DoNut Hunting...

This morning was the Fort Collins Running Club Tortoise & Hare 4K at Rolland Moore Park. Team Donut Hunters showed up in full force, pith helmets, donut hunting license, and all. This is about my speed these days.

It is really nice to get out in the morning and do a few miles, and not feel obsessive about doing double digits in miles or hours of running! This morning was amazing with the running club though- it used to be we'd have a dozen runners show up at these things. This morning there were over 150 runners! There was even a backup at the finish line! It was a gorgeous fall morning, the leaves are bright, the air is crisp and cool without being too cold.

One thing I was really pleased about was that I ran a faster than usual, but relaxed pace, didn't push it, and felt good the whole way. Ended up averaging 9 minute miles. Didn't know I could do that. I have lost a couple pounds, maybe even more than that. I've been trying to be good, cut out the beer and margaritas for the most part, and just the other day I had my first donut in a while.

I'm still going to work on dropping the rest of this weight because I'm pretty uncomfortable and my clothes are still tight.

The big exciting news is that our new babies could be born any day. We are waiting for word from the breeder in Nebraska to find out if there are any red or black tri girls in the litter due tomorrow, and there is another litter due in two weeks. It's the same blue merle dad for both litters, and both moms are red tris. I'll let you know as soon as I know. We will be able to bring the puppies home at 8 weeks, so we're looking at sometime before Christmas, if all goes well.

I am definitely in mom mode, I was shopping for puppy things yesterday, looking for agility equipment, baby gates, thinking about what we will do with training them- making my home schooling lesson plan, etc. My friend Joanne just got a puppy about a month ago and he was at the T & H this morning, her husband was watching him while Joanne ran. He is adorable, and he'll be more than twice the size of our girls when he grows up.

I even had a dream the other night that I was giving birth!! That's really weird.

I have been stretching consistently in the mornings, and been somewhat consistent doing my core exercises and hip exercises, and some weightlifting. I got my DEXA scan results back and the only thing they found was very mild osteopenia in my lower lumbar spine, which is probably not all that unusual and is unsurprising to me. I'll just continue doing what I've been doing, maybe more lifting and making sure I stay on top of the vitamin D, thyroid etc. I won't be able to get re-scanned for a couple of years at least, and the first few years of menopause tend to be the worst for losing bone, so I'll be curious to see what happens.

I am still missing my mouth with my toes on the left side, a couple of inches to go with my flexibility goal. I can easily bite my big toenail on the right side.

I've been busy doing local speaking engagements and preparing for tweetchats and an international online summit for breast cancer recovery. I've been so busy I haven't had time to work on the book manuscript but October is a busy month in my line of work. Pinktober.

I'm tired today after a long week and another busy week ahead of me. But I'm feeling generally pretty good, much better than I did in July and August.

I'm busy planning a birthday run this year, too. Yes, another crazy birthday themed run, something to do with donuts. Stay tuned!

Day One of NaRunMoMo

My sense of smell returned this morning. I forgot that that's one of the joys of fall, smelling the leaves and earthy stuff. Fortunately we still have enough green foliage around that it should last a while longer.

Woke up at 4:24 am, couldn't figure out why except I heard a CLUNK in the bedroom. It was Isabelle, walking around in the dark, bumping into walls and knocking things over. Dennis woke up and carried her downstairs, thinking she had to go outside. Having a geriatric dog means you never know what kind of surprise might squish between your toes if you get up in the dark...

I went to bed at 10 last night, late for me, but then I realized we changed the clocks and it was really 5:24, close to my usual wake up time. Dennis went back to bed and I got up and made coffee, and came out to the cave. Isabelle seemed content to lie in the cold grass sniffing the air in the middle of the backyard.

