SuperKate

The beauty of a plan

2012-02-13T13:29:00.000-06:00

When I first started running, I used the Couch to 5K plan faithfully. Something about having everything I needed to do laid out for me was so motivating. Knowing exactly what to do and then being able to check off a finished workout was a great feeling. Turns out I thrive on being told what to do (don't tell my husband). Once I had run a couple 5Ks, I haphazardly trained for a 10K.

When I registered for my first half marathon, I was once again committed to a plan, this time through Runner's World's Smart Coach app. I missed few, if any, of the scheduled runs, and I had a fantastic race. The power of the plan eluded me during my marathon training, though. Despite having only three scheduled runs per week, I regularly missed at least one of them. That, combined with missing a few weeks of training due to Achilles tendonitis, led to a less than stellar first marathon.

This time around, I'm so far locked into The Plan. Even though it requires me to run 5 days a week--something I have never done, I'm three weeks in without missing a single day. This is new territory for me. It hasn't been easy, though, thanks to a combination of life and my own self sabotage. I started reading The Hunger Games during the Super Bowl and got hooked on the series. I read the first one in a couple of days, and it didn't really cause me any problems.

Tuesday: 2 miles @ 10:50 pace. Because I didn't get home from N's volleyball practice until 11:30 Monday night, I didn't manage to get up before work to run. That meant going out when I got home from class at about 9:15. Thank goodness it was only 2 miles...and for the people who've mentioned such short runs in ultra training, the first three weeks are basically base-building, so from here on out I only have one 2-mile run a week. (whimper). I took it easy since between the dark and the snow flurries whipping in my face I didn't have great visiblity.

Wednesday: 2 miles @ 9:09 pace. I managed to run this right after getting home from work (night class was cancelled...yea!). One thing that made me sad about marathon training was that I lost all of my "speed" because of my focus on just getting in the miles, so I'm trying to fit in at least one run a week where I push my pace more. Definitely not an easy pace for me to maintain, but it felt good to see the numbers at the end. Up late that night finishing a paper for class.

Thursday: 4 miles @ 10:05 pace. Another nighttime run. These are such a pain because I have to get supper on the table early enough for J to get to cub scouts, and then wait long enough for my food to hopefully settle. I tried to run this like a temp run; splits were 10:00, 9:27, 9:10, 11:43 (where the chili...and enchiladas...and fresh salsa...I'd been eating the past two days all ganged up on me).

Fortunately (for the reader in me), D dropped off his copy of the second Hunger Games book. Unfortunately (for the runner in me), it was really good. I started reading it Thursday night, but I really got into it Friday night and ended up finishing it at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. Which would be just fine...if I didn't have to get up at 6 to meet friends for a run.

I did not look quite this perky in the morning.

Saturday: 12.74 miles @ 13:43 pace. When the alarm went off, I seriously considered texting the guys and going back to sleep, but since I was the one who'd suggested the run that seemed pretty weak. Plus, I had to get my 12 miles out of the way early since we had Pinewood Derby and then a family birthday party. Those of you who've been with me for a year know how much I love Pinewood Derby, but I wanted to be there ~~rooting against~~ for J.

Seems like all winter long I've been ~~bragging~~ talking about how warm it is. Well, winter finally got here. It must have been operating on Kate time this year. When we started our run it was 14 degrees with a wind chill of 4.

Pre-run with Pat and Gary
Photo credit: Jim Donohue

The only saving grace was that the trails sheltered us from the worst of the wind, so once we got going it wasn't awful. I had some bike friends out on a road ride, and I don't know how they did it. They're way tougher than me!

Running through the (barely) snowy woods

Usually the first mile or so feels bad until I warm up, but this run never felt good. At least I had fun company. Patrick is currently all about the wild running (who needs trails?), and before long he was leading us down a non-trail we'd run last week. This time we found a spot where we could jump across the creek.

Not a day you want wet feet!

At this point in the run I was still smiling

I'm so used to being the slow one of the group, but this was ridiculous. The guys were really nice about it, but it was stressing me out to drag them behind so much. I tried to tell them they should just go on ahead, but they wouldn't do it. And usually, even when I'm slow, I'm having fun. I like running, I love running in these woods, and I had great guys to run with. Instead of enjoying myself, though, I just felt crabby and negative. I tried to keep my mouth shut and keep the whining to a minimum lest I lose my running partners.

More wild running

By this point, almost 7 miles into the run, I was over wild running. Give me a nice, flat trail, and give it to me fast, dammit. Gary had to get to his son's game, so we dropped him off at the cars, hit the bathroom, and then ran across campus to the more groomed, "official" trails. I had a brief shining moment where I thought we only had 3 miles left, and then I remembered we were running 12, not 10. Nothing much to say about the rest of the run. I dragged further and further behind, just trying to hang on. Oh, and then I didn't duck enough while running under a fallen tree and cracked my head on it. Usually I save my cursing for mountain bike falls, but I'm pretty sure my potty mouth was in evidence on this run.

By the time we were back at the cars, we had over 12 miles. I had a brief temptation to run a little longer and make it a half marathon distance, but then I remembered it hurt to move. Instead, I apologized to the guys again for being such lousy company, grabbed a coffee, and headed home so I could shower before the Pinewood Derby. (Where, incidentally, J took 2nd, 1st, and 1st in his heats but didn't qualify for districts, which in my opinion is the perfect result).

After Saturday's miserable run, I was not looking forward to the scheduled 8 for Sunday. I did get to sleep in a little before going to church to hear Scott Rigsby speak.

Photo credit: http://www.mytropicalescape.com/images/scott2.jpg

Rigsby is the first person with double leg amputation to complete the Kona Ironman competition. Very inspiring story, but not the best public speaker. I'm sure it didn't help that I was trying hard not to fall asleep. One thing that caught my attention was when he talked about telling his friends he was going to do an Ironman. At the time, he couldn't swim, didn't own a bike, and had barely run on his prosthetic legs. Make the decision, then figure out how to do it. I like that.

Due to going to church, finishing the last Hunger Games book, and attending one of J's things at church, I didn't get to leave for my run until about 4:00. I'd been dreading it all day long. I just felt exhausted. Not sleepy, but like gravity was working double on me, and eight miles seemed almost insurmountable. Instead of heading out for 8 miles, I decided to mentally break it up into 4 miles, then 2 miles, then 2 miles. On one hand, it was a mental trick, but I also gave myself the out of quitting the run at any of those points.

Though it was much warmer (a balmy 30) than Saturday, it felt awfully cold setting out. Like always, the first mile or so was a drag, but then I settled in and the run felt ok. I had a GU at 4 miles, and it wasn't so bad knowing that I only "had" to go two more miles.

Roadblock

I came across these fallen trees and had fun jumping from one trunk to the next. My attitude was 100% different (and better!) than on Saturday. Since normally I far prefer running with friends, I'm chalking it up to the lack of sleep. By now dusk was settling in, and I wasn't crazy about being on the trails alone after dark. I finished mile 6 on my way out of the trails. There was enough light to get me back to where I'd parked, but I was still 1.5 miles short, so I ran the service road near the parking area until my Garmin beeped off that last mile. A far, far better running experience than the day before.

Sunday: 8 miles @ 12:18 pace

I'm a little nervous looking ahead at this next week's plan. I add on 6 miles to my weekly mileage, which seems a little high, but I'll just see how it goes and give myself a break if I need one. Maybe this will be the week I don't hit all the miles. It has to happen at some point. The really exciting part (heavy on the sarcasm) is that I'll be in Chicago this coming weekend, and depending on my son's volleyball schedule, I may be stuck running Saturday's 14 and Sunday's 8 on the hotel treadmill. I did 14 on a TM last year for the same reason, and I'm not looking forward to repeating the experience. On the other hand, it wasn't as bad as 62 miles on a trainer!
Chicago folks, let me know if you'd be interested in meeting up! We're staying in Burr Ridge Friday and Saturday nights. Of course, I'll be working around my son's volleyball, but I'd love to meet some of you in person if it works out. :)

Weekend wrap-up (50k training and Super Century)

2012-02-06T21:50:00.004-06:00

Went to a college basketball game Friday. Turned out Feb. 4 was actually Saturday. Who knew? Fail. Went home and watched Invincible instead. I love football movies, and I love Mark Wahlberg, so I really love this movie.

Saturday morning came way too early. N. had to be in St. Louis by 7:30 for a volleyball tournament that his team was in. He can't play yet since he's been recovering from surgery for a month now, but he has to be there.

Usually if there's a conflict between a tournament and one of J's things, I go to the tournament and Jeff goes to J's event. This week, since N wasn't playing, I decided I'd drop him off and then go back home so I could watch J play in his first basketball game. Then, I'd head back towards St. Louis, do my scheduled 10 mile run, and hang out at tournament and cheers N's team on.

So I dragged him out of bed and out the door...

Not thrilled about the hour OR the camera

Made our mandatory Quik Trip stop...

Best gas station ever

Headed down the soggy interstate to St. Louis as I hoped desperately the rain would stop before my run...

It was kind of foggy out...

Hello, Arch...wherever you are

Dropped him off at his tournament. He's finally able to practice again, so hopefully he'll actually be playing in the next one (2 weeks from this past weekend...in Chicago).

Maybe I'm not a great fan, but I don't stay to watch if my kid isn't playing, especially when my other kid is somewhere else

Heading back home

This was the first Saturday morning I've been home in...I don't really remember when. Since Christmas, maybe? J had his first basketball game at 9:30, so we made a quick stop at Home Depot for their kids' workshop.

Yeah...still raining

Started on the little box that was this month's project...

Getting some help from Daddy

And then drove down the block to the Y for the game. Oh my gosh...I'd forgotten how hilarious second grade basketball is. Our Y has a great developmental program where coaches stay on the floor and refs help coach the kids as well.

J's #6 on green

J made two baskets and got maybe one rebound. The whole experience made me want to spend more time on a basketball court with him so he's a little more comfortable with what's going on. Plus, he's too tall to only get one rebound.

Yep...still raining

There are quite a few trails within a 20-min range from the volleyball gym, but I opted for Castlewood because it's fairly familiar to me now and because a lot of it's trails are fairly rocky. With the wet conditions I was hoping to avoid too much mud.

Probably because Sherry Arnold has been so much in my mind lately, combined with the facts that I've been running my trail runs with friends and have never run Castlewood alone, I was a little nervous about going by myself. I'm writing this, so obviously it went OK.

This nice, flat section runs along the river

I started out on some of the flatter trails along the river. Unfortunately, the flatter trails eventually lead you to the infamous Castlewood steps. Seeing as I've mentioned them repeatedly but have never gotten a picture that really shows what they're like, I decided to videotape my trip up the stairs (subtitled: four minutes of your life that you'll never get back). On the plus side, now you can hear what my voice sounds like when I'm gasping for breath.

The view from the top is pretty awesome, though.

It's a steep drop if you get too close to the edge

The first 7.5 miles weren't bad at all. Slow as dirt, but I felt pretty good. I guess I've reached that point in my training where the extra miles you add to your long run hurt, though, bc the last 2.5 miles were no fun at all. Especially when I got to this section:

This section is so steep. I hate how pictures don't show that.

Unfortunately, I still had .2 miles left when I got to the parking lot, so I spent it running a couple of hill repeats on the nasty hill leading up to the bluffs. I ran as far up as I could without walking, then I jogged back down. It took two to finish off my miles. Then it was time to go pick up N.

Long day.

Went to the basketball game on the real February 4th. It was just a little bit busier than the night before when there was no game.

Go Cougars...our team won.

J enjoyed the game.

I went to bed about the same time my 8 year old did since I had to be up early for the worst idea ever.

My ride for the Super Century.

Let me just say that 62 miles on a trainer was infinitely worse than I expected. Thankfully, I had some great movies to entertain me.

I don't think I'd seen Dirty Dancing since high school

This was one of the coolest virtual events I've gotten to participate in because of the communication aspect. Since most of us were on trainers (at least one hardy soul was on rollers, which I understand is a whole different story), we were able to share our woes via twitter (we used the hashtag #supercentury so much that it was trending in the St. Louis area) and facebook.

It was much more fun that riding alone in my basement...even though it showed me how everyone was passing me up.

Though I bought (or started to buy) my trainer in December, this was actually the first time I'd ever used one. Turns out there is a slight learning curve, and by that I mean that I almost fell over two different times. I'm not exactly sure how, but I do know that if I hadn't been set up next to a wall and have landed on the floor. Still, I managed to eat my oatmeal breakfast while riding.

Despite the distraction of the movies, twitter, and Facebook, I got uncomfortable pretty quickly. I think I took a stand-up/stretch break at 20 mi, and then I stopped to get some food about halfway through. Nothing sounded good until I looked in the freezer.

I would never eat this much ice cream normally.

I think that bowl of ice cream got me through the next 15 miles. It was sooooo good. I also had a Clif bar, two cans of diet Pepsi, two bottles of water, and a bottle of hard cider (hey, I'm sure it was 5 o'clock somewhere). Quality nutrition.

Here's how much I loved the experience:

You could say it was not the Egg McMuffin of bike rides, if you liked Egg McMuffins or that dopey commercial.

The last 15 or so miles was TOUGH. I was completely soaked in sweat. J came downstairs and said, "It smells BAD in here." I had to assume I was the smell. I just wanted to be done. By the last 3, I was nearly in tears, but no way was I going to quit that close to the end. Finally, miraculously, it was over. Well, it was sort of over. You see, my 50k plan still called for a 6 mi trail run.

My partner in crime. Or stupidity. You say poTAYto...

Even though Patrick had also done the ~~Stupid~~Super Century, he was still willing to go run 6 miles in the woods with me. Granted, I think he expected ms to wimp out and go for a road run instead of trails, but still. Everybody needs one of those friends who's up for hairbrained schemes, and he's definitely one of mine. The first three miles kind of sucked, but by the second half I was almost enjoying myself.

Here's a picture of the gully or whatever our icy bridge was over. I made sure to take it since Kovas seemed a little skeptical of the need for a bridge.

Due, I guess, to our strangely warm weather, our woods and in particular the ravines are getting some really cool mossy areas. It was really pretty. We explored a trail we'd never run before, and when it led down to a creek, we opted to kind of swing over the water (could've waded through, but why?) by hanging onto a downed tree. That slowed our pace even more, but since we were running 15 min miles, it wasn't much of an issue. Ok, it wouldn't have been anyway.

Whatever, it was fun, and maybe there's something to this recovery run thing, because I feel pretty darn good today, even if I did fall asleep before halftime and miss the majority of the Super Bowl commercials.

P.S. Check out the Team Virtus website for a poetic recounting of our stationary adventure. Thanks, boys, for a really terrible, fun time. And thanks to my friends who popped by on Facebook or twitter to cheer me on. I love that I have friends who'll encourage me even in the most colossally stupid challenges. ESPECIALLY in those. :)

Tagged! 11 More things

2012-02-01T22:43:00.000-06:00

I already wrote my 11 randoms and 11 questions, so I'm not doing all that again, but Kate tagged me and since I love to share, here goes...

Oh, here's one random: when I was 20, I was kicked out of Independence Hall. I was there with my parents on the way to my brother's wedding. D was 6 months old and a little noisy, but not awful at all. Anyway, the ranger giving the tour "suggested" I might want to take him outside. I was really bummed bc I love history and Independence Hall was what I'd most been looking forward to visiting.

Where were you born?

Right here in Illinois, about 25 minutes from where I now live.

What is your favorite way to relax?

Curling up with a good book.

What is something you did as a child that you got in trouble for?

The worst thing I ever did was tell my grandpa some guy had tried to get a friend of mine and me to get into his car when we were walking home from school. I wasn't really trying to tell him that, I was just making up a story and didn't realize how serious a thing I was saying or think he would take me seriously. Anyway, he told my parents when they came to pick me up, and they called the police, and I ran away to a friend's house and hung out there until the police went away. When I finally admitted to my parents it hadn't happened, they wanted me to go apologize to the police for wasting their time. I refused and opted to take a month-long grounding instead.

What was the BEST race you ever ran and why was it the best?

If we're going by running races ("ever ran"), I'd say it was my first half marathon. I trained so faithfully for that and ended up finishing in 1:58:37. I had thought a sub-2:00 finish was possible, but highly unlikely. Meeting my "wildest dreams" race scenario was pretty amazing; I teared up at the end. Of course, it also makes the prospect of running another road half marathon kind of scary bc I know I couldn't maintain that kind of a pace right now, and it would really bum me out to finish slower than I did when I'd only been running for about 8 months.
Which do you prefer - ocean or mountains?

Mmmm....that's a hard one. Oceans, I guess, if you're making me choose, but I wouldn't turn down a trip to the mountains.
What is the furthest you have ever traveled from home?

Puerto Vallarta, in distance and culture and circumstances
What is your favorite restaurant?

I don't really have a favorite. As long as it's not all seafood, I can find something I'll like.
Would you rather be able to teleport or be able to turn invisible?

Teleport, no contest.
What is your favorite body part?

Chest, because it balances out my big ass. :) On a guy, either calves or arms.
What is your favorite song to workout to?

Remember the Name, by Ft. Minor
Would you rather run trails or the road?

TRAILS

The worst idea in the world

2012-01-31T15:53:00.000-06:00

If necessity is the mother of invention, the father of bad ideas must be Team Virtus, and Casey in particular.

Evil geniuses

Why? Because they are the ~~disturbed~~ minds behind perhaps the most terrible idea of all time, the Super Century. What is the Super Century? A metric century (62 mile) trainer bike ride. Starting at 6:00 a.m., no less, on Super Bowl Sunday.

The pros: you can pretty much eat whatever you want at the evening's Super Bowl party.
The cons: everything else.

Since you know me, I'm sure it'll come as no surprise that I jumped at the chance to share in the sheer awfulness of the idea. It might surprise you that I'm not the only one. Crazy people all over the country have signed on to the insanity. And since misery loves company, I'd love to welcome you to the nuthouse. Do join us on February 5.

The rules? There are no rules. You can ride inside or outside. You can ride alone or with company. You don't have a trainer? Borrow one. You don't have a friend with a trainer? Get new friends...or come up with a suitably awful challenge so that you aren't left out. Some alternate ideas so far...

31 miles on a treadmill
150 pull ups (not sure if it's the diapers or the arm-strengthener, but either was it's got to suck)
1,000 air squats
150 donuts

If you're interested, and how could you not be, click on the above link to tell the guys you're in. They've also created a DailyMile challenge if you want to sign up that way. Of course, even if you're alone, we don't want you to suffer alone. We'll all be tweeting (watch for hashtags like #supercentury #badideas #mytaintwillneverbethesame) and facebooking our pain throughout the experience (see the Team Virtus website linked above for their twitter and facebook links. Really, you don't want to miss these guys). Expect pictures, possibly video, and a LOT of complaining.

It truly sounds grueling to me. I haven't been on my road bike since the private half-ironman in October, and I have to run 6 miles for my 50K training program after the Super Century. In a somewhat cruel twist, Sunday's weather looks like it would be somewhat OK for riding outside, but somehow the sheer awfulness of the trainer component is what makes the whole thing worth doing for me. Plus, you know, the opportunity to add my own notes to the symphony of pain that's going to be blasting bright and early on Sunday.

If you're in, let me know. If you think we're crazy, let me know that, too. C'mon...you know you wanna...and if you don't wanna but do anyway, even better. :)

FYTO5K Race Report

2012-01-29T12:49:00.000-06:00

Like much of blogland, I signed on for The Boring Runner's second annual Freeze Your Thorns Off 5K. Of course, Adam lives in Arizona and so has little recent experience freezing anything other than ice cubes, but he apparently grew up in the Midwest and remembers what winter is like. Seeing as no likely victim presented themselves for a photoshop blogjacking, I actually had to run this one.

Luckily, I had good company. Patrick, Mike, and Wade all were running Saturday morning, as were some other members of our tri club. Unfortunately, I was moving a little slowly that morning and kept the boys waiting in the below freezing (hey, 30ish is still below freezing) temperatures, resulting in their threat to AIS (or actually, FOG--feet on ground) me next time I'm late. And there will be a next time.

We met at the local university to run the trails, so I was a little surprised when we set off across campus instead. The guys wanted to run the new section of trail that we helped put in last week, but to get there, we had to brave some ice-covered asphalt first. It was a little treacherous, but no one fell. I dropped behind the group pretty quickly, but every once in a while I could catch a glimpse of bright color ahead of me. After an out and back on the trail, we headed back to the main part of campus. Since I had to go to the bathroom and was dragging behind anyway, I told the guys I was going to stop at one of the buildings and they shouldn't wait for me, I'd just catch them on the trail.

Back at the parking lot, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I hadn't been left behind. Patrick, Wade, and Mike were waiting for me, so then we headed into the woods. Patrick was wearing a camera taking pictures ever 5 seconds, and he made a really cool time lapse slide show of our run.

We're really lucky to have the trails we have locally. It's a really pretty place to run.

Photo credit: Mike Ransick

There are some sections that pass right next to ravines. Very cool, but a couple spots with treacherous footing.

Mike avoids plummetting to the bottom

If you watched the time-lapse video, you may have noticed that we have quite a few wooden bridges to cross. The freezing temperatures made some of these a little treacherous. One, in particular, required some creativity to cross. You can't really tell it from the pictures, but the plank bridge slants up, and it was too slippery to walk up. Eventually we realized we were going to have to crawl...

