Devil Dash!

Because we like it dirty!!!


Oh how fun this race is!!  I even dragged my husband along and he had fun.  We went with Tera and Jason and met up with a friend that we use to work with at the hospital, Jen.    Matt and I went to Saver's and bought red shirts and I ran in a pair of shorts that were on their way out of the house, but kept them for this race.  They were my first running shorts and even though I saved them for this run, oh how nerdy I felt!

I even found these little clip in horns that I use to wear when I worked Halloween at the hospital.  

Matt and I before.

With Tera and Jason at the start line.  They sent us off in waves and we were in the 1030 wave.    It was perfect.

Yeah, I look like I'm picking my shorts out of my ass in this picture - but really I was just bringing my hand back and the shorts are SO baggy and the split up the side is SO high.  I don't remember a snuggy.  

Wish I had pictures of us in the race, but maybe some will come up on the race site.  There was a lot of going over logs and horse jumping roll tops.  We climbed up a rope wall and "rappelled" over the other side.  In muddy water we sorta army crawled under barb wire.  Climbed over tires into a dumpster full of "blood".  Lots of mud, lots of mud holes.  The best was the slip and slide.  I haven't jumped onto my belly to go downhill in at least decades.  What a total riot!!  Now I want a hill and a slip and slide.  It was a heavy duty thing and boy could you get some speed.  Tera almost hit another girl that wasn't taking it as fast.  At the very end was the muddiest part and then you jump through 3 rings of fire.  Felt like a baking mud pile.  Didn't stop us from getting our beer though!

Mud and beer and a Mexican hat in honor of our planned trip to Taco Taco after the race. 

Sweet medals too.  Bottle opener, necklace, key chain - you name it!  Those are the showers behind us.  The water was a little cold, but we made it through it.  I threw my shoes into the salvation army van after.  They had hit their mileage anyway.

Tera and I after clean up.  I'm not really that big, she is just itty bitty.  Peace!

We timed at just over 36 minutes which I thought was awesome!  

Later - at the Schatz family pool, my athleticism was showing, or what I like to call: War Wounds.

Face it, I run because I can't repel and climb and all those things that take flexibility and balance.  I have a horrible sense of balance since my first pregnancy and it never came back.  I have insanely tight hamstrings, despite the yoga and Pilates.  My long legs just tend to throw me off.  Where I should be hurdling the logs I just didn't trust myself.  I think I acquired these scrapes - or some of them - when I was trying to climb in and out of very deep mud holes while avoiding barb wire.  

Next year - oh I'll be there!  It's too much fun to pass up!

Blog on...............

Giving it all up

I am trying to be a little more flexible with my schedule.  I enjoy picking up a little overtime here and there and sometimes I need to rearrange a few things.  


Saturday I am going with my husband, my friend Tera and her husband Jason to the Devil Dash race.  It's a 5K with 12 obstacles and a beer garden at the end.  It promises to be a blast, considering the company.  Sunday all four of us are hitting the East Canyon for another long hill run.  I love running with friends so my long run for Monday has to be rescheduled.  It was going to be for today, but as I mentioned in the last post I threw it to the side to take a transport for my work.  We transport cardiac devices and since I flew with AirMed as a cardiac device transport nurse before I joined them full time then they are kind enough to call me and give me an opportunity to take the flight.  


Yeah, it interferes with the long run I was going to do this morning, but I'll squeeze it in somewhere.  I don't regret it for a minute.  I love my job and I work with some great people.  It was a long complicated transport with a very sick patient, but we got that patient where they needed to be and we did it safely.  Every transport gives me the opportunity to learn something new and meet new people.  The facility we picked this patient up from last night was just awesome.  Even offered us snacks and drinks.  I'm sure we would have  taken them up on it if we thought we would have a second to even eat. 


I really do wish I could write more about my patients and the experience.  The laws of HIPPA are so strict and the last thing I want is to get called into my boss to talk about my running blog.  This patient was so very sick and was in a pretty good hospital, but that hospital didn't have the resources that a huge teaching hospital has.  The primary flight nurse was a guy that I worked in the SICU with, so I knew he was smart.  Together, along with the medic and respiratory therapist we still had a very high pucker factor.  Every movement had to be slow and organized.  There was at least 5 invasive devices/lines that if pulled out could have caused fatal consequences.  The feeling of handing the patient over to a well qualified team is amazing.  A final relaxation.   


I finally got to bed at 6am, which was 22 hours after I woke up the morning before.  I cancelled my barre class this morning and woke up at 4pm.  Right now I'm laying on the couch, blogging, eating dark chocolate, snuggling with my favorite blanket (woobie), watching TV and considering the odds that my bedtime is going to be early.  I'm also trying to hydrate.  I truly believe the answer to all physical ailments is hydration.  Especially if you work a job that interrupts sleep, is highly active or involves flying.  


