193 Miles of crazy fun times

Ragnar started with a longer than usual weekend (yes, even for me).

Thursday night - we met in St Paul to pack the van, prepare decorations and other silliness and drive down to Winona.  When we arrived in Winona, we enjoyed the excellent pre-race food at Perkins.  (Mmmm, french fries) and then went to bed.

Preparing van decorations.

Fun at Perkins. It's been a long time since I've even been there.

Friday - before the race - we just got ready for the race because we had an 8am start time.

Getting our Pre-race meal on at the McDonald's by the hotel.

Friday - GO! - The start line is always a good time.  Tons and tons of people staring at us, asking for pictures, saying "oh, I saw your video on YouTube" and so on.  It's like being a rock star for a few minutes.

Graham, our first runner, getting ready with some stretches.

The whole team does calisthenics at the start line. Apparently this was a big deal last year.

The whole team. This is the last time all of us will be not sweaty and gross simultaneously.

Graham, showing the other teams how to really start a race.

It was hotter than hell as far as we could tell.  I saw signs ranging from 82* to 93*.  This year I was runner number four, so I got to experience the heat in my first run.   This was actually the hardest run of the three, because of the heat and my costume. The hill on this one wasn't even that bad.

Yes, the price I pay for being an early runner with low mileage is that all three legs are "hard". (The ratings are easy, moderate, hard and very hard. I had the only four miler that was 'hard', the rest were at least moderate.)

 
But then, boom, it's noon and I'm already done with my first leg.  Not like the first two years when I was waiting 'till nightfall to even run.

The rest of Friday was spent playing around and eating.  And eating.  And playing around while everybody took their turns in the hot hot sun.  This was actually the first year for us that runners 11 and 12 were starting before night time hours, meaning they did not have to run in vests.  It was actually runners number 1 and 2 who got to run in vests twice this year.

Tesha and Ryan practice the slap bracelet exchange. It's actually harder than it looks.

Officer Glen arresting someone for lord knows what. Probably telling him his shorts were too small.

Graham and Laura planking.

Kate - in costume.

Somewhere north of Lake Peppin, along the Mississippi River at nightfall.

I really loved my night leg.  There was a big ass hill that bothered me less than I think it bothered a lot of other people.  I knew going in that it was going to suck so I was emotionally prepared.  I also knew going in that was I going to get to run down the other side.  And it was fun as hell.  As predicted.  Once I got down the other side I knew I had another 1.5 miles.  So after a few minutes I started looking for the "one mile to go" sign.  I knew it was going to have a red flashing light on it.  Sadly, all the runners in front of me also had red flashing lights on their backs so I had a lot of fake sightings before seeing the actually sign.  By the way I passed a runner on this leg.  Somewhere along the top of the hill.  Boom!

 

The rest of the night was long.  I drove some, and got yelled at for driving too fast.  (Sorry, it's been a while since I've driven anything this big.)  We had a runner get sick.  And I didn't eat nearly as much as I should have.

Saturday morning - oh, that's right, two of my runs are done already.  I ran my last leg around 9am and it was the most awful leg, but not the hardest.  The hill that comes at the end, that I don't get to go down, was actually not as awful as I thought it would be, but it was not fun.  This leg was awful because, as mentioned, I didn't eat through the night on Friday night.  I was all "I run on an empty stomach at 8am all the time, this'll be fine" but when I run on an empty stomach in the morning, I've usually had post run food from the day before and I haven't been running eight hours earlier (at midnight).  I just didn't have enough juice to go.  Something to remember for next year.

Tesha showing off her Ragnar 911 tattoo.

At the last big exchange before the finish, we saw Bolder Options for a pancake breakfast.  We actually saw lots of people we knew at that exchange.  It had something of a carnival atmosphere becuase half the runners there were done with all three of their legs.  (The other half of the runners had a look of dread and impatience.  How well I remember.)

The finish line was fun.  It was in a different space from last year, the East River Flats park.  It seemed like a bigger area for the finish line and party, and there were a ton of people there.  It also was a flat finish as opposed to running the last 100 feet up an incline.

They call out each team as the final runner is about to finish, and all the teams cross the line together.  When our team was finishing, the announcer said something like "we really love this team, and here's a special song for them" so they were really playing our song as we finished.

