It was early morning, yes, today.
I was up before the dawn.
But I'm and early morning runner,
and I must be movin' on


OK, so that is not EXACTLY how the song goes, but hey, read my status.  I ended up only putting in 3.5 instead of 4.1, so I didn't cut it too short, but my insides wanted outside, so instead of one more block, I bailed.  Eh, it happens.  I'm headed to the Y tonight for an ActivTrax intro.  Supposedly it will help me focus my cross-training.  I'm sceptical, but we will give it a go.  Worse case is, it is free and it can't hurt.  Since the appointment for the base-line is at 5:30, it will give me time to get in a bit of cardio for a warm up before hitting the weights.

SO, now to the story of a little 4 mile run back in the dark ages when CatChowder1 and TexasRunningFool were still playing with Barbie dolls.  This is long, so this would be a good time to bail if you are so inclined.

Wow, Time's fun when you're having flies

Well, where has all the time gone?  When last we left our intrepid runner, he was contemplating a Pikermi in July.  Well, lots of stuff happened and that isn't one of them.  First, I ran the two 10K's and kicked butt for first time runs.  Both were under an hour, so I was quite pleased with that.  I met some odd folks at one of the races in town this summer.  One of them dragged me by force into a web-site called "Runners World".  They have a place there called "the Loop".  It is half-forum half-blog site, altogether fun and supportive of those who run.  I'll come back to this, more updates....

No More Complaining About the New Software---This is about running.

Yesterday I did something that I never thought I would.  NO CC1 and TRF, I have 4 daughters so THAT isn't it.  I regestered the Mrs. for a race.  Specifically the Run Like Hell Portland 5K.  So she will be getting up with me on my b-day and going for a little run.  It will be her first race, and I am hoping that she has a blast.  I think the Warrior Dash put the bug in her.  We had a lot of fun after, and she and Number 1 hung out waiting for me to finish my wave, so she had a lot of time to find out how much fun it is at a race.  She has been sort of working on the Couch to 5K thing, and she is on week 6 and feeling pretty proud of herself.  She doesn't need the full "rest/walk" time to get her breathing back.  Also when she finished her first run for 20 minutes with no breaks she came home and mapped it out.  She was beside herself.  1.7+ miles.  As she points out, "I've never run a MILE non-stop in my life.  I was one of those girls in Jr. High PE that walked the whole mile."  Needless to say, I'm proud of my little woman.

Today's 4 miler felt fantastic.  I didn't tape up the ankle to see how it would do, and it was fine.  There is only the slightest amount of tightness in it right now, and I expect by noon it will have passed.  Look out 8 miler, I'm coming for you in the morning!

I will be doing that little 5K on Sunday as a recovery run; http://www.runningwater5k.org/  So if anyone in the Portland area wants to come and play, let me know I will look for you.  If I know you are coming and there is more than 3 of us (up to 5) we can get in for the price of 2 and the extra we can donate to a good cause, donuts and coffee after!  ; )

See no bad mouthing the feed function that seems to track CC1 through every page in RW.  No grousing about comments made to feed items that you have to find like easter eggs.  This was ALL about running.

***Apologies to those reading this with no idea who or what I am mentioning from the other site. 

OK, I'll wait for you to run up the hill and put your tail down. --Moved from other site

So, this morning's 4 miler got a 30 second pause in it.  As I made my way along my normal route, I noted a little movement along the path a ways in front of me.  Now the little LED flashlight gives off enough light to see where my steps are, and to shine a driver's eyes to let them know I am on the road, but it isn't really good too far away.  So I rely on my very good night vision for distance stuff.  I recognized the shape right away.  Pole-cat!  Lovely little furball of a weasel, but with a tendency to spray when frightened.  I slow down and watch where he is going.  Well, as I approach, he stops, looks at me, turns and runs away and back across the path towards the hill he had just come down.  Why did I pause, well, he had his tail in the "Cocked and Locked" upright position, and I really didn't feel like trying to sneak into the house to get my money to go buy a shopping cart full of tomato juice smelling like fresh skunk.  He gets up into the tree-line and as I run by I can see him right at the edge watching me run.  The rest of the run was quite uneventful after that.

