After mulling the idea over for the better part of a year I finally did it. Results below:
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| I realize I am not smiling and I look really washed out, it is the best I have to offer at the moment. |
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
If you know me you are likely well aware that I have been toying with the idea of chopping my hair off for awhile. I am no stranger to shortish hair, but I have not had super short hair since the awful mushroom cut of my childhood (btw, I thought it was cool back then).
After mulling the idea over for the better part of a year I finally did it. Results below:
After mulling the idea over for the better part of a year I finally did it. Results below:
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Youngs Lake 20 Mile
First things first, the reason you should run an ultra, or at least an event attached to an ultra - aid stations. Marathon aid stations usually have water, Gatorade, and gu. Ultra aid stations bear a closer resemblance to a candy store: snickers, twizzlers, cookies, chips and guacamole, brownies, soup, sandwiches, gu, nuun, pop, and salt tabs, just to name a few options. It is awesome!
Today I partook in Youngs Lake 20 mile trail run. It is a loop trail around a reservoir that you can do as many times as you want (10 mi, 20mi, 50k), the more you run the better deal the race is (everyone pays $19). Prior to the start of the race the RD gave a quick speech "We have gotten a lot of rain, don't expect a PR, you will likely have a PW today. Use common sense going down the first hill, people have lost teeth on it. And...start!"
I wasn't sure what to expect of the course, the online description describes it as pretty flat. It was not as flat as I expected but it was a very fast, runnable course. My legs feel somewhat turtle-ish and heavy, some speed work may do me good. Overall I felt pretty good and plugged along my merry way. When I finished I felt like I could have gone out and done another lap, that is good since I have a 50k in two weeks.
Total time: 2:59 (hr:min)
I am thinking about doing some climbing tomorrow. I miss it... Sure, I will only be able to pull on plastic, but it is better than nothing.
Today I partook in Youngs Lake 20 mile trail run. It is a loop trail around a reservoir that you can do as many times as you want (10 mi, 20mi, 50k), the more you run the better deal the race is (everyone pays $19). Prior to the start of the race the RD gave a quick speech "We have gotten a lot of rain, don't expect a PR, you will likely have a PW today. Use common sense going down the first hill, people have lost teeth on it. And...start!"
I wasn't sure what to expect of the course, the online description describes it as pretty flat. It was not as flat as I expected but it was a very fast, runnable course. My legs feel somewhat turtle-ish and heavy, some speed work may do me good. Overall I felt pretty good and plugged along my merry way. When I finished I felt like I could have gone out and done another lap, that is good since I have a 50k in two weeks.
Total time: 2:59 (hr:min)
I am thinking about doing some climbing tomorrow. I miss it... Sure, I will only be able to pull on plastic, but it is better than nothing.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Agony of DaFeet
One word nicely sums up my feet - flat. So, I am always on the hunt for the perfect shoe. The longer distances (on rough terrain) that I recently started running has amplified my foot issues. I haven't decided if the pain is related to my shoes or me. I have two theories 1) I still haven't found the proper shoe... The magical pill that will provide a perfect balance of cushion and rigidity (to protect from nasty rocks); or 2) My feet are not in shape and I experience muscle fatigue caused by running on uneven terrain over long periods of time. No matter the cause I feel like finding the proper shoe could go a long way towards solving my foot pain.
Let me characterize what I am talking about when I say foot pain. Putting any amount of pressure on my feet causes pretty gnarly pain, resulting in my body deciding to take a lot of really small shuffling steps to try and compensate for the pain radiating through my tootsies. This, I have learned, is not to my benefit. So, I usually try to suck it up and force myself back into a normal gait.
One of these days, maybe I will find a shoe that helps. More likely my foot muscles will eventually adapt the the pressure I put on them (I hope). Either way, I look forward to being able to run pain free.
In the meantime if you have any shoe suggestions, please share!
Let me characterize what I am talking about when I say foot pain. Putting any amount of pressure on my feet causes pretty gnarly pain, resulting in my body deciding to take a lot of really small shuffling steps to try and compensate for the pain radiating through my tootsies. This, I have learned, is not to my benefit. So, I usually try to suck it up and force myself back into a normal gait.
One of these days, maybe I will find a shoe that helps. More likely my foot muscles will eventually adapt the the pressure I put on them (I hope). Either way, I look forward to being able to run pain free.
