Layer up!

Last night's 4miler was pretty good, all things considered. I wasn't in the mood to run, but I knew I really needed to get out there anyway, so for the first half mile or so I had really heavy legs. But eventually, my mind sort of gave up fighting it and things got easier. The leaves are turning in town now, and every run along the creek is beautiful with orange leaves. Last night was no exception.

At one point, I ran up behind an old couple taking a walk along the creekside path, holding hands. They were probably in their 70's at least. I wondered "Will Miah and I take walks like this when we're that age?" It was a very sweet moment. Which I immediately ruined by thinking "Well, if we do, I hope I don't have blue helmet hair like that lady does..."

It is freezing and raining/snowing today in Denver, but I brought along my huge bag of warm running clothes and my shoes. I'm trying to decide if I'm tough enough to get out there in the drizzly, freezing cold this afternoon for a teensy little 3miler. I'm not sure yet. There's always the dreadmill downstairs...

Things are pretty good here...

At last, a good long run.

Last Thursday, I did a 4-miler from the office down to the park. It was chilly and windy out, and I was determined to be done with all of the really terrible outings of late. I tried to put all the negative thoughts and doubts out of my head and just tried to relax and run. And it went GREAT. I finished with an 11:30ish average pace. It was a really gorgeous run with all the leaves turning yellow along the creek. This time between seasons is always my favorite time of year.

But, I would be lying if I said it's not c-c-c-cold here in the mornings. So, on Saturday, when I met up with the group at the Highline Canal it was a brisk 38degrees out. And there were folks there with sleeveless running shirts and shorts on! I was freezing my butt off wearing long sleeves and capris. At least I had a fully charged iPod and Garmin.

The group was small because a lot of people were running the St. George marathon, so our pace group was a bit scant. But it really didn't matter. I felt, even from the very first step, like I had to do this run just for me. I couldn't focus on the conversations of the people around me. I couldn't hope to compare my own pace with the others in the group. I just had to turn up my music and sort of do my own thing.

And that is exactly what I did. For 10 miles. I completely ignored everyone and everything else, and just tried to focus on how I was doing. I did a complete body inventory every so often, and nothing hurt. I enjoyed myself. I walked when I needed to during mile 9, I went faster when a great song came on. I laughed at the little tiny tots playing baby league football, with their little shoulder pads and their shiny little helmets. It was... a great run.

But I was ready to be done, too. Because, I'm going to be honest here.... 10 miles... is a long freaking way (for me). I look forward to the day when it isn't, but this is where I'm at right now.

All in all, I feel a lot better than I did a week ago. I know that Denver is going to be a tough day for me, and that is ok. It's just a goal. Not the only one, just the first one on the list of all the ones that are left.

I was very disappointed to learn that the half-marathon I'd been planning on running in Memphis has sold out. So, now I'm thinking of shooting for another half in January at the RNR Arizona. I figure mid-January will give me enough time to get a few more 10+ milers under my belt and maybe combat the accompanying mental struggle.

In completely non-running-related news, Miah and I are trying to buy our first house. We put in an offer weeks ago on a short sale property and we've been waiting and waiting to hear if our offer is accepted. In the meantime, we've spent many hours at the Home Depot designing a new kitchen and picking out carpet and paint. And we're supposed to hear something from the seller/seller's agent pretty soon.... Or else I'm going to lose it.

The highs and lows...

The Denver Half Marathon is 18 days away, and I've got a big problem.

The group run on Saturday was the infamous "Parker Run". I've been hearing tales of its mercilessness since I joined the group several weeks ago. My 7 mile run a few weeks ago was hilly but, as everyone reminded each other as we collected back in the parking lot to retrieve our keys, "it wasn't quite as bad as Parker..."

On top of all this anticipation, I may or may not have mentioned before that as my long runs get to 7+miles, I feel a little unsure of myself. I'm not sure why 7 is the trigger, but for me, it is. Also, just coming off that awful 8miler that I did in TN... well, let's just say I was a little intimidated by my 9miler from the get-go.

