Looks like it was about this time last year that I came down with the chest cold from hell. Or at least, I thought that was the chest cold from hell.
Let me tell you, it had NOTHING on this year's version. Goodness.
Backing up, I'm still struggling with my running mojo but things have gone reasonably well the last couple weeks, considering. Two Fridays ago I got in a fast 7 miles (as in 58 minutes fast!) with some other PhD students, followed by two GREAT days of skiing in almost spring-like weather. Monday and Tuesday were busy as usual (and my legs were fried Monday, anyway) but I was looking forward to getting in some running during our February thaw. Ha! Wednesday I went out with 2 of the 3 fast PhD students for 3.5 miles in under 30 minutes and then Thursday, it happened.
The disease hit.
It started innocently enough. I woke with a cough on Thursday morning and knew I was in for a long day. It was forecast to be in the 50s but I knew I'd better dress a little warmer since I was clearly coming down with something. I sent a whiny "I'm sick" text to my mom that morning, but expected to make it through the day.
On my way into campus, I stopped for a cup of coffee. I couldn't stop coughing in the coffeehouse - don't you just hate that? I always feel like everyone around me thinks I have the Plague and I always want to explain that it's the transition from the outside to inside air that makes me do that. Anyway. Got my coffee, arrived at my office, sat down to work...and didn't even want to drink that coffee.
That's bad news, I'm telling you. I finally poured the cup out this morning - I don't think I even drank 1/4 of it.
By 10 AM I was freezing, shivering uncontrollably, and knew I wouldn't make it through the day. I found someone to teach my evening class, finished my grading, canceled office hours, and tried to last until my scheduled noon meeting. The second that meeting was over I headed home and hit the couch.
I stayed on the couch until about 10 PM, at which time I moved to the bed. Stayed there until, oh....Saturday. Basically. Friday morning I did get up to go to the doctor. My hips, glutes, and legs were hurting so badly you would have thought I ran 100 miles the day before. Clearly, however, I did not. I was sure this was the flu. The doctor, on the other hand, was not. She sent me home saying it was "justavirus" of the upper respiratory variety, and I just needed to rest and drink fluids.
And so I did, all weekend long.
Today I can finally stand for extended periods of time. I've stopped drinking Gatorade, actually eaten a couple meals, and coffee is (mostly) appealing this morning. I think I'll probably be able to stand for 80 minutes to teach my class..but I'm not entirely convinced yet. I know I'll have to go straight to bed when I finally get home.
But you know what? I missed some of the grossest conditions of the year so far. I mean yeah it was warm and that would have been nice, but everything was so soggy and ugly. That first thaw of the year there's litter everywhere (that had been hidden under the snow) and the only snow left is the piles along the road that are crusted in nasty black road disgustingness. Yesterday we got a fresh blanket a new snow - about 10" worth! Today we're forecast to get up to 3 more inches.
And so I'd like to thank the Justavirus of Death for choosing a weekend of no skiing and ask it to please leave me healthy enough to enjoy this new, fresh snow.
Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Did I Say I was a Runner?
Heh.
Lately I haven't been interested in running at all. I thought it was a rut brought on by school stress that would just pass. Well...it hasn't. Not that the school stress has passed either, but I thought I just needed to get into a routine or something.
The thing is, even when I have an opportunity to run (now, for instance), I don't really want to. Now I believe the windchill is still well under zero and that's a good part of the reason I'm not interested but....just blah. This is NOT GOOD seeing as how I am actually registered for both a half marathon and a marathon and talking about running at least one additional half.
Good thing I've been skiing...sort of.
I just don't want to push the running now, when I'm not interested, knowing that before long I'm going to HAVE to do it if I want to get through those races. I'm already thinking of blowing off any time goal for the May half and have proclaimed that I'm not even allowed to have a goal time for the marathon in October.
Sigh. If I keep going on like this it's going to be hard to run a 5k, even.
Lately I haven't been interested in running at all. I thought it was a rut brought on by school stress that would just pass. Well...it hasn't. Not that the school stress has passed either, but I thought I just needed to get into a routine or something.
The thing is, even when I have an opportunity to run (now, for instance), I don't really want to. Now I believe the windchill is still well under zero and that's a good part of the reason I'm not interested but....just blah. This is NOT GOOD seeing as how I am actually registered for both a half marathon and a marathon and talking about running at least one additional half.
Good thing I've been skiing...sort of.
I just don't want to push the running now, when I'm not interested, knowing that before long I'm going to HAVE to do it if I want to get through those races. I'm already thinking of blowing off any time goal for the May half and have proclaimed that I'm not even allowed to have a goal time for the marathon in October.
Sigh. If I keep going on like this it's going to be hard to run a 5k, even.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Hooray!!
Happy belated birthday to me?
Tonight
A chance of light snow in the evening...then light snow after midnight. Snow accumulation 1 to 2 inches. Lows 10 to 15. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 80 percent.
Tuesday
Light snow likely. Areas of blowing snow in the afternoon. Snow may be heavy at times in the afternoon. Snow accumulation an inch or less. Highs in the lower 20s. Northeast winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 30 mph. Chance of snow 60 percent.