In the meantime if you have any shoe suggestions, please share!
Mega Fat Ass
Fat Ass (definition) - fun run put on at no/low cost to participants. The general motto is "No awards, No tee-shirt, No aid, No frills and NO WHINING! It is not, as one of my friends thought a complaint about how large my posterior is...
Order of yesterdays events:
Matt and I both signed-up for the 17 mile version (there was a 55k as well), turned in our toilet paper and began our run. It was a out and back course on trails that I have ran many times. There is something comforting about knowing what to expect while out on the trail. We have been getting a lot of rain lately so the trails were pretty muddy/wet. I don't have any pictures of the run, the weather man called for rain and so I opted to leave my camera in the car. Too bad, the rain held off until we were done.
The run itself went pretty well. I felt good for the first 11 miles, around mile 12 I felt like someone jammed a hot knife into my side. Unfortunately that feeling lasted though the end of the race. Matt also experienced some issues beginning at mile 12, more on that later...
Upon finishing I was milling about the finish area waiting for Matt and the a great thing happened, I made some friends!! There was a group of wonderful women that were super friendly and very helpful re: olympia trail running and events. I am looking forward to running with them and getting to know people in the area.
Distance: 17 miles
Time (Mel): 3:14 (hr:min)
Time (Matt): 3:38 (hr:min)
Urgent Care, I am sure you are wondering what landed us there. The issues Matt started having around mile 12 were a bit more worrisome then what I experienced. To the point, his pee was "coca cola" colored. There are a couple of options for what could have caused this. He is scheduled to receive a CT scan later this week to rule out a kidney stone. Personally, I don't think it is a stone, I am pretty sure it has to do with muscle breakdown. But, I am not a doctor so I wouldn't put too much weight on my opinion.
A pretty good day for me, a less than stellar day for Matt.
Order of yesterdays events:
- Run Fat Ass
- Make friends!!!
- Go to Urgent Care
- Play pinball
- Eat Pizza
Upon finishing I was milling about the finish area waiting for Matt and the a great thing happened, I made some friends!! There was a group of wonderful women that were super friendly and very helpful re: olympia trail running and events. I am looking forward to running with them and getting to know people in the area.
Distance: 17 miles
Time (Mel): 3:14 (hr:min)
Time (Matt): 3:38 (hr:min)
Urgent Care, I am sure you are wondering what landed us there. The issues Matt started having around mile 12 were a bit more worrisome then what I experienced. To the point, his pee was "coca cola" colored. There are a couple of options for what could have caused this. He is scheduled to receive a CT scan later this week to rule out a kidney stone. Personally, I don't think it is a stone, I am pretty sure it has to do with muscle breakdown. But, I am not a doctor so I wouldn't put too much weight on my opinion.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Oh Snow!
Yesterday was a snow adventure. We drove to the Mt. Rainier area to do some xc-skiing on a trail system just outside the park - Mt. Tahoma. While I am used to having back country adventures, it was the driving that proved to be the most exciting part of yesterdays trip.
The Mt. Tahoma trail head is located in the middle of nowhere. As such it is advised that you have chains and be prepared to use them. The trail association is kind enough to post the phone number of the local tow service in case you decide that chains are for sissies. We opted to be sissies, we took the truck and had our trusty chains in the back seat, ready for use if deemed necessary. The fire road we were traveling didn't seem too bad, from the tracks in front of us it seemed that most other people did not have chains on their vehicles. Given this information we opted to leave our chains in the backseat. Bad idea!
We stopped at an intersection to look at a map and determine just where it was we were headed. When Matt put the car back into gear and hit the gas we proceeded to begin sliding towards a cliff edge. Better yet it was a gully that wasn't protected by trees. Nothing good would have come from sliding over it. Oh yes, I should mentioned that we were on a very steep mountain(ish) type road. Matt, being the calm, cool, collected individual that he is handled our predicament quite well. After watching his eyes bug out of his head there was a lot of gear shifting and gas stomping to try and angle ourselves away from our impeding doom. Since you are reading this it is apparent that he was a success. He was finally able to stop our slide at which point we put the chains on and made it to our destination without further excitement.
