In Every Run That Must Be Done; There is an Element of Fun (comments welcome)

[Naomeri]

Maple Grove Lions 10K

It was a beautiful morning for a race, but I was pretty tired from staying up late on Friday looking at Northern Lights (I’ll do a separate post of my best pics)

I had picked up my bib and shirt Friday after work because they really didn’t want people picking them up on race morning, even though that would’ve been way more convenient for me. Maple Grove is 30-35 minutes from me, so spending an hour for a 2 minute errand is irritating.

Anyway, the race started and ended at Maple Grove Senior High, so there was great on-site parking. I dropped my bag at bag check and kind of wandered around for a bit. There was also a Half and a 5K running, the half started first at 7:30, and the 5K started after the 10K at 8:00. After the half runners got on their way, I lined up toward the back and on the right side for the 10K. My goal for the race was not to race it, but to treat it like a catered training run. So I kept my intervals at 30/60, rather than the 30/45 I would normally use for a 10K, but I did run the downhills, regardless of what my intervals were telling me to do.

The race started with a full loop around the track, and my playlist had jokes and started with “Right Round” Because I chose to stick with my intervals right from the start, rather than keeping up with the crowd, I quickly ended up at the pack of (if not the back of) the pack. It wasn’t a great feeling, but I tried to just keep on keeping on. Luckily, there was a nice downhill less than half a mile into the race and I permanently passed a number of people I had been behind. It was shortly past the first mile that the fastest 5K runners passed me. And occasionally, the half leaders would zip by me when our courses converged.

The course was super clearly marked for all 3 races. You just followed the signs that matched your bib color (yellow for half, orange for 10K, green for 5K). Most of the race was on paved nature trails, with the occasional jaunt into a neighborhood, including one that had a great divided road with a big greenway and paved trail going down the middle of it. There were volunteers at almost all intersections to point the way and cheer people on, and police manning the very few busier crossing points. I would definitely run this course again as an actual race.

There was a nice section along the north shore of Rice Lake.




Someone along the lake path had a little collection of painted rocks, fairy houses, and other random bits of stuff.



Somewhere in the fifth mile, we turned east onto a very sunny trail, and my playlist had another joke: “Soak Up The Sun”

There were some people I was hoping to pass in the last mile, because we’d been leapfrogging for a while, but I just couldn’t do it. But I wasn’t last, and I was ahead of more people than I thought! I finished 229/250 overall, and 136/151 women, in a time of 1:21:10. My watch only measured 6.13 miles, but I think it lost me a few times along the way.



After I drank my water and ate some chips, I walked back to the car and headed home. I ate some more food, got cleaned up, and then had to head out to my great aunt and uncle’s house to do some work for their big garage sale that starts next weekend.

Sadly, we didn’t get a repeat show from the Aurora on Saturday night, just some white streaky bits before the clouds rolled in.




Sunday, I had to help my grandma with her outdoor work (it was Mother’s Day after all) so I didn’t get onto the treadmill until 10 pm, and I only managed 2/3 miles of my progression run. My legs just felt heavy and it wasn’t a very good run, and another mile wasn’t going to make it any better. I feel bad that I cut it short, and that I skipped an easy 3 mile run this week, but, on the other hand, my long run for the week was only supposed to be 4 miles, and I ran a 10K instead, so I’m only short about 2 miles on the week.

And my estimated current fitness changed again, getting closer to where Runna thinks I’ll be at the end of my plan. I’d say that the current 10K estimate is accurate—if I’d been running 30/45, I think I could’ve found 3 minutes to shave off the race on Saturday.



In critter news, one of my chipmunks has gifted me with 2 little babies! They’re too shy to get pictures of yet, but their mama only just brought them out of the den for the first time yesterday, so I’ve got plenty of time to work my Disney Princess magic on them.

Here’s Rocky



Bashful (FKA Happy)



And Mama Red, who isn’t ready to take food directly from my hand, but if I put some peanuts down and back off about 2 feet, she’s happy to sit and munch on them while I watch.

 

[Naomeri]

Northern Lights May 10, 2024

These are unedited pictures take in my backyard with my iPhone 11 Pro in night mode. The camera could see the Aurora so much better than my eyes could!!

 

[jmasgat]

Great photos (race and AB)! As much as I would love to see AB, I just can't stay up that late. Still, one day I will go to Iceland, and force myself to.

my playlist had jokes and started with “Right Round”

See, if one is going to do music, this is how to do it!

 

[Naomeri]

Great photos (race and AB)! As much as I would love to see AB, I just can't stay up that late. Still, one day I will go to Iceland, and force myself to.

