Homo ultris runneris

I feel human again.  And it is such a wonderful feeling.  I had forgotten how lovely it is to feel like a functioning member of society...particularly of the genus Homo and species ultris runneris.

Ultris runneri, as seen in the red rock wilderness, circa 2011

I have now had two wonderfully speedy runs in a row (I was worried my legs forgot how to turn over), and have enjoyed some fantastic running in general since my last post.  And amen to that; Geof was on the verge of removing my Best Running Partner Ever title ;)

Saturday we headed to Palos to get in a short trail run, and some hills.  The trails were in bad shape so we stuck to the gentler yellow trail, hoping to avoid causing too much damage to the soggy terrain.  It was pretty nasty.  Palos always feels gross as it is (on account of the horse manure, mostly), and Saturday was no exception, but after a couple miles, and knowing it was my last run in the shoes I was wearing, I allowed myself to fully embrace the gross.  Soupy mud, soggy horse poop, sticky clay, and the moldy scent of a half-thawed winter combined with humidity.  Ahhhh, Midwestern trail running at its finest!  We ran clockwise so that we could have the good hills for climbing (rather than descending), and running all the way up Big Bertha was quite a treat!  A couple of muscles in my right glute that had been on an extended leave of absence since Javelina 100 decided to wake up and join the fun finally.  Breathing not nearly as hard as I have in the past pushing up that hill, we reached the top and both agreed we needed to do some more hill work before spring racing begins :)

Geof found out he got into the Wasatch 100 on Saturday evening, and immediately set about formulating a race strategy/plan on Sunday morning.  I am so pumped to get to head back there and get in another round of pacing and crewing, especially because it's for my rockin' husband.  It's a truly awesome experience and the course is disgustingly beautiful.  So, we've got that on tap for September, and lots of awesome training to do before then! 

I still need to figure out what my big race will be this year, but I've got other fish to fry before I make that decision.  I look forward to having some supremely good news to share in the next couple of months; fingers, toes, legs and eyes crossed!

I've recently culled a pair of really great road shoes.  I like to try out lots of different road shoes, different brands, different styles.  But I always, always find myself coming back to Brooks roadies.  This time I picked up a pair of the Brooks Launch.  They're pretty wonderful.  Cushy, light, and downright comfortable.  The Mizuno Wave Riders I was trying so hard to like are now out of the rotation.  The ankle collar was too stiff and annoying.  I dreaded running in them.  In my opinion, you shouldn't have to work at liking your running shoes.  You should LOVE them the moment you slip them on and prance around for the first time.  There are rare exceptions, of course, but for the most part that's how it should be :) 

It's great to feel like an ultris runneris again and I'm finally starting to look forward to Zane Grey in April.  I'm sure there will be days where I'm cursing it, but for the most part I am really excited for a new challenge (and what a challenge it will be!).  After a little vacation getaway this weekend we'll really crank it up again.  On on!

Paige, out.

The Sophomore Slump

Last year was a big year.  Lots of big accomplishments, lots of strides made (literally and figuratively) in my running life, lots of awards, lots of miles, lots of PRs.  Lots of things.  I love looking back on it.

It was fantastic.

It was pure.

It was exactly what I wanted out of my 2011.

And it completely drained me.

How do you follow up a performance like last year?  I know I can, and I know I will, but in the throes of a full-on burnout it's quite difficult to imagine.  And almost as equally as exhausting!

But, I'm pulling out of it.  I feel like I will be back in love with running very soon.  I just needed to retreat for a short bit and just stop thinking about it all.  Rather than fighting my loss of mojo and the burnout this time I just let it run its course.  Sometimes that's all you can do to make it through with sanity intact.  I feel remarkably sane considering my seven mile week last week :) 

I also let a bout of the flu run its course.  I'm quite lucky, though.  My version of the flu is considerably less crappy than most others who've experienced it, thanks to all that running and good health otherwise.  So I can't whine too much, but I sure am glad to crave food, and sunlight, and the smell of brand new running shoes again!

