Still No Stank!

Winter running, it ain't so bad.  So long as you're prepared and dressed smartly, you're sure to have a grand old time. 

That sorta reminds me of an old timey sales pitch.  It sounded different in my head :)

Anywho!  I've been having fun squaring away the final miles of 2010 (I finally surpassed 2009's miles, woohoo!  Final number to be revealed soon...) and getting in some much needed snow running.  I had forgotten how much I really do enjoy running through the snow.  Snow makes everything pretty. 

Speaking of snow, Geof and I spent Christmas Eve in Eastern Iowa with some of his family, and we were lucky enough to reap the rewards of a solid snowstorm from earlier in the week, and even into that evening.  After scarfing a most delicious dinner, seeing what Santa brought all the good little kids (yes, we were very good this year), and taking a tour of the Christmas Lights display in town, Geof and I headed out into the backyard and relived our youths...we romped around in more than 14 inches of fluffy gloriousness!  Bundled up in our finest snow clothes, you'd have thought we were little kids seeing snow for the first time ever.  We were runnig and diving into it, completely fearless; I even ate some snow, on purpose :)  Snow angels a'plenty, powder balls a'flying, making sure there wasn't a single un-played-in area of the yard.  Out of breath and smiling ear-to-ear, we eventually laid down in the snow, temple-to-temple, staring up at the dark sky as snowflakes fell silently.  It was just perfect :)

Sunday, we decided it was time for another run after taking a couple days off.  We were back home, and headed onto the path for a solid 8 miles.  Unbeknownst to us, the path hadn't been plowed yet, so we were treated to a thick, fluffy layer of snow the whole way; sweet!  I was testing out the newest addition to my winter running wardrobe, and after a second equally snowy and cold (yet still somehow quite sweaty) 5 mile run on Monday in the same shirt (ewwwwww, groooooooosss), the verdict is in: the Icebreaker Bodyfit 200 long sleeve shirt is the bomb diggity.  One run is usually enough to tell what I'm going to think of something, but this time I needed a second opinion.  You see, Icebreaker is supposed to, among other things, not be stinky.  It's that whole merino wool thing.  I seem to be pretty good at stinkifying running shirts, or at least leaving a deodorant scent.  Not so in my new threads.  I aired it out overnight on the drying rack both times (like I do for all my sweaty running clothes), and the next day the shirt smelled like it did fresh out of the package (which is this really cool slider cardboard box).  Hmmm, interesting.  Still no stank. 

Oh, here's a picture of the shirt I got (I ripped it from the Wilderness Running Company website):

Maybe for Halloween I'll dress up as the WRC Icebreaker chic...we are practically twins ;)

So I'm thinking I may be falling in love with this shirt...oh, wait, yep.  I am.  Luckily, I had top notch foresight and decided to get a shirt for Geof, "from Santa".  He was gifted with the Icebreaker Bodyfit 150 Atlas Crew, and I'm pretty sure he loves his as much as I love mine :)  It's one of those shirts that will become a serious staple in our closets...they're super versatile, and we like versatile, especially when traveling and what not.  Now I want one in every color, long sleeve and short sleeve :) 

Okay, enough of the pitch.  I just get so excited when I find really great gear. 

Next up, I'm looking forward to taking my new Yaktrax Pros for a spin on some ice on New Years Day.  Geof's the best Santa ever :)

Crash, out.

Serious Case of the WooHoos!

 Photo Courtesy of my Dear Friend Google

I was right, today's run was way awesomer :)

We got a good 3-4 inches of fluffy stuff overnight, followed by a sprinkling of freezing rain, so this morning's run was intermixed with the two and made for a truely lovely run, albeit a little scary.  The slick stuff was hard to spot as it just looked like wet concrete, but I managed to stay upright, woohoo!

Today is quite a big day...it's the first day of winter, and, therefore, the winter solstice, and it is precisely five short months until Geof and I march down the aisle together.  Woohoo!

Crash, out.

Serious Case of the Slugs

We ran this morning and I was soooooo not into it.  We all have these days, you just are never really sure when they are going to pop up.

I woke up actually awake and with the plan of running.  I was particularly excited last night when I saw that the high for today was in the 30s (sweet!!), and when I checked the weather this morning, it was at 17 degrees (bam!) with zero windchill, specifically "calm" (double bam!).

We bundled up just a touch less severely than last week, in hopes of a 'warmer' run.

It was so not "calm", and definitely not warm.

And, my legs had other plans for me today.

