A New Running Experience

One of the things that I enjoy about this blog, is that I can report on new experiences.  This weekend, I had two.  Wonder if I should split this post into 2?

And the answer is yes!  After I finished writing about one experience, I realized I have enough material for 2 posts!

Experience 1

I used to go to track workout with my husband religiously on Wednesday evenings.  But then things got in the way…I got a part time evening job, I started running in the morning and so on: in other words excuse excuse excuse.  I really enjoyed it when I went.  There is a whole crew that goes regularly, and all very nice people.  My husband still goes.  My group of ‘chatty kathies’ doesn’t go so much anymore.  I’m hoping I can get back to it at some point b/c it really really does make me faster, but I’m not doing anything to make it happen!

Anyway, my son works at the running store.  One of his co-workers is a  former collegiate runner who currently competes at the national level in the over 70 age group and  is also the leader of the Wednesday night track workouts.  He invited my son and husband to a Sunday morning 1 mile time trail.  It sounded fun, and new, and different, so I invited myself along. 

About twenty of us showed up.  The usual fasties who go every week were there as were some of my friends from the ultra. And there were also several people that I didn’t know.

Anyway, after what felt like an interminable amount of time (warm up mile, stretching, strides…) we all lined up at once.  Four laps around the high school track and we were done.

The goal that I set for myself was 7:20.  I hit 7:22, so not awful.  But I think I didn’t run it too smartly.  I got behind a lady that I didn’t know (turns out she also works at the running store).  She was clearly younger than me and had on very revealing Lycra shorts, and not the tight ‘keep-every-thing-in-place’ type, but the ‘shows-everything-you don’t-want-seen’ type.  Since I was behind her, I could see that her rear-end was really flabby (not that mine isn’t, but no one could see it).  I decided that someone with a rear-end that flabby was not going to be allowed to beat me.  I jack rabbited ahead of her.  But then she passed me and stayed ahead for the rest of the time trial.  I guess someone with a flabby rear end can beat me!

The results were a little bit ego busting.  I finished third from last.  Not my normal spot to finish, but like I said, a lot of fasties, and more men than women. The last three of us were all in the 7 minute range and we were as follows: A 60+ year old female and 2 women in their early 50’s.  So realistically, nothing to complain about.  Plus it was fun!

I would do it again.  Maybe I should quite my P/T job, and get back into it??

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Spring is Here

 

Spring is in full bloom here.  Quite beautiful!  A bit pollen-y, but I think we’re through with the worst.

I haven’t raced any races since my ultra marathon.  Had a little pain in my hamstring and glute, so I’ve been babying it for the past month.  Although its not all gone, I’m in much better shape now!

Life has been a bit quiet (which is a good thing), so not much to report.

I do have 3 new (for me) songs that I’d like to share though.

1st one: new Lumineers: Ophelia.  I LOVE this one!! I listened to it 4 times during my 1 hour run this morning!

The next 2 are by Galactic:  Hey Na Na, and Right on.  FUN songs to run to!!

 

A Quick Post on the Ultra Marathon

I’ll post more later, but I wanted to say that I completed my first ultra. It was hard, but amazing. My goal was to do 50…..kilometers, or 31 miles.

Well, I did run 50…..MILES!!! Not sure how that was even possible!

An Inspiring Weekend Encounter

As I was starting my run on Saturday, I noticed my neighbor finishing hers.  Well…at least I thought it was her.  As she got closer, I doubted myself.  But I’d already waved, and stopped my run to greet her.  Is this L? I kept wondering to myself.  It kind of looked like her, but not really.  L is not a close friend, and I hadn’t seen her in probably 6 months.    When she stopped running and started chatting with me, I realized it actually was her.  Just a MUCH diminished her.

A little back story here.  I know from Facebook that she is my age (53).  A few years ago, I noticed that she and her husband had really gained quite a bit of weight.  Well it turns out that their youngest (and only boy), a teenager had some health issues that required a kidney transplant!!  After a lot of prayer, one of their daughters offered her kidney to her brother.  I can only imagine the fear and worry for both of their children these parents had to go through.  Not only the operation, but also the worry about rejection and infection…(It has been several years now, and both son and daughter are healthy).