It was only a week of darkness, but it was a very long week.  I called the time of death on my running streak on January 22nd after a particularly awful long run that morning, and claimed a 25 day streak as my very own.  A pretty hefty achievement considering my usual streak lasts, at most, six days.  My body was ready for a rest as I had run it pretty ragged, and that's probably how I came down with the flu.  Live, learn, blahblahblah :)

So tomorrow I will attempt to pull myself out of this sophomore slump of sorts and get moving again.  Maybe I'll love it, maybe I'll take some more time off.  No sense in getting too crazy just yet.  Though we do have all sorts of ass to kick come late April, at Zane Grey.  But I feel very confident in my ability to be ready for that :)

Oh, I have another blog!  I've kept it kind of quiet the last several months and didn't do much with it, until recently.  I decided to make that a space to post tasty vittles I concoct in la cucina de Dunmore, among other non-running related tid-bits.  Check it out if you like, or don't :)  But I think you may enjoy it as a nice change of pace:

The Back Paige

I shall now get back to conquering the world and start dreaming up which shoes to lace up for tomorrow's run (I've got a couple new ones to choose from!).

Paige, out.

I'm a Morning Runner

Last night's run sucked a**.

I know we all have 'em, it's just been so long since I've had one: a crap-filled run.  I said to Geof that I couldn't remember feeling more awkward running, other than my first run back after Vermont 100 in 2009 (my first hundie).

Everything felt off.  My feet felt like balloons.  My ankles felt brittle and ached.  My knees ached, too.  My hips and hamstrings felt tight.  My stomach was sour.  My mind, good grief my mind, was on a rampage.  The wind howled on the way out, but pushed us along nicely on the way back.  We both grunted and grimaced most of the way, otherwise running in silence.  At least we were in the same boat :)

Four miles never felt so long.  My legs never felt so slow.  The night never felt so foreboding.  City noises never annoyed me so much.  All I could think about was getting home to warmth...and pizza.

I am definitely a morning runner.  Especially in winter. 

This morning's run was infinitely better.  But the bitter taste of a crappy run still sat on my tongue.  Good thing it's nothing a hot cup of black tea can't snuff out! 

I can't wait for tomorrow's run :) 

Random Nature Note:

Last night we came home to our mini-tree/plant-that-we-are-unsure-of-what-it-is (aka "Stella") drooped at a 90 degree angle, leaves pitifully limp and dangling ominously.  I never realized how attached I am to our house plants until that moment.  My heart began to sink.  "Stella!"  I poured her a tall drink of water as we left for our run.  When we came back, I hopped into a hot shower and Geof burst into the bathroom, "Stella just shot straight up!"  When I finished, I stole a peek and sure enough, she was standing fully upright, leaves once again wide and firm.  Stella was once again stunning :)  Isn't that incredible?

Nature, my friends, is awesome.

Paige, out.

Grass-letes

WARNING: Shameless Plug Follows!

It's official, Geof and I are now officially grass fed grassletes!!  We've really been grass fed for well over a year now, but as of last week we are now on the Amazing Grass Athlete roster.  Exciting! 
(*I made up the term 'grasslete'.  I must take full blame for eye roll inducing words/phrases.  I felt pretty clever when I came up with that one ;))

We've been Grassheads for awhile and have really enjoyed the myriad benefits of getting a lot of our organic superfoods from Amazing Grass.  When we finally decided to make a healthy balanced diet a part of an overall lifestyle change it really only made sense.  Amazing Grass is a rockin' little company that makes some seriously awesome product, the benefits of which roll over nicely into our running lifestyle.  Have you ever tried any of their stuff?  Check it out if you haven't!  They sell "sample" versions online of a lot of their drinks and bars, so it's cheap and easy to try out.  I also know that Whole Foods sells Amazing Grass if you prefer the brick-and-mortar experience. 

We like to nosh on the AG Green SuperFood Energy Bars after long runs, or even just on long car rides where my need to eat incessantly gets in the way of making progress (as well as my need to use the ladies' room every 30 minutes...c'mon, I have a very lady-like bladder!) :)  And  2-3 scoops of the Berry Green SuperFood goes in our daily morning smoothies.  It tastes so GOOD!  Looks disgusting, for sure, but seriously the flavor is awesome. 

So, shameless plug aside, I enjoy being able to represent completely awesome brands (see the Serious Support tab above for evidence), and when this opportunity presented itself we could not resist.  We actually use the stuff daily, and love it.  So I feel pretty good about plugging it all here. 