My heel continues to heal, and right now isn't too sore and tender.  I should be able to get a few more runs in this week. I am thinking of trying for 8 on Saturday with a nice little recovery 5K on Sunday.  I posted about it over the weekend, but since I'm not in the Middle yet, no one really noticed (except ElktonRunGirl, which was quite flattering, since I know by the time she commented I had dropped off the page).  There is a little fundraiser on Sunday in Sherwood for bringing fresh water to Zambia.http://www.runningwater5k.org  They have an interesting price structure for the race, $35 for one, $70 for up to 5.  If there are any Portland area folks who want to get together and have a fun little run next Sunday then have donuts just down from the Start/Finish line, we could put together a "team" and have a little fun.  I will be there anyway, as I like to support the local races, because then they might have more next year...  Let me know if you are interested.

Have a marvelous Tuesday.

Two things today---one good, and one eh ---Moved from other site

So, maybe I pushed it a little today.  I could have shortened it up at 5, but I so wanted to go a bit past 6.  As I type this, I realize only runners will get this.  I have been recovering from my bout with Achilles tendinitis as has been chronicled here on these hollowed "pages".  I got a few runs in the last couple of weeks, and my ankle/heel has felt a bit tight after but not too bad.  This morning, I mapped out a nice leisurly 6.8 miles and took it slow, and I mean slow, I used the same playlist as I had for other long runs along that same basic path, and I was about a song behind and "losing ground" as I went.  That is one of the benefits of running with music, since I am TOO cheap to own one of them thar fandancy computators that hang on your wrist and all, you can judge how you are doing by the songs playing.  Ever see the movie "Hudson Hawk"?  If you did you, me and my projectionist are the only ones, but in that movie, Bruce Willis' character times his thefts by singing music.  His partner tells him they have invented watches since he was in prison.  Anyway, that is how I time my runs. I don't do splits and I just go.  So today I just went, and now my ankle is complaining...I am hoping that by tonight it will have settled back down as was the case after the Warrior Dash.  We shall see.

Now to the second thing.  Around Sherwood there are all these little yard signs for a running water 5K, so I looked it up.  I looks like one of the local churches is putting on a charity event for getting fresh water in Zambia.  The interesting part is the registration fees are the same for on-line as well as day of event.  $35 each or a team/family up to 5 runners for $70.  SO, any Portland area Loopsters want to come to my neck of the woods next Sunday for a little jog around town?  Here is the link to the page:
http://www.runningwater5k.org/
 
It might be a fun little recovery run for some of you, or a chance to hang out after at Sesame Donuts and knock back a coffee and maple bar.  Just a short walk from the finish line.

5K-ish in 35:42:00 isn't a PR--but DANG fun!! W/ LINKS to Picts.

Saturday I went for a nice little warmup on my healing heel.  I got a nice 3.25 miles in in 30 minutes.  Not to shabby, and as someone pointed out to me, that is their race pace, and I did that for my warmup getting the ankle back into training shape.

Sunday, was a WAY different story, and one I hope to repeat next year, only a bit faster.  You see, yesterday, I got the fam up, made pancakes (good pre-race meal right?), and got all the girls dressed.  We took Numbers 2, 3, and 4 to the in-laws so they could play with Grandma, and the Mrs. and Number 1 and I headed to the fields of North Plains to the Warrior Dash.  Now the Mrs. isn't a runner yet, but I do have her on the Couch-to-5K plan (insert evil laugh here) so I was the only one running this day.  We got to the site about dead on 12:00 noon, for my 1:00 race time.  Wondered through the crowd and found packet pick-up, gear check and the ID check booths.  Got wrist-bands, tied on the timing chip, was warned to make sure I still had my shoes at the end, and checked our stuff.  Number 1 had pockets so she got to hold the important stuff, like cash, and my free drink ticket.

We walked up to the course to watch the last three obstacles, the Warrior Roast, Tire step, and the mud pit.  When we got to the fires, they were diverting runners around it.  It took a couple of seconds to resolve what was going on.  As far as I could tell by the tableau before us, that a woman had cleared the first fire jump, but had stumbled and fell hands first into the second.  This was not a pretty scene, and one that caused my eldest to be very nervous for me until I finished.  They re-opened it while we stood there, and she was carted to the waiting ambulances.

Next we watched people stumble and fall through the tires, then to the mud pit.  Nice bit of fun this looked to be.  They have a guy with a garden hose spraying water on the runners and then down a short 4' drop to a watery mud pit followed by a low crawl under barbed wire to the another slope of mud, and then a short distance to the finish line.  While we are standing there, a large chap dressed as a viking jumps down into the pit.  We could tell that he thought it was deeper than it was, and he did not land well.  He took about 10 minutes to go the final 50 yards or so, and hobbled to the medics at the end.  I watched them tend to his right leg a while, then he too got carted off to the ambulance crews.  I'm thinking---"I am just getting over Achilles tendinitis am I nuts?"

