Today started out as a comedy of errors. Well, maybe more of a farce. No, really not all that funny, just a generally messed up, bad day. I had planned to run my scheduled 15 miles in the morning, but I couldn't sleep the night before (thanks, full moon), so I overslept and didn't get up until quarter to 7. I had several pet sitting jobs in the morning, so I didn't think I had time for a 3.5 hour run. But Jacob told me to go ahead and plan to go, so I got my stuff together and headed out the door. To find that maybe I should have stayed up a tiny bit later last night, then I could have heard what must've been an enormously loud bang, and possibly gotten the license plate of the person who sideswiped and smashed up my car. THE car, at the moment, since our van is dead, and #1 Son is home from college and using the other Volvo station wagon. I was somewhere out beyond furious. I said some things, loudly, that would make a sailor blush. Then I called the police. They came promptly, I guess there's no serious crime occurring at 7:30 am on a Saturday, all the people who were drunk and perpetrating acts of violence on innocent, old, Volvo's the night before are home and in bed. With a hangover. And no wheel cover or sideview mirror. Then again, I don't have a sideview mirror either...
Anyway. The police officer arrived, was very courteous, took the report, and wrote one up for my neighbor, too, since whomever hit my car, also hit their new Kia Sedona van. It was nigh on to 8:45 by now, and I told Jacob I had to go, to let the one dog without a dog door outside to potty. I took the car we have borrowed from my dear friend Kama's father, which is a rickety 1999 Mercury Sable, with mediocre brakes and a bad shimmy in the front end if you top 30 miles per hour. But it's a car. A functional car.
When I got to the house, I was greeted by a dog in a rush to get outside, but not to potty, only to pee a little, so she could run back in and stand at the biscuit cabinet. When I went upstairs to clean the cat's box, I understood why. She had pooped in pretty much every carpeted area of the house. I don't know if she is just stressed from her people being gone, or if the neighbor kid who takes her out in the evening, didn't show up last night, or what, but she hasn't ever done anything like that, and I've been sitting for her for 3 years, maybe 4. So we cleaned that up, fed her and the cat, and I went to do my other several jobs and go to the bank. By the time I finished at bank and everything else, it was after noon. Sigh...
Of course, we couldn't go run then, because everyone needed to have lunch. So we had lunch, then we went upstairs to get everyone ready to go run. I thought. Then Jacob sat down and started watching "Weeds", which he's been doing obsessively for a few days now. I figured he needed a minute to decompress, so I did some work on the computer. He kept watching. I kept telling the kids to get ready to go, and they finally did. They came into our room, where I was killing time on the computer, waiting for Jacob to change clothes. I was getting a little peeved that it was taking him so long, and the kids were very impatient and annoying. Finally he said, "Are you ready to go yet?" I said, "I'm waiting for YOU!" He said, "Well, I'M waiting for YOU!" I said, "You said you were gonna change you clothes, so I've been waiting for you to change", He said, "I said I decided to run in this, and that I was ready to go, like an hour ago!" Classic misunderstanding in our house. We all try to do something to keep us occupied and productive while we wait for someone else, and then that person thinks they're waiting for us to finish doing something important, and we never get out the door. Argh.
We finally got to Grant's Trail about 5:30, and started running, which was about the last thing I wanted to do at that moment. We ran the first half really slowly, and it was mildly miserable, sort of death-march-ish. With the added issue of a giant storm cloud immediately over our heads, which occasionally taunted us with a few drops of rain. The weather was really quite perfect for running, overcast, cool, breezy. I was just in a bit of a foul mood, and not appreciating it adequately. After the sun went down, the gigantic, full, bright moon rose. We ran much more quickly, and I'm sure we ran negative splits, but I forgot to hit my split button at the halfway point, probably because Selena was texting me about how she had caught the oven on fire while making muffins.
The run back was gorgeous, quicker, and I pushed the stroller for some of the time, as Jacob was having some tummy trouble and not feeling great. All in all, it was a very nice run. We covered 15.6 miles in 3:34.
Next run, Tuesday. I need to think of some strategies to get people to give me money for this!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Fabulous Running Weather has arrived!
