I intended to write a post with this title after a recent experience in which a moth or something like it flew directly into my face, startling the crap out of me, a pheasant ran out of the bushes when I ran by, startling the crap out of me, and then flock (gaggle?) of Canadian geese started hover over me like they were plotting to dive bomb me, scaring the crap out of me. That was a lot of scariness for a 3 mile run.
Today I set out on a 4.5 mile run. My training plan called for 5.5, but I planned out a perfect 4.5 mile route, and I didn't run all week, so I figured I could cheat a bit. (THIS IS WHY I NEED A RUNNING PARTNER!) Most of the time I run through trails near my house, but because I wanted to be able to track my mileage, I decided to try a new route. I told D about my new route and said, "Just in case I don't come back because I got eaten by a dog, you will be able to find my body." To which he said, "Oh yeah, there are dogs up there. They stayed on their property when I went by, but they are not on a leash, and they were growling and barking." Oh great! So I set off on my run and within 5 minutes I was confronted by my first off-leash growly, scary dog. My immediate reaction was to cross my arms so that it couldn't bite my hands. Surprisingly, it did not leave its property. I wonder if they have the magic invisible fence or if it is just really well trained? Then the next house also had an off-leash dog. It barked at me, but did not move either. My route started to take me in to more remote parts of town, and some people had what looked like bear-proof trash boxes. I mean, maybe they are just to keep out the racoons, but it looked like it was to prevent bears, which made me nervous. Also, there were lots of bushes, a few abandoned houses and barns, and a large cemetery. I really started to feel like I was in a horror movie. Good thing I never watch them because my imagination might have gotten the better of me. After a couple more scary dogs, I was back on Main Street, where I could relax again.
The route was also VERY hilly, something I normally try to avoid, but which is largely unavoidable here in Sackville. I think the adrenaline from my fear really helped me because I ran up almost all the hills with no problems. There was one huge one that got me though, and I had to walk to the top. Other than that, I was pretty pleased with my hill running abilities. Jenni wouldn't even recognize me any more!
Distance: 4.5 miles on pavement
Number of stars: 4
Lessons learned: Stick to the main streets when running around here.
Song that rocked my run: Hey Ya by Outkast
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
running out the rage
I think I've said it before, I run best when I'm angry. Once, last December, I was in IKEA and I got a text message that filled me with rage, and I came home and ran 10 miles. Just like that. There's something about it, being so pissed off, and then just running. Running it out. You can think about whatever you want, you can play out awful scenario after awful scenario, and as you do, the miles just roll by. What happens, usually, is by the end of the run, whatever was making you so upset is also gone.
I remember one time in high school, I'm pretty sure it was my senior year, and my JV field hockey coach had us each write down one goal for the game. Mine was probably something like "stay on your man" or "stick down when you stop the ball", or some other terribly obvious thing that I could never quite do right. And she had us put them in our right shoe, and every time we took a step, we were supposed to think of that goal. And dammit, if that didn't just work well! I think I do a similar thing with running when I'm angry. I focus all of my energy on that one thing, and by the end of the run I just don't need to worry about it anymore.
Lately, I think I've forgotten this. I mean, it sounds silly, to focus on all the bad stuff. But, it's gonna be there anyway, may as well do something constructive with it. This week, the last few weeks, have been particularly bad. Personal things, professional things, things completely out of my control, things completely under my control - and I've just ignored it all. This morning I was supposed to do Wilke Hill with my group, but I didn't. I say I slept through it, and that is the truth. Honestly though, the alarm went off and I woke up. And as I lay there contemplating whether or not I was going to do this (as I do every morning), I must have fallen asleep for an hour. Because at 7:15, I was waking up again. Oops.
But, I ran anyway. Not Wilke. A new route that I've never done before. And I ran away the rage. I ran for everything that's been bothering me, stressing me out, and making me want to yell. And, it totally worked. 8 miles later, and I was feeling great.
