Foot prints on my butt!!

Thank goodness...today was the last Sunstroke Stampede 5k.  I ran a 3.75 mile wu and felt like crap in the 5k.  Leslie kicked my butt good to win the overall...way to go Leslie.  She looked super strong and smooth for the short amount of time I saw her.   No excuses for me...I could come up with a million but I won't.  We ran a couple miles to cool down and I totaled 8.66 miles in 1:22:00.  Jim Gelb won the male masters - all right!!  I achieved my goal...I stuck out the whole series...only 11 or 12 people did.

FYI - be prepared to have dorky paper chips on your shoes for most races in Austin with over 1000 runners (3M, Run for the Water for sure).  Even if you have a personal chip, you will have to use the paper chip.  Reason is that people were losing their plastic chip between picking it up and getting to the race and they don't have to collect the paper chips - they are disposable.  I think more people are going to lose the paper chips!!  They are working at making them smaller.

Mike W - I apologize - I tossed mine tonight before it occurred to me to take a picture of it to post.

I'm thinking of getting some nutrition help from Meredith - I don't have any race/long run issues and know the things I eat that I shouldn't but I'm hoping she can give me some ideas of fast easy things I can eat when pressed for time instead of junk.

Will do 10-12 tomorrow...I will!!

Mental energy

Riley is still lame....I like to ride so not being able to is kinda like not been able to run.  I am tired of my horse activities being limited to tending to his feet, brushing him and trying to figure out what the problem is.

One last Sunstoke Stampede run tonight...thank goodness.  I am going to try and run 10 miles tonight with the "race" being 3 miles of it.  I will not be running fast...it's too hot.

One month until AT&T training starts.  Unlikely that it will be much cooler in September so I think I had better practice running after work.  Will do what I did last year...run from the jail, after work, before I get in the car and drive home.

Need to go get some water and start hydrating.

Yes Geezer, I am a slacker!

OK - I ran a whooping 17.5 miles this week. Yesterday was 8 miles of hell in 95+ degrees in my neighborhood - I felt like I was struggling the last 3 miles. I even had fluids with me. I think I was underhydrated to start with. I spent yesterday and today sitting on my butt announcing horses/riders at the horse show and forgot to drink.
Will be back to business next week.

Overwhelming tiredness

I didn't get to bed on Wednesday as early as I should have so didn't bother to get up at 5:30 on Thursday morning to run.  Tried to ride my bike from my place to the expo center -  would have been about 7 miles or so but because I was feeling lazy and didn't want to ride on the big hills on 973 I went on 969 where I got a flat between Don's BBQ and Decker Rd.  Did I have a spare tube and pump?  O course not.  I live in denial that flats happen.  It was raining pretty hard.  Thankfully I had my cell with me so I called a friend who was also going to be setting fences and she came and picked soaking wet me up.  Spent about 4 hours building up jumps.  Cross training.  Went home to do laundry and then went to get groceries.  Took naps at the red lights on the way there and back.  Got home and went to check on Riley's foot.  It's making slow but steady improvement.  Went back to the house and crashed at 8pm (I had thought about doing a run).  I have not been that tired in a very, very long time.  Set my alarm for 5am...thought about a short run and decided another hour of sleep would be better.  Spent the day at the expo center announcing riders and results.  Relaxing and kinda fun.   Came home and checked on Riley again...seems much better.  I am optimistic that he will be good to go within the next week.  Now as I type this, I am planning my run today.  Is 5:30pm an ideal time to start a 10 mile run?  No but I'll take what I can get.  I am not going to the Rogue run tomorrow so need to do something NOW.  It will be another early start at the show in the morning but I'll leave by one and get in a nap before work.

Finally...used good strategy in 5K from hell

After 4 hours of sleep in 24 hrs I guess I was tired enough to just relax and run a smart race.  In the first mile I just let people go and ran my own pace.  I had my garmin which actually helped me pace myself.  In mile 2 I picked up the pace but relaxed a little as we headed down the hill at brushy Creek.  Came around the turn around fast and grabbed water from the table and with my usual efficient water drinking on the go passed Leslie.  Again stayed relaxed and tried to pay attention to my form.  Leslie was right on my heels as we crossed the little bridge and headed back up the hill.  A chic in the 35-39 age group was just ahead.  I bided my time and put down a little hammer on the hill.  See you later Leslie (OK she was not that far behind for the rest of the race), watch out young chic!  On the bridge we had a good tailwind so I just found a rythym I thought I could hold and pulled that youngster up.  Passed her smoothly.  There was a 20 some chic ahead but I didn't think it was worth breaking a smooth stride to try and catch her...I was reeling her in and I felt good with that.  Ended up with a slow time of 23:16 or so and Overall Masters winner.

