Reaching into an old bag of tricks

Yesterday morning's run left me very frustrated, seeing as how the slip sliding across the ice barely classified as running.  Last night, Kendall and I had a CU Women's Basketball game on the schedule.  I remembered that, in challenging winters of yesteryear, I would run the steps in the Events Center while the basketball team warmed up and music blared through the sound system.  The steps are challenging, but the music is great for knee lifting and arm pumping - sort of a magic wand for making it a manageable workout. 

Off we went to the game, ready to enter the arena as soon as the doors opened.  I dropped my outer layers at our seats, then tackled the steps.  It turns out that running buddies Connie and Ron arrived at their seats while I was huffing and puffing my way around the arena - and Connie had a happy trigger finger on her camera.


I haven't gone back through my running logs since completing two trips around the Events Center steps last night, but I do believe my age was showing on this most recent attempt.  Uffdah!  Two Very Good Things about the workout: it was a hard run successfully completed AND I worked up a sweat - a rare delight during our recent blast of winter!

Perhaps it ain't so bad

As I was stumbling grumbling along over the snow-covered lumpy bumpy ice in my yaktrax (while Taz ran happily ahead), I was thinking to myself "gyah this is sucky running." Then I thought "sucky" doesn't begin to describe how bad the running is right now in snowy icy frigid Boulder and tried to come up with a better descriptor. Then I spotted the lone goose out in the middle of the field. And I amended the thought to myself "at least I'm not spending the day barefoot in a field standing on one leg."  So much for that pity party!

Thinking Inside the Box

Fairview High infield, track & Connie. All those footprints are ours - five miles' worth of going 'round and 'round

Today being Wednesday, running buddy Connie and I had an interval workout on the schedule.
And this being Boulder in the midst of a snowy deep freeze, the streets are darned near impassable for a pedestrian.  Connie and I typically run our workouts early, but today we decided to wait a while to see if the freezing drizzle/mist/fog/snow that was filling the air would eventually become soothing tropical breezes. Yah, right.

However, while waiting, Kendall announced he was heading out to the Rec Center.  I cried Halt! and quick texted Connie to see if she'd like to meet at the Fairview High track.  I was hoping it might have been plowed; at the least, we wouldn't have to worry about cars whilst running 'round its circumference. And! The track is just around the corner from the Rec Center Kendall was driving to so I would be able to get a ride through the worst/iciest of the neighborhood streets.

Connie agreed to the meet up and off we went to the track - which had, indeed, been plowed fairly recently.  It was covered with an inch or so of snow, which seemed to be covering a thin film of ice.  It was certainly runnable; probably little chance of slipping enough to fall, but a tad too slick for good traction and push-off.  Then Connie had a brilliant idea: "Let's try out the infield!"  Perfect!  The same inch or so of snow as the surrounding track - but the thin film of ice was replaced with grippy grass.  The workout was on! 
4 x (60/60, 2:30/60, 60/60).  No speed records were set, but the workout was done in full, in the snow, in the temps in the teens, and with the bonus of a flock of geese offering sideline entertainment. Another entry in the log!

Monday Monday

One of my Monday morning commuter trails along Bear Creek, Boulder

For several years now, my Monday has started with a dawn run to my volunteer job at Audio Information Network of Colorado (AINC), roughly 37-43 minutes each way depending on conditions and general liveliness.  In the depths of winter, this early morning run can be quite a challenge and this winter has been no exception.  As described in my running log:

• Monday, December 15th: Home-AINC - on ice. Yuck. 53 minutes. Got a ride home.
• Monday, December 22nd: Home - Baseline. Too icy. Called K for a ride. 24 minutes.
  AINC - neighborhoods - prez prop trail - home. 48 minutes
• Monday, December 29th: Home-AINC. Horrible conditions. Ice/snow pack roads; black ice sidewalks. 51+ minutes. Decided to bus home.
• Monday, January 5: Home-AINC. 47 minutes. AINC-home 41 minutes. Snow/ice-pack. 
  5 degrees going to AINC, 42 degrees coming home! Warm air ribbons like passing by an open oven

