Unrelated information. You must watch these three things. 1. The Painter and The Thief. I didn’t even look at my phone once. That’s huge! I am always looking at my phone. 2. For Heaven’s Sake is a documentary series that was amazing! Two young men decided to try to solve the disappearance of a family member 86 years ago. It was funny, it was moving, it was perfect! 3. Three Identical Strangers. I have been meaning to watch this for a while now. It was fascinating on so many levels and I can’t believe that people aren’t addressing the ethical issues while the can. Shame on Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Service and Yale University!
Okay – here is the running stuff.
Monday 3/1
Yay March! I officially have Spring Fever! It was so beautiful that I ran more miles than I realistically had time for and was running around like a crazy person to get ready for work. When I left work the sky was sunny and the wind wasn’t too bad and it was close to 50 degrees out. I know that isn’t that warm but considering it was negative 30 a week or so ago, this feels like beach weather.
Tuesday 3/2
It was a bit windy but if I stayed in the neighborhoods it was manageable. I was able to get 10 miles and weights done and still had plenty of time to get to work.
Unrelated, but I will be very excited when NPR gets a new sponsor and I don’t have to listen the annoying ads for therapy. I am all for therapy if that’s what you want to do, but the way the lady talks in those ads just drives me nuts.
Wednesday 3/3
I actually wore shorts today! And no jacket! I didn’t even need handwarmers in my gloves. I thought I might even try to get some fast running done since I the weather was so nice but somewhere around mile 5 my watch started to go berserk and was displaying paces that are not even possible. This also meant that in a few steps it was displaying I had covered a whole mile. Good grief! I ended up just turning my watch off. So, I am not exactly sure, but I am pretty sure that I got 10 miles done. I am going to be really sad when time change takes place in a couple weeks because I love having the sun come up so early.
Thursday 3/4
It was so freaking cold! I mean not really, but after it was so warm yesterday and felt terrible today. I really had to will myself through the miles. I started by telling myself to just run 3 miles and from there every mile was me telling myself to try for one more mile. The upside – there was no wind!
Friday 3/5
I woke up at 3am very sick. I will save you the details. But going back to sleep I turned my 4 am alarm off and turned on my 6am alarm. This means I will have to drag myself out to run in the afternoon. It is supposed to be in the 50’s and sunny so that makes it easier to want to run.
I had to go home early to let the fridge repair man into the apartment. Good news! My fridge is working again. I will no longer have to play the role of horror film victim to go get food from the banquet hall kitchen. I went to get some food. I tried to make a very detailed plan so that I won’t have to throw things out before I leave for Phoenix.
I did get out for a run. While the temperature was awesome the wind was not. I decided to try a few half mile repeats so that I could alternate running into the wind and not into the wind. It didn’t go too bad. I was able to play around a bit and figure what felt comfortable and what definitely did not. Low 6min/mile feels like work but nor terrible. 6:30min/mile feels easy. Running 5:40 to 5:50min/mile felt terrible. I could do it, but I wasn’t fan. Good to know for the future. I really did want to try to get a couple more repeats done, but I was feeling really thirsty. So, home I went. I should have done yoga, but instead I took a nap.
A week from today I will be in Denver with Enzo, my mom and my sisters. Yay!
Saturday 3/6
Usually Saturday is my long run day. The temperatures were in the 40’s and I was looking forward to the run. Except about 2.5 miles in I needed to head back home to poop. While home I decided to shed the long sleeve top and the 2nd set of gloves because I had been so warm. This pretty quickly seemed like a mistake. The wind was so strong and seemed to be coming from every direction. Is that even possible? Then 2.5 miles after I had left my apartment for the second time, my watch started going crazy again. I am definitely sure I was not running a 2min/mile pace. I don’t care about that, but it is messes up my distance tracking. I tried to turn my watch off and turn it back on, but that didn’t help. So now I am running by time. It was a struggle to make myself keep running. There are some days that I where I can deal with the wind and there are days where the wind makes me absolutely lose my mind. I have read some research that says the wind is worse for women than men and the theory behind that seems to be hormonal. I wonder if I get more angry in the wind when I am on period? Maybe I need to do a case study on myself. Luckily the wind will die down tonight and tomorrow looks like a much better day to get a long run done.