For transparency's sake, there is absolutely no financial gain on our part by endorsing these guys.  The only gains are warm fuzzies, knowing we get to represent a brand we love and believe in.  How 'bout them apples!  If you're curious, I suggest checking out Amazing Grass if you feel like getting your personal health philosophy rocked n' rolled by a completely Amazing experience. 

And in other running news, we had a totally Amazing T10 this morning!  Warm, windy on the way back, drizzly, and wonderful!  Today marks day 20 of our running streak, a PR by about 15 days, heh :)  Legs are feeling pretty good, and mind and body are very, very happy.  Onward!

Paige, out.

Fastest Guns in the (Mid)West

Okay, not really, but that's what popped into my head when I started dreaming up the title for this post :)  But, it's not totally unrelated to the content...!

Saturday morning we're up at the crack of yeehaw dreaming up our run for the day.  We were planning to head up to the Kettle Moraine since the weather was phenomenal (full sun, 30s, rockin' awesome) and began to make motions towards that goal.  Some mid-winter camping had been on the agenda as well, but we scratched that idea upon waking Saturday morning.  We also wanted to make our usual stop at the La Grange General Store for lunch, so that meant we needed to get the show on the road. 

For as early as we got up, we didn't end up heading out the door until close to noon :)  What on earth were we doing all that time?  I have no idea.  So, to the Nordic trail we headed!  We're within 20 minutes of our final destination when I decide Facebook needs to know what we're up to, so I post a quick little status update.  Almost instantly (not really, it just seemed like it) I got a reply from Brian telling me to check out a post from someone else and to "be careful out there."  Ummmmm, what?

I couldn't see the post so I asked what it said and he sent me a text with the information...basically, there was a gunman on the loose on the Nordic trails and a fellow runner was greeted by 20 some odd policemen with their guns drawn when she came off the trails after her run.  She ran right by the guy!

In any event, we had no idea what the trail situation would be so we started altering our plan a bit.  We pulled up to the Nordic trailhead only to see that it has been blockaded and an officer steps out of his truck to speak with Geof while another officer is off to the side doing nothing out of the ordinary...you know, just strapping on a bulky bullet proof vest and tossing an enormous gun across his back.  Gave me chills!

So it turns out, allegedly, some dude not wearing blaze orange (i.e. in plain clothes) shot directly at a hunter and his son, the hunter shot back, and then the dude took off.  Police were on the hunt for him, choppers were called, area houses were put on lockdown, and the Nordic trails were closed off.  But, according to the gent Geof spoke with, it was okay to run the trails across the street.  Seriously?  How was that expected to be safe?  Heh.

In the end, all we could find out was that the search was "called off" later that evening.  No explanation of what happened, or why it was called off, or if they caught their perp.  Nothing.  Isn't that strange? 

We ended up driving up the road to the Highway 12 trailhead and ran to Rice Lake and back.  It was AWESOME!  Lots of hunters out on the trail, which is always creepy feeling, but they are always very nice to us.  I love this section of the KM100.  It's technical, it's hilly, it twisty-turny.  Lots of rocks, a miniature pine tree alley that makes me feel extremely tall as we run beneath the stunted canopy of pine.  I endeavored to run the entire way out; running every up and every down, maintaining a consistent cadence the whole way.  I did it, too :)  It burned on some of the steeper climbs, but I was able to keep moving at the same pace regardless.  We reached the turnaround at Rice Lake and headed back the way we came.  I kept the same goal in mind, but at two of the sections with railroad tie stairs (going up this time) I let myself reduce to a brisk hike for a moment, but still the same cadence.  It felt so good.  The weather was just fantastic, and other than the sprinkling of hunters alongside the trail near County Road P, we more or less had the trail to ourselves.  Some spots were a little mucky, but for the most part it was in great shape.

I wore my La Sportiva Quantums and enjoyed a solid ride the whole way.  When you step in tacky mud it sounds like peeling velcro as my foot leaves the mud.  It sounds pretty funny, but it also means I'm getting great traction even on the slippy-slidey stuff.

After wrapping up our run we quickly changed and headed for the warm goodness of the General Store.  We shared a hot Fajita Pita for lunch, and I enjoyed my very first kombucha tea (ummmm, holy deliciousness!).  There was a specific dinner spot we had in mind on the way home, so we didn't want to spoil our appetites before we got there.

