Patience; the new endurance sport.

Amanda is running like a  champ.  We were up the canyon and she said, do you mind if I just take off, I just want to run as fast as I can.  I'm still recovering from the bronchitis and going soo slowly.  So she took off, she has such a pretty gait.  I met her at the mouth of the canyon and she said she petered out by mile 11 and almost had to walk that last mile.  IT's true, I'm slow, but sure and my pace is steady. None of that fast running business for me.

I really don't know how to train for a half, so we just decided to do what you do for a marathon and taper the week before.

13.1 miles in 2:05

Today was the Ogden Half Marathon. We trained so well and I blew it on race day.  We averaged 8:40 pace most runs leading up the race.  We even did 3 long runs (14, 12, & 10) before the race, up hill.  Race day was spectacular. The sky was clear and it was perfect running weather.  At 4 miles, Amanda was pacing at 8:30, and I started to get sick.  I patted her on the back and encouraged her to go on.  Then I threw up, and then I had to stop 4 times to use the porta-johns. Food poisoning (I found out later...).  Why am I always in the porta-johns?  Geeze.  But the course is spectacular, downhill most of the way along the resevoir and river.  I would like to go the full marathon next year just to have more scenery. Amanda finished in 1:53 and I came limping in at 2:05.  We came back to see the first marathon finishers who started coming in at 2:24.  Sasha crossed the finish somewhere around 2:34.  We cheered him at the finish line, but he was too delirious to remember who we were (plus all those days he passes us on the trail going the speed of light). 

3- Miles

After the race Amanda says, I'll see you Monday morning.  To which I replied, let's talk about that tommorrow.  I suspected she'd be stiff.  But Sunday came and she wanted to run 3 on monday.  So there we were 6:20 a.m. on a still, perfect, spring morning.  We were the only ones on the trail but Sasha.  He looked sore, but still running fast as always.

4 miles

We ran so slow.  I enjoyed every second of it.  Amanda said she was exausted.  I reminded her that I thought resting post race was a good idea.  We'll see if she wants to run tommorrow.  I think we both want to run together as many days as we can before they move.  Then we'll be down to just long Saturday runs together. 

4 miles 8:40 pace.

Wow, today was windy.  Trees and branches blown all over the trail.  It was like an obstacle course.  Good for resistance training right?    I love the added challenge of weather or running on packed ice.  Anyone can run on a nice day.  Only a few weeks left to run with Amanda.  I assume she'll be taking Derek's Garmin with her when she goes....  Until I ran with her, I never paced myself or knew exactly how far I ran.  I'd gauge my run on time.  Do I need a Garmin?  Hmm.

8:37 pace

Maybe it's just me, but 45 degrees and no wind is PERFECT running weather.  I could run like this forever.  I wish I had four extra hours and a marathon to run today.   The air is cool enough, but allows your lungs to use the oxygen it delivers.  I love the solitude of winter running, but man it's hard to get a good breath in sub 25 weather. So, now I'm starting to look for other women who run the trail at the same time I do. I find my self calculating their speed and overall sturdiness.  I start wondering if they are a 2-3 miler "I'm trying to keep my weight down even when I don't eat actual food" or a consistent (even in the dead of winter) 4-6 daily and 12-23 on Saturday’s "give me a freaking steak" kind of girl.  Maybe I should wear a "Runner for Rent" sign advertising "easy 9 minute miles and able to go the distance."  Pretty soon Catherine will come out of post-baby fog ready to rock-n-roll.  But for the next few weeks, I may be blogging a lot about how I can't figure out how to use the Garmin.  (Note for Sarah: At least that nagging little beep will keep me company!).

9:10 pace

A number of things went very wrong for me yesterday late into the afternoon.....embarrassing and horrible things that I did in a state of exhaustion that I will not mention here and hope to never be reminded of.  So sleeping was not restful.  I haven’t run a Friday in a long while (usually resting/stretching/cross training before a long Saturday run).  But I'm sort of in between gigs right now and needed to cleanse my palette from yesterday with a dose of running outdoors in perfect weather.  It was my goal to search for the 1/4 mile markers that Sasha told me about (in reference to the question: Should I get a Garmin? To which he replied that I do not because there are markers on the trail at every 1/4 mile).  ANYWAY, it was kind of him to believe that one could count in 4's, add, and then divide whilst running.  I am committed to the beauty of running distance which for me is: allowing my mind and eyes wander.  Looking for the "magic triangles" (as Sasha put it) every quarter mile, made me dizzy.  Anyway, I'm sure I'll be fine up to 6 miles without a Garmin for a while.  It's those longer runs later in the summer when I really can't tell the difference between 17 and 20.  I forget how to add and divide somwhere around mile 12.  Who am I kidding?  I can't add o divide right ever.