Crawl??? Really?...

I didn't even have to feel wimpy for crawling, since the guys in front of me did as well. A couple of them tried walking to see if they could make it but quickly realized it wasn't going to work.

Not too proud to crawl....

This was my longest run since December's Pere Marquette race, but after the first three were finished I stopped counting down how many miles left and just enjoyed the morning and the company. Kind of funny, though I met Mike over a year ago when he drove me to my first half marathon and we're in the same tri club, this is the first time we've ever run together. Hopefully he'll come back for another run. :)

Post-race with Wade and Patrick

Our "5K" actually took us 8 miles to complete. I blame the navigator...and the 8-mile run on my 50K training plan. Actually, I enjoyed every minute. It was a great morning for a run.

11 Random things

2012-01-25T20:52:00.005-06:00

Thanks to Marcia for tagging me in this and to Mike for tagging anyone who wanted to play along. I'm double dipping a little...so sue me. :)

1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

Oh, gosh...what random things could I tell you that I haven't already written about?

1. I love being back at school. It's a whole different experience to be learning things that are immediately applicable in my classroom, and I think it's going to make me a better teacher. On the other hand, it's weird to be back in a situation where a lot of the people already know each other and I'm kind of on the outside.

2. I think everyone needs a friend who'll tell you what they think you need to hear whether or not you'll like it. I've got a couple of those. All guys, what a coincidence. :) Plus brothers, who by definition fill that role.

3. I could count the number of beers I had last year on one hand, and it's vastly more than I had in the previous 18 years. I've never been much of a beer drinker, though that is shifting a little since, as my husband says, my "friends are a bad influence". Somehow beer tastes way better after a race or bike ride than other times.

4. I did a lot of writing during my first marriage -- poems and short stories rather than blogging. One of my poems won honorary mention in a national contest, but since it was about something (very minor) that happened between my parents the day of my father's death, I could never let my mom read the poem because it would've hurt her feelings.

5. I took piano lessons for a couple of years. The teacher called me "Kathy" for an entire year because I was too shy to tell her my name was Kate and then too embarrassed to correct her after it went on for a while...but not as embarrassed as I was the day of my recital when she told my parents how "Kathy" was doing and my mom said "Who's Kathy?"

6. I once won second place in a state-wide physics test contest by randomly filling in bubbles. Then I had to keep a straight face while being interviewed about it by the local newspaper.

7. While at Castlewood on Sunday morning for the bike ride, a guy asked me in the parking lot if I was SuperKate and introduced himself as a commenter from the Pere Marquette report. So fun to run into people who've read my blog. I doubt I'll ever get tired of that. Thanks, James B for helping make my morning. :)

8. Ever since registering for Double Chubb (the April 50K), I've been stunningly unmotivated to run and presented with multiple opportunities to do really fun other things like mountain biking and orienteering (OK, that part wasn't so much fun.....) Part of the problem might be that the plan I found didn't start til this week, part of the problem is that my Team Virtus friends are planning their 3rd non-race for the same date and I'd rather do that...part of the problem is I'm lazy...I ran two miles yesterday like the plan called for. Stay tuned....

9. When I had to replace my car, all of the criteria for the new one revolved around my bike: I had to be able to put a trunk rack on it, I ideally wanted to be able to fit my bike inside the car, and it had to have an automatic transmission so that when I drove myself home after crashing and hurting myself, I wouldn't have to shift multiple times or use a clutch.

10. I'm more comfortable with being bad at something than good at something. I will always tell you I'm worse at something than I think I am because I'd rather be a surprise than a disappointment and because I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea about what I can do.

11. I'm doing a 24-hour adventure race in March. I. Cannot. Wait.

Marcia's questions:
1 . Do you have any pets?

I have a labradoodle, Berkeley, and my son has a cat, Bo. Being as my son has been laid up in some major pain since his surgery Jan. 4, I currently have a cat, Bo.

2. Most embarrassing moment?

Tie between waiting in the gear check line after my first half marathon and realizing that terrible smell was me...and this summer during a camping trip when I got out of bed and one of my breasts had fallen out of my top, right in front of my 17 year old. We were both pretty mortified.

3. Favorite brand of running gear?

I don't have enough running gear to pick favorites. I do love my Asics trail shoes, though.

4. Dream vacation?

I'd love to go somewhere where I can hike and bike and run somewhere gorgeous. I'd also love to go to Ireland or back to Mexico. Going to some all-inclusive resort where I can lay on the beach and read all day sounds pretty sweet, too.

5. Dream race?

Abby posted a link to an amazing expedition-style adventure race. Check out the link. It's amazing. I definitely want to do something like that.

6. Favorite GU flavor?

Vanilla bean or the espresso one.

7. Snow ski or water ski?

Water ski

8. Do you get a flu shot?

Nope.

9. Gold, sterling silver or platinum?

I wear mostly gold (or cheaper stuff), when I remember to put on jewelry, but I'm going to paraphrase Mike's answer and say I'd prefer a cross bike.

10. What grade in school did you enjoy most? Least?

First grade was hard because I had to go to reading with the class above mine, and they weren't very nice or accepting. I had a really, really good time my freshman year of college. :)

11. How often do you get a haircut?
Every 9 months or so.

Mike's questions:

My questions to you:
1. Why do you blog?

I started blogging to keep track of training; now I love to be able to look back at things I've done, places I've gone, and how I've changed. I'd still blog even if no one read it, but I love the inspiration and friendships I've found through blogging.

2. What is your favorite meal?

That's like asking me to pick between my children! :) We don't eat anything all that fancy. I like BBQ pork steaks and baked potatoes, lasagna, chicken parmesean...maybe, though, my favorite meal is one I don't have to cook!

3. What accomplishment are you the most proud of?

Life: going back to school and finishing my college degree.

Sports: Doing a 9.5 hour adventure (non)race the day after my first 21-mile run.

4. What was your favorite subject in school?

English. I love to read and write (shocker, huh?)

5. What is your favorite sport?

I'd say mountain biking, but apparently it's not a sport (according to my husband and child). Favorite individual sport: mountain biking. Favorite team sport to play: volleyball (with basketball a close second). Favorite sport to watch: whatever my kids are playing at the time.

6. What is your favorite team?

Team Virtus. :)
Whatever my kids are playing on. Honestly, if no one I know is playing, I don't really care.

7. What is your favorite snack to eat while cheering for your favorite team?

Do you know they don't allow anything but popcorn into our high school gym? Sigh. I'm a big fan of soft pretzels with cheese.

8. How old were you when you got married?

19 the first time, 29 the second.

9. Do you grill with charcoal or gas?

Grilling is for boys, but my husband uses a gas grill.

10. What is your favorite month?

Ummmm....June-mid August.

11. What is your least favorite month?

They all have their good points. December is always stressful because of Christmas and money.

Questions for you:

1. Did you have a favorite teacher in school? Who and why?
2. Suggest a great new blog for me to read.
3. What's a favorite race memory?
4. What kind of car do you drive?
5. What do you imagine doing when you retire?
6. Tell me a happy memory of yours.
7. What's something that has surprised you about yourself?
8. Do you have brothers or sisters? If so, are you close to them?
9. Patrick assures me he'd come rescue me if I ever again got lost in the woods. Can I count on him?
10. What's something you like to make for dinner?
11. What's a good piece of advice you've received.

Tag!

1. Robin
2. XLMIC (yeah, I know you just did this, but I still want you to answer my questions. :D)
3. Misty
4. Slomo
5. Laima
6. Kovas
7. Abby
8. Patrick
9. Wendy
10. Cory
11. Rose

...and anyone else who wants to answer one of those questions.

The all-important step

2012-01-22T23:51:00.000-06:00

**First off, if I normally comment on your blog and haven't lately, it isn't for lack of trying. I've been having a heck of a time getting posts to load, and then half the time when I try and comment the comment page won't come up. Not sure if Blogger is having issues again or what. It doesn't happen on my phone, but I can only see the two most recent posts on my phone. Grr. Word Press is looking more and more appealing.**

This was a good weekend. It really was, even though I'm currently stinging from a ~~soul-~~confidence-crushing orienteering outing. It was definitely a busy weekend, with some new experiences and lots of time spent outside.

Saturday's planned Frostbike MTB ride was cancelled due to icy conditions (even our landscaping was slippery, and the roads were like skating rinks), but the ride had been planned in concert with a Gateway Off-Road Cyclists workday on our local trails. GORC builds and maintains mountain bike trails all over the region, and they apparently work their scheduled days no matter what. I've had it in the back of my head that it would be good to go and "give back", plus I wanted to actually see/experience what goes into making a trail. Between Team Rev and my tri club encouraging members to participate, I guess I finally got enough nudging.

I'd gone back to sleep once the ride was called off, and when the alarm went off at 8, of course the first thing I did was ~~hit snooze~~ check Facebook. Patrick had posted about getting ready for the workday. He lives just a few blocks from me, so I commented asking for a ride. All of the sudden I get a text saying, "I'm already there, but I'll come get you. Be ready." Be ready? I was still in bed! I texted back to tell him nevermind, but he was already on the way. I put in my contacts, washed my face, and threw on some clothes. Pretty sure he still had to wait a bit in the driveway.

There was a great turnout for the workday. All told, close to 40 people were out there working to add 1/2 mile of singletrack.

Getting directions

At around 9, the guy in charge had us split up among the 5 crew leaders. There were about 9 of us from the tri club, and they didn't need us all in one group, so I ended up with people I didn't know. No big deal. Then we had to get our tools. The boss guy says, "OK, you'll need some doohickeys, some whatzits, and some thingamabobs." Well, that's not exactly what he said, but that's pretty much what I got out of it. I just looked at what the other guys were grabbing, took one of those, and followed them down the trail realizing that I had no idea what the hell I was doing and hoping they were patient.

Basically, our job was to rake away the leaf cover ("leaf litter") over our assigned section of the trail, which had been marked out with flagging. It was a chilly morning (temps in the 20's), but I warmed up really quickly once I started working.

Raking in progress; you can see the rake-y thing we used.

In the background, you can see fellow blogger Scott who had the good luck to get to pull up brush/small trees. Others used loppers to cut limbs back. I got the chance to talk to a few of the guys while we worked. John, our crew leader, asked what brought me out, and I basically told him what I said up above. He said one of the reasons he volunteers is to kind of leave a legacy, that he can go to most any trail in the area and see a section he helped put in. That's pretty cool, and I think the part we worked on will be kind of special to me because I helped, so I totally get what he means.

More progress

After we had our section all raked clear, John had me work with a guy in another group who was bench-cutting the trail. I pulled away the dirt as he cut it from the trail. Hardly skilled labor, though the trick was getting the dirt out of the way without getting in the way. As we talked about riding and trails and stuff, it came up that I'd been at Berryman last weekend, and he asked if I was with the Team Virtus group ride and said he was going to their Cedar Cross race (stabbing me in the heart with yet another reminder that I'm going to miss a truly epic event). Anyway, I assured him that it would be an amazing experience because those guys are the best.

All told, we put in about 3+ hours of work. I'm clearly not used to manual labor, because I am sore today, but it was actually a lot of fun. I liked meeting and talking to some new people as well as the friends I already knew out there, and I liked contributing to this sport I love more and more. We were even provided lunch and I won a $10 gift certificate to our LBS. Sweet!

Since I didn't get to ride as planned Saturday, no way was I missing Sunday's ride at Castlewood. Well, until the alarm went off at 5:45 and it was cold and dark and if it wasn't for telling Amy that I'd be there I might just have turned off the alarm and gone back to bed. But I didn't, and even though Amy ended up not going because she felt lousy, I had a really good time. My legs felt a little meh about the whole thing on the first climb, but they stopped whining pretty soon. I tried to focus on keeping a little more speed (semi-successful, still lots and lots of braking) and on riding with a little more finesse, especially lifting my front wheel over obstacles, since Patrick recently called me on basically just bulldozing through things (a little more successful than the speed thing). And it was a good thing that I rode this morning, because it ended up being the highlight of my day.

I've been looking forward to this afternoon's orienteering meet for about a month. Our last outing left me feeling cautiously optimistic about my navigational skills. While Jeff did most of the mapwork for our first two meets, I managed the map for November's meet and we did pretty well, especially considering we had an 8 year old in tow. Today was to be my first solo outing because, while Jeff likes orienteering, he loves football and wouldn't have considered skipping the playoffs. I was ok with that. I was looking forward to seeing how I could do on my own.

I got there plenty early since I was coming from the bike ride and just did some reading for one of my classes while the people in charge were setting up. While I was waiting, I did get some helpful hints from Fran, one of the SLOC people helping with registration. I'm going to put it in yellow so that if you couldn't care less about orienteering it's easy for you to skip over.

Clue sheet

OK, for those of you who are still with me, to find your way around you have your map, which is marked with the controls for you to find. You have your clue sheet, such as the one to the right. The clue sheet tells you what number will be on the control marker (so you know you have the right one); it will also give you clues as to where you'll find the control. Then you have your passport, which is basically a piece of paper with a bunch of boxes on it. Each control will have a unique punch at it; you punch the corresponding box to show that you were at that point.

So Fran showed me some things she does with her passport. First, she writes the control number in the corresponding box. Using the clue sheet in my picture, she'd write the number 150 in the #1 box. That way, when she gets there she doesn't have to go digging for her clue sheet. Also she notes the identifying features. She uses packing tape to cover her passport. On the back of it, she tapes the clue sheet so it's right there if she needs to refer to it. Once both sides are covered with tape, she trims away excess tape and punches a hole in the card. She attaches it to her wrist using a couple of rubber bands. That way it's right there and can't get lost.

**Back to our regular scheduled programming**
I got to see my friends Melissa, Traci, and Todd. And I had to decide which course to ~~conquer~~ attempt. There were three basic options: yellow, which was 3.1K and mostly on trails and roads; orange, which was 4K and mostly off-trail but on major handrails such as streambeds and ridgetops; and green (4.8K) / red (6.3K), which require "intricate navigation at times".

Now, a smart person might say Hmmmm...this is the first time I've done this on my own; maybe I'll start small. I, however, was thinking about my semi-success at Meramec and opted for the green course. I thought about red, after all, I'm a runner. I can certainly handle 6.3K , even if it is off-trail and through rough terrain. Thankfully, my hubris did have limits and I stuck with the shorter course

Like at Meramec, we had to copy the controls from a master map onto our own. I did this carefully, then noted the control numbers on my passport and checked to make sure I knew what all the symbols meant. Then it was time to get in line to take off. Since the courses were point-to-point, you had to get each control in number order. To make it easier to not follow others, start times are staggered.

When it was my time, I jogged out the door...and realized I had no idea where to go from there. This way...no, wait...that way....ummm, no, that's not it... If you picture the way heads turn from side to side in a tennis match, that's pretty much how I looked for the first couple of minutes. I relaxed, really looked at the map, and figured out where I needed to go.

One down, nine to go...

I wouldn't say I went straight to the first control, but I found it with a minimum of wandering. Then, I navigated directly to the second one. I was pretty shocked and pleased. If I'd taken a few seconds to think about it, though, I might have realized that I hadn't expected it to be there at all. Score one for dumb luck.

I wish I'd taken a little time to savor that second control more, because things went south from there. Having shot a bearing and heading directly towards #3, I came out on a road. The "road" was actually a trail, which made for additional confusion. I thought I knew where I was on the map, but then realized I didn't and went looking for some kind of reference point I could match up to the map. Thinking I knew where I was, I came across some people who kind of looked like they knew what they were doing.

"Do you mind if I ask where you think you are?" I asked. When they told me, I had no idea how I could've gotten that off track. I didn't really think they were right, but I still didn't know where I was, so I kept on going looking for a reference point. Before long, the same people were coming back my way. "Don't listen to us; we were totally off track."

Finally! A something on the map!

I was really excited to come across these stones, as I'd seen a symbol for "small cemetery". Now I sort of knew where I was. Sort of. Really, I doubt I'd ever have found #3 if a woman coming out of the woods hadn't told me that the paved path (which I was guessing as a road) was actually a trail on the map, and then she kind of sent me in the right direction. Finally! Number 3! I felt confident that, now that I knew where I was, the next point would much better.

I was so wrong.

Going strictly by compass again, I did manage to get to the right neighborhood, though again, not when/where I thought I should. Ahhh, hindsight! The map showed #4 in the vicinity of a fenced-in area, and there was a fence. Of course, this was also an area where it would have behooved me to pay closer attention to the course notes: "This is an old map. Deviations exist (e.g. fenced areas near control 4 are not as mapped)." Still, if my compass skills had been better, this wouldn't have been nearly the issue that it was.

I didn't think I was in the right area, but there was the fence. There was the big pond that was on the map. Just to make sure I wasn't in the right area, I went partway around the fence. And then the other way. Finding a road that was on the map, I went back the way I had come. Then decided that couldn't be right. I went back to where I'd started near the fence. Since the clue sheet said re-entrant, I walked along something that was semi-reentrant-ish. No luck. Eventually I came across some ladies who'd already found 4 and told me I'd have to go partway around the fence (again!). I went all the way around, fell coming down a creekside, and ran into another group who pointed the way towards the control. Yeah, that's right, it took me TWO groups of Samaritans before I could find the stupid thing.

I was starting to get really frustrated by this point. I knew what I was supposed to be doing, but it was going SO WRONG. Thinking back to an old post I'd read when my friend Bob had a rough outing and ended up just savoring the day and the park and the scenery, I tried really hard to channel that spirit. It was really hard to keep a good attitude, though. I think that's about the time I started whining on facebook:

Since the whole follow the compass straight to the next point thing wasn't working so well for me, I decided to try something different to get to #5. Rather than go straight there, I shot a bearing to the trail; then I could follow the trail to a good known point, then follow a fence to #5. It worked perfectly...until I left my known point (the end of the campground) in search of the fence. I shot a bearing towards where it should be and walked and walked and walked. I did have one fun moment where I had to climb over a gigantic fallen tree. I had to boost myself up to it, then swing across and sliiiiide until my feet touched the ground again. I was wishing I had a cameraman there to get that shot.

Once again, I wandered all over the place. I finally came across a control, only to check the number and find out it was the wrong one. I think I ended up back at the same campground spot once and tried again with no luck. Somehow I ended up at the other end of the campground and tried a different attack point with no luck. I knew by this time there was no way I was clearing the course. I was already over my 3 hour time limit. I just really, really wanted to find #5 before heading back. I found a trail on the map and tried following that to get me closer; I saw a control flag in the distance. Could this be it?? Was I going to end my day with a minor success?

Nope. It was the same wrong one I'd come across before. That was it for me. I was done. I did run a little on the way back, trying to salvage some kind of benefit from the day; after all, I have a little race I'm supposed to be training for. I think I was the last person in, which is saying something because there were a ton of people there today.

Truly, it was an epic fail. Looking at my Garmin tracks, it's quite clear I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

The arrows just show a little of my direction of travel

So remember the course description I posted above? Of course you don't; I don't even remember it. I'll remind us: my entire course was supposed to be about 4.8K, or just under 3 miles (if you're able to go point to point). The 4 (of 10) controls I got, plus all of the wandering and searching for #5 came to 4.72 mi (or 7.6K). So I went half again as far as the entire course, plus I didn't even get halfway finished. :-/

While I never freaked out in the woods, I was incredibly frustrated, and by the time I got back to the finish (or give-up) line, it was all I could do to turn in my passport and get to my car without crying. I didn't think I'd be good today, but I didn't think I'd be that bad. I felt utterly defeated. I just got in the car and started driving; though I had google maps up with directions to my house, I missed about three different major turns and just kept resetting the directions from my new starting point. I couldn't even find Qdoba when I stopped to grab something for a late lunch. It was bad.

As I drove (and drove and drove), though, I thought. I was so wrong on every point after the second. I was never in the right place. I thought back especially to #4. It doesn't show up on my Garmin map, but there was a huge fenced-in area with a big pool/pond there. I navigated right to the fenced-in area, but I was completely off-base as far as which way I thought I needed to go. In fact, I was completely off-base on my headings for everything after the second point. You probably noticed it on the map above.

As I thought about it, it began to dawn on me that I'd missed one very important step. Here's how you (well, how I...maybe I know even less than I think I do), take a bearing so you know how to get from point to point on your map:

First, line up your compass from the point where you are (in this case, #2) to your destination (#3). You can see the two points at the top edge of the compass.

Next, line up the straight lines in the middle of the black circle with your North/South lines on your map. The red lines should be on the "north" side.

Now you're going to want to orient yourself so that the compass needle stays in the red box like the picture to the left shows.

Hold your compass in front of you. As long as the needle stays in the box, you're going in your chosen direction. You can look ahead of you, find a landmark (maybe a big tree or a rock) in the line you're walking. When you get to it, check your compass, find a new landmark, and go on ahead.

Easy, right?

I skipped the second step!! I figured my direction of travel, but I just moved the housing so that the needle was in the red box rather than move it to a north-south orientation. I must've just totally lucked out on the second control, because I used my compass completely wrong all day long. Really, it's a miracle I found anything.

If you look at the picture below, you can see clearly how completely off-track I was every time. It's kind of funny now that I know what happened.