My new Mizunos feel good.  No knee pain, minimal heel pain.  A little big toe soreness but that is not shoe related.

Went for pizza with Jim.  One more race!!!

Time for a shower and bed and up at 5:30 to run - shooting for 12 tomorrow.  Got in 9 today.

Low mileage week too.

I was going to get up and run at 5pm today but instead got up at 2:30 to wait for the farrier so she could check Riley's feet. He was perfectly happy to come into the barn and get out of the sun for his lunch. However, his feet were hurting so much he did not want to walk to the gate like he usually does. Seems a lot worse than yesterday but in fact that's good. It means it is pretty likely he has an abcess in his left front hoof. They are easy but time consuming to treat and resolve pretty fast. He was sore on his left hoof when the farrier squeezed on his hoof with her special hoof testers so I'm soaking his feet twice aday with warm water and epsom salts.

So you might be wondering how on earth you get a horse to comply with hoof soaking. Well there are a variety of ways but the easiest for me is to put his feet into 1 gallon storage bags (you fill these with the water/epsom salt mixture) and then into a pair of protective hoof boots he has and then give him some food. He is pretty happy just to stand in the stall and eat. Hopefully this will cause the abcess to drain and he will be a happy camper in a few days.

So needless to say, after losing 1 1/2 hrs of sleep time this afternoon, I decided to sleep from 4pm to 6 instead of running. Maybe on Tuesday although I'm not counting on it. Have to get up early on Wednesday and go to a new employee hiring board. I complained that they never let the night shift nurses do this so when they asked if I could do it this week I couldn't really say no. Hopefully by the time I get to Brushy Creek for the weekly 5k run from hell, I will have enough energy to run my 9 miles. I will be jogging the 5k again this week. Thursday, I will run on my own in the morning to maximize the amount of sleep I get on Wed. night. I will then go and get some cross training in setting up jumps for the show I won't be going to now. Then on Friday I will get up early (hopefully) and run 10 miles, work at the show all day and try to get adequate sleep on Fri. so I can do a long run with Rogue on Sat. before going back to the show for the rest of the day. Then I get to go back to work Sat. night. I will scale back any runs necessary if I get too tired.

The one glitch that might occur with all of this is that if Riley is not considerably better by Wed. PM, I will have to squeeze in a trip to the vet!! I hope not.

Athlete Injury

You know what a hassle it is when you get an injury running, you're not sure exactly what the problem is but you know for sure where the problem is. You treat it at home and if it doesn't get better you go to the doctor, get told not to ever run again, ignore their advise and go for a ten mile run. Either the problem gets better or worse. OK so now trying to do that with a horse. The number one problem is that they can't tell you exactly where they are hurting and you have to start guessing. Especially when there is no obvious external sign - swelling, heat, holding the leg in the air or a cut!

That's where Riley is. Jogs around on the longe perfectly sound, acts perfectly normal out in his pasture yet when I try to ride him, starts out fine and suddenely, out of the blue, for no obvious reason is dead lame. This is an extension of the problem he had last week, he seemed to be better and has been off the anti-inflammatories. The obvious problem area would be his feet since I am in the process of getting him out of shoes and going barefoot - a perfectly normal, natural situation for a horse. There are a variety of things that can make the transition difficult. The thing with Riley is that he was doing really well until he escaped from his pasture. So he is not going to the horse show next weekend. He is going to the vet to make sure he hasn't fractured a bone in one of his feet or that I have overlooked something unrelated to his feet.

Normally if it was the feet you would soak them in hot water and epsom salts, but I am reluctent to do this because all the water softens their feet and makes their soles more prone to bruising. Oh well, the hoof trimmer is coming tomorrow to have a look and I will follow her advise for treatment. It is a very frustrating process and it seems to me that it's never the same from one horse to another and the solution for one is not the solution for the other. Constant trial and error - makes the healing process take forever.

