Bye, bye, 2013.

Part one: run: 30 minute jog with the dog.  We walked a bit too.  My energy was pretty low this morning.  I'm taking supplements but don't seem to be absorbing much of what I eat. 

Part two: reflections: 2013 has been an odd year.  It was, quite simply, a retrenchment.  A slow beginning (sick and homeless, but just temporarily), and a blah sluggy end, and overall blandness, but with some unexpected highlights.  I didn't expect to run my first official ultra this year.

Part three: hopes for 2014.  Eh...well, here are the athletic ones.

1.  use our new pull up bar for an actual real pullup.  I'm going to start doing 'negatives' once I get my energy levels back up.  Starting point is 1/2 a pullup.  Yeah!  I'm also going to renew my 1-armed pushup pursuit.  I did one this year, but on a slight slope.  That was enough for me in 2013, but not in 2014.  This might help.

2.  run.  Race?  I don't know. 

3.   get through the summer without melting as much.

4.  start doing yoga regularly, just a short bit in the morning, and then whatever yin poses I need in the evening.   I still have to decide on a morning routine.

5.  keep up the ab work, and get back to the weights.

6.  BE THAT PERSON.  I have to be more assertive when it comes to possible gluten contamination.  I have to accept that I just can't eat anything prepared in certain restaurants or kitchens.  If they have a cloud of flour back there, anything coming out will get me sick.  I think I got sick this time off of some home baking that was in itself GF, but prepared in a non-GF kitchen.

I have been struggling with this for the past couple of years or so because I feel bad when people feel bad about excluding me.  I simply have to do a better job of convincing them that I simply don't have to eat at times.  The flipside has been enlightening: our recent visitors have (indirectly) reminded me that they are more susceptible to hypoglycemia and thus have to eat more often.  Though I graze at home and look forward to snack breaks at work, and sometimes eat a shocking disgusting amount at a single sitting, I often don't think about eating when I'm out.  I could go for hours with just water.  I don't eat much in the way of refined carbs except when I'm exercising, and so I'm not dealing with those persistent sugar cravings.  I salivate in front of the butcher case or chip aisle, and sometimes I remain starving no matter how much I eat, but I'm not dealing with surges of cravings.  However, other people don't understand this absence, and so they offer me food options which assuage their sense of obligation, and they often expend a fair deal of effort in trying to offer me GF food.  Unfortunately, like Yoda says, there is no try.  It's absolute.  My intestinal epithelium isn't protected by good intentions.  That's that.  I gotta be that weird person who doesn't eat sometimes.

 In 2014 (and beyond), I will not guilt eat or polite eat.

Meanwhile, to sum up in music: 

2013  Maybe...ok, I just picked one of my favourite music videos.
2014

still works

Bliss still hasn't worn off yet.

Pushups: 12 per set.
Pike situps: 10-11 per set.

Running: guts.  But things are better today.  There should be one more run in 2013 for me.

~

Catching up--visitors, Christmas, etc.

However, I have not been an Xmas piggy this year*, and I've run at least 30 minutes a day (until today) AND gotten back into the Bliss workout.  My back was slightly irked by a too-earnest seal pose a few days ago, but it seems to be fine now, and the left leg issue hasn't been returning.  Yesterday, the dog and I jogged for 1hr20 without any twinges--plus we found some unused (as in factory-flat) biodegradable dog poop bags on the trail.  And Happy Holidays to you too, Cosmos!

*except that I've somehow managed to overindulge in gluten.  Have eaten out a couple of times, and ate some supposedly gluten-free home baking.  When will I ever learn?  LOL

Edit: I have tentative plans for deeper musical exploration in 2014.  No more pop music.  I don't know if this counts as pop music anyway but might as well post it while I have the chance.

recovering

My back's still a little tender, but it turns out that sitting is far worse than running.

This morning, I went to a gym on post for the first time.   There are several gyms to choose from, and I was wondering if they each have a different atmosphere, but I ended up going to the most convenient one.  I had the women's locker room all to myself and then I wandered down past the squash courts and whatnot to a large room with weights and Nautilus machines and, yay, a few treadmills.   There were a bunch of guys in there of various ages (military retirees can also use the gym) but mostly on the weights.  One of the treadmills was free.  

