Work Hangover Wednesday: And Your Little Dog, Too!

This Valentine's Day is shaping up to be very appropriate to the theme. I have my ACLS renewal class on Thursday, so I'll be pounding on mannequin chests doing CPR.

I'm a little stressed about the class. I don't use ACLS very often in my current job, or look at EKGs very often. The guidelines have changed since I last renewed in 2011, so there is some new material, the drug doses have changed, and I've never taken the one day class before, always did it in two days. So I'll be really glad when it's over.

This morning I read about this. All I can say is, glorifying gluttony is hazardous to your health. And the nurse waitress uniforms, well...I could try to laugh, but I'd rather cry. Obesification again, and nurses as waitresses. Doesn't sit well with me, and my sense of humor is non-existent today.

It's also Ash Wednesday. I would say there are a lot of people out there who should consider giving up gluttony for Lent. But then, who am I to judge. I am the last person in the world to be proclaiming what Jesus would eat. The Pope retired, so maybe there is no Lent this year. Let's all eat quadruple bypass burgers.

I am in a mood today. I already had a suckfest of a work week. I ended up going into overtime on Monday night because one of my patients had a mild reaction to a platelet transfusion, fortunately they were okay, but I had to make a trip down to the ER with the patient. I was the only nurse there, it was the last patient of the day, and I couldn't get a hold of the doctor after hours.

The doctor on call was a neurologist from a hospital in Denver, who had no clue about how to manage a blood transfusion reaction, which we do all the time. So that was no help to me. I needed an order for medication. Our secretary was trying to go home for the day, and she got stuck making phone calls for me, and we didn't even have the right number to call.

It was all I could do to be civil to the doctor on the phone, even though it wasn't her fault. Not enough thought had gone into the process of scheduling this patient, and it relates to staffing and changes going on in the system, among other things. Long story. What happens? The patient suffers, and the nurse caring for the patient does, too.

I had steam coming out of my ears by the time I got a hold of the patient's primary care physician and they were no help either. So I took the patient to the ER and that was that. I spent nearly two hours charting and doing paperwork related to the event.

Then Tuesday I had a long day of chemo plus other patients. I was so tired by the afternoon, starting at 2 pm I was looking at the clock every half hour and thinking, 6 more hours....5 1/2 more hours...

The general mood at work has been rather sour lately, it's hard to keep my spirits up when everyone around me is grouchy and fed up. We've had so many changes at work and it's chipping away at morale. The summer vacation scheduling part is only a small issue.

On the positive side, I did find out that it's likely that I will be able to get time off for the Cornbelt 24 Hour run. On the really sucky side, looks like working medical at Badwater may be out of the question this year, unless a miracle happens in July.

I've decided that this week I am not going to stress myself out by trying to get a million miles of running in. I'll get my quality workouts and run a hard 20 miles with Wheaties Boy on Sunday, but I need to keep my brain from spinning inside my skull again. I can't be wasting energy perseverating on stupid things.

Tonight I will run with the Wednesday night group and take the girls for a short run this morning, or what's left of it. Hoping for a nap so I can feel human again, and have a brain for my class tomorrow.

I really feel like telling everybody to F-Off today. It's a good thing I don't have to work again until Monday.

I have no heart, and no brain. Stay away from me, or you'll regret it...and your little dog, too!

2013 Pemberton 50K: Hole in the Wall at the Cat House

Thirty-nine degrees and raining? In the winter, Arizona weather is often warm and sunny compared to most other places in the U.S., but somehow the past three times I've gone there for ultras, it's been cool and rainy, even cold.

That's how race day started. Dennis and I were barely awake at 4:30 am, listening to the rain on the roof at my dad's house. I was prepared for any weather, but wasn't looking forward to 50 kilometers of cold rain. I could have stayed home for that and had snow.

The night before, when we arrived in Phoenix, it was cloudy and breezy, but there was plenty of blue sky and it didn't look bad, other than the forecast, which was for rain.

