All Downhill From Here

No need to be subtle, here. Nancy‘s been one of my cyber running buddies and a role model to me since the turn of the century, even before she started her blog. Now she’s been nominated for Team RaceAthlete’s best blog of the year and I’m so excited for her! Go show your support by voting for her right now. I’ll still be here when you return.

If you happen to have another computer, or feel like clearing out your cookies so you can vote again, I’d also recommend a vote for Donald at Running and Rambling, too (don’t tell Nancy I said that). He always has the coolest running and triathlon analogies.

ORN: I didn’t get the whole workout assignment in the time allotted last night, but at least I wasn’t late picking up Soccer Boy this time. There were 4 x 1000m repeats on the schedule, and since we weren’t allowed on the track until 7pm, it made for a time crunch, with warm up and cool down included. I finished the warm up and 3 of the 1000m intervals, but had to head back out across campus to the car without even cooling down.

Ah well, at least I ran, and it felt good. The calves finally forgave me for last week’s stairs and Okotoks’ hills. Good thing, because we’re doing stairs again tomorrow. (shhh, don’t tell the calves!)

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Roadrunner Dave zips to finish,
originally uploaded by Downhillnut.

As promised, I’ve posted some race photos from my camera to my flickr site. There are even more race photos on the Calgary Roadrunners web site, if you want a better idea of what the race was like.

I have to admit, running indoors at the Oval makes me feel so elite. Just breathing the same air and sweating over the same surface as all those other fit-lookin’ folks is darned inspiring. At least, that’s what I tell myself when I pay $3 to train there instead of getting out in the freezing fresh air.

Last night Dave and Carla and I did the equivalent of four hills together on the cement bleachers surrounding the speed skating oval. They warmed up on the track. I was late, so counted my km from the car (I parked for free off campus) as my warm-up. I can’t remember how many stairs there are on those bleachers; felt like hundreds! We took a short break after each round to sip water.

When I run hills, I feel it in the back of my legs. Calves, hamstrings, gluteus regions. Last night on the stairs it was my quads and belly that felt like they were doing all the work.

Karin stuck to flat laps, having just returned from palm-tree-land. Ernie did at least 5 hills (maybe more?) and lapped us at least twice. I think we saw Neil Runions doing laps in there, too. I wonder what he’s training for this year? At the end, I thanked Carla and Dave for dragging my butt along with them, and they thanked me for pushing them from behind.

Yesterday we awoke to a world covered in shifty, sugary snow and I realized the Roadrunners 10k group would not run outside that night. I joined them by the long jump pit downstairs and we did speed work on the rubberized track.

The snowier it is outside, the more athletes work out inside. As I warmed up on the track around a speed skating class, I watched a track group practice long jump and different pylometric exercises in the extra lanes next to the track. A ski conditioning group did a rotation of floor exercises and took to the bleacher stairs for more variation. A spin class set up and an instructor barked instructions at the sweating cyclists. By the time I was in cool-down mode some girls were learning how to pole vault. Cool, I’ve always wanted to try that.

Our workout involved the usual four laps each (about a mile) to warm up and cool down, bookended around a speed ladder of 600m, 800m and 1200m. For you new runners, this means we ran 600, 800, 1200, 800 and 600m, with short breaks in between to let our heart rates recover. There were markers on the track for each distance.

I judged my pace entirely by perceived effort and my memory of how it should feel. I’m still watchless and I didn’t particularly mind. I knew I was working hard, no matter what a number would have said. On breaks, when others asked about my progress, I made jokes about measuring my workout by the pinkness of my skin.

I don’t think I really found my stride until I was into the third (last) lap of the 1200m distance. Then something clicked and I turned into a machine. I didn’t go any faster, but somehow the gears shifted so that the effort became more automatic. The legs quit complaining and the lungs did their job more efficiently. It was still hard work, but there was finally some momentum. I knew that I could use it to finish the rest of the workout.

