Shifting Magnetic Poles

I was just asked if  I needed a pillow at our 'go to' restaurant in town, the Governor's Inn. Yep - I look  that tired. It was my longest run ever at 14.1 miles and I did it in decent time, but I am beat. I was actually a little warm at times today - but I'm not complaining - in fact, I don't even want to comment on the weather in case I jinx it.

I've gotten into this weird habit of doing my Saturday long runs and then getting sucked into the SyFy channel. They've got some incredibly bad movies - what I call perfect good-bad movies. Last weekend was all Sasquatch movies, today is all about weather disasters. Not climate change but extreme craziness like the atmosphere disengaging from the planet, shifting poles, vertical weather (?) or volcanoes popping up in new places.

I don't know why I like these bad movies - the pseudo-science? The ridiculousness of them? The fact that I can fall asleep in the middle and not miss anything? That might be it......

Stupid Saturday Run

Saturday it was snowing, a few inches on the ground, but I thought it would be OK to do 7 miles, stop at the house for my fuel and then do the rest, 8 more. Brian was going to take the dog for 5. I left first and they caught up to me - about 1 mile in - I was standing on the side of the road. I think we both said "This is stupid!" at the same time. It was crazy hard to run, feet slipping out from under me, sliding off the pavement - not good on the ankle, snow building up under the balls of my feet. Just way too hard. Stupid hard.

We finished 4. I changed and hit the dreadmill. I am amazed that I was able to stand 8 on it. It was pure torture. Sunday I finished with 3 more - just so I could hit my total for the week.

Some days you just shouldn't try to run. My feet are still sore. Even the muscles in my toes are sore from trying to grip the road!

Snow Run

Ran in some snow showers this afternoon. You have to be kind of careful - if you inhale a flake you go off into a wild coughing fit. Choking on a snowflake - sounds impossible.


The sun came out from behind the clouds right before it started to go set - I had the most incredible view. The sun shining across a snow-covered field, snow coming down - glittering. I was running sideways for a little while to just - watch. I ran the next stretch with my crazy grin. Scaring all the drivers I'm sure.

Windy Saturday Run

Did my long run yesterday - 11.75 miles. So, a bit of a cut back week for me. I needed it - I was feeling tired. I so did not want to run yesterday - it was so cold and the wind was horrible. But I knew today would be even colder - but not as windy.

My route took me along the side of Rochester Hill and then on the way back, right smack over it. Into the wind up the hill - into the wind on top of the hill and into the wind on the way down the other side. There were times when I wasn't sure I was moving forward the wind was so strong. I'm pretty sure there were times when I was running a bit sideways. People were looking at me like I was crazy - but that's sort of normal for me anyway.

Rochester Hill is the Second Hill - the water tower that was leaking is right at that peak.

First Dana-Farber Team Run

I went down to Boston Sunday for my first group run with the Dana-Farber team. We started from the Mt Auburn health club in Watertown and went out on part of the course. I ran Heartbreak Hill! Twice - once down and once up. The run was hilly but not horribly so, I mean, Rochester has hills too. It's just that the ones we ran were pretty short and steep. The highest peak is the top of Heartbreak - it was an out and back.

This is the first time in a long time that I've had sore quads from running. Honestly, I haven't missed it.

Sunday's Run

Winter Welcome

Winter has arrived. And I ran in it - or maybe it was INTO it. I think it was a 20 mph headwind last evening when I ran. Most of me was warm enough - it was just the exposed parts - like my face, that bore the brunt of it.

The thing is, running in the cold is sometimes a little painful - you can get an "ice cream headache" from it - but you can cover most of yourself pretty well and you're OK. But I think a cold rain is the absolute worst - well, that and ice. But I don't run in ice. I will run in snowstorms, but not ice storms. Snowstorms can be fun - if the cars are staying off the road - you're all alone and it's beautiful.

The way this winter is going - who knows when the snow will arrive - it's going to warm up again this weekend.

Happy New Year!

This week went pretty well. The blister/wound on my foot is healing slowly and the bruise on top of my foot is getting better. Neither kept me from my runs this week.

I ended the week with my longest run EVER! A 13.5 run on New Year's Eve. The run went pretty well except that some jerk stole the water I'd stashed at mile 7. I kept going - trying to think of a strategy - I was thirsty. I saw a couple returning from grocery shopping - followed their car up the driveway. I startled them when they got out and I asked them to please fill up my bottle for me. They were very nice, invited me in and filled my bottle. I explained to them about the stolen water - they were as disgusted as I was. That was some of the finest water I've ever had. If I hadn't gotten water from them my run would have been miserable.

I ran 745 miles last year. By far the most miles I've ever done in a year. Over 90,000 calories burned! My pace has dropped this year too. The last couple of weeks have been my highest weekly mileage. Getting into those 30+ weeks now - and it's still feeling OK.Can't ask for anything more than that.