After sufficiently relaxing our legs and bellies we hopped back in the truck and headed for Woodstock, IL an hour or so away.  The Woodstock Public House has the sort of charm and ambiance I think only exists in movies or made-for-TV-dramas.  I'm pretty sure I mentioned it before (when we went apple picking back in the fall), but the town square is so perfectly perfect it makes me squeal with delight when I see it.  We parked on the far end and walked around the Square to the Pub where we grabbed a high-top in the front room (it has the best people watching :)).  I ordered the most divine pumpkin harvest soup and melted into the bowl as I drained it of every last drop. 

A nearly full moon over Main Street

We walked around the Square once more on the way back to the truck, and we dreamed up Sunday's run/workout.  The day wasn't even done and I was already chomping at the bit for the next day's run :) 

And, in closing, I stumbled upon Joe Grant's blog yesterday (if you don't follow it you should consider it :)) and fell in love with the writing.  He's got great style.  He wrote a short post on his 2011 streak and I cannot get this clip from his post out of my head...it's some serious truth: 

"There's something special about devoting, even the smallest amount of time, each day to something that you love. In many ways, it is no longer a question as to whether or not I will run today, but rather about the excitement and anticipation of what the run will bring."

And that is yet another reason I run...for "the excitement and anticipation of what the run will bring."

Paige, out.

The Art of Running

Remember the Bumper Stickers from back in February?  I'm looking into getting some more on hand so I can do another giveaway, but in the midst of my looking into this they asked me if I'd like to try out a product from their sister company, Easy Canvas Prints, in the meantime.  I checked it out, played around on the site some and decided I could make it pretty running related.  So, I said sure (one of my new years goals: say yes more!)!

The company name is pretty straight forward and leaves nothing to the imagination, as they are exactly that...easy canvas prints.  You upload a photo you want...canvased? (is that even a word?)...select the size you want, and then fork over some moola.  Pretty simple, and a great way to memorialize a favorite photo in a slightly different way than you would likely normally do.  It was fun!

I picked the 8"x10" size and uploaded one of my favorite race pictures.  Geof and I liked it so much that we even included it on the backside of our wedding invitations :)  Here's a pic of the final product:

The lighting in the living room wasn't that great this morning, but the print looks really great in person, just like the original photo but with an artistic touch to it!  I am blanking on who shot this photo originally, but it was either Kelly Gaines or Gretchen.  It's from the 2010 Rio Del Lago 100.  Geof is walking with me across No Hands Bridge around mile 40 of the course.  It was hot, hot, hot that day and when he let go and waved me on I began troubleshooting my situation, preparing to lose my cookies for the first time in a race before pulling it together and finishing up in fine fashion.  It was a fantastic day, and a great race.  This photo makes me smile so much :)

If you've got a picture you want to do something special with then I definitely recommend your checking this out.  I think Groupon and Living Social have a lot of deals for this sort of thing, too.  So keep an eye out, or hop on over to Easy Canvas Prints to see what they can do for you.

Now who ever said running isn't an art?!

Paige, out.

NON-RUNNING CONTENT...But Still Pretty Cool

Now it's at four posts in five days...amazing! :)

Here's a little peak into my non-running life (does such a thing exist?!)...My older brother, Tate, has a band called How Far to Austin and I just received their newsletter containing a link to a music video they made recently. 

It's AWESOME!  I got goosebumps watching it, then I wanted to dance so I watched it again!  It's their version of Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" and it'll give you a pants party.

How Far to Austin - Proud Mary Video

My brother is the guitarist, in flannel (how many of you were able to pick him out??).  He looks just like me so you can't miss him :)  Except I have a flatter set of abs currently (shhhhhh, this'll fire him up!) and he is quite a bit funnier.  I have much to learn about the written word from him. 

Me and my big brother

My sister-in-law, Katie, is the female vocalist.  She's got some serious chords.  My niece has some big shoes to fill!

Anywho, I was just so dang proud that I wanted to share it here.  I remember Tate's first electric guitar and watching him play the first few chords of some Jimmy Hendrix song over and over and over because I'm pretty sure that's all he knew how to play.  Now he's a bonafide Chicago rockstar.  Pretty neat.  Makes my running seem so...pedestrian :)

Enjoy!

Paige, out.