I will try and get a run in tomorrow in the late afternoon furnace.

Better start carrying a bottle

I saw a piece in the Statesman yesterday about how Runtex is cutting back the number of papercups they will be supplying at the water coolers on the trail. They want people to carry a refillable bottle. They also want you to bring a refillable bottle to races to use at the end.

Crestview

I haven't run the Crestview loop in quite sometime.  I just ran 12 miles as that put me at 42 for the week and I don't want to ramp up too quickly.

Mike W suggested I should be running with them today...NOT.  A 7:53 pace would have completely shut me down and I would have needed a ride home from the halfway point.  I forgot my garmin so according to another runners watch I averaged 9:20ish today...must have included the water stops because we were going a lot faster than that.  I felt pretty good - sore right knee for the last 1 or 2 miles but that's nothing new.  Got some new shoes.  I'm going to try the Mizuno Wave Inspire - the Nikes are causing some heel pain and I'll see if these make it better or worse.

Went to visit a good friend of mine - an older lady who would put many people 1/2 her age to shame and she made a wonderful lunch of homemade soup, salad and apple cranberry pie.

Now time for a nap some I can be full of energy for work tonight!

By the way it is really great to be back with the Rogue group...looks like business is booming.  The crowd today looked reminisent of AT&T fall training!!  Store looked busy afterwards too.

A Poll

On Thursday while Diana, Leslie and I were running we wondered what motivates someone to honk at runners.  So our question is...if you honk at female runners, do you honk when there is one runner, 2 runners or 3+ runners?

Since Riley (my horse) is resting from his sore feet, I rode a friend's horse in our jumping lesson last night.  He is bred to jump so since his owner doesn't tend to jump very big jumps she asked that we let him jump around some bigger stuff.  He is really fun and is so powerful that he just floats over the jumps with no effort.  His only problem is that he tends to drift to the right and it is really hard to correct.  We ended up doing a 3'6" spread fence which in the world of jumping is tiny but to me is a decent size.  Put in perspective, male 100m hurdlers clear 3'6" hurdles.  Unbelievable - I can't imagine.

Ran 10miles today and while my legs felt a little tired today at the end it went fine - I went out on the Decker loop so it was fairly hilly.  I must have hit the snooze button 10 times this morning - even the dog didn't want to get out of  the bed!  Enjoyed an ice bath with 20lbs of ice and some whole wheat blueberry pancakes.  Lost 3 lbs on the run but I didn't carry any water with me so I'm not surprised.   Looking to do 12 miles tomorrow which should put me at 42 for the week.  12 seems so short but I don't want to increase my milage too quickly.  It will end up being about 7 miles more than last week.

Lost motivation.

I have lost all motivation for running fast 5ks on the trail.  Yesterdays Suntroke 5k on TLT was full of very good masters runners....Cindy Salazar, Nancy Dasso and some others.  I knew that by the 3/4 mile mark last week was not a fluke so I slowed down and just ran kind of easy.  The longer, easier paced runs feel just fine.  My body is just not interested in running fast.  I also think the adjustment in my schedule isn't helping (working Tuesday nights now so I can be off Friday).  Am doing much, much better on my diet and my weight is slowly drifting down.  Consistantly in the 140-142 lb range in stead of 144-145 range.

I have decided to do Dwayne's DC focused AT&T Rogue group in the fall.

My poor horse has sore feet from his trek outside his pasture the other night but today looks much better than yesterday.  I am hopeful he will be all better by next weekend for the horse show.

Up at 4:40 this AM to run with Leslie and Diana - very easy paced 6miles but it felt good despite being a little humid today.  Plan 8-10 miles tomorrow and at least 12 on Saturday with Rogue.

Bored horse too!

Apparently my horse was bored last night too.  He managed to get through the fencing and cruised around the back pastureland all night.  When the girl that feeds in the morning went to feed him, he was no where to be found.  They found him standing by an unused gate yelling for his breakfast.  Fortunately he is no worse for it and I really hope that he won't make it a habit.

I'm hungry (and bored).

