Training for 4/30/15

Today, Pepper and I just did another lap around the 4.5-mile loop. We were less than a mile from home when we passed someone out in their yard. The guy yelled, “Oh that poor puppy, having to run with you!” Pepper, for the record, was trotting along with a stick in his mouth, looking pretty happy if you ask me. I couldn’t tell if that guy was serious or not. I just yelled back “Yeah, he’s got it really rough!”

And that was the end of April, so it’s time for my monthly summary.

Mileage:

• Week 1 (April 1-4): 15.8 miles
• Week 2 (April 5-11): 27.8
• Week 3 (April 12-18): 41.7
• Week 4 (April 19-25): 32.8
• Week 5 (April 26-30): 19

Total: 137.1 miles

Only a couple more miles than in March, but still my highest month of the year so far. I didn’t quite hit the 150 I’d had in mind at the beginning of the month, thanks to skipping my long run this past weekend and then donating blood earlier this week, but I wasn’t off by much.

I only ran one race this month, the Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run in D.C., which went OK.

In May, I have four races scheduled — the Island 2 Island Half Marathon this weekend, which I’m pacing (I just found out today I was moved from the 2:50 to the 2:30 pace group, the same one I had last year); the St. Michaels Half Marathon on the 16th; and the first two races we’re doing in the summer series, the Masser 5-Miler on the 24th and a 5K on the 30th.

Training for 4/29/15

This morning, I took Pepper for a run around the 4.5-mile loop. I warned him I might have to walk a lot of it if I was still feeling the effects of the blood donation a couple days ago. But, I seem to be bouncing back from it quicker than the last time, because it really wasn’t that bad. It was also an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside anyway, so that probably helped.

This afternoon, I had to go in town to get more dog food, so I took Pepper with me so we could stop at the trail on the way for a short walk. Since we were just moseying along and it was, again, such a pretty day, I took a bunch of pictures.

This might be one of my favorite pictures of Pepper — it’s that moment he lives for on every run, the one where he finds THE stick!

I had to break a bit of it off, but he carried the rest of it the rest of the walk.

After we picked up the dog food, we took the long way home and crossed the Nanticoke River on the Woodland Ferry.

Oh gross, I just found a tick crawling on my arm so I guess I better check the rest of me — and Pepper — for more.

Training for 4/28/15

I had a pretty quiet weekend. Clark went up to Annapolis both days to help his brother and sister-in-law work on their house, so I stayed home with Pepper. I think the only time we left the house was so I could get something for dinner Saturday.

Well, we also left the house to run both days. My choices were to do a shorter run so Pepper could go with me, or leave him home so I could run longer by myself but risk retaliation in the form of a turd pile on the floor. So I didn’t do the long run I’d wanted to this weekend. He and I did 5.5 miles Saturday and 4.5 miles Sunday.

Other than that, the two of us just spent a lot of time lazing about and watching all the terrible TV shows I love so much but Clark hates haha. The NASCAR race was rained out Saturday night, but they got it done Sunday afternoon.

Oh, I also got the New Balance Zantes I wanted. Unfortunately, they didn’t have them in the color I wanted in the Rehoboth store Friday night. Normally I don’t care that much about the color, but I really had my heart set on the purple and blue ones. I ordered them from Amazon the next morning, and they should be here by this coming Friday. Since I didn’t get to buy them on sale at the Rehoboth store, Clark let me use some of his saved up Discover Cash Back to cover part of the cost online, which was really nice of him.

Yesterday, I took Pepper for another 4.5-mile run in the morning. He was really zipping along, even for him. Every time I’d catch up to him so I could put a little slack back in the leash, he’d speed up some more. It’s times like those I wish I wore a Garmin more often. I’d really like to know how fast he made me run those last couple of miles.

In the afternoon, I donated blood at a drive held at Salisbury University. It was the only one in the area until the middle of May, which would be a couple days before the half marathon in St. Michaels, which I would actually like to race. I’m leading the 2:50 pace group in this one coming up in Ocean City this weekend, so I’m not too worried about getting over the post-donation effects.