At the finish! This may be the first time our whole team was at the finish line, the last couple years we had people who needed to leave early.  It was fun to celebrate with everyone.

After the race, I was so tired.  I called ahead for take out and grabbed it on my way home.  After eating, I remember laying down on the couch around 6pm, and moving to my bed around 8:30pm.  Sometime later I woke up, thinking it was the middle of the night.  Nope.  6am.  Guess I have to get up again now.

Recovery Saturday - is it time for more sleep yet?

After the run yesterday, I'm still exhausted.  (And still hungry.)  When I got up this morning I had a totally crappy (meaning awesome but unhealthy) breakfast.  Then, as per usual, I slept on my couch for a couple hours.  (Yes, I do this every Saturday.  Sunday too if I can manage it.)

It was such a beautiful day though, by the afternoon I just had to get outside.  I couldn't bear another day at Lake Nokomis or Hiawatha, as I've seen them too frequently on long runs.  For some reason, Lake of the Isles sounded nice.  (I was surprised as anyone.)

For dinner I made my Mexican-Asian meal of spring rolls with the following ingredients:

• Spring roll wrapper - I'm awesome at wrapping them
• Rice noodles
• Spring onions
• Lime juice and salt
• Avocado - you thought the lime juice and salt was the Mexican part, didn't you?
• Chicken, one strip per spring roll

As an after dinner celebration, I cleaned my house. And read what must have been two weeks worth of mail I'd been ignoring. Sorry, condo association, I'll get my parking registration to you shortly.

Friday rewind - old photo favorites

Minneapolis - Spoon Bridge

Minneapolis - from the sky

St Paul - The Cathedral

St Paul - Lake Street Bridge coming into Minneapolis (after a particularly impressive storm)

Lake Nokomis - looking good from several different angles.

Lake Nokomis - even in the winter it's a nice place. (Remind me of that when I'm outside running this year.)

Ft Snelling - of "my favorite running path ever" fame.

Lake Hiawatha - if you zoom and squint, you can see downtown Minneapolis in the background. (Yes, Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha look different to me.)

What would this be without pictures of snow?

I got this reflection shot after spending way too long digging my car out of that snow pile.

Wow.  This was such a fun day.  This is some suburb north of the cities.  I made Jenna drive in that particular snow storm.

20.5: the good, the bad, and the very very ugly

As I mentioned, crazy training begins in August.  (Oh.  Yeah!)  In 2009, I only did one 20 miler and it was so bad I couldn't even write about it.  In 2010, I did three twenty milers, the first one sucked, the second one apparently rocked, and number three went back to bad times.

This year, my first "20 miler" actually wound up being an 18 mile work out at the gym.  (While I'm crazy for long runs, I'm not insane.  It was just too hot to be running outside.)

Today was the second 20 miler on my schedule and I tried a brand new, I would say more challenging, route.

 

The Good:

• The route - was definitely good.  It was definitely challenging but that long down hill bit around Ft Snelling came at just the right time and really loosened me up.  It was a more challenging route.  Mentally it was challenging because the trip to Ft Snelling is like an 'out and back' to the rest of the route, although the dread I built up in my mind was out of proportion to the actual experience, which was quite relaxing really.
• The pacing - I kept myself paced quite nicely.  I didn't bring my phone (consequently also had no time keeping device) but the fact that I could still run at the end tells me I was doing a good job.
• Nutrition - I got a cliff bar or something yesterday at Run N Fun when I stopped to stock up on Gu and Chomps.  I always used to have protein bars as part of my nutrition plan and I like it.  It's a little protein and a little salt.  And actual food while I can still swallow.  (Later in the run Gu is the only thing I can get down.)
• Incentive to get done - I had an unusual incentive today.  A colleague is leaving our office for another job and her good luck party was this morning right before lunch.  Meaning I had to get DONE so I could make it and wish her luck.

from here; Franklin Ave Bridge

The bad:

• The head games - I am a nut case, ok.  I worry for no reason.  I worry about anything.  And today was no exception.  As I alluded to before, I'd built a sense of dread (as in, 'this will be boring and awful') about running along Minnehaha falls on the way back from the fort, really the whole road back from the fort.  The dread made some of the earlier run worse.  That part of the route was fine except the lack of water fountains.
• The humidity - but yeah! for me for staying calm (about that at least) and giving it a go anyways.

