Ultimate Coffee Date!
Woohoo! It’s the first Friday of the month, which means it’s time to join Coco and Deborah for their Ultimate Coffee Date. I have plenty to share, so get out your coffee/tea and let’s get started. In Tuesday’s post (“What’s Next?”) I mentioned that I had my eye on several races but didn’t feel the need to sign up for anything right away. Birchie commented “Ha ha I’m pretty sure that you DO feel the need to sign up for a race this very second! I always used to get a thrill from the moment when I registered for a race.” Well… OKAY. She was right. I signed up for the Treasure Coast Ultra on November 9th. I chose it for several reasons, one of them being that it’s in a state park only an hour’s drive from my house. There’s a 6 hour and a 12 hour option, and I chose the 12 hour. You run multiple loops of a 5 (ish) mile trail for as long as you can/want to, up to 12 hours. I’m not sure yet how I’m going to approach it- run a 50K and call it a day? Go for a new distance PR (anything over 31 miles?) Or, run for the entire 12 hours??? I’ll decide when it gets closer. It all depends on how my training goes, and what else I have after that- I haven’t decided on my other races for the year yet. I’m excited! Speaking of excitement, my son and husband are back from California. They were attending the International Trumpet Guild, an annual conference for trumpet geeks everywhere. There are concerts, competitions, master classes, exhibits, and my son’s trumpet ensemble- the same group that competed (and won second place) at NTC earlier in the year- competed in the “college chamber music” division. THEY WON! Well- they tied for first place. They tied with a brass quintet from ICELAND, how cool is that??? It was an incredible experience, and so fun for my husband to be there to see it (I’m envious!) There was a cash prize, which, split six ways, came to $550 apiece. Great! Now all we have to do is add another zero onto that, and it would have paid for the damage to his car. Sigh… I might have mentioned that my son’s car “broke down” on his way home from college- but the truth is, he rear-ended someone. I didn’t want to incriminate him initially, but what the heck. He crashed the car, no one was hurt, the damage to the other car was minimal (they didn’t even want to call the police and my son just gave them $150) BUT the damage to his car turned out to be substantial. He needed a new radiator and a new part for the AC, in addition to the external damage. So, the lesson learned is- don’t buy a Kia Soul. They just crumble to pieces at the slightest bump! I mean, he was only going like 10 mph. As you can see, our summer has really started with a lot of excitement, but as always you have to take the good with the bad, right? What would you tell me over coffee? Any excitement to start your summer?
Reading and Eating
Yes, I’m back with more books and eats. My streak of great books continues.! I just finished these two: The Anthony Horowitz is a “Hawthorne” mystery, and it’s a good one! Since there are no new murders to solve and Anthony’s publishers are pushing for a new book, he writes about an old case of Hawthorne’s. As usual, the mystery is clever, as is the way he combines the old case with his present day sleuthing into Hawthorne’s mysterious past. Next up- Orson Scott Card has done it again. HOW can he write a book that is the same story as Ender’s Game, but told from a different point of view- and still make it an extremely compelling story??? The Shadow Series is the story of Bean, and there are five more books. NO! I refuse to be sucked in AGAIN! I’m not reading the rest of the series… at least not right now. I do have some questions, but every time I ask my son he smiles smugly and says “You’ll just have to read the rest of them.” (Stop that! Stop that right now!) Seriously… I have a stack of books from the library that need to be read. I’ll read the next “Shadow” book later in the summer. Eating… has been pretty simple. While my husband and son were gone, I made some pretty basic things for my daughter, including lots of leftovers, and my meals consisted of things like brown rice, tempeh, roasted vegetables, sweet potatoes, chickpeas… I really felt like I needed a reset after my race. I also made this recipe for pumpkin pancakes from Running on Real Food. I know… I had a little “Pumpkin Palooza in June.” The recipe is gluten free- using chickpea flour- and I made it sugar free as well. They were good! I can’t wait for pumpkin season to officially begin (only three short months away!) Lastly, I made this blueberry cake from Nora Cooks. It was really easy, and the family ate it with vegan ice cream (I enjoyed it vicariously.) That’s it! I can’t wait to dive into some mysteries, including an Agatha Christie re-read. What are you reading now? What are you eating these days?
So… What’s Next?
