Night trail half marathon.....blessed night

      I am wired up tonight. I just ran the Planet Adventure Nighttime Half Marathon out at Eagle Creek. The race didn't even start until 6pm. I was wired up all day for this. I started having my clothes panic as early as 11am. Dang it how fast am I gonna run in the dark? How cold should I start out so that I can be comfy when I am running? Um...what clothes to bring to change into afterwards? What shoes to wear? My trail shoes which are still rather new to me or my good ol' Mizunos. I even texted a picture to Christy saying "too much? okay? whattya think?" I ended up choosing my little "body armor" shirt under my purple running hoodie with the fleece inside, two long sleeves shirts and my light windbreaker. Then my heavy tights, my purple ear cover, two pairs of gloves, my toe socks with other socks on top of them and my mizunos. Oh yeah and my hydration pack which I weighed and measured and decided to take as I could also use the extra pockets for all my inevitable little things I felt i needed (which I ended up really using).
    Christy took a picture of me in all my gear and posted it on Facebook saying I was going to either scale Everest or run a trail half. HA HA!! That's okay...i can laugh at myself! You know what they say...angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
    So the time had come to be off. We donned our headlamps, turned them on and started running. Of course at the beginning is the inevitable one track backlog but then we started spreading out fairly quickly. The quarter marathoners had already gone before us so we didn't have to worry about tons of fasties racing by us. I actually was pleasantly surprised at how much of the trail I remembered!! I would say oh yeah here is that bridge and then this little hill and then there is the fence and that building and that big tree. So that really helped! And then the gravely part which we HATE HATE HATE was all covered up with snow which was lovely and helped with traction and to soften up the gravel. Plus....full moon. What could be better??
   At one point I just turned off my headlamp and ran by the light of the moon. It was so bright and I was at that wide open space in between the waters and it was cool to run "naked" of some of my technology. I met a girl who this was her first half marathon ever and i told her this had been my first half marathon too! We passed each other back and forth a bit. And it was so quiet. For there being several hundred runners out in those woods you wouldn't have known it. Everyone was so respectful of the trails that there were no loud hooting, hollering madness to deal with. Just bobbing headlamps, soft "on your left" and "good job" and such. And a bit of conversation here and there. VERY NICE NIGHT. And the t-shirt glows in the dark and the medal too.

So I'm going to walk a race

 

I have decided since my doctor said I cannot run this weekend due to my knees I will walk the Frosty 5 Mile race tomorrow. I know this will actually be hard for me due to my competitive nature and that letting everyone go ahead of me or around me will drive me crazy but I listen to my doctors so I will make myself walk. Does this make me less of a runner? Or am I just counted as a runner on rest? Or...and this is what I think....do labels make me who I am or do I make me who I am? I think it is the latter. I am just going to be happy to be out there with my friends who I have not really run with for two weeks or so and who I miss like mad. And I can have time to take pictures of my fellow racers, maybe some nature pics for my blog, just enjoy the scenery and remember that walking is good too. And I will be grateful to spend my Saturday morning out in the woods. 

Good Luck to All The Frosty 5 Mile Racers!! I will be there cheering you on!!!

Gratitude for running and the folks I run with

       So I *almost* felt I had to stop running this week. I was diagnosed with arthritis in both knees about two years ago and since that was a chronic condition I just was careful with them. If I had a big race, or even a little race that I wanted to give my all to (which is EVERY race) I wouldn't ride my bike that day or the day before...would be careful not to climb too many stairs, even taking the elevator at work. They grind, they twinge, they occasionally hurt enough I call off a workout. But then last week the left one started to hurt more than usual. Then on Monday I was trying to run slowly on a track at the WIC and my left knee just wouldn't cooperate. It felt more than usual twinginess and I decided since I wanted to continue my running streak MAYBE I should go get it checked out.
   I sat in the ER room and they took me to Xray. I thought maybe the arthritis was getting a bit worse, maybe some extra stretching, something like that. Then the doctor came in and said in this grave voice "I see some osteoporatic changes in your knee joint and it's wearing away." She gave me a sleeve to stabilize my knee which is good because sometimes it does track a bit funny. And she made an appointment with an orthopedic doc and sent me home with the scary word "osteoporosis" on my discharge papers.
   I couldn't stop crying on the way home...and it is not fun to be crying on a bus. I told my friends on FB and you know what? Everyone was so sweet and supportive and caring. I got instant support for what I was going through. I got some funnies from Erin, a sweet text from Christy, another from Cheryl, messages and all. I felt like I had such a great "family" that were there for me instantly. I had never had that before. It made me blubber more but in a good way. So then yesterday started crying in Starbucks. That was embarrassing but oh well....people have probably done worse in Starbucks.
   I went to the specialist today and he said he only saw some Osteoarthritis, which is what they had already told me, and I had been running with it anyway. He said if it doesn't hurt I can run as much as I want. Said just take some Aleve if it is bad and do what I have been doing for it all along. I felt reborn! I can run! I can still run! You never, never know how much something means to you until you almost lose it. And you never know who your real friends are until you need them.

