OPERATION "CAN I GET FASTER AT 46 YEARS OF AGE?" REPORT!!

I've written about 20 posts since my dog and I went through some "issues."  NONE of them were published, obviously.

Do you REALLY care about my...

garden growing?

my son(who ditched college) sailing the open seas, dressed as a pirate?

my genius grandson, Sandy Pockets?

my husband's achilles heel injury or is trip to Tahoe to crew for a 50k?

Yea, Brian!

my "goal" to only buy summer clothes from resale shops(and I totally HAVE found some CUTE stuff...)

or

is this blog

about running?

I've had more fun reading YOUR  blogs this summer and finding out what's going on in everyone else's life.  

Boy, you guys are having adventures and some of you

are just livin' it simply like us.

Simplicity is what it's about right now...

our economy

the state or our nation

our World

it seems like we're being called to refocus once again.

Are you feeling that or is it just me?

SO BACK TO RUNNING...the cheapest, most fun thing you can do to stay fit and happy!

I hope this doesn't get too long...

The Goal:  So after Boston, I took two months to recover from my planter facitis flare up which cost me a fun race and a lot of training...

I decided to cut down on mileage, tuck my Garmin in a drawer and start racing short stuff.  It wasn't about PRs, it was about feeling strong and knowing when I could push myself.  Really knowing the "state" of my body.

I've been reading a good book

SPEED WITH ENDURANCE

and as a master's runner,  I am reminded to make sure that I have the ENERGY and LEG SPRING to carry off the mileage and speed work, as well as tempo runs, that will keep me moving forward but not DEAD after every push!

In the book, they give you a chart as part of your training log, that helps you monitor your recovery.

Girls, at 46 this is HUGE.

What I did:  So I cut down on mileage and focused on relaxed 7-8 mile runs throughout the week with one day of track and one long run. I'm spinning at home one day and racing WHEN EVER I CAN.  I do use my Garmin during track workouts and my heart rate monitor on the days off SO THAT I STAY IN RECOVERY MODE.

Do you see the thread here???  I'm FOCUSING MORE ON RECOVERY than the training and **DUH**,  I feel great for every run. It's simple.

The Results:  That question I posed in the spring, " CAN A MASTER'S RUNNER IMPROVE HER SHORT DISTANCE TIMES?"  " HOW? "  Has been answered.

The good news is YES.  I have been able to improve my 5k, 8k and 10k times!  The key has been toning down the LONG mileage and focusing on recovery throughout the week.

I still integrate hill work every week because I am doing a lot of cross country and HILL/trail runs this fall...but that just means I have to balance it on the other end with lighter runs and rest.  I also...

use the foam roller every night

do strength training four times a week

ice ANY and ALL sore spots

drink ULTRA FUEL during speed workouts

wear ONLY shoes that are good for my feet(all the time)

and dream about running longer distances...

yes, my heart is still in the marathon.

Carlsbad 2012!

Thanks for stopping by, stay tuned for the FULL REPORT on RUN WITH JILL'S VIsit to California!!!

Go Jill!!

My Dog Wants a Divorce

The tension in the Ling Home is palpable.  Daisy stands outside in her SPACE COLLAR, refusing to look at me nor enter the house.  She's done.

Let me back track...

Last week I put ADVANTAGE II on her for the first time.  I was putting Advantage 1 on her but the vet sugguested I use the tick and lice version since LICE is never far from ME(since I am a kindergarten teacher).  The liquid must have aggravated the two spots where it was applied and two hot spots were created.  I tried to treat them holistically(since dog owners around here are VERY GREEN and only feed their dogs yams and potatoes...).  You don't want to be JUDGED as a bad, bad doggy owner around here and excluded from the parks as if you had the plague. If ANYONE had found out I HADN"T tried black tea bags and cucumber paste,  I'd really be humiliated.

  ANYHOO...Daisy started to itch and itch, wearing herself and her hair patches out.  I invested in a SPACE COLLAR, well,  that's what "I" call them, obviously PET CO has other ideas...and she seemed okay.  Until yesterday...so,  $$$$215.00 later, we came home and started the "routine" of applying the five ear washes, ointments, sprays and creams.

Daisy wants NO part of it.

She wants a divorce.

Why is dog-loving so complicated?

 I thought that having our kids moving on in life would make our life less complicated, which isn't really true.  Every transition in the lives of your kids AND your dog,  bring their own changes and hence, adjustments.

 Life IS all about change and adjusting.  NEVER EVER think you're "got it down."

Even with you dog....

I may need to take her to counseling today,  I really want us to work this out....

The Poop-less Race

A gorgeous Cuyamaca morning at the starting line of trail half marathon.

Family photo, minus Pirate Man and Scabby Knee's Daddy

Loving the dirt.

The camp site stage for Scabby Knees

First off, NO POOP stops, no cramps...yea!  I owe it all to Let'srun.com(ha, ha...runs)AND all of you for your awesome advice and great comments.

I took a 4 oz dose of IMODIUM about a half an hour before the start of the race and NEVER felt the cramps, never had the URGE and the body worked it's magic.  I don't know if this "plan" would work for everyone but I'm back to my "regular" self this morning and planning on using the miracle liquid for my next race. 

