Winter Running

I am in love and his name is Rock Cut State Park and Old Man Winter.


I knew that Saturday's run was going to be interesting and it held up to my expectations.

First time running in the snow this winter. Also my first time at Rock Cut in the winter. I have always stopped going once you can no longer bike on the trails. So I've never seen Rock Cut in this beauty.

We were driving into the park and I had just finished telling Luke that and as soon as the words were out of my mouth, we turned a corner and my jaw fell and breath was taken away. I was in total awe. I felt like I was entering in a Runner's World photo spread or something!

We had said that Luke was going to run his pace and how many miles he wants and then loop back and find me and we'll finish together. So we started running right away, Luke left me behind quarter mile into it and I was pretty good at keeping pace, even with taking pictures.

I did eventually lose sight of him but I could still see his footsteps which I figured will help me stay on track. But it didn't. Eventually I did lose his footprints. I thought I was still seeing them but then I realised that I was not since the footprints actually were facing me so I was definitely not on the right path. This was 1.55 when I realised my mistake.

Luckily, I came out of an area that I recognised and made my way across the road to pick up the correct path. I took a picture of my mistake to show Luke later. I started out again knowing I was on the right path and felt a lot better. Again, bear in mind that Luke said that he was going to loop back at some point and find me but if I wasn't on the right path, we would miss each other and he had the keys and I without a cell phone!

I had to walk a lot more in this path because of the hills and the downed branches & trees. I was getting chilier. I could feel the temperature dropping as the sun dropped further behind the horizon. So at this time, I decided to take some video. [below] I was running with my new trail shoes & my new Smartwool socks. And luckily, my feet stayed warm the entire time though. they never went numb from the cold. It was amazing. Not sure if it was the shoes (Gore-Tex so waterproof) or the socks but something worked! Even at work, my toes & feet go sooo cold on me.

After that, I took a wrong turn again somewhere (or didn't take a turn) and totally missed my path that went over the creek. Instead of I came out to the Perryville Path at a place that I've never been before. I then was deciding whether or not to continue on the path or to double back and see how I missed the creek and then get on the right path. I doubled back, found a path that I knew would take me to the creek, went to the bridge over the creek and realised that I was on the correct path so I turned back around, came back the way I came but I don't remember ever running over the Perryville Path the few times I've ran on the path before. I realise this is now because of the snow. Everything looks completely different when covered in snow & drooping trees & branches.

So I decided that since I really screwed up and don't know where I'm going, I was just gonna run on the Perryville Path since it was actually paved and just head back to the car and wait for Luke there or something. Luckily, as I ran past a trail entrance, I heard someone running down it and he popped out in all his tall running glory. I ran over to him and threw my arms around his neck. I was so thankful to see him!!! At that time, we decided to say screw the trails and head off on the path.

I was totally all snotty by the time we got back to the car. We were both blowing snot rockets all over the place. It was awesome. I can't explain how it makes me feel that I can be ME, as a runner, in front of this guy and he doesn't get grossed out or doesn't understand.

So now I leave you with pictures and then the Bones in Motion stats at the bottom. Luke has the 5k on Saturday but I will be in southern Illinois. I would like to get a run in sometime down there but who knows if I'll have the motivation, drive & determination to do so.

Luke is bending down & under some branches in the background.

This is not a black & white picture but it kinda looks like it.

Some places were deeper than this but also my new shoes!

Runner's World image, I swear.

Cross country skiers.

Had to run through that.

The creek.

Luke getting an icicle for me!

Sucking on said icicle!

NINJA!

Here's video that I took of me talking and of the views:

Find more videos like this on RuncastTV

Bones in Motion stats:

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 826 ft Location: Machesney Park, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 12/12/09 Up/Downhill: [+577/-577] Time: 02:38 PM Difficulty: 3.0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 6.33 miles Time: 1:48:56 Speed: 3.5 mph Pace: 17' 13 /mi Calories: 589 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 11' 20 -5' 53 5.3 +1.8 +17 ft 2 16' 18 -0' 55 3.7 +0.2 +9 ft 3 17' 32 +0' 19 3.4 -0.1 -102 ft 4 25' 06 +7' 53 2.4 -1.1 +3 ft 5 14' 13 -3' 00 4.2 +0.7 +56 ft 6 21' 16 +4' 03 2.8 -0.7 +42 ft end 8' 26 -8' 47 7.1 +3.6 -26 ft Versus average of 17' 13 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: Luke, Rock Cut State Park, snow, winter running

