I'd Love to Stick Around, But I'm Running Behind.

Apparently, I feel compelled to imitate every caution sign I come across...

This weekend was lovely, lovely loverly. Friday night I came home and John and I got to sit outside on the porch with cocktails and watch the birds and squirrels and bunnies that live in our backyard and enjoy the 70 degree temps. Ahhhh.

I made salmon, baked potatoes and steamed asparagus for dinner. Then we watched the move, "St Vincent". It was really good.

We got up at 5 am on Sunday to head to Des Moines for the Leprechaun Chase. It was a 10K where the women go off first and the men start 5 minutes later, so they're able to "catch" us. It was a lot of fun and everyone wore green which gave me another excuse to wear my BEER socks.

Before the race, John and I did a little warm-up run along the river and, as you can see, took super dorky photos.

We met our friends, another couple before the race. The guy in the couple had never raced before in his life. He was nervous, but we told him he had trained enough and his time would be faster than he had ever run in his life. Indeed, it was.

My goal was just to be able to run an average 9 and a half minute mile pace. I hadn't been able to come even close in any of my training runs. I didn't care about place, I just didn't want to injure myself and I wanted to have fun.

We took off and everyone went  so fast, that I never knew if I was sucking, or if Iwas doing okay but everyone else wass amazing. My Map My Run read out my first mile time as an 8.5 minute mile. Sweet! But I wanted to slow that down, because I didn't want to die at the end of the race. I was pretty consistently running 9 - 9.5 minute miles the rest of the race. My heart and lungs felt great throughout the race, but my legs were soooo sore from running that 12.8 mile a run a couple of days before. Help me remember, when I tell myself I'm not going to worry about how I do in my race and I'm just going to run it and have fun, I'm lying. I always care how I do in the race when I'm running it and afterward when I get my time and place.

I finished in 55.53 minutes.  A little under 9 minute miles. I was pretty happy with that. Especially since my lungs and heart were great and the next race I do, I promise to taper. I got 13th in my age group. Since I'm the oldest in my category and next year I'll be the youngest, I checked out the 50-54 year olds. I would have been 5th in that group. Something to look forward to next year. John got 2nd in his category. Nice work!

...With Two Cats in the Yard. Life Used to be So Hard...

This was taken when Archie was half the cat he is now.

Oh, kids. It's Friday and lovely out. It might even get to 70 dang degrees today. I am taking the day off of any exercise except bike commuting, because I have a running race tomorrow and a bike race the next day.

The plan tonight is for cocktails out on the porch with annoying cats harassing us. Kitty cocktails! I hope your Friday ends just as well.

Life Ain't a Track Meet (No). It's a Marathon.

Nice hair!

Since it's been so nice here this week, I thought I'd write about a great run I had yesterday, instead of one from a long time ago.

Lovely winding creek.

I got off work early yesterday to do a 12'ish mile run. I have a 25K part trail/part road race coming up in exactly a month, so I need to get some longer runs in before that. About 3 weeks ago, I tried to do a 9 mile run and I thought it was going to kill me. Because of that, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to finish a run this long either. Of course, 3 more weeks of training and giving myself the day off from running the day before this and I had no problem finishing it. Granted, I went very slowly...

I obviously stopped to take photos along the way and waved to all of the cyclists I saw riding past me. It was a perfect day for a run. about 60 degrees and sunny with a light wind and almost no humidity.

As I got closer to the Resevoir, I saw more people. I ran past the Frisbee golfers and luckily didn't get grazed by a bad throw this time around.

This thing, made me look bad. I didn't realize a runner could trip the speed thingy, but just so you know, I was going up hill and I was tired...Okay, the speed thing doesn't lie. I was really that slow.

 I made it to the Spillway, ate my salted caramel Gu, drank some water, took some photos and turned around to head home.

This would look so much better without all of that ice in the lake. Soon...

I had some problems with my metatarsalgia after about the 9th mile. It feels like I am running on razor blades just under my toes. John got me some pads for it and they really help and make it so I can actually run longer than 5 miles at a time now. It does flair up, and this time I think it was because I needed to put in new pads. I did that last night, so we'll see if that helps.

