Kokopelli Kids!

I spend a lot of the year watching kids run, as a high school cross country and track coach. I love passing on my love of running to young adults, in hopes that they will become life-long runners or college athletes. When I knew the baby was coming in February, I decided to take the spring season of track off. Being a great teacher, coach and mom is very difficult...and being a mom comes first.

Typically, my spring flies by and I jump into the summer feeling like a stranger in my home. Duane and Aspen have a regular schedule of time at the Y, working out, childwatch and swimming. This season has been different. I've loved every moment of our Saturdays, finding the next free activity at the library or a local nature center to enjoy. I've also loved watching Aspen run in her first Kokopelli Kids Trail Series.

She is 3 and ran in the preschool 0.5 mile division. I was a little surprised at the distance. She has run some fun 100 meter races, but we actually had to prepare for the 0.5 miles. We went over to the Santa Fe Trail a couple of times and would run her normal push-bike route. I was mainly concerned that she would stop, fall, freak out or all of the above. After she broke her arm, falling off a balance beam, I decided to run the first race with her, just to catch her if she stumbled.

She had a blast during her first race. I loved jogging next to her and watching the pure joy on her face. She took my hand a couple of times for support up the tiny hills. She also stopped for an exaggerated huff-and-puff during the last 0.25 mile. It was lovely, and silly, and so much fun. Instead of crossing the finish line, she stared at it for a bit and then walked over to her papa. Clearly, she needed some work on her finish. She was very proud of her post race water, fruit snacks and purple ribbon.

With each race, I let go a little more. During the second race, I waited at the 0.25 mile turn around, then I snuck behind her for the final stretch. She was not happy about me following her, but I knew she had struggled during the last half. Sure enough, she was fine without me...though she still went right for grandma and papa after the race.

During the last race, I watched her at the start and waited for her at the finish line. With a beaming smile, she watched everyone start around her as she slowly trotted across the line. She took longer, because she was waiting for her new friend throughout the 0.5 mile. She finally made it across the finish, and enjoyed a celebratory slice of pizza and chocolate chip cookie after the event.

It was so enjoyable to watch her. It's not because she is fast (I could honestly care less about her speed), but it is because she is having so much fun just playing and making friends. I love coaching kids to run fast, but I love doing that when they are older. For now, I will foster fun, play, and lots of physical activity for my girl. I will also continue to enjoy springtime with my babies.

Here I Run

The past two weeks of running have been pretty inexplicable. My abilities have changed, daily; and I'm grateful for the natural improvement. Truthfully, I haven't even been trying. It became noticeable a week ago, when I stood at the starting line of Take 5 in the Garden. I had decided to drag my butt off the couch and get moving, but my strategy was to walk every hill and generally take it easy with some 14 minute miles. I was certain that the race would take me over an hour to finish. But, as I talked running with a coworker, I heard, "There you are!" It was my friend, Vanessa. "Shit," I thought, "I'm actually going to have to try."

As we began our run, I tried to convince her that she really wanted to run faster, without me. Needless to say, she never left my side. We actually made a great pair. I was more motivated to run up the hills, and she pushed the downhills a little harder (I have a lot of downward momentum...otherwise known as "junk in the trunk"). We actually finished around 47 minutes, which was at least 20 minutes faster than I was anticipating. If I were to do anything differently, it would only be to run with a Camelbak. Nursing mommies need more fluid, and it was super hot.

At the finish

 Later in the week, I took to the Garden, again. Immediately after work, I started at the Manitou Pool and began running the Garden 10 Mile course. I made it just past Ridge Road before turning around at about 30 minutes. It was a lovely day. The next two days were spent with student award ceremonies and Kokopelli Kids. When I finally had a chance to hit the treadmill on Saturday, I was super strong. I did a progression run and finished with about 0.5 miles at a 7:30 pace, twice. In total, I ran 5 miles and swam 2/3 of a mile. This was all followed by amazingly fun kids activities. By the end of the day, I felt like I had run a marathon. Duane had run a trail half marathon in Denver, finishing 3rd overall. I'm pretty sure my day, in total, was tougher :)

Ridiculously Fun Kids Activities

 Today, I ran the Garden 10 Mile course from the Manitou Pool and hit the main entrance of the park before turning around. I felt good, but the crazy weather made the run tough. It was a cold rain, when I started, that had me soaked within 3 minutes. By the time I was warm, the rain had turned into sleet that blasted my face during every northern running section, which was basically the first 35 minutes. All in all, it was an awesome start to my Mother's Day. I'm starting to feel motivated to run, and that was a big hurdle to overcome.

