Yes, Virginia, there will be a race report

But probably not for a few days - back to school realities intrude! 

Trail Run Eve

As I think about it, I suppose this isn't really my first-ever trail run.  Most of the tris I've done have had the run either completely or partially on trails.  I can't say they were very technical trails, though, and while I don't expect a super-technical trail tomorrow, I don't expect a pretty much flat path through the woods, either - more like a hiking trail.  I guess.  At this point, I have three main questions, none of which I'll really know the answer to until after the race. 

The first is - how do I dress for this thing?  It's supposed to be cool and on the windy side, which alone isn't an issue.  Today was cold and on the windy side, and I'd probably wear a little bit less than I did today for a longer, harder run on roads or on the local trails.  But will that be right for tomorrow?  I usually wear tights - is that a stupid idea?  Will there be snags that might make them a liability? Would sweats, which I loathe, actually be LESS of a liability?  Somehow, I think not.  I suspect the pace will be considerably slower than a road run - so, should I dress more warmly?  Or will more challenging terrain make up for the lesser pace?  The only answer really is, wear what you think is best and be prepared to shed and carry a layer/accessory or two as needed.

Second, what on earth do I eat before the race?  I don't usually eat much before I run because having much of anything bouncing around in my stomach makes me nauseous, and I'm really not a big fan of nausea.  So I tend to do either a sports drink or shot blocks before/during a run that approaches/exceeds around 2 hours.  However, I also usually run first thing in the morning, and this race doesn't start until 11 am (WTF???).  So, I'm not going to get away without some sort of breakfast.  I'll probably go with cereal and hope for the best.

Finally, and most importantly - did I prepare adequately?  My only goal is to finish the thing, and I am heading out there figuring that even if I have to drag my ass over the finish line in a sling, I WILL finish, but it would be nice to come out of it feeling as if I did a half decent job getting ready for this with but a half-assed notion of what to do (run hills, run trails, lift weights).  And so, we shall see!

Yesterday I did a fun workout at the gym.  I have been looking at the RDR book, thinking about my next strength rotation.  I didn't want to do a killer workout so I picked out a bunch of unfamiliar exercises that I think I'd like to put in my program at some point and gave them a test drive.  I'm so glad I did that because a couple of them really didn't work out well, spatially, in the gym, so what I may do is sub them in on days I do my strength work at home.  (Truth: I actually expect to freeform a bit when I do strength workouts at home, subbing in slightly different exercises or kettlebell exercises with similar movement patterns, just because somethings are harder to set up at home, and frankly there's better safety equipment at the gym.)  Anyway, I plan next week as a recovery week (by some miracle, I have no exams, so it's a school recovery week, too), so I have plenty of time to sort things out a bit more.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Of all of the holidays, Thanksgiving and 4th of July are easily my favorites.   I love this day in particular because it is all about food and family (yeah, and football), and as crazy as it can get?  It's still no where near as crazy as Christmas, while to me it's every bit as festive.  In fact it's nearly all the good things about Christmas in a single, much less stressful day. 

I just had breakfast with my folks - simple stuff, fresh fruit, delicious eggs and hash browns and good coffee.  I took over my cold contributions to the dinner (a dessert - pumpkin cheesecake - and an app - hummus) and will take over a side (corn pudding) later.  My sister and family as well as my aunt and cousins will be there for dinner, with more family expected for dessert.

I've been thinking about all of the things I appreciate and am incredibly thankful for on this and every day:

My family.  Somehow we are very close without being overentangled, if that makes any sense.  I guess it's a combination of love and respect and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

My critters.  A part of my family that deserves special mention, because they're the ones I live with.  They're my little daily doses of happy, my little anchors, my companions.  And they probably think I exist to serve them.  Go figure.

My health.  Having lost it, I'm incredibly grateful to have it again.  This year has been about rebuilding myself, and I'm happy to have been able to have patiently done that.

My brain.  Which still seems to work.

My amazing friends and even acquaintances, who always seem to be there when I really need it, whether they know it or not.  I hope I am at least as helpful to them in return.

I wish everyone a safe, happy, and hopefully delicious holiday.

Oops, version some high number,

Or, In Which the Racing Calendar has the Gall Not to Conform with My Plans.