I finished my run in a little over 2 hours. I listened to some good music, saw some cool things and best of all, I was able to run the whole thing. Now, all I have to do is add 3 more miles and some really big, muddy hills and I'll be ready for my race in April...

Nothing's Gonna Change My World.

Archie is jealous of the attention we pay bike racing, instead of him.

I guess, since it's Wednesday already, I might want to think about writing about last weekend, right?
 Lets see...When I left you on Friday, I was suffering from a migraine. Well, it didn't get better by that evening. I tried to run after work and couldn't do it. I got about 3/4 of a mile out and I was dizzy and weak and everything ached. That was it for me. I turned around and started walking home. When I felt better, I'd run a little until I got dizzy again and then walked and ran the rest of the way. I got home, made dinner and John and I watched the movie, Boyhood. I know a lot of people thought it was slow and boring, but so am I. So, I liked it. It seemed pretty realistic, coming from a single mom who raised her two kids that were similar in age as the ones in the movie.

Bike smoothie blender!

On Saturday my migraine was pretty much gone. Whew! I went out and ran 4.5 miles and felt soooo much better. John and I watched one of the professional bike races. It is part of series called The Classics. John's guy, Stybar won, so he was happy.

I've always been proud of the fact that all of our bike racing team sponsors are small, local businesses. I have raced against teams with a big McDonalds symbol on their backs, and I've wanted to puke the entire race, just thinking about Big Macs. Ew! Anyway, our biggest sponsor is our local Co-op. They do a lot for us, so when they expanded to Cedar Rapids and asked us if we could help with the grand opening, I jumped at the chance...Especially, when I heard that they wanted us to ride a bike powered smoothie blender wearing our racing kits. How fun is that?

John and I showed up and the response from customers was great. It was really fun to make smoothies that way. I wish I had all kinds of pedal powered things in my own home.

After our Co-op gig, John and I headed over to Big Grove for happy hour and dinner. It was packed again. We got set up at a tall table close to the bar. The fun thing, was that we had a couple of seats open and people who were waiting for tables, would sit with us. We met two different groups of couples that way. The second group of two different couples was a lot of fun. We talked about our favorite restaurants and bars in the Iowa City area, and beer and cycling. It turns out, they live in one of the towns that will be an overnight stay on RAGBRAI. They offered to let our group camp on their lawn and we suggested that they get their folks to watch their two kids for a day and ride to Coralville with us and stay at our place in Iowa City, if they wanted a day and night away from the kids. I know they would love our RAGBRAI group and hope they take us up on it.

I already wrote a race report for Sunday's gravel race, but the rest of the day was pretty mellow. John and I both ran a 3'ish mile route after the race, and then he went off to get a slice of pizza and play pool with his friend Bry. While I went to the store and did some laundry and got things ready for the work week. I think I'm still tired from last weekend.

To You The Next Best Thing to Playin' and Winning is Playin' and Losing.

Thanks to B, McConnell for taking this. The women racers before the race. We look so clean.

 Hey! I actually have a race report today. That's right. I did my first road race of the year on Sunday. The Hills Classic race was part gravel and part pavement. The gravel was really wet and slippery muddy in spots, but the temps got all the way into the 40's, so it almost felt like Summer...Okay, that's stretching it, but last Sunday we had below zero wind chills, so it was at least 50 degrees warmer out.

Only 6 women showed up to race. Which was too bad, but I was surprised there were even that many women. Our numbers seem to be getting lower and lower for races in Eastern Iowa the last couple of years. Sigh.

I was in no kind of shape this early on and I'm not really sure what I'm doing this year as far as racing is concerned. With all of the weirdness going on with the perimenopause, I'm never sure how I'm going to feel from one day to the next and if I'll have a migraine or not. I think I'll be doing more running races than cycling, but I'm just going to go with things and see how I feel from one race to the next.

Mud freckles everywhere. Yea!

 This race, I felt okay. I ran about four and a half miles the day before, so my legs weren't completely fresh. One of the women we were racing with was doing her first race and riding gravel for the first time. Brave woman. I was a little worried when she asked if the hills were Pittsburgh or Iowa hills. I answered by saying, "Um, Iowa...But gravel roads don't have to grade for trucks, so the hills are steeper than regular Iowa roads." She said she didn't care if she was last, she just wanted to finish. From the results, it looks like she did finish. So, that's great for her first gravel race.

