December 2013 ~ TRAILMOMMA

December 31, 2013April 21, 2015

ON MY OWN

“On my own … pretending (s)he’s beside me ….” if you know me, you know I love the story of Les Miserables but even more so, I love the MUSIC! I sing and play it often either while washing the dishes or giving the girls a bath. The Peanut, on more than one occasion has sighed, “is this Les Mis again mommy?” when the aforementioned song/verse plays.

Well this past Sunday, I truly was “on my own” as the song says because Pigeon had a family emergency to tend to and had to miss out on our run. Knowing that I had to get significant miles in but also knowing that I truly didn’t want to drive anywhere, I set out for an adventure around my own neighborhood.

The Ridge Loop of Death that I have run so many times was first on my list. I haven’t done that route in quite some time and I know that it will give me a solid 7 miles or so complete with some climbs. I managed the climbs fairly well too.

Once back where I started I ran towards Browns Ravine. These trails that are over by Lake Folsom are truly a beautiful secret close to our house. On my way there however, I realized that I needed a pit stop and unfortunately, none of the parks that I ran by, had any restrooms. Instead, I ran up a big hill to my local Safeway.

Once I was done, I decided against running back to the trail head I had intended and instead ran down Green Valley to the marina. I crossed the light at the marina and made my way onto the trails. The last time I ran these trails I ran with Pigeon. At first I was a little unsure of my route but eventually realized it is quite impossible to get lost and on the weekends, the trails are pretty populated with people so running solo wasn’t a huge deal.

Folsom Lake

This trail really lends itself to some pretty awesome views of Folsom Lake however our water level is so low right now, that in the photo above, you can barely see the lake. Hopefully the rain they are calling for next week, actually arrives. We need it.

My legs were definitely feeling okay on this run compared to my run last weekend with Pigeon in Auburn. I was really dragging and my legs felt especially tired. On this run, my legs felt great but my stomach was battling something. It wasn’t happy needless to say.

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I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately on different methods, diets and ways of training. I think down the road I Â am going to experiment a little bit here and there. I have a sensitive stomach as it is and there could be many reasons as to why as well as probably many different ways to combat it. It could also just be the fact that I have Celiac and always will have issues.

Once I made my way out of the trails and back to the concrete jungle that resides between Folsom and El Dorado Hills, I made my way back towards my house via the sidewalk.

It also has many many steep hills like the one above. I’d love to say I ran up these, but I didn’t. I shuffled when I could but for the most part, my body was saying ‘you’re done’ for now.

All said and done though, I ran about 13 miles total. All by myself. I enjoyed that some miles were roads and some were trails as I am too chicken to go venture to Cool or Auburn by myself and run. Pigeon can tell you, the chances of me getting lost are pretty likely.

Without my regular training partner and without TigerT my OTHER training partner I was forced to get the miles in all by myself. This week will be another adventure of sorts. New Years Day I have a 10 mile race in Auburn (The Revolution Run). Originally I had not planned on doing this race as Pigeon and I were planning a run but since she is tending to her family right now, I am left to fill the miles by myself and decided that I couldn’t skip yet another run in Auburn.

This weekend will bring back the return of TiggerT and I am contemplating taking her on the same journey I had this past weekend, hopefully minus the trip to Safeway.

I wish all my readers and family a very happy and safe New Years. Generally I am not a fan of New Years, or at least I am not a fan of going out and this year we are spending a nice evening at home with a few friends coming over to celebrate. That is just the way I like it.

Whatever your goals are for 2014 I wish you patience and perseverance to conquer them.

Happy Trails!

~Trailmomma

December 23, 2013April 21, 2015

IT CHEEPED

This weekend Pigeon and I continued with our training by heading out to Auburn for a long run. We have not been to the Overlook since well before Thanksgiving. I admitted to her early on in the run that my motivation was lacking lately and that I had hoped that this run would bring back that excitement. Running up in Auburn always seems to ignite something within that gets me excited about the running and racing road ahead.

We met at the Auburn Dam Overlook or ADO at 7:30. Waking up was really hard for me. I was just tired and it seemed so cold in our house that I figured it had to be colder outside. I decided to wear my Athleta Relay Capris for this run. I have never worn capris or tights on a long run before, not even for CIM. I wanted to give it a try to test how hot I might be on the run.

There were not many car at the overlook when I arrived but I saw Pigeon’s car. We pretty much both jumped out, changed out of warmer clothes and started off down the trail. I didn’t bring any gloves which normally is fine as I tend to take them off anyway but today I was carrying a water bottle which mean my hand would be holding a cold bottle. Ouch. Pigeon had gloves. I went digging into my car and I found my weight lifting gloves that I keep in the car for my Breakout Fitness workouts. Basically they are gloves minus the finger tips. I don’t typically care what I look like when I run, I just throw on some stuff (usually I match) and go. Well these gloves not only matched they totally worked at keeping the palm of my hand warm while holding the bottle. Pigeon laughed at me but it was okay. I actually kept the gloves on for the entire run too.