Speaking of flying.  I spend a lot of time taking off, flying, landing.  I work with a small group of pilots that I respect immensely.  I have never been hardly even nervous with all the flying..until last night.  Don't get me wrong, best pilot ever!  But we do fly in airplanes that are meticulously maintained but are machines, none the less.  Last night on our final approach there was a light that didn't light up.  Meaning - the pilot wasn't sure that one of our landing gear was down and secure.  I heard, "oh that's not good", a request to the tower to fly past the airport to trouble shoot, then after about 1 minute he explained what was happening to the crew.  He was very calm and we were all very quiet.  One thing I've learned working as a flight nurse is that when things are tough you need to let the pilot do his job.  The pilot can flip a switch so he can't hear us, but they usually only do that when ton's of chaos is going on in the back and they are flying through some tough weather.  


So the plan was to fly past the tower so they could check our landing gear and make sure the light by the landing gear was on.  Apparently there is a light that comes on once the landing gear is down and ready to land.  It was the indicator light in the cockpit that wasn't lighting up.  That was a long 5 minutes.  I didn't know what to think about.  I wasn't scared as much nervous.  I knew that we could land either way it was just how well could we land.  Add that to the fact we had a patient that takes at least 7 people and 15 minutes to unload. The tower even offered to pull out the engines - get all the emergency peeps out and ready to foam us down and rescue us (DIRTY!).  Turns out the landing gear was down, locked and lighted up and we landed smooth as silk.  Ahhhhhh.   It was awesome.  No firemen though - dangit!!  The plane was taken out of service until it could be fixed, but we made it safe to the ground!  I work with some rock stars!


I don't like to leave without a picture - 

One of my favorites!

Blog on............

Overtime!

Off to do an overtime transport! IABP skilled.
I was going to switch my long run to tomorrow but I also need to stay flexible for overtime. Someone's gotta pay for these new shoes!! Wowsa!!


The vibram in the background is my sons. Truly a foot that should not wear them- but what do I know? We do have the feet from hell.

Blog on...........

Break Up

It's been a fun run, but it has to end.  It's not me it's you, well, it is you....all you!  Zoot!


Years ago I bought a pair of Zoot running shorts.  I love them!!  In the last few months I've lost weight and those shorts are getting old and stretched out.  The last long run I did in them, it was clear that I was going to have to retire them.  They were the perfect length, with the perfect waistband and had the most perfect pocket in the back that I could put my cell phone in and not even feel it.  A couple of months ago I bought a different pair of Zoot shorts that are a size smaller and I love them too (picture with the gray shorts).  But I really wanted shorts that were more yoga-esc fitting. 


When I went looking I found some shorts on the "Department of Goods" website from Zoot.  Two pair to be exact.  There were matching shirts and everything was 50% off.  WOOT WOOT!  It only takes about 2 days to get stuff because it is a local business and they are awesome.  My clothes were waiting for me when I got home from work today.  Oh excited!!!  I tried them all on.  What the freak!!!!  The medium shorts fit like smalls.  I don't have a lot of muffin top, but with these shorts they highlighted my mini-muffins!  The matching shirts were OK, but the tank was so tight around my body all the way down.  Is Zoot so sure that everyone that wears their clothes has zero body fat??  With the tight shorts and the tight tank I was looking fine...NOT!  The second pair of Zoot shorts were a large and they fit OK, but they were just a tad bit too short.  Can I mention, there is absolutely no pockets in either one.  There was one in the tank though.  This isn't the first time the sizing with them has been confusing and since they are a company that emphasizes clothing for triathlons more then running then we are over.  Done.  


I did get a pair of MPG shorts that fit good AND have a zipper.  They were only 20 bucks, so they are being thrown into the mix.  The other FOUR articles of Zoot clothing are going back today.  Lucky for me I can just drive to the business and return them.  I may look at some other shorts why I am there.  I have my eye on some Sugio's...with 2 side pockets.  Giggity giggity!!

Even when I was chunky these shorts didn't let me down!  This is October 2011.

Action shot at the Thelma & Louise half marathon in May 2012.  Zoots were hangin in there, although they were a little loose.

New Zoot's that I bought this year in Medium.  They fit great!  Picture from the Crack of Dawn 8K.  3rd place in my age group.

Looks like I'm off to keep looking for shorts I like.  If I didn't buy any shorts in 5 years I'm sure I have enough to keep me running in style, but you know how it goes....love running clothes!!  

I also checked on my shoes and I should be getting them today.  Should I do a long run in them first thing?  I want to run 14 miles tomorrow and using the more stable shoes would be a good thing.  I guess I can just run in them and if things go really bad I can stop.  Brilliant!

Blog on...........