We started the race and I didn't really warm-up at all. As a 50 year old racer, I need to warm-up even more than all the young girls I was racing against, not less. Oops! I fell off the back early on. My legs felt like lead, but after we got on the pavement, I went as hard as I could and caught back on to the pack at the beginning of the 2nd lap. I held on until the last big hill on the gravel (my nemesis) and then hoped I could catch them again on the pavement. Of course, one of the women attacked hard and the pack broke apart, but I wasn't able to get anywhere near them.

John has always told me to ride as hard as if I'm fighting for first place, even if I get dropped and am riding all by myself. That worked for me here. At the end of the gravel section on the last lap, I saw two women ahead of me that I might be able to catch. That never happens. When I got to the pavement section, I figured I'd try to see if I could get up to them. I had absolutely nothing to lose. One of the women sped-up, but I caught the other one. I was really surprised because she is much younger and stronger than I am...Especially on gravel. I could tell she was hurting, so I told her to hop on my wheel and if she had something left, to try and go around me on the uphill gravel. I knew I was dying and wouldn't be able to climb that last muddy hill very well.

We turned onto the gravel and I figured she'd take off, but she told me she was having a low blood sugar episode and couldn't go any harder. I went as hard as I could (think turtle's pace) and I joked later that we had the slowest sprint for second on record. I got 2nd, but only because the other woman wasn't feeling well. I gave her my salted caramel Gu and John rode up to us after the race and gave her his too, so she could ride home okay.

The big thing I took away from this race, was that even toward the end, when I was hurting and so, so, tired, I thought, "I love this so much!" I really don't care how well I place in a race, I want to always have that feeling.

The Arranger of Disorder

Heidi is veiling her emotions.

Today is the Friday. The day I devote my blog to cat photos. There are other days of the week with cat photos, but this is THE day where there are almost always cat photos. Lucky you.

It's also the day we've all been waiting for - the day we get away from below zero windchills until next Winter (so they say). It is a beautiful day.

Here I am at 5 am, just getting a migraine and my cat won't get off my bag, to let me go swim laps. Asshole.

I got up at 5, so we could swim laps before work. Swimming and then hanging out in the steam room afterward is one of my favorite ways to start the day. Once I got to work, I got that thing. Those of you who get migraines will know exactly what I'm talking about. They call it an aura, but it's more like someone took a picture of me and the flash just stays in my eye (without getting the picture taken of me). I took some Advil right away trying to ward off the brain pain, but about 20 minutes later it hit. I am so happy I have meds. I took them and a couple of hours later, I was less dizzy and could almost function.

We all treat ourselves with different things. Some with food, some with alcohol, some by buying clothes or shoes. For me, it's books. Since I felt like crap most of the morning, at lunch I headed to Prairie Lights with a list of the "Best fiction of 2014". I was only going to get three books, but I got another one, because I want to read them all: "An Unnecessary Woman" by Rabih Alameddine, "Boy, Snow, Bird" by Helen Oyeyemi, "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henriquez and "Frog Music" by Emma Donoghue. Of course, now I want to go home and for a run and then read all my books, all at once. It would be so cool to be magic like that.

Arizona, Hey Wontcha Go My Way.

Because I am hoping this is the last cold day of the Winter, I thought I'd celebrate by documenting our last full day in Arizona last year. We got all crazy and did a trail run AND a bike ride that day. It was amazing.

When we rode up Mt Lemmon, John had noticed some horse trail signs. He thought they might make cool trails for running.

So, we drove up there, with the intent to use those trails. We also had our bikes on the rack of our car, because we wanted to get in one last bike ride before we headed back to the frozen tundra too.

I loved the technical downhills.

 There was a guy getting ready to ride his mountain bike on the trails. He stopped me and asked if we were here to ride or run. I told him we were here to do a trail run on the horse riding trails. He said those may not be the best trails, because they went straight up the mountain and then straight down. He pointed to some trails on the other side and said he thought they would be better for a run. The trails had a nice mix of up and down hills.

I was in no shape for the intense uphills and was happy to let John go ahead at his much faster pace.

 He didn't steer us wrong. If I lived in Tucson, I would try to run those trails at least once a week. They were perfect.