It was weird to be on that campus again! I got there when everyone was out walking between classes. I felt a little like this:

Anyway, the donation went fine, once the tech figured out why my blood wouldn’t start flowing. It turned out to be a malfunction with her machine, which hadn’t released a clamp like it was supposed to or something, but she didn’t find that until she’d first assumed it was related to my arm and had rooted around inside my vein with the needle. It’s so freaking sore today!

Today, I knew trying to run would only end in frustration due to the missing blood, so I just huffed my way through some strength training. I’ve really been slacking on that anyway. Tomorrow I will try to run again.

Training for 4/24/15

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped by my friend Allison’s house. She just adopted a roughly 4-year-old black Lab (that’s the vet’s best guess anyway, looking at the dog’s teeth.) She named him Skipper. A couple months ago, Allison also bought the car she’d wanted since she was in high school, a 1991 Volkswagen Cabriolet.

So we loaded up her kids and the dog in the back seat, and we all took a ride around the back roads near her house. It was a fun little car to cruise around in! It’ll be even more fun when it warms up.

Skipper was found as a stray, roaming around with two other Labs who were either his mom and a sibling or two siblings, so the shelter wasn’t sure if he’d ever lived in a house with people. Allison said he’d had no idea what to do with a dog toy at first, but other than that, he’s adjusted very quickly. He’s a very sweet dog! The kids love him too, especially Matthew, who no longer has to try to convince his grandparents’ cat to play fetch haha.

When Skipper has been through obedience training and has had some time to settle in, I’ll bring Pepper to meet him. I think they’ll get along!

Today, it was windy as hell again, but otherwise a nice day. I took Pepper for a trip around the 5.5-mile loop.

I got the mail when we got home. Today, I got the Caroline County Humane Society’s monthly newsletter. I’m not sure how I even got on this mailing list, but I have learned to not even skim through it without a box of tissues handy! This month’s first article was about a pitbull who’d come to the shelter with mammary tumors after being forced to breed repeatedly her whole life. A woman volunteered to foster the dog and drive her back and forth to Pittsburgh, where she got free treatment for the tumors. I was already tearing up, but then came the knife to the heart — after the tumors were successfully removed, the cancer spread anyway, and she passed away only 10 months after she’d been taken into foster care. But for those last 10 months, she’d gotten all the love she’d missed out on the rest of her life. It was so sad! Then there was another article written by a woman who’d adopted a different pitbull from the shelter, and how wonderful a dog she is, even though X-rays show more than 25 buckshots lodged along her spine and in her chest, belly and legs, indicating she’d been abused before. How can people be such massive assholes?

I did what I always do — hugged my pain in the ass dog until he started getting annoyed haha. Thank God weimaraners live forever! Right?

Anyway… tonight, we’re going to Rehoboth so I can get a pair of the Zantes from the New Balance store, which has a 15 percent off sale going on through the weekend. Maybe I’ll try them out on the 14-miler I have scheduled for tomorrow. Or I might wait until Sunday to run in them, when I just have a 5-miler scheduled. Other than those two runs and watching the NASCAR race from Richmond tomorrow night, I don’t really have anything planned for the weekend.

Training for 4/23/15

Yesterday, I had a very early assignment for work and I didn’t feel like getting up in time to run before it. When I got home, I didn’t feel like running because it’d gotten so damn windy. So poof! Yesterday was a rest day.

Today, I did not have anywhere to be super early for work, but by the time I was ready to get my butt out the door to run, it had gotten really windy again. That’s what I get for procrastinating.

Anyway, the way the wind was blowing, the first few miles of the 7.3-mile loop was pretty easy, as it was either at my back or coming from the side, but then Pepper and I made a turn at about 4.5 miles, and had to run directly into it. For some reason, wind does not seem to bother Pepper at all. Or maybe it just slows me down so much I can’t even tell if it slows him down a little too. Either way, trying to keep up with him those last few miles about killed me.

It was so windy, the road signs and/or trees were creaking, which was freaking Pepper out. It seemed like a lot of rednecks have been doing some spring cleaning in their trucks as they ride down those back roads too, because there were a lot more Bud Ice, Red Bull and Pure Leaf Tea bottles strewn about than usual. All those little completely inanimate objects, sometimes rocking in the wind, also did a number on Pepper’s nerves.

We were both pretty glad to get back home.

