PRs in my 40s???

7:37 pace, beautiful run through bowmar at sunset. snow packed roads, 30 degree temps and sunset over the mountains..what more do I need? A looser back! This is getting back and I am scared what other things might appear if I dont take care of it!

7:42 pace...yucky run. Legs were tired and just felt blah.

7:27 pace..set off to run in my favorite neighborhood to run in near my house (bowmar) only to find that the road that i take to get there is not only closed to cars but to pedestrians too..and for 2-3 months according to the guy I talked to! Ugh..I am so bummed. My options are so limited from my house and with my time restraints...gonna have to figure something else out! Felt much better today.

7:33 pace...yuuuucky run again! no rhyme or reason for it either...just could not move! did some hip exercises after my run. i really need to do these exercises at least once a day...it takes no time at all and god knows i need help in that area! hoping it will help with lower back soreness/tightness...

great run through Waterton Canyon...is only open for another few weeks and I really hope to get out there each weekend until then..lovely place to run! Ran with my sister for the first 3.5 (8:24 pace)...picked it up gradually after that and finished in overall 7:33 pace..it is out and back course and the way back is all gradual down hill. felt great but was definetly tired towards the end.

7:35 pace...snowed all day yday and night last night so footing was not that great. i did manage to find a side walk that is plowed though..that made me happy! it was beautiful out there..even with the crazy cold temps the sun here in denver did the work of 10 suns back east :) felt good!

7:36 pace...felt ok, not great. every hill i encountered affected me...a couple of them, even though they were tiny, actually brought major fatigue to my legs. i recovered each time pretty quickly but why oh why are these tiny hills doing this to me?? another chilly day out there but the sun was shining lke mad and the snow was pretty well packed which made for decent footing.

waterton canyon with heather..7:12 pace. felt good but i am soooo not used to holding a conversation while running at a quicker pace! that was challenging! left hip is when i first get up from sitting...then it goes away a bit...overall tightness and soreness in the whole hiplower back really! oh how fun it is to get old! :)

nice and easy...7:50 pace....with strides afterwards. hip was sore at beginning but eased into it. slight twitch in my left hamstring near my butt during one of the strides...good god, what is going on!

was supposed to race today but the hip pain/lower back tightness/butt pain has me worried so i decided it might not be a good idea...hopefully i can try tomorrow!

Wasn't sure what I would be able to do today..but I got through 7.0. Ave pace 7:35. Ran on the High Line Canal trail which was not so enjoyable b/c it was still quite covered with snow. Usually I dont mind this but with these aches and pains I was not lovin it. The hip was painful the first few steps but by 30 seconds in to the run it was just kind of there, barely noticeable but not gone. This is exactly what I experienced back in 2001 when I was training for NYC...I trained through it for a good month but I was also getting treatment (ultrasounds) for it. It would always hurt at the beginning of my run and then pretty much go away after a bit. Getting up from sitting and just general walking were definetly more painful and this is what I am feeling now. The wierd part was come race day I did not feel it once and never felt it again...dont even ask! Well, I will watch it but hope that it will magically go away again! The butt/hamstring issues were fine.

7:28 pace...felt good. Hip pain was there but not bad at all. I did feel the butt/hamstring towards the end though. Sitting on ice pack as I speak!

7:35 pace...felt pretty yucky at the beginning but then i got into it. i miss running in bowmar so much..i wish they would finish this *#!@ construction! hip was 'ok', hamstring/butt was 'ok'....both are definetly there. i think i have figured out that the 'hip' thing is something with my iliac crest. i cant remember if that is what they said it was years ago or not. did not ice after the run as i returned to a bit of a crisis at work. not good (the icing, not the crisis..priorities, priorities :) )

decided that if my iliac crest is hurting when i sneeze then maybe i need a day off! ugh, iced a few times today which was good.

yippee..found a new way to bowmar. might be a little illegal but who cares. is is through a golf course and the turf feels so fabulous under my feet! still takes me an extra .5 to get there but that is better then the alternative places to run from home which i just don't love. felt pretty good today 7:32 pace and the route had some good hills in it. hip was not too bad at all. iced it before the run and will ice again now...