We stopped at a Safeway at the bottom of the mountain and bought sandwiches and chocolate milk, so we could get a little fuel before our bike ride.

We went to the other side of Saguaro National Park, where they had a fun, curvy, eight mile loop where we could ride our bikes. We each went around a few times and tried to avoid crashing our bikes down a hill, into a pile of rocks.

After our ride we checked out San Xavier church, ate at a cool restaurant called, La Cocina and then headed to 4th Street to check out The Surly Wench Pub..

I figured if they were going to name a bar after me, I might as well check it out.

It might be because I grew up there, started riding bikes and running there when I was a kid and have HUGE nostalgia with it, or that I'm just done with Winter, but I don't think I would ever get tired of running and riding my bike in Arizona.

Control - I do What's Right For Me

John and I looking very earnest in our conversation.

I know everyone has control issues. Some people expect their days to go a certain way and when they don't unfold the way they want, they freak. Other people want people to do whatever they say, and when they don't, they freak. I know others who have to have their gear and logistics all solid before they go anywhere and if they wake up late, or can't find something, they freak. I don't think I have crazy control issues. I was the youngest, and had bossy older siblings, so I learned at a young age to go with things. John will say that he thinks my biggest control issues come with feeling like I should be in the best shape and not having any physical or mental or emotional limitations. Basically, like many other things, my control issues are more internal than external. I wouldn't disagree with that.

Yesterday was a day that may have driven someone with more external control issues insane, but I like it when things go differently than I plan and I can just go with it. I was originally planning on doing at least an hour long bike trainer work-out when I got home from work, but my sidewalk and driveway were sheets of ice. I went to work on chipping and shoveling and it took me about an hour to finish it. It was actually kind of fun. I got to figure out the best way to break the ice and then shovel it out of the way. John came home and started to help, but I told him I was spending more time than I thought I would shoveling, and had decided not to do a trainer work-out and he should at least go run like he had planned. So, off he went. Pretty brave to run on all that ice, but he didn't fall once.

While he was out running, I ran to the store to get more de-icer, among other things and ran into one of my former neighbors, Bridget. I hadn't seen her in forever, and I figured John would be out running for a while, so I stopped and gave myself the time and we had a nice long talk.

John and I decided to head to Short's to eat and drink. Neither of us were up for cooking and cleaning. It was pretty slow there, and we ended up having a great discussion with the bartender and the wait staff about books and literature and movies that are made from books. I was happy to see that people in their twenties still read books, and not just ones that are assigned for a class.

Tonight my plan is to have a nice relaxing evening at home, but if something else comes up, I'll just go with it again. It worked so well for me last night.

There Lived a Cat. A Phenomonal Cat, Who Loved to Wallow All Day

Archie loved the frozen pipes. We moved all the stuff around to heat under the sink and Archie got into all of it.

 Sometimes it seems like my weekends have themes. usually the theme is fun, outdoor playing. There were definitely some elements of fun, outdoor playing last weekend, but the main theme. was stupid house issues.

 I woke up to frozen pipes on Saturday morning. I also had another migraine. One - two - punch. Luckily, our pipes weren't that frozen. I took my migraine meds and passed-out and by the time I got up again, the water was flowing again. Yeeeee haaaawww!

The garbage can was his particular favorite.

 My meds make my pain go away, but they leave me weak and dizzy and tired. Which meant I couldn't run, but I could CX country ski, as long as I didn't go very hard. I made tempeh reubens and we had leftover beet salad for lunch, and then we headed out to Lake McBride and skied for 2 hours. The groomers had worked on a couple of new trails and we had fun checking them all out. When we got done skiing there was a group of older people "tailgating" in the parking lot and offering up hot chocolate to anyone who showed up. They had a couple of different kinds. I had the kind made with coconut milk and white and dark chocolate. Lovely.

We headed to Big Grove for happy hour. They were packed with a bunch of people watching a game (I don't understand ball sports very well, so I'm not sure which one). Some of our bike racing friends, who we chatted with when we were out skiing, were just getting seated, so they asked if we wanted to join them. We did. Then we all ordered different food and beer and shared it all amongst ourselves. We had a great talk and they had just been to South Dakota last Summer, so they had great suggestions for us. When we got home, we watched the movie Maleficent. It was actually pretty good.