OK it's 4:10 am at the jail and it's a pretty slow Sunday night. These days I bring one main meal and 2 snacks to get me through the night and eat them at the exact same time every night. Has improved the grazing on junk situation. However, I do spend a fair amount of time watching the clock waiting for my next meal time. Today I brought an EAS lite bar and had that with a diet coke at 9pm, had a salad and veggie burger with 2 slices of wheat bread and 1 slice of cheese at 1am and am awaiting my 5 am snack of cherrios, blueberries and kefir at 5am as I type. In between I drink water and chew gum to keep my mouth busy!
My biggest task tonight has been answering the phone (new employee working in the upstairs in the jail) every 5 minutes and answering the same question over and over. Right now there is a lady outside my office arrested for DWI denying she had anything to drink tonight...yeah...right!! Hear that all the time.
Plan tonight to run 5 miles at 6pm no matter how hot it is. My legs are feeling surprisingly good (read no pain or stiffness) after my long run on Sat. Those ice baths really work well. I did have some pain in my left heel on Sat. night but that was gone by the time I got up on Sun. afternoon.
I think it is time for some new shoes.

Diet and electrolytes

I was reading the most recent issue of Inside Texas Running and there were 2 articles of interest. One was looking at the diets of 4 runners and the other was an article about electrolyte replacement by Paul Carmona.

The one about diet was kind of wierd...it was amazing how much junk and how little vegetables these folks ate. The article was by a dietition and while the junk issue was mildly addressed, the veggie issue was not.

The electrolyte article was worthwhile though because I suspect a lot of people who take or plan to take supplemental electrolytes don't have a plan. The most interesting part was about what happens if you take too much electrolytes...bloating, stomach cramps to a shut down of sweating.

Thankfully loss of electrolytes doesn't seem to be a problem for me although I did have some quad and hamstring cramping and a lot of salt on my face at Boston this year...perhaps a little additional electrolytes may have helped.

I conquered Mt Bonnell

OK...I haven't done any hilly runs since Boston and I haven't done a run with Rogue since Boston either.  Today I met up with the 6am group of runners leaving from Barton Springs.  I chatted briefly with Ed and Bruce but it was dark so I didn't see a whole lot of other people I recognized.  I felt a little sluggish on the trail section but that's not unsual for me...takes 4-5 miles for me to loosen up.  Once we got to Lake Austin Blvd, my legs kind of clicked into gear and I had to work not to run too fast.  At this point I was pretty much running on my own.  At the water stop with Amy I asked where the turn around was for the 10 mile run and she said it was at the bottom of the Scenic hill so I figured if I was going to have to run up that, I might as well run all the way to the top of Mount Bonnell.  I had done a 12 mile run a couple of weeks ago so 14 wasn't that big of a stretch.  I was slow on Mt Bonnell but no problem...I know I am very slow on that sort of hill and I wasn't about to blow a gasket trying to prove something.  Had a couple of Shot Bloks at the turn around (thanks to Karen) and headed back.  It was great running down the hill high 5'ing all the people I had run with last summer who were running up (I suspect they were doing the 18mile version).  At this point I met up with a couple of people training for Chicago and San Antonio and the three of us ran the rest of the way back together.  It was fun to share stories and hear the excitement of someone preparing for his first marathon.  I did suggest he run the long runs a little slower (he was shooting for a 4 hr marathon and at this point we were averaging around 8:3o) but he seemed determined and to be enjoying himself so I'll bet he'll achieve his goal.  I felt surprisingly good today and still quite fresh at the end.  It is so great to be back with the group.

Passed on soaking at Barton Springs and hopped in to a 2 bag ice bath after a bowl of Cherrios and blueberries.  Off now for a pedicure!

Computer seems all better.

After a few days of no internet access, I took it to Mac Alliance and they did a diagnostic, cleaned up some corrupted files and all seems well again.

I am learning alot from reading Geezer, Wiley, and Scott's blogs.  I weighed myself before and after todays easy 6 miler and it seemed like I lost close to 4 pounds.  It was very humid.  I am also backing off the Wed 5K races as my heart, head and legs are no longer in it.  I hate running fast on the crushed granite surface and don't want to burn my self out.  I ran a 5K warm up, a pathetic 5K race (it was hot and I went out a bit fast), and another 5K cool down total 9.3miles.  Felt great in the warm up and cool down and lousy on the fast stuff.  Next week, I'm taking the dog so I have to run the race part slowly.  My legs felt a little heavy on the run today and my hip flexors are really tight.  Had a massage with Rachel and hopefully will be better by tomorrow.

