Run(cache)fessions, January 2017

It’s time for RunFessions!  Thanks to Marcia’s Healthy Slice for hosting, and to Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum for hosting the Quick Takes.

–1–

I runfess… I’m not all that upset about the fact that I smashed my foot on Thursday morning when a cast iron pot fell on it.  It’s a long story that involves me cursing and yelling at my son for being careless about the way he puts leftover food away but that’s beside the point.  I’ll be taking it easy for the next week or so at least, and stick to walking and strength training.  Maybe I’ll have some time for geocaching now.  (If it turns out to be worse than I thought and I can’t run for a month or something, well…I might be just a teensy bit annoyed.)  A cancer diagnosis in your immediate family will do that, I think.  A smashed foot?  Meh.  No big deal.

–2–

I runfess…I finally had to give up on my Saucony Ride 9’s, which were giving me plantar fasciitis over the summer.  I thought maybe I could run in them sometimes, to extend the life of my Triumphs, but after an otherwise great 13-mile training run last weekend I finally had to retire them.  My feet hurt for the next two days.  On the bright side, the fact that they’re a size too big makes them great for wearing when your foot is smashed and bruised.

–3–

I runfess…running in snow is awesome.

–4–

I cache-fess…last week my training plan called for a 12-mile long run with a 10 minute strong finish.  After running about eight miles with a couple of friends from Moms Run This Town and then doing maintenance on one of my geocaches that I’d hidden along our route, I decided to run an extra mile so I could look for a geocache by the river near the Gari Melchers’ Belmont House.  And then I forgot to make that extra effort to finish strong.  But I did run an extra mile, so….

(Pretty stream that runs into the Rappahannock near the geocache)

–5–

I runfess…I suck at Train Like a Mother.  I’m trying to follow the “Own It” marathon plan to train for the Devil Dog Double in May.  It’s not a marathon but I want to train for it as if it were.  I need to be able to run 5 miles in 45 minutes, 2 miles of which are uphill, and then turn around and run the Historic Half.  Every time I do one of the TLAM interval runs that says to do this many reps for this amount of time with this much recovery, and you’ll cover this many miles, I end up running about half the distance they say I will.  Like, just last Tuesday I was supposed to run seven miles on hills:  10 minute warmup, 2:30 in Zone 4 with recovery as needed, do that six times, and cool down 10 minutes. And that’s going to take me seven miles?  Try three and a half.  So what to do?  Repeat the workout?  I did not. I went for a trail run instead.

And it happened at least once before, last week when I was supposed to run 5-6 miles and barely covered 3.  Again, instead of repeating the intervals I just ran easy to cover the miles.

–6–

I runfess… I couldn’t go to the March for Life this year because our preschool had parent-teacher conferences.  (Probably just as well because I don’t really have any business walking around DC with a hundred thousand of my closest friends the day after I smashed my foot.)  I am so blessed, though, because I can put on my LIFE Runners gear any time I want, and get together with our Fredericksburg chapter on a regular basis.  LIFE Runners rocks, I tell ya.

–7–

And here’s one last look at Christmas, from earlier in the month when it was Epiphany and they hadn’t taken down the decorations at church because Christmas wasn’t over yet.  I runfess…I wish Christmas decorations could stay up until spring.

OH!  And I almost forgot.  This book rocks.  Dean Karnazes is a beast.  I had a fangirl moment when he left a comment on my Instagram asking me to let him know how I liked it.  Well Karno, you amaze me and your book is fascinating, funny, moving, and awe-inspiring.

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Miles Run:  82.3.  Wanted to run 100, but…smashed foot.

Miles on trails:  11.  More than 10%. Winning.

Geocaches found:  1.  So far.  January isn’t over yet.

Races:  None.  Probably none next month either and I’m totally cool with that.

Books Read:  The Road to Sparta by Dean Karnazes

Have a great weekend, and be sure to check out the fantabulous blogs by Marcia and Kelly!