The Catch-Up

It's been way too long since I've been on this blog. Sorry, readers. I have been so busy since the book came out, I can hardly keep up with myself. I'll write a quick post and then I want to post two long overdue running posts- one from this year's Human Powered Brewery Tour in February, and another from my Urban Adventure Birthday Run this year in March.

Today is Saturday and other than those two events I just mentioned, it is my first real day off from working since January. I am hoping to have more space for living life as of this month, because I overbooked myself the past three. A lot going on in my life and sometimes it's just like that when you're self-employed. I wish I could clone myself, hire a person to do my social media and other stuff for me, but I can't.

I'm not going into a lot of detail but I'll do the bad news first, the local running community lost another runner to cancer this past week. Kirsten was only 45 and is the mother of young twin girls. She ran her first ultra a few years back, and then about two years ago she was diagnosed with Stage Four cancer, and now she's gone. She was a great runner, fun to be around, and had a lot of energy and a great sense of humor. Her service is on Monday and I'm going. It's rocked the running community hard. I hope her family gets a ton of support, it seems like they are.

April has been such a tough month for deaths. Seems like I go to a lot of funerals in April. Just an observation. Personally, if I were able to choose when to die, I think I'd choose November. That's when it's getting cold and dark and gray, and there's a long winter ahead. But not too many of us get to choose. I hate that I'll be visiting Kirsten at the cemetery, that's where I visit a lot of people I've known.

The good news is that I have had a lot of projects going as a result of my book and my programs. We're doing a pilot group, actually two of them, of my Cancer Harbors program with a local nonprofit. We got a grant from the State Department of Health to do it. And I'm doing some continuing education course development with another company. And I've been contacted by other people as far away as Australia to collaborate of various cancer-related projects. And I've had half a dozen podcast interviews. I'm waiting for all of them to be put up online, they should all be up this spring.

The book sales are going fairly well, though I wish I had more time to focus on marketing it. I do what I can.

I've been running more consistently. I have been building up my miles, though not all of it has been running. I'm trying to build up the running time now. It's getting there. I am running a 24 hour fun run near Palmer Lake in two weeks. I don't expect any great performance, it would be nice if I could exceed what I did at Across the Years. If the weather cooperates, that will help, because running in the foothills at 8000 feet elevation in the spring is like playing Russian Roulette.

The girls are growing up into big grown up girls. They are 18 months old now, and running 5-8 miles most days. They still have their puppy quirks, but are growing out of most of the real troublemaking. We still have some chewing issues, Velcro likes to chew on anything that isn't a flat surface. She steals things off the counters too. And Gypsy is a little sassy thing. They make our lives so much fun.

I am excited because I was invited to speak on the U.S. Capitol steps at the Nurses Take DC rally for safe staffing. I'll be going to DC later this month for that. There should be around 1000 nurses or more. There is a chance I might get to meet Bernie Sanders and/or Elizabeth Warren personally. If I do, I'm getting a selfie and posting it here!

Next week I am taking a couple of days off to do my own personal retreat in the mountains, a mid-week spa weekend. I hope to get caught up on some personal writing and relaxation time. It's been a long time since I've been able to do that.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a good 20 mile run in, and that should be the last long run before Palmer Lake. And then I have no plans except for Across the Years, I'll have to find something to fill in the gaps between now and then.

That's about all I have for you now. I really, seriously, do want to get back to writing more frequently. With more running, I'll have more adventures to share. Happy spring, and thanks for sticking with me!

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.

Wrapping it up Ritual

I did my last couple of runs here in town the past two days. I felt good, it's much easier to run a decent pace now than it was a month ago. I only got 20 miles on my feet last week, and did 6 1/2 yesterday and 4 1/2 today, with a lot of walking after my run yesterday.

I think I will be feeling bouncy by mid-week though. Give me a couple of days cooped up in an airplane and rental car, and I'll be ready to fly in circles. Velcro strips on the ceiling...

As of today the forecast for Cleveland on Saturday is very warm with possible rain at night, and some good wind. There's a 16 mph wind predicted, high of 79, low of 66. We'll see how much that changes by the weekend. At the lake, the wind is always a factor, hopefully it will cool us off.

I am ready, and I have recruited a very kind person named Bill to refill the ice in the cooler for us if it is a warm day. Beth and I will be meeting at the hotel on Friday and being mellow. We both like to keep our energy conserved for the race, do a minimum of socializing and such.

