Flashback

Long, largely pointless entry to follow.  But at least I'm writing! 


I had a run-in with the law in January.  I had gone to the movies with a friend.  I got to the movie and looked for my wallet, and realized I had forgotten it at home.  I had my bigger wallet, which contains random stuff I rarely use (my bar card, my insurance card, my ATM card, a Sears card and a credit card I don't like).  So I was able to pay for the movie.  After the movie ended, my friend and I chatted for a few minutes and I went to my car because I was supposed to go to the airport to pick up my husband from a visit with his parents.  I should have been fine on time (airport is about 20 minutes away), but when I got to my car, my husband texted me -- "Surprise!  We landed 25 minutes early!" 


So instead of getting there right around the time he landed, he was going to have to wait.  Incidentally, this was day two of round one of the travel ban, so there were hundreds of protestors at the airport here in light of the detainees.  My husband doesn't like being around demonstrations like that, particularly when he's unarmed (as he is about 90% of the time when flying), both because of a fear of violence breaking out around him, and because of a fear of repercussions at work if someone thought he was a protestor or something like that (his supervisors are largely what you'd expect in Texas criminal justice...). 


So I got on the highway, and it was pretty empty.  I got in the express lanes, which have very few entrances and exits, and at this time on this day, even fewer cars.  I maybe passed 4 cars in 10 miles?  The speed limit was 75 and I was probably driving about 90. 

Then the express lanes ended.  Speed limit drops to 65 or 70 I think.  I merged in and there was more traffic, but still not too much.  I was sailing right along until I got pulled over.  Yow.  The first thing the officer said to me:  "I've been out here all day, and you get the prize for being the first car over 90!"  I was horrified, and then even more horrified to have to say, actually, I don't have my driver's license with me -- I do have my insurance card and multiple "other cards" in my name, and I know my DL number, but uh, nothing with my photo and name. 


Shiitake! 

Since then, I've tried to be better about carrying my license when I'm driving.  I've also obviously tried to be more careful about my speed.


I'm least likely to have my license with me when I'm going to I work out, since I don't need a credit card or ID or anything, and it's such a pain to put it in the trunk before I leave the house (my husband has trained me well not to put something in my trunk after I park, and never to leave something of value in the car).  So anyway, this week, I went into my trunk to get my wallet so that I could then drive somewhere and use a credit card but not take my whole purse with me. 


I reached into my purse for my wallet and came out with (clean) underwear.  It was like a flashback to single life especially if I'd been particularly promiscuous (I was definitely more of a serial monogamist, but yeah, I'm sure I still had underwear in my purse on some random occasion). 

So last week I had my most feared commuting crisis.  I ran to work as usual and rode the elevator to my office as usual.  When I got to my office, I checked my email, filled my water bottle, and got my stuff to take to the locker room:  my bag that lives at work (makeup, deo, hair stuff, flip flops), and the contents of the garment bag I'd brought from home for the week (outfit, shoes, underwear, jewelry).  It seemed to all be there, so I went down to the locker room.  Showered, dried my hair, and started to get dressed.


Shiitake.


No underwear.  I sent a text to the only person in the office I thought I could ask to look for clean underwear in my office (my accounting buddy), but she wasn't in for the day yet.  I pondered my options:


1.  Text my coworker.  She has kids, she'd probably have no objection to handling a colleague's clean underwear, but yeah, that just didn't feel right. 


2.  Wait in the locker room, half dressed, until my accounting buddy came in for the day.


3.  Go commando up to the office and search the bottom of my garment bag myself. 


I sat around in the locker room half dressed and in a towel for about 10 minutes.  A few more texts and I realized my accounting buddy wasn't even close.  I was leaning toward option 3, and I started packing up my workout clothes, when I suddenly realized that in an outer pocket of my bag that lives at work, there was clean underwear for just such an emergency! 


It was a pair I hate (which is why they stay at work) (much like the hideous black pumps that live under my desk for the commuting emergency I've encountered a few times -- no dress shoes).  But clean underwear nonetheless! 


I got dressed and went back to my office.  Sure enough, my packing system had not broken down, I'd brought clean underwear, they were just overlooked in the garment bag.  So I put the clean good underwear in my bag that lives at work until I could wash and replace with the pair I was wearing that I hated.  I washed the hated pair and put them in my purse to execute the swap -- and then apparently forgot. 


I'm just kind of glad it's austerity measures and I'm not pulling out my wallet in front of anyone with any frequency -- I can imagine some acquaintances would have been concerned about the state of my marriage if they'd seen me carrying underwear around...

Typical July

Took this photo last night.  Looks like July will be cooler than usual because today, July 1, isn't supposed to be 100 or higher (blessedly they're saying only 97 today).


It's about to get ugly...  

I've already had two evening commutes with heat indexes (indeces?) over 100, but now it will be actual temp over 100 as well.   

Oh well, it's like this every year, and I always do some October marathon so I always get through it.  No reason to think this year will be any different.  

Although my current working theory is that my 1-3 days per week of running where I'm working (usually Philly but occasionally lovely places like Cleveland), is causing me to lose my heat acclimation.  This week Monday I had zero miles on the schedule but I woke up in Philly to this: 

And I was powerless not to run...

Unseasonal

My running commuting has been limited the last several weeks because of mid-week work travel (since I have to travel with my laptop, before and after a work trip are blocked from run commute because I need to get the laptop home or back to work). 


But the last time I had a week where I anticipated multiple run commutes, I filled up my garment bag with several outfits, and I've just been slowly working my way through them.


I wore the last outfit in the bag yesterday, and I looked ridiculous.


Yesterday was my hottest morning commute so far this year (mid-80s and SUNNY, but only about 70% humidity).  I got to work, and went straight to my office.  Followed the routine there -- unlocked my laptop and turned it on on the docking station, filled my water bottle, got out my hair/makeup/shower bag, and then went to get my last remaining outfit.


Ugh.  Thick khakis and a dark cranberry cardigan and sweater tank.  In reality, if it didn't look so out of season, it would have been fine since our office is way colder than I like.  But it definitely looks like a winter outfit.  I'm not even sure why I would have packed it in May. 


Anyway, I went down stairs and showered but I couldn't stop sweating as I dried my hair, even trying to use the cool setting on the hair dryer.  I wish there were a huge fan in the locker room. 


I got dressed in my appropriate-for-a-high-of-75-not-a-low-of-85 outfit, and went back up to my desk.  I decided to shut my door and just work in my sweater tank until I cooled off.  I hate doing that, especially since I have a glass wall so my unprofessional sleeveless look is still visible to anyone who looks, but it felt necessary.  I peeled off the cardigan, which was 100% stuck to me and my sweater tank had massive wet spots on it from my sweat. 


I finally stopped sweating and cooled off, and put my cardigan on and opened the door.  And then worked all day. 


Not until I was getting changed to run back home did I realize I'd worn the cardigan inside-out all day long.  And it has a massive tag in the back. 


So I looked super awesome yesterday.  Seasonally inappropriate attire, worn inside-out. 


I'm in Philly working next week, and again the week of the Fourth.  But the next garment bag will definitely be all summery clothes. 