On Sunday, I only had the slightest hint of a migraine and it went away during my almost 6 mile run. I had to eat a banana with peanut butter and down some chocolate milk quickly, in order to meet our friends for some  more CX country skiing. One of our friends was going out for his first time, so John and I took turns skiing alongside him and teaching him some techniques. He did great for his first time.

 The people we skied with were done, but John and I wanted to go around one more time just to get our hear rates up for a bit. We met them at 30Hop for lunch when we were done. We split a couple of appetizers and then went home.

My girls and Stinky's boyfriend all converged on our place around the same time. We got to hang out for a bit, before the kids went downtown. They wanted to get to Prairie Lights and the comic book store before they closed. John and I still had to take showers, but we headed out to meet them at The Pullman Car once we were ready. It was a cute place. The food was pretty good and our server was great, it was just a little pricey. I can see going there on special occasions, though and it was really fun to go out for a nice dinner on a Sunday night.

When we got home from dinner, we realized that the heat wasn't working. Great. Luckily, we have plenty of fancy space heaters, but I sure wasn't fond of this weekend's theme of Winter house problems. Sigh.

Always Love? Hate Will Get You Every Time.

Me: Even when I'm cranky and hate almost the whole world. I never hate you.

John: Well, You probably shouldn't say never...

Me: Okay. How about, "so far"? That ought to give me some leeway.

Are You Reelin' in the Years. Stowin' Away the Time.

Hooray! It's the weekend. I took the last 2 days off in a row, as rest days. I was going to do a trainer work-out last night, but I got caught up doing a bunch of other things, and it didn't happen. I'm okay with it, because it will finally warm up this weekend to the 20's and 30's. Finally. So, I plan on doing as much running, swimming, bike trainer working out and CX country skiing as I can handle. I'm hoping two days off will help give me the energy to do triple work-outs this weekend.

I guess, we'll also have to cater to the damn cats. They are so adorable when they're sleeping. Too bad they have to wake-up...Especially in the middle of the night and when I won't get up and give them attention, they (Archie) starts knocking books off my shelf and onto my head. It's enough to make me want to hang him upside down by his heels...Oh wait. John just tried that and Archie loved it. Crap!

Tonight, my rockin' Friday night looks like this: Since it's still below zero with the windchills outside, John and I will do a track running work-out at the University and then we'll come home and have baked parmesan tilapia, sweet potatoes and beet salad and a big, fat cocktail. Then, hopefully, we'll watch a movie and try not to pass-out before it's over. Oh, to be old and raging...Or not.

Des Moines Was Stacking the Chips, Raking Off the Tables, Ringing the Bandit's Bells.

 So, we got hit with ANOTHER blast of Arctic air. I know I sound like a broken record with my, "Blah, blah, too cold, blah, blah, Iowa Winters suck, blah, blah, I've reached my saturation point, blah, blah, " but that's really where I'm at right now. The good thing is that it snowed enough to CX country ski this weekend and I'm excited about that.

 Since more escapism is necessary for me right now, I'll take you back to a happier, warmer place and put up another awesome bike ride post.

 This ride took place in the beautiful Des Moines area. Pshaw! You say? There's nothing beautiful about Des Moines? Well, that's where you're wrong. Des Moines has done an incredible job (with the help of Bike Iowa) at making trails for cycling and walking and running throughout their city and because of that, restaurants and bars have sprung up along them. It all makes for a really fun day of bike riding shenanigans.

I have wanted to ride this trail ever since I heard about it a few years ago. So, when Coadster asked us if we'd help her move from Ames to West Des Moines last July, we told her, "No problem" and brought our bikes with us and as soon as we moved her and took her to Trader Joe's to stock her fridge, we flew to the trails.

The first bar on the trail was a new brewery that just opened a few days before, called Firetrucker. It was a cute little place, but we didn't want to start drinking right away, because we wanted to get a little bit of harder riding in.

So, we took-off and when I'm riding with John, taking-off is going really fast. When we do social rides with our friends, John goes slowly and chats with people and helps slower riders by going their speed. When it's just us, John kicks my butt. I like it, because it makes me work harder and I've conquered my fear of riding someone's wheel that closely, but we were flying down those trails at about 25 mph. We passed a guy with a cool old Ridley bike, and he caught my wheel. He held on as long as he could, but eventually dropped off. He came up to us at the first bar we stopped at on the trail and thanked us for giving him a run for his money. Then we ogled his cool, old bike. Big surprise.