The black shows what I did; clearly going in the wrong direction. The blue shows what I thought I was doing. Sad, sad.

And you know what's ironic? Back in December, Abby posted all about finally learning how to take a bearing on the compass after a couple years of not even knowing you did such a thing. And I commented that, at our last orienteering meet, this had all finally "clicked" for me.

Apparently someone shut the light off this time, but I think this may have been the mistake(s) that cements the knowledge for me.

I hope. Geez.

If you give a girl a bicycle

2012-01-20T19:31:00.001-06:00

If you give a girl a bicycle, she's going to want to ride it.

But first, she'll need a helmet.

When she goes to buy the helmet, she'll probably pick up a bike computer, too.

Because her sense of direction is lousy, she may get lost and inadvertently ride 20 miles.

She'll realize if she can do 20 miles accidentally, she can ride 30 on purpose...after she buys some bike shorts.

She might get carried away and register for a week-long bike trip.

She'll have so much fun that she'll sign up for a century. Or two. She'll discover that miles are much shorter and much longer than she ever thought, and that 8 hours is always better on a bike than in a car.

For 100 miles, everyone who passes her will say, "You need a road bike."

She'll agree, and then she'll start saving for a road bike.

She'll find out that doing something alone is a thousand times better than sitting at home resentfully when no one else wants to go. Somehow, she'll never make it through a ride without having at least one conversation with a stranger.

When she starts logging her training on Daily Mile, she'll meet some local bike friends.

She'll join their club and meet a ton of awesome people.

If one of them does an adventure race, she might get hooked and use her road bike savings on a mountain bike.

She'll probably fall. A lot.

Instead of giving up, she'll enter a race.

Photo credit: Lori Vohsen

And another.

Photo credit: Nicole Stacey

She'll replace "I could never" with "I wonder if I could..." and discover the answer is an emphatic yes.

Photo credit: Lori Vohsen

She'll learn that, while 20 degrees is not necessarily cold, 102 is always hot...and neither temperature has to keep her inside. She'll remember when she spent Saturday mornings sleeping in, and then she'll go hug her bike.

When she writes about biking, her friends might say she's crazy. But then they'll say they'd like to do that, too.

Eventually, someone will sell her a road bike. She'll win a small race.

Emboldened, she'll enter a local crit, where she'll fall on her face...but she'll meet a girl who races cyclocross.

Photo credit: Robin Rongey

After reading enough CX posts on Facebook, she'll want to go to one of the races.

Photo credit: Keith Timmins

And chances are, once she's there, she's going to want a new bike.

If you plan it, they will ride.

2012-01-15T18:03:00.004-06:00

Our area has had a freakishly warm winter this year. Temperatures in the mid 60's are not at all typical for the Midwest in January, but we've had some of them, and so far truly cold days have been few and far between. On Thursday, however, we woke up to actual snow and a thermometer showing seasonably normal teens. The cold continued into the next day, and when I left school Friday afternoon, a co-worker commented, "You're sure bundled up."

"I don't like the cold," I answered, and then I laughed to myself because I was planning to spend the following day mountain biking in whatever snow covered the Berryman Trail.

My friends from Team Virtus had thrown out the suggestion of a group Berryman ride back before Christmas, and it quickly snowballed (see what I did there?) as other teams signed on.

My initial Berryman experience, in September's Berryman Adventure Race, was marred by some serious mountain biking regression on my part, and since then my brother and I have been planning to return and get in some time so Wimpy Kate can't hold us back in 2012. I jumped at the chance to combine practice with good company and spent the next two weeks happily anticipating the ride.

Unfortunately, Thursday's trip to the bike shop for minor adjustments revealed that my rear shifter was broken. This was a surprise to me since I'd been on my bike twice over the past weekend and had no problems with the rear derailleur; it was the front that had been misbehaving. Since they had to order the part, basically I'd be stuck riding a really heavy singlespeed. The guys at the shop asked if I was still going to go, and of course I was. Wouldn't have missed it.

I tried to spin it as a built-in excuse for having to walk my bike on the hills. Still, with this unwelcome news in addition to the cold, the snow and ice, and the memory of my general lack of ability the last time I was on this trail, by Friday's drive home my happy anticipation had shifted to something more like sick dread.

Luckily, I had a friend to talk me down from the ledge.

So. I was still excited, but my excitement was now more like that of the pigs at the slaughterhouse, or the way wild animals sense a natural disaster ahead of time. Still, I took comfort in the thought that the vast amount of clothing required to avoid frostbite would double as padding when I slid on the ice and fell.

Photo credit: Luke (do I still have to
call you Capt. Awesome?) Lamb

I had spent the previous night making cookies for the post-ride BBQ instead of packing, so Jim had to wait around after dinner while I quickly threw my stuff together. Not entirely sure what I'd want to wear the next day, I packed 90% of the technical fabric I own, and then we headed to Cuba MO, where we were staying for the night. We shouldn't have eaten, because Luke's grandma had made a huge spread for supper. I tried once to tell her I'd already had dinner, and she just looked at me, so I sat down and dished myself some food. Hey, when somebody's almost 90-year old grandma cooks for you, you eat!

We had a great time hanging out and talking, and since I was the only girl of the crew I got a bedroom to myself (and thus happily missed the fart-off) while the boys slept on the floor or couches. In the morning, Luke's grandma got up and made us a big breakfast, too. She was absolutely wonderful, so welcoming and gracious. It was really great to meet her.

About 30 people had responded that they planned to come out for the ride, so we were all curious how many would actually show up. We thought it was very possible that the cold and snow would keep some people, so I don't think anyone expected what we saw as we pulled into the parking lot. It was packed.

Photo credit: Jim "Everything's Better With" Bacon

It was great to see some old friends, meet the Hoosier Daddies in person after reading their blog, meet lots of cool new people, and even re-meet Dave, who I rode with for a while back in 2010 in the Capital City Century. The temperature, 23 degrees when we left Cuba, felt surprisingly comfortable. Of course, it was plenty cold standing around in the parking lot, but I felt pretty confident that I wouldn't get too chilly during the ride. I ended up deciding on a long sleeved base layer, a long sleeved tech shirt, and a long-sleeved jersey with a wind vest over them. On the bottom, I wore bike shorts over running tights, two pair of socks, and shoe covers over my shoes. I started off with a hat under my helmet, but I soon switched to an ear cover. Just in case, I carried a fleece in my pack; having that pack made clothing choices less stressful because there was plenty of room to store layers if I had to shed.

I hung back as the ride started, knowing I'd be there before long anyway. I felt pretty tentative as I headed down the trail, not sure how the snow was going to affect my traction and having visions of sliding on icy rocks and bashing my head.

Fail

Luke and Bob had both stopped to take pictures along the way, so Luke got a good view of me getting off to walk my bike around a tight hairpin turn. Otherwise, I rode most of what there was in the beginning.

Being in the back was something of an advantage because it was really easy to see the lines of the riders in front of me on the snowy portions. Other parts of the trail looked more like the above picture. Once we'd been riding for a short time, it was clearly time to shed a layer, so I stuffed the jersey into my pack and switched the hat for the ear cover. We rode on and came to a good-sized root followed a few feet later by a rocky step. I made it partway up the root before having to put my foot down and then chose to walk the step after watching Jim kind of flip off his bike after hitting it wrong. He wasn't hurt, but it would've been a good picture.

Luke also had problems with that spot but opted to reride it.

Luke, Bob, and Travis ended up basically spending their whole ride with us. I definitely appreciated the company though I worried that riding sweep behind me was making for a much slower day than Luke would've had if I'd stayed home. Gradually I started feeling more confident on the trail, though I was never able to get clipped in consistently. I think I'm destined to ride Berryman with one foot; last time it was the mud that clogged up my pedals and cleats, this time it was the snow.

Enjoying a trailside drink, courtesy of the Hoosier Daddies

Clearly we did a lot of stopping and talking along the way. We got to meet a couple more of the Hoosier Daddies along the trail. I think this was Jake and Ryan's first time on the trail, and we leapfrogged and visited with them until they turned off onto gravel around the 7 mile point.

Hanging out with Jake and Ryan

Even though the temperature was still below freezing at this point, it was an absolutely glorious day. Much of the trail is protected by hills; if you stopped on a ridge top, the wind cooled you off pretty quickly, but if you kept moving you were very comfortable.

What a beautiful day!

Though I'd been worried about riding hills without being able to shift, it ended up that I was concerned for nothing. I had no problems shifting at all. That didn't mean riding up those hills was easy, though! I got to the top of one and laid against a tree to catch my breath as we waited for the rest of the crew.

Oh, tree...thank you for being here and holding me up!

Because Bob's regular mountain bike was missing a bolt or something for the rear suspension, he was riding a rigid (no shocks) singlespeed. Even so, he still managed to show us a thing or two about riding over obstacles in the trail.

He and Travis split off from us around the ten mile mark or so (?) to head back to the campground where beer, burgers, and brats were waiting.

Checking how exactly to get back.

The hills were definitely wearing me down, and I hadn't gotten hurt yet, so I was tempted to play it safe and head back. Still, I felt pretty good and was enjoying myself. Plus, we don't get down to Berryman often, and I wanted to take advantage of being there. Luke said he was OK with going back or continuing, so he, Jim, and I continued on.

The first few miles made me really glad that we didn't stop. The trail was great, and right now I'm remembering more downhill than uphill. I stopped my bike at a tree across the trail. "I know I could ride that..." I told the guys. "Well, go ahead and try," Luke told me. The best of my three tries (none too impressive) was the second.

Jim, on the other hand, cleared the log on his third try.

I still know I could ride it; I just couldn't that day. I've ridden over logs that size, so I'm not sure what my problem was...maybe the turn in combination with the tree? Anyway, not this time. I redeemed myself slightly later in the ride. I was following Jim, when he ended up stopping on the other side of a smaller tree. I had to stop so as not to run into him, but I went back to reride that spot. It took me two tries to clear it without putting down a foot, but I made it. Incidentally, you'll notice that it takes me forever to start; that's because I couldn't get my first foot clipped in. I swear, when I replace my pedals it's going to be with something easier to engage in crappy conditions.

The lower parts of the trail were nice and easy to ride because we weren't having to ride up hills, but we started to come to some soggy parts where we had to walk our bikes. Berryman is a multi-use trail, and you can see from the picture below that horses have been through recently.

What horses do to soft trails

Between soggy trails and some rough, torn up portions, we did some walking in this next section. Finally able to ride again, we passed by this cool overhang with icicles dripping from it.

Jim riding

Some of the sections of trail made me really nervous as they twisted back and forth along a steep slope. Just stay on the trail...just stay on the trail... I kept telling myself, and the one time I fell there, I managed to fall uphill rather than downhill. I wasn't crazy about that area, but my very favorite part of the whole ride came just before reaching the Hazel Creek campground. For whatever reason, I was ahead of the guys on a solid, flowy downhill, and everything just clicked. It felt fantastic.

As we got closer to the campground, though, we hit softer trail and walked that section. I went from confident to nervous in no time. Because we were going to leave the singletrack around 15 miles in and ride the roads back to our starting point, we had to cross the creek.

While we felt good riding, this wasn't a day you wanted to soak your feet, but luckily someone had put rocks across the creek. Turns out a bike makes a pretty good handrail.

Remember, the rule of hill pictures is that they never look as bad as they are,
so the very fact that you can tell this is steep is a huge signal that it's awful.

As Luke had warned us, the way back started with a hideous climb. I was making slow, steady progress in my lowest gear when my chain slipped off. Grr. Luke put it back on for me, and then I was faced with the prospect of walking my bike the rest of the way since I'm terrible at clipping in on an uphill. Instead, I gave it a try and managed to get going again. :) The rest of the ride was rolling hills, not bad at all.

BTW, the look on my face is a direct result of the photographer telling us to "think of [something gross]". I laughed, then actually thought of it and made that face...right as he took the picture. Figures.

Berryman, I like you better this time around, no matter what my expression says.

Our ride may have been over, but the day wasn't. As we left the bikes at the truck and got out our dry clothes, beers were delivered right to us. The Hoosier Daddies, from nearby Sullivan, had volunteered to provide brats, burgers, and drinks. Class touch, for sure. I brought a few dozen cookies to add to the feast, and we got to hang out by the fire, eat, drink, and visit with all the people who hadn't had me dragging them back. The perfect end to a fantastic day.

Back at it

2012-01-12T19:55:00.000-06:00

Back on campus

So I started grad school this week. It's been a long time since I was in school. Ten years. Crazy. Of course, this time around I fit in a little better than my past college experience. I was a "traditional" student for exactly one year. It was a good year...maybe a little too good. At the end of my freshman year, I went home just a little bit pregnant. I took a semester at our local university while living at home, had D. in December, and went back to my original school in January with a husband and 6 week old baby boy.

After N. was born two years later, we moved to Rockford.

Fast forward three more years and I was registered to start classes at NIU when my husband left me. I headed back home again with tail between my legs and school plans on hold. In 1999 I finally made it back to school, juggling part-time work and raising two little boys as a single parent. I was very lucky to have family around to help me out, or I don't know how I could've done it.

My niece K, D, and N

I graduated in 2002, a full eleven years after finishing high school. I had every intention of starting on my Master's degree right after finishing undergrad, and I actually did take two classes that summer in order to add a couple of endorsements to my certificate, but we got married two weeks after graduation...

then I had J...

...and there was never a "good" time to go back...and so on for ten years. Until now.

I've had each of my classes once. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic, despite the "surprise, this class will be partly online!" bomb dropped on me Tuesday night. I'm excited not just to be working toward my Master's and better pay, but especially to be learning things that will help me to be a better teacher. Also exciting? The fact that it looks like one of the classes won't require a book, which is good since the other one cost a fortune.

$122?? Really?

I'm back at more than school. With the 50K looming in April, I'm starting up regular training again as well. The plan that I found online doesn't actually start until January 23, but since it calls for running 5 days a week (instead of my preferred 2-3), I decided to start running more regularly now so that I could begin rebuilding that morning run habit that I was so good about during half marathon training. This process has had a less than auspicious start, though.

1) Last Saturday I went out to run before taking J. to a college basketball game (go Billikens). I didn't leave myself time to run more than a mile, but it felt like the first mile I ever ran. It was awful, and I had to walk 1/2 mile in because my shin was hurting.

2) Sunday wasn't much better, though I managed two miles and the shin didn't make me walk until the second mile.

3)Tuesday's 2 felt slightly better, possibly because they were slightly slower. In addition, Tuesday was a triumph because I managed to get myself out of bed before work to run. Getting up at 5:15 is never fun ~~so I hit snooze and slept until 5:30~~, but knowing that it feels better once I'm moving is a good incentive.

4) Wednesday night I ran 3.2. It was kind of fun because (thanks to my as yet unnamed Garmin) I wasn't stuck running the same old route in order to know my distance. Also, I didn't want to die. Progress! Each run has felt a bit less terrible than the one before.

I've run way further than this; a week ago, I ran further several days in a row on the trails without feeling as bad. What's going on with me? I think it's a combination of a couple things. First, last Saturday's run was my first with my new Garmin. I think the reality of my pace was stressing me out. Mind you, it wasn't any kind of a run other than a "logging miles" run; no speed constraints or goals of any kind, but I'm not used to being able to see my pace. Another contributor is the fact that I've done virtually no road running in the past several months and my body is adjusting to the different demands.

Besides those things, running has changed for me. When I started running, it felt terrible; no matter how slowly I ran, I felt like I was dying. Strangely, I think that made it easier to push myself, because it all felt like pushing. Now I've come to a point where I can run comfortably, though the pace is slow. Being able to be comfortable at an easy pace makes it harder for me to push. Finally, I have slowed down from what I was able to run in the past. That's a combination of lack of regular training in addition to a focus on endurance rather than speed.

Speed will definitely not be a focus of mine for the 50K, but I'm thinking I'm going to use one of the weekday runs for hill repeats or for speedwork (alternating weeks). The majority of weekday runs will also be on roads/sidewalks out of necessity. The weekend runs will be on trails. And thanks to the Garmin, I'll know both how far I've gone and how slowly I've done it.

A tale of three rides

2012-01-09T17:55:00.001-06:00

We've had some fantastic weather over the past week, culminating in 67 degrees on Friday. Most of that was spent looking out the window while hanging out with my recuperating child, but when Jeff got home around 3:30 on Friday I busted out of the house to hit the trails on my mountain bike. The following day was the first Team Revolution Frostbike, a series designed to get women out on their mountain bikes during the winter, and it was being held on our local trails. Our trails aren't super technical, but they are very twisty and rooty, with several logs to ride over. One of these logs threw me the day after Christmas when I approached it too slowly (imagine that), and I was determined to be able to ride it before Saturday.

Even though these are my home trails, I usually feel pretty nervous on them, especially when I'm out there alone. This time, not so much. I attributed it to the fact that I've been doing a lot of running on them and so know my way around better. I had taken my new camera, so I even tried to get some video of the trails while I rode. Since I definitely need both hands to ride and don't have any kind of system set up to hold my camera, which is about the size of a thick cell phone, I got the brilliant idea of unzipping my jersey partway, putting the camera in my sports bra, and letting it run as I rode. Unfortunately, the cleavage cam was better in theory than practice.

Yeah, super exciting footage of my legs, the ground, and heavy breathing, huh? Time for a new plan. My log attack, on the other hand, was a resounding success. I cleared it on my first try, though it wasn't super smooth. I probably should have gone back over it a few more times, but I decided to ride more of the trails instead. I had to put a foot down on a rooty uphill turn and an uphill switchback on a new trail, but otherwise it was a problem-free ride, though I did get spooked when buck crossed the trail right in front of me. leaving a couple lady friends on the other side. Every since seeing this video I get nervous seeing deer on a bike ride.

Most of the great mountain bike trails are about an hour away from me, so I enjoyed getting to sleep in a little on Saturday morning, not having to be at the trailhead until 7:30. Ostensibly, I was co-leader for the ride, but Judy had everything planned out and Vanessa was riding sweep, so that left me in the middle and making sure the back group knew where we were turning. The back of any ride is my natural habitat, so this was a good place for me.

We had an awesome group. Fifteen ladies, including my friend Amy who was doing her very first mountain bike ride on a borrowed bik. She was a little nervous. "I just hope I don't fall," she told me. Having had a rather inauspicious maiden voyage myself, I tried to temper her hopes with a little realism: "I hope you don't need outside medical help, how about that?" I suggested. But no, she flat out rocked the ride. I only saw her hesitate once, and when I told her she could ride it, she did. I'm seriously jealous. I only wish I'd been as fraction as good as she looked on her first ride. She swears that it was because she was so scared, but then fear works better for her than for me.

Usually my mountain bike rides are a combination of fun and dread. I like being out there, I love succeeding at something that's hard for me, but I'm constantly worried about falling. I never had that feeling on this ride, and when we returned to the parking area after an hour or so to drop off the people who'd had enough, I opted to ride a little more...and didn't regret it. :) This was the first ride where I've been able to clear all the switchbacks without putting a foot down; well, I missed one, but I went back and rerode it without messing up. Awesome, awesome ride.

I hadn't planned on doing the Sunday Frostbike ride at Castlewood Park, but Amy asked me about going and I ended up being able to go. While Castlewood is very popular with mountain bikers, I've done very little riding there. It's more technical than our SIUE trails, so I was a little nervous about it....not too bad, though...I think because I was worried for Amy. I shouldn't have been though, because once again she looked like a natural. And me? I felt great! We didn't do anything super hard, but I was really comfortable on the trails. It's a whole new experience when you aren't stressed out the whole time.

Regroup

After around an hour or so, we split into two groups: one to ride the flats and the other to go ride some more technical areas. I was undecided. Well, I really wanted to just go ride something easy, but instead I opted to go with the more difficult riding. After all, that's why I'm going out there, right? And it. was. awesome. I had so much fun! My speed still leaves much to be desired, but my comfort level on the trails this weekend was the highest it's ever been. Hey, it's only taken a year. =)

Oh, and since I'm signed up for a 50K in April, I also ran a whopping 3 miles this weekend. I know you're impressed.

2011--Gear in review

2012-01-07T13:06:00.000-06:00

I'm not a big-time gear junkie, mostly because I can't afford to be, but I have a few things I've used a lot this year, either because I loved them or because I had to. Now you can have the "benefit" of my experience. :)
Asics trail attack 6 - I bought these shoes last year after Christmas, and between a sale and a $15 credit, I got a pretty good deal on them. I absolutely love them. I've worn and used the heck out of them, too. I did most of my marathon training long runs on trails (up to the 20-miler), have run several long trail races in them, done three adventure races wearing them at least part of the time, used them in the snow, and worn them for all my trail running.

I've used them on surfaces ranging from snow to creeks to mud to dirt to rock, and they've never let me down. I wore my regular road shoes for my first trail race, a 20K that covered some pretty rocky terrain, and the bottoms of my feet felt really beat up. Not in these shoes. This year, I did a 30K over the same surfaces as the 20K, and my feet felt fine. Though I've struggled with blisters in my road shoes, these shoes have never given me blisters.

Potential cons: They aren't particularly lightweight. I don't wear gaiters, so I've occasionally had to deal with rocks or dirt in the shoes, but that's par for the course on some of the surfaces. They're not made with Gore-tex, so your feet may get wet, but the only time mine have gotten really wet is in creek crossings, and with Smartwool socks, that's not a problem.

