RUN about 30 mins, 3 mile commute
RUN same, just in the opposite direction!
OH DAMN it's cold out!! Temps are in the <10f about="" all.="" and="" at="" but="" chill.="" crunch="" enough="" for="" had="" including="" just="" not="" overnight="" p="" range="" s="" snow="" some="" that="" the="" to="" underfoot="" we="" wind="" worry="">
My poor back is still bothering me. I'm still figuring it out -- the discomfort (it's not really pain, per se) is set off by raising my arms. It's still mostly the left side, midback. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. The Camelbak doesn't help any, and I run commute wearing it.
I'm doing what I can to help it, but not making much progress!
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Took another rest day
BIKE 1 hour and 17 miles, indoors
COMMUTE 6.4 miles
The training plan called for a 2 mile run. Ah...no, I'll just rest thank you. But I still had to do something, so I biked on the trainer instead.
Today's commute was in the mid-20's, relatively pleasant. Tomorrow the forecast has a wind chill advisory, so I'm run commuting instead!
COMMUTE 6.4 miles
The training plan called for a 2 mile run. Ah...no, I'll just rest thank you. But I still had to do something, so I biked on the trainer instead.
Today's commute was in the mid-20's, relatively pleasant. Tomorrow the forecast has a wind chill advisory, so I'm run commuting instead!
Monday, January 5, 2015
Running Down A Dream
Name of Event: Kettle 100m solo Distance: 100 Measurement: Miles Date: Saturday June 6th, 2015 Start Time: 6:00 AM
LOL to the measurement!!! That's copied from my registration confirmation email. Yup, I did it! I'm registered! I'm officially in training for a 100 mile trail run.
Here's some of the typical responses you get after tell people about this race:
"Do you have to run the whole thing?"
Response: "No, you can walk."
"Can you rest?"
Response: "Sure, they have chairs at the aid stations, and there are plenty of rocks and stumps."
"Can you sleep?"
Response: "Yes, but you need to finish within a roughly 30hr time"
"How many days will it take?"
Response: "Hopefully a little over one day."
My Favorite so far: "Do you need a special bike for that?"
Response: "No, just trail running shoes." LOL!
"I don't like to drive that far"
Response by TV: "Well you just need to train for it! Take your car out for longer drives each weekend. Find a hill and drive up it as fast as you can 10 times." LOL!!!
Might have found my temperature limit!
BIKE COMMUTE 6.4 miles
You'll note I'm not logging 6 miles, but rather 6.4 miles. That's the actual measurement!
The morning ride was 10-12F! HOLY SH!T that's COLD. My fingertips were terribly painful within a mile, the rest of me was mostly OK but oh, wow, I might have found my limit. It's not so much the time, temp, distance, etc, but rather the safety of riding withe distraction and cold hands. I'm thinking more about the misery than I am about doors and bumps. And speaking of bumps -- cold hands don't grip the bars or brakes as well. Especially when you have the fingers bundled up to shield them from the wind and try to cozy them up to each other!
Got to ride home in 25F weather, relatively hot compared to the morning. And got to ride with my new rear light from BS. It only seems expensive, but when put into the context of $30 (before discount too!) that's only one week of riding, since parking is $6/day.
Otherwise a total rest day. Only a super short doggie walk, didn't even get to climb stairs at work! My back was much better today, biking doesn't bother it. Only stopping/starting running!
You'll note I'm not logging 6 miles, but rather 6.4 miles. That's the actual measurement!
The morning ride was 10-12F! HOLY SH!T that's COLD. My fingertips were terribly painful within a mile, the rest of me was mostly OK but oh, wow, I might have found my limit. It's not so much the time, temp, distance, etc, but rather the safety of riding withe distraction and cold hands. I'm thinking more about the misery than I am about doors and bumps. And speaking of bumps -- cold hands don't grip the bars or brakes as well. Especially when you have the fingers bundled up to shield them from the wind and try to cozy them up to each other!