Getting Back

I had a goal to run the St. Patrick's Day 5K this past weekend. It was exactly 4 weeks after the birth of our second child, and I thought this would be my first race, getting back to normal. But, running has been tough this time. Maybe it's my older body or my 10 lb. 10 oz. baby, but more likely, it is my love of soaking up every little bit of baby time I can get. Because, this is it. This is our last little baby.

I'm not disappointed that I didn't run the race. I am a bit overwhelmed that I can't really run. It's like starting all over again, and I don't remember it being this hard after my first baby. However, Saturday was more than an unattained goal. I did run 3.8 miles. It was the furthest distance that I have run in awhile. Only 2.5 of it was continuous, but up until that point I had only run one or two blocks at a time.

Moving forward, Duane and I are revisiting our goals from after we had our first baby. We will, again, run a half marathon-a-month. Some of these races we have run before (and the reports can be found on the blog Run, Raft, Love Colorado if you are interested in reading them), and some of the races will be new experiences. We will start in July (well, June if you count the Garden of the Gods 10 mile) and end the following year.

Here is our race schedule:

June: Garden of the Gods 10 Mile
July: Half on the 4th Half Marathon
August: Rocky Mountain Half Marathon
September: ADTM Half Marathon or Pony Express
October: Xterra Marathon of Trail Races Half Marathon
November: Rim Rock Marathon Relay
December: Rock Canyon Half Marathon
January: TBD
February: Super Half Marathon
March: Run Through Time Half Marathon
April: Platte River Half Marathon
May: Fear the Deer Half Marathon

We will probably do a lot of small, local races in between. I have no personal performance expectations, because if I've learned anything in the past year, it's to not take this running stuff so seriously. I just want to run, have fun, and hopefully fit into my clothes again someday.

Winter Series Short 1, 2, and 3...in summary

I seriously think I'll quit racing for awhile.  I'll finish the series, complete the Run Through Time half marathon, and finish with the Skirtsports half marathon, but that's it.

The Winter Series has been gruelingly difficult for me for a couple of reasons.  First, I am in 12th place overall behind 9 high school (and younger) runners.  A few of these young women are the fastest in the state, and pretty soon the nation.  Bravo.  They are fantastic.  While I could spend my time comparing the million-and-one things that make my training schedule difficult and less competitive than theirs, instead, I'll focus on my second reason.  I have gained 15 pounds.  Fifteen pounds is a lot of extra weight to be lugging around on the trail, and I am slower.  I am, once again, an "Athena" runner.  I am tempted to reflect on my race and to encourage myself to lose those 15 pounds.  Here's the clincher, I've spent an entire year trying to gain those pounds.  Yet, every race sparks a little bit of chaos in my mind about the extra weight, and the pregnancy that didn't work.

So, that's my summary.  Every race has been the same thing.  I race a little slower.  I beat myself up about it.  I spend two weeks pushing myself.  Repeat.  I want to break this cycle, so I'm planning to just run the races that I've already committed myself to and then stop racing.  No more speed work, hill sprints or other painful training.  I'm just gonna run.

Well, maybe I'll quit the intense training after two more weeks.  I wouldn't mind claiming my age group title. 

Stocking Shuffle 5K

It has been a long time since my last post.  I haven't been writing, because I have been focusing on teaching, coaching and scaling back my mileage.  I raced the Fall Series with the goal of finishing in the top 3, but faster girls showed up, and I ended at 6th overall finishing 1st in my age group.

My times were slowing for a couple of reasons.  I've been trying to gain fat to get pregnant.  I have plenty of weight, but was at 16% body fat (DEXA scan, super accurate) with amenorrhea for a couple of years.  My doctor recommended getting to 20%, which was only a few pounds but it was actually quite difficult.  I know that sounds trivial, but I'm pretty sure that gaining a few pounds for me was just as challenging as any person losing a few pounds.  I like to eat healthy and feel good when I am satisfied.  Sure, why not eat a doughnut a day?  Well, I hate doughnuts, and any food like doughnuts with a passion.  You really are what you eat.  And I am not a doughnut, nor do I want the molecules of one to become any part of my body.

My other reason for slowing down (though I wasn't aware at the time) was pregnancy.  Being pregnant with Aspen slowed me down instantly.  I noticed that I was breathing really heavy during the series and wasn't able to really compete as a racer.  I thought it was the extra pounds.  Before the pregnancy happened, I was put on some drug cocktail to get a cycle, again.  When the cycles stopped, I took a bjillion negative pregnancy tests.  A few weeks later, before scheduling a doctor appointment for amenorrhea, I took two more tests.  Both were positive.