Tuesday Night
Blustery...snow. Areas of blowing snow. Snow may be heavy at times. Snow accumulation 7 to 11 inches. Lows 15 to 20. Northeast winds 20 to 30 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph increasing to 40 mph toward daybreak. Chance of snow near 100 percent.
Wednesday
Snow. Areas of blowing snow. Windy. Accumulations possible. Highs in the lower 20s. North winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 40 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent.
Tonight
A chance of light snow in the evening...then light snow after midnight. Snow accumulation 1 to 2 inches. Lows 10 to 15. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 80 percent.
Tuesday
Light snow likely. Areas of blowing snow in the afternoon. Snow may be heavy at times in the afternoon. Snow accumulation an inch or less. Highs in the lower 20s. Northeast winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 30 mph. Chance of snow 60 percent.
Tuesday Night
Blustery...snow. Areas of blowing snow. Snow may be heavy at times. Snow accumulation 7 to 11 inches. Lows 15 to 20. Northeast winds 20 to 30 mph. Gusts up to 35 mph increasing to 40 mph toward daybreak. Chance of snow near 100 percent.
Wednesday
Snow. Areas of blowing snow. Windy. Accumulations possible. Highs in the lower 20s. North winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 40 mph. Chance of snow near 100 percent.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Blog or Dissertate?
Blog, of course! Just a quick break to try to get back in the habit of my weekly updates (at the very least).
It was a reasonably good week, exercise-wise. I did ride my high from last weekend's race a little too long but I figure it's alright. Running races hardly ever leave me feeling that way anymore so it was a nice change.
The three-day weekend was greatly appreciated around here. I spent the majority of the weekend with a friend - having girl-time, watching TV, reading, napping, and generally ignoring schoolwork. Monday I got back into my groove by spending 7 evening hours in the office while Doug worked at the athletic club.
Before getting back to work I took my friend K out to the trails at Burchfield to teach her how to ski. Ski rentals were free for the day and the Place Was Packed. K had never been on any kind of skis before so she had to learn it all from the very beginning. We started with getting up from a fall (which I learned to teach right away after forgetting to teach another friend last winter), moved on to "french fry, pizza pie," and then eventually made it to going forward. Kicking and gliding took some time but she was getting it by the end. We managed about 2 miles with only a few falls - almost all of them at the bottom of hills. She'd make it down looking great and get excited or something at the bottom. Rumor has it she wants to try again, so I'm calling it a successful day.
Tuesdays are not going to be good exercise days for me this semester and this week was no different. The rains that came Monday night left the whole town a sheet of ice Tuesday and it wasn't much better Wednesday, so it didn't take much to talk myself out of trying to run outside. I flirted with the idea of hitting the treadmill but bailed after visiting a friend in the hospital and staying longer than planned. That night I resolved to make it out running every remaining day of the week.
Thursday and Friday both brought good runs, if a bit cold. Saturday morning was F-R-I-G-I-D with wind chills around -10* when I headed out for my morning long run with the training group. About 80 people made it out that morning and I caved to peer-pressure, running 7 miles when the plan only technically called for 4. It was week 1 of half marathon training but 4 would have been a big cut back, since I've been doing 6-8 on weekends lately.
Today, since I ran more than planned on Saturday, I decided to be happy with 14 running miles for the week and try skiing instead. We weren't sure how the trails would be but decided to give them a shot since we did get about 1" of new snow in the past couple days. Burchfield hasn't been renting skis since the weekend and as a result, the trails were great! We parked at the Riverbend trailhead instead of the park, like we usually do, and it was a great decision. The hills between Burchfield and Riverbend were likely to be an icy, root-y, rocky mess and I'm perfectly happy that we skipped them. The few skiers who did get out this weekend left great tracks for us to follow and I was ON today. Got in some good practice with pole-less kicking, double-poling, and running up hills. Three times around a 1-mile loop left us with 3 miles for the day.
Week totals:
Mon: Skied 2 miles nice and easy and worked on technique. Felt good on sore legs.
Tues: Nada
Wed: Does sliding around on ice count?
Thurs: Ran 3.4 miles with dogger.
Fri: Ran 4 miles outside with friend B while the wussy boys ran on the indoor track.
Sat: Ran 7 miles with the training group, different people than usual.
Sun: Skied 3 miles with Doug, lots of technique work.
Total: 14.4 miles run, 5 miles skied. Not bad for high-riding laziness.
It was a reasonably good week, exercise-wise. I did ride my high from last weekend's race a little too long but I figure it's alright. Running races hardly ever leave me feeling that way anymore so it was a nice change.
The three-day weekend was greatly appreciated around here. I spent the majority of the weekend with a friend - having girl-time, watching TV, reading, napping, and generally ignoring schoolwork. Monday I got back into my groove by spending 7 evening hours in the office while Doug worked at the athletic club.