A funny, annoying thing happened towards the end of my second 800m. I was in my last 50m and pushing as hard as I could to keep it going, and one of the track group dudes ended up doing a big one-leg hopping exercise right next to me. He hopped on one leg faster than I ran on two (sigh).

In the four lap cool down I knew I’d worked hard on the ladder, because I really didn’t feel like running anymore. I carefully completed all four laps though, because I know a good long cool down means I don’t feel so stiff later. I finished a little late, so continued the jog across campus to my car and picked up soccer boy from practice. I was all sweaty and damp and chilled by the time we got home, but happy I’d worked hard.

Thursday the running schedule said hills. I knew most of the group was planning on doing the stairs inside the Oval, but I was still in outdoors mode. I lured a couple of the guys out with me by suggesting we stop by the Tim Horton’s at the top of the hill for a post-hill hot chocolate and maybe a cookie.

Of course, this meant I actually had to haul my butt up the hill four full times – no caving at three this week. I always try a little harder when I have company, and the steaming hot cup of chocolate was SO worth it.

Today I got in a long urban trail hike/run. Although I did run some, the momentum never materialized and I ended up walking over hill after hill. I did run down some irrisistible stretches, but just made do on the rest. I forgot my watch somewhere, and I didn’t check the time when I left or returned, so I’m not sure how long I was out there. It was probably between 90 – 120 minutes or so, judging by what it usually takes me to do those hills, and my pace.

I didn’t HAVE to run it. There’s no big race looming over me. It wasn’t even joyful, like the trails often are for me. I carried some heavy thoughts and it was more inner therapy than outer training. At one point I walked through a fairy ring of trees and wondered if I would be transported back in time, Outlander style.

There was a chilly headwind on the way back, but even that couldn’t spur me into a continuous warm up jog. I just put my mittens back on and hiked along, with the occasional trot once in a while, to test my stubborn inertia.

A most awesome thing happened when I returned – Hubby was making tomato soup and a gooey grilled cheddar cheese sandwich for Little Runner, and there was just enough for me, too. I added a previously boiled egg to my plate and it was the best lunch ever! I wasn’t hungry for hours and hours after that.

This Tuesday I think I’m going to have bring some money and run inside with the others. The weather’s supposed to get nasty, and I don’t want to have to face it alone.

Yesterday I spent the entire work day in a big windowless room at a hotel, coordinating a workshop for an interesting collection of business people. I think it went well, and it was not a stressful day, just long. I still managed to get everything packed up and across the city back to my home just in time to change into winter running clothes and take Soccer Boy to practice.

Hubby had gotten home early and fed the kids supper, but I had to skip it. I’d had a good lunch and snacks earlier in the day, so munched on some GORPcc (good ol’ raisin’s & peanuts w/chocolate chips) in the car instead.

It had started snowing on my commute home, and there was some accumulation by the time I got to the Oval at the University. My thermometer said it was only -5*C/23*F outside, so I didn’t bring track admission and dressed for the weather. I don’t see the point of running inside unless the weather is nasty, and last night I just needed to get outside.

Apparently my definition of “nasty” weather is different from the rest of the group’s, because they all decided to run inside! They murmured something about wind chill and speed repeats and needing traction or something and one by one disappeared into the bowels of the facility. I didn’t say the “w” word out loud, but it crossed my mind.

I ended up doing three one-mile laps of Bruce’s loop on my own; one counter-clockwise and the other two clockwise. The snow was deep enough to make a satisfying styrofoamy squeak with every step. By the time I was on my third loop I couldn’t see the footprints I’d made on the first loop. I didn’t slip, nor did I worry about traction. I’m a trail runner, training for 7 more races in a winter series. Working on balance in variable footing is more important to me than flat speed repeats at this point in the season. I’ll get to that in the New Year.