I put my headphones on and jogged for an hour.  Hopefully there wasn't a 30-minute limit or whatever.

As I was leaving, I saw another woman in there doing something with dumbbells.  Nice to see!  It would have been cool to try more things out but my spazzstastic mishap might put me off the iron for a bit.  I'm honestly surprised that I was able to run without any issues today.  The worst was a tiny faint hint of the left leg issue, not much at all.  My back didn't complain.  

It was toasty in there though!  I would've worn my one remaining singlet, but it's a bit bloodstained (from that time something stung me in the forest).

Later on, I was sitting on a bench checking my texts and I noticed someone standing by me.  It was an old but fit guy who had been on one of the other treadmills.

"See you tomorrow?"  Fist bump.  I've gotten the nod a few times but this was my very first gym stranger fist bump, I think.

I explained with regrets that I don't go on post that often, but I would be thinking of him tomorrow.  Later on, I remembered that tomorrow is Christmas.  Sure doesn't feel like it!  Hopefully he gets his workout in.

Anyway, the gym had a good atmos.  Pretty relaxed.  Most people had headphones on.  But still serious.  Everyone I saw had worked up a good honest sweat.  Too bad there wasn't a colder room to run in, but I suppose that wouldn't get as many toxins out.  LOL

A lesson learned

Today has been rather warm and humid.  The high was about 25 or 26 C.

Great for hanging around outside in the sun--got a good dose of Vit D today!--but kind of miserable for running.  So I just did a 20 min tempo run on the TM in the toasty garage, and then I lifted.

At first, it felt great.  So much better than touching chilly metal!  I even thought about upping the weights, if all went well and I did a certain amount of reps with a certain weight...

However, it was humid, and I was continuing to sweat from the tempo run, and my grip started to suffer.   My last set of cleans really started to fall apart, and I resisted the one more rep that would make things right, because I knew it wouldn't.

If only I'd paid heed during the deadlifts too!  My second last one, the bar snagged in my hands and pinched calluses.  It hurt and I was prepared to give up but then I decided to be all tough and whatever--oh, and I also had a small chrome splinter in my thumb at this point.  Blah, blah, wah, wah, don't be such a baby!

Well, I went for one more rep and the bar really snagged.  It was really no go, but by then I was mostly up and I had to commit.  The sensation in my hands threw out the rest of me, and I set down the bar with the worst back spasms in my life.   Crap!  The worst I've done with weights has been just a little twinge; the worst I've done with anything else in my life has been just a slightly worse twinge, thanks to a sweet old lady (about 150 lbs) with a temporary loss of balance.  I turned to grab her, a big no-no in the PSW biz, but I couldn't let her fall.  Not her.  Maybe someone else (and yes, because our lift limit was 35-50 lbs, we were supposed to let anything (anyone) heavier than that fall as gently as possible.  Anyway, I had a few days of discomfort, but yoga fixed that.

I've also had years of low-grade back discomfort from scoliosis, but yoga fixed that too (not the scoliosis, just the discomfort).

Yep, it's time to relax.  Standing forward bend is the bomb!

I've done a few poses, and things feel a bit better already.  I don't notice the remnants of the chrome splinter anymore, and even the left leg issue is masked.  So much nicer to hurt symmetrically!  :D :D

~

Just the Bliss workout today.  No run: slight leg issue, mutinous girl bits, warm weather (24 C here today, and tomorrow is supposed to go up to 26), rain, etc, APATHY.  It seems that I won't make it off the waitlist for the January ultra so I have to find another race or goal, or at least something that will make exercising my dog here less boring and/or annoying.   Some days, I look into his earnest brown eyes and tell myself I'm doing this just for you, sweetie.

I should also tell myself that this is the lowest and darkest point of the year.  This is just a slump.  Not even an emotional one.  I feel pumped, just not about running.

Anyway, Bliss:
Pushups: 11-12 per set
Situps: 9-10 per set

I was trying to analyze my attraction to that music video, but I've since decided that it's just another fad and I should just be grateful that it gets me through a bunch of pushups and situps.  I don't allow myself to play it more than twice a day: once during the workout, and once afterward as a reward.  Hopefully this restraint will prevent its effects from wearing off.