This past Monday, at my 8 week appointment, my blood work and ultrasound looked like I was really early.  I did the math, and it wasn't possible.  Everything was there, except for the baby.  I showed up for some follow-up blood work only to hear that it wasn't viable and here are your options: wah, wah, wah, wah.  I knew it wasn't viable before I walked in the door.  I somehow made it through the week at work with a field trip, guest speakers, and dynamic classes.  I'm not quite sure how.  I have more appointments next week, because nothing is actually happening.  You see, the worst part is that I have morning sickness and a symptomatic pregnancy, but I am not actually pregnant and I haven't yet miscarried.  It's a constant reminder.

This might be slightly faux pas to write about and share.  Most people don't talk about this stuff, but I'm just one person and this happens about 30% of the time (15% knowingly...much of the rest of the percentage is too early to recognize...though, different people will give different numbers).  Many women experience this and move on.  Most women move on to have happy healthy pregnancies within six months.  I'm sad for this loss, and I'm sad to wait longer.  But, I know that it will happen in time.

In the midst of all of this, I had already planned to run and win the Stocking Shuffle, even if I had been pregnant.  The results over the last few years were misleadingly slow, because I had underestimated a few hills in the course.  I can keep a solid 7 minute per mile pace (again, I've slowed a bit), and the previous overall winners finished around 22-24.  Today, I finished at 22:59.  It was a really small event and about half of the race was on concrete sidewalk, so I don't think I will race this one in the future.  My goal, before getting pregnant, was to win a race.  Well, I did it.

We will be waiting for about two or three months to get pregnant, again (doctor's orders).  In that time, I plan to race the short Winter Series (haven't competed in the short before), continue to work towards my 100 Jack Quinns runs (40 to go...hopefully many of them will be during a pregnancy), and do a lot of healing and restorative yoga and reading.

James' Peak: A solo summit

I spent a week at the Shoshoni ashram in Rollinsville, taking an excellent class on yoga for healing.  Duane, Gary and Aspen spent four days camping at Kelly Dahl, while I was studying yoga.  I commuted via mountain bike for those days.  When they left on Friday, I was on my own camping on the Shoshoni property.  It was my first experience camping alone.  I enjoyed my moments of quiet and reading in my tent.

The training duration was nine days, with one day off.  On my day off, I decided to hike James' Peak.  I'll be honest, that I didn't really think my summit would be a reality.  I figured that I would hike until something turned me around.  After all, I've always relied on Duane to guide me and make the decisions when my brain gets fuzzy around 12,000 feet.  While at home, I used Google Earth to map out and virtually hike the mountain.  This helped a TON.  Above treeline, I was able to recall land features on the ascent.  It wasn't as much help below treeline, because the visibility on Google Earth wasn't as clear.

Google Earth snapshot showing Rollinsville, Moffat Tunnel start and James' Peak.  Roundtrip = 13.2 miles

Google Earth image of James' Peak from the ridge line.

 At the start of my morning, I was really alarmed by poor weather.  The clouds were low, the visibility was reduced to about 80 yards, the temperature was cold, and rain or snow was falling.  I was nearly ready to crawl back into my tent, when I thought to myself, "What would Duane do?"  He would do exactly what I wanted to avoid, which was to start the hike.

I stopped at the kitchen to get a little zucchini bread and fruit before my trip, and I headed on my way.  I figured that I would hike until I couldn't go any further.  The weather was very similar to the Pikes Peak Ascent in 2008, so I assumed that it was probably pretty ugly above treeline.

When I arrived at Moffatt Tunnel, the clouds were beginning to clear and the peak had become visible.  I was pretty happy that I hadn't wimped out on this journey.  I began my hike pretty close to some other people, but was able to gain some distance within the first mile.  I was really alone on this trail.  I'm pretty sure I was the first person to hike that morning.

As I continued on my journey, I recognized the beauty and secrecy of this area in the state.  The ground was green and lush with life.  Very little pine beetle infestation had begun, but I'm sure it isn't far off.  A few years ago, when I visited, the area was free of infestation.  Now, Rollinsville appears to be doing a lot to eradicate infected trees, but it is only a matter of time that it spreads more profusely in the area.  Some trees were marked, but little work was done on the trail. 

Recent rains created very muddy conditions.  The mud was thick and deep.  I was fortunate enough to take some of it home after a few slips and sinks.  The rain had also caused some flooding in the South Boulder Creek.  The trail follows parallel to the creek, and flooding was evident by the muddy banks and bent grasses.  I began wondering what a flash flood on the mountain might look like.

The creek is fantastic.  There are a few bridge crossings, a couple of rock crossings, and one difficult tree crossing.  The waterfalls along the trail were magnificent.  As I approached the lakes, I witnessed the most beautiful of the falls.  It cascaded over rocks in multiple directions and glistened with the now shining sun.  The lakes were stunning.  The water is clear and still, with the occasional, visible ripple from mountain winds, creating a glistening surface from higher elevations.