Nike vomero 5 - Very comfortable, but both these and the Vomero 4's that I had before gave me blisters on long runs. I tried different socks, Body Glide, and 2Toms BlisterShield powder, but none of them helped on 6+ mile runs. I think the cut of the front of the shoe just wasn't right for my foot. Why did I buy them twice? Yeah, I don't know. I think it was because they felt the best on my feet when I ran on the sidewalk by the store, but that didn't help with the long run issue. Other than the blister thing, they're great shoes, just clearly not the right fit for me. I will not be making the same mistake for a third time.

Underarmour tights - got these on sale right before my first half marathon, and I've worn the heck out of them. The only pair of running tights I have, they've proved their durability. After over a year of steady use, they only have one small hole (from a fall onto concrete), and it's never gotten any bigger. I've worn them to run and ride in temperatures down into the single digits, and as long as I keep moving, I'm fine. Underarmour is pricey, but it's definitely a case of you get what you pay for.

Smartwool socks - my first pair, which weren't running-specific, blew out the first time I wore them, but the next three pairs have held up great. I love these when I know that I'll be getting my feet wet, because they never feel soggy.

Lady Foot Locker store brand running socks - I picked these up on sale to finish up the Foot Locker gift card I won in XLMIC's "Rewarding the Faithful" contest. They weren't super expensive or anything, even at full price, maybe $10 for 3 pr?, but I love them. I love the way they fit, I love the way they feel on my feet. You know the first time you wore a good pair of synthetic socks (probably, if you're like me, after being indoctrinated by Fleet Feet's "Cotton is rotten") after a lifetime of cotton? That's how these feel. Love them.

It looks a little different now. Filthy, currently. :)

2011 Specialized HardRock Disc - Basically, the most entry-level Specialized mountain bike, plus disc brakes. It's not fancy, and it's sure as heck not light, but it's ridden everything I've asked it to. When I upgrade to a new bike (we're talking years in the future), things I'd like to have are maybe 29" wheels, a lighter frame, and the ability to lock out my shocks, preferably from the handlebars. For now, this is all the bike I need and worlds better than waiting another 5 years until I can afford twice the bike. Now, when I can afford twice the bike, I'll have 10 times the skill I do now.

Osprey Manta 25 pack - This is my adventure racing pack. I've used it in three 8+ hour races now, and I love it. Lots of pockets so you can keep your things arranged and know where they are quickly at a gear check. It's very adjustable so that you can stay comfortable on the bike or run, and I love the way the back is designed. A mesh piece keeps the pack from sitting directly against your back, so you have air flow between the pack and you. Its "Hydra-Lock" system is designed to compress the hydration bladder so that your water isn't sloshing around; because I bought the pack (barely) used, it came without a bladder, and I just bought a Camelback bladder. It's not easy to get the bladder in place in a full pack; that might be a much easier process if you bought the Osprey bladder instead. I think they're designed a little differently, but the price is comparable between the two brands. This is a $135 pack, but I got mine for about half that on GearTrade.com. Score!

Camelback Trinity hydration pack - Slightly smaller than the Osprey pack, I've used this one for a 3-hour Orienteering meet (iffy weather with my 8 year old, so we had some extra clothes along), and a 3-hour bike ride. It definitely carries enough to go longer. In addition to the 100 oz bladder, it also has side pockets where you could put water bottles. It doesn't have a mesh back like the Osprey pack, but it does have some cut out "air channels" to keep some air circulating around your back.

I like this pack, though I wish it had the belt strap pockets like the Osprey. To get any food out of the pack, you basically either have to take it off or ask someone to get it for you. No big deal if you're stopping, but a little pain if you're on the go. Also, this is designed for women, and the shoulder straps feel a little close on me. I've got kind of broad shoulders, so it might be fine for most women. Amazon.com has it for $60, but I think when I bought it from TheClymb.com it was listed around $50...but I got it for the cost of shipping with a $50 credit from the website. Score again!

Lost that bet

2012-01-06T09:28:00.000-06:00

Now that the days of paying your insurance premiums and being confident that everything would be covered are over (were there ever those days? Maybe I'm just talking about when I lived with my parents and didn't have to think about costs.), insurance is something of a bet, a balancing act. On one hand, the chances that something bad will happen and you'll need to be well covered; on the other, the chances that nothing bad will happen and you'll basically be flushing your insurance premiums down the company execs' toilets.

N, my 17 year old, had surgery Wednesday to remove a cyst. While we were registering him, the nurse told me, "It shows here that you have a $2,500 deductible. Would you like to pay some money on that now?"

$2,500? Fuuuuuu.....

Now, I helped make the decision, but that was like 6 months ago. I vaguely remember the conversation going something like...Wow, this other plan got way more expensive...we don't typically have a ton of medical bills, we could hedge our bets, stick with the same cost but higher deductible, and then if something big happens, we'll have to deal with it. So this sucks. By January 4, we had $2,500 in medical bills, plus the percentage the insurance requires us to pay. On the otherhand, by January 4, N's deductible was taken care of.

Luckily, though, the hospital will let us make payments. Luckily, though, we have insurance that will cover the majority of the remainder of the costs. And they'll be considerable. After the surgery, they admitted him for the night for pain management, and I'm so glad they did, because he was in a lot of pain and it was a huge relief to know that he was in the hands of trained professionals. Trained professionals with good drugs.

N and I were at the hospital alone, and that was OK with me. It's hard to watch your kid go through medical stuff, though, even when your kid looks like he should be playing linebacker for some college team. The first hard part was watching the nurse fish around in his hand trying to get the IV through a valve; needles don't bother me, but the look on his face did. The second hard part was watching them wheel him away. The worst, though, was sitting with him in his hospital room in that time between anesthesia wearing off and pain medications being administered. Leaving him there for the night was no picnic, either.

It's largely thanks to his surgery that I have any chance of completing KDUB's 70.3 Birthday Challenge. I did my swim on Wednesday before we went to the hospital. 2100 yards (42 laps) in 56:49, over 5 minutes longer than it took me in October...which was the last time I swam. I could barely lift my arms when I got out of the pool. I did notice that swimming is starting to feel much more natural and comfortable than when I first started swimming laps. Maybe I could even be good at it if I spent more time in the pool, but I doubt that's going to happen on a regular basis.

I'm a little over halfway done on the bike, too. We've had amazingly nice days here; the temperature got into the low 60's yesterday (very not typical for a midwestern winter), but I wouldn't have felt comfortable leaving N for long. Exercise bike it was. I actually have a bike trainer now, which would've been a lot more fun to ride, but I need to get my bike adjusted before I put it up there. Instead, I endured 2:02 on the exercise bike to the tune of about 35 miles. I couldn't do it all at once, though, that thing was making me crazy. I'd ride 30 minutes, do something else, come back and ride another 30 minutes. Oddly for someone who started her "athletic journey" in love with the bike, I'm most looking forward to the run portion.

What I did on my Christmas break

2012-01-03T23:02:00.000-06:00

One of the perks of being a teacher is still enjoying a longish Christmas break. This year, I enjoyed my break even more because I had two days more than my kids did. Even if the time was pretty much spent doing the Christmas shopping I'd neglected earlier in the month (year), it was still nice to have a breather and some time to myself.

Of course, when you have a significant break, there's always the pressure to do something. You hate to waste a good two week vacation (if you start hating me, just go back a year in my blog to where I was crying every day about my job and read until you like me again) with just sitting around. Of course, you also hate to make yourself crazy with go-go-go so that you're more exhausted when you go back to school. It's a delicate balance.

Rather than keeping a good balance, though, my break was something of a feast or famine. The first half was all holiday prep, no exercise. The second half was, well, busy. I actually logged about 20 miles of running the second week, which is...about 20 more miles than I'd run since Pere Marquette. Sad. On the plus side, this week I didn't get one of those emails from Daily Mile saying "we miss you!" that have been so frequent.

Did I mention I just signed up for a 50K? This is not an auspicious beginning. Or maybe it is. Time will tell.

12/24: 4.2 mi trail run with friends, two of them first-time trail runners, who I think are now hooked. Very cool.

12/26: Mountain biking with my brother and a friend.

12/28: 5 mi trail run with friends, both of whom are stronger runners than I am. Hang on, try not to die.

12/29: 4.5 mi morning run with friend, his farthest run so far. First time I've run on roads/paved trails in ages.

4.1 mi evening trail run with Patrick. This was supposed to be a shakedown cruise with my new Garmin (finally!), but just my 17 year old and I were home and he wanted to watch a movie together. The Garmin could wait. We didn't run til a little after 4:30, and it didn't occur to me that I might need a headlamp til I was almost there. Oops. We basically ran through the dusk, though it was getting mighty dim towards the end and I almost put my eye out on a branch sticking out.

12/30: Husband's work holiday party. I win a new video camera to accompany the new Kodak PlaySport that I got for Christmas. I also possibly get the vodka/cranberry juice ratio wrong when pouring my own drinks. Whatever the case, I have a really good time at the party.

Yeah we were headed home at 10:02. Because we're party animals. Old ones.

12/31: Patrick and Wade are kind enough to wait for me to roll out of bed and meet them for a trail run. The only thing my presence added was (possibly) comic relief and a large dose of schadenfreude on their part. And lots of breaks while they waited for me to catch up.

1/1: Abandoned by Jeff and J, who got tickets to the Rams game, I lazed around the house, read two books (well, finish Unbroken and read Dean Karnazes' Ultramarathon Man), and then met up with Amy for some more trails. 4.2 miles. I feel like I've never run before. The Garmin is great fun because I can see how far we've gone and great un-fun because I can see how non-far we've gone and how slowly.

1/2: Winter, which waited until January, reintroduces itself to our area with 30mph winds and temps in the low 30's. I decide frostbite is no reason to skip our traditional family New Year's hike, so we head to Marquette Park, stopping on the way to show J the Robert Wadlow statue.

I guess this would be my "hurry up and take the damn picture!" face

Replica of a chair made for Robert Wadlow

Actually, I figured that once we were on the trails the hills would block the wind. This would have been the case, but the one trail with a lot of rocks--the part my 8 year old loves most--is on the river (windiest) side. The first mile takes us about an hour as we stop at nearly every rock outcropping for him to climb.

Jeff

Look how fun this is...I'm not cold at all...no that's not my teeth chattering...

If you look at the river, you can see the water blowing. That was some strong, cold wind.

I was happy that we got a chance to get outside and do something together, but this was definitely one of those family outings that will be more fun in retrospect than it was at the time. It was freezing cold, and I was reminded that hiking in the cold is very different than running in the cold. Then there was the matter of my sweet child who, once the rocky portion was past, wanted nothing so much as to go home. He relented when mommy's head started spinning around. We made it a total of 3.5 miles. Our moving time was about 1.5 hours, but it probably took us twice that with all the stops.

In the drive to and from the park, I got to play with Snapseed, a cool photo-editing app that I got after Neil
gave his facebook friends a heads-up that it was free in the app store this weekend. Fun!

Before/afters

Looking ahead -- 2012 race schedule

2012-01-01T17:12:00.000-06:00

Last November, I wrote a post looking ahead at races I wanted to do in the next year. Out of the races I posted about, I only ended up doing three of them: the LaCrosse Marathon, the Tour de Donut, and the Berryman Adventure Race. That's OK, though, because it was very much a work in progress, and I managed to fit in a race or two (or twenty-two) in 2011.

This year, I think there are fewer races on the list to begin with, but I'm sure it'll fill up as the year progresses. I want to leave myself plenty of room in the schedule for fun things that pop up, and I want to do a better job of training for events this year. After the marathon in May, the rest of my year was basically an exercise in keeping my fitness level at a point where I could finish what I started rather than excel. Honestly, I can't see that changing hugely, but I do think I owe it to myself to give me a better chance of doing well.

Also honestly, there are a few items on the list that are ridiculously ambitious, two of which I never would have thought I'd sign up for. Clearly, "go big" is once again going to be a theme.

February 25 - Castlewood Cup 15K trail race - I did this race last year and loved it. Castlewood is a great place to run, and Big River Running puts on a fantastic race.

March 24-25 - Land Between the Lakes 24-hour adventure race - If it works out to do this race, it'll be my first 24-hour race. I've heard great things about it, and I love the area. Stay tuned, and keep your fingers crossed for me.

March 31 - Tracks n Treads offroad duathlon - My club puts on this race, and I've wanted to do it for the past two years, but my schedule hasn't allowed for it. Well, that's not completely true. Last year my schedule didn't allow for it. In 2010 my mountain biking ability prevented it; I'm not much better on the bike, but I've quit letting that kind of thing stop me.

April 21 - Double Chubb 50K - Yeah, I don't know what the hell I'm thinking here, either. I was talking with a friend about doing a marathon, and all the sudden I found myself deciding on this instead. What goes worse together than grad school and training for a 50K? Oh, right, grad school, working full time, parenting, and training for a 50K.

May 20 -Carlyle Lake Olympic tri - a triathlon was one of my un-met goals last year, unless you count the private half-ironman; I'd like to do an official one, and the Olympic distances are ones I'm capable of doing without additional training, so I can train to put it all together and hopefully do better than just get through it without dying.

June 2 - Dirty Kanza I don't know why I want to do it, but I do. In fact, the first time I read about it, the race report was such that I knew there was no way I'd ever attempt it. See?

The next reports (Luke's, Bob's, and Wendy's which I can't find on her blog) were even worse. And my friends are badasses. I'm like the bratty little sister they let tag along. And I don't have the right bike. But hey, if I waited to have the "right" equipment for everything I'd have spent a lot more time on the couch. You do what you can with what you have, and what's the worst that can happen?

Ok, ok, the worst would be dying of heatstroke in the Flint Hills, but the worst that's likely to happen is having to call my husband (who I'm currently negotiating with to secure his crew services) to come and pick me up. I can live with that.

Also in June, I'm hoping to make it to California to watch my son's team play volleyball in a tournament in the Anaheim area. My husband has gone the past two years; I figure it's my turn. :) We'll see how that plays out.

July - Tour de Donut - what's not to love about a race that combines cycling with donut eating? Well, maybe eating 9 donuts and still coming up short.

August - ??

September - Berryman Adventure 12 hour - My brother and I are planning to team up again for Berryman and hopefully this time finish BEFORE the time cut-off. Disqualification or not, though, it would be hard to top the first expecience. Well, maybe if I could actually ride my bike this next time.

October - ??

November - ??

December 1 - Castlewood 8-Hour Adventure Race
December 8 - Pere Marquette Endurance Trail Run

I'm unfortunately missing what looks to be an epic bike race (non-race) in May because it conflicts with my 8 year old's First Communion. There'll be other races, though, and there are just some things that you can't miss. I'm a mom first.

There's a lot of open space in there after June 2, and I'm hoping that a good portion of summer/fall will be taken up by mountain bike and cyclocross races (because I need something else to be bad at). Looking ahead at the coming year, I'm excited and terrified all at once. It's going to be quite a ride.

2011 recap

2011-12-30T14:47:00.001-06:00

If I were to sum up this year in one word, it would be ADVENTURE! This was definitely a year of trying new things, meeting new people, and completely abandoning my comfort zone. While life certainly isn't perfect, I can say without a doubt that this has been one of the most fun, exciting years of my life.

By the numbers:

22 total races (3 of which were non-races/private races)

8 running
5 cycling
3 orienteering
5 multisport
3 non-races/private races

Running:
8 total races
6 trail
2 road

Cycling:
5 total races
2 road
2 mountain bike
1 cross

Multisport:
2 biathlons
1 triathlon
3 adventure races

My first snowy ride at Lost Valley with the Alpine Shop Dirty Girls ride

January saw the beginning of marathon training and learning to mountain bike. I ventured into the snow for my first "real" mountain bike ride and did some long run sightseeing while in Chicago for a volleyball tournament.

Running with Luke and Jim at Castlewood.

The snow continued in February, and I piggybacked onto my friends' training so that I had company on my long runs. I made one a great decision in joining a running club, and towards the end of the month, I finally ran my first race of the year, a 15K trail race.

Quite possibly my favorite picture ever.

March brought my first 20+ mile run and my first adventure race, a non-race put on my my friends in Team Virtus. It was an epic day that made me even more excited about adventure racing.

Margaritas > birthday cake

In April, I celebrated my birthday, my friends kept me busy and I met the incomparable Wendy Davis while I was sidelined by Achilles tendonitis, I marked my one year running anniversary, and I headed to Wisconsin for my first marathon...in a trip that took a little longer than expected.

Never, ever would have thought I'd have one of these.

The first day of May was marathon day, a truly amazing experience. I wasn't walking too fast for a while, but towards the end of the month I did a mini-adventure race and melted in a biathlon.

Victory, even virtual victory, is sweet.

June brought a crushing defeat for my son's high school volleyball team at the State tournament, my attempts at taking it easier on myself, and a smashing victory over Chris K in Adam's Sweat Your Thorns Off virtual 5K.

Sweet victory

In July, I ate 9 donuts for nothing, rode in my first mountain bike race, and amazingly took first in a road race.

Fading in the crit

Hiking Mt. Whitney with Jill

August taught me that there's more to a crit than riding your bike in circles, mountain climbing is harder when carrying a cooler on your head, and not having any business at a mountain bike race is no reason not to be there.

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I don't think I ever stopped smiling.

September was a great month. I set a 5K PR, and the Berryman Adventure Race was the culmination of a year of excitement, blog-stalking adventure racers, and training in things I'm terrible at...all for 14.75 hours of fun and disqualification for missing the time cut-off. I loved it and would've done another one the next day.

Running to the finish with J.

Wild in the Woods with friends

In October, I completed my friend Mike's private half-ironman which was brutally un-fun to someone who vastly undertrained and then had a blast running a 7 mile trail race with friends.

Wild in the Woods Broemmelsiek 5-mile

Clearing a log at Land Between the Lakes

November was a busy month, with a 5 mile trail race, coming in third-last in the 30K Skippo trail race, and a fantastic ladies' mountain bike weekend in Kentucky.

At the finish line at the 8-Hour

Almost there at Pere Marquette

My new favorite bike outfit.

December wrapped up the year with a 46-minute PR at the Pere Marquette Endurance Trail Run, a guest appearance with Orange Lederhosen at the Castlewood 8-hour, and a merry little CXMAS.

It was a fantastic, if somewhat hyperactive and scattershot, year. I'm not sure how 2012 could equal it, but hopefully it will bring its own new challenges and epic adventures. I can't wait.

It's all about me

2011-12-28T15:54:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the last of our numerous family Christmases. It was the most stressful, since we were hosting and thus had to clean, but also the easiest because there were no gifts to buy. Instead of being centered around opening presents, it featured a lot of conversation. And cookies. Oh my gosh, if I don't get moving I'll still be wearing those cookies in May.

Because one of my cousins is interested in adventure racing and my sister-in-law runs and mountain bikes, both of those things came up, as did my running. I have three brothers: one, Jim, has been running and biking and being way tougher than me for a long time; one is just starting to run after some prodding from (and losing a bet to) his wife; and one is pretty scornful of the whole endeavor.

I heard the usual [sniff]I'd never run a marathon, but the comment that really got me then and is still irritating me today was I bet I could train for two weeks and crush you in a 5K. He's probably right, and that was my response. The fact is that I'm not a natural athlete. I've had to work my ass off to be even mediocre. Running doesn't come easy to me, and mountain biking definitely doesn't come easy to me, so saying that you'd easily beat me in those isn't really bragging.

This is where I'm really glad that my running and riding is for me. It's not about impressing someone else, it's not about beating someone else (not even my nemesis); it's not about places or times. Ultimately, it's about finding and answer to the question Can I? It's about the joy of the attempt, the thrill of hard-won accomplishment, and the spirit of adventure. And since I set my own grading scale, "almost" does count, "I tried" is acceptable, and "I can't" is only temporary.

So there.

A very merry Christmas

2011-12-26T17:00:00.000-06:00

Santa was good to me this year. Not just with presents (and I should mention here that the insane pile of presents you see behind us was at my mother-in-law's. Jeff has 3 sisters and a total of 10 nieces/nephews plus the 5 of us and assorted spouses and "chosen" family, all of whom were there), but with presence.

My oldest son, who moved out in September, is staying with us for a few days. Between the holiday and N's sprained ankle, I haven't spent half of my days in St. Louis at volleyball practice. My brother and niece are home from Wisconsin until Wednesday. We had three family Christmas gatherings so far with one more tomorrow. Sometimes the holiday shuffle is exhausting, but this year I've just been able to enjoy the chance to spend time with the people I love.

Of course, Santa delivered some awesome stuff too. The highlights for me were finally getting (well, ordering) a Garmin, some cold-weather bike gloves so I don't have to risk frostbite when hitting the trails this winter, a shock-proof/water-proof camera so I can get the shot next time Jim and I get hung up on a tree in the river, climbing gear for the adventure camp that next year I am most definitely attending (schedule conflict this year), and the perfect pair of riding boots.

Santa did not bring snow, but after a 50 degree Christmas afternoon where we could play football in the yard in just sweatshirts, this morning brought temperatures cold enough to keep the singletrack frozen. I had made plans to ride with my brother, sister-in-law, and a friend, but when I woke up this morning I would have been just as happy to roll right back under the covers. Sense of duty prevailed (I organized it; I had to go) and I was actually the first one at the trailhead.