Old Year New Year

From a running perspective, 2014 was a pretty good year - not great, but pretty darned good.
The numbers:

• Total Miles: 2,240 miles
• 6 weeks with less than 40 miles; 1 week with more than 60
  (something I would like to reverse this year)
• Longest run: 26.2 miles (Monument Marathon)

And many very enjoyable running experiences all along the way. For example:

January: being the first runner on the first Saturday of the New Year to run Bobolink:

Bobolink Trail, Boulder

February: running with the sunrise along the Singletree Trail:

1914 Girls of Central High at Basketball mystery

March:  Birthday month! Celebrating with a delightful birthday run with Taz pup and an amazing present from son Devon:







 April: Participating in my first people-pupster race with Taz at the Canine Classic - way cold but way fun

Canine Classic, April 2014, Boulder Reservoir

 May offered lots of variety:

 a snowy Mother's Day run with Taz,

 the Bolder Boulder after many weeks of training with running buddies Connie and Anita,

 

Post-race smiles, Bolder Boulder, Memorial Day, Connie, Paula, Anita

a glorious long run along the
Flint Hills Trail in Kansas,

Roses in KC's Loose Park - a lovely running venue

KC with Devon and the Stanleys (Kerry, Corinne, Joanne)

and an introduction to Kansas City running where we visited Devon, Corinne and Corinne's family.








 June: began with many-a-run in one of my most favorite places on earth, Petoskey and Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan. We camped right along the lake shore where we were treated to Petoskey's Million Dollar Sunsets every night we were there.











July's most powerful experience Boulder's Relay for Life, 12 hours of reflective celebratory running

Sunrise at Relay for Life, Potts Field, Boulder

August: quad deep in marathon training - so lots of trail exploration including a new-to-me trail in Louisville and one of many visits to the Community Ditch-Singletree-Meadowlark trail route.




September: the Monument Marathon near Scottsbluff Nebraska.
A great event near, through and around Scottsbluff National Monument on a particularly hot day this year - but what a fantastic run!

Near mile 13 of the Monument Marathon

Scottsbluff

October:  a visit to Petoskey to help mom celebrate her 94th birthday. There's nothing quite like north woods running in the height of autumn colors!

Running the Bear River Trail, Petoskey, Michigan

Of course, autumn in Boulder ain't to shabby either!

Anita and Connie on our run up Skunk Creek Trail, Boulder

Meadowlark with Anita, Connie, pjv, Randall & Taz

Two weeks later; Kohler Mesa Trail

November: Marathon training is done! It's running-purely-for-fun time!  November in Boulder being what it is, we had some warm runs and some chilly runs.  All good!





December: Training has started up again what with Cross-Country Nationals coming up in February.  Boulder's winter weather doesn't much care about how much training needs to happen between now and then.  One day I try tempo training on the snowpack - and realize it's a lot more fun to just go for a run in the snow with Taz.

Scene of the tempo run

Scene of the Taz run - way more fun

And now we have 2015.  

A lot of single-digit-snow-filled runs so far.  But really quite beautiful.  And that's why I love to run.

Wonderland

Today was one of those days when I thank my lucky stars that I am able to get out and about to enjoy this extraordinary planet of ours.

This has been a heckuva weather week.  The morning the radio announced it was 7 degrees with 7 inches of fresh-fallen snow, I was up and out as quick as could be.  There is nothing quite like running early in the morning of fresh snowfall...a hushed white-blanketed world.  Subsequent days brought more single digit mornings but the snow had turned to ice along the roads, sidewalks and bike paths making running quite a challenge - unless you turned to the trails which is just what I did today.

Running west from home up up up to the trails beneath the flatirons. As I scrunched along the snow-covered trail through the pines I heard chatter ahead of me - a group of walkers and a dog off-leash.  At that moment I realized that one aspect of the run I was most enjoying was the peace and quiet.  How to avoid the chatter? Two options. One: turn around and head back the way I had come, cutting the run short and giving me an out/back - my least favorite kind of route. The second: take a trail heading south that would lead me to a steep downhill route off the mesa top I was on.  I am quite a tentative, fearful, lousy downhill runner (credit a fall down a long steep narrow flight of stairs when I was a youngster). But today I decided I'd had enough of recent wussiness and that it was about time to tackle a challenge head-on.  So down the steep snow-covered trail I went - and it was glorious.  Quiet, beautiful, and a perfect exit to a trail run through a winter wonderland.  Yes, a very good day to be able to be out and about on this planet of ours!

