Black Raspberry Margaritas First

I know you want to hear about Badwater and I'm keeping you in suspense. I had a busy day today between unpacking, restocking the kitchen with groceries, and a business seminar, plus it took me a couple of hours just to go through the 800 or so photos I took last week. I will be working on the blogpost over the weekend though.

Tomorrow I am running the Human Race 10K. I went for a 5 mile run this morning, my first since last Sunday in Las Vegas. All the fatigue I had before my trip should be gone by now, I was a complete slug almost the entire trip, with the exception of a 7 miler in west Las Vegas with an accurate 3.2 mile at the end in 22:45. Yes, that's correct. It's an accurate course- a 5K, plus a tenth. I triple checked it. I ran the 7 miles in 54 minutes and change, the first half was uphill.

I admit the fast part was downhill. But I did mile splits of 7:27, 7:00, and 6:47 on my way down and I was nowhere near an all-out pace. I started out comfortable and picked it up gradually. It was at 3000 feet elevation, but it was also 88 degrees when I started. What I'm trying to say is that if it had been a 5K, I would have run it in the low 22s and that would be a fast time for me right now. So tomorrow, running the Human Race 10K, will give me another check on my fitness, at 5000 feet. And it's downhill only from 2.5 to 5.5 miles, the rest is a slight uphill grade, on a loop course.

We have a killer crop of raspberries and black raspberries. I picked about two pints of berries between last night and today. I threw some black raspberries in the blender and made a margarita. A little seedy, but awesome flavor.

I haven't slept well with the hot flashing and it will be another ice pack night. The margarita is cold, and maybe it will make me run faster tomorrow. After the race I meet with a client, and after that I will be blogging away so I can share the stories and photographs from this year's unique race.

3 am Hot Flashing is Not All Bad

My legs are trashed. I need to untrash myself. I woke up in the middle of the night hot flashing again, and when I got up, I realized I have little aches and pains that hurt all over.

All these little nagging things have caught up with me. I took an easy week 4 weeks ago but it wasn't all that easy. This hip flexor thing is annoying and my left knee is doing something weird, it feels sore under the patella, and my right ankle is a little swollen. And I feel strong on my runs, on the hills and in my endurance. I don't feel like I have the speed yet, but with the miles I've been doing and on tired legs, I'm not surprised. I need to take a break and let my body recover so I can get the results I want before September.

I'm looking at another 2 1/2 months of training before NorthCoast, or two months, not counting taper. I have time. I am going to take this coming week to ride the bike and back way off on the running miles, maybe not run at all, and just let everything settle down. I need fresh legs to help me develop the speed and stay uninjured, and if I continue pushing it, one of these little nagging things or something else unexpected could become an injury. Yesterday as I was running I rolled my right ankle on a perfectly smooth stretch of trail. That probably means I'm tired and not paying attention. Vulnerable.

For the next two weeks I will be busy and then taking my trip to Badwater, working the race and driving back. I am going to take advantage of this time as a mid-summer break and not worry about the training, let things heal up and run when I feel like it. Then I can come back and hit it hard for the end of July, the month of August and early September. I know that with the strength I have now, the speed is the only missing piece. I think I can get away with just one more long run all summer.

One of the many lessons I've learned over the years is that you have to believe in your base. It will carry you through a lot of things, and it's a cushion to fall back on when you need to back off and rest. I also believe in my speed, and I know it comes back when my legs aren't completely trashed.

Hot flashing at 3 am isn't all bad when it gives you a reality check. I think I'll limp back to bed in the air conditioned room now.

Work Hangover Wednesday: Gluteus Minimus, Flashus Maximus

After a three month reprieve, my hot flashes are back with a vengeance. Not sure why they suddenly decided to come back, but the past two nights I've been unable to get comfortable, keep waking up in a sweat, throwing the covers off until I cool down.

I got dehydrated over the past few days. Between the hot flashes and not drinking enough while at work, and for some reason, peeing a lot, I felt funny this morning when I decided to go out and test my back with running.

I took Iris out first and then brought her home. I went back out to do a loop that's about 6 1/2 miles, because I only had about an hour until I had to leave for Loveland. I did fine for the first 45 minutes, it was a warm morning. My back was okay, I felt some intermittent numbness in my leg and hip, mostly in the left hamstring and around the front of my hip, but it didn't seem to be affecting my gait.

I started aching in my hips, though, both sides, and felt really weak all of a sudden. I stopped under a tree in some shade and felt dizzy, like I would pass out. I held myself up on a street sign.

