My feet are KILLING me

Ever since running Lake Sonoma 50 miler a few weeks ago, both feet have been KILLING me! Both feet! Can you freaking believe that? My left heel is bruised or fractured or who knows what, and my right foot has posterior tibial tendonitis rearing it's ugly head and my ankle and the tendon that runs along the bottom of my foot is super painful. So, no running for me. My friend Kent, who just happens to be an orthopedic Doc, told me to take a break from running and let my feet heel. That's easy for him to say. So now, instead of lacing up my shoes and running along beautiful wildflower lined trails, I am putting on a swim suit, cap, and goggles and swimming back and forth over and over again. How boring is that? I almost feel like I am being punished! "You made your bed, now lie in it!" "You are a bad girl, now get in the pool and count how many laps you can do in 45 minutes!"

I am signed up for Miwok 100k next weekend but I won't be starting. I hate to think that I got in the lottery and now I am injured and can't run. While everyone is lined up ready to hit the sand for the start of the race, I will be sleeping in my bed, dreaming of lane lines and pull buoys.
Hitting the snooze button. Yawn. Boring.

I don't mean to sound so negative. I am looking at this running rest as a good thing. My body needs a little down time. I train all year. I don't take time off for good behavior. I am getting stronger by letting my body rest from all the pounding. It's a good thing, no, really it is. Have a good run tomorrow everyone. I will think of you all as I plan out my next adventure while in the pool. I will love every freaking minute of it too.

Dream and Live

EXPLORE * DREAM * DISCOVER *

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails." Mark Twain


I love this quote. It's totally true. We must live TODAY, for tomorrow is not promised. It reminded me that today is a gift and living life to the fullest is our gift back. I went to this site and got totally jacked up. I mean REALLY jacked up. As in crazy, pounding heart, insanely jacked. I guess that I am an adrenaline junkie. I love the idea of running and competing in exciting places. Pushing the limits. Taking risks. TCC really opened my eyes to this adventure racing thing. Doing incredible things in amazing places. Seeing just what you are made of. Seeing the whole YOU that God made. We are capable of so much more than most of us will ever know. I love people who are willing to dig deep and to experience an adventure that will change their life. I also checked out this site. Crap. I hate it when this happens. These races make me want to SCREAM with excitement. Hold me back, I think I losing control.

Tomorrow Leslie and I are running on the Western States trail from Foresthill to Last Chance and back. That run is always a butt kicker no matter how fit you are. I have been wanting to get up there for awhile, so I know that it will be a good day for a training run. This run will be a test to see if I should or can run Miwok 100k in two weeks. Ever since Lake Sonoma 50, I have had pain in both feet. Stretching and ice are the order of the week.

I challenge you to stretch your limits this year. Take a risk that you would not normally feel comfortable doing. Live the life you have imagined. I dare you. No, I double dare you.

Yesterday, Suzanna, Leslie and I ran in the Palisades in Calistoga. It is only about 30 minutes from my house, so I am really surprised that I haven't run there before. It was a beautiful run with a lot of hiking thrown in. There was so much technical trails that it was more of a hike than anything. We ended running about 18 miles. I am excited about going there again. Unfortunately, my legs felt like lead and my sore heel was really tender. The rocky trail was very unforgiving on my sore feet. Something is going on with both of my feet and I am planning on making an appointment to see a foot doctor on Monday.



Today I ran for about an hour in Annadel and felt good. I stopped a few times to stretch my achilles as I don't know if that has anything to do with my sore heel. It's starting to make me nervous because it is really painful.

Tomorrow is Easter and we will spend the day with family eating and hiding Easter eggs. It will be fun to connect with everyone and to watch the little kids find eggs that are hidden in the pasture. No rain is in the forecast so it should be sunny. I hope your Easter is a good one too.

Quote for the day

Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it,
Just pee on it and walk away

Sundays....

Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful. - Mark Victor Hansen

I always enjoy Sundays, but there is always that nagging feeling of knowing that tomorrow is a work day for me. Bummer! I like my job, but when it is nice outside, I hate to think that I am missing out on enjoying the sun on my back. I love being outside and today was no different. Matt and I spent a couple of hours in the yard clipping and raking. A boring job, but It felt so good to see the end result.

Wally and I are planning on running this afternoon, but as I look at the clock and see that it is 3:36, it makes me wonder. Hmmmmm. I guess I better call him and check in. It's a warm day and I am excited to do a short run on the trails. Today is a day that has me complaining of sore toes and a painful heel. I hate to complain, but I hate to have discomfort. Most of the time I feel pain while I try to sleep. Shouldn't it be the other way around? I would love to have one night of zero pain, but you can't have everything. I will just blame it on the Lupus and shut up about it. Done. But..... speaking of sleep, I read in the Hammer Nutrition catalog, that foods rich in Tyramine should be avoided at least 6 hours before going to bed. Foods containing tyrosine include almonds, avocados, bananas, and dairy products, as well as pumpkin and sesame seeds. Who would have known?

The Hazmat runner

Today I had a nice run in Annadel with Suz. I ran for 1.5 hours and she continued on. She has some serious training to do as San Diego 100 is her next 100 miler. I am not feeling especially motivated at the moment, so I need to get a goal. Any ideas? Anyone??? I also returned my new camera for another camera that is waterproof. It is an Olympus Stylus 1030 SW. It is going to work out great because it is almost break proof. I like that.

