Virtual Running Buddies 5/29

[SusanMac]

Happy Friday, runners! I'll start the week off again, since I'm doing some catching up on all things web.

My run last night was really great. It was an unusually small group of only 6 people, and all men except for me. At first I was bummed, just knowing I'd be running by myself, didn't bring my headphones, etc. But, quickly pushed that out of my mind so I could have a good run. Well, we got started & 2 quick guys who wanted an 'easy' night took off. For the rest of the run it was me & 3 guys! They weren't even holding back for me, it was their normal pace. For 2 of them, it was their first time running w/this group, so suddenly I was the old-timer. Very fun to meet some new people and chat to make the run go by quickly. All of us had moved here from somewhere else, so had a lot to chat about. I hope they decide to come back again next week. Gorgeous evening.

Planning a bike ride later today. And, signing up for a 5 mile trail run for next weekend.

Anyone else have fun plans for the weekend?

[TKay]

Susan - Thanks for kicking us off again this week. Glad the run turned out to be a good one. I tend to seek solitude when I work out. But when I've had someone next to me, the time always goes more quickly.

Les - I'd agree that my dental issues are odd. To explain, I had an implant put in last year. The gums over it never really healed all the way. In other words, they remained receded. I guess they pulled up enough that it caused the gums surrounding the tooth next to it to split. Does that make sense? This is way in the back of my mouth, so I didn't even realize this was happening. (FWIW, the implant replaced the tooth I unexpectedly had pulled last year.) Okay, TMI? The dentist did nothing but refer me to a periodontist. Take care of yourself. Sometimes our bodies just need downtime to heal.

Got in a good TM run after all yesterday. Planning a weight walk and some abs for this morning. Then I'm out for the weekend.

Tonight is a campout at the elementary school and tomorrow is a big family wedding (my niece). Should be quite a show! The celebration has not been without its family disagreements. I hope all goes well and it's a beautiful day for everyone.

Happy weekend, all. Catch up with you on Monday.

[SusanMac]

TKay - I have an implant where I think my gums look funny and are definitely still receded. My dentist insists it's normal & healthy. She's been saying that for about 5 years now, so I believe her. Still looks funny to me, though, and definitely stands out to me in photos. Oh well.

Enjoy your champagne & wedding cake!

Didn't get a workout in today. Should've gone this morning, as the afternoon has now gotten busy. We are headed out to hear live Brazilian music down by the lake tonight.

[Leslie Ferguson]

Thanks for starting this week Susan. It sounds like you had a good run last night and lucky you, running with 3 guys. ;) Sounds like a great time. Almost like the old days when I used to run with 3 or 4 women. I hope your bike ride goes well tonight.
TKay - That's not TMI, especially since I'm a candidate for an implant for the one I just had pulled. I hope you have a good weekend at the wedding.

I ran this morning (noon). It was a good hour run and I'm starting to get a little more accustomed to the heat, not enjoying it mind you but getting accustomed to it. I'm not sure what is in the offing tomorrow, maybe a long ride on my bike or a long run (I need to start doing those so I can be ready for the half in September). Of course there will be dinner with Kathy B and her DS tomorrow evening (pictures may be taken too).

Happy trails all and have a great weekend,
Les

[Leslie Ferguson]

Back-to-back... I decided to take a ride today and ended up with something that I've never had before. I fractured my seatpost. :eek: Luckily it didn't break off completely because that would have caused a nasty fall. Now I've got to get a new post. :( not what I wanted to do with $100 that is burning a hole in my pocket. (NOT!)

Still, all things considered I had a great ride.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and happy trails,
Les

eta: Just got back from dinner with Kathy B and her son. LW (my Kathy) and I had a smashing time with her and Michael. Another great time meeting a VRB IRL. :D (Like there was any doubt) Pictures will have to wait though, today hasn't been my day... dropped my camera and broke it as I was sitting down for dinner. Seatpost and camera both today - that will be the last thank you.
Happy Saturday... Les

[Robyn1007]

Les what a rough day! Glad you got to meet Kathy B but ugh, so frustrating on the seat post and camera. Maybe check ebay for the seat post?

Susan the Brazilian music sounds fun, how was it?

Tkay hope the wedding went okay. I do have a vague recollection of something weird about it.

I took yesterday off somewhat unexpectedly. Time just got away from me. This morning I went to a pilates class at the gym which I really enjoyed. I think I'll try to work pilates in more regularly. Tomorrow I've got a brick workout which will include some hill intervals on the bike. I'm heading out to my race venue to do them so it will be a multi-faceted trip.