Before getting back to work I took my friend K out to the trails at Burchfield to teach her how to ski. Ski rentals were free for the day and the Place Was Packed. K had never been on any kind of skis before so she had to learn it all from the very beginning. We started with getting up from a fall (which I learned to teach right away after forgetting to teach another friend last winter), moved on to "french fry, pizza pie," and then eventually made it to going forward. Kicking and gliding took some time but she was getting it by the end. We managed about 2 miles with only a few falls - almost all of them at the bottom of hills. She'd make it down looking great and get excited or something at the bottom. Rumor has it she wants to try again, so I'm calling it a successful day.
Tuesdays are not going to be good exercise days for me this semester and this week was no different. The rains that came Monday night left the whole town a sheet of ice Tuesday and it wasn't much better Wednesday, so it didn't take much to talk myself out of trying to run outside. I flirted with the idea of hitting the treadmill but bailed after visiting a friend in the hospital and staying longer than planned. That night I resolved to make it out running every remaining day of the week.
Thursday and Friday both brought good runs, if a bit cold. Saturday morning was F-R-I-G-I-D with wind chills around -10* when I headed out for my morning long run with the training group. About 80 people made it out that morning and I caved to peer-pressure, running 7 miles when the plan only technically called for 4. It was week 1 of half marathon training but 4 would have been a big cut back, since I've been doing 6-8 on weekends lately.
Today, since I ran more than planned on Saturday, I decided to be happy with 14 running miles for the week and try skiing instead. We weren't sure how the trails would be but decided to give them a shot since we did get about 1" of new snow in the past couple days. Burchfield hasn't been renting skis since the weekend and as a result, the trails were great! We parked at the Riverbend trailhead instead of the park, like we usually do, and it was a great decision. The hills between Burchfield and Riverbend were likely to be an icy, root-y, rocky mess and I'm perfectly happy that we skipped them. The few skiers who did get out this weekend left great tracks for us to follow and I was ON today. Got in some good practice with pole-less kicking, double-poling, and running up hills. Three times around a 1-mile loop left us with 3 miles for the day.
Week totals:
Mon: Skied 2 miles nice and easy and worked on technique. Felt good on sore legs.
Tues: Nada
Wed: Does sliding around on ice count?
Thurs: Ran 3.4 miles with dogger.
Fri: Ran 4 miles outside with friend B while the wussy boys ran on the indoor track.
Sat: Ran 7 miles with the training group, different people than usual.
Sun: Skied 3 miles with Doug, lots of technique work.
Total: 14.4 miles run, 5 miles skied. Not bad for high-riding laziness.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Frosty Freestyle - My First Ski Race
As we all know by now, I'm never one to write a short race report. Always have to start with the back-story, yada yada. Today's no different - there's even a moral to this story.
But for those who don't want to read, short version: 5k cross-country ski race, classic technique. Final time 36:18, first in age group, 4th woman, 10th overall. Pint glass trophy. Beaten by someone in a snowman costume.
Long version:
When we moved to Michigan, I was determined to love winter. I had a new set of downhill skis that I'd won in a raffle and I was set to just be on them all the time. Well - downhill skiing is expensive, even when you have all the gear. Cross-country skiing, on the other hand, is pretty cheap (once you have the gear). Doug had done a lot of Nordic skiing in the past (both skate and classic styles) and owned a pair of skate skis. He was always talking it up and finally I really wanted to try. As a bonus, he can get really great deals on equipment through work. I wound up buying a closeout pair of skis online for $60 and getting bindings, boots, and poles all for less than $100 through his work. He wound up getting a pair of classic skis with Christmas money, so we were both all set.
That first year we skied when we had the opportunity and I thought it was great fun, but never looked at it as more than just fun cross training. Last year, a combination of things happened. First, I started getting better and we started making a better effort to get out and ski. Second, the Winter Olympics started. I watched So Much Skiing. I got all wrapped up in the performances of Kikkan Randall and Chandra Crawford, started looking into other stuff they do (hello Fast and Female!) and really excited about the whole culture in general. Also - this is silly - we got a Wii and a super fun biathlon game called Ski and Shoot. This somehow convinced me that I could race. :laugh:
Last winter I started talking about getting serious and trying my hand (or legs, as it may be) at racing this winter. Through his total awesomeness, Doug was able to get me a pair of racing skis at the end of the season. He got them after our snow had melted, so I never got to try them out. By the time he did that, I was committed. The moral is - watch what you commit yourself too - someone's always listening! This fall he also managed to convince me that I had outgrown my $60 closeout skis (Karhu Piqtu - "little snow") and should sell them to a friend. I did, and hiss mom got me the waxless version of my waxable racing skis for Christmas. So now I have two sets of skis, nearly identical to each other, and they're both fast. Fast fast fast. However, there was a learning curve. I still haven't been out on the waxable skis because a) I have to learn to wax, and b) we haven't had much snow.
There's a park about halfway between here and Detroit that is groomed for both skate and classic skiing whenever there's enough snow to do so. They do a great job and a lot of local skiers essentially live there in the winter. There's also a race, the Frosty Freestyle, held in the middle of January. This year they were holding both a 5k and 15k, with classic and skate divisions in each. It's by far the closest race to us and while I was worried about it being so early in the year (and thus not getting much practice), this is the one I set my sights on.
