Oh Everest, My Everest

Saturday's run was horrible. My stomach was so unsettled and I wanted to hurl all the fluid out of my body, yet I was starting to get dehydrated. No thank you, sir. I'll not have seconds.

Then more work-related stress... GERMS everywhere... and of course that fun little tickle and post-nasal drip that likes to come warn me when I'm about to get super duper sick. I decided to strike pre-emptively and take a few days off to sleep and sit on my couch catching up on my reading. I flooded my system with zinc lozenges. I drank OJ like there was no tomorrow. Today, I feel relatively good. (Read: not sick.) My run just now was pretty painful and I *just* got warmed up as I finished my 3 miles, but I needed to come home to make sure I got enough time to sleep for (you guessed it) work tomorrow. There seems to be a lot more of that going around lately.

I really can't wait for them to hire for that vacancy and for those two others who are supposedly filling the TWO OTHER VACANCIES to hurry up and come. It's been months with people dropping one by one and nobody waiting to take their places.

(BOO HOO, little girl.)

I know, I know. I'll quit bitching now.

Anyway, today's run reminded me of something the coach said about "miles in the bank." I had enough in the account to keep it open and look for growth, but it was like I took an early withdrawal this week. It really showed tonight. I suppose I could have toughed it out and kept building and accruing interest, but when my throat started hurting, it seemed like it was a bigger risk to continue. When I get sick, I get SICK. I seem to have nipped it in the bud, but of course I am second guessing myself because now it's really easy to say that I probably wouldn't have gotten sicker anyway and I was just feeling lazy. Who knows?

In any case, it was kind of nice to have rain while I was out there again, though I wish I had gone a bit earlier. I wouldn't have been as hungry and it wouldn't have been so dark. Those were the other two reasons (besides needing sleep) that I figured I should just call it a night. Now my body's crying out for me to finish that 6 it wanted to do. I sure hope it still feels that way when I try to do 9 on Sunday!

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BLOG NEWS: Sam's started his own blog so I can pick on him now, too! Check it out; it's linked in the sidebar.

Labels: got dat funk, rain, rest week, sick

Running in the rain is great!

Heartburn is not. I need to lay off those cheap calzones.

I just wish it had rained yesterday when I wore my last clean pieces of technical gear. Cotton is no fun when you're all wet. Although, yesterday's run was quite the success. I combined the speed workout with the baby long run because I stupidly took three days off in a row again. When will I learn?

I think I only did so well because I was pacing myself against a dude and he wasn't much faster than me... I'm not faster than anybody, much less a dude. Here was my chance, and I took it. I did a 100-meter sprint for every lap around the mall (just shy of 1km) from my third through sixth lap (actually, I did two in the fourth lap). Then the dude I was beating finished his run and my distraction disappeared, leaving me with my twitchy muscles, throbbing knees and burning feet. I eeked out two more "easy" laps before I pretty much just wanted to pull out a knife and slice out the tendons in my knees. (They needed the extra space.)

Not having a knife handy, I decided on one more sprint to distract me. The rest of lap nine was spent catching my breath and wrangling my heart back into my chest. That just left excruciating lap ten for me to do, during which it was easier to convince myself to just keep going at my average long run pace because I was "warming down."

I've been on NSAIDS since Saturday - the maximum dose of ibuprofen plus one overlapping dose of aspirin during a really bad night. I iced my knees three times on Saturday and then again after my run yesterday, and I should do it again now. My knees are starting to complain. I'm having old ladies at work tell me that the reason they can't walk to the next building is because they didn't take care of their knees when they were young and running like me. (Gee, thanks.) I'm gonna quit it with the NSAIDS tomorrow, though. If I wake up in a lot of pain again, the morning will be my last dose. If not, this is it. No more drugs until after the Saturday long run. But I'm hopeful I won't really need them again until I add more mileage. I have this week and next to get my body accustomed to ten miles. Lord help my knees when the following week comes.

Labels: baby long run tuesday, calzones, heartburn, knees, nsaids, rain, short run, sprints, violent urges

The run log is updated with the correct times and distances now. And here are the pictures, with borrowing from Sam's captions:



Ready for those 10 miles? That smile looks a little forced....





