Running Chick

I always thought that if I ran more than four days in a row, I'd end up with some horrible, injury that would end my running days. Now, here I am 28 days later and still going. I've had a few aches and twinges along the way, but nothing really sticks around for more than a couple of days. Maybe I haven't been giving my body enough credit for all these years?

I'm averaging right around 17 miles/week. Sometimes I'll throw in a longer 5+ mile run, but typically I've been keeping them short & sweet.  I've been running with the team /var/run folks during lunch at work more, and that restricts my run time to about 30-35 minutes. I didn't think I'd like running during lunchtime, but coming home and not having to get a run out of the way is pretty convenient. I'm not sure Zoe would agree, but she thinks we should be running all the time.

Here we are post run(ch). I believe this is the one where I made everybody run around campus until my mileage got to exactly 3.00. The previous run(ch) we ended on 2.99 and it made me twitchy for days. Payback, bitches.

Here's another one of our run where Amy and I are busting out our sweet moves. Note that we were under the bridge. Note that we might have been breaking the law ("No Pedestrians"). (photo by Amy)

And another one of our mid-run dance breaks. Or something. (photo by Josh)

Post-lunchtime runs also turn out to not be as bad as I thought they'd be, logistically speaking. It required a bit of trial an error the first few times, but now that I've been doing a few run(ch)s, I've finally got my system down.  My run(ch) kit contains a bag with spare make-up and toiletries, the ShowerPill (which is pretty much my savior), and my most important item - a post-run hat because there is no saving my hair after a run. I sit behind a desk and write code all day long, so it's okay to toss on a hat for an afternoon of tapping away on a keyboard, but if I'd probably skip run(ch) on a day where I had an afternoon meeting.

My treadmill and I are also becoming pretty good buddies, however, it doesn't matter that it's my own treadmill in my own basement, I still can't stand to log more than 30 minutes at a time on the thing. If I just need to tick off a mile or two, I'll just punch in a speed and go, but if I need a longer run or something a bit more challenging, I'll do an interval workout.

There's a 2nd page to that workout, one of these days I'll make it fit on one small piece of paper, but continually flipping it around makes life interesting. This is a pretty challenging workout for me, especially minutes 7-8 at 6.9mph (8:34 minute mile). I do not run that fast, ever, and I have all I can do to just hold that pace and keep from flailing myself onto the floor.  I'm also certain that timer pauses when I'm not staring at it every second because sometimes those intervals mighty long (*I'm giving you the side-eye, treadmill timer*).  But the interval workout sure does makes the time go by so much faster than when I'm just plodding along watching something silly on Hulu.

Fast forward to Christmas, where I got a swag update - new shoes and a headlamp!

The shoes are Brooks Cascadia 7s, my go-to winter running shoe.  This is the third pair I've had. The first one was a Cascadia 6 and it fit like a dream. When it was time to replace them, I went with the latest version (7s) in the same size, only to find out that they were just a smidge smaller than the 6s. They didn't cause me any problems, but my feet definitely felt swished when I wore thick winter socks. So, this time, I asked for a half-size up to accommodate my socks and, eventually, insoles. Sizing up was the right thing to do, I ran 4 miles in them last night and my feet felt very unrestricted and happy.

 I used the headlamp for the first time last night. I had to keep messing with it in order to get the light pointed the way I wanted to, and I didn't like that I have to turn all the way around to see what's going on behind me, but ultimately it's way better than running with a flashlight. I'll come in handy if we ever find enough people to put a team together for a Ragnar Relay, too.

One thing I discovered last night was how reflective Zoe's orange vest is.

I haven't noticed it before since we're typically running in daylight, but my headlamp was really making it glow. This is good because, it means cars can see us. She also wears a blinky light on her collar, so we're really hi-vis over here.

Speaking of Miz Zoe, she turned 1 yesterday! It took a while for her to settle into a routine, but now after 5 months, she's trained us pretty well.

She pesters me relentlessly when I'm doing yoga/stretching/whatever on the floor. If I'm doing situps, she'll sit on me. If I'm doing planks or pushups, she'll wiggle under me and squirm around. It's annoying, but pretty funny so I don't get too worked up over it.

She tolerates me dressing her up in little outfits. Here she is in her puffy coat and booties. She runs in the booties on super cold days. They don't have much traction so when we hit some slippery patches, she ends up looking like Bambi on the ice.

She loves riding in the car. Note the same posture of these two.

She loves running and will go wherever & whenever.

And she sometimes has to share her bed with Pippen, but she doesn't seem to mind.

We frequently get asked what kind of dog she is. We typically say that she's a German Shepherd mix, but I've always wanted to know her exact genetic makeup. Turns out you can get a DNA test for your dog - hello Wisdom Panel.

