long time no see

it feels like not much has happened since devil's lake but actually a lot has happened.  we moved to tosa from delafield so that's something pretty big.  i am continually surprised by how close everything is and how challenging it is to try and get a long run in the city.  i basically run from my house on the hank aaron as far east as possible (to the lake) and then have to run along the lake until i get the mileage i'm looking for.

 i've found a few trails and routes (all paved so far) and unfortunately the hank aaron heading west is closed in a section until 2018 for the freeway construction that goes over the trail.  i was really looking forward to running that way so i'm thinking i'm going to try it again and attempt the detour... see where it leads me.

i've also just learned today of a short gravel trail that is about 3-4 miles in on what has become my usual route.  i'm very excited to find this trail and check it out.  

i just signed up for the tosa fest 5K.  i haven't run a 5K since may and i guess it's about time.  i'm pretty excited because this race is just blocks from my house.  i don't like the 5:30pm start time, but whatever... could still be fun.  probably won't be my fastest 5K since i'm a faster (better?) runner in the morning.

next weekend i've got the strider 1/2.  mostly i've just been puttering along.  after ice age i feel like ever other race is just a professionally timed run.  i feel competitive about it but not like last year.  after i accomplished the 50K it doesn't seem like any of these other races are as important as they once were.  

i'm not sure what my 2016 goals will be.  i can't decide what my focus should be.  part of me wants to run long but part of me wants to focus on getting faster and to get faster i think i need to incorporate more 5K races into my race season.  if i do that then the longer races will fall to the wayside.  i'm really considering iceage again as my A race for 2016.  i'd like to shave some time off and with an injury free body i really believe i could have run that faster than i did.  

so that's what's been going on with me.  back in the city and couldn't be happier!

badgerland striders 1/2 marathon

badgerland striders 1/2 marathon - august 23, 2014

time = 1:50:35 (1:51:12 last year)
pace = 8:26
placed 11 in my age group (40-44) out of 66 (9 out of 61 last year)
placed 65 in women out of 441 (58 out of 408 last year)
placed 226 overall out of 838 (226 out of 792 last year)

weird to get 226 again this year. also weird that i ran faster and placed lower in my age group...

awesome striders' medal

there's some fast old ladies out there.

so i did a couple of things different for this race which proved to be disastrous. i used a new nuun which has caffeine in it.  not sure if that contributed to the problem or not.  i'm guessing not but it's hard to tell at this point considering the disaster that i call my stomach.  i stupidly opted for an aleve which is an nsaid. i haven't taken an nsaid since ragnar and we all know how well that worked out.  basically, nsaids wreak havoc on my intestinal tract.  i also took an imodium assuming that they would cancel each other out yet i'd reap the benefits of both.  yeah, um, not so much.

the products i use that are beneficial and wonderful are:

• x2 performance - 1 2oz bottle
• 2 capsules of sports legs
• 1 tablet of nuun in my water bottle

i'm going to assume that the nuun was fine and that my gut problems completely stemmed from the aleve.  

my splits

so... the run.  the race started out and i was supposed to be running it as a training run.  i decided i was going to keep it slow, steady, and run at a comfortable pace.  i decided on 8:20 as a good pace and began there.  i kept it there and ran.  at mile 2 my friend jim from the LPTR group passed me, and admittedly it was all over for the "training run" at that point.  oh, who am i kidding... i was never going to be able to contain myself and run this as a training run.  so jim passed me and i spent the next mile catching up to him.  we ran together until about mile 4 when i realized there was no way i was going to make it any further without peeing.  thankfully there was a port-o-potty conveniently up ahead at which point i ducked off to go.  moments later i was off again.  interestingly enough mile 4 was my fastest mile at 7:48.  i could see jim ahead of me and spent the next couple of miles catching up again.  i think i caught up to him around 6 or 7.  we then ran the rest of the race together which was really great.  it was around 77 degrees with 95% humidity.  very foggy and so wet!

my stomach started letting me know how uncomfortable it was around mile 10.  by mile 11 i had to take walk breaks.  i wasn't sure i was going to make it to the end without hitting a bathroom which was so disappointing!  thankfully this course is almost completely flat so it goes very quickly.  

jim stuck with me the whole time bless his heart!  it's pretty awesome that even with the walking we still managed really good splits!  i'm disappointed with the last 3 miles, but it really couldn't be helped.  i just keep thinking about how i could have shaved at least a whole minute off my time if i had not had the stomach issues!  what a stupid idea to take the aleve!  admittedly, if jim had not been there to encourage me on i may have walked that whole last mile... or stopped at that last port-o-potty.  i'm so grateful that he was there.  i finished strong and with a PR from last year.  so... good enough for me.  next year i'll do better.  

this is such a fun race.  the weather was so gross that i just was so happy when it was over.  they fed us sausages, potatoes, and of course beer.  i don't drink beer so whateves to that.  they also had the standards... bananas, water, some sodas, and oranges.  the start and finish is at the estabrook beer garden which wisconsinites really love (obviously).  

my poor toes

i've been running in my shoes for over 300 miles now.  this is notable because when i got home today and got my shoes off i realized just how badly i need to replace them.  ugh... blood blisters.  i will be losing a nail for sure.  my poor toes.  runners toes... oh yeah, so hot.   yup... those are my toes fresh out of my shoes.  don't worry... i have since lanced the blisters and painted the nails so they look presentable.  geez louise...

pain in the tuckus

*sigh*

remember this?  well, that wasn't the only injury i gave myself while trail running that particular week.  i also stepped squarely on a big enough rock with my left foot to hurt something fierce...

i've been nursing both of these injuries ever since.  i haven't been too concerned about either injury until yesterday.  the foot doesn't hurt when i poke and prod it so i figured that maybe it was just an internal bruise.  i did my long run on saturday (12mi) and then went to chicago for the day.  it was my birthday and we decided to spend the day walking around parts of chicago.  we parked by millennium park and then walked to the water tower.  in between we went to navy pier for an art festival thing that was going on and also to a restaurant for some food.  it was a wonderful day overall but i'm sure contributed to the way my foot has been feeling.

yesterday, however, my run was brutal.

from the very first running step both of my lower extremities were giving me hell... the right, because of the pulled muscle, felt tight and uncomfortable but did not actually hurt.  the left, because of the (possibly) bruised foot, felt weak and overall painful with each delicately pounding step.  this was compounded since i was on uneven terrain.  ultimately the pain subsided some as i got deeper into the run. 

i cannot tell you how beautiful it is running in lapham!

i completed the black route in just over an hour... slower than the last couple of times but man... that foot!  my time was 1:02:17 for the 6.5 miles. i tried not to walk the hills but walked a minute on the south hill and maybe a minute or less on another hill further in.  not too bad.

when i got home my foot was awful to step on.  did i take any ibuprofen?  oh no... of course not!  i just got in bed and watched a little tv instead. 

this morning it was so painful to walk on that i was limping.  3 ibuprofen later and it doesn't hurt at all... must be some sort of inflammation.  what a pain in the tuckus!  geez... 

this weekend i have the brewers mini marathon and i'm supposed to do 2 more training runs before my off days.  i always take the 2 days before a race off as rest days. 

when i got up this morning i decided i wasn't going to run my last 2 training runs, but now that my foot doesn't hurt i think i might just do an easy 5-6mi road run after work instead of running the trails.  give my foot a break and all that jazz.  i guess i'll decide for certain after work and see how i feel then.  i guess that's the problem with being a bit obsessive... i feel awful not getting my runs in.

my mileage for this month has been awesome compared to april - august... i haven't made my goal mileage any of those months.  then i did the striders 1/2 and was thoroughly disappointed in my time.  i decided that i needed to kick it up a few notches so that the brewers 1/2 goes better.  i was really hoping to PR in the striders so now that's my goal for the brewers.  time will tell. 

Badgerland Striders 1/2 Marathon

Badgerland Striders 1/2 Marathon - August 24, 2013
time = 1:51:02 (1:51:12 official results)
pace = 8:25 (8:30 official results)
placed 9th in my age group (40-44) out of 61
placed 58th in women out of 408
placed 226 overall out of 792

based on my experience with the Summerfest Rock 'n Sole i decided to approach this race a bit differently. i have a tendency to take off too fast out of the gate and then poop out near the end of the race. so this time i decided to pace myself. it was a really (seemingly) easy task because i bought this awesome garmin a couple of weeks ago! let me just say... I LOVE LOVE LOVE my garmin! best purchase i've made in a long time.

so... one would think that it would be a cinch to pace my running with this lovely addition. let me tell you... IT WAS NOT! my mileage looked like this:





evidently i am incapable of maintaining a steady speed! the first couple of miles i was going so fast but it didn't feel uncomfortable or taxing but i kept telling myself to slow down and then i'd try that and the next time i looked at my watch i'd be going faster again. it was a continuous adjustment. the first 8 miles were pretty easy but then my legs started to get tired and i found that it was incredibly challenging to maintain the 8:20 speed i was trying to stay at. i really wanted to beat my time (1:48:17) from the summerfest 1/2 so i figured that if i run at a steady 8:20 i should get that or a minute or so better. too bad i couldn't maintain that pace. the last 2 miles were the worst! i was so slow!

this was a great race! really well organized and beautiful to boot. the one thing i didn't like about it was that there were no timing chips. that would have been nice for accurate and actual times. although... when i finished the time on the clock was close to the time on my watch so i guess it really didn't matter that much. this was my first time running this race and i guess there were maybe double the runners as opposed to last year. even with that being so they weren't overwhelmed with the overload so that was great! there was free breakfast and beer afterwards in the beer garden as well as the usual water, gatorade, bananas. of course, they also had sodas, chips, and pretzels which is a twist. all in all it was a really awesome race and such a great experience. i had a lot of fun.