VEGAS BABY

I've been in Las Vegas for "continuing legal education." It's a good thing it's a cut-back week because I hardly ran this week. Grandma came up from Phoenix and we hit the town a couple nights in a row. I consistently overate -- I am a sucker for buffets. I probably gained 10 pounds in less than a week.



Being the high roller I am, I spent some time plopped in front of the penny slots. I won $20! I was pretty happy to leave Vegas finally -- it's a disturbing place in so many ways. I think "consumption junction" would be an appropriate name for the entire city. I did run one morning, and the run was pretty neat. People were either going to work, stumbling towards wherever they were going to pass out, or were out running. I felt a bond with all the runners, who all said "hi" and smiled knowingly. Yeah, we were all really proud of ourselves.



My regret is that I never made it to Red Rock Canyon/Red Rock Nat'l Park. I really wanted to go for a trail run but with Grandma there it seemed a selfish use of the little time we had to hang out together.

(above = grandma and me)

(above = penny slots)

(below = pictures from my run -- they're pretty blurry)

Ted made "hot cross buns" for Easter. There were many but now there is only one. I think I have eaten a dozen in two days. Not to mention the giant solid chocolate bunny. I don't feel so well.

Hurray!!! I ran 18 miles today (well, ran most of those 18) which brings me to 80 for the week. There's no way I would survive the long runs without my running buddies (left to right = Ruth, Leanne and Deb.) The bestest.

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.