The real reason I had to start blogging is because no one believes the crazy stuff that happens to me while I'm running.  It was a fantastic morning, easy beautiful countryside running.  At mile 11 in the middle of cow and horse country, sitting in the middle of the trail was a small, blue parakeet. The kind people keep as pets in cages. I yelled at the dogs to keep away, and bent down to look at it.  It looked lethargic.  I picked it up every so gently, and then it bit me, twice on the thumb with its razor sharp little beak. In surprise, I sort of dropped/threw the bird, which flew right into the mouth of my golden retriever, who ran off down the trail with white wing tips hanging out of either side of her mouth.  I ran after her, yelling for to let go of the bird, when I noticed my thumb was bleeding in rivulets down my arm.  Panic stricken (and daughter of a health inspector) I remembered how birds, next to insects, are the largest carriers of the kind of crazy microorganisms and bacterium that spread into deadly epidemics such as the Spanish Flu that killed 20 million people in 1918.  So I start down the riverbank in an effort to plunge my hand into the water and wash away the epidemic I'm about to start because of my carelessness.  As I'm inching my way down the bank, I step right onto a snake, which is making a noise like a rattlesnake.  From that very spot in the middle of the riverbank, I DIVE into the river--clothes, shoes and all.  It was a shockingly cold.  Still panic stricken, I'm not sure if I should make my way back to the bank, I feel hypothermia becoming a very real possibility and make it back to the trail dripping and sloshing the all the way back home. D+@#! parakeet.  If that was your parakeet, I'm very sorry.

Running in the warm rain was delicious. 

No more time for delicious, meandering runs, and savage parakeets.  Time to plow through the week.  Tired running today.  I think it was all that hiking I did over the weekend ( I will not admit that it was that roasted side of beef and the entire strawberry pie.  Oh no, that had nothing to do with it.)  

The weather is spectacular, again.  It was nice to run with Amanda; Someone to protect me from rattlesnakes and wandering parakeets.... We ran slowly because she's been on vacation.  She kept appologizing. I kept telling her it was ok (I made no mention of the cow I ate on Memorial Day or all those 10 minute miles I relished in her absence). She's doing Ragnar!  I feel like her mommy, so proud of her amazing performance in Ogden, and cheering her on for more.  We all run for different reasons.  But she actually has it in her to be a contender, and she's either quiet about it or she's unsure of her potential. She ran with me while I prepared for the Moab Half, and the day we ran 10/12, she said "That is the most I've ever run since high school."  But when she's in her 30's and finishing her races in the top 5, I expect that I'll be saying "I used to run with her!"   I keep telling her I expect her to be doing marathons by next year.  She's not convinced.  Maybe after Ragnar.  Oh Amanda, why do all my friends have to move away to the East Coast? I guess I should actually try to qualify for Boston this year.  I need some other/new excuses to be East of here (or as I like to call it, "East of Eden").

We ran fast today.  Obviously to make up for our meandering yesterday.  (Just between you and me, internet blogging diary, I like it better when Amanda's not on her game. I'm feeling older in equal proportion to her getting faster).  I think when I'm on my own in the weeks to come; I'm going to throw in some tempo runs.  I've been reading Josse's blog about running injury free (scraping, rolling pins, massage, etc.) and it's inspired me to push a little harder. I can do it. My Springville friend Marisa asked me about the Riverwoods 10 miler. I started gushing about the fabulous breakfast they serve at the finish.  But then she asked me if I'd RUN it with her. Run it?  Geeze Marisa what do you want from me?  She says no pressure, just asking.  But who, I ask you WHO, can resist a 10 mile DOWNHILL A.M. run along the river, followed by fruit, pancakes and power water?  I'm there.

I'm going to rest and stretch today.  I may walk later in the afternoon with the kids.  It's their last day of school, they'll need to decompress.  I'd like a nice long run tommorrow like I had last Saturday. I never rested last week before that long run, and was little tired  and sore because of it.  So I'll take a breather today.  Why is 'resting' so hard?  When I drive around town and see people running, it makes me want to jump out of my moving car and run with them. 

I'm going to start doing 6 on weekdays (no Fridays off), and less (8-10 only) on Saturdays for about a month before I start having to wrack up the miles for St. George. Since I usually have more time on Saturday's I like to run long.  But I'll try doing more every day to see how that work (If it feels good, I may even get to that 8 every day stage). One of my friends from California runs 10 every day, and that's all she ever does (except a few weeks before a marathon and she adds a few long runs). I'll see if going 6, five days a week instead of 5, four days a week, and then not going so far on the weekends will help me help me 'stay fresh'.   I brought out the Mizuno's I stopped wearing last summer for a change of shoe.  Fresh blood leaking through the mesh by mile 5 reminded me how these particular shoes turn my toenails into razorblades (I forgot what the big brown stain was).  It was a gorgeous, dewy morning.  I hate to curse it by saying how perfect the weather has been.  Now I have the rest of the day to figure out what I'm going to say in my graduation speech!  Wish me luck.