Time on my feet

Today there was no walking with purpose. Instead there was a whole lot of meandering, lollygagging, dawdling and relaxing. I did get 30 miles in, but I did not set any speed records :p I'm calling it a "time on my feet" run. I'm sure that has benefit. It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed being outside. I wish I wasn't so tired at mile 30 -- I could have wandered around the valley all day. Well, I basically did, but I could have been out longer. Last night we watched "Into the Wild," which I really enjoyed (I personally relate to McCandless, only I would call my parents and plan better for my Alaskan adventure) so I downloaded the soundtrack. I listened to Long Night by Eddie Vedder about a millions times during my run. One of my bosses asked me to think about something in particular during my run (come up with ideas for something) but I never got to it. I was too busy spacing out and enjoying the perfect spring day. And thinking about the movie. I did take some pictures:

The Lone Pine Trail is mostly melted:

AHHHHHHHHHH SUN!
Our Flathead Valley
Me! Me! It's all about MEEEEEEEE!!!! :p
I did decide on a route for the Herron Hustle


Evidently this is where the deer cross:
This is so Montana. BONES AND BEER BABY!!!
WOAH -- I think that says it all

In case you haven't heard, the bears are pretty much awake now. I wonder if the "woah" sign is for the bears :p

Christian the Lion- Reunion!

This is pretty old but someone just emailed the video to me. I thought it was pretty sweet. These dudes bought a lion cub at Harrods department store and raised it until Christian was too big for their flat. Christian went to Africa to live and be in a movie or two and when these seventies guys came back Christian remembered them and still loved them :-) A little weird (just a little ;) but really sweet if you take it all at face value.

For today's long run (25 miles) I ran up and down and up and down Lone Pine. I felt good during the run and feel good still. I think that despite the fact that trail running is more exhausting and makes my heart rate higher, it hurts a lot less. My legs aren't screaming at me, which is nice. Leanne did LPs 2-4 (3 of 'em) with me, which was great. Thanks Leanne. And thanks bad music on my iPod for getting me through. This hill is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!!

oh, it's the pain
It's ingrained in me



The above lyrics from "Sea Song" by the Doves, have almost nothing to do with this post, except that if you love Goth-y doomy and gloomy music like I do, that song is most excellent. It came on my iPod at the end of my run and made me so incredibly happy.

So (drum roll. . . ) I went to the gym last night. It was the first time I have been to the gym in over a year. I hate the gym but I feel proud. I did legs, back, abs, shoulders and a lot of standing around like a deer caught in headlights. I was unable to remember how some of the machines work -- which was really sad since at one time I was a good devoted weight lifter. Then I decided machines are dumb and I should use free weights anyhow. And then I was thinking: I could buy some weights at Target and save $$$ by cancelling this wasted membership. Then I was thinking: they have a sauna now so I can use that rather than hot yoga and that will cover the membership. Hmmm. Somehow this resulted in the decision that I will keep the membership and go twice a week. Hold me to this! Olga already said I need to do squats (he he he he I said squat) so there you go.

BUT, does anyone else hate all the mirrors at the gym? It's as if they're trying to remind you constantly of just how much you need to be there. Of course, mirrors help when lifting -- there's no question about it. But it's one of the things that just makes me hate the gym. Meh. It's not like I hate seeing myself in the mirror, but in the giant wall sized inescapable gym mirror it's just. . . a bit much. . .

P.S. Wow this was awfully whiny. I will call it whining rather than complaining, ok Meghan? (D'oh!) I am having issues with formatting and I'm done playing with it so sorry if this is hard to read.

TED BREAD

Am I a lucky woman or what. Ted has been baking a loaf of bread every week -- this week's turned out especially pretty. He does a really good job. I think I'll keep him around :p In other news, the dogs were brushed today. They were long over due. Now that we have two of these monsters the house is a giant furball even with vacuuming every other day.
For anyone with dogs, the Furminator is definitely worth the money. That thing works wonders. And, I finally figured out that you can use it on the couch too. It works better at getting the fur off than the vacuum cleaner.

Finally, in running news, I ran 73 miles this week and Sonja ran 48. Monday and Tuesday I ran 12 miles, Wednesday I ran 10, Saturday 25 and today 14. Sonja ran all but the 25 with me. She's a good running buddy. I sure missed Leanne this week though who was off travelling for work.