Finally! Wednesday evening, and Thursday morning, which kind of turned into a two-fer, were just marvelous. Wednesday evening, Jacob and the two little kids and I ran 7 miles at Forest Park, in the dark, under a huge, glowing moon. The weather was, dare I even say it? Chilly! It was 67F and so wonderful to feel a tiny chill on my skin when the breeze blew up. Then, Thursday morning, it was lovely again, 66 when I woke up, went out to work, and went back to Forest Park for another 4 miles. It was wonderful, again. Gorgeous, clear blue sky, light breeze, puffy white clouds and lots of birds. Just when the runs get longer, the weather gets more cooperative.
Today, Friday, was a rest day, just a light weight workout and calisthenics. Friday workout from www.Fitfabulousforever.com. Made some Larabar type bars from scratch, we'll see how they come out tomorrow.
Tomorrow, 15 miles, then more painting the basement. Better run those slowly...
Today, Friday, was a rest day, just a light weight workout and calisthenics. Friday workout from www.Fitfabulousforever.com. Made some Larabar type bars from scratch, we'll see how they come out tomorrow.
Tomorrow, 15 miles, then more painting the basement. Better run those slowly...
Monday, August 8, 2011
Summer colds are stinky!
Yesterday I posted that I thought I might toss a bike ride into the mix today. But last night my cold came on full-force, after I thought I had managed to run it off yesterday. Boo. Hiss. I have a terribly stuffy head, cough, plugged ears, and sore throat. I didn't do any exercise today, aside from a 30 minute walk and train with a Labrador, and a walk to the library and back with the kids. I did get 5 other jobs done, and a bunch of general "Stuff" that had to be done, so it was a fairly productive day, despite feeling ooky.
Tomorrow morning, 3 miles. The weather is considerably cooler here, upper 80's, so it's a real climate break! It rained a little more this morning, which was nice and much-needed! I plan on an early to bed night tonight, and hope to not wake until 5. Last night, the cat woke me up, preparing to barf on my bed, at 3:15 am. I managed to chase her off, but only to the spot where I stepped right in it getting out of bed...sigh. May tonight bring better sleep, and spirit my cold away to the place where colds go!
Tomorrow morning, 3 miles. The weather is considerably cooler here, upper 80's, so it's a real climate break! It rained a little more this morning, which was nice and much-needed! I plan on an early to bed night tonight, and hope to not wake until 5. Last night, the cat woke me up, preparing to barf on my bed, at 3:15 am. I managed to chase her off, but only to the spot where I stepped right in it getting out of bed...sigh. May tonight bring better sleep, and spirit my cold away to the place where colds go!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
All's well that ends well
Whew! Crazy weekend. My training plans didn't go quite as planned for the weekend, but it all ended up okay. The original plan was to run my long run, (10 miles) on Saturday, and cross train on Sunday, along with my usual daily calisthenics from www.fitfabulousforever.com. But things didn't go as planned, which is so often the case in my life!
Saturday morning, I got up promptly at 5 to get my morning work finished so I could do my 10 miler before driving 2 hours each way to pick up daughter #1 from camp. I had my smoothie, and as I was heading out the door to work, it started to thunderstorm. I got the work done, but there was no way I was running with the giant bolts of lightning! I drove to camp, got Selena, and we drove back. It poured for part of the ride, then cleared up. I thought, "okay, Jacob and I can run 10 with the stroller this afternoon."
Got home to delicious cucumber and asparagus sushi, so we ate. We finally got ready to leave the house, thinking we'd go to Grant's Trail, run, then go to Costco, and come home to go to the Cosmic Cow show.
We got the stroller into the car, and it started raining. Again. Ugh. We went to Costco, and then home to put away the frozen food. Then the kids exploded and we decided that we weren't up to a concert. We eventually ended up going for a walk to Tower Grove Park and finding a really cool natural hive of feral bees in a big Osage Orange tree. The whole walk I was wheezing, my asthma is bad in the super high humidity. By the time we got everyone to bed, I was grumpy, having missed my workout and having to count a walk as crosstraining, and realizing that I do, indeed, have a cold. And having had a very bad eating day. Which always really upsets me. I asked Selena if she'd be willing to babysit in the morning so Jacob and I could go run. She generously agreed.
