Monday 3/29
Jewish holidays are not a lot of fun if you are by yourself, in case you were wondering. I could have run today, I thought I would run today, but the wind kept me inside. Running in wind sucks, but when it is 20 to 30 mph I can still get some miles in. Yes, I end up irrationally angry, but at least I get some miles done. But when the wind is gusting 50 to 60 mph it is ridiculous to even attempt it. It’s not even the possible large objects blowing at you, but the problem is with your own body. I end up tripping myself as the wind blows one foot into the other leg. Or sometimes I just lose control of my own body and end up struggling to keep from blowing into the street. Not a fun prospect if there is traffic in said street. People often joke that I am so tiny that a strong wind might blow me away, but it seems this is actually true. I kept hoping the wind would die down, but it did not. So, I didn’t run.
Tuesday 3/30
My typical morning is wake up, check the weather, get out bed for coffee. It’s freaking cold out. Like in the 20’s or something. I am done with it. While these temps didn’t feel cold a month ago, they now feel like living in the artic circle. This is the problem with going home to Phoenix for break.
I ran 8 miles and ended shorter than planned because my hands were so cold. Running into the wind was so chilly. Ugh!
It’s spring break for the K-12 schools here so all day there are teens tromping up and down the metal stairs in my alley known as Stairway to Heaven. Two skater girls take up residence and blast their crappy emotional teen girl music. At least play decent music!
Wednesday 3/31
The wind! The cold! I get 6 miles done and call it a day. I had thought I might get out for a second run, but my day was full of meetings and one of those meetings was rather late in the day. Never mind. Drink wine and try again tomorrow.
Thursday 4/1
For the love! I had set today as the day to start adding in climbing to train for Silverton Alpine. I head out a run that will give me some climbing without being an overwhelming amount. Except now I am running uphill into the wind. I am less than thrilled about this. I try to create a route that allows me alternate into the wind and back to the wind. The pace isn’t great, but I am able to talk myself into 11 miles.
I went ahead and paid for my gym membership. I should start swimming again, but I probably won’t. The real reason I joined this gym was for yoga. It’s the only place in town with hot yoga. Except, I hate the yoga there. I haven’t been in so long that I can’t remember why I don’t like the Thursday class. It should be getting ready to leave, but I am not. Then the power went out. My landlord was working at one of his businesses in the building, so he called up to let me know. The funny thing is that I had no idea the power was out until he called. Without internet I can’t do too much so I decide to go to yoga. Of course, I was late. I hate being late. I remember why I don’t like this class. The teacher is a big fan of Kundalini yoga and I am not. But she is such a nice person. After class when I apologize for being late, she says, “No problem, I am just glad you came.” Now I feel bad about not liking her class.
Here is the yoga situation. (Feel free to skip this paragraph if you have already read my yoga struggle previously.) Pay for hot yoga that I don’t like at a gym where no one talks to me and I never leave feeling good. I am pretty sure this gym is not my people. There are all these signs about how kids of the opposite sex over 4 must can’t accompany a parent into the changing room. Good grief! Meanwhile, there are elementary age boys running free all over the club all the time. My other option is to go to the yoga studio a block from my house, much more traditional yoga, which is not my favorite. But the people are nice and it’s a small group, so I actually get to talk to people. I may not love the classes, but it feels nice to talk to people. What am I to do? I don’t want to give up yoga and I will not force myself to do it every day at home. Also, I think it is good to have something to get me out of the house in the afternoon. Can someone please open a power yoga studio that plays hip hop music? Is that too much to ask? Since I live in a town where men literally said to me, “I don’t feel comfortable renting to a woman living alone” I am guessing it is too much to ask. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to love about Casper, it just often feels like it hasn’t made it to the year 2021 yet.
When I get to downtown there are police cars, fire trucks, and city workers all over the place. It was crazy! There are roads closed so I have to do a little out of the way driving to get to my parking garage. Back to my apartment and the power is still out. I don’t own a flashlight, but I do own a giant box of Shabbat candles. I check the power company website and it says the power should be back on by 8:30pm. I light some candles and read by candlelight until the power comes back on.
Friday 4/2
No work today because the college is closed for… Good Friday? Early Easter? I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. My hope was to sleep in, but not so much. My body is too used to getting up early. I flop around for a while and the finally get out of bed.
It is a beautiful morning! A little more windy than I wanted for speedwork, but I get it done. After I warm up, I am able to get a very fast mile done, but it nearly kills me. The next mile, about 6:45 pace feels a lot more comfortable. The third mile was 6:35 pace, not terribly uncomfortable. The last mile was 6:23 pace. I had managed to get down to low 6’s a few times but struggled to stay there. That felt like a lot of work. Not the best speed work of my life, but not the worst. It’s a place to start and give me a plan for moving forward.