P.S. If you need inspiration of any sort, I encourage you to read this woman's race report from this race called Susitna 100, ran in Alaska in February. Pretty impressive. I don't know this woman or anything, in case you're wondering. :p

MISERY

Today's run was 25 miles and I decided I needed to make it more "race specific" so I included a run up to Camp Misery, a popular entrance into the Jewel Basin hiking area. One of the partners in my office went backcountry skiing at Jewel Basin this week and told me that people snowmobile up the unplowed forest service road with their skis -- and that I could probably run on the tracks. Supposedly the road is 7 miles up, though my Garmin says it's 6.4 miles up.

I parked the car at the bottom of the forest service road, at 3100 feet, and headed up. The first mile is pretty flat and sort of plowed. People live on that stretch. It was basically ice. Though now that I have IceBugs ice is perfectly good running surface for me. Then the road turns to snow, which was pretty well compacted by snowmobiles. It quickly became un-runnable for me so I tried to "walk with purpose." I'm still really slow at climbing. I need to work on this. As I got higher the snow became less packed down, deeper and more difficult to traverse. This slowed me even more.

This picture (above) was taken at around mile 5. That's Flathead Lake in the distance.

The views were beautiful. Although it was grey it was breathtaking. The pictures really don't do justice to the views.

So here is the "road" as I neared the top. As you can see, it's not ideal. But not terrible. But as I was running I was thinking, "I really DRIVE on this?" Scary. Anyhow, on my way up, a snowmobile passed and a woman was skiing behind as if she was water skiing. Behind her were two cute dogs racing up the mountain. It was really funny. I chatted with them a little bit when I reached the point where they decided to stop and ski. The dogs, though having run about 5 miles straight up behind a snowmobile, showed NO sign of tiring. The woman said they would be tired by the end of the day.

I started to feel a little dramatic and tired as I neared the top. My Garmin showed 6.3 and I was mustering up the positive thoughts to make it the last .7. My feet were pretty much sinking through the snow, but not with every step, which made it a little difficult to avoid falling. Then, rather suddenly, I could see the cabin that marks the end of the road. Here (below) is the restroom. Good thing I wasn't planning to use it.

Here is the cabin. Very snowy. According to my Garmin, this point was about 5700 feet, which means I climbed about 2600 feet. To be honest, I was disappointed that it wasn't more. It sure felt like more. And, I will have to climb much more than that in a much shorter distance at Western States. There might even be snow, which negates the fleeting though I had that "at least it will be dry trail." I suppose that's what the whole training thing is for -- to get me ready.

I cruised down back to my car where I did a shoe change, a bottle switcheroo and stocked up on Accel Gel. I then headed out to do the other half of my run -- on road. Now, if I was hardcore, I would have done two "Miserys" to get my 25 miles. I'm pretty sure these guys would have done 3, even though they're training for a marathon rather than 100. Maybe next week I will try doing two, or a double Misery (I'm having too much fun with this). Maybe Leanne or Tom will do the second with me. Misery loves company :p In any case, the road portion of my run was pretty easy. That said, while the uphill/downhill made me tired, the road does make me feel more pounded.

Near the very end I came across this sign, which I've seen before but never thought much about. I totally have no idea what it's talking about -- the big empty tree-less field?

Finally, here's a self-indulgent picture of myself happily finished in front of the lying liar sign that marked the beginning of my day's adventure. It's funny how totally impossible the last mile of any run seems, regardless of distance. And the joy I feel in being done. Even though I really truly do love running. I love the post-run pizza :-)

Proud of our workout :-)

Leanne and I did 3 "Lone Pines" -- 3 trips up and down the Lone Pine Trail (1.4 miles up and 2.8 miles roundtrip). The climb is about 600-650 feet so not crazy steep but a good workout. The trail was more like a sheet of ice -- my IceBugs did really well. Leanne's trail shoes didn't do well and provided no traction but she still kicked my butt. We both ended up with incredibly swollen fingers -- and my ankles and whole body was all puffy. Amusing stuff.

Yeah Sonja!!!

Sonja's performance at the race Saturday was good enough for 3rd place dog!!! Not bad for her first race ever. Not to mention the pretty significant handicap of having me as her human chaperone :p The winning dog was Smelly Ellie. Kudos Smelly!

RESULTS

IT'S SNOW JOKE!!!