Sunday morning, I woke at 5, took care of the dogs, and went back to sleep until 6:30, which was really too late to get a fast start. I got Jacob up and told him he had to go to work with me if we were going to have time to run. He said, "I hate you" and got up. I ate my overnight oatmeal with peaches, cinnamon, lemon zest and soymilk, and got some water ready to go. We took care of 4 jobs, and by then it was 8:45. I was upset, thinking we would never get back before Selena got really annoyed with the kids and everything at home was ugly. I really, really wanted to trail run, so we headed west toward the closest places, Queeny Park, and Castlewood. Queeny is closest, so Jacob drove there, since I said I didn't care where we went. I realized when we got there, that I did NOT want to run there, and was feeling sort of hateful toward the whole idea. So we went to Castlewood State Park, which is one of my very favorite places to run. I used to trail run at least once a week before the younger kids were born. Since the older kids were not homeschooled, I had daytime hours free sometimes, and would use them to trail run as often as I could. I always went on Mondays, when I had only one dog walking job, and when most sitting clients return from vacations. I often ran at Castlewood, or on the Chubb Trail at Lone Elk Park, or the Greenrock Trail, or Babler State Park. I'd go any other day during the week that I could free up a couple of hours. Since the younger kids are homeschooled, I don't have the big blocks of time to manipulate, and trail running is something that has fallen away by necessity, and that I miss very much.
So, when Selena can babysit, Jacob and I almost always use that time to go trail running.
Today's run was great. We climbed the front of the hill that tops at the bluffs over the Meramec River, and goes down an enormous set of stairs to the train tracks, and along the river, then back around to the road we started from and back out to another hill climb on the opposite site of the road, up the Grotepeter Trail, which climbs and tops the hills, then comes out at the Ranger station, where we crossed the road again, and climbed the River Walk Trail back to the top of the bluffs, then down the first trail we took up, and back to the parking lot. 2:10. Probably not 10 miles, but the terrain and the elevation gains and losses more than make up for mileage. It was also hot. About 95 F with a heat index of 106. We saw a 5 foot black snake, a box turtle, a bunch of Turkey Vultures (no, they were NOT following me!), a chipmunk, and a really annoying horsefly. I did take one big wipeout, but it was pretty well balanced, and I came out with some dirt and a scrape on my right knee. I fell right on the flat, in the soft dirt, shortly after descending the stairs. I never seem to fall on the rocks and heavy terrain. Lucky me. Jacob thinks it may have something to do with the stairs.
Things I learned today:
My wonderful husband will do pretty much anything to hang with me, even if he shouldn't.
Don't forget the bottle of gatorade in the fridge.
I can still run hardcore on the rough stuff.
Merrell Pace Gloves are awesome shoes, but definitely need gaiters. Dirty girl will be back tomorrow, so I'll be putting in an order.
Having a daughter who can babysit and have multigrain pancakes for you when you get home rocks.
Citrus bodywash on a scraped knee really stings!
I still love Castlewood, the river, and all the amazing natural beauty available to me.
Trail running soothes my soul like nothing else.
I still have the cold, but I feel so much better after the run! We gave Selena $20 for babysitting, so maybe she'll do it again next week. All's well that ends well. And I think I might add a bike ride to tomorrow's "rest" day, just for fun.
Saturday morning, I got up promptly at 5 to get my morning work finished so I could do my 10 miler before driving 2 hours each way to pick up daughter #1 from camp. I had my smoothie, and as I was heading out the door to work, it started to thunderstorm. I got the work done, but there was no way I was running with the giant bolts of lightning! I drove to camp, got Selena, and we drove back. It poured for part of the ride, then cleared up. I thought, "okay, Jacob and I can run 10 with the stroller this afternoon."
Got home to delicious cucumber and asparagus sushi, so we ate. We finally got ready to leave the house, thinking we'd go to Grant's Trail, run, then go to Costco, and come home to go to the Cosmic Cow show.
We got the stroller into the car, and it started raining. Again. Ugh. We went to Costco, and then home to put away the frozen food. Then the kids exploded and we decided that we weren't up to a concert. We eventually ended up going for a walk to Tower Grove Park and finding a really cool natural hive of feral bees in a big Osage Orange tree. The whole walk I was wheezing, my asthma is bad in the super high humidity. By the time we got everyone to bed, I was grumpy, having missed my workout and having to count a walk as crosstraining, and realizing that I do, indeed, have a cold. And having had a very bad eating day. Which always really upsets me. I asked Selena if she'd be willing to babysit in the morning so Jacob and I could go run. She generously agreed.
