I should have been keeping track of my running, but as usual I took on too much. My college students are turning in late assignments in an amount that makes me want to weep profusely. They love to follow up those late assignments with emails asking me if I have their assignments and when I will grade them. And I have been helping out at the Cheder teaching math. It makes me so happy to be with students that I taught many years ago. So, just like always, I have been mostly running in the early mornings.
Early in the week I received an email from Aravaipa saying that since the team didn’t get to do much racing, they would roll us over into 2021 and to let them know if we were interested. I am interested! So, race planning begins. I registered for a 50- mile race in April to try for my Desert Solstice qualifier and a race in Wyoming in September.
Running was progressing really well. I was doing more climbing. My mileage was staying steady around 60 miles. I was getting some speed and feeling stronger. I have been running with my friend John at least once a week since I have been back. He has been very kind to let me slow him down while we chat away the miles. I joined him on a Saturday, so I get some company in the middle of my long run. What I didn’t know was that he had big climbing plans for the short 8 miles we were running together. But honestly, I didn’t think anything of it. I had been doing a decent amount of climbing and my Achilles has been totally fine. With my climbing and descending skills in the toilet right now there was actually quite a bit of walking. I don’t remember having any pain that day, it wasn’t until later in the day that I noticed pain in my heel and some tightness. I took my mileage down a bit and stuck to the neighborhoods and canal so I would be doing no climbing. I dropped all speed work. I hoped I feel better by the end of the week, but I ended up feeling worse. I was determined to keep running and work through this. I was stretching, massaging, and doing the exercises. By the middle of the week I was starting to feel better and added in some speed, followed by some faster running on Saturday with John. By the start of this week the Achilles was back to feeling normal. Note to self, you are an old person now and must keep up the stretching, massaging, and exercise.
And if it isn’t one thing it is another, as soon as I recovered from the Achilles pain, I was suffering from ankle pain. Just random, out of nowhere, running on the flat canal I started having ankle pain. I shouldn’t have, but I finished my run. My week ended up with very low mileage as I had to take some days off and then cut back on my mileage to let my ankle heal. Thankfully it healed up quickly and last week I was back to running. I had to stay off the trail, but by the end of the week I was able to run fast without any pain. I ended up with my highest mileage week in a very long time with 84 miles.
The last week hasn’t been great for my running. I am back in Casper (Wyoming) and the weather has been throwing everything at me. I didn’t run on Monday because we were in Grand Junction and it was icy out. We finished the drive to Casper and then spent the afternoon and evening unpacking boxes and shopping. I haven’t been in my apartment in 2 months, so I needed to do some dusting and get some groceries.
Tuesday I was back running along the Platte River, one of the most beautiful spots to run. I always love running here. When I left for winter break, I was enjoying moonlight and the flowing water. Today it was just as beautiful but totally different. Many parts of frozen, but there are beautiful views of rushing water here and there. Some place the ice looks smooth, as if you could ice skate on it. In other places there are mounds of snow that like look mountains in miniature. There are so many large geese sleeping. It’s hard to get use to the constant blowing wind again, but not terrible. Although my ankle was a bit sore after my run and I was worried that I strained it again by need so much force to propel myself through the wind. (Luckily, the soreness would subside and never been an issue the rest of the week.)
Wednesday morning it was so windy! Normal for Casper, but still not my favorite thing to deal with. Norm kept asking if it was always like this, and the answer is most of the time. We have a pretty consistent 20 to 30 mph wind here. Occasionally you get a wind free day, but not often. When I was having my coffee, I realized that the wind had died down a bit. Instead of finishing my coffee I headed out, hoping to beat the gusts. It wasn’t long before the gusts were blowing at about 50 mph and I often had no control over where my body was going. When it started to feel dangerous, things flying at me and me almost tripping myself as the wind blew one foot into the other, I headed home. It was a shame because the temperature was a very pleasant 40 degrees and minus the wind, I could have run a lot more miles.
Thursday, I woke to icy conditions. To be fair, I knew it was would I wake up to because the evening before ice had started falling from the sky. Not snow, but sharp and noisy ice. (I guess sleet?). It was a very good thing that I waited for light. In the dark I would never have been able to see the slick patches of ice. For whatever reason, one side of the street seemed a lot clearer of ice than the other. What I learned today is that crunchy ice is good. As long as I could stay where the ice was crunchy, I could run okay. But trying to watch for slick spots was exhausting and I headed back home thinking I would end with about 4 miles. Disappointing. But when I was almost home, I saw the sidewalks clear around some federal buildings and the post office and from there discovered that if I ran next to railroad tracks, I could run easily. The dirt ground was often ice free or had the magical crunchy ice with no slick spots. So, I did some loops and ended up with 7 miles. It was the kids of running that wasn’t physically hard, but mentally hard. I grew weary of trying to watch my every step and the constant worry of slipping and falling.
