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!

She Knows its Coming

Kwik Trip Gal's name is now officially No Show Gal.

I am sure she will have some good excuse like she had to change the batteries in her smoke detectors since it was daylight savings. I was even feeling guilty that I may not have waited for her long enough, so after returning home to pick up my dog (who is always willing to run with me) I ran by our meeting place to make sure she hadn't come. Nope. She did leave me a message 30 minutes after our meeting time saying she was sorry and she would look for me.... hmmmm She was probably really on her way to get more batteries.

AND in addition to that heart breaker, my run SUCKED! My shins were killing me. I thought they would warm up and it would turn into an okay run. Nope. And my pace just kept on getting slower and slower. Too bad too because the morning gave the feeling that it was going to be a beautiful March day. We might actually get the see the sun today.

However, there was a happy being in all of this. Shiner. He was one happy dog when I came back and got him. His tail was just a waggin'. He would have looked like this dog:

10 mile pace run - a little late

I am a little late in posting this, but other things were calling my attention - like a 7:00 a.m. meeting.

So, The Cousins, He Who Shall Not Be Named and Kwik Trip Gal ran our 10 mile pace run. I think we did well - at 8:44 pace. Newbie Runner (Todd) also joined us for 6 miles of it. He did GREAT! He hung with us which is pretty amazing - not because we run super fast, but because he is pretty new to us and it wasn't really fair for us to "change things up" on him this early. BUT Marathon training must go on! We really weren't trying to run away from him.... REALLY - even if he is a Vikings Fan!

I learned quite a bit about He Who Shall Not Be Named today. One, as a teacher he sure doesn't practice what he preaches. You would not BELIEVE how many times I had to tell him to Shut Up! when I was trying to explain the route. Hopefully he learned his lesson during one of the many of times that he tried to turn when we were going straight or when he went straight when we turned. Note that I said WE - everyone else (who had their listening caps on and their mouths closed) knew where to go. No extra steps by us. I had no sympathy for him. It was a good life lesson for him.

We were also talking about musical devices and the things we used to and still call them.... like boombox and walkman instead of mp3 player. We are so.....o old. He Who Shall Not Be Named admitted that when he first was running he listened to a cd player but it would skip. So he would have to run with his hand out, palm up and his cd player lying flat. I thought it sounded like some yoga pose. I think this means he would make a good pacer for a marathon. I always wonder how those people run 26.2 miles holding a stick with their pace time on a flag at the top of it. Plus, he said he didn't have any goal for his 3rd marathon except that he wanted to be under 4 hours. Ah! We had to remind him that most people (including 3 of us running) couldn't run a marathon under 4 so running a marathon under 4 hours really is a GOAL. I think it was really his usual way of trying to get people to admire him without looking like that is what he is trying to do.

Surprise!

We got a nice surprise this morning as we were running the dreaded Margaret loop!

Katie!

She is back at running. She said that she wasn't sure if she could keep up with us since it was her first day back after surgery. We were so taken aback by her appearance that we believed her. So she turned with us and continued until her turn back to home point. So glad she is back! Now, where is Elyse?

Yesterday I was suffering from my long run. It just wiped me out. Christy mentioned she was happy I FINALLY moved on to a new excuse - post vacation run - and got of my blood donation excuse. Apparently, she did not give up whining for lent either that or she needs to go to confession.

Tomorrow there is a 79% chance it will be raining at 5:00 am. The season of getting up, walking outside with my hands up in the air (to see if it is raining, not praying for rain) and turning around (just in case this helps a rain drop hit me) has begun!

2:30 Done

Done with the 2:30 long run! Many, Many THANKS to Jill who ran it with me at the ridiculous time of 11:00.

I started out feeling really good, especially considering we got back from ski vacation the night before. Normally, my first run after a vacation is not great - sluggish. I think it is because I am out of my routine and eating habits are less than ideal (not that they normally are). But today I felt really good. I think part of it was that I got to get out of the house for 2.5 hours and away from the kids (yes, I do love them, but after a week of vacation I am ready for some ALONE time) plus J could get caught up on laundry!

So, I felt in high spirits for about the first 50 minutes. The next 1:40 minutes was a struggle. It has been a long time where I have stopped to "take a break" with only 15 minutes to go. I am afraid this is one of my quirks that I am sure drives my running partners crazy. You would think I could push through it and just run those 15 minutes and get it done with, but sadistically I feel the need to walk. AND I even turn off my watch so is not like I letting myself not run those 15 minutes. Nope, I am just stretching out the pain and agony even longer!

So, we ran 15.68 and nice weather. No sun, but little wind and relatively warm. A lot of spring weather walkers were out and about.

A better day

Today was a much better day on the treadmill. I usually don't run two days in a row while on vacation, but I consider yesterday's 2 miles a non-run. A good attempt, but not enough to count as a run day.

So, today all went well except for a guy hogging the fan, but I managed pretty well without it. I went in with the attitude of running 45 minutes or 5 miles whatever came first. So it didn't matter how fast I did it, unless I was feeling inspired.

The first few steps were a good sign since I didn't experience the excruciatingly painful butt giggle. I just started out running and started increasing the pace as I felt good. Eventually I started to do 1 minute intervals and some variations of that. I won't got into the mind numbing details. The end result is I hit 5 miles at 43 minutes. I finished out the 45 minutes with about 5.25 miles and felt good.

I guess my body has adjusted to being 42.