December 31, 2011

The Last Sunrise of 2011

I saw the last sunrise of 2011.

This is a good omen to me.  I bore witness to the last new day of the year that I am thrilled to say, is over.

I drove to the trailhead to meet the gang for the usual Saturday Morning Run.  I arrived, parked the car, and decided not to run.  Simple as that.  I didn’t have it in me to battle 40 mph winds and brave the cold.  After saying a quick hello and goodbye I headed back home, just in time to see the sunrise.  I pulled over and snapped a few pictures, glad that I was warm in my car and headed into the arms of a hot cup of coffee.

the last sunrise of 2011

Now, it’s 10:00 on New Year’s Eve and all is quiet. Okay I lied. Just heard a cough from my son’s room. And a little moan. But other than that, there is a whole lotta quiet around here.

Both kids are sick with the flu and my dog is having a little holiday over at the Emergency Vet Hospital this weekend. I’m sipping tea to combat the tickle in my throat and the slight pressure in my ears.

Tonight we talked a little about setting goals for the New Year, and we made a few notes as we sat down to watch an episode of Glee and sip chicken soup. One of my goals is to take my kids on some serious, kick-ass vacations. I spent a good part of my day calendaring workshops that I’ll be teaching this year, and figuring out where my breaks would fall. This year, I’m committed to taking my kids on more than 3-day camping trips. This year, we’re going to get out and see something of the world.

This year, I’m also committing to taking care of myself. This means getting a massage when my muscles are screaming, or making time to get to a yoga class when my brain and body have disconnected and I desperately need to reattach myself. It means making time to pop in on friends and have a cup of coffee. It means making my life simpler so I don’t have to move so fast. Mostly, it means slowing down.

Over the year just about everyone that knows me well has commented on how fast I make things happen. Apparently I am a master at changing things up and resetting the track that I’m on.

This year, I don’t want to speed things up. I don’t want to go faster, run harder, or squeeze more activity into my world. My world is really full as it is. What I would really like is to slow things down. I want to be more present for my kids. I think I can do this when I have my work and financial situation more secured. Therefore I’m going to spend the time necessary on those pieces, so that I can get them into place and then focus more fully on the people that I would give my life for.

So that’s it. My New Year’s Resolutions are pretty simple, actually. Keep going forward, slow down, work hard, play hard, and love fiercely.

That’s all I got. I won’t be ringing in the New Year at midnight. With any luck I’ll be asleep and won’t get woken up to the sound of someone coughing or puking.

Sleep tight, ya’ll. Happy New Year. See you on the other side.

Filed Under: Seasons, Sick or Injured, Winter 2011 Tagged: , ,
December 27, 2011

Christmas weekend recap

December 26 was on my calendar for at least a month. Nico and AJ from DailyMile were organizing an epic trail run that would span Bear Peak and Green Mountain. We were looking at a 19.5 mile loop and about 4500 feet of elevation gain. I was geeky excited to get in on the action.

And then the snow came. And the cold.

On Friday December 23 I ran with a few friends at the Boulder Res in 2 degree temps. My top half was warm, my bottom half went numb from the cold. The next day I ran at the Res again, this time with my Saturday Morning gang. Wary about being cold, I checked the temp in two places before getting dressed. Unfortunately I was fooled again by the extreme fluctuation between Louisville and the Boulder Reservoir, and I ran in 6-degree cold even more under-dressed than I was the previous day.

All this is to say that by Saturday night my body was feeling the effects of the cold. My core still had not regulated back to normal, my legs were heavy with the lactic acid that had built up and not moved out, and I was tired. Bone tired. The tired that comes when your body finally stops working to keep you warm, and relaxes.

On Christmas morning I could barely move. I slept wrong and there was a pinch in my back somewhere. I felt like I had gotten two hours of sleep even though I slept soundly for six. My brain was foggy.

