do hard things

i say this to myself a lot.  i mean... a lot.  there are some seriously difficult things that i live with every day and have for a very long time in my personal life so i try to find the most wonderful things about each day even when it seems like it's the shittiest day ever.

i've had a pretty tough 34 days.  it's been 34 days exactly since i sprained the fuck out of my right ankle.  sprained it so bad i thought it was broken.  see my previous post. 

today i ran.  i ran deliberately slow and controlled and oh so careful because i have some goals for 2020 to do some very hard things and i need my ankle to allow me to do these very hard things.

my ankle is achy and sore but painless.  running felt wonderful but hard.  my cardio has suffered with that short break but nothing to worry about.  my training starts in earnest the second week of january so i've got time to get it together before then.

today i did a very scary thing.  i signed up for the iceage 50.  i sort of want to puke.  i've run the 50K before and never in a million years thought i'd ever want to run 50 miles... but here we are once again proving never say never is indeed a thing.

“Courage is not the absence of fear. 

It is rather not letting your fear control your actions” 

~ Brett Harris

sometimes you have to do hard things to know you're alive, strong, and that life is as beautiful as you know it is.

when it rains it pours... otherwise known as a rolled ankle

gah... so after my last post about how i NEED running to be sane i went out and ran again that sunday because well... everything felt great!  the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, my smile was a mile wide, and basically rainbows were shooting out of my ass.

then it all came crashing down.

i was about 1.5 miles from home on a beautiful trail that runs along the river and i rolled my right ankle.  i crumpled to the ground as the sky did indeed fall all around me.  i laid there in the mud for a little bit chanting the mantra "please don't be broken, please don't be broken, please don't be broken" over and over again through tears.

then i took a breath and reasoned with myself that if i could stand on then it wasn't broken. 
so i bore weight and... i could stand on it.

then i reasoned that if i could walk on it (in spite of the instant swelling just above my shoe line) that it wasn't broken. 
so i took a few steps and... i could walk.

then i convinced myself that if i could run on it then there's absolutely no way it's broken.
so i ran home.

while it hurt a little it didn't hurt like i expected a break to feel.  i've broken another bone before (shattered my right wrist in 2007) and just now i'm remembering that it didn't hurt at all for about 2 hours.  then hole-e-shit it hurt SO MUCH!  well... i ran home and it didn't really hurt and i figured that if it was broken there was no way i would be able to do that.

when i got home i asked my husband to look at it and judging from his reaction... i guess i should have called him to come get me.

as soon as i took the shoe off my whole ankle swelled up like a balloon.  i basically took a shower and then sat on the couch with ice the whole rest of the day.  then on monday i went to the doc and she had a little looksee and told me that it wasn't broken but very badly sprained.

*sigh*

being that i'm not feeling all that mentally stable right now this felt like the end of the world for a hot minute.  then i dusted off my brain and took a breath. 

the nurse said 4-6 weeks but i'm not in a boot so that's something.  my ankle was so swollen the first 1/2 of this week that i couldn't get a real shoe on my foot.  today it's still swollen (6 days later) but at least i can see my ankle bones now.  before it was cankle city!

there's a pretty impressive bruise that goes from just above my ankle bone on the outside all the way along the whole base of my foot and ends just before the pinkie toe begins.  mostly the bruise hurts but the foot/ankle... not so much. 

guess 2019 is really going out with a bang.

winter blues... its a thing.

so i got a stupid shin splint in my stupid right shin back in september and i ran through it like a dummy because i had a race coming up that i love and wanted to do well in.  after the race... well, i've been running sporadically at best.

i averaged 1 run a week for 5 weeks in a row and then i felt pretty good so i ran 3 times the week of 10/21-10/27 and then my shin started talking to me the morning after the 3rd run.  no pain but i could feel whatever it is in the shin that is a shin splint... ligament, muscle, whatever hurts.  i'm too lazy to look it up right now so you'll have to use your own google skills on this one.  so i decided that day that i would wait until december 1st to run again.