Yesterday (Saturday) the gang ran the Snow Joke Half Marathon in Seeley Lake, Montana. It's a beautiful area just east of here in the Swan mountains (I think that's right) at about 4,000 feet (about 1,000 feet higher than here). It's a really nice loop course with guaranteed ice or snow pack for more than half. The conditions were better than last year and it was sunny and gorgeous. And, most importantly, it was Sonja's racing debut. She did great! She was completely focused and very competitive. She seemed to enjoy passing people and dogs especially, which we did right up until the end. For me, running with a dog presented interesting challenges like stopping for a poop break, picking up said poop and running with the bag for a few miles until there was a trash can. We stayed focused but comfortable and finished somewhere around 1:53. I tracked my splits but don't know the race time since there was no clock and I ran before hand and afterwards. I'm pretty sure I ran a negative split -- I was really surprised to be running 8:20s at mile 12. I guess I'm faster right now than I realized. Anyhow, it's a great race and I recommend it to anyone.

As you can see below, Sonja and I wore matching pink cheetah fleece and I wore a super cute cheetah hat Ruth made for everyone. Deb let Ridley and Griffin wear their cheetah costumes, complete with booties that say "dogs rule cheetahs drool." We had such a fun day.

Miles for the week - next week is a cutback week, yay!

M = rest
T = 10 (w Sonja)
W = 10 (w Sonja)+ 14 = 24
R = 6
F = 5 (w Sonja)
S = 15 (w Sonja)
S = 10

Danni = 70
Sonja = 40

Melt and Freeze

It has been warmish (above freezing) during the day and below freezing at night -- so everything melts and then freezes into slickery ice. I have taken a few falls, but this morning Leanne took a spill that required 4 stitches at urgent care!!! Poor Leanne!!!

Sun Worship

I have a cold and am not feeling so hot. But I still slogged through my 23 miler yesterday. I woke up feeling pretty crummy but wanted to get my run over with so I got out of bed and headed towards Deb's, where we were meeting. I picked up breakfast stuff for our foodfest (what's a group run without a post-run feast?) and noticed that it was clear, the Swan range was prominent and there was a perfect sunrise. It *looked* like Spring -- I'm not sure why or how but it just did. Of course, it was in the 20s so not really Spring temperatures.

The run started ok, I felt a little weary but more or less okay. Deb and Ruth wanted to run 8 so they turned around early and I, hopefully not rudely, discouraged Tom from keeping me company. I wasn't sure how much I would need to slog and didn't want to have to worry about slowing someone else down, so I put my iPod in and went on along. (Leanne was pretty far ahead). Before I knew it the sun had come out and completely warmed the road, my hands, my face, my breath and above all, my spirits. I ran back to Deb's with more speed than I've mustered in a good long time. Although I was still stuffed up, I felt great. My legs just wanted to turn over as fast as they could. I made it back to breakfast (that was additional motivation) pretty quickly without feeling exhausted. It's amazing how much my mind affects how I feel. There was nothing physical about the sun's appearance (other than the warmth). But it quickened my pace by about 2 minutes per mile.

I finished up the week with 65 miles (10 miles T,W,R and 23 S and 12 Sun) while Sonja finished with 43 (same T,W,R and 13 on Saturday).

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Valentines Day Rocks

Happy birthday Chicago Joe!

I don't know exactly WHEN your birthday is, but I know it's around now. Chicago Joe was my old firm mentee, for those who don't know, but got smart before I did and made his escape early on. He's pretty smart.

A message for Lucia -- there will be pictures of the gorgeous chocolates Ted bought me for Valentines Day. Soon. I promise.

Too much cardio? No compute. :p

I've been tracking my caloric intake on sparkpeople.com and there are little helpful hints and info about eating and dieting and health yada yada yada. For some reason this made me giggle. I think this is a good answer, but I was thinking of the meat-head weight lifter types of believe cardio is like poison, eating away at precious muscle making you weak like a sissy boy.

The other thing I wanted to share is that I was very crazy wacky and wild today and wore shorts on my run. It was about 34 and it felt REALLY GOOD to wear shorts. It may still be winter but I'm going to pretend it's Spring.


Q: Is it possible to do too much cardio?