I think it'll be useful in determining whether she's predisposed to any genetic heath issues based on her breed profile. And also, I'm just really curious to know.  She already takes up too much room on the bed, so fingers crossed for some really small breed so she'll stop growing!

Happy Snowy Saturday, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy March and Happy every other day I missed since my last post.  Let’s jump right in with the updates, shall we?

Training officially started at the beginning of February, and I’ve been using the same schedule that I did last summer, running four times/week.  I had an okay fitness base built up from December & January, but it still felt like a bit of a struggle to hit my paces.  Combined with lots of snow and some cold patches which forced me to have several dates with the treadmill, and that equates to February turning out to be not that pleasant of a month.  Still, I only missed one run and ended the month with 61.50 miles.

I’m feeling a lot stronger and peppier now, and so far this month I’ve logged 27 miles, with a little over 20 miles this week.  The roads are mostly bare now, which is such a welcome state after spending the last couple of months slogging away in the squishy snow.  There are still some spots which are super icy and I had three close calls this morning on my long run where I slipped and ended up skidding on the ice, arms & legs flailing around.  I had to remind myself to proceed with extreme caution because I’m currently helping Josh as he recovers from this:

You can hop on over to his blog to get full story, but the short version is that he crashed his bike and broke his collarbone.  He had surgery last Thursday where they inserted a plate to repair the bone.  He’s bionic now, but laid up for the next few weeks.  Sounds like it’ll be about three months before he’s back to full strength, so I’ll be running on my own until probably May or June.

Random photos from my phone.

Pippen is now 1.5 years old.  Here he is at three months, when we first got home.  See how cute and teeny?

Here he is now.  Godzilla!  He barely fits in my lap anymore, and when he stretches out, he’s as long as my legs hereby proving that everyone’s taller than me.

Found a great new brewery in Marquette, Ore Dock Brewing Company. The place is pretty small, but the beer is really good.

We had a pretty good blizzard at the end of February that closed MTU for 1.5 days.  That was pretty significant because MTU does not close down frequently.  The last time was in 2007 and that one was on Josh’s birthday!  I forget how much snow that storm brought us, but it seemed like we were shoveling a couple of times a day for a week straight before we got a break.

I found the most enormous bottle of Sriracha I’ve ever seen in the hospital cafeteria.  That was about the only interesting thing I found there.  I might add that it also did not look like the cafeteria in Gray’s Anatomy, nor did any of the doctors look like McDreamy. Such a disappointment.

I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled weekly posts starting next week. Until then, think Spring! And don’t forget to turn your clocks back an hour tonight.

Scout says hello.

Weekly recap: Monday, 6 @ 10:46; Tuesday, 5 @ 10:44; Thursday, 4 @ 10:25 and Saturday 8 @ 11:10 for a weekly total of 23 miles @ 10:50.  Next week, I have 28 total miles on the schedule.  That’ll be my highest weekly mileage in the history of the (my) world, so it’s daunting.  However, I have a couple of things working in my favor: 28 is my favorite number and once the week is over, I start to dial back my mileage.  Focus on the positive, I guess.

This deer says hello, too. We had a 20-30 second stare-down when I was finishing up a run on the Nara boardwalk last Monday.  She let me walk about 10 more feet in her direction before she went bounding into the woods.  Earlier, just as I was starting down the boardwalk, I came upon a small red fox.  He didn’t stick around to check me out, like the deer did. He & his floofy tail took off into the bushes as soon as he saw me so no pictures.

Our first major delivery from the local CSA we joined included everything below (onions, cucumber, zucchini, squash, cauliflower, lettuce and turnips) as well as a giant bag of potatoes.  Today I made two loaves of zucchini bread and only used one zucchini.  Good thing I like them in salads.

Fiat 500. How cute! I sort of want one.

I always wear my compression sleeves after a long run.  I don’t know if they actually do anything useful to aid recovery, some people say yes, others no, but I do know that they do make my legs feel better so I’ve made them part of my long run recovery just like stretching, rolling and refueling with fries.  Unfortunately, they’re not the most fashionable thing in my wardrobe and I got two comments on them yesterday.  One was from the gas station lady who told me she liked my “calf wear” and another from some dude at the bar who asked me if I played soccer.  Wonder what they would have said if I’d been wearing my fancier socks?

Josh and I took a bike ride this afternoon and stopped for a short break at the Quincy Mine Hoist. Here’s a glamour shot of our bikes.

And here’s a glamour shot of me on Coal Dock Road just before a massive hill. I’m so glad we were going down instead of up.

Finally, I got up early today to watch the finish of the men’s Olympic marathon.  When I started watching, Meb was way back in 18th position. By the end of the race, he worked his way through the pack to finish fourth. I’m pretty sure that he could have finished bronze, just like Deena Kastor did in Athens in 2004, if he had a a bit more real estate, but it wasn’t so. Still, Meb is awesome.

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