For some reason my 4 year old coal-fired laptop with the 8 track drive in it has been having issues and I am about ready to spring for a new one. I saw a cool one with dual floppy disk drives, what do you think? I am having issues with uploading photos so I might have to add the pictures later. It could be an issue with Blogger today, which would really be annoying since it is officially NaBloPoMo, but my laptop really has been acting up. So I apologize if you get a bland text-only blogpost today. Should be fixed within 24 hours.

The Fort Collins Running Club was having its Tortoise & Hare 5K this morning and I try to attend as many as I can, I've been a member of the club for a gazillion years. But lately they've been getting 150 people at these things and I am not one for crowds. We used to have 10, maybe 20 people show up. It's great that the club membership has grown and so many more people are involved. I prefer it that way, it's just that I don't like running with so many people.

I know, most road races have more like thousands. If I wanted to be around crowds I would sign up for them.

This morning's event was at Warren Park which happens to be exactly a mile from my house. And it isn't cold, it was 40 degrees when I woke up and didn't dip much below that even at sunrise. I haven't run since October 21, the day I woke up with this crud.

I showed up and there weren't a lot of people, but then a few minutes later it was packed. The runners start according to their handicap time, so I wasn't going until 21 minutes after the hour. I had time to socialize. I lined up to start with my friend Joanne, we've never been in the same wave before but we ran together most of the way and finished pretty close in time.

I actually ran faster than I thought I could. I took off at a brisk pace but not too hard, and tried to maintain that. At the first mile mark I hit it in 9:12 which surprised me, because I felt comfortable. I haven't been running anywhere that fast on my runs lately, but we got through mile 2 in 9 something, and then I felt like I could push it a little harder in the last mile.

Ended up with a 27:23, which I figured out later is 8:50 a mile average pace. I honestly didn't believe I could even run one mile at that pace right now. Having an 8 before my pace is something I never would have expected at this point.

I ran one mile to the park and one mile home, so I ended up with just over 5 miles of running today, with a little extra effort. That's part of NaRunMoMo, picking up the intensity twice a week. Mission accomplished, for today. 29 days to go.

Butts Are Here To Stay

No ifs, ands, or butts. No excuses, this week, despite the cold weather I got my butt out the door, froze it off each time, but I must have plenty of butt because it seems like I can always go out the door the next day and freeze more of it off. I guess I shouldn't be concerned since butts are so "in" these days.

Wrapped up the week with a big 33.6 miles. Three miles of that with the tire. I haven't had much trouble getting motivated because there were a lot of running club group runs to get me out the door, despite one of the coldest weeks I can ever remember in the 25 years or so I've been around Fort Collins. It got down to seventeen below zero the other day, and this morning at 9 am it was one degree above zero when I left the house to join the group from the Fort Collins Running Club at Dan's house for our Sunday run.

We took off toward the bike path and ran west along the Spring Creek Trail. I ran most of the way with David from the club, we seemed to be running the same pace, so that worked out well. I didn't feel like killing myself to try to stay up with the fast group, either. I wanted to get a good two hours in plus drag the tire after the run. I ended up with 11.4 miles for my run today, ending with about 20 minutes with the tire. My legs were already toast when I started, so by the time I got home I was worthless. The temperature was up to 14 degrees with the sun shining.

Saturday morning the club was meeting at Fort Collins Brewery for the beginning of the Running U session 2, in which I am a mentor. They were doing a 5 mile run on the Poudre Trail from the Brewery. I ran the 5K distance from my house to the brewery and got sweaty enough that by the time I met everyone at the Brewery I was soaking wet and froze my ass off waiting around, I got going, and some of the bike path was snowpacked and made it quite challenging for my wimpy trail-naïve legs.

I made it back and we did our thing at the Brewery, it was a fun social event, I got to talk to a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while since I missed almost all the club events in December due to being sick. It was time to leave and I didn't realize the temperature had dropped and it started snowing. Fortunately Deb and her family gave me a ride home so I wouldn't freeze trying to run home.

It sure has been nice not having an agenda, I can go out and run on Sunday for a couple of hours with other people, instead of squeezing a ton of miles in all the time.