Breaking the Seal

I spend very little time drinking in bars these days.  I guess that's not unusual for anyone who's 40 and/or married and/or is working out 6 days a week before 5:30 a.m.  But on the rare occasion that I do drink the night away, I still go back to what I remember as a personal truth from being out in bars in law school and back in my single days in Dallas:  hold off as long as possible at all costs, because once you break the [pee] seal, it's broken.  I could be in a bar drinking for 4 hours and never have to use the restroom, but as soon as I did go, breaking the seal, then I'd have to start going about every 15 minutes.  And if I used the restroom in the first hour of being out drinking, same thing, I'd be going every 15 minutes all night long.  So just don't break the seal! 


I'm not going to be car-less for long, but I feel like while I'm doing a ton of running commutes, it's almost the same principle but regarding food in the office. 


I'm back to my old routine now that I'm officially training and running with my friends again in the mornings.  That means my morning schedule for working out and eating/drinking is something like this:


5:00 half a granola bar (I eat those kind that are "oats and honey" two bars to a package, so it's really one full bar in my mind)


Run with friends or go to boot camp


7:00 espresso and smoothie (spinach, kale, frozen beets, frozen blueberries, frozen fruit mix (pineapple, peaches, strawberries, grapes), protein powder, chia seeds (thanks Amy), carrot juice, some kind of fresh juice with ginger, apple cider vinegar (thanks Megan), and now, a little bit of liquid calcium (just using up a bottle my ex-aunt couldn't fly home with)). 


Run to work, shower, chug water.


Mid-morning snack (2 tortillas rolled up with spinach and blue cheese).


Lunch usually around 1:30. 
Random fruit and/or snacks in the afternoon.
Then maybe another half granola bar around 6:00.
Run home around 6:30 or 7
Eat dinner.


Back a couple weeks ago, when I still owned a car and was driving to work every day (and going to the hospital to visit at night), I would take a thermos of espresso to work with me, and I'd sip that most of the morning and I'd eat my mid-morning snack slowly, from about 9:30 until about 11. 


But now with the running commute, I'm just not hungry when I sit down at my desk.  And it gets to be 11, and I'm still not hungry. 


But when I break that seal and eat the first tortilla just because I feel like it's time, then I'm an eating machine.  I'm trying very hard to make sure it's mostly good stuff, but I feel like I'm going for bites of something every 15 minutes (in reality, it's probably not that often, just seems like it). 


Just like the old college days.  You know, but with whole wheat tortillas filled with spinach, instead of Jager and Redbull...

Carless Routine

I officially started marathon training this week.  (Don't ask me for what race, I still don't know.  Probably Columbus, KC, Des Moines or Quad Cities, but I haven't committed.)  And due to the lack of car, I'm back to doing what I did all the time back in 2013, when I was in maybe the shape of my life?  Certainly at least in half and marathon PR shape.  Back in 2013, I was running fairly high mileage while training for Berlin. 


My schedule looked roughly like this every week:


Mon:  Boot camp, sometimes run home from boot camp (2.75 miles).
Tues:  Run 6-9 with running friends, then run 3.75 to work (slowly), work all day, run 3.75 home.
Wed:  Boot camp, sometimes run home from boot camp (2.75 miles), run 3.75 to work, work, run 3.75 home.
Thurs:  Run 6-9 with running friends, then run 3.75 to work (slowly) (and then work, and get picked up by my husband).
Fri:  Boot camp or 10k hill loop with running buddy.
Sat:  Rest (or occasionally race).
Sun:  Long run (14-22, depending on the week).


That was a lot of miles (for me) most weeks, but a lot of them were junk miles, basically all of my commuting miles, which were usually very slow (recovery pace or slower), sometimes doing run/walk with a co-worker.  And that led me to my marathon PR. 


And then I gained some weight, got lazy, and stopped doing 2.5 days of running commutes per week.  I've been pretty faithful about doing a running commute about one day per week since then unless it was a travel week, or the weather was bad, or I was tired... 


Then April happened.  We had houseguests for over a month and we spent most nights at the hospital with my cousin and his son (who is now fine, they flew home about a week ago).  That meant 0 running commutes for me (and about 5 more pounds, since lots of nights we'd pick up restaurant food to take to the hospital). 


Last week when I sold my car, I was forced back into the regular running commute routine.  I really should try to stick with it, even if/when I get my new car (hopefully this week!). 


Today is on track to be over 13 miles, which hasn't happened in months or longer.  Woot!

Wrong week

I think I've got the wrong week to be stuck with a running commute in Dallas.

On the plus side, it could be way hotter, and if it pours on me on every single morning commute, at least my clothes won't smell like sweat? 

I'm just worried it's going to be storming on at least 3 of my 5 commute runs (no PM commute Thursday because I'm going to hitch a ride to beer mile!).  I hate running in thunderstorms.  I can deal with the rain on a normal run, but I like it less on a commute, but the thunder and lightning will really bother me -- maybe I'll uber one day or try to coordinate schedules with my husband...

Pit Bull

I think Pit Bull must have a very high ownership interest in Pandora.  He is freaking every other song it seems no matter which of my three stations I pick.  I mean, I'm fine with an occasional Pit Bull song.  I think a reasonable ratio might be once every 100 songs?  But he seems to be about every 10th song.  Maybe even more.  Definitely too much. 


I think I'm only just now realizing this because I'm listening to more Pandora lately.  The only time I listen to Pandora is in the locker room at work while I'm getting dressed.  And I'm spending a lot more time there it seems because I am officially car-less! 

Sold my sweet baby this week and haven't got a new one yet.  Yikes!  So I'm run commuting by necessity, which is all fun and good for a few days, but I think my husband will get irritated with ride sharing by the middle of next week if this hasn't been sorted out yet.  And maybe I'm giving him too much credit, he might be irritated by the middle of this weekend, depending on how much schedule coordination has to occur. 


One of his co-workers bought my car, which is maybe less anxiety-ridden than it would otherwise be.  The night he bought it, there were random storms later in the evening.  The new buyer told me he was going to keep my car (well, his car if we're being technical) in his garage.  When I saw on the news that some parts of the metroplex saw hail in that storm, I started texting him repeatedly to get confirmation that my car was okay and hadn't been left outside. 


Then I called him again the next morning to make sure everything was still okay, and he said something along the lines of "you know, at some point, something might happen to the car, and you're going to have to be okay with it." 


I was tempted to tear up his check and seize back my car.  WTH???  I only sold it to him because he promised to love it and take good care of it.  I should have demanded that he kiss it upon accepting ownership (I kissed it goodbye repeatedly). 


I told him that I expect the car to be kept safe and protected for at least 4.75 years, until its 21st birthday, and he should exercise extreme caution to avoid exposure to hail, door dings, road debris, and accidents for at least the next 5 years.  I don't think I'm being unreasonable here. 

