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July 31, 2006

summer running

One thing I have always enjoyed about running in the summer is that on the weekends I get up early and run so that I have the rest of the day to do fun stuff, like hiking, biking, and whatever. However, this weekend was probably the most uncomfortable yet from a heat perspective. Both Saturday and Sunday it was over 100 degrees. Saturday morning running was not bad at all as it was not too hot yet but Sunday I was running by 8:00 and it was already pretty ridiculous. Now having grown up in Colorado this is very atypical. Since we are at a pretty high elevation it usually cools off a lot at night, but it hasn't been doing that very much. I blame the Republicans ;)

Anyway Saturday I ran 8 miles and Sunday I ran 4 miles with my friend C. - we were ostensibly running with our fiances but they fell behind, Matt lost his credit card, and all kinds of drama ensued while we obliviously trotted around the park. It was so nice to have someone to run with. Now that I don't go up to Boulder much I really don't have anyone to run with and most of the time it's fine but sometimes I do wish I had a regular running partner, especially when I'm contemplating getting up or sleeping in at 6:00 am. I'll have to work on that.

I have my 10 year high school reunion this weekend and I really hope it does not involve too many late nights, as I am really hoping for some decent weather and nice outdoor activites. I'm running this 5k on Sunday which I'm not going to taper for or anything - it's basically just a free workout. I have no idea what the course is like and it starts kind of late - 8:00 - but maybe I can run around 22:00 or so. I haven't done a workout in ages so I have no idea as to what kind of shape I'm in. I also have a lunch for C. who is getting married in August but if the weather's not ridiculous afterwards I'm hoping we can go for a hike. It would be really sad to live in Denver and not get out for a single hike this summer!

By the way this morning I slept in because Matt has volleyball tonight, so I'm possibly cross training during lunch and running after work, maybe around 6:30 or so. I just hope it cools off a little!

Posted by barb at 8:39 AM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2006

Friday!!

I just love Fridays. There is so much promise for a fun and exciting weekend. I am still kind of bummed about the weather we've had this summer - I wish it would be just a little bit more temperate so we could do some hiking or mountain biking or something.

Anyway my running has continued to go well this week. Ran seven miles yesterday and six and a half today. It's been a little warmer than normal but not bad in the morning, although I wouldn't want to be running in the afternoon. I had a ridiculously hot bike ride home yesterday. I am happy that I was able to get back into commuting on the bike after a week off - I rode to work every day but today. I have gotten into listening to my ipod while commuting which I know is dangerous but it is just so nice.

I think this weekend we are working on our house and getting ready for our new garage door (our old one is this ridiculous fiberglass contraption that keeps ripping). Nothing exciting. I would like to run both days and maybe bike one day as well if I can get out of bed early enough. If I am somewhat serious about running a half marathon in September I'd probably better start running more than 8 miles at a stretch so maybe I'll give that a go.

Posted by barb at 9:16 AM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2006

sometimes being cautious pays off

And of course sometimes it doesn't. I know there have been several times when I've felt something bad, taken a day or two off immediately, and then with high hopes tried running and been saddened to notice that whatever pain or ache or stress fracture I thought I was curing was still there!

But this seems to be going well. I ran yesterday - a little over 6 miles - with no pain whatsoever, biked to work and back, etc., and everything felt fine. This morning I ran 5 miles and felt good again. I commuted on the bike today as well and I'm meeting M. after work for another ride - just an easy hour or so around the park. She got regulated on by her doctor after last week's two hour ride (the one we did last Wednesday). He was not pleased at all as she has been laid up for many months and is just now starting to ride again. Frankly I am kind of glad we're doing the park as it is flat and I don't want to be getting home at 8:00 tonight. It is supposed to be boiling hot again for the next seven days so I am also hoping it won't be miserably hot.

I cannot lie, this is not the best summer ever. It has been far too hot to do fun stuff on the weekends like hiking, and every weekend I wake up by 7:30 so I can run before it's miserable out. Here's hoping that August will be somewhat more temperate!

