Running in the Dark; Running out of time; 1 week till Race Day

Posted: 2011/08/28 | Author: | Filed under: Running | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

This is one of my favorite running songs.

Running in the dark:

If I had  been less busy or better prepared, or maybe just spent less time playing random grabass  last week I would of written a post called Running in the dark is great for your pace.   The problem with running in the dark being great for your pace is the motivating factor behind this is not some magical environmental thing that happens when it finally gets dark outside thereby rendering your body free of all the weight that daylight brings or some other  such zen running crap.   It’s just your basic FEAR.  I’ve always considered myself more of a fight vs. flight girl.  But I can now tell you that if I ever decide to make the flight choice I’m better prepared for what that is going to feel like.    It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a proper running post and the last few weeks of training have blended together a bit in my mind.   Except for one thing, running in the dark  when you weren’t planning on it.  Twice at the end of long runs, running buddy and I have been caught in the dark.  The first time on the country roads  with no sidewalks we  have on most of the roads near us along with unlit asphalt hood paths, with all kinds of cracks and valleys in the pavement and no lighting.  We ran quickly because we wanted OFF the pavement and back onto the slightly less treacherous paths.  We were unprepared for night running and were a little at the mercy of the cars coming toward us, it was not a fun mile or so.   White hats and white shoes was about it, and I’m tell you all bravery aside it wasn’t enough.   She had just joined me on the last 4 miles of my 8.0 and I should of been just beaten, but during the 5th mile I was seriously booking it.      The only other time I’ve been that scared of cars while running was over the winter on the ice on the pavement in rush hour traffic.   I’m adding flashing safety lighting to my list which also includes arm warmers I want to wear on Saturday, but that’s another running topic.    Sigh, yeah, sometimes we are not smart girls.   As we carefully navigated the darker hood paths we talked about how it was indeed getting darker sooner and we would need to plan better to be safer on our evening runs.

So a few short days later we were standing on the paved rail trail  for what we thought was plenty of time for our 9.0.  The problem was that a-it wasn’t really enough time for our 9.0 b- our 9.0 turned into 9.71 and c- the adventures during that 9.71 were plentiful and added time as well as distance to our run. Somehow we found ourselves in what felt like complete darkness for the last 1.5 miles or so.   This trail closes at dusk, for a reason. Well for several reasons,  including it’s not lit, there are multiple tunnels and  complete tree overhangs, it’s an easy go to place for pervs to attack running women.   We get through the first bit knowing we are running to population, a street crossing with shops etc.  We run the last bit to the car, and it’s further than we think, and the trail is getting less and less populated even by the bikers on it past curfew.  Usually I am a bastion of bravery.  But this is a bit creepy, a little horror movie. It’s beautiful and scary all at the same time.  We are tired mentally and physically because we have been running for 2+ hours.  No one wants to say out loud they are scared, finally I do it.  “I’m starting to get freaked out you’re too far ahead of me”.   We close our gap.  There are two of us I breathe in.   Do I have fight left in me, I breathe out slowly? I decide I do and so I relax a little bit to try to enjoy the scenery and the moment, being on this trail in this darkness is not likely to happen to me again, I want to try to enjoy it. It is eerily haunting and beautiful and terrifying all at once.    We finally make it back to the car and then we can relax and laugh at our stupidity all the way home, while making plans to be more safe as the  days get shorter. I swear….

Running out of time:

Later today I’ll be putting in my final 10.o before the Women’s Half Marathon  Race on Saturday.  I have only today and two short keep the legs warm and worked runs ahead of me.  I managed to score my new shoes on Tuesday during lunch and break them in Tuesday night.  I only have to buy arm warmers and give them a try  before race day. I try to follow the NOTHING NEW ON RACE DAY, rule.    Runny buddy and I have discussed outfits, we both tend to race in whatever we trained most in.  I still have to solve a sport beans carrying issue, but I’m giving that a dry run tonight.   I must go fill up the Diet Mt Dew cup with water NOW before I even write any further….ok now, where was  I.    We have rides to and from worked out. She is driving us down there because I am leaving directly from the Half Marathon to go on the annual Labor Day BGC  Family trip to the Chateau.   The Family and Dog will have to meet me near the end of the race and cheer us on.  A mutual friend  is meeting us at a specific spot near the end to run the last few , the hardest, the most wrenching emotionally and on your body miles with us. To renew us with her spirit and her energy.   Almost all of the plans are laid and just have to be executed.  We’ve set the goal, we made the plan, we each stuck to it as best we could, and we are ready.  This will be my buddies very first 13.1.  She is anxious about her ability. I think she discounts the 38.4 two day walk she has under her belt too much. She is a badass, she just doesn’t believe it quite fully herself yet Or maybe hse knows but just doesn’t like to let herself get too cocky, I really haven’t known her all that long.  I can tell you that running with her and in front of and behind her has brought us closer than  we ever would of gotten in passing at neighborhood events or FB status updates.   My running buddy is my friend now.  Along the way to becoming my friend she was  my confessor, my coach,  my commiserater.    My only goal for Saturday is to be able to hang with her for the entire thing so we can look at each other and give the nod.  “We got this, let’s go girl” as we  sprint, run, jog, walk, stumble, crawl or whatever we have to do to get it  across that finish line.  Hopefully somewhere in the 2:45-2:55 mark.

Then it will be straight to family vacation time and  I can spend a week reveling in the soreness and glory that comes with another (hopefully)  13.1 medal on  my dreams board.   Before I dive in and continue to train for the next one.   Which is November 5.  If I’m feeling really freaky I’ll run the hilly one on October 15, but I don’t really see that happening.  Right now I just need to keep plugging away at the list of things to do while  looking forward to the  10.0 waiting for me before dark and the 2+ hours that gives me of running therapy.

An aligment of the universe; Incubus in the pavilion

Posted: 2011/08/24 | Author: | Filed under: Adventures | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Have you ever had one of those adventures that was amazing not because of anything it particular that happened, but because it was a freak occurrence of proper universe alignment that made it all happen in the first place? One of those nights that starts out as a maybe, a do I want to, should I and ends up at this was SOOOOOO meant to be thank you GOD!!!.  This was me last night, at my first concert alone, Incubus!

The Universe

Things working against the universe:

I’ve been a concert freak this year already: If we go this is concert #9, the gild is starting to fall off the Lilly on my sordid affair with live shows this year.  I’m not quite to GW half life level yet, but the staggering amount of money spent of shows, sitters, hotels and alcohol is starting to get to me with Birthdays and Holidays coming on the horizon. Plus The Husband and I saw them in 08.  So it’s not like I haven’t crossed them off the list.

Incubus 2011

  1. Jimmy  Eat World
  2. Cake
  3. Motley Crue
  4. Alkaline Trio
  5. Alkaline Trio yep twice in two nights
  6. Journey, Foreigner, Night Ranger
  7. Train, Maroon 5
  8. Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow
  9. Incubus
  10. Jack’s  Mannequin is next

I’m overscheduled:  I originally thought the date of the concert was next Tuesday. Not only is this a school night, it is also a group run night, and I am going to the Jack’s Mannequin concert on Monday.

The potential for disappointment is high: Cake and Incubus are both bands that The Husband and I love.  Both released new albums this year and both were personally disappointing to The Husband.  Cake was a phone in C- level effort for me, the Incubus I found a few songs I absolutely loved on, but it wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped for.  I am still slightly tainted by the disappointment that Alkaline Trio didn’t play anything from This Addiction.

There was waffling between The Husband and me over this concert. Our finances remain separate after reconciliation ( I  love it this way) and though the Incubus discussion had occurred several times, no one was running to empty their bank account further for two tickets or get a sitter or figure out the crazy scheduling that would be required to make this concert happen on a school and run night.  It quite frankly was looking like it was not meant to be.

The emotional crux of the situation:

But for some reason I hadn’t ruled it out in my heart yet.  I think I like Incubus a little better than The Husband.   Drive and Stellar are big songs for us as a couple, but overall he and the SIL are into the harder stuff from the earlier albums.  I like some of that too but I am much more emotionally connected to songs like Wish You Were Here or Promises, Promises or Warmth or Dig or…you get the point.   I was motivated to start a funeral play list for myself by Incubus Wish You Were Here. Mostly because of the line And in this moment I am happy.   On point I absolutely love this band and hearing them live is a very in the moment transfixed by the music and the emotions time for me.

The Universe starts to shift:   Who else is picturing the moving parts of the map in Game of Thrones opening sequence??

