Army cruise

Last week, David and I had the opportunity to take an overnight cruise on the Army Corps tug, Mississippi. David works for the Corps, and this perk is opened to a few employees every few years. We jumped at the chance, and on Friday I got off work early and walked over to meet David at his office (we live just five blocks from his workplace, and yes, I'm jealous of his commute). About thirty people were on this cruise, and David knew about half. We took a charter bus to Morgan City, where we boarded the tug.

 The Motor Vehicle Mississippi is the largest tug in the world, and it sleeps 120!

We were shown to our cabin...

... then joined the rest of the passengers downstairs for a safety briefing. We spent a few minutes exploring the decks before the welcome social began. We boarded the vessel on the Achafalaya River, and I was enjoying the wildlife on the banks. Not only were the pelicans and herons plentiful, there were several alligators swimming out of the way of the boat! We finally went back in to get some food and wine. I was starving after a ten mile workout that morning, so I filled up on appetizers even though I knew dinner was coming in just a few minutes. I was pretty sure I could eat again. While we socialized, we left the Achafalaya River and entered the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

Maneuvering the Bayou Boeuf locks

The GIWW is shipping channel designed for commercial barges to travel inland (from Texas to Florida). Some of it is manmade, while the rest is existing canals and bayous, dredged to a depth of 12 feet. Locks mark the entrances and exits to various waterways (we passed two on the trip, including the narrow Algiers lock as we entered the Mississippi River).

As you can see, the Algiers lock is a much tighter fit than the Bayou Boeuf lock!

Here are the lock gates opening

I had a chance to meet and converse with several of David's coworkers, including at dinner, which was delicious (my appetizers didn't diminish my enjoyment of dinner!). After dinner, we all went up to the pilot house, where we alternately sat under the stars and made the pilot's life miserable. I can't imagine he loves putting up with a boatload of tipsy brass and drunk underlings while trying to drive a boat. But it was beautiful up there at night, with a bright moon and stars.

In the pilot house

We were probably the first to bed, and the slow movement of the boat had me sleeping like a log! We woke up early enough to watch the approach to New Orleans. It's crazy that there are cows and alligators hanging out under the shadow of the skyline.

After breakfast the next day, we went back on deck to watch the locks open as we left the GIWW and headed downstream on the Mississippi.

The mighty Mississippi!

We did a short tour of the river, heading past the city before turning around and going back up to dock. It always amazes me how vast the Mississippi is: even the part where we could make a U-turn mid-river, amongst dozens of other craft, and not even be crowded, is incredible.

Under the GNO bridge

After we passed downtown New Orleans, we ate lunch as we neared the dock at the Corps facility by our house. This part of the trip was really neat, because I got to see The Fly, which is the part of Audubon park that runs along the river. It was so cool to see it from the other side!

Look closely and you can see my running path :)

Me on the other side of the Fly!

We docked about one pm, grabbed our luggage, and walked home - and that's how you do a 24-hour cruise. I was really impressed with the whole trip - first off all, that the Army Corps would offer it to employees; second, with the excellent food; third, that all the employees showed such pride in their work as we passed various Corps projects (like the Western Closure). Seeing the city from the river perspective was a rare treat, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to enjoy that view. All in all, such a memorable weekend, and I feel lucky to be included!

Marathon Training: week 4

Well, I'm a little late here, but I think it's time for some weekly training recaps for my upcoming marathon. My team, the Power Milers, are running the Rocket City Marathon in early December, and training is underway. The first month was mostly base building, but we have increased our long run to 16 miles, so by now I think we can safely consider this actual training. I'm pretty excited, because our group coach assigns marathon goal paces for us to base our workouts off, and he gave me 6:52! That's so incredibly fast to me! But maybe I can pull of a 3:01 or under - I'd be thrilled. Step one is get to the starting line in one piece. Step two is excel at the workouts. If either of those seems in jeopardy, of course, I will modify that goal pace.

So this week was a little weird, because I was taking it easy for three reasons: one, I bonked hard at MILE FIVE, I repeat FIVE, of the long run last week, and therefore took the following week easy. And two, because I developed terrible plantar fasciitis. And lastly because we were traveling!

Monday: off to recover from failed run the day before.
Tuesday: I didn't do our group workout, opting for five easy instead. Still in bonk-recovery.
Wednesday: 6.5 easy.
Thursday: We had a cold-front with morning temperatures of just 79 F! I ran a totally enjoyable 9.5 on the levee.
Friday: I was supposed to skip this workout, too, but I forgot that I was on a recovery week and ran a little over ten miles. The workout was 4-5 miles at tempo effort with one minute jogs. I ran five at 6:39, 6:29, 6:35, 6:30, 6:36. Felt great, so I guess whatever had me down last week had faded away!
Saturday: I was on an overnight boat cruise, so no running for me. I could have run when we got home in the afternoon, but - I didn't.
Sunday: Long run. 16.2 miles at 7:36 pace, which went well despite very humid temperatures. I made sure I drank a ton of water and took some salt tabs this time, and although my plantar fasciitis bothered me later, I didn't feel it too much during the run.

Total miles: 48, not bad for a "down" week!

We've moved! Not far!

David and I were pretty settled in our uptown rental, half of a double that David called home for 16 years. I myself lived there for eleven, after David and I married. I loved my house, loved my neighborhood, and fully planned on buying the entire property from our landlady after her impending move.
But things change. The move was delayed several times, and meanwhile our needs changed. We realized that we needed a little more room, but not a lot: not the entire double we were living in (our roomy one bedroom was on one side, but the other side was a gigantic five bedroom!). We sort of wished we had more than one bathroom (neither side of the house did). And then when David was biking to work one day, he passed a house getting ready for a broker's open. It was on our very same street, and it was adorable. We went to the broker's open that night, put in an offer the next day, and accepted the counter offer and were under contract the next.

