Make My Day: Pricks in Corvettes and Other Freaks of Nature

After last Friday's reality check with fatigue, I decided to make the week my easy week and just bag the rest of the weekend's workouts. So much for 100 miles, I'm not ready yet. That's okay.

I worked on things around the house and got some writing done instead. This week I'm sticking with 80ish miles and regular workouts, plus the Estes Park half marathon this Sunday.

Yesterday I had a decent 10 mile run where I pushed the pace a little, not too hard, but on the Power Trail hills. I felt strong. I spent the afternoon working, and for a couple of hours I was in the house listening to Iris bark herself hoarse while the repairman worked on the dishwasher. The heater died. The cost to fix it was half the cost of a new dishwasher. But it was easier to just get it fixed right now. Of course we have to wait a week for the part to come in. So I'll be doing more dishes...I hate doing dishes.

This morning I felt like going up to Horsetooth, but not for a long hill run, just a short one on the roads. I did a simple out and back from Rotary Park to the bottom the hill below Horsetooth Dam. It's 7.6 miles and I did it under 1:12. It has 1200 feet of vertical gain, and the same of descent.

It was a warm morning, and in one spot there was some road work where there were cones and it was a one lane stretch, so they had cars waiting to go by. The road workers flagged me by the first time, told me to just run the shoulder, I didn't have to stop. I felt fantastic on the run, I was averaging 11 minute pace on the hills, and if you saw these hills, 11 minute pace is damn good. I was between 7:30s and 8:30s on the downhill sections. I figured I'd do a short hill workout since the half marathon has it's share of hills this Sunday.

This afternoon when it gets warm I'll do more easy miles and get some heat training in.

This morning's hill run was pleasant most of the way. On the way back, as I was running the last big downhill off of Maniac, headed toward the road work site, a black Corvette passed me and I don't know much about muscle cars, but they can be used to make weird noises with the muffler or something.

These two guys were in the car and I was pushing pretty hard, in my own world, and as they drove by they made some kind of weird noise with the muffler. They weren't close enough to anything to be downshifting or putting on the brakes, it was pretty clear they did it to be assholes. It worked, it made me jump.

Whatever, they just proved that the size of their balls exceed the size of their brains. Assholes. I kept on going and about a half mile later I reached the construction zone. There was long line of cars waiting to pass, but I was on the shoulder and they flagged me by again. About a quarter of a mile later I was about to make the sharp left slightly uphill to go toward Dixon Dam and run up the last big hill to Rotary Park, and the cars were going by in a line. The corvette with the two pricks in it was one of the last cars, it was following the other cars, slowly.

When they finally had a clear stretch of road, just before the crest of the hill to Dixon Dam, they passed me again, and this time they really revved the engine. Boneheads. A few feet later, slamming on the brakes because of the sharp curves there at the dam. If they would have wrecked too f***ing bad, I wouldn't have gone diving into the reservoir to rescue them. Besides, my TNCC (trauma nursing certification) expired. Guess they'd just have to wait for their Darwin Award.

The other thing that I noticed on my run today, that I haven't seen too much of in this spot, is dumb drivers texting or reading their phone screens while driving up and around the curves on County Road 38E, from southwest Fort Collins up to Horsetooth Reservoir at the dam there. There are tons of bicyclists and runners on the shoulder every day in the summer.

These crazy idiot drivers are going around these curves not paying attention to the lines at the shoulder, and playing with their phones. Makes me want to smack their car with a stick or something, to wake them up. But there are no sticks. No trees. Maybe I should start throwing rocks.

So then on the way home, I was driving down Drake and at the stoplight at Taft Hill Road, this guy pulls up next to me in a red Corvette, he'd been going fast and had to slam on the brakes to stop. I thought, Not another prick in a Corvette! But it was true. There he was, in a bright red corvette with matching ear gauges. Big ones.

Have I mentioned how much ear gauges freak me out? I didn't even know what those things were, hadn't even noticed them, until a few months ago. Then it seemed like I saw them everywhere. I guess I didn't notice the small ones, if you're not looking closely they just look like earrings. But the big ones are hard to miss, without looking at least twice.

It's a college town. But lately it seems like I've been seeing more of them or I'm just more aware. I've also seen a lot of stretched earlobes. I would think these 20 something guys with the big floppy stretched out earlobes are going to be in for a rude awakening if in another few years they either go looking for a job, or they end up with a baby, who will be grabbing at those things and likely tear them out.