Finding inner peace

On the right side of a semi-automatic pistol.

Yesterday morning, the dog and I jogged about a 1/2 hour.  I'm still keeping things easy so that the left leg issue stays away.

Yesterday afternoon, I went with my husband to a work party at a firing range.  Apparently, bowling was deemed "too boring". 

I had never fired a weapon in my life, although I used to play Duck Hunt and stuff like that; the closest I've come is pulling the trigger on a real but unloaded rifle hooked to a simulator.  There was no kick and no noise.  I didn't even know about the smell or the puff of expelled air and smoke, but my concerns were nevertheless ample.

But I had to try firing a real gun while I had the chance.  We once owned a small pistol for a few months; my husband had won it at a charity event back in Kansas.  It was a dull dark grey plastic, a colour that was mainly a void.  I touched it once and it didn't feel cold, just plastic; the inconspicuousness was unsettling.  It felt really odd just having it in the house even though it was closed up in a case tucked away in a closet and we didn't have any ammo.  My husband didn't like how the gun felt either, but how it fired, and it turned out that Cabelas buys weapons, so that was that.  I never fired it.  I didn't wish to fire it at the time, but later on, I regretted missing the chance.

I was passed a few pistols to hold at the party--I knew that they were unloaded but holding them was still so disquieting.  I was really doubting firing one.  But I had to try.

My husband gave me the safety drill and precautions, the sequence of loading and firing and unloading, the proper way to hold the pistol (although there are variations), the proper way to aim.  There's a fair bit to remember, but it was reassuring to learn it.  Then it came time to actually fire it.

This turned out to be actually incredibly simple, and peaceful. 

One dot.

Admittedly, there is a lot to consider when aiming, but when everything else in place, one dot (of the front sight) goes over the target--which shouldn't even be in focus at this point.  There is just one dot.  That's all.

The bang and recoil and smell comes later, after the simple peaceful instant.

I get sort of zen before power cleans--I have to empty my mind before heavier ones, otherwise they don't work.  But the focus prior to firing the pistol was much more intense and exclusive.  I forgot I was human, I forgot I was at a range, I even forgot I was holding a gun at times.  Just one dot.  As if it's the very first living cell of the entire universe.

Honestly, I loved it.  

I hit the paper on the first shot, which was apparently pretty good at that distance for anybody.  I tried a few different pistols and emptied four or five small magazines that afternoon.  No bulleyes, not yet.

I've taken many yoga classes over the years and a common theme has been 'being present'.  Silence the mental chatter, silence the mental chatter, I have continuously failed to silence the mental chatter.  My best efforts have merely muted it for a second or two.  How strange to finally totally shut it up during the antithesis of yoga.

sun

Basked in the SUN this morning.  5 C and bright.  It doesn't get much better than this.  I saw three other runners in and around the forest.

50 minute jog without a return of the left leg issue.   I thought about doing ab work afterward, but I've realized that I like doing it shortly before bed.  Unlike other workouts, it's not sleep disruptive; if anything, it seems to help me sleep more soundly.  A mere four minutes of discomfort followed by some stretching and yoga on a carpet*, all the while listening to music...it's a pretty soporific routine.

Edit: pushups: 12-13 per set, pike situps: 9-11 per set (man, that last set kills).  This sort of feels it could be a plateau, but there's only one way to find out for sure.


*Savasana is not only a legit yoga pose but the most important one, according to a few of my teachers.  It allows the body to integrate the work that was done and return to a calmer state.  Edit: the first point is neither here nor there because the second point predominates: final savasana = adult nap time.  Some teachers even distribute blankets and tuck students in!

~

Short jog in the morning, weights in the evening, and some stretching.

Admittedly, I haven't been doing squats, though, except as part of the iron cross.  There is a bit of squatting in power cleans, I suppose...at any rate, I don't like how squats feel with dumbbells or with the EZ bar (front squat).  My quads don't get the brunt.  Even with weighted goblet squats, I'm not feeling what I should be feeling.

