I get to thinking about a marathon then I go for a run on exhausted legs and realize that maybe it isn’t such a great plan. I’m not writing a marathon off forever…just for now. I have high hopes for another massive PR if I ever run another and that’s going to take a ton of work. I’m kind of lazy. It’ll probably be a LONG time before I run another marathon!

Plus, I’m pretty sure Chris is happy I’m not eyeballing any marathons. The biggest downfall of marathon training was the amount of time I had to dedicate to running. Just running. Lots of running. Skipping a run to go mountain biking or hiking was not acceptable. It happened from time to time, but I always felt like I was cheating.

…the dark clouds off in the distance after we headed back down…

With my current “training plan” the primary goal is to spend time on my feet. Running is good but if I end up hiking or biking instead its completely okay. That is exactly what we did on Tuesday – I cut my run short and went biking. Its been a long time since we drove up to Buffalo Creek and Chris has been talking about it for weeks. It was so familiar it didn’t seem like it had been that long, then we found a brand new trail – with a newly built bridge – that we knew nothing about!

The best part about this trail system is that you have so many options from a single trailhead. You can ride 5 miles or 25 miles without repeating any single track {you do have a few miles on a 2WD road, but there is so much single track it doesn’t matter}. Chris always pushes to go further while I’m happy with a solid double digit ride. We usually end up going further while I whine about it.

This time we had to compromise courtesy of the weather. We headed out on what could have easily become a 16 mile ride but as we neared the top the clouds started looking ominous. We kept climbing for a while but ended up turning around right near the top. It would have been possible to keep going and get to the car just as quickly but the trail ahead was completely exposed…not a good plan if the clouds are threatening to lightening and rain!

Of course we left the clouds behind as soon as we turned around it felt kind of foolish to be riding down the trail we just fought our way up, but the trail was fun. Neither of us have ever ridden down this trail – its always been our way up. That might change – it was a lot of fun on the way down! We still managed to get 12 miles in, not bad.

Even on the fun down hills I’m a complete slow poke when biking. I have this odd fear of gravity – I need to be in control and just flying down a trail does not give me much control. Let’s just say my brakes get a good work on the down hills! This gave Chris plenty of time to get to the bottom, wait around and snap some pictures when I finally caught up.

Other Fun Facts: Don’t trust your husband with the sunscreen, both of my shoulders have finger prints outlined in burnt skin. If you’re the cautious one avoiding rain it will not rain. You can tell when bike season is back by just looking at my legs – already bruised up. Your butt hurts a lot less on the 2nd ride of the season.

The post Back at Buffalo Creek appeared first on run.around.aroo.

…and if you want the story behind these crazy awesome photos check out Lynne’s post – she tells the story I’m too lazy to write. If you’re also too lazy preoccupied to click over I will tell you this much – we’ve lost our minds, we literally ran up a mountain and it was a lot more fun than I’d expected! So fun we are doing it again…

The post Running Up Mountains appeared first on run.around.aroo.

On Sunday I ran a 5K…actually, I raced it. I’m not sure if I’ve ever “raced” a 5K, if so, its been years. I went out too fast. I spent the last 1.5 miles trying not to puke. We ran thru nearly knee deep water, twice. Aside from the puke fighting, I had fun.

I started near the front and stayed there, sort of. I crossed the finish line in 11th place, with a time of 24:14. This put me 1st in my AG {after they removed the top 5 overall…minor detail, I was 2nd before that}. I got to stand on a podium. And I beat my 2009 5K PR!

Long & Detailed

I spent about two weeks going back and forth on this race. It wasn’t until Friday morning that I finally committed. Initially I had my eye on the 10 Miler – they got fancy medals, but I was smart and stuck with the 5K. I schemed it out this way so I could race the 5K then meet up with Lynne to run some hills later in the day. So 5K it was…then on Saturday night I realized I was terrified of racing a 5K. I have not actually raced a 5K in…years. Lots of years. At least not on purpose. I came dangerously close to a PR last fall, but I had signed up for the 10K and just bailed out early.

