The Best of the Year

Yea, still alive here... last I checked.  I'm so tired and so tired that I don't even sleep well (did I share that I was insane enough to work holiday help at the GAP?  Yeah, I know, BLEH!  I'm finding out that holiday shoppers, as a whole, are not overly nice during the holidays, and I'll leave it at that.  It's utterly exhausting).  I am behind on everything....but at least I got the tree up and a few gifts bought.  And I managed to make 500 Christmas cookies, and consume 400 of them.

First order of business is the blog exchange: I have received a few emails from blog exchangees that gifts have been sent.  It's not a requirement to let me know, but thank you to those that have; I will be on the lookout for the goodies you received.  Please, if you haven't sent your gift (you know who you are *ahem*) let's hit the post office asap....rush shipping might even be required.  Also, please include your name WITH your gift (if you didn't, please let them who you are once it's arrived.), the "secret" part was just before the gift arrived.  There has been some really great gifts I've seen already - so fun!  Thanks to all who participated!

Next: my marathon training.  Um...it's there, but it is pretty sad.  4 1/2 weeks left; scary!  I got so sick after I did that half marathon in the frozen Arctic a couple weeks ago and getting back into it has been one very tough mental challenge.  I've also been dealing with a nightmare of a personal situation which has left me just feeling so blaaaah!!!  I did manage 52 miles last week but they were pretty much all base miles.  I cranked out a 20-miler on Saturday - my first outdoors for this marathon - but I wouldn't have called it easy, nor was it anywhere close to my target of a minute/mile slower than marathon pace.  Eh, it's okay.  I've given up on any idea of a time goal for Carlsbad and truly I am at peace with that.  This is my first marathon in 19 months.  I need to get stronger before any miraculous 26.2 miles can occur (I will discuss in a future post) so I will run Carlsbad half trained.  As my good friend told me recently on a particularly bad day I had: You know how to overcome adversity.  The coach within will show you the way.  Yeah, I will be fine.  

Finally: Misszippy, who I had the privilege of meeting this summer, asked the blog world to answer the following questions, which pretty much sums up my year, so I thought I'd bite on this one and give my thoughts.  Here goes:

• Best Race Experience: I didn't get to race much this year due to my foot fiasco, but I actually have two races that were my "best".  First: the fact I finished the Pikes Peak Ascent - a 8000' virtual climb - with pretty much no training and a still bum foot.  This was definitely a very proud moment for me and I got a little choked up when I crossed that finish line at 14,115'.  

Second:  When I far exceeded what I thought I could run at the Denver RnR half marathon.  And really not so much that I exceeded my expectations, but more so that I felt incredibly strong the entire race.  THIS is something I hope to accomplish for next year.

• Best Run: It had to be just last week. I was having a particularly rough morning and it took me hours to crawl out of bed but when I did, I decided to hit the trails at the state park near my house.  It was early afternoon and I didn't see one human on the trails for the whole 9 miles I ran (but did see many deer) and it was the most peaceful and tranquil run I've had in ages.  I left all the "bad" stuff for that day at my car and didn't think about anything other than enjoying the run.  

• Best New Piece of Gear: This has to be my new road bike I bought during my foot injury (sorry Zippy, but this isn't running related).  I never thought I'd ever do a century ride in my life, but this year I did it.  I learned so much about the cycling world and found I actually enjoyed it (shhh, don't tell BDD!!!!).  Despite the fact it almost killed me.

• Most Inspirational Runner:  This will sound pretty vain, I'm sure, but I'm going with me on this one.  After 18 months of dealing with so much constant heel pain, I can't believe I never threw in the towel, stuck knitting needles in my eyeballs, and gave up.  But I didn't.  I believed there was an answer out there and I relentlessly searched to find it.  I emailed the masses; I made trips to universities to stalk specialists; I sought out (and fired) my podiatrist; I earned many WebMD degrees; I had needles stuck in my calf by my physical therapist; I made long distance phone calls to Las Vegas to pick the brain of this guy; I considered selling my house to see a specialist in North Carolina.  In 18 months, I cried many tears and questioned my determination... but in a few weeks I am running a marathon.  I'm actually pretty stunned. 