Grateful I can continue what I love and grateful for the people who love me.

The Frozen Turtle Run.....hilarious frozen fun.

 Saturday morning--6am: I am curled up in my quilts with my two cats laying on me purring away and what do i do? Get up, have coffee, breakfast and head out into a VERY, very cold dawn to run a 10 mile run with my friends and the Indiana Trail Runners. Here was what greeted me in the dawn outside my apartment that morning. A lovely sky and moon. My friend Christy Victor picked me up in her nice warm van and we were off!

 As we drove I just wanted to capture the pretty dawn and sunrise and had brought my actual camera this time instead of relying on my camera phone only as that runs out of power quite quickly and then I miss important stuff. The fields were snowy, the morning quiet as a Monday church. Pink clouds bathed the sky in beauty.

Here is my poem to this morning and day:

 I wake to rise
Cast upon a sea of white
moon glow to dawn rise
begins to bathe the world
with pink-laden skies.
The hills and fields
warming a bit to light
quiet hush and sweet blush
This, then, is my life
                                                      I greet it with emboldened heart
                                                      Look smiling to the day
                                                      And bring my dreams unraveled into the journey of today.
                                                                                                                             H.Rose
 

I was so happy about the pretty morning I took a lot of pictures. Christy was nice enough to stop once to get a good picture of the sunrise. I was looking forward to this even if it was cold it was still a wonderful thing to be doing on a Saturday morning!When we got there we met Erin, Evan, Chris Neoh, Cheryl Hickock, Val and Melanie and Maggie and some others from the ITR including Terry Fletcher, the "master of ceremonies" for this little jaunt. There were some people going 20 miles and some going the whole 50K!!
 

 We ended up with a group of about 40 brave souls ready to spend the day freezing in the woods...for FUN! Crazy. But awesome too.

 Everyone was in good spirits and let me take pictures. Hope they don't get sick of my picture taking but I love to document these fun activities! And I LOVE writing about them. 

 So then Terry made some announcements and we were off and running into the freezing morning. I had worn approximately 50 layers including two pairs of gloves, two hooded sweatshirts and a hat, two pairs of socks, a long sleeve under my hoody. I must be part reptile..i get COLD!

 Here was my first picture of the woods. It was so pretty out and I was glad I had brought my camera. The snow was packed down pretty good in some places because the "fasties" had run there already in force. I actually stopped at one point and let a bunch of them go on because I was just NOT going to be very fast in this. And I wasn't wanting to race. I wanted to just hang out with my friends and have fun. No reason to race through this.






The trail wound through the woods, up hills and down hills, sometimes packed, sometimes icy and sometimes fluffy snow that drove us a bit crazy as there was no way to run through it without looking like we had just had one too many whiskeys. We made jokes about being drunk...one thing led to another and pretty soon we escalated to 7 drunken dwarves.  Val and I decided we were sniffly 1 and sniffly 2. I couldn't stop sniffling pretty much the whole time.

After we had been running for awhile the sun came out and WOW was it pretty!! I started going crazy taking pictures because the sun on the snow was amazing looking. I could not believe my luck that I was out here with friends doing this great thing. Hard yes. But worth every little twinge in my ankles and ache in my legs. 

As I said the sunshine on the snow was gorgeous. And we were having a good time... working hard on that snow and trails but mostly a lot of good conversation and laughing. At one point Erin completed a magnificent swirling save from falling and I thought it was the best thing I saw all day!