I was cold the entire run, and my legs felt as if they were caked in a thick, heavy layer of cement.  My feet didn't know what they were doing; I found myself looking down at them more than a few times to make sure they were actually still there.

We were barely 3/4 of a mile out when I slowed completely to a walk, Geof's arm around my shoulders.  I considered turning back for home, but after I whined for a moment, and frowned the ultimate frown, we picked it back up and continued on down the path. 

I don't end my races because I'm sluggish or in a less-than-awesome mood at points, why quit a training run?  It's just a phase, I'll get over it. 

I didn't get over it, but then again, it was only 4 miles.  Had I had 96 more miles to go, I definitely would have gotten over it eventually :-)

Ah well, this run gets filed in my Character Builder tab.  I haven't had one of those in a good long while, so I was long overdue.

Tomorrow will be awesomer. 

Crash, out.

A Sunset-y Sunrise

This morning's sunrise looked an awful lot like a sunset.  The colors were more sunset-y than sunrise-y...lots of pinks and purples and end-of-the-day colors.  I stared at it through our living room windows, willing myself to get excited about running in the chill again.  Winter running requires a great deal of motivation and will to get out the door.  It's amazing.

It just looked cold.

Ya know when it's super, super cold out and, even if there wasn't any snow to be seen, you could still tell it was frigid out?  Well the ground is still pretty well covered in snow here, and the lake is frozen in time under a thin layer of ice for about as far as you can see, but still.  You could tell it was bitterly cold out just looking at the horizon. 

We opted for another short, fast loop this morning, around the Pier and then some.  It was pretty chilly (17 degrees with a wind chill of 7), but it somehow felt considerably warmer than the last couple of runs of similar temperatures.  I had some spring back in my step this morning, so that was cool.  It is also cool that the Pier has been salted and de-iced to my liking :)

Supposedly we are getting more snow tonight, yippee!!  And tomorrow's forecast has more of it, too.  Then again, you can't trust a Chicago weather forecast that is more than 5 minutes old...and even then it's pushing it.

Crash, out.

Anybody There?

I'm here, I'm here, I'm here! 

That was a long stretch of radio silence I had going there...yikes!  But have no fear, I'm still running, albeit in a much more watered down version. 

Ah, winter, it has officially, totally arrived.

In the wee hours of the morning on December 4th, Geof and I emerged from the warmth of the Double Door, after witnessing a seriously amazing show by my brother's band, How Far to Austin, to find that the city was hushed by a thin layer of fluffy white snow...oh glorious winter!!  My ears were shot from standing practically IN the speakers for much of the night, so stepping outside into the snow was positively deafening.  And beautiful.  Old man winter was making his presence known.

This morning was our first truly frigid and wintry run, and it was great.  I felt a little like a fish out of water; the cold is so much earlier than last year it seems.  We bundled up, unsure of what to expect once we got outside.  The temperature read 12 degrees, with a windchill factor of -2.  Yowza!  Since I am paralyzed with fear when it comes to ice these days, I opted to wear my trusty Sporty Cats, the originals, and just go into rigor mortis as soon as I saw any patches of anything resembling ice before proceeding along the path behind Geof.  I really don't want another spill! 

We opted to stay on the upper section of the path, and it was mostly free of ice patches, save for a few sketchy random spots.  Somehow I managed to stay upright :)  We squeezed out five glorious miles, misfired snot frozen on my cheeks and my mouth frozen in a smile.  As uncomfortable as bitterly cold running can be, it sure is rewarding.  Kinda makes you feel like a rockstar.

Though, I'd be lying if I said I wish I were training for a hundo in this weather :-)  Geof and I were just picking the training up right about this time last year, getting ready for Rocky Raccoon 100M.  I had a dream over the weekend that we were running Leanhorse 100.  Hmmm, interesting.

I'm looking forward to breaking my fear of ice this winter.  Or at least acquiring a pair of Yaktrax to make it slightly less paralyzing.  The ol' screw shoes will certainly make a few appearances as well.

I love snow :)

Crash, out.

A Very Engaging Weekend

What a great weekend!  I'm still reeling from it all, and super excited :)  It all started on a good foot, so to speak...

Friday evening, I arrived home eager to get started on the packing for the CHUG Deer Grove fat ass run the following morning, and sort out nutrition and what not.  Geof, however, had slightly different plans in mind... :)  I'll spare you all my mushy gushies, and say...he proposed!!  Was I shocked? um YES!  I had no idea what was coming, and completely thrilled with it all.  Wow, he really pulled one over on me...I never picked up on any clues, dropped hints, nothin', and here I was thinking I was soooo sharp ;) 

Of course, I said yes!