The Ugly:

• GI Issues - I sometimes consult on a project with this nurse practitioner who is also a runner.  Through an odd conversation, she too recommended Imodium before long runs.  I have not discovered the magic.  I've tried it a couple times in the past with varrying success.  For a 10-miler in cool weather it worked fine.  During Twin Cities last year it rectified the, um, urgency and frequency issue but upset my stomach terribly.
  Today, definitely reduced the urgency issue, which has been my biggest concern.  It did totally upset my stomach.  I also forgot how it exacerbates dehydration.  Yes, sweating is a side effect of that medication.  Serious.  On the plus side, drinking gulps and gulps of water was about the only thing that didn't upset my stomach.  (It normally does.)
  So I don't know what to do.  My choices seem to be go un-medicated and pray for facilities (or at least a good hiding spot), or go medicated and deal with an upset stomach.
• Minneapolis Park Board - Yo!  WTF?  You are so awesome at setting up port a pots along all the running trails and at the lakes.  Why make it so no one can use them?  (I refer you to the time the thing was physicially turned around so I couldn't get in the door)  Today, there were two pots with freaking pad locks.  Why?  They've been there all summer.

Seriously...

So bats moved into an apartment complex and everyone has to get rabies shots.  PANIC!

As a former bat biologist, no freaking way can you "not feel" a bat's bite.  Those teeth are designed to go through beetle shells and other crazy stuff.  

Unless you're also a current or former bat biologist, don't ever touch a wild bat.  Very few have rabies but it hurts like hell when they bite.

Back outside. Finally!

This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn.  And went for a run.  Outside.

That fourth mile, wow. When I heard my pace I was all "no wonder I can't breath!"

One of my favorite running routes; I go this way quite frequently.

Then, after work, I went to Pilates.  It was the current instructors final class so she let us have fun.  And by fun I mean "harder exercises than we normally do".  Feeling the burn now.

I'm thinking another outside run tomorrow.  Maybe the same route.

The big build up begins...

In marathon training, the last month is always the best because it's just one big long taper, all the really hard work is done.

The second to last month of marathon training?  It's when a lot of the hard work is done.  It's also when the best food is eaten!  Welcome to the second to last month of marathon training!

Supposedly, according to my plan, I should have already done one 20 miler by now.  A combination of heat waves and general distaste for being on an elliptical that long means I've done a couple 18 milers.  I'm "due" for a 20 miler next week, but I'm moving my mileage around because next week I need to be running from Winona to Minneapolis dressed up like a pretend cop.  Read the 2009 race report and the 2010 race reports if you don't believe me.

In excellent coincidence, the heat wave broke today.  It was still too hot to really run when I got up, so I took a nice walk.  The plan was to walk some today and then run outside as much as possible the rest of the week, including a nice long run.  It was above 70* this morning, but barely made it up to 80* all day.  Win!

My shadow, almost taking a break. The sun was going behind a cloud as I was snapping that photo.

Flowers in the neighborhood.

I thought I'd try taking a few more shots of Minne (our Lake Creature!) She's at Lake Hiawatha this summer. Bonus points if you have any clue where that is!

The Cedar Avenue bridge. It was actually pretty packed for a Sunday afternoon. I can't imagine where all those people were going.

Sailboats on Lake Nokomis. It was a gorgeous day, but not as windy as yesterday so maybe not quite as good for sailing. These last couple shots are good reminders of the meaning of the word "Minnesota". Indeed.

Maybe, soon, the heat will break

I have forgotten how to run outside.  Almost entirely.  Because of the weather. 

An impressive sky after some fairly impressive weather.

 
Which leads me down to roads of thought:

First, exercise news:

I ran with team:work on Wednesday.  It was nice for me.  It was the first time I'd run outside in over a week.  I almost gave one of my teammates heatstroke though.  We walked a lot at the beginning and the end.  