Got to ride home in 25F weather, relatively hot compared to the morning. And got to ride with my new rear light from BS. It only seems expensive, but when put into the context of $30 (before discount too!) that's only one week of riding, since parking is $6/day.
Otherwise a total rest day. Only a super short doggie walk, didn't even get to climb stairs at work! My back was much better today, biking doesn't bother it. Only stopping/starting running!
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Woefully under dressed run in Babler, and new metrics for 2015
RUN 16 miles in 3:27, Babler
So yesterday's weather was 37F in the morning and a pleasant 42F when I went to bed. This morning it was mid-high 30's, cloudy, light winds, but forecasted to drop to 28 with 20 mph winds. At the last minute going out the door I grabbed my purple windshell, just in cast. 28F as a high wasn't bad, right?
TV and I were going to Babler, hoping that the we'd be mostly out of the wind and running dry rocky ridges that drained all or most of yesterday's rain. Some right, mostly wrong. Lots to say here!
First off, it was damned cold and windy. On the drive out it started snowing more and the wind became fierce. Flags were whipping in the C-field valley. We joked about how awful it would be to run on the Levee Trail. As soon as we started in the park we were shocked at the cold. When the wind hit our face it burned a bit. But we were convinced that'd we'd warm up in a mile or two. The light snow was pellety, and pretty. It rested on fallen, wet leaves and highlighted them without obscuring.
But that's about as pleasant as the weather got. Oh we had other pleasantries in the run, let's focus on them for a bit. It's great to be running with TV again, we joked about what people say when you mention doing a 100-miler (the best answer was from TV-- don't like driving 100 miles, well you just need to train for it!!); joked about how these hardships will make us stronger (and how we'll be running in nothing-but-shorts-and-gloves come March or April); and overall focused on positive things (which included an appreciation of that fact that the ground was freezing so it was less muddy, TV said it was like frosting, lol).
But oh the weather. What a lesson learned. TV had a mylar blanket in case something happened, but we needed more. We could have easily run by the truck for warmer clothes if we'd only had them available. By mile 4 I was mentally thinking "just do this 3 more times". By mile 7 I secretly wanted to quit. By mile 10 I quit looking at the Garmin, it was depressing. By mile 11.5 we were on an uphill horse trail with my face burning from the wind, and we decided that we'd average the half mile difference between our Garmins. By mile 13 I threw that idea out and said I'd be happy with at least 15 miles. By mile 14 I joked about heading to the truck for mile 15, starting the truck to warm it up, then running the last mile in parking lot circles around it. Then at mile 14 we got on the wrong road, I didn't recognize the house we ran by but kept going anyway. Soon after that TV found the positive that now we'd reach 16 miles! :) We did hit 16 miles, exactly at the trailhead and I didn't run another step. I admitted that at mile 7 I wanted to quit, he said the same!
I barely ate or drank because pulling my hands out of my mittens burned them, they were barely functioning and it took 3x as long to do anything. I ate only half a powerbar and a few sips of water! The misery didn't abate until 20 mins of a truck warming up (and happily the blower in the truck was working when we were done, it's been on and off the last few days). Our hands were swollen, my nose raw from wiping with a half-frozen snot-covered mitten, and my toes so cold I didn't know about the blood-filled blister I had until later in the day.
To top it off, my left back muscle is still a spaz-ma-taz, hurting the most when I start running from a stop. Ugh, what a day.
Some new Numerics for the year. Now that I realize how much I'm walking the dog I'm going to include it. Although that number could drop as the run miles pile up! And I set a goal of doing at least 15 minutes of strength, stretch, roll, meditate, something!, for at least 15 mins a day. So I'll add that in.
Next I need to register for my race!!
NUMERICS
SWIM zero
BIKE zero
RUN 44.4 miles in 8 hours
running as 8/3, 3/3, 7.1, 4.3, 16. So two work commutes.
BIKE COMMUTE 6.4 miles (1 trip)
WALKIES 14.3 miles!
Strength/stretching, rolling: 15 mins all four days of goal.