The Buffaloes aren't too excited about the cold weather this year. They like going out but sometimes it's too cold even for them. Isabelle used to love to sit outside in the cold, even in a blizzard. This year she's not so into it.

Yesterday I did yoga for an hour, and it felt good, even though I can tell how tight I am and how uncomfortable it is to have experienced the partial return of my mountain bike tire around my waist. At the same time I've had low motivation to work out, I also continued to eat like I was still working out, so three months of that caught up with me, about ten pounds worth. I am aware of it and starting to nudge myself gently toward reducing my calorie intake, but I haven't been very strict or disciplined about it.

I'll get there, but...

Tomorrow it's back to work, I have a few extra things on the agenda this month so I'll be busy. I just need to keep getting my butt out the door.

Obesify Fort Collins...

So the big news this past week was that Dunkin Donuts opened in Fort Collins. Midtown Fort Collins, only about a mile from my house.

For a town that has so many mediocre restaurants and franchise chains, you would think, no big deal, just another restaurant with crappy food.

Well I found myself in a traffic jam while trying to cross College at Harvard, at mid-day in the middle of the week, so I made the mistake of trying to turn up the frontage road along College to escape the traffic jam.

Bad idea. It turned out that the traffic jam was cars lined up and wrapped around the entire block and blocking the frontage road both ways, trying to get in what appears to be a drive-through window at Dunkin Donuts!!!

Excuse me, that's spelled "drive-thru". This is Amurrica.

Hell, you would think they were giving away an iPhone 6 with every dozen donuts, or that Black Friday was moved up by four weeks. Haven't you people ever seen a donut before?

Once again I take refuge in my woman cave...

This morning I ran the Tortoise & Hare 5K with the Fort Collins Running Club. My third run this week. My hips and knees ache, I feel stiff and old. I did not go there to run fast and I stuck to my plan, which was to run at a leisurely pace and cheer for all the runners. There were well over 100 runners this time. I had to run to the bushes too because I drank too much coffee this morning, and still managed to somehow run it in under 29 minutes even with the pitstop.

I ran there and ran home, and then spent the rest of the day working on various writing projects and preparing for a webinar this week. Having to turn on lights in the woman cave now, since it's getting dark so early after the clock change last night.

Maybe this week I will be a little more active than last week. Right now I feel like I need about a year off...

Live From The Woman Cave: False Start

Only three days into the week and I can tell I need a long rest. Monday and Tuesday were crazy jam-packed days with work and I got out for an hour run on Monday followed by a very brief half mile run with the tire.

I could feel the tire in my low back just slightly on Tuesday when I woke up, but it went away over the day. At noon I met several people from the Fort Collins Running Club at noon at the Fossil Ridge High School track. I jogged easy laps while they did 400s. I just wanted to be there and meet some of the new members of the club. I ran about 4 miles and did a short ride on the bike, mounted on the trainer, that afternoon.

Today I went up to Horsetooth Mountain park and did two Rock Repeats, something I haven't done in months. I figured it would be good to get some climbing in, all I did was hike the uphills and jogged the downhills, I know I will be sore as hell even from that, but I needed to do it.

On my way out there I ran into some old running friends I hardly ever see anymore, they were out with their dog to hike the rock once. We talked for a while before we got started and again before I went out for my second climb, they were finished with their hike.

There were deer out everywhere, on the roads and trails.

Tuesday before I went to the track I had a long conversation with an acquaintance from some of the cancer-related organizations I've been involved with in town. We had not talked much, just briefly when we ran into each other at social functions, since I left the hospital, nearly a year ago. It was a great conversation, ranged from local cancer politics to life and death existential issues to our mutual dislike of the profit-focused lack of care in health care.

It's the kind of thing that sticks with you, and when I was running on the track afterwards, I couldn't wait to get to a quiet place to process what we had talked about, it fit perfectly into a piece I'm writing now.