When I faced into the gentle breeze, the snowflakes hitting my warm face zapped me with contrastingly cold tingly bursts before melting. I tasted and breathed refreshing moisture from the heavens. On my final loop I was surprised to find that when I moved my eyebrows, my toque moved with them. They’d accumulated snow and frozen together. My pink fluffy mitts had turned white with all the snow stuck to them, and I had collected a mini-snowdrift on the v-neck collar of my fleece pullover. Instead of running through the University on the way back to my car, I ran around the edge of it, on a trail under an arch of two rows of trees. Bliss!

I’d forgotten about the ice on my eyebrows until it melted into my eyes in the warm car on the way back. I retrieved Soccer Boy with a big smile on my face, and later went into total Zen mode in a warm bath. Ahhhh… let winter begin!

I had an AWESOME run out on the Telephone Loop trail today with Gabino on the way out, and catching up to Dawn in the last km on the way back. We were out for 1:43 on snow and dirt, with some almost-frozen mud. Loved it!

Gabino knew about Ryan Shay, but not about Dorothy, so I told him what I knew about her while we ran. On the way back alone (G had gone further ahead with other friends after a while), I got to think more about deaths and births and was very, very grateful for my time out there on the trail. This was good, because it kept me from wondering about bears.

Dawn and I had a snack back at the car, and Gabino came back about 15 minutes after we did. As we chatted outside my hands got cold and I put my mitts on. They went numb, so I tucked them under my armpits to warm them up.

When we got in the car to drive back I took off my mitts to find 3 1/2 totally white, numb fingers on my right hand, like this, except I don’t remember any blue parts.

Lovely.

It didn’t hurt, but it was disconcerting. It took about 45 minutes to get them back to normal. I guess I’m going to have to take better care to keep my hands warm.

I had an AWESOME run out on the Telephone Loop trail today with Gabino on the way out, and catching up to Dawn in the last km on the way back. We were out for 1:43 on snow and dirt, with some almost-frozen mud. Loved it!

Gabino knew about Ryan Shay, but not about Dorothy, so I told him what I knew about her while we ran. On the way back alone (G had gone further ahead with other friends after a while), I got to think more about deaths and births and was very, very grateful for my time out there on the trail. This was good, because it kept me from wondering about bears.

Dawn and I had a snack back at the car, and Gabino came back about 15 minutes after we did. As we chatted outside my hands got cold and I put my mitts on. They went numb, so I tucked them under my armpits to warm them up.

When we got in the car to drive back I took off my mitts to find 3 1/2 totally white, numb fingers on my right hand, like this, except I don’t remember any blue parts.

Lovely.

It didn’t hurt, but it was disconcerting. It took about 45 minutes to get them back to normal. I guess I’m going to have to take better care to keep my hands warm.

Dawn and I will be running on the Moose Mountain Telephone Loop 10 mile trail today (probably not doing the whole loop). I will be dedicating the first 5.5 miles (9k) of my run to Ryan, some of it to Dorothy, and if any of that makes the force of gravity seem too strong, I will recall the joy I felt when I saw this photo yesterday.

I’ve had quite a week personally, but on the life and death scale, it’s not much of a blip. I won’t be focusing on Ryan or Dorothy or Wyatt the entire run, because trails demand their own attention, and today I just need to BE.

All those ups and downs, rocks and roots, views and trees, leaves and snow and DIRT will keep me connected to the here and now. I will get hot and sweaty from my efforts, and sometimes go almost numb in some places, just trying to keep breathing, climbing, breathing, climbing… Prickles will scrape my legs and wake up my skin, satisfyingly scratch itches I didn’t know I had. Breezes will make my face and fingers tingle. Slippery paths will hyperextend my invisible inner balancing pole, and crank my adrenaline level up to heady heights. Cold icy puddles will cool my feet; sometimes shock them into squishy exclamatory sensation.

At work, at home raising my kids, with my husband, with my family and friends, there are ups and downs, fears and irritations and joys and cuddles. Here there are more balancing acts, thistles, puddles, views and breezes. I might not know the whys, my true purpose(s), but I can pay attention and think and feel, and maybe someday what I’ve done and learned will be a good addition to the cosmos.