By the time we got in the car to drive to Fountain Hills at 5:15, the roads were dry except for a few places, and there were a few stars visible in the sky. Promising blue holes overhead.

We left my dad's house and drove north to catch Chaparral Road to the 101 freeway. As we crossed Camelback Road, we saw a big coyote, wandering around in a parking lot, in the morning darkness. Must have been a rich coyote, hanging out near Fashion Square in Scottsdale. That's the first time I've ever seen a coyote in downtown Scottsdale.

We stopped off to grab my usual pre-ultra meal, a breakfast sandwich from McDonald's. I scarfed it down, knowing it was a short, fast pace I'd be running, and hoped I'd digest it in time. We drove through the ghost town of Fountain Hills, careful of the omnipresent Sheriff Joe deputies who love to catch people speeding at odd hours on the deserted streets with the 30 mph speed limit.

We arrived at the park and picked up my race packet. It was cold, but not terrible. Nothing wet was coming down from the sky, it didn't even smell like rain, but the sky was cloudy. It was dark until the race start at 7 am.

Brian Wieck and his mom, Joan, were at the table with other volunteers, handing out race bibs. Joan and Brian's dad, Keith, who was at a softball tournament, were our neighbors when we lived in Fountain Hills. We've been friends with Brian since he started the race, 13 years ago.

I hit the bathroom and got my act together before the start. I saw Robert Andrulis, and Chris Harrison, two of my ultra buddies from Arizona. Everyone was bundled up except for a few people in shorts, but hats and gloves, jackets and tights were the norm. I felt as cold as I ever do in Colorado. I wore my PearlIzumi jacket and my capri tights, neck gaiter over my ears, and gloves.

Brian gave the pre-race briefing in the faint sunrise. We lined up, and we were off...

I took off at a good pace, not too fast but one that would be a challenge to keep. I felt good on the first ascent and over the hill into the first aid station, I ran much of this talking with Robert. My legs were tired, they burned. I knew it was from the three hard 15ish mile days earlier in the week,and that was the point. I wanted to run unrested. I still moved well.

At the first aid station I saw Ric Hatch from Flagstaff, he's been working that aid station there since the beginning of the race, I remember working it with him one year when it rained. There was snow on the little knob of boulders above our heads, maybe 500 feet of elevation above us. I could feel sleet for about 5 minutes, but it didn't last. The sun went in and out from the clouds, but was mostly behind the clouds. Cold.

This year's race featured the new and improved Pemberton Trail. The last hour of the loop is no longer through the sand pit that used to drag on forever and ever and ever. Now there is a nice wide dirt trail that winds through the desert, with mostly a gentle downhill grade. The length is roughly the same as the old trail, but it makes it seem so much quicker now. And no sand! I don't know if it's faster because it's very twisting, lots of short, sharp little curves, but the surface is much better and it's much more interesting than the straight, sandy service road we used to run.

The second aid station had a canopy over it, and James Bonnett was there. I've known James since he was a little kid. Now he's all grown up. I grabbed some coke and pretzels and took off.

My stomach was not too happy in this section on the first loop. I realized several things: Too many beans the day before. I'd eaten black beans and rice for lunch and then had hummus for dinner, and I don't think it agreed with me. The McDonald's sandwich prior to running fast was the next problem. I think I'll save those for 12 hour and longer races in the future.

As a result, nature was calling. I felt like I needed to use the facilities, and I was afraid to stop because I'd told Dennis I'd be in between 2:15 and 2:30, and to be there past the timing tent with my stuff when I came through after the first loop. If I arrive late he always worries. That's one of the reasons he doesn't crew for me.

I got in at 2:25 and he had the camera (good), but he didn't have my stuff (BAD!). It was at the truck. It only delayed me about 2 minutes, but I whined, "Dennis!" He really is terrible at stuff like this. It's my own fault for asking him to do this for me, because I know better. But I thought it would save me time, and it backfired. The lessons will be repeated until they are learned. Some people are made to be crew people, some are not.