My plan is to go very steadily and consistently in my run/walk pattern through the first 12-18 hours. There is nothing to be gained by pushing too hard early. Especially if it's hot. I'm not even going to pay attention to any kind of numbers until after midnight. I will be completely in my own race and my own world.

In these competitive races, it's too easy to get caught up in someone else's pace and it can destroy a race plan. Can't worry about what anyone else is doing. I'm not racing them anyway, I am racing myself, for my own best performance. I have printed out Nick Clark's words to me that he sent me last spring, and I have had my pep talk from Wheaties Boy. I am ready to go.

You can follow the live results, which should be updated approximately every hour, from 9 am Eastern time Saturday the 20th, until 9 am Sunday the 21st, at this link. I hope to be somewhere in the middle of the pack for most of the day and into the evening. That is how I run best.

Iris is not happy about the ritual. She has not let me out of her sight since she discovered the suitcase, I was hiding it in the closet, trying to pack while the girls were napping. You can't hide anything from these dogs.

I had to pack, then repack, first because the bag was too heavy and then the weather forecast gave me more reason to get rid of some of the extra bulky stuff I packed. Finally today I went through everything one more time and took out another pile of unnecessary stuff. The bag still is heavy though, and just as stuffed.

I'll be staying with Lynn and Suzy again in Columbus before heading to Cleveland. Lynn is running the race this year too. I'll be doing a lot of resting and eating while I'm there.

I've been through my list half a dozen times, and I think I've got everything taken care of that I can possibly do before I get to Columbus. All I have to do is show up.

And then DIG IN until there's nothing left. Stay tuned...

Hell YES!

It's official, spring has arrived. I saw little green leaves popping open and these flowers along the run yesterday. It's been warmer and windy, feels like it usually does this time of year. And tomorrow it could snow.

I had a little setback the other day. I was taking the girls to the vet for their annual checkup and Isabelle wouldn't get out of the car. She knew where she was. She sat there and trembled, dug her paws into the carpet in the back of my car, and refused to move.

I had to get her out of the car somehow, so I moved her slowly, a few inches at a time. She weighs 60 pounds, ten more pounds than Iris. When I finally scooted her to the edge of the back door, she dug in even more and resisted. I took her front paws and tried lowering them to the ground and then pushing her butt end out the door to follow. In the process, I strained my lower back and now the muscles on my right side are screaming.

I didn't realize it of course, and later I ran 10 miles and got in the hot tub at the end of the day. The hot tub was the wrong thing to do. That night, my back was screaming. I couldn't get comfortable on that one side. I iced a gazillion times yesterday and today, I am actually more sore today. But I was able to take the take the girls for a walk. I did something like this last year that involved picking up the girls, and it took a few days before it settled down. I rested and iced and then I was fine.

I'm not overly worried, even though I have a race coming up, I needed an easy week and had planned it anyway. Today I am uncomfortable in any position, sitting, walking, standing, and lying down, so I have just been doing my usual activities except I took today off from running.

Yesterday we played with Peeps. I pulled out the orange and yellow Peeps. I planned to make a peep wreath in the colors of the woman cave and hang it on the door. But it was a disaster. I should have stuck the peeps in the freezer so they wouldn't be so soft. They were a mess, and some of them ended up falling off the string so the girls got them anyway.

Now I have a sticky mess and orange and yellow sugar all over my desk in the woman cave.

I did have a productive day, even though I was uncomfortable in between icing my back, I got my business website updated. I have some forms to work on, and then I'll meet with the attorney, and I'll be ready to go.

I found myself on this first day of spring thinking about goals and running and other things. I was thinking about Across the Years and whether I want to run the 48 hour this year. I love the 48 hour event itself, but it seems like it takes me so long to recover, and I'm not sure I want to start off next year with a long recovery. I'm trying to get faster, and 48 hours is not a way to get faster. I can get stronger training for 48 hours, but I think I can also get stronger in other ways.

I am good at planting positive thoughts in my head and focusing on strengths when I need to. I know the importance of locking into my mental focus and building on positive cues. I also know that when I don't put my mind to something, it doesn't happen. One of the great things about Wheaties Boy is that he always reminds me that there are no excuses. Last week I was talking out of my butt about being 50 in regards to my 5K time, and he stopped me. "No way. Absolutely no excuse. That is not an excuse."

He was right. I was getting soft, being squirrelly. That attitude is not going to help me achieve any of my goals. Hell yes is the attitude I need to have.