A: It is possible to do too much cardio. What counts as "too much" is different for everyone, and depends on a lot of factors, including the intensity of your exercise, your fitness level, how much activity you do each day, how much you eat, your health status, your fitness goals, etc. Usually, 60-90 minutes of cardio is safe for most people, as long as…
You aren't elevating your heart rate above 80% (of your max) the whole time
You are eating enough carbohydrates every day to replace the fuel you are using up. Your body perceives exercise as a stressor, and chemically reacts the same way it does to "bad" stress. Therefore, too much exercise can have negative effects on your metabolism the same way that eating too few calories can. In addition, too much cardio exercise can result in muscle loss, which is not the outcome you want. SparkPeople's experts recommend taking at least one day off from the cardio during the week—just as a mental health day, if nothing else. It's easy to become compulsive about exercise, and having a day off is a good way to stay away from that. If it really makes you nervous or uncomfortable NOT to exercise, you could be heading for trouble. If you see signs of general fatigue, irritability, sleep problems, physical soreness, or if your workouts start feeling harder than before, you'll probably need to rest from cardio more than one day.

Kalispell Fashion Week Update

Zeke, Sonja and Ted took their places today to see me model my latest design -- a fleece purple cheetah print running skirt, intended to be worn over running tights and worn exclusively at the Cheetah Herders' Snow Joke Half Marathon in two weeks. Sonja wanted to get up close to examine the fabric -- she plans to wear matching purple cheetah fleece herself at the race, which will be her racing debut. Even if she doesn't win the canine division, she will certainly be the most stylish.

In running news. . . oh wait I guess the skirt relates to running. . . anyhow, I felt surprisingly awesome during my 12 mile run with the group today and finished up the week with 62 miles. Sonja finished up with 42 miles for the week.

I learned a little something about snowshoeing. . .

Primarily that it's very hard -- particularly if you're breaking trail. I decided it just wouldn't be enough to run my scheduled 20 miles -- I really want to do some more challenging runs that will get me ready for Western States. I decided snowshoe-running would be a great idea. I talked with some people about where I should go and decided upon Blacktail nordic area -- which has about 40k of trails that are normally groomed. Also, it's at close to 5,000 feet which is decent. Unfortunately, the groomer is broken. And, I was the first person there this morning. I decided to give it a go anyhow. It was beautiful but very very difficult. I couldn't really run and my heart rate was about 30 bpm higher than normal. And it was because it was hard. I decided to go a ways and see if it got better. It didn't. Somehow I managed to hop/walk a mile before I decided to turn around and head to easier terrain. There was just no way I could do that as my long run.

Beautiful!

See look! My feets sink in the "pow" (as Jeannine calls it)

It turned out that coming back was a touch easier -- if I ran where I ran on my way out it was more do-able. Still hard of course, but doable. I decided to run 20 steps and walk 20 steps -- I think I read that in one of Olga's race reports and figured it would be good practice. I eventually made it back to the car and thought "hey, maybe I'll do another two miles." It was just a little easier than before (of course) now that I had double tromped the trail. By now, there were some cross-country skiiers out who were using my trail and making it even better. Then, a group of four snowshoers made the trail even better.

Check it out! Broken trail!

Before I knew it, I had completed 8 miles. The catch, however, is that it took me a full 2.5 hours. I debated continuing on and doing 4 hours of this torture (beautiful as it was, it was torture). I thought I was going to fall over I was so exhausted after the 8. And, I had an OCD attack and knew I wanted my 20 miles.

I drove back to Kalispell and ran the remaining 12 with the furball. It was in the 30s so I actually wore capris. I thought about shorts, but I was really chilled from the drive back. My teeth chattered for about a half mile into the 12 mile run. . . but then I was kind of hot the rest of the run.

All told, this run basically took me all day -- between driving and snowshoeing and sitting on the couch in my change of dry running clothes, trying to decide whether I really needed to run another 12, it was a long long run. But there were a lot of good things about it, and I had my adventure for the weekend.

Which one is the crazy one?

We (Ted and I) think Sonja looks crazy. All.the.time.

Leanne was kind enough to arrange a play date for Sonja & Wally, who are both obnoxiously spazzy and need some sort of exercise on our running day off. Looks like Hunter might be participating a little in the fun. Leanne took this picture and emailed it to me. Pretty funny.

"Just feel free to get into Child's Pose when life requires it. . ."

I attended a yoga class last night -- hot yoga like I did for awhile with Rick. I feel very virtuous, because I'm pretty sure that means I "cross trained." Maybe. I feel so stretched out and good, I think I'm going to keep doing yoga 1-2 times per week. I think it will be good for balance and flexibility and, above all, heat training for WS. I hear WS is hot. Hot yoga is hot. There ya go! Plus, the instructor has great suggestions, like the one quoted above.

