One more thing -

Usually I try to be a positive person when it comes to running. Oh, I say the occasional, "Let's get this over with!" or "I am struggling." Or just plain, "Ugh". But overall I think my running friends would not say I am a negative Nelly. However, lately there seems to be a plethora of stories about things you need to worry about if you are out on a run. If it isn't getting hit by a plane, it is this:

Once again, thanks to Runny is Funny.

Holy Crap!

Holy Crap! For two reasons this morning.

First Holy Crap and starting on a happy note - a TON of people came and ran this morning. It looked like a big sale was happening at Walgreens. NINE! Jenny and Wendy made their repeat seasonal return (I missed them last time since due to not hearing my alarm clock). And Dan (Wendy's husband) joined us too!

Second HOLY CRAP and not so happy note - Jenny and Wendy have turned into speed demons over the winter and the overall slower momentum of the rest of the runners did not slow them down. Instead the group increased their pace to try to keep up. However, the wise ones (over 40) and thus able to resist foolishness behavior, decided to actually enjoy the morning run and settled into a much more reasonable, but still faster than normal, pace. Thanks goodness Elyse and Dan were there or it would have been either a lonely or miserable run for me.

On an even funnier note: Last night I had a dream, and I am not joking about this, that we were at a marathon expo and as we were leaving we said "We will see you at the post race celebration with beers in our hands!" To which the race organizer responded, "Sorry, no beer this year." Which elicited the reply, "WHAT???" And he explained that it was a new law which prohibited them from serving alcohol after races. To which I responded, "That's it - now I am definitely NOT doing marathons anymore!".

So, I interpret this dream a couple of ways...

1. It was a NIGHTMARE, not a dream.
2. Apparently, I do need a break from marathons.
3. It is an obvious indication of my opinion of the laws politicians feel compelled to enact for the "good" of the people. (sarcasm)
4. Maybe I am running marathons for the wrong reasons - all of which come in 12 oz containers and contain a yellowish brown beverage with a lovely white foam on top.

A search of the Internet came up with this appropriate picture:

And also helped me discover a great new blog: Beerrunner

Product Reviews

I have done three runs since my last post. A normal morning run. A 14 mile pace run. A Sunday evening sucky run.

The pace run was good. Well, it was very hard, especially the last 3 miles, but the pace as a tiny bit faster than I hoped. So, the suckiness (Is that a word? It is now!) was worth it. Plus I got to run with the very humorous Sullivans. They were very kind and delayed their run so I would have someone to run with since No Show Gal bailed on me for better running partners (the Cousins). It was very kind of them, but I am still going to give Tom grief for being a NPP (Non Poll Person).

I just got back from a Sunday evening run with as I alluded to before - SUCKED. It was a beautiful evening too! Perfect temperature, no wind. One of those evenings that EVERYONE is out taking walks. However, it was the evening and my body just is not used to running at the that time. It was one where one I looked at my pace I had to remind myself that it was just a good thing I was out running.

So - on to PRODUCT REVIEWS.

MUSCLE MILK LIGHT

After my pace run I got a request on my cell phone to bring home some marshmallows to roast over our new fire pit. (One of those times I did NOT enjoy the easy access of technology). However, I was feeling like my usual recovery drink of Diet Mtn Dew was not going to be good enough nor was it going to make my night of sleep any easier to come by. Plus, the one I had in my cooler was not icy cold. So, since I could also benefit by stopping by the grocery store in my nice and stinky state, I decided to go and get the marshmallows and some CHOCOLATE milk. I have read in many places that it is indeed the best recovery drink. It didn't take much convincing. However, in the long and large cooler space at the front of the store I could not find a chocolate milk! There was every energy drink you could imagine, but no chocolate milk! I tapped my heels three time and said "I want go home, I want to go home". But since I was already in Wisconsin (the DAIRY state) I stayed right where I was. Still no chocolate milk and after running 14 miles, there was no way in H - E double hockey sticks that I was going to walk to the very back of the store to see if they had single serving sizes back by the gallons.

Then my eye happened upon:

Hmmmm (in a skeptical tone). If you look carefully, you will see below the words 'Nutritional Shake", the words "Contains No Milk". I was very, very skeptical. Did I really want to spend the money (over $2.00) to take a chance on something that might gag me? I decided it would give me some good blog material, so what the heck. But I also bought some flavored water so I could wash it down if it was indeed nasty. Nothing like driving around in your car looking like cat trying to hack up a hairball.

So, I got in my car and started slamming it it. As I was slamming it I thought, 'Not too bad!" Then I stopped for a brief second. Apparently, your taste buds aren't able to take in the full taste of a liquid when it is passing over its taste buds at high velocity. Now, the taste wasn't that bad, but it wasn't like chocolate milk. More like a cheap malt ball, which I don't like.

