Spring in January, Told Ya So...

Sunny and 57 degrees, right now, going on 4 pm. It is spring, and the Great Antarctic Ice Sheet is retreating from our neighborhood streets. I no longer have to drive put of the neighborhood to start running, to avoid risking my life.

This afternoon I am kicking back after a nice long run. Long in time, not in distance. It was warm, almost 50 degrees when I woke up this morning, and windy. I needed to get at least two and a half hours in, preferably more. I decided to do a run on the Spring Creek and Poudre Trail bike paths, then followed it up with a half hour with the tire east of town.

I wore shorts! My legs are about as white as they ever get, they never get quite pale enough to blind anyone, but they haven't seen the sun in months. I got more than 15 miles including the tire pulling, in 3 hours. Slow overall pace but fighting the wind for half my run and then the tire, with the hill, so that was pretty good. Longest run since October for me.

Now I'm in the woman cave drinking a Stranger Pale Ale from Left Hand Brewing, in Longmont. They make good beer there, even if they're not in Fort Collins. The other day I made a huge pot of green chile and some refried beans, we've been living on that with tortillas all weekend.

The sun came back on Wednesday morning, Cat called me and we met up at Horsetooth for a late morning run. It was the best thing I could have done. Just seeing the sky and the scenery, instead of cold, gray ice in town, was enough to pick my mood up out of the winter depression that was setting in. I have been in a major hole this winter.

Interesting thing I found out this past week. Last year's U.S. performances in the 24 hour were posted for men and women. I managed to miss the top 25 list by just a hair. The 25th place performance was 112.9 miles. I am not sure if there's anyone else between me and her, but I ran 112.29 at Cornbelt. Damn. Not that it matters, but I guess I could feel pretty good about it given that there were not that many other women 50 or older on the list. There were a few, but most were much younger. Not bad for an old fart. I think I can still do better, but I'm not sure when or where I might do my next 24 hour. My buddy Hung Ng ended up just out of the top 25 too. We met when we suffered together at North Coast in 2013.

Here in Colorado we are spoiled, we are used to having sunshine most days, and when the sun doesn't shine for more than two days in a row, we get GRUMPY.

The girls got grumpy, too. It was cold and so icy that I didn't want to walk them, because I was afraid they would hurt themselves. Old dogs don't need soft tissue injuries. So they went without walks for a couple of days and by Wednesday Iris was bouncing off the walls, and Isabelle was ready to go first thing in the morning.

The Great Antarctic Ice Sheet has been worse this year than most, we got all that snow, it started to melt, and then we got the deep freeze. The water was higher than the sidewalks and spilling over the curbs. When it froze, the sidewalks were skating rinks. The usual ice dam at the end of our street is deep enough that if a car without much clearance tries to go over it, it scrapes the bottom and makes an awful noise. The city hasn't figured it out that every year they end up having to bring the big equipment in to chip the ice away from that same spot.

We've had some nice sunrises with all the clouds, but it's hard to not see the mountains for days on end. Grumpy. Finally today from the bike paths and the east side of town, I got some good views.

The geese were hanging out along the Poudre River, which is almost free of ice.

After the first 2 and a half hours I was starving. I stopped by the hosue and grabbed a snack, then quickly got into the car and drove over to Strauss Cabin, where I did a quick little jog to re-warm up, then I got the tire and did 35 minutes with it.

West of the cabin, off the paved roads of Horsetooth and Ziegler, there is a nice little hill where the road isn't paved, perfect for the tire.

Nice day for a tire. I hope the sunshine lasts a while...it is spring.

SPRING!!!

Happy 2015! It finally warmed up to double digit temperatures today after seventeen below zero when we woke up the morning of the 31st. That was fun. I think that was the coldest it's ever been in Fort Collins as long as I've lived here. At least as far as I can remember. No frozen pipes or engine blocks, fortunately.

I stayed indoors on the bike for the last three days of 2014 and felt like I was bouncing off the ceiling. I didn't feel like getting up too early this morning, We were asleep by 10:00 last night, we're not into staying up late on New Year's Eve, the only way I'm staying up later than that is if I'm in a 24 hour or longer run.

After breakfast I took Iris out for a run, the temperature was up to 10 degrees. We did two miles and she kept getting ice balls in her paws. She hates those paw protector things, we've tried them, and she refuses to keep them on. I brought her home then went out for about an hour and change on the Power Trail. When I came back to the house I changed out a few layers because I was soaking wet underneath my jacket and I wanted to get out and pull the tire for a while.

I went out and did about a mile and three quarters with the tire, and came home. I had over 10 miles for the day and got my lifting in, and felt pretty good about starting off the season right. It feels easier to pull the tire over the snowpacked streets because there's less friction than the asphalt, but it's still a lot of work because I have to dig my soles into the ground to keep going.