Just another way to keep plastic surgeons in business. I bet they'll be asking for insurance coverage for the cosmetic surgery to fix them, too. I wonder if infectious disease doctors have seen a lot of cases of cellulitis from those things getting infected. I bet they have.

I must be getting old.

Ain't Skeered...

It's Friday the 13th and a full moon, and Wheaties Boy and I had plans to do speedwork in the cemetery. If there was anything creepy waiting for us, we would just have to run faster!

As far as I was concerned, Friday the 13th already happened yesterday. The water pump on my car sprung a leak, so I had to get that replaced, and then the dishwasher died. Not exactly the kinds of things that you enjoy dealing with, especially when you're living on a limited budget. But...what can you do?

The dishes.

It was freezing again in the morning, this time it was 48 degrees, and I kept my long sleeved shirt on during the warmup. My legs have been toast all week. Actually this morning when I went downstairs to make coffee, it was the first day all week that it didn't hurt my quads to go down the stairs.

I woke up at 1:14 am, and couldn't go back to sleep. At 2 am I gave up, got up, made some coffee, and started reading my e-mail. I got to the cemetery early, I needed to get a good warmup in before Wheaties Boy arrived and I picked up the pace. When he showed up, he said his legs were toast and he didn't think speed was going to happen. I felt the same way and we decided to bag the mile repeats and just run laps around the cemetery. That was perfect. I got 10 miles in at a decent pace, even though it was slow, it was faster than I would have run alone. And Wheaties Boy and I finally had a chance to catch up, we usually only can do that on our recovery laps, warmups and cooldown.

As we ran I was describing my running plans to him and I realized how silly I was, thinking I'd do 100 miles this week. First, I have increased my mileage consistently over the past 4 weeks, so it would be time for an easy week anyway. And then, I don't need a lot of long runs yet. It's only early June. I just raced 5 weeks ago. It made more sense to back off this week, and since my legs have already been worthless all week and I was unable to do tempo or speed as a result, might as well back off the rest of the week and then make next week a reasonable week, but nothing extreme.

I don't know what I was thinking. I need speed more than endurance now. I can run forever but I need to make my legs turn over, and beating the crap out of them with long miles is not going to help that. Lucky that I got a chance to verbalize all this with Wheaties Boy. Sometimes you just need to say it out loud before it makes sense.

So the plan is changed. No long runs this month. I don't need them. In July I can start a few longer runs.

When I got home it was light out and I could see the flower garden when I pulled up in the driveway. It's not as spectacular as it's been in past years, I might have to re-seed for next year, but it looks nice anyway. I went in the house, said good morning to Dennis and the girls as they were waking up, made some breakfast, and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

Now I'm out in the woman cave, turned on the AC because it was like a sauna in here, and Iris is looking out the door, where it's even hotter outside. I gave the girls a bath with the hose earlier. It's supposed to hit 90 degrees.

I've been making some progress this week with getting marketing projects done, and I actually spent 6 solid hours one day doing client-related work. Progress. I have a radio show coming up and then I need to prepare for a presentation I'm giving at the local running store.

I've had the itch to get back to my writing project, and I need to get some of these business projects done so that I can clear space in my mind for re-reading and making sense of all the stuff I have so far, getting back to the main idea I want to convey and what I want people to take away from reading it. That will make a lot more sense instead of what I have now, probably a couple hundred thousand words floating around in unorganized chapters, much of which is redundant. I need to pull it together in a more organized pile that is focused, and then it will be editable. Is that a word?

I need more sleep.

This is Your Brain on Drugs...

This is your brain on endorphins.

This is your brain with sore legs on a 15 mile run the day after a 15 mile run with sore legs the day after finishing an 80 mile week with sore legs from Rock Repeats at the end of the week.

My legs hurt again today. I started out the day with a relaxing run with Emma, followed by a run with Iris, followed by another run by Warren Lake. I noticed this "thing" in the grass yesterday but didn't check it out. I thought it was a rock someone placed there, or a piece of fabric that got blown across the grass by the wind.

Today it got my curiosity so I went closer and there it was...a giant shroom.

Psychedelic and mind-blowing. A giant fungus, in the middle of perfectly green grass. That's how much moisture we've had this spring.

It was another perfect day and I ran past Warren Lake twice. The roses are starting to fade but I caught a few still blooming. The scenery and giant mushroom helped take my mind off the discomfort in my quads. They HURT! But I know why they hurt, and I just have to run it off.