This week I've been working mostly from home and been spending time with the girls. Iris was waiting for her dad to come home from work in this picture.

Tonight I indulged in a seasonal beer from New Belgium, Accumulation IPA. It has a light body, a mildly citrusy hoppy taste without being overpowering, and hardly any bitterness compared to most IPAs. I like it. Okay, maybe the hard core beer connoisseurs would say it's girl beer. Girl IPA. Girls appreciate the good things, we don't have to drink tar or acid to prove ourselves.

Speaking of girls, they had an extra little treat tonight before we came out to the woman cave, while I opened my beer. They love to lie down at my feet while I work, but occasionally they'll want in or out of the cave.

The rest of the week has some walking, time on the bike, a swim or pool run, and the Tortoise and Hare 5K, a Fort Collins Running Club event which is low key and I will jog it, just to be there. I got a text from Wheaties Boy today asking me if I wanted to meet for speedwork on Friday! I said, you're dealing with a geriatric runner here, how about a beer instead? I don't think I'll be ready for speedwork of any type until 2015.

I can tell how tired I am, I can run and feel decent one day, but then the next day I feel like death. Not ready to jump back in yet, this week has been an experiment with short workouts to see how everything feels.

Definitely far from being ready to get back to anything called training. That's okay, I have enough deadlines and projects to keep me busy.

Tonight I made chicken-spinach enchiladas with a new recipe I invented, sort of. I borrowed a salsa recipe from a restaurant in Manhattan Beach that the owner gave me, and adjusted it just a little.

There is this breakfast place we go to when we're there and it is amazing, it's right next door to a very popular restaurant that people wait in line for hours to get into, but just down the hill there is this tiny café that serves the most incredible food, and they make this fresh salsa that they put at the table and I think I go there for the salsa as much as I do for the food.

The owner is from Mexico and he made this salsa from dried chiles and it has oregano and bay leaf in it, and the flavor is too good to describe, you have to eat it to understand.

I had some chicken breasts that I cooked a few days ago, ground those up in the food processor, sautéed some spinach and onions and red bell pepper, and threw it all together with some nonfat sour cream, and corn tortillas, and a little cheese. I baked it in the oven while I made the salsa.

I added some hot chicken broth to it. About 10 minutes before the enchiladas were done I took them out and poured the salsa broth over the pan of enchiladas and stuck them back in the oven. The enchiladas were mild, with almost nothing spicy, but the salsa was super hot and spicy, and it was a perfect combination.

Eventually I'll remember to post this on Bitchen Swill, but maybe I'll keep it a secret for a while. Good thing I made a big pan, we'll have leftovers tomorrow.

Iris is staring at me from outside. I think she's telling me to quit for the night and come in the house and go to bed.

She gives good advice.

8K, 9F, and MICROspikes Road Review

I woke up at 5:30 a.m., no excuses. Got my butt out the door in these conditions plus a mild wind chill. The Edora Park Tortoise & Hare series 8K is always held on what seems to be the coldest, windiest, snowiest weekend of the year. At least when I show up, it's like that.

It goes along the Spring Creek and Poudre Trails, an out and back. The paths are always plowed so it's the best footing in town when the conditions are not so great for running.

I was the first one to arrive, so I went out for a little warmup run. When I came back there were more people, and we ended up with 28 runners. Not bad for a cold, windy, snowy morning.

Nick drew a starting line in the snow and people started lining up in order of their handicap. My best times are much faster than what I run now, and I'm way off, so I usually get passed by everyone.

After my warmup run, I re-warmed my gloves in the car before I got started. That was a good call, because we started out in a headwind. I had a big scarf wrapped around my head and neck. I had to wait around for a long time to start with fast people, who all passed me quickly. My nose, cheeks, and chin were freezing and it didn't take long to start forming icicles on any place that was exposed.