I have no idea if the drink helped me recover faster, but I do know that next time I will opt for the much cheaper, better tasting and scientifically proven good ole chocolate milk!

PRODUCT REVIEW NUBMER 2 -

Sennheiser MX75 Twist-To-Fit In-Ear Stereo Sport Headphones

Normally I don't wear headphones runnings I prefer people over my iPod. However today I was running by myself, so I took my husbands Sennheiser headphones with me. I got these for him for Christmas after he said he was happy it was cold out because now the ear band or hat will help to keep his earbuds in his ears. He unlike me, NEVER runs without his iPod - even when he is running with me (note to self - future blog material). He mentioned that at a recent race he saw a women who had taped her earbuds into her ear. Although he sympathized with her, he didn't think he would ever do that. Any Whooo... on my Christmas list it went and of course, Internet Search Goddess that I am, I was able to find a pair of earphone that was specifically built to address his dilemma AND all the reviews agreed that they worked. After wearing them twice, I have to agree that they work swell. I never have to adjust them and they never pop out. My husband has worn them on long runs and they did not hurt his ears. So they get two thumbs up from us. Of course, I had to wipe the girl sweat off them before I returned them to him. Here is a picture of them in some dude's ear (not mine or my husband's).

Shameless blogging

The purpose of this post is solely to get another entry into a give away contest at by my favorite running blogger - Shut Up and Run. She is giving away some cool stuff just because she is a cool gal! Check it out. She is even giving away stuff for MEN - and she is still cool!

One of those mornings

It was one of those mornings.

I almost didn't set my alarm because the weather said there was a 100% chance of rain at 5:00. I know it will surprise you, but the meteorologist isn't always right. So, I set my alarm anyway.

I knew it wasn't good when through our open window I couldn't hear the pitter patter of rain drops or the trickle of water down the rain spout. I took a peek out the door and the sidewalk look dry. So dry in fact, that I didn't go out from under the porch and do my turn around with arms out and hands up to see if I could feel a rain drop. I did check the radar before leaving and the rain was approaching... but not was not here.....yet.

As I pulled out of the garage I saw the first few drops on my windshield. At first I had the naive thought that it was just condensation from dew. I know that those of you who are more with it than I am at 5:00 will have already asked.... dew? In the garage??? Yeah well, I will chalk it up to positive thinking rather than stupidity.

However, on the way to the meeting spot it became clear that it was indeed sprinkling. Luckily the Cousins didn't check the weather and they showed up too. We decided to run a loop that didn't take us to far away and brought us by our cars mid run. The rain steadily increased - of course. It wasn't that bad until we headed back east which turned out to be gale force winds (with rain). I really don't think I am exaggerating.

Christy bailed when we neared our cars. She said the dog had had enough. Dog??? I will have to tell Bryan to take the dog back to the breeder since it is apparent that if it can't run in rain then it can't be a good hunting dog.

Mike and I decided that we were wet anyway, so we might as well finish the run. Not the smartest move we have ever made. We did stick to a mostly north/south route to avoid the wind, unfortunately it is one of our longer loops. So although we avoided the wind, we ran longer than normal.

It started a conversation though..... It could be worse, we could be running 26.2 miles. Hmmmm.. So what would I do if race day was weather like this? I have been fortunate that the 5 marathons I have done have been without rain. Some heat, some wind, some cold, but no rain. I don't know if I could do 26.2 miles in steady somewhat cold rain. How would I avoid being hypothermic by the end? I think I would be tempted to bail and look for another marathon the next weekend. Hard to say.....except to say it would be MISERABLE.

Goofed

Big story coming up, but it is true!

I didn't show up to run today even though I signed up. Unlike others, this is UNUSUAL for me. I think it may be the second time it has happened to me. So, of course I have a good story to go along with it.

Last night we were dreaming of sugar plums when the dog barked. Normally this is not a big deal, but immediately afterwards we heard a fairly loud scratching nose. I thought it was just the dog pawing at his rawhide and the raw hide was caught in a corner, but when I went to investigate the second time the scratching noise started, I found him happily dreaming of sugar plums on my son's bed. Huh.

Of course, at the same time I found my youngest (who was not in his bed with the dog) on the couch. He said he was sick. Time to get the "puke bowl" (no cute names in our family) and a blanket.

I headed back to bed and the loud scratching started again it was even louder in our room. Jim discovered that we had an animal trapped in the drain spout which was right outside our bedroom window. Closing the window helped to minimize the animal's desperate clawing, but not to the level that we could go back to our sugar plums.

Jim left for the guest bedroom. I grabbed my ear plugs and another pillow to put over my head. See! - It was loud!

