JoJo

I can't seem to get a break with my planned run days between the weather and family emergencies.  Yesterday evening our diabetic cat JoJo started acting discombobulated after I let him in from being outside all day.  Even though I had not given him his evening insulin he acted like his sugar was low.  I didn't mess around, rushing him straight to the ER.  Sure enough his blood sugar was 16!!  It's amazing he wasn't stumbling around or worse, having seizures or in a coma.  He made it thru okay though.  I picked him up at 6am this morning and he meowed his ass off all the way home.  Looks like he may be reverting to be non-diabetic.  Pretty insane.  We are definitely going to have to start doing blood glucose checks at home from now on.  That'll be an interesting new adventure.  Our cats sure do have good parents!!!

hoking and joking

13+ miles at Bull Creek with Samuel V. Saturday morning.   We had a great time hoking and joking and acting like maniacs.  It's a great thing having a friend that you can totally be yourself with!!

buttercup

So much for Shan needing Steve and I to "take it easy" on her after her super fast Austin Marathon.  That's a freaking laugh.  I purposely didn't even start my watch this morning because I really thought we were going to go easy.  Shan started her watch in the parking lot and her elapsed time said 1:10 and change when we stopped.  Really??  So, we just ran our fastest time as a group on her "recovery" run and, she ran 3 more miles on top of that!!!  For the record I'm gonna put down 1:09.30.
Our Thursday morning runs have really gotten faster since Steve rejoined the group. For the last 6 months or so it's just been me and Shan so I was able to control the tempo a little better.  Now I'm outnumbered again like I used to be.  It's all good though, I just need to suck it up buttercup!!

excuses

Got in 7 miles in Coldspring Tx this past Saturday morning.  Misty drops me off at Uncle Buddy's house in town and I run the roads to Cissy and Gene's house.  I can't say how many miles I've run on that road over the past 15yrs but it's a lot.  It can be a little tricky since there's no shoulder whatsoever and some short steep hills.  I cross the road frequently so I can be seen from as long a distance as possible and I try to really focus on listening for cars in the distance.  When I hear a car coming I'll cross to the opposite side so the passing car can stay completely in it's lane.  If I have cars coming from both directions I'll just head down into the ditch.  I don't want to put any drivers out while I'm out there.

I didn't eat so clean while out of town.  I hardly ever do.  I always say I will and then don't however, I didn't eat a bunch of junk at their house like I usually do.  I had planned on 7 miles in the hood this morning before a plumber was supposed to arrive but woke up to our oldest cat Jodi not feeling well so I let assume her normal position in my lap instead of running.  I need 43 more miles this month to get in 100.  7+ tomorrow will be a good chunk but we've got some more shitty weather headed our way early next week.  I'll be so damn glad to get through with winter again but, that'll take away some of my excuses for not running!!

shitty

Ate clean yesterday but had 3 quality beers yesterday evening and I'm sure that's what caused me to have a shitty nights sleep.  I'm super happy Misty is willing to leave for Lake Livingston early tomorrow rather than driving it tonight.

treatments

Yesterday was a big treatment day for me.  The massage/ torture artist yesterday morning and then chiro in the afternoon.  The chiro guy really did me some good.  He loosened me up some and then put on the electrodes to further loosen me up before he adjusted me.   One of the spots in my back popped almost on accident but he had to really bear down on the next spot in my upper back but he got it.  When he got to my neck he really worked hard at loosening me up to point of sort of giving me a massage and then hitting some pressure points on my skull behind my ears.  He tried to pop my neck from one side but it wouldn't break free and then switched directions and was able to get it.  Instant relief. Same story for my sacrum.  He was able to get one side but not the other.  I ate clean again yesterday although I was very tempted to eat a couple of cheese tacos.  It's paying off.  I weighed 191 even this morning.

We had a good run this morning.  It was actually too good.  I ran much faster than I wanted or especially needed to.  Shan, Steve and I ran it in 1:12.  That's my 2nd fastest time ever for that loop!!  In the future I may just need to bow out on a morning like today.  I'm still in major recovery mode from not only both treatments yesterday but my hard effort on Saturday.  I have a super easy 7 planned for Saturday while we're in Coldspring.  Knock on wood, I'm off to a great start for the month mileage wise, lets see if I can keep from screwing this up....lol!!

torture

Besides the small bag of chips that came with my Jason's Deli sandwich and soup, I ate clean yesterday.   This morning I saw a new massage/ trainer/ torture master.  After a pretty lengthy discussion about injury history he began by doing some small strength tests and then began digging into my left calf. He worked on various parts of my left leg in an effort to get my left foot fixed.  I've never had anyone dig in as deep as he did.  He gave me some stuff to work on at home in the evenings too. I really like where he's coming from. This evening I'm going to the Round Rock chiro to get my shoulders and neck loosened up.  I'm gonna have everything fixed up in time!!