Once that passed, I started running again, and about 5 minutes later the same thing happened. Again, I let it pass, I was only 2 miles from home. I ended up stopping three times on the way home in the last twenty minutes of the run, and walked for a minute each time, I kept feeling so weak and dizzy. Each time I had to stop and hang on to some object because I wasn't sure if I could stay upright.

Then I remembered the hot flashes, and not drinking enough, and decided that as soon as I got home I'd weigh myself to see if it was dehydration. I got the scale out of the closet. Five pounds down. I was 125, and I've been consistently weighing 130 lately. So I started pounding the fluids, blended up a maradol papaya with orange juice and ice and two S-Caps, and I'll keep drinking.

I iced my back to be safe. I got 8 miles in this morning, and I'll go out for another 4 or 5 this evening once I rehydrate. Seems like the dehydration was a lot bigger issue than any muscle strains.

I did my day at work Tuesday, and my back held up well. The only things I couldn't do were bending over and picking things up off the floor unless I squatted, which is hard enough to do anyway, but you really don't want to do that if your scrub pants are even a little bit tight.

At work yesterday it was a slow morning and occasionally if it's slow, the oncology massage therapist will come over and ask the nurses if they want a neck or shoulder massage. She brings her chair over and works on us. It's one of those rare things but yesterday it couldn't have been better timing. My 11:00 patient didn't show up and I got a massage.

I told her about the muscle strain in my back and as she worked on me, gently, she told me she thought it was my gluteus minimus that was injured, she could feel a swollen area, and it made sense given the way I've been feeling through my butt and around my hip. Sitting for long periods of time is uncomfortable, I start to feel a little numbness down the back of my leg, which gets better once I stand up and start walking.

I was relieved to hear that I have a gluteus minimus. All this time I would said I have a gluteus maximus, that is expanding with age. I'm all for being minimalistic when it comes to my glutes.

Today I went out for lunch with my friend Pam, whom I haven't seen in quite a while. We always do sushi when we get together, we both love it. This time we went to a place in Loveland that I haven't been to. It was good. And even better to see Pam and catch up on things. While we were eating, it was a little warm in the restaurant, with bright sun coming in, but I started having a hot flash. The sushi wasn't even that spicy, but suddenly I was sweating.

I'll try to be consistent this week with the running and cycling as long as my back, butt, and legs can handle it. A nap or two wouldn't hurt either.

Not So Bad, for a Bad Brain Day

Spring made a brief appearance this afternoon, but it's not going to hang out for long. Looks like we're in for more typical Colorado April weather, cold, snow, and wind. The leaves are about to break out any day now, and I can see more green and wilted flowers that froze in the cold snap we had the other day. It was 12 degrees yesterday morning! Today it was windy but closer to 60 degrees when the sun finally came out.

I am very excited about the apricot trees I am growing from seed. I planted the seedlings last week, and they are starting to grow leaves in their pots on the kitchen table. As soon as the weather warms up, I will plant them, in places safe from Buffaloes. We are going to let our grass go over the summer, since we're on water restrictions anyway, and put in some raised beds and grow veggies. And we will xeriscape the front yard eventually.

This morning I met with a film crew in south Fort Collins, they were shooting some footage of me running in a field with the foothills behind us, for the upcoming Spring Benefit for the Cancer Center. I am one of 6 people they will be featuring in the video, 3 are cancer survivors and 3 are donors. I was honored to be included as one of the donors in this year's video. It was fun, they asked me questions about my running and why I support the cancer center, how cancer has affected people in my life, and so on.

It was freezing out there, I had to keep running around to stay warm. I had my jacket and wind tights on, but standing there it was cold. After we were done, I went home to a freezing house. Our furnace died overnight and I scheduled a service person to come out and check it out at 1 pm. Turned out it was the safety limit switch (whatever that is) and about an hour and $200 and change later it was fixed. We have heat again.

Having hot flashes makes heat seem relatively less important, but it was cold in the house this morning, 48 degrees! I know we will both appreciate having warmth tonight. I slept through the night once this week, but then last night I woke up a lot. It's killing my brain, I am worthless and unable to think clearly after a night like that.

I have been distracted, with yesterday's brain fog of a work hangover day, and today between the filming and the furnace, I haven't been able to get much done. But tomorrow I have to start packing for Ohio. The weather forecast looks gruesome at this point, 48 degrees, rain and wind. Ugh. But it's still 10 days away and a lot can change before then. I have a plan, and that's what's important.