Somehow I managed to unintentionally run the “ahh, I’m a wimp” Panerathon 5K much smarter than I ran the WWC 5K.

I didn’t have a plan for the WWC race and I’d left my Garmin in the car so it was just me and my handy little Timex. Plus a pair of fairly tired, yet rather cocky legs and a fancy, neon yellow “BRC Racing Team” shirt that made me feel all sorts of invincible.

…Jena and I, pre-race…
…she also rocked the 10K with 6th overall, 1st AG…

Turns out the field wasn’t all that competitive in this race – I spent the first mile in 5th place. This definitely does not usually happen to me. As in, its never happened before. I didn’t know what to do with myself…so I kept on running, on adrenaline. Not the best plan ever. Way too optimistic for me. My first mile was a 7:08…that’s a 1 mile PR for me. That’s just stupid in a 5K. Especially when you sign up for the 5K on a last minute whim.

…starting out, near the front – oddly enough none of the front line of people finished in the top 5…
…can we just take a minute to make fun of me in the 2nd photos, what is my leg doing?! and my arms?!…

By the half way point I started to consider up chucking my breakfast. I have never had that urge while running before. My second mile was somewhere around 8:05ish. Yea, I was paying for that fast first mile! But I can’t help it…do you have any idea how cool it feels to be able to actually see the bike lead while you are running?! Way cool – I need to do more speed work so this can happen more often!

Unfortunately I spent the last half of the race focusing on not puking. I hate the idea of puking and I was not going to throw away a PR just to chase down the girl in front of me so I reigned it in a bit and just focused on keeping ahead of the chick behind me. Besides, if I lost my breakfast on the course I still had to make it back to the finish somehow…

We also got to run through nearly knee deep water…twice! I was actually kind of pumped about this when they apologetically announced this before the races started. It was a warm day and splashing through puddles sounded fun. They did say it was about 5 inches deep, but I figured they were exaggerating to keep us prepared.

They were not exaggerating. By the time the 5K’ers got there – we started after the 10 Milers and the 10K’ers – it was a lot closer to 8 inches. And on the way back through {out and back course} it got deeper, probably bordering on 12 inches. And yes, I pulled out a tape measure and measured my legs so those numbers are fairly legit. That’s a lot of water to run through. But running through it was so much fun – there was some serious splashing! By the time I made it through I was soaked to my chest!

…the “puddle” with 5K walkers, it got deeper…
…photos kidnapped from with 3W FB page {race organizer}…

I imagine this water was a real pain for the 10 Milers – I do not want to think about running that far with soaking wet shoes. My toes probably would not approve. And it kept getting deeper so I’m sure their last mile was rather water logged!

Some days I love out and back courses because you can see all the other runners. Other days I really don’t like them because you know just how far you have to go to get to the finish. Sunday was one of those other days…the last mile dragged on forever. I had no hope of catching anyone in front of me and couldn’t hear the girl behind me so it became a “let’s see how much you can PR by” kind of race. Oh, and “let’s not puke at the finish, that’d be gross” kind of effort. Rather conflicting goals, but I survived.

I attempted to gracefully cross the finish line and stopped my watch at 24:15…definitely beat my old 25:05 PR! Then I sat down. And did not throw up. I was very proud of myself. Official chip time put me at 24:14, a pace of 7:48! Totally shocked, totally awesome, totally worth the puke feeling!

…I will not puke, I will not puke, I will not puke…
…lots of focus on the breathing so the food stayed where it belonged…

The finish line of this race was awesome – they handed out cold washcloths and had a big buffet of bagels, bananas and cinnamon rolls. They didn’t have water cups or bottles, but we all knew this from the get go – instead they provided bins for people to put their water bottles into and had big coolers of cold water. I love that they were being conservative about this. They did have water on the course, which is important, but we all have reusable water bottles of our own. Might as well encourage people to put them to use!