I went to yoga at noon. I have never been to this class. It was okay. Again, I am not in love, but it was fine. I might add this into my schedule for the rest of the school year. I should have brought my running clothes for my 2nd run. I didn’t think of that until after I got to the gym. Maybe next time.
Later in the afternoon I get out for an easy run. I feel like I am barely moving, but I am running faster than I planned for this easy run. Plus, with every mile I get faster, but I still feel like a slug. This is when I need Hayley or Norm to keep me from running too fast.
Saturday 4/3
I have a normal Saturday long run plan, but I decided today to do something different and see if I could follow the path to Paradise Valley Park. I was a little over 3 miles into the run when there was a bunch of young turkeys in front of me. I normally run the other direction when I see wild turkeys, but these small guys started running ahead of me. It was like have a pace car, except there was probably 10 to 12 of them. FYI – those guys can run pretty fast. I kept telling them to just go chill in the grass, but they wouldn’t listen. Finally, the found a place they seemed happy to settle in and I continued on but not for long. All of the sudden there was a very large male turkey with all his feathers out strutting back and forth in front of me. For those of you not sharing your town with wild turkeys, strutting is the technical term for when they strut in front of you to intimidate you. And it worked. I tried to tell him to go away, but that didn’t work. I consider picking up a large stick and using it to fend him off should he attack as I try to pass. I look around but don’t really see a good stick and also realize that it’s probably a dumb idea. First, this guy is at least half my size. Also, I know me and I am not going to want to hurt an animal so I would be nervous about trying to push him away. In the end, I decide to go back the way that I came and take a different route. What an asshole.
After a few warm up miles I drop to 7:45 pace and keep that up until I get to about mile 10. On my way to Paradise Valley, I see about 8 deer crossing the river and stop to watch. It’s just so amazing to see! I do find my way to Paradise Valley park and use the porta potty. After mile ten I drop below 7:30 pace and I am able to run about 7:15 or lower. The best part of this is that I feel good. None of this feels too hard. I have been looking at changing races for my Desert Solstice qualifier. By the end of this run I have decided that I definitely want to run a qualifier and will change my race. Later in the day put my name in for the Kickers 50 mile race. I won’t know if I have a spot until June. The race is the weekend after Silverton Alpine. So, depending on training I will either skip Silverton or run Silverton and Kickers. I usually run really well when I stack races back to back. As long as I feel like I am good shape, I will do both. Plus, I really miss being in Silverton.
Remember when I was complaining about living in a small town? Here is why you live in a small town. I was renewing my passport and it said I could go to the library to submit my paperwork. Great! I sign up for an appointment online. Then I realize it says they don’t do renewals, so I cancel the appointment. A few minutes later I get an email from the librarian saying they can help me, even with a renewal. I email back to say I was confused by the website and after a few emails we clear things up and she invites me to head over any time in the afternoon. I can’t seem to get my hair colored here so I am using sun for my highlights. No one has messed my hair up I just can’t seem to get an appointment. The first place I tried, I couldn’t get the receptionist to understand I wanted color, she kept talking about a cut, so I let her schedule a cut and then later called and cancelled. The next place has people make appointments online. I scheduled and appointment. Then about an hour before my appointment the hair person called to ask what I was wanting. We had a conversation where she totally annoyed, and we were not communicating well. But the whole reason she was calling was to cancel my appointment because as she said, “no one ever schedule the right kind of appointment.” Well then maybe you shouldn’t have people try to guess and schedule online. Back to today, I wash my hair, spray in some sun in and go sit in the sun on a random bench to dry my hair. Once my hair is dry, I head over to the library. The librarian was so nice and helpful! We got all of the paperwork done, the picture taken, and I am on my way. And there was no fee for the picture or processing. Yay! And hopefully I will have my passport in time to visit Canada this summer with Enzo.
Sunday 4/4
My stomach was not feeling great in the morning. That made it really easy to run my easy day nice and slow. I am also tired of running the same routes. There are only so many options when 4 or 5 miles gets me all the way across town in any direction. I managed to get 14 miles before my stomach couldn’t take it anymore.
I am teaching psychology of exercise and sport this summer, so I spent most of the day working on putting the class together. I love creating a new class, but it is so much work. I didn’t get anywhere near as much work done as I wanted. It was really a collection of materials, but I did come up with a general outline of a plan.