Saturday night BGC attended Kid Rock with husbands in tow.  While there they are selling Incubus tickets for $15.  Which is compelling in itself, but the kicker is that the show date is yesterday, not next Tuesday.  This removes one of the obstacles. It no longer makes it two concerts in two nights week.   I point it out but The Husband is just not feeling it. So I ask if maybe I can ask  my friend who works at Live Nation to get me in by myself for free that night and  I’ll go by myself.  He is open to this and so I file it away under options.  But I’m still not compelled to do anything about making this happen.   It’s not really in the front of my mind for the rest of the weekend. There are too many other things  competing for my time and attention right now and I find that I am literally living my life in about 36 hours increments. It’s like extreme rolling wave planning over here and I can’t seem to get ahead.   Which explains why I forgot Meet the Teacher night at school was Monday night until about oh 4pm.  It seems some time pruning is going to be in order but for now anyway the plan is to continue to just go like gangbusters until I hit a wall.  I know I should just run on Tuesday night come home and take care of  something  anything on the to do list. Like maybe that Thursday post I still haven’t written.

Yesterday I got up early, showered, packed a run bag and went to the office.  Lunch was spent running to the local sporting goods store to buy a new pair of Brooks. I have to break them in before the 13.1 next Saturday.  It was during lunch that it finally hit me.  I’m going to kick myself over and over if I don’t go to that show.  I have no fear of going to that show by myself, and if my friend can get me in for free it would all be worth it.  If I can make it work under those conditions then I’ll go.  I’ll do my downtown run, speed home and maybe shower but def change, meet him there at 9 when Incubus should be going on and then hope traffic isn’t bad getting home.  I decide I’m going for it. I will see if I can get the universe to align.

The Universe Aligns:

I text my friends wife and beg for the favor.  I haven’t used this favor before and he is fairly open with it so I keep my fingers crossed.

He usually has to request the tix the day before and have them held at will call

But he can do it, he’s in

All I have to do now is somehow run, eat something get ready and get cash for parking all prior to 9.

I’m supposed to run at about 6:40, at 5:15 at the office it really looks like rain.  I bought new shoes and packed the rain maker outfit to run in, of course it’s going to rain on my run.

I check the radar, it’s a pretty big wide front and we are on the first edge of it, there is red and yellow coming but it will only be green radar colored thunderstorms if I run NOW.

I decide at 5:21 that I’m going for it. If I’m going to get wet anyway I’m not waiting until 7pm to do it. I’m taking the bull by the horns heading out now, stay close to work and get my 4.0 in.

For the next  19 minutes there is the chaos of my running skirt is in my car in the lot, I am on the 2nd floor and the bathrooms are closed for cleaning I don’t have the right badge, keys, clothes with me to be able  to change just yet.

FINALLY I get my 4.0 in and change into dry comfies at the office to drive home barefoot.

Meanwhile The Husband tells me a buddy of his that I know has scored tix to the show and will be there on the VIP deck.  It occurs to me once I get home that I’d like to not have to drive there and back.  If I can get his buddy to take me home maybe I can get my Live Nation friend to take me there.  I ask for the buddy’s cell phone number, ask for the ride home and score, he’ll do it.  All the while I am racing around like a mad woman changing  back into my work clothes, bling Jeans and a ruffly tank top, sans shower,  letting my got soaked running in a pony tail  hair dry and hope it doesn’t turn out too crazy. Make-up is confined to get raccoon mask off skin and declump eyelashes from rain run.

At 8:06 I text my friends wife again and ask her if he can take me up there with him.

8:21 he can, he’s ready whenever I am just tell him when.

Text updates from the buddy at the venue report the opening act is over

8:40 we go, park  for free in  half full lot and walk the ½+ mile from the lot to the entrance very very quickly  while they come on stage and open with Pardon Me..  I can’t see it but it’s clear as hell and I know this song. I sing the lyrics under my breath as we walk and talk. It’s going to be a good show if this is the opener. Life is good.

As we are walking he’s telling me about how in the 11 years he has had this perk he’s never seen Incubus. And he thought about having them hold tix for him yesterday but was iffy on going and didn’t want to request them and not use them.  I had provided an excuse to come to the show.  He is going to stay for a few songs and then head back home.