My landlord came with someone to check out some floor issues in the apartment. After they left, I did weights and then wasted time I should be using to work on my dissertation.
A week from today I will be back in Phoenix with Norm, the kids, and Pasta! Yay! Unfortunately, my mood declined as the day went on. I took a nap and woke up like a cranky toddler. I managed to talk myself into doing yoga. Every now and then I hit these moments where I just don’t want to live here anymore. I don’t want to be alone, I want have more choices on where to shop and eat, I want to buy cheap flowers from Trader Joe’s that last almost 2 weeks. Sometimes it can be hard to be here despite the things that I love about being here.
Sunday 3/7
The temperature was perfect and there was no wind! The sun was out and it was a beautiful morning. I thought I had a plan for the route I would take, but after I left my apartment, I felt like I needed something different. In a town where if I run 4 or 5 miles in any direction I am completely at the end of town, it can be tough to get a long run done. I ran a few miles trying to figure out what my plan would be when I ran past a trail map. There was a route I had been trying to figure out, but I could never figure it out. Also, when I say trail, I mean concrete pedestrian path, but the city calls it a trail. The trail seemed to dump me onto the side of the highway, and I couldn’t figure out where the connection to the rest of the rail was. So, when I passed that map, I decided to it what would be in my mind as going backwards. Start at the place where I was trying to end to figure out how they connect. I had driven down to this park with access to trail before, so I had an idea of where I needed to go. I was headed to the park when all of the sudden there are 4 or 5 large deer right against the sidewalk. There is also traffic coming toward us on the road. These beauties had some serious antlers and I didn’t want to get that close to them. I also did not want to send them into traffic as I approached so I stopped. The deer and I stared at each other as I calmly kept saying “stay there, stay there.” Luckily, they were well behaved deer and followed directions. As soon as the cars passed, I crossed the street. Which actually was the right thing to do because the sidewalk ended shortly after I crossed. Why do cities do this? Abruptly ending sidewalks, especially on a busy street is insane.
I make it to the park and keep following the path. It takes me through a disc golf course and along and the always beautiful river. I feel a little nervous as it feels really isolated. There are some dirt tracks that have been made by bikes, but I stick to the path because I do not want to get lost. I see a big group of antelope and an eagle. It was amazing! There are also bunnies and ducks and song birds. It’s so lovely! I connect to part of the path that I wanted to connect to so my plan was successful.
I did a loop around the river and the golf course, my normal running spot. I really want to run back through the area from where I just came, but it was so empty that I wondered if I should be nervous. In the end I decided to go back that way because it was an easy way to get the miles I needed. The alternative was running around in circles to try to come up with 5 or 6 miles I needed to finish my run.
Heading back, I decided to pick up the pace and was thrilled to get some fast miles going. Occasionally my pace was slowed to deal with some dog traffic, but this was what I needed to feel good about my upcoming 50 mile race. While I know all those long slow days are good for me, I was still feeling nervous about having the speed I need to run a Desert Solstice qualifier. As you might have guessed from the dog traffic, there were lots of people in the area that earlier had been empty and scary. It was now the busiest part of the path I have ever seen. I am starting to learn that I am one of the few people who is out and running at 6am, so you can imagine that when I am out 5am I definitely alone. As I was finishing up the last fast mile I was approaching a spot where I would have to cross the highway. Not an intersection I wanted to go into while trying hold a sub 7min/mile pace, so I made a turn into a very large Uhaul parking lot and was able to finish the mile. I slowed to run the last 2 miles to get home but was still able to stay around 7:30min/mile pace.
The sunshine, animals, and good run definitely improved my mood. What is not helping my mood is that my achilles tendonitis is randomly acting up. I can feel the pain in my heel today. I haven’t run too much, I haven’t done too much climbing, I don’t get it. I feel like achilles tendonitis and the hamstring issue will never go away. They get better and sometimes I go long stretches of time with no issue and randomly I am suddenly have some minor pain again. I have a full time job, I can only do so much injury management. So, I guess I have to add massaging my achilles back into my daily plan.