If anyone has opinions about whether yoga will be a good use of time for cross-training, let me know. The class is an hour and a half -- when it's all said and done it's about 2 hours of my night. I don't think that two hours would be better spent running, but I suppose it might be better spent at the gym lifting weights or something. I do need to start doing more hill climbing, I know that. I might try to incorporate hill repeats at Lone Pine one night a week. I'm a little panicked after blogger Meghan DNFed at her 100 mile race (and she must have been in first place?!?!? when she dropped due to extreme dehydration). It's a reminder of the very real possibility, even if training is optimal.

Anyhow, it's a little early to think about that. My training is in its infancy -- neither optimal nor failed yet :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLEN!

Something tells me this will be a very eventful year for you. I am magical in my ability to make these kinds of predictions.

FUN AT THE PARK!

Right on Kendra!

Looks like Kendra is now sponsored by NUUN! Here is an announcement (scroll down to Jan 31 info). I didn't realize her Le Grizz time was the fastest womens 50 mile time in the US. Go Kendra!

(ok I want some free Nuun now :p j/k)

here she is -- photo by gtach and lifted from linked website

Blogging on Blogging

My former law professor (whose classes I really enjoyed) Ann Althouse is Queen of the Blogosphere. It's pretty remarkable how famous her blog has become. I occassionally see reference to her blog in the NYT and frequently in ABA newsletters. I don't think she was blogging when I was in school. I don't know whether blogging had even really taken off by 2001 or so when I graduated. Maybe I just didn't have any reason to become internet addicted until I started working. I don't even remember using the internet for much other than online research until I started working. Anyhow, this got me thinking -- how weird must it be to be a student in this age of blogging and facebook and myspace? It's tough to imagine reading a current Prof's blog or even weirder, to have them reading my blog or seeing all my indiscretions on some facebook type website (isn't that what kids with poor judgment, which is basically all kids, do nowadays?) I'm not saying it's good or bad, I'm just saying it's hard for me to imagine. Professors and teachers were always so mysterious and distant. Evidently, they're people too with lives and opinions and they blog :p

Weather is huge but I'm still lazy

I'm really fascinated by the impact weather has on performance. This morning it was a balmy 30 and I ran 9 miles with an average HR of 124 and an average pace of 9:15. Last week when the weather was around zero, I ran 10 miles with an average heart rate of 125 and an average pace of 10:40. The other factors at play, of course, include the fact that last week was week 3 of a higher mileage buildup while this week is a cut-back week. But that shouldn't make too much difference considering the cut-back thus far only amounts to 10 total miles. Surely I'm not suddenly that rested. Also, I doubt I'm suddenly a lot faster.

One thing that really stands out is that I'm pretty sure that I should be running at at least 135 for general aerobic/recovery pace. Although it's hard to run in the cold, I don't put in a better effort when it's warm. I'm thinking I should try to start including tempo/LT runs to make up for the fact that I do all my runs so easy. Alternatively, I'm thinking I should really try to nail down my max HR to confirm that I'm lazy. When Cheryl was helping me I think I figured it was around 184, which is still quite low for my age. I doubt it's lower than that.

Lastly, on an unrelated note, I'm reading Dean K.'s book, Ultramarathon Man, and I sincerely hope running 100 miles isn't as painful as reading about Dean's taut and cut bod and what an elite he is. He is clearly a total narcissist and doesn't have any concept of what an elite runner really is. Running far does not an elite make -- at least not that fact alone. Does anyone know whether he has ever actually been a top ultra runner? I know he has been relatively fast, but has he ever won a race? I'm willing to bet Kendra could kick his butt any day of the week. Why isn't she sponsored by North Face?

Sometimes Life Throws you a Curve Ball

As many of you know, from reading this blog, Sonja chewed one of my beloved Dansko clogs. It was felt and therefore vegan and less guilt inducing -- not to mention more casual looking and appropriate with fleece, my clothing of choice. (Black fleece is dressy enough for work, no?) Anyhow, there are no more felt clogs. Not only that, I found it really hard to find any Dansko shoes that I wanted. I finally ordered THESE, though not without first having to cancel and re-order them due to total unavailability web-wide. Finally, I was able to get them from a shoe place I'd never heard of and I got them today! And guess what -- they are not Dansko but "Sanita." Turns out, Sanita distributed in the US all along, making shoes for Dansko, but ended its contract but will now distribute the shoes under its own name: SANITA The craziness. And I didn't even know.

