Patience; the new endurance sport.

At least with the cloud cover it makes running in the later morning not totally unbearable.  I won't even blog about how slow and terrible the run was.  But I always say how grateful I am to go outside and be outside at least once a day.  So I'll stay focused on that fact.  The last few years I've taken sequence pictures while running down the trail and back (in every season of the year) so that I could click through them during times I can't actually be outside.  I haven't had the ocassion to use them (which is good).  So today, the good news is, I was able to be with my river & trees, and enjoy the feeling the sultry summertime air on my skin.  That has to be enough for today.

I got out earlier today which was nice to give it my day's first effort.  My kids have been doing Tennis lessons at 8:00 a.m. and I get really bent out of shape when their summer activities take a bite out of my beloved 6:00-8:30 zone. I look forward all school year to getting that time back for myself.  I need those two hours, or trust me, you don't want to be around me the rest of the day--or after 9:30 p.m. because that's when I turn into psycho-drama-exhausted-I-may-kill-you-if-I-don't-SLEEP-now-Mommy.  So really, there's just no good time to be around me, which explains a lot, now that I think about it.  Today, I felt  better, but who knows really, I ditched the Garmin two days ago in an effort to erase mental expectations.  I realized today how much muscle I've lost in the past two weeks.  Not just water, and weight, but muscle.  I am a pretty muscular person underneath all the layers, and being sick ate my muscular strength. I need to build that back up, it's just weird to go from running a happy-healthy Marathon to square one.  Happy July everyone!!  P.S. Crenshaw Melon is totally better than Cantelope in case you were wondering.

Beautiful place, running with dear old pals.  Happy, Happy, Happy July 3rd!!!

In my hometown, there are only about 2,000 people (it's on a hill top in East San Diego).  So on July 4th, they have their own parade.  About 200 people walk about a mile in a circle around the community.  It is the kind of parade where everyone dresses in crazy red-white-and-blue ensembles and ride their horses (with manes braided in patriotic ribbons) or motorcycles (decked with tiny flags waving)  i.e. Hickville Southern California.  While I was thinking about the 4th of July, and running the old Parade route, I remembered July 4, 1976-- the year of the bi-centennial.  I was 8 years old, my mother had died less than a month before, and I was walking my dog in the parade looking for her face along the crowd even though I knew she wouldn't be there.  I can not believe that was 33 years ago.   Thankfully much  better memories this year for me and my children on this 4th of July.  Parades, home-made snow cones, fireworks, grilled foods, all the regular stuff.  It's nice to be reminded of where I came from, but am so grateful to call Utah home.  I forgot how unforgiving tank tops are for the general population of Southern California. 

What a beautiful day!  I feel good (maybe it was all the food over the weekend that got my strength back up).  Ran 9:15's which is getting back to 'normal'.  I ran some extra miles over the weekend, but slow, slow miles.  I've felt pretty ok since Friday.  And today felt fairly close to normal-nothing like last week.  We'll see how it goes this week throwing in some exta miles.  

8:40/9:13/8:43/9:55/9:37/8:58/9:58  I ran through a swarm of mosquitos/crane flies by the lake so dense that their high pitched moan could be heard for 50 feet in either direction.  It was creepy to be pelted by insects big enough to feel upon impact while the (naturally-occuring) soundtrack from the Excorcist played above my head.  Aside from the hot July sun, already burning by 6:30 a.m.-- today's effort was moderatly strenuous with little results.  It is a big improvement however, over last week.  I am not sure that I'm going to be running any races at all this month and will hopefully aim for a strong run at the Hobble Creek Half in late August.  I had no idea it would take me this long to recover-- and then try to regain what was lost.  I am so happy to be running!  And for the clear sunny July skies--however hot. 

9:25's.  I've added 2 miles a day to what I did last week.  Maybe that's too much a jump, but I'm a little behind for SG training.  I haven't been able to do one long run yet since UVM and "the illness".  So I'm a little panicked about when I will feel well enough to put a 9-12'er (and beyond) into the bank.  Last saturday I ran 5 in the a.m. and another 4 in the p.m. just to get 9 into the day.  But I really stuggled yesterday with 7.  Change of subject: I have to brag for Catherine.  She and I ran together a lot a few  years back and we have trained for SGM together for 3 years. She and I always sort of ran about the same 9 m/m pace.  Earlier this Spring her sister sort of one-upped-her by bragging about 7 minute miles she ran during a triatholon (I hope she doesn't mind me telling).  Ever since, Catherine's been on fire. In March she started to add speed training to her distance.  She's so funny because I think she started running marathons first at the age of 21 and then had run 5 SGM's before she ever ran any other kind of race.  This spring she ran the half in Moab and did pretty well (better m/m than any of ther marathons), and then, this Saturday, she finished the Freedom Run 10K in 47 minutes!   When she decided to ramp it up, she rocked the house. Her mental tenacity astonishes me.  I'm also really jealous I'm not 26 right now.  I've learned so much about running in the past 10 year, and now I'm too pooped out to do anything about it.  I think I also just lost my SGM buddy :)  But I think it's awesome.