I am currently on weather watch for Denver because it looks like snow on Friday. Not thrilled about driving into Denver if it’s going to be snowing. We have already established that I am useless at driving in the snow.
Okay – here is the running stuff.
Monday 3/1
Yay March! I officially have Spring Fever! It was so beautiful that I ran more miles than I realistically had time for and was running around like a crazy person to get ready for work. When I left work the sky was sunny and the wind wasn’t too bad and it was close to 50 degrees out. I know that isn’t that warm but considering it was negative 30 a week or so ago, this feels like beach weather.
Tuesday 3/2
It was a bit windy but if I stayed in the neighborhoods it was manageable. I was able to get 10 miles and weights done and still had plenty of time to get to work.
Unrelated, but I will be very excited when NPR gets a new sponsor and I don’t have to listen the annoying ads for therapy. I am all for therapy if that’s what you want to do, but the way the lady talks in those ads just drives me nuts.
Wednesday 3/3
I actually wore shorts today! And no jacket! I didn’t even need handwarmers in my gloves. I thought I might even try to get some fast running done since I the weather was so nice but somewhere around mile 5 my watch started to go berserk and was displaying paces that are not even possible. This also meant that in a few steps it was displaying I had covered a whole mile. Good grief! I ended up just turning my watch off. So, I am not exactly sure, but I am pretty sure that I got 10 miles done. I am going to be really sad when time change takes place in a couple weeks because I love having the sun come up so early.
Thursday 3/4
It was so freaking cold! I mean not really, but after it was so warm yesterday and felt terrible today. I really had to will myself through the miles. I started by telling myself to just run 3 miles and from there every mile was me telling myself to try for one more mile. The upside – there was no wind!
Friday 3/5
I woke up at 3am very sick. I will save you the details. But going back to sleep I turned my 4 am alarm off and turned on my 6am alarm. This means I will have to drag myself out to run in the afternoon. It is supposed to be in the 50’s and sunny so that makes it easier to want to run.
I had to go home early to let the fridge repair man into the apartment. Good news! My fridge is working again. I will no longer have to play the role of horror film victim to go get food from the banquet hall kitchen. I went to get some food. I tried to make a very detailed plan so that I won’t have to throw things out before I leave for Phoenix.
I did get out for a run. While the temperature was awesome the wind was not. I decided to try a few half mile repeats so that I could alternate running into the wind and not into the wind. It didn’t go too bad. I was able to play around a bit and figure what felt comfortable and what definitely did not. Low 6min/mile feels like work but nor terrible. 6:30min/mile feels easy. Running 5:40 to 5:50min/mile felt terrible. I could do it, but I wasn’t fan. Good to know for the future. I really did want to try to get a couple more repeats done, but I was feeling really thirsty. So, home I went. I should have done yoga, but instead I took a nap.
A week from today I will be in Denver with Enzo, my mom and my sisters. Yay!
Saturday 3/6
Usually Saturday is my long run day. The temperatures were in the 40’s and I was looking forward to the run. Except about 2.5 miles in I needed to head back home to poop. While home I decided to shed the long sleeve top and the 2nd set of gloves because I had been so warm. This pretty quickly seemed like a mistake. The wind was so strong and seemed to be coming from every direction. Is that even possible? Then 2.5 miles after I had left my apartment for the second time, my watch started going crazy again. I am definitely sure I was not running a 2min/mile pace. I don’t care about that, but it is messes up my distance tracking. I tried to turn my watch off and turn it back on, but that didn’t help. So now I am running by time. It was a struggle to make myself keep running. There are some days that I where I can deal with the wind and there are days where the wind makes me absolutely lose my mind. I have read some research that says the wind is worse for women than men and the theory behind that seems to be hormonal. I wonder if I get more angry in the wind when I am on period? Maybe I need to do a case study on myself. Luckily the wind will die down tonight and tomorrow looks like a much better day to get a long run done.
My landlord came with someone to check out some floor issues in the apartment. After they left, I did weights and then wasted time I should be using to work on my dissertation.