So, I don't know if it was my attitude or if it was just the hills, but my 9miler turned out about like I expected it would. I couldn't make the hills. I had to stop and walk. I ran S-L-O-W on the parts where I could run at all. Even on the way back, when it was mostly downhill, I didn't run very strong. Maybe that was due to the completely demoralizing run out right before? Either way, I kept on going and only had to walk maybe a half mile out of the entire thing... But it wasn't a great day.

Big deal, right? Bad runs happen to everyone, and I shouldn't have been surprised by this one, considering all the advance warning I'd received by other members of the group.

The problem is... that run stole everything from me. I dragged back to my car with no confidence whatsoever. All of the sudden, I'm very fearful that I'm not ready for Denver. I feel undertrained and weak and just not ready. It even stole my motivation. I could barely force myself to run a measly 2miles yesterday after work. I didn't want to run. I would have rather gone home and watched TV.

Maybe it wasn't just the Parker run. Maybe it was the combination of the TN run along with the Parker run. Maybe it's all those weeknight runs I missed when my foot was hurting too bad to run. Maybe it's my haphazard diet? Maybe it's just old habits that come back too easily when the tide is going against me?

Whatever the cause of it, I am scared. I wanted to feel much differently about the race at this stage in the game.

This weekend I have a 10miler at the good ol' Highline Canal. Miah says that he thinks going back to where it all started will be good for me. He thinks that knowing the route and not being intimidated by it will help me recover from this latest trip-and-fall. He also thinks I can "think" my way out of my current attitude and back into confidence.

I'm trying, but I'm not so sure it's going to work.

What did I do to deserve this?

I just had two of the most amazing weeknight runs of my life. Seriously, I mentioned Tuesday night's 2miler briefly in the last post because I thought it must surely be a fluke. I ran the two fastest miles I've ever run, I believe. Both were under 12m/m.

I figured it was just because it was only 2 miles, but I was still pretty proud of myself because I kept a good pace even on the uphill mile.

Then, last night, I had a 4 miler scheduled. I ran a new route from my office and my average pace? 12:09.

The first mile? 11:04.

What is going on around here? And why, all of a sudden, am I doing so well after that horrible wreck of a run in TN?

I am noticing a slight pattern... Back at the HM relay that I did with Miah and Jeff in April, it was cold and I ran fast (well, fast for me). It's been cold this week in Denver and I've been running fast. Is it possible that I just run that much faster when the temperature drops? Anyone else experience this?

Either way, I really like running fast. It feels like I'm really going somewhere! It feels great to stretch my legs out and take these long strides and feel the wind rushing past my face. And when I realize I'm running fast, and I try to rein it back in to a more reasonable pace, I find it very difficult to do!

The unhealthiest post-race snack. Ever.

Sea level is so over-rated. I went back to TN all cocky, what with my altitude training and my super red blood cells. But I met a bully called humidity. And humidity kicked my big old altitude-trained ass.

Seriously, I struggled to maintain 13 minute miles, I sweated more than I thought humanly possible. When I ran past the local high school in the pre-dawn hours, the display read "6:00AM, 78 degrees." I wish I was kidding. I did 5 miles before the race, rather than splitting up the run with the 5K. And without a doubt, the highlight of my running experience in TN was talking my little brother into running the local 5K that I referred to before I left. The 5K was a part of a big festival (called Depot Days) that the town throws once a year, so as soon as you finish the 5K, you had to walk less than 100yards to buy your own deep-fried twinkie and assorted Tennessee Vols gear. The weather was pretty crummy, so the events later in the day (the cake walk and the street dance, I guess) were likely cancelled.

Anyway, back to my little brother. He's not a runner. In his words: "Three miles? I can't even run from here to my truck and back!" But, my powers of persuasion are second to none, so I had a running partner for the last 5K of my dismal 8miler on Saturday. Here's a couple of pictures:

Here we are at the start...He's sort of smiling in this one.