DUH!

Off to the line-up I go.  Try to stretch and warm the quads up in a "small" pack without kicking anyone.  The flames light up, and we are off.  We start down a steep little path, and talk about first turn pile-ups.  The first 300 yards are one big pile up.  We get stuff sorted for a short period, and we come to the first surprise obstacle.  A water crossing that by now is nothing but water rushing happily over very churned up mud, round the corner after getting wet to our calves and hello hill! The first of many long steep climbs.  One was steep enough that they ran ropes down in case you needed to pull yourself up.  Down a very steep hill, steep enough that I was afraid I would actually loose my footing and fall forward down the hill and take out the people in front of me.  At the bottom of that hill, into the "waist deep water" to then climb over log.  This water would have been waist deep to the late Manute Bol, it hit me just below my ribcage.  I ended in the drink more than once, and as some here may know, I don't like cold water and this water was cold.  Got out of there, and over some hay bales, then over a bridge that was a ladder climb up and over the road, then a run down along the parking lots to a bunch of little challenges, like two different cargo net cimbs, a small "repel" that had turned into a sit and slide down the mud.  We got to jump over a few cars then up some more gorram hills.  At this point, I am walking up the dang things because I figure as steep as they are, I could walk faster than I could run them, and based on the number of people I passed, I wasn't wrong.  At the top of one, we got to go through the "Blackout" trench.  Basically a ditch that they put a bunch of tarps over, then mad sure that it was very dark inside by having two sets of curtains to crawl through on each end about 6' apart.  Since I had seen pictures of someone's knee from Saturday's fun, I "spider" crawled through rather than hands and knees.  Down a little hill, just to climb the next one, and we are almost there.  Thanks for sticking with me so far, if I was ForeverRun (a.k.a. Sara) this would be the end....but I promised pictures.

At the end of the last climb, we get to the Warrior Roast.

This is the second jump and I had to showboat a little.

Through the tires was slow, as the Mrs had asked that I take some time for her to get to the mud pit.

This is after the first slide into the pit.  This mud was as much gravel as mud and my knees are a bit chewed up this morning.

But in the end...

A nice finisher's medal, and to the victor goes the spoils!

After this, a washdown in the Ganges, as the Mrs. was calling it.  They didn't have shower just another gorram cold pond for us to get most of the mud off.  A quick change of clothes and off to the beer and turkey legs!  The camera batteries had died by this time, and I don't have any shots of me getting "clean" of the party after.  But I would do this again next year--no question.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! ---Moved form other site

Heck, I might even futterwacken vigorously when I get home tonight.  I snuck out at 5:00 this morning and went for a slow 20 minute little test of the ankle.  It felt pretty good to be, as Willie would say, on the road again. 

I waited until now to "officially" post about it since I wanted to see how my ankle felt after a few hours.  So far, it feels about like it did at this time yesterday, a bit tight but not anything too bad.  I might get up and see if I can go for 25 minutes tomorrow morning.  I have that lovely little obstacle course race on Sunday that I would be quite put out if I couldn't run the whole length of.  But, at the same time, I am not interested in blowing out my ankle. 

That and I will need to gently cram for a Pikermi at the end of October.  Can one gently cram?  And now it seems I am also signed up for a race that doesn't even exist yet.  How cool is that!?!

OK, when do the guys with the "Self-Love Jacket" show up? ---Moved from other site

I have just offered to pay for my neighbor to run in NEXT year's Portland Marathon, under the condition that she trains with me to get me into shape for it.  She has run it in the past.  Her eyes lit up like I had just given her the bestest Christmas present EVER.  I will need to save some extra scratch to pony for two rides, but it will be worth it.  So, when do the guys in the white coats get here to take me away?  Clearly I have a cog that has slipped quite a ways out of allignment.  Thorazine and a padded cell, please.  I am a short distance from Dammish State Hospital, and while I know it hasn't been the same since one flew over it, they have lots of space.  So, once my heel is better, and I can sneak through the Pikermi on my b-day, I will get ready by building one heck of a 2011 schedule.  I can start it with the Jingle Bell Run in December.  We will add some more to it as we go along.

 Yup, off my cracker now.  Heck, I am still thinking that I want to put together a HTC team as well.  Prospective members must enjoy running, lots of kids, hanging out on the beach near a bonfire, and being well, loud.  That would make a heck of a Craigslist ad.