We are almost to the entrance and they start playing Wish You Were Hear.  I scream out loud, “Oh this is my song” and two girls behind me scream out this is our song too. We giggle and share a little bit.

He checks in for what we think will be lawn passes and instead are handed tickets in the upper pavilion. This is just getting better and better.  This is my 4th trip here this summer and my first seat in the pavilion.

Incubus August 2011

We stand in the always at least 5 times longer than it should be line to get in and I’m just listening to wish you were here, and swaying and tearing up a bit.  It won’t be the first time I cry at this show, I just have emotional reactions to live music of songs I really connect with.   It’s not like sobbing crying, it’s more like somehow tears are just falling while I’m so happily listening and being transported elsewhere, crying. It’s hard to explain but it also happens in church almost every Sunday,  it stops before or as soon as the song ends.  🙂

Incubus Set List

I tell him I’m buying him a beer as a thank you, even though I’ve been ridiculously gushing the whole time about how thankful I truly am to be here.

We score the beers, and I get a look at the lawn, it’s packed. There are a heck of a lot more people here than what it looks like in the parking lot.

Seats are awesome, I love the lawn but the pavilion has concrete, and your own space, and speakers in the  back of you that music comes out of, I can actually see the stage instead of getting a  view of it on the big screen.  I  took some crappy pics with my iphone  just to show you the difference  in view between the lawn and the pavilion.

And then they play Promises, Promises, complete with a video that has  a racing cars on the road vibe..

As I’m screaming my heart out “I’m on the road of least resistance”  it hit’s me. This is the perfect adventure.  .

I’m here when I wasn’t supposed to be. I’m here for free, parking was free, I didn’t have to drive there or home.  Because of me he gets to see the band for a bit and I get to have a transition of a person I know for a bit before I enjoy the rest of the concert dancing and singing and fist pumping and shaking my hair with strangers.   It’s Incubus, the show is a good one and the night could not get any better.   Well, it would have been nice to have The Husband there during Drive and Stellar, but it’ll do just fine.

I am where I am in THIS moment because of the choices I made to get here and the help of the perfect alignment of the universe.

PS- The Husbands buddy is a get out of the lot rock star and I was home complaining about how my left foot is trying to get a stress fracture and eating a dinner of cherry cobbler and frozen custard by 11pm.   Tonight I will take a look at the long list of things that are due in the next 36 hours….  You might not want to hold your breath for tomorrow’s post to arrive at 7am on the dot.

I am the bee whisperer…

Posted: 2011/08/19 | Author: | Filed under: Gardening, Lovies | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hi my name is Lola and I talk to  other living things.  And  myself.   When I was little the joke about me grumbling about having to do some chore, or taking too long to do it was that I should “just talk to it” . So I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I’ve always done these things.     If there is a small spider in the house I tell it “Don’t let The Husband see you there”.   The other day The Husband told The Destroyer to get off the rock and into the house. “I’m communicating with the ducks Daddy”. Yep. He’s mine.  The Husband says I spoil those ducks.   I just like to make sure the Mommies can easily feed their babies.   I like to spoil the ones I love.  And I have a soft spot for nature.  I have even been known to make certain spider haters leave webs up so the spiders could safely lay their eggs in the fall.

There was that one time I got a little overly attached to a little moth that landed on my finger and just kind of hung out turning his furry owl looking  moth head back and forth at me.  While he cocked his little moth front paws like a dog or a cat that would sit on you.   I might of worried about him not making it out of the spider infested garage for a day longer than I should of.  And that might of happened last month when it was so hot out…. I dunno.  I think I spent so much time as a kid in the garden or alone that I just got really good at feeling a connection with everything living around me.   I’ve had several praying mantis conversations in the garden this summer.

We are all beings and I am not nice to everyone. The last thing the Japanese  Beetles hear from me is “DIE DIE DIE”.   I didn’t have  any this year.   I am barely tolerant of whatever the hell it is the nasty ants are doing to my pumpkin vines.  But I try  to adopt a if you aren’t  hurting me I’m not hurting you and after all, outside IS your home not mine attitude.  The other morning, not long after I wrote in exasperation that I might have to sex my pumpkins myself, I saw a bee on one of my sunflower blossoms. I walked over and watched him work. And then I told him that he needed to go over THERE (I was pointing. Yes I WILL be the crazy old widow  lady in the garden across the street.  Lefty and One-Eye will make sure no one takes advantage of me. I will likely have a  garden boy named Raoul or Julio or Sanchez, or maybe they will rotate.)  by the peppers and pumpkins and do his part. And could you please send your friends as well I told him, I give you bees plenty of things to gather pollen from and I want a little love too.    God and Karmic Retribution man, get to it.  The next morning there was a giant furry bumble hanging out on a boy blossom.    Since that post I now have 4 pumpkin babies and 1-2 maybe babies.  And there are some little peppers starting to form on some of the pepper plants.  For now the message has gotten through. I’m communicating with the bees.