I ran my first mile in about 9 minutes and said to hell with it and backed off to a more comfortable pace, one that hurt my face less. I kept having to knock ice chunks off my eyelashes so I could keep my eyes open. My legs were tired, probably from yesterday's run in the crappy conditions.

I was the last person to reach the finish line, and Nick was laughing as he greeted me with my popsicle stick, threatening to DQ me for "veering off course". I can always expect him to give me a hard time about something.

I ran around and did a cool down, as if I needed one, and then drove home. I was starving and freezing. I am 4 days into eating weird things and so far it is going really well. I've had a few moments of temptation but allowed those to pass. I just need to get through two weeks of it.

I wanted to test the MICROspikes today but since the trails are plowed, there was no ice or snow to run on during the 8K. Later I tested the MICROspikes in the street in front of my house, but I need to take them out this week on the trails to test them going on rough terrain and up and down hills. So far, I like them.

Kahtoola is the company that makes MICROspikes, a footwear traction device for your running shoes, or other footwear like boots. Just an aside...they are located in Flagstaff, Arizona, which also happens to be home of NAU, where I got my undergrad degree. The MICROspikes are sold at REI, or you can find them online.

MICROspikes attach to your shoes much like Yak Trax, like tire chains for your shoes. Except the MICROspikes are more like real tire chains. They are spikes mounted on chains with an elastic piece that stretches over your shoe.

They grip really well and don't have the springy feeling, like running on a Slinky, like the Yak Trax do.

They are easy to put on, no more difficult than the Yak Trax. The MICROspikes stayed on better than the Yak Trax, which tend to slip on the sole and have a tendency to come off.

They worked well both on the icy patches underneath snow and the deep snow that gets all torn up by the tread on the car tires. I never felt like I was landing on solid asphalt, even though the snow is only 3 inches deep at the most.

They were comfortable, and they fit the shoe according to the sizing chart on the box.

They were fairly easy to remove, although with cold hands, it was a struggle. No more difficult than the Yak Trax.

The only drawback I could see was that they are a little bit heavier than the Yak Trax, but in snowy conditions, who cares? They didn't feel so heavy that I couldn't run comfortably in them. I think the security of knowing you have more reliable footing is more than worth the small bit of extra weight.

What I liked best about the MICROspikes was that they felt more solid under my feet. There are 12 spikes on each foot, and they don't roll around like the Slinky-like coil on the Yak Trax, that compresses and wiggles under your feet.

Does anyone remember the Slinky? Do they still make those?

I got in trouble in physics class in high school for stretching the Slinky past it's elastic limit. Hey, it was physics!

Of course the girls had to get involved. They liked the MICROspikes, too.

As soon as I give the MICROspikes a go on the trails and hills, I'll add that to this review post.

Post-Christmas Goodies

The past few days have been quiet but satisfying in their own peaceful way.

I am looking forward to 2014, there's been so much stress and unrest in my life this past year. So much energy goes into the fight. I'm not complaining, because there are some things worth fighting for.

The Badwater issue is concerning, but I'm not thinking about it too much, there isn't much I can do right now. I wrote my letters, I'll stay on top of the news and do what needs to be done to support Chris and his events.

As far as healthcare problems, they are part of the larger problem of unchecked corporate power, and that is what needs to be fought. The nursing battles are partially due to the corporate power-mongering but also the establishment dinosaurs of the nursing profession. I can only put so much energy into that.

Maybe what needs to happen is that nursing as a profession implodes as a result of the lack of a support structure. Sad but maybe that's what needs to happen. Nurses are the glue that hold health care together. Only the people in power don't recognize that. It's all so incredibly frustrating, as a person who doesn't do bullshit, especially corporate bullshit, well.

I am going to focus on getting my own work up and off the ground, and running. And I don't have the patience for the establishment culture! Life is short. I need to concentrate on doing good for those I can empower and help, and enjoy it.