My new shoes are very cute and much dressier -- so more appropriate for court, where I do not wear fleece, except for when I forget I have to go to court (ooops). I do not have these, but I think these could go with my fleecewear (!!!):

ICE VILLAGE

It's a little tough to tell but that's Flathead Lake and all those specks are ice fisherman. As Leanne and I were finishing up our 20 miler on Saturday men (they seemed to all be men) were hauling their giant ice crew thingies out in droves and covering the lake. Looks like a giant ice party. In Wisconsin everyone had ice shanties -- here people just sit and fish right out in the open.

I wrapped up my first 3 week block of training -- ran 60 miles this week. Sonja ran 40 miles this week, which hardly tires her unfortunately. I need some miles without her -- she does pull me which makes running a little easier. Since she won't be able to pull me through WS I need to learn to run without her too ;)

Next week will be a slacker week running-wise. I am relieved by that.

For anyone who is curious -- Chris, of the Chicago Runner guys whose link is over -----> on that side somewhere, found out that there is indeed a physiological reason why it's harder to get your heart rate up in extremely cold weather. During the really cold days this week my average HR would be like 123, despite a decent effort. Very interesting. Today it was above freezing, and although we were running through puddles and it was icky my pace was so much faster and it felt so much easier. I'm so fussy about weather I guess. I prefer 34-45 thank you. ;)

SMOKIN' DRINKIN' SOLDIER BEAR -- Ted sent me this story with the subject line: "He drank a bottle of beer like any man"

Law firms are getting cuddly according to the NYT. I think it would be great if clients were always charged a flat rate and I could just come to work 8-5, get my work done and go home. Of course, compared to what is considered cuddly in this article, my job is downright socialist. God I love my new job. YAY! (I still feel gleeful when I think about the job I left behind. I still feel like I escaped. I feel so liberated. I *have* been liberated. I'm so glad I have free will).

Cold

Leanne and I ran this morning -- my thermometer said -3 when I got home. But the sky was clear, the moon was bright, and for a couple minutes we thought we might be seeing the northern lights. We were really just seeing lights. But it was still awfully neat.

HAPPY (BELATED) BIRTHDAY DAVID!

This picture is from when David visited. Your birthday was Sunday, right? I've never been good at remembering these things.

It's Turning into Winter

We got a healthy dump of snow last night but that didn't stop us from running. Leanne, Tom and I did 11 miles which brought my weekly total to 56ish. Sonja ran 40 miles this week. I left her home this morning thinking she ought to recover from the 15 she did (I did 20) yesterday. Well, she thanked me by taking my Dansko clogs into the yard and destroying one of them. They were only my favorite shoes that I wear every day. But I will just buy new ones and remember to keep shoes put away. When does the puppy stuff end?

roly poly danni

This is the picture on the front page of today's Daily Inter Lake.



The bighorn sheeps are being relocated to a new home. What a bad day for those sheeps.

ETA -- I can't believe *I* didn't think of baaaaaaad day. That's good stuff.

HELENA LIME KILNS

You can click on the picture to see it bigger if you want to read the marker

PLAGUE!

It's probably a little dull for me to just post news articles but for some reason I'm totally incapable of articulating, this article interests me and freaks me out. I guess I grew up assuming bubonic plague was purely historical and one of those terrifying things that modern people would never need to worry about. Guess I was wrong. Although I don't think I'm in danger of getting plague. Is that what you would say? "I have the plague" or "I have plague." Anyhow, some news to brighten your day.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Plague a growing but overlooked threat: study

By Michael Kahn1 hour, 25 minutes ago (Reuters)

Plague, the disease that devastated medieval Europe, is re-emerging worldwide and poses a growing but overlooked threat, researchers warned on Tuesday.

While it has only killed some 100 to 200 people annually over the past 20 years, plague has appeared in new countries in recent decades and is now shifting into Africa, Michael Begon, an ecologist at the University of Liverpool and colleagues said.

A bacterium known as Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, known in medieval times as the Black Death when it was spread by infected fleas, and the more dangerous pneumonic plague, spread from one person to another through coughing or sneezing.