Brian puts on such a good race, and it benefits the park. It's a fast trail race too, defnitely has the potential for a PR. It is highly recommended by this blogger...

I took off on the second loop and immediately started obsessing about Dennis not being there, and then I felt bad for getting annoyed with him, and pretty soon my brain was spinning around inside my skull again, and it was slowing me down. Finally, on the way up the ascent, I had to tell myself, "Shut up and run!"

Another time when I found my mind wandering I brought myself back to reality by thinking of running for Team Gab. I really needed to do my best out there. If a 6 year old can endure two years of torturous medical procedures just to stay alive, I can run a 50K without whining.

Still, I was mentally discombobulated. I could not concentrate or focus, I did move pretty well, but I know I slowed myself down by being a head case. I walked a few times on the ascent but not for very long. My legs were still burning, but no worse than on the first loop. Mostly I was thinking, menopause sucks. How long will this last? For the first 8 or 9 miles of the second loop, my mind was bouncing all over the place.

Once I got on the Pemberton again, I pulled myself together. I felt strong and ran the last hour hard, a bit faster during the last hour than the previous loop. I had hoped to finish in under 5 hours but it wasn't happening. I settled for my 5:06 and change, and I felt good about the whole run, even with my temporary mental flake-out.

Brian congratulated me at the finish line and I went over to see Joan and get some chili. Dennis was working the finish line, collecting tags off of bibs for the timers. I apologized to him for being the RPB.

I talked with my friend Chris Harrison for a while. He's excited to be doing the Zion 100 in April. I'm a bit envious...

I didn't even come close to placing in my age group, I got my doors blown off by all the 40-something women, but I don't care about that. I got the workout I wanted and a solid 81 mile week, and I learned how to talk myself down from my crazy hormonal state, which I'm sure I haven't seen the last of....

I did run it 12 minutes faster than in 2010. I am going to have to rest to do well in Decatur in 4 weeks. I have 2 more weeks of high mileage and then I taper.

After the race, we hung out for a while and talked with people we know. I was talking to Will LaFollette, whom I haven't seen since before I left Arizona. I almost didn't recognize him! But we got to talking, he's been injured so hasn't been able to run. We got on the topic of retirement. Yeah, that old dinosaur concept from the last century...

This is off the topic, but I have an idea for a new retirement benefit for our generation: body removal from your workplace. Take your last pay check and deduct the cost of removing your body when you croak on the job. Perfect for our generation, who will have to work until we croak.

Brian did the awards, and we hung out just a little longer, then we left before I froze my butt off.

There was another event at the park, one of those obstacle course races. It was crazy, there were a million people and school busses in the lower part of the park, plus Sheriff Joe's deputies. They are everywhere. But no NRA stickers or Steven Seagall sightings. Not even a single black helicopter.

We stopped and saw Houdini and Huey at the park visitor center before we took off. Houdini is the Gila Monster, Huey is the rattlesnake. Both of them are well-cared for at the visitor center thanks to my friend Woofie.

Then we drove by our old house before we left Fountain Hills and went back to Scottsdale.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful, it was a relaxed visit with my dad and stepmom. I went for an easy run on the canal Sunday morning, and it was cool but the weather was perfect, clear skies.

The only excitement, if you can call it that, was when my dad was trying to pick up the cat, the cat clawed him and he somehow lost his balance and fell into the wall with his shoulder, leaving a cat-shaped hole in the drywall. Tom & Jerry couldn't get any better than that. We teased my dad about it relentlessly, the cat hole in the wall. Both my dad and the cat are okay, or we wouldn't be laughing about it...

We flew back to Denver and got home early Sunday evening, and the girls were thrilled to see us. They seemed unstressed, Morgan always takes good care of them.

And back to the old routine on Monday morning...

Pemberton Trail 50K Race Report Preview

Just flew back from Arizona, I am toast, and ugh....two days of work ahead of me starting tomorrow morning. I have two Buffaloes who need attention. As a result, I won't have time to blog until Work Hangover Wednesday, but I promise I will write the full report and post it somewhere between Monday and Wednesday night.