I just feel like I need to back off from the fight and focus on my own priorities at this time. Not that I don't think there are causes worthy of supporting. I do, and I still support them. I just need a little break from fist-clenching.

We aren't big on holidays around here. We did go down on Christmas day to visit Dennis's mom, and we took her out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Just hung out and she showed us pictures of a gazillion grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It's weird that we fit in the grandparents generation now. We are great-aunt and uncle to a lot of kids on his side of the family. So many, I've lost count and can't keep up!

The weather has been spectacular, in the 50s and sunny, the ice is melting enough to clear off some of the sidewalks so they aren't so treacherous, which is a nice break to have at mid-winter. I have some new shoe spikes I'm wanting to use and review as soon as we get our next snowfall.

I've backed off on work for a while, there isn't too much I can do during the holidays because everything is shut down or people I need to talk with are on vacation. So I'm enjoying the break.

I've spent a little time in the afternoons hot tubbing, drinking wine, or cooking, and drinking beer. None of which I should be doing, but I will get it in gear. I'm as guilty of holiday indulgence as anyone else. And I will get my butt in gear at the first stroke of 2014. I'll probably have been asleep for two or three hours by then, but you get the idea.

Tonight I am cooking and hanging out with the girls while waiting for Dennis to come home from work. I've had some great workouts the past two weeks. My legs are tired constantly, but it's a good tired. I've been hitting the weights, in the pool, on the bike, getting my core work done, and running, of course. The running mileage has been low to moderate, somewhere around 35 to 50 miles a week, but I'm making progress.

I'm searching for a couple of good ultras in late March and early August in the neighborhood of 50 miles-12 hours-100K for training runs. Some of the ultra calendars haven't been updated yet.

The other things that have happened are that my book review of the Summit Seeker was picked up by an online publication from the U.K., Barefoot Running. It's worth checking this publication out, really well-done.

And they re-opened the tunnel that connects the east and west sides of town along the Spring Creek Trail, which is a bike path in Fort Collins that I often run during the winter months. I went for a run the day after Christmas and discovered something new. A memorial bench of a cyclist I knew in town, who passed away last November. The bench sits along the Spring Creek Trail.

I think those benches are the coolest thing. They are a such a great way to memorialize someone. I sat down for a while and could vividly recall his face and his voice. Now I know there will always be someone cheering for me as I run past that spot.

Over the coming week I plan to do one or two local races, neither of which will be anything impressive. There is the New Years Day run at Runners Roost and the Tortoise and Hare 8K next weekend with the running club. Get my butt in gear and start moving!

Under a Full Moon

Last night was the annual Fort Collins Running Club Holiday Lights Run & Potluck event. There was a good turnout and delicious food. It was fun to be around the runners again. We did a short run through a neighborhood with some beautiful light displays under a full moon. I cooked a vegan rice dish with veggies and garbanzo beans. It turned out good.

I didn't take any pictures during the run because I was busy trying not to slip on patches of ice! We've had some warm weather, temperatures in the 60s, and everything is melting but once the sun goes down, it freezes again.

When I woke up this morning the moon was setting over the woman cave and the sky was turning shades of pink.

The holidays are an odd time for me. After years of always working on the holidays, I'm not quite sure what to do! There's plenty of work on my business to do, but it's not a great time to be out talking to people because everyone is so distracted by the holidays. So all that gets put off until January. I guess that means I can take it somewhat easy, but I've been chipping away at the business website and my studying for certifications.

On the running front, I'm excited to say that I signed my contract for 2014 for the Pearl Izumi team again. I need to get my butt back in gear. Last night as people were asking me if I have any races lined up, I had to say no, because I really don't, even though I will soon. But it hit me that Pemberton Trail 50K is right around the corner, I made my airline reservations the other day, and I need to at least get some 20 milers in, which I haven't even done yet!!

