Doping?

Normally I haven’t really followed much in the Tour de France. I’m a runner, not a cyclist. Butt I have always at least seen when things are coming to a finale, and have been usually aware of the winner. This year I’m dating someone who is very involved in cycling. As he said it (for a way for me to get it), this is his “super bowl”…so I’ve been watching it, sometimes with him, sometimes just on my own, and paying attention, at least a bit, to what is going on in it.

This year has been insane. The scandals are rampant, you have an early favorite who tested positive for a blood transfusion and his entire team withdrew, then just yesterday, the man in yellow, the man who had a very good shot at winning it all, ended up pulled, not because he tested positively, but because of failing to be available for a random test prior to the race starting, and having lied about his whereabouts. And his entire team pulled out as well.

Having become closer to the sport, and knowing someone very close to the sport, I’ve been informing that yeah, most of them do…and that makes me very sad. Of course he also pointed out to me that anyone at the top of these endurance level sports (yes, running included) is probably doing it…and that makes it even worse. What happened to the joy of the sport? Of course you look at the dollars that can come to the winners, marathon purses. The money for just a stage win in the tour. The endorsements from sports companies. We’re talking big bucks and who do you blame for it? What would a lot of people do for the right amount of money? But it still is sad and ruins the integrity of the sport for the fans that love it. I do have to say that I like the fact that the teams are taking responsibility and not just “looking the other way” and it’s the whole team being punished for it. Maybe it will make it become a team effort to keep each other off the doping. The thing is, it really sets a precedence too. Can you imagine a playoff bound football or baseball team pulling out because they find a few of their players are “doping”?

Beyond ruining the integrity, setting a bad example for the up and comers, it’s also plain dangerous. Using steroids, other drugs that are out there to enhance things, blood transfusions (adding MORE blood into the system than we normally have, this one floored me) and anything else they do is dangerous. It can kill…and these athletes don’t seem to care. This is sad…is money really more important than your health and well being? And knowing that you won, because you are the best, not because you used the right combination of drugs to make yourself the best?

Twins Win!

I’m not a big fan of baseball, but my mom is, and she loves her Twins and through my work we have sets, so I was able to get 4 tickets and use them for the game on Saturday night. My dad hadn’t been to a Twins game since the old Met Stadium (for those not from MN that’s where the Mall of America, which most have heard of, now stands) so it’s been a long time. It also seemed to be about the time for L to meet my parents. He’s been in the picture a while, he’s becoming more and more important in my life and I thought, well, let’s make that step. It seemed to have gone well. Dad asked him when he was coming to my home town, so we’ll have to make a trip at some point. Not for a bit yet though, lots of family things over the next couple of weekends. Here are how good the seats were and a few neat shots I got.

I just found the Sepia setting on my camera...this turned out quite cool.

Home run for Tori.

Our side arm pitcher...quite interesting to watch!

With a tie of 2/2, and a count of 3/2 (only 1 out) Mauer hits an in field home run at the bottom of the 8th with 2 runners on.

And the Twins win!

Rest of the weekend wasn’t too bad. I ran 17 miles on Saturday morning and another 4 on Sunday I managed 40 miles for the week. I’d like to maintain that for the next few weeks (except maybe lighter next week if I run the half I’m considering) and just see where I get to. I maybe got a bit spoiled on that last long run, due to a miscommunication on Friday night (that was thankfully resolved well) L didn’t help me with the long run on Saturday and I missed having someone to look forward to seeing every few miles (not to mention someone with an icy bottle of water and some Powerade) and he told me he was actually bummed about it too as he had a lot of fun helping me on my run last time, so next one will hopefully be with aid! Sunday I had to drop L at the airport kind of early as he is out east for a bike race this week that the team he works for is participating in, he comes back on Monday and I should also be able to pick him up. Sunday I got to catch up with a friend though, and that was nice. We hadn’t see each other in about 2 ½ months I think and she’s been through some stuff and seems like things are coming around and she’s finding herself, which is awesome. I like to see my friends getting to happier places and figuring out their lives and things they need to help them get happy.