Friday, I headed back to the river and was pleased to find that the paths were clear. It takes a little longer to get my body to want to do any fast running when it’s in the teens out, but I was eventually able to get some speed. My Suunto was being ridiculous, often saying I was running a 3min mile pace or some other ridiculous speed. From the effort and my breathing I would guess I got some miles in at about 7min mile or maybe a 6:50min mile pace. But definitely not the 5:45min mile pace that showed up in my Strava.
I slept in on Saturday. Waking at 7am in sleeping in for me. When I looked out the window, I saw everything covered in snow. When I left, I had no one of knowing what a gorgeous morning of running I was going to get. Back to the river I went. The paths were covered in pretty deep snow, but snow is easy to run on, even in my road shoes. If Norm hadn’t been waiting for me, I would have run for much longer. The temperature was perfect, there was no wind, and I was worried about slipping in falling. I was just enjoying running. I loved seeing the animal tracks and thinking about the paths made by others walking and running. When I would run past where I had run before, I would smile at how tiny my footprint seems compared to the others. It was a lovely morning. I came home tired and happy. Although it didn’t seem like it at the time, I think I was working harder running in the snow. I know I was using muscles I don’t normally use. When I told Norm how tired I felt he commented that I had a run a half marathon at what a lot of people consider race pace. I guess I never thought if it that way.
There was this moment when I topped a small hill and could see downtown and this thought came to me, “this is my home” in a way that was comforting.
I needed to have Norm at the airport by 7am I waited to run until after I had dropped him. The weather was perfect. I was bummed when my hamstring started being cranky. I had hoped that after I warned up it would start to feel better. I tried to avoid snow and hills to keep it happy, no easy task in Casper. When the wind picked up and any running into the wind was annoying to my hamstring, I called it quits at 12 miles. Sadly, my mileage is really low this week and I didn’t get in a long run, but with race planned it better to try to avoid any sort of serious and prolonged hamstring strain or create an injury.
When I came home my apartment was so quiet. Of course, it was quite when Norm was here, it isn’t as if he makes a lot of noise. There is something different about the quiet in a house when you live alone. Yes, over the years there have been times where my house was empty, but it is not the same. I have noticed it before living In Casper alone, different quiet. The sound of setting things down, opening and closing cabinets, and even bare feet on the floors. All of these things take on a sound that is different than when there is another living being in the house, when that other being is silent and unseen. I guess that sounds rather depressing, but it’s not. Sometimes it is lonely, sometimes it is boring, but not depressing.
The college will go back this week, I will start working again on my dissertation, and I will settle into my schedule. I had hoped to write a training plan, but for the time being I think it’s best to have a weekly go and do what I can based on the weather for the day.
Early in the week I received an email from Aravaipa saying that since the team didn’t get to do much racing, they would roll us over into 2021 and to let them know if we were interested. I am interested! So, race planning begins. I registered for a 50- mile race in April to try for my Desert Solstice qualifier and a race in Wyoming in September.
Running was progressing really well. I was doing more climbing. My mileage was staying steady around 60 miles. I was getting some speed and feeling stronger. I have been running with my friend John at least once a week since I have been back. He has been very kind to let me slow him down while we chat away the miles. I joined him on a Saturday, so I get some company in the middle of my long run. What I didn’t know was that he had big climbing plans for the short 8 miles we were running together. But honestly, I didn’t think anything of it. I had been doing a decent amount of climbing and my Achilles has been totally fine. With my climbing and descending skills in the toilet right now there was actually quite a bit of walking. I don’t remember having any pain that day, it wasn’t until later in the day that I noticed pain in my heel and some tightness. I took my mileage down a bit and stuck to the neighborhoods and canal so I would be doing no climbing. I dropped all speed work. I hoped I feel better by the end of the week, but I ended up feeling worse. I was determined to keep running and work through this. I was stretching, massaging, and doing the exercises. By the middle of the week I was starting to feel better and added in some speed, followed by some faster running on Saturday with John. By the start of this week the Achilles was back to feeling normal. Note to self, you are an old person now and must keep up the stretching, massaging, and exercise.
And if it isn’t one thing it is another, as soon as I recovered from the Achilles pain, I was suffering from ankle pain. Just random, out of nowhere, running on the flat canal I started having ankle pain. I shouldn’t have, but I finished my run. My week ended up with very low mileage as I had to take some days off and then cut back on my mileage to let my ankle heal. Thankfully it healed up quickly and last week I was back to running. I had to stay off the trail, but by the end of the week I was able to run fast without any pain. I ended up with my highest mileage week in a very long time with 84 miles.
The last week hasn’t been great for my running. I am back in Casper (Wyoming) and the weather has been throwing everything at me. I didn’t run on Monday because we were in Grand Junction and it was icy out. We finished the drive to Casper and then spent the afternoon and evening unpacking boxes and shopping. I haven’t been in my apartment in 2 months, so I needed to do some dusting and get some groceries.
