A Run On Weekend

It was a great weekend of running, tough but great. And getting stuff done. Saturday I slept in and then cranked out a bunch of school stuff. Felt good. Then I played beauty salon (ultra style) and made my feet pretty. This was a huge accomplishment as my footsies were finally ready to be tended to now that they're all healed and whatnot post-Vermont (well, and I got a little lazy and kept forgetting to do it). So now my feet are soft as a babies butt, I like! I digress. Geof made it back after 30 miles sometime in the early afternoon, did a little wardrobe change, dropped the bottles and we headed out for his final five miles together. Those miles felt good to me. He held up great, as usual :) Afterwards, what's better than a post-run burrito? Post-run tacos :) G got his usual burrito though. I was changing it up a bit with the tacos.

Let's see, Sunday...not so productive. Around 11a.m. we decided to head up to the Kettle Moraine for a trail run, 15 miles, so Geof called his dad to see if they wanted to meet for dinner when we were done, on our way back to Chicago. Perfecto! Somehow, the day really got away from us. I guess we weren't really all that motivated to get out on the trail :) I realized in packing for the run that I barely had any Gu's or Bloks left and would need to stop at REI sometime before leaving for Wasatch, so we decided what the hey, lets swing by REI on the way out of town :) Bam, am I glad we did! Filled up on gummi bears, Gu's, Bloks, Nuun and then found a NF running jacket for under $30 that I'd had my eye on since last year (when it was $80). I love finding a good deal. After killing some time wandering around the store, we decided to check out the Patagonia store. Hey, we were already way behind on the day, what's another hour?

Finally, around 2:00 we were on the road to Wisconsin. We decided to play on the Nordic Trail, the staging area for the KM100 in June. The blue loop is 9.4 miles, and we'd planned on running that once, and then a couple of the shorter ones to get our 15 in. It was 4:30 already, and suddenly, I got grumpy. I was getting eaten alive by the bugs standing in the parking lot getting ready while trying to text Geof's dad to let him know when we'd get into town, prep my bottles, tie my shoes, all while doing the pee pee dance! And, on top of that, I was suddenly hungry beyond my wildest expectations. Oy vey. At least I snapped a couple pictures before we headed out...


On the trail, I almost immediately felt like crap. My legs were like cinder blocks, it was really humid so I was breathing really heavy, and I couldn't find my rhythm. It was nowhere in sight! I tried following behind Geof, watching his feet, hoping to zone out, but couldn't. The blue Nordic Trail is wide and pretty well groomed. Very, very rolling with some sudden, steep ups and downs; something I've become quickly unfamiliar with since July. Just when I thought I dialed it in, I snapped out of it. Then came the hole. I stepped right in it, almost squarely, and rolled my left ankle massively. I shouted and shook it off, only to do it again a few yards up. What is up with that?! As if I weren't already uncomfortable enough, my stomach was really sloshy. I haven't had it that bad before. After about an hour, it eased up, only to turn into stomach pain. Oh boy! And I was hungry, sooooo hungry. By the time we finally reached the trailhead we had compromised on 10 miles, mostly because it was going to put us in Janesville far too late if we continued. So we hopped on the brown loop for our final mile and called it a day. I felt like I'd just gotten punched in the face, and my stomach, and my quads, and my butt... Ugh, guess that's what you get when you're away from the trails too long, pounding pavement instead!

After some delicious mexican with the Dunmores, we headed home. It was late and we were both wasted tired. As we pulled up to the light at Ohio and Michigan (or roundabouts that area), this is what pulled up alongside us, obviously I couldn't resist...

Thank you, Poop 911, you made my night! We both had a good laugh at that one :)

Monday's run wasn't much better than Sunday's. I actually wasn't even planning on running as my legs were pretty shot, but as late afternoon was beginning to roll into early evening, Geof started suiting up for a run and I decided to join him. Another 10 miles in the sticky, disgusting humidity of the day. I was actually questioning why the hell I do this. I hurt, especially that dang peroneous tendon on my left leg. I was tired. I was hungry, again. Thirsty. Two character building runs in a row! The end couldn't come soon enough.

Why do I do this? Because I love it :)

This was only my second back-to-back ever, even if it was "only" ten miles a piece. In retrospect, I feel pretty good about it and I'm glad I went out for those runs. Gotta get through the crappy runs to get to the good runs sometimes. And, on a more positive note, I really nailed the downhills up at Kettle! I was actually impressed with how I handled the downs (dare I say I looked forward to the downhill sections??). Relatively speaking, I was tearing down those hills! My footing was spot on, I didn't trip up or misstep (and it was rocky in some areas!), I just relaxed the gams and let them do their thing. Yippee!!

Next up, I'm leeeeeavinnnng on a jet plaaaaaaane...tomorrow!!! Heading out to the wild wild west of Utah, with my pace face on. Wasatch, ready or not, here we come!

It's gonna be great :)

Crash, out.