One of the things I like about Utah is that the evening and morning air really cools down--not like East or West Coast where the humidity carries the swealtering heat into the night.  Last night the golden evening air was so tepid and perfect, I had to get out again. It felt almost like taking a dip in the ocean at sunset--it gave me that feeling of relaxation and release to be by the river at dusk. And then again, this morning, I stepped out the door and was met by an immediate wave of fresh, clean, dry, cool air.  Of course, it quickly heated up once the sun made its way over the mountains, but what a beautiful way to end and then start the day in perfect tranqulity. On the trail, some fisherman left a pile of bread by the riverside (for bait?).  Anyway, my dog ran toward it and scarfed it down like she was a stray, desperate and panicked.  It was probably about half a loaf.  Poor thing, we don't eat enough white bread at my house apparently :)  In spite of the gorgeous morning, the run was a struggle still. I keep running thinking that one of these days  it's going to feel like it used to feel (faster). 

I can't post fast miles yet because I'm still struggling to get from 10's back to 9/sub-9's.  Today was that day though.  I ran 9:05/9:47/9:03/9:15/9:04/8:47/8:43.  I stopped at mile 3.2 for a breather and a stretch-- but ran the other miles solid.  I can't tell you how hard it's been these past 14 days.  I was struggling to maintain 10's and 11's all last and this week.  I ran a few sub 9:00's but the effort was unlike anything I've ever felt.  So at least today was "normal".  I'm just going to tell myself that it took 2 weeks to break down muscle mass, and 2 weeks to build it back up.  I'm just thrilled that running 9's didn't kill me.  Cause if the running didn't kill me this morning, a slumberparty with 10 twelve year old girls tonight probably will.  

Last night a small group of neighborhood boys were suddenly skateboarding and 'hanging out' in front of my house around 8:00 p.m. (imagine that, my house, of all places!) .  Those were smart boys though. I had the cutest girls within a 5 mile radius under one roof.  Needless to say, I was awake the entire night listening to endless rounds of "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedignfiled, and watching Napoleon Dynamite, and trying to decide if I should put a limit on how many salt and vinegar chips should be eaten by any one girl.  Then up at 5:30 a.m. after ZERO sleep for a run in the canyon with the RHPC!  It was a mighty pink group, including a few of brave, brave men who also ran.  I drove a group to the start and ran back to my car, so I only ran 10 of the 13 (9:25/8:56/9:10/9:32/9:08/8:32/8:31/8:42/8:58/9:00).  I wasn't sure it would be a good idea to do 13 since I have not run more than 7 miles in almost a month. I did have a 40+ week though, so that's good I guess.  I'll work my way back the long runs in the next 2 weeks. I just am trying not to push it so I'll have some gas in the tank for Hobble Creek and St. George.   Anyway, it was absolutely awesome to see friends!  I ran 3 miles with Rachael, but was totally holding her back.  It was nice to be up the canyon, the weather was perfect until the end when it rained on our parade.  I got the pickled chicken feet prize from Smooth and am looking forward 'trying' them.  I wonder though what Rachael is gonna do with those pink fish-net gloves.....hmm.  So great to see everybody and finally meet some new faces.  I was home in time to serve waffles with whipped cream and strawberries and mitigate one last round of pictionary.  I'm beat.  Thanks Marion for all the "grown-up" fun this morning!!!

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and immediately went back to sleep.  That was one great weekend. But Mondays...who needs 'em? Sheesh.  I tried to run at lunch, which was a bad idea.  It was 97 degree by 11:00 a.m. already.  I made my kids ride their bikes with me down to the lake while I ran alongside.  It took half my energy just to get them out the door and onto their bikes.  Then my son spent 3 miles pontificating about why he was glad he wasn't a woman (mostly revolving around the baby-having aspects, including stretchmarks and fatness).  Thanks for your support son!  Why, I just LOVE it....Why, there are so many benefits to being a woman, let me name a  few .... #@%$#%!!!!  I tried to point out he wouldnt have been born had I not been a woman.  But then he suggested I could be his father. Again, way to appreciate my feminine mystique there kiddo.  I'm sure I missed a really spiritual opportunity to explain the divine nature of women;  all our moral supremecy, and nuturing superiority, etc.  But I just told him to back off or I'd give him pickled chicken feet for lunch. 

