So here it is. Last wrap up post before Monumental. The last month did not go as planned. The miles simply did not happen for a variety of reasons. Fire. Fatigue. A wonderful trip to Utah. I'll just have to see what the day brings on Saturday.
Atlas Peak Fire, Sunday October 8th
(photo credit Napa Valley Register)
Sunday 10/8 - Zero miles.
Monday 10/9 - 3 miles. Got up at 4 am to go to work. Got home from work in the evening and went to the fitness center to get some miles in. My legs though felt like wood and I was tired so I cut it short and went home.
I was showered and sitting in my recliner compressing my legs when my husband texted me.
Have you checked in on John? Fires ripped through his neighborhood last night with several fatalities & many many homes destroyed.
Fear rose up inside me. I called. His mailbox was full. I texted. I called his wife. Her phone rolled over to voicemail. I texted her too. I texted his PA. Then I went online. What I saw sent a chill through me. The first photo I saw was the Silverado Resort and Spa... on fire. A golf course separates the resort from his house... In the next article the Napa fire was referenced as the "Atlas Fire." Atlas Peak is behind his house. Atlas Peak Road runs around the Silverado Resort and the back of his Silverado Country Club neighborhood. The fire started on Atlas Peak.
After what felt like hours, John's PA finally texted me. She lives south of Napa. She said he had called into the hospital to let them know he planned to be there tomorrow and that his family had evacuated on Sunday night. She would tell him to call me when she saw him in the morning.
Tuesday 10/10 - 10 miles.
I didn't sleep at all on Monday night. Every time I did fall asleep I had this dream of John's garage and a pool area on fire... except John doesn't have a pool. I jumped every time my phone made a noise. Finally at 10 am he texted to say cell service was spotty and that they were safe. No one was allowed to go back into the burn area yet so he didn't know the status of his house. He would get back with me. I felt better he had texted but still had a very uneasy feeling.
What is it about tragedy that makes people fixate on it? It's like after the Twin Towers... everyone spent days glued to the TV watching the same scenes over and over and over again and hearing the same news over and over again, waiting to hear something new. I spent the day repeatedly looking online; ended up on the Napa Valley Register's FB site as they, being the local newspaper, had the most information... and photos. Photo after photo of burnt out houses and fire.
Run Club was nice because all I concentrated on was running. As soon as I was done though I was back to worrying about John. I didn't sleep at all. I woke up every hour.
Wednesday 10/11 - Zero miles.
Got up at 4 am to go to work, totally exhausted. I got a text around 10:30 am with this photo...
My heart sank. My phone rang minutes later and I could finally hear John's voice. They were at his parents house for now. They had self-evacuated with very little time on Sunday night. He had run Atlas Peak that morning and everything was fine. Later that evening they smelled smoke and saw a glow over the ridge. Next thing they knew there was fire coming down the hillside next to their house. They got their dogs and left with the clothes they were wearing. They lost everything. They had to have known, leaving their house that night, that the house was gone.
Needless to say, it was impossible to concentrate the rest of the day at work, but at least I finally got to hear his voice and there was some closure in knowing the house was gone. As devastated as I felt, I cannot even imagine how he and his family felt. I did finally sleep on Wednesday night though.
Thursday 10/12 - 10 miles
Easy run on the Monon.
Friday 10/13 - Zero miles.
The day got away from me so I thought I'd get my run in in the evening while G danced, however her class tonight was cut short so I didn't get a chance to run in the evening either.
Saturday 10/14 - Zero miles.
Original plan was to run a 5K in Salem, IN in the morning, shower and change in Columbus, and be at work in Bloomington by 2 pm. I needed 2 more Indiana Timing races to qualify for the overall end-of-year awards and I was currently in first place for the Female 45-49 age group. Since I was going to be out of town next weekend and I had gone to G's dance competition last weekend, this would be the only race in October I could do. If I did this, then the Turkey Trot in Seymour on Thanksgiving, I would have my 10 races. I didn't have my December schedule yet but I already knew I couldn't do the Reindeer Romp on 12/2 because G was dancing "Nutcracker" that weekend and there was only one race after that so I needed to do today's race and the Thanksgiving race to be eligible for awards.
Friday night I looked up directions to the race. It was 2 hours away with a 9 am start time. I'd have to get up at 5 am to leave by 6 am, be there by 8 am to register and warm up, awards were around 10:30 am, back to Columbus by noon, shower and change and be on the road to Bloomington by 1pm... but J needed me to drop some stuff at her dorm too so maybe leave even earlier... I packed my car on Friday night with my change of clothing, post-race food, food to eat at work on Saturday, and all the stuff J needed.
I went to bed early, then couldn't stay asleep. Woke up at 5 am. Had my coffee and oatmeal, and changed into my race clothes. I was tired. I didn't want to run...
At 5:45 am I decided I didn't want to race the rest of the year. I knew if I raced today and again on Thanksgiving I pretty much had the age group wrapped up. Claire would win the Female Overall, and Jane and Debra were going to battle it out for Second and Third Overall. That left me to win the age group... but I didn't want to spend 4 hours driving today, then work a full day, then drive home at midnight. I also didn't want to get up at the butt crack of dawn on Thanksgiving Day to drive an hour and a half to Seymour. I was done racing for the year. It was like the State Fair all over again. I didn't need another trophy.
I went back to bed.
23 miles for Week 20.
Sunday 10/15 - Zero miles. Worked all day.
Monday 10/16 - Zero miles. Day got away from me again. Quite honestly, I was just plain tired and I wanted to rest as I went to work to work in the evening to work the night shift.
Tuesday 10/17 - 9 miles.
