Bye Bye February!

And good riddance!

I was due for a tough month, I know. February filled the role nicely.

I already wrote about my nasty cold keeping me home from work and slowing down my runs and my first race since the Houston Marathon. Well, last Saturday I got a nice urinary tract infection to top off the week and the month. Luckily (?), when I realized I was coming down with this bug, I happened to be in the emergency room already with my daughter, who had a mysterious throat ailment that fortunately turned out to be nothing. Having established that Ruthie was OK, they admitted me, gave me the necessary test....and here I sit, on antibiotics. I'm very glad that they caught the thing before it had a chance to turn into a kidney infection, as happened last summer.

In light of all of this, I decided to modify my training schedule for this week and treat it as a recovery week in more than one sense of the term. I had a nice easy 6 miles on Monday, a toned-down fartlek workout yesterday (5 2-minute intervals instead of 7 3-minute ones) and a 30-minute run this morning that felt pretty glacial and therefore served mostly to take the edge off my exercise craving. I'm hoping that next week I can return to my full-on schedule. That half-marathon in April isn't going to run itself.

On the other fronts.....My Lenten pledge to eliminate sugary treats has gone much better than my training. Colds and antibiotics both cut my appetite, so the cravings (though still there) are blunted. I allowed myself my usual Sunday treat (Cadbury eggs last weekend!), and this week's abstention is going fine. (Mostly. Today someone brought some scrumptious-looking apple turnovers to work and left them on the table in the break room that I call the trough....that was the first really tough challenge I've faced.....first-world problem, big-time, right? :^) )

Perhaps because the sweets are gone, eating smart in other ways has been easier. Lots and lots of fruit, Mario Lopez's chicken enchiladas (one my favorites in his book because they are tasty and easy), chicken noodle soup, non-fat plain Greek yogurt (I had been eating too much of the fruity kinds) and greens are back on the menu.

My back and hamstrings are still hurting, and despite some dire reports on dry needling that I've read on other blogs I'm looking forward to getting started with it and any other physical therapy that's prescribed at my appointment next Tuesday, March 6. I'm also looking forward to the insurance-covered massages!

I definitely recommend the MYRTL routine (see video below--it's the first in the series), which my doctor told me I should do after every run. I've been pretty good about this (I don't always do it after the super easy ones, but even after those I do at least try to do part of it). Created by Coach Jay Johnson here in Boulder, it's the first core routine, combined with dynamic moves to keep your hip girdle happy, that I've been able to do without increasing my back pain. And as you'll see if you visit the link, you can progress to more difficult versions that include leg work as well (I'm not there yet; I'm sticking with the moves in the first video until I see the physical therapist next week).


Running Times: Part 1 from CoachJayJohnson on Vimeo.

Finally (and I apologize for this long post), I think I fixed the problem that was preventing many of you from commenting! Please let me know if that's not the case!

Ninja Trail Runner?

The new Asics are white no more.

Trail runs are the #1 thing I like right now.

Today originally was supposed to include a return to Magnolia Road, the classic Boulder run. Kathy was going to come up to run it with me, as she needs some serious hill challenges ahead of April's Big Sur Marathon (and me, I just like Ol' Mags).

But the cold I mentioned after last week's Snowman Stampede 5 Mile race turned out to be a bigger foe than I thought. I ended up shuffling through the Presidents' Day holiday and then feeling so bad that I stayed home from work on Tuesday AND Wednesday. I managed a weak 50-minute run on Tuesday, but afterwards had one those headaches, very rare for me, that start with flashers and end up with me in bed for a couple of hours in the dark. So Wednesday I just cut my losses and went straight for the bed. The one good thing about it is that it explains my disappointing performance in the race the prior Saturday.

I'm much better now, but I wasn't up for Ol Mags and her 8,000-plus-foot elevation and hills. I did want something interesting, though, so I ran an out-and-back at Hall Ranch, whose trails are better known for mountain biking, just west of a quirky little town called Lyons in North Boulder County. It's not spring yet, but the mud that marks our trails in that season was already an obstacle. For two hours, I slopped through it and some lingering snow under crystal clear skies, passing only two bikers on the way out and several more bikers, plus three hikers, on the way back.

Sometimes I need to do runs like this to remind myself I live in Colorado. Many of my days, as nice as they are, full of library books, preschool activities, grocery shopping and time on the Internet, could be lived anywhere. But it's outside in Colorado that you get the whoosh of the wind through evergreens, the intoxication of crushed pine under dirty trail shoes, the glitter of quartz in the half-buried stones you hurdle on the climbs, and the sight of the hoary heads of Long's Peak and Meeker Mountain rearing above you as you round a bend and emerge from a forest into a burn field.

Another thing I like right now are these:

My son Will holding my new *black* Asics. Maybe I should've worn those on the trail. Nah--I need real trail shoes.

Black is my favorite color to wear. The women in my wedding party wore black (and they each chose their own dress in that shade; I wanted them to have a dress they actually liked, and we all know I have no taste anyway). And if I'm not attired like a ninja while running, I feel gaudy.