My legs were stiff. My back has been giving me problems all week and I think the tight muscles in my back are streaming down the back of my legs and hitting my hamstrings. Not totally uncommon. It was definitely hard to feel free and flexible on this run.

At one point we saw three deer just walking across our trail. Shortly after we saw Diane Cressey and stopped for a quick hello. Then we rounded a corner and continued on when all of sudden I heard some rustling in the bush next to me which caused me to jump which caused whatever was in the bush to jump too and take flight and it started chirping quite loudly. I flew even higher which caused Pigeon to do this crazy ballerina move in the air. She really got some air between herself and the ground, I was quite impressed. She was like “What!? What is it?!” totally panicked at whatever had scared me. I yelled, “It cheeped!? It cheeped!” She stops and looks at me, “It cheeped? Don’t birds CHIRP? Not cheep?” We laughed and I still stand by the fact that little birds can “cheep” it is the action verb of “chirp” … um yea, sticking with that. 🙂

Back to the run, we ran over No Hands Bridge and up the hill towards K2. I have not run up K2 since I ran with Pigeon and Be-Well-Run two summers ago. It felt a lot easier climbing this time than it did before which made me feel a little better.

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We eventually found ourselves at the Cool Fire Station where I made a brief pitstop. Then it was back towards ADO. When we hit the down hill section leading to No Hands Bridge Pigeon took off. She was just coasting the downs and I wanted to as well but had this nagging feeling in the back of my head (fear?) that I didn’t want to roll my ankle again. With my hamstrings and back slowly cramping up, I was just a little hesitant. I long for the day when I can fly down that trail though. It’s just a great trail with easy footing (minus a few rocks and roots).

Once we hit No Hands Bridge we stopped so I could stretch out my back and my quads which like I said, were really feeling super tight. I think at that point, Pigeon realized her quads were not feeling as springy as they might have felt at the start.

The trail back to ADO from No Hands was long and slow. We did walk/hike quite a bit both of us just feeling the day’s work on the trail. I just have to be patient with myself and realize that one run doesn’t determine my fitness and one run two weeks after a road marathon (that I didn’t train for) shouldn’t feel like a total walk in the park.

The run this weekend did accomplish something though, it motivated me and got me excited about running again. I am looking forward to my workouts this week which I have to do solo but I promise myself I will do despite it being holiday week and not having to work a few days this week.

As with most holidays, I am sure everyone is feeling some stress. Just remember to be patient with yourself, life and others. Not every day will be an easy training day.

Squeaker: I love you SiSi! I love to follow you, copy you, break your toys and annoy you.

Peanut: Leave me alone.

🙂

~Trailmomma

December 20, 2013April 21, 2015

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

December 14th was the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown Connecticut. I saw the stories online talking about the families who have lost loved ones on that horrible day asking that the media respect their wishes and stay clear of the town, school and their lives. All they wanted was for people to do some random acts of kindness.

This struck a chord with me as I used to do such things on a moment’s notice. I didn’t wait for the holidays but lately it seems I find myself doing them less and less.

I decided that needed to change so while at Starbucks the other day I bought a gift card and gave it right back to the woman at the register. I told her that Â I wanted to buy whoever came up next in line a cup of coffee and to tell them to please pay it forward.

On the actual anniversary of Sandy Hook, the Peanut and I did our own special Random Act of Kindness. I won’t lie, I was inspired by a friend on Facebook who had this happen to her last year. I purchased a card and a small gift card. Inside the Â card I wrote that I was honoring Allison N. Wyatt age 6 who attended Sandy Hook. From what I had read about Allison, she loved art (just like my Peanut) so I wanted to do something in her memory. If could have done 26 random acts of kindness that day, I would have but I hope that the couple we handed the card to would in turn do something in memory of another child lost.

I’ve seen and witnessed a lot of Scrooges on the roads and in the stores lately and it really started to bother me. If we can make one person smile by doing something out of the pure kindness of our hearts, then I think that is the greatest gift one can give.

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It doesn’t have to involve money either. I have a friend who offers to walk their neighbor’s dog. You can take out someone’s trash or even return their trash cans closer to their house so they don’t have to walk. Use your imaginations and use your heart. The next time your temper rises consider the person you are about to scream at and think about what they might have going on in their life at that moment. Show some compassion.

Happy Holidays.