Most of my clothing choice (tights/shorts, base layer, tech shirt, long-sleeved jersey, vest) was right on, but despite having shoe covers with me in the car, I opted not to wear them. My toes were really cold and sore by the end of our hour and a half on the trails. Definitely need to start wearing the shoe covers and doubling up on socks. The new gloves would have come in pretty handy, too, but they're just a bit too small and need to be exchanged.

Regardless of the frozen toes and fingers, the ride was pretty great. The trails were in good shape, the frosty morning was beautiful, the dead deer was finally gone, and I only fell once (riding uphill over a good-sized log). One of these days I'm going to go out there and just ride switchbacks and other spots that give me trouble, but for today it was wonderful just to be outside. Well worth a couple yawns later in the day.

Jim: "Yes, I know you have a blog, but I have places to be..."

Supposed to show how pretty the icy branches were glistening in the sun, which I totally failed to capture.

By the way, if you're up for a challenge, check out Karen's 70.3 Birthday Challenge. Basically, it's a half-iron distance virtual race where you can do the distances in increments...but in order. I signed on thinking hey, I'll be on vacation, I can get to the gym to swim, not remembering that my vacation is over Jan 3, this starts Jan. 1, and the gym will be closed that day. Oh, well. If I can get in my swim on the second (and I now know I can swim 1.2 miles at a stretch), then I can do the rest of the miles for sure. I can even use my new Garmin to keep track. :)

Anybody have a great holiday memory or fantastic gift from this year to share? (You know, share as in tell us about, not share share. Although, feel free to share. :D)

Secret Santa + more! edition

2011-12-24T13:08:00.001-06:00

Secret Santa

Thanks, Andrew!

This year I participated once again in Jill's blogger Secret Santa gift exchange. It's always fun to see what kind of cool gifts everyone comes up with, and my Secret Santa did not disappoint. The always entertaining and frequently hilarious Andrew from Runing Man Wannabe sent me a running book. If you've read my blog for long, you know that I a) love to read and b) need all the help I can get with my running. I can't wait to dig into it, right as soon as I finish my Christmas baking and cleaning the house.

More!

1. I started my Christmas baking yesterday, when at a late breakfast I realized I hadn't made anything for Christmas at my father-in-law's house...which was at 1:00. With 1.5 hours until we had to leave, I whipped up my Grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe (no, it's not Phoebe's grandma's recipe), and we still made it on time to the party.

They may not look exciting, but they're delicious.

1b. I'm making oatmeal cranberry white chocolate chip cookies right now, and I was fine until I had the first bite of dough. Oh, my gosh...you just can't go wrong with real butter, white chocolate, brown and white sugar, and cranberries. Totally worth the salmonella risk. We may not have that many cookies to share.

1c. I don't even feel that bad about starting so late. I just ordered my gift from my husband last night (a Garmin watch! Finally!). We're totally off our Christmas game this year. Well, he is. My Christmas game looks a lot like this little girl:

Photo credit: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SruFnq2NPnw/TYTDpnznzaI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/-uUS47lNdVQ/s1600/Maddie%2Bchasing%2Ba%2Bbus.jpg

I mean, when the radio is full of commercials about "last minute Christmas gifts" and you haven't even started? Yikes. It's all good, though. I finished shopping about an hour ago.

Ouch!

2. N. twisted his ankle during the first 5 minutes of practice on Monday night (coincidentally, the first night I did any in-store Christmas shopping...clearly, Christmas shopping is hazardous business). I took this picture the first night, by the next night despite ice and elevation and ibuprofen it and his foot looked so much worse. A dr's visit and some x-rays established that it's not fractured, thank goodness. We're lucky to have a great trainer at the high school who's working with him, so hopefully his time off will be limited.

Amy, Dawn, Wade, Gary

3. Robin had set up a group ride for the weekend. I'd thought it was Friday, and when I realized it was actually Saturday, I asked around on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to run. I ended up with a group of five, plus me, spanning friendships starting from grade school until just a couple weeks ago. We had a fantastic run, and I managed to cover a good portion of the inner trails without losing my way.

I got to go with my friends Angie and Dawn on their first trail run, and I'm pretty sure the world has two new trail runners now. Also, Wade (AKA my nemesis) took me to task for neglecting to note that I keep losing to someone much "older and fatter" than me. Consider yourselves told. :)

4. Unfortunately, I ended up skipping Robin's ride this morning. Combination of staying up too late wrapping presents the last couple of days and a persistant backache (probably from the same thing). I had just told Jeff that if my brother Jim wasn't going (he's in town for the holiday), I'd get back into bed. And then Jim called. As I stood there in the bathroom all tired and sore, I thought back to the last time I tried a mountain bike ride super tired...but then it would probably be fine once I got out there. I wish I had a sign to show me if I should go or not, I thought, and then my stomach started bothering me. I figured that was my sign, sent Robin a text, and climbed back into bed.

Photo credit: http://www.solidprinciples.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jesus-Mary-Joseph-manger-scene.jpg

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you! I'm glad to know you all...thanks for coming here and sharing in my life. May the holidays bring you peace, love, fun, and great joy.

Versatile blogger award

2011-12-22T16:45:00.001-06:00

Thanks to TriMoEngr for tagging me with the Versatile Blogger Award. Now I ~~have to~~ get to tell you some random things about myself. Seeing as I love to talk about myself, this shouldn't be hard, but since I'm a big oversharer anyway, I'm having a hard time coming up with something random that I haven't told you all before.

1. I got pregnant the first time I had sex. Good thing I waited til I was 19. My brother's daughter was conceived when he was 19. My oldest son is 19 now. Don't think the number doesn't scare the crap out of me.

My 19 year old self in front of the house my parents bought for me to live in.
It was right down the block from my college.

2. I originally majored in English during my first stint in college. People would ask what I was going to do with that degree, was I going to be a teacher. No way, was my answer. But during a 5-year hiatus from school after my middle son was born I worked at a children's home for profoundly disabled kids, then a group home for adults with developmental disabilities, then a developmental training workshop, where I realized to my surprise that I really liked teaching. So I went back to school and got my degree in special education. And I still really like teaching 10 years later...most days. :)

3. If I could make my living by writing, I would. I love to write. I wrote a lot when my older boys were little, poems and short stories, and there's the skeleton of a novel rattling around in a file somewhere. A few years ago, Jeff told me I should start writing again; now I think he gets a little annoyed at the time I spend writing. The majority of my earlier "work" stemmed from a lot of unhappiness; now that I'm not unhappy, all I have to write about is training and racing. It's awesome, because my blog is frequently the tipping point that will get me to try something just so I can write about it.

4. I haven't counted the number of times I said "write", "wrote", or "writing" in that last item. I know it's probably a ridiculous amount and proof that I'm not a very good writer. :P

5. I love Facebook. I spend way too much time on it (just ask Jill), but I love the way it allows you to connect with people you otherwise couldn't on a regular basis. Also, I love that it gives me back my maiden name. That's an important part of who I am, and it makes me happy to see it still written as part of my name. That's even how I think of myself: all three names. When my ex-husband and I divorced, I kept his name because it was my kids' name, but as soon as I moved back home I missed my old name. Facebook gives me the perfect mix of who I was plus who I am now...with the ex's name conveniently absent. :)

6. I'm a world-class procrastinator (which is why I'm doing this post instead of wrapping presents or cleaning my house for the family Christmas we're hosting next Tuesday). I could eliminate a huge amount of stress and added expense from my life by kicking the procrastination habit.

6b. On the other hand, there were some pretty good last-minute Christmas sales today. Also, if I hadn't waited til later last night to go to Old Navy, I might not have been able to use the man ahead of me's coupon to save 30% off my already low sale prices...or pass it on to the couple in the parking lot.

7. I love strawberries but not strawberry ice cream; grapes but not grape jelly; oranges but not orange juice; baked potatoes but not mashed potatoes. How's that for random?

I'm not super picky, but you could definitely Fear Factor me with food you can buy at the grocery store. Speaking of Fear Factor, no way. I don't need $50,000 enough to get me to do some of the things they do just for a chance of winning. Now Survivor or Amazing Race, sign me up!

8. I'm much shyer than anyone who knows me would think. My job has been really good for forcing me out of that. One thing that it turns out I'm pretty good at is talking to unhappy parents at IEP meetings; hearing that your child would benefit from special education is one of the last things most parents want to hear, and they carry a lot of assumptions and fears about special ed. I used to come home in tears because it's so hard to be the teacher that no one wants their kids with, but typically after a few months in my class (and not just my class, but this is my experience and so that's what I'm talking about) parents tell me how happy they are, and more importantly, what a difference they can see in their child.

9. I like a good challenge. Cleaning my house is a challenge, but it doesn't fall into the "good" range, unfortunately.

10. This isn't all that interesting. If you want to read something more fun, you should look back at my post about CXMAS.

Best. movie quotes. ever.

11. OK, one more. When I was in college, my friends raved about the movie A Christmas Story, quoting lines and laughing hysterically. I had to watch that movie, and then when I did it was a total letdown. Fast forward about 8 years, and I was spending the weekend at Jeff's while my boys were with their dad. Some TV station was running an A Christmas Story 24-hour marathon, and we kept catching parts of it. Something about seeing it over and over and over again...now I find it hilarious.

Also in college, we watched the movie Scrooged for the first time and my friends had to explain to me why the fake show "Father Loves Beaver" was so funny. I had never hear the term "beaver" to describe something other than a toothy mammal.

Your turn...tell me something random about yourself.

A CXMAS ("Cross-mas") story

2011-12-19T19:15:00.001-06:00

*All quotes are from the movie A Christmas Story, one of my favorite holiday movies.*

**This also serves as my race report for XLMIC's Jingle Bell Hell virtual race. I don't want to hear any complaining that a bike race shouldn't count, either, because I checked the rules and nowhere does it say that you have to RUN.

See? No running specified. :)

To get some of the details out of the way, I did meet the criteria:

At least 5K: I think it was around 25 miles.
Challenging: definitely. Running across sand, carrying a bike up 200 stairs, riding while drinking beer...
Done Dec. 18
Laughed: many times

OK, now that the virtual race details are out of the way, back to my story.....**

I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!

It all started innocently enough, as these things do, with a question. My 8 year old asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I answered. (No, it wasn't a Red Ryder BB Gun.) His response was cute, so I posted it on Facebook.

One of the responses suggested I might get a cowbell hookup if I showed up on Sunday. What's Sunday, I asked. The answer: "CXMAS...duh." (Just click the link. Please.) Now, of course I'd heard of CXMAS, Team Seagal's epic non-race. I'd already read the race reports from previous years...but still channeling the nerdy high school self who never showed up at the cool kids' parties, I hadn't imagined actually going.

I was intimidated. I was nervous. I was confused about which parking lot. Not only did they tell me about it, though; Jim and Wendy also made sure I knew where to go. How could I skip it? Even having read the reports, though, I wasn't sure what to expect from the day.

What would it be? The guillotine? Hanging? The chair? The rack? The Chinese water torture? Hmmph. Mere child's play compared to what surely awaited me.

Knowing that holiday spirit should be on full display, I next set to creating a Christmas-y outift to wear. I wanted to dress like Mrs. Claus, but since I'm always catching my chamois on my bike seat, I definitely didn't want a skirt. An apron, though...that might do the trick. Conveniently, because I make our Halloween costumes, I actually had everything I needed to whip up a Mrs. Santa apron.

Photo credit: Wendy Davis

It didn't even take me that long. I was pretty happy with the results, but it needed something more. While shopping for holiday socks at Target and Walmart, I spotted a pair of Christmas panties. The perfect final touch! Choosing the correct size to wear over bike shorts was a little tricky, but I guessed right.

As I dressed for the race, Jeff just rolled his eyes and then, knowing I'd want the pictures for the blog, grabbed the camera. J was curious. He asked, "Are you wearing underwear under your bike shorts?
"No," I answered, "you don't wear anything under them."
"That's kind of gross," he responded, "but I guess it's good you're wearing some.

~~Downtown Hammond~~ Team Seagal was preparing for this yearly baccanalia of peace on Earth and goodwill to men.

I left in plenty of time, thankfully, because despite having good directions I managed to get a little lost. I made it with about 15 minutes to spare and quickly pulled on the panties and apron that I had opted not to wear into the gas station along the way (I got enough weird looks with just the socks). Unlike previous years where the temperature was below 10 degrees, it was around 50 today, so I ended up taking off one of my shirts and the arm warmers. If I was originally a little self-conscious about my outfit, that feeling evaporated as soon as I looked around. My outfit was pretty tame compared to other non-racers, and my underwear certainly wasn't the only pair on display. I did a lot of laughing at the costumes on display.

Like this one...

Or, yeah, this. No competing with this.

I dropped off my canned goods "entry fee" for the non-race, as well as a 12-pack of beer, then said hi to some of the Team Rev ladies and Jim and Wendy. My friend Kube asked who I was riding with. I hadn't thought about this. "Ummm...nobody, I guess?" She offered to stick with me, and while I've done lots and lots of rides on my own because I'm so slow, it was waaay nicer to have company. (Kube made her first appearance in my blog way back in August when she kicked my butt in the Edwardsville Crit. Well, everybody kicked my butt, but she at least did it after offering several important pieces of advice.)

Listening to pre-non-race directions

After some intentional start-line confusion (Costumes in the back...no, wait, you're in the front! We're going downhill/we're going uphill), we were off. We started on bike trails, and I quickly fell behind Kube and her friend Gabrielle. Being on a mountain bike with a bunch of cyclocross riders (who were on lighter bikes with smaller tires and slightly different body positioning), I was at a distinct disadvantage, but I definitely learned at the crit that your equipment is only one part of the equation. (Kube and I had the exact same road bike, and she crushed me.) Even so, the first level of "hell" was definitely struggling to keep up with your friends so you aren't holding them back and spoiling their day.

The [pace]line ~~waiting to see Santa Claus~~ stretched all the way back to ~~Terre Haute~~ St. Charles. And I was at the end of it.

We turned off the bike trail and onto the fairly steep grassy hill that led from the overpass to the road below. The girl in front of me clipped out to walk, but I was comfortable with riding it. Wendy told me later that they had all watched to see if I would ride it; honestly, walking it never occurred to me. We followed the road to Creve Coeur Park and continued on the paved trails there. I'm sure that the people we all passed were very curious about all these crazy people in the wacky holiday clothes.

"He looks like a deranged ~~Easter Bunny~~ elf..."

Our first CX-style obstacle (I guess) was in the park. We took a brief detour onto a gravel trail. A ditch that was maybe a foot wide and 18 inches deep (? totally guessing here) crossed the trail. The line I was in slowed as a guy wheeled his bike past us with a tacoed wheel. That's a lousy way to end your race. We dismounted, crossed the ditch, and headed back down the trail.

"Dadgummit! Blow out!"

...the Old Man loved it. He had always pictured himself in the pits of the Indianapolis Speedway in the [Little] 500. My old man's apare tires were actually only tires in the academic sense. They were round, they had once been made of rubber.

More riding on the paved trails around the lake until we came out by the beach, where we had to ride (or run) our bikes through the sand to get our first (and my only--since there were only 40 or so at each, if you weren't in the first 40 riders, no zip tie for you) zip tie.

Hoping that my gigantic mountain bike tires would allow me to ride through the sand, I didn't dismount at first, but the slow progress really wasn't worth the effort, so I pushed my bike the rest of the way. As I staggered through the sand, I was feeling a little apprehensive. I'd ridden this area on a Trailnet ride a couple of years ago, and I was pretty sure I remembered a huge, endless hill that we'd ridden up...just the kind of thing that these twisted minds would impose on us.

My little brother had not eaten voluntarily in over three years.

Photo credit: Team Seagal

Instead, we rode across the street to a parking lot where a table full of egg nog awaited, along with Kube, who if she was kicking herself for offering to ride with me, was concealing it well. We had to drink at least one cup of egg nog and then carry the bikes up a staircase. I've never had egg nog, both because I know it's loaded with calories and...egg nog...it just sounds gross. This was part of the race, though, so of course I downed my cup. It was good.

In the heat of battle ~~my father~~ she wove a tapestry of obscenities that as far as we know is still hanging in space over ~~Lake Michigan~~ the Missouri River.

"Ok," she told me, "unless you're really hardcore [she reads this blog, she knows I'm not], why don't we switch bikes for the trip up the stairs. I'll carry your mountain bike, and you can carry my lighter cross bike." I'm not too proud to accept help when I clearly need it. I lifted her bike, and looked up at 200 concrete stairs. Suddenly riding up the big hill didn't seem like such a bad option.

That's not me, but it is my bike.
Carrying a bike--any bike--up 200 stairs: more hell.

I had by far the better end of the deal as I think my bike weighs twice as much as Kube's. As she lifted that monster, she had a few choice words to say, which only increased as the staircase went on; however, even lugging that weight she still was ahead of me the whole time. Not only did Kube stay ahead of me, but a guy passed me on the stairs carrying a tandem mountain bike. Sigh. The good thing about events like this is that they keep my ego firmly in check.

I just hoped Flick would never spot them as word of this humiliation could make life at G. Harding School a veritable Hell.

At the top of the stairs, it was back on the park roads and around to a playground, where we had to dismount, go down a slide, and eat some R-rated donuts before riding down a steep gravel hill. I remembered all the hill advice I've gotten and made sure to get my butt up and almost behind my seat, then I eased my way down the hill. From here it was back along the lake, across the bridge, and onto the Katy Trail, parts of which were pretty sloppy. As we rode towards the Family Arena, riders passed us in the other direction carrying gigantic wrapped boxes.

"All right, I'll get that kid to ~~eat~~ drink. Where's my screw driver and my plumber's helper? I'll open up his mount and I'll ~~shove~~ pour it in."

At the box station was none other than Jim Davis, who chased me down and forced me to take a beer. :) I think he felt it was his personal duty after I'd told him earlier that I wasn't good at riding and drinking (that goes for drinking anything, not just drinking. I'm just not all that coordinated). Despite having one hand full and trying to navigate the soggy trail, I managed to not fall off my bike. Though Kube was ahead of me in the distance, I did manage to pass a guy who was also riding a mountain bike. "I'm glad I'm on my mountain bike," I told him, "because otherwise I'd have to come up with another reason for feeling so bad." He laughed, and I didn't see him again until we were heading onto the singletrack at Bangert Island.

The heavenly aroma still hung in the house. But it was gone, ALL GONE!

Wendy is always telling me to stop being overly nice and letting people go ahead of me, and maybe I finally learned my lesson. At the trailhead, some riders were coming out of the singletrack, so I waited to let them by before riding in. In the meantime, the guy I'd passed came up behind me. "Why don't you go ahead," I suggested. He did, and so he got the very last CXMAS spoke card! I was definitely disappointed but figured it would just be added incentive for me to ride faster next year.

The Bangert trails were a lot of fun, though there were several really muddy low spots. It was interesting to try to figure out gearing in these areas, because if you stood in your pedals to get more power your back wheel would spin out. I made it through without crashing and, despite having never been on these trails, felt more in my element than during any other part of the race. For this section, my mountain bike was an asset.

I left Flick to certain annihilation. But ~~BB gun~~ race mania knows no loyalty.

From Bangert, it was a straight shot back down the Katy to the finish line. Knowing that even I couldn't get myself lost for the remainder of the race, Kube took the opportunity to stretch her legs while I meandered behind. This time there was no part of the trail where I could avoid the soggy mess, so I just rode on through it, figuring that if I couldn't be fast at least I could be dirty.

Mission accomplished.

Unlike with the spoke card, I was not at all disappointed to find out that the presents were all gone, because I'd been worried just how I was going to manage to ride back with one, especially when I saw how far they had to ride carrying them. Relieved that the day was that much more unlikely to end with a broken arm, I rode back to the parking lot...and it was over.

Photo credit: Team Seagal

It's a Major Award!

Photo credit: Team Seagal

Winners got some really cool CXMAS steins. Of course, I'd had no illusions of victory, but I had hoped to score a spoke card. I was telling my story about stupidly letting the guy go ahead of me and get the last card when Gabrielle brought over hers. "You have to have one from your first year," she told me.

Mine...all mine...

How cool is that??? I met her that morning in the parking lot, and now she's giving me one of the prized spoke cards? Basically, the day was a whole bunch of awesome because of some really tenuous links to people: Wendy, who I blog stalk and had met...um...twice before the day; Jim and Kube, each of whom I'd met once; and Gabrielle, who I'd met that day. It's really a testament to the awesomeness and inclusiveness of endurance athletes combined with the internet's ability to help you get to know people you rarely see in person.

Now I have a year ahead of me to save up for a cross bike, design a contest-winning costume (though I think the answer there is probably more cleavage), and get into better shape so that at the next CXMAS I can earn my own spoke card and, hopefully, keep up with my riding partners.

And for a less PG-rated version of the day, check out Team Seagal's post about the day. Thanks to them for a fantastic, hilarious day. And for more pictures from the race, check out A Pabst Smear. See if you can find me.