whoa..this is a lot more distance for the week then i have done for a long time. yay.

went to waterton with karen and her athlete matt. was a nice easy pace on the way out. i did not get into any rythym until like mile 4 but after that i felt pretty good. picked up the pace on the way back, started to feel the fatigue in the last few miles as my body started to ask when the run was going ot be over. was so great to run with these guys! a beautiful way to spend a saturday morning! now saturday afternoon (and sunday!) was another story..i was wiped out! i think i better stick with 12.0 for a few more weeks until i can recover a bit better.

hip felt really good. iced it afterwards. tweaked my ankle a bit in the last few miles of the run though..i am thinking i was tired and just not able to keep any decent form? hoping it does not hurt on today's run.

yay..ankle is fine. hip was super minimal. there, now i am not going to talk about aches and pains anymore! well, maybe i will just list them at the end of each post..coz i do have to keep track of when they start and all...dont i? but i feel like it is all i am wrting about these days! sheesh!

felt pretty good today..7:26 pace.

ran over to this area near my house that has some hills..nothing major but enough to work me a bit. i am just feeling weak on the hills these days and have decided i need to get more in. so i did a couple laps of this one loops that has a good 2 minute hill in it. and then i did this other hill that was more like 4 mins...felt pretty good...7:36 pace

have decided to call this route over to harriman lake the 'doggie route'. there is one part of the run where i can run on a dirt walkway that lines up next to some homes..a nice long 600 meterish stretch. nice, except for the dogs that live along this stretch. not one, but two dogs jumped the fence at me today. one of them has done it before and i know his deal by now..he waits till i have run past and am like 50 meters away and then he jumps and pretends to run after me. that one i can handle. it was the other one today that freaked me out..but he turned out to be harmless. he just had too much of the pitbull look to him and i freaked.

7:30 pace..felt fine.

whoa...shorts and tee shirt...60+ degrees...and i felt it! may have well been 90 degrees the way i was feeling..where is my winter training that i love so :) just took it easy..had no choice really as i think each leg was weighing in at 50 pounds! 7:43 pace

easy run with my sister....8:16 pace. shorts and tee shirt again! my sister used to be sooo fast! we were wondering today what happened to her...no weight gain, still exercises fairly consistently...she just cant move like she used to! it is wierd...it is like her body is just stuck in a certain gear. she is fine with it after many years of competing..me, i want a training partner out of her :)

and this course will be called the 'cute boy course'. did a progression run with karen on the high line canal trail. i had never run this part of the trail and i cannot wait to go back. beautiful winding trail that runs through the mansions of cherry hills. lots of other runners/cyclists/dogs to watch and just a very pleasant place to run. why can't i have that near my house? oh, right, b/c i make at least 500k less a year then most of them..what discrimination :)

so we started off nice and easy for the first mile, did some light stretching and drilll like stuff...which i should do more of! oh, right and the infamous potty stop! and then we were off..my garmin showed a bit different times then karen's..i like her times better. i have 7:57,7:37, 7:37, 7:29, 7:10, 7:03. We were supposed to bring it down 10 seconds each mile but that did not work so well. i am not so well disciplined in this i guess. and the cute boy that we saw part way through did not help during the 4th mile nor did he help when he came up from behind us during what was supposed to be our 1.0 warm down. i swear it wasn't him that made me push the warm down karen...i just need to practice running slow!

was a great run and am so glad that karen suggested the progression run. i am lucky to have her as a training partner :)

7:39 pace...whoa..slight change in weather today!!! i guess it was sub 20 and snowing when i ran. roads were definetly very slippery and had a thin layer of snow covering the ice. between the cold air that had my legs somewhat numb and the slipperiness i was fighting to get good traction and can definetly feel it in the hips and hamstring now. but the run was great..i just love love love running in the cold. but i think the high of 1 degree tomorrow might be a bit much..i'm due for a day off anyways..

finally got out today...and it was lovely. snow was lightly falling and air was nice and crisp.i love the feeling of running in snow..you almost feel protected from all around you. i ran a route that i do not normally love just b/c it is on a rather busy road but with the snow on the ground and the little that was falling from the sky i was able to just be in my own world.

