out in the rain

sunday dianne and i started out together for what we thought was going to be a nice long run; hers for an hour or so, mine for just past 90 minutes. it’s been raining almost every day here for the last month but we didn’t figure it would rain on us. it did. alot. after running east about 20 minutes dianne looked behind us (to the west where the really strong storms come from) and said, “oh, that’s thunder. hey, have you looked behind us to the west?” i look… and think to myself, its pretty far away and hopefully it won’t be that big or strong. the entire western horizon is dark and foreboding. i say, “yes i have” and shrug. well…

i chose to run out further and she headed back for home. enter heavy, torrential  sheets of rain, strong, whipping winds and lots of thunder and lightning. also enter my first opportunity to be afraid that i might get struck by lightning if i tried to run back home (3 miles) or to all those great places to wait out the rain that i ran by 5-10 minutes ago. i waited under a tree against a fence which was out of the wind, but not the rain. fortunately it wasn’t cold.  the dripping dianne was waiting it out in a gas station about .75 miles from home and got a ride from a kind lady. i called a little while later from a little store and she picked me up. there was something oddly exhilarating about being exposed to the power of nature standing there under my tree.

i don’t anticipate doing that again, hopefully ever.  dianne wasn’t to upset for leaving her in the rain, either. hey, if we lived in the northwest, wouldn’t we run in the rain pretty often?  well folks, does this make us real runners now?

happy running!  

memorial day

lazy day reading blogs,

dianne is in the living room doing yoga with a video,

“inhale, upward dog…open your chest, breathe deeper…”

earlier this morning i ran for 90 minutes and averaged around a 9:45 pace.

then susan came over and we all went to the y and ran/walked on the the treadmills and talked about shopping. eddiebaueroutlet.com rules.

i almost felt like one of the girls for a flash.

“place the blocks against the wall, if you can’t raise your head off the floor…”

i’m noticing that my legs are more tired and stiffer doing the FIRST workout plan. i think that’s the natural result of increasing the intensity of my running days and adding spinning for the active recovery days. spinning will make my legs stronger (and is a nice break from walking lunges) and will increase my turnover.  

“press down through the hands and the feet…”

we’re getting together with kids and grandkids today to eat and  play.

i hope all of you have a nice day-off!

dianne is at the end of the yoga tape and at my favorite pose, shavasana (corspe pose). i’m going to go do yoga with dianne now!

happy running!

more intensity

intervals on wednesday; 4×5minutes hard then five minutes easy with a good warm up and cool down. spinning on thursday, which was really neat. i hadn’t done that for awhile and while i didn’t get winded in the same way i do when running,  my legs got worked out. today was a steady state run with miles 2-4 run pretty hard. here are the splits for today’s run:  mi 1: 10:12, mi2 ; 8:54, mi3: 8:51, mi4: 8:33, mi5: 10:07, mi6: 10:00. so far, i’m liking the new workout plan.

happy running!

what a day

today is the anniversary of my mother’s passing. also, my parents 66th wedding anniversary. who knew i would miss them so often and so much? i have some of my dad’s tools; chisels, power tools. i have stained glass windows from their house and my grandmother’s desk. and my siblings.

and i’m imprinted…i’ve been slowly hardwired.

for better and worse i am so like them. (!) 

well, have i run today? 8.5miles, some of them pretty fast.

what a day.

  

Change?

none of this is really news, my friends.

i read an article in runner’s world about running fewer days (3) per week and making those days more intense workouts, then crosstraining the other two days. the crosstraining days should have significant cardio activity. this also matches the advice and workout plans that coach gail, who’s advice i have not been listening to lately, has recommended. i haven’t paid gail much mind of late because i got a bit burned out and just wanted to run for fun and not mess with the watch, the pace, lactate thresholds or the heart rate. that burnout may have run it’s course.  now that it’s warmer out, it’s time to pick it up.

more on the details of the weekly workout plan later in the week.

last week’s runs were all gut wonderful. total miles for the week was 34.5 with my long run this week of 8.3 miles. a little of these miles, 5-6,  were ‘quality work’; the rest of them were opportunities to talk, catch up, and have some time to work off some mental static and relax. if this style of workout never changed that would be fine and dandy. this week though i’ll tweak it abit and see how this old bod holds up.

happy running! 

swimming in air

it’s been raining alot here. the lakes are finally full. even over-full.