Honestly, I took my pictures at about 9:45pm, but doing that pushed the rest of my nighttime routine later

 

[col1]

Congrats on the 10k…. The rock village was cool

Baby chipmunks that is so amazing.

I had the same experience with the Northern Lights, my camera could see them better that my own eyes.

It was a bucket list item for me so was very excited.

 

[avondale]

Amazing about the aurora! Great photos! It was cloudy for us, BOOO.

Also, the 10k looked like a very nice race!

 

[Naomeri]

11 Days Until: Human Powered Health 10 Miler

Shockingly, I managed to complete 3/4 scheduled runs last week. I did decide to drop my Pilates and strength programs though, it was just too much pressure to get things done. Running is the most important thing for me.

My whole week was mixed up because originally, I had scheduled my runs for Tues/Fri/Sat/Sun this week due to my great-aunt’s big garage sale starting on Thursday. But then my stupid cousin decided that he’s planning to move his family out to New Jersey, so he and his wife needed to drive out there and scope it out, so his kid needs to stay with us from Thursday to Tuesday. And I’d be on kid duty all day Friday and most of Saturday. So Saturday’s easy run became Wednesday’s easy run (I do know enough not to do my speed workouts on back-to-back days) and Friday’s speed run became Saturday’s speed run. I was hoping I could find time for my long run on Sunday, but the morning phone call with my mother got delayed and then we were gonna go play mini golf and get dinner and ice cream, so the time never materialized (technically, I had time in the evening, but running after a burger, fries, and ice cream cone seemed like a recipe for disaster )

Although I skipped Sunday’s long run (4.6 miles) I did spend more than 2 hours over 3 different days playing soccer with a 7 year old boy, so I wasn’t exactly lounging around. And I managed to get both my speed workouts done, even though I had exactly 0 desire to do it on Saturday after playing soccer in the early afternoon and then hanging out at the garage sale for 4 hours.

Tuesday’s speed workout was Rolling 300s (ignore that it says “recovery” on my spreadsheet, it’s a multipurpose tracker for any workout with even-distance intervals) and I did it on the treadmill. I was a bit slow on the first “fast” interval, and a bit fast on the last “slow” (although that was actually the one that was almost the correct pace) and my treadmill continues to not get me running at the proscribed speed, but I think I’m about in the right place effort-wise, so I’m going to stick with using the MPH listed in the workouts.



Wednesday was a 3.4 mile easy run (no faster than 13:25 pace)—my splits were 13:41, 13:37, 13:31, and a 13:33 pace for the last .41 miles, so I was right on. I did my run over my lunch break because we were going to see MJ at The Orpheum on Wednesday night.

Thursday was a long day at the garage sale, followed by 42 minutes of soccer in comfortable shade. Friday was 37 minutes of soccer in the blazing sun Saturday was 33 minutes of soccer in the blazing sun, 4 hours at the garage sale, plus my .25 repeats on the treadmill in the evening. I really really wanted to quit about 5 different times, but I just kept going. There’s no way I could’ve done these any faster, so I guess it’s a good thing that 5.3 mph on my treadmill doesn’t actually make me run an 11:20 pace. I’m just happy that they’re reasonably consistent all the way through the 10 reps.



Here is where my training estimate stands after 3 (mostly) completed weeks of training



The mini golf place we went to on Sunday also has some farm animals, and a whole big sculpture garden. I’ll do a separate post with pictures from the place. It’s actually right off one of my regular running trails, so sometime I’m going to bring some cash with me, run 2 miles there, play a round of mini golf, and then run back to my car.

Doesn’t that sound like something we should be able to do at Disney?? Well, I guess you can run from Epcot, Hollywood Studios, or one of the Crescent Lake resorts over to Fantasia Gardens, play, and then run back.


My little cousin loves to help me feed the chipmunks
Here he is with Rocky in his hand



And here he is with King



We had some rain early Friday evening, and ended up with a double rainbow! It was actually still raining when I went out to take this picture over our neighbor’s house.



Oh! I almost forgot! I had a close encounter with a doe in our yard on Sunday night. I think she’d tucked her fawn away somewhere in our woods (does often bring their fawns to play in our “park” in the woods because it’s very sheltered and there’s lots of space for them to race around) because she wasn’t as skittish as deer usually are, I was able to talk to her and get within 15 feet or so without her spooking at all.

 

[Naomeri]

Big Stone Mini Golf and Sculpture Garden (part 1)

There were some seriously weird sculptures and stuff here—so much so that I think I need 2 posts for it all

There was a “life-sized” Sasquatch made of old tires (grandmother for scale)



There was a pig and a chicken making eggs and bacon, also made of old tires. I quite like that they’ve got aprons, complete with pockets.