~Trailmomma

December 17, 2013December 17, 2013

TIS THE SEASON

Tis the season to be … what? Busy? Overwhelmed? Tired? Stressed? That seems to be the theme these days for a lot of people including myself. I think my stress and overwhelmed feelings stem from being out-of-town the week of Thanksgiving. While I wouldn’t have traded our trip to Tahoe for anything, we tend to get a lot of our decorating done that week leaving the days after Thanksgiving for other holiday related things.

In my last post I gave you a CIM Race Recap. I actually felt quite well after running CIM. I was sore for a day but only when I would go from a seated position at work to a standing one. I returned to Breakout Fitness on Tuesday as well as the rest of the week. I even went for a short run with TiggerT one night during the week.

Last week was also my birthday. I was able to figure out a way to make it an almost week-long celebration like old times. 🙂 The actual day of my birthday, Vans and I attended a small Christmas party that we used to go to a lot before having kids. My wonderful in laws watched the girls for a few hours. Long enough for us to attend the party and have a quick dinner afterwards. The following day Vans and I took the day off and just did some long over due Christmas shopping. We also lunched at the Plum (Vegan) Cafe in downtown Sacramento and saw a movie. Saturday I had arranged for a baby sitter to come over so that Vans and I could have a date night that was VERY Trailmomma themed!

Night Run!!

We joined the Folsom Lake Trail Runners and the Java Joggers group on their 5th annual Christmas Light holiday run (6 miles). We met at Breakout Fitness and then ran to Dovewood Court to see the lights. I have never been here before and it was pretty awesome.

Despite having to run 6 miles, in the dark, on trails (uphill) with a bunch of “runners,” I think Vans had a good time. When we ran back to Breakout Fitness, Diane had it set up with snacks and beverages for us all. She also busted out her TRX to see who would be daring to try some stuff.

Double TRX Push Up

It was a fun date night and one that I look forward to doing again next year with Vans.

Other exciting things going on in the Trailmomma household? Peanut got her ears pierced! She’s wanted them for a while but was afraid that it would hurt. It did. I was honest with her the entire time. I also stayed true to my word and did not take her to Claire’s so some teenie-bopper could pierce her ears unevenly.

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I cannot believe how big she is getting. She is really enjoying her earrings and is so happy that she had them pierced (despite the kicking and screaming that occurred during the piercing).

Squeaker also had her first ever haircut! Just picture kicking and screaming coming from this one too.

So what lies ahead for Trailmomma and this blog? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about that. In the past, on my old blog, I would just post a lot about my family and my running. Eventually the running died down quite a bit and that sort of left me with nothing much to write about other than my family. Now I know my extended family far and wide love to hear and read about the girls (and I love to write about them) I also know that the general public probably doesn’t care all that much and would rather read about my running or something else.

I am trying to find a happy medium and I am also just trying to do what comes to mind and what makes me happy.

However, my running future is going to start picking up very soon. I got into the Way Too Cool 50K lottery and will be running WTC in March. I also signed up for the American River 50 Miler (April). I did both races in 2010 training with the awesome Fleet Feet Training Group. This time however, I am doing it with Pigeon and ultimately on my own. I am a little nervous about that. Having a group waiting for me really made sure I got that mid-week run in but when I look back, I really only ran two days a week, maybe 3 for those races. Honestly, that is all the time I have now when you factor in all that we have going on in our lives with the girls and work. I am crossing my fingers that quality training on those two or three days will help me cross the finish lines. I am not looking to break records, sure I’d love PRs (personal records) on each of these runs but whatever happens, I want to finish with a smile.

Pigeon and I have had a small break in our training routine as of late which will pick up soon. In my head I am really setting myself up for January 1 as the official start. I know this may be foolish but I just have too much going on in my head to really sit down and think about running. I’ve been running but not quality. I’ve also been testing out some new shoes (more on that in another post) and I am trying to do this without injuring myself. I never have good luck switching shoes. Ever. I am a little scared right now that the twinge in my knee is from the new shoes. It could however be from just running CIM and not giving my joints some proper rest (which I have done the last few days).

So in the meantime, this blog will have no agenda. It will just be whatever flows from my head at the time. My goal is to try and bring my camera on my runs to document some of the trails I see just like I did back in 2010. I really enjoy going back and reading about those runs and how I was feeling and how I dealt with certain situations. It is also a great memory for the girls to read some day. After these races, who knows. Maybe I will be brave enough to start that Personal Training Certification Course I looked into or maybe the nutrition courses I’ve seen.

I do know that part of my goals for 2014 (besides these two races) is to prioritize my time a little better. The Peanut and Squeaker are at the best ages right now. They WANT to be with me. They WANT to snuggle. Why would I want to do anything else? Part-time jobs will always be available when my girls are older and hanging out with their friends. Now, now is the time to soak up every minute with them and in 2014 I am going to figure out a way to do that even it means letting go of some important things in my life.

