Runnin' Road Trip

I thought I had enough left in my legs to at least run a 9-mile loop with some of the MN Running Wild runners up in Minneapolis, so at 5:45 AM I headed north on highway 52 to the Stone Arch Bridge on West River Road.

Stone Arch Bridge

Guthrie Theater; Gold Medal Four

St. Anthony Falls

Mill Ruins

I'm guessing 25-30 runners gathered for either 9- or 20-mile routes. Most opted for 20, but that would have really been pushing it for me. I started out with the "Kenyans" (Don Sullivan and company) at 7:30'ish pace. But at about 4 miles, that proved to be a mistake and I backed off. My hill-weary legs were feeling the early hills and too-fast pace for the day. I took the Lake Street Bridge to complete the loop down West River Road. Then I walked/ran the Stone Arch Bridge/Heritage Trail ...

for a total of 11.11 miles. They were a fun and welcoming group!! They have a Facebook page.

I'd gotten an email from Don Sullivan (center of the above photo) after the Lake Wobegon Trail marathon, which he won. That's how I got connected with this group.

After the run about a dozen of us went to the Longfellow Grill (after I got myself thoroughly lost trying to get there!). I had Oatmeal Flapjacks which were very good and very filling. I could only eat 3 1/2 out of 4. Everyone's meals looked delicious. The Minneapolis version of Team R.E.D. was out on the patio. They had a buffet, a keg of beer ... quite the deal. I guess they really do it up!!

Tomorrow is our monthly Cooking Light meal. On the menu:

Renee: Bread
Laura: Wine
Pam: Grilled Stuffed Jalapenos (p. 85)
Mary: Grilled Vegetable Gazpacho (p. 82)
Kathryn: Stone Fruit Cobbler (p. 124)
Margo: Bombay Shrimp Curry with Coconut Rice (p. 34)
Barbara: Market Salad with Goat Cheese and Champagne-Shallot Vinaigrette (p. 142)
Diane: Sesame-Soy Green Beans (p. 32)

Sounds delicious as usual.
 
Good night.

Away ...

I just needed a few days away from blogging. So much going on in my life that I needed to give this little corner of my life a break for a couple of days. But I'll try to catch you up. The best way to remember what's been going on for 3 days? My camera.

Thursday morning brought a 40+ mile bike ride (too lazy to get up and look at my log!) with a beautiful sunrise.

I've since removed the Kinesio Tape and have been running and riding without it. No pain. :-)

Thursday evening found me at Thursdays on First & Third with thousands of other people, enjoying the music and beautiful summer evening with good friends. Jean had to leave before I snapped photos. :-(


Amy and I



Laura and Kit

Friday morning I decided to do my long run. GOOD THING after today's workout. I ran 16.04 miles and it was very muggy again. I was soaked head to toe, including shoes and socks. But I got it done. Last night Matt and I enjoyed a BBQ Chicken pizza from Broadway Pizza. It's the pizza of the month, so you get free cheese bread. It's delicious.

Then I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for today's bike ride.

This morning I helped with registration at the Douglas Trail races. It was another warm and sticky morning. We've "enjoyed" these for way too long now. I'm ready for more than a one day break in the humidity. It would have been a tough morning to race. Kudos to all that showed up and ran.

Greg Hagen, race director

After helping at the race, I headed out on a long, sunny, HILLY bike ride with Bill, Pattie and Jeremy. WHAT.A.WORKOUT. Our route took us through Pine Island, Mazeppa, Hammond, Millville, Oronoco and EVERY hill in between. I didn't get any before or during photos, but here's the "after".

Helmet hair ... baaaaad helmet hair

There's nothing that would have tasted better than an ice cold Diet Coke after that ride. I should have stashed a few in a cooler for afterwards. Next time. My total for the day: 75.31 miles. The last few were pretty ugly.

Elevation chart

I'm part of the MN Running Wild Facebook group. They're planning a long run tomorrow morning on the East and West River Roads downtown Mpls. at 7:30 with a post-run gathering at the Longfellow Grill. Sounds like a fun group and a fun outing. If my legs aren't trashed in the AM, I'm going to head up there.

My son Eric is at Lollapalooza in Chicago this (long) weekend. Hope he's having fun. Should be nice weather for a huge outdoor music festival.

Time to find something else to eat. I'm still STARVING.

Toodles.