THE RACE:

This was a low key event so when I say race, I should say that it was basically a trail run for MORE than 13.2 miles with lots of other people.  I tried to keep the pace up there and push the hills.  I am NOT against walking in an ultra but since this distance was so much shorter, I decided to run the hills.  This actually ended up working out...considering I missed a turn off and avoided the steepest incline and descent in the race, uh, and I took two other people with me. One of them was Runway, my marathon partner in crime, who had stayed the night with us in our sparse little cabin.   I guess we all missed the pink plastic ribbons at one point, only to discover them a while later, taking THAT turn and coming in to the aide station ahead of the first runner.  The aide station volunteers didn't seem surprised that two skirt-wearing girls were ripping it up on the trails, with no MEN in sight.  We had no idea and didn't stop, just continued on our merry way.

At this point in the race, we were about five miles in, which should have been six miles, and we felt awesome.  We were jumping streams, running through mud and having a jolly time under the canopy of trees and gorgeous vegetation.  I felt so good, so full of zip that I took off down a rocky hill...my ankles wobbling from very little technical trail running as of late, and suddenly found myself alone with white flour arrows pointing in three different directions.  

I was suddenly a victim of an ALICE IN WONDERLAND moment.  Runway wasn't behind me.  I crossed the road and found a little sign pointing UP the hill that I had just descended that said 50k GO HERE>  So,  I just did an eeny-meeny type of decision making and took a hill with a pink ribbon by storm.  It was steep, it was rocky it was full of little sticks.  It was also empty...until I was faced head on with a down hill trail runner from the 50k who informed me I was miles off course and heading in the wrong direction.  So, I flipped around and followed him down...tripping and hobbling over the rocks, feeling STUPID and totally inexperienced.  Off in the distance, I heard a woman's voice so I headed that way.

**At this point, I must insert the thought that I had regarding ALL Colorado bloggers:

YOU MAKE THIS LOOK SO EASY and EFFORTLESS!

Reaching the ALICE IN WONDERLAND site was of no help, once there,  I was totally alone again, spinning in a circle, shouting Runway's real name, hoping my rotating body would send out a rotating message that would reach all four corners of the Cuyamaca Mountains(assuming there were four corners to a mountain range)..  Silence responded.  See, I really am a rookie.

Suddenly, Red Shirt came ripping down the hill, he wasn't too talkative but did tell me he was first male in the half.  Hmmmmmm.   I really WAS off course.  So, I ran back up the first hill that I had descended, looked around and decided to follow him home...at least I would find my way back to the finish without winding up a skeletal corpse, lying across the trail. 

I smelled people and suddenly,  dozens of 50k runners were walking up the LONG hill that I was running down.  "GOOD JOB!" they shouted, "Awesome!"  Uh-oh.  That only meant I wasn't far behind the first place guy...meaning that WE HAD skipped the trail up the peak and even though I had gone off course again,  we were way too close in time to the first place guy.

Oh well,  I gave the last down hill everything I had, and then some.  It was hot, it was sunny, I was running and I didn't have diarrhea.  It was a joyful time.

Crossing the finish line confirmed that we had gone off course.  Runway had arrived WAY before Red Shirt Guy and although she and I were shaking our tails on this run,  we were slower than Red Shirt's pace for sure.

The director of the race was the coolest ever.  Runway was first over all just because she crossed the finish line first.  Red Shirt asked NO questions and assumed second place...I came in second female and 6th over all....and that was that.  NO QUESTIONS ASKED.  We all left laughing...as I said, it was  a low key event.  

Poop, Snakes, Sprints, and Sweat

So even on the 4th of July, BS wouldn't listen to my poop 

woes!

POOP issues plague me at every race.  Really.  Small, sharp stomach cramps that turn into me having to go to the bathroom URGENTLY.  After trailing a girl who had pooped her shorts in Boston,  I have NEVER had the desire to do the same.  Too fragrant.  I want my friends.  So this weekend, after a HOT and quick start to a 10k,  I decided NOT to evacuate "short" style but to just stop and use the port a potty.  Twice.  The cramps went away and I caught up to Chris Korn...eventually  I had a fun race but it's time to FACE THE CACA WOES head on.

I consulted a GI doctor.  A nurse.  A lot of friends.  I've decided that I'm not going to let my bowels command my races any longer.  Now that my foot is behaving and the training is going well,  I'm going to give IMMODIUM a try this weekend.  I'll be racing a tough, hot and hilly  half marathon trail race in the mountains near Julian, CA.  I'm going to pop the magical immodium and see if I can pull this race off without squatting on a snake or poking the hinny with a cactus.  Report to follow...this is my last chance!!  The "letsrun.com" forum had many success stories of those who have tried IMMODIUM.  Have you?

Summer is off to a great start.  Warm!  Best July eva' .
So far our runs have challenged us with...

6 snakes(one rattler)
25+harmless lizards
sweaty parts/sweaty clothes
3 races already, 3 more to come this month!
consumption of enough Vitalyte to fill Sandy Pocket's baby pool





I'm off to catch up on blogs this afternoon! Miss all of those reports!