So yesterday's weather was 37F in the morning and a pleasant 42F when I went to bed. This morning it was mid-high 30's, cloudy, light winds, but forecasted to drop to 28 with 20 mph winds. At the last minute going out the door I grabbed my purple windshell, just in cast. 28F as a high wasn't bad, right?
TV and I were going to Babler, hoping that the we'd be mostly out of the wind and running dry rocky ridges that drained all or most of yesterday's rain. Some right, mostly wrong. Lots to say here!
First off, it was damned cold and windy. On the drive out it started snowing more and the wind became fierce. Flags were whipping in the C-field valley. We joked about how awful it would be to run on the Levee Trail. As soon as we started in the park we were shocked at the cold. When the wind hit our face it burned a bit. But we were convinced that'd we'd warm up in a mile or two. The light snow was pellety, and pretty. It rested on fallen, wet leaves and highlighted them without obscuring.
But that's about as pleasant as the weather got. Oh we had other pleasantries in the run, let's focus on them for a bit. It's great to be running with TV again, we joked about what people say when you mention doing a 100-miler (the best answer was from TV-- don't like driving 100 miles, well you just need to train for it!!); joked about how these hardships will make us stronger (and how we'll be running in nothing-but-shorts-and-gloves come March or April); and overall focused on positive things (which included an appreciation of that fact that the ground was freezing so it was less muddy, TV said it was like frosting, lol).
But oh the weather. What a lesson learned. TV had a mylar blanket in case something happened, but we needed more. We could have easily run by the truck for warmer clothes if we'd only had them available. By mile 4 I was mentally thinking "just do this 3 more times". By mile 7 I secretly wanted to quit. By mile 10 I quit looking at the Garmin, it was depressing. By mile 11.5 we were on an uphill horse trail with my face burning from the wind, and we decided that we'd average the half mile difference between our Garmins. By mile 13 I threw that idea out and said I'd be happy with at least 15 miles. By mile 14 I joked about heading to the truck for mile 15, starting the truck to warm it up, then running the last mile in parking lot circles around it. Then at mile 14 we got on the wrong road, I didn't recognize the house we ran by but kept going anyway. Soon after that TV found the positive that now we'd reach 16 miles! :) We did hit 16 miles, exactly at the trailhead and I didn't run another step. I admitted that at mile 7 I wanted to quit, he said the same!
I barely ate or drank because pulling my hands out of my mittens burned them, they were barely functioning and it took 3x as long to do anything. I ate only half a powerbar and a few sips of water! The misery didn't abate until 20 mins of a truck warming up (and happily the blower in the truck was working when we were done, it's been on and off the last few days). Our hands were swollen, my nose raw from wiping with a half-frozen snot-covered mitten, and my toes so cold I didn't know about the blood-filled blister I had until later in the day.
To top it off, my left back muscle is still a spaz-ma-taz, hurting the most when I start running from a stop. Ugh, what a day.
Some new Numerics for the year. Now that I realize how much I'm walking the dog I'm going to include it. Although that number could drop as the run miles pile up! And I set a goal of doing at least 15 minutes of strength, stretch, roll, meditate, something!, for at least 15 mins a day. So I'll add that in.
Next I need to register for my race!!
NUMERICS
SWIM zero
BIKE zero
RUN 44.4 miles in 8 hours
running as 8/3, 3/3, 7.1, 4.3, 16. So two work commutes.
BIKE COMMUTE 6.4 miles (1 trip)
WALKIES 14.3 miles!
Strength/stretching, rolling: 15 mins all four days of goal.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Puddle jumpin' errand running
RUN 4.3 miles in about 43 mins
The weather today was supposed to be rain all day, at least up until 5pm. Not great long run weather, so we moved the weekend long run until tomorrow. But I still had a short run today, and since it was a warm (relatively anyway) day morning at 37F I decided I could just run the four miles in the rain and be OK.
As I planned the morning, I realized I could fit this into a grocery store errand and skip driving altogether today. I like that idea! Driving is frustrating sometimes! I left once the sun was up enough with the Camelbak and my new reflective suspender-vest.