First of all- a huge thank you to Engie for sending me the best card ever, with this Anne Frank quote on it. Yes, there are some exciting days ahead of us still! What, exactly, might those days be made of? Glad you asked. My race is over, and… what’s next? To begin with, there are some skills I would like to improve on. Darlene left a comment on my race recap saying “You’re really good at ultras.” I definitely appreciate it, but I’m not sure it’s entirely true. Am I “good” at running ultras? Well, there are a couple things I am good at. I think my mental game is pretty strong. I have a belief that I can run long distances. I’m not afraid to be uncomfortable, and I’m good at continuing to move forward even when it gets hard (barring, or course, injury… ahem.) All those things are important! But, ironically, I’m not that good at running on trails. At least, not some of the technical trails I’ve encountered in races. And I’m not good at running hills. Technical trails and hills are something we just don’t have in my area. But if I try a little harder, I CAN work at these things. There are some man-made hills near me. Instead of just throwing up my hands and saying “there are no hills!” I could seek out an area that has a hill, and run up and down it multiple times. Then, if I’m willing to drive an hour, I can get to a trail that’s a little more technical than the ones right near me. Adding two hours of driving onto the time of a run isn’t THAT appealing, but I could do it every once in a while. Maybe I could schedule it once a month, and arrange for a “hilly” run once a week. So that’s one goal- get better at hills and technical trails. I also want to focus on strength and speed this summer. Although, that’s the same thing I said last summer and I don’t think I’m any stronger or faster. Hmm. More details to come, but I need to come up with a better plan for lifting weights and speed work. So the summer will be all about strength, speed, with some hills and technical trail work thrown in. What about RACES? Well, Forgotten Florida is again on my list. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll do that, or a different 50 mile race, but I definitely want to tackle the 50 mile distance again. Forgotten Florida is February 1st, so I would want to do another race between now and then. There are several 50Ks I have my eye on, two in October and one in November. Right now I’m waiting for my daughter’s band schedule to be released for the next school year- I want to look at that before I make any commitments to be away for a weekend. Since I have several possible races to choose from, I don’t feel like I need to sign up for anything right this second. And… yes. This means I WILL be doing long runs in the heat of summer (our hot weather goes at least to the end of October.) But that’s okay! I’ll take the next couple of months to focus on shorter distances (and strength and speed) and by then I’ll be missing my long runs- I know myself well. Do you have anything you’re excited about this summer?
Weekly Rundown- The Race and Beyond
Well, this was a fun week! I ran a race! Then I spent the rest of the week recovering. Because I wasn’t running, and it was just my daughter and me (the guys were out of town) I had extra time to relax. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the weekly rundown… let’s get into the details. Sunday Sweat Swat ‘n Swear 50K! It was an awesome adventure, and the race recap is here. Monday Well, I had to go to work (ugh) but since there was no school, I was able to sleep in a little. Once I hobbled out of bed, I had two issues- my right calf (the one that hurt during the race) was still very sore, and I had a HIDEOUS rash (?) on my legs. I posted this photo in one of my race recaps: Wendy and SHU both immediately identified it as “purpura.” Wendy went on to say that in this case, the purpura was caused by “exercise-induced vasculitis.” Here’s the definition: “Exercise-induced vasculitis is a small-vessel vasculitis affecting the lower legs that occurs after strenuous sports activity such as running or hiking, particularly during hot weather.” Yep! Sounds about right. It didn’t hurt, or itch- it just looked HIDEOUS. But I was glad to know what it was! Tuesday My calf was still sore (just to clarify- the soreness had nothing to do with the purpura- two different issues entirely) but I figured “motion is lotion” so I took myself out for a 30 minute walk. It felt good! Wednesday Early morning 45 minute walk. The sun was just rising as I started. This was my day off from work, and I GOT A MASSAGE. Sadly, I didn’t want anyone to work on my legs- the purpura was starting to fade to a lovely maroon color, but it still looked awful. I just had a back, neck and arm massage, and it felt amazing. Thursday Big day- THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. The last day of getting up at 5:30 until August. Woohoo! 40 minute walk. Friday Well, this felt nice! I slept in until 6:30 and then got out for a 45 minute walk. My calf is completely better, but now my right hip is sore and achy. What the…? I thought walking was good for you! Whatever happened to “motion is lotion????” Hurumph. Saturday Instead of my morning constitutional, I did some PT-type exercises for my hip- glute bridges, clamshells, side planks, air squats… everything felt good, although I forgot how hard side planks are! Look how much better my legs are… phew. Sunday On tap for today…. a visit to the gym? A walk? A short RUN? Sleeping in and waffles? All or none of these? Well, probably not “all.” I’d like to start running again- I’m starting to miss it. I just want to make sure my cranky right hip calms down. I think a little more stretching and mobility work are in my future this week. How was your week? Did you celebrate Memorial Day? If you have kids- are you done with school?