After team:work I hit the treadmill at the gym on which I almost had a panic attack.  I did another 4 miles, first increasing the speed every "lap" (quarter mile), then for the final 5 laps, I did one lap walking and one lap running at speeds that are fast for me.  (6mph and above.  It's fast for me I said.)

The treadmill pays off - today part of my workout was my version of "sprint intervals" which means running faster than normal for four laps and then walking for two (total of 1 mile) and I did that five times (total distance of five miles).  And none of my running laps were slower than a 10:00 mile pace.  I think.  If I did the math correctly. That can't be right.

After the treadmill, I got on the elliptical for two hours.  Total workout 'distance' was 15 miles.

It looks like the heat will break Sunday sometime.  Next week I need to run outside.  Frequently.

In other news:
I may already be a millionaire.

 

In the real news, Muslims are the most loyal religious group in America (loyal meaning to the USA).  Totally worth mentioning.

An accurate representation of life in Minnesota.

Starting with your first insurance plan year after 8/2012, Insurers must cover birth control with no copays.  Hell yeah!

Qat Lady started using the same app as me for calorie counting.  But she wont 'friend' me on the app.  Just saying here...

Sara Dara - I miss you! If you miss Sara too, you can see more of her here and here.

Sara understands why this makes me miss her.

 
And finally - this is what my youngest cousin got on his first postcard from me. (I wonder if it was his first postcard. I'm going with yes since he's only six months old.)

This is Minne, the Minneapolis Lake Monster.  She's living in Lake Hiawatha this summer.  You can see more about her here.

 

Celebrating with a night at the theater

I passed my clinical licensure exam on the day the state shut down. 
When the state resumed business, the Board of Social Work sent me a letter saying I could be a clinical social worker once I paid the additional licensing fee (only about $30).  "Your license begins the day the board receives your check."
Dude, they got my check.

It seemed like good timing because My Pooky Bear and Qat Lady and I had plans to go out to eat and see a play.  Nice night to celebrate right?

We went to the Dancing Ganesha for dinner.  I had a massala dosa which I haven't had, literally, since moving to Minnesota.  This one wasn't quite as good as the ones we'd get from this restaurant in Cincinnati that was roughly a shack with an oven and hot plate, but they were still quite nice.

Then we headed over to The Guthrie to see HMS Pinafore.  Loved it!  As Pooky Bear said, "you had me at dancing sailors".  I honestly didn't know the story before hand, so it was a nice surprise to watch.  Here's the only two things I did know about the play:
First - that one song they sing in the Star Trek movie, preceded by some of the best dialogue of the entire movie (do you know Gilbert and Sullivan?  No, I haven't met all the new crew yet...)


Second - He Is an Englishman is from Pinnafore, not Penzance or any of the other ones about duty.  Thanks, West Wing.  I was waiting like the whole play to understand that reference. 

It's just too hot to think of a title

Saturday - I stayed inside, in the air conditioning all day.  I read Heat Wave, (from one of my favorite TV shows).  I found it interesting as an inside joke from the show, but not totally captivating in itself.  (I might have gotten an altered copy; mine seemed shorter than it should have been...)
At one point Amanda invited me to Kelly's house to hang out and watch movies.  The thought of leaving my air conditioning was too much and I declined.  (It's not that it's that hot.  It's just been kind of hot for too long.)

Sunday - I swear I slept 11 hours.  Awesome!  You know I was on my air mattress by the air conditioner unit right?

I sent my favorite Florida resident a little something in the mail.  My friend Chris has a nephew who is about as far from him as this guy lives from me.  Chris said "send him post cards, a lot of post cards, so he knows who you are".  Chris recommended Shoot It as an app that takes pictures from your phone and automatically turns them into post cards.  After some comparison shopping, Postagram appears to have better prices, at least for the moment.  It did limit the number of characters I could use in my "personalized message".  I'll have to ask his mom and dad how it out.

I also hit the gym for a bit.  The elliptical is not so bad when I only have to be on it for an hour.  (I think an hour on the treadmill would still give me a panic attack.)  For the weather, the gym actually wasn't that crowded.  I guess everyone was at the lake, or just dreading leaving their houses too much to even go outside.