[SusanMac]

Happy Monday gang!

Had an awesome bike ride on Sat. 25 miles. Quite a few hills. Not particularly tough in theory, but I'm still building my base. Bode neighborhood run on Mon. I'm leading the ride tonight for my cycling club, so will get in another 25.

Les - wow, I hope you have better karma this week! That's very cool you got to meet KathyB IRL!

TKay - looking forward to your wedding report :-)

Robyn - the pilates sounds great. I'm looking for a yoga class myself right now, and not having luck finding something that fits my schedule. Harumph.

Is anyone else out there?? Could be a start of summer thing, not being online so much

[Leslie Ferguson]

Robyn - Sometimes an unexpected rest day is what's needed. I hope your legs are better and that you had a good trip out to your race site. I checked on ebay and seat posts aren't really cheaper there than at the LBS (maybe $4-5). Just not sure I'm ready to drop $70 on the bike considering all the other money that's been spent in the past week.
Susan - Great ride (25 miles is a long ride in my book). There's better karma already this week although I'm no closer to getting my bike fixed - but I did get to meet a HS buddy who I hooked up with on FB for lunch today and my summer internship is gaining definition day by day (not bad considering I'm starting the internship on Wednesday).

I took an hour's run today - had great conditions: ~74 and low humidity and a little breeze. All things considered, I can't complain. Off to swing some dinner and start packing for Wednesday's trip. Oh and I see the dentist in the am to get the extraction site looked at (stitches came out last night).

Happy trails,
Les

[Robyn1007]

Susan I am so jealous of your Bode runs, I wish I had a dog to run with!

Les I totally understand the reluctance to spend money right now. I thought my heart rate monitor had died yesterday as it was frozen when I got done riding but before running. My coach said just take it off and we'll deal with it later and I literally threw it into my trunk I was so frustrated. Fortunately I was able to reset it but still, the idea of a $100 item failing on me right now totally did me in.

I did the brick yesterday in a lot of pain. Apparently the pilates class found my hamstrings and boy it's been painful. I can still barely move them and certainly not without pain. But I did the hill intervals and then we did a short run down into the park to the water (about a mile was all I could do). We asked the park rangers who said the water was about 65 degrees so we waded in and I stood with the cool water on my legs for about 15 minutes which felt awesome. Nothing today but planning a run tomorrow. First ladies group ride of the season is Wednesday where I'm conducting a flat tire clinic.

[SusanMac]

Robyn - That's awesome you got to preview the race site! Forgot to answer your question...unfortunately the Brazilian group was kind of lame. We left early. Oh well.

Les - Hope the tooth recovery goes well. Are you & LW ready to jump into your away-time? That would be a big shift for me.

Great bike ride last night with my cycling club. We had 5 women, and I only knew 1. So, fun to get to know & ride with new people. I got in 28 miles....and my legs are happily sore today. It was supposed to rain all day, so I was going to claim a rest day. But now it's nice out. Hmmmm. Decisions.

[oceanjasper]

SusanMac - Way to go on holding your own with them boys! And also for the long bike ride. You must be in amazing shape. On the last thread, you asked me about the race I am doing. I posted the link on that thread, but will also post it HERE (http://www.edgetoedgemarathon.com/). I am on a relay team and will be doing the last leg, which is 9.2km.

Les - How fun that you got to meet KathyB! Sorry to hear about your broken seatpost and camera.

Robyn1007 - Hope your hammies are feeling better today! I did some pilates classes before, but I could never really tell if I was doing it right. Clearly you have it nailed!

I have the rest of the week off work and I will be heading out of town for a few days. I picked an amazing week, as the weather is supposed to be about 86 degrees F for the next three days. Summer has arrived! Woohoo!

I went for a run last Thursday, which seems like a long time ago now! Here is the scoop:

Distance: 5.8 km (3.6 miles)
Time: 35:14
Pace: 6:04 min/km (9:46 min/mile)
Calories: 370

Have a great week, everyone!

[Leslie Ferguson]

OJ - 86 up your way? :eek: That's terrible. Hope it doesn't stay too long. (Unless you like it that warm then...) Sadly, I think I'm going to let the seat post wait for a while (more to follow). Have a good week out of town.
Robyn - I am totally with you when you talk about singing hammies after a little different workout. Hope they calm down soon. I've heard about getting in cold water to help tight muscles - a friend of mine waded in the water at Va Beach in the winter a couple years ago (temp definitely below 65) because of her sore hams and IT band - she loved it. Too cold for my blood thank you. Glad your HRM was salvagable - that's $100 you didn't ahve to spend.
Susan - I think it finally set in last night that I was going to be away for more than a couple days at a time (probably won't come back home until next weekend) - LW is a little unhappy about it (as you can imagine) because she's gotten used to having me around the house every night. :D Great ride too and I bet your legs are happily sore.

