Scouting for critters

I had a long run planned for today cuz we're going to be on the road the rest of the week. I left a tad late (8 a.m.-ish) in hopes that four-legged critters would have settled down for the day (mountain lions and bears are rather active right now) and that two-legged critters might be out and about to keep me company on the trail. It worked out quite nicely. Critter sightings included:
- two juvenile coyotes
- a herd of adolescent bulls that decided to all run to the bridge crossing one must take on this particular trail just before I got there and a few minutes before a mom with her two toddlers and big furry white dog ("Bushy") got there. After I crossed the bridge, I turned around and chatted with the young bulls to keep them at bay until the mom and family crossed. (Say "Hi cows" to a bunch of bulls often enough and they'll think you're pretty weird and move back.)
- two people on horseback (they get the right-of-way on the trail, by gum)

Other than that, not much in the way of critters during the three-hour run. By the way: three-hour run, one water bottle. Not enough.

Quad busting

Yesterday's three-mile hill and trail extravaganza followed that evening by Boot Camp's glutes, quads and hammies workout turned me into a wimpering pile of protoplasm. I definitely have some toughening up to do!

With that in mind, I joined in on the Boulder Road Runner's Tuesday workout today. 20 minute run there, warm up with Patti, then she and I tackled a 4x 5minute/2 minute workout together. The quads started singing with the soprano chorus on the 3rd 5-minute interval, but held their own through the full set of four and ~20 minute warmdown. All in all, a very fine session.

Seeing as how we hit the road again on Thursday (to take elder son, Devon, to Knox College), I'm going to try to fit in a long run tomorrow morning with, hopefully, enough time to recover and be ready for Boot Camp's abs and arms workout tomorrow night. WeeeHaww!

Three Mile Hill

One staple of my weekly running is supposed to be a three-mile hill. I've been cogitating on which 3-mile hill I should be running. There are lots of hills west of Boulder but, of course, I wanted the perfect 3-mile hill: able to run to it, usable throughout any season, easy on the legs on the run back down, light or no traffic, etc. etc. etc. Today I experimented with the NCAR hill. (Those of you who have seen Sleeper, have seen the NCAR hill.) I figured the run from my house to the top of NCAR would pry be about 3 miles. All in all, it worked out quite nicely.

Going west from my house, through our neighborhood and through the NIST property was slightly uphill and about two miles. Out the back of NIST and up to the base of the NCAR hill (via bike path, neighborhood streets and trail) brought the run to 30 minutes. Up NCAR hill (2000 meters - a painted stripe marked each 25 meters and with numbers painted each 100 meters) brought the run to 44 minutes. I figure I got in at least 3 miles of hill during that 44 minutes so I treated myself by running west out the back of NCAR's property (the view in the pic) and onto the Mesa trail heading south then back around onto the trail on the east-facing base of the NCAR hill...a nice circular trail run around NCAR dodging the occasional pile of bear scat, listening to birds and the wind. Upon completing the circle, I trotted on home for a total of a delightful 103 minutes of running.

Tonight is Boot Camp. It'll be quite 'interesting' if it's glutes and quads night...

Easy week

Today's run wrapped up my first 'cut-back' week of the training cycle: 38.5 miles.
I'm cranky, but my legs are thrilled.

Trains and Plains

I just got back from taking my son to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. During the eastbound train trip, I saw one of the most beautiful sunrises of my life: mist rising from the Nebraska plains into a rose-hued sky. Spectacular! Riding the rails through the heartland simply fueled my desire to run it. ...Beautiful country, dotted with small towns, cows, corn, tractors, hawks, silos, windmills, more corn ;-)
I can't wait!

Errands errands errands

Today I ran errands, walked errands, and cycled errands.
Next on today's agenda: All Aboard! Riding the Zephyr to Galesburg!