I knew I had a chance at placing in my Age Group – this race awarded the top 5 overall, then pulled them from the AG awards. With only 10 people in front of me there was a very good chance I might get to feel special!

While I hung around waiting for official results I wandered over to a massage tent with a foam roller, rewarded myself with bundt cake samples and spun a wheel to win a fancy tumbler. And I waved my arms around enough to snag one of the tech shirts they were tossing…I now have a shirt that says I ran Ragnar Las Vegas. I didn’t. But I’m still wearing the shirt!

Results went up…I was 2nd in my age group overall. Yay! Go me! Even better…the person who placed 1st in my age group was in the top 5, which defaulted me to 1st in my age group. Double yay!

Guess I was going to have to hang around a bit longer for the awards…I wanted my winners swag! Unfortunately the awards started about 45 minutes later than scheduled. That definitely threw a wrench into my plans for the rest of the day but Lynne was awesome and didn’t even hate me for pushing our run back!

Eventually awards started and I got my chance to feel awesome…while standing on a podium! It was pretty cool. I think I need to do more speed work, just so I can feel this cool again! We got a medal

As for the puking thing? I have no solid reason for this. I think I was just completely unprepared to run fast. My morning eating was fairly normal but the day before I at maybe 1.5 meals total. Definitely not adequate fueling but I was working and never felt hungry. Oddly enough that’s how my body works when I’m working in a restaurant, food = gross. Now I know for next time…

The post Westminster Women’s Classic 5K Recap {PR} appeared first on run.around.aroo.

Okay, fine. Its on the kitchen counter. But it is filled out and sealed! I want credit for that. Forget the fact its not stamped or sealed. Oops. It’s the thought that counts and I’m telling you that I thought about it.

 
…yes, she is in the back of a station wagon – she had to hold the tiller in…
…and that is my mom showing off some injera, in a public restaurant at a full table…
…and to think I still readily claim her as mine…

Last year I wrote a post about how I am becoming my mother. That hasn’t changed…she is something special and unfortunately for Chris I am slowly becoming more and more like her! Maybe that’s enough of a Mother’s Day present to her? Or can we count the fact we took her skiing and she survived without any broken bones? Probably not…

Since I clearly suck at this card mailing thing I just wanted to say HAPPY MOM’S DAY to my mom and the other moms in my life!

…my grandparents and Chris’s mom, circa 2011…

…my brother, sister-in-law and nephew…
…look at him eating cellphones and carrots, they are doing something right!…
…and I totally jacked those photos, I can’t find any of my own…

I hope all the mom’s out there had a great day today…and tomorrow…and the next day! I whine and moan when our cat wakes us up in the middle of the night, I can’t imagine being responsible for another human being all day, every day. So I think all the mom’s get a special thanks for doing that, every darn day!

The post Your Card Is In the Mail… appeared first on run.around.aroo.

Why am I being whiny?

Sitting is painful. Yesterday, just before Colorado got rain {yes, rain!}, Chris and I headed out to enjoy the beautiful weather…on our mountain bikes. For the first time in, well, a really long time, I got on my bike. Any idea where I’m going with this?

After months away from the super comfy bike saddle my butt bones did a great job of surviving…yesterday. Today they are feeling it. Sitting down to pee hurts. Getting in and out of my car hurts. Sitting at my desk hurts. It all hurts Which is why anything involving sitting is optional today. And probably tomorrow.

Was it worth it?

Definitely! It was great to get outside – yesterday was gorgeous. Plus, I had to figure out if I still knew how to ride a bike! I’m still a complete pansy on the downhills but I stuck it to the climbs!

…Chris riding through Prairie Dog Mecca toward Mt Carbon…

At least I was smart enough to whine my way into an easier ride! We headed over to Bear Creek Lake Park with no specific plans. In the end we covered 9 miles with 3 short but steep-ish climbs…and with the exception of pile of rocks on the last climb, I made it up all of them without stopping or tipping over.