I've decided to focus on 24 hours for now. I feel like I need to do what I can do with the speed I have. I'm curious to see how this weight loss will help me and I know that it's a long shot, but I think I'm still capable of running some of the ultra performances I did years ago. The 48 hour event will be there, and I can come back to it.

Friends help with this kind of thought process, too. I was e-mailing with my friend Nick today about something else, but we were talking about our respective aging processes and performances, and staying sharp. He's getting ready for Western States and he'll be turning 40 this year before race day. I told him what my dream goal is for 24 hours, and he sent me a simple reminder back.

He's absolutely right. Hell YES! That's what friends are for.

60K, Numbers, and Random Thoughts

I'm decompressing, de-stressing, detoxing.

Easing into the work of pursuing my business startup plans, I'm not putting pressure on myself to try to accomplish too much right now. There's plenty of time. I have some great ideas and it's fun to think, plan, and dream. I am starting regular workouts, is all, and making changes to the bad habits I've accumulated in recent months.

Sunday we went down to Boulder to see family and walk around aimlessly. It felt good, no agenda, no plans, no time frame. Monday I went to the pool, ran and swam, did my weight workout, and went for an easy run at sunset. Last night I went out and met a former coworker at Cafe Vino. We had wine and delicious food, and a great talk about all sorts of healthcare-related topics. She is still stuck in the thick of things, but she is looking for a way out and I hope to be able to support her in that.

Today I'm running at the lakes with a friend, I might do three hours but not much more than that. The weather is changing, it's looking more like winter and we're supposed to get some snow later this week.

My motivation is coming back. I haven't decided on any races for next year yet, I think I'll sit back and watch the improvement over the next few months and see where things are. You're only as good as your last race. Speaking of that,

I'm ranked 47th in North America for the 24 hour distance in 2013 and 232nd in the world. Not very impressive. My performance was age graded and ranked me 13th in my age group, women 45-49 for North America. Not very impressive either. That was my 99 mile performance in the frozen wind tunnel of Cleveland last spring. I know I can do so much better. I love 24 hours and that's what I'm going to focus on when I get my strength back.

And 60K, that might be my total weekly mileage this week. But 60K is also what I saw when I bravely jumped on the scale on Sunday. 60 kilograms. That's what I weigh. And I can feel every gram, every ounce, every pound, every kilo.

I know I can drop what I've gained, the additional 9 pounds since April, and more. I'm changing the habits I've gotten into over the past 6 or 7 months, zoning out in front of the computer, eating more than I need to, eating things I shouldn't eat when I'm not active enough, and drinking beer. Discarding the negative energy and stress will go a long way toward helping that.

I'm so lucky to have my beautiful Buffaloes to keep me going through all the rough times. We are a team. We even have streets named after us. It's time to go for a walk...

Feeding My Princess in Scottsdale, Arizona

I arrived in Phoenix on Thursday evening, and so far I've been lounging around, sticking close to my dad's house in downtown Scottsdale. I've done a few easy runs on the Arizona canal, enjoying the much warmer temperatures in the 30s and 40s compared to Fort Collins' single digits lately.

I've been doing errands, getting my race supplies organized, and conserving my energy as much as possible. The weather has been nice, a little cool, but the sky is blue and only today a few clouds moved in, but it's still mostly sunny and pleasant outside, with a slight breeze.

I have no agenda with this blogpost, just thought I'd share a few photos of the surroundings in downtown Scottsdale. The big peak with the towers in the middle is Thompson Peak, 4000' elevation, that I used to run at least once a week when I lived in Fountain Hills.

Along the waterfront on the canal in downtown Scottsdale.

Bougainvilleas blooming outside my bedroom window.

Baby shin daggers, someday these will impale some unsuspecting tourist.

The fish along Goldwater Blvd. near my dad's house.

The giant pitaya down the street from dad's house. There are two of them in this house's yard, and I love to stop and look at them, as they attract a collection of birds.

The entrance to my dad's neighborhood.

It's all quite relaxing, I'm thinking very little about running strategy for the 24 hour, as that's pretty simple. My goal is to go out steady for the first 12 hours, and be strong in the second 12 hours, and get at least 50 miles in the second half of the race. Mostly I am thinking about being very organized so I waste as little time at the table as possible.

My inspiring, enthusiastic and energetic friend Shannon Price (aka Wheaties Boy) posted something on Facebook yesterday about going after your goals in 2013. He called it "Feed Your Crazy". He's still new and fresh enough in ultrarunning that he has a lot of crazies to get out of his system. I've gotten a few of mine out of the way, but there's always more. For me, I guess my own version of feeding my crazy is my goal of running faster at age 50 than I did in my 30s, at least at ultra distances.