That afternoon I crashed for three hours. I said goodbye to the light of day at 2pm and woke to complete darkness at 5:00. Still hoping to run on Monday, I ate an egg sandwich and drove over to pick up my sister; we wanted to see the 6:45pm showing of Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately it was sold out, so we waited an hour to catch it again. We walked around the outside mall for 10 minutes, looking to see if any place was open where we could get a drink while we waited. As we walked the cold hit my legs and I was instantly shivering. Everything was closed, so we went back to the theater where I treated my sister to a $3 cup of coffee at the over-priced concession stand. I sat with my down coat over my legs, trying to warm them up.

I enjoyed the movie and even laughed out loud in one place. I drove my sister home and headed back to my own warm bed, where I set my alarm for 6:30. We had a start time of 8am on Monday.

The alarm went off at 6:30 and I hit the snooze button. I groaned. This wasn’t really happening. I didn’t even have to get up to know that I didn’t have an epic run in me. Not today.

And yet, I had to try. Maybe I would go and just do one loop. Maybe I had 10 miles in me. Maybe it would be really great to see my friends and get on the mountain and move my body.

But first I had to go to the store. I was out of milk so couldn’t have my cereal. No bananas, my favorite pre-run food. My stash of LaraBars and ClifChews was gone, which meant no nutrition for the run.

I quickly dressed and headed to the store, luxuriating in the fact that I was the only shopper there. What a fabulous change from the break-neck consumerism of the past few weeks. I found my items and was home by 7:28.

The moment of truth had arrived. Was I ready to pull this off? The answer was a resounding NO. I didn’t have a trail run in me today. I didn’t have the energy. I was hungry and dehydrated, my legs were heavy, and even the brief walk from the car to the store chilled my legs. Running up a mountain was not in the cards for me. Not today.

I logged onto DailyMile and sent Nico a note, hoping he would see it before he left his house at 7:55 to meet the gang at the trailhead. It was my only way of getting in touch with him, as I didn’t have his or AJ’s phone number to call or text them.

I decided to make a little lemonade out of my situation and called a friend. He had just put a pot of coffee on so I headed over to partake in the hot beverage. We each drank three huge mugs of coffee and eventually ate some breakfast to sop up the acid in our stomachs.

Upon returning home I decided to vacuum my bedroom. One thing led to another, and I ended up rearranging the furniture and deep-cleaning the room, getting into all the corners, moving pictures and emptying out some clutter.

At 12:30, as my lunch was cooking on the stove, I checked DailyMile to see what people were up to. As luck would have it AJ had just posted about the run. His stats said he ran 11 miles in 3:45. Three hours and forty five miles to run 11 miles. I blinked in surprise and read the post. 30 mph winds in some places. Waist-high snow between miles 5-8. Post-holing in places. Trudging. Didn’t have enough nutrition. Wasn’t expecting the level of difficulty.

And then I was glad that I listened to my gut instinct. If it was that hard for three big guys that have more muscle mass than me, it would have been brutal for this tired runner girl. Instead of running trail on a mountain that would surely have beat me down, I had coffee with a friend and puttered around my bedroom, rearranging and cleaning in the warmth of my house.

This concludes my run report for the Christmas weekend. Here’s hoping for some more rest and recovery. I didn’t run (yet) today, and might just give it another day or two. I might just wait until I’m itching to go.

Filed Under: Seasons, Winter 2011 Tagged: , , , ,
December 24, 2011

Single Digit Runs

It’s been two days of single-digit temp runs at the Boulder Res. Yesterday I met up with Dave and Jo for a 6:30am trot around the snow-packed Backroads. Dave and family were leaving on a jet plane for the holiday, and we had to get our miles in so he could rally the fam to the airport.

I knew it was cold, and was almost prepared. Just not quite. I wore a fleece-lined wicking shirt, another wind layer, and my lined running jacket. Smartwool liner gloves (no top layer gloves). Orange hat with the fleece lining around the ears. Unlined running pants. Smartwool ankle socks and trail shoes.

Can you picture it? Warm head, warm torso, freezing cold legs and hands. Yup. That was me.

