Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

54F, rain after 4 mi. Very windy (15-20 mph).   Easy pace run.  20 min. weights. 

New week, new month, new rainstorm.   :)   

55F, partly cloudy. G-A run.

In between the clouds, I saw lots of stars and a crescent moon with the dark side showing. Nice morning.  I continue to work on getting out the door by 4:50 on the days I want to get 10 miles, which I failed to do again.  I simply refuse to get up any earlier than 4:20. It's not civilized. It's not sane. So the extra time will have to come from the getting-up routine.  Somehow. 

60F, clear & starry, extremely windy (20 mph sustained, gusts to 40 mph).  Hill repeats: 6 x 1 min up (and into wind, ug), 2 min down. 

Fun when the wind was behind me, discouraging when the wind was against, and tricky the rest of the time.  Side-wind: watch out that the foot in the air doesn't blow into the other leg. Gusts: one came so suddenly I actually started to topple forward, as if pushed by someone's hand.  Little twigs and dry leaves whapping me at 30+ mph every few seconds. Not my favorite running conditions.  

As I mentioned in the past, my neighborhood is situated at the doorstep of the Snoqualmie Pass.  Cliff Mass describes in his Tuesday blog entry: "This is a good example of something books often get wrong...usually the strongest winds are in the exits of gaps and Straits...not in their middle or where they are narrowest."

And look at that temperature!  There goes the little snowpack we had built up. We'll have to start over again after this nonsense passes.   

The hill repeats... just plain pathetic.  I wandered all  over during my warm-up, looking for a suitable hill that might be somewhat sheltered, but none were to be found.  Steep and straight into the wind was how it felt, and the splits are just too embarrassing to print, though you can calculate them from my VO2 miles if you really want to know how slow I was.  

61F, clear. Still windy but no longer gale-force.  :)  Easy pace run. 

A bit sore from yesterday.  So that's good.  

Thursday fun:  click here and scroll down to the "anamorphic illusions," then click on a photo to see it larger.  It's pretty cool.  His new book makes a great xmas present! 

47F, raining, then foggy, then just cloudy. 

I peeked out the window and the rain wasn't too bad, just a bit of drizzle. The Doppler outlook was hard to figure. But everything seemed to change when I stepped outside.

After a mile of heavy rain,  during which a continual stream of attempted denials went through my head, I decided to accept the fact that my feet were soaked through.  Coupled with not feeling very social or very energetic today, the truth drove me to turn around from my destination (running club) and go home to change into my SealSkinz socks.  

So no club run, and very few miles (for a Saturday). But I'm just not feeling my normal self today. It's nice to let go sometimes.  

50F, mostly cloudy.  Easy pace run.  Feeling more human today. :)

43F, cloudy, windy at times.  Unremarkable. 

40F, cloudy and increasingly windy.  G-A run w/ hill fartleks.

Best run in over a week.  Enjoyed a wee bit of daylight there at the end, complete with pretty pink sunrise.   

38F, clear & dry.  VO2 intervals: 7 x .25 mi w/ 90 sec recov. 

Getting used to the cold air all over again - br!  

40F, cloudy, dry.  Great racing conditions.  Warm up: one very slow mile, then moderate with strides and hill bounding. 

We somehow avoided the 70% rain promised by weather.com in last night's forecast. But there were plenty of puddles. I had my Sealskinz socks on just in case, and felt confident running right through puddles where other runners were going around.  :) 

Mile 1: 7:53   Lung Torture Part 1.  Weirdly, surrounded by twelve year old boys for a long time. Time is passing oh so slowly.  (This mile had the highest percent of downhill, reflected in splits.) Questioning my sanity for signing up.  

Mile 2: 8:17  Lung Torture continues. Lots of uphill. A skipped water stop (who needs it?).  Here, I am passed by an alien posing as human - we are climbing one of the worst hills on the course and he is pushing a double baby jogger and passes me like I'm standing still. I become aware of how loud my breathing is and wonder if I am annoying the runners just ahead of me.  I pass some of them, demonstrating the benefits of panting.  Suffering, suffering.  

Mile 3: 8:14  Legs are a bit tired, but mostly it is near-complete lack of oxygen holding me back.  I sense I have a lot of phlegm in my throat but cannot get a big enough lungful of air (without slowing down) to hock it up. Have to snap myself back from fantasies about 20 milers, nice and slow.  Hating this. 

Last .1 7:43  Start to believe in Life After 5K.  See a few club member friends near finish. Can't find my "kick" but the last bit is downhill.  Over the finish line, I feel so happy to be done, and in a respectable time.  The next few minutes I am a phlegm machine. Sheesh, did I run with all that in my throat? 

