Running haiku

Distant lightning glows
Footbeats keep the rhythmic pulse
Summer morning steam

There's always a conversation or song in my head. It can be exhausting. Many times I can't get it out and it just replays itself over and over, much like the movie Groundhog Day. Sometimes this happens when I'm running so I try to rechannel the noise into a creative outlet. I've written papers for school or blog entries as I run or ride many times.

Today, it was just a simple haiku that kept my mind running. It's not necessarily a good one, but it fell into the footstep patterns. Enjoy.

The plan this week

Holy crap! The RAGBRAI start is less than 18 days away and I'm both excited and nervous. To top it off, there's a triathlon 2 weeks after that. It's down to crunch time again.

This week, the goal is to mostly get time on saddle more than anything. I figure doing 3 days of riding in a row, though a couple of them just easy days riding to/from the gym to swim, will help out with getting the butt used to it. I'm hoping this strategy will pay off.

The rest of the week will have easy runs interspersed with 2-3 days of swim time. I'd like to start having 2 workouts each of swim/bike/run, but am not sure how this all will work.

Overextended again? Yup. Love it? Yup!

Pride

There are few things that bring me greater happiness than watching friends accomplish things they didn't think were once possible. I get tears in my eyes as friends come across finish lines for the first time or accomplish goal times or even goal distances. I love watching them win the battles in their minds.

I love watching their eyes when they "get" something new. When something clicks. When they realize they just went further than they thought they could. I love it when a concept they read or asked about comes to fruition.

Is it a bit selfish to want to see these accomplishments come alive? They energize me in new ways.

Congratulations Deeann, Greg, Tonya, Janna! Kick some ass this fall, April! You all are working hard and deserve all the grins you get. You're doing great things! I'm proud of you all!

78 miles!

Earlier this afternoon I got done riding 78 miles in the 100 degree Dallas heat. I can't believe it! It's my longest ride to date and it makes me feel like I can do RAGBRAI here in a few weeks, no problem. Or at least a few days of it. Here's the rundown.

Good - Starting out the ride at 7:30 at 80 degrees and little wind. And heading west out of the glare of the sun coming up. Decided right then to do the 75 and not the 100 miler because of the heat. Good choice, as it turns out.

Bad - The wind kicked up just a bit and gave us a headwind for a good chunk of the ride.

Good - Not even 5 miles into the ride, meeting not one, but two people who are also doing RAGBRAI this year - Dick and...aw crap, what was his name? Anyway, the guy not Dick did it last year and gave us a lot of tips, including bringing only a few changes of clothes, eating anything from Pork Man (that sounds so bad) and bringing about $30 cash each day in small bills.

Good- No pain in either foot after having those warts dealt with last week.

Good - Great aid stations with super nice volunteers at every one. Lots of pickle juice.

Good - Mostly ate the right foods/drank at the right time. Did better than a lot of people who were sagging and cramping in the heat.

Bad - Around mile 30, a man passes me. His shorts are a little thin in back. Too thin, in fact. I can see his hairy butt crack. If it were a nice butt, that would be one thing, but it's one of those flat butts guys tend to get. I try not to make eye contact with it, but it stares at me. Thankfully, he moves ahead.

Good - Left the mile 37 aid station feeling really great.

Bad - Realizing that the reason my hooha is hurting so much is that my bike seat is canted at a very slight angle to the left. Need to remember to fix that at an aid station.

Good - Felt fantastic and rode well and fast through miles 40-45, even passing a few people.

Bad - Bonked at mile 45.5 as the heat kicked in and we had a long, slow mostly uphill to mile 50. Felt my head start to tingle and my body get a few chills. I know enough to know that this isn't a good sign. Rode at an agonizing 7-8 mph up this hill I thought would never end.

Good - Finding the aid station at the top of this hill wasn't an illlusion.

Good - Mile 50 aid station avoiding the very serious temptation of sagging in. The truck was there and I stared at it intently. One volunteer saved my ride by spraying me down with a pump sprayer full of cold water. He was my hero and told me to sit for a while, then go on. I need to write a note to the ride organizers.

Bad - Forgot to get the seat fixed. Ouch!

Good - Using my new thermal bottle and adding ice at every aid station. It kept the water at a cooler temperature than using the regular bottles - especially in this heat. Need to get one more smaller one for the front cage.

Good - Finally turned north where a tailwind could kick in to help. Miles 50-65 flew! The road was flat and fast. I rode the white line for most of the ride, smoothing out the path.