Fortunately, pistol squats do the trick.  :/  Yep, gotta deal with it.

At least, I didn't feel the left leg issue at all today. 

pacing!

Bliss take 4...

Pushups, first set: 16.  Yeah! pumped! easy!
Sets 2-4: 12-14 and not easy

Situps: 5-12.  I was wiped by the end.  :/

No run today, just stretching.  Haven't felt the leg issue at all today. 

Cold rain

The dog and I are apparently rain dancers this week: almost every run or walk has enticed at least a little bit of drizzle.  I used to despise cold rain, but since the alternative here is heat and humidity, cold rain has become my friend.  We even remember each others' birthdays.

This morning, we headed out in mild drizzle, originally for a 1/2 hr or so in the closer woods.  However, that was too dull a proposition even though the hearty gunfire from a nearby training exercise was the perfect backdrop to pretending to be Hunted or The Last Survivor or whatever, especially since the guns were closer than usual and there was also a spooky quasi-fog...but, eh, I wasn't in the mood.

Weekends in the larger woods is sometimes the only opportunity for seeing other runners, and I needed some reassurance (yay, I'm not the only one with this hobby!) so we jogged there instead.  The left leg issue didn't crop up, but I remained attentive to form and avoided the tougher trails.  I wanted to stay out longer, but I kept to a sensible 50 minutes.  And we saw 2 runners.

We returned home in thick rain, and I did weights.  They seem to be helping.  I'm not exactly sure what the leg issue is--perhaps a complaining nerve--but I have been doing very little stretching recently, and yin yoga, what's that? :/  Probably I just need to stretch more.

Bliss, part 3

pushups: 12-13 per set
situps: 10 per set

Although, I got a few extra breaths because the poor internet crapped out several times during four minutes of youtube.  LOL

I still feel the left leg issue sometimes--for example, I didn't feel it during short intervals of running yesterday and today, but I felt it sitting down later today.  I had thought about a long run tomorrow, but that might not happen. 

Bliss, Part 2

It was my first time attempting 4(30 seconds of pushups and 30 seconds of pike situps) to the accompaniment of Bliss.  I don't have all of the transition points memorized yet.

It went quickly but arduously.

Pushups (wide-handed): 11-13 reps per set.  Not bad.  I thought about putting my hands more closely together, but I think this would shift the burn to my shoulders from my core--and I want it in my core.  I'm already doing other shoulder exercises.

Pike situps: 6-8 reps per set.  These were brutal.  Usually, I start feeling bad around rep 11 or so, but today I got only a couple or so freebies each time.  Yippee!  Situps are boring and so I appreciate getting to the discomfort more quickly.

I think this might actually be a core regimen that I might actually stick to.  My road to rock solid abs (or at least not-drooping-like-an-overcooked-noodle abs) has had many, many detours thus far.

~

Walk this morning, and 50 minutes on the treadmill this evening.  I can't get enough of Muse these days.  Their music videos compress time amazingly--I've liked a few of their songs over the years, but I had no idea what I was missing visually.  Anyway, I was aiming for an hour, but I started to feel a hint of the left leg issue, so I stretched, jogged for a few more minutes, and ended on a high note.  

And then weights.  The garage was at an awkward temperature: a bit too warm for running, a bit too cold for lifting.  However, the power cleans went really well: I generated more power during the first pull, which turned the bar to air again.  Now I have to avoid losing so much momentum prior to the second pull.

No ab stuff today.

Fumbling despair--NOT

I wasn't the only one to derive childlike glee from yesterday's football game, as it turns out.  This article explains it wonderfully.  Watching a game on green turf afterward was a let down.

Meanwhile, no snow here. 

Four minutes

of bliss.

Not discomfort.  4(30 seconds of pushups + 30 seconds of pike situps). That little bit lit the tinder of my lower abs.  It still hurts a bit.  But, oh, no, let's not call it discomfort.  Bliss.  Eventually, I may convince myself.

Meanwhile, I'll memorize the 30 second intervals in this song because I hate ab work, and I hate counting reps about as much as I hate waiting for an indeterminate beep signalling the end of a malevolently expanding time interval.  It's taken me this long (years, over a decade) to think about chaining ab work to a song I like.  Hopefully this doesn't mar the music!