Looks like some steamy times coming up, but that’s fine…I can still run, even when it’s 90 degrees and 70% humidity (yes, these are the tropics!) I just might be getting up earlier this week and running before work…

Running Like it Should Be

Last night was a perfect night for a run. The humidity had broken, although maybe that’s not the right way to state it. It was raining, relieving the air of the heavy feel that too much moisture can cause. When I put on my running shoes and headed out the door, it was a light rain, steady, but not a downpour. The clouds were coming through and there was a little thunder (but no visible lightning other than one streak I saw walking out of the house, and yes, I know, if there is thunder there is definitely lightning) but just a light rain. And it wasn’t that dark and gray of an overcast, rainy day. There were areas around the metro that were clear, and/or the rain hadn’t come through yet, so there was sun around the edges, making it seem necessary for sunglasses, although I never actually wore them (the rain would’ve been a deterrent to that, although I wish I had worn a hat), they were on top of my head the whole run. I was going to run 4. But since it was cooler, and the rain was falling, and at one point (probably mile 4) it started to pour, so I was not getting any wetter, I decided to stay out till it stopped…6 miles later I was home, clothes were dripping, shoes were drenched, socks could be wrung out, but I felt good. Not a great run, but at least it was a fun one. As soon as I figured out it was raining, it made me want to get out in it. Now in the early spring and later fall, that’s not so much the reaction, but when it’s summer, it’s warm out, you have been sweating on runs and feeling gross, it’s nice to have a refreshing rain to run in. Especially when it’s not as dark and grey as it could be, and the sun is even slightly poking through…

I even made it to bed kind of early, expecting to wake up, as usual, around 5, and get out of bed to run...but with no alarm for that early, I didn't wake up, so will have to try to get one in tonight, maybe after dinner. L and I are going on a "date" tonight, dinner somewhere (I have to make the decision, I'm thinking one of the little places along the river) and then possibly going for a run...I have to say, I like having a boyfriend that runs. And actually suggests it on occasion himself or really likes the idea when it is mentioned.

Steamy 8 Miles

Ah, the hot and steamy tropics of MN…oh wait, we only think we live in the tropics, it gets quite cold here too. As we are reminded each October…

Last night I had a showing at my condo (yay, they even took a flier, this is only the 2nd time someone took one, but they didn’t take a disclosure sheet, so probably not that interested…sigh…) from 6-7. So I came home, took a short nap/rest time and then threw on running clothes and headed out into the steamy MN evening. It wasn’t so terrible. I opted to run around a nearby nature reserve with biking and walking trails around it. There is a water fountain and it’s mostly shaded, a 2 mile path, so I ran to it (a little over a mile) around it 2 times and then back, having added on at a few other places (I skipped my Garmin) I did approximately 8 miles. I was drenched when I got home. And the power was off. Yeah, that was fun. I NEEDED a shower sooooo badly…so showering in the dark. And it’s amazing how much we have learned behaviors. Walk into a room, turn on the light…even though you know the power is off! Ah well.

What’s funny is we had a power outage at work on Monday. It was off for about 3 hours…so I ended up going and doing a bit of shopping on Monday on an extended lunch. I needed new work clothes and it is summer clearance time, 2 skirts and 2 tops later, and only $45 out of my pocket, I didn’t think I did too badly…

It’s another steamy one tonight. I was going to shoot for a quick 4 as L and I were going to meet up, we haven’t gotten together since Sunday and he does claim he misses me, still not sure why on that, but he seems to, and I do enjoy spending time with him, and we didn’t get much quality time this weekend, so I was looking forward to seeing him as well, but he has something going on later now tonight, so I might just run a bit longer (in the steamy evening again) and then relax at home…have a nice salad and sandwich for dinner so I don’t have to cook and heat up the house….maybe I’ll go out for a beer later. I have people missing me as I haven’t been to my hang out in forever…