Really, no wonder the parents gained weight!

Now back to this Saturday: During the course of my  conversation with L, I learned that she had started running and had dropped 50 pounds!!! Wow!  50 pounds alone is truly inspiring.  Then combine it with the fact that she is WELL into middle age and lost the weight!  It seems like it would have been so easy for her to just slide into her senior years overweight.

Three days later, I still feel inspired by her accomplishment!  What an awesome lady.

Now here’s the tear-jeryky part.  She said I inspire her.

Sights Seen on my Morning Runs

I usually do my long runs on Sunday.  Since I’m not training for anything, I don’t have any set mileage that I “HAVE” to cover. I just pick what I want and go.  Or really, go and pick what I want while I’m out.

This past Sunday, I had a  goal of going 12 miles.  But I was kind of grumpy about it when I first started.  Everything was bothering me during  mile 1.  I was obsessing about what I was wearing.  Did I under dress?  Did I over dress (more likely)? How was I going to get 12 miles in? Why didn’t I bring any money for water?….blah, blah, blah.

At exactly the end of my first mile, I encountered a family of deer.  Six of them.  About ten feet from me, lined up in a row, and all facing me!  Two were even wagging their tails.

Not my pic…but this is what our deer look like

Ah.  That got me out of my whiny phase!  Such a treat!!  A woman  drove by speeding along in her mini van, talking on her phone.  I signaled to her to stop and look to her left. She did and rewarded me with a big smile.  The deer made my day, and I’ll bet they made hers too.

This morning, I saw something else that was pretty awesome too.  OK, I admit it…I didn’t go outside to run today.  Somehow if it is under 40 degrees  and still dark, I just can’t make myself get out of my nice cozy bed to run outside.  I know, wimpy.

But I went to the gym in our neighborhood, and worked out on the elliptical, and stairmaster (argh!).  When I was leaving, the sun still hadn’t risen.  The sky was clear, the moon was bright, and I knew to look for this.  

All the planets were lined up to the left of and below the moon.  I’d been looking for it for several days, but today was the first time I saw it.  Pretty awesome! And I got to share it with one of the trainers who happened to be in the parking lot.  It’s always nice to share a cool sight with someone else.  He liked it too.  You can see this too.  At least in North America through Feb. 20. Look to the east 45 minutes before sunrise.

I hope you get to see some awesome sights this weekend too, and I look forward to catching up with everyone’s blogs.

Devised by Me: A New Training Plan for 2016

I call it the ‘I Want’ training plan.  And it means just that, I’m going to do whatever I want!

Without any big races on the horizon (like last year this time, I was marathon training),

Medal from last year’s marathon

 

and without a burning desire to plan any big races, I’m just going to train in ways that make me happy.

Here’s a for instance…yesterday it was warm outside.  My rational brain said ‘Oh you better run outside…it may be raining the rest of the week.’ But, I didn’t feel like it.   So instead, I went to our gym, and rode on the Arc Trainer for 7.2 miles.  My hair still sweat, so I know I got a good work out.  Plus I had total control of the TV remote, and watched silly shows like Love it or List it, and Judge Judy!

Here’s another for instance.  On Sunday (after a Saturday run with some intentional speedwork), I decided this was going to be an easy junk mile run, or if you want to sound more fancy, a LSD (long slow day).

 

Blah BLah BLah…This guy seems a little uptight!  Who cares if you’re out for head clearing junk miles!

But, toward the end of my run, I started feeling pretty good.  I sped up and finished my 9th mile FAST.  Because that’s what I wanted!

One of the best things about running and training is the goal setting.  So don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to set goals.  Right now, the goal that is exciting me is achieving a weekly/annual mileage.  I’ve set these type of goals for the past 2 years, and enjoyed achieving/surpassing them.

No I didn’t run 70,000 miles this year!

I’ll keep you posted if I change my training plan.  And check out this site for similar sentiments, and my inspiration for today’s post! http://slackerrunner.com/

 

Today I am trying a  link up with  Patty, Erika, and Marcia!  Thank you ladies!!