Morning Mezzo

When I had my best training season ever, I was running pretty high mileage for me (chump change for others).  High mileage for me is when I have multiple consecutive weeks in the 50s.  I've done plenty of marathons where I rarely get into the 50s for a week, and when I first started running, there were races that I trained for and I rarely got into the 40s for a week.  But when I'm running strong, mid-50s is where it's at for me.  I seem to find I get injured if I go over that.  And I am very good about mixing up my miles -- some quality, but also plenty of junk miles.  The best junk miles for me are commuting miles. 


If I do my full commuting week, it adds about 19 miles to my schedule.  Commuting miles are the best junk miles because I do them alone and I'm never under a serious time constraint (if I was ever running late, I'd just shower at home and drive to work).  So 19 slow, easy miles per week. 


Sometimes VERY slow and easy, especially when I can talk my accounting buddy into going halfway home with me one night per week.  That adds in a couple miles of walk-run.


At my peak, doing high mileage with a full commuting week included, the most I ever run before I get to work is about 12 miles.  That happened fairly regularly on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  I would run about 8 miles with my running buddies, go home for breakfast and sometimes a dry shirt, then run another 3.75 miles to work.  And then on Tuesdays, it would be a 15.5 mile weekday because after that morning 12, I'd work my usual day and then run the 3.75 home.  But it was broken up so it never felt too long.


Well, today for the first time ever I think, I did my highest pre-work mileage.  I ran a morning half, and then some!  (Half is "mezzo" in Italian.) 


I decided that with a marathon later this month, I couldn't afford to totally blow off my weekend long run. 


But on the other hand, I have the foresight to recognize that I consume more alcohol at Mardi Gras than pretty much the rest of the year combined, and odds are very high that a run will not happen there.  And even if by some miracle it does happen, I'm usually not inclined to go very long -- something about standing around watching parades and then wearing heels and dancing at a ball all night...


So I told myself to suck it up today.  I was only running 6 with my usual crew, but one of them ran to the grocery store where we met, so after our group 6 miles, I ran him home, then back to my car.  That got me to 8.  I was thinking I'd drive home and then run the trail by our house, but it was so cold this morning.  I figured I'd be freezing if I got in the car and stopped sweating on my drive home, even though it's not very far. 


So I ended up grabbing water at my car and heading toward the lake, then zigzagging my way back to the car, ending up just over 13.5 miles. 


On a weekday!


Boo-yah!


Of course I'm totally dragging ass now.  If I'd needed to do a running commute on top of that, I'd probably still be out there, crawling slowly toward the office...


I need to plow through major work so I can leave early tonight to start our trip.  But now, any Mardi Gras miles will be bonus miles.  Exactly my goal! 

Stairwell Mystery

One of the only things I hate about my building at work is that our stairwells are locked.  You can enter the stairwell on any story above the first floor, and you can exit on the first floor.  But you can enter on the first floor.  And if you enter on floor 2 or higher, the only place you can exit is the first floor, unless another door is somehow propped open.

It irritates the crap out of me.  Stairs are good for people!  Much healthier and more energy-efficient (well, not counting human energy) than taking the elevators. 

For a long time, I talked security into opening the stairwell on 1 for me, and then I texted my accounting buddy and got her to come open the door on our floor (9). 

But then building management determined that I should not be permitted to take the stairs.  Major irritation. 

Now, on days I run to work, I take the elevator up to 9, go to my office and check email while grabbing my shower bag and outfit for the day, and then I go fill my water bottle, then I head down the stairs to 1.  I prop the door open slightly behind me.  And when I get to 1, where the gym and locker rooms are, I prop the door open slightly.

I shower and get ready in the locker room, and about 30% of the time, the stairwell door has stayed propped open.  If that's the case, I trek on up to 9.  If the stairwell door has shut, very rarely I will take the elevator to 2 and then take the stairs up to 9.  Usually, if the stairwell on 1 is locked, I'm lazy and I just enjoy the ride up to 9. 

Well, today, the stairwell on 1 stayed open, so on the way up to my office, I took pictures of my current question. 

What do you think? 

 

I wish the quality of the photo was higher.  It was not there last week.  Is that cotton candy?  Or is something like asbestos or insulation?  Would I be able to tell if I touched it?  Or would I have to taste it? 

Status check

Radio silence around here lately because there hasn't really been much to report. 

Life is just ticking along.  Working, running, all that stuff. 

Work is actually getting better.  The new attorney hired into our group in early January has taken about 3-4% of my caseload, but every little bit helps.  Especially since three of the ones she took are in active litigation, and two of them have upcoming mediation settings (in Indy) in the next 60 days.  That's a big relief for me.  The other thing that has helped is that the flow of incoming cases seems to have abated a little.  I feel like for the last month, each Friday morning, my email inbox is less of a disaster than it was the week before.  It always tends to blow up on Fridays and over the weekend, but if I can actually reduce the number that sit needing attention each week, I feel like I'm making progress.  Right now, the number is down into the mid-50s.  A lot, yes, but way better than the 80-110 that it seems like it's been since we came back from vacation several months ago and I was in the thick of overwork.  I've been doing better on the getting big reports drafted on schedule, though I still drag my feet a bit in getting going on the ones that require the most work.  I'm totally staying on top of voicemail (I have one message that's a few weeks old that I need to return, but I've been doing the behind-the-scenes stuff necessary to return it).  And the two unpleasant cases I've had in the last few months (also pretty much just these two ever), seem to be getting a bit better -- one settled, and one will hopefully settle. 

Running is also slowly getting better.  I'm not losing weight, and I'm kind of still in an eat-some-crap-every-day rut, but at least it's not getting worse.  I think giving up liquids (other than water, morning green smoothie, and nuun on long runs) is helping.  I've been surprised how much I alcohol and soda.  I almost never drink soda, but crave it when I can't have it.  And I don't drink much, but I seem to want that too.  I'm not at all surprised that I'm missing espresso and tea...  Anyway, back to running.  My times have been getting stronger, but I still have a lot of work to do.  I ran my favorite 5k of the year this weekend.  Two good miles, and then I slowed by about 40 seconds in the final mile.  I ended up only about 90 seconds off a course PR for me, and only about 2.5 minutes off a PR.  That's a lot for a 5k, but at the same time, it's not as bad as I would have guessed it would be.  I put it in a race predictor and it has me about 7 minutes off a re-Q, but maybe with a flatter course...  The downside to two pretty good miles -- I feel like I tweaked my calf.  Super tender to the touch.  Had it checked out on Sunday (ummm, after I ran 13 miles), got instructions to take a few days off, ice, light massage.  Anyway, aside from potentially a few days off now, I've at least been showing up for my runs and I feel like that's the biggest step.  If I keep doing that, the work will eventually pay off.  I never really committed to a spring half, so I may just not run one unless I come across something good.  I'm considering the Lakefront Marathon in Wisconsin for the fall.  I really wanted to run Steamtown, but I think given our schedules, we're going to be flying over to Europe on October 8, so once again, travel choices leave me with limited marathon options. 

