Running up that Hill

I ran with my friend Joe again today. We decided to try the full loop in Forest Park, which I haven't done post-injury. It's around 5.6 miles and has a good amount of hills incorporated into it. I was a little nervous, as it's farther than I've attempted to run. My hope was to run the entire circuit with no walking. It was cold this morning and decently windy. It seems every time I run on a windy day, no matter which direction I run in, I'm running into the wind. It's like the wind shifts deliberately to force me to always run into it. The wind was playing nice today. We had it at our backs almost the entire run, which was preferable. The hills were tough, but I didn't feel super winded or tired during and after them. I really do partially attribute that to spending some time out at Castlewood earlier in the week. I wore my Balaclava today but once again, it still gave me some issues with my glasses fogging. I basically just alternated between keeping it ove...

I'm a couple days behind, so today will be a double post. After my trail run the other day, I was a bit sore the next day, so I decided to stick with an easy run. Plus my family was going to be over that evening for a post-Christmas get-together, so I was limited on time. I headed over to Jefferson Barracks, my favorite local park, and did a loop around the perimeter, about 2.5 miles. I could definitely feel it in my legs. I also felt it in my lungs. That's one thing I hate about getting back into running after those two months off. My breathing still has to adjust. I was doing 6-7 miles runs regularly before the injury, plus longer ones on Sundays. Ugh. It's almost like starting from scratch except the desire is much stronger. Jefferson Barracks was a nice run, as always though. I stuck to as much of the cross country path as I could. JB has a disc golf course, and I swear, no matter what day or time, there are people playing. This particular day there was a group of guy...

In light of my post yesterday, this morning I decided to go get some hill practice. One of the best places around St. Louis to do this is Castlewood State Park. In case you're not familar with it, Castlewood is just outside of St. Louis in Ballwin and is a great park all around. They've got 5 or 6 trails good for walking, hiking, running, mountain biking, and even one for horseback riding. There's apparently some swimming, too, but I'm not sure where that is.There's a race there every year called the Castlewood Cup and I imagine it's pretty grueling. It's in February so depending on the weather, it can be icy for the race as well. I've been out there a handful of times, but hadn't been since sometime early this year. I had no specific goal in mind; just to get in some hills. Foolishly, I did have some idea in my head that I might be able to run the whole time, which I couldn't do even when I was in better hill climbing shape. I tackled Grotpet...

It's Christmas Eve day. Some people might have gone out this morning to run in order to counter all those calories they would be consuming later in the day. Not me. I don't have any holiday eating to do until the day after Christmas. I still went for a run though. It was 10 degrees when I left my house. It was the perfect morning to try out my new Saucony Balaclava. In case you don't know what a Balaclava is, it's very similar to a ski mask, with a cutout for the eye area and that's it. It's supposed to be awesome for cold weather running. I've never bought one before because I wear glasses, and whenever I've run with something covering my nose and mouth, my breath just ends up going up my face and fogging up my glasses. The Balaclava I found is a tighter fitting spandex-y material and it has a mouth vent. I chose a neighborhood run this morning, taking Broadway, making a lap around Jefferson Barracks park, then circling back. This route was 5.5 miles ...

I went with my friend Joe today to run in Cliff Cave Park. The winter months are when I tend to like to run with someone more. Having that other person is more motivation to run in the cold. I used to absolutely HATE the cold before I began running. I wouldn't say I necessarily like it now, but I have developed a much better tolerance for it. Once you get going, it's not so bad. Once you stop moving again is when it REALLY feels cold, as the sweat cools off. The temperature when we headed out this morning was about 34, but with the wind, around 25. Thank goodness for running tights*. I don't know what I would do without mine. Joe picked me up in his FIRE TRUCK he owns, which is a tad difficult for someone that's only 5'2" to climb up into. It was an awesome ride though. Very bouncy. I can't believe I know someone with a fire truck. Well, my brother actually is a firefighter, but that doesn't count. Anyway, we got to the park and decided to run the ri...

I guess we will call this my first actual post. I figure it should be noted where I am in my running at this time. I was signed up to run the RocknRoll Marathon here in St. Louis on October 27th of this year. I was about halfway through my training, having completed a 12 mile run. The next morning I woke up and when I stepped out of bed, I could not put all my weight on my right foot.  After a couple days, it felt better, so I tried a short 3 mile run. During the run, it started hurting. A lot. Persistent person that I am, I tried to run a few days later, again getting the same pain during the run. I spent many hours looking up this pain on the Internet, and texting my running friends. I relaced my shoes, thinking the laces had been too tight. I wrapped my foot in sports bandages. I even went ahead and bought new running shoes, even though the ones I had were not worn out enough to need new ones yet. Finally, I gave in and went to my doctor. Her preliminary diagnosis was that I ...

I've been running for a little over two years now, and this blog is long overdue. I think keeping a good documentation of my running will be beneficial to me and might give others some valuable information and insight as well. My running started as a result of a breakup, ultimately. I was just starting to get into when the guy I was dating broke up with me, and I was not handling it well. I put all my energy into running and got over the initial challenge of it. It took off from there. So, I guess I really should thank the guy for helping me out! For me, running has done several things. The most noticeable thing visually was that it got me into shape. I lost almost 15 lbs and gained muscle tone. The most important thing to me that it has done is provided me with an outlet for stress. Nothing feels better to me than going for a good run when I am having lack of mental clarity. In general I prefer to run alone, but I do run with others from time to time, and the companionship is n...