Running Chick

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.

Josh and I ran the five mile race at the Canal Run yesterday.  It was my first time doing this event, and considering that the event is almost as old as I am and practically in my back yard, I don’t really know why.  I’ve been a worker bee a few times and spectated a few other times, but never a participant. So, when Josh suggested we do it a few months ago, I figured it was probably time to scratch it off my bucket list.

Our respective training plans for the Fox Cities HM in September don’t have us doing enough mileage for the ten mile event, so we opted for the five which I’m glad we did, because it was hot yesterday morning.  The majority of the course was shaded with some rolling hills here & there, nothing major.  I was feeling slightly overheated, but the aid stations had plenty of water so I was able to take two cups (one down the throat, one over the head) without feeling like the people behind me were going to get screwed.

We ran out of shade with about a mile and a half left to go, which wouldn’t have been a problem, but half that last stretch is uphill.  It’s one of those hills that, as far as you can see, it just goes up. Then you round a corner and the hill continues on, but only gets steeper. Ugh.  I was feeling okay for the first portion of the hill, but the sun was starting to get to me when we hit the steep climb.  The fire department had opened up a hydrant and my first thought was wet shoes = blisters, but then I decided that there was only about a half mile to go and I probably wouldn’t blister in that short span so I ran right into the cold shower.  My shoes, and the rest of me, got soaked but I felt infinitely better. We finished in 54:34, which was around a 10:53 mile, and met Josh’s finishing goals.

In other news, Pippen turned one a few weeks ago.  Here he is at 10 weeks or so when we got him.

And here he is now, spilling out of his bed.

He likes to really stretch out when he lays on the floor. One of these days, I’m going to make him a little red Superman cape.

He can be pretty sassy, though. Especially when he does things like take the roll of toilet paper from the bathroom and drag it all over the living room. Or, chew my foam roller to pieces.

Oh well, I was looking for an excuse to buy a bigger one.

This week’s running totals were 13.25 miles @ 10:39 made up of one pathetic hill workout on Monday (note: do not do hill workouts in 80 degree weather), one speed session on Thursday and the Canal Run on Saturday.  I tossed in one 25 mile bike ride out to McLain Park because it was too hot to run on that day.

Next week, if the weather cooperates and it cools down, I’ll log around 21 miles. Fingers crossed!

Remember the song “The Final Countdown” from way back in 1980-something by Europe? They were a hair band from Sweden and pretty typical of all the other hair bands in the 80’s – big, teased blonde hair & tight leather pants. I never really liked the band or the song, but I heard it on the radio the other day and it’s been annoyingly rolling around in my head ever since.  However, it’s conveniently apropos, so here’s hoping that using it as the inspiration for my title will purge it from my brain.  Or, at least pass it into yours. Ha!

My first tapering week has come to a close. Thanks to a bout of food poisoning (thanks a lot Pilgrim River Steakhouse), I was only able to complete two of my runs – Monday & today.  Oh well, I suppose the extra tapering can’t hurt.

So, weekly recap: Monday,  @ 10:08; Saturday, 5 @ 11:08.  Monday’s run finalized the month of April where I logged 77 miles.  That’s my highest monthly running mileage ever, which is pretty major milestone for me.  Usually at this point in my training, I’m usually injured and looking at the upcoming race with a “fingers-crossed I hope this works out” mentality.  But today, I’m healthy and injury-free.  Oh, and looking for some wood to knock on. Or, as Josh mentioned, a bubble to walk around in.

Next week, we have two very short 2 mile runs and that’s all until race day.  Feels good to be (almost) done!

Random, we used to have a dog that slept with his legs straight out behind him, but I’ve never seen a cat do it until Pippen.

He also chews on sticks, plays fetch and makes “barooo” noises like a hound.  Maybe he really is part dog?