Boston Marathon 2010.  I hope to return, someday!

• If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be:  A year of multiple tests and patience!

How about you?  How do you answers these questions?

A very Merry Christmas - or whichever fantastic holiday you observe - from me to you!!

Run Strong....

How to turn 62 miles into 8.18

You break your bike's derailleur, that's how.

Classic!

I should have known it was going to be a rough day from the sec I woke up.  First, I overslept.  I don't even sleep so I'm not sure how I overslept, yet I did.  So I got a late start and I text Christi, my biking buddy, that I was running about 15 minutes late.  15 minutes late turned into 40 when a massive sea of cars loaded with every bike you could imagine all wanted to exit at the same place.  That was special.  What a mess.

I illegally park in the grocery store parking lot...shhhh, don't tell...and quickly get my stuff all ready and within a few minutes, Christi and I are on the road rolling. 

This was it, the day I've been eagerly nervously waiting for and I couldn't be more excited.

To say these bike events are pretty casual is an understatement.  I thought maybe we'd have to go and at least sign in - in case we got lost or kidnapped or a deer ate us for breakfast.  Nope, you just go.  No one "official" really cares who you are and there's no chip timing piece to worry about.  A very new world to me.

Start off to a gorgeous morning; the countryside here along this course reminds me a lot of when I was a kid growing up in Iowa with the rolling hills with a little morning dew lingering over the fields.  I absolutely love it here....I used to live in this neck of the woods - in another life. 

Early on

As mile 5 approaches, so does the first of many hills of the day.  Christi and I have rode this hill many times in our training for this ride and it's by far the steepest hill on the course that I had done.  The first time I did it, I thought I was going to hurl my breakfast all over the road - I was gasping for air and reality sunk in just how out of shape I had truly become over the past many months *sigh*.

But today - I totally KILLED that hill and I was thrilled I was picking off riders and wasn't gaging on a lung doing so!!!!!!

Oh, if only things could last.

We went down a hill, back up a hill, down a hill, up a hill (now at the site of the infamous bloody knee fall from a few weeks ago.  Oh memories..) and I was going back down a hill (see a pattern here?  This course is hilly)....

That'd be Christi in the yellow jacket, in front as usual :)

When I tried to shift my gears so I could get more momentum going.  But nothing was shifting.  I looked down and notice my chain is off and I tell Christi we need to pull over for a quick fix.

But something worse was wrong.  Here is where my bike ignorance is going to shine brightly....the chain is not on one of the wheel thingies on the derailleur (the fact I know what a derailleur is, in itself, an amazing feat!) - how's that for technical terminology?!  Christi tried in vain to get it back on, greasing up her gorgeous red nails and pretty pink bike gloves.  Since I have no clue other than it looks "wrong" I just stand there trying to stay out of the way.

Soooooo, a few guys riding the course stopped by and tried to offer their expertise .....

That's my white, sick, bike :(

But after about 45 minutes of making no progress, one of the guys working on my bike flagged down a police car making his rounds and asked him to get the sag wagon for us.  I begged Christi many times to keep going but that girl is loyal to the core (thank you, Christi - I don't deserve your friendship!  I owe you big for this one!!!) and stuck by me, in the sag wagon, back to the start.

We made it to mile 8.18.

*sigh*

Once we got back to the start.  Christi took off so she could try to get in a ride with her friends back home and I walked my bike back to my car, threw it in the backseat, and high tailed it to the bike shop where I explained the entire situation to the bike mechanic.  No, I did not fall (remarkable, I know!) and no, I did not take the chain off (how the heck do you do that?). 

I will admit that I am not a huge fan of this bike shop, which will remain nameless for various reason, but this mechanic guy was so apologetic and full of empathy that by the 6th time he told me he was sorry, tears were starting to swell and I had to remove myself from the situation for awhile.  He was genuinely sincere and everything I had just worked so hard for suddenly hit me that it was over and gone.