7:28 pace..did most of the run pretty chilled and then picked it up for the last half mile (6:35 pace). felt ok but not great. just did not feel very much spring in my legs..maybe two days off in a row is to blame?

snuck out between conference calls..not very relaxed at all as the second was my performance review at work! 7:33 pace..felt fine...definetly pushed the last mile or so to get home in time.

had the most glorious run in the falling snow. and, boy was it falling! it started right when the sitter arrived and by the time i got to the high line trail it was really coming down. i decided to run there so that i could check out the other side of the trail from what karen and i ran last week and also to get some motivation from others being around. well, i think i saw like one other runner and i had my head down so far and hat pulled almost completely over my eyes to block the snow from my eyes that i really did not see anything and am lucky i found my way back on this out and back course i ran! it was beautiful though and i felt great...7:17 pace and barely felt it! luckily i chose the part of the trail that is paved as opposed to dirt and so the footing, except for first and last mile was pretty good. great run :)

7:35 ave...whew..not an easy run today. footing was a drag and just felt tired. not sure if it is from saturday or the 'workout' i got on the sledding hill yday! tried to just relax and take it easy. hoping to get some kind of workout in tomorrow as i am supposed to be doing a 5 mile race on saturday.

headed over to a gym near my house and successfully avoided the tour that is usually required to get the 3 day free pass. did a bit of a workout..20 in warm up, a few strides and then 5X 3 minutes wiht 90 sec rest. Pace was 6:44, 6:44, 6:40, 6:40, 6:35. Felt ok but I was definetly done when i was done! I have run on treadmills like 2 times in the last year and I just felt a bit off. Was thankful that the treadmill handled the pace for me though. 10 min warm down and now I am back here at my desk to work when i should really be stretching!!! I'll pay for it when I go to get up...

7:57 pace...nice and slow. had no choice really between the footing and the tiredness in my legs from yday (which was really only felt on hills). the sun was screaming and the snow on the ground was blinding. forgot my sunglasses! chilly but soooo nice!

7:35ish pace...ran 4.5ish and then some strides. was not very relaxing as a little after the first mile a beautiful white dog was sighted running through the snow in the golf course across the street from where i was running. i saw the dog..thought how beautiful it looked..noticed that there was no one with it..but charged on anyways. well shortly after 2 miles who popped ot of nowwhere and decided to join me on my run? the beautiful white dog. tag check told me her name was chloe. i tried to tell her she needed to go home but she was just too interested in joining me. i was heading towards a pretty busy street and tried numerous times to send her on her way but silly thing just would not listen. i needed to get my run over as i had a conference call scheduled and so i just had to hope for the best. it was a bit crazy at times and i am sure people going by in cars were cursing at me for being hte worst dog owner in the history of dog owners..but we survived the busy road. we turned onto a quieter road at about 3.5 and she darted off towards a house...never to be seen again. i did see her owner about 1 min later though and was very happy to point in the direction of where chloe went.

now i want a dog to run with.

wheee...can't believe i am racing tomorrow! strides felt so foreign..run was a bit sluggish...right on target for a good race i hope! :)

oh, that race that i thought was today??? it is next weekend..silly me. found out friday night around 8pm!

with sitter lined up i was not going to lose this chance...great run with Karen through Deer Creek Canyon. Found a great route with tons of hills..was a beautiful morning and the companionship was soooooo...nice! My body was ready to be done after 13..not really tired just kind of achy in the hips. Thankfully Karen brought some snacks for afterwards and was generous enough to share. When I got home I made a point of stuffing my face...protein shake, pasta, fruit, almonds..you name it, I was eating it! I wanted to see if this would help me to avoid the afternoon crash that is not really ideal when you have a 5 year old with the energy of mine! Didn't help one bit and I was quite exhausted for the rest of the day.