The short version is, I ran well. I did not run fast, but I felt very strong and managed to run a 5:06, which is 12 minutes faster than 3 years ago, on very tired legs, so I am happy about that. It was a great workout and a lot of fun.

I did not see Sheriff Joe, or maybe I should say, he didn't see me. At least, I didn't get detained at the border, even though I brought cold damp weather with me, for the third consecutive trip I've made to Arizona.

I did see his deputies out, crawling all over the park and Fountain Hills, but no black helicopters flying overhead. No crowds of gun-toting mobs scrambling for Steven Seagall's autograph. No pink underwear-clad inmates from the county jail doing community service. I didn't even notice a single NRA sticker. Just the usual winter tourists.

The weather was kind of cold, wet and nasty for Arizona, but it didn't rain on us at all. Just a little sleet and the snowline maybe 500-1000 feet above us.

It was a fun visit, and most important of all, it was a run for Team Gab, so I'll have the details posted as soon as possible given my schedule from hell this coming week.

Good night everyone, I'll be back in a couple of sunsets...

I Need Estrogen, STAT!

I'm so glad I am off to Arizona, I am losing my mind and I probably should be in a place with more crazy people than here for a while...at least until my hormone levels fluctuate and bring me back to my baseline state.

Today was a really weird day. I woke up this morning after a long hard day at work yesterday, with a 9 hour chemo, and lots of other patients, exhausted. When I left work Wednesday night I was so ready to go home and I had one thing on my mind.

Beer.

So I did that, and then went to sleep, and woke up to a busy day today. I had a gazillion things I needed to get done and only 24 hours to do them all, I had to pack and get ready for the race, I had to do some studying, and most of all, I needed to get my workout in. I had a lot of miles to do and I needed to get over to the track and at least get a short speed session in.

Well I just about had an anxiety attack, looking at this list of all the things I needed to get done today. I don't know why but I started freaking out, inside my own head. Nothing was stressful, there were a lot of tasks on the list, things like filling up the car with gas, cleaning up around the house, buying more dog treats, doing laundry, etc. But somehow I felt completely overwhelmed and unable to wrap my mind around it all.

I was tired, I didn't sleep well the night before my long work day on Wednesday. I knew I'd need a nap. But I felt crazy in my head. I talked myself down several times.

Then it occurred to me, I had just gotten a surprise before work on Wednesday. My damn period. I never know when it's going to happen anymore, and usualy I can predict it only because I have a race coming up. Usually I get this on race day, it never fails, it happened on race day in Oklahoma City last October, missed Across the Years by one day, so here it is, ready for the Pemberton.

So I'm freaking out because of hormones. Once I realized it was that, I tried talking myself down, out of the anxiety by saying, this is not real, it's just hormones. Did it help? I don't know. I headed over to the track. I needed to get my workout done, or I was going to LOSE IT.

But of course I never am prepared for such things, so I needed to make a trip somewhere to buy plugs, and I went over to the little pharmacy near our house and I walked in and selected a box of tampons and brought them to the counter to pay for them, and the woman at the register tells me, I'm sorry, our register is down, it's going to be a while.

I felt the panic rise in my chest. I said, sorry, I don't have time to wait. So I left, and stood outside on the sidewalk momentarily, feeling completely stressed. My brain was spinning inside my skull. What do I do? I have so much to do, I don't have time to go to another store. I have too much to do, I need to run, I need to lift, I need to pack, I need to print my boarding pass, I need...

Finally the light bulb turned back on, and I went next door to Sprouts, and fortunately they had plugs, the expensive, organic cotton kind, OMG I cannot justify spending $8.00 on a box of tampons that I might never need again (but I probably will). But since I was near the dog treats and food I managed to cross a few items off my list while there. That helped my mental state. Why didn't I think of that in the first place? I'm losing my mind.

One of my friends told me that for several years when she was going through menopause she had terrible anxiety attacks, for no reason at all. The only thing that saved her, she said, was running. I remembered that, and told myself that's all it is.