…looking at Denver from Mt Carbon…

Okay, so in the first 10 feet of the Mt Carbon climb my gears got ornery and I did have to put my feet down, but I made it the rest of the way without face planting! I had to add that so Chris wouldn’t call me out on it…and yes, I’m blaming the gears!

…riding down the dam with Mt Carbon on the horizon…

Turns out we timed our ride perfectly. It started out sunny and hot but by the time we were finishing up our last climb it was overcast and breezy. On the drive back home we even saw a few sprinkles on the windshield! Then later that evening we got thunder boomers, wind and some actual rain! Of course it fairly dry this morning but we’ll take any moisture we can get!

___________________

PS – I would like to sincerely apologize for the decline in picture quality. I busted my poor phone…again. I’m far too cheap to throw $100+ into fixing it or replacing it so I’m using my 4 year old HTC Eris until August when I can upgrade.

FYI – This phone sucks. It’s a smart phone but the software is too old to load any apps…all I can do is check email, occasionally load Twitter and take crappy photos. Oh, and make phone calls! This is also my excuse for disappearing from Twitter and Instagram.

The post Sitting is Optional! appeared first on run.around.aroo.

…Mile 19-ish at Fargo, loving life and going strong…

That plan concept is back again this year. It probably should have been scribbled out in February but it finally appeared in Google Drive a few weeks ago. The first week may or may not have been deleted so I didn’t look like a complete slacker but since then its been getting used. My body isn’t rebelling since yesterday’s 8 miler and last weeks 18 miles so it must be working to some extent.

And all this training plan babbling leads me right into something I’ve been pondering.

Do you save your legs for a training run?

I’ve been spending a lot of time running hills lately – I have some hilly races and some trail races in my very near future. On Saturday morning I got up “early” to run before my class {yes, a 3 hour class every Saturday for the entire semester, it sucks!}. Green Mountain was near the campus so took a minor detour – it had hills and trails, exactly what I needed. I ran a total of 2.3 miles with two notable hill climbs then headed to class. Yes, all sweaty…that’s what they get for having a Saturday AM class, and that’s the benefit of being a “college kid”.

I wasn’t overjoyed with the 2.3 miles, I wanted more distance. Alas, at the moment it was all I had time for. During class I managed to talk myself into another 2-3 miles on flat-ish ground. After sitting for 3 hours the walk to my car was a tad tighter than I would have preferred. Apparently my legs felt the hills more than I expected. Or maybe going directly from running hills to sitting in class isn’t the best plan ever. Whatever it was, I talked myself out of the extra 2-3 miles.

Why?

Because I knew on Sunday I was going to be running 8 miles with even more hills.

I consciously made the decision to save my legs for a long training run. I still have not decided if that was a good decision or not. My Sunday run went surprisingly well, I didn’t hate the hills, my legs didn’t threaten to detach themselves and aside from a little dehydration {need to remember to actually drink the water I’m carrying} it was a great run.

So I guess not running the extra miles on Saturday may have played out to my benefit on Sunday. However, was it the right thing to do? I’m training my way up to 13+ mile races, being a little worried about an 8 mile run shouldn’t cause me to bail on a few extra miles…should it?! Especially since my legs are fully capable of a very solid half marathon. I wanted a good, confidence boosting long run…but it would have been a much bigger boost if I’d run 5+ miles the day before.

Where do you stand with training runs? Have you ever held out for the sake of a solid long run? Or do you focus on the overall weekly miles? Of course, this is all assuming you are injury free!

The post Saving Your Legs…for training runs? appeared first on run.around.aroo.

Last night very few of us showed up for the Wednesday night group run. By very few I mean two. Probably because it was a snowy mess outside…

…7pm Wednesday Night…
…also exactly what it looked like at 6am Thursday Morning…

We ended up with about 6 inches of snow on the ground and cars – the roads were just a wet mess. But this is Colorado so this morning it didn’t feel weird to pack shorts for this evening’s run. Shorts were a good plan because this is what I got to run in tonight…

…7pm Thursday night…

If we are lucky we’ll have a manage to keep a few days of nice weather before it mood swings again. Maybe this time we’ll be lucky enough to get rain instead of snow. I realized when we were in WI that I really miss rain – the smell, the sound, the sprinting to the car, the wet…everything! Apparently I really like rain!

