

jelly beans!

This week I completed three events as part of the Jelly Bean Virtual Race, sponsored by Jess.  For each one, I choose a jelly bean color from the virtual race logo.  This resulted in an orange jelly bean 21K bike ride, purple jelly bean 5K run, and green jelly bean 10k trail run.  A mini race report for each one is summarized below.

ORANGE JELLY BEAN 21K BIKE RIDE

Actually, this is just a portion of a longer ride that Husband & I did last Sunday.  I actually went 19.5 miles (was supposed to be 20 miles, but apparently I turned a little early).

We were riding into the wind on the way out.  Uggh.  But we had a tail wind on the way back.  Ahhhh.

My bike computer says that the average speed was 15.1 mph. That works out to 52:03 for the 13.1 mile jelly bean portion of the ride.

PURPLE JELLY BEAN 5K 

Ran this on Wednesday with my running partner on a mostly flat dirt trail.  We were originally going to run on Tuesday, but her son had a baseball game.  That was fine with me because it actually snowed on Tuesday and was cold.  What's funny is that weather was absolutely beautiful the next day.  Mother Nature doesn't seem to be able to make up her mind!

I wish I could say that I ran this fast, but fast doesn't seem to be in my vocabulary at the moment.  Our average speed was 10:36 for the four miles that we ran. This works out to 32:51 for the 3.1 mile jelly bean portion of the run.

GREEN JELLY BEAN TRAIL 10K

I added the word trail in the title because this one wasn't flat.  We ran a hilly, sandy loop twice to get the full 10K distance in today (see my recent post "Running" Hills if you want to know what kind of hills I'm talking about).

I did pretty good on the first loop and didn't need to stop at all.  But on the second loop, the hills got to me and I had to take a few walk breaks.

I'm actually quite happy with the end result, 1:07:54 for 6.2 miles.  Not bad at all given the terrain!

A big THANK YOU to Jess for hosting the virtual event!!

My latest dilemma

I *still* don't have any events on my calendar other than the Live.Love.Tri in August.  I'm hesitant to sign up for the Run for the Zoo until I know for certain that we will be in town that weekend (good chance we will not).  I was hoping to sign up for the half or metric century at the Albuquerque Century but it seems we might be out of town that weekend as well (go figure).  But I did find something that has my attention: the Santa Fe Century in late May.

Mind you, I have no intention of doing the full century.  However there are two routes that I am interested in, a 50 mile out and back and a half century loop.  Both have roughly the same amount of climb (1500ft).  I am unfamiliar with the routes so not sure which would be more interesting for us to ride.  Husband & I are thinking of driving up there to check it out to help make a decision.  This one is definitely on my radar.

Side note, there is something about this event that I find interesting. They charge for an entry fee.  You can pay extra for a t-shirt if you want it (I don't).  You can pay extra for a jersey if you want it (maybe).  I like the fact that the t-shirt cost isn't automatically included; I wish more events were like that.

In other news, I've been counting some of my recent training as part of the Jelly Bean virtual race events sponsored by Jess.  I'll be writing up a virtual race report for the bike ride (21K), 5K run, and 10K run this weekend.  All I can say right now is that it's a good thing prizes aren't based on time or I'd have no hope of winning anything.  ;-p

Week, Month, & Book in Review

Week in Review:

• This week I completed one bike ride, three runs, and two walks.  Not too shabby.
• For the run on Saturday, we did the same crazy hill route that we've run several times before.  This time, however, I took 2.5 minutes off my time from the previous week. Woot! This was not accomplished the easy way (picking up the pace a little bit over the whole run).  Instead, I got mad at the freaking hill and took it out on the last mile, picking up the pace from conversational pace to run-til-you-almost-pass-out pace.  All in all, it was a good workout.

Month in Review:

• 16.5 miles by bike - Way under what I hoped for.  The weather was horrible on the weekends this month which seemed very unfair given that the weather was pretty nice most of the time during the week, so I only got out on my bike once!  April started off with a nice ride, hopefully will see better weekend weather and therefore better cycling numbers this next month.
• 19.2 miles walking - Not bad, but a little short of  what I hoped for. 
• 49.8 miles running - Lots of progress here.  Started off gingerly running 2.5 miles at a time to test my knee and ended the month with some crazy hill runs (still not too long in distance) without knee pain.  
• 0 swimming - I decided that I didn't want to swim and so I didn't.  That's all I have to say about that.
• 31 photos - I started a 365 photo project on March 1 and got through the entire month with one photo uploaded to Flickr per day as planned.  334 days to go!