Sunday morning, I woke at 5, took care of the dogs, and went back to sleep until 6:30, which was really too late to get a fast start. I got Jacob up and told him he had to go to work with me if we were going to have time to run. He said, "I hate you" and got up. I ate my overnight oatmeal with peaches, cinnamon, lemon zest and soymilk, and got some water ready to go. We took care of 4 jobs, and by then it was 8:45. I was upset, thinking we would never get back before Selena got really annoyed with the kids and everything at home was ugly. I really, really wanted to trail run, so we headed west toward the closest places, Queeny Park, and Castlewood. Queeny is closest, so Jacob drove there, since I said I didn't care where we went. I realized when we got there, that I did NOT want to run there, and was feeling sort of hateful toward the whole idea. So we went to Castlewood State Park, which is one of my very favorite places to run. I used to trail run at least once a week before the younger kids were born. Since the older kids were not homeschooled, I had daytime hours free sometimes, and would use them to trail run as often as I could. I always went on Mondays, when I had only one dog walking job, and when most sitting clients return from vacations. I often ran at Castlewood, or on the Chubb Trail at Lone Elk Park, or the Greenrock Trail, or Babler State Park. I'd go any other day during the week that I could free up a couple of hours. Since the younger kids are homeschooled, I don't have the big blocks of time to manipulate, and trail running is something that has fallen away by necessity, and that I miss very much.
So, when Selena can babysit, Jacob and I almost always use that time to go trail running.
Today's run was great. We climbed the front of the hill that tops at the bluffs over the Meramec River, and goes down an enormous set of stairs to the train tracks, and along the river, then back around to the road we started from and back out to another hill climb on the opposite site of the road, up the Grotepeter Trail, which climbs and tops the hills, then comes out at the Ranger station, where we crossed the road again, and climbed the River Walk Trail back to the top of the bluffs, then down the first trail we took up, and back to the parking lot. 2:10. Probably not 10 miles, but the terrain and the elevation gains and losses more than make up for mileage. It was also hot. About 95 F with a heat index of 106. We saw a 5 foot black snake, a box turtle, a bunch of Turkey Vultures (no, they were NOT following me!), a chipmunk, and a really annoying horsefly. I did take one big wipeout, but it was pretty well balanced, and I came out with some dirt and a scrape on my right knee. I fell right on the flat, in the soft dirt, shortly after descending the stairs. I never seem to fall on the rocks and heavy terrain. Lucky me. Jacob thinks it may have something to do with the stairs.
Things I learned today:
My wonderful husband will do pretty much anything to hang with me, even if he shouldn't.
Don't forget the bottle of gatorade in the fridge.
I can still run hardcore on the rough stuff.
Merrell Pace Gloves are awesome shoes, but definitely need gaiters. Dirty girl will be back tomorrow, so I'll be putting in an order.
Having a daughter who can babysit and have multigrain pancakes for you when you get home rocks.
Citrus bodywash on a scraped knee really stings!
I still love Castlewood, the river, and all the amazing natural beauty available to me.
Trail running soothes my soul like nothing else.
I still have the cold, but I feel so much better after the run! We gave Selena $20 for babysitting, so maybe she'll do it again next week. All's well that ends well. And I think I might add a bike ride to tomorrow's "rest" day, just for fun.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Wow! Behind on Blogging, not on Running...
Hi everyone! Looks like I'm quite behind in my blogging duties! The good news is, I have been running and am pretty much on "track" as it were, for my Chicago Marathon goal. Last week seems to be the last time I made a blog update. Well, let's see, it's been consistently miserably hot here in the Midwest. Temps over 100 F for most of the week, with heat indices in the 110-116 F range. Ugh! I have been lucky enough to get out of the house between 5 and 7 am for most of my runs, so it's been in the breezy upper 80's when I've been out actually running.