Making it work and hardly working

Today was a intervals/speed day.  I have a love/hate relationship with speed work.  Best part is being done, but I love the way it makes running at tempo pace feel easy.  I am in a constant state of changing up my training.  The basics are the same, but in the past I have always just stepped out for a run and throwing in a long run occasionally and TADA!  I was done.  In the past 2 months I've really been stepping it up and trying to find what is best for me.  So I did more interval research and decided to do 6X400's.  I probably would have done 8, but I had an early meeting before my shift started and it takes a lot to drag my butt out of bed sometimes.  This is the first time I've done speed work at this altitude and I sure felt it.

Plan was to run 400 meters fast and then a 400 meter cool down walk/jog.  

Easy .30mile warm up (to the nearest flat, long road)

Speed times

1- 1:54:86

2- 1:59:25

3- 2:03:19

4- 2:02:51

5- 1:58:49

6- 2:00:82

Total time including cool down walk: 38:09 minutes

Max HR: 171

Fastest pace 7:06 min/miles

Burned 363 calories 

Not bad.?.  I didn't have a goal time for the 400's.  This evening I was reading more about short intervals to boost speed in Runners World.  There was a couple of workouts listed in the article, "The Fast Lane" that I would like to try out.  They were a little more detailed in how fast to run each interval and longer too.  I do like to mix it up.

Unfortunately that was the highlight of my day.  Patient transports are way down this month and we are just slow.  So after my meeting I made breakfast and started icing the foot. 

I forgot my ace wrap, but not my ice.  Nothing a little two inch tape won't fix.  I love my bright socks.  There is no way to see them when I'm working and they make me smile.  In the winter I have to wear warm thick socks so I'm taking advantage of the clown look.  My heel wasn't feeling that great this morning and I actually iced and massaged it twice.  Once before a nap, and once after a nap.  Something about watching the Olympics that makes me doze off.  

Some would think that it is an awesome job you have when you can nap.  I can't disagree, but I can disagree when I spend two weeks up in Rock Springs and not one flight.  We have a nice apartment to stay in and the weather has been awesome for running but I think I'll loose my mind if it doesn't pick up soon.  We are also limited on what we can do, because we have to be ready to leave as soon as we get a call.  

Great news - I get to read about running all day long!

Better news - I'll start rotor training next month!

Blog on...............

Learn, learn, lucky learn

I didn't ice my foot last night. I probably dripped some sweat in my brain and caused a short circuit. Today it is sore! I am wearing my flight boots and I have them laced up tight. Usually that prevents much sliding and my foot does OK. I'm limping today. Just a little though. I plan for some heavy icing and massage later. I forgot to bring bio freeze up with me (the sweat again?).


The great news or I like to call it lucky news, Running Warehouse received my email this morning, cancelled my order and credited my account!! That means I can order my new GUIDE 5's today. Of course I am considering getting the Hurricane's now with that extra pain I'm feeling. Time for a little more research! I could always use the Hurricane's for training and the Mirage for racing and short speed runs. I just want this injury to disappear....said every runner!

 Work boots.  I don't usually wear my pants up high, but I have to show off my awesome socks.  I was chilling in the hanger while the pilot, medic and new nurse were doing "stuff".

Later, since there was a new (well newer then me) nurse up in Rock Springs training then we pulled out the plastic head and talked intubation.  Something I try to practice and often.  Don't want to loose the skill!   I would have rather flown - but you do what you have to do!

Tomorrow - Speed day!

Blog on.............

Is that sweat?

Today was an example of working harder, not smarter.  It started out OK with a lab that I had to participate in for work, a trip to Ikea (only 15 dollars folks!) and then home to get a few things done and work out.  

The greatest!  I got this in the mail today.  I LOVE it!  Protein powder that tastes like coffee but not so high in protein that it will cause GI total stoppage.  Because that is no fun!

Later I decided that maybe I should invest in a shoe with a little more stability for my long runs.  I sat for two hours on the web researching.   Finding the right shoe is so confusing.  I decided to stay with Saucony because of the fit. The men's 10.5 is perfect for my foot for running.  I know, I know, I have big feet.  The problem is, is that they are narrow.  Women's shoes tend to get wider the longer they get.  It's taken me years to find a shoe that fits width wise and still protects my toes.  After considering heel drop, weight and overall stability I decided to go with the Guide 5.  I headed over to the local running store to try a few on.  I also tried on the Hurricane.  The Hurricane has a lot more stability.  After walking around with one of each on, I went with the Guide 5.  They only had one color in my size. 