I took LD's advice, and I switched up the tunes - a great idea. My iPod must have known exactly what I needed, because we started with some of the angry Eminem and Alanis Morrisette. But the run ended with Dar Williams singing about Better Things. Man, it was just perfect.
Song that rocked my run: Not Afraid by Eminem.
4 star run, rage gone!
I remember one time in high school, I'm pretty sure it was my senior year, and my JV field hockey coach had us each write down one goal for the game. Mine was probably something like "stay on your man" or "stick down when you stop the ball", or some other terribly obvious thing that I could never quite do right. And she had us put them in our right shoe, and every time we took a step, we were supposed to think of that goal. And dammit, if that didn't just work well! I think I do a similar thing with running when I'm angry. I focus all of my energy on that one thing, and by the end of the run I just don't need to worry about it anymore.
Lately, I think I've forgotten this. I mean, it sounds silly, to focus on all the bad stuff. But, it's gonna be there anyway, may as well do something constructive with it. This week, the last few weeks, have been particularly bad. Personal things, professional things, things completely out of my control, things completely under my control - and I've just ignored it all. This morning I was supposed to do Wilke Hill with my group, but I didn't. I say I slept through it, and that is the truth. Honestly though, the alarm went off and I woke up. And as I lay there contemplating whether or not I was going to do this (as I do every morning), I must have fallen asleep for an hour. Because at 7:15, I was waking up again. Oops.
But, I ran anyway. Not Wilke. A new route that I've never done before. And I ran away the rage. I ran for everything that's been bothering me, stressing me out, and making me want to yell. And, it totally worked. 8 miles later, and I was feeling great.
I took LD's advice, and I switched up the tunes - a great idea. My iPod must have known exactly what I needed, because we started with some of the angry Eminem and Alanis Morrisette. But the run ended with Dar Williams singing about Better Things. Man, it was just perfect.
Song that rocked my run: Not Afraid by Eminem.
4 star run, rage gone!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
W-W-W-W WILKE!
Oh man. The time has come. I just got the newsletter with our Saturday route and Ironman Janice said the dreaded word. WILKE. For those of you unfamiliar with Wilke, it's a hill. And I use the term hill loosely. It's a torturous deathtrap of a hill. One that should only make an appearance in your worst nightmares, and not in the midst of a 7.5 mile Saturday run with a group questionably too fast for your abilities!
In sum, Wilke is only 0.16 miles long, but it climbs 108 feet in elevation - a 20% grade. I totally can't wait.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Back in training
I did my first run in two weeks today. I wanted to make sure that my knees were fully functional before I started abusing them again. I have been able to walk down stairs without pain for the past few days, so I took that as a sign that I was ready to run.
Today also signals my first day on the official training schedule for the Austin Half Marathon in February. I have entered the entire training schedule into my Google calendar. Now the only hard part is sticking to it. I am contemplating posting an ad for a running partner in Sackville, but then what if someone terrible responds, and I am stuck for hours on end with this person. This would be much easier if Jenni were here.
The run today was rather painless. I am always surprised that running seems easiest when I start again after taking a couple weeks off. Today's training schedule called for 4 miles plus drills. I did the 4 miles half on the road and half in trails, and only had problems toward the end where the trail narrowed and the trees were close enough for spider webs to connect them. Fortunately it was early in the morning, so no one was around to see me flailing about after each spiderweb encounter like I was having a seizure. After the first two spider webs and the subsequent freak outs, I took to swimming through the air to knock the spiderwebs down with my arms before my face got to them. I am not sure which looked more silly.
My run ended at the high school across from my house, which conveniently has a very steep hill, and a parking lot on which to do drills without people driving on Main street seeing me. I skipped, and ran back wards and did jumping jacks and did the grapevine both on flat ground and up the hill. It sucked, but I did it!
Distance: 4 miles on pavement and trails
Number of stars:4.5
Lessons learned: I really like running :)
Song that rocked my run: Nothing in particular. I was mostly just enjoying the view.