Travel for fun has been non-existent since Mardi Gras, which was already exactly one month ago.  We were thinking about trying to combine a work trip that I have in early April to SoCal with a trip up to San Fran to see my new nephew, but thankfully, we hadn't banked on that because now it looks like the work trip will fall apart.  I have been travelling for work, but mostly just overnight trips every couple weeks.  Philly has been horrendously cold!  But April has a lot of work travel on the books -- a couple Philly, one SoIll (does that work like SoCal?  Southern Illinois?), and maybe the SoCal trip.  In all, looks like I'll be on the road most weeks, but hopefully mostly short trips.  So now we're trying to plan fun trips for May, which should be better work wise.  We're planning on DC and Charlottesville for my reunion and to see my bestie, and then maybe San Fran and wine country around Memorial Day. 

So I don't really know how to report I've been filling my time other than working and working out.  Last week I finally was better about doing some running commutes to and from work.  Of course, last week was the week I got back on the horse -- because it was spring break so it looked like traffic wasn't bad.  Oh well, it was good for me.  Now I just have to sustain it! 

We've been watching far too much TV in the last month or so.  What we've been watching lately:
Bosch (detective series on Amazon Prime, we both read and love the books), just finished
The Bachelor (guilty pleasure, husband watches it with me to be nice), just finished
Amazing Race (more me than my husband), in progress
The Americans (both love it), in progress
Better Call Saul (just me), in progress, 1 episode on the dvr
House of Cards (both love it), waiting to watch season 3, our netflix isn't showing up on the tv and I don't like the idea of watching it all on the computer (which we did with Bosch).

Anyway, that's the current status of things here! 

Carbon Footprint

Mostly just recording this momentous event for my own sake, but I thought it was cool.  Yesterday was Wednesday and both our cars sat in the garage at home all day.  And we both worked!  At our workplaces! 

Hubby took public transit to and from work, and I ran. 

Woot!  (See, finally made my resolutions and I'm getting to work on the commuting one already!) 

I don't think it's sustainable for either of us, but it's cool to do occasionally, and nice to have the option if we ever decided to become a one-car couple or a car was in the shop or something -- or I guess if we became a zero-car couple (which would not be by choice, and we would have been screwed since we drove to and from boot camp together before work, but at least we could still get to our jobs if we sold or lost our cars). 

It took him 1 hour and 27 minutes to get from the door of our house to his desk -- total distance of 11 miles.  That strikes me as a collossal waste of time. 

It took me about 40 minutes to get from the door of our house to my desk -- a total distance of less than 4 miles (including all my "building" time -- walking from the door through the lobby, elevators, hallways on my floor, etc.).  That strikes me as a perfectly appropriate commute that I should do more often since I was also getting in a work out at the same time. 

We've been toying with the idea of getting bikes.  I think my husband could be at the office in less than an hour if he biked (I'm sure the distance would be longer than 11 miles since he'd be taking smaller streets).  I could probably be at the office in about 15 minutes?  I don't really have a good guage of how long it takes to bike places.  I usually guess a speed of 15 mph but I don't know if that's a good estimate or not. 

Anyway, I was proud of us for doing it.  My husband said he liked it because he ended up watching a show on Netflix on his phone (The Fall, which I haven't watched).  I was happy to have the extra 7.5 to 8 miles under my belt. 

The bonus to hubby taking public transit was that I HAD to run home -- there was no possibility of him picking me up on his way home.  That's definitely good for me.  No excuses! 

But actually, yesterday was about the worst possible day to do this.  It rained last night.  By 6:30, it was steady.  Not pouring, but raining.  Hubby didn't have a jacket since it wasn't very cold, so he got wet in his work clothes since he had to wait a few minutes for a bus to go the final mile to our house.  And even with all the spare running gear I stash in my desk, somehow a running hat wasn't in the pile, so I also got very wet.  Ugh. 

Oh well, it was a good day not to have an excuse. 

Now to make this happen every week, at least for me...

Jogging

I don't know what it is lately, but I cannot get into my running groove.  I've tried all my usual "hurry it up" tactics -- running with friends who are faster, going to the track, fartleks on the road, attempting to pick it up on the downhills -- and it's just not working.

I even added my running commute back into the mix this week for the first time in ages, and I just get out there and jog.

I was actually planning to do the running commute yesterday, but I had a flat tire on my car before boot camp, and then I decided I wasn't comfortable being car-less until Friday (when I work from home anyway and could have the tire change guy come do it) (and yes, I realize I'm loser for not being able to change my own tire, but part of the problem is that my car has very small jack points and I think my jack is bent so I'm very afraid of attempting to jack it up and having it crash down).  So I made my husband come back to pick me up to go to boot camp together (he was already almost there and was planning to go straight to work afterward), then I got a ride to the office with my neighbor and grabbed my laptop to bring it back home.  I worked from home in the morning and got my tire changed.  But in the end, he didn't see anything wrong with my tire -- he said it's still so new that it has the whiskers, whatever that means, and that he didn't see a nail or split or anything else, so he just put air in it and put it back on the car.  So I drove to work, worked, and then ran home. 

This morning I got up to meet my friends at the track and just went there on foot.  I made the decision last night that I'd go straight from the track to work. 

It kind of sucks to not get to go back home after my workout to watch the news and drink my smoothie and my coffee before running to work, but I just felt so lazy.  The track is right on my way to work.  So I would have had to run 1.5 miles north, do the track workout, run 1.5 miles home, then run 3.75 miles north to get to work.  So I wore my running belt (with my phone, work access card, house key and credit card) to the track, left it trackside during the workout, then put it back on and continued north to the office.  I ended up with just over 8 miles for the morning since the track workout wasn't really very long. 

And here I sit, at my desk before 7!  Still in workout clothes, freezing, about to head down to the gym to get ready for the day...

Blah post, but still feeling very blah...

Rough start

Well, today is not going well.  I hit a little height differential on a sidewalk at boot camp this morning, while out on a short run next to the art museum, which is incidentally pitch black at 5:35 a.m. or whenever I hit it. 

And I totally wiped out.

What's really funny is that I fell at boot camp almost exactly a year ago.  And that time, I twisted my ankle, got a huge scrape on my elbow, and even ended up scraping my face a bit, which really pissed me off since it was the day we were heading out to go to my 20th high school reunion.  So I'd gone about 30 years without any scrapes on my face, and then for the first time I see a vast majority of people in 20 years, I have a scrape on my face.

In reality, that fall wasn't too bad.  The twisted ankle really scared me, but it was fine within about a week, and the face scrape was barely visible, and the elbow eventually healed.

So when I compare today to last year, this fall was much better.  First, I didn't twist anything!  Second, I didn't hit my face.

Unfortunately, however, I scraped the $hit out of my Garmin, and scraped my Jawbone up a bit (and lost the cap, which is INSANELY irritating): 

 

And I can't say that my body was unscathed.  It's just scrapes, so it will heal much faster than a sprain, and despite the fall, I managed to get in part of the workout, and then I still managed to run home, have breakfast, and then run to work.  Honestly though, I didn't really have many other options since my car had stayed at the office overnight!  I guess I could have taken a cab or Uber or called a coworker for a ride to get to work, but running was really the easiest way to deal with it since I was carless.  Though I didn't twist an ankle, I landed hard on my knee, so I got some major road rash: 

And I hit the outside of my hand, including somehow scraping a little divit out of my pinky (the part covered in the bandaid already) (which still hurts like a mother, even now, more than 6 hours later!): 

And I took a major dig on my shoulder: 

 

(Yeah lots of freckles from way too much sun exposure.)