I went to the track and warmed up, fortunately the lady who runs backwards was not there, otherwise I'm afraid I might have freaked out. I got a rough start with the first 400 meter repeat, but after that I settled in nicely. I ran them very relaxed, without pushing hard. I didn't want to kill my legs before Saturday's race. I ended up running ten of them between 96 and 98 seconds, not bad.

I cooled down, then filled up my gas tank, and went home, and started chipping away at my long list. By 3 pm I had made decent progress, enough to take a break for a nap. And I slept...until 5:40 pm!

I finished everything on my list and then surfed Facebook for a while, and came across this amusing yet disgusting tidbit of information, about an event that's taking place in my old hometown, Fountain Hills, just down the road from the park where the Pemberton 50K will be held this Saturday.

Should I skip the Pemberton Trail 50K and attend this instead? Decisions, decisions...

Given my propensity toward freaking out this week, maybe the better thing to do would be to bag the race and feed my Random Perimenopausal Bitch this weekend, get Steven Seagall's autograph, and contribute to the volunteer effort to make Arizona's schools suckier than they already suck? Oh sure, let's put money into arming the schools when we can't even afford to fund a decent education. Makes sense. I'm sure in my demented hormonal state, I'd fit right in with all the other crazies there.

Fountain Hills, when I lived there, was known for having crappy schools, a big drug problem among the kids, and their parents too. But Fountain Hills' most notorious resident, Sheriff Joe himself, was known for flying his black helicopters around overhead searching for Hispanic males. Oh, and did I ever mention, Sheriff Joe is a racist freak.

Whatever happens this weekend, I'm off to Arizona, hopefully I won't be detained at the border...if I disappear, check the Maricopa County jail. I'll be the one with the pink underwear.

The Most Interesting Dog in the World...

This week has been a most interesting one.

I'm looking forward to the trip to Arizona, even if it is a short trip.

My wicked work hangover didn't stop me from having two good workouts this week so far. I got 15 on hills Monday and then about 17 today, including a 6 mile tempo run with Wheaties Boy. He loves his new job at Pearl Izumi. The past few weeks it's been hard to find a time to run together with his job transition, but things are finally working out. We didn't push too hard tonight, and we shortened the distance, ran about 8:15 pace, trying to save some for Saturday's race.

Wheaties Boy wanted to know how fast I'd run the 50K, and I have no idea. I'm nowhere near as fast as I was 10 years ago when I was running 3:15-3:20 marathons and ran Pemberton in 4:23, my best time on the course. But whatever I do this year at Pemberton, I intend to run it hard. I want a good hard training run before Delano Park.

Thursday I'll hit the track, and I get two days off from running this week because I work all day tomorrow, and then Friday I'll be traveling and won't have time.

I've been wanting to make this video of the dogs and finally got around to it. I hope you enjoy it, I had fun making it.

Mindless Monday

My work hangover after a weekend is slightly worse than a work hangover on Wednesday. Our work weekends usually consist of crazy busy Saturdays and slower Sundays. This weekend was like that.

Saturday was crazy, and we had a few crazies too. I really think we should get hazard pay for taking care of some people and their family members, because they are a danger to our health. For example, this weekend we had the family member of a patient who sat in a very prominent location in the room, in an open backed chair, with shorts that did not even halfway cover his butt.

I was about to throw a blanket over the back of his chair, before he moved. The next time I saw him, he was out in the hallway kneeling in the waiting area, working on a computer, exposing even more of the slot machine. Got a quarter? Disgusting.

Saturday was a long day.

Sunday was Superbowl day and we were busy enough, but it wasn't terrible. I woke up early and the sunrise was outrageously colorful on my way to work.









By the time I got off work it was sunset, and this shot (below) from the parking garage doesn't do justice to the colors that were behind Horsetooth Rock.

Today I was way too brain dead to function in the morning so I took Iris for a 3 mile run, Isabelle didn't want to go. Then I went up to Horsetooth and ran 12 miles of hills. And now I have my busy week ahead of me, once I recover from my work hangover with a good long nap, I should be ready to get things done and pack for Arizona!