 9:43's.  I could not add any speed at all to the run.  My goal was to just get through it before 8:00 a.m.  Yesterday, I did a few fast(er) 1/16th segments (every third triangle marking on the trail)--but it was so hot and my son was talking to me in a way that I found upsetting and distracting. So it was not a good effort.  I just couldn't muster the strength to do any speed today.  I hope that being on vacation will give me a bit of a break.  I have not had one second of mental down time in over 7 months.  I had a brief respite in March, but I am wound so tight, and then getting sick put me behind by 2 weeks in every way.  Maybe it's just the week before and the week after vacation suck and that's the way it is. 

The running gods are not smiling on me this month.  I wanted to be running 40+ mile weeks (which I have) to compensate for the lack of long run (as I'm getting stronger again).  Just when I'm getting there.... during the 9 mile run yesterday, a sharp knee pain that plagued me during the run has intensified and bothered me all night and again today.  It hurts to go up and down stairs, to balance my lower torso when doing half-push ups, while doing yoga, walking, turning quickly etc.  I strapped blue gel ice packs to each knee yesterday and today, with no results.  It's on the inside, bottom of my knee cap.  Sharp, stinging kind of pain.  It just came on and is unlike a general achy pain that I associate with fatigue or overuse.  I do have a tendency for rotating tendonitis and I wonder if this is the latest case (I sure hope it's not like a torn meniscus or something).  I will be biking probably 25-30 miles on the stationary a few days in a row and keep my fingers crossed.  I just keep losing ground toward my late summer/ fall running goals.

I did 2 hours on the stationary bike (I watched a whole movie in one sitting. Wow!).  The readout says I burned like 800 calories, but there's no way.  It is hard to pedal, and it makes you sweat like a river, but once you're done nothing feels tired except your butt where you sit.  Afterwards I ran a little 2 miler just to help my quads loosen up, and the knee felt pretty darn good.  I'll rest tommorrow for good measure.  I'll be in South Carolina this time tommorrow.  Can't you just feel the sunshine?  Can't you just feel the moonshine?  Just like a friend of mine who hit me from behind-- wait, what kind of song is that anyway?

I flew into the tiniest airport (Florence), and within 20 minutes of being in South Carolina I had eaten every single thing I came for:  Boilt peenuts (i.e. boiled peanuts), dilly beans, chow-chow, garden tomatoes and figs fresh and moist off my grandfather's tree.  We'd driven past the Farmer's market before heading to the farm and I could not believe the beautiful produce.  we bought  pounds of the fattest blackberries, sweetest blueberries and peaches.  We got field peas, black eyed peas, sweet 'taters, and collard greens.  Have I mentioned how much I like fresh food?  Well.   So today I decided to run from the farm out to the Magnolia Cemetary where my mother's buried, and where we recently put my father's gravestone.  When asking my aunt to remind me how to get to the cemetary from the farm, this is what she said in her deep southern drawl: "It's juhst 2 mihles daown Darlington Road, turn left up Carolina Avenue past Ko-Kur (Coker) College, then just keep on a'goin until you see the cedar and magnolias linin' the road.Y'all be kerful, them cars is danjrous along that highway."  Highway?  Oh, she meant the road.  So I ran to the cemetary, saw the gravesites (4.25/9:06' ave) then back to the farm.  But my aunt was right, those country roads have NO sholders.  So you have to run in the thick grass along the side of the road to avoid getting hit by a car.  It was hard to run through all that thick grass, and itchy.  When I got back to the farm, I thought I'd run one circle around the circumfrerance to see how many miles 100 acres would be--turns out 1.1 miles by the Garmin.  I sweat like a freaking pig, my clothes were absolutely drenched.  What's the benefit of sea level training again?  Training your lungs to suck the oxygen out of 100% humidity?

So, we pack up the car with every single thing imagineable (umbrellas, floats, watermelons, sheets, distilled water, an electric frying pan,etc.) I'm riding in the back with desk lamps and rolled up towels falling onto my head from the stuff piled high in the far back of the van every time my Aunt brakes at a four way stop or merges into traffic.  We're finally on our way to Myrtle Beach. Then my cousin, says from the front seat, how she'd spent the whole flight into town next to this  total "North Carolina Hick" on the flight.  So from the back, I look at the crazy mengerie in the car, thinking we looked more like Oakies esaping the dust bowl than people going on a beach trip, and I say sarcastically "Sure, those North Carolina hicks are totally different than those South Carolina hicks" as I lift my feet to make room for the watermelon rolling across the floorboard.  However, we arrived at the beach and instinctively gulped big breaths of the thick salt air, and then drove immediately to Walmart...Like I said, those South Carolina Hicks (Walmart) are totally not like the North Carolina Hicks (Piggly Wiggely).   Anyway, as the sun rose in front of the beachhouse this morning, the tide was so low, all the flat sand allowed runners and walkers to form a two lane highway.  I ran from pier to pier (4 miles/ 9:38) and then up to the inlet where North Myrtle Beach is pristine and undeveloped.  I stood on the inlet and watched as the tide came in and thought "This is the place of my mother's childhood."  And, somehow I could feel in my veins, while standing there, the same heady freedom and sultry optimism she must have felt as a young teenage girl spending summers on these beaches.      