Report Card

2011-12-17T18:24:00.000-06:00

Back in January, I posted my goals for the year. Here's what I said about them then and how I did.
1. Run a marathon - my basic goal is just to finish, my "B" goal is to finish under 4:30, and my "A" goal...let's just say that the shorter the time, the happier I'll be. That said, I'll consider it a success if I cross the finish line after running (going) 26.2 miles. Check! Finished the LaCrosse Marathon in 4:53, good enough to check off the "C" goal and leave me excited for another marathon.

2. Participate in an adventure race - I have one planned with my brother and would love to do others. We'll see what the year holds. Check! Check! Check! I did The Deuce, a Team-Virtus non-race, in March; the Berryman Adventure 12-hour (14.75 hour, but who's counting?), and the Castlewood 8-hour. Adventure races are my new favorite thing.

3. Complete a sprint triathlon - I know it was only a virtual one, but the virtual half ironman showed me that I am perfectly capable of finishing a tri. The swimming was the biggest thing getting in my way, and while my swim was slow, I got it done. I have my eye on one in Carlyle. Fail. I did no "official" trialthlons, though I did finish my friend Mike's Private Half-Ironman. Triathlons are NOT my new favorite thing, but I'd still like to try one that I've actually trained for.

4. Ride a century - I'd like to continue doing one of these a year. Haven't even looked to see which one might catch my eye. Fail. The first year since I started riding that I didn't do a century...and this year I could've done it on a road bike instead of hybrid. My longest bike ride was the 56 in the half ironman. I did get to do a lot of bike riding this year, but very few rides that were over 30 miles.

5. Improve my mountain biking skills - this goes hand in hand with #2, which doubles my motivation. It's also completely attainable because (a) "improve" is mighty general, and (b) there's lots of room for improvement. Definitely check! There's a long way to go, but I've also made a lot of progress. My handling and confidence are way better; now I need to work on strength and getting comfortable with speed.

6. Go to the gym/strength workout at least 1x week - Strength training is a huge gap in my exercise agenda I was doing great with this throughout the summer until I fell and hurt my shoulder. Once I was out of the routine I never went back and got re-started. Fail.

7. At least 1/2 hour of yoga 1 x week - See above. I'm about as flexible as a frozen rubber band. Total fail. I think I did part of a yoga DVD once.

8. Continue to set PRs - also very attainable because I intend to keep competing in new distances and therefore set PRs by default. :) That said, I'd like to reduce my 5K time. PRs set in the 5K (took 1:45 off) and the Pere Marquette race (46 minutes faster, though that was largely due to much better race-day conditions).

9. Join a running club - the support and camaraderie would be great. I don't know why this is such a big hurdle for me. I'm a much better "virtual" joiner than real-life one. Check! One of the best moves I made all year was completing this joining goal. I joined Team Revolution (a women's bike group) and the Metro Tri Club, and the friendships and training and fun I've had as a result have made this one of the best years of my life.

10. Make a new recipe at least 2 x month - I cook "real" meals most every night, and one of the biggest stumbling blocks for me is coming up with something new. I have stacks of recipes I've clipped from the newspaper and magazines. I'm going to start pulling one out, making it, and then either getting rid of it or writing it into my cookbook. Fail. Maybe one new recipe. Plus, I bought an acorn squash to try something new and it's now rotting on my counter. Double fail.

11. Start working towards my Master's degree - I've been saying this for 9 years now. I never thought I'd be someone who didn't go back to school, but life gets in the way. I have one less excuse this year because I have a tuition waiver from hosting a student teacher. Incomplete. I was accepted to grad school this fall and will start in January.

12. Keep "Fun Kate" front and center - It's too easy to say no to new things or goofy things. I want to keep and cultivate a spirit of fun and adventure. I've really been conscious of this since it hit me that I only have 2 years left until both my older boys are (hopefully!) away at college. I want them to remember me doing things with them, not just watching them. Check, mostly. I've definitely spent a great deal of time out of my comfort zone this year and wrapped myself in the adventure spirit.

Of course, I have lots of other things I'd like to see happen in 2011...lose weight, get finances in better shape, get organized, etc. I'm sure I'll be seeing those in 2012, 2013, 2014.... Yep.

Slow-down Saturday

I definitely overdid it last weekend, and it took me until about Wednesday before I felt like myself again. All I had planned for this weekend was to go to a one-hour orienteering meet, my first solo venture. It was going to be a very relaxing weekend, sleeping in both days, can't remember the last time that happened.

And then something different came up for Sunday.
And then Robin emailed about riding at 7 a.m. on Saturday.
And then Lindsay emailed about running on Saturday.

And you know I have a problem saying no. What to do, what to do?

I ended up skipping the Saturday ride. It sounded like so much fun, except that if the trails weren't frozen enough we'd be riding the roads, and the thought of a road ride in 30 degree weather (especially if I was dressed for the trails) just wasn't that appealing. Meanwhile, I never get to see Lindsay anymore, and the thought of sleeping in since we weren't running until 9...it was pretty sweet. I actually considered meeting Robin's group at 7 and riding until it was time to meet Lindsay at 9, but my boss just yelled at me for overdoing it, and last weekend suggests that maybe she was right.

So we met up at 9 at the local singletrack. It was still chilly enough that there was ice in the puddles.

Lindsay bravely tested the ice. Since it cracked we decided to avoid running on (in) it.

We had a fantastic, easy run. Rarely does any run feel easy to me, but this one was just wonderful. Maybe it was because we were running that slowly, but I prefer to think it was the company. Great conversation, and I was only insulted once. I mean, only a true friend could ask "Do you think you can find a big enough pair [of underwear]" without sounding mean. Perhaps you'll see what that meant tomorrow.

<3 Trails <3

We ran for about an hour, never spotted the deer carcass, never tripped, and while we didn't have time to grab coffee at Starbucks or remember the books we were meaning to exchange, we both went home happy.

After spending some time on a sewing project (which you may or may not also hear about tomorrow, especially if you're my friend on Facebook or like SuperKate on Facebook), I went outside to play some football with my boys. Boys vs. girl. I'm sure I don't have to tell you I got creamed.

I'm about to get tackled.

J is fast, and N is fast and strong. It's like running into a truck, or having a truck run into you. The couple times he shoved me while blocking for J, I about fell over, so then he started picking me up and (relatively gently) putting me on the ground. Eventually, I gave up and just took a dive every time he came near me.

Not quite the Heisman pose

All in all, it's been a very good day. While I was hugely outscored in football, I ended the game with all of my bones and joints intact, which is a victory as far as I'm concerned. And it's been a very good year. I hope the next one (and the rest of this one!) can measure up.

The cookie doesn't lie

2011-12-13T19:39:00.000-06:00

I was pretty useless after Saturday's trail race. Came home, showered, laid down on the bed, "accidentally" napped for a couple hours (you know, Oh, gosh, honey, I just laid down for a second...I didn't mean to fall asleep...even if I also set my alarm to get up :D)...J had a friend over, so he was plenty occupied and I didn't have to feel as guilty about not playing with him. I mean, I can't really compete with another 8 year old boy. I didn't really feel like cooking when I got up, so when Jeff suggested a trip to eat at the Chinese buffet and then see Christmas lights, I was all for the plan.

Of course, the best part of the Chinese restaurant (other than the awesome wonton/hot and sour soup) is the fortune cookies, but when I broke mine open I wasn't at all happy with what I found inside.

I think my husband slipped it into the cookie

Relax? In the next few days? Sorry, but I had plans to go mountain biking; relaxation was not on the agenda. When we headed off to see the lights, I left the offending fortune on the table.

We enjoyed the lights, snuggled together through a short Christmas movie, and then I got my ride clothes together once the boy was in bed. We had another cold morning forecast (low 20's), and I'm still getting my cold weather dress figured out again. I pretty much put every piece of technical fabric I own in a pile in the bathroom (where I get dressed on early mornings so I don't wake Jeff) and then went to bed.

I got up on time, but honestly, I did not want to go. It wasn't (just) that I was still sleepy; I just felt completely fatigued. I was almost dreading the ride. I felt like something bad was going to happen. And yes, I absolutely could've called or messaged Chuck to say I wasn't going to make it. It's not like I add much to the rides...mostly comic relief and additional rest as they wait for me to catch up. But to continue being honest, almost every trail ride I've done has emcompassed a mixture of happy anticipation and sick dread.

I love to mountain bike; I'm scared to mountain bike. If I gave into my natural wimpiness and fear every time I felt it, I'd have missed out on some really fantastic times on the trails...and I would've been sitting home following Berryman on Checkpoint Tracker. No matter how much I've wanted to opt out, I have never regretted going. So I dressed my whiny ass in bike shorts over tights, two long-sleeved base layer shirts, a sleeveless jersey, and a fleece jacket, and a hat; loaded up my bike and gear; and drove to Lost Valley.

Even pulling into the parking lot I considered turning around and catching the early part of N's volleyball tournament, but instead I said hi to Bill and started dragging my bike out. When Chuck got there (yeah, that's right...I wasn't last), we headed to the trail. Wow, it was cold with the wind on your face (and on my cheap- glove-covered fingers), but it was a lot better when we got to the wooded part. Because I always get dropped on the first big downhill (because I'm a huge chicken), I remembered to check which way we'd be going at the bottom of the hill. Usually I forget to ask this and end up going to wrong way, leaving me to turn around and do a big climb from basically a standstill.

For the first time ever on a ride at Lost Valley, we turned away from the big hill and started on the singletrack. This should've been a good thing, but despite how cool it was to ride through an icy creek, I really struggled. The first part of a ride is generally tough until I warm up, but I should've been warm by then. Instead of a big, long climb, we had a more gradual uphill, but my legs felt like jello. I couldn't catch my breath and kept thinking, yep, I should have stayed home. At one point I fell over when I hit a root wrong at way too slow a speed, and then I just laid there on the ground for a moment, oddly comfortable, until I realized the guys would be waiting for me.

I love riding at Lost Valley, but both mentally and physically I didn't have it. My legs were worn out from the Pere Marquette hills, and I felt really timid inside. I was afraid to try even things that I've ridden in the past, despite having really improved on the bike. For the first time ever, I wasn't having fun. When we got to the scary creek crossing, I didn't even consider riding across it. Well, that's not true. I looked at it, thought I know I could ride this, and then got off my bike and walked it across.

When we finally did get to the big climb, I asked Chuck if this was the hill that would lead back to the parking lot if I turned around. He said it was, so I told him I was going back once we got to the top. I figured if I was going to wimp out I'd at least make myself work for it first, so I rode up the hill. Reeeeallllly slowly.

Chuck had kept going at the top, so Bill and I rode along the doubletrack talking family and adventure racing until we caught up with him at the entrance to the first singetrack I ever rode at Lost Valley. I was exhausted. I was slow. I couldn't have been good company, which wasn't a problem I guess since I couldn't come close to keeping up with the guys. I was riding as tentatively as I ever have. I had every intention of saying goodbye and heading to N's tournament. Instead, I traded my fleece jacket for a long-sleeved bike jersey and followed them onto the trail.

And it wasn't as bad as the first part had been. But I walked a lot of stuff that I can ride, just because I didn't feel like my body had my back, and I completely lacked the spirit to go for it. On the other hand, the gradual downhill along the hillside didn't make me nearly as nervous as in the past and the downhill that comes after the scary creek crossing didn't seem as big as it used to, so clearly the riding I've been doing has made me more confident in general, if not on this particular day. Most surprising of all, when I got to the scary creek crossing, rather than stop, get nervous, and walk across, I went for it. I almost made it, too, but I had to put a foot down at the top on the other side. The guys probably almost fell over in shock, because I know Chuck at least has watched me wimp out repeatedly at that same spot.

Photo credit: singletracks.com
Finally,sucess! That bigger tree isn't there anymore, but otherwise it's the same.

The temperatures had warmed up enough that the ground was getting slippery as we headed back out. I was really glad we'd gone as early as we did, because the trails were in great shape for the majority of our ride. I'd hate to be those people who were showing up as we left. As we got closer to the big hill that would take us back towards the parking lot, I think I was already checking out. I've ridden that hill several times. Of course, the only thing that's kept me on my bike is knowing that it's just as miserable to walk up as ride up, but still. I know I can ride it. I made it maybe halfway up before stopping to walk. I'm sure it didn't help that I was struggling in my low gear before I even got to the incline.

Of course, the guys were nice and made sure to remind me that of course I was worn out from the Pere Marquette race; that's little consolation when the people who've been riding circles around you all morning both did the same race and finished faster than you, but it was still a nice attempt.

It would be a lie to say I didn't have fun. I did. The trails were in good shape, the weather was beautiful, and the company was great. I even managed to ride a section I haven't done before and felt more comfortable on some parts that have scared me in the past. But it was a mistake to go. If I was tired Saturday night, I was flat exhausted on Sunday, and it was all I could do to stay awake driving N home from volleyball practice on Monday. I think I crossed the line between doing a lot and doing too much.

I guess this is basically a lesson in listening to your body, but the problem is that my body is a damn liar. I'm tired...I'm hurt...I can't go any faster...I won't... Usually if I call it on its bs it gives in with a kind of rueful grin...Heh heh, you caught me, FINE I'll do it... I can't count the number of times during a run that I've felt a pain or an ache that's gone away after it's ignored for a moment or two. My brain is no better: I'm scared...it's ok to give in...you can't do this. With all this misinformation floating around, it looks like the cookie is the only one I can trust.

Redemption in defeat: Pere Marquette 2011

2011-12-11T18:45:00.002-06:00

2011, my year of new adventures, featured only one repeat performance of a 2010 race: the Pere Marquette Endurance Trail Race. I was very on the fence about running this again after my abysmal performance in last year's race (cliff notes version of that link: 7.8 hilly, muddy miles in 2 hours and 21 minutes); of course, last year's results were exactly why I had to do this again. Additionally, this is one of my tri club's signature events, but the final convincing straw is that I really wanted the vest that was this year's race shirt.

Photo credit: Robin "Co-captain Awesome" Rongey/Russ Darbon
I didn't have a wind vest before, and now I have the added benefit of glowing in the dark. :)

I wasn't just seeking redemption in this race, though; I was after an elusive victory. Not a course win or even age group placement (I may call myself Super, but I have a firm grip on reality), but I was hoping to finally beat my friend Wade in a race. Typically, if we aren't in the same race, my times have been better than his, but every time we've raced head to head, I've trailed. He has become something of a nemesis to me. This race was going to change that.

Compared to last year, when I ran one pre-Pere Marquette race and a few training runs on singletrack, I spent a lot of time on trails this year. At least 7 races (one of which was a half marathon and one that was 30K) as well as the majority of my marathon training long runs were on trails. I even made the hour-long drive to Marquette Park to do two training runs this fall, as well as a 16-mile run on the trails of Castlewood Park. I was far more prepared for this race than is typical for me. I was, dare I say it, even excited about it.

21 degrees on my way to catch my ride. Brrrr!

I was able to sustain the excitement despite the cold forecast (20's...yikes). I ran all last winter, but our temperate fall has left me a little weather wimpy. I settled on shorts over running tights and two long-sleeved tech shirts. Of course, I also brought a fleece to keep on until the last minute. I knew I was going to need it since the cost of the ride I'd begged with Wade (keep your friends close and your nemeses closer...what is the plural of nemesis, anyway? I bet Casey would know.) included helping set up the team tent and banners.

Clearly I was very helpful since I was taking pictures

We were leaving at 6:30 to get to the park in time for set up. 6:30 for a 9:30 race. Such is the cost of the laziness of not wanting to drive. I got up plenty early but was a little distracted by Facebook and such, and I ended up having enough time to run to QT for coffee and soda or comb my hair, but not both. Since I had been warned before our ride last year that I'd be left behind if I was late, I avoided getting AIS'd by opting to shove my hair under a hat and get the drinks. (the clip is 7 min. long, but it's funny)

Our area must be home to a large numbers of gluttons for punishment, because despite regularly featuring cold temperatures in addition to its signature hills, the race sold out its 600ish spots in less than 7 hours this year. The Lodge was crammed with ~~masochists~~ racers checking in, and the sea of safety yellow was blinding.

Photo credit: Robin "Co-captain Awesome" Rongey
Robin gets both photo credit AND in the picture at the same time!

I hadn't yet joined the tri club last year, so I knew about 4 people on race day. This year I had lots of friends there. After getting my vest and number, I finally got a chance to comb and braid my hair.

Hanging out with Lisa, who celebrated her birthday by volunteering and cheering on her husband, pre-race

After the pre-race meeting and dedication to Jennifer Cole, an avid rider and runner who was tragically killed in a bike-car accident earlier this year, it was time to head down to the start line. While I was watching some of my fast friends line up, a girl asked me if I'd been at Berryman in September, "...you have a blog, right?" It was Kristen from team Small But Mighty again. So hi, Kristen! It was nice seeing you. :)

Fast folks getting ready to start.

Because the race is run entirely on the trails, participants are sent off in waves every 30 seconds. With 600+ runners, that works out to 26 waves (numbered 0-25). Me, I was in wave 24.

Wave 24. Out of 25. I'm not even going to pretend that it didn't sting. Your wave is based on your self-reported previous Pere Marquette, previous 10K, or predicted 10K time. Any race I've ever run would've given me a better start postition, but I gave my last year's time, despite the fact that I'm definitely a better runner than that would indicate. Why? I don't know, I think because last year I gave a time based on my half marathon and finished incredibly far from what that would indicate I can do.

And, yes, I know...it's not where you start, it's THAT you start (thanks, Dawn). It gave me the oportunity to pass a lot of people. I was way ahead of all the people home on their couches. Whatever. Wave 24 gave me a new purpose for my race, greater even than beating Wade: Prove that I don't belong here.

Unlike last year, I actually started with my wave this time (uhhh, sorry Wendy!). Because of the pressure I was putting on myself, I knew that I had to be careful to start conservatively. The race starts with about .3 miles of nice, flat trail before it begins to climb. My goal was to go at a sustainable pace until I had to walk. There was a delicate balance to maintain: run as long as you can, but not so long that it wipes you out for the top of the hill.

Overall, I was able to stick with my plan. I didn't have to walk that much on smaller hills, and I passed quite a few people on the uphills before I had to walk. The training definitely paid off. Other than the first monster hill, I felt pretty good through the first three miles. This wasn't a race where I spent much time talking to the people around me; rather, it was one where I rarely had the breath to make conversation. The big hill was particularly tough, though. As I pushed to keep my walking pace somewhere above "stroll" level, I gasped to the guy next to me something about the only good thing about the hill being that we wouldn't have to go up it again. Or something like that. It was even more incoherent at the time. He kind of laughed, and then as I started to slow even more told me, "No, come on..." I thanked him and he said, "Yeah, I'll probably need you to do that later for me."

Around mile 5 I could feel myself wearing down, but even then I was feeling a real lack of mental strength. I'd think to myself, Come on, you know Wade is probably running here...you need to push...but found myself not caring enough to make myself hurt. The negative self talk was there, too...Maybe you do belong in this wave! My feet were dragging along with my thoughts, and I really don't know how I avoided falling when they were barely leaving the ground. It was around here that Wendy, who I'd passed early on some of the hills, came running by and smacked my butt as she churned past. I was happy she was having a good race and annoyed with myself for losing ground, all at once.

Other people crossing on their way back up

Around mile 6 you have a nice, flat straightaway, and then you cross a park road and are soon climbing again. It amazes me that people can run this, but of course the front people run the whole thing. First you are just going up steep hills, but then you get to the steps. The Steps.

Just a few of the steps

They may not look so bad, but the thing about The Steps is that there are a lot of them. And none are of matching heights. These ones aren't so tall, but there are some that are difficult for me to step onto, despite the fact that I'm almost 6 feet tall and have a lot of leg. And, of course, you've been running hills for 6 miles, so you're already hurting plenty.

I'm smiling, but only because of the camera.

In a cruel twist, once you summit the steps, there's another steep uphill climb. Seeing a previous year's race shirt on a guy in front of me, I told him, "We know better, and we keep coming back!!" I may or may not have later offered anyone in earshot $1,000 to carry me the rest of the way up the hill. No takers, which I guess is a good thing because ~~that would be cheating~~ I don't have the money anyway.

Finally, we were at the top. Knowing that the worst was behind me was a huge boost. I was able to pass a couple more people on one of the last uphills, and then my friend Jim came and ran me in for the last half mile or so. He really encouraged me to push, and I did. Then, we came across Wade and Patrick in the last quarter mile. Wade said something about beating me him. The thought that it might be possible made me start sprinting.

That last quarter mile flat out hurt. I could hear friends cheering as I neared the finish line and watched as the clock changed from the 1:46s into 1:47 range. Losing that last minute evaporated what oomph I had left, but luckily I was almost there. The picture of me at the end shows just how bad I felt.

Hey, look...my feet are off the ground!

Once I caught my breath and thought about my finish time, 1:47ish, I was pretty pleased. That was a big change from last year's 2:21, and even if this year's conditions were worlds better (in fact, pretty much perfect), that's still a big improvement. But then I remembered that my wave actually left 12 minutes into the race, so my time was actually 1:35.04. A 46 minute PR.

Post-race with Robin

Unfortunately, Wade finished about 7 minutes ahead of me and so remains my nemesis. The first time I go publically gunning for someone, and I go down in flames. On the other hand, since he does better every time I'm there, I think I probably deserve some kind of coaching fee (although it could be argued I get that in rides and bike mechanic services). Maybe I have a future in motivation.