Sick & a trail series

Luke got sick on Monday night; sore throat and stuffy nose. So he missed out on my birthday on Tuesday. :-( But I ended up getting sick on Wednesday night and took off Thursday from work; just a stuffy nose & a "hot" throat, no soreness. Luckily, I only took that one day off; Luke ended up taking Tuesday & Wednesday off work. I think that means my immune system is stronger. :-) Yay, finally something that's better than him! And I can blame him for getting me sick since I got sick after him.

But unfortunately, in a week will be the start of a series of trail races in Rock Cut. 4 months, 4 races, a race a month, 5k, 10k, 15k and 20k. December = 5k. January = 10k. February = 15k. March = 20k. Luke's first race ever was this past January and the 10k. Thigh deep snow in some places he said. So he has wanted to run the whole series this time around.

My plan for the trail series was to join him for the 5k and maybe the 10k in the run and then cheer him on for the 15k and 20k. However, then I found out that the first race, the 5k, popped up the weekend that we were going to take Friday off and go down to my family in southern Illinois. His first time meeting them. But also the same weekend his sister is flying into town. So me being the best girlfriend EVER, told him to stay in town, run the race and hang out with his sister. I knew how much running the full series will mean to him not to mention seeing his sister (who lives in San Francisco). He's feeling really guilty about it but after our run on Thanksgiving weekend, I was feeling bad that I wasn't going to be there to support him and he thought I was crazy for even thinking like that.

I might run the 10k in January. Depending on the weather of course. :-) I'm not stupid. I'll sign up race day and not worry about it. I'll have to get a lot more experience on the trails first as well. Plus, if it was held over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend last year, I remember it being bitterly cold because my car wouldn't start two different days that weekend!! I also want to run on the trails a few more time before diving in to this race. I need the experience.

Now Luke hasn't run all this week, though he did go to the gym on Monday night. We were talking last night on the phone (haven't seen each other since Sunday night) and I think this weekend, with the snow on the ground and it being about 20's & 30's again, we're gonna try to run in Rock Cut on the trails. I gotta test out my new trail shoes too! We may walk more than run because of our colds. Who knows. And I haven't ran since our runs last weekend in Madison. So everything should be interesting for us.

There's a table in Jeff Galloway's book that has an estimation of what you can expect after taking time off for a sickness or injury:

Rest Time Without Any Exercise	Estimated % of Conditioning Lost
1-5 days	0-1%
7 days	10%
14 days	35%

If that's the case then the past couple of weeks I should have lost 10% each time, because it seems like I only run on the weekends now. But I've been fine, running a 10k and not feeling really winded. Soon I'll have to get that distance longer again, as I need to keep a good base for Spring Marathon Training that begins at the end of January!

When you get sick, how do you determine when you can go out and run again?Wait until the fever's gone, no more coughing, or when everything is gone & out of your system? I usually get something with a cough so I try to wait until the cough is almost gone before I try to run again.

Categories: Rock Cut Trail Series, sick

New age group

Today marks a special day. Not one I'd normally make a big deal of. Quite the opposite actually. I'm a wallflower, one who doesn't like the attention (which I realise is opposite of people who write blogs but I do this for accountability & history for myself more than promotion) of what a birthday usually gives you. But it's special because I've now entered into a new age group category for my races.

As of 12:51 pm and the publishing of this post, I'm 30. Now I'll be the youngest in the age group but that doesn't mean anything. Women in the 60's can totally trump my times in every possible distance.

But it's funny how I think of my age in terms of running/racing. The girl that beat me by one second a few weeks ago? She won't be in my age group next year at the race. And now that I'm 30, will I notice a difference in my running? Will I get faster? Or a tad slower? They say that runner's reach their peak in their 30's. I'm hoping that's the case with me. My body aches a bit more in the morning than it used to 5 years ago. My waist is not as defined. My stomach is a bit softer. I understand that, it's just the way the cookie crumbles unfortunately.