i have been super-dee-duperity sick ( my daughter is watching pooh right now and tigger was just on..sorry). saturday night i started to get a bit of a cough, sunday i was sore all over but thought it was just from the run (which i think partly it was), and then sunday night came the fever that lasted through this morning. i think i did some internal damage from coughing b/c my body is still in major pain anytime i cough or sneeze. but i ran anyways!? i was feeling ok this afternoon..just kind of stuffed up but not coughing much so i thought i would see if i could run this sickness out? just trotted along at 8 min miles..felt pretty yucky but not horrible. no idea if this was a good idea or not. i have not had a fever in years...like 10 years?...i just want it out of my body!!!

feeling a bit better..now i just have a cold with an ugly cough. lovely. just took it nice and easy for the first few and picked it up gradually as much as i could..foot started tingling at one point and then my hand at another. i was pretty sure at that point that i was about to die or something...was ready to just wrap it all up, hasta luego. :) but it went away...ahhh...what a freak i am. 7:32 pace

still got the smoker's cough and the cold but i can deal....warmed up for 2.5 and then did 6x400 (95, 93, 93, 93, 91, 88) with a full 400 jog in between. that rest may have been too long..i dont know..i'm not good at this stuff (hint, hint karen...please tell me :) ) felt pretty damn good considering my unhealthy week..was not really spent until the last one..warm down 2.0 et voila...a mini workout before the race on saturday...yikes, am i really racing?

Snowman Stampede - Littleton, CO, 5 mile 35:05, 7th place (I think), first masters.

Blech....I was feeling ok energy wise coming into this race. I was still coughing but honestly thought I was ok to race. I raced last year with a nasty cough and actually had a fine performance..but I guess this time was different. Maybe it was the altitude, maybe this bug was different as it started with a fever and the otther did not...who knows. I ran to the start of the race from my sister's and felt yucky the whole time. But I never feel good during warm ups so I did not think much of it. I had wanted to go out conservatively and so when I looked at my garmin 30 secs in and saw 6:45 pace I was fine with it but when I looked at it a few minutes later and it was 6:52 and I was feeling blah I knew this was not my day. The race was out and back on a cement walk way that runs along the Platte River. The river was nice but it is not that enjoyable of a course. A bit of a head wind kept me absolutely freezing the on the way out..not normal in a race especially since i was dressed fine for it. I spent the whole race except for the last  mile or so with this one guy..he passed me, i passed him...but no one else was anywhere to be found..so wierd. I ended up beating him though. Anyhoo...I got through it and managed 7 min miles but man oh man that is not what I wanted! My cough persisted thorugh the day and by the next day my fever was back! I guess a race was not want my body was wanting...wish it would have told me that! :)

woo hoo....i am alive again! it has been a long week but i am finally feeling better. felt really good on my run..nice and flat 6 miles at 7:30 pace. am so thrilled that i remember how to run! :)

had to get out! was just starting to feel better today..had told myself i would wait two days after i started to feel better but i just had to get out today. it was in the 60s today..warmer then i like..and i felt it. dragged at around 7:50 pace...ugh.

drove over to the bear creek trail..good thing about not running much during work hours is that i have time to drive a bit to the start of my run. felt ok..i think i was like 7:37 pace..definetly not as easy as this pace usually feels...but i got out.

have been so unmovitvated this week...am definetly feeling better but lots going on and just could not get motivated past few days...hate that. was unmotivated but also emotionally down b/c i am suddenly not running..my mind and body are like...ummmm...can you do something with us please!? i needed this run soo badly today. i made the plan to get on a trail and just run slowly up, down, whatever...just get out there. it was so therapeutic. i absolutely cannot just go cold turkey from running like this. while i was sick it was not a big deal..i accepted it and was fine. but the past few days..knowing that i could be out there but not getting the motivation...blah!

sooo..headed to deer creek canyon park and ran the trails there for the first time. lovely. not sure what elevation i started at but the first 3ish miles were up hill...i did have to walk a few times but that was fine...a lot of the way was snow packed and could have used those screw thingys (and maybe trail shoes!?) but i just took it easy and talked myself out of this slump i have been in. and it worked! amazing what trails can do for me..so happy!

what a chilly day..wet and cold..not used to that here! headed over to harriman lake and did a loop..definetly was feeling yday. just took it nice and easy.