After I was done I came back to the house. Isabelle was sitting there, waiting for me. She didn't want to go out today. She just wanted to see me, so I hung out with her for a while.

I got a strange pang of missing Across the Years as I read the posts from people who were there. It was cold this year. Maybe next year. We'll see how it goes. Still not signing up for anything until later in the year. I'm just enjoying this long weekend...

Beating The Black Friday Blues

If anyone asks me what I did on Black Friday, I will tell them I did all the things I'd prefer to do over shopping with crowds.

I ran in the foothills dragging a tire behind me, and I picked up dog poop in the yard, including some warm fresh ones that Isabelle contributed while I was in the process of picking up the other piles, trying to stay ahead of it before the next snowstorm hits.

I'd rather do those things any day than camp out in front of an electronic gadget store all night with a bunch of other crazed people carrying baseball bats, ready to draw blood in competition for the last iPhone 6, or whatever.

It was a cool morning in the foothills, I ran on the trails around Dixon Reservoir, and saw a lot of other runners and hikers out, an unusual amount of people for a Friday, but it is the holiday weekend, and maybe last night's gluttony convinced them that they should do something physical.

We went over to our friends Melissa and Austin's house again, all of Melissa's family was in, mostly from the East Coast, and it was a low-key and relaxing evening with great food. They had some technical issues with their oven and stove not working so Melissa and I devised creative ways to finish cooking the green bean casserole and potatoes. They live on the north end of town, so we got to see this sunset looking east toward the Budweiser plant, that's the picture at the beginning of this post.

Yesterday I went out for about an hour run and it was torture every step of the way. I went out the Power Trail and I thought I would pop my eyeballs out from the mental strain of feeling like it would never end. I just cannot get myself to run the bike paths and streets right now.

Then this morning I went to the foothills trails and I was fine, almost. I did have a slight problem with the time out there, it did seem like forever in the middle of the run, but at the end it was okay and I didn't mind getting the tire out and doing an extra mile and a quarter with it on the hill.

And I kept stopping to take pictures of the leaves in the water and under the ice at the reservoir. I'm hoping I can motivate myself to run both days this weekend. Early this week I managed to run on Monday but couldn't get motivated on Tuesday or Wednesday at all.

I wish I knew what the magic formula is right now to keep me going. I don't like to drive anywhere to run if I can avoid it. But I have exhausted all my usual running places here on the east side of town, it's all sidewalks, streets, and bike paths in every direction, with a few short exceptions. Looks like I'll have to start doing some driving to get myself excited to run anywhere for a while.

I just cracked open a VERY cold Odell Isolation Ale. And there's a VERY warm hot tub waiting for me.

Cheers. To Black Friday...

Fourteen Degree News: Badwater Returns

Today I actually got my butt out the door before 9 am. I went out, it was 14 degrees, but I ran a full hour, followed by a mile with the tire.

Then I got into the warm woman cave and when I checked my email, this statement came in a message from Adventure Corps:

"I am pleased to announce that the 2015 Badwater 135 will be held July 28-30 on the traditional route from Badwater to Mt. Whitney. The race will have a three-wave start in the evening, but will otherwise be held essentially identically to previous Badwater 135 races. As was the case in 2014, 100 runners will be accepted to compete and each entrant will be limited to just one support vehicle and a maximum of four crew members. We are excited to return to Death Valley! Applications will be accepted January 19 to February 2 ONLY and additional details are on the race website. We hope you will join us for one or more BADWATER® events in 2015!"

Not sure what happened in negotiations, but it's back. The evening start is different, but should change strategy for many runners and their crews. It's hot at night in the bottom of the valley, so the heat will be a factor and getting to the far end by Stovepipe Wells won't happen until morning, which will make the climb up Towne Pass and the Panamint Valley sections challenging in the heat of the day.

Not sure if I'll be out there next year, we'll see what happens, but I'm really glad to hear that they were able to bring the race back to Death Valley. Looks like the course from last year will be changed to a 100 miler and held in the fall of 2016. That's something I might consider running myself. We'll see what happens over the next year or two.

Right now I'm working on getting my butt out the door each day, that's enough of a challenge.

Anyway, I am happy for Chris that he was able to get the race back into the valley and I hope all goes well from here on with the Park Service.

Nothing better than thoughts of Death Valley on a 14 degree day.

Three In A Row: The Charm

YESSSSS!!! I did it, ran three days in a row, to wrap up the week with a total of 24+ miles and 2400 feet of vertical.

This morning I left the house at 8 am, before I could lose my motivation, and I drove over to the stadium and ran up the A Trail to the top, where I took pictures of Arthur's Rock with the nearly full moon setting behind it, Horsetooth Rock, and Hughes Stadium (soon to be the former CSU stadium).

I felt so much better today, my legs weren't creaky or whining. I had no problem running the uphills all the way to the top, and even threw in some surges of fast running on the way down, on the smoother parts of the trail.