Hissy Fit!

Today was one of those loosey-goosey mornings.

I took the girls out for their morning run, and Isabelle wanted to come home after 2 miles, so we went home and then I went back out with Iris. Iris has a way of finding the geese, with her built-in GPS app, which means goose poop sniffing if you're new to the blog.

After four straight weeks of high mileage, it's my easy week, and all I wanted to do was get some quick speedwork in at the track this morning. I decided to do 16 x 200 meters, just for the turnover. Last week I did a few, just to get a feel for the pace, in 44-45 seconds.

The geese had taken over the track again, and there were just a few people on the track when I started my workout. There was this one VERY ANNOYING older woman, I've seen her before at the track, a few years ago. She loves to run and walk in the opposite direction of everyone, in lanes 1 and 2!

She doesn't seem to understand basic track etiquette, and the safety aspect seems to be lost on her. All she needs is to run into someone, she's a hip fracture waiting to happen. She'll run in lane 2, but she veers into lane 1 on the curves, even when someone is coming in the opposite direction! I watched her do that to another runner who was out there while I was warming up.

I need to have my elbows sharpened. She almost collided with me on the curve once. I wanted to say something to her, because she doesn't get it. I debated whether to talk to her. I wonder if someone already has. I am sure there are runners a lot less tolerant than I am.

I think it's great that she's out there doing it, she does a long consistent workout, but how stupid can you be, when there are people half your age and BIGGER than you running FAST in the counterclockwise direction, and you decide to wobble in the same lane going clockwise!!

It's one thing to run clockwise in the outer lanes when you warm up as long as you avoid anyone working out in those lanes going the counterclockwise direction. She left, fortunately, before I got too far into my workout, and I didn't bother to say anything. I'd hate to discourage her from doing her workouts. I wonder what she'd do if a whole track team showed up.

I ran about a 3 mile warmup, changed into my Adrenalines, and did some strides. The geese were pissed off. As I did my warmup in the outer lanes, after a few laps this one long-necked goose kept hissing at me. Once I was settled into my workout, he got a few of his friends in on the hissing, and soon I had two or three geese who opened their pink mouths and hissed at me every time I went by. They wouldn't approach me in the track lane, but they stayed on the grass in the infield as they ate. They stopped eating to hiss each lap.

I took it as a compliment, they were cheering for me.

This morning, cheered on by the hissing geese the whole time, I started out at 44 seconds and worked my way down to 41 seconds by the end.

Afterwards I drove home and felt like I'd done enough for the day. I got 11 miles in. When I got home, I looked at the bottoms of my shoes.

I wonder how much faster I would have been without all that goose poop!

After today's 11 miles, and 10 yesterday, preceded by 3 days off, I think I've rested well! I worked Wednesday, but Monday and Tuesday it was snowy and cold and I was tired, so I took advantage of the not-so-nice weather and took some much needed days off.

It's Superbowl weekend, and it's my work weekend. I'm anticipating the weekend with a bit of dread, because we tend to be busy and understaffed. But what I'm really dreading is the work hangover on Monday. Next week I don't have time for a work hangover, too much going on.

The other running news is that (1) today the Badwater race application period begins. No, I'm not applying this year. I'm hoping to make it out there this July to volunteer on medical again, if I can get away because of our work mandate of no vacation in July. This isn't a vacation, it's a professional activity, that will be my excuse. Let's hope it works.

(2) I have signed up again this year for the Team Gab Virtual Race to benefit Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation in honor of Gabby Gonzalez, daughter of Heather at 365 Days of Awesome. Last year I ran a 5K with a retro 80's theme. This year, I'll be doing the Pemberton 50K. Not sure if I'll have a costume or not, but we'll see. I have a week to figure it out.

Anyone can join, so if you're so inclined and care about this cause, I encourage you to visit her blog and check it out.

Happy Superbowl Running Weekend!