Running up that Hill

I was supposed to meet the train running group this morning at Creve Coeur Lake. It would be an 8am run, as they all are, and CCL isn't nearly as far for me drive to as Lewis & Clark was going to be last week. However, something has been up with my sleep cycle lately. I'm not sure what it is, but I've been in this pattern where I wake up at some point during the night and I am wide awake. It will take me anywhere from 30 minutes to up to 2 hours to get back to sleep. This wrecks my sleep for the night, as it's like starting all over once I do get back to sleep. So, I chose to allow my body some extra z's this morning and not set an alarm. I know of some runners who sometimes experience this issue, and they will use that awake time to get up and run in the middle of the night. I have debated trying this; maybe the next time I am wide awake like that I will. Anywho, my rest was better last night, though still not ideal, and I woke up around 9:30 and got dressed f...

Friday, for the first time in close to six months, I ran with my friend Jeff. Jeff's been out on an injury even longer than I was, and just started trying to run again this month. Jeff's injury was a weird one, because there was no specific incident that happened to him. He started having pain in his feet when he ran, which gradually began happening just from being on his feet. He went to the doctor, and they couldn't really find anything wrong. But he also didn't get orders not to run. He'd already stopped running on his own free will, but after the doctor's visit, he started doing a little walking and more recently a little running. This time last year, Jeff was my best running buddy. We'd run at least one day together every week, as our days off are the same. He was good motivation to get out and run on those cold mornings. I've missed having him as a running buddy, so I am looking forward to when he gets back to 100%. He wanted to go to JB, so we hea...

Wednesday morning was another snowy run, though nothing like my last one. We got around another two inches of snow last week, and it was cold enough that it stuck around for a few days. I headed out to JB to do a shorter run, as I got out of the house later than planned and also had a contractor there that I needed to chat with first. I did the big loop and the small loop, which seems to be my comfort zone there for now. I am pleased with that run, because it involves the long gradual hill along the one side and I'm able to do that hill with no walking. I know I keep driving this point home, but progress on hills no matter where I am is significant to me after having two months off in November. The snow on the trails had seen enough traffic that it was pretty packed down in most places, with a few obvious icy areas but nothing that couldn't be avoided. It was another morning where there were very few people there, which I like. Once the weather turns nice, JB becomes pretty bus...

One think I love about working for the library is the paid holidays. Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr day, so we were off and got paid. It just happened to be my weekend off, so that gave me a 3-day weekend. I had made plans Sunday evening to run Monday morning with my friend Joe. I couldn't do too long of a run, for two reasons: 1) I was actually a little sore from the previous day's Castlewood excursion. 2)I had to be at my sister's around 11, because we were taking my niece and nephew to see the bug exhibit at the Science Center. So, Joe and I decided to do an out and back of about 4 miles down Broadway. Broadway is just at the bottom of the hill on my street, and has nice wide sidewalks for running. There are very rarely any pedestrians, so it's a convenient path. It's also easy to change it up if desired on the way back and cut uphill to a different street on the return, which is what we did, taking Pennsylvania as far back as the street allowed. The r...

Originally, I was going to get up early Sunday morning and drive all the way out to Weldon Springs to join the trail running club for the Lewis & Clark Trail run. I've never been out there before, so it sounded like a good idea. However, the more I thought about it, the idea of driving out there became less appealing. I posted on the website to see if anyone wanted to carpool but I got no response. Saturday evening, I diligently set my alarm for 6:30 the next morning. However, when that time rolled around, I did not have the desire to drive all the way out there. I still wanted to run, just not somewhere that involved a 40+ minute drive to get there. So, I slept in a little more and decided to head out to Castlewood instead. I could still do trails and continue with my hill work. With good traffic, it only takes about 25 minutes to get there. There was an StL Runner group meeting out there to preview the Castlewood Cup course, but I didn't think I would get out there in ti...

My early morning run wasn't as early as I would have liked this morning. Maybe if it had been, I wouldn't have a reason to rant. Then again... I took my most frequent neighborhood route today, as it's a nice distance, around 4.5 miles, depending on what streets I turn down. It typically involves going to the top of my street and going up Military, crossing over to Broadway, following that until it intersects Telegraph, then taking Telegraph down to Lemay Ferry and back to my street. Unfortunately, this involves crossing several streets, though none of them are major streets, just smaller side streets. Going later in the day, however, means there is more traffic out, and therefore, more oblivious idiots to contend with. Now, there are idiots everywhere, all the time, this is just a fact. I am talking about a very particular type of idiot in this post. This idiot is the St. Louis driver that does not pay attention to its surroundings as it drives, and very frequently is als...

