Patience; the new endurance sport.

I changed my profile picture to when I took first place in the Pioneer Day 10K (first place in my class).  It's not the greatest picture, but a reminder to myself that I ran a consistant 8:00-8:13 minute mile in 3 races this summer.  I ran 12 miles (recorded 11.18, but ran 12+) Saturday with Marion and the hip did not hurt afterwards.  My knees and lower back were a little sore/stiff after, but not bad.  I did extra stretching. So I hope to begin some shorter, faster mid-week runs--even if on the treadmill (just for speed/endurance). I'm excited to see my sis in Moab!  Treadmill @6.5 and 3.0 incline, 300 sit ups, 50 push ups, 60 second minute planking. 

I ran 3 therapy miles with Sarah in the early morning.  It was 43 degrees.  Not sure how I feel about that balmy good news.  The 40's is my preferred running temp and it's so short lived-- and it generally marks the end of Utah County skiing. But I was happy to see the light in the East oultlining the mountains.  We'll have sunlight in the morning yet....but then comes DLS time when 6:00 a.m. becomes 5:00 a.m.  I hate that.  Then I ran 2 really fast miles (9:13-8:45 m/m) on the treadmill.  Yawn.

Ran 6 boring treadmill miles and had to open the door to the outside for cool air. It got hot running inside the house, but then outside was only like 50 degrees.  Everyone has been so thrilled with the balmy weather, and I'm just not done skiing yet.  The snow's melted off my lawn.  Hard to believe.  I remember the most incredible snow storm I've ever seen was March 1st (1998).  Just the day before, my boss said "I can't believe we're almost done with winter, it's the end of February!" She hates winter, and was so thrilled she'd escaped another....but then the next day it snowed like 3 feet.  She was so depressed, her car was stuck in her driveway, so she called us all to cancel work as a 'snow day'.  Then I just headed to Sundance with a huge smile on my face. I still hold hope for one or two more excellent stormss.  The past two weeks has been supreme.  I'll miss it.

I'm having a hard time getting up at 6:00.  I know when it's light out it will be easier, but this morning I woke up, put my feet to the floor, and I got a sudden bright flash of wavy electric light that shot through,and then vibrated in my eye for 3 hours (Mirgrane!).  I've never woken up with one. But I always, always get a big one the last week February, or first week of March, and one in October.  It's either the changing light or allergies.  Anyway, the headache was bad enough I took Imitrex--which made me, hmmm, don't know how to describe that, it made me feel hollow. The mirgrane was gone, but I was spacey (and I think it's just naproxine and aceitamenaphine)..  Anywho, I ran after work.  But I forgot how it gets dark so early.  So I got the kids all in order (homework, piano, scouts, etc) and then took off.  2 miles---way down the trail--- in I realized it was getting dark, not dusk---dark. Stars were coming out and the moon was a dark sliver through the tall dark trees. I'd been so absorbed in the running I didn't notice it was full-on night time.  I wish I would remember to wear my Garmin, because I'll bet you I did those 2 miles back in about 15 mintues.... But then there was another girl running her big dog on the way back.  I felt a little better to not be the only human on the trail at night.  But I was also a little jealous of her dog.  He looked like he actually might attack me if I tried any funny business.  I looked over at my two dogs and they looked like they might go fetch her slippers is she asked them to.

One hour on the stationary bike at level 5 resistance.  I've been thinking about MichelleL's hip/sciatic/Sacroiliac Ligaments.  While I've worked only about half as hard, and have had nothing to lose but my personal enjoyment of running over the same kind of injury, reading hers, is like reading my own blog entries from Oct/ St. George Marathon.  I hate to say it, but all those ligament tears, and hamstring attachment are still not healed 100%.  I still have pain in my lower back/hip and the top and bottom of where the ham attaches at either end if I'm not careful to stretch or go too far/too fast.  It's been a real learning process for me--The other day while peddling away at the stationary bike I declared out loud "I'm sick of being patient."  Which made my daughter laugh out loud.  "Well, that's oxymoronic" she said (what does she know? she's 12).  I've decided though that I am certain that pool running is inferior to stationary biking where cardio is concerned.  I have the crappiest stationary bike (a Reebok brand) I bought at this traveling 'used cardio' equipment tent sale in front of Food4Less or some idiotic location --but it was cheap, and it does work, and it has helped me keep my cardio agility during the days of only being able to run 3 miles.  It has been a life saver.  I've been reading Michelle's woes about going to the pool and having to play chicken with the swimmers in the swimming lane. I hate the gym, I hate the pool, I hate the chlorine, I hate to share my space --it's the antithesis of why one runs in the first place.  It made me mad just to have to read her blog entry about it.  It has been such a frustrating 6 months for me....the 7 pounds, the inability to take off when and for how long I want to, the alternating cardio, reduced impact work outs, the stretching, ohmygosh the hours and hours of painful PT stretching.  I'm just glad I'm no on the other side of these 6 months. The body is amazing in it's ability to perform, and heal, and bounce back.  But the mind and spirit--that's another challenge altogether.

I was in a car accident last night.  I have a friend who just got a brand new Mercedes C300---red, glossy, absolutely gorgeous.  We were rear ended right as we were pulling off the freeway in Salt Lake. Teenage kids behind us going about 40 mph not realizing there was a stand still line exiting the interstate. You know, I love a gorgeous car ( I grew up around them), but I'm reminded time and time again what a waste it is to have something that expensive.  STUFF, always gets wasted.  Unless you really like spending a lot of your free time and mental energy taking care of somthing that expensive (AND you enjoy throwing $100 dollar bills out the window for a hobby)--it's not worth it.   I probably should have whiplash--but that particular car has so many insane saftey features, I hardly felt it even thought the air bags and head rest impact stoppers were deployed.  I want to own the kind of car that if I'm rear ended on a Friday night, I would not even remember or care on Saturday.  A car is a car.   I wore the Garmin today but decided not to look at it until about half way through.  I ran pretty strong, but not full out and was averaging 9 m/m.  This was news to me.

9:11/ 8:54/ 9:05/ 9:14/ 9:26/ 9:24/9:09/9:31/9:43/9:30/9:39/10:53 

I really thought they were 12 m/m for sure.  I stopped to stretch the right places twice, but overall had a really strong uninteruppted run.  Made me wonder about Ogden in May (the half vs. the whole?).  The warmer weather really makes a difference on those wounded ligaments.  They are feeling pretty ok, no pain sitting, no aching in my outer hip.  Next Saturday I will strive for negative splits.  I thought I was going to do that today, but around 10 miles I really took it down a notch.  I wasn't expecting to have such a great run, it's been a crappy week overall.  It was nice to see the river today, unfrozen and dark green.  Funny though, today was the day of the hundreds of tiny black birds roosting  in a single tree chirping loudly.  Also geese (Canadian Geese) all honking and gathered in the cow field.  Then there were the 100 or so seagulls standing way out on the still frozen Utah lake.  Standing there in a group waiting, as if the thaw would occur at any minute.  At the pier I saw where they cut that square out for the 'swimmers' last weekend.  The ice is getting more opaque as it thaws, but it's still frozen.  There were tons of runners out there in the sun, enjoying the sparkle of light on the newly unfrozen waters.   I can't believe March (my least favorite month of the year  is right here.