guess how long that lasted?

until today.

i ran today.  i NEEDED to run today.  it got really cold, dreary, and freaking snowed on halloween so i've been less than good this week.  i've been borderline depressed and just full of unease and malcontent.  i NEEDED to run.  so i taped my shin, hoped for the best, and ran 3 miles.  it was a glorious 3 miles.  it is beautiful outside and the air smells amazing and the wind on my skin was amazing and my labored breathing was amazing and my working muscles were amazing and everything about it was amazing.

which brings me to what people like to call seasonal affective disorder.  apparently, it IS a thing.  so i wonder how it correlates with your run of the mill all the time depression? 

my family has a history of mental illness and depression.  how this has passed on to me is in the form of manic depressive disorder and deep depressive states.  running has all but cured this garbage from my brain.  when i run regularly i have very few if not non-existent episodes of wildly varying mood swings.  my moods are stabilized by regular running.  my highs are (seemingly) normal and my lows are (seemingly) normal.  i have not been medicated in many many years thanks to running.

so how do i balance my brain if i cannot run?  i also have a bit of an obsessive/compulsive issue as well and when i switched my focus to running this has proven to be alternately a bonus to my running and a detriment.  it is a detriment because i can't not run.  i have run through injury after injury.  i get really paranoid when i don't get to run regularly about my fitness and weight gain.  i get really in my head about these things to the point of obsession.  i begin to obsess about the foods i put in my body and how much.  when i get to run regularly i do not obsess about any of these things.  i eat healthy and what i want.  i don't restrict my diet when i run and i honestly do not think about food at all other than when i'm hungry i eat it.

i NEED to run.  i NEED to run weekly.  i NEED it to function properly in this world.  it reduces my stress to nil.  it makes me feel good.  it gives me something to do that allows me to see the beauty in my life, and appreciate all that i have going for me.  it makes me a better wife, mother, and friend.  it allows me to see that nothing in my life is a chicken little sky is falling issue.  before running my life was very dramatic.  my brain was very dramatic.  everything was life or death... and living with that sort of stress in one's brain is really really hard to do. 

today i am calm.  i am positive.  i am freaking happy.

this is because i run.

so... i am panicking about this stupid shin splint and the amount of time i will have to wait for it to go away so that i can not die.  see... dramatic as hell is my brain off running.  lol!

in all seriousness tho' i'm losing it.  i need to run and am so grateful that my body allowed me to do it today.  once a week is not enough tho' so i hope that i can pepper it through every other day or something right now... we will see.

i post this (for one) because i want you to know that you are not alone. 
i post this (for two) because i want you to know that it's ok to have mental illness
i post this (for three) because i want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you if you too have a mental illness

i don't really talk about this garbage ever because i don't want anyone to look at me with pity or in a different way because my brain works differently.  i don't want to be viewed as weaker or broken because of my brain.  i went many years believing that i was broken and that something was wrong with me, and even tho' i KNOW that there isn't anything wrong with me... i still need to maintain the things that help keep my brain in check and KNOWING that i need to do these things is important in keeping nothing wrong with me.  i hope that makes sense.

right now i feel a little panicky and just needed to put it down somewhere.  lastly, today's short run was the best and i'm so glad i did it.

shin splint for the win.

turns out my problem is a pesky shin splint.  only in the right shin and even with 2 weeks off of running still isn't resolved.  guess i'm sitting all of october out so that i can try and get this under control before the real goal getting begins.

i have a couple of very lofty goals for 2020 and i need to come into the year fresh as a newborn (but with less rubber in my bones).  it's hard to become a runner when one was never a runner.  i sort of feel like if i could have had a couple of decades under my belt by now with running i'd be less prone to injuring myself because i'd understand the mechanics and such.

i don't know how to not hurt myself.  i am thinking about switching shoes altogether to some hoka's for the cushion, but i'm also afraid to do so because what if that doesn't remedy the problem?  i can't really afford to hire a coach so i do this on my own by trial and error... and now that i'm old, well... i think i error more than i don't.