Red and Gold?  I got them anyway and then changed my mind when I saw how much cheaper I could get them online.  I thought I was all ms. smarty pants and ordered some and just an hour ago I realized I ordered the Ride 5 not the Guide 5.  Big difference.  I sent the online store an email but we will see how long it takes to fix that snafu.  Of course the color choices aren't that much better online, but I think I'm going with this one:

KAPOW!  I guess I'd rather have bright colors then oddly boring. I even have an outfit in mind to go with them.  I don't know about you, but having a great outfit makes me run faster!

As far as running today, I planned a 3 miler.  Just an easy 3 miler with no walk breaks.  Easy 10 min/mile pace.  I really like the rhythm I got into when I was running down the hill yesterday with no walk breaks.  I wasn't pushing myself too much, but keeping a good pace.  I do tend to plan out a training plan and then tweak it as I go.  Now I am going to start taking out walk breaks on the slower runs.  It may bite me in the ass, but it really feels nice.  

So I went to the gym and did 3 miles on the treadmill.  Of course I had to go up a little bit every minute.  I think I ended with a 9:20min/mile pace and it still felt controlled.  I tend to hunch over whenever I'm stressed or tired.  I worked hard to keep my shoulders back and down and cadence up.   Overall it was a great run.  Unfortunately it took me a little longer at the gym then I intended and had to rush off the treadmill, change from shorts to yoga pants and get to the studio.  

Well that was a case of a poorly planned sweat machine!!

Am I the only one that sweats like crazy after a run?  It's almost like I need 45 minutes to an hour to bring my body down and stop sweating, and I mean profusely!  Even showers don't stop it!  By the time I got to Yoga I was a few minutes late.  I don't have a lot of yoga experience, but I love what it does to help my running so I try and take a class occasionally.  Tonight I was struggling to keep up AND dripping with sweat.  Dripping.  I wiped off my face and neck 2 or 3 times and finally just took off my glasses because my face was so wet I couldn't keep them on my face.  The girl next to me kept looking at me, but I couldn't tell her facial expression because I couldn't wear my glasses because I was pouring sweat!!  

I am going to try to not do that again.  I did get a good workout.

Audrey3 update.  

We have two large watermelons growing.  They double in size about every 4 days.  One is on the ground - on the right and the other is growing right outside our front door, on the left.  We have rigged a net to keep it from snapping the stem off.  It's a lot of work for some random plant that just started growing, but now it's just a challenge.  We have to be one of only a few in the entire world that have a pumpkin plant strung along the top of their porch with a pumpkin you have to duck under to get to our door. 

I like to call it, unique.

Blog on.............

up uP UP!!

Hill run planned! 


Last night I curled up with the last two editions of Runners World.  I found some great tips and dreamed of new shoes and exotic races.  I even snacked on a little dark chocolate.  Great Saturday night!

Here is today's hill run:

This is the site of the Salt Lake Half Marathon Relay.  I'm running it with my friends Tera and Nicole.  Tera's husband Jason is running the entire Half Marathon.  I have the first leg which takes me over 3 1/2 miles up up up!  So Jason and I met up at the bottom and gave it a good try.  Of course Jason smoked me, but I was pleased with my first time results.  I want to do it a couple of times before the relay in a month.  I feel like I found a rhythm that I haven't had on hills before.  It was slow, around 12 min/miles but you have to start somewhere.  It's a wonderful place to get that long uphill training.  Plus running down it will help me train for my Top of Utah Marathon in three weeks.  It's a mostly downhill course but flattens our the last few miles.  


Today's Stats:



Total time to top: 41:56 - 3.66 miles 11:27 min/mile


Miles:
1 - 10:31
2 - 12:05
3 - 11:03
last hill .67 mile - 12:28
I hit the lap button so I would know how long and what pace I did the entire hill.  I didn't realize it reset my pace and now was counting my miles from 3.67.  So here is the run downhill.  I stopped only once to take a swig of water and catch my breath but for the most part ran steadily the whole way down.
4.67 - 8:52
5.67 - 9:09
6.67 - 8:28
Last 405 feet - 8:30

I didn't take these pictures while I was running, I rarely take my phone.  I drove the course after and took them.  It is a beautiful day and still nice and cool.  Ton's of bikers to watch out for though!

Not a bad view!

Total Run: 6.74 miles at an average 10:15 pace

Walked .63  miles for a cool off and leg warm down.  I do this quite often and try to do a quarter to a half mile cool down walk, but this one was a little longer.

Super thrilled to be done and actually feeling pretty excited to tackle it again next week.

Assuming the position.  Foot did not hurt at all during the run. I was even too lazy to put it on a pillow.  Drinking coffee, NUUN and eating banana pancakes.  

Best Saturday ever.  

Later I'm making stuffed bell peppers with our fresh garden loot.  We planted little "fairy" eggplants that I am anxious to try.  Just mix some Anaheim pepper, eggplant and local grass fed beef.  Should be delicious!!

Have a great Saturday!  Keep running!

Blog on.............