Training for 4/21/15

Today was the only Tuesday all month my weekly meeting met in the morning instead of the evening, and it looked like a long one (meaning, I’d have zero motivation to run when I finally got out), so I got up early and ran before it.

It was an absolutely gorgeous spring morning. The sun was just coming up in a cloudless sky, lighting up all the new green stuff in fields and lawns and on the trees. I hate getting up early, but that almost made it worth it.

The temperature was nice, but it was on the breezy side. I did an easy lap around the 5.5-mile loop.

I got yesterday’s mail before I went back in the house. Our six-month car insurance premiums arrived. I don’t understand how it keeps costing MORE to insure what is now an 8-year-old Civic with 165,000 miles on it, driven by an increasingly older married woman who hasn’t gotten a speeding ticket since 2007!

I’ve only made one claim on that policy the whole time I’ve had it too, and that cost my insurance company something like $500 to replace the front bumper cover after a fox ran out in front of the car several years ago and cracked it. (Foxes are now on the list of things I’ll swerve to avoid, as they apparently can do damage. Rabbits, squirrels, skunks, possums and birds are still on the no-swerve list.)

My premium is the price I pay after more than $200 in vehicle safety, multi-vehicle, multi-line and accident-free discounts, meaning there’s no way I’ll get a better rate elsewhere. And if I got a ticket for 10 mph over the speed limit tomorrow, I’d pay for it in jacked up rates for at least the next three years. What a racket. It just pisses me off.

Training for 4/20/15

It’s Marathon Monday! I stayed home long enough to see who won the women’s and men’s races at Boston, and now I’m in my office, leeching off the free WiFi, tracking all my not-quite-elite friends who are still on the course.

Anyway, I had a decent weekend of running. Saturday was sunny and pretty warm, probably the warmest day we’ve had since last September or October. Naturally, I waited until about 10:30 a.m. to start my long run, a lap around the 12.2-mile loop.

The first half of the run wasn’t too bad, but it was about halfway through I had to take a walk break for the first time. It was only about 75 degrees, which in the summer is a nice day, but this time of year feels like an oven. I was so hot.

I had at least thought to bring my water bottle along, and around 7 miles I ate a GU and took a salt cap. I passed on a couple of chances to take a shortcut home and did the entire loop, the longest solo run I’ve done since last fall probably. It got ugly, with plenty of walk breaks and a stop in the woods to use the bathroom, of course, but it got done.

When I got home, I found two hours in the sun, shirtless for the first time this year, had produced the beginnings of my annual sports bra, watch and shorts tan lines.

That afternoon, Clark came up with a rough plan for a walkway around our house, so we went in town to look at prices for materials. It turned out it’d probably cost about $4,000 to do what he wanted to do! So, back to the drawing board haha.

That evening, we stayed home and decided to have a couple beers. Then we decided we weren’t going to bed until we’d finished off everything in the fridge. There was more beer in there than I thought! I have no idea what time it was when we finally went to sleep, but it was definitely way into the early morning hours. We did, however, meet our goal of cleaning out the fridge, so, success!

Sunday morning, I got up around 8 and went out for a run. I didn’t feel too bad, actually, in spite of the long run the day before, all the beer and the late night. I did an easy lap around the 4.5-mile loop.

Later that morning, Clark and I went to the Lutheran church in Easton, where my niece got baptized. It was a very nice service, and most of my family was able to make it, along with a lot of Kasey’s family.

After the service, Clark and I went to Cambridge, where we had lunch at The High Spot and then a couple more beers at RAR Brewing. Somewhere around our third or fourth beer, Clark asked if I’d settled on a fall marathon yet. I said it was down to either OBX or Richmond, and asked him where he’d prefer to go. Clark said definitely OBX.

I mentioned how much smaller of a race OBX is than Richmond anyway, which is when Clark said one of my favorite things ever.

“As the person who goes along and supports you, I’ve noticed you don’t seem to like the big races, so I think you should do OBX,” he said. “Not that I really listen when you’re rambling after your races, but there seems to be a lot more negativity coming at me after you’ve run a big one.”

He’s got me there haha! So it’s settled. I just registered for the TowneBank Outer Banks Marathon on Nov. 8. Actually, I registered for the 8K and full marathon challenge, like at Shamrock. Training begins July 6!