Almost done, this was a spot where *some* natural light made it through, not that you can tell!





Bridge over the river Qua




Waiting with Sam, in the wrong place...

(This is after we tossed the ring into the fires of Mount Doom and saved Middle Earth)





Finishing up at the crack of Doom

Labels: canal towpath, Mount Doom, pictures, Sam, Tom's Run

Yesterday I participated in this event, except obviously it is now 2007. Tom's Run started out as a team-building exercise in honor of CWO-4 Tom Brooks of the Coast Guard and has become an annual tradition, even after his death. I wish I had known all of this before I rented a car and drove a couple of hours into the boonies to have this adventure... it means a lot more now that I know. I also learned a lot about how to be better prepared for next time; namely, to prepare.

Sadly I missed the big finish today because I slept like a rock until noon, but I will say that that was the most beautiful adventure I've ever had. Ever. I can't wait to do it again next year.

I sort of lucked out and un-lucked out at the same time. The day started out at probably 90 degrees at sun up and was 97 once it got warmed up a bit. It was like walking through warm soup when I left the office to grab lunch and I wasn't even running then! I think the coach almost died a few times during his 1000-mile leg in the middle of the day. He sure looked like he wanted to die as he finished it and I prepared to start my leg.

I started around 6:30 or 7 or... hell, I don't know what time it was anymore. I was hot and I had taken a nice detour through downtown Hagerstown (15 miles from where I needed to be) by taking a wrong turn. Turns out that the area by the C&O Canal out there is simply beautiful. I might like to live there one day and have some horses and a cat that chases mice in the night. Yes, a nice little farm house and farm pets. *Ahem* As I was saying...

Most of the stretch from Cumberland to Bethesda is on the path that runs along the canal, but my leg included the 5-mile stretch where you have to run on the road... the narrow, narrow, two-way road that is like a maze connecting all the big pretty farm houses. I was told that the locals don't all like having us around when I was getting ready to start my run, but I already knew this from the tail-gating and dirty looks I got as I took another few wrong turns on these narrow, narrow, rolling roads.

The sky turned cloudy about five minutes into my run. That was lucky because I spent that first five minutes negotiating a hill. (Not the best warm up, but it was too early for me to start out with smaller steps... I would have just wanted to stop and walk.) My biker turned out to be the MCP jokester himself, so that helped a lot. I think I stayed pretty much on pace (maybe? still standing by for the exact numbers) and that is pretty remarkable for such a hot miserable day and for sooooo many hills. He was a very good distraction and I owe him a lot for getting me through that. (Thank you.) Anyway, then we heard the thunder.


Wait, thunder?


Yes, thunder.


There was a thunderstorm coming. It was still a ways off, we could tell. There was about 20 seconds between each flash and boom. But it was definitely coming. It started to rain on us. I wouldn't call it a downpour, but they were the big drops that make a little *thud* on your head and soak right through your clothes (not that I would have minded being soaked). I was a mixture of happy and terrified. Isn't there something about not running in a thunderstorm? Pretty sure that's what you're supposed to NOT do. At this point, I was possessed and running faster than my normal pace because my madness had me convinced that I might somehow beat the storm to the end of my leg (yeah, right... 10 miles? Pshh.) Jokester friend helped out by reminding me that I still need to drink and handed me my little fuel bottles every now and then. We plugged along the road in the intermittent rain and dodged a car every so often. (Not everybody on the road was happy to see us and some didn't pull away from the side of the road much - or at ALL - when they zoomed past us.)

The rain sort of tapered off and I was sad to have experienced the beginning and end of my first rainy run without getting wet enough to feel good from it. Those drops seemed to soak through the shirt and then get lost somewhere before actually touching my skin, and my overheating arms and legs certainly didn't feel any relief from them.

Eventually, we hit the towpath and made our turn into the trail that mirrors the canal. What a happy moment! That meant I was more than halfway. "So I did 5.5 miles right? Only 4.5 left on this path and I'm home free?"