Outside Looking In

Life is challenging for me these days. In many ways. So often I feel like I'm the outside, looking in. Alone.
When I returned from Douglas last night, on my bike, my neighbors were walking by with their new baby girl. (She's beautiful, and 2 weeks old.) They said they were returning from the block party. ?? Block party?? I knew nothing about it. Yes, they said, there were flyers put in mailboxes a while back. And another one yesterday as a reminder. ?? I hadn't received either one. It was an ice cream social on the other cul-de-sac. I felt bad. Yet another instance of feeling excluded, or at least not included.

I also discovered yesterday that I'm really not very good, or at least very fast, at anything. I rode up to Douglas for the bike time trials. I was very intimidated by the thought of the ride and decided not to participate, just spectate and take pictures. I also baked cookies and hauled them up there in a backpack on my bike.

Well, I'm glad I opted out. They were way out of my league.

I'm not sure of the fastest time, but at least one person rode the 19 miles in 46 minutes and most rode well under an hour. 46:something ... that's 24+ mph AVERAGE including that sweet little climb up Genoa hill, and all the rolling hills on the course. Wendy and Ann rode it in 50'ish minutes I think.



Ann

Wendy

Finish line crew

Under an hour for sure. Out. Of. My. League. I averaged 20-21 mph on my last tri, with no water bottle, but that was just 15 miles and included no Genoa hill. I feel very slow. And listening to the swim chatter, I discovered how extremely slow I really am in the pool. There's a local couple that can swim a 100 literally twice as fast as me. 1 minute. It's hopeless. You can't teach a 50-year old female to swim fast. I should have started when I was 5. And I have no speed on the run these days. But ... I am happy to be jogging. I will still participate in the Mpls Du (or a tri on the same day if I can transfer my number) on 8/28, but it will pretty much be a joke as far as time goes. Just fun, I hope. So, I'm outside the fast crowd, looking in. And wishing I was one of them.

Yesterday was Paul Melby's birthday. So I dropped off some cookies for Shelly and the kids.

I hope they enjoyed them.

Yesterday's workouts: 5 mile run/1 hour slow swim in the pool/lift/28.72 mile bike (including a trip up Genoa hill to take photos). Today: 13.81 mile run. 11.18 in the am before work, 2.63 running home after dropping off a car for service. The humidity was down noticeably, and it felt great. I saw LOTS of people out and about. Amos and Barbara driving to work. Jay running. Randy M (ran a couple miles with him.). Peter.

Randy R (downtown). Something else that gets me down a little bit are all the unreturned waves (on a bike) or greetings ("Morning!" on the run). Thank you to the person riding a bike on Salem Road wearing a bright neon jersey, silver bike I believe, that spotted ME first and waved. Made. My. Day. It's a little thing, but it means a lot to me. I will never understand how it could possibly detract from someone's day to return a simple greeting. You just MIGHT make someone else's day by doing it. Try it. As I was coming up Folwell for the second time (also went over Historic Hill twice), my friend Mike was working at the neighbors. So I chatted with him for a while. On my way home I remembered that I had 5 cookies left from yesterday. So I put 3 in a baggie and ran them back over to him.

Saved the other 2 for Matt.

As usual, I was playing around with my camera too.

Rochester Half Marathon and 5K needs LOTS of volunteers (8/27). If you are available to help, please email Jean at runintojean@gmail.com THANK YOU!! We of course need runners too!!

Well, time to get back to life as I know it. Which is a lot of work. Good night.

Remembering

Today, Tuesday, is Paul Melby's birthday. I've had it on my calendar since the beginning of the year, as I do many of my friends. And I'm sure I would have made him some cookies or something, no chocolate of course. :-) We sure miss you guy.

Yesterday morning, a nice 40.20 mile bike ride. My southern loop. Beautiful colors in the morning sky.

We're losing daylight and I don't know how much longer I'll be able to ride 40-42 between sunrise and getting home in time to get ready for work and be there at 9:00. Unless I keep riding faster and faster ... RASC is holding their Tuesday Time Trials starting tonight in Douglas (19'ish miles, Treadman course, mostly). I've not done these before and am thinking about trying them even though I could only ride the first 2. In any case, I'll probably ride up there and check it out whether or not I participate.

Monday evening I put a new switch in the laundry room. The old one was getting pretty worn out and wasn't "flipping" quite right any more. And I didn't even ZAP myself in the process. Or burn anything down. :-)

Well, it's off to the pool now. Have a great day.