"Although the number of human cases of plague is relatively low, it would be a mistake to overlook its threat to humanity, because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated," they wrote in the journal Public Library of Science journal PloS Medicine.

Rodents carry plague, which is virtually impossible to wipe out and moves through the animal world as a constant threat to humans, Begon said. Both forms can kill within days if not treated with antibiotics.

"You can't realistically get rid of all the rodents in the world," he said in a telephone interview. "Plague appears to be on the increase, and for the first time there have been major outbreaks in Africa."

Globally the World Health Organization reports about 1,000 to 3,000 plague cases each year, with most in the last five years occurring in Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United States sees about 10 to 20 cases each year.

More worrying are outbreaks seem on the rise after years of relative inactivity in the 20th century, Begon said. The most recent large pneumonic outbreak comprised hundreds of suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006.

Bubonic plague, called the Black Death because of black bumps that sometimes develop on victims' bodies, causes severe vomiting and high fever. Victims of pneumonic plague have similar symptoms but not the black bumps.

Begon and his colleagues called for more research into better ways to prevent plague from striking areas where people lack access to life-saving drugs and to defend against the disease if used as a weapon.

"We should not overlook the fact that plague has been weaponized throughout history, from catapulting corpses over city walls, to dropping infected fleas from airplanes, to refined modern aerosol formulation," the researchers wrote. (Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Maggie Fox and Ibon Villelabeitia)

H.U.R.L. FAT ASS 50k

Friday night I drove to Helena so that Saturday morning Rebecca and I could do the Helena Ultrarunners League (HURL) Fat Ass 50k. From what I understand, calling your race a "Fat Ass" means that there is no aid, no entry fee, no recorded times. This event was pretty organized and there was actually a lot of aid on the course. And, they kept track of our times (I will only say I have the 3rd fastest female time on the course ever, ha) (ETA, that's wrong I think it's fourth!). I was uber impressed and had a great day. Although the drive to Helena was a little dicey due to snow and such (why is it that Flathead and Missoula counties are able to make roads driveable but Lake county leaves all the scary slush?) the weather on Saturday was perfect. It was about 40 degrees.

The course is a loop from Helena, to Montana City, to somewhere else, up a hill that is literally 6 or more miles and then down a hill that is literally 6 or more miles. It reminded me of the first leg of Hood to Coast coming down. Anyhow, Rebecca and I were practically giddy for the first 10 miles or so, enjoying the weather and scenery and enjoying being alive and running. Rebecca just lost a close friend to cancer and she carried a picture of her friend during the run. I couldn't help but be reminded of how precious health is. Anyhow, we kept the pace slow and steady and kept on keeping on.

Going up the aforementioned never ending (EVER!) hill (I guess it's probably technically a mountain since it was like 2000 feet up), Rebecca, who let herself get dehydrated, was puking and we kind of ambled up which made things easy for those of us not tossing cookies. (Did I mention someone baked the most delicious cookies with chocolate and coconut? Mmmmm. . . ) Anyhow, Rebecca was considering dropping at one point and urged me away from her (I seem to make people sick) so I cruised back to Helena to the finish. Although I stopped to read all the historical markers and to take pictures of the old cabins, lime kilns and other interesting sights. Sho nuff, Rebecca finished behind me -- I knew she wouldn't give up. What's a little nausea really? Pfff. Not when you're stubborn like Rebecca.

It was a really pretty course. It was also fun to run with Rebecca again (she founded our local running club but moved soon after I moved here).

Below you will see a picture of our support vehicle -- Rebecca's husband drove his Ural and carried aid in the sidecar. You can see him practicing riding on two wheels. It was nice to have him there, in addition to all the food offered by HURL.

After the event there was a potluck at Martin (a HURL guy) and Janis' house and it was really fun and nice. Soooooo much food. Which ties into the event -- I did SUCH a great job with my nutrition that I was hungry all day and ravenous when I finished. I never got dehydrated or overhydrated or ran out of energy. It was a perfect training run, I got LOTS of time on my feet ;) and practiced eating and drinking like a champ. I'm pretty sure that by the time I went to bed I'd eaten twice the calories I needed for the day. (And why do I gain weight? :p)

Helena is such a cool town. Lots of open space and easily and quickly accessible trails and very "wild west-ish" with its old historical main street (coming down Grizzly Gulch and on Park street into town). It's much drier than in the Flathead -- once you cross the Continental Divide it's a totally different landscape.