Mothering in the moment

Posted: 2011/08/16 | Author: | Filed under: Lovies | Tags: | Leave a comment

It’s been  right about a year since PJ  ran out of my life.   If you asked me a year ago what I’d be doing today I would never have said sitting at my desk writing a mothering story about among other  things, putting  my youngest on the bus with THE Husband for Kindergarten and finally not only starting to feel “normal and happy” again but also starting to enjoy being a mother, like at all.   This is most definitely NOT a parenting blog. If anything it’s a blog about the beautifully flawed humans all parents ultimately are. A look into the mind and life of their mother for MiniMe and The Destroyer  in about 15 years.   I took a few days off from writing to  enjoy a family vacation to Holiday World , spend some time cleaning and reclaiming my home from the evil sadistic  monkeys I’m raising, and get my TWO kids ready for school.    At this point school starts in the morning, but roughly 5 days ago I was still in a little bit of denial about my nostalgic feelings for putting baby K, The Destoyer on the bus in the morning.

4 days ago I was standing in Holiday World.  I was content, relaxed, calm.   I’d just taken a ride on the gigantic swing things that twirl you around way high up in the air.  It feels like gently flying through the sky, at a terrifying height.  I love this ride and rode it with my arms all the way out and my eyes often closed and my feet just dangling.  And I thought one of my fave Incubus quotes..”And in this moment I am happy”.   The day was perfect.   It was sweaty hot in the sun but starting to cool off in the early evening, there was a breeze, the park was not crowded to the point of waiting no longer than twenty minutes to get on a ride, and that was the bumper cars.   The Husband was going to get to ride on all 3 of the parks coasters, a first in 4 trips with the kids to the darn place.  In the few hours we were there we road every dry ride we wanted in the park. Some of them multiple times.  This is a pretty big milestone.  We are NO LONGER parents saddled to strollers, diapers, sippy cups, and naps. There are no cups of applesauce or packets of gold fish in my purse. I can carry a handbag  or nothing again.  We DON’T have little kids anymore.  I have one tall enough to ride anything  she wants in the park, and one tall enough to ride any water slide as long as an adult is with him.

I have a not so secret confession.  I don’t think  until recently that I have liked or truly enjoyed being a mother.  Don’t confuse this with me liking or loving my kids.   Don’t confuse enjoyment of the job with skill at doing it.   The Husband previously suggested I had not yet reconciled motherhood.  That I was still pissed off about what becoming a mother took from me, did to me, to my  pre-motherhood life of freedom of time and money.  Of sleep filled nights and fewer absolute dependent living things to care for.   My Dad died  the week we had MiniMe’s ultrasound.  He never lived to find out  she was a she and to call her Jasper Anne, his pre-dained nickname for my child.  My Mom died when I was 6 months old.  So even though I had a step mom I called Mom and two younger half-brothers I considered brothers, this was an extraordinarily huge loss for me.   BY all accounts I should of been able to lose my shit for a good few weeks. But I was  5+ months pregnant so I had no chance to lose my shit.  I had a baby to grow.   Once I had her and  started living the terror that was her first year plus of fuck you I’m not planning on sleeping and I will be crying all the time, when I’m not eating from your one boob that will make me enough milk or pooping all over those expensive adorable Gymboree down to the matching socks AND shoes you keep insisting on buying me.

I digress for a moment to tell you the MiniMe had no less than 6 pairs of shoes her first year, including a pair of red patent leather Mary Janes I wish I’d kept. .   I don’t think I bought The Destroyer even a single pair of shoes until he was walking..at least.