"Uhh, well..." [beeping sounds from the Pacerunner305 on his wrist]

The trail was a lot darker than the road because there was a thick canopy above us. I started to feel like Frodo with my Sam (on a bike) trying to stay one step ahead of the ringwraiths. Then we came up on some delightful hillbilly locals. (Tom Bombadil, is that you?) "Haaay! We saw yew 'bout three mah-les back!" one drawled incredulously. The other looked at him, as if to confirm that I was crazy enough to be that person they passed on the road earlier. I smiled and said, "Yep!" as I flew past them. The cooler temperature under the shade of the trees had me feeling good and I was at a pretty nice clip.

"So, now that I'm past halfway, I want to know how far I've gone." More beeping from Sam's wrist.

"Well.... let's just say you're halfway right about now." What??!

"WHAT?!?"

"Yeah, but we don't know if this is actually going to be 10 miles..."

"WHAT!?!"

"Let's just say if this leg really is 10 miles, you're halfway now."

"WHAT?!!"

And so I went, ploddingly. Nature was calling insistently by this point because I had overhydrated in the car during the 97-degree drive and I really didn't sweat much in the rainy, cloudy weather that came when I started. It had been damn hot, but I didn't have sunshine to beat me down. I didn't go slowly for too long after the bad news; I had to hurry in my quest for a port-a-potty.

When we finally got to one, it was damn dark. The sun must have set. I still had no idea what time it was. I took a flashlight in with me and was delighted to find that it did not smell. Not even a little bit. (A dash of good luck, at last!) I didn't worry about my hands being unsanitary as by this point, my whole body was covered in a slime consisting of sunblock & insect repellant lotion, sweat, rain, hay particles, dead gnats, spiderwebs, mud and gatorade. (Mmm!)

Taking a walk break to let my body catch up to me, I found that the bugs had more time to land on me and die in the slime. I could feel the impact of each tiny bug that made the mistake of landing on me. Eww. I started running again.

Pretty soon we reached a small clearing where the trees didn't completely block out the sky. "It's still day?!?" It was.

We passed a few more little clearings and Sam rode ahead into one to snap a picture of me in action, taking advantage of the natural light. I'm sure I looked exquisite in my slimy coat. We'll see when he sends it to me. (Right? You're sending it to me? Don't be offended I'm calling you Sam. This is me protecting your identity from the masses on the internets.)

It wasn't long before we came up on a bigger clearing, and just then we heard a honk and looked up to the road on the other side of the path from the canal. It was the coach and the team captain making their way to the next checkpoint. They yelled some encouragement and my instinct was to throw them the metal horns as I tried to yell 'Rock on!' but instead let out some kind of ungodly grunt. Or maybe I was even yelling. Who knows? The adrenaline got going again and I was trucking along nicely. Not a minute later, we passed some more trees and saw a parking lot up ahead.

I didn't want to get ahead of myself and I certainly didn't feel like I had run 10 miles... so I told myself that it wasn't the right one. "There must be 4 more parking lots, we have to pass, right?"

"Yeah, sure. That's the coach waiting up there waving his arms at us."

"REALLY!!??"

"Really."

I was pretty proud of myself. 10 miles... or so I thought. Sam checked the trusty Pacerunner305 and it turned out to be just shy of 8 miles. 7.86 or something like that. I felt pretty cheated. I didn't even do the distance I would have otherwise done at the group long run this morning! Cheap.

I stretched a little and sucked on some watered down gatorade. Coach and Sam took off on the next 4-mile leg. We had to move two cars, so I got to joyride in Sam's fun little Subaru. It's a stick shift with turbo, so you can bet it was a fun ride over to the next checkpoint. Those rolling hills and narrow, narrow roads were a lot more fun this way. (A lot of things are more fun when you're not running anymore and you're driving a fucking CAR, no?)