Railway week

This past week saw 73.5 miles posted to the log.
This coming week, I'll be delivering my son to college via train. It's scheduled to be a low mileage week which works out quite nicely as I suspect running whilst on the train would be a tad tricky (tho someone - probably one of my sons - suggested I run along the roof of the train). I do hope to get in at least a bit of running during my one night layover in Galesburg before heading home; being a fine old railway town, they have some grand neighborhoods to tour through....and I suspect I'll be looking for diversions after leaving my baby boy for his first night as a college student.

Relax. Run.

Yesterday was the quintessential retiree day: easy run, luxurious massage from Magic Fingers Beggsy, stroll on Boulder's Pearl Street mall, visit with a running buddy who happens to have an office on the mall, take my best work buddy (also now retired) out for a leisurely, joyful birthday lunch, lounge at the library and finish Fried Green Tomatoes (with aging Idgie still bringing a smile to everyone's faces...I can only hope to do the same as I wind my way through life), visit a running store, eat barbecue... It was an excellent lead-in to today's long run.

I don't know if it was yesterday's easy-going day, or the cool weather (60-ish with light rain), or the pre-run oatmeal (running buddy AndyE's favorite pre-long-run meal that I thought I'd try), but it was the best long run (just over 3 hours) I've had for a while.
And! to top off the day! I met with my coach and we've got a general plan worked out now: 4-week cycles, with two long runs and a long (3 mile) hill run each week (and easier runs on the other days). Focus on strength, speed is irrelevant (in addition to being virtually nonexistent in this body ;-)). Keep up the Boot Camp work for core, upper body, glute and quad strength. Dennis commented on my last entry asking if I'd found those brain cells yet - now you know why I've got a coach - to keep me from being stupid (which Mark knows is my primary goal through all this training).

Yoo Hoo! Any intelligent life left in there?

At 7 this morning I ran to/from and with the Boulder Road Runners, including a 2 minute/4 min/6 min/4 min/2 min ladder followed by a set of strides. At 6 this evening I ran to Boot Camp of the Rockies and did 40 minutes of hill repeats (not counting the ~3 miles of uphill/downhill to/from BCOR). One might now reasonably ask whether there are any active brain cells in this body (and, if so, are they being used). While you ponder that question, I believe I'll go put my feet up...

warm run, warm stories

It's a warmish day today. My first clue was when I started to overheat early in my run even tho' I was wearing my usual early morning running attire (white t-shirt, shorts). Of course, the fact that today's 'early morning' was 9 a.m. vs. my more typical 5-6 a.m. might have made a difference ;-) But this morning I treated myself to one of my favorite luxuries: reading in bed upon awakening. I'm a reader of mysteries. However, my last mystery was rather dark, then the family rented "V for Vendetta", and I've got friends going through tough times so I really needed a feel-good novel. I landed on Fannie Flagg's "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" - a wonderful soul-cleansing, heart-warming read well-deserving of early morning pillow time.

Running, listening

Today joined the Boulder Road Runners in their Tuesday speed workout. As we started the run, I asked a long-time running partner what the day's workout was going to be. Her response was something along the lines of "I'm not sure; I'm not up for a hard run" said with a sadness that came from deep inside. There are days when one should throw one's plans out the window and do what the day calls for. Today, the day called for running with my buddy and listening to her talk through her worries. That is why we are called running partners.

Hodge podge day

The day started innocently enough with me writing a quick note (with questions) to the two women who ran from Boston to LA in 1984 (read "In the Long Run" by Annabel Marsh), and running said letter to buddy AndyE's house for him to hand-deliver to the two women who happen to be personal friends of his. They would all be rendezvousing in Colorado Springs later today. It just so happened the AndyE was about to head out for his run when I arrived at his house, so we managed to get a lovely morning run in together.

The next event of the day was a multi-stick blood draw for some routine blood work (I've got low iron that my doc likes to keep an eye on). The regular guy, who knows my sneaky veins well, wasn't there today. A couple of frustrated phlebotomists later I mosied on out of there sporting a Bugs Bunny bandaid on one arm and a Tazmanian Devil bandaid on the other. Nifty!