Lifetime Fitness Triathlon

This weekend I volunteered at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon. A very big event in the world of Tri’s, drawing the top of the sport athletes due to the $60K that goes to the men and women’s winner and due to it being part of a series, which the male winner of this race won on Saturday, netting him $120K total for winning Saturday and the series. It’s a huge event. They have Olympic distance for the pros and elite amateurs, along with anyone else that wants to attempt that distance (1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run) and there is an option of a sprint distance (.5 mile swim, 12 mile bike ride and 5K run). It drew around 3200 athletes, and 1000 volunteers. I volunteered to help out at the finish line, which was actually nice in many ways because I didn’t have to be there at 4:30 in the morning the way the body marking people did, we didn’t have to do anything at the beginning so that left for being able to go watch the start and the transition from swim to bike and again from bike to run. Our job was to collect the timing chips. Easy enough, they are velcroed onto the athletes ankle, just have to grab it and pull….pay attention to if anyone needed medical and just enjoy the day. I had good conversations with a number of people, found jealousy in looking at some of the women athletes there (and it made me regret the bagel and doughnuts I had eaten from the volunteers tent, along with some of the candy, but not enough to regret the beer I had when I was given an access pass to the hospitality tent) and just in general enjoyed being able to be part of an event. I have trouble volunteering at running races, because I always feel like I need to be there running it, so this is a good option, helping at races that aren’t something I intend on doing (although I guess I haven’t fully ruled it out, but tris are so expensive, you might need a wet suit, you need access to a pool to be able to swim, road bikes are so expensive…).

Anyway, I managed to even take some pictures…you can see it was early, with the sun rising over the crowd when I pulled up, and some had been there as early as 5 am. Pro start time was 7, the pro women 3 minutes behind, the elite amateurs were 10 minutes behind the women and then heats from there of the rest of the field. I didn’t get to see much of the swim, but I got a few snaps of athletes running up the beach, then getting to the bike area. Then again when they changed from the bike back to run…and finally of the winner. I would’ve taken more but unfortunately I hadn’t checked my camera battery before leaving home and it was dying…so this was all I managed.

I got a few runs in over the weekend…nothing fantastic, but nothing hurting either. My mileage was lower last week than I had thought I had been at, somehow I was adding wrong while I was doing some of the runs…I managed 33, I want to get back up to regularly in the 40s, but I just can’t seem to get motivated. And with things not feeling great…if it’s really a sacro problem I’m having, which is what L has been thinking, I think I need to work more on that without a chiro at least at first (partly due to my health insurance isn't so great anymore on the coverage of chiro, I have a deductible and not just co-pay, stupid health insurance), so I’m back to using my sacro wedgie to see if that helps me at all. I haven’t been using it at all lately and maybe between that, some good massages, and yoga maybe I can work it all out and start feeling better. I’m hoping to get 17 miles in this weekend…I want to go out on Friday night, Saturday night I’m going out as well, so I might be trying to force my butt out of bed really early on Friday (or running after work before going out) and see if I can get it in…maybe I can get up and run 7 and then work and then come home and run another 10 as an option too…we’ll see.

Friday the 13th

Oh, another busy week…and apparently I’m feeling exhausted. Last night I got home from work, went for a run, started out around 5:15, was done just before 6:30, I went 8 miles…I got home, I did a couple small things around the house, tried to get some GMAT studying in and was asleep by 8:30…umm…yeah…