Skiing was fun. However, it was unlike any xc I have ever done. Michigan is fairly flat, these trails, not so much. We grinded uphill for a couple of miles on our skinny skis, had a snack, then turned around to ski back to our car. The uphill portion was good, talk about a workout, everything was burning. The downhill, well it wasn't very graceful, for either of us... I have never seen Matt fall on skis, I watched him bite it not once, but twice during the downhill. I also fell a number of times (no surprise), I even managed to twist my knee pretty good so it is now swollen and ugly looking.
What did I learn from our xc ski? 1) I need smaller boots, mine are just a bit too big and cause extreme discomfort when going downhill; and 2) I need to practice going downhill on skinny skis, we have the Hog Loppit coming up (30k xc ski race [mostly downhill]). I know that I am going to be a flailing, falling mess, but it should be fun. At least I won't be alone - one of our friends did it last year and commented on how people were constantly falling, I should fit right in!
Our drive home wasn't any less eventful that the drive to the trail. There are some pretty gnarly steep, twisty roads by Rainier. We were forced to turn around and backtrack to an alternate route due to an accident that had to road shut down. Our alternate route also provided to be a bit slick. We sat for a good 15 minutes while cars spun their tires trying to make it up inclines. The Washington road system just isn't set-up to handle snow/ice at the lower elevations.
The Mt. Tahoma trail head is located in the middle of nowhere. As such it is advised that you have chains and be prepared to use them. The trail association is kind enough to post the phone number of the local tow service in case you decide that chains are for sissies. We opted to be sissies, we took the truck and had our trusty chains in the back seat, ready for use if deemed necessary. The fire road we were traveling didn't seem too bad, from the tracks in front of us it seemed that most other people did not have chains on their vehicles. Given this information we opted to leave our chains in the backseat. Bad idea!
 |
| chaining up |
We stopped at an intersection to look at a map and determine just where it was we were headed. When Matt put the car back into gear and hit the gas we proceeded to begin sliding towards a cliff edge. Better yet it was a gully that wasn't protected by trees. Nothing good would have come from sliding over it. Oh yes, I should mentioned that we were on a very steep mountain(ish) type road. Matt, being the calm, cool, collected individual that he is handled our predicament quite well. After watching his eyes bug out of his head there was a lot of gear shifting and gas stomping to try and angle ourselves away from our impeding doom. Since you are reading this it is apparent that he was a success. He was finally able to stop our slide at which point we put the chains on and made it to our destination without further excitement.
Skiing was fun. However, it was unlike any xc I have ever done. Michigan is fairly flat, these trails, not so much. We grinded uphill for a couple of miles on our skinny skis, had a snack, then turned around to ski back to our car. The uphill portion was good, talk about a workout, everything was burning. The downhill, well it wasn't very graceful, for either of us... I have never seen Matt fall on skis, I watched him bite it not once, but twice during the downhill. I also fell a number of times (no surprise), I even managed to twist my knee pretty good so it is now swollen and ugly looking.
What did I learn from our xc ski? 1) I need smaller boots, mine are just a bit too big and cause extreme discomfort when going downhill; and 2) I need to practice going downhill on skinny skis, we have the Hog Loppit coming up (30k xc ski race [mostly downhill]). I know that I am going to be a flailing, falling mess, but it should be fun. At least I won't be alone - one of our friends did it last year and commented on how people were constantly falling, I should fit right in!
Our drive home wasn't any less eventful that the drive to the trail. There are some pretty gnarly steep, twisty roads by Rainier. We were forced to turn around and backtrack to an alternate route due to an accident that had to road shut down. Our alternate route also provided to be a bit slick. We sat for a good 15 minutes while cars spun their tires trying to make it up inclines. The Washington road system just isn't set-up to handle snow/ice at the lower elevations.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
It All About the Justification
First I want to give a shout out to my ipod, without you today would have been worse - much, much worse.
Yesterday Matt and I went to dinner at a new Sicilian place in Olympia. Between the two of use we polished off a medium pizza and followed that up with two mini blizzards (nutty banana). While driving home feelings of guilt were beginning to settle upon me. Que internal voice "You ate so much. You haven't done any physical activity today. Did I mention how much you ate?" As this was scrolling though my head I came up with a solution - Michale Jackson, The Experience.
I had been toying with the idea of acquiring this game for our Wii, my current condition gave me the perfect justification. I would count it as exercise, perfect!! A quick stop at Fred Meyer and we headed home to open our new toy, a toy that came with your very own glove (not to be worn while playing the game). So, as you can imagine Friday evening was passed by Matt and I trying to mimic MJ's sweet dance moves, it was pathetic. Some serious practice is needed...