I am on the back porch of the beach house sitting in a white rocking chair under the spell of profound peace and tranquility. The sea oats growing on the dunes are blowing in the breeze and just over their bowing heads, the ocean is silver green and restless.   The constant crashing of the waves, has, as it always does, washed clean my mind.  Today I ran 8.2 miles just by heading south and turning around at 4.1 miles.  The tide was not out as far this morning, and so I had to run on the softer sand.  As I ran down the beach, I passed people doing Yoga, Tai Chi, fast and slow runners, walkers, and fishermen.  The day was overcast, and actually rained as I ran, so I felt I could run for longer.  I'm still only averaging 9:32's with a pretty good deal of effort, but at least I'm feeling stronger. One of my best friends in all the world, her husband and their family (who also happen to be havng a family reunion here in Myrtle Beach) dropped by this morning and we all walked to the inlet with the kids, and caught hundreds of hermet crabs in the tide pools.  We spent the morning swimmng and then ate sandwiches on the beach under the umbrellas.  Now, they've gone, and as I sit on the porch in the cleansing wind,  listening to the far off thunder, I await the arrival of my big sis.  She is driving down from DC and bound to arrive at any moment.  This may be the best day in the world; to be loved and cherished by my aunt, cousins, best friends, and my sister all in one day.  Also, did I mention I'm at the beach?  

Because of high tide, I had to run on the softer sand again today, which made running hard.  All the runners had to use a thin strip of semi-hard sand and avoid getting their shoes wet or having to run in the softer stuff.  My shoes are going to be ruined by the time I'm out of here.  I've had a fun time looking at all the different size and shapes of runners.  I've not seen very many women runners.  Lots of men with hairy backs running without shirts, and also young, wiry athletic types who pass me up from behind.  I've had a couple of men pass me, only to stop and turn back to stop and look.  The men here, in general are funny.  If you walk down to the beach and drop something, at least 2-3 will get out of their beach chairs to pick up whatever you dropped, or when digging a hole for the umbrella you'll get kind offers to help you dig.  I only lived here in the South for 11/2 years when I was young.  But maybe I'd be more of a lady if I'd been raised around here.  Or as my husband says "Mas senorita, menos bruja".

I refuse to feel guilty about having such a good time. You can not make me feel bad.  I only get one vacation a year.   I can't help it if my assistant at work overhears the crashing waves in the back ground when she calls and asks where I am.  I just happen to know how to be on vacation, well me....and my sister too.  So it's like vacation squared (or pi as the case may be).  Anyway,  I ran my 8 miles this morning--and to just to vindicate my judgement of the shirtless, oogling hairy-backed men is my observation of the middle-aged women who walk (vigorously, I might add) while wearing less than an adequate foundation under their tank tops or "athletic wear"-- and I use "quotation marks" with irony.  Yep. Over here they got it all, including the country's premier miniature golf courses.  Seventeen mile drive's got nothin' on Myrtle Beach. I'll bet  you they don't even have a Walmart.

