Crappy Snow Run

Yes, that's right, yours truely (that would be me) ran 12 miles in the rain, snow, and wind last night. I earned the "I'm not the biggest wuss that you've ever met award". Now tomorrow may be a different story, but I earned that title last night.

I had a "sandwich run" on my schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday. I was supposed to run 10 miles on Tuesday night and then 8 miles early Wednesday morning, therefore sandwiching 18 miles over two days.

Monday, I noticed that the Denver area forecast was calling for 6-12 inches of snow starting Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

Well shit.

I debated on moving the run, but my schedule is so busy right now, that I just decided to get it done. So I took off work around 4:00 last night and drove over to the trail head. I determined that I would get 12 miles in so that I would only have to do 6 miles on the treadmill the next morning.

Ready to run



Here's what it looked like at the start of my run, not too bad. Just a little rain. I actually am one of the few people that I know who actually enjoys running in the rain.



About an half an hour into my run, the rain turned to heavy, wet snow. Well shit. I kept at it, determined to get my 12 miles in. About 9 miles in, I couldn't feel my hands anymore, so I caved and called my husband for a ride. The snow was coming down sideways at this point and was stinging my face and you could barely see.

My very considerate husband pulled up right about the time I hit 10 miles and I climbed into the car, slammed the door, and announced "I QUIT! I can't take this training anymore!" He calmly looked at me and replied that at least I would have something to blog about. I happily perked up and decided that I would go home and finish the last two miles on the treadmill.

He dropped me back off at my car and here's what the weather was doing on my way home.



This morning, I got up and finished my sandwich run with 6 miles on the mill. 18 miles = Done. And 11 1/2 inches of snow. That's the way the weather works here in Colorado. It will be gone in a couple of days.

Short Post and a Giveaway

First off, I just wanted to mention a giveaway for all of you bookworms out there. Molly at I'm a Sleeper Baker is giving away a book called "God Never Blinks 50 Lessons on Life's Little Detours". I like to read inspirational books every now and then, sometimes they are pretty cool. Go check out her blog and giveaway.

Training: I did my first Brick on Wednesday. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is a bike ride and then a run following the ride. Why would I put myself through this torture? I would like to do a sprint triathlon this summer, just for the heck of it as long as I don't kill myself trying to run my marathon. This was my first time riding the bike outside since last summer and ouch! I put in 9 miles in half an hour and then got off and ran (jogged). My legs felt a little wobbly, but I made it.

No long run this weekend, since it is rest and recovery week, but looking at the 20 miler next week and Beth, I'm NOT looking forward to this one either!

Gratitude-I haven't done this in awhile:
1.) March Madness. I just have to say, since I'm a Mizzou fan-I HATE KU!
2.) Green beer on St Patty's day (or any day for that matter)
3.) Sports Massages
4.) Rest and Recovery weeks
5.) My trash men. They had to haul away a huge bag of dog poop today since I haven't scooped in a while. I'm sure they hate me, but I'm thankful for them!

Good luck to all of you racing this weekend. GO JILL!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

The luck of the Irish definitely wasn’t with me on Saturday when I ran my 18 miler. It was a gorgeous day out, I had adequate fuel and water, and I had foam rolled every single ache and pain out of my body. I was ready. However, I don’t think my stomach was ready for the Cytomax that I was drinking because by mile 10, I was paying homage to the bushes. We should have some lovely flowering bushes along the Cherry Creek Trail come spring.

Now if I run by there and the bushes are dead, I’m going to feel really bad.

By mile 11, I had enough of the heat and the stomach cramps, so I went home, downed a half bottle of Tums, and ran the remaining 7 miles in my cool basement on the treadmill. I made the 18 miles, but I consider this the worst run of my life. At one point, I honestly didn’t think that I would be able to finish. That’s where the mental part has to kick in and tell your body that you can and you will!

S this week is rest and recovery week; no long run this weekend and we are adding in some cross training. I did a short 3.5 mile run on Monday and last night I actually went swimming. Lookout Shamu was IN the water. I really shouldn’t insult Shamu like that because unlike me, Shamu can actually swim. However, don’t get too close, because like Shamu, I might kill you by hitting you with my flailing arms and drag you under.

Tonight’s workout will be my first ever Brick! I am so excited about this and I don’t have a clue why, maybe because it is just new and different.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

My Poor Aching Body

I have my 18 miler tomorrow. I’m pretty confident that I’ll make the mileage, but I’m a little concerned at this point about my poor, aching body.

First, there’s that ankle pain on my left foot, then there’s my bunion pain on my right foot, and now a new inner thigh/groin pain on my right leg. I feel as though I should be sitting in a bucket of ice like a shrimp. I’ve even brought little baggies to work with me to fill with ice in order to clamp them on my aches while I’m just sitting at my desk. I wonder what my co-workers would say if I were to just duct tape the bags of ice on my body, probably nothing.

Last night, I got home from a really great race pace run. I’m not sure what made it feel so good, but I have an idea. I’ve been eating extremely healthy lately, but I went on a binge yesterday at the office because there was free food. I don’t pass up free food. I had a free bad of chips and two free cookies. Shame on me. I think that the crap and sugar from this little indiscretion gave me a little rush and I had the best run I’ve had all week. So tomorrow before my 18 miler, it will be a bag of chips and two cookies for breakfast.