Last Tuesday I ran around Tower Grove park for 3 miles. I saw the funniest thing, as I was running toward the Piper Palm House, which is a big greenhouse across from some lily ponds, I saw a bunch of ducks lined up along the sidewalk, looking expectant. I had a weird moment where it seemed they were waiting for me, as they all turned to look at me at the same time. Then, as I got closer, I saw the automatic sprinklers go on! They all did the duck neck twist thing, and the duck happy dance. Apparently, this is their morning ablutions!
On Wednesday, I ran around Forest Park, through the lakes and around the Boathouse, and to the Fieldhouse, for a total of 5.18 miles. I'd planned a 6, but I had to get home for the kids to get to camp. I ran in my Merrell Pace Gloves for half the time, and in my actual bare feet the rest of the time. It was lovely.
On Thursday, I ran around Tower Grove and to a client's house who lives in my neighborhood, to walk her dog. Friday was a rest day, calisthenics, and play with the kids. My running schedule called for a half-marathon race this weekend, but there are none to do in MO in the middle of July! I had a lot of work, and Jacob had the opportunity to work both weekend days and make extra money. So, I thought I'd run on Sunday morning, but I didn't have time. I didn't want to run on Monday, because we had been out the night before to a cookout, and I was really exhausted, and still had a number of clients out of town. So, Tuesday (yesterday) morning, I got up early and got out of the house, did all my morning work, and went to Forest Park. I ran two full outside loops of the park, and bit farther, past the field house for a third time, and back to the car. I thought for sure it would be the 13.1 I had planned, but when I checked my mileage, it was only 12.31. Oops. I guess that's why I have all those days where I ran an extra half mile or so! I saw some really beautiful birds on my run. In the wetlands part of the park, I saw an egret, a blue heron, a green heron and an amazing looking shorebird I am unfamiliar with. Quite tall, orange eyes, and a very long, white, crest feather on the top of his head! Also turtles, wood ducks, and a gorgeous red-tailed hawk. It was 89 F when I started out, and 106 F when I finished! Ack! No wonder it took me so long!
All is well in the training department. The fundraising department seems to have hit a stall, however. I strongly encourage everyone to DONATE! and please encourage your friends, students and clients to donate, too! Many thanks!
Last Tuesday I ran around Tower Grove park for 3 miles. I saw the funniest thing, as I was running toward the Piper Palm House, which is a big greenhouse across from some lily ponds, I saw a bunch of ducks lined up along the sidewalk, looking expectant. I had a weird moment where it seemed they were waiting for me, as they all turned to look at me at the same time. Then, as I got closer, I saw the automatic sprinklers go on! They all did the duck neck twist thing, and the duck happy dance. Apparently, this is their morning ablutions!
On Wednesday, I ran around Forest Park, through the lakes and around the Boathouse, and to the Fieldhouse, for a total of 5.18 miles. I'd planned a 6, but I had to get home for the kids to get to camp. I ran in my Merrell Pace Gloves for half the time, and in my actual bare feet the rest of the time. It was lovely.
On Thursday, I ran around Tower Grove and to a client's house who lives in my neighborhood, to walk her dog. Friday was a rest day, calisthenics, and play with the kids. My running schedule called for a half-marathon race this weekend, but there are none to do in MO in the middle of July! I had a lot of work, and Jacob had the opportunity to work both weekend days and make extra money. So, I thought I'd run on Sunday morning, but I didn't have time. I didn't want to run on Monday, because we had been out the night before to a cookout, and I was really exhausted, and still had a number of clients out of town. So, Tuesday (yesterday) morning, I got up early and got out of the house, did all my morning work, and went to Forest Park. I ran two full outside loops of the park, and bit farther, past the field house for a third time, and back to the car. I thought for sure it would be the 13.1 I had planned, but when I checked my mileage, it was only 12.31. Oops. I guess that's why I have all those days where I ran an extra half mile or so! I saw some really beautiful birds on my run. In the wetlands part of the park, I saw an egret, a blue heron, a green heron and an amazing looking shorebird I am unfamiliar with. Quite tall, orange eyes, and a very long, white, crest feather on the top of his head! Also turtles, wood ducks, and a gorgeous red-tailed hawk. It was 89 F when I started out, and 106 F when I finished! Ack! No wonder it took me so long!
All is well in the training department. The fundraising department seems to have hit a stall, however. I strongly encourage everyone to DONATE! and please encourage your friends, students and clients to donate, too! Many thanks!
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