Tuesday I was back running along the Platte River, one of the most beautiful spots to run. I always love running here. When I left for winter break, I was enjoying moonlight and the flowing water. Today it was just as beautiful but totally different. Many parts of frozen, but there are beautiful views of rushing water here and there. Some place the ice looks smooth, as if you could ice skate on it. In other places there are mounds of snow that like look mountains in miniature. There are so many large geese sleeping. It’s hard to get use to the constant blowing wind again, but not terrible. Although my ankle was a bit sore after my run and I was worried that I strained it again by need so much force to propel myself through the wind. (Luckily, the soreness would subside and never been an issue the rest of the week.)
Wednesday morning it was so windy! Normal for Casper, but still not my favorite thing to deal with. Norm kept asking if it was always like this, and the answer is most of the time. We have a pretty consistent 20 to 30 mph wind here. Occasionally you get a wind free day, but not often. When I was having my coffee, I realized that the wind had died down a bit. Instead of finishing my coffee I headed out, hoping to beat the gusts. It wasn’t long before the gusts were blowing at about 50 mph and I often had no control over where my body was going. When it started to feel dangerous, things flying at me and me almost tripping myself as the wind blew one foot into the other, I headed home. It was a shame because the temperature was a very pleasant 40 degrees and minus the wind, I could have run a lot more miles.
Thursday, I woke to icy conditions. To be fair, I knew it was would I wake up to because the evening before ice had started falling from the sky. Not snow, but sharp and noisy ice. (I guess sleet?). It was a very good thing that I waited for light. In the dark I would never have been able to see the slick patches of ice. For whatever reason, one side of the street seemed a lot clearer of ice than the other. What I learned today is that crunchy ice is good. As long as I could stay where the ice was crunchy, I could run okay. But trying to watch for slick spots was exhausting and I headed back home thinking I would end with about 4 miles. Disappointing. But when I was almost home, I saw the sidewalks clear around some federal buildings and the post office and from there discovered that if I ran next to railroad tracks, I could run easily. The dirt ground was often ice free or had the magical crunchy ice with no slick spots. So, I did some loops and ended up with 7 miles. It was the kids of running that wasn’t physically hard, but mentally hard. I grew weary of trying to watch my every step and the constant worry of slipping and falling.
Friday, I headed back to the river and was pleased to find that the paths were clear. It takes a little longer to get my body to want to do any fast running when it’s in the teens out, but I was eventually able to get some speed. My Suunto was being ridiculous, often saying I was running a 3min mile pace or some other ridiculous speed. From the effort and my breathing I would guess I got some miles in at about 7min mile or maybe a 6:50min mile pace. But definitely not the 5:45min mile pace that showed up in my Strava.
I slept in on Saturday. Waking at 7am in sleeping in for me. When I looked out the window, I saw everything covered in snow. When I left, I had no one of knowing what a gorgeous morning of running I was going to get. Back to the river I went. The paths were covered in pretty deep snow, but snow is easy to run on, even in my road shoes. If Norm hadn’t been waiting for me, I would have run for much longer. The temperature was perfect, there was no wind, and I was worried about slipping in falling. I was just enjoying running. I loved seeing the animal tracks and thinking about the paths made by others walking and running. When I would run past where I had run before, I would smile at how tiny my footprint seems compared to the others. It was a lovely morning. I came home tired and happy. Although it didn’t seem like it at the time, I think I was working harder running in the snow. I know I was using muscles I don’t normally use. When I told Norm how tired I felt he commented that I had a run a half marathon at what a lot of people consider race pace. I guess I never thought if it that way.
There was this moment when I topped a small hill and could see downtown and this thought came to me, “this is my home” in a way that was comforting.
I needed to have Norm at the airport by 7am I waited to run until after I had dropped him. The weather was perfect. I was bummed when my hamstring started being cranky. I had hoped that after I warned up it would start to feel better. I tried to avoid snow and hills to keep it happy, no easy task in Casper. When the wind picked up and any running into the wind was annoying to my hamstring, I called it quits at 12 miles. Sadly, my mileage is really low this week and I didn’t get in a long run, but with race planned it better to try to avoid any sort of serious and prolonged hamstring strain or create an injury.
When I came home my apartment was so quiet. Of course, it was quite when Norm was here, it isn’t as if he makes a lot of noise. There is something different about the quiet in a house when you live alone. Yes, over the years there have been times where my house was empty, but it is not the same. I have noticed it before living In Casper alone, different quiet. The sound of setting things down, opening and closing cabinets, and even bare feet on the floors. All of these things take on a sound that is different than when there is another living being in the house, when that other being is silent and unseen. I guess that sounds rather depressing, but it’s not. Sometimes it is lonely, sometimes it is boring, but not depressing.
The college will go back this week, I will start working again on my dissertation, and I will settle into my schedule. I had hoped to write a training plan, but for the time being I think it’s best to have a weekly go and do what I can based on the weather for the day.