Even with my crushing defeat, I have to count the day a success. I had my butt thoroughly kicked by this race last year. This year, my calves and quads are threatening to secede, but my ego is much happier. That's a trade-off I'll take any day...but especially on Pere Marquette day.

Stats:

Time: 1:35:04
Overall: 405/532
Age group: 26/38

Castlewood 8-Hour

2011-12-05T17:57:00.001-06:00

**Written by Kate, commentary from Derrick highlighted in yellow, any return comments highlighted in blue**

What a difference a year makes.* Last year's Castlewood 8-Hour was my first chance to see adventure racing up close, albeit as a volunteer. "Seeing", in this case, meant standing on a windy beach for about 7 hours on a day that started with a high of 37 and felt progressively colder, checking in teams as they finished their paddling leg, and informing them that they had to carry their canoes up to the parking lot. I knew one person (Patrick, my fellow volunteer) and had just started blog-stalking Chuck and Robin.

This year, I was a "wily veteran" of two previous adventure races and was a participant rather than volunteer. I now count Patrick, Chuck, and Robin as good friends. I have friends and acquaintances on multiple teams and had seen/heard of lots of the other racers. And, most miraculous, our midwest December day started with a low of 48 and climbed somewhere into the high 50's or even low 60's.

I was lucky to be racing at all. After my original race plans fell through, Orange Lederhosen posted that they were looking for a fourth person for their team. I was intrigued...

I had met Derrick twice before, and our teams spent a decent amount of time around each other at Berryman. While I didn't know him that well, I thought I'd have a good time on his team. I figured he had a clear enough idea of what I was capable of on a bike to know what he was getting himself into, so when Team Virtus was able to field two full teams without me, I happily signed on with Orange Lederhosen.

I wasn't joking about lack of bike skills. These guys do a lot more bike riding than I do, and of course the thing about a team is that you truly are only as strong as your weakest member. My running ability isn't a whole lot of help on a non-running team. On the other hand, my lesser bike skills could really hold us back. Like Emma said, though, Castlewood is home trails to me, and even if I haven't ridden it all I'm pretty familiar with it. I also clung to what Robin always says, that you'll be surprised how little singletrack there is in adventure racing, it's mostly fire roads and paved roads. Since I know that I can keep up on that type of terrain, I went to race check-in feeling almost confident.

And then we got the maps. Very little trekking (my strength) and two big bike sections, the first on the singletrack of Greensfelder Park. I'd never ridden at Greensfelder (so much for home-field advantage), but what I'd heard of it made it sound intimidating. Rather than freak out, though, I pinned my hopes on my improved mountain biking skills and headed home to pack up for the race.

Because the race HQ was just over an hour away, I opted to stay home and just drive there that day. The 5 a.m. bike drop meant a 4 a.m. departure time and, thus, a 3 a.m. wake-up call. Bleh. Once I was up, though, I felt fine, and since I'd loaded everything up the night before, I was out the door right on schedule. It's amazing how much faster the drive is when ~~all the sane~~ most people are still in bed!

I found my way to the bike drop and then race HQ (the only navigation I had to do for the day) and then hung around with the other early birds as teams started to arrive. I got to see all the Virtus guys and all of the ROCK Racing crew. There were a lot of them: Virtus was fielding two teams, with Bob and Robby in the 2-man division and Luke, Rusty, Drew, and Adam on a 4-man team.

The Virtus army--the hope in Adam's eyes is a little heartbreaking...maybe THIS time I won't get fired...much

Normally, ROCK Racing consists of Chuck and Robin (or Chuck, Robin, and Patrick...or Chuck and Lori), but this race they were doing something different. Because so many of our tri club friends have expressed an interest in adventure racing, they decided to do Castlewood as kind of an AR clinic.

The ROCK Racing crew

They put together three teams and worked together throughout the day. From all accounts, it was an amazing experience, and what a cool thing that such accomplished, competitive racers would give their day to give other people the chance to try out adventure racing (much like some other people I know).

While this wasn't my first race, it was a new experience to be part of a veteran 4-person team. When Jim and I raced Berryman, it was a first-time thing for both of us. We had to accumulate all of the necessary individual and team gear and figure out what the heck we were doing. This time, all I had to do was show up and keep up. They had everything they needed...except a fourth person. :) I didn't have a watch, so I never had any idea what time it was, and since I didn't have to help plot points and hadn't seen the map, I had little idea where or how far we were going. It was pretty liberating, really, like being a kid on vacation (except I tried to keep the "are we there yet?"s to a minumum). A few more "are we there yet"s might have kept us from overshooting two checkpoints. I apologize. I'll attempt to be more annoying in the future.

Before the race, Race Director Gary gave us some last-minute instructions. I couldn't hear that much, but it seemed to consist of "don't ride your bikes on Interstate 44".
Gary's pre-race instructions were:

Greensfelder has some paved trails, and where he is from those are called roads and therefor off limits for CPs 4-6 and 7-10 since you had to remain on the trails (which were the only way to get those checkpoints anyway)
I-44 was off-limits (and who thought we needed this rule...interstates are illegal to travel by bicycle or foot, and it would have cut out 4 check points)
The last thing he said was to be careful crossing the railroad tracks, because anyone hit by a train would be disqualified. A very Jason-ish comment, to be sure.
And now that you've jogged my memory, I also remember Gary warning us to give horses a wide berth, which Kyle heard as "give the horses the bird" and led to a few jokes along the trail.

Then we sang the Star-Spangled Banner and were off. It was something to see. You know those movies where you see the attacking army come swarming out of the woods? Picture that in reverse.

Leg 1: Orienteering

We started off the race with a bit of a run. It seemed like the thing to do. There were three points in this section, and you could get them in any order.

This was one of the first things we saw. The guys all hoped that it would be part of the predicted second orienteering leg. I may have been a bit less enthusiastic, but I'd have done it. I mean, bike shorts are practically diapers, right?

We hit our first orienteering point with no problems and set off for the next. I was really impressed with the way Derrick kept track of where we were on the map and told him so. We were moving at a steady clip down the trails when we saw an orienteering flag. Derrick checked the map and told us that it was point 6 for the bike leg. We were continuing up the trail when a team that was already on their bike leg called out, "You're going the wrong way!"

"No we're not," Derrick told us, "I know exactly where we are." As we walked, though, he kept looking at the map. "Unless that was number five...."

Yeah, it was number five. The funny thing is that we'd been following the trail along a creek. Once we hit a road, we were supposed to turn away from the creek. A road, unlike a fork in a dubious trail, is pretty hard to miss, but we managed to cross it without turning. I think what happened is that, when we crossed it, we didn't realize it was the right one because this particular map was a smaller scale than usual and Derrick didn't think we'd gone far enough.

Three things happened with missing that turn for the second CP, all of them because I wasn't paying attention to where we were going. Probably because I wouldn't shut up.

First was the scale...everything comes up so much faster on a 1:15000 scale, and I'm not used to it, it's been a problem for me to transition to that scale everytime it's used.

When I looked at the map, I looked at my marked planned route...which didn't match the trail, so WE were supposed to veer away from the creek and trail after so far...and the trail kept going along the creek. I thought it was the trail veering and started to watch for that instead.
And I completely spaced out crossing the road, even though it had only been about 5 minutes since we did it.

We quickly got back on track and Derrick led us straight up a hill and directly to the next point. We literally walked right up the hill to it. It was pretty impressive. The hills were pretty impressive, too. It was steep going, and to complicate matters, there were a lot of rocks and downed branches under a liberal coating of leaves. My uphill muscles got a serious workout, but luckily my ankles made it through unscathed.

Photo credit: Luke Lamb AKA Captain Awesome
See what I mean about steep hills?
(And speaking of steep, let's talk about the STEEP cost of getting your friends to post their pictures quickly for you....)

We ran into the Virtus 4-man team after leaving that point, exchanged pleasantries, and found our last checkpoint with no problems. It's funny who you see in the woods, though. Team Virtus was fielding two squads in the 8-Hour, and while we repeatedly saw both teams, I don't think the Virtus groups ever ran into each other.

Leg 2: Bike

By the time we reached the first transition, I was ready to get onto the bikes and excited about the flush toilet there (it's the little things in life). Jason, the former owner of BonkHard Racing (who puts on the race) was there and came over to say hi. Of course he knows the Lederhosen guys from several previous races, but then he knew my name too. I had my little star-struck moment...Wow, Jason knows who I am... I have to think that his personal touch (as well as just putting on first-class races) is a big reason that the company was so successful under him, and hopefully that success continues with the new owner, who seems to be a good guy.

To be honest, I don't remember a whole lot of detail about the first part of the bike leg. I think we began with some fairly tame trail (the eagle/squirrel trail, depending on your interpretation of the picture on the sign), though it started at the top of a hill. You all know how much I ~~don't~~ love riding downhill. To make matters worse, Bob and Robby were behind us, so I had to worry about a) holding them up and b) keeping off the seat and back so as to make Bob proud. While I was at least a moderate failure on both of those, I did let myself go faster downhill than normal, and it was even a little fun.

The majority of the trail riding was a major suckfest for me, though. This was the kind of trail that might be semi-fun if I ~~had a death wish~~ was out there with a group just working on tricky sections, but not seeing it for my first time in a race. Much of it was way more technical than anything I've ridden before. I was way out of my element and totally holding my team back. They were very nice about it, but I was really frustrated with myself. In addition, one of the costs of not being dead last is that other teams are behind you and you have to worry about holding them back, too. I offered to let one team (another coed 4 person group) past, and the guy told me, "Don't worry about it. We have one of you, too." lol.

I did ride some stuff that was more challenging than anything I've done before, but I walked a lot of it. I fell once (and yes, I cursed, but unlike my regular falls it was actually in a trickier spot), but oddly it wasn't confidence-crushing like my falls usually are. That said, there were a lot of parts where I'd ride up thinking maybe I'd try it, but then chicken out when somebody in front of me fell. I'm sure it was a lot of fun for Derrick to repeatedly have to stop behind me. To add to the general misery of this section, Kyle was hacking up all kinds of junk, Greg was feeling absolutely awful, and they were both outriding me by far. Greg jacked up his shoulder several months ago on a mountain bike ride. He thought it was going to be happy and relatively pain free this weekend, but that wasn't the case. I think the first set of rocks aggravated it and he was in pain from there on. If you ask him about it he just tells you not to worry about it and it is all relative. Definitely a grin and bear it personality.

To say that I was thrilled to be finished with the singletrack would be a huge understatement. When we hit the road, we talked for a while with a county policewoman who was stationed there and got a fun picture of the guys up against the police car. I opted out of the shot; since RegularKate is a teacher, I don't want any police car photos out there floating around...even if they are just in fun. :)

Adventure racing: so much fun it might just be illegal

The road section was a breeze. I felt like I could ride all day. We missed one turn on our way to a checkpoint, but Derrick quickly caught our mistake and got us back on track. I rode with each of the guys at one point or another, enjoying getting to know them better and hoping to distract Greg from his misery, which unlike my trail woes, didn't have a defined end. At the last bike checkpoint of the leg, we were given a surprise optional additional 5-point bike orienteering course. Once we knocked that off (with no problems), we were ready for the canoes.

Leg 3: Paddling

Canoeing didn't go so well for Jim and I at Berryman, and in this race we actually had to transport the bikes in the canoe. I was a little nervous about this; despite the freakishly nice December weather, I really didn't want to go for a swim. Though I'd been semi-dreading the paddling leg, it showed me another benefit to being on a 4-man team (at least, this 4-man team). I had fully expected to help carry my canoe, but Derrick and Kyle carried both down at the same time. Once the bikes were loaded and strapped in, we were ready to go.

Doesn't this look fun.
Wow...looking at the picture of the bikes in the canoe, I realize how horrible a job I did loading them.
I think it was better after I dropped the canoe and you had to reconfigure them.

The river was nice and calm, and Derrick and I worked well together in the canoe other than some confusion over left and right. There were two or three checkpoints along the river, where I learned a valuable lesson in riding with the navigator, not the keeper of the passport. While Greg and Kyle had to maneuver over to the riverbank and punch our card, Derrick and I got to sit and wait.

You can see the guys punching the passport in the background.

I kept my helmet on, just in case Derrick decided to whack me with the paddle.

Despite my worries, our canoe leg was pretty trouble-free. The only bad part was that the bikes had shifted when we first picked up the canoe, and the rearranging had left one of the wheels covering most of my seat. I'm not sure how long we paddled, but I spent that whole time perched on about 2 inches of seat. When we beached the canoe at the take-out, I was so stiff that it took me a minute or so to pull myself up.

We carried the canoes up to the parking lot (I did my part this time, though I think Kyle offered to carry my end and I turned him down), had a gear check, and set off on bikes again. I think I managed one pedal strok before my chain dropped and got stuck. I couldn't get it set right, but Derrick fixed it for me, and then we were off for real.

Leg 4: Bike

The navigation here was uncomplicated enough that I think even I could have done it. The first part was on a pretty flat trail, which was nice, but my legs were cramping and starting to hurt. When we came out to the intersection where Emma was stationed, I grabbed some ibuprofen. I didn't realize you dug out some ibuprofen. I would have probably pushed Greg to take some at that point. I can't have any, so I always forget that it's an option for those who can. I didn't realize Greg was in actual pain, I thought he was just having a bad day. I had enough ibuprofen for a small army and would have been glad to share. The same police officer from our first bike leg was now at this intersection giving warnings about the crossing. Her final words struck fear in my aching legs: "Get ready for a lot of climbing."

She wasn't joking, either. I guess it was only one hill, but it was one endless, steep hill. After my sucktacular mountain biking, I was thrilled to ride the whole way up. Seems like usually I manage to screw up my shifting on hills, waiting too long to shift and then not being able to, but this time I did it right. I guess it helped that I had to spend most of the climb in my smallest gear. The only bad moment came when I was following too closely behind Greg and he stopped. I'm not good at clipping back in on any hill, and I knew that if I put down a foot on this one I'd have to walk the rest of the way. Instead of stopping, I tried to scoot around him and bumped him as a car passed from behind me. Not my smartest move, and I'm glad the car had given us wide berth or I could've gotten hit. Once we got to the top of the hill it was a long, fun downhill and then flat roads back to race HQ, where we got an additional eight orienteering points to find.

Leg 5: Orienteering (reprise)

Derrick, working his navigational magic

After plotting the points, Derrick figured we had time to get three without missing the time cutoff. We changed from bike shoes to trail shoes (ahhhhhhhhh) and set off. He mentioned that we might be able to get more if we did some running. "I'm not running," Greg said emphatically.

Derrick: "I'm just saying...we might have to run back,"

Greg: [black silence]

My excitement about being off the bike and into different shoes rapidly evaporated as we headed back up the steep hills of the O course. At one point, Derrick grabbed onto a tree for support and it fell over, almost landing on us. We had our first checkpoint misplotted, but luckily we ran into Josh from Team Wahoo who pointed us in the right direction, and then we went straight to the next one, seeing the 4-man Virtus squad along the way.

Photo credit: Luke Lamb (AKA Captain Awesome)
I may have been happy to see them. Or the flag.

After saying hi's and maybe doing a little heckling, we moved on to the next CP. If lesson one was "don't canoe with the keeper of the passport", lesson two was "don't BE the person with the passport"...because Kyle had to climb into and out of this while the rest of us waited at the top ~~throwing rocks at him~~.

Kyle getting our second (third?) checkpoint

Flushed with success, we decided to hit one more before heading back. This necessitated hiking up a very steep paved hill. This was not fun.

Photo credit (you guessed it): Luke Lamb (AKA Captain Awesome)
This was a lot more fun once you were at the top.

Unfortunately, we ended up going down the wrong re-entrant and missing that last point. Greg, who'd been pretty opposed to going for this last point, was particularly unhappy. Disappointed, we knew we didn't have time to look any longer without risking missing the inital time cut off and starting to lose points, so we headed back to HQ. On the way, we ran into Bob and Robby again, who'd had a great day. Bob, who'd had a rough stint as lead navigator at Berryman, flat out rocked the nav at the 8-Hour. I was really happy for him.

And suprisingly, after more than 9 hours of hiking and riding, I felt pretty darn good. Good enough that, as we came to the foot of yet another monstrous hill, I thought about the upcoming Pere Marquette (very hilly) race and decided to see how far I could run this hill. As I took off, Bob yelled something about me being a showoff and started running too...and passed me! There was no way I was going to let him win. "Bob!" I yelled, "If you beat me to the top of the hill you're giving me a piggyback ride the rest of the way!" Suddenly, he stopped. I guess he thinks I need a diet, too. What a jerk.

I didn't make it quite to the top, but I got most of the way. Pretty soon it was time to get off of the road and back on the trail. We were walking fast, but it still seemed to take forever. Finally we started hearing the cowbells and cheering at the finish line and knew the end was in sight. My stomach had been bothering me on and off, and I was really looking forward to having some finish line pizza. Greg started running first, and we came dashing out of the woods across the finish line.

Photo credit: Luke Lamb (AKA Captain Awesome)
And look who's in the back. Sigh.

For an OFFICAL finish rather than a DQ this time. Sweet.

Me, Kyle, Derrick, Greg

It was a pretty great day for all my racing friends. The ROCK Racing ladies took 1st in their division, my friends Jackie and Lo took first in the female duos division, and everyone finished before the cut-off. In fact, the only disappointing thing about the whole day is that all the pizza was gone when we finished. Even that tragedy was tempered by getting to hang out with Emma and all the Virtus and Lederhosen guys for a while. If you can't have good food, at least you can have good company.

And I did have good company, all day long. It's funny how we all took on our roles: Derrick, the team leader, el capitan; Kyle, the comic relief (picture a cross between a naughty little boy and an adult man) We were joking and hoping before the race that you should feel right at home with our 200 lb, 6' tall 1st grader; me, I guess I contributed my general sunshiney nature and grit; and Greg...well, Greg earned his doctorate in grim determination. I was amazed throughout the day by the way he soldiered on with very little complaint. I was a little nervous about racing with people I don't know that well. You just never know how things will go. But the guys were awesome, despite my lead weight mountain biking. I think we made a great team, and if I promise to practice on the bike, maybe they'll even let me race with them again someday.
*P.S. What a difference a day makes. I spent my race Saturday in shorts. It's snowing now.

In short

2011-12-03T20:46:00.001-06:00

At the finish line with my Orange Lederhosen teammates

We finished today's Castlewood 8-Hour adventure race in just under 9.5 hours, under the time cut-off and so good for my first "official" adventure race finish. The race was awesome, as was getting to hang out with a lot of really cool AR friends.. I've been up since 3 a.m., and I'm beat, so I'll leave you with these thoughts until I get a real report written:

Guys who wear lederhosen, especially orange lederhosen, are pretty much guaranteed to be good company.

My race satisfaction has a high rate of correlation with the topography. That is, I'm much happier to be racing when the ground is flat than when we're hiking up and down what feel like 72 degree inclines.

Pain is temporary; running further uphill than Bob is forever.

Adventure racing today, for me:

After we'd been trekking for a while: I can't wait to get on the bikes.

After we'd been biking for a while: I can't wait to get off the bikes!

After we'd been in the canoes for 12.3 seconds: I can't wait to get back on the bikes.

After we were on the bikes again: Yeah, I'm ready to be off this bike. I hope we get to do more trekking.

On the trekking (final) leg: I can't wait till we get to the finish line and get some pizza!

At the finish line: I can't wait to do this again!!!

When I found out all the pizza was gone.

You might take all of the above as evidence that it's impossible to make me happy, but I'd have to disagree because I had an absolute blast. I'd tell you it means there is always something new to look forward to, and being tired of one discipline makes some less-enjoyable ones (I'm looking at you, paddling!) seem a little more desirable. The grass is always greener, and all that.

Well, until you're actually in the canoe.

Birthdays and packing and races, oh my!

2011-12-01T22:11:00.000-06:00

D (19) getting the little brother candle assist

Today was my oldest son's 19th birthday. According to the twisted math employed on each of my birthdays, that means I was 10 when he was born. In actuality, he is now the age I was when he was born...don't think that doesn't blow my mind. I truly hope that he doesn't follow in my footsteps in that regard, and I hope that if he did I'd respond as well as my own parents did.

Decisions, decisions

Now that our birthday party guests are gone, I'm supposed to be packing up for Saturday's Castlewood 8-Hour, my second "official" adventure race. Unlike last time, when my brother and I were a complete newbie team, I'll be racing as part of a 4-person team with Orange Lederhosen. I met Derrick and Emma at the Deuce (the adventure non-race back in March) and then got to meet some of the other guys in September at Berryman. Since Jim and I ran into them several times during that race, the guys know what they're in for in taking me on.

Photo stolen from the Lederhosen website

Not only will I lack the distinctive team jersey, but I'm also deficient in the facial hair department. Normally, this is something of an asset as a woman, but between the Lederhosen guys and my other favorite ~~boy band~~ adventure racing team, I'm starting to get a complex about my smooth face. Luckily, last night I found the answer to my problems!

