October 31, 2005
The Jeopordy Theme Song...
... Has been running through my head since mid-afternoon yesterday. That's because I've been waiting patiently for the WATER to be turned back on at my house. I don't know what's worse, hearing the Jeopordy theme song recycle through my brain or not having any water. Something happened yesterday afternoon and it broke the water main for the neighborhood. The neighbor across the street has a huge pond in his backyard and about 8 inches of water in his basement as a result. Oops! Hence, no water for the whole neighborhood. No showers, no water to cook, no water for hot tea, nuthin', nada. However, it seems as if little progress has been made so far today. I see lots of trucks and backhoes and people working, though. Oh, and the pond of water in the neighbor's backyard is now frozen. I hope we get water soon!
I ran 4 hilly miles in 32:30 around my neighborhood yesterday. When I moved here, I thought I was going to die when I saw all the hills. And for a while, it felt like I actually was dying while trying to run on them. Now I'm used to them, and I feel so much stronger out there.
I, of course, also did core exercises, too. Oh, and then my dreadful hip and adductor strengthening exercises that the PT gave me because these muscles are apparently weak and he thinks strengthening them will improve my gait. We'll see, I've been diligently doing them for 6 weeks, and on my last visit, he wrote on my chart, "unremarkable improvement in strength." Which is PT code for, "Holy cow, she's still so weak!" Alas, I'll keep working on it!
Today's schedule (as long as I can shower somewhere afterwards): 3 easy miles running, 45 minutes or so of spinning on the trainer, lifting, and core exercises.
The snow is really flying today, and though that's exciting and all, I wish it would stop just for a few days. A friend and I are scheduled for an overnight backpacking trip either Tuesday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Thursday. Neither of us have snowshoes (yet), and we're not going to posthole for 20 miles, so we're hoping the weather holds for just a couple more days.
It's Halloween! Is anyone out there doing anything fun? I'm excited to pass out the Halloween candy that has been tempting me for the last 4 days. Amazingly, I haven't opened any of it yet! I'm proud of my willpower, and I think the neighborhood kids will thank me for it tonight. Happy Halloween, all!
Thank you all for the warm welcome back, I'm happy to be here!
Posted by Meghan at 10:31 AM | Comments (2)
October 29, 2005
A Long Run of Sorts
I guess 7 miles only counts as a long run when you are re-building your base mileage, right? Well, 7 miles was my long run for the week.
I ran that this afternoon on what I call the Gardiner railroad bed. It's a rails-to-trails, old railroad bed-type deal. It starts in Gardiner, MT, which is just outside the north boundary of Yellowstone, and about 5 miles from my home. In fact, this trail starts in town, but then it goes back into the national park proper for 4 or so miles before it heads out into private property. Its whole distance skirts just above the Gardner River (Note the spelling difference: "Gardiner" for the town, "Gardner" for the river. I have no idea why.). Gardiner the town and Gardner the river sit nestled in a valley at about a mile high in elevation, surrounded by 9,000-10,000 foot peaks. You really couldn't ask for better running scenery.
I started in town, ran out for 3.5 miles, and returned the same direction. My total time was 55:45.
The weather wasn't great, though tolerable. When I left my house, the weather was cool and cloudy. I packed shorts, a t-shirt, and a long sleeve shirt for running. Before I ran, I completed a few errands around town. And in those 90 or so minutes, the weather turned foul. I decided to suck it up and go out underdressed anyways. The way out was into the wind, and it was spitting first rain, then sleet, then snow. Once I turned around and all this was at my back, life was a lot more pleasant. I would have been a lot happier if I had light gloves, a hat, and a windbreaker. I had to chuckle, though, as I neared town again, I saw a man walking in a winter parka with the hood up and gloves on. Yes, the weather had turned foul.
Animal sightings for the run: a herd of white tail deer, 3 seperate herds of pronghorn, some female elk, and a bald eagle.
Afterwards, I was wet, freezing, and starving, so I scurried home for some hot chocolate and food. After I was warm and satiated again, I did core exercises and then spun on the indoor trainer (A trainer for my road bike so that I can bike indoors when the roads are in bad condition.) for about 40 easy minutes.
Posted by Meghan at 6:19 PM | Comments (6)
Well Now, Where Was I?
Hi all, I'm back! You may (or may not) remember me from before. I blogged here months ago while I was training (unsuccessfully, but that's a whole 'notha story) for a marathon. Afterwards, I disappeared into the proverbial blogging abyss for reasons not worth pondering here. But suffice it to say that I am back, and excited to be here again. There's a certain positive, supportive energy that circulates among the eliterunning.com women (and men) and their readers that's difficult to find elsewhere. I'm pleased to be a part of it again!
So, who am I? My name is Meghan, I'm 27 years old, I live in Wyoming (You may remember me as living in Texas; I just moved to Wyoming about 5 months ago.), and (obviously) running is one of my main hobbies. As an adult, I've run several marathons, lots of half marathons, and some races at shorter distances. However, compared to many, I am inexperienced in this field. I'm not remarkably fast; in fact, my blogging at a site called eliterunning.com is about as oxymoronic as you can get. But, I love to run and I enjoy racing. Additionally, I've found that during the bouts of decent training that I have had, I have experienced good race results. And I sincerely hope that there is a lot more in me from where that came from.
In addition to running, I'm a big fan of lots of other outdoor activities. Hiking, road biking, and backpacking are highest on the list. I'm lucky enough to live and work in Yellowstone National Park, which makes my home about as close to a grown-up playground as anyone could experience. Right outside my door is, in my opinion, some of the finest wilderness and recreation areas in the United States. Between the national park proper, which encompasses 2.2 million acres, there are equal amounts of other federally managed lands, much of it national forest. As I mentioned, I just moved to Wyoming, so much of this is still brand new to me. Prior to Yellowstone, I lived and worked at Big Bend National Park in Texas. However, I am well aware of how lucky I am to call Yellowstone National Park (and previously Big Bend) my home.
As for my running and where it is right now, I've spent much of the last ten months either injured or recovering from an injury, and this time has been rather discouraging. But, I do think that I've learned a lot during this time. And while I wish I could say that I'll never get injured again, I know that's not likely to be the case. At least now I believe that have the tools to deal with injury in a healthy way.
Speaking of being healthy, that's what I am right now. I've been running healthily for about two months now. I'm not in particularly good shape; my base for that time is a measly twenty to twenty-five miles-a-week. Thankfully, I feel that I've sustained some of my aerobic capacity through road biking and hiking, and I'm grateful for that! However, I am not in good running shape! I know that I am my own best and worst judge, and I'm aware that I may be assessing myself harshly. But suffice it to say that, above everything, I feel fortunate to be running healthy and I know the rest will come with time.
The plan? A grand scheme? My goals? I've been mulling this around for several weeks. I'm just coming off of a very busy fall wherein time for my running was highly limited. I now have window of opportunity of indefinite length where I have enough free time to dedicate to some more serious running. The only problem is that winter is on the brink here, and along with that comes some difficult training weather. Hence, the issue at hand: Do I use this window of free time to train hard, and suck up the harsh winter weather? Or do I wait several months for winter to break and the weather to grow more mild before I train seriously for anything? At this point, I haven't quite figured out what to do yet, but I'm leaning towards option 1, because I'm healthy and my available free time is too tempting.
So, I guess that's a bit (No, that's a lot more than a bit, if you made it this far, you get a gold star for your dedicated reading, thank you!) about me. I hope you enjoy this blog!
Posted by Meghan at 6:01 PM | Comments (5)