By the way although I have been training just for its own sake lately and not doing anything of excitement, I am signed up for a race next Sunday (August 6). I got a free entry for some reason so it should be fun, I cannot pass up on free races which never happen! It's a 5k so as long as my knee continues to behave it should be a nice little race. It's the same day as the Tri for the Cure in this area so I am thinking it may be somewhat small. Who knows, maybe I can win my age group or something!

Posted by barb at 2:54 PM | Comments (2)

July 24, 2006

Now that I am old and wise

Ha, yeah right. Let's just say right now I am older and more wise than I was ten years ago. And I guess that's something isn't it? Now why would I be marveling at my old-ness and wise-ness right now except because I am feeling a minor injury thing, and instead of running through it, I am cross training and rehabilitating. How exciting.

I don't really remember when I last updated my blog but I had a fine run on Friday. Saturday I started out for a nice run and about 1.5 miles in I felt a twinge in my knee. It was in a really weird spot - kind of like below my kneecap (not below as in farther into my knee but as in towards my ankle). I had never felt anything like it before. It hurt kind of a lot so I stopped and started walking home. Then I got bored with walking so I tried a few steps on it and it was fine. Okay. Then I finished my run (9 miles). Yesterday, Sunday morning, I was heading out for an easy five miles and it hurt again but this time it hurt immediately and I did not think it was a good idea to try to run through it, so I stopped, walked home, and got on my bike. I rode a little over 26 miles - to the reservoir and around and back. I have no idea if this is equivalent to running over five miles but I assume it is...

Today so far I have ridden my bike to work, ellipticalled for 65 minutes, and lifted. I'll be riding home from work as well and then after I get home I think I will either drop off my backpack and ride more, or go for a long walk. I just hate not being able to run. Especially now that I have the pressure of looking like a fatty in my wedding dress in 10 months. So I am going to compensate with other things and also hope that I feel better soon. Just in case I have a call into my PT. And of course I've been foam rolling like a crazy person and stretching and all that stuff.

Luckily I had run some decent mileage before my Sunday incident so I actually hit 40 miles for last week. I doubt this week will be nearly as good, assuming I can start running again tomorrow. But let's hope for the best!

Posted by barb at 3:29 PM | Comments (1)

July 21, 2006

horrible memory

I have a truly awful memory. I don't remember most of my childhood, what happens in movies, or what happens in most books unless I read them 17 times or more. Which is good and bad - sometimes it's fun to watch a movie that I know I've seen before because it's all new! I can't even remember the supposedly dramatic twist ending to the Usual Suspects or anything. Where I am going with this is that I am always wanting to buy new books, which doesn't really make sense especially now that my book collection, which was packed for many years, is available to me again. So instead of going and buying a new book, I am planning to reread The Professor's House by Willa Cather. I know I read it in college and liked it but that's about all I remember. Cather is supposed to be awesome but she's one of those people I never really got into as opposed to James, Heminway, Fitzgerald and the like for whom I had incredibly obsessive phases where I read everything they wrote like 13 times. Except that I never made it all the way through The Golden Bowl, one of James' later books that I just didn't find very interesting even though objectively I know it's a really good book and probably more happens in it than in some of his other novels.

So I think this will be a fun way to rediscover a lot of stuff that I read but have no recollection of.

It has continued to be hot but not nearly as bad as last week and weekend here. I've been really tired but I got a decent amount of sleep last night and the night before so I am feeling quite a bit better. Yesterday there was no way I was emerging from my slumber before 7:00 so I did an early lunchtime (very early - 9:15 or so) run of seven miles. It felt really hot and I ran by a bank that said it was 89 degrees when I started and 92 degrees when I finished. For 9:00 am that is highly unusual for Denver but generally this has been a highly unusual summer. I have been feeling really sluggish lately and I don't know if I should blame my fatigue or the heat. So I choose to blame them both.

I went to bed really, really early last night so waking up at 6:20 was not too much of a problem. Once again my legs felt pretty wrecked in spite of less biking this week so I struggled through 6.5 miles or so. It definitely took a good two or three minutes longer than normal but what can you do, sometimes I just don't feel quite like myself.