Workouts are going okay, still sluggish in my pace, but I've been consistent with the weight training and core work, which is important. I need to rebuild my aerobic base before I can start pushing myself, and I need to be sure my hamstring is ready. I feel like I'm in this weird zone...can't race, can't really train for anything specific.

Monday I did my longest swim so far this year, 2000 meters, and I always feel like those young lifeguards at the pool are watching me thrash around like a dork in the water, they probably thing, this old chick sucks at swimming! They usually sit there and yawn, I think it's too early for them to be awake, it's only a bunch of old farts who get up that early to swim.

I did get half my hair chopped off the other day out of frustration with the heavy mop I've been carrying around for so long. Now it has some layers and I think the gray looks better that way. It needs to settle down a bit- it's wild and can't be pulled back into a ponytail anymore. It needs to grow out some before I tuck it into a running cap.

I could hardly believe that I wore out a pair of running shoes, my mileage has been so low, it's been forever since I replaced a pair. I'll be curious to see what kind of new models Pearl Izumi comes up with this year. I am looking for more motion control. You can't get more comfortable than the H3s though.

As soon as it snows again, I have a job to do. I was contacted by someone from Kahtoola, the company that makes Microspikes, and I'm going to try their product and write a review soon. We'll see how they compare to YakTrax.

I decided to go see Helen again this week, seems like the Bowenwork really helped my neck and I want to give it a few more sessions to see if I can get it loosened up even more. It would help my swimming too, because at the far point of my range of motion it hurts a little when I turn my head.

So that's what's happening in my world. A few exciting things, but I'm really looking forward to the mental hurdle of January 1, when it will be spring and I'm ready to move forward in the new year.

A Post About Running...

This morning thankfully we got that extra hour after turning the clocks back. I decided to do something out of the ordinary...get up and run!

At 8:00 the Fort Collins Running Club Tortoise & Hare series had a 5K at a park near my house. I'd run into Nick Clark a couple of times at the grocery store this past week, and he reminded me of it. No excuses, he said.

I woke up at 6:45 after about 10 hours of sleep, and I knew there really was no excuse. I pulled my running clothes on, drank my coffee, and got my butt out the door. Now I know I can move that early in the morning. I set a precedent.

I went over and found a huge gathering of people, looked like there were close to 100 runners. I saw several long time friends from the club and it felt so good to be outside and around them again. There is life out there!

I had about 3 minutes to warm up before my start, the runs are held as a time-handicap events so I got going pretty fast without too much of a warmup. I started out easy. I was totally surprised when I hit the one mile mark in 8:39. My next two mile splits were 8:04 and 8:07, and I ended up finishing in 25:42, not bad for a flabby old lady who has been doing next to nothing for the past 4 months.

I fully expected to run 9 minute miles at an effort. So this was a pleasant surprise, even though last spring I was a minute per mile faster!

The other day I also got an email from my friend Brian Wieck, he's the RD for the Pemberton Trail 50K in February. I thought that would be a good first comeback ultra.

I won't be running fast, but it will get me back into things. So as soon as I know I'm on the healing track, hopefully later this month, I'll be signing up for that.

I also ran into Celeste and Scott who put on the Brewery Tour in February, and this year it will be February 15th. Can't miss that!

I'm so glad I won't have to work that weekend...my new boss is so great, she doesn't make me do ANY weekends unless I want to. She supervises me from the couch. The only thing I have to do is take her for runs and walks. She's not into micromanaging unless there's food involved.

After the 5K I went home and ate some food, then changed into dry clothes, and went out for a two hour run. I felt a little tired. It's been over a month since my last 14 mile run. I got a total of 14.4 today with the 5K, and 36+ miles for the week, my highest since July.

Not a peep out of the hamstring. I will wait a few days to see if there is any flare up from pushing the pace, but as of now it feels fine.

When I was on my run today I saw two people I know and stopped to talk, Wheaties Boy's mother-in-law Faustine was out for a long walk, so we talked for a few minutes. And then I saw my buddy Dan, who was on my Badwater crew in 2011. He was walking his dog out in the field near the golf course, next to Power Trail. I yelled out to him, and we talked for a good 20 minutes.