Because those Southern states have been stealing our snow, I wasn't even sure the race would happen. The website said that if there wasn't snow on race day they would postpone the race. If there still wasn't snow, they would hold a running race instead. That struck me as a reasonably good idea (and I felt much more confident about the potential running race!). A week and a half before the race, we didn't have any snow. Then, the groomers at the park had a brilliant idea. They took a golf course aerator to the ice on the lake at the park. The aerator was used to "pulverize" the top 2.5 inches of ice and make snow on a 24ft. wide, 1km long path loop on the lake. They then groomed that path and called it an alternate racecourse. Gulp. We went down to ski it the weekend before the race. At that point I wasn't sure I wanted to race. I had been nervous and felt unprepared to begin with - adding the potential of falling into the lake on top of it was almost too much for me. But we tried it and it wasn't so bad. I was still hesitant for two reasons, though. First, prior to that day I really had no idea how long it would take me to ski 5k. Funnily, I had even been considering doing the 15k. Well...that day it took me 8 minutes to ski 1km and I wasn't sure I'd even be able to keep it up for 5 laps. I was worried. Second, it was windy down there...and that was a relatively still day. If we had our usual Michigan wind on race day that course was going to be damn cold and even slower (for me - everyone else I heard talking seemed to think it was very fast). So, I considered not doing the race at all.
Doug thought I was being silly and should just get out and get it over with. I knew he was right but I'm really so good at worrying. I knew that I'd feel better about it if it would just snow and they could have the race on the course. Finally, Tuesday and Wednesday, it did...and I registered for the 5k. Wednesday afternoon we headed out to a local park to ski and I felt much better about it than I had on Saturday. Once I knew we would be on trails and I wasn't likely to be lapped a billion times, the worry melted away to excitement. We also got out to ski on Friday night and by then I was pumped (and still nervous, of course).
The race started at 10:30 so we didn't have to stress too much about getting up early and all that on race day. It had snowed a couple inches over night, though, so the drive was a little hairy at times. We got to the park around 9:30 with plenty of time to get checked in, figure out exactly what I wanted to wear (of course I had taken many options!) and be intimidated by the very serious looking racers. It seemed like nearly everyone was wearing a race suit representing some Michigan Cup team. Where were all the beginners the site had advertised? Finally I started seeing some who didn't look quite as serious. I skied about a mile to warm-up and fretted over my outfit. I had chosen fleece-lined (but not very heavy or wind-resistant) tights, a light long-sleeved baselayer top, mid-weight fleece layer, and windproof jacket. It was windy, cloudy, and still snowing. I had to wear sunglasses to keep the snow out of my eyes - fortunately the brown lenses were ok for the low light.
Just before we all went to line up, the "international guest star" advertised on the race website was announced - a skier dressed as Frosty the Snowman. Great - not only could I come in dead last, I could lose to a snowman. Oh well, there's a first time for everything.
They did a wave start and the women's 5k was the last to start, so I got to stand there in the wind getting more and more nervous. Frosty also started in my wave, so I made it my main goal to get away from "him" as quickly as possible. The race started up a little hill - not steep enough to need to switch to a herringbone motion but enough to trip people up a little. A few people fell there so I was focused on how I was going to get around them when I heard D yell "Frosty's right behind you!!" I picked it up to get away and once we were off the hill, started to get into a groove. I passed a trailing man - who had started 3 min ahead of me - within the first 1/4-1/2 mile and was steadily passing women who had gotten out ahead of me on that hill. My skis are super fast on downhills and I was able to take advantage of that within the first mile. After that it seemed like we did a whole lot of climbing without any compensatory downhill - it all must have been on that first steep descent. Most of the race I felt like I was moving right along. I've spent some time the past week or so practicing skiing without my poles, forcing myself to find my kick zone and actually get power from my legs more than my arms - it's helping a ton. The thing I struggled with during the whole race was having no idea how far we'd gone. I'm not familiar with the trail, everything was blindingly white (even with glasses on), and the course wound around so much I didn't even know which direction I was facing. Eventually I could hear cheers and cowbells so I knew we had to be getting close. Right about then, Frosty passed me. I kept that white suit in my sight the rest of the race, but never caught back up. I think I could have, once we got out of the woods, but by then I really just wanted to finish and didn't care about beating the mascot. I finished probably less than 25yds behind Frosty.
D came over when I finished and said he thought I'd probably won my age group. We tracked Frosty down for a picture and went back to the car to deposit my skis and get my dry clothes. Lunch was served after the race so we hung around for that and then the awards.
Sure enough, I DID win my age group! My final time was 36:18 (almost 5 min ahead of 2nd), good for first in the women's 5k classic 20-29 division, 4th woman, and 10th overall (men and women). Not bad for the first time out!
So that's it! I had a ton of fun and am really excited to do this again. I do need to work on my technique though...might see if I can take some lessons if I can find a coach around here.
Thanks for reading!