Most of the rest of the day was spent clearing out work e-mail and doing miscellaneous chores until running buddy Joe showed up at my house to run to Boot Camp. That's when the fun really began. First the three mile uphill run to Boot Camp. Then the usual warmup. Then lunges, and sprints, and leg ups, and squats, and relay sprints, and one-legged squats, and side lunges, and leg lifts, and just about anything you can think of to make one's glutes and quads howl at the moon. The leg ups (or whatever they're called with one leg on a bench then lift yourself up and balance on that one leg) seemed tougher than usual. Maybe a reflection of high mileage and tired legs? But the good news is that the shuttle relay (sprint out, touch/turn, sprint back, touch/turn, sprint out twice as far, touch/turn, sprint back) actually felt easier than usual...I seemed a bit more nimble with the touch/turn bit. And, of course, at the end of the hour, Joe and I got to run our creeky hips and screaming glutes 3 miles downhill home. We surely do know how to have a good time!

After Joe left, I hopped in the shower and turned on the cold water for my usual cold spray-down of my legs. This night, tho', I steeled myself and went north of the quads for the first time. Nippy! But, oh, my glutes were thankful!

Introducing...reality

Yesterday (Saturday) was my first zero-mile day in 9.5 weeks. I gave myself the day off primarily because we were having a yard sale which consumed my time for most of the day, but also because I had already run a lot of miles for the week, and because I was feeling awfully pooped by the end of Friday's run. Having had a zero-mile day, I was expecting to run quite long and merrily today, but faded badly (more so than Friday) after about 2 hours. I think there are three things going on:
- lots of miles (another 72 mile week this week, even with yesterday off),
- heat with humidity (the latter being rather unusual for Colorado, but good practice for next summer), and
- not eating enough yesterday.

Upon arriving home, I was completely incommunicative until I'd iced my legs down, eaten some oatmeal with nectarines and brown sugar, and had two glasses of iced chai ...at which point I rejoined the human race, resumed bantering with the family, and started in on another project (in this case, working with my younger son to divvy up his possessions into three piles: that which will fit in our packs for next week's train ride to Knox College, that which will need to be shipped in time for his arrival at Knox College, and that which we will carry in the car when we drive to Knox with his older brother in September).

Another bright spot that helped bring me around: the box I decided to use for Paul's shipping pile was the box that held the newly arrived Brooks Adrenaline from RRS. I'm currently on pair #24 of this model of shoe - they're a good match for my feet. I open up the shoe boxes, and to my surprise, these Brooks Adrenalines are trimmed in red rather than the same old blue I've been running in the past few years! It's the little things that keep us smiling!

A retiree's kind of day

Today has been one of those kinds of days I dreamed about when contemplating retirement:
A 2 1/2 hour run, followed by breakfast with running buddies, followed by preparing a picnic lunch, followed by a free big band concert on the downtown mall with a friend, followed by a leisurely walk home, and tonight we barbeque and watch (pre-season) football between my current home-town team (the Denver Broncos) and my original home-town team (the Detroit Lions). ahhh....this is the life....

A word of advice...

...If you are heading for a Boot Camp hill repeat fit test, do not set a 3 mile uphill run home-to-boot camp world record on the way to said fit test. Aiyyiyi! The fit test: 1 hill (1/4 mile up/down/up/down). Times 2. Did I mention Aiyyiyi?

Now, after a verrry slow 3 mile run downhill home, and a slug of chocolate soy milk, and a cold hose-down on the legs, I'm feeling almost human again. I'm thinking a dinner of shredded wheat, kashi, frozen berries, and milk might be tasty. Assuming I've got the energy to chew.

second wind - is there a third?