My schedule has been thrown off by home renos, but at least the dog and I have been walking.

Mantracker!

It was raining and my left leg is still sort of messed up, so the dog and I went to the smaller, closer forest, and the rain turned to a downpour.

I figured that it might be a good opportunity for him to go off-lead.  This doesn't happen very often; I can't even remember the last time.  Basically, the weather has to be so crappy that I assume that nobody else is out.

However, when we got there, the gate was unlocked.  It doesn't bar people, just cars.  Perhaps a ranger unlocked it to back a truck in, then forgot it.  I didn't think the paths were wide enough for a truck.

However, once I got to a clear section, I saw new tire tracks.  ooo, let's find the truck!

To my amazement, running felt fine.  I felt sloppy about picking my left foot up over roots, though...I guess that was the problem.  I have to earn more clearance the hard way, not just sort of tilt my foot sideways. 

The ranger drove through an intersection ahead of us, and then slowed down.  We were still a fair ways off though, so we didn't catch him or her (incidentally, one of the female rangers might be a runner too).

Our jog/walk/mantracking was about 20-25 minutes, mostly in pouring rain. 

And then, weights.  A REALLY good workout.  The garage is cold and the Philly-Detroit "Snow Bowl" is on.  There's about six inches of snow on the field; football has turned from "something that other people watch" to a major source of buoyant joy.  I did the floor and dumbbell exercises in front of the TV, and went to the garage for the heavier stuff during commercials.

I'm almost back to my old numbers.  Things went so well that I thought about loading a bit more on the power cleans but, no, I have to be patient and add another couple of reps or so before I attempt it.  At any rate, muscle tinglies now.

EDIT: the best article I read about the Snow Bowl: bring it on!   Plus, whining about fans throwing snowballs.

~

2:15 with the dog.  It was great running weather, about 7 C and a little drizzly, but not humid.  Super for me, not so much for other people, I guess: it was almost empty in the forest.  When we got there, we jogged one loop, then did the next one as a fartlek. 

My mental soundtrack.  (kind of NSFW around 3 min, but I chose this version instead of the cleaner ones on youtube because the director also posted some illuminating insight here.  Admittedly, it took me a couple of plays before I got into the video, which is crazy because what's not to like about something that has kung fu, a Western saloon, a robot AND a unicorn?  The six year old me would have been all over that.  But I suppose I was in the wrong mood at first, but then I got on board.  This was even before I read the director's blurb, which perhaps suggests that I have an open mind.  As in, hopefully not leaking open.)

Unfortunately, I seem to have developed a new sort of glitch.  Near the end of my run, my left leg sort of seized up.  There wasn't a lot of pain, hardly any, in fact, but I couldn't bend my knee or swing my leg forward properly.  Running was too lopsided so I stopped to walk, and then something sort of popped and loosened up.  Then I could run, but just for several minutes before the problem returned.  Walking is fine, though, and fortunately I was on my way home by this point.

I can't remember having this issue before.  Possible culprits:

Incomplete recovery from the 50 miler.  Was this my longest run since?  I can't remember. 

Recent gluten mishap.  It's been pretty slight, and I haven't felt joint issues before now, but maybe they were brewing.

Different shoes.  Today, I wore the trail shoes I'd worn for the first 40 miles of the race, and they were fine then, but there were very few roots.  Unlike my home trails, on which trail shoes didn't feel agile enough.  I've worn them just once or twice.  They were too clunky even though they are actually the trail version of the shoes I usually wear.  Yeah, not quite their intended use, and I can't believe they're over two years old, but they've been fine except the mesh lets too much sand in after four hours or so.

Anyway, today, the trail shoes felt ok except I kept snagging my heels on roots at first.  There isn't much difference in the drop, 8 mm as opposed to 6 mm, and I'd thought I was adjusting well, but maybe this was enough to bung motion up after a couple of hours.  Maybe I was tilting my feet up towards the sides to clear the roots.  Who knows?  But it seems clear that they're not going to go the distance.