However, when I got home from this great little run, I had this new little pain in my inner thigh/groin area. Crap. I grabbed my foam roller, sat in a chair, and tried to roll the pain out. I didn’t realize it, but the blinds were open and I REALLY hope that the neighbors didn’t see my little inner thigh foam roller session. I don’t want to be the talk of the neighborhood. Actually, I would sit out in the front yard and foam roll my groin if the Running Gods would just make that pain go away!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Good luck to all of you who are racing this weekend!

Long Run and a new Marathon.

I lurve my new Zoot Compression Socks!



Those aren't my legs in the sky.

Let me start out by saying that I am a horrible blogger. I wanted to let you all know that I realize I am horrible because I haven’t read or updated posts in almost a week. I have no excuse really, I mean, nothing should stop me from spending countless hours in the blog world, NOTHING. Being busy is not an excuse, even though I have been really, really busy. I’ve been so freaking busy that I literally fall into bed every night. I’m like a lemming falling off a cliff; I walk till I hit the bed and then just fall. What I'm trying to say is: I have a LOT of posts to catch up on.

Anyway, training has been going well; Saturday, I did my long run, which was 16 miles of pure bliss.

If you believe that, then I have some swamp land in Florida that I will sell you really cheap, complete with your own man eating alligator.

So, it was not pure bliss, but it was not hell either. The only major trouble that I had was the snot rockets that kept landing on me. I would have clocked the person that kept launching them at me, except they were coming from me. You just might be a dork if you hit yourself with your own snot rockets. I guess if that was my only trouble, then I am ahead of the game.

I started with a nice easy 4 mile warm up and then played with my paces the remainder of the run. I did a total of 4 miles at a 9:00 pace, 4 at an 8:35 pace, and another 4 at a 9:25 pace. Average pace for the 16 miles was 9:13. I am still trying to come up with a goal marathon pace that my lungs will agree with, but I am pleased that most of the paces that I ran were quite comfortable for me.

I went home and did a 30 minute recovery spin on my bike trainer and then tried out my new Zoot Compression socks. I love them and the next day my legs actually felt normal. I am smitten.


One other thing that I wanted to mention was that at the spur of the moment, I signed up for the Chicago Marathon. I don’t know what came over me really, one minute, I was enjoying a little bedtime snack and the next thing I knew I had just registered for the marathon. My husband just about choked on his cheerios when I told him.

I'm not a Real Blonde

Blonde moment number 2 million and 1.

Last night I did an easy 3 and a half mile run and then did a 40 minute bike trainer ride. I was really thirsty, so I filled my water bottle with the filtered water from the fridge door. I opened the freezer to pull something out and the water stopped. I stood there dumbfounded for a minute trying to figure out why I wasn’t getting any water out of the filter. I finally figured out that when you open the door, the water stops. Duh. I felt like such an idiot. The sad thing is, I keep having more and more of these "blonde moments" lately. Sigh. Old age?

Yes, that is a box of wine sitting next to my water bottle. Please, no redneck jokes about my box wine; I’m originally from Missouri, what do you expect. At least there wasn’t wine IN the water bottle and NO, I do not drink Stag beer. Even I have a few standards.

Training is going great and I am feeling much better then I did last week. My energy level is pretty much back to normal, which is wonderful because everyone around me is sick!

Monday: 5.25 mile fartlek run. Core work
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: 3.5 mile run and then a 40 minute trainer ride working on various cadences.
Tonight: 1 hour run with 3 miles at marathon goal pace (yeah!!)
Friday: Rest and recovery. Drink box wine.
Saturday: 16 mile long run. I will be working on hitting my marathon goal pace for about 4 miles of the run
Sunday: 1 hour trainer ride working at hitting high cadence.

I cannot believe that there is only 65 days left until my first marathon. Where did the time go? I keep reading all of your blogs about your various marathon experiences and I just can't wait! Who's taking bets that I'll make it this time? Ok, time to catch up on your posts now. See you soon.

Running with my Blogger Friends.

Yesterday I met Jill and Beth in downtown Denver for a run. I originally had 16 miles on my schedule, but I had come down with a viral infection and pleurisy of the lungs on Thursday, so I was going to shorten my run and see how I felt doing 5-6 miles.

We met at the downtown REI and took a few pictures and started on our run. Well, the first mile was almost all the way uphill, and I was either going to vomit up my lung or have to call in the paramedics to bring me oxygen, so I decided that 4 miles would be the way to go for the day.




We ran back to REI and I ran to my husband’s office to change and Jill and Beth took off to finish their remaining 12 miles.

After changing, I headed over to “The Market” to grab a cup of coffee and get a little work done before meeting the girls for lunch. The Market is a cool little downtown eatery that has an espresso bar as well as sandwiches and stuff. I snagged a HUGE cup of nonfat caramel latte and managed to spill most of it all over me, my laptop, and my table. Oospy.

About 12:30, the girl stream in and we are all ready for lunch. I moved my computer to clean table and went to order lunch. I turned the corner and there is Jill staring down the cake counter. The girl likes her sugar, but is trying to give it up for her marathon training, so I snapped a picture of her sad face.


Then I notice Beth eyeballing the booze. My kind of girl. It was a good thing that bottle was capped, I’m quite sure she would have downed the whole thing.



I ordered spinach and cheese filo and an Easy Street Wheat. I had only run 4.5 miles, so I didn’t feel bad about having a beer for lunch. It’s all about recovery.



Beth's sandwish was as big as her head.



We bribed the dude at the counter to snap a quick shot of us.



We had a great time and I look forward to running with them again. Hopefully next time, my lung will cooperate