And, he's definitely smiling as we approached the finish.

Suffice it to say that he was glad to be done. We finished in approximately 41 minutes, which was good enough for my brother to take a 1st place trophy in his age group! This race didn't exactly have a great turnout.

Afterwards I played with my very cute and adorable nephew (the soon-to-be big brother) at the assorted inflatable fun-houses. This was really fun until I saw a 6-year-old child pin him to the ground and shout "SUBMIT!" I wish I were kidding. This child was intense. Here's a picture of the cutie pie:

But the real reason for going to TN at all was to attend a baby shower for my sister-in-law. She's going to have my neice in October, and my mom and my aunt threw a truly beautiful baby shower for her. My aunt carved a baby carriage out of a watermelon. There were two towers of cupcakes. We made chocolate covered strawberries. We played fun games. And there was carrot cake. So it was worth the trip.

And, also while in TN, I started the process of talking my dad into training for a marathon with me. He's 54, and he used to do a lot of running when he was younger (35-40ish), but he hasn't in quite some time. I suggested that we train for and run the Memphis St. Jude Marathon in December 2010 together. He gave the very non-commital response: "I'll give it some thought." Which, in my dad's language, means: "I'm sure she'll forget about this in a couple of days... I hope." But I will not forget. As I mentioned before, my powers of persuasion are second to none.

I got back to the mile-high city with something to prove, after that pathetic 8miler on Saturday. So, today, I did an awesome 2miler from my office. In the rain. And cold. And snow. That's right, snow. I think I just run easier when it's cold out.

That's all I've got for tonight. Tomorrow is a 4miler for me.

Poop-Glorious-Poop

That pretty much sums up my last 3 weekday runs.

After the 7-miler on Saturday, other than a little soreness, I was feeling pretty good. Until I started out on Tuesday's (what was meant to be Monday's) brief little 2-miler.

You know how you just have those days? You stub your toe getting out of bed, then you slip and fall in the shower, then you notice a massive pimple right between your eyes, then you burn your toast, then you get a speeding ticket because you're running late for work... and so on? Well, that was the day-to-day equivalent of Tuesday's little 2-miler. From the office, the first mile was all downhill, but it felt really hard. When I heard the Garmin beep, I figured out why. 11:30! That's why. Which meant that the second mile, the uphill mile, was all that much more gruesome. I couldn't wait to get this one done and in the books so I was thrilled when I finally stumbled back to the parking lot to find my car... which, of course, had no awaiting bottle of water. Stupid Tuesday.

Wednesdays are a little tricky in our house because we take Ini to Doggie Daycare (aka "school") on Wednesdays. So, this means we have a pretty strict schedule of when we need to leave the house to drop him off, as well as when we have to leave work to pick him up. Until this week, it was even more crazy in the afternoons because we had to rush up to Indian Hills (oh, I've run those hills before) to take him to Agility class. However, this Wednesday we didn't have agility, so I planned a sweet little point-to-point route from our office out to a point close to where Miah would be driving after picking Ini up from school. I was really excited to be running a new route. So excited, in fact, that I left the house without... my Garmin. I did not realize this until I was already at the office, however, so going back for it was not an option. Immediately, Garmin-less anxiety set in.

Ugh. I've done these runs before. You know... where you just run. And you have no idea of your pace or your distance or anything? How did I ever survive pre-Garmin?

In the end, it was a pretty awesome run. It was annoying to not have any idea how far I'd gone at any given point... And it was annoying not to have any idea how fast I was going. But I did the run, and I felt really good! I ended up finishing in about 52minutes, for 4 miles, which is right at a 13m/m pace. I guess my body is learning how to run roughly the same pace with or without my Garmin directing me. The most annoying thing has to be that there is no record whatsoever that I even did this run. Aside from what I've just written here... and still there's no proof! I could have totally made this up!