Book in Review*:

• Had the opportunity to read a free kindle version of "The Ultimate Beginner's Running Guide: The Key to Running Inspired" by Robert Ryan, which is available for purchase through Amazon.com. Overall, I feel that it is a good "how-to" book for beginning runners.  It has information that anyone new to running ought to be considering such as how to avoid injury, how to pace yourself, how to properly stay hydrated, etc.  There are even some training schedules to get you started.  
• There are a few things that I wish the book included, such as some photos or diagrams and a bit more peppered throughout about staying inspired, however, I still think this would be a helpful resource to anyone new to running.   

*I was given a free version of the book to review, but the opinions expressed are my own.

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

6 min video from Daughter's Haiti Trip.  Please turn on the sounds and listen to the music while you watch it and leave a comment afterwards.   P.S. That's her at the very end.

What are you training for?

I get asked this question a lot.  In years past, I've almost always had an answer.  But right now I don't.  It's kind of weird not knowing what I'm training for.

I have a few ideas of what I'm NOT training for.

• I'm not training for a half-marathon.  Even though that is my favorite running distance, my knee seems to do okay up to about 7 miles, then it gets cranky.  I'll stick with 10Ks or shorter. 
• I'm not training for Worlds Toughest 10K.  My last few hill training runs have confirmed that for me.
• I'm apparently not training for a triathlon as I haven't been swimming in months (oddly, the only race I've actually signed up for so far this year happens to be a sprint).
• I'm not training for a relay race.  Several folks from my running group are doing one up in Colorado. I've opted to pass on that.

There are also a few events over the next several months that I'm thinking about, but I haven't committed by registering for any of them.

• Coyote Caldera Sprint Tri (late April)
• Run for the Zoo 5K or 10K (early May)
• Albuquerque Century Tour de Cure half or metric century (early June) 

What about you?  Is your training aimed at specific events or are you in limbo like me?

Winter Excess

Over the winter, I was busy packing on some pounds.  You know, just in case we got snowed in or something and I needed to live off my own body weight for some extended period of time.

Now that I'm running again, it's time to shed the excess. Because let's be honest, nobody wants to carry around an extra 10lbs while running.  Especially when running hills.  It's simply too much work.

Boy howdy, it's so much easier to put it on than take it of!.  But I think I'm finally making some progress.  Over the winter I was routinely seeing numbers in the 130-135 range when I stepped on the scale. Lately, I've been consistently seeing numbers in the 125-130 range.  I'll be at my desired race weight when I find myself settling in the 125-130 range.

How about you?   Are you also trying to shed the winter excess?  

"Running" Hills

Since my friend is still trying to talk me into doing World's Toughest 10K with her, we decided to "run" some hills on Saturday.  I use the term "run" loosely as there was quite a bit of walking involved on my part on some of the long uphills.  This is the elevation profile for the route we choose:

The whole thing was somewhat challenging, but the section from mile 4 to mile 5 was super intense.  Since we essentially did an out and back, I should have seen it coming based on the downhill from mile 1 to mile 2, but I didn't realize just how much the elevation changed until it was time to head back up.

Given that Worlds Toughest is pretty much like mile 4-5 throughout the entire route,  this was probably a  good route for some training.  However, it certainly left me with a lot of doubts about my ability to do that other course.

We'll probably go back to this same spot next weekend.  I hope it gets easier.  If not, I might become her cheerleader on race day rather than a participant myself.

Happy Monday!

You want me to do WHAT?!?

Last year I talked my running partner into doing the Live.Love.Tri with me.  At first she didn't want to do it because she wasn't really a swimmer, didn't have a road bike, etc.  But eventually she warmed up to the idea and did it.  We had a blast.

This year she's trying to talk *me* into something.  It's a race entitled "World's Toughest 10K."  Can't say for sure if it really is the world's toughest, but it promises to be tough; it starts at an elevation of 5100ft and ends at an elevation of 6500ft for a total elevation gain of 1400 ft elevation over 6.2 miles.  *gulp* The whole thing is uphill (with a shuttle taking you back down....or to the hospital...after you finish).

Oh, and did I mention that is is ONE MONTH FROM TODAY?!?!?  Aye Carumba!

We're meeting in about an hour to go run some hills.  There's a method to my madness.  I'm hoping that after we do that, one of two things will happen:

A) She'll remember that she doesn't like hills and get this crazy idea out of her head

-or -

B) I'll remember that I *do* like hills & it won't seem like such a crazy idea after all

Stay tuned!  This may become *very* interesting...

[Update post hill run:  The run we did this evening was 250ft elevation gain.  It about killed me.  Also, I learned that there is no convincing her not to do it; She already signed up!  It's just a matter of whether or not I join her which is still up in the air.]

