Leaves of Absence

This morning I woke up to the leaves. The trees are finally leafing out. Yesterday's hot temperatures brought out the apple blossoms, lilacs, and cottonwood leaves.


We did go from winter to summer in a week. I guess it's summer now.


Two exciting things happened in my own leave of absence from home yesterday. First, I got an e-mail from the St. George Marathon that I got in with the lottery! First try! I don't know how hard it is to get in, usually. but it was my lucky day, Monday the 13th.

The other thing that happened was the check came in the mail from North Coast, so I can apply that toward the racing budget.

I am toast this morning. I have a wicked work hangover, I worked two long days Saturday and Monday, nonstop busy. The computer training and a nasty human virus that's going around has limited the number of people available to work. So we hustled all day. By the end of the day I could barely keep my eyes open. This month I have so many odd shifts and days that I have to look at the calendar every day to make sure I know where I have to be and when.

It was in the 80s yesterday and that dried up a lot of the moisture that was hanging out in the soil. My allergies are also killing me. I hope we continue to get some regular rain because if we keep going on this dry streak for very long, it won't matter that we got all that snow. We'll be burning up. For runners, that means having to go out of town to run trails and mountains, because the air gets so bad here.

For some reason the hot flashes I was having all winter and early this spring have mostly gone away and left me alone. I'm sure this is temporary, but I'm enjoying it. Ever since I got back from Cleveland I've been much more comfortable. I hope it lasts because our house is HOT.

I'll be spending some time in the woman cave today, until it gets too hot. Time to get out for a run, but I'm sure I'll need a nap before I can feel human.


On Sunday we celebrated Iris's birthday with dog cookie cupcakes.

First Iris sang happy birthday to herself, drowning out all of our voices, then it was a race between the girls to see who could finish their cookie fastest.



Even after our party, I still felt enormous guilt going to work Monday morning, on Iris's actual birthday.

This morning I'm breaking in a pair of Pearl Izumi H3s, they are road shoes with rearfoot stability, actually through the midfoot. Nice and cushiony and comfortable. I took Iris for a short walk but I had a few errands to run early this morning so I only got a short run in. I will finish up with a longer run this evening, after a nap. Iris is expecting to go longer, so I need to make it up to her.


This morning I spent about a half hour trying to figure out where to stay in St. George and fortunately I was able to get a reservation at the same hotel where my friends Kirk and Keith are staying. I need to get my butt on some hills. I've been seriously neglecting hill training for too long.

Now that I know about St. George, I can start planning where to tuck the other marathons in throughout the summer. Finding them, close to home and on days when it is reasonable to travel to them in between work is the challenge. It's already the middle of May. I have a feeling October will be here soon. Makes me want to go over to the track now, but I have to recover from work first. I don't think I could concentrate long enough to make through one lap at this point.



I do have a 12 year old Australian Shepherd who is staring holes through me, letting me know it's time to get started on my day, with the first order of business.

What Goes With Gray Hair?

Turquoise!

The best color for gray hair, as far as I'm concerned. And wouldn't you know it, Pearl Izumi has come up with a racing outfit that goes great with my gray hair! Any company that would support a runner my age already wins extra points. But this stuff is nice.

Yes it is my job to market the Pearl Izumi brand, but I have to say that every article of Pearl Izumi gear I have ever owned has been my favorite. I currently own 3 pairs of PI tights, a jacket, a vest, and half an ancient pair of PI socks that were my all-time favorites until the dryer ate one. And that's stuff I bought before I started this Team PI Colorado gig.

It's comfortable, you can't help but notice the colors, and functional.

I wish I had the shoes to show you, I switched out the ones they had for me because I needed to get the right fit, so I'm just waiting a few more days for the M3 shoes in my size and I'll have matching shoes, too! I'll write more about the PI products and the shoes as soon as I have something to show pictures of.

Last night after work I drove down to Louisville, to Pearl Izumi headquarters. The sunset was impressive over the Front Range, big clouds, big sky, and fresh snow visible on the mountains.

There was a meeting of everyone on Team PI, the grassroots team that has been organized to help promote the product. Along with pizza, salad, and beer, we got some pointers on the products, looked at the shoes, and received our racing outfits. Nice stuff.

Nick Clark, my buddy from the Fort Collins Running Club and my pacer extraordinaire from Badwater 2008, was there. Nick's made quite the name for himself in his performances in ultrarunning over the past 5 years. He's one of the few athletes sponsored by Pearl Izumi. Out of the grassroots team, I knew a few runners, met a few more, and there were some familiar faces there, but I'll eventually get to know them.

If your local running store doesn't carry PI gear, let me know and I will pass the word along...



Can't wait to race in this stuff! We also got some black racing shorts, really nice, comfortable material with a nice wide mesh pocket in the back for carrying gels, keys, etc. As soon as I put this stuff on for my first race in it, I'll get pictures and post them on the blog.





Today I did 11 miles on the Power Trail with some strides and a fast mile with some little rolling sections thrown in, to see what I could do. My legs are still pretty toasty, and that mile was a struggle in 6:42. Whatever.

I'm resigned to the end of my season and anything I do now isn't going to help me at NorthCoast, what I have is what I have. I think for 24 hours, the more rest I can get over the next two weeks, the better off I'll be.

I'm looking forward to getting into racing the short stuff this summer, though, once I take a break after North Coast.

The other thing I did today was put in for the lottery for the St. George Marathon. I've never run that marathon, and I figured I'd give it a shot. If I don't get in, I'll keep trying until they let me in. If it doesn't happen this year, then I'll get to run it after I turn 50. That might even be better.



I'll finish out the week and then the next two weeks I am going to do lower mileage, and start packing and planning for Ohio. I can't believe it's already April. Every day it looks more like spring. Summer will be here in a few weeks...any day the leaves will be bursting out.


Nap time, then out the door for more miles this evening...