There was this carved wood sculpture of cats sleeping on sheep



The goats had their very own cherries and spoon bridge (modeled after Minneapolis’ famous Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden)


Look at this adorable baby goat!!


Okay, back to weird sculptures. There was a dragon slingshotting a dove



A goat driving a plow pulled by seahorses



And a frog playing an electric guitar and singing, while also trying to eat the bug on his microphone



And this giant rock, which someone carved to look like it was being squeezed into this shape by the wire wrapped around it


They also had this giant slab of granite laid over 2 giant hunks of tree trunk with a metal fence in the middle for ping pong (the paddle and balls were stored in a mailbox nearby, which was terribly clever) My grandma is the world’s greatest accidental sports photographer—she couldn’t have taken this picture on purpose if she’d tried!)

 

[Naomeri]

Big Stone Mini Golf and Sculpture Garden (part 2)

Rock, Paper, Scissors



A flying pig


A giant shrimp or something


A happy dog



A shiny rhino



A woolly mammoth, as seen through a stone arch a la Stonehenge



A big-a** snapping turtle—I couldn’t get my little cousin in the picture, but this thing could eat good-sized children easily


A bear playing an accordion (maybe he could join the Country Bear Jamboree?)


This freaky fish monster



And finally, a chicken riding a unicycle

 

[avondale]

Those are some very strange sculptures! Probably would be extra funny in person so you could see all the details.

 

[Naomeri]

8 Days Until: Stars & Stripes 5K

It’s been a while (again)

After my 10 Miler on June 1, I took an unscheduled break from running for a variety of reasons (more on that later)

Anyway, the race went alright. It was hillier than I expected, and I haven’t been running outside enough to be ready for the humidity. But it didn’t rain, and the sun held off until I was finished. I don’t have much in the way of details of who I passed, because there was a half marathon that followed the same course as the 10, up until the 9.5 mile point, so I don’t know if the people I passed were in my race or the other race. I do know that I came in 159/164. I also came in in the top 10 of my age group (nevermind that there were only 9 women in my age group and I was #9 ) My official finish time was 2:19:50.

I got a couple good pictures. The first one must have been from the beginning of the race, because that was the only time I was near that many people.





So, about my unscheduled break. My grandma wanted me to take a picture of a big branch that fell in a storm overnight, so I went down and did that while I was still wearing my post-race Sanuk flip flops. That was all fine and good, until I decided to relocate her garden art from under the branch, in case it fell all the way to the ground. I slipped on some wet mulch on a hill and my right leg went forward and my left leg went under me. Luckily, I didn’t myself…much.

Spoiler: Only click if you want to know the details of my minor injury

I’ve had a messed up big toenail since a virtual half marathon last August, and the end of the nail was raised (compared to the new growth, which was coming in normally) and when I slipped, it caught on the mulch and ripped partially away from the nail bed and so I had to cut away half my toenail and release some infection a few days later. So I thought it was a good idea to let the nail bed heal up before I tried running again.

I ran last night on the treadmill and it was totally fine, so I think I’m good to go.

Here’s the branch. This came off the same tree that dropped a big branch last June, so we’re shopping around for someone to deal with the fallen branch, and take out the whole tree later this year.



I got my Luisa skirt for my MNSSHP costume, and I love it so much (it’s been ironed since this picture was taken )!



I’ve been trying to take more interesting pictures of my chipmunks lately.

Here’s Bashful hiding with his food in his stump



Here’s baby Chip (brother of Dale, obviously)



Here’s Rocky, looking concerned about what some other chipmunk is chirping about.



And here’s King, wondering why I’ve got a camera instead of food (the food was on a different rock and he was being lazy)



And also King, in an accidentally NSFW shot

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Great costume! Glad your toe has recovered enough for running again

 

[superchime]

I am always here for more chipmunk photos!

 

[Naomeri]

3rd Run-iversary/40 Days Until: Race for the Kids 10 Miler

It’s officially been exactly 3 years since my first-ever run!!

I’ve done a complete reset on training, starting last week (and I still only managed to do 2/4 runs ) I used Runna to set up a beginner-level 6 week crash training for my 10 miler. I just did one a month ago, so it’s not like I’m starting completely from scratch, but I need to accept that I can’t pick up where I left off on the old plan anymore. I did a total of 4 runs in the entire month of June, including my race on June 1.

Life is very hectic, my aunt moved down from Duluth, which is 3 hours away, to Plymouth, which is 35 minutes away. She’s never had to do basically anything for herself, so she doesn’t know how to do basic things like hanging shelves or pictures, or dealing with hooking up tvs. So I’ve been forced to make half a dozen trips to her place to do annoying things that take hours, and they always seem to come up on days that I planned to run.