Daylight Savings Time

I'll admit that it felt a little bit like a train hit me Monday morning when the alarm went off to wake me for work.  At that particular moment, I wasn't a fan of Daylight Savings time.  I was, however, a bit fan of the snooze button.

Fast forward to this afternoon.  It was beautiful outside.  High of about 72 degrees, sunny, no wind.  Suddenly Daylight Savings time was my friend.  Thanks to the extra hour of daylight, I was able to run after work for the first time since October, and it was glorious!

So I guess I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Daylight Savings time.  How about you?

While I was travelling this week

...I realized that my drivers license was about to expire.  It was a good catch, actually.  I probably wouldn't have noticed until being denied something due to it being long past renewal date.

...I ran three times on that trail that I posted about.  I don't normally run three times during the workweek (and then again on the weekend), but last week I did.  MAybe it was the extra oxygen.

...My daughter left for Haiti.  I was super bummed to be gone the entire week leading up to her departure, but seems everything went okay.  I pray she has a wonderful experience and that the whole group can really make a positive impact for some of the people of that impoverished country.  

...I struggled to get good shots for the 365 project that I'm working on.  Have I mentioned about this?  I'm part of a group that is taking and posting a photo a day for a year, something that I've learned is not so easy while away with a tight schedule while on work travel.  Kind of like running, some days are better than others. Oh, and now I'm lusting for a new camera.

  

...My husband spent a lot of time on his bike(s).  Came home to find his road bike on the trainer in our bedroom, which is a good thing.  What is interesting is that while he was having some problem with his front tire, he decided that it would be easier to temporarily replace the entire wheel with the one on my Giant rather than figure out why the tire was flatting.  Clever solution.

...I had a hard time trying to catch up on blogs.  The internet connection at the hotel was slow and poor and the work days were long.  I'll try to catch up this week.  I mean it.

...My wonderful husband decided to greet me at the airport with a bouquet of beautiful & colorful flowers.  It's great to be back home.  :-) 

  

Running while on Work Travel

I'm happy to report that my running clothes are doing more than just taking up space in my luggage.  So far, I have managed to get out both on Monday and Tuesday in the early morning  before work for some running.  

This trail ends up going down by a lake.



On Monday, I went exploring in a few different directions.  Found a paved multi-use trail, a dirt trail, and a hill that would be suitable for repeats.  It was sort of a an ADD run, because I did a little bit of each. 



Tuesday morning, I met a colleague and we decided to take the trail.  It ended up going down by a lake, which was very pretty with the lights reflecting off of it in the early morning hours.  The dirt path eventually ends and merges back with the multi-use trail.

This morning we were actually going to meet again, but she's getting a sore throat and wanted to postpone for a day.  I thought briefly about going out on my own this morning, but decided to take a rest day instead; don't want to overdo it with my knee.

It's worth mentioning that I notice a huge difference in level of effort required while running at a lower altitude (remember, I live about a mile above sea level).  I didn't bring my garmin, so I'm not sure if the extra oxygen is materializing to faster running, but definitely makes it easier; I feel like superwoman, running up those hills without gasping for breath!  One of these days I really need to run a race down at lower altitude and see what I'm truly capable of pulling off.

One last note:  The internet in the hotel is slow and the work days have been long, so I'm having trouble catching up with your blogs this week.  Sorry about that!

Getting my Run on

Yesterday morning, the group was meeting across town.  Most of them are running much farther than I am at this point.  My running partner & I decided to just meet at the regular location and do our run separately from the rest of the group.  This also allowed us to run mostly on dirt.

Decided to go five miles.  Other than the fact that it was cold and a bit more breezy that either of us like, it was a good run in comparison to the run on Wednesday.  On Wednesday my knee decided to be a bit cranky for the last half mile or so.  But yesterday my knee was fine the whole way though.  I think the difference may very well be related to running surface.  Dirt is definitely my friend.

I'm traveling on business for the week.  Hoping to get a few days of running in during the week.  It looks like we're going to be putting in some long days and the only time to run will be in the early morning.  It was a pain trying to cram everything into my carry-on bag; if I don't end up using my running stuff, I will be frustrated!  Who knows, maybe that's just the motivation I need to make it happen...

Feb Totals

Numbers

• 28.4 miles by seat (2 bike rides)
• 43.7 miles by feet (31.7 run, 12.0 walk)
• 800 yards swimming
• 3 hill workouts
• 5 nights in Grand Cayman

Thoughts

• It is *so* wonderful to be running again.  And to be doing a little bit of cycling.  And to have gone on vacation with husband.  Definitely a good month.