I'm a bit gutted because I was considering wearing the trail shoes for the ultra.  But plan B isn't out of reach: wear my usual shoes, take them off every couple of hours or so, and dump the sand out.  Surely my lazy butt can manage that at least.  I'm hoping to do a long run next weekend, so I'll give it a whirl then.

So I'm waiting for a plumber.

Is there any possible way to make that sound better?  All he or she has to do is move a shower drain.  I don't know what's down there but if it's just PVC, heck, I have a saw and PVC cement, and I could order the couplings on Amazon.  I don't even have to leave my house.

But I want to!

The plumber was supposed to come yesterday, but there were delays.  So I walked the dog and bummed around.  Eventually, I found out how much I've already forgotten about linear algebra, which I never understood completely.  I got an A- with possibly haphazard proofs and definitely sloppy matrix computations, shots in the dark...that subject is STILL under my skin.  I'm not used to not understanding something.  I've read that the best way to get past that is to struggle and fail to understand higher and more abstract concepts.

Anyway, I was watching a bunch of lectures (FYI, the gold standard are Gilbert Strang's), including this demo, whereupon I got hung up on visualizing something orthogonal to two separate vectors--but they're in the same space!  Duh! Fortunately, I sorted it out, but in my sleep. 

This was the second dream that woke me up last night, even worse.  The only thing I remember about the first dream was that it woke me up about 2 hrs after I fell asleep, but maybe I dreamed that too.  At any rate, I woke up again, and then slipped back into the zeds, this time into an office.  Then I went to the London Olympics with a choral group dressed in Tudor clothing (I was also listening to Tudor music again yesterday).  I wasn't part of the choir, I was just tagging along, although I split off to run laps around what appeared to be a train station (?!).   It was a highly unsatisfying run.  I kept messing up the laps and I had to weave around people and obstacles, including a large bin full of mail, and I wasn't even wearing running clothes.  However, I made it to the stadium in time for the performance, but one woman in attendance started dissing it (I was also watching episodes of The League yesterday, and she reminded me of Gina Gibiatti) and I ended up pushing her purse against her mouth to shut her up.  What?  I felt bad, and I felt even worse when another woman, a much nicer woman who had been helping me out throughout in the dream, asked me if I knew her name.  She knew mine but I was at a loss for hers: Enlerp/Ernlerp.  Something like that--and I've forgotten it again!--except that the Rs are rolled like French Rs.  That was really important to her.  I felt so guilty that I woke up so that I wouldn't forget the name, in vain.  Ernlerp?

Where did that come from, anyway?  I so rarely remember dreams; the ones I do remember usually have significant elements which I can usually trace back to whatever I'd done the day before.  Ernlerp, though, is mystifying.  So I googled it.  And now I'm even more confounded but at least I found somebody's cool site and an amusing coincidence.  I don't remember reading about nlerp before, but my memory is decidedly faulty.

By the way, I really like this woman's presentation and boardwork. Just got to throw that up here. 
Oh, and she does not resemble Ernlerp at all.  Ernlerp had no accent but was Asian.

And while I'm slinging around algebra videos: this series looks promising.  Meanwhile, I must go to Germany sometime.  Occasionally, I find something that seems so incredibly German, but I'm too ignorant to know for sure.  But maybe I shouldn't go because I might be disappointed.

Anyway, now I'm waiting for the plumber again.  Just walked with the dog this morning and it was already almost 20 C, and clammy.  I feel like I need another shower.  Actually, I DO need another shower, which the plumber is supposed to work on.  I also need another brain.  I haven't been sleeping that well this week, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary, until last night.  It was the pits.  It was a lot of work.

I also need new clothes.  But not from Sally Ann this time: new running bra, take four.  Whole other post, I think.

~

I felt off this morning (eh, guts), but was good to go this evening.  1 hr 20 on the treadmill and then weights.

I'd thought about watching part of the Berlin marathon but youtube served me a good string of music videos and time passed quickly.  However, my quads started feeling heavy near the end.  I wasn't breathing hard at all, not even close, so I don't think it was lactic acid, but maybe the music was pushing me more than I realized.  And it's been a while since I've been on the treadmill.  I'm not used to uniform and/or flat surfaces anymore, or the same stresses prolonged.  Still, it was really nice to not have to pick up my feet or have to watch where I was going!

