Sunday, February 13, 2011

Beware Of Flying Snot Rockets

Monday, February 7th 2011: 4 miles @ 9:55 minutes per mile pace. I was still sore from the 27 miler last week but had a little burst of speed and did the last mile at 8:55. Something I've noticed is that as my training distances have increased, my speed has decreased. So right now, a mile at 8:55 is pretty speedy for me. For many of my friends, 8:55 is slower than they run on a long, slow run.

Tuesday, February 8th 2011: 7 miles @ 10:21 minutes per mile pace.

Wednesday, February 9th 2011: 11 miles @ 11:40 minutes per mile pace. I ran the Hurricane Rim Trail but just didn't have the juice to run very fast (more about that here). Fortunately the incredible scenery made up for my less-than-stellar pace. My favorite part of the trail is when you come over this little ridge and the horizon bursts out in front of you. Suddenly you have a breathtaking view of Zion National Park, Smith Mesa, and rolling desert hills.



My second favorite part of the trail is this little section that is covered with the most awesome rocks. I added some to my pack and they bounced around like jingle bells for the rest of the run. And check out this bad boy. This is one of those rocks. Tell me it does not look like a Junior Mint straight from mother nature:


Thursday, February 10th 2011: 4 miles @ 11:05 minutes per mile pace. It was cold outside and I just couldn't bring myself to put on my four layers of clothing so I ran on the dreadmill.

Friday, February 11th 2011: 11 miles @ 10:18 minutes per mile pace. Saturday was going to be busy so I did my run Friday night. I made it about one mile before needing to turn on the head light. I'm glad I was able to catch the last of the day's sunlight:


This is my favorite shot of the week. I run this route at least a few times a week. I like how you can see the faint lines of the road on the bottom of the picture:


For my professional colleagues who may be reading, this would be an appropriate time to jump to another website. Seriously. Because what I'm about to tell you is gross. And I'd hate to have you listen to psychological advice from me after the mental image that is coming.

Okay.....are they gone?

Alright. So at mile 9 it was cold and windy. And what happens when you combine running+cold+windy? Correct. You get a runny nose. And it's not like you have a box of Kleenex with you, right? So what do you do? Exactly! Snot rocket.

Unfortunately I didn't judge wind flow very well. Because even though nostril #1 was launched with flawless execution, nostril #2 was not. Remember how I said it was windy? Well, snot rocket #2 launched.....right into my eyelashes. I know. Disgusting. Just another one of the many reasons why it's best to run by myself.

Saturday, February 12th 2011: Rest. I enjoyed an easy week this week but next week will likely kick my trash. My first 30 miler is coming up next week. Stay tuned. And remind me to wear glasses next time I run because running + cold + windy = messy eyelashes.

"The truth is that we can learn to condition our minds, bodies, and emotions to link pain or pleasure to whatever we choose. By changing what we link pain and pleasure to, we will instantly change our behavior."
~ Tony Robbins, Author and motivational speaker

6 comments:

  1. Snot rockets are a skill that must be mastered to be a great runner, plus since my allergies decided to come early hocking loogies has become a new skill set for me during runs. My mucus tastes salty though I wonder if I should worry.

    Oh and I found you when being completely OCD when I had the flu and googling peoples Saint George marathon stories (I will be running it for the first time this year) as I was living through them vicariously since I couldn't run and I was really sick and tired of sleeping and my bed. So I decided to stalk you, if I had known of you before I would have stalked you at the Saint George Half marathon and Snow Canyon half but alas such was not my luck.

    I was only like 4 minutes in front of you at the STG half and while I sure as heck wasn't slowing down for you I might have knocked the camera guy over so you couldn't get you roller skating on air photo. But then again I was suffering from severe cramps, spasms and muscle twitches and was probably on the grass cursing the heavens by that point or raiding the food station wondering where the heck all the bananas went. I still wonder where all the bananas went to this day, I think I drank 50 gallons of gatorade though too bad I think I drank no gatorade except for that 3 sips that made me want to curl into a ball on the course and like 20 ounces of water. I am buying stock in gatorade and bengay I think.

    Good luck mastering your new skill ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doing your first marathon this year? Highly awesome. Bengay...also highly, highly awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'll have to look into this bengay stuff you speak so highly of. Currently I am in phase one of inventing my Wiley coyote rocket shoes so I can BQ, or I might run the first one as a test run to see how I do minus the shoes ;)

    3 years, 415 pounds to marathon, and the wife is getting very good at getting blood out of my clothes. I think that might be as useful as this banguy sorry bengay you speak of, a wife adept at removing blood from clothes :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. In any other case referred to as the farmer's blow, the snot rocket is one of the instead of flying off to the facet of the road, the snot streamed lower back. Ever since government introduced that a chinese language rocket would fall back to Get Assignment Done Are in degree flight: because of this they neither 'move up' nor 'pass down'. ... Turkey hoovers up large blooms of sea snot in largest ever maritime cleanup.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This story is like advice that is very important for us because we often run on rocky areas and fear lest we should not fall and be injured. dissertation writing service

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is an excellent and extremely valuable post for me. Thank you very much for your time and Enrichment Classes For Kids effort in providing such valuable information!

    ReplyDelete