Changing the Title to: Close Encounters with 2 Olympic Runners

As you may know, we are huge high school cross country fans.  Our son ran, and now our daughter is running.  We avidly follow the speediest runners in our state.  And we have even gone to watch races in the gap years when neither child was racing.  For instance last year (our son had graduated, but  our daughter hadn’t entered high school), my husband and I ran a local race.  We knew I had placed in my age group, but decided to skip the awards ceremony so that we could get to the nearby cross country races.  Believe it or not, FRANK SHORTER was giving out the age group awards at the ceremony that we had skipped!!

We continue our fandom even after  cross country season ends. Around Thanksgiving, there is a regional race open to all.  The speediest high school runners from all over the Southeast attend. The Footlocker SE Regionals are held in Charlotte, NC.  Each year, we follow the results of the regionals through twitter feeds, live updates, and Facebook posts.

There are 3 other regional races held in other parts of the country.  The top ten finishers of each regional race then participate in the Foot Locker National race held in Balboa Park in San Diego, CA.   Each year we watch the live feed of this race over the internet.

When our boy ran, we mostly followed the boys.  Now that our girl runs, we mostly follow  the girls.  This year, there have been several speedy girls in the state of Georgia  that we have enjoyed watching.  We were thrilled to learn that THREE Georgia girls made the top ten at the SE regional!  This is unheard of!  Three girls from Georgia going to San Diego!!

The Footlocker National race was held this weekend.  We were able to watch it over the internet, and were once again inspired to watch these high school athletes compete at such an intense level.  The girls winner finished with a time of 17:09…on a HILLY course! The Georgia girls did well too.  15th, 19th and 39th. I get nervous and inspired and happy every time I watch the Footlocker races!

Several years ago we were able to attend and race in the SE Regionals! When our son was a senior, we took him to Charlotte.

2012 SE Footlocker Regionals (can’t believe he allowed me to take his pic!)

Before the high school athletes race, there is a race open to any non-high schooler.  My husband and I signed up for it.  Talk about NERVOUS!  But the race was awesome!  For the most part, the runners were  former high school or college runners.  It was a very fast field, with very few females.  Normally I put myself toward the front of a race.  Not here!  I looked around and felt slow even before the race started.  I backed up and made a joke with the middle aged woman next to me about letting faster looking young men get to the front of the start line.  She laughed but didn’t say much.

The race itself was tougher than I’d expected.  Running cross country is harder than running on pavement.  Some of the terrain felt like sand, and it was hard to get a good foothold.  The fans were very supportive though.  High school girls that I didn’t know yelled encouragement to me as I passed…”Go MOM!”.  At the time, my finish time disappointed me.  During that Fall, I had finished several races in the 22s.  This one was 23:40.  (In retrospect, I’m perfectly happy with this time).

Next up was  our son’s race.  While we were waiting for his race to start, I stopped by the awards table to see if they had any results.  Amazingly, I had earned an award!! Twenty three women raced in the entire Master’s category.  The top 20 finishers received awards.  The top ten were gold medal winners.  The next ten received silver medals.  I finished 9th!! A Gold Medal!

My favorite medal EVER!

 

The top lady in the category finished 6 full minutes faster than me.  Yes, a woman over forty finishing with something starting with a 17!! Amazing.  I later googled her name.  Zola Pieterse.  Maiden name BUDD.  Yes, she ran for the UK in the Olympics in the 80s!  She is the one who had a collision with Mary Decker on the track that caused Mary Decker to not finish.  WOW!!  I wonder if that was the middle aged lady that I had been joking with at the start.  She must have thought I was an idiot!

Our son ran, and did fine.  His finish time also started with a 17.  He was just barely faster than Zola!  He wasn’t pleased with his time though.  (They never are). One of the boys from our high school finished second!  He had been the fastest boy in Georgia for the past three years.  So with his second place finish, he earned a gold medal (I like to joke that Josh and I were the only 2 from our high school with the gold medals), and a spot in the Footlocker Nationals!

Today I am trying a link up for the Weekly Wrap hosted by Holly @ HoHoRuns and Tricia @ MissSippiPiddlin.   See rules here. Thank you ladies!

