Cat Pee, a Hard Fall, and A Great Sunrise Long Run

This was a pretty good training week, in spite of a cat pee incident, a fall, and being short one short run. Since my Tuesday was booked from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., I decided to do my short runs on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Friday, I was sore from falling on Thursday, so under the advice of my PT. I skipped that run.

On Wednesdays I usually try to meet my running group, Sole Sisters. I got off work a little early, went to the allergist for an injection, and decided to change into my running clothes in the restroom. I got completely naked, then got out my running clothes only to discover my bra was wet. And then the smell hit me. Cat pee!!! On my $60 Victoria's Secret bra. (I really love Victoria's Secret Knockout bras and bought four of them a couple months ago. I'm feeling frustrated because I'm losing weight in my breasts and am going to need new bras soon.)

I came home and ran three miles by myself here.

Thursday, I needed to do five, so I headed to Farmdale Park, my favorite place to run. My pace was a little faster than I normally run on trails, and I was feeling great. Then at about mile 5 I fell hard. I tripped and flew forward and hit the left side of my head pretty hard. I tried to catch myself with that arm and jarred my head, neck, and shoulder. The scariest part was my glasses flying off my face. It is a terrifying feeling when you can't see to find your glasses, even if it is in your own bedroom. Luckily, I found them, and they were fine, and I was fine. 

Friday I had physical therapy and planned to run three miles after. My shoulder and arm were too sore to do some of my PT exercises, and my therapist recommended skipping my run. I was fine with that. I headed back to Farmdale Saturday morning for my ten mile run. 

This was the hardest run I've done yet. It was harder than both of my half-marathons I've done. Running on trails is more exerting I guess than on roads. I really felt accomplished, and I've registered for a half-marathon there in a few weeks. 

Marathon Training For Realz

OK, I finally feel like I am consistent enough with running and raising my mileage enough to feel like I'm doing something different than my normal routine. I'm really marathon training, and it is exciting!

This week, Monday was a rest day. My Tuesday run was approximately 3 miles. I ran inside on a track for 30 minutes because it was raining hard. Wednesday, I did four miles.

Thursday I did 3 with taped knees. I think the tape helped and want to try it again.

Friday was a rest day. Saturday I did 9.

I know that says 9.69, but here's the thing. Either Map My Run or my phone makes the Map My Run distance off. It always overestimates my mileage, so I try to add a little more.

Today is Sunday and I did the Stairmaster for cross-training.

I'm feeling great and ready to start next week's training with a day of rest tomorrow. 

Five Miles at Farmdale

Today was a perfect day for a run at Farmdale Park.

I LOVE this place that is 5 minutes from my house, with miles and miles of trails. It is a beautiful place to run. I've gotten very lost here before (several times), so I am trying to get some miles under my belt and use the map to feel more comfortable running here. My pace on trails is pretty slow, but I am OK with that. There's so much to look at, I don't want to feel rushed anyway. This pace really wasn't bad, especially considering I stopped to look at the map and take some pictures. I'm only racing myself and the mosquitoes.

I started in the direction of the dam. You get to run across the top of a long dam. 

I stopped here to make a shadow shaka sign.

Then shortly I am to one of my favorite spots, a cluster of pines that smell amazing. I like the feel of footfalls on pine needles. 

Nine months ago my town was hit with a tornado. It's sad to see tornado debris by the trail.

And some trees that are sheared off by the tornado.

Then I come to my favorite thing in the park...the blue Chevy.

It took my friend, Jennifer, and I forever to find this, looking on multiple occasions. This is the first time I've gone to this spot by myself. 

It's so beautiful and peaceful here, and the weather was gorgeous today. 

There's also a cool creek. Depending on the route, you may cross it several times. You have to get your feet wet, literally. Today, it was just once at the end of my route. A fun ending to a perfect run.

Beautiful Day for a Hike and a Walk

Technically, I was supposed to run 5 miles today and cross-train tomorrow, but I am just switching those days. It was a gorgeous day today. I went for a three-mile hike with my best friend, Jennifer. Later my husband and I took Grandma and our dog to the park.

A Little Bit Rough, but still moving forward

Hmm. So, I have already been struggling to get my miles in, and I haven't even had any really long runs yet. I've started a full-time internship at the same time I started marathon training, and I've had a couple days of not feeling well, and there has even been lightning deterring me from runs. I have only missed one altogether though, and this week I am one run behind, but will make it up tomorrow. So all and all, I think I will be fine.