Exquisite Autumn

Taz relaxing post-run on his bed of autumn leaves

The glorious golds - and scarlets and bronzes and greens - of autumn seemed to be in great abundance this year wherever we turned.  And we turned from Colorado to Michigan and back again.  What a great year, and time of year, for a road trip!  And, as an extra bonus, we got to help my mom celebrate her 94th birthday.  Some highlights:

Birthday mom and her partying daughter

Every morning in Petoskey, at dawn, I got to run along the Bear River to Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan. Ahhhh

One of the most spectacular autumn views on the planet: Cut River in the U.P.

Back in Boulder. Amber surprises her cousin Paul with a handmade (by Amber) bench for his newly landscaped (by Amber & Paul) backyard

Anita & Connie during our run up Skunk Creek Canyon on a glorious autumn day in Boulder

The waning days of autumn from the Meadowlark Trail

Monument Marathon - simply monumental!!!

Scotts Bluff

 
I finally got to run the Monument Marathon in Scottsbluff/Gering Nebraska. A great event!  Stellar scenery, superb organization, fantastic volunteers.  If you like small marathons (102 finishers in the full, 315 in the half) in back roads locations this is the marathon for you!

The marathon started at a state park south of town where the visitors' center was open for us to lounge in, peruse the exhibits, use the facilities, and ooh-and-ahh over the wild turkeys poking around the building. After the National Anthem (sung beautifully by one of the runners), we headed north on the highway toward Gering where we wound through farm land and neighborhoods before turning west into the Scotts Bluff National Monument where we were treated to magnificent rock formations, signs of the Oregon Trail, and a course that meandered up and down hills and over packed dirt canal paths through Nebraska Badlands before coming back out into neighborhoods with a bit of zig zagging before pointing toward the finish.

About 18 miles into the Monument Marathon

Hot temperatures (rising into the 80s) provided the biggest challenge of the day- and the organizers went above and beyond to make sure the runners were well-cared for. Aid stations had already been planned for every three miles - fully stocked with water, gatorade, gu., portapots and, further into the race, cut up bananas and oranges.  Because of the heat, the race crew added water stations in between each of the pre-planned aid stations.  As further demonstration of how much they cared for the runners, cyclists and cart drivers went back and forth along the course throughout the day asking each and every runner (staring right into our eyes) if we were o.k.  Phenomenal!  Early in the race, one of the cyclists came up alongside me and we got to chatting.  I thanked her for being out there and said I was really impressed by the volunteers.  She replied that every volunteer had to attend training where they learned the right and wrong ways to do their jobs.  It really showed.  Cups were offered perfectly.  Course marshalls were explicit in their directions for where to cross, what direction to turn, which side of the road to run on.  Truly impressive.  And to top it off, every one of those highly trained volunteers was chock full of enthusiasm, cheering all of us on like we were the most amazing people on earth.  What a boost!

Approaching the finish with Scotts Bluff in the background

As the day went on and the temperatures climbed, two outstanding offerings were made.  Around 21 miles, the aid station had a tub filled with ice water and a fellow with a frisbee ready to fill it up and dump the ice water down your back if you wanted it.  Yes I did and oooh doggies that felt great!  And at 23 miles (the beginning of the only truly shady mile on the course), the cup of gatorade I grabbed was not only my favorite flavor, but also was iced.  The most delicious drink of the day!  (After the race, I chatted with the woman I sat next to on the bus to the start and who finished a couple minutes ahead of me.  She said that, for the first time in a race, she had eaten an orange slice out on the course - and that it was The Best Orange she had ever eaten in her life.)  Yes, 'twas a tough day out there but I'd recommend this marathon to one and all.  One-of-a-kind setting, exemplary organization.

The prize for 2nd place in my age - a framed photo of Scotts Bluff