The thing no one tells you when you are pregnant is that having that baby unleashes all kinds of crazy you’ve either been ignoring or didn’t even know you had.   Nothing like  a woman with multiple Mommy issues becoming a mother herself.   Hello, my name is Lola and I’m a recovering reluctant Mother.   I  bet I started recovering from this when I started to take ME back from what I had become way back in summer of 2009 when the first stirrings of  WTH life began.  Also when suddenly thrust into the reality, over Mother’s Day Weekend, that I was likely about to be a single parent, I sort of had no choice but to recover from reluctant motherhood.   I could go on and on whining about being a part time single parent for a few months.  But that would seem utterly disrespectful to the ladies and gents out there  that are truly raising kids on their own.   I became very humbled by a lot of things on my almost divorce journey and single parenting was one of them.

I had to be more fierce than ever.  These weren’t going to be our children anymore. These were going to be MY children half the time and HIS children half the time.  I already knew  that getting over being pissed off at whatever my life was vs. whatever I thought it was going to be was the ultimate goal of  all the working on myself I was doing.  Well that and become a more centered person living a little less dichotomous life.   And find a mate of a suitable  emotional, intellectual, social and professional stature.  Which by the way, yes, I did truly believe at one point that PJ was or was headed towards all of these things.  I know I’m a sucker for brown eyes and a nice smile, but even when I was encroaching the lightest grey of bat shit insane from all the stress and grief and overwhelming frustration of going through an almost divorce, learning to be a single parent, losing three soul mate friends, addicted to r/gonewild chat rooms  or to PJ,  I was still ME.  And as my strength and clarity and resolve returned, as I shed off layer after layer of bullshit and dealt with fucked up issue numbers 4-57. As I pulled myself up out of the pit with only God by my side because that is how a journey  this transforming is made, I became a better mother.  A much more involved Mother physically because I had no choice but I also started an emotional journey to liking motherhood, embracing it.   Plus  because they are getting older I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel.  So that helps tremendously.   Now I’m smart enough to know that I’m just trading one set of parental issues and drama for another. But the point is that after almost 9 years, I think I can finally find a way to adjust my attitude enough to actually enjoy being a mother.  To recognize that each moment I’m given with them is a gift to be enjoyed. To  seek ways to  adjust myself so that I enjoy them more.

It occurred to me in Holiday World during a stream of consciousness flow on that swing ride  starting at “Gee I’m so happy and peaceful and calm and serene right now”.    And ending at “Did you ever think you’d actually be this happy again? Who’d of thought you’d be with The Husband putting the last kid on the bus to start school.  Wait a minute, you never really pictured PJ there with you for that event…did you. Did you???  Did I? I had to process that a little bit.  I hadn’t pictured what a life with PJ and the kids both headed to school looked like for this year.    I had often imagined my life with PJ for last fall, when he was supposedly headed back to his 2nd year of Art Grad school about 45 minutes up the road.  And had already been back in that town for over a week when he nuked it all.  Nothing like waiting until you move from 3 hours away at home in the region to 45 away just up the road to show me what a sick mother fucker he really is.   More emotionally devastating if she thinks she lives off an exit on the same highway you do.   It involved a dichotomous life where he hadn’t met my kids in person yet.  I had no plans for co-mingling those two sets of people for months once we were actually together, outside of the just have to have you now sneaking in booty call visits after the kids were in bed.  It was a fantasy afterall.    I don’t KNOW IF PJ would of been standing there on that bus stop putting The Destroyer on the bus too in an awkward blended family moment.   It’s  most likely not, just like now,  that would of been PJ’s doing, not mine.   We had planned for him to be away at Grad School #2 this fall, and me traveling as much as I could.   Oh the fabulous pipe dreams of our future he used to  spin me.

Today in this moment I am filled with peace, happiness, contentment.    I know that tomorrow morning when The Destroyer gets on that bus I will be standing next to The Husband.  I’m pleased with my choices up to this point,  even the bad ones.  I’m actually bordering on pretty certain that I am where I am supposed to be in THIS mothering moment, because of the choices I made in getting here.

Running sick. Running in the rain. 4 weeks till Race Day

Posted: 2011/08/10 | Author: | Filed under: Running | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

This stall is so small I had to open the door to get the pic. Apparently I ran with my gangsta hat on.