Today also signals my first day on the official training schedule for the Austin Half Marathon in February. I have entered the entire training schedule into my Google calendar. Now the only hard part is sticking to it. I am contemplating posting an ad for a running partner in Sackville, but then what if someone terrible responds, and I am stuck for hours on end with this person. This would be much easier if Jenni were here.
The run today was rather painless. I am always surprised that running seems easiest when I start again after taking a couple weeks off. Today's training schedule called for 4 miles plus drills. I did the 4 miles half on the road and half in trails, and only had problems toward the end where the trail narrowed and the trees were close enough for spider webs to connect them. Fortunately it was early in the morning, so no one was around to see me flailing about after each spiderweb encounter like I was having a seizure. After the first two spider webs and the subsequent freak outs, I took to swimming through the air to knock the spiderwebs down with my arms before my face got to them. I am not sure which looked more silly.
My run ended at the high school across from my house, which conveniently has a very steep hill, and a parking lot on which to do drills without people driving on Main street seeing me. I skipped, and ran back wards and did jumping jacks and did the grapevine both on flat ground and up the hill. It sucked, but I did it!
Distance: 4 miles on pavement and trails
Number of stars:4.5
Lessons learned: I really like running :)
Song that rocked my run: Nothing in particular. I was mostly just enjoying the view.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Inspiration
I received an email from my old running group in Austin this morning with a link to this video called "My 120 pound journey". It was such a touching video. I emailed it to Jenni immediately.It was inspiring to me as a runner. Although I have never lost a pound from running, I still believe that running improves my life in so many ways. Now if only my damn knee didn't hurt, and I could go for a run.
Terry Fox Run pt 2
The Terry Fox run itself was less than awesome. I had to drive out to Confederation bridge, which is about 40 minutes from my house. Once I got close, the traffic was backed up all down the highway, and it took me about 45 minutes to go the last kilometer and get parked. I had planned on being parked by 6 am, but it was about 6:40 by the time I was actually parked (in a farmer's field) and out of my car. The last bus to Prince Edward Island (PEI), which is where I wanted to start the race, was supposed to leave at 6:45. I ran in the direction of the buses, only to find there were none going to PEI, only to the start line on the New Brunswick side of the bridge. No one seemed to know what was going on, so I took the opportunity to use the potty. While in the outhouse, I heard someone yell, "Any runners going to PEI, get on the red bus. This is the last bus to PEI!" I quickly gathered my things and ran towards the bus. Once on the bus I realized that I had forgotten my water bottle. Because I have not replaced my broken water belt, I had planned on just carrying a water bottle. So now I had no water. I figured it wasn't the end of the world though, since it wasn't going to be crazy hot and humid like in Texas. As we drove over the bridge, I didn't see any water stations as promised, which made me a bit nervous. (I found out later that I was just looking at the wrong side of the bridge.) I definitely couldn't complain about the view, though! It was beautiful.
Once on the other side of the bridge, I hopped out of the bus and onto Prince Edward Island for the very first time. It was very exciting, and really pretty. I got there right at 7 am, and the race was supposed to start at 7 am. By 7:30 there had still been no announcements, and buses were still coming over the bridge. Lots of them. At least 20 more had come after me even though my bus was "the last bus to PEI." So I wandered around and people were all chatting to each other. and laughing and hanging out. It was all very informal for a race. Finally at about 7:40 we were told that the race would be begin soon. A few minutes later, they asked us to line up at the start line and that we would be starting in 5 minutes. Three minute later, we were told that there were actually a few more buses that had just started across the bridge, so we would have to get out of the way and wait about 10 minutes for them to get across the bridge so that we could start the race. The announcer kept saying things like, "We know you don't mind waiting because this is for such a good cause." and "We have a really good reason for running late because so many people showed up to support this really good cause." That did not fly because there was no on-site registration, so they had to have known how many people were coming.