Pictures to follow when I have a little more time.
But for those who don't want to read, short version: 5k cross-country ski race, classic technique. Final time 36:18, first in age group, 4th woman, 10th overall. Pint glass trophy. Beaten by someone in a snowman costume.
Long version:
When we moved to Michigan, I was determined to love winter. I had a new set of downhill skis that I'd won in a raffle and I was set to just be on them all the time. Well - downhill skiing is expensive, even when you have all the gear. Cross-country skiing, on the other hand, is pretty cheap (once you have the gear). Doug had done a lot of Nordic skiing in the past (both skate and classic styles) and owned a pair of skate skis. He was always talking it up and finally I really wanted to try. As a bonus, he can get really great deals on equipment through work. I wound up buying a closeout pair of skis online for $60 and getting bindings, boots, and poles all for less than $100 through his work. He wound up getting a pair of classic skis with Christmas money, so we were both all set.
That first year we skied when we had the opportunity and I thought it was great fun, but never looked at it as more than just fun cross training. Last year, a combination of things happened. First, I started getting better and we started making a better effort to get out and ski. Second, the Winter Olympics started. I watched So Much Skiing. I got all wrapped up in the performances of Kikkan Randall and Chandra Crawford, started looking into other stuff they do (hello Fast and Female!) and really excited about the whole culture in general. Also - this is silly - we got a Wii and a super fun biathlon game called Ski and Shoot. This somehow convinced me that I could race. :laugh:
Last winter I started talking about getting serious and trying my hand (or legs, as it may be) at racing this winter. Through his total awesomeness, Doug was able to get me a pair of racing skis at the end of the season. He got them after our snow had melted, so I never got to try them out. By the time he did that, I was committed. The moral is - watch what you commit yourself too - someone's always listening! This fall he also managed to convince me that I had outgrown my $60 closeout skis (Karhu Piqtu - "little snow") and should sell them to a friend. I did, and hiss mom got me the waxless version of my waxable racing skis for Christmas. So now I have two sets of skis, nearly identical to each other, and they're both fast. Fast fast fast. However, there was a learning curve. I still haven't been out on the waxable skis because a) I have to learn to wax, and b) we haven't had much snow.
There's a park about halfway between here and Detroit that is groomed for both skate and classic skiing whenever there's enough snow to do so. They do a great job and a lot of local skiers essentially live there in the winter. There's also a race, the Frosty Freestyle, held in the middle of January. This year they were holding both a 5k and 15k, with classic and skate divisions in each. It's by far the closest race to us and while I was worried about it being so early in the year (and thus not getting much practice), this is the one I set my sights on.
Because those Southern states have been stealing our snow, I wasn't even sure the race would happen. The website said that if there wasn't snow on race day they would postpone the race. If there still wasn't snow, they would hold a running race instead. That struck me as a reasonably good idea (and I felt much more confident about the potential running race!). A week and a half before the race, we didn't have any snow. Then, the groomers at the park had a brilliant idea. They took a golf course aerator to the ice on the lake at the park. The aerator was used to "pulverize" the top 2.5 inches of ice and make snow on a 24ft. wide, 1km long path loop on the lake. They then groomed that path and called it an alternate racecourse. Gulp. We went down to ski it the weekend before the race. At that point I wasn't sure I wanted to race. I had been nervous and felt unprepared to begin with - adding the potential of falling into the lake on top of it was almost too much for me. But we tried it and it wasn't so bad. I was still hesitant for two reasons, though. First, prior to that day I really had no idea how long it would take me to ski 5k. Funnily, I had even been considering doing the 15k. Well...that day it took me 8 minutes to ski 1km and I wasn't sure I'd even be able to keep it up for 5 laps. I was worried. Second, it was windy down there...and that was a relatively still day. If we had our usual Michigan wind on race day that course was going to be damn cold and even slower (for me - everyone else I heard talking seemed to think it was very fast). So, I considered not doing the race at all.
Doug thought I was being silly and should just get out and get it over with. I knew he was right but I'm really so good at worrying. I knew that I'd feel better about it if it would just snow and they could have the race on the course. Finally, Tuesday and Wednesday, it did...and I registered for the 5k. Wednesday afternoon we headed out to a local park to ski and I felt much better about it than I had on Saturday. Once I knew we would be on trails and I wasn't likely to be lapped a billion times, the worry melted away to excitement. We also got out to ski on Friday night and by then I was pumped (and still nervous, of course).
The race started at 10:30 so we didn't have to stress too much about getting up early and all that on race day. It had snowed a couple inches over night, though, so the drive was a little hairy at times. We got to the park around 9:30 with plenty of time to get checked in, figure out exactly what I wanted to wear (of course I had taken many options!) and be intimidated by the very serious looking racers. It seemed like nearly everyone was wearing a race suit representing some Michigan Cup team. Where were all the beginners the site had advertised? Finally I started seeing some who didn't look quite as serious. I skied about a mile to warm-up and fretted over my outfit. I had chosen fleece-lined (but not very heavy or wind-resistant) tights, a light long-sleeved baselayer top, mid-weight fleece layer, and windproof jacket. It was windy, cloudy, and still snowing. I had to wear sunglasses to keep the snow out of my eyes - fortunately the brown lenses were ok for the low light.