For starters it really isn’t 4 weeks until Race Day.  It’s 4  Saturdays until Race Day.   LAST week, Running buddy and I both slacked off.  We skipped our Sunday 7 miles and I pretended I was already on my Chi town vacation by drinking vodka with SIL.   I did technically put 4 miles in along Lake Michigan on Tuesday, but given my condition it hardly counts as true training.  Considering  a threaded topic was whether or not I was indeed going to puke again that morning while running. I haven’t done that yet and to be honest I’m sort of nostalgically looking forward to my first run exerted puke session.   Alas it was not  to be on  Tuesday.  So last week was a big 4 mile week.  This means that because the race is only 4 weeks away that THERE WILL BE NO MORE SCREWING AROUND WITH TRAINING.

Which also meant when the  tell tale my lips are really dry and a few sneezes here and there over the last two weeks finally came to a head and I succumbed to an awful head cold with nasty typhoid Mary cough; that i had no choice but to be a badass, suck it up and run the scheduled 7.0 on Sunday.   Now in all fairness I managed to suck it up just fine for a concert the night before.  So I really had no excuses to not run, other than I had doubts of if I would even be able to breathe, like at all.   It’s usually my responsibility to plan the running buddy route, so I planned for 3 loops, 2 small and one large taking us past our hood entrance for water stops.  i figured I could make it through 2 miles no matter what and I could bail on her if I had to after the first water stop.  But I also took very precaution I could to ensure I was fueled, hydrated and nasally dried out before we started.  Running buddy and I knocked out 7.21 fabulous miles on Sunday night.  We literally rocked it.  I   had very little cold symptoms while sweating it out.  I felt great when we were done and great for the rest of the night.  And then I woke Monday morning feeling just awful.   All day it was  Dayquil. Finally at like 3 am on

Wet running skirts do a good job of staying down

Monday night I took Deslym, I doubt my family slept well with all the coughing either.

Tuesday morning I canceled the kids dentist appts because I just wasn’t going to be up to taking them.   And all day long I tried to decide if I was going to make the drive downtown to  do the big group class/run.  Again I was worried about ability to breathe.  But again I decided I better just do it and headed downtown. I was smart this time, no more changing in the tiny cramped, hot  church bathroom. I arrived dressed, heart rate monitored up and ready to go.  All I had to do was stretch through the last 20 minutes of the class and then get in the 4.o mile group.   I couldn’t figure out why it seemed like it was such a light group and then  as we started out I got a look at the sky and felt the breeze.   A storm was coming.  This is my thoughts on choosing whether or not to train in rain.  If it rains during the 13.1 miles are you just going to quit? Um no you are not, so put your big girl panties on and run.  Within the first 1/4  mile the sky opened up and started just pouring down in driving sheets of rain.  The wind was strong and someone made a comment about what fun it would be on the bridge, up hill.     I have run in the rain before and to be honest I kind of like it.    It’s sort of like being a kid all over again.    I’ll admit  I was a little scared running in the oil slick street crossing because those damn white lines are slick  when they are wet. But I remembered I’d done this before and if I just kept my cool I’d keep my footing.   Some runners went around the puddles in long arcs to avoid them. To me that is juts extra effort to avoid wet feet you are going to get anyway so I splashed right through  the puddles.  I briefly worried about blisters but after the water stop and heading back down the bridge my feet felt wet, but still great and I hoped my socks would sit just right.   The other great thing about rain running is if you are wearing a skirt it gets wet and stays down.  I am ALWAYS worried that my skirt is flipping up and showing my boy short inner liner covered ass while I’m running .  Rain alleviates that fear.  I don’t do intervals on Tuesdays, well not planned ones. I just run until I need to walk and then run again as soon as I can breathe to do it. Yesterday I mostly ran and it felt great.   I also got a little closer to the fast group  this time. It was  even still a good run when I went one block too far and had to run down a busy bar and restaurant street.  Oops vanity will propel you quite quickly.   4.49 miles later I was ready to change into some dry clothes and head out.

The only thing I DON”T like about rain running is trying to get tight soaked sweaty clothing off.   I swear I have some kind of irrational fear

Prune feet after wresting off the soaked clothing. I assure you I am standing. 🙂

of getting pinned in a shirt.  I feel like i have wide shoulders and I’m always wrestling myself into and out of running clothing that appears to fit just dandy once on.   Tomorrow is another 4, and I suppose I have to also find a way to do that cross training I promised running buddy I would do as well.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →