From NR: Short stories

Lots of random things to say so let's make one post of them all!


I've had some fabulous long runs on trails so far this winter! Who says snow needs to be the end of trail running for the year? You just have to be prepared to not care about pace and not be in a hurry if the footing is bad. I have to say, though, I have a muscle right below my knee in the front of my leg that is rather angry about all of the crappy footing. I also had an 8 hour shift at my part time job that involved lots of heavy lifting and bending so that could be part of it too, though. I am pretty happy with how my knee seems to be fine with all the slip-sliding around, so that's a good sign. That said, sometimes the snowmobile trails can be beautiful running with good footing if you hit them at the right time. And the views in the winter are so different without the leaves around.
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I've recently discovered this wonderful thing called the 3 mile lunch break run! I can eat half my lunch at my desk if I'm late to lunch and it's a suitable thing to eat (because if I'm late to lunch I'm soooooo hungry that running first is a bad idea), run for 3 miles and have plenty of time to, stretch, cool off, change, sponge off my face and eat the rest of my lunch! How wonderful! It's feels incredibly awesome to be able to run in the middle of your work day even if it's just a little bit and I'm super lucky to have the opportunity! I'm downtown so I can hit the lakewalk or run down Superior Street. The only problem? This will only be doable in the winter - I'm much too sweaty to do this once the weather warms up and still be presentable. I'm going to be so sad when that happens, though! Especially since I could hit the hiking trail - it's the section heading up from the M&H so I wouldn't feel all that safe coming down it in a hurry in the winter. But maybe once the weather gets better, I could run home after work and just bike to work the next day, leaving my car in the parking garage. Hmm . . .
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For some reason, I've started eying up running skirts lately. I've never really been on board with them for myself but my mind seems to be changing. I might have to try some on and see how they feel.
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I feel like I haven't raced in ages! I suppose, not counting the NMTC series, I haven't raced since Wild Duluth and that was almost 15 weeks ago. And really, I don't have anything planned for ages, either! Next Saturday is a half marathon in the Cities but if I have next weekend off, I'm probably headed in the opposite direction :) I'll really be raring to race when the time comes.
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So how about some 2011 running goals?
- Stay injury free! Which means being careful about upping mileage and also:
- Keep that regular weight lifting
- Get a better handle on what my stomach wants/can take during longer races. Actually, lunch time runs might help me with this. If I'm eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then I can eat one before heading out and one after to get my stomach used to running with PB&J in it. Of course, that's only 3 miles but it's something, right?
- Be comfortable with signing up for my first 50 mile and finish said 50
- I'll be setting a marathon time goal but not right now
- Race a road 5K so I can chip away at the PR some more - I didn't run a single road 5K last year!
- Yet again, log every run! I want a yearly total!

Safe places to run?

Okay, so the midwest got hit with a giant storm over Christmas. Parts of Duluth got 20 inches, parts got 10, all got freezing rain on top of it. So what this equals out to is really, really shitty road conditions and non-existent sidewalks in most places. I'm not talking thse annoying houses that never seem to shovel and so you have to twist along through slippery, uncertain footing (though, they're part of it since many people were gone for the holidays and returned to completely frozen up sidewalks that are impossible to shovel). I'm talking about snowplows having pushed up several feet of frozen ice and snow chunks to the point of not even knowing where the sidewalk is let alone be able to safely navigate it.

The city has barely touched any of the sidewalks they're supposed to be maintaining. This means no safe place to run. In many places there isn't even a shoulder - I'm creeped out driving to work as there's no shoulder, the entire right lane isn't even clear and there's no place for pedestrians. We drove down Trinity today and saw deer legs jutting out from one of the snowbanks! Just the legs sticking out.

Now usually, I run on the roads, ignoring the sidewalks anyway. But when the roads are coated with ice and with no safe place to jump to should I need to, I'm not sure what to do. Residential roads can only take me so far before I have to get onto a 'main' road that the city should be maintaining and isn't. I have a long run to do on Monday and I guess I'll head the direction of the lakewalk since that route has the least amount of unsafe roads.

From NR: Happy 2010

I have to share my Christmas Day running story! I was in Wisconsin that day and it was raining/sleeting most of the day and about 10:00 I finally head out the door to do a quick 4 miles. It's raining, the roads are crappy - slush and snow and wet and slippery - and I'm running into a fairly stiff head wind and what I'm thinking is: "Man, this is awesome!"

Clearly something is wrong with me . . . I have always loved running in the rain, though. This also marks the first run (I think) where I've been offered a ride from someone driving by because clearly no-one would be out running in that weather by choice. I just grinned and said I was just fine.

So Happy New Year, everyone! Here's hoping 2010 is a good year for all. I didn't do so well with my goals for last year but the most important one, keeping running fun and not stressing if/when things go wrong, I was able to stick to. January 1st is an important date for another reason - many marathon fees went up yesterday. So I finally decided on running the Eau Claire Marathon on May 2 and registered while I could still get the early rate. Who else is coming with? It looks like a beautiful course and I'm excited for another new race! There's also a Half Marathon and a 2 mile.

I have lots of races that I want to do this year, of course. Last year, I only made it to 10 races, not counting the NMTC series! I started using Google calendar from my email to write down every race that I have any interest in, just to see when everything is. Hopefully that will help me remember when things are and plan ahead to make it to races better.

Here are my 2010 goals that I'm ready to share (yes, this means there are some that I'm not ready to share yet):
- make it strong through the February blahs
- consistantly log my runs ALL YEAR even if it's just jotting down the mileage and nothing else
- break 3:30 in a marathon, hopefully Eau Claire
- keep my mileage up all year
- run my first ultra (probably the Wild Duluth 50K)
- stay injury free
and, of course
- keep running fun for myself and those running with me