Running Mom's Motivation

I am turning into a southerner. I find myself getting cold all of the time. But I still enjoy winter running. Well at least most of the time I do. Yesterday's run was one of the most miserable I have ever done. We were recently the beneficiaries of two large winter storms exactly one week apart.

Last Saturday I went for a run during the storm. It was cold and the snow was coming down hard. But I was able to run in the tire tracks on the roads most of the time. It was a beautiful run except when I had to run directly into the wind, which wasn't too often. I kept the run short because running through snow really tires my legs out. The snow pelting my face during those times when I was apposing the wind caused skin issues later in the day, but I was feeling good.

Contrast that to yesterday. It wasn't too cold (about 30 degrees) and there was very little snow on the road. I had gone to the battlefield near my house because it had rained all night and many of the roads around here were pretty wet. The road that I ran on had been plowed but had sections where there was some slush...no problem. I have been slowly increasing my long run and had planned to do 9 miles either last week or yesterday. But since the road is only 3.5 miles long and the weather wasn't great, I decided to cut it short and do 7. The first mile was ok. The second was heavenly. It was so beautiful in that section of road. And the snow made everything very quiet.

I just had another 1.5 to do before the turn around. As I came out from the more wooded area and entered the open fields I started to realize that there was indeed quite a bit of snow coming down.....WET SNOW! And the wind seemed to be blowing harder than I had remembered. No problem, it was just another 1.5 miles to the turn around and I would have my back to the wind. I started hitting wind gusts that seemed like they were 50 miles an hour. I am sure they were not, but it seemed that way at the time. I kept checking my garmin to see how much longer I had before I could turn around. I climbed one final hill before the turn around and thanked God that I didn't have to go any further in that direction.

When I turned around the wind died down for about 10 seconds. Then it started back up more continuously than it had been before. I was sure this must be what it was like to run in Antarctica. The funny thing is that my body was actually a little too warm, but my face felt like an icicle. The wind didn't stop until I re-entered that beautiful wooded area of the road again. As beautiful as it was, I just couldn't enjoy it anymore. By this time, the dog and I were both so miserable that we had been pushing the pace and I ended up having to stop and walk multiple times. What is crazier than running in a blizzard...why, of course, walking in a blizzard! We spent the rest of the time alternating between walking and running just trying to get back to the car as quickly as possible. Then I tried to stretch without the wind blowing me over and we were on our way back home.

Funny, looking back on it, it doesn't seem that bad. But at the time, I know that those park rangers that drove by me were not the only ones who thought I was nuts for being out there. Oh well, at least I didn't have to do my long run on the treadmill.

Posted in: on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at at 3:40 PM 0 comments  

I was really trying to keep up with this blog and did so for quite a few months, but I think I just saw a notice that said my last post was in June of 08....Really? Did I not post a thing in all of 09? Well, thank you Slugline for reminding me that someone might actually pay attention to this thing.

I will not attempt to catch you all up on the last year. Suffice it to say that I had a pretty low period where I wasn't enjoying the running much. My miles dropped and I started to gain weight. Not a lot, but I noticed it. I thought having a goal race in mind would help me to get things back on track and I picked up a new running buddy. I registered for the OBX marathon excited that it would be my first 26.2. Bad idea. While I completely loved running with my new buddy, she is much faster than I am and I ran with her too much. We didn't increase the miles too quickly ( a common runner mistake that leads to injury) but I was pushing my pace for most of my runs. Before I knew it, I was injured.

I had a pretty good case of shin splints. I tried running with the injury for a while and that didn't work. My darling brother reveled in telling me that when he was in high school and had shin splints he didn't get better until he took 3 weeks off from running. I couldn't do that....I had a marathon to train for! I would try taking a few days (3) off in a row. I would ice my leg every few hours. I would use ibuprofen. I put on a compression bandage. I would feel a little better. Then I would try to run and it would all fall apart. It got to the point where it was excruciating to run and hurt just to walk....time to see the doctor. She confirmed my fears. I didn't have shin splints after all. I had the dreaded stress fracture. My buddy told me I had time to heal and still train for the marathon, but I knew I didn't and if I attempted it I might end up in worse condition.

Around this time my husband started getting serious about wanting to shed some pounds. We joined a gym together. I could only use the stationary bikes and weight machines. It killed me to watch the other people on the treadmills while I slugged through 45 minutes on the bike with my aircast on. I gained more weight. No matter how hard I worked on that bike and lifted those weights I couldn't shed the pounds I gained. I realized that there is just no substitute for running when it comes to burning calories. It was exhilerating and scary the first time that I was allowed to walk on the treadmill with my cast on. I followed my rehab directions exactly as my doctor had given them to me. It was hard because by this time my love for running had been rekindled but I could do nothing about it.