Tonight Matt and I went to see Sunshine Cleaning. It is a really good movie. It has some humor and some tenderness all rolled into one. It is a story about two sisters who start a business cleaning up crime scenes. I could relate to that because I have done a similar job. No, I have never cleaned up a crime scene or anything that gross. I have worked for a crime scene clean-up service, doing some other rather weird stuff. Let's leave it at that. Working at the morgue was interesting, not gross, and another job I did was just plain wrong. My friend Karen worked with me on that one. We spent most of the day sweating in a hazmat suit, under a bridge, with tools, and rat's, saying OMG almost continually. We looked like albino Umpa Loompa's. The pay was great. Who else would do it? Anyways, the movie was good. I highly recommend it.

Tomorrow we work in the yard. Our front yard looks like a forest. No, seriously. It's embarrassing. It's time to do something drastic. Like setting a bomb in the yard and starting over. Matt and I totally suck at yard work. We need a gardener. No, we need a hazmat crew to come in and do a major cleanup. Kinda like a crime scene without the blood. Hee Hee.

Have a wonderful Sunday and don't forget to do something fun. Life is short, play hard.

A beautiful day for a run

Today is a beautiful day for a run, so that is exactly what I did!! Suz and I ran for 1.5 hours at Sugarloaf and I felt pretty good. I have felt kinda under the weather since last Saturday's race, but today I felt back to normal. Yeah! I am wondering if maybe I took too many succeed caps during the race. Normally I take 1-2 per hour depending on the weather and how I am feeling. This time, my feet and lower legs would start to cramp, so I would pop a s-cap to ward off a full blown cramp from developing. I think I may have over done it. I felt like I was getting a bladder infection for a couple of days after the race, and maybe the over abundance of succeed could be a factor. Anyways........live and learn.



My friend Karen was running Coyote Two Moon 100k a few weeks ago and fell and fractured her wrist. Check out her external fixator. She is tough and is still running!!

Lake Sonoma 50 mile

Yesterday I ran in the second annual Lake Sonoma 5o mile race in Healdsburg, Ca. It was a beautiful day for a run, despite the temps being in the 80's. I was wondering how I would do, as I have only run one 25 miler, a 20 miler, and a few 3 hour runs since TCC. 50 miles is a long way, so I tried to be conservative out on the course. I enjoyed running and talking with Luanne Park for several miles. We hadn't seen each other since TRT last year. Kevin Sawchuck filled me in with all kinds of interesting things he does when he fast packs on the John Muir trail and my ipod filled my head with all kinds of different songs from rap to John Denver.



My goal for this race was to finish faster than last year. I finished 2nd woman last year with a time of 9:53. This year I finished 4th woman with a time of 9:22! I was 19th overall. I am happy with my time and I felt that I did the best that I could do for the training that I had. I had some issues with my left IT band and I had some cramping in my feet, so I tried to keep on top of that by taking Succeed and keeping hydrated. I did run out of water at the last aid station and ran the last five miles without any water. I was suffering big time because I was so thirsty. It was a stupid mistake in that I didn't check my hydration pack to see how much water I had left. My bad.

The swag was wonderful. I got a nice Brooks jacket, a Brooks skirt, a running shirt and lots of other goodies in my bag. For being the first oldest goat across the finish line, I also won a HUGE bottle of wine! See, getting old ain't so bad! Well, it has a few advantages!

Today I am wiped out and feeling the effects of a long day on the trail. Thanks to Stan Jensen for the above photo taken at his aid station.

IT'S TIME TO MAKE A COFFEE RUN

From today's NYT:



By GINA KOLATA
Published: March 25, 2009

WELDON JOHNSON first tried caffeine as a performance enhancer in 1998. He was not a coffee drinker but had heard that caffeine could make him run faster. So he went to a convenience store before a race and drank a cup of coffee.

For the first time in his life, he ran 10 kilometers in less than 30 minutes.

“I remember being really wired before the race,” he said in an e-mail message. “My body was shaking.”

From then on, he was a convert.......




Full story here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/health/nutrition/26best.html

Nostalgia

I found this pic the other day and it brought back a lot of memories. This pic was probably taken about 17 years ago. I was running 19 min. a day then, three times a week. I used my stairclimber on the other days. Why I ran 19 min. a day, I am really not sure. I do know that it took me 19 min. to do this certain run and I never ever did more than that. I would drop Courtney off at my friend Patty's house (next door), and then after my big run we would have coffee while the kids played. This pic is of my two daughters and the neighborhood girls. I don't recall why my son is not in the picture, but I am assuming that he didn't want to be THAT close, to that many GIRLS.

This weekend has been very cold and windy. I ran with Wally both days and it was nice to be out on the trails without rain. Next weekend I am running the Lake Sonoma 50 miler and my goal is to finish faster than last year. Last year my time was 9:53, and it was ficken blasting HOT. If we have a cooler day this year, I should be able to beat that time. We'll see!


I am excited to tell you that I am going to the Grand Canyon to run the r2r2r in May. We are going to have an absolute blast! I did this run 2 years ago, and it was so much fun. A real adventure. Let me rephrase that, it was a real tough adventure. But hey, after TCC nothing is too tough!

I am happy to report that I am still employed. I don't want to complain about my job because I am just so thankful to be working. Times are tough and we must continue to move forward with a positive attitude. When I look around and see so many people struggling with their health and so many other issues, I have to be thankful for what I have. Stress can kill you, so in this trying time, try to get out in the fresh air and MOVE. You will be so much happier for doing so.



Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever. Leo Buscaglia