So, I have a nice trophy, and a gift certificate to FootZone. (It's almost like getting prize money! I got paid to suffer  run!)  Obviously, this kind of reward makes the whole thing feel worthwhile, in a shallow kind of way.  But when I think I could have run just a little slower and still come in first in my AG, I know I never would want to do that.  

Mid 40s, cloudy with patchy fog. Recovery run, w/ quite a bit of walking thrown in.  Nice morning.  I am very sore. 

48F, light drizzle/heavy mist.  Recovery run #2. Very slow & easy. 

My legs still feel sore and weak, but at least I had no urges to walk, as I did yesterday.  I jogged a palindrome by the way: 7.21 in 1:27.  I am easily amused. 

Loved hearing some new music I put on the iTunes app over the weekend, most notably: "The ecstasy of dancing fleas" by The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Bach Violin Partita no. 3 Prelude transcribed for harp, played by Catrin Finch.    

45F, dry for 3 miles, then raining w/ some wind.  Slow, medium-long run. (I had some extra time this morning.)  Legs feel kind of heavy today.  

Yesterday, I was so disappointed to miss my run. But all the power was out in this neighborhood (windstorm), and even with a headlamp that is just too much darkness for me. 

Back in 2007 we had a massive power outage throughout the Puget Sound region and my power was out for 5 days.  I remember trying to go for a run and feeling completely terrified the entire time, like I was running inside a tiny bubble of light surrounded by endless outer-space-darkness, with an occasional rustling of  leaves, or the eyes of deer reflecting back at me. [insert shudder] I get the creeps just thinking about it.  

At least I had some extra time this morning to make up for the missed run a little.  Mr. Sno, poor dear, is very ill and is taking a rare day off from work so I didn't have to be on Mom Duty by 6:40 as usual.   

37F, windy at times, showers.  zzzzzzzz.....

No run today, as my usual Friday-day-off.  But with the extra minutes I thought I'd share something that has been going on in my life the past 3 months. It's the internet, and neither you nor I have to be embarrassed or uncomfortable if I start crying.  ;)

Anyone who has read my blog for a while has heard about many of the adventures of my Bengal cat Dandelion, aka Danny, aka The Cat Who Must Be Obeyed.  It's time for me to share that he is gone, probably forever.

I don't remember how much of the summer events I shared, but we had some incidents with him disappearing for great lengths of time.  During that time I tried for about 6 weeks to keep him inside.  He was miserable and drove us all crazy with howling and peeing. After a long talk with my vet, we decided to let him out again.  

Then these raccoons started coming around.  They were actually in my house once, and I caught them at the cap flap outside as well. Danny was pretty freaked and would no longer come in the cat flap. We obeyed his new command to be let in and out the front door whenever he chose.  

Towards the end of summer, he went out and did not come back. 

Later that week, the following note was posted on our community website bulletin board, about a little black and white cat - not mine - who was attacked: 

"As a follow-up warning to the last posting about the raccoons attacking the cat in our yard, it is worth noting that these raccoons were, without a doubt, hunting this cat to kill it.  They were also very persistent and unafraid of my intervention.  With me standing near the badly injured cat (brandishing a broom handle and flashlight), they repeatedly tried to attack the cat from different sides.  Were I not concerned for the cat (and this not very loud and in my yard in the middle of the night), it was interesting and seemed similar to the way that lions or other pack hunters bring down their prey.  The point is this: raccoons on the Ridge are hunting cats (and maybe small dogs), so keep yours inside at night if you want to keep them."

Danny is gone, and the raccoons are also gone. It has been agony not knowing what happened to Danny, and imagining the worst.  On top of the worry, I am constantly missing him.  He was the most affectionate, most endearing cat I've ever had. 

One of my favorite memories of Danny is how he seemed to know when I would come home from my runs on weekdays: he would "ambush" me from my neighbor's bushes and then jog the last little bit by my side, purring his little head off the whole way.

A couple of weeks ago, I was missing Danny and went to a local cat show just to be around some Bengals. I also wanted to meet some breeders. I knew I wanted to have another Bengal in my life, and was thinking I might be ready by Spring.  But being around cats and being crazy-lonely for a cat you once had has a way of skewing fate….  Next week I will be getting another Bengal. He could never "replace" Danny of course.  But I am so excited, and I feel like an ache is finally going to subside. The circumstances of me getting this new Bengal are complex and probably boring, so I'll just say that I got really lucky.   

For a glimpse of what I've been missing, and will soon have back, watch A Day in the life of Bengal Cats.  (Keep in mind as you watch that these are not kittens; Bengals are that playful for their entire lives.)  This one is good too: 20 Bengal cat games.

In memory of Dandelion, the best cat I ever had. 