My plan is to slowly ramp up my milege.  Starting to do that by running with Rogue on Saturday AM.  No more races until the IBM 10K.

Wonderful rainy run!!

After hearing the rain a few times during my sleep today and opening my front door to find that it was pleasant out, I decided to break with my usual schedule and go for a run. I was ready to go at 5pm after doing 150 assorted crunches when the skys opened and it was pouring...I figured I'd give it 30 min and then just suck it up.
By 5:20 it was raining lightly and I headed out. Ran a moderate paced 6 miles with the last half considerably faster than the first. I felt pretty good actually and the light rain made it even better.
Stopped by the barn on my way home and gave a IV shot to one of the boarders horses - she was stunned at how easy I made it look since the vet had a difficult time the last time he did it. When you stick needles in people all the time, a horse's jugular vein is like a garden hose in comparison so it's easy.
If it's cool tomorrow, I may do another run. We will just have to see.

Happy 4th of July!!

Ran the Freedom 5000 this AM.  Did not want to get up at 5:50 and hit the snooze button a few times.  Felt generally bad but went anyway.  Warmed up a couple of miles, did drills and strides with Leslie and prepared to do the best I could.  

The course ended up being short...heard 2.9, 2.99,3miles.  Whatever, it was an excellent course and it was fun doing 2 laps.  I ran the first mile in 6:24...likely a mile PR for me, 2 miles in 13:18 definately a 2 mile PR and the full course in 20:20.  Even if I added on the short piece that was missing, I feel like I would have run a PR.  Ended up 5th woman overall, first in Masters.  Got my hat...that was the goal (top 10 got hats).  Ran a relaxed 2+ mile cool down and went for breakfast at Kerbey Lane with Jim.  Feel much better now.

Rest of the day...one load of laundry, quality time with the horse and dog and a big nap!  Can't beat that...only downside is that I have to go to work tonight.

Happy 4th...be safe!!

This is getting really irritating.

We'll start with my dissatisfaction with computers and the internet.  This morning I was able to read Scott's blog at 4:50am.  Get home from the run at 7:15 and I can no longer access anyone's blog or my runners world log.  I have no problem with the local news, Rogue, or Runtex.  What is the deal???  Anyway, at least I can do new posts.

Last night was number 8 of the Sunstroke Stampede....it was probably the coolest.  Since I am planning to do the Freedom 5000 this Friday, I ran a 4 mile warm up, ran an easy effort in the race and then 2 more miles afterwards.  I didn't feel great - 3 hrs sleep in 24hrs, and  ate lunch too late so the easy effort was appreciated.  Total of 9 miles.  I was disappointed that I couldn't run fast yesterday since it was so cool out but hopefully the temps on Friday AM will be reasonable.  I told Leslie this morning that I will be very unhappy if I don't break 22min on Friday...I don't expect a PR since I have done no speed work this summer but please...sub 22:00.

Got up at 4:40 this AM...this is getting easier...I am NOT a morning person but it seems normal now.  Ran a very easy 6 miles this morning with Leslie and Diana and we complained about the quality of the work force these days (not including ourselves, of course!).  The trails off Metric are really nice, beautifully maintained and with neat little lights along the side so if it's dark you can see where you are going.  There were some ducks hanging out by the pond and they seem oblivious to us as we run by.  Several community pools...we may have to try the post run dip some time...I'm sure the community association will send Leslie and Diana reams of letters that we were in the pool with our shorts on and that we didn't take showers!!

So now, while I'm typing, I see a nice message in red type that says "could not contact Blogger.com.  Saving and publishing may fail.  Retrying..."  WTF!!!  Gonna try and publish...

Computer Hassles

For some weird reason, I am having the hardest time with the internet these days.  I can get onto News 8 Austin, but try to access anyone's blogs....ain't happening.  My work schedule is all over the place so I am just running a few miles before the race tonight, running the race easy and then 2 more miles afterwards.  Haven't run since last Friday and I feel like I have gained 10lbs...had a bad sugar binge last night!  I was going to get back to the long runs with Rogue this weekend but unfortunately my lovely work place has me working overtime on Friday.  Might try a run on Sat evening since I told them I wouldn't be there on Sat until 11pm instead of 9pm.  I'll shoot for a Rogue long run the following week.