After tomorrow I will take a day off. I only have 10 miles planned for tomorrow. Maybe when I wake up in the morning they won't be so sore. Those Rock Repeats are the ultimate quad killers! Maybe the mushroom was just a hallucination. Do Rock Repeats make you hallucinate? I guess I'll have to go back for more and find out.

It's Monday and My Legs Hurt

As predicted, my legs hurt like hell today. I wasn't going to let that stop me though. Last night it cooled off dramatically and we were actually COLD. I got out an extra blanket and closed the windows.

This morning it was freezing! To me, 44 degrees feels like freezing. It was a perfectly clear day though, the air was crisp this morning and a perfect running day.

I started with the girls for a mile and a half, then did another 9, then another 4 1/2 tonight at Warren Lake for a total of 15 for the day. The morning wasn't too bad, a bit rough getting started, but I didn't really notice the soreness except for going up and down the stairs. Tonight's workout was a struggle. The soreness really started to kick in.

I'll see what tomorrow brings. I'm supposed to meet Emma early in the morning for a run. I hope I can climb out of bed!

I want to go up in the mountains but I'm too busy this week. if I get all my stuff done, I can go up next week. I'm also running the Estes Park Half the weekend after next. But I want to hit the trails up high, even though I know my ankles won't like it. I just need to get up there on the trails, way up high, and see, and breathe.

Today is our 24th wedding anniversary. Dennis went for a run, which is cause for celebration. Maybe he realizes that I might chick him by our 25th if he doesn't do something now. But he also brought home a key lime pie. It could have something to do with that.

I'm hoping this soreness will go away by mid-week. I'm looking pathetic. This is worse than after a long ultra. A few more quad-bashing sessions and I should be bombproof!

Carb O.D. at the Silver Grill

It was long past time to get back up on the hill and do Rock Repeats. I miss this workout, but I wasn't doing a lot for hills all year. I don't need much vertical for what I do, but it helps for strength, and it's a good break from the usual pavement.

The Rock Repeat course is a wide service road in the park, it's dirt with a few slightly rocky sections but nothing approaching technical. It's a good compromise for my weak ankles, a chance to get off the pavement, go up and see the views, without dealing with rocky stuff that hurts with every step. In the summer it has the added benefit of being wide enough to see the snakes.

Wrapping up an 80 mile week today wasn't too bad. I thought I'd be tired but I felt good. So good that I ran two Rock Repeats at a pace I haven't run since 2007. Almost my best splits ever on that thing both up and down, and I walked a majority of the uphills. I felt strong on both the uphill section, and coming down, I could feel that I have more turnover in my legs. What holds me back on the downhills is my brain, worried about my ankles.

There were no snakes to be seen today, though. It was a cool morning, I was cold at the top when I stopped to take some pictures. The flowers were out everywhere, we've had some rain lately and everything is green and blooming. The trail was busy with hikers and mountain bikers but very few runners. I got started late, didn't get to the trailhead until 8:30.

After the second Rock Repeat I knew it wouldn't be wise to do another whole one, because as past experience tells me, I will most likely be extremely sore for several days after this. I went partway up the dirt road, for about a mile, then came back down and finished the last couple of miles on the paved road to Redstone Canyon. Not a bad 13 miles with 3000 feet of climb and the same of descent.

After I got home Dennis twisted my arm into going to the Silver Grill where I downed two huge plates of food. A plate of cinnamon roll French toast and another huge plate of hash browns with green chile. More carbs than I've eaten all week, but it's what I needed today. If you are ever in Fort Collins you should eat breakfast at the Silver Grill. I think it might be the oldest restaurant in town, or close to it. Anyway it is an ideal place to refuel after a long run.

I'm refueled from today's run, and getting prepped for next week's triple digit mileage. As Wheaties Boy would say, "now shit gets real".

Loose Animals Stampeding Between Naps

Today this sign is perfect for the day.

Today our neighbors behind us are having the fence replaced and I'm keeping the girls in so they don't herd the guys working out there. They would have no fence to fight across, so they would be loose bison!

As Wheaties Boy says often, "Let the animal out" and I did that today with whatever was left in my legs for cemetery mile repeats, which wasn't much! My legs are toast for speed even though I took yesterday off. That's okay, I need to get them going again and usually it takes a few weeks before they respond. Today my splits were between 30 and 50 seconds slower than the last mile repeat workout I did. Wheaties Boy was blazing fast, as usual.