We finally made it to The Trestle Bridge and it was soooo cool. I'm so glad I got to see if for the first time with John and we could have out own little adventure on the trail.

On the way back, we hit the Fat Tire Lounge, which is basically an old quonset hut that sells good beer and fried food. Perfect. While we sat on the deck, I realized a guy I used to work with at an ice cream/coffee shop in Iowa City in the 90's was there with his family. I got to introduce him to John and we all had a good bike geek talk, before John and I headed back on the trail.

Cheers!

When we got to the end of the trail, we hit the Firetrucker Brewery and it was packed. They had a live band playing in the beer garden and someone making gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. It really couldn't have been much better.

So, the next time you find yourself in Des Moines, rent a bike and hit the High Trestle Bridge Trail. You won't regret it...Unless you hate bikes, food, beer and fun, in general.

Let's Talk About Food, Baby.

Today I'm going to talk a little bit about food. I love food, so I could go on about it forever. When I was younger, I rarely had problems with my weight. I ran 30 - 40 miles a week and my body has always responded well to running as far as weight loss is concerned. So, even during the 9 years I worked at an ice cream store and ate it almost every day, I stayed in pretty good shape.

Of course, that all changed when I turned 45 and switched to mainly bike riding instead of running and going through perimenopause (the drop in estrogen levels slows down metabolism). I have been steadily gaining weight ever since...Until last Summer. Last April, I got to a bad weight number for me and decided I would try to do something about it. I don't have junk food in my house, but we do at work and I become like one of those kids who aren't allowed to watch TV and then stare with glazed eyes at yours, the entire time they're at your house. Only I don't just stare at the bad food people bring to work, I consume it. Once I got to the bad number, I decided I needed to take action. It's pretty hard to exercise more than I already do, so I concentrated on my eating habits. My first step was to stop eating crap at work. In order to do that, since I apparently have no self-control, was to make rules for myself. The biggest one being that I could no longer eat between meals and I had to just eat whatever lunch I brought in. And damned if it didn't work. I lost 13 lbs ( a lb a week) just by doing that and watching my portions during meals. It really wasn't all that hard.

cheese tortellini with fresh spinach and creamy pesto sauce, with a mixed green Greek salad.

The weird thing I noticed about it, was how my co-workers react to it. They not only tease me about trying to eat better and make fun of me for working-out too much (according to them), but they try to sabotage me as well by actually bringing bad food to my desk and leaving it with me even after I tell them I can't have it. Bizarre. I think it must be like the times in my life when I didn't drink because my migraines were so bad and I would still go to bars with my friends and order a soda, and even after knowing that I couldn't drink, friends would insist on buying me shots. I suppose people feel if everyone is drinking or eating too much, they're normal, but if even one person isn't, then they have a problem.

I don't do any fad diets, I just try to follow the Michael Pollen quote: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It really does work...Even if I do have to fight off the sabteurs.

I've Been Everywhere, Man.

In honor of my 40th year of running, I thought I'd list all of the places I have had the good fortune to run in before. Ready? Okay!:

Arizona: Mesa, Scottsdale, Tempe, Tucson,

California: Angel's Camp, Leggett, Garberville, San Francisco, Big Bear Lake, Venice Beach, Glendale, Eagle Rock.

Colorado: Breckenridge.

Illinois: Alsip, Chicago, East Moline.

Iowa: Ottumwa, Burlington, Palo, Bloomfield, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville, Indianola, Des Moines, Davenport, Cedar Falls, Waterloo, Muscatine, Fairfield, Grinnell, Centerville, Oskaloosa, Dubuque, Solon, Pella.

Kentucky: Louisville.

Minnesota: Minneapolis.

New Mexico: Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Tent Rocks.

South Dakota: The Black Hills.

Texas: Austin

Utah: Salt Lake City.

Wisconsin: Madison

So, maybe not a ton of states, but I'll take that as a challenge and see how many other states I can cover on running shoes. I was thinking about everywhere I've ridden my bike and the list looks a little different. I'll have to do that one next.