Prowlers & Pitbulls

During my last two runs my life has been put in GRAVE danger!!!! Just kidding, at least partially.

Let's start with Friday morning's run. After working a VERY long week I agreed to meet at 5:30 am to run 6+ miles of hills. Again who am I???? Needless to say I was very tired and quiet during the run. As Kim, my friend can attest to, I am normally a chatter bug or at the very least will have something to say. This morning my mind was still in bed while my body was tackling these hills. It was fairly dark when we started our run through one of what I would consider to be a nice neighborhood. One that I have been given the green light to run on my own as opposed to other places here.

My busy week forced me back onto the "dreadmill" while it wasn't too horrible it just makes me appreciate being able to run outside!

As we're coming up on our second mile looking over the lake that sits in the middle of Wild Wood, there is a golf cart sitting in the middle of the road. Neither of us can tell if someone is in it or not but we both scoot over to the opposite side of the road. As we come up on the cart, there's a man sitting in the cart. Our converstation goes as follows. (Just remember how early it is)

Guy: Just so you ladies know there has been a prowler in the area.

Kim and I just look at each other confused

Me: Like a person....?

Kim and I look at each other confused again as he tells us the police have just left due to a shift change and the person still has not been found.

GREAAAAT! Just what I want to hear as we are starting our run through the shadowy houses where normal people are still sleeping.

Not my brightest moment but it was definitely still before 6am. AND there have been copper head snakes spotted by the lake in Wild Wood, for my northern friends those are 1 of the 4 poisonous snakes just waiting to bite me down here!

Needless to say we made it out safely with no sign of the "prowler" however I can say we did pick up the pace. Everyone need a little motivation right...?

This is one of the crossings on our SUPER hilly run, we run on "Lazy" and "Meandering" there is NOTHING lazy or meandering about that run!!!

Life threatening situation number two:

This morning we decided to do our weekly long run. Today it was 13 miles with the weather cooperating in our favor again. Things were going great and we were deep in conversation coming up on the second half of our run when out of nowhere...

this pitbull comes CHARGING at us!!! 

Oh my goodness while my first instinct is to sprint away from it, thankfully my mind overrides that I am paralyzed. Except for the fact that I fall into a full fledged panic attack....

While I am crying, hyperventilating and my heart is about to explode, Kim thankfully is calm and diverts the dog. How you might ask? I don't know the woman has to be the freaking dog whisperer!!

We walked away after the dog had headed back home to it's other pitbull friend. I am laughing and talking about how this has been a dangerous week to run with her.

2 blocks later another dog charges us! This time there is a fence between us! But this dog is growling and ready to eat us for breakfast!!

So no more dog adventures on this run right? Well they always say things come in "3's" so naturally we are about 5 minutes down the trail from dog number 2 when ANOTHER dog is about halfway over it's fence trying to catch us!

When we FINALLY finished our death trap of a run I was so happy to be done and in one piece! Dogs are great, especially when they are not trying to make dinner out of me. I'm sure they just wanted to play.... right?

 SO happy to be in one piece after such a fiasco of a run! There is NO doubt in my mind that my heart rate was MUCH higher than normal thanks to a few furry little creatures!

What better way to celebrate than with my own personal little cake? It's ironically from a delicous little shop called "The Butcher Shop" and yes I made sure it was still vegetarian ;)

 I also experienced my very first Waffle House Saturday night! It was different than I expected but I was not as horrible as I had imagined it. It could have been that this was the only Waffle House where ALL of the letters in the sign were lit up??

 Love this little running quote!!! Running with friends absolutely makes my runs way more enjoyable! I am lucky to have such a great group or running friends, both here AND back home! Love and miss you all!

Powerade Saves Lives

I have been running so much more than I have been writing or blogging. I was going to write a whole post about the wounded warrior race that I ran in Dallas now two weekends ago but last week was crazy at work and there are a lot of things that are going on completely out of my control that have a very big impact on my life. Needless to say I just couldn't give the amazing race for a spectacular cause the post that it deserved. I will, on a different day because it was one of the coolest races I have been a part of so far.

To say it was a struggle to get this pre-race selfie in the corral is about the understatement of the year. It was worth all of the failed attempts in the end!

The finishers at the end! It was just great that they postponed the race half an hour so we could start exactly when it started raining. This way we finished in the flash flood style of raining that Texas has been so kind to introduce me to.

Back to the running. Last Friday morning I braved the horrible awful long slow hilly trail that I had my 2nd most miserable run, ever on. I can't believe I am about to write this but I actually....liked it.

WHAT???

Queen of the flat fast trails that will run miles out of the way to avoid the slightest incline LIKED a hilly run? I must have been sick right? That 8 mile run Friday before work just HAD to have been a crazy fluke.

What better way to test this theory by running 11 miles Saturday morning. 5 of those miles probably the longest, steepest hills I have run consecutively. Normally I  would  have run away crying and quit halfway through right? Not this girl. There has got to be something in the water down here because I.... liked these hills, too. I know, Kim, what have you done to me???

How could I not love this run when we got to run past Wisteria Lane? Um hello!!! My mom and I have watched just about every Desperate Housewives episode!!! I wonder what's going on on THIS Wisteria Lane!!!