Just before we all went to line up, the "international guest star" advertised on the race website was announced - a skier dressed as Frosty the Snowman. Great - not only could I come in dead last, I could lose to a snowman. Oh well, there's a first time for everything.
They did a wave start and the women's 5k was the last to start, so I got to stand there in the wind getting more and more nervous. Frosty also started in my wave, so I made it my main goal to get away from "him" as quickly as possible. The race started up a little hill - not steep enough to need to switch to a herringbone motion but enough to trip people up a little. A few people fell there so I was focused on how I was going to get around them when I heard D yell "Frosty's right behind you!!" I picked it up to get away and once we were off the hill, started to get into a groove. I passed a trailing man - who had started 3 min ahead of me - within the first 1/4-1/2 mile and was steadily passing women who had gotten out ahead of me on that hill. My skis are super fast on downhills and I was able to take advantage of that within the first mile. After that it seemed like we did a whole lot of climbing without any compensatory downhill - it all must have been on that first steep descent. Most of the race I felt like I was moving right along. I've spent some time the past week or so practicing skiing without my poles, forcing myself to find my kick zone and actually get power from my legs more than my arms - it's helping a ton. The thing I struggled with during the whole race was having no idea how far we'd gone. I'm not familiar with the trail, everything was blindingly white (even with glasses on), and the course wound around so much I didn't even know which direction I was facing. Eventually I could hear cheers and cowbells so I knew we had to be getting close. Right about then, Frosty passed me. I kept that white suit in my sight the rest of the race, but never caught back up. I think I could have, once we got out of the woods, but by then I really just wanted to finish and didn't care about beating the mascot. I finished probably less than 25yds behind Frosty.
D came over when I finished and said he thought I'd probably won my age group. We tracked Frosty down for a picture and went back to the car to deposit my skis and get my dry clothes. Lunch was served after the race so we hung around for that and then the awards.
Sure enough, I DID win my age group! My final time was 36:18 (almost 5 min ahead of 2nd), good for first in the women's 5k classic 20-29 division, 4th woman, and 10th overall (men and women). Not bad for the first time out!
So that's it! I had a ton of fun and am really excited to do this again. I do need to work on my technique though...might see if I can take some lessons if I can find a coach around here.
Thanks for reading!
Pictures to follow when I have a little more time.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Bad Timing, Chest Cold!
We finally have some worthwhile snow up here in the Great (White) North, after I've been watching all of you in NC and PA steal it all. While Philly and nearby areas got huge amounts of snow causing week-long shut downs, water damage to houses, and power outages, we got just the right amount! Enough to ski, enough to pretty it up around here, and enough for Kona to frolic through the drifts much to my amusement.
In honor of our snow, I've virtually ignored running this week in favor of skiing. It's been (mostly) great fun! The snow fell all of Tuesday and into Wednesday and of course by the time I got off campus on Wednesday, I couldn't wait to get out there. I got home from my meeting, quickly changed clothes, threw my skis on the car (after cleaning off 8" of snow), grabbed Kona, and headed off to the Groesbeck golf course to ski until dusk. That was by far one of the most difficult, physically taxing hours of my life. The wide-open golf course was at the mercy of some pretty strong winds during the storm and the snow had drifted like crazy. Not yet very familiar with the course, it was hard for me to tell where the rolling hills were and which areas had been smoothed out by drifts. Sometimes the skiing was great and others I would sink into drifts up over my knees. Kona was hillarious, she sunk past her shoulders more than a couple times and it took a big leap to get back out again. At the end of that hour, I felt like I had run 10 miles, maybe more. Hard, hard work.
Thursday I didn't have to be on campus, so I worked from home in the morning and Doug and I headed out to Brighton to ski at Huron Meadows in the afternoon. It. Was. Marvelous. Just perfect. Huron Meadows is groomed - combed for skate skiing (which we did not do) and set tracks for classic. This is a rarity for us - some of the local trails are combed, but the track-setting is really nice to have. It was a cold day, but we dealt with it by continuing to move and got in a good 10k of skiing.
Friday, I was getting sick. I seriously considered not going to school but heard my mom's voice in my head saying that if I was too sick to go to school, I was too sick for any fun in the afternoon. I wanted to go to moonlight skiing at Birchfield, thus I went to school. Going to school was fine, but going skiing was not one of my more intelligent decisions. We had a great time and I highly recommend night skiing if you ever get a chance - the trails were lit with lanterns along the way, but they were spaced pretty far apart so it was moonlight most of the time. We did wear head lamps but left them turned off 90% of the time. The lamps did come in handy on two hills, though. There weren't lanterns at the bottom of those hills, I can only speculate that they weren't there to avoid having people fall on them, but the lack of light would have made navigating the hills really tricky without the head lamps. We skied about 4 miles that night but unfortunately, by the time we finished my lungs were absolutely on fire. I can't remember the last time they hurt so badly. When we got home, I went straight to the shower and sat on the shower floor with super hot water running for a good 30 minutes, just breathing in that steam. It helped a lot, but that cold has definitely settled firmly in my chest.