My day... a bust. The work from last week was doing well, thankfully. However, there is a little more work that needs to be done in the cavernous mouth of mine. The least of which was (drumroll) a temporary crown this morning (with the permanent being installed in 2 weeks). It looks like my seat post (and 9 of its buddies) is residing in a molar. :( Needless to say, packing would have made a run or ride difficult but the anesthetic wearing off and the mounting pain isn't doing anything for my karma. So... off to hit some ES tylenol and pack.

Happy trails all,
Les

[TKay]

Heading for a TM run right now. Other than that, nothing to report. I'll post a wedding follow-up at some point. In sum, the setting was beautiful (a winery), my niece (the bride) looked glorious and the food was great. There were some fun family issues, but that's to be expected. My favorite part? The not-so-favored groom sitting down after the dollar dance to count out his earnings in front of the guests. Now that's class. :rolleyes:

More stories another time. As you were, runners.

[VictoriaL]

Hi all!

First a huge congratulations to Robyn for completing the Bolder Boulder! :D

Les, I'm so sorry about your dental woes. And the bike post. It seems like you're getting slammed, here, and I hope that things start getting better on all fronts soon.

Tkay, the wedding sounds fun-- I hate those stuffy ones where everything goes perfectly! I can say that-- we eloped! ;)

It has been a busy few weeks and doesn't look like it's slowing down any time soon. I ran slightly over 4 miles the other day, and my knee has been bothering me ever since. A sharp pain, on the inside part of my right knee, which is worse when I walk (or run) down stairs, hills, etc. Should I be concerned? I ice it when I'm done running, but tonight I was doing dishes after dinner, turned and twisted it a bit, and the ice isn't doing much.

Off to get a grocery list together for tomorrow. Luckily it's supposed to rain all day since that discourages me from spending too much time outside planting, weeding, and doing other such things that make my back ache (as it is doing now).

Take care, and happy running/ biking/ etc! :)

[Kathy B]

Hi, all! I got back from DC Monday evening, and just took yesterday to catch my breath. It was a busy trip, but I think DS is as settled in as we could hope for. We really enjoyed getting to meet Les and Kathy...what a fun bonus that turned out to be! :) DS did get a picture on his cell phone, but since he is in DC with no PC, I will have to wait until he returns to post it. :(

Vicci, hope your knee feels better soon. I find I have more random aches and pains as time goes on. They come and go, and I think it is just part of getting older. :o If you didn't do anything specific to injure it, I would guess you just need to rest it a little and maybe do some exercises that strengthen your quadriceps to help support your knees.

Les, hope the ES Tylenol did the trick for you! I don't blame Kathy for being bummed about the whole summer ahead, and you are OOT for a large part of it. You will have to plan some really fun stuff on the WE's! :)

Robyn, a belated congrats on your 10K race! Way to go cutting your 6 mile time and coming in so close to your goal... great job!! And thanks for posting the pictures. It looks like a beautiful and fun day. Already setting goals for next year, eh? Go Robyn!! :cool:

OJ, good work on your run, and I hope you enjoy your time off.

Susan, you have really been consistent getting in your rides and runs. When exactly is your trip to Singapore? Are you googling running trails there, or will the trip be to short or busy for that?

Tkay, glad to hear the wedding went well. Hope you got your TM run in.

After dropping DS off at his new job on Monday, I decided to take a walk around the National mall since I had several hours before my flight. It was beautiful weather, and there was a lot to look at. Unfortunately I was NOT looking at the sidewalk when it turned into a gravel trail, and I twisted my ankle pretty good. (Or should I say "bad"?) It is still puffy and discolored, but fortunately not too painful anymore, so I will try an easy 2 miler this AM and see how it goes.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

[newsomz]

Hi all,

No time to read.. only time to post :( I'll have to catch up with everyone another week! I did a 5k this weekend and got my 2nd best time ever! Granted I've only run 3 5k's :) But! I was very, very happy with my time. I was planning to run slower but ran into a friend and ended up running with her most of the way. She pushed me for sure! I began track workouts this week. Yay! We got a group of 4 together and we'll be doing weekly track workouts. This week was 5 x 400m at a 2:00 or under per lap. I hit around 1:50 on most laps. Great workout! Tomorrow is a 3 miler and then I'll probably shoot for 4-5mi this weekend.