My running has been lackluster lately. I’ve been very frustrated by it and I don’t know what to do about it. Justrun summed it up in her blog today pretty much exactly the way I feel. I have been able to get out and plod along, I sometimes wear a watch, but most times lately haven’t. Regardless, the run almost never feels ‘great’ and sometimes I think “why am I doing this” other than the obvious one of wanting to still lose a couple of pounds and not gain back where I’ve made the headway. The main thing is, I’m not doing it because I want to run some races and/or because I’m training for something. And I really don’t care and/or don’t feel like I want to train for anything either. I have been considering a fall marathon, it’s still been on my radar, but man, now I just don’t know. I don’t have the energy/motivation to run hard. And to get my goal time I have to run hard. Every run goes out about the same time frame…anywhere in the 8:45-9:15 (9:30 for my 15 miler on Saturday, but that was a longer run and it was hot and if I took into account full running time, it would be much slower than that as I had a few stop points for water and discussions on where I was running next). I hate this feeling of not even being out enjoying it. I don’t HAVE to run and I still just don’t seem to care and/or like what I’m doing and I hate that. It’s in part due to the glute/hamstring issue I’ve been dealing with, oh, probably close to a year now. It’s tight, it never feels 100%, runs never feel “great” (although that run in the rain last week was nice), and I just don’t know what to do about it. I feel, at least partly sometimes, like I’m not fueled enough. I know my eating has been bad and I haven’t been as diligent about eating a nice afternoon snack to get energy going. I also haven’t been eating the same time frame and same types of things I used to eat when at my last job. I’m still working on getting a new schedule going, but not having my eggs and toast everyday that I was used to, and then a later lunch, has caused problems that I know I need to remedy either by getting up and running in the morning, or eating something in the afternoon to fuel for that time. I just want to feel good about running again. I want to enjoy it and not do it cause I “have to”…I want back the feelings I had last spring when every run felt great, I enjoyed training, I was nailing the tempos, had great times on my intervals and the long runs were almost always great too (OK, a few were bad, but not many). I maintained that for almost 6 months and I ran my 3:42:54 that June…I just don’t know what is different now, what I had then that I’m lacking…I actually am less busy too. I don’t have a 2nd job now, I had more free time…


Just so it’s not such a downer post, I’m including some pics and a few fun things from the last two weeks. Lack Harriet bandshell, where I watched the guitar players with a friend and then had ice cream after. A sunset over Lake of the Isles (one of the chain of lakes that are a great place to run in the metro), downtown from Lake of the Isles and finally this license plate that I found hysterical for whatever reason and since I had my camera…

Tomorrow I'm up early as I'm helping out with the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon, a really big Tri that goes on not far from home. I'm volunteering at the finish line so that should be fun. It's even broadcast on NBC, so watch Saturday night, you might see me out there among the volunteers, although I have been informed we are not allowed anywhere near certain areas when the pros are finishing...and I'm not one holding the tape, darnit...it should be exciting though and I haven't volunteered for a while so helping L at the one a couple weeks ago and doing this one this week, I'm giving back. Even if it's not actually at a road race, but hey, tris aren't something I do, so I don't feel the "why am I not running this race since I'm here" thing that I sometimes feel at road races.

Happiness is...

A boyfriend nice enough to follow you out on a long run and carry the water and powerade so you don’t have to wear the fuel belt you hate…

and hands it to you at regular intervals cause he knows you should drink it even if you aren’t wanting it at that time…

and bikes on ahead so you have something to watch and look forward to further on the run…

and tells you how good you are doing, and how proud he is of the fact that you finished the 15 miles in the heat and humidity (even though it got even hotter later but you didn’t get going quite as early as you would’ve liked to) even though you know it wasn’t a great run…

oh, and made your breakfast for you prior to the run and forced a recovery drink on you after…

Ah yes…he might be right, I might be a little spoiled…

A rainy run…

It’s been so long since I had the joy of running in the rain and on Tuesday night, 2 ½ miles into the planned 5-6 miler I was going to do, it started to sprinkle a bit, then it turned into a gushing downpour and it was fantastic! I was soaked in about 5 minutes but it felt so good and I didn’t care. I turned the run into 7 just because it felt so good and was so much fun…I probably would’ve gone even further but the rain was kind of stopping and I did have things I needed to do. But man, why can’t there be more runs like that. The thunder that happened a bit later didn’t phase me (seriously, I have rubber soles on my shoes, not much to worry about right?), and it just feels so good when you are being refreshed by a summer shower as you are slogging through a warmer day (it wasn’t terribly warm that day, but warm enough and it’s getting hotter this weekend!).