The best part of this run, anyway, was finishing right at the car. Miah and Ini were waiting for me with lemon-lime gatorade. What could be better?

And then came today, when I was forced to run in the pre-dawn hours because I'm flying out to TN this evening to visit my family. Again, today, another terrible slog. I'm blaming this one on lack of rest. It was just a mere 12 hours ago that I ran that glorious 4-miler, after all.

It's either the lack of rest or the fact that my head just wasn't right before I even started. I just didn't want to be running. There are lots of runs that I start with this exact attitude, but usually it wears off after the first mile or so. Not so today. Again... I can easily blame this on the lack of sleep.

What was supposed to be a measly 3-miler turned into a 2.3miler. I just didn't have it today.

The really excellent news in all this is that I've done all my weekday runs this week, and my foot still seems to be holding up pretty well. I got the word back from the doctor on Tuesday that I do NOT have a stress fracture, though she also offered no explanation as to what actually is wrong with me. So, at this point, I figure I'm going to just keep running on it until my body says otherwise.

I'm on the schedule for an 8-miler this Saturday, though, as I mentioned, I'll be vacationing this weekend in TN with my parents. Luckily, my tiny hometown (and I mean tiny) is having its annual 5k race this weekend, so I'll be out there (with approximately 20 other people) on Saturday morning.

Question: If I run 3 miles, then pause and register for the race, then run the 5k then continue on for an additional 2ish miles after... does that qualify as an 8-mile run? Does pausing in the middle make the run less meaningful?

Enough with the 90+ degree days, ok?

First of all... can I just say that Miah is officially the husband of the year? For about a month, I've been asking him to go camping on Labor Day weekend. He's kept saying no, it'll be too crowded or whatever. Recently, we learned that his dad might be coming down to visit on Labor Day weekend, and when I talked to my father-in-law, I told him we had no plans (aside from SoxFan's gruelling 36 mile - 6000 feet of climbing - mountain bike ride). Well, yesterday in the car, he explained to me that actually, he'd made plans for us to spend the night of 9/6 at the B&B where we got married. Why? Because it was our 3 month anniversary, but also because it's one year since the day we got engaged (9/7). He started making these plans about a month ago, apparently, and he'd reserved our honeymoon suite. Isn't he just the most adorable man you've ever heard of? I do think I love him.

OK, newlywed sappiness out of the way, on to the running stuff...

I'm happy to report that the Frankenstein boot is long gone, folks. I kicked that sucker off on Wednesday of last week and I haven't looked back since. I missed only one run last week (Tuesday's run) so I managed to get in 2 weekday runs and my long run on Saturday. Here's a quick recap...

Wednesday's 2 miler was done up in Indian Hills. It's no coincidence that it's called Indian HILLS either. It was a fairly painless 2 miler, though I did have to wrap up the last 7 tenths by running laps around a park (not so much fun).

Thursday's 3.5 miler was done down in town, from my office. Stupidly, I slept in on Thursday morning, which meant I had to run in the afternoon heat. ARGH. I know better than this, yet I still do it. I had to walk a bit on the hills, but otherwise I was pretty pleased with how it went. Maybe it's purely psychological, but it seems like the running gets noticeably easier when you're in the shade? There is one long stretch on my 3.5m route from the office that is completely shade-free and every time I'm running down that stretch, I start to feel like I'm carrying a toddler (or a 27 year old man) on my shoulders.

With those two runs behind me pain free, I was feeling pretty good about Saturday's long run. Not so good, of course, that I could manage to drag my butt out of bed as early as I should have to get the run done before it got hot out, but you know... The trail was really crowded at 8AM, and it wasn't a great run, but it wasn't terrible, either. It was another 5 miler that I did on the highline canal trail, running from Goodson rec center. I notice, especially while running on the highline (which, by the way, is one of my very favorite places to run in Denver) that all the other slow people on the trail always nod and smile at me as we pass. It's as if they're saying "Dude, it's so awesome that we're out here together, struggling and sweating like pigs, getting passed by folks all the time... I know what you're going through." This reminds me of this really hilarious Nike commercial that I must share, even if it is terribly old news...

