Bragging

This past Sunday - I waited until Sunday to give the weather a chance to improve - I made my way to the Ice Age Trail again, this time running the route the opposite direction. It turned out to be a beautiful morning and worth waiting the extra day. The sun was shining and the temperatures were still comfortable. From the moment I stepped on the trail, I knew it would be a good run.

Knowing I had to go a total of 8 miles, I took my time and started out slowly. I had anticipated this run to be challenging, as I remembered there being lots of uphills this way. It turned out that my memory had failed me. Instead of uphills this direction provided me with several steep downhills, which proofed to be no less challenging. I guess my mind had made me feel like there were lots of downhills last time I ran, so I wouldn't give up. How nice of it to protect my motivation that way.

I took the opportunity to practice letting my legs turn over more quickly without altering my breathing rhythm. It made me feel more agile, which in turn made me feel invincible.

During this run I stopped to climb the fire tower, which was one of the reasons I had wanted to wait for nicer weather. The views were spectacular. All in all, it was just one of those mornings out that make you feel alive and energetic. Just look at the little collage from the run below. I have this one (and the photos from other runs) in my cubicle, which helps me survive a dull day in the office. Unfortunately, I didn't get to take a picture of the ten wild turkeys who seemed to be inspired by my actions and decided to also take up running - in the opposite direction, far away from me.




While stretching a little bit by my car afterward, I was approached by a fellow trail runner. There were other runners around and I felt very cool for being approached and thought that maybe it was my sporty look and my hydration pack that made me look tougher than the other runners. It quickly turned out that it was my bright yellow socks that attracted him, because they indicated my possible affiliation with the recent winter running series. This trail runner - as I discovered within minutes - had found somebody he could brag to about his recent success at the series. It's funny how it doesn't take much to search for something you can brag about yourself, so you don't look like less. I was even reluctant to state how many miles I ran, when he asked, because I didn't want it to sound too little. Foolish, I know!

Coming off this wonderful weekend run, it always seems like such a downer going for a run during the week. In my head the shorter runs during the week, are my plain training runs that allow me to get out there and do the longer weekend runs, I enjoy so much. I don't know if it is the feeling of freedom of not having to work on the weekends that make these runs so special or if I just like the longer distances. I haven't quite figured that out yet. Any personal insights on that one?

Luck of the Irish

Yesterday, as a celebration of St Patrick's day, I partook in the last of my winter series races. I am not so sure that the term actually fit the bill. Yesterday it was more like a warm spring almost summer day race. When I got up in the morning, I didn't see any snow on the ground, but instead saw some lightning in the distance. Just before I was about to head out, a light rain started and created the most beautiful rainbow in the sky. Our "race bunny in practice" aka daughter admired her very first rainbow from the living room window.

I have to admit that after running the other four races in the series, the enthusiasm for this one was quite low. As a matter of fact, I was a little sad not to take advantage of this gorgeous weather and be heading out for a run on the trails. It was probably smarter this way though, as I hadn't run since Tuesday, when I tweaked my knee. I actually had no idea how this race would treat me.
I had made the decision this week to go into the this race with the mantra that I want to run for life and not just for today. I told myself that practicing to run my own race in the midst of a crowd, instead of letting the crowd push me to run faster than I should, will be a beneficial skill to have come marathon time.

So I started the race off in a training instead of a race pace. It turned out that this might have saved me from even more of an energy loss in this 10K race. I knew that the race course was supposed to have a hill in it, but I hadn't anticipated having to run it three times. After loop two I could feel that I should have brought something with me to boost my energy. I made sure to stop at the water stations whenever I could, but could feel chills running through my body at the end. It gave me a good excuse to walk just a little bit up the hill for the last time.