Bad - Tailwinds don't help keep you cool.

Good - Met and chatted with a guy named Ryan for these last 5 miles about trail running. Turns out he's the RD for El Scorcho and has done a bunch of long races.

Good - Felt pretty good going out of the 66 mile aid station knowing the end was very near. Turned into an old barnsour horse and scooted home quickly.

Bad - Bonked again near mile 70. The heat was bad and I couldn't make as good of time. Got queasy. Wanted to either cry or puke, but could do neither. At least the finish line would be in 5 miles.

Bad - Mile 75 and we're not at the end. Dropped a few f-bombs as I passed through the cute downtown area of Waxahachie. I didn't want cute, though, I wanted the f'ing finish line. Still wanted to cry!

Good - Another poor, beat up soul rode with me the last 3 miles. Not much chatter, but it was good to have another soul to share the misery with us.

Bad - A bank thermometer showed 101 degrees at 1:15pm.

Good - Finally finished at mile 78. Debbie and Rick had finished recently and were in each car waiting. Deb did 46 and Rick had all kinds of issues with tires. Need to remember to ask him if he overinflated for the heat (likely). Just glad to be finished.

Great - Huge burger, shake and diet coke went down in seconds. Didn't think I was that hungry. The shake rocked the hot belly.

Good - Home. Shower. Nap. All is good with the world.

Needles and feet don't mix

So I won't gross you out too much but can I just tell you that having a needle stuck into your foot, or both feet even, numerous times isn't fun?

For those of you who are a little queasy about pain, I suggest you move onto another post, or better yet, another blog. If not, here are the gory details.

I had 2 plantar's warts, one on the ball of each foot, that were ugly, but didn't really bother me until recently. One got tender after a few rides this year so I decided that I needed to do something about it before RAGBRAI, otherwise it would be a long week.

So I was able to get in with my family doctor pretty quickly last Tuesday once the decision was made, which worked out perfect with timing. My aunt was coming to town for the weekend so I'd be healed enough to enjoy the weekend and because she was here, I would've missed out on workouts anyway.

I went in Tuesday afternoon with a fresh pedicure and flip flops, because of course, it'll be another week or two before I can get my toes looking good again. I talked to my doc who is an old, former flight surgeon about doing at least one, but preferably both feet. He warned me that it would hurt to have both feet down for a few days, but I told him that it was like pulling wisdom teeth; I might as well get them done at the same time and only endure the pain once. He tried to tell me.

He left for a few minutes, leaving me with the nurse and a good footsoak to soften things up a bit. Sadly, it wasn't as nice at some footsoaks I've had at the spa; this one had iodine or betadine (something freakishly orange) in the water and it didn't smell like lavender.

He came back in and asked again if I really wanted to do both. With no change in the answer, he grabbed a needle and filled it up with a numbing agent very much like the novocane you get at the dentist. And much like the novocane needle you get in your gums before getting a filling, this needle hurt like hell! He's a smart man and started with the foot that I was least concerned about, probably to make sure I went through with both of them.

I about came unglued on the table as he pierced the area around the ball of my foot over and over. Holy mother of God, I can't even describe the sharp pain, but it's enough to make your hair stand up on end, your palms to sweat, and even let a little tear go. Okay so I did more than let a tear go, I called him a few choice words that probably shouldn't be repeated. His nurse laughed. In his deadpan tone, he just said he'd been called these things before and started in on the other foot, not missing a beat.

For those of you with contacts, have you ever come back from one of those evenings after eating a bunch of hot wings and taken your contacts out? The first one is bad as your chili finger hits your eye, but the second one coming out is generally worse because you know what's coming. Well this second foot piercing was just like that. The nurse held my leg down as I hollered into a pillow to muffle the bellowing.

And with that, in a matter of a few minutes, I couldn't feel anything around the area. And I sighed. And asked for some paper towels for my sweat-soaked hands.

Thankfully, the lancing of the warts only took about 10 minutes and he was done with both. They were bandaged up with great purple gauze and dressings, but this was so big I couldn't get my shoes back on. Do you know how hard it is to just walk on the sides of your foot or on your heels? Not easy. And I have to tell you, you get some strange looks in Walgreen's as you hobble through the store because you missed a tactical error in getting large band-aids and antibiotic gels to clean it up later.

So a week later, I'm nearly healed, just in time to start riding again. The spots that were operated on are still tender and running isn't fun, but they'll be ready to go once RAGBRAI starts in a few weeks. I think and hope it was the right move at the right time.