i've gotten smarter at not running through pain and injury but that also means inconsistent training across the board.  i've thought about running slower to see if i can mitigate injury but i have trouble running slower than my natural pace.  i also really love to run distance and i have not been able to do that consistently in a long time.

this shin splint is just another nagging injury in a series of injuries i've had for the past several years.  2019 was better in that i was able to run most of the year injury-free but that was only because of the inconsistency of my training and not really doing any distance running.

so november 1st i'm going to begin again and start small... 3-4 miles at a time and probably not consecutively and see how that feels.  once i can do that a few times a week i will probably pick up some more distance on the weekends.  i have to really start training in earnest in january 2020 so i need to go into that healthy.

if anyone has any suggestions please let me hear them.

Instep Trail Races - 7Miler

InStep Trail Races, 7 miler - September 14, 2019
time = 1:05:33
pace = 9:48
placed 1 in my age group (45-49) out of 7
placed 4 in women out of 43
placed 15 overall out of 70
link to strava data

please note:  this is the fastest i've run this race in the past 3 years... yay!

the start of this report is going to look remarkably like last year's report in that i didn't run much prior to this race.  in fact, my last run prior to this race was the sunday before... so 5 full days with no running.  this is because about 2 weeks ago i ran this course (minus the tower) in new shoes/insoles (same shoes and insoles as always... just a new pair of each) and for whatever reason, my right shin got very very sore.  i mean, tender to the touch sore.  this, in turn, affected the rest of the lower leg on that side and i opted to see my physical therapist last friday as a ditch effort for some magical cure.  he said my soleus muscle was all jacked and was likely affecting the rest of the leg.  he did some deep tissue massage that left me hella sore the rest of the week and i opted for a short run on that sunday post PT, but rest the remaining days of the week.

i got to lapham early so that i could warm up incase everything was still jacked.  i ran a loop around the parking lot and wouldn't you know it... my stupid leg was weird.  now, i say it was "weird" because it wasn't painful.  it was weak feeling... like a pinched nerve sort of... or like it was going to give out and not hold my weight sort of.  i walked it off, stretched, stretched my ankle specifically, and then figured i was going to have to wing it.

i ran into the only other person i knew was running the same race, candice, and we talked and commiserated about our injuries.  then it was almost time to race.  incidentally, this is the last year that russ is directing the race.  instep was bought out by PRO so there would be no more of this race... until it was announced that silver circle sports events is going to take it over.  not sure what they will call it or how it will be run, but since this is my favorite course and favorite race of the year... i'm glad they're going to continue it.

so candice and i started the race together and nursed our injuries for about the first 1/2 mile and then we separated.  i had a time goal for this race and once my leg felt fine... i decided i was going to still shoot for it.  so off i went.

i try to run the whole first mile of the course (race or no race) and that means that i run approximately the last .25 uphill.  i know that doesn't sound difficult but that is very difficult for me.  i am not good at running uphill.  in fact, i would say that i am absolutely terrible at it and can't figure out how to get better.

so i hit 1 mile on my watch and promptly started walking.  oh sweet relief!  walking is wonderful... until it's not.  so i walk a little ways up to a specific dip in the trail where it sort of becomes a gentle incline instead of an actual hill and then i start running again.  this particular hill is called gut buster and is approximately .78 of a mile up.  it seems not so hard when you're looking at it but when you're trying to run it... it's very difficult.  for me at least...

so i run/walk up this hill and try to run as much as i can with certain spots where i take walk breaks to help get my heart rate back down and to not feel like i'm dying.

then the top comes and the sweet sweet joy of bombing the downhills begins.  i LOVE, absolutely LOVE bombing down.  it is my reward for trying to run up. lol!  i also make up significant time by doing this - quads be damned!


it was at this point that i caught up to a couple of guys as i bombed down a hill.  i kept trading places with them for a bit and started to get annoyed and too focused on where they were.  they were ahead of me for the whole first part of the race, but after gut buster i passed them on the down hill and then when i walked they passed me on the up and this went on for several different hills until i was finally tired and annoyed enough of being so close to them that i  took off on the flat at the top of asthma hill to get some space between us.  i lost them in the hills just prior to the tower, and i managed to maintain pretty good splits even with running up the tower in mile 4.  i meant to count the sets of stairs up the tower but forgot... i think there are 5 flights but i have no idea how many actual stairs.  once at the top i turn around and fly down... holding on so that if i eat it... i won't fall far.

i saw candice on my way from the tower as she was heading to the tower.  since i am so competitive and she was the only person i knew personally who was running the race i really wanted to stay ahead of her.  she is a much better runner than me and she kicked my ass at high cliff passing me in the last mile and beating me in the race so this time... i wanted to stay ahead... cuz... competitive.  duh...

thankfully right after the tower is the downhill (the big slide?) that parallels gut buster and is similar length so almost a mile downhill... running at full speed and making up time.  i passed a few people but this race is 3 different races at the same time on the same course so it's hard to determine who's in your race and who's running the 1/2 or the full marathon distances... and trying to look at someone's bib is just too tough so i have no idea if i was passing people in my race or not.  no matter... it feels good to pass people cuz... competitive.

i hit the bottom of the hill and at that point it's about 1.5 miles to the finish with another long hill (aptly named 2 tier because there are 2 parts of the hill with a small sort of flatish incline between them).  i passed a guy on the flat who passed me right back on the first portion of 2 tier, and back and forth until the downhill called magic carpet ride.  i zoomed past him on magic carpet ride because who cares about quads, and then there was one more man in front of me.  he seemed to be running faster than me but when we hit the final flat at the same time i pulled ahead by a hair.  it was then that i decided to try and stay ahead of him.  it was SO HARD!  i was literally only a breath ahead of him... i could hear him breathing on my right the whole time.  when we both hit the final straightaway and i could see the finish i started sprinting.  normally i do not do this because i simply do not have it in me.  normally i feel so bad at the end of a race that it takes all that i have just to keep running, however this time... i RAN!

i ran as hard and as fast as i could with him on my heels the whole time.  i came in first with only a 2 second different between our times!  TWO SECONDS!  man... that felt really good.  it felt really good to run as hard as i could and do as well as i did coming off a stupid weird injury.  i'm hoping that the injury is gone for good and that tomorrow when i wake up i will feel great and will be able to run a nice run with frank.

i've got some big goals for 2020 and need to go into the new year fresh and injury free!

as always i love the shit out of this race.  i love lapham and love running there as much as i can.  i'm not sure what the race will be called next year but i hope it's put on with just as much love and care as russ put into it all these years.

now is a good time to talk about Frank

so... i've been running pretty consistently this season and i think a lot of it can be attributed to Frank.

meet frank...




i got Frank in november 2018 and he started running with me in spring.  he is an australian cattle dog also known as a blue heeler.  i did a lot of research before choosing this breed.  my last dog, luda, died at 14 years old at the end of last summer and i miss him terribly.  he was a boston terrier and while he loved to be with me, and tried his best to run with me... it was difficult for him to run any sort of distance.  the best he did was 6 or so miles.  so when it was time for me to bring a new dog into my life i wanted someone that could run long trail miles with me.  enter... the australian cattle dog.

these dogs were bred to herd cattle long distances through challenging terrain and weather.  they're also a medium-sized dog and therefore much more manageable than some of the larger dogs i was considering.  he's really a great dog and i'm so happy i can share my life and my runs with him.

