My Active Adventures

Well, I did it!  I finished my first 50k!!  I'll warn you now, this is probably going to be quite long, it was a pretty wild journey so it won't be easy to sum up quickly. It all starts with Saturday evening.  This race is a VERY low key event, no hoopla, no pasta feed, no expo.  In fact, they didn't even have a permit to use the trail so we had to keep our race bibs tucked in our pockets out of view!!  With no pasta feed we decided to have our own.  There was a pretty decent group of us running in this race so we decided to have it at my mother-in-law Rosie's house.  Kristy and I met Rosie over at her place.  I worked on cooking the penne with vodka sauce, Kristy worked on the salad, and Rosie worked on the bread and getting the table ready.  Jill showed up first, happy and excited as always!  Then Mark showed up (causing Jill to go into a panic and run upstairs), finally Team Ruhs (Ron & Bobbie) and Lindsy pulled up.  Jill freaked out again with the arrival of L

 Elly (brown & black dog in the background) & Newman (black & white dog in the foreground) Well, that's it.  Nothing left to do but wait until Sunday morning and run my race.  I was set to run my last training run last night as a short 3 miler, but waiting for 3 trains on the way home just didn't leave me enough time.  I decided since it was going to be such a short run I'd be fine running it tonight, so when I go home from work I took two of my dogs, Newman (Border Collie) and Elly (Australian Sheppard), with me for a run.  They have been running a little bit with Kristy at her pace so I wanted to see how they'd do at my pace.  They were doing great for the first mile, I had to hold them back at a 10:08.  Almost to the second that my watch beeped to tell me we were at a mile Elly faded fast.  She slowed way down and was having a hard time keeping up when just moments before she was pulling.  Since they haven't been running for long I thought I

It's been a long time coming.  I've run my first marathon this year, I've run my first ultra marathon this year.  I know anything beyond 26.2 is an ultra, so I have run one, but I feel like there is an asterix by it.  At the 9 hr 11 min Patriots' Run I was able to get 27 official miles in 7:31:36.  Yes, that was counted as an ultra and I got my ultra medal.  I fought hard that day through heat and stomach problems, but really, 27 miles in 7 1/2 hours was not up to the standards I set for myself.  I know I shouldn't, but I feel like there's an asterix there.  I got my first ultra, BUT it was 27 miles in 7 1/2 hours.  I feel like anyone could do that, that's mostly walking.  It's now almost time to set the record straight and remove that asterix from my ultra marathoner status.  At 7:00 AM Sunday October 30 (exactly 5 days, 20 hours and 6 minutes from the time I write this sentence) I will start the Blue Springs 50k.  31.1 miles to make me a true ultra mar

Well, on Monday I told you that I needed to get back to a more balanced approach to my fitness like I used to have.  Well, I'm pleased to report, so far, so good!!  It's been an active week and I'm remembering how great it feels to wake up early and start my day with a workout!  Here's what has gone on this week so far: On Sunday night I had a pretty bad headache, so I went ahead and called in to my boss and let him know I was going to take a vacation day the next day to rest up.  Well, the great thing was that Monday I woke up feeling great; my headache was gone!  I had a few arrands to run around lunch time, so instead of getting my car keys I got my bike out!!  It was a little chilly out, and even spitting rain a little, but it was fun anyway.  Gardner is a small town, so to get everywhere I needed to go I only covered a total of 5.41 miles, but that is more exercise than I would have gotten driving in my car, so it was nice!  I got some funny looks at the Subway w

I know that balance is important both in my nutrition and in my workout plan, but both have been seriously lacking. Before my stress fracture in the spring I was very good about balancing my running and other workouts for a good, healthy, balanced strategy. Then I couldn't run for almost 2 months. Once I was given the all clear to run I didn't want to waste time or energy doing anything else! I know it's not good for me, but I just want to run, run, run and run some more. I keep thinking lately that my running has been very good, my endurance is as good as it's ever been or maybe even better. Despite how great it's been, I can't help but think about how much better it would be if I would get back to finding a balanced approach. I just haven't had the desire or discipline to get back to strength training, yoga, stretching, karate, etc. Why am I doing this to myself? It's time for a change. I need to get back to work for real. It's not easy, it's

On 9/11/2011 I ran the Patriots' Run in Olathe, KS. Ever since that inspirational event I have been trying to come up with a way to use my running to give back to the soldiers and sailors that risk so much to keep us free and the families that wait at home for their return. I finally came upon a great way to do just that. The Louisiana Marathon that I am running on 1/15/12 has partnered with Team Red, White & Blue . What an awesome organization! Their mission is “to enrich the lives of wounded veterans and their families.” They do this by pairing up wounded veterans with their ambassadors for a one-on-one relationship. This gives the veteran a reliable, giving friend that they can count on for friendship and various types of assistance. I encourage you to check out their website and watch this video to get a better idea of how they help our military men and women. The funds raised by me and my fellow Team RWB athletes go to fund activities for the advocates and wounded v

Well, it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted here on my blog. I guess I did say when I started it that it was for me, and I just haven’t been feeling like posting on here, so I guess I shouldn’t make apologies for not being on here for so long. BUT I’ll go ahead and say sorry anyway. It would be near impossible to give a complete rundown of what has gone on with my running since I lasted posted, so I’ll just give the quick & dirty version. As of my last post (7/6/11) I had just run the Freedom Run 10k, which was my second 10k, and had been back to running for 34 days after recovering from my stress fracture. Here’s what I’ve done as far as races since then: 7/23- Prairie Punisher Duathlon (my first multi-sport event)- 5k run , 21.5 mile bike , 5k run in a total time of 2:42:41 8/13- Deanna Rose Farmstead Stampede 5k in 25:10 8/28- North Face Endurance Challenge Half Marathon - 2:06:00 (mileage ended up being 0.22 miles long, 13.32 miles) at my fastest half pace to t