Improvisation

A typical Tuesday finds me running hills ending at the rec center, enjoying an exercise class, then running home - or, running errands which today would include a visit to the downtown library. This morning I awoke with a squirrely stomach which resulted in me missing my exercise class. Around 11 a.m., I was settled enough to venture out into what was now a snowy morning.

I decided I would zigzag my way to the library - and zigzag I did, turning a 35 minute run into a 78 minute run with jaunts down streets I seldom traverse. It was a delight! I often keep up a running (so to speak) commentary in my head as I cruise along, especially on these wandering runs. This morning's included:

• froze toze (for some reason, my toes were especially cold this morning)
• whimsical (upon spotting a lawn with various logs standing about topped with critter statuary)
• interesting (in response to a sculpture that looked rather like a huge ship's anchor entrenched in a front lawn)
• cool (for the treehouse pictured above - one of the niftiest treehouses I've ever seen)
• school or house? [right next to] house or apartments?
• huh (provoked by the tree sculpture of dolphins - quite unlike most tree sculptures around town that tend toward western themes or critters found in the Rockies)
• ugh (for a huge squared-off brick monstronsity built within a bungalow-filled neighborhood)
• snow globe (as the snow thickened but kept its gentle touch)

I just don't know what all that detritus rattling around in my brain would do if it weren't for running!

Elastigirl where are you?

Being Monday, today's running involved going to and from my volunteer job. On the way there, I discovered I had made an inadequate equipment choice. Apparently, my underwear's elasticity was no more. The further I ran, the further they drooped. Thank heavens I was wearing tights or those underwear would have been down around my ankles. I made it to the volunteer job, bopped into the restroom, hiked up my briefs, went back out and recorded my shows.

Volunteering done, I set back out for home but just couldn't run through the drooping undies situation so hopped on a bus instead. Funny the things that can disrupt a run. Raging blizzard, run on; droopy drawers, fuhgeddaboudit.

First Real Run!

It was a big day today in VaughanMiller land. Taz went for his first real run - and he was great! We walked to the end of the driveway, I asked him to sit, I said "OK" and off we went for 23 minutes total. Along the way he responded just the way he was supposed to to "Get over" (the command I used with both Loki and Jester to get them further to my left) and to "Leave it" (whenever he got to interested in something we were passing in the road...like tar balls...the things that puppy loves to chew...).

I had given Paul a quick call to let him know we would be trotting by his house so he came out and performed Official Photographer duties, capturing the momentous occasion for all to see. I do believe there is a four-legged running buddy in my future!

Big week. Lookin' good!

Sunrise glow over the foothills and continental divide
from the South Boulder Creek Trail.
Picture by Mary F.

This week's schedule was, shall we say, "challenging" what with 15 miles on Wednesday, 20 yesterday, 10 today and snow, ice and wind interspersed throughout. I was a bit nervous about successfully making it through the miles but having completed today's 10, it's looking pretty darned good. I need only complete a short easy run tomorrow and this week, the "big" week before the cut-back week of my 4-week training cycle, will be in the books.

This morning's run started out a bit creaky, feeling all 20 of yesterday's miles, but true to form, 55 minutes into my run my body was (finally) warmed up and running happy. Making the run even smoother and quicker, it was a positively lovely morning in Boulder: Gorgeous sunrise, fantastic venue (South Boulder Creek trail complete with cows, deer, kingfishers, and hawks), and delightful company for the last 5 miles of my 10 mile run. Topped off with breakfast with the Satruns gang of walkers and runners, you just couldn't ask for a better start to the weekend!

Wind at my back

Arriving at the finish line of today's long run

The wind blew all last night and into the morning - thus prompting a route change for today's run. I had thought I'd be running today's 20-miler north and east from Boulder to Longmont. What with the wind blowing big from the north and west - and the being fed up with running into the wind - I plotted a new course that would take me a scant mile northeast then 19 miles due east, i.e., with the wind at my back. Ahhhh....

A new map, that showed a straight line east along Baseline Road, was handed to Kendall with instructions to meet me in 4 hours or slightly less at County Road 19. (Baseline, by the way, was so-named because it runs along the 40th parallel which also was the line of demarcation between the Nebraska and Kansas territories in 1854.)

Now back to the run and the high- and low-lights:

• the wind was at my back!
• the route involved all roads, and increasing traffic on the east-most miles where I had expected less traffic
• some small town life and lots of farmland
• the wind was at my back and I was running in shorts!
• there is a lot of uphill involved in getting out of Boulder country (word of the day: "undulating")
• despite mapping out a one-road run (after leaving my neighborhood) I managed to get onto a different road 16 miles into the run. Fortunately, Kendall had just seen me, had pulled to the side of the road to take some pics, and noticed that I veered right at the "Y" rather than left (since left said 168th rather than Baseline and right said nothing and most all traffic went right). All that crewing experience from the run to Michigan paid off big time today. The route deviation put me on a road parallel to Baseline (I didn't even know I was off Baseline until after the run), and gave me a bonus .5 miles.
  