Oh, one other thing. I saw a bald eagle on my drive home -- it flew RIGHT in front of my car so it was very very close (but high enough to be out of harms way). Very cool.

PICTURES

An article for all my preggo peeps

Hysterical "internet experts" like Jenny McCarthy have decried child vaccinations as causing autism -- this has led (from what I remember reading) to a decrease in vaccinations among some groups. I think I remember reading that educated urban women were among the biggest culprits of refusing to vaccinate their children. I'm no medical professional but I do understand the importance of "herd" protection. . . anyhow, I thought this article (copied from the NYT) was interesting.

January 8, 2008

Study Finds Vaccine Preservative Is Not Linked to Risks of Autism

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Autism cases in California continued to climb even after a mercury-based vaccine preservative that some people blame for the neurological disorder was removed from routine childhood shots, a study has found.

Researchers from the State Public Health Department found that the autism rate in children rose continuously in the study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative, thimerosal, has not been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, except for some flu shots.

Doctors said that the latest study added to the evidence against a link between thimerosal exposure and the risk of autism and that it should reassure parents that vaccinations do not cause autism. If there was a risk, the doctors said, autism rates should have dropped from 2004 to 2007.

Dr. Daniel Geschwind, a neurologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the focus should be on exploring possible causes of autism, including genetic links.

“Something else must be at play,” said Dr. Geschwind, who had no connection with the study. “And we need to know what that is if we’re really serious about preventing autism.”
The results of the study are in the January issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry. The study did not explore why autism cases increased.

Officials say one in 150 American children have autism, higher than other estimates. Researchers say it is unclear whether the increase stems from changes in classifying autism or whether the increase is actual.

NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

My friends, whose names I won't mention just yet because "E" hasn't told her boss yet, and what if her boss accidentally somehow mysteriously comes across this blog, you never know it could happen and boy would I be in trouble missy, are great with child -- who is presently known as "Rufus." What awesome news! Rufus is very lucky because they will be the coolest parents ever. But of course Rufus won't appreciate it until s/he's 30. This will be my first lecture to Rufus.

TAGGED AGAIN!

Kendra was tagged again and tagged me and I love these games so here I go:

1. Most memorable moment on the trails:

When I ran the Gunsight Pass trail by myself I felt totally liberated by the realization that I could run trails alone and live to tell the tale. It's not necessarily ideal safety-wise but it's so peaceful and special in a way that's different from running with good friends, which is also special. It was also overwhelmingly beautiful and inspiring.

2. Best new trail I discovered in 2007

This was my first summer here so all the trails were new. I would say the Herron Park trail to Blacktail was the "best" given its close proximity to home.

3. My best performance of the year was…

I guess my best performance was Boston. Despite feeling totally unable to run 7 miles in January after a terrible Ironman performance (due to lack of training) and a few months off (so basically after a year of minimal running) I was able to run 3:57 -- not my best time but definitely my best executed race. It was the first time I ever ran even-ish splits throughout an entire marathon. And it was like my 12th marathon or something -- it took me that long to learn that it's true about time in the bank being repaid double. Who knew? ;)

4. I do not know how I previously survived without…

Headlamps! Oh how I love my (two) headlamps. I think I am going to use my amazon certificate my mother and father-in-law gave me (thanks guys!!!) to add a cool flashlight to the collection. I guess I never used to run where it was truly dark. Chicago's path is well lit and there's always a pink hue to the sky in the city.

5. The person I would most like to meet on a trail in 2008...

Cheryl. If I make it to the second dawn at WS I will see her and run with her on the trail (I should put "run" in quotes) and that will be a very good thing.

I hereby tag Leanne and Iris. (If Leanne wants to talk running on her dogblog).

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We had an awesome time over the New Year holiday visiting family -- it was so good to see everyone. I'm waiting for our niece to send the pictures she took and with her permission I will post one or more of them. It was balmy in New Jersey which made for good running, what little of it I did, and I slept a ridiculous amount. It was good to see 512 Hudson, where my father grew up, and think about the Starbucks on the corner and how much he would have loved to have Starbucks on the corner growing up. I think my dad was born with a cup of coffee in his hand.

I'm lucky to have cool in-laws whose company I enjoy tremendously. People usually say "in law" with a grumpy face but not me. And evidently they even read this blog. That's devotion! I love you guys very much. Ted does too and would say so if he took his job as co-blogger seriously.