I missed cross-training (for only the second time and the first time was due to injury!) on Friday because Miah and I were out looking at potential houses with our spankin' new realtor. It was the first time we've been out looking at houses and it was exhausting and somewhat depressing. We saw 12 houses, it took all day long, and in the end there were really only a couple that we were interested in. One, of course, was drastically out of our price range and the other was a fixer-upper, which immediately sent me into a frenzy, worrying about what color to paint the kitchen walls and what kind of carpet we should pick out. (Worrying is sort of a hobby for me, see? If it were an Olympic sport, I'd be an 8-time gold medalist.) Needless to say, I missed out on mountain biking and had dreams about houses on Friday night.

Whew... now that all that updating is done I can move onto something that I was thinking about today...

I was talking to my friend (Alicia) at work. Alicia is a super-athlete. She's run several marathons (including Boston), too many half-marathons to count, she plays soccer and all sorts of other sports... She's generally just really fit and badass. Today, she was talking about how she wants to do a Half-Ironman. She's fit enough that she could probably go out tomorrow and do a Half-Ironman without any additional training whatsoever. Alicia would really excel at triathlons, in general (she excels at everything else!), so I encouraged her to do it. And she mentioned that, out here in Denver, it seems like you're never doing enough. You could be training for a marathon and still feel like a giant wuss because the other folks in your running group are training for an ultra-marathon. Luckily, I realized this early and have steered clear of running groups entirely for this reason.

Still, she's right. Running a half-marathon doesn't feel like much because so many of the people I know have done it or could do it without much training. There are even people who (and these folks really just kill me) don't seem to do a lot of physical activity of any sort, but when you talk them into running a fun-run 5K with you, they smoke your ass.

I mentioned to Miah that I wished I knew more people like me (in person). People who are sort of just getting started with the whole running thing, who have to try really hard to stay in shape, who are always going to finish near the back of the pack. He pointed out that there aren't that many people like that, though. That most of the people we know who are runners have been runners for a while. The other (more couch potato-ish) people we know don't have any interest in running or they would have done so already. It's just not that common for a largely un-fit, sedentary person to decide they want to change into an active, fit person. He said that the best person I have to compare myself to is the me from about 3 years ago. He's right. I know that is definitely the best comparison I can make to see how far I've come. It's just really hard to get the me from 3 years ago to go out for a 5 miler so that we can race... she's a bit of a lazy ass.

Oh! I went to the chiropractor on Monday and it turns out I'm twisted up like a pretzel but the doc says she can put me straight again (I sound like Forrest Gump a bit, no?). We managed to get all the way through the visit without her making some new-age reference to cleansing my chakras or whatever by snapping my little elbow joint and I was tickled to find that she was very careful every time she approached my neck (probably due to the fact that I told her how terrified I was that she was going to snap my neck). I had to get some x-rays of my lower back (which didn't hurt at all on today's 4 miler) and I have another visit on Thursday afternoon. I'm going to try to better understand what all is wrong with me on this visit, I promise. I'm sure there's got to be a better explanation than the one I've currently got: my neck/back/ankles/knees/hips are all janked.

The thing about running is, you need feet...

I'll get to my latest training runs in a second, just after this short statement:

On Friday, for my cross-training exercise, SoxFan and I went mountain biking at Green Mountain. We had a great time, but rather than riding the trail back (like a champ) I decided to ride back to the truck on the sidewalk (like a loser). However, there was a small stretch of road where there was no sidewalk, so I had to ride it out in the road.

