Running in and out of town

Posting to you live from Denver, CO where I ran the fastest 5 miles today of my running career...10 min miles for.... not one, not two, not FOUR but FIVE miles. Oh yah. Thanks to my speedy sister in law who drug my ass all over Denver's most beautiful park system. It was do or be left. And I'm not one to be left behind with a Garmin that was not cooperating. So I ran. One foot in front of the other for five miles. The last three blocks my sister in law who ran the 10K Boulder Boulder in oh, 58 minutes, decided she needed to kick it in gear. Luckily I could see the street so I didn't mind being left behind. Altitude Schmaltitude is what I have to say about that.

This is not the first out of town running experience for me lately. Two weekends ago in Eureka Springs I suffered through a MUCH slower 3 miles where I spent a mile running alongside a tour trolley. I could not go fast enough to pass it and it was going too slow to pass me. So I became part of the tour and obstructed the view of Eurkea Springs for all of the retirees on board. Fun times. Oh, and did I mention the extreme hung-over condition and heat in which I ran? For those who don't know, Eureka Springs is nestled in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Read: Not flat. I wanted to puke. But sorry, Barb, I didn't.

Then last weekend I ran 6 miles on the treadmill. (I mean with all of this scenic out of town running, why allow myself anything less than a good treadmill run...you know?) The treadmill was fine until the last .75 miles where I some how managed to push the "cool down" button. For those of you who don't know, cool down means go slower. And when you are trying to run 6 miles, the last thing you need is to slow down to a pace of 4.3. So I spent that last .75 fighting with the treadmill. I SAID 5.4!!! You should have seen the steam pouring out of my ears.

And this concludes my post in which I update you on all the exciting running events in my life. You know, I'm really not quite sure what race I'm running for these days. And I'm still fighting my hip. But you know what? When I do run, it's fun and when I don't I cross train. And I'm just fine with that for now. Until next time.

Running in and out of town

Posting to you live from Denver, CO where I ran the fastest 5 miles today of my running career...10 min miles for.... not one, not two, not FOUR but FIVE miles. Oh yah. Thanks to my speedy sister in law who drug my ass all over Denver's most beautiful park system. It was do or be left. And I'm not one to be left behind with a Garmin that was not cooperating. So I ran. One foot in front of the other for five miles. The last three blocks my sister in law who ran the 10K Boulder Boulder in oh, 58 minutes, decided she needed to kick it in gear. Luckily I could see the street so I didn't mind being left behind. Altitude Schmaltitude is what I have to say about that.

This is not the first out of town running experience for me lately. Two weekends ago in Eureka Springs I suffered through a MUCH slower 3 miles where I spent a mile running alongside a tour trolley. I could not go fast enough to pass it and it was going too slow to pass me. So I became part of the tour and obstructed the view of Eurkea Springs for all of the retirees on board. Fun times. Oh, and did I mention the extreme hung-over condition and heat in which I ran? For those who don't know, Eureka Springs is nestled in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. Read: Not flat. I wanted to puke. But sorry, Barb, I didn't.

Then last weekend I ran 6 miles on the treadmill. (I mean with all of this scenic out of town running, why allow myself anything less than a good treadmill run...you know?) The treadmill was fine until the last .75 miles where I some how managed to push the "cool down" button. For those of you who don't know, cool down means go slower. And when you are trying to run 6 miles, the last thing you need is to slow down to a pace of 4.3. So I spent that last .75 fighting with the treadmill. I SAID 5.4!!! You should have seen the steam pouring out of my ears.

And this concludes my post in which I update you on all the exciting running events in my life. You know, I'm really not quite sure what race I'm running for these days. And I'm still fighting my hip. But you know what? When I do run, it's fun and when I don't I cross train. And I'm just fine with that for now. Until next time.

Where oh where...

Have I been? Well, let me update you. In my last post, I shared some rather upseting news. Aside from the pysical pain and healing which I have experienced over the past 12 days, I have also had to deal with the emotional pain of saying goodbye to my precious Tally. For you dog people (and thanks for all the well-wishes), I know you understand and can imagine how painful this was.

So, let's just say, running was put on the back burner for a little R &R. And where does this leave me? Well, for a multitude of reasons, I have decided to not run the Kansas City Marathon. I know a lot of you were cheering virtually for a fabulous rematch vs. the old pukey puke marathon. And I hate to let people down, but my first priority has to be my own health and well-being. I'm still really struggling with my hip flexor pain and I'm not sure continuing with marathon miles is in my best interest. Because to be honest, I'm not here to prove anything, I'm really just hear to set personal bests and have a great time. I love running. (most days.) And I want to be able to continue running through the fall (my favorite running season) and the winter and so on. There may be a rematch in years to come, or heck, I may forgo the whole Kansas City thing and set my sights on a bigger marathon. We'll see.

That said, I'm still going to try to run the half. Before my little R &R break, I was up to 14 miles. And even though I didn't post it, a week ago Sunday I ran 4 and elipical trained 3 miles due to the hip pain and the arm pain (back then, I was still in a lot of pain and the blood flow to the wounds did not help.) This past weekend no miles were run due to a trip to Omaha with Matt. And you know what? I didn't even care. It was great. I've done minimal cross training and one other 3 mile run but other than that, I've been taking it easy. This week, I return to a revised and modified training schedule to keep me in shape in order to run the half--as long as my hip flexor safely holds out.

I hope you will stick around because despite this recent step back in training, the title of my blog remains "Onward Bound."