the air this morning was visible; hanging there, too wet to move.

something else to push through. 

for the entire run, 5.6 miles, it smelled like wet dirt.  wet vegetation, living and not so much so.

it was beautiful.

happy running.

runbonkrun

Saturday morning i ran a 5k benefiting the private school that some friend’s kids attend. my time was not fast, however it was a very useful race. before the race, i ran for 28 minutes on the roads around the course, which was at lake grapevine and the terrain was rolling and green. that may have been to long to warm up, but i thought i would treat the race more like a workout that way. at the start i took off fast and tried to hold on to that fast pace as long as i could. 12 minutes later i had to walk for a minute, three times in all. i didn’t wear my garmin or heart monitor, just my watch, and this tiny race didn’t have mile markers so i was running (then walking) on feel. i guess it’s good that with the walk breaks and having no idea what pace i was running, i pulled out a 27:59. that’s just a bit faster than a glacier, but using the race like a training run and bonking at 12 minutes was good in terms of feeing the pace and just running for fun. i wonder what i would have run had i not come out to fast and  not warmed up as long.

i’m preparing a class on palpation and assessment at school in june. what fun. going through the textfor the class has reminded me of lots of material i had heard about and some i’ve tried but not used much. i took a workshop from the author in 1993 and it is a cherished memory. there’s so much to know and learn it makes my head swim.

happy running.       

i passed

remember that a.c.e. personal trainer certification exam i took? the one i thought i didn’t do verywell on? i passed it. i’d like to say that i knew, deep inside, that i passed, but i truely didn’t think i did.  while i am very familiar with what a trainer does, i have not actually trained anyone yet. i have places to start working as a trainer and i’ll make some decisions soon about how i will incorporate training into my life. another benefit of being a trainer: as a massage therapist it may not be strictly legal to tell clients what stretches and exercises would be helpful. however, that’s exactly what trainers do.

in another cool development:last week i started teaching at a new massage school in dallas called The Parker College school of Massage Therapy and it’s a part of Parker College of Chiropractic. this school is one of only three massage schools being operated by chiropractic schools in the country,  something i think will become quite common in the future. the first class is finished with it’s classroom work and is just starting it’s internship.  as the school grows i will have the opportunity to teach in the beginning and advanced curriculum.  right now i’m supervising the interns working in the intern clinic.

oh, running. 5.3 miles this morning with a total for the week of around 30 (hopefully).  not much quality work yet.

it’s late for me. i can’t read this anymore, so i’m goina bed.

happy running!  

snotting and hacking and gnashing of teeth

i didn’t think i had allergy’s.

i’d like to not have a cold, so that’s what it must be.

i should own stock in the company that makes “wellness formula”.

bw and i are going to run after church, an easy distance she will choose. i’ll tag along.

susan’s first thing in the morning post is wonderful.

is anbody else brave enough to take her up on the first thing in the morning picture challenge?

i don’t have any hair so i haven’t a snowball’s chance of winning a free masthead.

a shout out to toasty! great finish! you came, you saw, then ran away with it.

happy running!

without title

the weather, the run, the grandkids, the career, lithe stolen love, intrigue and piracy, murder… 

oop, where was i?

28.6 miles this week running four days with today’s long run being 12.6 miles. it’s incredible to me that some of you run this far daily.  wednesday’s run was productive too. a 6 miler with the first 5 being negative splits. my friend tim had the garmin on but i think it was something like 9:25, 9;18, 9:15, 9:06, 8:54.  mile 6 was easy back to the store.  running is still a juicy thing and continues to be something i really love, even while i’m running and everything hurts. i haven’t checked on any races coming up to use as trainers but that will be fun before it gets hot.

i’ve been having a bit of trouble posting comments on blogspot blogs. some more than others  but none as difficult as anne’s, which hasn’t let me post a comment in the last week. i suspect operator error, however i’ve had to try three or four times everytime i want to post. go figure. 

i thought the issue of the usatf banning ipods and other portable music devices at usatf races to be very interesting. i’m sure everyone has an opinion about this. here’s mine. ipods, etc. do assist a runner in two ways; distraction and pacing. perhaps there might be two catagories at usatf races, one for racers/runners with ipods and one for runners/racers without. the fact that this is an issue is a postative thing and indicates that interest in the sport now includes lots of people who run for health and social enjoyment and not just to compete.

good luck to all of you running boston tomorrow!

 happy running!