Disappointing Maggie

Oh, crap...I overslept this morning! H usually gets up before me (yes, she is by far the more responsible one) and takes the pups for a morning walk. While she is gone, I usually set things up for the morning, throw on some running clothes, get the Gar.min ready, grab Maggie's running gear and meet her on the porch. This morning...I totally overslept! I never oversleep!

H sat on the edge of the bed and gently nudged me awake. I think she was "annoyed" that I wasn't up yet, but got over it once we agreed to forgo running. Maggie's a different story...I could here the tags on her collar jingle downstairs. She knows what days we run and what days we don't. She's smart and gets pretty "bummed" if we alter our routine. Sorry, Mags...I don't know what happened. I guess I'm just tired. Maybe we can go for a little jaunt after work...key word here is little.

Great, first I was having conversations with my thoughts and now I'm having them with my dog. What's next!?!

Peace Out.

Possessed GPS

The Gar.min is either possessed or I should sign up for the Beijing Olympics immediately. According to the Gar.min, I logged 5 miles in 35 minutes, which translates to about 5:11 per mile. That amazing considering I've constantly been a 10-minute gal (keep your mind out of the gutter!) for most of my life. My personal best was a 7:30 about a year ago and it only happened once or twice.

Lately, the Gar.min has been "acting up". There are days when it takes a lifetime to find a satellite signal, days it won't find one at all, or days it looses the signal mid-run. On this particular day, the damn thing was constantly loosing its signal and then it would recalibrate to try and make up the difference. That must be one hell of an algorithm to pinpoint the deltas between where you were when it lost the signal and where you currently are when it picked it up again, not to mention recalculating your pace and time traveled...please! I'd rather it just dropped the signal and not bother. I've had the Gar.min for over two years...I guess it's on it's last legs. It might be time to upgrade, but I'll certainly miss my tried and true companion!

Small Detour

H and I have been on edge since her cycle went biserk. We both have our own ways of dealing with the endless amount of uncertainties that is a part of the TTC process, but for the most part we both enjoy blowing off some steam by running. After I had a minor meltdown this morning when all the fertility monitoring gadgets indicated that H was still ovulating, I started out the day on H's bad side. On the way into work, we spent the entire time in silence. With all the tension of the situation, we just needed to hit the road.

H wasn't all that interested in running, but she humored me. So, we laced up the shoes for the second time this week, grabbed the Ga*rmin (GPS) watch, and headed out toward our usual route. H was "implying" that she was bored with running the same course, but then balked when I suggested an alternative. I guess I should mention that our unspoken agreement after our last insemination was that we would continue exercising, but just be sure that H takes it easy. My solution? If we go running, H is required to wear the heart rate monitor at all times and ease off if her heart rate exceeds 145 bpm (this is me pretending that I wear the pants in the family). The Ga*rmin lets you set alerts if you exceed certain zones, so I enabled the alert so we would know when her heart rate was getting too high. H was fine with this until she realized that all it took to set the alarm off was a hill. So, while H was back there cursing the Ga*rmin ("Oh, shut the fuck up!), I changed our course.

Our usual course has a "fork" in the trail where you can head towards the main road or wind through the residential developments. If you head downhill towards the main road, there is only one way back and that UP! It's a good 2 miles before you loop back off the main road and have to make the "dreaded" turn up our version of "heartbreak hill". Since the Ga*rmin was beeping at H on every hill, I thought I would be helpful and bypass the "evil" hill and go around. I figured if we just ran to the next main street, we could find our way back without too much trouble. In theory that was a good idea. But my little detour added another 2 miles and one very long, steep hill. H is convinced I just wanted the extra miles. Should I tell her that I planned for a 4 mile run before we even started? Yeah, no...I might have to sleep on the couch with the dogs! But, H is tired now, curled up with Bandito on the other end of the couch, quiet, not irritated and watching "So You Thin*k You Can Danc*e".

Open Roads and Belly Rubs

After a long, excruciatingly painful day in the office squabbling over .2 milliseconds (long story), I have yet to find a better remedy than lacing up the old running shoes and spending some quality time out on the open road. So that's exactly what H and I did. We leashed up Maggie and headed out on the trail about a 1/2 mile from our house. We're blessed that we have so many trails in our backyard, but having these trails so accessible doesn't come without a price. We live in hill country and there isn't a trail within 10 miles that doesn't come fully equipped with a hill or two. Before we get too far, H and I usually exchange a few words over how many miles and how much suffering we intend to endure.

Today, we settled on a nice three mile loop. Unfortunately, that loop starts out uphill and ends uphill. For the first part of the run, we wind through residential streets just to avoid the hill with the 10% incline. There's nothing worse than trying to get warmed up on an steep incline, so adding a few extra steps is worth it. By the time we reach the trail we've already knocked out a mile and we're warm enough we can really enjoy the back roads. There aren't that many areas left in our neighborhood that are not being developed or marked with some sort of land use action sign, but these trails are protected and offer the perfect landscape for any trail runner. It has been awhile since we played back in these parts of the woods, but it was invigorating to just breath in the fresh air and enjoy the scenery. It was surprising to see all the landscape littered with fallen pine trees from this past winter. Maggie enjoyed showing off her jumping skills, but I think she was embarrassed by our inability to "hurdle" the trees more efficiently. Apparently, we were slowing her down...she's very serious about her runs.

The last 1/2 mile or so takes us around the backside of Yellow lake. This is my favorite part of the run and not just because we're near the end, but because the vegetation is so pure, so fresh that it's impossible not to be reminded how simple life should be. There's usually ducks near the dock, birds singing across the lake, a crackle or two echoing through the trees, and the sound of our feet gliding over the dirt. Just past the dock, the music of Mother Nature is interrupted by the sounds of cars passing, and children playing at the park. By the time we reach home, there's only one thing left to do...sit on the porch and let Maggie enjoy her belly rubs!