 

And as a bonus, since I had to run to work, my outfit was already at work, waiting for me in my garment bag.  What would you guess would be the worst thing to have to wear with those injuries?  If you guessed a skirt and a white shirt, you'd be right!  Thus far, I haven't bled through the bandage on my shoulder, and at least the shirt's not sleeveless, but I still feel fairly ridiculous with a huge bandaid on my knee. 

 

If only the garmin and jawbone would heal up at the same rate my scrapes do, a month from now, it would be like the tumble never happened. 

 

Ugh, not the way to start a new year.  At least instead of looking my age, I look more like an 8 year old now with all the scrapes. 

Return of the Running Commute Delayed

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day back to a regular running commute.  My grand plan was to do one day this week, two days for the next couple weeks, then bump it up to the prior 2.5 days on weeks when we were able to work out the car logistics.

Since I'm not going to the Italian conversation group for a couple more months, car logistics are a bit more complicated.  I can't run home on Thursday nights since I have to take my laptop, dirty laundry, garment bag and lunch stuff with me.  And if I'm not going to the Italian conversation group, hubby can't pick me up on his way there. 

So I made peace with the fact that I might have to drive some Thursdays, at least until May, when I'll probably go back to the conversation group.  (As an aside, I'm contemplating undertaking formal lessons at a Mandarin Chinese school later this year as well!)

I figured Wednesday was the day this week since it would be convenient particularly on my way home.  I'm trying to go to the Wednesday night social run for the next few weeks as it's held about a mile from my office and is on my general direction home.  The plan was to run to work Wed. morning, then run to the social run, do the social run, then stay at the cafe where it's held for dinner and maybe a beer with running friends, have hubby meet me there, then ride home with him. 

I did this every Wednesday last year for the 4 weeks the social run is at this cafe, and it worked out well.  Hubby got caught with work stuff one night, but a friend was able to drop me at home on her way after dinner.  But last year at this time, my running was fairly intense.  I was commuting 2.5 days per week every week and had been since mid-November.  Not exactly the same story this year.  I have done less than a dozen running commutes I think since we flew to Europe at the end of September.  But yesterday was the day.  It was going to be the day I officially got back on the commuting horse and stayed on for the year. 

But then we ended up with a cold front on Wednesday morning.  Not cold like what much of the country is experiencing, but cold enough to make me whine (I think the temp was 35, with 25-30 mph winds, so a wind chill in the mid-20s).  It felt much colder since we've had a few mornings in the 60s recently.  Somehow after it warms up, when it gets cold again, it feels extra-brutal to me. 

Anyway, yesterday morning, we went to boot camp and were happy to be working out inside.  We came home, I made breakfast, watched the news, and contemplated running to work.  Then I decided to drive.  Oops.  I just packed my running clothes for the evening, and decided to drive to the cafe, do the social run, then drive home.

Next week.  It's sure to be warmer, and it's probably best to go a bit gradually anyway.  So instead of dumping about 8 extra miles into my schedule this week as I planned, I'm only dumping 3-5 social run miles into the schedule.  Next week I'll do the full 8 extra, and the following week I'll hopefully move to 15 extra.  Slow, recovery pace miles, but it should be good for me. 

I'm ready to get back in my groove.  I hate the way my clothes are fitting these days.  I hate that I'm putting 20 miles per week on my car instead of on my legs. 

Return of the Running Commute

One of the traditional (and valid) pieces of advice to marathoners is that no running that you do in the final week before the race is going to help you on race day.  What helps you on race day is the months of training before then.  Usually in that final week, you just run some maintenance miles and work on locking in that "race pace" again.  If you do something that final week to "make up" for weeks or sessions you missed, the best that can happen is you show up tired and sore on race day (and obviously, the worst is that you get injured and can't even show up on race day). 

But that's the wisdom when you're training for a goal race. 

But for something like the marathon this weekend where I don't give a crap about my time (aside from not wanting to be out there in misery for 5 hours or something), I've decided traditional wisdom can be disregarded at will.

So today marks the return of my running commute! 

One way only, and insanely convenient today.

Last night was our big work dinner and as expected, it was at a steakhouse.  It involved many many bottles of wine AND mixed drinks (yes, two for me, ugh) at the bar while we waited for our table.  I probably only had about 1 bottle of wine, but either way, there was no way I could drive home -- well, actually, I couldn't even if I hadn't had a sip of alcohol because I didn't have my car. 

I drove to work yesterday morning, got a ride to dinner with a colleague, and then got picked up by my sweet husband after dinner. 

And that means I had to run to work today to get my car.  It was so nice to do that again.  My stats as of my last running commute in mid-September before we went to Europe for the marathon were that I had run to work 115 times out of a possible 147 commutes this year.  And a vast majority of the 32 that I missed were because I decided that a post-work commitment was a higher priority than a running commute (alumni events, etc.).  All told, there were fewer than 10 days where I drove or got picked up because I just didn't want to run -- bad weather, sore, lazy, whatever -- as opposed to putting another event as a higher priority. 

Anyway, those 115 runs were such a staple in my week.  Since I've been back from vacation, as previously detailed, I've had so many excuses about why I wasn't running.  The first week back was staying so late at work every night that it would have significantly delayed bedtime (plus, I was out of shape and didn't want to add the miles too fast, a sure recipe for injury).  The second week back was my sprained ankle at boot camp mere hours before I had planned to do my first post-marathon running commute.  The third week was the trip to California (so those days weren't an option anyway).  Last week, I was sick with the plague.  This week is our big audit, and now it finally worked out for a single day.  I didn't want many miles today anyway.  I figured some rest in advance of Sunday's marathon is a good idea.  And then with the car logistics for dinner last night, it was key not to have to drive home after all that alcohol.  So the stars were aligned perfectly this morning.

The things that struck me -- it's about 1 billion times cooler out than it was in September.  The construction areas along the commute have changed.  Houses under construction have made massive progress.  There seems to be more vehicular traffic and fewer pedestrians.  The park cities real estate market seems to still be good -- nothing that was for sale before is still for sale. 

Contented Smile

My training schedule is just about to start winding down.  I only have to get through about 10 more tough days, and then relief will be in sight. 

Unfortunately, my schedule this morning did not line up with most of my friends' schedules, so I was stuck doing the workout solo.

I was supposed to do 2 miles easy, 2 miles marathon pace, 1 mile half marathon pace, 2 miles marathon pace, 2 miles easy.  And then have breakfast and do my 3.75 miles easy on my commute to work. 

My options for the 9 workout miles were to run the 7 mile path right by our house (and try to add 2), to use the treadmill, to do it at the track with my running buddies, to go meet a few other friends who were doing 7 miles on hills (and try to add 2), or to come up with my own route (hopefully crossing paths with my friends doing hills, but not actually doing any real hills myself).  Or of course sleeping in and blowing it off completely, or watching everyone set out for the track and going out for a big breakfast instead! 