:::I am aware that this is the correct way to ride a bike, and that riding on the sidewalk is illegal and is most often the cause of cars hitting cyclists.:::

Apparently the jerk who pulled up behind me and insisted on laying on the horn and screaming at me for riding my bike in the road was unaware of this small detail, despite my efforts to educate him with various hand gestures and colorful language. I was in the left lane for a reason, you jackass, because I needed to turn left, just like a car would do! And, generally speaking, laying on the horn while yelling at me out of your window and trying to squeeze between me (rather pushing me onto the yellow line and very nearly into oncoming traffic) and the car in the right lane is not considered the correct way to treat a cyclist on the road and I hope you (and your god forsaken Honda Ridgeline*) get pulled over and ticketed next time for your ridiculous behavior. Jackass.

Whew... Now that that is out of my system...

The remainder of last week's training runs went fairly well. After the abysmal 2 miler that SoxFan and Ini ran with me, I had one more 3.5 miler on Thursday morning, then a 5 miler on Saturday by myself on the Highline Canal. I managed to run the entire 5m, but I was having pain in the left side of my lower back so I stopped several times to bend over and stretch a bit. It was a great day for a run, though, otherwise.

Regarding this back pain... I'm worried it might be connected to the pain I've also been having in my left hip joint, which I'm also worried might be connected to the pain I've been having in my left IT band. (The hip bone is connected to the leg bone and all that.) So, rather than see my McDoctor about it (thank you for the superb care, Kaiser Permanente), who would probably just dismiss me with something ingenius like "oh, if it hurts when you run, then you shouldn't run" I've decided to try a chiropractor.

I know, I know. I've always heard they're quacks, too. I'm very skeptical, but there are a couple of people at work who say they go regularly and it works. If they start saying things like "If you let me crack this bone here, it'll cure your allergy to cottonwood trees"...I'm totally out. That's just wacko crazy person stuff.

If you have any experience with chiropractors (good or bad), please let me know. I'm supposed to go in next Monday, and I'm not sure what to expect.

On Sunday (my rest day), SoxFan and I decided to head out to Eleven Mile Canyon to do a little fly-fishing. He and his dad had really great luck there this time last year, so I hoped this would be an out-of-the-ordinary fly-fishing trip for me and I'd actually catch a fish rather than just getting a lot of casting practice. Ah... a nice, graceful, relaxing day of fly-fishing... what could be better?

I was also very excited to try out my luck at wading. In the past I've always fished from the bank while SoxFan wades the river...which was kindof convenient for me because then I could blame my lack of catching fish on the fact that I had to remain stuck on the side of the river. I didn't have proper felt-soled wading boots, but I did have an awesome new pair of Keen sandals that we figured would work in a pinch.

He caught 2. I caught none, and I was well into my second half-hour of pouting over this fact when I stepped on a tippy rock and fell into the river, thereby slicing a great wound into the front of my right leg and "spraining" my right foot. I didn't realize anything was wrong with my foot until this morning, around 3AM, when I got up to get water and realized I could not put weight on my right foot nor could I wiggle my right toes.

I woke up the hubs, who recommended that I stop crying and instead take an ibuprofen and see my McDoctor in the morning. So, that's exactly what I did. The pain was not as bad when I re-woke at 7AM, but I hobbled my way into the McDoctor's office anyway and they shot a couple of pictures of the foot, declared that I'd broken nothing, thereby deduced that it must be a "sprain" (though, for the life of me I don't understand how you "sprain" a foot), put me in a huge ridiculous Frankenstein boot and sent me packing.

I'm trying to see this as the best possible outcome. At 3AM, I was convinced that I'd definitely broken a bone in my foot, and any chance of running Denver was out of reach. As it is, I'm just out of commission for a few days at most (OK, so the McDoctor said 7-10 days of no running, but I just told her to shut her McMouth 'cause I had a plan) and I'm back to 100% by Saturday's 5miler. I am trying to completely ignore the fact that, should I have to actually skip an entire week of training, there's a good chance that I won't make it to Denver anyway.

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*My apologies to you if you happen to own a Honda Ridgeline. I think they are horrendous looking, but I'm sure yours is just lovely.