Work is continuing to be difficult, but I’m keeping my head above water.

I finally managed to get an appointment for an ADHD evaluation, after my initial referral went nowhere, and an appointment with a therapist went nowhere (because he wasn’t qualified to do the evaluation). I had the initial interview on last Wednesday, and the full evaluation is scheduled for July 24. The doctor seemed to agree with my self-diagnosis, but obviously, we have to go through all the proper things. I hoping I can continue limping along in training through the summer and then jump into Dopey training with both feet in the fall.

I did both of my runs for the last week yesterday, back-to-back. They were only 2.2 miles each, and I didn’t see why I shouldn’t do 4.5 miles in one run. The first half was just easy pace. The second half was a half mile warm up, followed by 1.2 miles at 12:45 pace, and finished with a half mile cool down. My speed portion was 13:04, but with a T+D of 134, 12:45 becomes 13:16, so I’d say I did alright. After my cooldown run, I still had almost a half mile to get home, but I was done in, and so I walked.

 

[NYC_MW]

Happy 3 year runningversary!

 

[col1]

Congratulations on your running anniversary!

 

[avondale]

Happy 3 years running!

She’s never had to do basically anything for herself, so she doesn’t know how to do basic things like hanging shelves or pictures, or dealing with hooking up tvs. So I’ve been forced to make half a dozen trips to her place to do annoying things that take hours,

You are a saint for dealing with this on top of taking care of things for your grandparents.

This is going to sound really selfish, but I'm so glad that I don't live close to family so I don't have to deal with things like this. I'm such an organized and scheduled person that it would annoy me an irrational amount to have to change plans to take care of those sorts of things. But yet I get that it's not like you can say "no" because it's not difficult tasks or unreasonable...just annoying and time-consuming.

I hope your family really appreciates you like they should!

 

[Naomeri]

34 Days Until: Race For The Kids 10 Miler

Another week without any running at all There’s just too much going on. And this weekend was stormy and hotter than Hades , and I couldn’t even use the treadmill because we have a guest in the guest room/exercise room and I had to fold it up and move it.

And we had more tree damage We managed, with the assistance of our guests, to get the branches out of the garden and piled up by the still-undealt-with branch from the beginning of June.

I continue to be hopeful that this week will be the week I can start running again, but we’ll see what the universe has in store for us next. But I did get to buy a new pair of shoes yesterday, and ordered a second pair online. I got some Ghost 15s! They felt really good in the store, very similar to the ASICS Gel-Venture 8s I wore to the mall.

These two fell in my grandma’s garden



This one is still hanging



As I was writing this, there was a little bird tapping on the house, and one of my cats had to go check it out

 

[azrivest]

It’s officially been exactly 3 years since my first-ever run!!

Happy runniversary!

 

[Naomeri]

3 Days Until: Race For The Kids 10 Miler

Yeah, training has been very bad. I didn’t run 12 miles in the whole month of July. But I’ve run about 17 (in 3 or 4 mile increments) miles so far in August, so I probably won’t die this weekend.

My favorite run this month was in the absolute pouring rain. It wasn’t a case of getting caught out when it started, it was raining pretty good when I left, but it was finally cool outside, and not sunny, and I had energy, so I just did it. I ran along the lake and on a couple pieces of road I hadn’t run on before and it was good.

You can see how soaked my shirt is, and my bandana says “running is my sunshine”



Life in general has been really hard lately. One of my cats had a sudden decline and had to cross the rainbow bridge at the end of July.




On the plus side, such as it is, I did manage to get my diagnosis for ADHD, and I have an appointment to discuss medication next Friday. In addition to helping with my focus and motivation, a common side effect of ADHD meds is decreased appetite and weight loss, which certainly won’t hurt my running any (as long as I make sure I eat enough to fuel my running, whether I’m hungry or not)

I’m pretty excited about all the Disney stuff announced at SDCC and D23, even though it will mean changes in the parks (unless they take out Muppets, then I’m going to be annoyed—we need that sit-down air-conditioned break in HS!)

My race this weekend is almost identical to my race course from the beginning of April, just with a different start/finish spot. There are some good hills to run down for a time boost (along with a couple wicked uphills) I will do my best to write up a prompt race report. Then it’s straight into Dopey training next week. I gave up on the Runna app because they do too much speed training and overestimate my abilities (and there’s no mechanism for run/walk, so I get a lot of alerts that I’m too fast or too slow) So I’m adapting Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Marathon plan. I calculated the total mileage for each week, and then redistributed it across all the runs so I don’t have any 20 miles runs on the schedule. I also moved the Wednesday run because I can’t make 3 weekday runs work.