Running Chick

Say hello to Venus.

She found us on our run this morning. We were 2 miles in to a four-miler, running by the Rozsa Center, when she ran by us looking frantic and lost.  No obvious owner in sight.  It took some cajoling, but she stopped for us and I used my long sleeved shirt as a leash. 

She had a collar, with a Hancock address. What was she doing across the canal in Houghton? I sat with her while Josh ran over to the MTU Public Safety building.  Josh returned with an officer after about 10 minutes and he was going to take her over to her owner’s address.  She reminded of my old running partner, Buddy (miss you Bud), so I felt strongly compelled to make sure she was comforted and safe and I asked if I could ride along.  The officer agreed, so Venus and I piled into the back of the police SUV. Josh was in the front. 

Ever been in the back of a police car? It’s all plastic and bulletproof plexiglass.  I’ll let you make assumptions why.  Not the best surface for doggie toenails. Officer is a holy-shit-you’re-going-to-put-us-in-the-ditch driver and Venus and I are sliding around like we’re on a slip-n-slide.  She finally ended up climbing on my lap.  Anyway, over to Venus’s address.  Nobody home.  Were they out looking for her? Why didn’t they have a cell phone?  Off we head to the Copper Country Humane Society, where we drop her off.  I am a big supporter of the CCHS, but I really wanted her to get back to her home and I was sad that we couldn’t make that happen.  I’m planning on calling her owners tomorrow to see if she made it home.  If not, maybe I’ll end up with a running partner.

So, running. This week I ended up with a little over 14 miles, last week I had 19. Next Sunday is the half marathon and I'm feeling pretty good. Aside from the giant blister on my left foot that I keep on aggravating, all systems are go.  Looking forward, if everything goes well and I’m healthy and feeling good, I’m tossing around the idea of doing the Whistlestop HM in Ashland, WI on October 13th.  I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with the two weeks between races, so we’ll see.

Happy Labor Day! I celebrated by going on a very slow 3 mile recovery run this morning. 

My goal was to keep my heart rate under 150, so my pace ended up hanging out between 12:00-12:30.  A bit on the slow side for me these days, but back four or five years ago when I was a n00b, that was my typical cruising speed.  The first time I broke an 11:00 mile was thrilling – I thought I was SO FAST.  Ha.  Anyway, as I was chugging along thinking about my pace and how I used to think that was fast, I reminded myself that my friend, who does multiple Ironman triathlons and marathons annually, does her recovery runs at a pace which is my fast pace now.  It just reminded me that speed is relative and one person’s slow is another person’s fast.  So there you go, my deep thought of the day.

My long run of the week was 14 miles, Josh had 12.  I’ve been getting bored with running the same routes over & over again, so this time I mapped out a big loop through Dodgeville, South Range & Atlantic Mine.

We had a mostly downhill cruise for the first four miles until we turned onto Elsie Road.

Then, we started to climb.

And climb. 

And climb, holy cow that hill just kept on getting steeper and steeper.  At one point near the top I was going so slow, that I switched to power walking. It wasn’t any easier, but I felt like I was covering more ground.

Finally, we made it over the hill and into the town of South Range.  Everybody was at church, so the streets were bare.

We picked up the snowmobile trail in downtown, which we would stay on for the next six miles.

The trails are used by snowmobiles in the winter and ATVs in the summer. So, imagine our surprise when we encountered a old dude in a blue sedan on the trail. A short while later, two dudes in a pickup.  Strange.

Anyway, onward we plodded with Houghton being our final destination.

Trail conditions varied from hard packed to extremely loose.  It was tough to find decent footing at times and, in hindsight, we probably should have bailed when we hit Atlantic Mine and taken the road back, but at least the view was pretty.  And it was nice & cool in the woods.

We were going to follow the trail into the Houghton RV Park, but we had both had enough of the loose sand and bailed at the first opportunity, which was at the bottom of this hill.  Josh always beats me down this hill, he’s like some freaky downhill mine rock specialist, picking up speed as he descends, while I end up walking because I’m afraid that I’m going to fall and get cut to shreds (happened to me once a few years ago, not interested in having it happen again).