Tonight I didn't feel well, and it was pretty muggy, but I ran.

The good news is, I felt like I was probably running a 12 minute mile the whole time (which would have been fine), so I was surprised to see that I ran about my normal pace. 

I also got a new physical therapy toy today called a Voodoo Band. 

I don't know a lot about it yet. I'll do some research and write a post about it at some point.

MSF is So F**king Rock

I've decided to be "flexible" with my plan. Due to circumstances I won't bore people with here, I missed a run this week, and today's long run was only half the distance scheduled. I will get in the rest of the miles later, but I'm super excited to show you my route.

I'm ran this route to tell people that Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres to the rest of the world not in the US) is So F**king Rock. You may be saying, "Well, yeah, of course they are, but so what?" I'm going to ask you to donate money to them, tell you a bit about why they are So F**king Rock, and I'll be honest about why I thought to try to raise money for them.

First, here's my route:

I ran 3.55 miles, so I think it would be great if my friends, family, and blog readers would donate $3.55 to MSF. Or, you can round up to $5, or whatever amount you want! I will also take challenges over the next month to raise more money. if you want me to run a farther distance or make a different picture, comment with your request and what you'll donate, and I will see what I can do. You can easily contribute using this JustGiving page, (which is the group that inspired me to take up this cause- more on that in a minute).  Or you can donate directly to MSF here. If you donate on the JustGiving page, it would be awesome if you leave a note saying you are sponsoring Mary or snicketmom or use the hashtag #MSFisSFR so I can see that I've actually inspired contributions and feel good about myself.

So, what is this Angry (feet) JustGving page? I am a huge Tim Minchin fan. For the past couple years, I've participated in group birthday gifts for him through his fan forum, Angry (feet). This year instead of giving him a physical gift we are raising money for a charity he supports, Doctors Without Borders (MSF). I think this is a superb idea, the best birthday idea yet, and I am thrilled to participate!

MSF is an amazing organization, which helps people all over the world wherever there is a need, regardless of race, religion, nationality, or political affiliation. The doctors do this at great personal risk to their own health and safety. Right now, the work they are doing with the ebola outbreak is mind-blowing. Here are a couple short videos showing their work with ebola in Liberia and with Syrian refugees.

And now, to cheer you up, so Tim Minchin. Go donate to MSF; they really are so fucking rock.

Cross-Training: Stairs! And Why I Want To Do Them

Most Sundays in my training plan will be cross-training days. One of my favorite cross-training activities is stairs. I am obsessed with stair training because there are two INCREDIBLE hikes I want to do on Oahu that involve lots of stairs. I was fortunate enough to get to do these hikes when I went last March. I hope to do them again. I will write posts about them individually in the future, but briefly- one is the Koko Crater Tramway, (link is to one of my favorite blogs for hiking information, Unreal Hawaii.) which is totally legal, and awesome, and is the location of my profile pic and this pic:

The other is Haiku Stairs (link to post by Unreal Hawaii again), which is totally illegal and very controversial, and I'm really uncertain about what will be happening with this hike by the time I get there in December and whether I will decide to do it. When I did it before, it was the most exhilarating and exciting thing I had done in my life. 

Koko Crater is 1048 steps and Haiku Stairs are 3,922. But more on those later. (I'll probably devote a post to each on future Sundays.) This morning I climbed about 784 steps. It was fun because I was with my best friend, Jennifer, and because we went somewhere we had never been before. But the stair workout we'd heard about was not what we expected. 

We have both been advised by our doctors that for the injuries we have, going up stairs is fine, but going down stairs is not so good. We had heard (but possibly misunderstood) that there was a set of stairs going up and a trail going down at Fort Creve Coeur. We found the stairs (169 cement stairs), but couldn't really find a path to go down immediately near by.

After some exploring and walking through the neighborhood to a different part of the park, we found the fort and a trail that led to the bottom of the stairs. This was about a mile walk, so we did this four times. So, we walked about 4 1/2 miles, but only got to climb the staircase 4 times, so it wasn't a lot of bang for our buck so to speak. The stairs had a lot of debris, and the route was very mosquitoey, but we always have fun together and it was a fun hike. I look forward to writing posts with details and pictures about the two Hawaii hikes that are motivation for me to hit the Stairclimber if I can't find some good outdoor stairs around here.