It feels like the sky got bigger and the days got brighter. I can see the light, just gotta make it through this final stretch and once I recover from that, life will be all mine again.

Good Run, Bad Beer

Yesterday I ran about 11 miles, including the Fort Collins Running Club 6K at Spring Park. It was a huge turnout, we got 87 runners. I remember days when we used to have 6 show up.

I ran as hard as I could but even on my warmup I could tell that the legs were burning and as soon as I got started, I could feel it. The run was 3K downhill, then 3K uphill, and I wasn't even moving very fast on the downhill. Made it back about 50 seconds slower than the time it took me to go out. 28:53.

Not very fast, but it was a faster pace than I would have run if I didn't run the 6K. On the way back I was hurting and kept my mind off the pain by talking and joking with Jance, one of the runners in the club I've known for a long time.

We had a breakfast afterward at Fuzzy's Tacos, and Dennis and I sat with Joanne and Hunter Harms, they are going to be my crew at the race in Oklahoma City next year. Joanne lived in Oklahoma for a long time, she knows my friend Keith, who is also from Oklahoma, and a lot of the people I met at the race in OKC a few weeks ago.

Joanne is a serial marathoner, she's an endurance machine. I don't know how many marathons she's run in the past few years, but she runs races almost every weekend. She ran two 5Ks the day before yesterday, and then ran the 6K Sunday.

This is the weekend I work, coming up, plus I work Wednesday and have some other things going on this week, so I don't have as many days during my running week as I usually do. I got 60 miles last week and I'd like to do more this week but 60 will probably be all I have time for.

Today I did 30 miles and pushed harder for a little over an hour of my run, around 8:45 pace, and then backed off and took it easy the rest of the time. I finished it in under 5 hours, which isn't too bad. Iris did 2 of the miles with me, she needed an easy day. I felt surprisingly good today, ran the last uphill mile in 8:09, which is good at the end of a run.

I ran a double Spring Creek Trail out & back. I was planning to go to the lakes in Loveland, but it was so windy this morning, I didn't want to be out there exposed all day, plus the driving time eats up part of the day. It was a better choice to stay here. I came back to the house to refill my bottles and grab some food after 15 miles, and that was all I needed.

Along the Spring Creek Trail, near Drake and Taft Hill roads, near the new fire station, there were 5 deer right off the trail on my last time through there.

Tomorrow is tempo night with Wheaties Boy, and I'll do a few easy miles in the morning with the girls.

It was windy and cool today, but at least there was no smoke. On Saturday it was so bad in town from the Fern Lake fire near Estes Park that I had ash on my windshield. I ended up driving out to Windsor to run, east of here, hoping it wouldn't be as bad. It was better, but you could still smell it.

Not much else exciting going on around here, but I do have a beer report from this weekend. Occasionally I'll buy a mixed 6 pack from the liquor store around the corner to try some different beers. This time I chose an oddball. It was called Wild Blue and it's from New York. It's blueberry flavored beer.

I thought it would be more like beer with a hint of blueberry flavor, but I got a surprise when I poured the freaky stuff into a glass. It's the same color as blueberries. And it tastes like blueberry champagne. It was sweet. Ugh!

I kept taking sips wondering if it would start to taste better, but it didn't. Finally I poured a little in each of the girls' bowls, as they are beer connoisseurs. Iris liked it, but Isabelle took one sniff and walked away from the purple puddle in her bowl. Iris ended up drinking Isabelle's.

You know it's bad when even your dog won't drink it. I don't recommend this one...
I ended up pouring most of it down the drain.

On the other hand, I have a few little things to do today, and once I'm done, it will be beer-thirty again. Today I will have a New Belgium Snow Day. That will be good. A dip in the hot tub will make it taste even better.