The coach was supposed to also run the next 4-mile segment that I would bike, but Sam and I were both feeling good and Coach still looked like he needed to hurry up and die to end the misery. So we volunteered to run it for him and each took two miles running and two miles on the bike. It was very dark by this hour and nowhere near a real city, so there was none of the ambient light I am accustomed to. I was fighting off the spooks the whole way. Sam decided it was a good time to joke about the Blair Witch Project. Ha.... ha. Not funny. I just focused on the spot my headlight lit up right in front of me and tried to concentrate my attention on taking the next step and not twisting my ankle on a camoflauged twig. (I twisted them both 2-3 times each, but no sprains or anything, thank goodness.)

The bike was a bigger adventure because I was supposed to be the steady helpful one, but it was too big for me and I probably almost rode off into a gully (or the canal!) about a dozen times. Man, was it dark.

When we came upon the next checkpoint, our car caravan of relief wasn't there waiting for us. We tried a cell phone but kept getting voicemail. Reception is spotty out that far. We checked the parking lot signs. That's the one. Where are they? Another guy asked us who we were with as he was waiting for his own team to arrive behind us. We sat around in the parking lot waiting for quite a while. My stomach started eating itself. The asphalt was bruising my tired ass. Where the hell were they? We saw a couple of bikes fly past along the trail and wondered why two people would be riding at this hour and not be part of Tom's Run.

Finally, after about half an hour, we got them on the phone. There was another lot--same number--about a quarter mile further down the trail.

Oh. God.

So Sam took off running and I mounted up again. We finally got there and figured out the whole mess. We thought something might have happened to them. They thought we must have been injured. Those two bikers we saw had been looking for us in case we needed help. Then we had to wait for them to cover the whole 4 miles and back and explain what had happened all over again. We had lost the half hour we gained during my surprise-it's-short segment and then some. Everyone had been awake for hours. I had been at work all day and Coach and the captain has been at this since midnight the night before. I was finally headed home, but for them the night was just beginning.

Sam drove me back to where my rental car was parked as I munched on two dry cheese topped bagels. They were officially the most delicious thing to ever touch my lips. I'm sure it was the delirium making me think that anyway. Then I drove the hour and forty minute drive home with the music blaring to keep me awake. My ass and lower back were aching and I couldn't seem to sit comfortably. When I returned the car to its spot, I had to walk ten minutes past a bunch of drunk, happy college students to get back to my building. I wanted to punch all those jolly drunkards in the face, but that's just me and my jealousy. The pain in my legs may have contributed to this feeling as well. Regardless, there was definitely ten minutes of wanting to punch faces and then home sweet home.

Of course I still had to clean out my fuel belt bottles and then take a shower so I wouldn't gunk up my bed. The shower was difficult. I just wanted to stand under the water, but I had to soap myself. My knees and ankles were raging at me and I could barely stand anymore. I finally collapsed into bed right around 3am and woke up to a call from Sam at noon. He was waiting for the others at the finish and just wondered if I was there.

Walking is painful, but it was all so worth it.

The ibuprofen and ice packs help, too.

Labels: aggression, beautiful place to live, canal towpath, Coach, long run, Sam, Tom's Run, violent urges

I felt terrible today - even worse than yesterday - but I made myself run. Ended up feeling pretty good after the first mile so I ran for an hour. Almost hit 5 miles. Worked a couple of short sprints in there and then got into the grass for some crunches and stretching. Usually it takes about five seconds of running (or more!) to get me ridiculous happy and pumped. I think my threshold is getting higher (or maybe these last two days at work have just been as sucky as I think they were). The almost-two miles I did yesterday actually left me feeling worse than I started. I think my new MO will be to run until I feel good and then do whatever more I can or have time for after that. That seems to work well for me.

Also, since I'm getting into higher distances and trying to increase the days I run, I think I'll let this be the beginning of Baby Long Run Tuesdays. Long Run Saturdays were the only ones in the schedule before and I'd just sort of run twice sometime in the middle of the week, whatever distance I felt like. Monday can be the random cadence day since I still feel like my cadence shouldn't be limited to so narrow a range. I guess that leaves Thursday for either a hill workout with one of those groups in the city or just another 3-mile easy run to fill out the weekly miles I need to equal the distance of the coming long run. Let's see how long this lasts.

