Thanksgiving & Black Friday Run

Happy post Thanksgiving! Did you eat lots of delicious foods? Run any? Jon texted yesterday morning and canceled our 5am 10 mile run because it was rainy/windy/cold out. I still wanted to go because I ate like crap on Wednesday night (did you know a 24oz bottle of Coke has 290 calories and 78 grams of sugar??? That's a candy bar, at least! I never drink Coke but I bought some and hot dang, that's a full meal!) and I knew yesterday's diet wouldn't be any better. So, I kept sleeping and got up at 7:30am and made it out for my 10 mile run. It was raining some but 50 degrees and it felt nice.

Then because we're psycho, we went running this morning at 4:45am and made it 16 miles in the freeezing cold! It was 24 degrees out and since I normally wear shorts and a jacket in 35 degrees, I figured that wind pants/jacket/baseball cap/light $1 gloves would suffice. I have a fear of overdressing and then getting too hot and having to carry the extra layers with you. But nope! From the get go my ears were freezing and same with my poor fingers. I kept telling myself I wouldn't die from cold hands but it sucked. I had brought my water bottle (which was pointless since I didn't drink more than four ounces the whole time) and it stunk carrying it the whole time with my fingers exposed. When I got home I thought my knuckles were going to break off and die.

Uhh! I have some better gloves that I'll wear next time but I think my fingers still get cold in them. I don't think even the most expensive pair would help because your little fingers are still hanging out there alone. I need mittens. I think I might waste some money on those hand warmers and bring them for 10+ mile runs.

Oh well. It was nice knowing that I burnt off some of those dessert calories.

Western States Dilemma

The other day I randomly got a comment on my Hallucination post from "Doodlegirl" and she casually mentioned that her sister is a big runner who has done Western States, among other ultras. Well why did that little random comment start me thinking about applying for the 100 mile Western States' race next June?

I don't even know what Western States is...I've only heard its name pop up a few times and for some reason, I'm thinkin it's the Boston of the ultras (or is that Badwater or Barkley?). Well, since it's popular and since it's hard to get in, I'm intrigued.

So, there are a few ways to enter the race but the main way is by the lottery which just so happens to be open right now until 11/27. I guess only 369 runners can be on the field and over 1,000 usually apply to get in.

Here's the dilemma:
If I'm thinking about kids in the next one-two years, now is the time to try to run this race. However, after reading some things about the course (see below), I don't know if I'd be fully prepared for the completion of the race without having run on anything that even a tiny, tiny bit resembles the actual course conditions. So, would it be a waste of time and money?

Here are some risks/things to consider:

1) Everything's non-refundable. Since I was injured this past summer and took a few months off for PT and STILL am not movitated to stretch before/after running, who's to say I won't have the same muscle pull next year and be screwed?
2) The course has a few water crossings (and wet snow paths...yeah, part of the course is in 20 degree weather and part of the course is in 90 degree weather) so there'd be a chance that my feet would get jacked up again with a million blisters
3) No pacer/crew lined up = less motivation
4) I read that you could be running downhill for an hour at a time and that they recommend training on a hill that's at least three miles long. Huh? All I can find are little dinky .07 mile hills to run up and down. (Have they invented a treadmill that has a decline-grade yet to serve such a purpose?) (Oh my gosh: check out this cheesy downhill converter someone's trying to sell)
5)Uhh...why did I just read in Alan's race report that a runner was killed by a cougar on the same Western States' course some years ago? It's already bad enough running half-asleep through the night in the dark with other people, let alone by yourself in some crazy wilderness. I would be way too freaked out the whole time out there. Why do all of these athletes get eaten by animals in CA?



I know, I know....it's very unlikely that my name would even get drawn in the lottery but if it was, I need to know if I'd be ready for it since the drawing seals the deal; no backing out.

What do I do??

Last Week's Recap/ This Week's Mileage

Every Monday Jon and I talk about our great plans for our mileage that week and then as the week progresses, it always ends up that either we can't run all six days as planned or we can't run as much due to whatever reason. Usually one of Jon's kids wakes up a ton during the night and then he's too tired, or our alarm doesn't go off, or I have to go in early at work....

So last week we wanted to run 55 miles for the week, which included a 15 mile run on Saturday. It turned out both of us got sick (along with a million other people) and so we only ran two-three days and then only 10 miles on Saturday. It stinks. So after our 10 mile run on Saturday, I knew I wanted to get in more miles than 28 for the week so I made myself run another 12 that afternoon, which brought me to 40 miles.

Then yesterday morning I actually woke up to my alarm before church at 7am and was planning on running 10 miles. I freaking got dressed, got my water and went outside and started to run. When I got about one-two minutes into it I decided I just didn't feel like running so I turned back around, went home and got back into bed. I'm lazy!!!

I told myself I'd run in the afternoon...then I said I'd run in the evening after the Colts' game (sniff, sniff) and then I just didn't do it. It's hard to make myself get more miles in when I don't have any upcoming races yet. Darnit.

So this morning Jon and I planned out the week as such: eight miles today; tomorrow I'm off work so we each bet that we have to run eight miles on our own or pay a whopping dollar for each mile we miss; Wednesday 10 miles; Thursday 10 miles; Friday 15 miles; Saturday is unknown and may just be a make-up day. Let's hope we make it!

Sat-Monday Runs

Last Saturday I ran 16 miles in the morning; Jon did 13 with me. Yesterday Bernie was in town and we ran 13 miles together. It was fun catching up on Hallucination stuff and talking about other random things (like Bernie's story of seeing a naked woman running during one of his trail runs back home; she was running as if everything was normal and not looking like she had been in some crazy attack or something). And, it was weird having normal conversations (better than playing the dumb alphabet game) and not being wacked out since we hadn't already been running 20+ hours again.

Then, this morning I ran 8 miles with Jon at 5am and we ran around the Lucas Oil Stadium and there were already a few people waiting outside its doors. I wish I could take the day off and tailgate all day. It's time to get hyped for the Colts tonight; woohoo!!!