I can always tell how fast I'm going without looking at my watch by how far ahead he is at different points in the mile loop. Today, I ate Wheaties Boy's dust. There was a loose bison mom aka Buffmom, Mom of Buffaloes, in the cemetery this morning, at the back of the stampede.

I woke up at 2:55 am, 5 minutes before my alarm went off, and left the house just before 4 to meet Wheaties Boy. We only needed our headlamps for the first mile, then the sun was up. We should enjoy this daylight for at least another 6 weeks where we won't need our headlamps much.

I was home by 6 am and I had 9+ miles done. I wanted to get at least 20 today and hoped to be able to finish right after the speed workout, but I was toast. So tired and hungry, I just wanted to eat and sleep.

I came home and made some blueberry pancakes and scarfed those down, and then I showered and got in bed and slept until 9:30. Then I took Iris for a short run and after bringing her home, I went out to finish my run. I decided to head over to the track because I wanted to be someplace where I could relax and not worry about traffic, and let the miles happen.

When I got there I saw some runners I know finishing up their speed workout, and I started out by running a cooldown with them. Then I got into my pace and cranked out miles on the track for about an hour and headed home. I ended up with 22 miles for the day. Now I'm ready for food again and another nap before I have to run out to set up my booth for tomorrow at the 5K.

My legs actually felt decent in the long miles, I just didn't have any turnover this morning. That will come back. I'm not running the 5K tomorrow, and I plan to do some Rock Repeats this weekend to get some hills in.

Let the animal out! After another nap!

Long Time Coming...

Today I ran a little over 20 miles. I started out the day running with Emma. We did about 7 miles and then I was meeting Cat below the dam for more miles, and we did about 11. Then I came home and took Iris for a couple of miles. Three of my favorite girls to run with, what an easy and fun way to get 20 miles in.

It was a busy day, I had some work to do, and the Cancer Center ribbon cutting was this evening. It's always an interesting experience going back... I saw several of my former patients, and a few others I know from other cancer-related groups in the community. It was so great to see them. Especially the ones who are still going and living the best they can, despite some pretty rough odds. It is a beautiful facility. And it was truly built by the community because there was so much contribution from so many people.

It will serve it's purpose better than what was there before. And walking through the upstairs infusion center I remember writing on the beam "bless the nurses" and that is underneath on the south wall. It's going to be so nice for both the patients and the staff to be there instead of in a dingy little cramped windowless cave like the one I worked in at the hospital. Patients can look out the window at the mountains and they can even go out on the deck and sit outside as they get their infusions.

I do hope that the brighter environment will contribute to better overall patient care and outcomes, and I really believe that it will. When I think of all those days that I was working and feeling so bad for the patients having to sit in those little spaces with ugly old curtains for hours on end, with no privacy, no view except for a roomful of other sick people under fluorescent lighting, and I know how I felt just having to spend 12 hours a day in there and I wasn't even sick!

Since I know so many people where I used to work, it's always nice to catch up with people socially, and I did have fun. Of course there were the long-winded speeches from administrators and others, including the mayor, because it was a huge public community event. When I listen to those speeches I know that despite the good intentions of many people, there's the reality of today's health care systems that will mandate as little staffing and budgeting as possible, so it will be interesting to see if the lofty ambitions that everyone started with can be met.

I am skeptical, of course, because of what I've seen. It's very hard for people in health care, who went in because of good intentions and wanting to make people's lives better, but then having to juggle the profit motive that trumps everything else.

It's always interesting to hear the comments from people who don't realize I left the place, and so often I get the comment that it takes a lot of guts and they ask me if it's scary to be on my own. Well of course it is but for me, I'd rather not be stuck in a box because I'm too afraid to peek outside of it.

Even though I am not directly involved in the Cancer Center anymore I am glad it was completed and there is that small spark of pride in seeing what all of our efforts built. Some of my blog readers contributed too, and I want to thank you for that.

Tomorrow I have a photo shoot for a magazine I'm being interviewed in, thanks to Wheaties Boy. I am really happy about the opportunity, more about that later. The only drawback is that I really don't like putting makeup on for the studio photography but I'll come home and decontaminate myself afterwards!

After 45 miles in the last 3 days, my legs are a bit sore and tired. I might even take tomorrow off, definitely won't do more than 5 miles. Between Friday and Sunday I have some intense workouts planned.

I'm looking forward to some sleep!