As a result, this morning's long run was a bust. Good thing my goal race is in July, not May, and I have plenty of room for adjustment in my schedule. I went, mostly because I'm going to miss next week's group run, but only did 5 miles with a good mile or two of walking right in the middle. Since then (and after another very hot shower), I've been chilling on the couch watching the Olympics and reading biochem. Exciting life, I know...
In honor of our snow, I've virtually ignored running this week in favor of skiing. It's been (mostly) great fun! The snow fell all of Tuesday and into Wednesday and of course by the time I got off campus on Wednesday, I couldn't wait to get out there. I got home from my meeting, quickly changed clothes, threw my skis on the car (after cleaning off 8" of snow), grabbed Kona, and headed off to the Groesbeck golf course to ski until dusk. That was by far one of the most difficult, physically taxing hours of my life. The wide-open golf course was at the mercy of some pretty strong winds during the storm and the snow had drifted like crazy. Not yet very familiar with the course, it was hard for me to tell where the rolling hills were and which areas had been smoothed out by drifts. Sometimes the skiing was great and others I would sink into drifts up over my knees. Kona was hillarious, she sunk past her shoulders more than a couple times and it took a big leap to get back out again. At the end of that hour, I felt like I had run 10 miles, maybe more. Hard, hard work.
Thursday I didn't have to be on campus, so I worked from home in the morning and Doug and I headed out to Brighton to ski at Huron Meadows in the afternoon. It. Was. Marvelous. Just perfect. Huron Meadows is groomed - combed for skate skiing (which we did not do) and set tracks for classic. This is a rarity for us - some of the local trails are combed, but the track-setting is really nice to have. It was a cold day, but we dealt with it by continuing to move and got in a good 10k of skiing.
Friday, I was getting sick. I seriously considered not going to school but heard my mom's voice in my head saying that if I was too sick to go to school, I was too sick for any fun in the afternoon. I wanted to go to moonlight skiing at Birchfield, thus I went to school. Going to school was fine, but going skiing was not one of my more intelligent decisions. We had a great time and I highly recommend night skiing if you ever get a chance - the trails were lit with lanterns along the way, but they were spaced pretty far apart so it was moonlight most of the time. We did wear head lamps but left them turned off 90% of the time. The lamps did come in handy on two hills, though. There weren't lanterns at the bottom of those hills, I can only speculate that they weren't there to avoid having people fall on them, but the lack of light would have made navigating the hills really tricky without the head lamps. We skied about 4 miles that night but unfortunately, by the time we finished my lungs were absolutely on fire. I can't remember the last time they hurt so badly. When we got home, I went straight to the shower and sat on the shower floor with super hot water running for a good 30 minutes, just breathing in that steam. It helped a lot, but that cold has definitely settled firmly in my chest.
As a result, this morning's long run was a bust. Good thing my goal race is in July, not May, and I have plenty of room for adjustment in my schedule. I went, mostly because I'm going to miss next week's group run, but only did 5 miles with a good mile or two of walking right in the middle. Since then (and after another very hot shower), I've been chilling on the couch watching the Olympics and reading biochem. Exciting life, I know...
Saturday, January 09, 2010
It's Almost Over
Break, that is. Huge bummer. Since I can't seem to focus on much of anything, I thought I'd come here for one more wrap-up/kick-off post before it all gets going again.
Since my previous post summed up the year nicely I suppose I don't need to do that again. December ended well - a trip to PA threw off my running plans a little, as it always does, and once again I managed to forget how tough those hills are. We really don't have anything here that even remotely compares. So, I didn't time a single run while I was there. I'm base-building anyway so who cares about time, right? RIGHT? Yeah, I thought so. I finished the month with 40.33 miles making that my third highest month of the year. To me, that seems to bode well for 2010 - at least I was headed in the right direction at the end of 2009. That made a whopping 315 miles for the year - 885 miles short of my goal. Ha! Nothing I can do but laugh, that's a huge number.
Of course the end of 2009 and reflection on goals means it's a new year and thus, time for new goals. It's been tough for me to figure out how to approach this year. Last year didn't exactly give me a good idea of where I'm headed. So, basically ignoring 2009, I went back to look at my logs for 2007 and 2008. Based on those two years I've decided to set a conservative goal of 750 miles for 2010. Truthfully I think I can exceed that, but I don't want to ask too much of myself in a year when I'm supposed to be recovering. That, and the fact that I hope my running mileage is going to lose out to SKIING mileage for the next few months. This week that has been the case - I've run 5 miles and skied 9.8 miles. It's been a good snow week.