How freaking cool is this?!!??
Photo from: http://img3.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.195776691.jpg

I'm too cheap to spend the $25-50 I've seen these listed for, so I'm totally going to learn how to crochet. Unless it's a knitting pattern. Then I'm going to have to outsource my beanie. But really, I must have one.

Enough is enough

2011-11-29T21:00:00.001-06:00

When I set out my goals for the year back in January, I studiously avoided putting anything about losing weight...partly because it wasn't a big concern for me at the time, mostly because I wanted my goals to be attainable. Lately, I've been reading other bloggers' posts about weight loss, and my comments have all been of the yeah, I'm right there but not quite ready to do anything about it yet variety.

Well, now I am.

It started with a really, really bad picture of me from the Skippo. And today, in the dressing room of Sports Authority trying on my new waterproof pants for the Castlewood 8 Hour (this Saturday!!), the switch flipped. That's just not what I want to see in the mirror. Just like that, the commitment to actually do something about it was there.

My focus is still going to be on doing all the fun, awesome, challenging things that look good, but dropping some extra weight can only help with that. That means getting back to training more regularly and especially being more conscious of my food choices, snacking, and portion sizes. I don't need to be skinny; I mean, I'm never going to have that stereotypical runner's body. I'd just like to be a little happier with what I see in the mirror.

So I'm putting it out there. Things are going to change.

Meramec Park Turkey-O

2011-11-27T15:20:00.002-06:00

When I made my plans for the rest of the year back at the beginning of November, I had no idea my mom was going to switch our family Thanksgiving celebration to this Saturday. Normally, that would be a relief for me because it would free us of one round of the holiday shuffle while still allowing us to see everybody, but this year it interfered with my plans to do the St. Louis Orienteering Club's Turkey-O. I could've skipped it, but the orienteering meets are both good practice for me and a way to get my family involved in some of the things I'm doing.

I pretty much weaselled Jeff into doing the first orienteering meet by branding it as a date night. We took J with us for the second one after convincing him it would be fun ("It's like a treasure hunt! Only you don't get anything."), and he more or less thought it was fun for about the first half (45 minutes). The Turkey-O was a 3-hour meet, so I was a little worried about how J would do, but when Jeff asked what we were going to do with him and I said, "Take him along," J piped up, "Yeah, I want to go!" There was actually a 1.5 hour option, but since the drive was 2 hours each way, it seemed a little silly to do the short course. We were taking a calculated risk, though; the long course would make us over 2 hours late for Thanksgiving, leaving a good possibility that all of the food would be gone.

We got to the park at about 9 a.m., and I had my first experience copying the controls (the markings that tell you where the places are that you need to find) from the master map onto our map.

Finished product

There were 35 controls, so after I had them all marked on the map, J called out each number from the clue sheet while I checked the map to make sure we had them plotted. Next, we went over the clues and wrote them on the map. And then, we waited and visited with some familiar faces. Chuck from ROCK Racing was there Lori and their son, as were Luke from Team Virtus, my friends Melissa and Scott, and lots of people wearing shirts from past adventure races.

Table full of friends

We had a general plan of attack for the first several controls, and once we hit the end of that we'd decide our next steps based on how much time we had remaining and how we were doing. Strategy was definitely required, for several reasons. First, different controls were assigned different point values, ranging from 10 to 50. Second, since we would be primarily hiking (one runner in recovery mode after last week's 30K, one non-runner, and one 8 year old), we were going to be very limited in how many controls we could get to. Third, there was a steep penalty for missing the time cut-off: 10 points per minute. Since we weren't going to be a high scoring team, we couldn't afford to lose any points.

When start time finally arrived, we took off at a jog. We'd gone about 100 yards when J said, "I'm already tired!" The sad thing was, so was I. I was also having wardrobe issues, as I was trying out some new pants and they kept sliding down onto my hips.

Maybe it wouldn't have been as awkward if I'd been wearing something as full-coverage as boxers.

Trying to avoid this look at all costs, I spent the beginning of the race doing a combination of hiking my pants up and pulling my shirt down. It made for a fantastic run. It was a huge relief once we were on our own in the woods and I didn't have to worry about offending anyone but my own family.

Already dogged by clothing struggles, I next realized that, though we'd decided which control to hit first, we'd neglected to talk about how to get to it from the road. Now I was running (sort of), pulling up my pants, pulling down my shirt, and trying to look at the map. I definitely needed an extra hand (or a belt).

J leading the way

We found the first control (#12 on the map below, a 10-pointer) pretty easily and then headed along a reentrant to the next one. Although Jeff can take one look at the map and know where he's going, he was really good about letting me hold the map and try to navigate, and I got us to our next control (#32, a 30-pointer) successfully.

Closer view of map

Up to this point, both in this meet and the others we've done, we had navigated primarily by terrain features (roads, creeks, etc), but to get from #32 to #11 as planned we had to make a choice. We could either hike back down to the road and go around, or we could go cross-country (shorter, as long as you go the right way, though potentially more difficult than walking down a road). We opted for the cross-country route, which required breaking out the compass.

Now, I know that ability with navigation and maps and such doesn't require testosterone, because my friend Melissa is a kickass navigator, but if Jeff's and Luke's and Chuck's brains move like the second hand of a clock, my map processing speed is more like the hour hand. I had even just reread my map and compass book on the way to the meet! I knew that I knew how to use the compass to keep us on track, it just took me a while to remember the process. Finally, it clicked, and we hiked almost directly to our next control.

Punching the passport

One really cool thing about this meet is that, despite the fact that we've been coming to Meramec State Park for 13 years together (in fact, our first date was a camping trip here) and Jeff has been coming here since he was a kid, everything we hiked Saturday was new to us. We had a long hike from #11 to our next control (#34, if you're following along on the map). To find this one, we followed a creek for quite a while. It was easy as far as route-finding, but staying dry as we picked our way along the sides of the creek was a little trickier.

After he was smacked in the face by branches a couple of times, we learned that J couldn't follow closely behind me. I was careful with any branches I pushed aside, but my pack kept catching onto others which would hit him. Our backcountry route wasn't without its rewards, though. We found a cool turtle shell along the way.

I've never seen one like this. It reminded me a little of all the dead things at the Deuce.

He has a big smile on his face, but J wasn't too excited about holding it.

We found our next control just as the rain started to fall. I had brought my waterproof jacket, but between the mild temperature (low 60's) and all the hiking, the rain actually felt pretty good. We had another long hike up another creekbed to get to our next goal (#2). This one wasn't too wet (other than the rain), but you had to be careful where you stepped because it was pretty rocky.

It seemed like we hiked forever, but eventually we got to control #2, a 50-pointer.

At this point, we were feeling pretty good. We'd gone more or less straight to every single control with no problems. In fact, Jeff even said something about how well we were doing, and then added, "I probably just jinxed us." I laughed, but I wasn't worried. The next control was a straight shot up the creekbed. We'd gotten all these others; we were sure to find this one, too.

Yeah, we didn't find it, of course.

We must have hiked right past it, or right close to it. When we got to the top of the hill and could see the road, we realized that we had missed it. Unfortunately, right at that time D. called with some questions and issues about the rest of the day that, in my mind, had already been answered to at least two different people. After a somewhat frustrating and annoying conversation, conducted through Jeff whose phone actually had a signal, we were kind of off our game.

This highlights an issue that I need to work on with my navigation. I think I need to get better at paying attention to what the map shows along the way so that we have more clues that we're getting close (or going too far) besides finding/not finding the control. Well, that and maybe keeping track of distance covered. The smart thing to do would've been to backtrack and see if we could pick up the control, but instead we headed onto the road. Because we weren't sure if we'd gotten off track, we weren't completely sure where we were. Rather than wander around aimlessly, we decided to take the road until we knew where we were.

Luckily, as we walked down the road, I spotted a control flag in the woods. Now, we at least knew where we were, but we had less than an hour to get back to the finish line before we started losing points. We chose a route that would allow us to get two more controls on our trip back. We had to take the trail until it crossed a creek, then head off through the woods. I was ahead of my guys, and I loved listening to J tell Jeff what fun he was having and how he was going to bring his kids here some day. :) When we got to the creek, though, we had a difference of opinion about which direction to go. It wasn't a huge difference, but we didn't come across the control (we went Jeff's way).

We didn't look too hard for it, though, because time was slipping away and we saw another racer run through the woods to our left and decided to follow him. Well, follow his direction, anyway, we were way too slow to keep up. Going that way, we came across another control, but it was the second one we were looking for (less points, boo). If we'd had more time, we might have been able to backtrack to the other one, but now we were down to about 25 minutes, a pretty good hike back, and a tired little boy.

We got back onto the trail, which led us to an unpaved vehicle track. This must be where the state park people store all the broken-down stuff, because we saw stacks of pallets and herds of old trash cans, among other things.

Where picnic tables go to die

We were definitely getting nervous about the time cut-off, but J kept up like a trooper.

Yes, we trusted our 8 year old with our map and passport. Briefly. :)

There was a powerline trail that was pretty much a straight shot to the finish line but promised to be much rougher going than the road. Being familiar with the park, though, we knew the road might be smoother, but it wasn't much flatter, so we opted for the powerline. We took it all the way back to the road near the cave we had visited early on in the meet, and then we ran the rest of the way on the road.

For all that I'm the runner in the family, I was definitely struggling more than I expected to. I don't know if it's the residual effects from last weekend's trail race or just the additional demands of hiking over hills like we did, but that last run was rough. It was so cute, though. J was holding my hand as we ran (which made it waaaay easier, as you can imagine), and he told me, "It's ok, you can do it, hang in there mommy."

I was wondering if I looked as bad as I felt, that my 2nd grader thought I needed the support, but I got my turn to encourage him as we got closer to the end. Still holding hands, we were running across a parking lot when he said, "I'm going to need to walk soon." "Come on," I told him, "Let's just make it to the road. Stay tough...you're doing great." After a brief walk break, he took our passport and ran it in to the finish. We made it back with about two minutes to spare.

You can see J in the red jacket just about to round the corner.

It was a huge success all-around. Rain or not, it was a fantastic day to be out in the woods. J hung in there without any complaining at all for the entire three hours, and even better, was enthusiastic and excited about the whole thing. I'm starting to see some real progress in my navigating ability (though I have a loooong way to go to even achieve mediocrity), we had a really great family day together....and there was even food left when we made it to my brother's for Thanksgiving dinner.

It was such a good day, in fact, that it leads to the only "negative" about the whole thing. When we first started doing the meets, I wanted to compete together because Jeff's help was my only chance to figure out where we were on the map. My plan was always that, once I achieved some competence, we'd run the course separately. I can't imagine missing out on that time together, though. I could do it on my own now, but it's totally worth slowing down...at least, until my kid's the one outrunning me on the course.

Which is probably coming sooner than I think.

It seemed like a good idea at the time (the Skippo 30K)

2011-11-22T16:36:00.001-06:00

Hey, I've never run a 30K on the trails! *
Wow, 18.6 miles of trails will be a great challenge...*
Hmmm, that'll be a great training run for Pere Marquette...*

*Famous last words

The training: After signing up for the Big River Running's Skippo 30K because it seemed like a good idea at the time, I actually did do a little better with my training: I ran on the Marquette Park trails a couple times, on the local singletrack trails a couple times, and did one 16-mile run on the trails at Castlewood (my only double digit run), and two shorter trail races. I also did a couple of nighttime sidewalk jogs, and that was pretty much it. Stellar preparation for a demanding race.

The taper: And by "taper" I mean 16 miles of mountain biking Saturday morning. My friend Robin led a group ride at our local trails, and though she made me be there at 7 a.m. it was pretty awesome...once I was out of bed.

Photo credit: Robin Rongey

You can read all about it on her blog, but here's some video from the ride. I'm in yellow (with braids, as opposed to the guy in yellow), and while you can't see it in the video, I don't think I ever smiled in the video because I was concentrating on not falling.

Though it's not on the video, I did fall once. True to form, it was on a not-tricky part of the trail. I took a dip wrong and went over. It didn't really hurt, but apparently I still made my displeasure known. Chuck, who was ahead of me, told me, "Well, at least you're consistent...you curse every time you fall!" Come to think of it, he's been riding ahead of me for all of my falls but one, so I'm starting to think he's sabotaging me for entertainment value or something.

Pre-race: I wasn't surprised when I woke up and heard the rain, but I'd hoped the forecast was wrong. I briefly (ok, maybe not so briefly) thought about wimping out and going back to bed, but that wouldn't be very Super. Plus, I'd paid my registration fee, and I hate to waste money. So, I hit the road, learned that my tires suck in the rain, made it to the park in time to park in the park, and sat in my car for the next 45 minutes or so, only getting out when I absolutely had to.

Everybody huddled under the tents and near the heaters before the start. Sooo chilly.

Though I didn't realize it when I registered, I was going to be running the Skippo alone. Vanessa was supposed to do the 20K but sprained her ankle. There was a time when racing alone was my norm, but now I'm kind of spoiled by having friends to ride with or see there. As it turned out, Jeff, Krystal, and Dave from the tri club were all there as well...not that I'd be running with them because they're all much faster (and saner, having opted for the 10k or 20k) than I am.

About 5 minutes from start time they ~~pried us away from the warming stands~~ had us line up on the road, and despite the temps in the high 30's and slight rain, I wasn't too miserable. I had opted for a short sleeved tech shirt over a long sleeved compression top, running shorts, and tall striped socks. I've finally accepted that being comfortable pre-race means overheating during the race, so it was worth shivering for a bit. I did glance around for someone to huddle up to, but I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. :)

And we're off! The race course was a 10K loop. The bulk of the runners (176 finishers) ran the 10K (one loop), 136 finished the 20K (two loops), and a whopping 42 ~~crazies~~ runners finished the 30K (three loops). I'm listing finishers because no DNFs were mentioned on the results page but a volunteer mentioned people dropping out. Also, there were a lot more names listed on the registration page than results page, but people may have taken a look at the morning's weather and rolled back over in their warm bed.If they did, though, they screwed up, because it was a great morning for a trail run. Yes, it was chilly and windy and generally crappy out at the start, but once you were running the weather was perfect.

Lap 1: With all 350ish runners on the trails for this lap, the singletrack was pretty congested. This didn't bother me because I used all those other runners to keep my pace in check. I'm not fast, but sometimes my body thinks I am at the start. Instead of trying to pass people who were slower than I was, I focused on sticking behind them and running a conservative pace; after all, I was going to be out there for a while.

Despite all the runners, I did virtually no talking during this lap (shocking, I know) other than the occasional "on your left". Nobody around me had much to say, I guess. We started off down the road, onto the trail along the river, which was the only windy spot . Mile 1 came up quickly, and yes, I mentally counted down all 18.6 of them. This first section was nice and flat, but that was remedied by the infamous 200+ Castlewood stairs. People had reminded me not to run these, as if I physically had the option of doing so. If a man with a chainsaw and hockey mask had been chasing me, I couldn't have run these. Kill me now...

After the stairs, we climbed a slight hill and then a bigger hill, but that took us to the best part of the race for me, a long, somewhat technical downhill stretch. I've definitely grown as a trail runner because I had a blast on this section. I really focused on letting gravity take me and keeping my feet moving. Another highlight was the creek crossing. A slight rock bridge had been raked up in the creek, but I ran right through the water because 1) I prefer to run on the nice, flatter rock and hopefully not turn an ankle, and 2) it's just way more fun to run through the water.

The next section had a long, hateful hill. I didn't manage to run too much of it. This was followed by more level trail and then a shorter, less hateful hill where I got stuck behind some people who were walking in a spot that was hard to get around them. We crossed the road at the top of the hill, where the volunteer was holds up some really pissed off drivers, and then ran through the muddiest stretch of trail, which was weird because it was one of the upper trails that was the worst. I finished lap one in about 1:10, which was more or less what I'd expected.

Lap 2: Passing the finish line after the first lap wasn't too painful, but I did start doing some math (never a good thing). Nearly 400 runners + 2 kegs of beer + and only 50 or so of us running the full 30K = little chance of any beer left when we finished. The funny thing is, I don't even really like beer that much, but I started obsessing about it. I decided they should've gotten 3 kegs, one for each distance, and the 30K keg doesn't get tapped until the first 30K runner crosses the finish line (and probably mentioned this plan to everyone in earshot. I'm sure it wasn't annoying at all). On the other hand, I love food, and I didn't worry at all about there being food left. Go figure.

As I ran onto the trail along the river, the guy next to me and said, "You aren't likely to get shot by a hunter in that outfit!" (You'll have to take his word for it because the one--one!?!--race picture of me is hideous). That started a great conversation about running/biking/adventure racing/family/etc. that lasted until the top of the stairs when Chris dropped me. Among other things, I had shared with him my beer concerns and tried to convince him that if he finished ahead of me he should meet me along the course with a beer handup. How cool would that be?? As Chris ran ahead of me down the trail, I called out, "Don't forget my beer!!" Alas, it was not to happen.

On the stairs (just as bad the second time around), however, I met Jim, a fellow adventure racer who was also ~~certifiable~~ doing the 30K, so we spent the next couple miles talking about adventure racing, how cool the adventure racing community is, how I got ~~obsessed with~~ interested in adventure racing, how he learned orienteering, races we've done, etc. With a couple of miles remaining in the lap, he moved on as I just tried to keep moving.

I spendt the last couple miles of lap 2 with Terri, who was running the 20K. I'd let her pass once, thinking I was slowing her down, but then she had to stop and tie her shoe. When she came up behind me again, I offered to move over, but she said it was a good pace for her. I think for pretty much everyone I ran with, I was that slow person who helped them keep their pace nice and easy, just like the ones I followed in lap 1. That's OK, though, because she was great company, and we got to swap marathon stories as we ran .

The power of social media: Lap 3 actually happening had been in some doubt for a few days as I started realizing that I wasn't ready for this race. I mean, 30K is 18.6 miles! That's a distance I didn't get to until well into my marathon training, and this was going to be on trails. What were the chances I could actually do this? I had toyed with the possibility of stopping after 20K, BUT, I'd been talking about this race on my blog and on Facebook for a while. I'd have felt like an ass if I wimped out and didn't at least try to run the distance I'd signed up for (and of course I'd have owned up to it if I'd quit...there's no fun in telling what you've accomplished if you don't also admit when you fall short.) So, while I thought about calling it a day after 20K, I never seriously considered it. For long, anyway.

Lap 3: Kevin joined me as I was walking away from the water stop by the finish line, and we ran together for the rest of the race. Funny...he went to Big River Running to buy trail shoes after signing up for the Pere Marquette race and got talked into the Skippo--a 30K for his first trail race! It's amazing how much you can find to talk about with total strangers...and how much better the time passes when you have company. AT the next water stop, a volunteer told me I was the 11th woman ("Out of 11?", I asked, but apparently there were more). I really wished she hadn't told me, because I didn't want to feel like I had anything to hold onto. Luckily, there were no other women in sight, so I didn't have to do much to protect my "ranking".

As we reached the stairs, another guy came up behind us. I offered to let him go ahead of me because I knew I'd be dragging on the stairs, but he said, "No thanks, I've been following those socks for the last couple miles." So then we were three. I can't tell you how much better the last two laps were because of having people to talk to. I had a blast. Trail runners are awesome people.

The three of us stuck together for the remainder of the race. I think this was the first trail race for either of the guys, which I guess makes me the wily veteran (or at least the one who should have known better). I think they both enjoyed the trails, though Paul mentioned that he felt like he was the very last person. I was a combination of feeling pretty good (considering) and really wanting to be done. Around the halfway point of the lap, I noticed a couple a ways in front of us. Eventually I realized one of them was a girl. "She's probably not in the race, right?" I said, "so it doesn't matter that she's ahead of me."

"There's tenth place," Paul said, and as much as I tried not to care (I mean really...tenth place...big deal), I felt myself picking up the pace. We steadily chipped away at the distance and passed her with around a mile to go. And then I was done. It was ridiculous. All we had was a downhill, a little field to cross, and the finish line, and I could hardly make myself run. Paul pulled ahead of me, so I told him, "There you go...not last anymore!" "No," he answered, "c'mon, you've got this," and the guys pulled me the rest of the way as it started to sprinkle. It really started to rain once we were under the pavilion. Timing is everything.

Stats:
Time: 3:43:13, which is more or less what I expected my time would be.
Overall: 40/42
Female: 12/13
Age group: 4/5

Part of me wants to feel sad looking at those numbers, but I'm mostly happy just to have finished. Third last is actually a bonus, because I truly expected to be last. There are no walkers to pad my place in a race like this.

I'll run 30K, but I won't walk to my car: Because I arrived so early, I scored a parking spot about .1 mile from the start/finish, but it might have well have been 10 miles. There were shuttles running racers to the overflow parking at a nearby school, so I begged a ride with one of them. He didn't even make me feel bad for being such a wimp.

All in all, it was a fantastic race. Big River Running has put on some of my favorite races. They outdid themselves this year: organized parking, great race shirts (Nike dry fit), heaters at the start/finish, a fun course, a bag drop area, enthusiastic volunteers, good music, food and beer afterwards, and plentiful water stops.

Oh, but while there was beer left, all the BBQ was gone.

Fun photo Friday

2011-11-18T12:34:00.001-06:00

Saw this at a gas station on the way back from Land Between the Lakes. How could you resist?

It actually smelled much better than one would expect from the name. :)