Yep, despite careful wishful thinking on my part, there's no 24 hour or 50K trail race within a reasonable distance from home when I was planning to do one.   This, I discovered whilst pouring over the interwebs while semi watching UFC 122 (summary: the fights I expected to be good, were; the fights I expected to be boring, were; and the fights I didn't expect to see - time fill-ins - were the best, in terms of raw action). In fact it seems they tend to be in spring or fall.  The lone exception was an early January race - it was either a 12 or 24 hour deal - that consisted of doing endless loops around a trail that was less than a mile long, and looked like it was set up in an industrial park.  Um, seriously???  Why not do an endurance race on a treadmill while showing repeating loops of outdoor scenery?  Maybe set up a few fans to simulate wind, and set off the fire sprinklers once or twice to simulate rain?  No thanks. 

But in backcalculating realistic training schedules for an ultra (minimum distance, 50K), I realized that to do even the latest reasonably local run, which is in mid-October, starting training in April from a pretty much non-existent mileage base (where I'd be if I followed MS pretty much to the letter) would be theoretically but probably not comfortably doable.  Whereas, if I just run through winter to the extent practicable, assuming this winter isn't like last winter, I'll start the season with a decent mileage base and will be able to pretty much do what I want.  And, I have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR races in mind, two 15K's and two 50K's.  Which would be a helluva a nice place to leave a running career that will probably have to go on hold for a few years after that.  And, I'd still have time to play with Cressey's program after that and before grad school, once again, assuming all goes according to Hoyle.

Believe it or not, I find it very difficult to change plans and spent sleepless time last night and some of my road time this morning justifying this change in my mind.  I guess I forget that I set the schedule, it's my schedule, and there's no reason I can't change my own damn plans if I feel like it!  No one else decides my training schedule or goals.  It WILL be easier, as pointed out, to just keep rolling with the running rather than to take a hiatus and restart in spring, and honestly?  It's not as if I decided last week that I wanted to do trail runs/ultras.  I've been wanting to go there since I was a kid, and this just looks like a good time.

Most importantly, though, I am really enjoying what I'm doing and want to keep doing it.  So I'll be spending some time with the Dos Remedios book and figuring out what amounts to an off-season training schedule.  I sort of see myself maintaining my current schedule for a while but I sure would like to reincorporate a rest day somehow. 

And speaking of enjoying what I'm doing - holy smokes, did I have another beautiful run this morning.  I went further than planned because I just didn't want to come off the trails.  The leaves are a bit past peak but there is still plenty of color out there, and I had color coming off lakes and streams and from a clear blue sky...  It was a true joy to be out there.

Melancholy moment

Not too many years ago, I found myself in a nice circle of bloggers - a group of women of similar ages with similar interest in exercise and fitness.  We were at similar points in life and generally supported one another, commented on one another's posts, and what I guess you could call an interwebs kind of way, felt kind of close.  Well, I did, anyway; I can only speak for myself, but it was kind of like having a nice group of friends.  People would drop in and out for various reasons - life getting in the way, basically - but that happens.

And today the last one seems to have dropped out, gone private, or closed her self up, or something.  Whatever, I can no longer read her blog.  I'd write and request access again, but somehow, it seems - not right.  Maybe I have a warped sense of friendship but I'd think if you were going to drop out of sight and you wanted to keep a friend, you'd give them a forwarding address; not doing so means you no longer value the friendship.  Sooo... Adieu, to the last of the group.  Makes me sad.

I'm not really sure who treks through here any more.  I'm not all that fond of my stat tracker - its data conflicts, internally, and I don't think it picks up all of the traffic, so I'm probably going to ditch it.  Frankly I almost decided to ditch the blog entirely, but it has, interestingly, become a bit of a record for me.  I started it around when I started in karate, and I can sift back through the posts to see when I hit certain milestones.  It's also a race record - I never really raced before I was blogging, save one four miler - and I'm sort of sorry I didn't have this kind of quasi diary back when I was doing the horse trials.  THAT could have been a whole lot of fun, having a blog-circle of barn mates, riding club members, and assorted friends and acquaintances.  Then again, I don't know that blogging was all that big back then (which wasn't all that long ago!)... hard to believe the things we take for granted these days.