 

 

 

 

The CRAZIEST Run of My Entire Life

Today started out fairly normal…I got up and had my cookies, then started to procrastinate my run.

During my procrastination phase, I was texting with a friend. She was telling me about another friend of ours…D.  D is a 40 something hard charging, high level corporate executive who tackles full iron man length triathlons for fun! Well it turns out D is 5 months pregnant with her first child!! I started out my run thinking  about how happy I am for D. She preoccupied my thoughts for the first few miles.

At mile three, it was time to implement my new strategy for regaining some speed. This is a highly complex, advanced strategy, so of you’re a newbie, you may not want to try it until you have some more experience.  But here it is….I’ve decided that you have to go fast if you want to go fast! So I ran speedy for my next mile and a half. Two and a half more laps around the park at a slower speed, a few stops at the water fountain, and then I turned out of the park to go home with the intention of doing my last mile (9) speedy too.

I passed the fire station, and was trying to pump myself up to do a fast mile, and wondering what I could write a blog post about when a car that was going in my same direction about 20 feet in front of me jumped the curb, crossed the side walk, ran into some crepe myrtle tree stalks, and then FLIPPED completely over!! It was completely upside down, the roof was totally crushed in, and the car impacted with an electric pole. The transformer on the top of the pole exploded twice, sparks flying everywhere!! I kept running. But faster now, toward the car. A man driving in another car who had witnessed everything yelled at me not to touch the car….it could be live. I didn’t.  I saw a lifeless arm in the car and prayed that no one was dead.  I yelled inside that we were calling for help, but that we didn’t want to touch the car. I saw movement in the car. At least one person was alive. I ran back to the man in the car who had yelled at me not to touch it..his wife was calling 911.  Then I remembered the fire station. It was about 1/10 of a mile away. A boy in a jeep took off.  For some stupid reason, so did I. Anyway, the fire engines got to the accident scene within about three minutes of the accident. By the time I got back, they already had a chain saw out to cut through the car to get to the man. It turns out there was only one person in the car…so he was alive.

I hung around for a few minutes, then feeling pretty shook up, decided to head home. I had to run through the scene to get home. Needless to say I didn’t feel up to a speedy last mile either.

The electric pole to the left was the site where the car flipped over.

When I got home, and was telling my family about the accident, we realized I would have been killed if I’d been running a bit faster in my third and fourth park laps…or if I hadn’t stopped for water.

I pray that the man will be OK. Incidents like this make you put life’s petty issues into perspective.

The chunked up grass must be where the wrecker pulled in…b/c  there was absolutely no braking when the car jumped the curb.

Today I am trying a link up for the Weekly Wrap hosted by Holly @ HoHoRuns and Tricia @ MissSippiPiddlin.   See rules here. Thank you ladies!

Deer Run

I encounter a lot of deer when I run.  We live in a neighborhood that is built around a golf course, so there is a lot of land for deer.  Right now, it is deer mating season which causes the deer to behave unpredictably. Normally, they are cautious about crossing roads, but during mating season, they become bold and unafraid. They leave our neighborhood and try to cross busy outside roads in search of mates. As you can imagine, the end result is that a lot of deer get hit and killed.  Most of the time, the deer carcass stays by the side of the road until its remains are devoured by vultures (this usually takes MANY weeks).  And lord help you if you encounter a carcass on your run!  Ugh!!!

This past weekend, I noticed smelled, then saw a new carcass near one of my favorite early morning run streets.  It was in someone’s side yard.   I haven’t been back that way all week, b/c I’m not sure if its still there.  If it is, and I did my normal route, I’d have to run by it at least three times!  Since my sense of smell becomes heightened when I run, I haven’t wanted to risk it.

In other deer related news, I encountered a beautiful, big sized buck this morning during my pre-dawn run. Here is the weird thing about the encounter:  Before I saw him, I heard an unfamiliar, repetitive noise.  It was a deep sounding CRRK, CRRK, CRRK.  Then I saw the buck and understood that the sound was coming from him.  I never knew deer made noises!!  I see deer almost ever single day, and the only noise I have EVER heard from them is snorting (which will scare the bejesus out of you if you hear it before you see them).

I’m wondering what wildlife you encounter during your runs?