_______________

Facebook tells me Wisconsin got dumped on with snow today – anyone want to bet they will still have a cover of snow tomorrow?! They might be cool enough to get snow like Colorado but they probably can’t get rid of it as quickly! Haha…enjoy your May snow!

The post 24 hours later… appeared first on run.around.aroo.

Not to be out done Denver felt compelled to welcome us back with our favorite thing ever…snow! Gee, thanks Denver! Ever hear the saying “April showers bring May flowers”? It doesn’t say anything about snow!

The snow was actually extremely beautiful today and our flight was on time so its all good. Speaking of flights. On the plane I do one of three things – sleep, read, write. Today I wrote. Nothing even remotely exciting to most – I made lists. Lots of lists!

I used up half my notebook deciding where all our money went, what I needed to do with my day and places we need to travel. The travel bit was prompted by the Southwest napkins of all the places they fly. Our list looks something like this…

Place to Visit in the US/Canada

• Yosemite National Park – CA – June
• Sequoia National Park – CA – June
• Salt Flats – UT – June
• Napa Valley – CA – June ?
• Lake Tahoe – CA/NV – June
• Las Vegas – NV – June/Summer 2014
• Mount Rushmore – SD – July
• Badlands – SD – July
• Black Hills – SD – July
• Yellowstone National Park – WY
• Grand Canyon – AZ
• Columbia River Gorge – OR
• Whistler – BC
• Niagara Falls – NY/BC
• Arches National Park – UT
• Appalachian Mountains – WV/VA
• Denali National Park – AK

It seems like a long list – but considering we’ll be cutting it almost in half this summer I should probably be expanding on it! Have you been to any of these places? Do you recommend anything special? What are we missing on our list?!

BTW – I am exhausted from traveling and work and everything else – hopefully this post makes sense. I’m laying on the floor to write it and I literally dozed off a few times. Rather sad considering out short this post is!

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Wedding Time…

I get so excited when people I love get married. I like being married and it makes me happy to think other people get to have as much fun being married as I do. Heck, even Chris looks like he is happy about it!

Critter Time…

It isn’t a trip back home if we don’t get a little critter time in. I spent the first 18 years of my life on a dairy farm so I like critters. And spring time always means puppies and kittens…and calves and ducklings and chicks.

Swing Time…

Sunday afternoon was spent with Chris’s family and my yellow haired friend, Maddie. We officially became friends over Thanksgiving and we both still have yellow hair so we are buds. She loved the swings…and man, can she scream! She also has a crazy active imagination – we went camping with rock people and built “fires” by rubbing sticks together!

We’ve spent our entire time here stealing my mom’s car from her. So far she has had to bike to/from work twice…but I did make her a lunch for work every day, so that makes me a good daughter, right?! And one day I even ran to work with her so she wouldn’t get bored or kidnapped!

Up next on our agenda is Family Time, Pretend To Work Time and Baby Time! Maybe even a little Run Time if my legs are lucky. Then we’ll top it off with Travel Time and Apologize To Our Cat Time!

Happy Monday…hope you are having awesome weather, making all your Time worth it and eating as many cookies as I am! They are delicious and keep coming at me…I can’t help it!

The post MidWesterly Time… appeared first on run.around.aroo.

…and a few other special people back home. Okay, so he doesn’t look too happy at the moment but we did just wake him up from his nap because we are selfish like that. And he really wasn’t grumpy at all, just a little peeved at me for taking the phone away from him – he really likes to play with electronics!

Happy weekend and have fun with whatever you’re doing. Hopefully it doesn’t consist of any more grown up responsibilities like work and cleaning than absolutely necessary!

The post A Happy Distraction… appeared first on run.around.aroo.