I'm not too worried about my timeline otherwise; getting married, having babies, buying a house, etc. I don't hear the biological clock ticking. I'm comfortable where I am. I'm happy with my life and where it's going. My job that I have, my close family though they are physically far from me, the great friends that have put up with me. The only thing that has really thrown me off this year has been my mother's cancer and then my father's health problems later. With me getting older, it means my parents are getting older as well. And that my friends, scares me. So much so I've scheduled myself to have the BRAC test to determine if I carry the gene for breast or ovarian cancer (which my grandmother had and my mother). Doesn't mean I'll actually get the cancer but better to be safe than sorry.

Anyway, so I'll have to remember to check a new box when I register for races. Luckily, I've had a bit of time to get used to it. Normally from my father's birthday on Nov 7, I start saying I'm the next year older. But since June, when I help a friend celebrate his new decade, I've considered myself 30 as well. So the mind is already there.

I made red velvet cupcakes Monday night for work & bowling peeps so no running for me. I got the recipe from Runner's World a while ago but alas I can't find it on their site to link to here. But it's like the cake but in cupcake form. I tell people that it's in my running magazine so it has to be healthy right? :-)

Also, no running or swimming this week but bowling on Tuesday and rock climbing on Thursday.

Categories: birthday

First run in the snow!

Luke & I headed up to Madison this past weekend.

He needed to go running to prepare for a race in a few weeks. So I took him on the route I did earlier this summer. We ran together for the first mile and then he took off and I tried to tell him how to run. I stopped a few miles up and just wanted to run a 10k.

Keep in mind that it snowed a few days before the weekend. Madison got a lot more than DeKalb did. And then it melted a bit and froze again on the sidewalks. The path however, was pretty clear. A few icy spots here and there.

I forgot to bring a jacket but luckily, I didn't need it! The air temp was 23 but the sun was out so that helped. My lined tights, another loose pair on top of them, my UnderArmour ColdGear turtleneck, another loose pullover on top of that and then a fleece cap & gloves. And I was warm with all that.

By the end of the run, my right achilles tendon was getting a bit sore because of my foot slippage. And of course my left foot went numb because I tied my shoelaces too tight I think.

As I was leaving the park & path on the way back, I glanced behind me and thought I saw Luke. The sidewalk was all one big hill so I tried kicking it into high gear to get enough distance between him & me and maybe I could beat him home!

I was making the final homestretch, looked behind me and couldn't see anyone behind me. Which was odd. So on the final road back to where I was staying, he caught up with me. But I found out that he wasn't the one behind me. He got in front of me and then took a different end when he saw the sledding hill across the street from the path.

I finished up the day with the 10k I wanted. Who knows how far Luke went but he said that he ran up the sledding hill. And peeps, this is not a small little hill. He said that there were a bit of trails at the top of the hill. I was really interested in checking out these trails.

So on Sunday, we decided to hit them up and just run a few miles. He led me this time and into the woods we went. It looked like a good place to do cross country skiing. We eventually found a map and sure enough, they had icons of the trails that determined if they were easy or medium or advanced.

I kept the GPS on but I didn't really care about my time on this one since looking at the maps took a lot of the time out since I keep forgetting to change the setting on my Garmin to pause the time when I stop running. We ran on down to the bottom of the ski hill and then Luke wanted to run back up the hill again. I told him I'd try but I wasn't guaranteeing anything!

I did manage to run up the hill but with one little pause in the middle. There was a time in which I'm sure my walk would have been faster than what I was going but I wanted to keep trying to push myself up that hill! I was sooooo tired after that try! Luke ended up rolling down the hill and then ran back up it again. yes, that's right, rolled down it. At first going head over feet and then I yelled at him to do a barrel roll. That was a mistake. He was dizzy for most of the day.