Easy run wasn't easy

Because I had this song stuck in my head while I was running.  So, not a hard run either!

How to describe my run this morning

It was not like this.  Au contraire.

The dog wouldn't even get moving.  After a lot of coaxing, he left the bed...and I gave up and considered starting a mental Cyber Monday list with a CO meter.

Company has thrown us off our routines: he hasn't been getting his massages.  And I've realized that I haven't taken iron supplements for almost a week.  Plus, though I told our guests the kitchen rules (basically, keeping wheat products off the stuff I use, including towels and J-cloths), it's hard to remember this.  Plus we ate out a few times and, though most of what I ate was oysters and salads, I was tired of that salads by the last place, and they didn't have oysters, so I had grits.  I'm not feeling bad, just kind of run down.  I slept over 12 hrs a couple of nights ago.

Anyway, no dog: tempo run.  It was not like this.  Temp was ok 7-8 C (it's supposed to go up to 27 C on Friday), and there weren't too many cars out then and some of them made room for me, which is nice.  I still went on the shoulder except at the very end when a car pulled completely over into the opposing lane well in advance, before I had a chance to go back on the pine needles.  That made my path clear.  I had no qualms about staying on the road.  THANK YOU, super nice grey station wagon (Subaru?) driver!!  Plus, I was able to stay on the asphalt up the worst 2 hills, which was amazing.

3 sluggish miles, 22:21.  That's more my (lack of) speed.  It would help, though, if I did at least one tempo every week instead of just staying in this jog trance.  I've been lazy for months--yeah, I've developed a thick jog trance and I love it, but it wouldn't kill me to push a little sometimes.  But I'm not training for anything, sort of: I'm still on a waitlist for a January ultra and I'll do a long run in about two weeks for that just in case.  Fortunately, since I ended up running the other ultra, I won't be too gutted if I don't get in.  My main regret would be not knowing how many times I would've tripped.

Yeah, I went back into the forest on the way home and it was not like this.  I was sapped.  Total: 1 hr, 25 minutes of suckage.  It was good practice.  If I get into that ultra, I'll have to go up that long sandy hill 14 times, and after 6 or 7 times, I'll be tired.   And I'll have to make it through that tough rooty section 14 times.  I handled it ok today, but I let my guard down and snagged my foot on something later on--but didn't fall!  I tore my shoe and bruised my foot--but didn't notice either until I got home.  My foot is fine.  My shoe will be fine with a bit of duct tape. 

And then, weights.  Light power cleans to warm up.  They were not like this.* The garage is uninsulated, and I'd thought that the 30+ C days were troublesome, but turns out when it's too cold, I can't even get a proper grip.  The first rep, I couldn't get the bar up; the second rep, I got it up but couldn't get it onto my fingers at the top--it was snagged in my palm somehow.  That kind of hurt.  That was that.  Sucks to bail on an easy weight.  I went into the house and did some pushups and pike situps.  Maybe I can find an old pair of mittens that won't tear.  Maybe I'll have more energy next time.

Maybe the next run will be like this.

* Edit: by the way, the sound engineer here is a wizard--I used to spend hours and hours and hours with period instruments.  I know how lush they can sound in the right environment, but this surpasses superior acoustics.  And props to the harpsichordist.  Handel gave him only one written line of music and he had to extrapolate from there--so thick, dude! And yet some nice delicacy too when needed in the 2nd section, which sounds more like Lascia ch'io pianga than the next movement of the concerto, but, hey, folks switched things up all the time back in the day, and trunk arias don't get much classier than that (well, until they pimped up the ending in the movie, LOLZ, but folks did that all the time back then too).   Man, sometimes I really miss the tunes.

~

This has been a peak week for my digestive system. 

My husband and I jogged a few miles with the dog today, and everything felt so heavy.  Our week-long guests left yesterday and I didn't keep up with the drinking, I didn't keep up with my workouts, but I ate more than my fair share.  And my gluttony came to light during my run today.

"Oh, remember not the sins and offenses of my youth."