Finally, around 8 am we went back to our places across the bridge to the starting line and then it was time for some short speeches. The whole crowd groaned, and I felt so bad for the speakers. One was an MP from the area and one was Terry Fox's brother, which I think made people feel REALLY bad for groaning. Each of them only spoke for about 30 seconds and then we were off. And damn was it windy! I guess I knew that running a race over the ocean would have to be windy, but I wasn't expecting the wind to be so strong. And, those of us starting from the PEI side were running into the wind. Fortunately, though, we were running west, and so the sun was behind us and not shining in our faces. The wind got a bit better as we got further from land, and I think it was also blocked a bit because we were running uphill and the high point of the bridge might have blocked it a bit.
The first 5.5 kilometers of the 12.8 kilometer run were uphill. At first it was a fairly obvious incline, then a less obvious incline, and then a very obvious incline as we got closer to the peak. I have to say that I did the best hill running that I have ever done in my life. Ever. I just kept going. And it wasn't so bad! I think that the constant wind helped keep my body cool and made it seem like less work, even though it was more work to battle the wind. I kept thinking that once I had crested the peak that the wind would die down. I am not sure what alternate universe that I thought I was in, but the wind got WAY WORSE once I was on the other side of the peak because there was no peak to at least block it somewhat. As I got closer to land on the New Brunswick side, I really felt that at points I was running backward or just running in place. The wind was that strong. And then my knees started to hurt. BADLY. And I had to stop running because I felt like someone was smashing both of my knees with a hammer at the same time. I walked for about 3 minutes, during which time my knees did not hurt at all, so I started to run again. Instantly they hurt REALLY badly, so I walked again for 2 minutes. This time I started running and it didn't hurt as bad, so I just kept at it. Usually when I feel pain, I will stop running completely for fear of getting permanently injured and not being able to run in some future event. I figured that since my next planned event is the Austin Half Marathon in February, I had some time to recover if I did do some damage. So I just kept on running. And I am still suffering the consequences - going down stairs is very painful endeavor these days.
There was no actual finish line. I just stopped running when I saw a bunch of people standing around stretching. On the bridge there were little kilometer markers posted and I ran past the one that said 13 km, so I am not sure if I went too far, or if maybe we started after the 0 km parker or something. Either way, the finish was very anti-climactic.
Overall though, the run was amazing. How often do you get to run an entire run over the ocean. The view was was so spectacular that I often forgot that I was running and it was supposed to be hard work. I also found out that they don't do this run over the bridge every year. The last time they did it was in 2005, so I am very glad that I was able to participate in this year's run over the bridge because I might not get the chance again.
Distance: 8 miles
Number of stars: 3.5
Lessons learned: A strong cool wind keeps the body temperature down and makes for more enjoyable running
Song that rocked my run: Kiss by Prince
Once on the other side of the bridge, I hopped out of the bus and onto Prince Edward Island for the very first time. It was very exciting, and really pretty. I got there right at 7 am, and the race was supposed to start at 7 am. By 7:30 there had still been no announcements, and buses were still coming over the bridge. Lots of them. At least 20 more had come after me even though my bus was "the last bus to PEI." So I wandered around and people were all chatting to each other. and laughing and hanging out. It was all very informal for a race. Finally at about 7:40 we were told that the race would be begin soon. A few minutes later, they asked us to line up at the start line and that we would be starting in 5 minutes. Three minute later, we were told that there were actually a few more buses that had just started across the bridge, so we would have to get out of the way and wait about 10 minutes for them to get across the bridge so that we could start the race. The announcer kept saying things like, "We know you don't mind waiting because this is for such a good cause." and "We have a really good reason for running late because so many people showed up to support this really good cause." That did not fly because there was no on-site registration, so they had to have known how many people were coming.