The latter two options of course sounded the best, but that's not going to help me at all on race day.  So I decided to come up with my own route, with the goal of crossing paths with my friends running hills.

I set out from home alone around 5:20 and I was moving slowly.  I just felt like I couldn't loosen up and find my stride.  By the time I saw my first mile split, I started trying to come up with alternative plans because it was that slow.  I was thinking maybe I'd go out 1.5 easy and back 1.5 easy, and then just run to work and do the tough miles on the treadmill -- but that left me with my original treadmill issue:  no real breakfast available at work.  Or maybe I could just do the entire 9 miles slowly, that would be better than nothing.  On some level, I knew I had to give myself a bit more time. 

So I stuck it out for another easy mile and decided to give at least the first marathon pace mile a shot. 

It worked! 

And then the next one worked!  (NB:  in the interest of full disclosure, that second marathon pace mile was downhill...)

Both miles were exactly the same pace, and both were just 1 second faster than my actual planned marathon pace.  Then I decided to give the half marathon pace mile a shot -- I only had to go half a mile and then u-turn, and I managed to do that as well. 

It was flat, I basically ignored my garmin pace and just tried to run half marathon effort. 

Couldn't believe that my split was almost perfect.  The half marathon pace mile was about 2 seconds slower than it should have been. 

But then I cheated.  I was completely tuckered out.  I walked for a minute or two, then jogged for another minute or so.

I finally convinced myself to try to finish the workout, only two more marathon pace miles, and then a couple easy miles. 

I'm not sure I really succeeded; the last two marathon pace miles were both a bit too slow (the first nearly 30 seconds too slow, but I did stop to get water during that mile, and the second one was about 12 seconds too slow).  But since the first marathon pace mile on the way home was uphill, I suppose I'll take it. 

The big relief was feeling like I was able to actually hit my paces despite having a slower than usual warm-up and, more importantly, despite being alone.  I've been thinking of it as "the commuting effect," but sometimes when I'm running alone, I tend to really lollygag lately. 

This morning's run was a nice assurance that I am capable of pushing myself even when I'm alone.

And I have to keep telling myself that running marathon pace for 4 miles in 81* weather (with 70% humidity!) will not be the same as running marathon pace for 26.2 miles with race day weather.  And the race will be much flatter than my run here -- in fact, the total elevation gain for the marathon will be slightly less than my total gain for 9 miles this morning.  I have to trust my training and have faith that it will all come together. 

When I got home, I made breakfast and got ready to run again.  I wasn't thrilled about the idea of 3.75 more solo miles because I really really prefer running with friends, but Thursdays are the least convenient day to have a car at the office since hubby usually brings me dinner and then we go to an Italian conversation group together, so I set out again.

Moving very slowly, I headed toward the office.  After I hit the first mile, I realized that my timing was quite unfortunate.  I could see the traffic light on the busiest street I cross up ahead, and it was green for my direction.  From nearly a year of commuting on foot now, I knew what that meant -- basically, if I hauled @ss as fast as I could for the next 2-3 minutes, I'd be able to catch the light when it next turned green for my direction. 

So I did it.  Started running hard, watching as westbound traffic got their green, marking off the blocks, watching the eastbound traffic get their green, starting to feel like it was likely I'd make it, and then the north/south traffic got its green.  I was still half a block away, but fortunately there was a fair amount of north/south traffic, so it was a slightly longer light cycle and I made it.

At that point, I was on the SMU campus and I slowed my pace a lot to recover from the few hard minutes.  There was a runner coming toward me, so I moved further to the side (which is shadier anyway).  As she got closer, I realized it was someone I ran with a lot last year!

Huge bonus!  I asked her if she could u-turn right there and run with me to work, and she did! 

So instead of nearly 13 solo miles this morning, I ended up with about 10 solo and about 3 with my friend.  She's been traveling most of the summer, so I got to hear about her trips, and she has a 10 day trip to Europe coming up next week, so we got to talk about that too.  So much fun! 

All in all, it really ended up being a good morning today.  And best of all, I feel like I have a good attitude going into my very long run this weekend, and my last very tough week next week! 

Eeee!  Marathon in 3 weeks and 3 days! 

Not as much fun

You know how sometimes you imagine doing something and you think how much fun it would be? 

And then you know how sometimes you actually do that thing and it is NOT that much fun?

Yesterday morning on my commute, it was hot.  According to the weather on my Garmin data, it was 84 degrees, "feels like" 90 degrees, 7 mph SSW wind, humdity 66%.  Ugh.

It's only been the last few mornings where it's been in the 80s even at 5-something in the morning.  I'm not really used to it yet.  When I set out on my commute, I was still wet from getting soaked with sweat at boot camp about an hour earlier. 

I think I've mentioned before that there has been construction on my commute for about the last six months?  Not sure how long.  I really should keep track of when it starts, where it moves, etc.

Anyway, given the current construction status, when I get to about mile 2.3, the road is closed (to vehicles) but I am able to run on it anyway.  Sometimes one side of the street is completely torn up, or in the process of being repaved, and sometimes the other side is.  When the construction first started, they did the 3 blocks directly south of the last "big" intersection of my commute.  When that was done, they moved a few blocks further south.

This is roughly what it looks like as of a couple months ago:

 

So yesterday morning it was fully paved on both sides, but they are putting in rebar or something at the cross streets and sidewalk areas. 

 

There was a truck out there in the construction zone connected to a fire hydrant and it was spraying down the concrete for some reason. 

 

I can't find a good picture of what it looked like on the web, but this is similar:

 

 

But it didn't have such a big tank, and it was connected to the fire hydrant, so the water stream was much more forceful.  It was spraying to the side and directly behind the truck.

 

Did I mention it was hot? 

 

For about a quarter mile, I could see the water spraying truck ahead of me as I approached.  I've run through lots of sprinklers before on runs, and sometimes it feels so refreshing.  I've also run through misting stations in races and enjoyed that.

 

I will note that I actually try to avoid misting stations and sprinklers in any kind of marathon or very long run.  It was a painful lesson to learn, but when you get sprayed with water, it eventually runs down your legs to your feet, and when your socks and shoes get wet, your feet move more in your shoes and that usually results in blisters.  Horrible, horrible blisters.  So I actually try to avoid having any more water run into my shoes besides the sweat that rolls down my bod on those lovely summer long runs. 

 

But my commute is only about 3.75 miles.  And I was more than halfway done.  So no particular reason to avoid the truck's water spray.  And given the weather, all the more reason to purposely enjoy the truck's water spray.  And given that it was in the middle of the road, spraying to the side and back, and the sidewalks were torn up, it would have been very inconvenient to attempt to bypass the water.  And since I think the construction crew could forbid me to run through the zone in the future, I try to be very speedy and out of the way when I run through the construction zone.  I decided to go for it, running in a straight line that would pass directly through the side water spray, which looked stronger than the spray behind the truck (which looked more like the spray in the photo above). 

 

What a mistake! 

 

I ran through it, attempting to have it hit roughly on my thighs so that I wouldn't get my phone belt (with my new metronome!) wet. 