High Cliff Ultra 25K

High Cliff Ultra 25K - August 3rd 2019

time = 2:49:52
pace = 10:56
placed 1 in my age group (45-49) out of 15
placed 12 in women out of 76
placed 25 overall out of 124
link to strava data


what to say about this... well, i've DNS'd the past 2 years in a row due to my near-constant injury after injury.  this year i really wanted to run this so i waited until 3 weeks before the race and signed up.  i suppose i should mention that when i signed up the longest distance i had run since may was maybe 10 miles.  i figured i would run it and not really race it and just make sure that i finished as the goal.

i ran a 15 mile training run out at nordic with sid the saturday before and it went well with no aches or pains but we took it really easy and ran pretty slow.  then on my tuesday run the next week my left leg felt so bad!  my quad was all kinds of knotted up and i could barely roll it without tears.  because i wanted to run this race i decided not to run the rest of last week (leading up to the race) so i could just roll the knots out of my quad and be good for the race.  it proved to be the right tactic because my legs felt great going into the race!

high cliff state park is approximately 1:47 minutes from my house.  i drove up the morning of the race since my race didn't start until 9am so i could get up at a decent time and make it there with time to spare.  my gps sent me to the wrong place at first but it must happen all the time because that place is a storage area for the park and they have a sign right out front that says so much and gives directions on how to get to the actual park entrance.  so i turned around and headed into the quaint little village of sherwood, wi.  i finally found the park and drove up to where all the hand written signs were telling me to go.

once i arrived i got a primo parking spot right at the starting line.  i think people thought it was a handicap spot as it was right next to the actual handicap spot, but it was not... don't worry i checked... it was just for me!

i got there just in time to see the 50K start.  denny was running that and i cheered him on, but alas... he did not hear me.  after that i went looking for my bib.

got my bib and noticed that there was no timing chip!  what the hell?!?  i got all nervous and fb'd a friend who told me that Mark, the race director, does it old school and they write down your time as you come through the finish.  craziness... hard for my type-A personality to be ok with it but what the hell?!?  i went with it and hoped that they got it right.

the race starts pretty bare-bones... like a lot of trail races i've run... just a little yell and off we went.

the first 2/10 of a mile was a steep service road downhill.  it spread people out but only by a smidge.  then we ran a bit of flat paved trail for the other 8/10 of the first mile to go ahead and start climbing single track trail back to the bluff.  to be honest... i don't remember the flat being that long but in all the excitement things get weird.

the single track was frustrating because it was up down up down up down and i was stuck behind a couple of people.  when i'd finally get past them there'd be an incline and we all know how well i "run" those... so i'd be walking and they'd pass me again.  i make up my walking time on the downs so i was really frustrated that i couldn't get away from these people so that i could really open up my downs.  finally, we got to some flat area (maybe near mile 4?), and i was able to give it some gas and put a little space between us.  i ended up running with a really nice woman until about mile 6 or so.  we kept passing each other as one of us would walk and the other would run by and this went on for a couple of miles until at an aid station in the prairie i lost her for good.  it's too bad too because i was really enjoying her company and it would have been nice to run with her through the prairie that came next.

miles 6-12 were basically scorching hot as balls prairie in full sun and about 85º with very very short brakes of woods for about a stride or two throughout.  to say the prairie was hot as balls is an understatement.  it was more like running on a treadmill in an oven with a heat lamp beating down on you.  there were very short bursts of a gentle cool breeze but they were few and far between.  it was freaking hot!  when i was coming back around to the aid station between miles 12 and 13 i noticed that my fingers were swollen up like sausages.  i needed some salt.

i want to take a moment to thank the volunteers at this aid station.  they were absolutely the best and really boosted my mood both times i went through.  they worked tirelessly to make sure that each and every runner that came through felt special and cared for and it was just what i needed at that moment.  so the space between 12 and 13... i asked one of the volunteers if anyone had any s-tabs and no one did but he offered me a potato.  here's the thing about trail races (if you've never done one)... they have real food.  real good food.  all of the things really...

so i took a tiny potato out of the water it was hanging out in and dipped it in the bowl of salt sitting next to it.  there was so much salt on that damn potato but i sure as hell popped it in my mouth and got it into my belly.  grimace and all.

then i chugged some water, ate some watermelon, and was on my way.  the sign leaving the aid station says 2.3 miles left so i thought... i got this.

my hips had started hurting a couple miles back so i was walking a lot more than anticipated but i felt good and wasn't crying.  i kept running when i could and taking walk breaks when i needed to.  i didn't think i would be winning any placements so i really wasn't pushing through the pain.  i walked a lot in those last 2 miles.

i passed a couple of dudes who smoked me earlier in the race... they were walking now.  the heat really got to a lot of people i think.  i just kept drinking like crazy and making sure my bottle was filled up each chance i got to fill it.  thankfully they had tailwind so i didn't take in anything weird that my belly isn't used to.

so i'm run-walking through the 2.3 miles to the finish and i realize i'm walking more than i'm running so i push a bit harder and that's when i trip.  i saved myself so all was well with the world but i tend to not lift my feet when i get tired so i started paying a little more attention to that so i wouldn't actually fall.

when i'm about a mile out (or so i thought based on what a 25K distance is supposed to be and comparing that to what my watch was telling me) i am passed by 3 women. one right after the other...

so i start to run.  i start to run as hard as i can because hell... i'm almost done and i should be able to run a mile without stopping... right?  i pass 2 of the women who just passed me and then my right hip was all... nah... we're gonna walk.

so i walked.  my watch clocked the course at 15.67 which is why i got confused when i didn't see the finish at 15.5.  it's prairie and then woods and then prairie and then turn into the woods and finally some single track and poof!  we're out of the woods and back at the start/finish where i'm proud to say i ran it in.

i'm pretty proud of this race.  i don't think i was properly trained to be racing this distance and even tho' i said i would go in and just run it... i've never gone in and just run a race.  i race all races.

i did race it conservatively tho' in that i didn't finish with tears or so spent that i couldn't have run a few more miles if necessary.  my hips were hurting which is why i would have had any trouble running farther otherwise i felt pretty good.

this was a really fun race.  it was a lot harder than i thought it would be and i would absolutely run it again.  they had stone-fired pizzas at the end and that was amazing!  i also drank a can of coke which also tasted amazing.

the race director sends out a handwritten note to each participant when they register which i think is a really great touch.  it's meaningful and really drives the olive garden feel home...

"when you're here, you're family"

the bullshit elevation profile for the first 5 miles

all of the next photos were taken by ohwow images.  you can see all the photos they took here

coming down

... and going back up

Walk Run Wag 5K

Walk, Run, Wag for MADACC 5K - July 13, 2019

time = 25:52
pace = 8:19
placed 1 in my age group (40-49) out of 6
placed 6 in women out of 62
placed 15 overall out of 99
link to strava data

i signed up for this race on a whim.  i've been feeling pretty good lately and thought why the hell not?  it's right down the hill from my house and for a good cause... so i ran.

it's a pretty tiny race and turns out... had the exact same number of finishers as the last time i ran it back in 2014.  i was a hell of a lot faster in 2014 tho' and try as hard as i could this time... there was no way in hell i was going to clock a 7:35 average for this race.  granted, i'm 5 years older and man... i'm slower.  i'm even a bit embarrassed to say that i actually WALKED during mile 2 for a bit there...  yes, i walked in a 5K thank you very much.

2 women passed me while i was walking and that second woman... well, she was someone's grandma so i started running again.  no way was i gonna let grandma beat me.  so i ran as hard as i could for that last mile and 1/2 and smoked the grandma by a few minutes.  i count it a win.

it's hard to wrap my head around my slower "fast" but i'm hoping that i can bump that up still.  i know that as we age we naturally get slower but that doesn't account for all those folks older than me that are hella faster than me so i still have to try.  

all in all i feel like i did well.  i tried as hard as i could and can safely say i did my best and that's all i can hope for.  

next race up is High Cliff Ultras 25K... we'll see if i can finally make it there this time.  i've DNS'd twice due to injury so i just have to stay injury free for the next couple of weeks.   here's to staying injury free!

Ice Age Trail 50 (1/2 marathon)

Ice Age Trail 50 (1/2 marathon) - May 11th, 2019

time = 2:06:41

pace = 9:40

placed 5th in my age group (40-49) out of 50

placed 21st in women out of 161

placed 54th overall out of 269

strava data here

welp... because i was feeling so good the last time i was here i decided to reach out to the race director and see if i could get on the waiting list for either the 50K or the 1/2 distance of this race.  he responded and said he would send me a code to sign up for the 1/2.  

so i did.

to be honest, i really didn't exactly "train" for the race.  i ran consistently and tried to get some longer runs in to make sure i could complete the distance.  last saturday i ran out at the nordic trails from the trailhead to horseriders successfully completing just under 13 miles and it was really fun.  

this morning i woke up around 4am and had the worst stomach ache.  i went to the bathroom and that didn't really solve the problem.  plus... now i was awake.  i tried to go back to sleep as my plan was to get up at 6am and be out of the house by 7am.  that plan was a bust.

i got up around 5am, took care of the dogs, did all my morning stuff and was ready to leave the house around 6:30am.  i putzed around on the internet for a little while and ended up leaving just before 7am.  

i brought frank.  i guess i should state that frank is my new-ish dog (got him in november) and my running partner.  he's awesome!  he's a 7 month old blue heeler aka australian cattle dog.  he's the bees knees.  so i brought frank because i didn't want him home all day without me.  my friend denny agreed to keep an eye on him while i was running.  

i meant to start mid/back of the pack so that i wouldn't take off too fast.  while i wanted to race this i also wanted to do so conservatively and see how i could do.  since being injured for the past few years my new fast is closer to just under a 9min mile on roads and a bit slower than that on trails or closer to 10min miles on trails.  my 1st mile out of the gate was a 9min mile.  so i decided to pull back.  i didn't want to burn out since i've not been running this distance regularly.  it is worth noting that none of the nagging pains that have been bothering me lately were an issue.  NOTHING hurt or felt weird!  my right quad was feeling really tense most of the run but not in a way that was painful... probably just the burning of being used as opposed to anything close to pain.  i pushed on.  i wanted to keep each mile under a 10min mile and i managed to do so except for 3 of those 13 miles.  in fact, most of my miles were pretty steady paced which is definitely new for me.  usually i go out hella fast and then putter out at the end and you can tell by my splits.  this time my splits were really close to each other and mostly i was running by feel.  

as always this race was perfect.  the weather was perfect.  the course was perfect.  the volunteers were the best and the race director is always awesome.  it's no wonder the race sells out in all distances in less than an hour every year.

i've never run this course before so that was a nice change from the ice age trail.  i think i've been giving the ski trails a bad rap all this time.  it was a beautiful run and lots of rolling hills.  i ran most of the hills the first loop but puttered out on those same hills the second loop which might account for the 2 miles i was over 10 minutes.  

i would definitely run this again but i'd rather run the 50K.  we will see what my body wants to do next year.  

long time no see

hey guys,

it's been a long time.  i've been on and off injured and not really feeling much myself.  i'm happy to report that i've been building my running again and getting in some winter miles.  i'm upping the load by 20% a week and i'm doing quite well with this.  long run on saturdays, sort of long-ish run on sundays, and 2 shorties during the week.  this is working out well... the 4 day a week system.

i've been doing my long run on icy ass trails mostly at lapham but then i went out to the monches/loew lake segments of the IAT last saturday and had a blast.  i've got no speed to speak of but i'm logging my miles with a smile on my face so that's most important.

i don't have any races scheduled but i've got my eye on a few shorter ones.  i think i'm going to be doing 5 and 10Ks only this year... we'll see tho' because distance is my love.  maybe i have to sacrifice speed for distance?

i'm winging it at this point and running by feel.

what have you been up to this winter?  are you getting outside?  if you're in wisconsin... how are you running in this messy snowy slop we've got going on this month?  i'm still doing it... screws in my shoes keep me moving and upright.