This morning, as I headed out with my son on his week's long run of 9 miles, and with husband Kendall accompanying us on his bike, my legs felt a bit...whupped... I'd run ~10 miles yesterday to/from/with the Boulder Road Runners. The "with" part included 2x8 minutes followed by 30 second pickups. The rest of the day was fairly laid back (weeding, voting, financial planning, prepping for garage sale, yada yada). But the legs were a bit slow on the uptake this a.m. However! About 15 minutes into the run they seemed to wake up (I love when that happens - especially when it's quicker than an hour into the run...my usual second-wind time frame) and I was actually able to keep my son well in sight the first half of the run. During the second half of the run, he backed off the pace a bit and I actually caught up to him. Then he really began to fade (it was becoming rather toasty out there), and the rest of the run was spent running from shade to shade, handing him my water/gatorade bottle, dousing him with water from Kendall's extra supply of water, etc etc. He has since rebounded quite nicely - and I'm wondering just how much spring these legs have left in them for tonight's run to/from Boot Camp. Looking forward to finding out!

Rainbows, tunes and sweat

A new session of Boot Camp started up this evening. As the hour wound down, and we were in the midst of our final stretches, the Boulder Concert Band started playing at the southwest end of the Chautauqua lawn (we boot campers were gathered at the northeast end of the same lawn). What a delightful way to wrap up our workout, stretching to the beat of the band. And, to top it all off, as I ran home from the workout, with the tunes floating on the air behind me, a double rainbow grew out of the clouds ahead of me. It just doesn't get much better than this!

Catching air

I took a look today at some of the pictures our department's PR person took at my retirement party. Lo and behold, he actually snapped a pic of me with both feet off the ground - a rarity for this gravity-bound human! I give a lot of credit to my six weeks of Boot Camp of the Rockies training. Quite remarkable! Also remarkable - this week's mileage: 72 - the first time ever that I've cracked the 70s. I must confess, it has me a bit nervous.

blinky light time

Today being Saturday, it was a "satboys" long run day. The guys were talking 75 minutes, starting at 7 a.m. So....seeing as how I was going for something more in the 3-hour range, I headed out at 5 a.m. We must be in the waning days of summer cuz it was dark out there! Time to take the blinky lights off the shelf and put them on the water belt so cars would see me coming & going. Sigh.... I do love to go for those early morning runs where the sun is just beginning to peep up over the horizon to the east with a slow glow growing on the flatirons to the west. To have those early runs starting in the dark already...my, how seasons do fly. Nonetheless, I was treated to a lovely sunrise filled with puffy rose-colored clouds, little traffic, quiet trails - then a most enjoyable 75 banter-filled minutes with the satboys gang. A grand start to the weekend!

Speed - rude awakening

Being a retired woman now, I was able to join up with the Boulder Road Runners this morning for their speed workout. What a change of pace (so to speak). Patti (looong-time running buddy), Sally, and I ran together for a set of 10 x 2 minutes hard/1 minute easy. 'Twas a simultaneous sensation of reawakening fast twitch muscles (the few that I have) and squawking hams and glutes (a veritable cacaphony of squawks). I think I may try this again next week!

Running with the....

You may have heard of the book "Running With the Buffaloes" which follows the CU cross-country team for a season. I may train in the same environs, but I've neither the power nor the speed of the mighty buffalo. On the other hand, as the picture shows, I ran across a herd of something I might be more akin to - the feisty goat. Munch away the day, scamper a bit, take in the sights...

Nutrition wake up call

This past spring, at my husband's school's silent auction, I bid on and won a nutrition and metabolic consult at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. Today I took advantage of it. What a wake up call! Being of relatively small stature, and an easy weight gainer, I've always tried to keep the calorie count down. Today I learned that my resting metabolic rate is 1210 kcals per day. And for years I've figured my daily caloric intake should be in the 1500-1800 range. Au contraire says the nutritionist. With my current training level, I should be consuming closer to 2600 calories per day! Yowza! I'm generally eating enough fruits and vegies, but only about half the grains and milk, and about one-third of the protein that I should be eating. It will be quite interesting to see what kind of difference the increase in calories, protein, carbs, and dairy makes in my energy and recovery abilities. The nutritionist recommends a gradual increase in calories; I'm looking forward to monitoring the effects!