 

I misjudged a bit, but my mistake mostly was not realizing how forceful the stream of water was.  It hit my leg so hard and so high that my shorts got completely soaked, it actually hurt, I almost tripped, and my shoes got muddy and wet. 

 

Definitely not as fun as I expected it would be.  Live and learn I guess.  I have new sympathy for the people in those photos where the police turn fire hoses on them -- that $hit hurts!!!  Can't even imagine if it was pointed at me with an intent to cause injury and it lasted more than a second.  Owww.

Dodging a bullet ... literally!

Insane events on Tuesday night of this past week.  Insane, I tell you!  It's taken a few days for me to even get my head around it. 

As I've mentioned, I run to work Tues, Wed and Thurs mornings, and I run home on Tues and Wed nights (hubby picks me up on Thursdays so I can bring my laptop to work from home on Fridays). 

This week was weird because yesterday hubby had surgery, so he actually picked me up Wed night so I could work from the hospital waiting room yesterday, and then from home today. 

My commute home is slightly more downhill than up, and I leave work anywhere between 5:45 and 7:30, with most nights being around 6:30.  The commute takes me roughly 30 minutes.

On many Tues and Wed nights lately, my accounting buddy heads out with me, so it takes longer than 30 minutes.  We run and walk about half of the way back to my house, then she u-turns and walks back to the office solo and then drives home. 

Well, for the last few weeks on Tuesday nights, instead of running all the way home, I have stopped about 1.5 miles short of the house.  One of our local running stores has a track meet every summer one night per week for six weeks in a row. 

Since the track is seriously right on my way home (no joke, I run past it every single commute), it's hard to have any excuse not to do the track meets.  There are two event schedules and they alternate weeks, but the events I usually do are the long jump, the high jump (well, I've only done it for two weeks in a row now and I completely suck, but it's fun trying), the mile or the 1500, the 100, and the 400 or the 800. 

And for a couple of the meets so far, hubby has come out to cheer for me. 

Well, this week, probably while I was waiting for my heat of the 100 meter race, THERE WAS A SHOOT-OUT LESS THAN A QUARTER MILE AWAY FROM THE TRACK AND RIGHT WHERE MY HUSBAND WAS!!!!

Unbelievable! 

Apparently the local police (it's a little city within Dallas called Highland Park) had stopped a guy on a stolen motorcycle (the green one in the picture below).  He had outstanding warrants so they cuffed him and put him in the squad car.  But, collosal failure, they failed to search him (or at least failed to search him well).  He had a gun and he should out the window of the squad car and got out and tried to flee while shooting at officers.  So they shot him and killed him right there!  And my husband was right there, stopped at the intersection coming to watch me run! 

Exhibit number 4,752 that we are different people:  almost as soon as the shooting stopped, he got out of his car and went to see if he could help.  They were doing CPR on the victim and the ambulance was already there, so the police said no, it was all over, so he just walked another couple minutes to the track.  I couldn't believe it when he told me about it.  I would have absolutely stayed in my car. 

I of course had missed the whole thing.  If I'd been alone at the track running, I might have realized what was happening, but of course there are gunshots going off all the time at the track meet, and so you just kind of ignore.  There were several runner spouses who witnessed the shoot-out, not just my husband (all the runners were already at the track, but lots of spouses show up later to watch different events). 

But I still can't help but think about all the "what if"s.  What if it had happened one night later?  There would have been a very high chance I would have been running through the intersection exactly when it happened (7:00).  What if hubby had left the house a minute earlier and had been in the gunfire?  What if the guy had fled toward the track instead of into the intersection? 

Insane!!!! 

National Running Day questions

So here are belated answers to a National Running Day post I read on hungryrunnergirl.  I didn't see it until pretty late last night, so I actually missed the official day.  I largely echo Amy's sentiments when it comes to National Running Day, because yes, it's just Wednesday and that means I run.  Same as I ran last Wednesday, and the Wednesday before that, and same as I will do next Wednesday and the next Wednesday (God-willing). 

But who am I to shy away from a set of questions already written for me that I can just answer without having to think about topics? 

1. On average how many races do you run a year? 
On average, I run 14.333 races per year. 
In 2013, I've done 13 so far -- but that was due to my crazy plan to make sure my speed training in the spring had tangible results.  That pace is slowing down markedly now that marathon training is underway, but I will still be well over 20 races for the year I expect, my highest ever.  I didn't count this year in my average.
Past years:
2012 = 15 races
2011 = 13 races
2010 = 19 races
2009 = 17 races
2008 = 19 races
2007 = 16 races
2006 = 11 races (still seriously injured first two months of the year)
2005 = 13 races (seriously injured last two months of the year)
2004 = 6 races
2003 = 1 race, my very first road race as an all-grown up and full-time employed adult (I know I did some races in college, maybe even law school, but certainly not with any frequency).  I didn't count this year in my average. 

2. Head accessories, things you have to run with: a hat, a visor, sunglasses, chapstick, sunscreen, head band, ponytail, braids, sweat band?
The only must for me is a ponytail.  During my commute now, I will sometimes wear sunglasses.  If it's raining, I'll wear a visor.  If it's cold, I'll wear a hat.  I try to be better about sunscreen, but face sunscreen as a runner is tricky, tricky business.  You don't want most of that stuff anywhere near your eyes when you're sweating buckets.  I like to wear chapstick on my evening commute runs, but if I wear it in the morning, my lipstick for the day doesn't stick well. 

3. Where do your workouts come from? A training plan, a coach, whatever you feel like doing that day or what your training partner is doing that day?
I train with a group organized by a local running store, so my coach with that program puts together the schedule.  I'm actually a certified coach myself, and I've coached for this store before, but it's like an attorney representing herself -- just not a good idea.  I'm much better off with a coach looking at what I'm doing and coming up with a plan for me. 

4. How many miles on average do you put on a pair of shoes? (I am in mourning because my beautiful purflow 2s are being retired today. We had a great relationship together for 400 miles).
Lately, I've been getting close to 500 miles.  I think it's because after I'd traditionally retire shoes, I now will just move them to a "lesser" category so I use them for boot camp or for commuting. 

5. Cell phone= do you bring it with you on your run or leave it at home?
I leave it at home or in the car during races and when I'm running alone or with friends in training, but I bring it along when I'm commuting because I need to have my phone with me at work (and thanks to "find my phone" if I ever didn't get home within half an hour or so after I left work, hubby could track me to see where I was). 

6. What was your last running related injury or have you been an injury free runner?
I've had some calf pain sporadically over the last few years, but the last real injury where I had to take a few days off was a calf injury in March 2011.  I had plantar fasciitis, but I was able to keep running -- it only hurt when I walked.  The only serious injury I had was in late 2005 and early 2006, a pulled groin muscle that took months of no running to heal. 

7. Is your current running goal about running a farther distance (adding more mileage) or getting faster or BOTH?!?
Getting faster.  Specifically, getting faster at the marathon in Berlin on Sept. 29, 2013.