I am hoping for a somewhat mild weekend but that may or may not pan out. If it is not too bad tomorrow, I would love to do a nice long trail run. There's something about trail running that seems to make me feel better than I would otherwise - it's just so much fun!

Posted by barb at 10:02 AM | Comments (1)

July 18, 2006

I am so tired, but I am never sleepy

I wonder if a lot of other people have this problem as well. For the last week or so I have been really tired all the time, and my head hurts (this could be from the heat), but when I go to bed I can't sleep very well. I also wake up really early and have a hard time going back to sleep, so when my alarm goes off I prefer to lay around in bed instead of running. I almost let the fatigue keep me in bed again this morning but I got up instead once I thought about how hot it would be today and how much I have to do. Once I was out there I felt okay - my head still felt achy but I was running decent and everything. Sometimes in fact I think it's good to be kind of out of it - I ran about a mile and a half longer than I set out to run just because I was kind of trotting around and I decided it would be fun to trot around another area I like. I guess that was a good thing!

I've been very lazy about biking this week. So far I am 0 for 2 on my commute and tomorrow I will most likely drive again because M. and I are doing a long-ish ride after work. I feel guilty about the unnecessary driving on many levels not the least of which is the damage I'm doing to our environment out of my laziness. But we all have these times and at least I only drive 10 miles round trip. However, I think if everyone cut a 10 mile round trip out each work day, there could be a real impact. Now that I've lectured myself on it hopefully I'll do better the rest of this week and into the future!

Speaking of that, I have come to believe that one of the greatest benefits of blogging is the accountability. If I say to myself 'I am going to run 30 miles this week' or whatever, I don't really have an audience that knows if I don't reach my goal. Not that anyone who reads my blog is terribly invested in my goals, but if I tell my reading community - all five of you or something - that I'm going to run 30 miles this week I definitely feel that I'd better do it or you'll all know I am a terrible failure. I wonder if this is a common perception among bloggers. I would imagine it is.

That is the news for today. I am choosing a wedding dress this evening which should be fun, and then I plan to go home, eat dinner, and lay on the couch! And hopefully go to sleep very, very early, and sleep for a long time.

Posted by barb at 4:25 PM | Comments (3)

July 17, 2006

heat wave

I feel that I am somewhat justified in ranting and raving about our current heat wave. We were actually mentioned on the national news (NPR this morning) which I think says that it was indeed really hot this weekend and will continue to be really hot for some time. I can't lie, it has been miserable. I really don't mind the heat to a certain point - even up to about 95 - but over 100 it's difficult to do much of anything. We haven't gone hiking all summer because it's been blazing hot. In addition it makes my commute kind of tough - I think I had my slowest ride ever last Friday afternoon due to the heat. But that is enough whining out of me.

Friday was the first of the ridiculously hot days so I took the day off from running. We did take the dog for a nice walk which I enjoyed. It was still very hot at that time of the day (9:00 pm or so). Saturday the dog woke me up around 6:45 am which was definitely a good thing. We were running by around 7:15. Usually the park's pretty quiet that early but there were a ton of people all trying to beat the heat. I actually saw three people I know which is somewhat rare. We ran 7 miles and it was pretty nice.

For some reason when we woke up yesterday I was very sore. I don't really know why but I think it must be related to running with the dog. She pulls so hard at first that I think I use a lot of energy slowing her down. I didn't get up quite as early - probably 7:30 - so it was hot. I ran 6.5 miles with the dog, dropped her off and gave her water, and ran an extra 1.5 miles for 8 miles total. Nothing to write home about but not bad.

Because I woke up so early over the weekend - and because going in and out of the air conditioning always seems to shock my system - I was exhausted last night and didn't wake up to run today. I may go to the gym during the day and then swim after work. I hate to run on the treadmill in the summer but it's the healthy thing to do.

That is about all the news. I'm hoping to do a little more biking this week - commuting four days and maybe one longer ride one day. But we'll just have to see how the weather and my legs feel.