Jewish holidays are not a lot of fun if you are by yourself, in case you were wondering. I could have run today, I thought I would run today, but the wind kept me inside. Running in wind sucks, but when it is 20 to 30 mph I can still get some miles in. Yes, I end up irrationally angry, but at least I get some miles done. But when the wind is gusting 50 to 60 mph it is ridiculous to even attempt it. It’s not even the possible large objects blowing at you, but the problem is with your own body. I end up tripping myself as the wind blows one foot into the other leg. Or sometimes I just lose control of my own body and end up struggling to keep from blowing into the street. Not a fun prospect if there is traffic in said street. People often joke that I am so tiny that a strong wind might blow me away, but it seems this is actually true. I kept hoping the wind would die down, but it did not. So, I didn’t run.
Tuesday 3/30
My typical morning is wake up, check the weather, get out bed for coffee. It’s freaking cold out. Like in the 20’s or something. I am done with it. While these temps didn’t feel cold a month ago, they now feel like living in the artic circle. This is the problem with going home to Phoenix for break.
I ran 8 miles and ended shorter than planned because my hands were so cold. Running into the wind was so chilly. Ugh!
It’s spring break for the K-12 schools here so all day there are teens tromping up and down the metal stairs in my alley known as Stairway to Heaven. Two skater girls take up residence and blast their crappy emotional teen girl music. At least play decent music!
Wednesday 3/31
The wind! The cold! I get 6 miles done and call it a day. I had thought I might get out for a second run, but my day was full of meetings and one of those meetings was rather late in the day. Never mind. Drink wine and try again tomorrow.
Thursday 4/1
For the love! I had set today as the day to start adding in climbing to train for Silverton Alpine. I head out a run that will give me some climbing without being an overwhelming amount. Except now I am running uphill into the wind. I am less than thrilled about this. I try to create a route that allows me alternate into the wind and back to the wind. The pace isn’t great, but I am able to talk myself into 11 miles.
I went ahead and paid for my gym membership. I should start swimming again, but I probably won’t. The real reason I joined this gym was for yoga. It’s the only place in town with hot yoga. Except, I hate the yoga there. I haven’t been in so long that I can’t remember why I don’t like the Thursday class. It should be getting ready to leave, but I am not. Then the power went out. My landlord was working at one of his businesses in the building, so he called up to let me know. The funny thing is that I had no idea the power was out until he called. Without internet I can’t do too much so I decide to go to yoga. Of course, I was late. I hate being late. I remember why I don’t like this class. The teacher is a big fan of Kundalini yoga and I am not. But she is such a nice person. After class when I apologize for being late, she says, “No problem, I am just glad you came.” Now I feel bad about not liking her class.
Here is the yoga situation. (Feel free to skip this paragraph if you have already read my yoga struggle previously.) Pay for hot yoga that I don’t like at a gym where no one talks to me and I never leave feeling good. I am pretty sure this gym is not my people. There are all these signs about how kids of the opposite sex over 4 must can’t accompany a parent into the changing room. Good grief! Meanwhile, there are elementary age boys running free all over the club all the time. My other option is to go to the yoga studio a block from my house, much more traditional yoga, which is not my favorite. But the people are nice and it’s a small group, so I actually get to talk to people. I may not love the classes, but it feels nice to talk to people. What am I to do? I don’t want to give up yoga and I will not force myself to do it every day at home. Also, I think it is good to have something to get me out of the house in the afternoon. Can someone please open a power yoga studio that plays hip hop music? Is that too much to ask? Since I live in a town where men literally said to me, “I don’t feel comfortable renting to a woman living alone” I am guessing it is too much to ask. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to love about Casper, it just often feels like it hasn’t made it to the year 2021 yet.
When I get to downtown there are police cars, fire trucks, and city workers all over the place. It was crazy! There are roads closed so I have to do a little out of the way driving to get to my parking garage. Back to my apartment and the power is still out. I don’t own a flashlight, but I do own a giant box of Shabbat candles. I check the power company website and it says the power should be back on by 8:30pm. I light some candles and read by candlelight until the power comes back on.
Friday 4/2
No work today because the college is closed for… Good Friday? Early Easter? I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. My hope was to sleep in, but not so much. My body is too used to getting up early. I flop around for a while and the finally get out of bed.
It is a beautiful morning! A little more windy than I wanted for speedwork, but I get it done. After I warm up, I am able to get a very fast mile done, but it nearly kills me. The next mile, about 6:45 pace feels a lot more comfortable. The third mile was 6:35 pace, not terribly uncomfortable. The last mile was 6:23 pace. I had managed to get down to low 6’s a few times but struggled to stay there. That felt like a lot of work. Not the best speed work of my life, but not the worst. It’s a place to start and give me a plan for moving forward.