So, any way - onward I go, and I wish my erstwhile friends well.

----------

I've been mentioning jiu jitsu class in my Saturday workouts for a while.  I frankly haven't really known what to say about this; I'm being taught off the books and I don't want anyone to get into trouble about it, although as things have been progressing, it's looking less and less likely that that might happen.  Essentially what is happening is someone who is taking formal classes is teaching me, in turn, everything he learns and we practise together.  I find it absolutely fascinating, and the more I learn the more I like it.  I can definitely see pursuing it more on my own when I have the time and resources to do that. 

The "am training" I speak of on Wednesdays is a bit different; I'm being taught Kyokushin by an actual Kyokushin sensei (sensei J).  We focus mostly on fighting (which is apparently how you spend most of your time in a Kyokushin dojo), including foundations, technique, and sparring, sparring, and more sparring.  It's actually a little intimidating but it's helping me tremendously.  While I value what I've been taught in Shotokan, it's a bit - less gritty, for lack of a better descriptor.  We have all of the same techniques in our kata but don't get into (or haven't yet gotten into) the nasty, direct application of those techniques.  So it's a process for me, putting the things together, sparring with sensei then sparring in class.  For a while I felt like a complete mess in both situations but things are starting to make sense to me - meaning, I'm definitely still a mess but at least I can see that I'm learning now.

-----------

Hard to believe running season is almost over.  I've been contemplating tomorrow's long run - actually probably my last long training run of the season.  I'm repeating a route, something I rarely do, but it's a good route, a five town, five park tour that is mostly off road, which is always a good thing, and I really enjoyed it first time 'round.  I figure next weekend I have the 5K Saturday so I will probably do a shorter run on Sunday (I'm thinking 8 miles or so) and the following week is the trail run.  Wow.  It seems as if it's been a long running season, but it's been a good one, I think. 

I've been thinking a lot about next year, and it has occurred to me that IF everything goes according to Hoyle and I am starting grad school in the spring of 2012, it would be pretty darn cool to get that first ultra (I'm thinking either a 50K or a 12 or 24 hour race) under my belt before then.  I'm more or less thinking that the way 2011 will go is that I'll finish Max. Strength in March and then go right back to being a runner again, using routines built from the Dos Remedios book for strength training.

Nice to have the next year semi-sewn up before Thanksgiving, eh?

OK, OK

OK. Lifting straps work, very well.  I did a bit more reading on them before I used them and the take home message I got was, get over yourself and do the muscles you're trying to work a favor by using the damned straps.  If you feel the need to work on your grip, fine, do it, but don't do it at the expense of working your big muscle groups.  Point driven home.

I'm still wrestling a bit with the whole "no long steady state cardio during MS" thing.  I guess my main area of resistance is, I'm USED to doing running at my current level; I've been at it or even higher for months now - hmm, actually since around May.  Plus, it's not like I haven't been running for something like 30 years.  I'd think whatever physiological adaptations that were going to be made will have been made, but then again, what do I know?   What I do plan to do is to research the issue a bit on my own.  Heck, I have access to two college libraries - may as well make use of them.

Speaking of college - had an exam and a lab practical this week, hence my scarcity.  The test was in psych, and it was an open note/open book test. 

I hate open note/open book tests.  I like to study stuff until I KNOW it; having the book there just makes room for me to second guess myself and waste a lot of time paging through the stupid book.  Which I did, of course, because I'd have felt like an idiot to have gotten something wrong with the book sitting right there beside me.  Bleh.  Well, it's over and I don't expect to see another one of those any time soon, so I'm happy.  The lab practical went well; unless I somehow misread a question, I should have a very good grade on that one.  We have a regular A&P exam next week, and after that I'll feel like I'm in the home stretch for the semester. 

Yet another beautiful Sunday run

I'm almost afraid to say that, for fear of jinxing myself, but wow, have I had some really, really great long Sunday runs.  The weather has been perfect.  The paces I was expecting of myself over the summer are coming very easily now and I guess it just goes to show how much the heat was impacting things over summer.  I mean, I'm running half marathon pace or better and it feels easy, even slow.  I definitely have to remember that for next year if I find myself being frustrated by training pace in summer.