Then we went down another trail and it was so gorgeous! Tall pine trees with long trunks and then the snow on the trails. I sooo wish I would have brought my camera with me or at least a cell phone to snap a picture. It was so serene and pretty. But alas, I just give you this one picture from the run on Saturday.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1038 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: -63 ft Date: 12/05/09 Up/Downhill: [+301/-364] Time: 08:52 AM Difficulty: 2.7 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 6.20 miles Time: 0:57:53 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 20 /mi Calories: 658 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 32 -0' 48 7.0 +0.6 -88 ft 2 9' 35 +0' 15 6.3 -0.2 +20 ft 3 9' 27 +0' 07 6.3 -0.1 +17 ft 4 9' 33 +0' 13 6.3 -0.1 -30 ft 5 9' 31 +0' 11 6.3 -0.1 +33 ft 6 9' 48 +0' 28 6.1 -0.3 +40 ft end 7' 21 -1' 59 8.2 +1.7 -52 ft Versus average of 9' 20 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1087 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 12/06/09 Up/Downhill: [+259/-259] Time: 09:51 AM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 30 F temp; 65% humidity 30 F heat index; winds Vrbl 3 Performance Distance: 2.12 miles Time: 0:26:19 Speed: 4.8 mph Pace: 12' 25 /mi Calories: 218 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 12' 10 -0' 15 4.9 +0.1 -62 ft 2 12' 59 +0' 34 4.6 -0.2 +56 ft end 9' 14 -3' 11 6.5 +1.7 -16 ft Versus average of 12' 25 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 6 miles, hills, Luke, Madison

To stop doubting oneself

I did go swimming on Monday night. Swam for 40 laps actually. 4 sets of 10. That's right, 10 in a row! Without stopping!

First set was just the normal stroke, nothing too special. Did my breathing through the strokes until laps 8, 9 & 10 when I had to not put my head under water anymore because I was just taking too short of breaths.

Second set was using a float board and on my back where I just kicked for 10 laps. those really shook up my legs a bit!

Third set was another 10 laps using the normal stroke again. I was dying early on but still managed to get my 10 out of it!

Fourth set was again on the board but this time, I had the board out front of me and I was still kicking. I was also practicing blowing out of my nose for when I learn how to do the turns. When swimming, I blow out of my mouth, but in the turns you should do it out of your nose so that water doesn't go up it and you get that terrible headache at the base of your skull. Know what I'm talking about?

Was gonna run afterwards but I just couldn't get my legs to stop wobbling after all that so I decided to call it off. In the locker room, I had a woman ask me if I was alright. I looked at her and she pointed to my right thigh. I have 2 noticeable deep colour bruises, just inside and another on the outside a bit higher. I know where one came from, I opened my car door into my leg but I don't know how the other happened. That was interesting. I didn't know if I should be thankful she asked or weirded out cause she asked.

OK, so I said that I wasn't a trail runner after my first trail run was a total bust. Well, the next time, I kicked it's butt. Then I said I wasn't a swimmer after my 2nd time attempting was not as great as I had hoped. But then I go and push myself and managed to do 10 laps in a row! So maybe instead of giving up so awfully fast on myself, I'll just keep pushing myself to get better. I mean, that's what I'm doing anyway, otherwise I wouldn't have tried again in either case and found out that I can complete what I once thought was not possible.

Speaking of trail running, I did receive my trail shoes last night. I read the reviews and a few said to order them smaller. So instead of my normal size 11, I got a 10 and I tried them on, they feel fine. I haven't ran in them of course so I hope they fit right in the heel and not too big. We'll see next year I'm guessing.

Tonight I'm actually thinking I'm not going to run. Got grocery shopping to do. But I will do my sit-ups and push-ups. I don't think I've mentioned on here that I'm taking on the 100 push-up challenge and the 200 sit-up challenge. I've downloaded the apps on my iPod touch and use them to keep track and follow the 3 day a week routine. It seems that I'm getting pretty good at the push-ups (girl version of course). I can now do 12 in a row easy (where when I started I was at 2) and I even have a little bit of a tricep, when I flex that is. I'm actually up to 80 push-ups in 5 sets. Pretty damn impressive considering how bad my left wrist is. Can't put that much pressure on it cause I have a cyst. Also, my right shoulder pops sometimes when I go down. That's not a pleasant feeling. Later on tonight, I might even do the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred as well. Gotta get some sweat in!

Tomorrow evening is climbing again!! Half price Thursdays!

Categories: shoes, swimming, trail running