~Trailmomma

December 8, 2013April 21, 2015

CIM 2013 RACE REPORT

Three months and 3 days ago I had my ankle surgery and today I ran the California International Marathon.Â Â A few weeks ago, this was not my plan. A few weeks ago I Â thought about perhaps running 13 maybe 15 miles of it and then calling a friend to come and pick me up.

What changed? I am not really sure. I think when Pigeon and I ran our 14 miles in Auburn I felt a little stronger and more confident but at the same time, I had finished that run in some ankle discomfort. Then we went to Tahoe for Thanksgiving and I had some decent 5 mile runs on the road and figured, “Why the heck not? Why not start the race and just see what happens?”

When my friend and running buddy, TiggerT offered to get my packet and give me a ride to start she joked that doing all of that would require that I run all 26.2 miles with her as she had not had the best training either for the marathon.

The day before the race I had attended the Western States Lottery in Auburn and then I traveled up to Apple Hill with the family to find a Christmas Tree … in the snow.

It was a wonderfully cold and wet day that resulted in a larger than life tree that is currently taking over our living room.

I went to bed immediately after the girls and had probably one of the most restful sleeps I have had in a while. I woke up at 4 am feeling rested and excited about the race. I dressed and made my way to the kitchen to have my bowl of oatmeal and tiny cup of coffee.

Soon TiggerT arrived with a truck full of ~~trouble~~ friends. It was 24 degrees outside. That.is.cold for this area. Super cold. Luckily I found our goodwill pile in the garage at the last-minute and discovered an old pair of yoga pants that I was going to toss. I grabbed them and cut the ankles a bit so they’d fit over my running shoes.

I have to admit, TiggerT had the whole morning of CIM dialed down complete with multiple porta potty stops. Eventually we found ourselves near the starting line ready to go. The first mile was pretty uneventful. I never stripped any of my layers the entire race because the temps never seemed to rise very much.

Mile 3 is when insanity started. All the aid-stations were sheets of black ice. We’d approach them running only to slide about 3 feet trying eagerly not to fall. I saw quite a few men slip feet in the air landing flat on their backs. I heard that a few people fell and hit their heads. It was brutal. At one of the aid-stations I slipped while walking and holding my water cup only to have the water fly up and up and out of my cup and land on my head. The lady next to me laughed. I did too.

By mile 13 the bottoms of my feet hurt. It felt like I had no padding on the bottoms of my feet. It was not the feeling I wanted to have that early in the race but I couldn’t help but notice that my ankle was doing great.

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At one point we caught up with one of TiggerT’s friends and ran with her. She mentioned to me that the bottoms of her feet were killing her too and for some reason, that made feel a lot better. My shoes are pretty new so the only explanation is that perhaps it was lack of training (imagine that).

I took two Tylenol around mile 15 hoping that might help the pain. A lot of the in-between miles TiggerT and her friend would be chatting away to waving to people they knew. I kept fairly quiet trying hard not to go into a mental zone but I was doing an internal check to see if perhaps I might pull off and call a friend to pick me up.

The next thing I know we are at mile 20. The miles truly flew by and we walked through almost every water station (at my request) as it seemed to break up the monotony as well as keep us safe during the icy conditions. Mile 20 is a special mile. Not only is the aid-station near my old house but Vans and the girls had surprised me by being there!! It was the lift I needed. I don’t think I would have quit (who quits with 6 miles to go!?) but it made it much easier to continue having seen them.

The last six miles of CIM are brutal though. You start running through a neighborhood where the streets are numbered so of course mentally you are looking at the street numbers counting down. This year I was smart and never once looked at the street numbers, not even through the downtown stretch (okay, maybe I looked once and it was bad idea).

I believe around mile 24 I turned to TiggerT and said “Tell me a story. I don’t care what, but tell me a story.” TiggerT came to my rescue and told me a story about running in Boston. You have to love her. At one point she turned to me and said “are we stopping for water?” and I was like, “no! no more stopping” and we pretty much jammed to the finish.

Soon the turn towards the Capital was there and we cruised into the finish. Our unofficial time was 4:30. That is by far my worst marathon time but I had a good time and I finished feeling okay. I still feel okay. Of course I am a little bit stiff and tomorrow may be a whole different story but today is a good day. This was my 5th CIM and my 6th marathon total and while I don’t recommend running one without training, I am kind of on a high that I actually did it. The body is an amazing thing and often times you can find strength when you thought you had none and sometimes, that takes having an awesome friend believe in you.

Fueling Session

TiggerT, Me and friend

~Trailmomma

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