For the first time in months, I went on a decent sized group run. As I've mentioned before, I belong to a group called StL Runners, from Meetup.com. There is a run that happens every Tuesday, and starting last January, I was joining this run pretty regularly. In general, the run happens somewhere different every week, except in the winter when it gets dark really early, and then it defaults at Forest Park. I was running with them most of the spring, but then I had a summer class that prevented me from continuing. I joined a few times after the class was over, but then had to stop again because of my stress fracture. So, this was the first time in quite a while. There ended up being 11 of us, which is a large group for the run anyway, and especially considering the weather last night. It was only about 35 degrees, and it was very windy, making it even colder. My friend Joe came along and the run's originators, Tim and Glenn, were there. I hadn't seen either of them in a whi...

Yesterday, I did something that I don't think I've EVER done since I started running. I got up and out the door for a run before 7 a.m. You might ask, WHY? Was it for a race? No. Am I crazy? No. Yesterday I had an interview for a promotion at work. Interviews stress me out more than possibly any other thing in this world. I knew I was going to have to do SOMETHING to relieve some tension yesterday. I had to go in to work, do the interview, then finish my day at work. That meant no time in there to really do any tension relief. I set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. yesterday, but I woke up even earlier. I knew I wasn't going to go back to sleep. Oh, I laid in bed for a while longer but it wasn't happening. So, I figured since I didn't have to be at work until 9, why not go ahead and get up and get a run in? There would be less traffic, it would help clear my head, and ultimately, it would be a good way to start my day. I am really glad I decided to do this. It was unseason...

Met up with some people on Meetup.com today for trail running out at Castlewood. I don't think I've mentioned Meetup in any previous posts, so let me briefly tell. I originally came across Meetup in June of 2012. It was National Running Day and I wanted to find somewhere that people were gathering for a run. I found the group StL Runners on Meetup and met some people in Forest Park for a 4.5 miler. I've been a member of the site ever since, and it has proven to be a good choice. I joined 2 running groups, StL Runners and the St. Louis Trail Running Club. I've been to quite a few meetups with StL Runners and have made some friends in the process. Running with some guys on those meetups helped improve my pace before my injury. Today was the first time I actually joined any of the activities with the Trail Running Club. Since I've been trying to get out to Castlewood for hill training anyway, I figured keeping up with their meetups would be a good idea. The run posted...

 So, those 10-12 inches of snow haven't diminished much. Last night, we got a little more snow. I didn't think it would be noticeable, but it was enough to coat the roads again and make it necessary for me to shovel my stairs outside. I went out this morning for a snow run. Let me tell you, this morning was a tough run, but it was also one of the most peaceful runs I've had in a really long time. I headed out to Old Faithful, JB Park. They don't do anything with the trails when it snows, but I'd been out after a snow before, and usually enough people have been on the trails that it's a little packed down. Of course, this amount of snow would take a lot more traffic to get packed down. There were definitely some footpaths made, but they were not continuous and in some areas pretty sparse. So, all I did was the large loop and it took some serious effort. Many areas still had over 8 inches of snow to step into, which made running slower, and more like goose stepp...

Here it is the 9th and I'm behind again. I blame being sick. I'm getting over a sinus infection (I think) and I haven't felt like doing anything but sleeping and watching mindless television, AKA my seasons of Seinfeld. Saturday was a great running day for me. I went out early to Jefferson Barracks Park and did the big loop and small loop. I rarely run on the actual park loops there, because they're usually too full of people. People seem to have a tendency to walk in a horizontal line there, as in, they take up the whole width of the trail. That irks me. Groups of women with strollers there are the worst. So, I tend to run the sidewalk perimeter instead. Saturday there were barely any people there, probably because I was there at about 8:15 a.m. and it was cold. This run was a good example of how the hill training has been helping. There is one particular hill in the big loop that is a long hill that keeps getting steeper and usually it kills me. There are several oth...

Well, here I am, two posts behind again...how time slips away from you...I made a conscious decision this year that instead of bringing in the New Year with a massive hangover and no energy that day, I would bring it in a more healthy manner. Now, last year, I wasn't TOO hung over, since I just went to my sister's and had some wine. I also went out and ran on NY day last year, albeit not until 1:30 in the afternoon. I wanted to do that again this year. On NYE, I hit up Forest Park after work and did a short run, since I planned on being out the next morning. I've realized that making my body do two runs in twelve hours is not always the best choice. It was very empty at Forest Park, and I only saw maybe 3 other runners. I assumed most people were gearing up for a night of drinking. That evening, I went to my friend Lisa's around 8. I hung out with her (she's pregnant) and her friend Aubrey and Aubrey's super adorable daughter, Ava. Ava was quite fond of me, as...