So when I saw that my Asics GT-2170s come in all black, I wanted some. I didn't want to spend another $110, however. So I went to Zappo's and found last year's model (the 2160) in all black on sale for $80. They arrived the day after I ordered them. I can't wait to wear them on my next easy run (which will be tomorrow since I missed so many runs during the week).

In all their inky glory!

Seriously, though, I had been wanting a second pair of shoes to alternate in with my others. My back and hip's aches are still very much there and will be at least until March 6, when I see the physical therapist my doctor recommended. I'm doing all I can to make things easier on my body without scrimping on training (avoiding a two-hour run on concrete today was part of that plan, too).

If while doing that I can look even more like a ninja on some runs, all the better!

Book Review: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

This little memoir by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami suited me to a T.

At the time of the writing of the essays that make up What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami was in his 50s and a longtime distance runner (he'd run nearly 30 marathons at publication time), though not one who was ever going to make an Olympic team. He's self-deprecating about his running, nonplussed by his age-related slowdown, but also determined to make the best of it, and stay out there.

He writes:

Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life....

There are a lot of other interesting thoughts in here. This one in particular made me feel good about not having a runner's physique or a naturally speedy metabolism:

....having the kind of body that easily puts on weight was perhaps a blessing in disguise. In other words, if I don't want to gain weight I have to work out hard every day, watch what I eat, and cut down on indulgences...But people who naturally keep the weight off no matter what don't need to exercise or watch their diet in order to stay trim...Which is why, in many cases, their physical strength deteriorates as they age...Some of my readers may be the kind of people who easily gain weight, but the only way to understand what's really fair is to take a long-range view of things...I think this physical nuisance should be viewed in a positive way, as a blessing. We should consider ourselves lucky that the red light is so clearly visible.

It's such an understated yet optimistic way to view what most of us in that boat see as a huge pain in the neck. Likewise his experience of what he calls the "runner's blues," which he first experienced after completing his first ultra-marathon (despite that race being a triumph for him), and his attitude of mixed disappointment and determination to plow on after he didn't meet his goal for the 2005 New York City Marathon. (On a side note, it's cool for me to think he was running that august event the same year I did.)

Keeping in mind that I know very little about Japan, his attitude strikes me as very Japanese. There's a real love for running in these pages and a determination to keep striving, but it's quiet and tempered.

This was comforting to me, because among those who write about running, I often feel like King Lear's daughter, Cordelia, who just couldn't wax over-eloquent in describing her love for her father (says she: "my love's/More richer than my tongue"). Murakami is the same way: the love is there, but so are the frustrations, the starts and stops, the doubts and imperfections. Not every run is a transfiguration. But amid the ups and downs, there is the author, still putting one foot in front of the other.

That's all the inspiration I need.

My Fall Marathon

OK, it's time for some good news.

Last week I got the green light from Linda, my peerless mother-in-law, that she and Patrick, Dan's stepdad, will be able to stay with our twins Will and Ruthie the weekend of October 21. This frees up Dan to travel with me, Kathy and her husband Eric to......Detroit for the Detroit Free Press Talmer Bank Marathon!

I chose this race because of the company (you can't beat having your husband and good friends there; Detroit is Eric's hometown; plus Kathy's friend Melissa, who is a hoot, will be running it in addition to Kathy and me); because it's late enough in the year that it's less likely to be hot (average high on Oct. 21 is 60, average low is 42); and because the course has some bridge hills but nothing horrible (here's the elevation profile).

Another fun thing about this race is that it crosses into Windsor, Canada, for part of the course, so a passport is required to pick up your bib and chip. (No, you don't have to run in place at the border crossing while customs checks your documents! The bib is enough to get you across and back.) This therefore will be my first "international" marathon.

At eight months away, it seems like a long way off, but I know it will be here before I know it.

Anyone out there run Detroit? Kathy did the half-marathon in 2010, so I have some intelligence from her, but all anecdotes are appreciated.

Sidenote about Colds

My cold is still there, not the worst one I've ever had, very much a "first-world problem," but annoying nonetheless. I went to spin class as usual this morning. At first I felt awful--runny nose, slight cough due to post-nasal drip, scratchy throat, fuzzy head--but as the workout ground on, I started to feel better and right now I'm feeling sort of decent. When I got home, I downed a vast amount of tea (I'm still downing it) and took a good steamer of a shower. I'm going to take the kids ice skating in about 20 minutes, which I'm hoping won't set me back to the morning's ugly condition.

While in the shower, I got to thinking about strange things I've tried in the past to rid myself of cold symptoms. The weirdest by far were the ones foisted on me by Russian friends when I was in the Russian Far East in the Peace Corps. These remedies included: a banya (by far my favorite; banyas are Russia's famous steam room/saunas); a menthol-smelling substance applied to my back; vodka pressed through a turnip and mixed with honey (I kid you not; it tasted bad enough to be medicine); vodka with pepper; and of course....straight vodka.

The first six months I lived over there I had a cold like clockwork every two weeks. If those remedies worked, I had no indication of it. The strangest thing I try now is Zicam. I swear it at least minimizes the discomfort.

Do you have any fail-safe cold remedies? (And Caroline, if you're reading, I confess that I've slacked on the probiotics since the Houston Marathon. I'm getting back on the horse, I promise.)