Today was long run #2 for me since I got back on the horse, 3.5 hours and 17-18 miles later I managed to drag myself back to the truck and a waiting Matt. All in all it went pretty well, kinda. About two hours in I fell apart, it was bad. If I wasn't responsible for getting myself back to the truck I may have just sat on the side of the trail and waited, this wasn't an option. I got myself there, I had to get myself out.
Let me paint a picture of my fall from running grace. I was happily running along when I began to feel myself slowly slipping into a funk. Instead of trying to ward it off I embraced it, at which point I hit bottom. I had slowed to a walking shuffle all the while thinking how awful I felt and lamenting how much further I had to go. This is the point where I would have been happy to sit on the side of the trail and sulk. Knowing this wasn't an option I let myself pout a bit more and then began to fashion a plan to pry myself off rock bottom. It went something like this: 1) eat a cliff bar; 2) begin a slow running shuffle; and 3) set a goal of a couple miles that I had to cover before I allowed myself to use my secret weapon, the ipod.
That is exactly what I did. I finished my cliff bar, took a pictures of my unhappy self and began my slow uphill shuffle. Oh, I also decided that smiling couldn't hurt, so I plastered a goofy grin to my face. Had anyone seem me I surly would have looked mad. Here's the thing, I felt great! I put on my big girl panties and set out to finish what I started. I picked-up the pace and coasted back to the truck loving life and happy with my run.
This brings me to the realization I had on my run. Some people have asked me why I run long distances. I usually shrug my shoulders and say because it is there and something to do. However, that answer doesn't really capture the essence of it. I enjoy endurance events because when you push yourself to the edge, that is when you feel the best. There is the moment where you go from being tired and miserable dwelling at rock bottom to elated. You managed to break though the funk and have a moment (sometimes brief) of pure joy. That is why I run.
In totally unrelated news, I made homemade pasta tonight!
Happy Trails!
 |
| The glove! |
I had been toying with the idea of acquiring this game for our Wii, my current condition gave me the perfect justification. I would count it as exercise, perfect!! A quick stop at Fred Meyer and we headed home to open our new toy, a toy that came with your very own glove (not to be worn while playing the game). So, as you can imagine Friday evening was passed by Matt and I trying to mimic MJ's sweet dance moves, it was pathetic. Some serious practice is needed...
Today was long run #2 for me since I got back on the horse, 3.5 hours and 17-18 miles later I managed to drag myself back to the truck and a waiting Matt. All in all it went pretty well, kinda. About two hours in I fell apart, it was bad. If I wasn't responsible for getting myself back to the truck I may have just sat on the side of the trail and waited, this wasn't an option. I got myself there, I had to get myself out.
Let me paint a picture of my fall from running grace. I was happily running along when I began to feel myself slowly slipping into a funk. Instead of trying to ward it off I embraced it, at which point I hit bottom. I had slowed to a walking shuffle all the while thinking how awful I felt and lamenting how much further I had to go. This is the point where I would have been happy to sit on the side of the trail and sulk. Knowing this wasn't an option I let myself pout a bit more and then began to fashion a plan to pry myself off rock bottom. It went something like this: 1) eat a cliff bar; 2) begin a slow running shuffle; and 3) set a goal of a couple miles that I had to cover before I allowed myself to use my secret weapon, the ipod.
 |
| My last unhappy moment. |
This brings me to the realization I had on my run. Some people have asked me why I run long distances. I usually shrug my shoulders and say because it is there and something to do. However, that answer doesn't really capture the essence of it. I enjoy endurance events because when you push yourself to the edge, that is when you feel the best. There is the moment where you go from being tired and miserable dwelling at rock bottom to elated. You managed to break though the funk and have a moment (sometimes brief) of pure joy. That is why I run.
In totally unrelated news, I made homemade pasta tonight!
 |
| Mighty tasty |
Happy Trails!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The Mountain Was Out!!
Oh, how quick the weather can change. Last week it was rainy and muddy this week cold and well, cold. Below are some pictures from our recent trail runs. The last picture may need an explanation - it appears a hunter thought it appropriate to leave his gut pile in the middle of the trail. Thank you, much appreciated!
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| Trail or river, you decide. |
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| Awesome trail conditions! |
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| The mountain is out! |
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