I wish I could live over here and just run out of my house in the morning to be greeted by THIS!
And in the fall when the leaves are on the trees this place glows like a golden cathedral. 

 I saw this and it was just too weird not to take a picture of. A scarf or snake maybe? Anyway it was cool that the snow draped over the branch like that. Guess you had to be there.

 Here was one of the lakes frozen over. I thought it was lovely. The day was also starting to warm up a bit. just...a bit.

I turned to take a picture of Christy, Val and Melanie running. They looked so tough! 

 More purty snow pictures. At this point my legs were about done for and we still had 5 miles left to go! OY! I worked very hard to focus on the fun and beauty of the woods and not so much on my ouchy ankles which were exhausted from having to twist and turn all over in the snow.It was a great core workout!

Final snow picture...the second lake.

And last but not least:

For your viewing pleasure...or whatever...here is a short video of me running and Christy and I talking that apparently my camera decided to take all by itself unknown to me. Just funny...you can laugh if you want to. I won't take offense. :-) 


And there was the Frozen Turtle Run...except we didn't get to catch a dragon. Ask Erin if you are confused.

running/training resolutions 2013

 

     I have some resolutions for my training/running in 2013. I know many people poo-poo the idea of resolutions thinking they will just fade out by February if not sooner but I see some value in working towards something and see the "failure" to achieve it as a lesson not a bad thing. We can always learn from our mistakes and can look back and see "How come I was not able to follow through? What kept me from achieving the goals I wanted?"  Losing faith in oneself simply because you could not be perfect in your pursuit of improvement is why some people then adopt the "screw it" attitude where you say...well i fell of the wagon of eating better, exercising more, giving up bad habits..etc...so SCREW IT I am just going to do what I want. Instead of looking at the fact that you have a WHOLE year to work on this. It doesn't have to be, nor probably won't be, accomplished on January 1st or the week after. Real change takes time, patience, dedication and a real stubbornness to do it no matter what. When you eat that donut then go okay that was not good but i have tomorrow to start again. The most successful people got that way by not giving in to their lack of immediate success and instead kept plugging away it until it was achieved.

       So here are a little list of my running/training resolutions for this year:

1. I have bought a notebook and am starting it fresh to take more careful notes on what kind of things worked and what didn't as far as keeping my training going in the direction I want it to go. 

2. Try to post more regularly on Running2Win so I can keep track of how far I have come and get a boost from it every month. 

3. Keep up with the miles game in RW every week

4. Do more speedwork. Go to the track as much as I can, work on speedwork on my own, work on other modes of cardio to increase my cardiovascular endurance.

5. More hill work. BLECH! I do not like hills but if you can run up a hill then you are pretty much set as far as trail racing. Trails have LOTS of hills generally so you get good at hill running then you can decrease your time by a lot!

6. I will learn to love solitary running again as there will not always be someone available and so I need to be content to enjoy the runs by myself as I used to before joining my running group. 

7. Eat clean. Eat clean. Eat clean. SO HARD! But if i can do it for 21 days then i will form a habit. 

8. Cross-training. Make it a weekly thing: yoga, TNT, kettlebell workouts, water jogging, weight lifting, rowing machines, elliptical workouts...etc.

9. Listen better to my bodily signals. If my knee starts to twinge don't wait until it hurts to do something about it. If my hamstrings feel tight then foam roll and stretch before they start to impact my workouts. If I am tired one day then don't feel bad about taking a rest day. Resting is when the body repairs and builds itself stronger. Remember that. 

10. Enjoy the races I sign up for and the people I race with. Appreciate my friends who make time for me to run with them, socialize with them, learn from them. 

Last but not least:  Look at the big picture for the year. Make sure and work towards the big races and not get eternally distracted by smaller races so I don't have enough left for the big goals! If I am going to "run" a race as a training run for a longer race then calm my urge to give it 200% and try to relax more into it. 

 

I give these goals the SMART test: Specific..i think so. Measurable...can see how my speed increases and my times on my races decreases.Achievable...i believe I can do these things if I keep my eyes on them. Realistic..well they are well-thought out at least. Timely...yes they have time frames..the races, the training runs, etc..