He worked on the bike for awhile and said he has no idea how it happened but he thought the chain was threaded through the derailleur incorrectly and it somehow managed to snapped a piece in the derailleur off.  Amazing that I've put about 600 miles on that bike in the few weeks I've owned it and this little situation hadn't happened yet....but he put a new chain and derailleur on, free of charge, and tested it out for awhile to make sure it was shifting properly, apologized for the 7th time and told me if there were any further problems to contact him directly and gave me his card.

If there was happy part of this whole crappy day, it was the service, and compassion, by this maintenance guy.  Those guys who stoppd to help me along the side of the road couldn't be any more genereous, and nice, too.

So my bike's in a little "time out" right how in the back of my car....I don't really care how hot it is in there, he's going to sit and think about what happened for awhile and when we can be friends again, I will pull him out and go for a ride.  I lowered the widow a bit for him to get a little fresh garage air....I'm not THAT cruel.

Am I Bummed?

Sadly, yes.  That's not easy to admit, it's just a bike ride.  But I invested so much time, and a ridiculous amount of money getting ready for this thing, entering a world so far removed from my comfort zone; I trained my girl bits to death for heaven's sake - I was hoping to do well.  And I love this course.  This ride was something I could actually train for, while my heel was misbehaving - something to look forward to- something I missed in my world.  Yes, I am sad I couldn't do it, even though I don't really enjoy cycling nearly as much as I do running (I'm hearing lots of *gasps* in blogland right now).  Remarkably, I did not come home and eat an entire pint of Ben and Jerry's though.  Huge pat on the back for that one....I am slowly climbing my sucky heel saga disposition out of the hole it's resided in all winter.  Yay.

But that's life.  I've been down this path a time or 30 in the past ...but this better be the last time, ever!!  :).  Somehow, I lived through all those disappointments and I suspect I will this one too.  Besides, this chick sent me a really fun joke today - totally made me smile.

So, what to do next? 

I have three choices and maybe you can help me.  Okay, four choices....

1) There is a ride this coming weekend, The Denver Century.  I could do the 62 miler, as was the scheduled mileage for broken derailleur day (how many times is one allowed to use the word "derailleur" in one post?).  Or I could join up with Julie and do the full century in this race.  This course has the 2000' Lookout Mountain hill climb Julie and I did a few weeks ago so it will be challenging, but really after that monster hill, it's just a few little blips here and there.  Personally, I'm not overly excited about this course - it encases the Denver metro area and well, I'd rather look at nature than skyscrapers.

2) The following weekend is another ride, The Boulder Century, which features a century (duh) and a 75-miler.  This would be more topographically appealing to me but it also scales up the entire side of one mountain and thus has about a 5000' climb in about 25 miles.  One, solid, 25 mile climb.  Doesn't that sound like a blast?  I think I can do it, it just may take me 24 hours.

3) Forget about cramming in another so soon, let the dust settle, and attempt another later this summer.  There's a couple on my radar and maybe Christi can join me again after her big half IM.

4) Come to the realization that I was not meant to do anything physical right now (heel, bike....) and therefore take up knitting like I've threatened to do in the past...and eat chocolate cake all day.

Hum....decisions, decisions.  Thoughts are greatly appreciated.

On a positive note though, I ran 6.25 miles on Saturday at a whopping 10:14 overall pace.  I KNOW!!!  And not only that, the first half was at a 9:47 pace (opps) so even though this was a very gradual downhill, I was thrilled to say the least.  The forefoot landing is improving daily and though it still doesn't feel "natural" to me, I am finding myself not forcing it so much either.  This is just going to take a very long time, but I'm determined to land correctly and do what it takes to make sure this nightmare never returns, even it's it's all so very slow right now.  I still have some heel pain, but for the most part it is manageable.  And I am running.  Thank God I don't have to put my heel in time out in the car tonight also!

One last thing to share....there's these awful fires going on in Arizona and New Mexico right now and the winds are blowing the particles smack into Colorado, which is irritating the hell out of my eyeballs, but man the evening skies here a gorgeous, vibrant orange:

View down my street

Happy running, and cycling, friends!!