We talked about renting a beach house, since it’ll be the off season, and staying for a few days after the race. I’m already excited!

When we got home, we watched the Bristol race, or tried to. It was supposed to start at 1 p.m., but it was raining there off and on all day yesterday. It wound up taking until almost midnight to get it done. I stayed awake as long as I could, but I fell asleep before Matt Kenseth won it.

This morning, I took Pepper out for a quick run before the Boston Marathon started. We did a lap around the 4.5-mile loop. Now he’s in the office with me. When we get home later, I want to do some strength training.

Training for 4/17/15

I’ve run a couple times since I last posted. Yesterday, I came home to a utility room floor full of poop, but I guess I deserved it, since I had the nerve to actually leave the house to go to work and everything. I didn’t really have time to get mad at Pepper about it though, because Clark and I had plans for the evening. So I put Pepper in his harness, and we did an uneventful lap around the 4.5-mile loop together.

We got home at the same time as Clark. After the poop was cleaned up, Clark and I (and Pepper) went to the pub in Denton for the release of their second in-house beer, a very tasty stout called Chicken Necker, and a tap takeover by Sweetwater Brewing. It’s so nice to be able to sit outside and drink beer again!

Today, I didn’t have to physically go anywhere for work, and I only had to put in a couple hours anyway. So this afternoon, I took Pepper to Trap Pond State Park for another short easy run.

The weather was pretty much perfect, about 70 degrees and sunny with a bit of a breeze. Pepper and I ran the boundary trail around the pond, which is also about 4.5 miles.

After our run, I took Pepper to PetSmart to get his nails ground down. He was going insane while the groomer was trying to get him checked in, but, as usual, as soon as they let him behind the counter, he calmed right down, hopped up on the table and stood there quietly while they did his nails. The one groomer was amazed. “He’s like a completely different dog!” I don’t know why he has to act like such a lunatic before that!

Tonight, we’re going out to dinner to celebrate Clark’s aunt’s birthday. This weekend looks pretty quiet. I think Clark has a full slate of yard work planned for tomorrow. I’d like to get in this week’s 12-mile long run first thing in the morning. Sunday, I’ll do a shorter run in the morning, and then my niece is getting baptized.

Training for 4/16/15

Yesterday, I put off running until Clark got home, because I didn’t feel like taking Pepper with me. I wasn’t in the mood to run his easy pace.

As an added bonus to procrastinating, the wind had died down by the time I went out to run. I ran a slow, easy lap around the 4.5-mile loop.

Today, I had to be at an assignment way too early to run before work, so I’m going to head home soon, put Pepper in his harness and get it done this afternoon.

Now that tax season is over, I can pester TK about which races she wants to sign up to run in the summer series, as the real point of doing this series is having an excuse to go to the beach together afterwards, since we’re there anyway.

We always do the Masser 5-Miler on Memorial Day weekend, because the only other 5-mile race, one of which you have to run to qualify, is in late July and therefore usually on a disgustingly hot day.

I think we’ve settled on four of the five 5Ks we have to run too — the Women’s Festival 5K on June 13 (the one where they award New Balance gift certificates to the top 10 women), the Father’s Day 5K on June 21, Jungle Jim’s 5K Splash on June 27 (the one at the water park) and the Firecracker 5K on July 4. Just have to pick one more, and my summer schedule is set.

Training for 4/14/15

I never did run yesterday, but I did get our taxes done — and wound up with about triple the refund Clark has gotten when he’s done the taxes the last several years, which makes me think I made a mistake somewhere, but hey, maybe they won’t find it!

Today, I wanted to take Pepper for a run. Much to my dismay, it was supposed to pour its ass off all day. I really didn’t want to take a chance on having to clean up dog poop when I got home, so I decided Pepper was going with me, whether he liked it or not.

He seemed extra wound up as I put his harness and leash on him, like he was trying to alert me to the fact it’s raining out there, you moron!

But, when we got out there and started heading down the road, he really didn’t mind it all that much. He stopped to shake off a few times, but he never tried to jump on me or make me turn back for home.

We ran the 6.5-mile loop and were both completely soaked through when we got home. I’d much rather have to deal with a stinky wet dog than a floor full of poop though. And he got an extra treat for being such a good boy.