A week from today I will be back in Phoenix with Norm, the kids, and Pasta! Yay! Unfortunately, my mood declined as the day went on. I took a nap and woke up like a cranky toddler. I managed to talk myself into doing yoga. Every now and then I hit these moments where I just don’t want to live here anymore. I don’t want to be alone, I want have more choices on where to shop and eat, I want to buy cheap flowers from Trader Joe’s that last almost 2 weeks. Sometimes it can be hard to be here despite the things that I love about being here.
Sunday 3/7
The temperature was perfect and there was no wind! The sun was out and it was a beautiful morning. I thought I had a plan for the route I would take, but after I left my apartment, I felt like I needed something different. In a town where if I run 4 or 5 miles in any direction I am completely at the end of town, it can be tough to get a long run done. I ran a few miles trying to figure out what my plan would be when I ran past a trail map. There was a route I had been trying to figure out, but I could never figure it out. Also, when I say trail, I mean concrete pedestrian path, but the city calls it a trail. The trail seemed to dump me onto the side of the highway, and I couldn’t figure out where the connection to the rest of the rail was. So, when I passed that map, I decided to it what would be in my mind as going backwards. Start at the place where I was trying to end to figure out how they connect. I had driven down to this park with access to trail before, so I had an idea of where I needed to go. I was headed to the park when all of the sudden there are 4 or 5 large deer right against the sidewalk. There is also traffic coming toward us on the road. These beauties had some serious antlers and I didn’t want to get that close to them. I also did not want to send them into traffic as I approached so I stopped. The deer and I stared at each other as I calmly kept saying “stay there, stay there.” Luckily, they were well behaved deer and followed directions. As soon as the cars passed, I crossed the street. Which actually was the right thing to do because the sidewalk ended shortly after I crossed. Why do cities do this? Abruptly ending sidewalks, especially on a busy street is insane.
I make it to the park and keep following the path. It takes me through a disc golf course and along and the always beautiful river. I feel a little nervous as it feels really isolated. There are some dirt tracks that have been made by bikes, but I stick to the path because I do not want to get lost. I see a big group of antelope and an eagle. It was amazing! There are also bunnies and ducks and song birds. It’s so lovely! I connect to part of the path that I wanted to connect to so my plan was successful.
I did a loop around the river and the golf course, my normal running spot. I really want to run back through the area from where I just came, but it was so empty that I wondered if I should be nervous. In the end I decided to go back that way because it was an easy way to get the miles I needed. The alternative was running around in circles to try to come up with 5 or 6 miles I needed to finish my run.
Heading back, I decided to pick up the pace and was thrilled to get some fast miles going. Occasionally my pace was slowed to deal with some dog traffic, but this was what I needed to feel good about my upcoming 50 mile race. While I know all those long slow days are good for me, I was still feeling nervous about having the speed I need to run a Desert Solstice qualifier. As you might have guessed from the dog traffic, there were lots of people in the area that earlier had been empty and scary. It was now the busiest part of the path I have ever seen. I am starting to learn that I am one of the few people who is out and running at 6am, so you can imagine that when I am out 5am I definitely alone. As I was finishing up the last fast mile I was approaching a spot where I would have to cross the highway. Not an intersection I wanted to go into while trying hold a sub 7min/mile pace, so I made a turn into a very large Uhaul parking lot and was able to finish the mile. I slowed to run the last 2 miles to get home but was still able to stay around 7:30min/mile pace.
The sunshine, animals, and good run definitely improved my mood. What is not helping my mood is that my achilles tendonitis is randomly acting up. I can feel the pain in my heel today. I haven’t run too much, I haven’t done too much climbing, I don’t get it. I feel like achilles tendonitis and the hamstring issue will never go away. They get better and sometimes I go long stretches of time with no issue and randomly I am suddenly have some minor pain again. I have a full time job, I can only do so much injury management. So, I guess I have to add massaging my achilles back into my daily plan.
I am currently on weather watch for Denver because it looks like snow on Friday. Not thrilled about driving into Denver if it’s going to be snowing. We have already established that I am useless at driving in the snow.
