Running Chick

Six miles into my eight mile run this morning, I bonked. It wasn’t a huge bonk, but it was enough to turn those last two miles into a real struggle. It’s clear that I’ve completely forgotten how to properly fuel and hydrate for anything over five miles.  I was carrying two bottles of a Gatorade & water mix and a pack of sport beans. I took swigs from my bottles every two miles and at four miles I ate some beans. I probably should have forced myself to eat the entire package, but I only ended up taking four or five of them, which wasn’t enough to keep me going. Actually, I really should have taken a gel with me instead of the beans for more calories. Ah well, live and learn.

I came home and my legs were doing a fair amount of complaining so I decided to hop into an ice bath. Fill the tub up with 4-5” of water (enough to cover the legs), climb in and get accustomed to the cold, then dump an entire bag of ice over yourself. The first 30 seconds are pretty unpleasant, but you quickly acclimate. It helps if you have a giant mug of hot coffee and are wearing your warmest sweatshirt. I stuck it out until the ice melted (around 15 minutes) then took a hot shower. My legs felt so much better!

So, the mileage report for this week:

Monday – 3 miles @ 10:17

Wednesday – 3.5 miles @ 10:19

Saturday – 8 miles @ 10:32

Total – 14.5 miles @ 10:26

We’re spending the rest of the day doing amateur radio stuff for Lake Superior Performance Rally. Our shift starts in Kenton at 7:00 and ends sometime in the wee hours of the morning. We’re stationed at the mid-point of one of the stages so we should really see some action.

This time when I heard the squeaking, I just picked up my camera and waited. Spencer's getting better, there was no gore to clean up afterwards.

Simon, he's all meh, whatever.

My flower garden is quickly becoming a Northern Short-tailed Shrew graveyard.  There’s three there now - one from a couple of weeks ago, one I found dead in the driveway last week and this one - resting their eternal rest. I don’t even want to think about how many more could turn up.

I’ve been doing some reading on the little rodents. They mostly eat bugs (hello, spiders in my basement), but their saliva is toxic. The toxin is used to paralyze whatever critter they catch and is not harmful to humans or other animals. Apparently they are super aggressive, too, which would explain all the screeching I hear when Spencer pounces. They also eat up to three times their weight daily (HELLO SPIDERS IN MY BASEMENT). Ugly little things, though.

Dead rodents aside, I knocked off 3 miles at a 10:16 average pace tonight. I have no idea what got into me, especially since my legs were feeling a bit tight & heavy after Saturday’s long run.

I’ve been scoring some seriously cool stuff on my runs. Last month, I found a shoe pouch on the trails at High Cliff in Appleton. Yesterday, I found a folding saw in a pouch. I think it’s this one. It seemed to be in good shape, so I decided to keep it, but I was only about 2.5 miles into my 7 mile run. I carried it my hand for a while but that drove me nuts (thus confirming once again that I’m a hands-free runner), then I tried stuffing it into the pocket on my Nathan vest, but it was too big. Tried shoving it in the waist of my capris, but that just made them start to creep down my side. I finally ended up shoving them in my fuel belt and it actually didn’t budge. I wonder what people thought about me when they saw me with that giant thing tucked into my belt. I felt like a swashbuckler, ha.

Acutally, now that I look at my picture, I probably looked more like a giant Easter egg. Look at those colors I was wearing: pink, blue and yellow. I am embarassed at my lack of running fashion sense.

Anyway, I completed my run with around 7.25 miles ticked off. I’m not sure of the exact mileage because the battery on my Garmin was deader than dead and I had to run by time only. I am way too OCD to be without my Garmin telling me my exact pace and distance and having no data and maps to scrutinize after my run was horrible!

I ran out to Liminga and took my trail through the woods & came out at the Oskar Cemetery. The trail was thick with leaves, which made it pretty much impossible to see all the rocks, sticks and roots that are all over the place. It was fairly treacherous and all I wanted to do was get off it without breaking my ankle.

13.35 miles for me this week with no issues or injuries. Josh said “You’re healed!” or something like that. I said “SHUSH! DON’T JINX IT!!” or something like that. So yeah, I’m not talking about how I’m feeling great and my running is great and my legs are great. And I’m not not superstitious either.