Got home at 7:30 am and slept a couple hours. Got up in time to go to Run Club in the evening. Workout was 2 mile warm up, 5 miles at "pace", then 2 mile cool down. Once again I waffled on what my "pace" should be. I decided to run what felt comfortable and ended up running 8:39.09, 8:34.28, 8:26.26, 8:41.85, and 8:29.53. I was trying not to run any faster than 8:30 but overshot my slow down on mile 4, then it felt like a struggle to speed up again.
This would be my last Run Club session before Monumental as I was leaving for a week long trip to Utah on Saturday so I had a marathon strategy chat with coach Matt after the run. Mill Race showed I had plenty of sub-marathon pace speed for at least 13 miles. Question was how fast should I go? The reality was that I had no large distance base to fall back on. This training cycle is probably my lowest mileage marathon training cycle ever. Matt told me that without the distance base I had very little room for error (I'm thinking very very very little!)... but I did have experience and muscle memory. So... his advice was to go out with the 3:55 pace group (8:57 pace). That way I would avoid going out too fast but it would get me to a safe BQ and I could pick up the pace if I still felt good later in the race... but be patient for 18-20 miles. So that's the plan...
Wednesday 10/18 - 6 miles. Easy miles on the Monon.
Thursday 10/19 - 14 miles. This was going to be my last long run before Monumental and I had planned on running 20 but simply felt too exhausted to do it. Ugh. Not a good sign.
Friday 10/20 - Zero miles.
Saturday 10/21 - 5 miles.
Got up at 6 am to be out the door by 7 am catch a morning flight out to Utah for a week long Wilderness Medicine course. My running friend Cindy met me at the St. George airport and we had lunch together before she dropped me off at my hotel around 3 pm.
Cindy drove down 70 miles to get me from the airport.
That's some Sole Sister love!
I then stretched out and rested for a bit and met my hotel roommate Amber. We then met up with the rest of our crew for the week at 5 pm and had introductions over pizza and beer. It was still light out when we got done and I felt surprisingly good after traveling all day so I went out for a run. Ended up basically playing in traffic along a busy road until the sidewalks ended in both directions from the hotel and ran my last half mile in the parking lot but I got a run in.
34 miles for Week 21.
Week 22 was spent at a Wildness Medicine course in Utah. It was one of the greatest weeks I've had in a long time. We hiked breathtaking trails everyday and primitive camped all week. I'm planning a post about it next week.
With all the hiking, camping and lectures I didn't have much time to run. I got one run in on Wednesday 10/25. Ran with two of the guys at 7 am up at about 6000 feet. First couple miles felt great... 8:38, 8:25, 8:18. I tanked after that, got short of breath and the horizon started swaying from side to side. Ended up having to take a couple walk breaks to get back to camp. Ran a total of 6.6 miles, 9:49 average pace.
6.6 miles plus a boatload of hiking for Week 22.
Sunday 10/29 - Zero miles. Got up at 4:30 am to get to the airport and fly home, then went out to dinner in the evening to celebrate G's 15th birthday. I pretty much passed out after that.
Monday 10/30 - 4 miles.
Thank Gawd I scheduled myself an extra day off before going back to work! I was so tired I could barely get up on Monday plus I was stiff and sore all over (I hiked up Angel's Landing at Zion National Park on Saturday). Finally hauled myself out of bed cause I had scheduled a massage with Craig at 11 am, then probably had the most painful leg massage ever. I almost screamed and told Craig to stop when he rolled out my calves (but didn't). Same with the quads. Lived through it and actually felt 100 times better once I crawled off the table.
Angel's Landing, Zion National Park - it was freakin' steep!
(not my photos either!)
Ran 4 miles on the treadmill at the Y in the evening. It was gray and rainy and in the 40's. After a week of glorious weather I just wasn't up to running in the rain.
Tuesday 10/31 - Zero miles. Got up at 4 am to go to work. We were working a doctor short today so instead of getting off at 3 pm I was scheduled til 4 pm... then the next doc coming on didn't know the schedule had changed and didn't show til 4:50pm. Got home around 6 pm and dropped on the couch, done for the day.
Wednesday 11/1 - Zero miles. Up at 4 am again to go to work. Slammed at work all day again and could barely keep my eyes open driving home. Oh... and it was sleeting when I woke up and turned into snow flurries, then back to rain. Totally gross cold day. I dropped on the couch again and could not get up. Happy November...
Thursday 11/2 - 4 miles.
Slept in til 9 am and felt much better. I'm suppose to be loading up on calories this week but I hardly ate on Tuesday and Wednesday because I was too busy at work then too tired to eat by the time I got home. Tried to eat a big breakfast then went to Blue Mile to pick up my GUs for the race. Found a new flavor - Chocolate Coconut - so picked up one of those along with my standbys, Espresso Love and Salted Caramel. Next stop was Goodwill for my throw away jacket. I've been checking the weather. As long as the rain holds off in the morning I should be good. Stopped in at the fitness center for 4 easy miles on the hamster track. It was still rainy out and I wanted a nice easy run and then a good stretch afterwards so I ran indoors. Final stop was Hotbox Pizza where I picked up their Pizza-Of-The -Week for lunch.
(FYI, if you have a Hotbox Pizza, you can always get their pizza of the week for 50% off by using code POTW. Large pizza ends up being about $8.)
So there you have it. 8 training miles for Week 23.
Goal tonight is to consume more calories and get a good night's sleep as today is the day that matters. I'll hit the Expo tomorrow to get my race packet and go over my race strategy again. Hopefully the aid stations will line up with me taking a GU every 4 miles.
Come what may!
Remembering happier times on the Silverado Trail
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