Did a lot of thinking on the run about, well, running, my goals/intentions for next year, and Maximum Strength.  I guess I was selectively forgetting some aspects of the training plan there for a while, as I had intended to keep up running on the non-lifting days of the program (Tuesday and Thursday and possibly Sunday, if I felt itchy) to the extent practicable over the winter to avoid having to do a complete re-start-up next spring.  And as I said in my last post, I understand why he doesn't want a person to do this (heck, we're currently studying muscles in A&P and have just recently gone over physiological response of various types of skeletal muscle fibers to different types of exercise).  Which all generates the following random thoughts, which I'm not even trying to reconcile at the moment:

- Speaking purely as a science type person, I enjoy doing programs as written just to see what, exactly, a particular protocol will do to/for me.  I mean, how else do you know? 

- I am a believer of beginning with the end in mind, that is, having a goal, even if it's just to see what a training protocol will do for you. Again, how else do you know?

- That all said, I also believe there are no rotation/program police, and there's no law that says you actually have to follow a program exactly, particularly if you have an overarching goal that isn't the same as the program goal, and yet the program compliments your goal.  SEE what I've been doing with FBB.  I sure as hell haven't been following the program but I believe the workouts have served me very well.

- I love running.  I think of myself as a lot of things, but "runner" usually comes out first.

All of which probably sounds like I'm trying to justify doing what I want to do - that is, running through MS.  And yet while I was running, I was trying to figure out a way I could convince myself to NOT do that, to run the pure experiment - and then in another turn of the mind, I wondered why I felt the need to do the pure experiment in the first place.  Which lead me to goals for next year, which lead me to a schedule for next year...  yeah.  Thought soup. 

I suppose I could do MS the way I want to and just accept that I'm compromising the experiment and may not achieve the best possible outcome - at least until winter dictates exactly how much running I'll be doing through the ugly months, anyway.  If this winter is like last winter, that will be very little; OTOH, in a typical year, a person might miss a week here and there but be able to keep up some semblance of a schedule.

I don't know.  I haven't made a decision either way and probably won't until I have to, which isn't until next month.  Between now and then I should pick out a key race for next year and backfill from there.

Call me a weenie

but I finally broke down and bought myself some lifting straps. 

I'm a HUGE believer in developing grip and have never been one to wear gloves for sports (unless, of course, they were part of the equipment, like a baseball mitt), but my hands have been sore for a few weeks now and it's probably going to get worse during Maximum Strength.  Cressey, in fact, recommends using straps, I presume because grip can be a lift-limiting factor, and this program isn't about pressing that particular limit. What pushed me over the edge was doing offset squats (similar to the kettlebell exercise called suitcase deadlifts) today with a 55# db; the bod was able to comply (with effort), but my hands were KILLING me to the point where I almost dropped the weight at the end of a set.  And of course the next exercise superset included high rep RDLs; by the time I was done that, my hands were very sad claws.  I should have the straps next week and we'll see how it goes. 

And, YAY!  The sun finally came out.  Should be a beautiful, if cool weekend.

Bleh.

On top of the past couple of less than fun days, we get an almost-cold rain & some serious drearies.   Thanks a lot, weather.

I did get out and run this morning, another relatively short one at a bit over 5 miles.  I've enjoyed this step-back week, despite the cold Tuesday and the rain today.  I guess if the weather were feeling really spiteful, it would have been around freezing and raining both days (in which case, I might have bagged it, although I do find the hardest part of running on real shit weather days to be getting one's ass out the door, not the run itself).  Whatever, I have some extra time and energy on my hands this afternoon and may try a DVD I picked up called Power Systems ICE, or something close to that.  I'm guessing the "power systems" part refers to the fact that the cardio component is all higher impact plyo-type stuff, and the ICE has something to do with core.  It's only a 30 minute DVD, which frankly was a big selling point for me because I don't need to add anything of significant length to my day.  I like plyometrics and I like creative core work, which was another selling point for this DVD; I've gotten pretty bored with the core work I know and need something fresh.