I went to yoga at noon. I have never been to this class. It was okay. Again, I am not in love, but it was fine. I might add this into my schedule for the rest of the school year. I should have brought my running clothes for my 2nd run. I didn’t think of that until after I got to the gym. Maybe next time.
Later in the afternoon I get out for an easy run. I feel like I am barely moving, but I am running faster than I planned for this easy run. Plus, with every mile I get faster, but I still feel like a slug. This is when I need Hayley or Norm to keep me from running too fast.
Saturday 4/3
I have a normal Saturday long run plan, but I decided today to do something different and see if I could follow the path to Paradise Valley Park. I was a little over 3 miles into the run when there was a bunch of young turkeys in front of me. I normally run the other direction when I see wild turkeys, but these small guys started running ahead of me. It was like have a pace car, except there was probably 10 to 12 of them. FYI – those guys can run pretty fast. I kept telling them to just go chill in the grass, but they wouldn’t listen. Finally, the found a place they seemed happy to settle in and I continued on but not for long. All of the sudden there was a very large male turkey with all his feathers out strutting back and forth in front of me. For those of you not sharing your town with wild turkeys, strutting is the technical term for when they strut in front of you to intimidate you. And it worked. I tried to tell him to go away, but that didn’t work. I consider picking up a large stick and using it to fend him off should he attack as I try to pass. I look around but don’t really see a good stick and also realize that it’s probably a dumb idea. First, this guy is at least half my size. Also, I know me and I am not going to want to hurt an animal so I would be nervous about trying to push him away. In the end, I decide to go back the way that I came and take a different route. What an asshole.
After a few warm up miles I drop to 7:45 pace and keep that up until I get to about mile 10. On my way to Paradise Valley, I see about 8 deer crossing the river and stop to watch. It’s just so amazing to see! I do find my way to Paradise Valley park and use the porta potty. After mile ten I drop below 7:30 pace and I am able to run about 7:15 or lower. The best part of this is that I feel good. None of this feels too hard. I have been looking at changing races for my Desert Solstice qualifier. By the end of this run I have decided that I definitely want to run a qualifier and will change my race. Later in the day put my name in for the Kickers 50 mile race. I won’t know if I have a spot until June. The race is the weekend after Silverton Alpine. So, depending on training I will either skip Silverton or run Silverton and Kickers. I usually run really well when I stack races back to back. As long as I feel like I am good shape, I will do both. Plus, I really miss being in Silverton.
Remember when I was complaining about living in a small town? Here is why you live in a small town. I was renewing my passport and it said I could go to the library to submit my paperwork. Great! I sign up for an appointment online. Then I realize it says they don’t do renewals, so I cancel the appointment. A few minutes later I get an email from the librarian saying they can help me, even with a renewal. I email back to say I was confused by the website and after a few emails we clear things up and she invites me to head over any time in the afternoon. I can’t seem to get my hair colored here so I am using sun for my highlights. No one has messed my hair up I just can’t seem to get an appointment. The first place I tried, I couldn’t get the receptionist to understand I wanted color, she kept talking about a cut, so I let her schedule a cut and then later called and cancelled. The next place has people make appointments online. I scheduled and appointment. Then about an hour before my appointment the hair person called to ask what I was wanting. We had a conversation where she totally annoyed, and we were not communicating well. But the whole reason she was calling was to cancel my appointment because as she said, “no one ever schedule the right kind of appointment.” Well then maybe you shouldn’t have people try to guess and schedule online. Back to today, I wash my hair, spray in some sun in and go sit in the sun on a random bench to dry my hair. Once my hair is dry, I head over to the library. The librarian was so nice and helpful! We got all of the paperwork done, the picture taken, and I am on my way. And there was no fee for the picture or processing. Yay! And hopefully I will have my passport in time to visit Canada this summer with Enzo.
Sunday 4/4
My stomach was not feeling great in the morning. That made it really easy to run my easy day nice and slow. I am also tired of running the same routes. There are only so many options when 4 or 5 miles gets me all the way across town in any direction. I managed to get 14 miles before my stomach couldn’t take it anymore.
I am teaching psychology of exercise and sport this summer, so I spent most of the day working on putting the class together. I love creating a new class, but it is so much work. I didn’t get anywhere near as much work done as I wanted. It was really a collection of materials, but I did come up with a general outline of a plan.