Finally, around 8 am we went back to our places across the bridge to the starting line and then it was time for some short speeches. The whole crowd groaned, and I felt so bad for the speakers. One was an MP from the area and one was Terry Fox's brother, which I think made people feel REALLY bad for groaning. Each of them only spoke for about 30 seconds and then we were off. And damn was it windy! I guess I knew that running a race over the ocean would have to be windy, but I wasn't expecting the wind to be so strong. And, those of us starting from the PEI side were running into the wind. Fortunately, though, we were running west, and so the sun was behind us and not shining in our faces. The wind got a bit better as we got further from land, and I think it was also blocked a bit because we were running uphill and the high point of the bridge might have blocked it a bit.
The first 5.5 kilometers of the 12.8 kilometer run were uphill. At first it was a fairly obvious incline, then a less obvious incline, and then a very obvious incline as we got closer to the peak. I have to say that I did the best hill running that I have ever done in my life. Ever. I just kept going. And it wasn't so bad! I think that the constant wind helped keep my body cool and made it seem like less work, even though it was more work to battle the wind. I kept thinking that once I had crested the peak that the wind would die down. I am not sure what alternate universe that I thought I was in, but the wind got WAY WORSE once I was on the other side of the peak because there was no peak to at least block it somewhat. As I got closer to land on the New Brunswick side, I really felt that at points I was running backward or just running in place. The wind was that strong. And then my knees started to hurt. BADLY. And I had to stop running because I felt like someone was smashing both of my knees with a hammer at the same time. I walked for about 3 minutes, during which time my knees did not hurt at all, so I started to run again. Instantly they hurt REALLY badly, so I walked again for 2 minutes. This time I started running and it didn't hurt as bad, so I just kept at it. Usually when I feel pain, I will stop running completely for fear of getting permanently injured and not being able to run in some future event. I figured that since my next planned event is the Austin Half Marathon in February, I had some time to recover if I did do some damage. So I just kept on running. And I am still suffering the consequences - going down stairs is very painful endeavor these days.
There was no actual finish line. I just stopped running when I saw a bunch of people standing around stretching. On the bridge there were little kilometer markers posted and I ran past the one that said 13 km, so I am not sure if I went too far, or if maybe we started after the 0 km parker or something. Either way, the finish was very anti-climactic.
Overall though, the run was amazing. How often do you get to run an entire run over the ocean. The view was was so spectacular that I often forgot that I was running and it was supposed to be hard work. I also found out that they don't do this run over the bridge every year. The last time they did it was in 2005, so I am very glad that I was able to participate in this year's run over the bridge because I might not get the chance again.
Distance: 8 miles
Number of stars: 3.5
Lessons learned: A strong cool wind keeps the body temperature down and makes for more enjoyable running
Song that rocked my run: Kiss by Prince
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Terry Fox Run
Today was the Terry Fox run across the Confederation Bridge that I have been sorta training for since I got to Sackville. I was running in memory of my paternal grandparents, both of whom were had cancer. I took an old picture of them that my aunt had digitized and attached it to my shirts.
I wanted to have shirts made with the picture on it, but I couldn't find anywhere around here that did such things. I printed out one picture just on paper and put it on the back of my long sleeved shirt.
And then I took a smaller version of the picture, laminated it with tape and attached it to the front of my short sleeved shirt:
The goal of the Terry Fox run is to raise money for cancer research, and thanks to my awesome donors, I raised $560 for the run. Thanks everyone!
I am too sleepy now to write about the actual run, so I will finish this tomorrow.
I wanted to have shirts made with the picture on it, but I couldn't find anywhere around here that did such things. I printed out one picture just on paper and put it on the back of my long sleeved shirt.
And then I took a smaller version of the picture, laminated it with tape and attached it to the front of my short sleeved shirt:
The goal of the Terry Fox run is to raise money for cancer research, and thanks to my awesome donors, I raised $560 for the run. Thanks everyone!
I am too sleepy now to write about the actual run, so I will finish this tomorrow.
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