After making all sorts of calls to family and friends to share the amazing news, we decided it would be a good idea to have dinner and celebrate a little.  We headed over to our favorite sushi spot and basked in the glow of it all.  What a lucky gal I am!

Saturday morning, we rose early to get ready for the day's CHUG run, out at Deer Grove in Palatine.  A HUGE group showed up!  There were over 50 registered and I think most people made it which made it even more fun.  So many new faces, a bunch of veterans, all good times.  Geof and I were running together, and Palatine native (recently transplanted back here via Oregon), Maria Clementi, joined us for her two laps and we really had a great time getting to know her.  What a fun chick!

Geof, me, Maria and Jim (all in the center) awaiting the start instructions from RD Brian Gaines

It was really, really cold, and didn't warm up much through the day.  Geof and I somehow managed to really overestimate the weather for the day and showed up in shorts...it was a tad nippy for that!  After the first few miles along the 5.4 mile loop, we warmed up nicely and I could finally feel my feet and toes again.  That's always a bonus!  It was great to meet and run with Maria, filling her in on all things Chicago running, and hearing about her time in Oregon.

After two loops, Maria was done as she had other plans that day, so Geof and I continued on for a third loop.  It was cold again, and since we were pretty tired after a late evening the night before, we were reduced to walking the hills we had run the first two times around, so this made it colder.  We decided three loops (just over 16 miles) were peachy keen and called it a day after that. 

 Hanging at the 'finish' with Ian, Geof, Anastasia, Kelly and Sarah

After we were done, we changed into warm clothes and left to grab some warm food with Sarah (who is making her return to running after a brief time off from injury...welcome back Sarah!!).  After refueling, we went back to Deer Grove to hang with the Brelly and cheer on the remaining runners.  It was so COLD!  Winter is well on its way in the Midwest.

Some of the hearty souls hanging out, cheering on our fellow CHUGs

After we closed up shop at Deer Grove, we headed over to the Brelly B&B to get cleaned up.  Brelly treated us to a celebratory dinner at Cooper's Hawk in Barrington...YUM!  It was the perfect post-run dinner, and a wonderful way to share in the fun and excitement of the engagement with two of our favorite people :)

Sunday was spent relaxing, eating and planning!  We waste no time!  Needless to say, our date won't work out too well with Western States and the needed training for it, so we've opted to withdraw from the lottery for 2011.  That's fine with me...I didn't really want to get in all that badly for next year!  I'm thinking 2012 will be a better year for WS100 for this chick :)  Of course, we'll be scoping out possible mid-summer, early fall hundred milers to fill in the gap (what, you didn't think we'd opt out of a 2011 hundred miler altogether, now did you?!).  Oh, the choices!

Looking forward to some more good running this week, some fantastic food, and wonderful company for the holiday.  I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Crash, out.

Fleety Feet

This morning's run was splendid!  Yes, it was "only" three miles ;) but they were three very high quality miles. 

Geof and I got a late start to our run, so we settled with our favorite loop near the Pier.  It's a perfect loop for a short tempo run, a long speed workout, a farty-lek or whathaveyou.  I certainly didn't have speed in mind for this morning as I'm "tapering" for this weekend's CHUG Deer Grove 32.4 mile Fat Ass run, but hey, when in Rome!

I didn't even wear my lightening fast speedy shoes today, just my plain ol' Asics.  So I was doubly surprised when I hit stop on my watch and saw that we ran it in a new PR for this little lady.  We cranked out an average 7:56 pace... 

Big money, no whammies!!

Okay, this time it felt like we were pushing the pace, but not that much.  We were both pretty much mute the better part of the run, and my breathing was fairly laborious towards the end.  Cha-ching!  I love when that happens!  It felt a lot like the final mile of this year's Minnesota Voyageur 50 Mile when we kicked it hard to pass a woman in front of us just before the finish.

I gotta say, I'm really enjoying this running for the fun of it, and not actually training for something for once.  I have more spring in my step, more umph in my stride, and less junk in the trunk ;-) 

*Crickets*

I'm also enjoying no bugs on the lakefront due to the cold temps, but I really wish they would keep at least a couple of the bathrooms open during the winter months.  I mean seriously, it's not like we suddenly never have to pee when it's cold out.  Sure, there are fewer people on the lakefront, but still.

Lookin' forward to the run this weekend!

Crash, out.