Monday I headed back to the hilly trail for a third round in 4 days. This is probably the most hills I have run in a very long time. BUT I feel great. My legs feel stronger. AFTER my calves were barely functioning post Saturday's run. Monday's run was a little different than the first two. I still liked the hills but I think I should have stuck with 6 miles instead of gutting out two more for another 8 miler.

I could feel the instant when I should have stopped. I just had an instant of cold flash and it was like a little switch went off and said "you're DONE." but I still had just over a mile to go so I still HAD to finish. It had been a great Monday with one bad piece of information that I just could not get out of my head so I was still trying to clear that out of my head with this run. So you bet I was going to finish this stupid run even if it knocked me over completely. Ok, obviously I would have stopped before that, but probably not very far from that. Luckily I did finish and I did not have a far drive home. Because I was not in good shape. I probably downed half of a Powerade the second it was in my hand and turned on my shower to ice cold water which still didn't feel quite cool enough.

I learned VERY quickly that living here I have to constantly be drinking water and have a Powerade after nearly every run simply from the humidity alone. This is something that I definitely was NOT used to having to do in Wisconsin. Hydration is everything here!

The real reason I say I definitely had been overheated is because the second I walked into my apartment I not only turned on my air-conditioning, I turned it on to 70 degrees. Those of you who know me, know I really don't like air-conditioning. It just makes me too cold. I would prefer windows open and fans blowing. I did eventually cool down and yes I did turn my air-conditioning back to a reasonable temperature.

That just leaves me with today's run. Back to my flat wonderful, slightly mind numbing, stomping grounds. The Boorman, affectionately termed "The BOREman." It had been hot today but nothing too dramatic right. By the time we started it had really cooled off. Just one thing we were forgetting. A little thing called

HUMIDITY

All I am going to say is that I honestly cannot remember a time when I have been completely soaked head to toe. Probably because I would be near incoherent but that's besides the point. It was a great little run and it's always nice to be on flat ground but I would have taken a run filled with hills over that humidity any day. The icing on the cake? This is only the beginning of the humidity.

Welcome to East Texas!

The delicious and well deserved ice cream cake we made and feasted on after Saturday's run! I could have eaten the whole thing alone. Thankfully, or not... I had to share it with the rest of the people at dinner.

 I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I started my summer adventure in the Pocono Mountains! I had one of the most memorable summers working at CPT! I am jealous of all the counselors who get to go back for another summer! There will never be anything like the summer of 2k13! Miss my K1 and Super Senior girls!

Running Scared

As my half marathon in Dallas is now less than a week away I am feeling the heavy weight of having 2 very successful marathons on my shoulders. While that should make me feel more confident in my running, it doesn't. to me it feels like a standard that I would like to continue but I just can't see that happening. This is not "down talk" this is simply being realistic with my own personal expectations.

I was talking with my Dad the other day about the way that I was feeling and he made a point that really stuck with me.  He asked me if I was doing the level of conditioning that I had been when I made those times.

Don't get me wrong I still love a good run but I have also found other things that I love too and want to spend time doing those things other than running. So no, I really haven't been putting as much into my running as I was then.

In my head I FORGET all of the long hours that I put into my running and can only see the results. I only see how fast I was and don't remember the freezing cold long runs, the hot summer runs and all of the runs in between.

My conditioning alone would have set my time at a slower pace but that paired with still not (and possibly ever) being acclimatized to the heat and humidity that I love any time OTHER than when I am running. My fastest runs have been when it's been cold and dry and this is because I HATE being cold and will run as fast as I can to get back in a warm house!!!!

This is how hot it was today (I am NOT complaining because it is only June, there are two months that are going to be wayyyyyyy hotter) My cup holder melted to my coffee mug that was sitting in my car while I was at work...

Thinking of these things I am not mentally preparing myself for a bad run, I am simply trying to get rid of the expectation that I have to blow this run away.

To put it simply, any run that I enjoy is a good run, regardless of ANYTHING ELSE! When I start to feel stressed about making a good time all I have to do is remind myself that a year ago I had a fractured foot and a week after that was clear to run on a shattered collar bone and a much longer recovery.

I came home from work to find bills, bills AND a letter from my Aunt Vicky :) It was such a wonderful little surprise and me so happy!

Yesterday, ok and Saturday I indulged in some R and R by my apartment pool! I got to just sit and read in the warm sun! Another one of my very favorite things! If I could always be in a swimming suit an flip flops I would! But I think that is against company policy.

 I went to this crazy, amazing HUGE festival big sale thing in Canton on Saturday. It was like a street market if the street market had a million people there over 4 days. Yeah everything IS bigger in Texas. This was one of the signs that made me laugh at a shop.

 I found a little piece of home!!!!! It just happened to  be sitting on one of the tables as I was walking by! How crazy is that??? While I am not sure what exactly "Walter's" is it was funny that all the way down here in Texas was a little box from Eau Claire, WI!!!!

 Yes in fact those are rubber rain/cowboy boots. Unfortunately I had to pass them up but not before the sales guy could stick a card into my hand! With all the rain we had here last week and by rain I actually mean flash floods, but seriously, those just might come in handy.

 And then there was this, which just doesn't even need a caption, but you really can find ANYTHING an EVERYTHING at Canton!