There are several points I took away from this race:
*There is nothing quite like being lapped by the front runner in the race (at least he was sweating buckets and didn't just make it seem like a piece of cake; and being able to watch his running form was also worth it)
*When you run several laps on the course, you get to cheer on the last person as well (While I was running I noticed a lady who was just being a trooper! She was overweight and red all over her face, but slowly kept going her pace and seemed so determined. I cheered her on whenever I saw her. When I passed her on my last long stretch to the finish line, I told her how awesome she was doing. She still had one more lap to go. She looked at me and said, "I might be slowly going my pace, but I am not a quitter." As we were about to leave the race and went back to our car, the organizers were already taking down the race course markings. Just as we come to our parking spot, I saw this woman heading for the finish line. She had continued! I gave her another cheer and was glad I had gotten to share a moment with her on the race course).
*When you cheer on people you know on the race course and shout "almost there" or "just one more lap", admit it, you are trying to make yourself feel better as well and are just glad to have a reason to say it out loud
*High school aged volunteers on the race course are clearly there for entertainment and to crack you up while running your heart out (my favorite one was the girl at the water station, who handed everybody a cup of water and with a sarcastic undertone that clearly told her opinion of "you are doing this to yourself, buddy" chirped "Happy St Patrick's day".)

Now I can proudly wear my new sweatshirt as a sign of having raced all five races for this series!

Ice Age Trail Run

I feel like today I went for my first trail run ever. I ran at different trails before, but this topped all the runs I have done so far. For my 7 mile run today, I decided to run the Lapham Peak section of the Ice Age Trail. HomeBody and I dropped one car off at the point where I intended to end my run and he then drove me to the beginning of the section.
A quick kiss goodbye and I hopped out of the car. The beginning of the section leads through varies prairie sites, interrupted by a short section in the woods. As soon as I walked onto the trail, I was overcome by joy of the beauty that surrounded me.
This was also the first run, I gave my new hydration pack a try. I strapped it on my back and began the run. It is quite the windy day in Wisconsin today, which made running through the open prairie quite interesting. After the first couple miles I wasn't so sure of what I had gotten myself into.

Once I left the prairie and headed for the next section into the woods the terrain changed. First I had to run across a small boardwalk.
The trail narrowed and became a small single lane paths. The last snow has just recently melted with the little bit warmer weather over the last week. What did that mean for the running conditions? Areas of pure mud. Where the sun hadn't reached through the trees, there were spots where the ground was still cold enough to be hard, other spots had been completely dried by the sun, yet others still had some ice on them. I felt like a kid navigated from one challenging spot to the next. There were moments my feet completely slid away in the mud and I barely caught myself from landing face first right in the middle of it. What a great workout!

For the first time, I had to watch out for rocks which reminded me of hiking in Pennsylvania. All the changing topography made this run never boring and there was always something beautiful to look at.
Lapham Peak has a sort of fire tower in the middle, where you can climb up for views of the surrounding area. When I started out my run, I could see the tower in the distance.
In the middle of my run, I actually directly passed the tower and it felt good to know how far I had already run since my taken the first picture. I had thought about climbing to the top of the tower, but when I arrived there, a fireman used it for his workout. He was in full fireman gear, including oxygen tank on the back and went up and down the tower many times. And he didn't seem to enjoy being watched too much, as I could hear him huff and puff. When I saw him, I felt that if he can climb the tower in full uniform, I can keep running. First I had to make it down some stairs to the path again though.
I met some other runners on the way and couldn't happen but notice that they were all male. Have to get more women out there. When I came across a dog walker, he asked me, if I was training for "The Trailbreaker" which is a race that runs through Lapham Peak. I said no and that I was training for the Ice Age 50 (now that is only half true, since I will only be running a half marathon during that race. But I didn't feel like that in the short moment while passing another person in running, I had the time to explain this to him). So of course he thought, I am training for the 50 mile race. He looked at me and then in a comforting voice said "There is a psychologist out there for you somewhere". I could only laugh and kept going on my way. I have to admit it somehow made me feel good.
My run ended with about two miles on a biking paths. It was still a nice run on that path, but clearly pointed out the difference between "biking path trail running" and "hiking path trail running" to me and I think I have once and for all decided that I love the hiking kind variety.

The run ended up being about half a mile longer, but I didn't care. My runners high made me feel like I was on cloud nine when I stopped. I totally loved it (and my new hydration pack also gets five stars).