I've been uber busy with school. Two tests & a quiz this week plus check-offs. Had a great day at the hospital today though with the patients. Everyone was in a great mood today!

Happy trails!

[Robyn1007]

Happy National Running Day to my fellow runners!

Just a quick post here before I run for the shower. I got a 4 mile run in today with a 1/2 mile warm up, 3 mile fast run and then 1/2 mile cool down. The 3 miles was done in 28 minutes! :D Major PR for me. Tonight was our first ladies ride of the evening. All went well until we lost 2 riders at the end. Not good. We got them back eventually but it was stressful for both my leader and I. I bear some responsibility because I had the first half of the group and didn't stop to wait at that point but I didn't realize we had spread out quite so far. :o Changes will be made for next week.

[VictoriaL]

KathyB good to hear that you got DS settled in, and was able to enjoy the “bonus” of meeting Les! :D I’m sorry to hear about your ankle—were you walking with someone or did a Good Samaritan stop to assist you? It sounds as though it was (and still may be) painful. Take care of the ankle now that you’re back home. But, funny, I don’t see you sitting and resting it at all!

Les I hope that this week is ending on a better note than it began, and your dental problems are being corrected as painlessly as possible. And that your trip yesterday was easy and uneventful.

And Carrie sounds awfully busy, but in a good way. Congrats on finishing the 5k with your second-best time!

Robyn I had no idea that yesterday was National Running Day, but I don’t think I could have fit it in. I shall celebrate today. ;) Your 3 miles in 28 minutes makes me feel terrapin-ish!

I spent the entire day yesterday running errands and my knee just ached, so at my next-to-the-last stop I bought a brace. I didn’t know if it was what I needed, but the box said “moderate support” and has some "metal strips” to control movement. I hoped that it would help.

Anyway, OT a bit, but I finally arrived back home a little after 5. Jack unloaded the car and I figured that, since it was cool and rainy with the next several days forecast to be sunny and warm, I would turn on the oven and get some things done. I needed to bake bread, a birthday cake for Jack, and I had bought 5 pounds of ground turkey to make a few months’ worth of meatballs so I might as well do that, too. I started to proof yeast and cleared off a part of the counter for the KA, figuring that I would unpack the grocery bags while the bread was being kneaded. I realized that I was out of oat flour and would need to grind some rolled oats, so out came the food processor as well. My knee throbbed, and I slipped on the brace and decided that this would be a good “test” for it.

I started to get the meatball ingredients together, turned on the oven, saw that the yeast was nice and bubbly, reached for my apron, and the phone rang. My dear husband was still outside, unloading flats of flowers now, and a shrub, so I reached for the handset. I really hate this particular phone, it’s awkward to use and it you don’t have it positioned perfectly it is difficult to hear. And, unfortunately, I was using my left hand as I was also trying to slip the apron over my head with my right. I heard a faint voice at the end of the line say something about “Dave”. Transferring the handset to my other hand, futilely trying to tie the apron with one hand, I politely informed the caller that he must have the wrong number.

“Aunt Vicci? This is Dave.” Hmmm, I thought, he called me “aunt” and since I had just been e-mailing my Florida nephew, my mind thought that he said “Steve”. “Steve!” I replied, “how great to hear from you! How are you doing?”

*note, my husband’s family lives out-of-state; we see them every couple of years and hardly ever talk via telephone*

“No, Aunt Vicci,” the young man ever so patiently explained, “not Steve, this is Dave”. Ah. Did I feel like the elderly aunt or what? Should I have just screamed “EH? I can’t hear you!” into the phone?

Cripes. Things are falling apart all over my body, know that I am getting older, but do I have to act like it????

So I apologized, and he very diplomatically refused to reply when I explained that I must be getting old. We chatted for a few minutes and I passed the phone to Jack so they could talk about hockey.

Things like this happen and it really bothers me. Jack, also being very diplomatic, brought up the several “why’s” as to my mistake, but it is still annoying!

Anyway, by the evening’s end (we finally ate dinner a little after 8), I had baked and frozen 6 dozen meatballs, a banana-rum cake, and three loaves of 4-grain bread. Not bad, but I still had flashes of being a doddering, elderly aunt! And the brace worked very well, I realized that when I sat down around 9:30. Although my knee still hurt a little, it was much less than it would have been had I not used the brace.

So I will wear it when I run this afternoon. I did a totally crappy 2 miles on Tuesday because the knee was bothering me so much (and the 95% humidity did not help), so I hope to get in at least double that today. Fingers crossed!

A wave to everyone (where has Nat been?) and I’ll see you all on the next thread.