I went out and ran about 6 miles today and felt okay. I also ran with the girls. My legs were still sore until yesterday. I don't plan on doing much all week, probably 8 to 10 miles at the most each day. I sat in the hot tub this afternoon, trying to get the girls to stop fence fighting with the neighbor dogs, and other than that brief chaos, zoning out. I have a book review to write and some other things to do around the house this weekend, but my brain wasn't ready to tackle any of it today.

It was nice to not HAVE to do anything today, between being hot, and cold, not sleeping, tapering, and my schedule being off, I feel sluggish and out of sorts. I'm really lucky to have the time to chill. I think I'll go hang out with my girls.

Spring: Everywhere But The Legs

It might be spring outside everywhere, but there is no spring in my legs, they are as stale as an old Peep.

Each week since I got back from Delano, I have made plans to run a certain number of miles and have ended up falling short, except for last week when I planned to do only 30 and that is exactly what I did.

I got out today and ran 11 after yesterday's 15. Yesterday morning I got excited, it was my work hangover day but I still felt pretty decent on my morning pre-nap run. My legs actually had a little energy in them. I was so pumped I texted Wheaties Boy to tell him. Not so fast. In my afternoon run, they were dead meat again.

This morning I took the girls running, it was just barely spitting raindrops. I finished out 6 miles on my own and then did some errands before meeting my friend Cat for an easy 5 mile lunchtime run. It rained pretty hard right before we started running, and then went back to light rain. It was good to catch up with her, we do our own types of races and rarely get to run together these days. We are planning an easy trail run later this week.

I must be feeling courageous to plan a trail run, since I haven't been on trails more than twice all winter and certainly haven't done anything resembling a hill. I'm thinking someone gave me a frontal lobotomy during the night and I wasn't aware of it. If a lobotomy would stop my hot flashes I probably would agree to it.

My new name could be "The Flasher". I have been constantly hot and cold all night, waking up in a sweat, and during the day, same thing. I'll be standing there at work and all of a sudden I am pouring sweat inside my scrubs. Fortunately they dry fast!

If I could do something about it, I would. There isn't much I feel comfortable doing. I don't need to take any more pharmaceutical products...and most of the herbal remedies out there are full of dangers to your liver function and who knows what else they do to your brain and kidneys and other organs.

I won't do hormones due to my sister's breast cancer history, and I'd rather have hot flashes than cancer, but this really is annoying. It's the lack of sleep that is hardest. If it didn't interrupt my sleep a gazillion times a night, I could be okay with it.

I've tried not drinking alcohol, and that doesn't help. Avoiding spicy foods doesn't help. Afternoon naps help, only because they help me make up for the sleep I lost during the night, they don't solve the thermoregulation issue. Everyone says that eventually it gets better, but for the several years while I have to endure this "personal summer" as my coworker Connie calls it, I'm going to be a B.I.T.C.H!

On the positive side, the anxiety attacks I was having a month or so ago seem to have left me alone lately. I don't know why that is, nothing has changed. But I'll take it.





Along the way on my run with the girls this morning, someone had lost a pack of cigarettes out in the street. I always like to think that came from someone who decided to quit smoking and threw their last pack of cigarettes out the window.




Another sign of spring: pesticide warning flags on front yards. Which reminds me, this summer we will be under watering restrictions in Fort Collins due to the drought, something that should have been implemented years ago, but hasn't been until now. It's kind of silly to expect to keep your lawn green, and I always hate seeing that people have applied pesticides to their yards, but at least the warning flags help me keep the girls away.


Xeriscaping would be a better way to go. We plan to slowly convert our yard to xeriscape over the next few years. Except I refuse to put in gravel like we had in Arizona. I hated those pink rocks all over the yard. I prefer something like wood chips, boulders, and wildflowers.

I am so looking forward to taking a break after Ohio. This was not a good idea, the way I stretched out this season to last so long. But I will give my best effort in Ohio and shoot for as many miles as possible. I have a strategy that I am going to try out, that worked well last year on the track in Iowa.

I'm modifying it based on the course, but it still calls for about 75% running, 25% walking in the first 12 hours. It will give me plenty of slack time for eating, drinking, using the bathroom, or whatever else I need to do. The second 12 hours plan will be modified to include less running but to stay on a strict pattern of long stretches of running, then some walking.

I find that once I start running, even when my legs are dead, it's easier to keep running than to try to do too many run/walk shift changes. It helps to talk to another runner who is running and keep my mind off my discomfort in the later hours.

I go back to work for a short 8 hour shift tomorrow, then afterwards is the Team PI party in Louisville. More about that, with pictures of all the cool gear, later this week!