Posted by barb at 9:39 AM | Comments (1)

July 14, 2006

long workout day

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty big day from a workout perspective - 5 miles of running and 26 miles of biking. I was only planning on commuting (which gives me approximately 11 miles a day) but my friend M. was having a rough day and wanted to bike so I said yes. Needless to say at the end of our bike ride I was somewhat beat. Not to mention the fact that I haven't been running a lot of mileage, but I haven't taken a day off from running in about a month. Because I love my new running location! Even though it is incredibly hot I still want to run today. But I don't think I'll have time.

Today I rode to work, ellipticalled for 65 minutes for an early lunchtime workout, and I will be riding home in a bit. I really do want to run later on but it is supposed to be 91 degrees at 7:00 pm which does not bode well (I think it's 100 degrees or so right now). And frankly there must be a point of diminishing returns when a person exercises and gets very sweaty four separate times in a day. I mean, give me a break.

I have been so busy and I really think that everything's going to start to calm down. That will be excellent, and hopefully it'll give me more opportunities to train, rest, stretch, and generally take care of myself. That would be a good thing on many levels!

I am hoping to do a decent amount of running this weekend which will mean that I need to get up very early because it's supposed to be incredibly hot. Matt and I want to go on a hike - okay, I want to go on a hike and I might drag Matt along with me - but it may just be too hot. No one wants to tromp around the wilderness when it's 100 degrees.

Posted by barb at 2:17 PM | Comments (2)

July 10, 2006

oh my aching back!

I feel like an old lady. My back is killing me today, and when I woke up my left hip was all gimpy too although now it's feeling fine. I think this is all due to sleeping for four hours on the couch last night. Sometimes Matt is a very spastic sleeper and he kept whacking me with his foot, so I moved to the couch at 10:00 and then at 2:00 am I moved downstairs to the spare bedroom. Why I didn't go there first, I do not know. I'm not running until after work today so I don't really know how it'll affect me in that regard - hopefully not very much! If it does maybe I'll just bike - I haven't taken a day off from running for several weeks. I didn't bike to work today, it rained all weekend (you have no idea how strange this is, east coasters - it never happens here), and I was pretty sure the bike path would be flooded. My pretty road bike does not enjoy the flooded bike path.

This was a pretty good running weekend although due to some family related plans and an impromptu party we held that ended up going until 3:00 am I am totally exhausted. Here is the scoop:

- Saturday - 7 miles around the neighborhood. Not too exciting.

- Sunday - 8 miles on South Boulder Creek. Pouring rain, which was so awesome. There were a few parts of the run where I felt like I could be in Maine. I really miss Maine even though I hated it when I lived there. I think it's because I remember September, October, and May and I repress November through most of April. But still I am starting to develop this fantasy of moving back there someday and having a cute little house in the woods somewhere. Kind of a life simplification type of thing. I did run a decent negative split on Sunday which was good.

That is about all of the news. We are finally narrowing down on a wedding date which would be nice. That way Betsy can start planning my running geek bachelorette party, wherein we will be getting running outfits (with buns) and mine will say 'Bride' on the butt. And then of course my bachelorette party weekend will coincide with a five mile race that we're going to run in our cute outfits!

Posted by barb at 12:34 PM | Comments (2)

July 6, 2006

tired legs

Boy, my legs were moving like molasses in a snowstorm this morning, as they say. I felt like I was barely walking and people kept passing me and all in all it was somewhat disheartening! I do not know the culprit for this except that I didn't eat much in the way of carbs last night. And I ran a decent amount and commuted. But I do that every day, so it is like what the heck?

Anyway today I slogged through 6 miles. It was humid. My hair is a curly fro! So weird. Then I commuted and got very sweaty and gross. Now I am getting ready to change back into biking clothes and commute home. I don't need to get home until almost 5:45 so it will be a leisure ride. My mom's picking me up and we are wedding dress shopping. This is the one planning activity I can do before we set our date, so I figured it would be fun to go to several stores and try on lots of dresses. Just as a note, when you are short and little, one percent of dresses look good on you. Speaking of myself in my own opinion of course. The other 99 percent make you look like a little white cupcake!