As far as a racing schedule, I don't have one. I'll do the Race for the Cure again in April (and hopefully have a much better showing) and I'm considering the Dances with Dirt trail half marathon in WI on July 10 (I think). There local running store organizes a half marathon/marathon training group that I'm 75% sure I'll join. The kick off meeting is tomorrow and I've decided to go to the meeting and decide then. I won't be running their goal race because of another commitment that same weekend, but I think training with the group would help me meet my general goal of improving my aerobic base and getting back to decent weekly mileage without pushing me to ramp up too quickly. I'm a bit bored right now and these runs get lonely, so I'm excited to potentially meet some local people to run with. We'll see. This won't be The Year Of The Marathon, but we'll see about 2011.
So, the semester starts on Tuesday. Considering meetings and just plain needing to buckle down, it basically starts Monday. All that fatigue last semester left me with a take home final that still needs to get done and is in front of me on my desk as I type. Holy cats, did I fall out of school mode. I needed this break and frankly I'm not mentally ready to move on to another semester, so I'm trying not to feel too guilty about not having this done yet. I do, however, need to finish it before all this new work piles up on me...
Happy running!
Since my previous post summed up the year nicely I suppose I don't need to do that again. December ended well - a trip to PA threw off my running plans a little, as it always does, and once again I managed to forget how tough those hills are. We really don't have anything here that even remotely compares. So, I didn't time a single run while I was there. I'm base-building anyway so who cares about time, right? RIGHT? Yeah, I thought so. I finished the month with 40.33 miles making that my third highest month of the year. To me, that seems to bode well for 2010 - at least I was headed in the right direction at the end of 2009. That made a whopping 315 miles for the year - 885 miles short of my goal. Ha! Nothing I can do but laugh, that's a huge number.
Of course the end of 2009 and reflection on goals means it's a new year and thus, time for new goals. It's been tough for me to figure out how to approach this year. Last year didn't exactly give me a good idea of where I'm headed. So, basically ignoring 2009, I went back to look at my logs for 2007 and 2008. Based on those two years I've decided to set a conservative goal of 750 miles for 2010. Truthfully I think I can exceed that, but I don't want to ask too much of myself in a year when I'm supposed to be recovering. That, and the fact that I hope my running mileage is going to lose out to SKIING mileage for the next few months. This week that has been the case - I've run 5 miles and skied 9.8 miles. It's been a good snow week.
As far as a racing schedule, I don't have one. I'll do the Race for the Cure again in April (and hopefully have a much better showing) and I'm considering the Dances with Dirt trail half marathon in WI on July 10 (I think). There local running store organizes a half marathon/marathon training group that I'm 75% sure I'll join. The kick off meeting is tomorrow and I've decided to go to the meeting and decide then. I won't be running their goal race because of another commitment that same weekend, but I think training with the group would help me meet my general goal of improving my aerobic base and getting back to decent weekly mileage without pushing me to ramp up too quickly. I'm a bit bored right now and these runs get lonely, so I'm excited to potentially meet some local people to run with. We'll see. This won't be The Year Of The Marathon, but we'll see about 2011.
So, the semester starts on Tuesday. Considering meetings and just plain needing to buckle down, it basically starts Monday. All that fatigue last semester left me with a take home final that still needs to get done and is in front of me on my desk as I type. Holy cats, did I fall out of school mode. I needed this break and frankly I'm not mentally ready to move on to another semester, so I'm trying not to feel too guilty about not having this done yet. I do, however, need to finish it before all this new work piles up on me...
Happy running!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, February 06, 2009
Mystery solved!
Winter. People hate it, people whine about it, people get depressed (literally) because of a lack of sunlight. I've gotten depressed over a lack of sunlight. For five years in North Carolina I was a depressed, hibernating, lazy mess for all of winter. Sure, Winter in North Carolina lasted like five days, but man was I miserable those five days.
You'll all be happy to know, I've figured it out. It's not the sunlight! It's unwillingness to go outside. Depression over the cold - not the darkness, the cloudy gray skies - the cold. And do you know what? Layers make the cold ok, they make it bearable. They make it possible to go outside and run and frolic through the snow. They make it possible to run 4 miles with your dog, and watch her leap and dive through snowbanks created by snowblowers. They make it possible for people to yell catcalls out their car windows as they drive by. For me, getting out there makes the difference. It can be the middle of a snowstorm in 28 degrees or a gorgeous, sunny, negative 5 degree day. It doesn't matter - if I don't sit on my ass all day - if I don't sit inside and mope - I can thrive in winter.
All figured out. w00t! So here's a little snow for you.
You'll all be happy to know, I've figured it out. It's not the sunlight! It's unwillingness to go outside. Depression over the cold - not the darkness, the cloudy gray skies - the cold. And do you know what? Layers make the cold ok, they make it bearable. They make it possible to go outside and run and frolic through the snow. They make it possible to run 4 miles with your dog, and watch her leap and dive through snowbanks created by snowblowers. They make it possible for people to yell catcalls out their car windows as they drive by. For me, getting out there makes the difference. It can be the middle of a snowstorm in 28 degrees or a gorgeous, sunny, negative 5 degree day. It doesn't matter - if I don't sit on my ass all day - if I don't sit inside and mope - I can thrive in winter.
All figured out. w00t! So here's a little snow for you.
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