The Veteran

Finished 4th in the Piney Woods 20 miler in 3:51 Saturday.  Last years winning time in my age group was 4:02 so I was targeting a sub 4hr to try and get a medal.  I've been battling some niggling injuries along with not eating right and probably drinking too much beer since Thanksgiving.  If I'd been taking care of business a sub 4hr 20 mile really shouldn't have been a big deal but in this case it was.

The 1st mile marker I saw was the 7 mile and I was at the 1;19 mark.  At that point I picked up the pace just a bit until I went down in some muddy slop in mile 10.  I got in and Misty was waiting there like she always has.  My watch said 1:53 and I was gassed.  I totally felt like I had pushed too hard trying to put myself in position to get under 4hrs.  I was out of the aid station quickly (under 2 minutes) after Misty gave me some gels.

As I headed back out I decided I'd eat a gel every 30 minutes instead of 40 and that might help me along a bit.  I kept what felt like a nice even pace and also mixed in some short walking.

At the race start their was a guy that was surely a combat veteran in a wheelchair with a race bib on.  At the time I thought briefly to myself that I'd never seen anyone in a wheelchair do a trail race before and then I refocused on myself and didn't give it anymore thought until I saw him at the 2:37 mark of the race.  I'm guessing I was close to the 4 mile mark and had been lamenting my lack of preparedness for this race since getting out on this 2nd loop.  I'd carried over my  holiday slothfulness completely through the month of January.  My grandmothers passing didn't help but it's not a reasonable excuse for being completely undisciplined either.

Upon seeing the veteran in the distance my first thought was, how the hell did he get that wheelchair through the super muddy, sloppy parts of the early part of the trail.  As I got closer I saw that he was hopping on his one foot with the wheelchair in front to steady himself and he had a lady companion with him.

Needless to say I stopped feeling sorry for myself pretty quickly and turned my thoughts to what I'd say to him as I ran by.  I didn't know what service he was in but decided to keep it simple and let him know I'm an ex Marine and simply say semper fi as I ran by.  He had just as simple an answer,  a very subdued, I'm conserving my energy, "oorah".  Wow, pretty amazing.  Not sure if that encounter empowered me but the first mile marker I saw was the 5 mile.  I really could not believe when I looked at my watch and saw that I had a legitimate chance at coming in under 4hrs.  I was tiring but continued to push as much as I could.  At the 7 mile marker I had a 40 minute window and continued to push as much as could but there was no avoiding walk breaks.

I got on the road and was really running out of gas and knew I'd be seeing Misty, her nephew Vincent and his girlfriend Bailey but was walking a lot.  I didn't want them to see me walking but misjudged where I was and sure enough I rounded a curve and there they were, waiting on me.  I shifted into a shuffle and ran by them as they encouraged me and I mumbled that I "had a chance".   I felt a bit energized after seeing them and was able to run some, but encountered some really muddy trail and continued on as best I could.  Finally I'm on the road and the finish is almost in sight.  I now know for sure that I'm going to make my goal of finishing under 4hrs for sure.  I allow myself to walk until I was about 50yds from the finish and ran it on in.

In the last mile or so it dawned on me that it has been a long time since I'd really pushed myself on a run longer than our Thursday morning 7 milers.  I could tell I really pushed myself because I was feeling mentally goofy well into Sunday.  It was great day and seeing the veteran out there pushing himself really kept things in perspective.

extra early

Nice easy 7+ miler this morning at Townlake.  Got started extra early so I could really take it easy and have time to mix in plenty of walking.  Recovery seems to be going well after my hard effort Saturday.  I wisely slept in yesterday and I'm sure it did me good.  Ate clean yesterday, no crap food.  Got in some real good stretching and some dead hangs on the pull up bar,

sub-ultra

Shan and Steve kicked my ass into a new best time for the 7.4 mile Pleasant Valley/Lamar loop this morning, 1:10.08.  In fact, we knocked off a full 3 minutes from the previous best.   I'm very, very pleased with this new time but it definitely resets the bar. It'll be fun shooting for a faster time.  This weekend is the Piney Woods 20 miler in east Texas, my first race in the sub-ultra trails series.  I'm really looking forward to it!!

running

7+ miles at Townlake this morning.  It was a cool, wet morning.  Thankfully I wore my rain jacket.  It came down pretty good the last mile or so!
Any day I can be out running is a good day.....