I am trying to get my nerve up to take the GRE, so that I can finally (very, very late) complete my grad school application. I think I may need to get a test prep book and brush up on my math skills, or lack thereof. I did email a professor I had six years ago at Bowdoin to see if she'll write me a recommendation because I need one more. If she doesn't, I think I can get one from a work colleague, but I just don't know how that would look.

That is the news from Denver! It has been rainy so wish me luck on my ride! I haven't had a crash in several weeks and I'd like to keep this streak going.

Posted by barb at 4:46 PM | Comments (1)

July 5, 2006

a small town fourth of july

That about sums up the last two days or so. We went up to a small town north of Fort Collins for the Fourth of July and it was a fun small town holiday. They had a huge parade - I think every fire truck in the county, plus every car older than about 10 years old, was in the parade. We also practiced the very American art of gluttony yesterday which included Mexican food, barbeque, and of course ice cream cake. Also, I learned that putting expired soy milk (literally expired on May 6, so we are talking quite expired) won't kill you, as I accidentally ate an entire bowl of cereal with said milk poured on it. It was not a good food day for us. But we are turning over a new leaf today and I am cooking a nice healthy dinner tonight. It has also been a rough few weeks of alcohol consumption because of all the weddings and related activities so we hope to turn that down about 30 notches as well. I think we will be feeling much healthier in a week or two.

My running has been okay lately. I ran four miles easy yesterday morning with Matt's stepmom. It was really nice. For some reason it was much cooler yesterday so I didn't get too sweaty. It has been much more humid than normal lately so I am just dripping every time I come in from a run.

This morning I got up at 6:20 and I ran a little over 6 miles. I'm still trying to figure out all the distances from our new house. The other day I did the same run when it was 95 degrees out and I did it faster then so I don't know if I was just running really slow this morning or what. I rode to work today as well, which was nice. The traffic is picking up after the holiday but it was still fairly light.

Other than that life is not too exciting. I'm still thinking about the half marathon in Fort Collins. Which would mean I need to start training soon. Matt's brother is flying in from New Zealand today so we have plans with him over the weekend which should be fun. I'm also going to try to fit in a bike ride with my brother and a trail run in Boulder early on Sunday. It is nice that it's already Wednesday!

Posted by barb at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

July 3, 2006

solo workout

I really, really, really didn't feel like getting up at 6:30 am on Saturday to go run with the group in Boulder. This is so bad but I have so little free time right now that the drive and everything seems to be a little more than I can take. So I didn't get up until 7:30 or so, and then I drove to the Highline Canal to do the RRB workout alone. Generally I am really bad at doing workouts - especially doing full workouts - by myself but I really wanted to attempt it. Happily I did actually do the entire workout. I am very proud. I warmed up for two miles and then did 20 minutes tempo, 4 minutes rest, 10 minutes sustained pace (10k pace), 5 minutes rest, and 3 minutes hard followed by a cooldown that was a little under 10 minutes. It was hard but not that bad. Had I started running 30 minutes earlier it would have been less hard - it was getting kind of toasty at the end.

Anyway, this has led me to wonder if I should keep up the pretense of being in my group, since I never show up and I can kind of do the workouts by myself. I'm going to reflect on it for another couple days and just see how it goes.

Yesterday morning I woke up late but it wasn't too warm yet, so that was nice. I ran 5 miles around the park and then came back and biked for 40 minutes. Maybe 12 miles or so, I think. It was fun although this older guy kept trying to race me. Even though I was not technically racing him back, I did beat him! I seem to always do my bricks backwards - running and then biking. I don't know if this is really bad or not. I have been figuring that since I'm not doing any tris this year, it shouldn't really matter.

This morning I ran 5 miles and then I drove to work because I figured traffic wouldn't be bad at all, and I didn't want to get sweaty again. We are leaving for Fort Collins sometime this afternoon and staying up there tonight so I am freaked out about running tomorrow but I'm sure I'll fit it in. I was thinking about racing but I was told it was not a good idea just because of the schedule tomorrow. Oh well, it will save me $25 not to race, so that is good.

Happy Fourth to everyone!

Posted by barb at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)