Jeez - just erased a bunch of ramblings.  I don't know what's with me today.  My schedule is off - normally I have A&P today but the professor is at a conference so she canceled lecture, and I've already completed the assigned lab.  I got home very early and spent some time studying for next week's lab practical instead, and now I'm just at loose ends.  I wish it were a nice day; I've gotten rained on a few times and I'm disinclined to go back out before I have to, but I don't have a ton of stuff to do here.  I guess it's a rare luxury, to actually be a bit bored for a change.  Anyway, my random thoughts:

- 'Tis eating season, and I'm happy to be going into it at a happy weight, with a good base diet and no questions about what I'm doing for exercise for quite some time.

- Signed up for A&P II for next semester and have been debating taking Abnormal Psych.  I don't need it to apply to grad school, but it looks interesting to me - however, I haven't quite brought myself to part with the bux for something that really isn't necessary.  If I don't decide to do it soon, though, the decision will be made for me by virtue of the class filling up.

- I need a haircut so badly it's not even funny.  I'm trying to hold out for two more weeks so I don't need a bangs touch-up (trim) between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Wish me luck.  I was about ready to shave my head this morning.

- There is a guy in A&P who has apparently taken a shine to me.  He's about 25, and thinks the world of himself.  I wore a sweatshirt to class that had our dojo logo on it (nothing ostentatious, just a name tag sized thing on the breast) and he started asking me about classes, etc.  He wants to train at a place where there's Real Fighting (of course) so I told him about Sensei J, etc.  When I told Sensei J about it, he absolutely cracked up and informed me that I was this kid's Mysterious Older (but not that much older) Woman.  Go, me.

- On that note my sparring does seem to be continuously improving, although I still tend to over-intellectualize the process, and thinking is generally not something you want to get frozen by when limbs are flying.  I'm sure I'll unlearn this over time, and have to be patient with myself for now.

- And, I'm generally liking what I've been doing for weights, now that I'm a couple of weeks into my plan and the dust has settled. 

- Am having a big HMMM as I've been re-reading Maximum Strength; I had been planning to continue running through the program and possibly even do a few trail runs over the winter, but he suggests very little cardio (particularly compared to what I've been doing) for my somatotype.  I'm wondering if that will drive me crazy.  I do understand why doing significant amounts of cardio is completely counter to the program's aims, and since this is really all about truly seeing what I can do in terms of adding strength I should probably just do exactly. what. he. says.  I also realize he's not my mother, I won't get arrested for not following the program exactly, and so on...  Guess I have to pick my priority, eh?

All right, time to try this Power Ice thing.

RIP, Romeo

Yeah.  The other elder passed away this afternoon, quietly in his sleep at age 19. 

Romeo, I have literally known since the day he was born.  He's also from that horse barn, born to Wanda, the official farm barn cat, who wanda'd down the road one day and made her home there.  She was a skinny thing, and as happens to skinny young female cats on farms all over the world on a daily basis, she started gaining weight, which we first took as a good thing - and then we got the picture.  Ro was one of five kittens; my mother adopted him, along with one of his brothers, who passed on a few years ago due to congestive heart failure.  Ro was a lapcat and a true sweet heart, and a fearsome slayer of birds.  He and his bro were destined to be adopted by my ex and myself, who were getting ready to cohabit on our first farm and wanted a couple of barn cats.  Well... my mother would have none of that, and took them both. 

Like Clyde, Ro lived an obviously long and healthy life, and was well-loved.  He'll be missed.

RIP, Clyde

Remember those cats I was sitting around the end of August - a couple of very old guys, whom I was afraid would pass under my care?  One did finally pass, today, at the age of about 20, in his sleep of natural causes.

Clyde belonged to my parents, and my father was his person from day one.  I first met Clyde when he was dumped at the barn where I was boarding a horse.  A lady who kept a pony there for her granddaughter had adopted Clyde from a shelter and was HORRIFIED when he persisted in jumping on her kitchen counter.  (Um, it's a CAT.  Cats jump on things.)  So she brought him and an even younger kitten, a little girl tortie later named Bonnie, to live at the barn.  I almost immediately talked my father into adopting them.

Clyde was a cool guy, one of those cats with enough personality for several.  He was always a prodigious jumper and loooooved to climb the Christmas tree.  First year with my father, he took delight in breaking every ornament on the tree, which my father took with good humor.  As he aged Clyde went deaf and later developed feline dimentia, but he was otherwise robustly healthy and lived a long and happy life.  He'll be missed.