8. Speedwork—-> at the track, on the treadmill, on the roads or never do it?
I prefer at the track, but I will sometimes do it on the roads.  I usually do it with my training buddies and it's usually on the roads in the early stages of training, then at the track in the sharpening phase. 

9. Stretching after a run: hit the ground after a run and get stretching, stretch in the shower, stretch once you get to work/school, skip the stretching?
After every run for training, I walk for about 3 minutes to cool down and I do a few high knees, butt kicks, and front kicks after that.  After a long run, I'll add real stretching about 5 more minutes.  After morning commute runs, I'll stretch some in the elevator at work if there's no one else there or I'll just inconspicuously stretch my calves.  After evening commute runs, nada.  I get in the house and I am done.
 
10. What was your reason(S) for starting to run? 
I was talked into signing up for a marathon by a friend. 

State of the legs

Well, I have officially been doing 5 commutes per week on foot for over 6 months now (well, 5 per week at most; I've missed about 8 or so total).  And marathon training started this past week.

If I hurt anywhere in relation to running, it is generally something in my calf.  I know way too much about the various calf muscles and primary tendons (the gastroc, the soleus, the Achilles, the peroneus lungus).  All of those have been identified at one point or another in one leg or another as the problem and source of my calf pain. 

Well, after the 5k on Saturday, I felt solid.  The race hadn't gone particularly well (about 45 seconds slower than a PR, and about 5 seconds per mile slower than my other two 5ks within the last month), but I attributed that primarily to the weather and to the course (a bridge hill that we ran over and then back over).  I finished the race, grabbed some water, and immediately headed out backwards on the course to find my accounting buddy as she was finishing up her second 5k ever.  I found here, and we walked and ran the last 3/4 of a mile together. 

Then I had a fairly typical rest of the day Saturday.  I spent some time after the race hanging out, having a beer, waiting for the AG awards.  I went home, had an early lunch, showered, went to volunteer for a couple hours (seated work), went to that confirmation/communion thing, went out for dinner. 

What was unusual was what happened Saturday night -- I woke up in the middle of the night from calf pain.  I usually sleep partially on my left side, partially on my stomach, and somehow my right leg was on top of my left leg and pushing against my calf -- and it hurt a lot. 

I'd already decided to take Sunday as a rest day.  My very last Sunday off until Oct. 7, the week after the marathon probably.  Though I suppose there may be a couple random Sundays that we are out of town or something and I have to reschedule or skip my long run.  But basically the last Sunday before my Berlin training season gets underway.

All day Sunday, it hurt.  It seemed to be worst when I dorsi-flexed my foot.  But the absolute most intense pain was when I touched it.  Even lightly rubbing my inner upper calf on my left leg caused A LOT of pain. 

I have no good explanation for why I went to boot camp Monday.  Well, that's not true.  This is the explanation:

 

Yes, that photo seems like a good reason to go to boot camp!  I'd eaten a very healthy dinner Sunday night when I hosted book club, but I followed that with too much of a very unhealthy dessert!

 

So I really felt like a slug and I needed to get up and get moving on Monday morning.  I decided I'd go to boot camp but give the instructor a heads-up about my pain and just avoid doing the running, and avoid any leg work that caused pain. 

 

When I got home from camp, there was still the same issues -- pain when I dorsi-flexed, pain when I touched it.  Fortunately, Mondays are my day to drive to work (so I can bring my laptop and my clothes).  I put a bunch of Bio-Freeze gel on under my work pants and went to work smelling like I was made of menthol. 

 

All day, I made a conscious effort not to cross my legs, and it seemed like even after the Bio-freeze wore off, it was somewhat less painful. 

 

Tuesday morning, there was still some pain, but I set out for my first group training run of the marathon season.  And of course the first day is always rough in a group at our pace.  Lots of the guys turn it into something of a pissing match, outdoing one another on the pace, but honestly, the women are almost as bad.  Everyone runs too fast, thinking they have to prove they belong.  And I was more guilty than some.  Our group got very spread out (usually that's a no-no, but this season for this group, that is the plan), and I stayed toward the middle, when in reality, I belong at the back.  The run was very tough; it didn't help that it was 79 degrees at 5:15 a.m.  I ran much faster than I should have, and while I didn't have any calf pain, when I finished the 6 miles, pretty much everything hurt.

 

I went home, had breakfast, loaded up on the bio-freeze again, and then set off for my slow paced easy run commute.  I had a friend keeping me company for the first mile, which was nice and ensured I wasn't picking up the pace.

 

In the end, I think I had one of my slowest commutes ever.  My friend u-turned and I had no gas in the tank to pick up the pace.  It was a nice, slow run. 

 

The main thing I noticed during the day Tuesday was not calf pain, but all over leg pain.  My hamstrings on both legs were very tight.  I could touch the back of my leg and it felt like a taut rubber band.  Ugh.  At one point, I was in my boss's office on a call, and I was trying to remember a judge's name.  I knew I had it on a printout in my office on top of my desk.  In my office next door.  So I attempted to stand up, run to my office, grab it, and run back.  But what happened was that I heaved myself up, hobbled out, grabbed it, and hobbled back.  Oh, it was painful.

 

Due to some pretty big thunderstorms, the track meet on Tuesday night was cancelled.  Instead, I worked late on Tuesday so that I wouldn't be running home in thunder or lightning, and ideally not even running home in the rain.  Fortunately, I'm so far behind at work, I could have stayed all night!  I had a dry run home, but one of my slowest commutes going home (downhill) ever.  My legs were so tight and sore, and I felt like I never got into my stride.  At one point, I could see that I needed to speed up to catch a traffic light, and it was so awkward and painful. 

 

Wednesday morning, I woke up and I hesitate to say this, but something miraculous happened overnight.  I woke up pain free.  No calf pain on dorsiflexion.  No calf pain to the touch.  Hammies are still tight, but not excessively.  I still skipped out on about half the running at boot camp and elected to jump rope instead during those times, and I ran pretty slowly to work, but I think it's all good.

 

Wednesday night was a smooth and slow run home, half of it with my accounting buddy, and on this morning's group run, I did a better job of hanging toward the back of the pack and taking time to stretch pretty throroughly when I finished.  I'll head to work in about 20 mins and take it nice and easy, part of it with a friend again. 

 

So my current biggest leg complaint is that I have had some chafing for two or three days in a row in the most awkward place ever.  Pretty much right where the liner of my shorts hits my inner thigh.  I've had inner thigh chafing before, but this wasn't that -- this was higher, and actually from the liner.  Ugh.  And I have no idea why.  My weight hasn't changed at all and these are all three pairs of shorts I've had and worn for a long time without issue. 

 

But I feel like aside from the chafing and a bit of tightness, I can honestly say that I'm starting this season pretty strong and injury free.  Usually at some point in marathon training, I realize that when I flex my legs just right, my quads sometimes feel like rocks.  Surprisingly enough, I'm already there.  And I'm already at my Boston marathon weight (which is my current PR), so ideally, I'll be a couple pounds below that for Berlin.  All that remains now is to do the training and to stay where I am physically, pain-free and at PR weight. 

 

That is the official state of my legs.