At 4:17 I woke up and thought "15 more minutes of sleep"......zzzzzzzz

I then woke at 4:37 and thought in my sleep induced brain that I might as well get up because my alarm would be going of in a minute. Note the sleep induced brain part - in actuality 4:37 is 2 minutes after my alarm. More sleep induced issues to come....

Knowing that Jenny and Wendy were returning from their winter hibernation today (translation - they were emerging from running in the gym all winter to come run outside with us) I happily headed to the bathroom. There I did my duty (sorry Shut Up and Run Blog, I just can't be has honest as you when it comes to my bodily functions) and brushed my teeth. As I was brushing my teeth, I looked at the clock and thought "Huh, did we not change this clock when Daylight Savings ended?" (or started, I can never keep it straight and really don't care enough to try and keep it straight beyond the "spring forward (set clocks ahead), fall back (set clocks back))" Then I looked at my wristwatch and sure enough 5:38!!!! AAARGH!!!!

Apparently, I had slept through the alarm when I had my ear plugs in. Dang! Plus, I didn't even get to back to bed for another 30 minutes of sleep. Well, I did, but I then heard hacking noises in the living room. I came out and found my youngest puking into the now appropriately named "puke bowl". Plus, I had to explain my whole story to all of you before nasty e-mails start flying around!

Yes, the animal's desperate attempts to escape have currently ceased. Now, I am waiting for a smell to start......

Signs of warmer weather

Today we had another sign that spring is here and summer is on its way - Kristi B joined us again! Of course, this brings a dilemma with it. We now have a Kristi and a Christy and two other ones that are lurking in the side lines. We need to figure out some nicknames!

Another sign of spring... I took my ice joggers out of the car AND put them away. So, no more snow or even more importantly - ice.

I might be finally getting the nasty cold Jim had last week. I am not sure what it says that I am semi hoping that it will get worse so I have a good reason not to run the 12 mile pace run tomorrow.

New Shoes

My new shoes came yesterday, so I was able to give them a try. I am not sure. I ordered another half size bigger which makes them a size bigger than I normally wear. I am wondering if I should have done that. It didn't seem to cause problems and my toes sure do have a lot more wiggle room. I do notice that the arch support doesn't hit my arch quite right, but I don't know yet if that is a problem or not. So, the jury is still out. We will see how my legs feel after a couple of days running in them and how they feel during our pace run.

I am think it is time for a new acronym. NPP. The Non Poll People. How should we say that acronym? N-P-P'ers or N double P'ers? I think I like the last one best. These are the people who magically show up to run and yet never sign up on the poll. I will have to get Mike working on the penalty for such actions. No, Wait! I have one... they have to organize our half marathon event in May! Tom admitted this morning that he doesn't sign up so then he doesn't have the responsibility to show up. So, when you penalize people for something, don't you make the consequence bigger than what they should have done in the first place? So, if you don't take the responsibility to sign up to show you are running, then you have the responsibility to organize the half marathon run!

Tom was telling me this morning that some boys respond better to 'coaching' in other words, rationalizing/discussing doesn't work as well as channelling the 'yelling coach'. Maybe in order to help Tom on his way to becoming a better runner and more importantly, a better running partner - we need to channel the coaches on this video:

Bad mood

Today is one of those days that I woke up not loving running. In fact this is the conversation that went quickly through my mind.

I so don't want to run today.

I am TIRED of getting up at 4:35 a.m. EVERY weekday.

I should take a day off (ignoring the fact that I took the past two days off).

Actually, a better idea is to take a WHOLE WEEK OFF!

Yeah! (in an ornery voice) I SHOULD gol' darn it!

Oh - that would be sooooooo nice.


Well, I didn't and I won't. Today's run with the Cousins and Katie when quickly, but my legs were NOT happy. They just felt tired and like they have been pounded. My shins were also acting up again. So, it made me feel justfied for not running yesterday. I didn't have the energy for it and I thought that I could count 3 hours of raking as cross training (right?). I am really hoping that my new shoes help my legs and shins. According to UPS tracking, they should come tomorrow. Yeah!

Good Run!

I don't think the word 'dread' adequately describes how I was feeling about today's 2:45 run. I think that I was so anxious about it that I actually wasn't feeling great this morning.... my tummy was a rumblin! Always a convenient excuse not to run. BUT, I went anyway... I figured if I ended up-chucking THEN I could abort the run and try another day.

I arrived, but Christy didn't. I was quite nervous. After all we had the long run planned, this was not just the usual morning run. I was going through the scenarios of what I would do if she would not show (another good excuse not to run?). My car clock struck 5:00, so I got out to talk to Todd about it. I couldn't talk to Jill about it since she is trying to get the gold medal for living up to nicknames - No Show Gal (NSG). I decided to give Christy a call and just as it finished its first ring I saw a white car screaming down the road (hopefully the local police don't read this blog - if they do, I am NOT saying she was speeding!). Whew!