High 30sF, partly cloudy.  Endurance run.

Ran around the Ridge for a bit, then down to the club meet-up.  Just 3 of us there, and no one at my pace, so I continued on to North Bend on my own.  Found a friend of mine there and we ran together and explored new roads for 5 miles.  Then back to Snoqualmie and up the Leg Builder Hill to home.  

It was a gorgeous morning.  Chilly, but dry and very scenic. Mt Si has a cap of snow right now.  Nice smells in the air.  Great run.

31F, cloudy w/ an occasional flake of snow coming down.  Recovery run. Short & sweet. 

26F, occasional falling flake, less than 1" snow on the ground (much more now). Yaktrax run!  

Something about Yaktrax I don't like: they don't work as well on minimalist shoes. I can feel the straps/cords.  Still, very pleasant run. Some slippery spots w/ ice on the street, but easy to spot.

Introducing Pilot, my new cat - a little ball of love and fun.  

18F, clear & starry w/ moonlight on snow.  Objective: safety!  (Not ending up on my butt or under someone's skidded-out car.)  Very beautiful run, though very slow.

The good: plowed roads that had a thin layer of snow on top for traction.

The bad: times when I had to use the sidewalks, about 6-7" deep in new snow; wearing my old Nikes so the Yaktrax would be comfortable (felt like feet encased in plywood). 

The ugly: roads where the plow had been that were bare ice. (Locals: stay away from Laurel Ave!)

Crosstraining: getting into all my layers, getting out of all my layers, shoveling my sidewalk and a path on the driveway. 

12F BRRR!!!!  Roads: covered with ice and snow.

I'm guessing on the mileage. My Garmin literally froze. It's back to life now, thank goodness.  I got a super-late start, mostly from fear I think.  But it's going to be a long, hard La Nina winter so I need to toughen up mentally for this.  The run wasn't too bad, coldwise.  My eyes burned with cold at first and there was a steady stream of tears, but once I got going only my feet were unhappy.  I don't like wearing these heavy, stiff old Nikes but otherwise, in my minimalist shoes, the Yaktrax cut into my feet too much.  

Winter storms in Seattle:  1) Snow is infrequent; we don't know how to drive in it. 2) Because of our temperate climate, the ground is almost always warm when the snow first hits and so we begin with a layer of ice as the first flakes melt and refreeze.  3) Hills, hills, hills.  

Ski day! :)  Then turkey at friends'.  

30s, 20s & 30s again....  Snoqualmie Ridge into old Snoqualmie and North Bend, then back up the hill and more running on the Ridge. 

Slim pickins at the running club. The park where we meet was so covered with ice that anyone who did come would think it was a death trap.  

I got onto the SVT and found better footing there, but the trail got snowier and snowier as I went out from North Bend and eventually I had to give up on it.  It is much icier in the valley than here on the Ridge.  I saw a friend of mine on the trail and we decided to get in her car and go run back up on the Ridge. I don't know how I got so lucky, because the Leg Builder Hill would be pretty awful to climb. Coming down was scary enough.   

I don't like this low mileage, but considering all the white stuff we had this week I guess it's not too bad.  It's going to be a long, hard La Nina winter so I hope I cope better in the weeks/months to come.   

35F, clouds and light, patchy fog. Easy run.

(DEEP BREATH....)  I'm taking an extended leave from the blog, dear friends.  I've tried "minimizing" my blog time this fall and that has been a complete failure, since I inevitably slide back into spending more and more time here.  You're like potato chips, can't have just one or two. 

I had a lot more down time this past week because of the snow closures and the holiday. It was a good time to relax and reevaluate my schedule, the newest development in which is that I will be "going back to work" so to speak, which just means I'm going to have a regular gig (harpist) again.  It also means I will put my harp website back up, which means the freelance jobs will start rolling in again. I've been flying under the radar for a few years now, since homeschooling my daughter made it hard for me to accept a lot of jobs.  We're still homeschooling, but her increasing independence (and my increasing desire to return to work) have made me think this might be the right time to make some changes. 

Running: there will be no change. I'm still going to push the mileage as close to 50+ mpw as I can, run in all weathers, enjoy my 20 milers on weekends, and work towards that BQ.  Anyone can PM me if they want to check in and say hello.  Many of you already have my private email and I would love to keep in touch with you.  And I'm sure I'll sneak back and check on your blogs from time to time. 

Naturally I have to gush a little about how much I've enjoyed you all and appreciated your kindness, wisdom and support. Especially you guys on my Favorites List, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you have taught me and for your friendship.  

Maybe I'll be back again, if I find I've got more time, or if I just can't live without you!  :)    Happy holidays, and happy running to you all. -Sno