The powers that be, decided that internet access at the beach was no longer necessary after about Thursday. Somehow we lost access and everyone was to lazy to even look for the router or care anymore about the outside world.  I ran alright, but you didn’t miss much.  I would have blogged about my blister or how the sand made my runs so much harder and slower, or how the moisture made my sore toes rub against my shoes, or how that one time I stepped into the water and had to run 6 miles home with salt water shoes....However, I would like to say, that the first day I ran on asphalt once I was back again at the farm, I ran a mile at 7:48 without even noticing.  Those country roads deep in the heart of soybean and cotton fields make for beautiful, lonely running.    At the end of the week, I guess sand made for good resistance training – also my knees never felt better.  At this juncture, my Aunt wishes me to distinguish between Myrtle Beach, and Cherry Grove (North Myrtle Beach) which is 15 miles from Myrtle Beach proper.  We stayed in Cherry Grove–which apparently isn’t the even the trashiest part of the beach.  What do I know, I grew up in California.  That said, the beaches in the Carolinas are far superior to any on the Pacific Coast as far as I’m concerned (aside from some very pretty, but unswim-able, places in Oregon and Washington State).  However, I do prefer kayaking to surfing.  So don’t accuse me of recommending this place for surfers.  It’s for families, young people, and anyone who love fried shrimp (or you could say who ‘jes luvs frahyed shri-Ump) and swimmun (swimming).  Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m about as white trash as anybody else and so being here reacquaints me with my roots. But while I poke fun at the South, it is also the fountain from whence my loud-mouthed, know-it-all, story-loving, story writing-self was sprung. So as far as trash....takes one to know one I guess.  It was a great week. I loved that porch with white rockers looking over the beach.  I loved the air. I loved how much my kids loved playing with their cousins.  I loved the fresh farmers market food, and never ending swimming, and walks with my sis.  I now weigh 500 pounds and have melanoma,  but it was worth it.  I’m in the Atlanta Airport right now headed to Providence Rhode Island where I’ll meet my sister again for a week on Martha’s Vineyard before heading to Newport for the Music Festival on the weekend. Last year I went to Nantucket to visit a cousin.  I’ve been told that M.V. is pretty cool. We’ll just have to see about that, shall we?

From Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard  I ran to Oak Bluffs which is the most picturesque town of tiny victorian gingerbread clapboard houses clustered togther.  The place is cute made charming and adorable by lots money.   Parts of it look like main street in Disneyland, it's so quaint.  It's too adorable to be real, and yet it is.  The colors of the painted cut outs on the homes, and window sills, porches, and doos are all painted beautiful shades of periwinkles, purples, greens.  Every house is more artsy than the next. Evey house has clustered flower gardens with fat blue hydrangia, black eyed susans, purple sage, delphenium, tiger lilies in colors so vivid, it's obscene.  The natural flowers along the ran along a bike trail I ran were also gorgeous-- briar rose, pink thistle, blue cornflower.  The bike trail is along a long stretch of beach on one side, and a bay on the other.  I ran over two bridges where the ocean channeled into a sound/bay and the water was so clear, and thick I could see to the bottom. The water here is beautiful.  It's been overcast and misty since we've been here, but it's welcome, cool relief to the sauna of South Carolinda.  NE'ers think it's so humid and keep telling me HOW humid it is.  I can assure you, the breezes on Martha's Vineyard and the cool mist is nothing like the steamy, sulty, heat of Myrlte Beach.  This place is unbelievably quaint, and the beauty of the Island itself was worth the time to run it.  

8:21/8:38/8:17/8:42/9:17/9:10/9:35/9:42  

All those days of running on the sand has made running on the road easy. Also the beautiful running path settled between the "pond" (bay) and the ocean with a wonderful variety of dune growth (glossy beach grasses, Indian Paintbrush, Queen Anne's lace-- are ones I forgot to mention last time).  Anway as far as the easy/fast running,  I don't know how long it will last, but man it feels good.  It's taken a long time to find my stride again.  But it helps that I've been on vacation for almost 2 weeks; Good food, good sleep, good company.  My soul that has been emptied over the course of the last 12 months has been slowly refilling.  Yesterday, we went to Menemsha on the other side of island to Larsen's Fish Market were we sat on a dock watching the fisherman bring in enormous striped bass and lobster, and oysters.  So my sister and I ordered a 2 lb steamed lobster (one of the ones we had just seen thrown off the boat) and  then sat on oily wooden boxes watching the boats float up and down in the harbor, while tearing apart a lobster with our bear hands.  By the time we were done there was lobster schrapnel all over my knees and face.  Liking my fingers, I was breathing the deepest sigh of satisfaction and I turned to my sister and said "Isn't this just like Baja? It gives me that same feeling as eating fish tacos from the sandy floored taco shacks in San Felipe."  But then she looked at me and said "Yes it does give me that same feeling, excpet for one thing: We're on Martha's Vineyard eating lobsters....not tacos."   Ah, the Vinyud: Lobstah and Chowdah fah everyone.

Ran my last morning in the Vinyud.  Half way through my run I decided to take off my shoes and dive off a bridge I'd run over these past 3 days.  The water is so clear here, but also cold.  It's always such a shock to be suddenly immersed in cold water.  It's been overcast all days, except yesterday.  Not good beach weather.  But it was nice to have at least one swim.  Even if I did have to run back dripping wet.  What's weird is that I sweat so much here anyway, there was virtually no difference between the amount of sweat on my clothes vs. just getting out of the ocean.  We'll be on the ferry today to go Newport RI to meet my friends for the Folk Festival.