So, let's get this over with! I explained to Christy that I broke it down to 2 and 3/4 morning runs. THAT wasn't THAT bad! Well, it wasn't that bad! I think I was dreading the run so much because I had such a miserable experience during the 2:30 run. This run I finished feeling great - like I could keep on going and wanted to pick up the pace for the last leg home! YEAH!

Of course it helped that we had a new runner with us. Christy's sister joined us at 6:00 for most of the rest of the run. A whole NEW set of conversation topics! Time just FLEW by! As is typical - Christy said a whole bunch of things that I thought - "Remember that for the blog". Yeah right, I am not 42 so obviously remembering anything during the 2:45 hour run is not happening. Of course, I am not as old as my friend Sandy who had a birthday this week. I wonder how she does it ;-)

When I got home I decided to take an ice bath. Now, I have done this in the past and it really wasn't that bad. I am not a die hard since I only put cold water in - no ice. I did not take any video of it like Shut Up and Run, but let me tell you - I was a bit more vocal. This time it really was bad! Jim was laughing pretty hard at all my screams and squeaks, but when he saw my blue lips and my uncontrollable shaking he said, "you better get out of there". So, I made it maybe 7 minutes. MAN! I think it was more miserable than past experiences since those were in the summer when I was training for a fall marathon. So the temperature of the cold water coming into the house was much warmer than it is now. I just cannot get over how miserable it was compared to when I did before. Even my Sudoku puzzle didn't distract me. Plus, I was having a hard time writing due to the uncontrollable shaking!

So, the bottom line is the Run was GREAT (well, let's be honest, it was okay) and the ice bath SUCKED!

p.s. Hopefully this time I don't misspell certain words into swear words! If I do, I am sure Tom will point it out (to everyone but me!)

You try and be careful

I think we all try and be careful when we go out running alone or for that matter with the group, but sometimes things are just out of your control. It is so sad when freaky things like this (article) happen. It reminds me of the person who was killed while kayaking when a tree fell on him. I can't help but wonder if things had been different if somewhere in their day they had been delayed for 5 seconds or was it inevitable?

My prayers go out to his wife and young son and daughter.

Cut it Short

I cut my run short today. A whomping 2.36 miles.

My shins or the muscles along side my shins have been bothering me. Yesterday's run went better, but today I was really feeling them. Looking for excuses.....I realized that it was my fourth day in a row running. I had forgotten about running on Sunday which is not a usual running day for me. Plus it was a CRAPPY run and when my shins started bothering... so in other words an run I would have liked to forget anyway. Another excuse..... our 2.45 run is this Friday. What better reason to give my legs a break. So, I told the shocked, Christy, Katie and Tom that I was heading back. I would have told No Show Gal but she was being true to her name AGAIN today.

Thinking about it on the way home, I decided I am going to get a new pair of running shoes. I have been trying to hold off, but it may be time. I have over 300 miles on each pair. I think I am going to go up a half size since my feet seem to have grown in the last year. I am also going to see if I can find a cheaper model, but keep with Asics.

It was FOGGY today!

A New Experience

Quite a new experience this morning. A first since I started running with the running group. It was me and the boys running this morning. I think Mike was running on air with the knowledge that I was finally experiencing what he had for the past 3 (has it been that long?) years. They were very kind and didn't make me go through some bizarre male initiation ritual in order for me to run with them. Of course, if they did they knew it would appear in this blog.

We did the "Beer" run. Not because we get to indulge in beer at the turn around point, rather we run by the beer distributorships. Interestingly, it is the only run that has a name. I am sure we all of have names for the different routes we do such as $#&^% Margaret St. route, or blankety-blank County B route, but true to the positive nature of the group (except Christy) we tend to keep those names to ourselves.

Mystery

We have a little mystery!

This morning when we returned to the Walgreens parking lot there was a new, as in unknown to us, car parked among ours. It caused immediate comment and discussion. Who could it be? We all KNOW that NO ONE can park in the Walgreens parking between 5:00 and 6:00 am without being a runner. We protect our turf very carefully. We have thought about flinging a pair of tied together Asics on the power lines surrounding the parking lot in order to mark the boundaries of our territory similar how gangs do it (Kwik Trip Gal errr, I mean No Show Gal taught me that). Did we leave someone behind? Were they on the poll? All questions we did not have answers too.

We decided that it must be Kristi M. A runner group alum who had been making noises about joining us again. I checked in with her this morning and NOPE! NOT her! HMMMMM. Who could it be, Who could it BE? The Running group wants to KNOW!