Finally, we hit pavement and Josh, who only had 12 on his schedule, decided to finish at 13.  I continued to the park to wrap up with 14 miles.  I was feeling really good and had I not been out of water and thirsty, I would have continued on, but enough was enough.

Thanks to the dusty trail, everything below my knees was filthy. I also ended up with a painful blister the size of Texas on my left foot.

So, that’s the end of the week, and the month of August.  I ended up with 27.5 miles this week and, thanks to cutting back the previous week, I felt way better than my last 28 mile week.  I also ended August with 94 total miles. Bah, just six more miles and I would have broken 100.  If I had only been paying attention!

Also coming to a close is the bulk of my training and now taper period begins.  I have two shorter weeks coming up, then it’s race time. Bye for now!

This week was a self-imposed cut-back week for me.  Between stresses at work, miserable runs and just generally feeling like crap, I was feeling totally burned out with running. I was looking at my schedule on Sunday night and had many thoughts of throwing in the towel.  However, having signed up for a race makes things a little complicated, so in an act of self-preservation, I decided to do what I usually hate to do – make adjustments.

I’m usually really OCD about following my training programs. If you ask Josh, he’ll agree and somewhere in that conversation you’ll probably hear him say the word “insane”.  Yeah, I guess I can be a bit rigid with my schedule.  But, I had to do something or I was going to throw myself off the bridge, so I dropped my weekly runs down to three from four, and dropped my weekly miles by around 15% and did all my runs at an easy pace.  I’m not sure if it completely worked, but I don’t feel like jumping off a bridge when I look at my schedule for next week.

Anyway, recap.  Wednesday, 5 @ 11:00; Thursday, 5 @ 10:04 and Saturday, 6 @ 11:09.  I had a little bit of quad cramping during the last few miles on Saturday, but I’m blaming that on heat and lack of fluids. Next week is the final big week before taper.  I have three four-milers and a 12 (or maybe 14 depending on how I’m feeling) miler on the weekend for a total of 26 miles. Once next week is over, it's a downhill slide until the race.

We got a giant box of veggies from our CSA last week, so I’ve been busy making zucchini relish, zucchini bread, zucchini chips, and zucchini soup. Can you guess what we got most of?  We also got swiss chard (surprisingly yummy), cucumbers (time for pickling), potatoes, sweet corn and various peppers. We also got turnips. I used to hate turnips when I was a kid.  For Thanksgiving, my grandparents always served up a bowl of them them mashed.  I can remember walking into their house (now mine), smelling the turnips and thinking “eew, gross”.  So, when we got several in our CSA box, I figured that my adult tastes were far more refined and I’d find them completely yummy and I’d be able to tell the story to my folks and we’d have a good laugh.  However, as soon as that smell started creeping out from the kitchen, it was like I was transported back in time and all I could think was “eew, gross!”.  Suffice to say, that is one of the foods from my childhood that will stay there!

We had a great time at the Keweenaw Brewfest.  This was the third year it was held, but due to being out of town, our first time attending.

There was a ton of people there, and we ended up hanging out with a group of work friends.  It was fun comparing beers and chatting and, despite it being 1000 degrees outside, the beer was nice cold.  The event was $25 and that got you a fancy glass (6 oz) and fifteen wooden chips, each one good for a sample pour.  I don’t think there was one beer that I didn’t like, or maybe it’s more like I can’t remember. Toward the end, it all blurred together.  Some of my favorites were the pumpkin ale from some brewery, the Black & Tan from Guinness, the margarita from some other brewery and (this I remember) the Newcastle Werewolf Red Ale.

I don’t know what either of these beers were, but I’m certain they were awesome.

Until next year, Brewfest!

This post wouldn’t be complete without some some gratuitous pictures of the cats.

Scout, who has decided that Josh’s Makita tool bag makes a great napping spot and who gets really crabby when I wake her up to take pictures.

And Pippen, lording over the world from atop the mattresses waiting to be hauled to the dump.

If he’s awake when you walk in the room, he will boop you on the head.