• the wind was at my back and I was running in shorts AND I was clocking a steady diet of 11 minute miles!

All in all, a solid 20.5-miler to put into the log which, coincidentally, gave me an even 200 miles for the year.

Let's see...which shall I choose

My first run today was in high winds and monstrous gusts (up to 104 mph reported this morning). Needless to say, I cut the run short to exercise class. After class, the winds were much milder and the run much more enjoyable.

Once home, I had the pleasure of cleaning house - one of my least favorite activities on this planet - but I had put it off way too long. As I was scrubbing the kitchen floor I was thinking:

Scrub floors or run in 100 mph winds?
Scrub floors or run in a blizzard?
Scrub floors or run in subzero temperatures?

Guess which one I picked every time?!

Picture from December 2010 - again running rather than cleaning...

Mid week and windy!

15 miles today.

First seven with Amie. Swift!
Last six: Headwind. Oof!


Taz update!

After the run, Taz happily greeted me -
delaying the need for a shower
since he licked a lot of the sweat away.

Left: Taz when we first adopted him.
Right: Taz one month later (yesterday)
Personality shift:
Then: oh dear oh dear what's next?
Now: oh boy! oh boy! what's next?!

Nothing that basketball and an ice bath can't make better!

Paul, spring break 2009, humoring his mom with a game of basketball

The start of this morning's run: 8 degrees, ice/snow-glazed streets. The running so crappy that 20 minutes into the run, spent dodging ice and traffic, I said screw it and walked the rest of the way to the Rec Center where my exercise class was to be held. I got there early since I didn't do my full run and as I approached the door was wondering what the heck I was going to do to kill the time before class (assuming all the aerobic equipment would be in use). Opened the door and said "Aha! Basketball!"

I checked in, got a basketball, and spent the 30 minutes before class running/dribbling a circuit around the court, shooting at each of the 6 baskets until my shot dropped then running/dribbling to the next basket. Great fun and a most effective mood enhancer. All the gloom from the traffic-dodging icy run had disappeared and I was in fine fettle for the exercise class.

After class, I shot a few hoops with a friend then headed out for part 2 of the run. As per yesterday's post, I had hill drills scheduled for today. The temps had risen substantially and the ice had melted from the unshaded bits of the asphalt roads so the going was much easier. However, since I had so many frigging layers of clothes on due to the early single digit temps, I felt like an overdressed hippopotamus trying to high-knee, skip and bound up the quarter-mile of hill. After the second rep I decided to bag the hill drills and just run hills. So up and down I went sticking to the west-bound (steep) hills since those were the most ice-free surfaces, and managed to zig zag my way to 7+ miles of hill running. Not bad.

Once home, I did what I should have started doing many miles ago: got in an ice bath. It was the most effective sore/tired leg therapy I used when preparing for my Michigan run and I was long overdue in this training cycle. It was tough getting in, but I sure had some happy legs when I got out!

Volunteer day and pondering the week

Mister Kendall, Creekside Elementary Librarian

Being Martin Luther King day, I spent a large chunk of the day volunteering - first at Audio Information Network of Colorado (where I volunteer every Monday morning), then at Kendall's library at Creekside Elementary shelving and rearranging books. With no kids at school today, we could just turn up the tunes and rock on with the literature. Very pleasant. (But dirty - spend a few hours shelving library books then look at your hands. Yikes!)

When not reading or shelving, I was cogitating on my week's running schedule. Good lord Mildred what have I gotten myself into?! This is the third week in my four week cycle where the first three weeks of the cycle build up, then the fourth week backs off a bit. Here's what is on the schedule for the week (gulp):

• Monday (today), 8-9 easy miles running to/fro AINC
• Tuesday, 7 miles including hill drills (high knees, skip, bound x3 each) followed by exercise class followed by 2 mile easy run back home
• Wednesday, 15 mile run
• Thursday, 6 miles rolling hills followed by exercise class followed by 2 mile easy run home
• Friday, 5 easy miles
• Saturday, 20 miles
• Sunday, 10 miles

It's possible I'll move Saturday's workout to Friday and Sunday's to Saturday and run short/easy on Sunday in order to better coordinate a run with my usual Saturday running gang. Regardless, the 15-mile mid-week run + back-to-back 20-miler/10-miler has me nervous. But I figure it'll show me if I have what it takes to get ready for my March 20th 60k!

The Cows Are Back!

Winter is definitely pointing toward spring in Boulder now; the cows have returned to the South Boulder Creek Trail! Between the cattle sighting, the quiet morning, and the warm-enough-to-not-have-to-wear-tights weather, the run was fleet-footed and smile-filled. An excellent outing to cap my 66.5 mile week!