I found this great blog post which totally explains how I feel about running the Twin Cities.  From my house I can run to all of those same places, although I've never really tried the Stone Arch Bridge, or the universities (except running by St Thomas on Summit Ave).  I've had friends come to town and also remark on the awesome running spots we have here.  (To be fair, she also thought the houses in my neighborhood were "so small they're cute" or something.) It looks like the weather may break at the end of the week. I'm hoping I can get in a long run to Ft Snelling because I really haven't been there too much this year.

Friday exercise Insantiy

As you probably know by now, it's hot.  As you also probably know, I am a heat wimp and don't do well running in this business.
Today I needed a really long run.  Twenty miles was scheduled and that was my goal but I knew I might have to be okay with 18 instead.  For my own sanity.
I went to the gym, originally planning on running on the track, then the treadmill, then finishing with a couple hours on the elliptical.  I took one look at the track and decided I couldn't face it for a vague goal of 'running for a while'.  Then I got on the treadmill.  And had a panic attack.  No.  Seriously.  So I decided to make it three hours on the elliptical; the only thing I knew I could stand.  I did manage to move 18 miles and then had a nice stretch afterwards.

More thoughts from the workout:

• It was nice not to get sick.
• Sadly, I wore the pink shoes (because I thought I'd have done more running) and that was perhaps my biggest mistake of the day.
• Treadmills are only for speed workouts.
• The humidity inside was pretty impressive too.
• The indoor track: still the pit of despair.  I couldn't even walk around it and stretch when I was done.
• Post run meal - I badly wanted seafood.  I so rarely crave seafood that I almost always make accommodations when I do.  I got shrimp from Kowalski's and poached it with a bit of butter and capers.
• I really miss running outside.  Monday was the only day this week, the only day in the past several weeks actually, that I'd made it out to run outside.
• Dangerous thought I had today: (Knowing that Team:Work is training for the Dreidel Dash 10K this year.)  "If we get enough people on Team:Work to run a 10K, they could do the Minneapolis Marathon relay and I could run the whole marathon along side them.  What?  There's pacers.  With some training maybe...

Friday LINKFEST

The experience I had checking Google Reader today made me know it was time for a linkfest.  (Because like ten posts were about bats.)  Here we go:

• How many countries can you name in five minutes?  I don't know how many I can do because Firefox won't load the site for me.
• Bats 1 - Bats in math!.  I wish Walnut Hills taught me to do that!
• Bats 2 - Bats use harmonics to track prey.  If you don't know about harmonics, learn to play a stringed instrument.
• Bats 3 - It's The Year of the Bat Wow.  I had no idea.

In fairness, there were like 10 posts about bats, but most of the rest of them were repeats of the 'bat equation' deal.
Now check out some of my favorite bat pictures:

Hoary Bat in Pennsylvania, 2004

Chris holding a bat in 2010.  Best part of Christmas!

Only thing happier than a bird with a french fry: a bat with two meal worms!

Welcome back to humidity!

I woke up this morning and it was a steam bath.  Hilariously, Heather thought all that steam was rain and called me off running with the St Paul girls.  I hit the gym instead, in order to make peace with the dreadmill.

Treadmill experience - apparently warmup on the treadmill is very important for me.  'Cause when I got on the thing and started walking 3mph I thought it was too fast.  (It was early.)  I did warm myself up appropriately and got up to my marathon running pace pretty fast.  After that, every five minutes I kicked the pace up by 1-2 tenths of a mile.  By the end I was going around 10:30 miles (for like three whole minutes but still.)  Interestingly, the 10:30 pace felt better that the 10:45-ish pace.  Perhaps by then my body was loose and ready to roll.

Team:work - bailed tonight.  Well two people bailed on me and then I bailed on the last person.  Seriously, running in 83* and 80% humidity wasn't sounding so great to me.  So I came home and slept instead.

New running songs - I'm always adding new songs to my life.  I finally gave up on Pandora and started using Slacker Radio and have found some fun new songs.

• Good Life - One Republic
• Waving Flag - K'naan (totally missed this one when it came out; happy to have found it now)
• Forget You - Cee Lo Green which I've mentioned before.  He's actually a good singer.
• You've Got the Love - Florence + The Machine  Florence exists to populate my running playlist, much like Lady Gaga.