I wasn’t too worried about the hands because my jacket sleeves are long enough to pull over the backs of my hands, and then when I curl my fingers in the hands are mostly protected. What I noticed was that my butt, thighs and quads were just exposed and cold. Numb, actually. The cold was hard but once my legs got numb things felt a lot better.

We ran at a good, easy 8:30 pace along the roads, never trying to get onto the snow-pack around the Res. None of us wore YakTrax or screw shoes, so the roads were our best bet. Dave and Jo’s Garmins synced right away; mine was having a hard time finding the satellites so I said “screw it” and just went.

The sky was just beginning to brighten when we started off, giving us just a taste of the clear sky that would be the focal point when the sun came up. I had sunglasses in my pocket for when the sun crested the horizon and gave me snow-blindness; Dave and Jo were just barely concerned, as we would finish the run just minutes after the sun showed its beautiful face. They would be okay.

We chatted about our upcoming Colorado Marathon in May. Dave asked me where I planned on staying that night, and I had to honestly say that lodging hadn’t even crossed my mind. That gave us another good laugh, as a few of our Type A friends had taken care of that detail the moment after they registered for the race and we were still discussing possibilities and roommate situations. (We can safely say that I’m not Type A.)

At mile 3 we turned around and headed back. It wasn’t any warmer, but the blood had warmed and my hands were toasty. Jo unzipped the pit zippers of her jacket, and they commented on the frost coating my braids. Dave and Jo both said their toes were a little cold; I didn’t seem to have that problem.

Back at the car Dave snapped a picture of my frosty braids, and another one of me and Jo.

Frosty braids

We had bonded over our mutual love of Mumford and Sons when she told me about creating a Christmas card using the cover art of their album, Sigh No More. I invited her to join the Saturday Morning Run group some time, and the coffee social hour afterwards! She was totally game and we coordinated the time/place via email later that afternoon.

This morning I woke up to a purring cat snuggled against my back as I lay warm and toasty in my bed. I lingered there for a few minutes, knowing that this warmth would be the last heat I would enjoy for the next 4 hours. Giving a little c’est la vie sigh and steeling myself for the hardest part of the morning, I made myself sit up and put feet on the floor.

Once in motion the rest came easier. Since I didn’t get laundry done from yesterday I pulled yesterday’s running tights from the hamper and found a longsleeve fleece-lined wicking shirt in the shirt pile. I layered my red Las Vegas Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon t-shirt over the black shirt so I didn’t look like Ninja Runner Girl. Smartwool ankle socks. Smartwool hat and the liner gloves again. Trail shoes.

The thermometer outside my window read 20 degrees and I was banking on this to be true. Did I wear a jacket? Nope. A second layer on my legs, as I had learned my lesson from yesterday? Nope. Another pair of gloves? Of course not.

Foolish me. It was warmer than yesterday, a whopping 6 degrees at the Boulder Res.

I did another c’est la vie sigh when I realized the error of my ways and decided to deal with my problem by running and raising my heart rate. The only other option was missing the run, and that wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime.

We had a smaller group this week, probably due to the cold and the fact that it’s Christmas Eve. Jo made it and was welcomed to the group by the uber-friendly ladies that I hang with. After a few minutes we hit the trail and checked out the powder around the Res. The going was moderate, as we ran in parallel tire tracks which saved our legs from breaking trail. My face was so much colder today than yesterday, and I realized just how much protection my orange hunter’s hat had provided. After 2 miles my fingers were warm but my wrists were frozen. My jacket yesterday had shielded so much, and today I was exposed. Oops.

After the freezing cold run we headed over to Tod’s Coffee shop, where I marched into the warmth of the building, ordered myself a 20-ounce dirty chai and wrapped my frozen hands around the cup.  The heavenly beverage warmed me, and I luxuriated in the yummy hitting my belly and the fabulous conversation and company of my friends.

It’s Christmas Eve.  Happy holidays all!

Filed Under: Trails, Winter 2011 Tagged: , , , ,
«Older Posts