I was thinking about how I can feed my crazy in 2013 and all I can think of is doing speedwork. But I will also have to race at more competitive races, which feeds my inner princess. I get very princess-like in the days before a race where I want to do well. I guess I'll be feeding my princess a lot in the coming year or so.

At Across The Years, I'd just like to get a really solid run in, not looking for any amazing performances, just a good strong run, some socializing, some partying, and a fun 24 hours of running with many of my favorite people in the universe.

Not sure how much I'll be blogging between now and the end of the race, but I will be posting pictures and a blogpost afterwards. Happy New Year to all my readers!

I couldn't help but include this short video of the palm trees in the breeze above my dad's house. I think it's peaceful.

Avocado Fetish and Christmas Thanks

I've been packing and planning, planning and packing for Arizona, to run Across the Years.

I worked 3 days in a row at the beginning of the week and it wiped me out, I was still a vegetable as of Thursday. As a result I only got 30 miles in for last week. And this week I planned to take it easy anyway, so I guess that makes it a taper.

An unintentional taper, that is. But it means I have no reason not to run my butt off. If I can be smart about my breaks, I will have a great race. I need to be overly organized before it. Everything in easy grabbing distance. No bending over to get stuff out of the cooler, it will have to be on the table.

I won't be overly intense, I want to have fun. I do plan to Facebook about it, and I'll take the midnight toast and lap with everyone. I got a portable battery recharger for my cell phone so I will be able to have power through the 24 hours.

But I plan to be too busy running to text much, and I'll do the brief updates on Facebook as I can, on my walking segments. Maybe I'll even find someone to write them for me.

We spent Christmas Day playing in the snow with the girls. We're not much into the holidays, not much into gift giving, certainly not into shopping. The girls got a new duck and some treats, and I made a special Christmas dinner for them with kangaroo meat, rice and carrots.

We actually splurged this year by putting up Christmas lights in our front windows, inside the house. I was thinking next year maybe I'll decorate the woman cave. We don't have a Christmas tree either, instead we use the avocado plant Dennis has been growing for a couple of years now.

He secretly wants to be an avocado farmer. I have to throw all our avocado seeds away before he can get to them, otherwise we'll have a crop of a dozen little jars with water and avocado seeds propped up by toothpicks on all the windowsills in the house. It's like a fetish.

We got 3 new inches of snow on Christmas eve. We need the snow, and I'm glad we're getting it, I like it better when it comes in small, steady doses instead of one big dump. And did I mention it's FREAKING COLD?!!!

Arizona looks a little better...

I've been occupying myself with blogging about trivial things. It's actually been a hard week, not feeling like diving too far into the real stuff that's been on my mind. This time of year, people struggle, and I've been watching it with a front row seat.

At work, we see patients barely hanging on through the holidays, and we know they might not be around by the New Year. It's hard to send a patient off to Hospice when you've cared for them for months or years, especially young ones.

People who have suffered losses over the past year feel their grief even more intensely during the holidays. And some people are unfortunate to get a bad diagnosis or bad news at this time, which makes things overwhelming and terrifying.

I am thankful to have my health and that the health of my family is intact, and that we are all so fortunate to have what we do have.

I am thankful for so many good things in running this past year. I had a great running year, I ran two races I'd never run before: Cornbelt 24 Hour and 24 The Hard Way 12 Hour, and both turned out to be awesome, fun, superbly organized events that I look forward to running again.

I had a blast running the Mickelson Trail with Ed Green. Toughing it out through our little adventure through adversity in the Black Hills was a run I will remember forever.

This year I met Shannon Price "Wheaties Boy" and he has turned out to be the key that unlocked my renewed enthusiasm for fast running and going after my unfinished business. He's been a great running buddy and an amazing source of positive energy for this sometimes jaded old runner.

And one more thing I'm thankful for: Today I was getting dressed so we could take the girls out to play in the snow, and I was looking for my windpants. I own two pairs of windpants, one is size extra small that I haven't been able to fit into since 2008, and a size small pair with more room in them that I use all the time now.

I pulled the windpants off the hanger in the closet, was pulling them up over my tights, and they were a little small over my hips, but I managed to get them on and they fit fine. I was a little disturbed that the pants that have always fit with plenty of extra room were hard to pull over my butt and hips.

Then I realized, I was wearing the extra smalls!!!!

WOOHOO! Christmas bonus!