Scatter my ashes here...

Scatter my ashes here...
scatter my ashes in the desert...

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Signs of Spring


The Goodwill bin was recently moved from it's location near Sunflower Market to some other place in the universe. I am used to dumping my old running shoes in there. I have almost a dozen shoes ready to go to Goodwill or somewhere, but they have been sitting in my car for a couple of months because I keep forgetting to find a new location to take them to.

It's been cold all winter and I park in the parking garage at work, which I am sure is the coldest place in Colorado, colder than Gunnison, maybe the coldest place in the universe. But yesterday I went up to Horsetooth Mountain Park to meet Katy for Rock Repeats, and I got a surprise when I opened the door to my car on the warm, sunny morning when I stopped to refill my bottle.

I really need to find a place to unload those shoes. Dennis says they moved the bin because of me and my shoes, I was contaminating it and they had to call in the Hazmat team to decontaminate the Goodwill bin.

I found some cilantro growing in the garden yesterday. And the bulbs in the yard are coming up with green tops.





Maybe I have spring fever, too. I was sweating at night, all week, and not sleeping very well. Damn hormones. Last week was a rough one for me, I've been burning the candle at both ends still trying to clear out all the clutter and detail from my life so I can just concentrate on training.

Basically it's just finishing up with taxes, framing a pile of artwork, miscellaneous commitments, life details and obligations. Nothing bad, but it all takes time, energy, and patience. Patience is what I seem to be missing these days.



Things got delayed with my artwork due to a mistake in the framing shipment and now it will be next week before I can get my artwork in to Tortilla Marissa's, but this coming week should be better than last week. I've been feeling very Towanda-like, hot flashy, hormonal, and on edge. I need to be able to focus on my training and get in the right frame of mind, and I'm starting to resent all the little distractions. Maybe just a few more days and I can do that.

I got my abbreviated workouts in this week, got the basics in, but not many miles. I guess that's still okay at this point. The best workout of the week was yesterday's three Rock Repeats with Katy. That was fun, I miss running with her. Now my legs are sore, but not as sore as after last week's first two Rock Repeats. I'll take that as a positive sign. I must be making progress.

Another one or two Rock Repeat workouts and I will have bashed my quads sufficiently so I won't get sore anymore. That will be awesome. It's hard to get the legs into the hill workouts after not doing hills since October!

And I'm down to nine toenails again this week, after keeping a full set for nearly three months.

And I did 35 minutes in the sauna the other day without my heart rate going up much at all. I think I have permanently altered my body's thermostat. Or maybe it's because my body can't tell the difference between a hot flash and the sauna. Maybe I've been heat training all this time without even trying. Who needs a sauna when you can do it naturally?

5 comments:

Mike said...

What are "Rock Repeats"?...sounds like good training.
...Mike

Alene Gone Bad said...

Mike,
Rock Repeats are multiple climbs up the service road to Horsetooth Rock, a 1100 foot gain in 2.1 miles. Then the same of descent. They are perfect training for the Portal Road at Badwater.

Happy spring!

Mike said...

Thanks!

Felix Wong said...

Hi Alene. Runner's Roost has a bin for used athletic shoes inside their store. The shoes, depending on condition, are either reused by being donated to, say, the Denver Rescue Mission, or sent to Nike for recycling.

That is exciting your artwork is in Tortilla Marissa's! I'll have to stop by there sometime.

Alene Gone Bad said...

Thanks Felix, I knew about that but it always slips my mind. I can't tell you how many times I've been to the Roost this spring with those shoes in the back of my car. Next time I'll try to remember.

Please go check out Tortilla Marissa's, Dennis and I went there with 4 friends tonight and had a great time. I hope to have several more paintings up there in the coming weeks and months.