After the run I went to my “friends”…OK, I suppose I can officially say it’s more. Massage guy we’ll call him, has pretty much become my boyfriend. We’ve been seeing each other 2 months now, I guess it was time to finally maybe use that label? Anyway, went to his place and he, I and his two neighbors went and saw Transformers. Yes, I grew up in the 80s, and I LOVED the Transformers. The movie had incredible special effects and I really did like it for the most part, although it really did feel more like a “builder” point for two years down the road when Transformers 2 comes out. Two of the guys that I was with (the neighbors) were total geeks on it. We dissected it later, and even they liked most of it, although didn’t like a few of the teases that were in, one was that they didn’t remain true to the forms that were used in the original cartoons, but Optimus was the same, even the same voice. Anyway, after the movie, we had a few beers and then went to bed. I stayed downtown with L and the next day we went for lunch (although I had wanted breakfast, and I could’ve had it where we did end up, I chose a taco salad instead) at a marketplace that is geared toward ethnic foods. Mostly Asian and Mexican. It was good. More authentic Mexican than typical “Tex-Mex”. After food we were going to go to the 4th Celebration across the river, but ended up watching some movies (at least bits of movies) and taking a bike ride over to get some beer…then we went up on the roof of the building to watch fireworks, but since this is a shorter building we weren’t quite able to see them as well as we might have otherwise, but that’s OK. A late night slice of pizza so I’d be able to feel OK for work the next day and an almost fight with a couple of drunk idiots that didn’t know how to keep their mouths shut (and only shot them off when they were “safe” meaning the security at the bar, or a cop outside, gotta love people that come out, start shooting off their mouths and acting stupid and then go running to the cops when a move is made on them) but oh well. All in all a nice 4th of July…

4th of July

Well a few minutes to kill before I head out for the day. I’ve got some thoughts I was going to post about, but not sure I have the time to get into them right now so I guess I’ll just share a few basics for catch up purposes. The weekend was good, but quite busy. Friday night I went to the band shell for the music. It was good and quite enjoyable to sit outside on the lawn and just listen and chat. We got Sebastien Joe’s ice cream after for a snack and then I went to my “friend’s” and crashed, although I was unable to sleep, feel really bad for him on that since he had to be up early and work the next day, I just had to hang out. I spent Saturday morning at a Triathlon though, sprint tri, and it was quite enjoyable. My friend and a person who contract’s through is studio were doing the massages for those at the end of the race and I spent the morning signing people up and keeping things moving. It was nice to chat with athletes and watch the race. I even figured I could’ve probably handled doing that one pretty easily. (no, no thoughts on doing a tri!) After we were done, my “friend” and I went for lunch and then a long nap at his place. Ended up watching a movie and then I headed home to clean up and head out to watch a band play with some co-workers. It was an enjoyable night and I made a pinky swear with someone for studying for and taking the GMAT this summer…we’ll see if that holds up! Sunday I cooked ribs…I slow cooked them…they were so good…my “friend” was over to eat them as well and we ended up renting the British version of The Office and watching some of that before crashing early.

For this week, I’m heading to my “friend’s” place tonight to maybe see a movie and go out for drinks, tomorrow evening we plan to watch the fireworks from his place, we are going up on the roof of the building to watch them, it’s a 4th story of a building in downtown Minneapolis and should give us a nice view of the ones over the river so that should be a nice evening. Other than that, just hanging out and who knows what tomorrow. Everyone have a fun and safe 4th of July and I’ll hopefully get some pictures from the 4th and also from the tri last weekend up later this week.