Slowly but surely I got back to running. I have remained injury free since restarting and I am building my mileage very slowly. The good news is that I have continued to keep my gym membership. I DO NOT get on those bikes, but I do continue to weight train and work my core a couple of times a week. I am more fit than before I was injured and the wieght training apppears to be helping my running. I am considering training for another marathon, but I want to build my base slowly before I make that decision. I am hoping it will help keep me from ending up back on that bike again. I hope that when I have another period where running doesn't seem as fun any more I will look back on last year and realize that this too shall pass.

2010 miles = 97

Posted in: on at at 8:59 AM 0 comments  

The dog and I are slowly acclimating to the heat. We have been running in the morning. It is the only time I dare take him as I had a least 2 patients die from the heat this weekend. Despite running at 6am, the temperature has still been near 80, and let's not even talk about the humidity.

This morning's run was funny. We passed by two dogs that we see all the time. The last time we went past them I swear the bigger one was trying to push the smaller one over the fence after us. Well today the little one didn't need any help. He just jumped the fence on his own. I wasn't really worried about him coming after us because every time I turned and yelled at him he ran back home. What really worried me was that he would be hit by a car. I was just about to go knock on the door to his house when I saw he had gotten back behind the fence. Resourceful little sucker!

In the last half mile of our run today, we passed an older woman running in the opposite direction of us. We were running up a hill. Shortly after we ran by her she turned around and started going up the hill. She flew past us, got to the top and started going back down. It was killing me to see her do hill repeats in this heat. I told her that running those hills in the heat was impressive. She said "I am from South Carolina, this is nothing." At least that made me feel a little better.

Total Miles for 2008 = 364

Posted in: on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at at 7:57 AM 0 comments  

So we have been living in Virginia for almost a month now. I am really enjoying it so far and David and the kids seem to be adjusting well also. Figuring out where to run has been a challenge. I don't exactly like running in the city. I used to live in a pretty good sized city I know...But my previous house was so convenient to so many places that didn't make you feel like you were running in a city. It was a great place to run. But I wanted to make this a positive post. I have been bound and determined that I will get my running groove back.

When I have been running I have mostly been going from the house we are renting. It isn't too bad, but there aren't many sidewalks in this city. It is a much smaller city than we used to live in, but right now, it still feel like I am in the city. I have been able to figure out some short 3 to 5 mile routes that seem to work for me. And I don't mind running the shorter distances in the city. I also live less than two miles from work, so one day I ran home for lunch, picked up the dog, and ran back to work. So the short runs aren't too bad. The problem is all I have been doing is short runs and my stamina is severely lacking.

Saturday I was able to finally check out the area I wanted to try to do some longer runs in. I went to the Petersburg National Battlefield. I slathered on DEET (more about that later) and took the dog and headed out. I was very excited, especially when the woman at the gate said "have a nice run." She obviously knew what I was there for based on the way I was dressed. I was hoping her greeting would mean there would be a nice place to run.

I started out on a trail near where I parked the car. It was nice and I got to see a few cannons from the Civil War. But in no time I was back where I started. It was only a half mile loop! So I started on it again thinking I would take one of the trails I had seen coming off from it. Pretty soon I was back at the beginning...another half mile loop. I was getting discouraged. I had wanted to run 8 miles, and there was no way I could make 16 laps here. I took another trail. About 3/4 of a mile in I was running out to the highway...not my idea of a scenic, relaxing run. I entered back into the park on the opposite side of the highway thinking maybe I missed something. Boy was I right.

Across a bridge from where I entered the park there was a 3.5 mile one way road. There were two lanes. One was for driving, the other was for biking, parking, or hiking. It was gorgeous! Most of the road is tree-lined, so there were only a few spots where the sun was really beating down on us. It was only after I started out on the road that I started seeing all the other runners. There were plenty, and now I could see why. Very rarely did I actually see a car. The other really nice thing was that there were miles of trails off the main road. Any time I got tired of pounding the pavement or the sun got a little hot on the road, I was welcome to head off road and explore the trails. I finished my 8 miler (my first in over a month) in a much better mood than I had started.

Now back to the DEET. There is just one little thing about Virginia that I am having a hard time adjusting to. TICKS! They are everywhere. David had one crawling across his hand in our dinging room one night and I have pulled one attached one off me. We have taken to doing tick checks and when in the battlefield DEET is definitely necessary. I enjoyed the battlefield so much that I took the family back today. When we did our tick check this afternoon we didn't find any on us or the kids. We did however pull thirteen (YES...13!) off from the dog. Luckily, thanks to Frontline, most of them were dead, and those that weren't hadn't started feeding yet. So if you ever come to Virginia, don't forget to pack your bug spray. We may not have enough to share.

Total Miles in 2008... 334

Posted in: on Monday, May 26, 2008 at at 8:21 PM 0 comments  

I have been running. I haven't been writing. There is a lot going on in my life right now...so build a bridge and get over it ;). Just kidding. Our family is going to be moving and my life is consumed with packing fixing up our home and work. For any of you that I know personally, you should know that we lost all our email addresses, and our old email will only be up for a couple more weeks. Send us an email so we don't lose contact with you!

Total Miles This Year =211

Posted in: on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at at 8:30 AM 2 comments