The James' Peak Wilderness Area has an amazing diversity of wildlife.  Maybe many mountains that I have climbed do, but I've been too busy talking during the hike.  I noticed about five different species of mushrooms, dozens of moth species, and the usual peppering of Colorado wildflowers.  I did not encounter any four legged friends, except for the pika and marmots.  At the lakes, I encountered quite a few other people that had backpacked into the area on the previous day.

After hiking a few steep switchbacks to the ridge line, I became a little confused about the trail.  I also struggled to decide which peak was actually James' Peak.  I recalled my virtual hike via Google Earth and redirected myself to the correct route after a short diversion.  The ridge appears rocky and dangerous, but the trail drops below the ridge line.  As I rounded the ridge, I saw a sharper peak in the distance and thought it might be James'.  It was quite a distance out, making me a little nervous.  I decided to trust the journey and follow along wholeheartedly, letting the end result unfold as it would.  I was on a trail, and it had to end somewhere.

It turned out that the peak directly in front of me was James'.  As I followed the last bit of switchbacks, I realized that my brain was becoming fuzzy and airy.  I took a few pauses along the way to clear my head and make sure that I was following the correct route.  Just below the summit, at a large boulder field, I spied the last cairn.  I assumed that the last of my hike must climb the boulder field.  I looked around to double check, but couldn't see the trail off to my left.  Again, my brain was becoming fuzzy.  I began climbing with all fours up the boulder field, realizing that this was one of the toughest that I've had to traverse on a mountain, I knew there had to be an easier way.

I was relieved to finally reach the top.  Duane figured it was about 4 miles and would take me 3.5 hours.  According to my Garmin, it was 6.6 miles and took 3 hours and 20 minutes.  I was happy to have a little battery power left in my camera to get some "first solo ascent" shots.  I was also fortunate to enjoy the summit alone for awhile.  After soaking in the beauty, enjoying a snack, and taking a few more pictures, I began my descent.  I quickly found the trail I had missed on the way up.

I realized quite a few things along this hike, but the most valuable was remembering myself.  As we begin to plan having another baby, this was a valuable time for me to reconnect with myself and remember that I am more than just a mom.  Don't get me wrong.  Being a mom is awesome, amazing, inspiring, and valuable.  But, it's nice to remember that I am a person, capable of so much, and full of wonder, curiosity and adventure.  Sometimes it is nice to take some time and be alone.  It can be a fruitful moment to remember the mystery of the self and appreciate the richness of human bonds.

We are so lucky to have such beauty surrounding us in Colorado.  On my descent, I recognized many roles:  a father and sons camping at the lakes; the father teaching his children how to fish, a family of three generations exploring beauty, a botany class classifying various plants, a young couple gossiping about young things, friends lost and reading a map.  The protected lands are beyond discernible value.  They shelter so much beauty in geology and pulse with the heart of our great rivers.  They nourish diversity, curiosity and wonder.  They provide the grounds where we discover ourselves and develop lasting, deep bonds with our family.  We are lucky to have them protected, and it is vital that we continue that legacy.

All Things Geek: A solar oven experiment

The garden is going strong right now, and I decided to bake some rhubarb bread. Our meals tend to revolve around rhubarb and squash all summer, so I thought I would change it up a bit and bake my regular rhubarb bread in a solar oven. Conveniently, I had one lying around.

I used the Cook-it from Solar Cookers International. It's a panel cooker that folds up small from a company that promotes solar cooking in Kenya to decrease issues associated with deforestation and personal safety. The black pan helps to absorb heat. It's cover and oven safe bag help to retain heat. And, obviously, the reflective surface helps to collect and condense sunlight.

I cut some rhubarb, mixed my usual recipe, and set the cooker out for the day. The cooker was set at 9:20 a.m. I chose to put it on top of our popup camper to decreases any possible issues with shading. It was a really sunny and hot day with a high of 88 degrees.

I checked on the bread around 2:30 p.m., but the center appeared to be pretty moist, so I returned the cooker to its place. Around 4:30 p.m., the clouds began to roll in and my experiment had to end. The outside of the bread was thoroughly cooked, but the center still needed some work. With 10 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, the bread was cooked.

I have two general observations. First of all, the bread itself still appears doughy, even though the toothpick came out clean and it appears to be cooked. I am thinking that the baking soda is the issue. I am guessing that the bread couldn't rise properly because it cooked at a low heat for a long time. I probably should include an oven thermometer, next time. I might also research some slow cooker bad recipes. Secondly, the bread has a strange sweet smell. It is a sweet bread, but the sugar smell is really pungent and a little irritating. The flavor is different, too. The sugar taste is almost stale. I have successfully cooked many chocolate chip cookies, but this bread is nauseating. I am glad that I didn't try making my coconut sweet bread or walnut maple syrup bread, because rhubarb is cheap and plentiful.