Plans

• Keep running! 
• Get some races/events onto the schedule. 

Catching up

Husband & I spent last week in Grand Cayman.  I posted just a few photos here; if you are interested in more, find me on FB.  I would like to say that this is only the third trip we've been on alone since having kids.  This probably goes without saying, but vacationing alone together is fabulous!  It was also the first time that both of them are truly able to fend for themselves since they are now both young adults.  We left Daughter in charge of things at home, and she did a great job.  I definitely foresee more of these types of alone trips in the future.

While we vacationing, we got a decent amount of walking done, I gave myself credit for 7 miles over 6 days, and I'm fairly sure that's an underestimate.  I also gave myself credit for about 800 yds swimming, although that was all with fins on while snorkeling.  As for running, well, what can I say?  Once again, my running clothes proved to do nothing more than take up space in my suitcase.  Oh well.

However, I did meet up with the running group bright and early Saturday morning after we got back and ran 4 miles with one of my running partners.  Brrrrrrr, it was a brisk 28 degrees when we met to run!  My knee felt great, actually the best it has since getting the recent shots.  Next weekend we plan to go 5.  I'm hoping to find time for a few mid-week runs as well, but we'll see if that materializes or not.

Sunday afternoon was absolutely beautiful.  Sunny skies, high near 60 deg with just a touch too much wind, otherwise perfect for a bike ride.  Husband & I went out for 16.4 miles with a few climbs.  Again, the knee felt terrific.  I'm ready to start building out on distance.  Have my eyes on a potential metric century later in the spring.

Sadly, now that it is Monday morning, it's back to reality.  I'm sure I have a big pile of work waiting for me at the office.  Have a great week everyone!

Wordless Weekend

Saturday Seven (things not miles)

1) Running - Complete two short runs earlier this week, 2.6 miles and 2.1 miles.  Odd mileage, huh?  I keep over-running my intended turn point a bit.  Knee was feeling okay so I decided to run with* the group Saturday morning.

* Maybe "with" is stretching it a bit.  They are all running further and faster than I am right now, so it was more like meeting with them in the parking lot, running the warm-up with them, and running the rest of my 3.5 miles solo.  But it's all good.  After so much down time due to my knee, I was super happy to be out there again.  And the two people that usually run with me both happened to have conflicts this weekend, so I'm sure I'll have running partner(s) again soon.

2) Haiti - Remember me mentioning about my daughter going to Haiti during spring break?  Well, as it turns out, I have to travel for work the week before she leaves.  And I'm not going to return until 16 hours after she departs!  Husband assures me that he can handle anything that she needs during that week, but I'm bummed that I won't be around for the final trip preparations or to see her off at the airport.

3) Weight - Once again, I seem to have packed on some excess poundage over the winter.  It's all hands on deck as attempt to get back to "race weight."  No more binge eating of Death by Oreo Cupcakes or peanut butter cookies.  When I get the hankering for something sweet, I've been grabbing a fruited 0% Fage yogurt which has 120-130 calories (depending on the flavor) with 13 grams protein.  A much healthier option, don't you think?

4) Weather - After snowing last Sunday, it cleared up for a few days, then snowed again on Thursday.  I really shouldn't complain, but this off-and-on spring/winter weather is frustrating.  Never quite sure what kind of day we're going to get, making it hard to plan things like bike rides.

5) Races/Events - I'm barely back to running and certainly not doing it well enough to have confidence to sign up for any races at this point.  However, I *am* toying with the idea of a St Patty's Day hilly 5K.  Also considering a metric-Century in June if the weather ever cooperates so that I get back on my bike outdoors.  For what it's worth, I don't run on treadmills and I don't cycle on the trainer.  I just don't.  So it's outdoor training or nothing.

6)  Zipp Fizz - A while back I was provided samples of Zipp Fizz to test out and review.  I received the samples pretty much at the same time that my knee started acting up.  I've *finally* had a chance to test the product so that I can share my thoughts.  I'll just cut to the chase.  I really wanted to like this product which promised to be an all natural, low calorie, energy drink.  However, I was turned off by two things.  First, to me it tastes too much like a children's vitamin in liquid form (which is not a good thing).  Second, despite their claims to be an all-natural product, it does contain artificial sweetener (sucralose) which is a deal-breaker for me.

7) Crew Games - Last weekend I volunteered to help with crew games for a local hot air balloon rally.  I was in charge of timing an "envelope roll" race.  What a hoot that was!  The balloon event was also at the other end of a park where a 5K/10K was occurring.  So my other job was identifying lost runners and redirecting them to the correct end of the field for their race.  :-)