The rain was steady but light, pleasant, quiet, therapeutic. I wandered down to LafPark, around the park through new-to-me streets, did good not tripping over some of those bricks, and ended up at the grocery store right on mileage target.
The checkout personnel chatted with me about what I was doing. Was I biking? I ran?! They noted the reflective gear, the "big watch", this is something I love about commuting. With running or biking, other people tend to want to talk about it. How far I rode, the weather, how good it probably feels, and quite often how they wish they could do the same. :)
The weather today was supposed to be rain all day, at least up until 5pm. Not great long run weather, so we moved the weekend long run until tomorrow. But I still had a short run today, and since it was a warm (relatively anyway) day morning at 37F I decided I could just run the four miles in the rain and be OK.
As I planned the morning, I realized I could fit this into a grocery store errand and skip driving altogether today. I like that idea! Driving is frustrating sometimes! I left once the sun was up enough with the Camelbak and my new reflective suspender-vest.
The rain was steady but light, pleasant, quiet, therapeutic. I wandered down to LafPark, around the park through new-to-me streets, did good not tripping over some of those bricks, and ended up at the grocery store right on mileage target.
The checkout personnel chatted with me about what I was doing. Was I biking? I ran?! They noted the reflective gear, the "big watch", this is something I love about commuting. With running or biking, other people tend to want to talk about it. How far I rode, the weather, how good it probably feels, and quite often how they wish they could do the same. :)
Thursday, January 1, 2015
First run of 2015!
RUN 7.1 miles in 1:04
I skipped the group run to have brekkie with DH, so I was on my own for this. I was also working this morning, so during an incubation step I squeezed this in. I give "running a PCR" a whole new meaning!
Woke up with a calf cramp this morning, and had to wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I didn't salt last night's filet mignon. I put butter on it (Paleo!) but no salt. It had to be already salted, right? Anyway, salt levels are just a guess anyway.
I spent the first half of today's run wondering if I was doing an out-n-back or a loop, and if I did a loop would I need to run a few extra tenths to hit the goal of 7 miles? Once I passed the halfway point and committed to a loop, I was also running with the wind and was overall much happier. And then in the end, I was able to skip the last part of the loop because I was already at goal distance! I keep telling myself to "just run", but I can't turn my mind off.
I think registration opens today for the Kettle 100. I should talk to DH first. But already I have two songs for the 2015 Songlist: Running Down A Dream and Breakaway. The latter stuck in my head this morning, better than the third song I had earlier, the one that I hope never makes the list.
Found a good quote for now: Just For Today: I will live through this day only; I will be happy; I will accept what is; I will improve.
And a quote from last night's wedding: Embrace Change.
But the theme for January: Ask yourself, How Shall This Day End.
I skipped the group run to have brekkie with DH, so I was on my own for this. I was also working this morning, so during an incubation step I squeezed this in. I give "running a PCR" a whole new meaning!
Woke up with a calf cramp this morning, and had to wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I didn't salt last night's filet mignon. I put butter on it (Paleo!) but no salt. It had to be already salted, right? Anyway, salt levels are just a guess anyway.
I spent the first half of today's run wondering if I was doing an out-n-back or a loop, and if I did a loop would I need to run a few extra tenths to hit the goal of 7 miles? Once I passed the halfway point and committed to a loop, I was also running with the wind and was overall much happier. And then in the end, I was able to skip the last part of the loop because I was already at goal distance! I keep telling myself to "just run", but I can't turn my mind off.
I think registration opens today for the Kettle 100. I should talk to DH first. But already I have two songs for the 2015 Songlist: Running Down A Dream and Breakaway. The latter stuck in my head this morning, better than the third song I had earlier, the one that I hope never makes the list.
Found a good quote for now: Just For Today: I will live through this day only; I will be happy; I will accept what is; I will improve.
And a quote from last night's wedding: Embrace Change.
But the theme for January: Ask yourself, How Shall This Day End.
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