Labels: baby long run tuesday, short run

I was excited all day to go on my first rainy run after work since it was raining all of yesterday and most of today... of course it decided to dry up AND get sunny just in time for me to put in my short, short run. Just like a typical short run for me, I felt like losing my lunch for the entire duration, then I hopped in the shower for 10 and completely forgot what I had just been doing. So, I guess I feel okay. It's almost like the run part didn't happen and I just felt like taking a second shower today, but then my sweaty running clothes remind me otherwise.



Today's run was informally timed, but I know I was in the neighborhood of a 12:10-12:15 pace maximum. And it was just shy of 2 miles. I hate it when that happens because 1.89 seems like sooo much less than 2. Then I feel like a loser for not just running that extra eleven-tenths of a mile, but it's not like I knew how far it was when I was out there! This is what happens when you just run wherever the hell you feel like it and then use gmaps to see how far you ran afterward. You have no idea what you've accomplished while you're out there, and more importantly, you have no idea what irrationally significant mile marker you could be crossing if you were just slightly less of a wuss.



I should really stop dwelling on that now. The important thing is that I am a loser because running fast is hard and I am le tired.



Just to shake things up a bit, I decided I would experiment with cadence today. I noticed that I consistently run at the same tempo (or at least within a very narrow range) that is pretty slow in the grand scheme of things. I just sort of lengthen my stride or pick up my knees to go faster when I need to, but otherwise I'm comfortable at this tempo. So I thought, what better idea than to try to do three loops around this giganto lawn at a much faster tempo than I'm used to, even if I really feel like I'm about to toss that apple I just ate? And so I did.



I was taking some weenie-ass little steps at some points along the way, but for the most part I tried not to be too much of a wuss. I experienced very uncomfortable and largely irregular breathing patterns and turned very, very red. I broke that sweat barrier that usually takes so long for me to reach pretty much immediately after I started. I even felt some sweat trickle down my neck, which is an entirely new sensation for this former couch potato. I focused all of my energy on maintaining that pace... and whatever was left of my focus was used to try to steady my breath. I did keep the pace, though shortening my steps on the uphill sections, but was never too successful with that breathing thing.



Of course, today was the shittiest of all the shitty shit shit days at work. (Don't get me wrong, there will be worse.. but today was pretty bad.) So, the fact that my heart was fluttering uncomfortably the whole time reminded me of the preceding nine hours of my day. It does that when I am running too fast and wanting to punch people in the face. You could say that it's my heart's thing.



I don't know what else to add. I mean, my chest and stomach feel like crap. My blood pressure has sort of been elevated all day because of uncomfortable conversations with my mom and about 5,000 angry people. I ate an apple RIGHT before I ran. I might as well have chewed it up and spit it out all over the front of my shirt. (Okay, that was gross. I'll stop.) My legs are kind of burning. My calves and quads were sore from the moment I started running and are only moreso now. I don't think I stretched adequately, but I'm not really in a calm mood. So, that explains most of it. I'm sure I'm still in pretty okay shape as far as my preparation for the 8-miler this week. I shortened my run today because I want to run 3 times mid-week instead of twice.



Unfortunately, I think the work will stay tense for at least the next three days. Most likely, it will last all summer because the next two busy weeks will melt right into when my colleague has decided to leave us for his new job. Then it will all be the big suck again. I guess I'd better get a handle on this stress thing so I can start enjoying the running again!

Labels: apple, cadence, gmaps, rain, short run

“Meat is the best source of several nutrients. When our bodies are deficient in these, we become irritable and aggressive. This is a perfectly natural signal built into our genetic make-up over our evolution: our bodies are telling us to go out and kill something to eat. This is why strict vegetarians tend to be so vociferous. It is a trait that was recognized long ago; it was, after all, the vegetarian Cain who killed the carnivorous Abel, not the other way round.”



The Naive Vegetarian



Just sayin'. What? Oh, no... that really didn't have anything to do with the marathon or my training, did it? I'll try harder next time!

Labels: aggression, Bible, body fuel, food, meat, nutrients, vegetarian