I wanted to run for a full hour, so when I got down to the parking lot I finished up with an extra mile or so on the trail around Dixon Reservoir just to fill in the time.

I finished at my car at an hour and then pulled out the tire and ran up the first hill past the Pineridge sign on the road going up to the reservoir. It's a good 100 foot climb and I did about 0.8 miles with the tire, powerwalking up and running down. I felt good and was able to maintain good form with the tire.

I feel so much better today. I think maybe I flushed out whatever it was that was stuck. I must have had running constipation.

For some reason I can't even motivate myself to run the roads, all I want to do are trails right now. Except we're about to have a major change in the weather...hopefully not a lot of snow, but it is supposed to get COLD within the next 48 hours, down to single digit cold. That will be a shock to everyone who has been running in shorts through today. Tomorrow is the big change.

I think I will still need to do trails for my sanity, and as long as we don't get anything too messy on the ground, the trails will be there, I'll just have to bundle up. Fall, it's been nice knowing you. At least I know that winter will only last about 8 weeks. January 1st is right around the corner!

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.

Tire Time

Today I woke up early and needed to get out and run. It was cold and cloudy. I had an appointment to meet with Andrea, who does our taxes, at 9:00. I planned to do my run after our appointment, but I asked the girls if they wanted to go first and of course, Iris did, but Isabelle wasn't so sure. Iris went, and Iz stayed home.

I took Iris for about 3.5 miles and then I had to get into some warm dry clothes to go meet Andrea. I did that, and on my way over to her office I noticed white flakes starting to fall. Within 5 minutes it was a blizzard. By the time I got out of my car in the parking lot it was dumping and blowing.

By the time I left her office 20 minutes later, it was slushy everywhere but no more snow coming down. Everything was wet, but the wind calmed down and I adjusted my clothes for damp cold conditions, and went out again. I felt slow and tired. I ran until I had a little over 10 miles and then I had to go home to shower and then be over at the hospital cafeteria where I was meeting Grace to promote the employee campaign for the Cancer Center during lunch time.

When I got home around 1:30, it was still gray, cool and calm but no more flakes. I changed into more running clothes and drove toward the stadium with the tire, and started running hill repeats on the county road. By the time I got out of the car it was starting to get windy again and the sky looked nasty.

I shot the video in my ongoing quest to become more proficient with the video feature of the iPhone. Sorry about the heavy breathing and scraping noises. Not a pretty picture, I know, but that's what it sounds like.

I ran with the tire for an hour. I ended up with nearly 15 miles for the day, not bad for someone who was whining two days ago about how much my training sucks.

So here I am back at home, eating hot soup and drinking one of my very cold 3.2 girl beers. I go back to work tomorrow, and this weekend is my work weekend again. The time goes by so fast! My personal challenge is to figure out a way to get to either Florida or Arizona before the end of March for a quick visit, otherwise I might go totally bonkers from this weather.

Groundhog Day: What a Drag!

This is my new toy, just started playing with it this week.

Dennis and I put this tire drag together using Marshall's instructions, and it took all of an hour and a half to do it, including gathering the supplies. I used a free old tire from a junkyard, got about 10 feet of climbing rope and a carabiner from REI, a bungee cord, and a padded weight belt for $20 from Sports Authority. Total cost less than $30.

First, the inspector had to check it out, for quality control.

Once it met Isabelle's approval, I tried it out.

It works. It's awesome! Now I have to figure out some good places to play, with a nice grade, where there isn't much traffic and there won't be too many gawkers.

I'll be using this to help me prepare for my little adventure this summer. I'm still looking into used baby joggers on e-Bay and other places. I'll be making reservations this month, and once I have things fairly well-organized, I'll blog about it.

Fourteen miles this morning, two with the buffs, one with the tire, and 11 more unattached. I ran the Power Trail. It's sort of a gloomy morning, the clouds are hanging out and the breeze is starting to pick up. It wasn't too cold, maybe 35 degrees, but I wore three layers on top and my thickest tights anyway. This is my work weekend so I don't have a lot of days to run this week. That's okay, as long as I get my quality workouts in. I need to do hills and I hope it's not brutally cold and windy tomorrow for that. But if it is, I'll tough it out anyway.

It is February and the days are noticeably longer. It was still light at 5 pm. Another 5 weeks and we change the clocks again. Can that be possible? Spring is on its way, even if we get hit with a snowy month or two this year.

If you follow the famous rodent, Punxsutawney Phil, he saw his shadow this morning, so it looks like 6 more weeks of winter. Judging by our weather forecast, that is true. We've lost our sunny 50+ degree days for at least the next week. But the forecast isn't too bad, just a bit colder with a little snow, nothing major expected. I'm not a big fan of Phil. I say it's just a brief reprieve from spring, which has already been here for a month. Positive thoughts.

Whitewalls up!