It's funny: our move took us just four blocks from our old home, but we're now on the other side of St. Charles Avenue, which now puts us in the Black Pearl. New Orleans neighborhoods are so small, so exclusionary! I can still walk to the same stores, but now I have to claim Black Pearl, had to buy a parking permit for my car, and - since I'm just the third house from St. Charles - can claim a little of that St. Charles cachet (this is a thing I didn't know about until now!).

Stop being so cute.

The house we bought is a little gem in a row of gems - four identical houses, in fact, known as The Four Sisters. It's a newer home for the area (c.1915), but has so much New Orleans charm. I love the wood floors, the quaint gardens, the vibrant colors, the eleven-foot ceilings, the ornate fireplaces, and the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The move itself was as easy as the buying process. I recruited some awesome friends and their trucks, and we moved our entire household in exactly two hours. Since then, we've enjoyed settling in, although we came to the realization that almost none of our furniture suits (most of it is dwarfed: our old ceilings were 9.5 feet; these are a foot and a half taller, and it's enough to make all of our art too small and our furniture too squat). We've met our neighbors. We've remembered to change our addresses, a surprisingly confusing process (WHY won't people accept that I moved to a new number on the same street?!). I'm comfortable here, and while I do miss my old home, too (it is a grand old charmer with a beauty all its own), I love this one, too. And I'm happy to own just a little piece of this city.

The Power Mile

Saturday was the Power Mile, my very first road mile (except I ran one once as a warm-up for the following 5k, but didn't race it. By the way, this is a very silly plan and you should not do it ever. But anyway, back to my real first road mile race).
My track club, the Power Milers, put this race on, so I was a little involved with the set-up and organization, too. I think it's pretty cool that we have the Power Mile: it's so hard to find a mile race in our area, and it's nice that we can give back to the running community in this way. We also have a great after-party complete with a band, beer, and food, and since we have *cash money prizes* and it's also the RRCA state one-mile championship, we get a fast field.
You should run it next year, and here's the link, put it on your calendar!

This group puts on a great race!

Just in case the group needed extra volunteers, and since David was actually volunteering anyway, we showed up two hours early. That wasn't a great idea, since I stood out in the heat for two hours prior to racing! I hadn't checked the weather, so I was shocked when the sky suddenly opened up and rain started pouring down. The kid's half-mile starts at 6:00, the open mile at 6:30, and the "elite" mile (sub-7:00 pace) is at 7:00. The downpour stopped in time for the races, but did three things:

1. Kind of killed race-day registration. No one is coming out to race a mile in a deluge. That sucked - we ended up with under 300 runners in the mile, and I would have thought a mile race would be a good one for last-minute registrants. No training needed! 
2. Soaked the streets. We were left with wet, slippery streets for our race, and since this race is full of turns, that added to the challenge. 
3. Created the most miserable hot and steamy weather imaginable. As soon as the rain stopped, the sun came back out full-force, and we had high 90's with 100% humidity!

I was weirdly nervous about this race! I fiddled with my Garmin, setting it to autolap at quarter miles, and re-pinned my bib more and more crookedly. We warmed up for two miles, got to see some of the other races, and then headed toward the start. I did four strides while we were waiting and checked out the people around me. I saw right away who the woman's winner would be - a well-known miler from the area. I looked around and saw another fast girl and my two teammates who were racing. I knew all of them would be ahead of me; another friend close to my pace might be faster tonight, too, and then there were those three or four people I didn't recognize and couldn't guess pace. But I figured I'd be in top-ten women. Yet I was questioning my pace and goal. I was sweating so profusely after the warm-up that I began to consider the possibility of running 6 minutes or higher.

When we lined up, I did something I never do - I got up on the line. The start was wide enough that I wasn't worried about blocking others, and we'd have time to sort out before the first turn, so I stuck my foot right on that blue tape and waited for the gun.

BANG. And I did nothing. I stood there in shock, and then snapped back to the moment and charged forward, remembering to hit start on my Garmin as I did. The start was mayhem - immediately fast, people surging past, then me surging back past them. It seemed like I'd barely settled into a rhythm when we were already at the first quarter: 1:23. Oh, shoot, I thought, that was fast. My goal was 1:25 for a 5:40 mile. But I couldn't spend time thinking about that; we were already at the first turn. This course is kind of a "P" shape, only you do the loop twice, and it's larger the second time.

That's a lot of turning for a mile!

It's a tight turn around the neutral ground - kind of like a wide median, it's a NOLA thing - and that certainly slowed me down! Maintain this pace, I thought, and for the second quarter, I did. The cool thing about this course is that, because it's so compact, there are spectators lining every inch of the sides, and I could hear so many people cheering and calling my name as I passed! To my surprise, two women easily passed me during the second quarter, but as I started the third quarter, I passed them back - they were obviously DONE. Miles are hard to pace! I was staying fairly even, but I was glad there were clocks on the course: I kept sliding out really wide on the turns, and my Garmin was way off. But at the half-way point one of my teammates at the clock called, "2:50" and I knew I was on pace for a 5:40. The third quarter got a little more interesting as people were starting to slow. I passed several who had passed me previously, but unfortunately - just like my track miles - my third quarter was slow, a combination of letting people around me pace me (as they slowed down) and a tendency to hold back for the final quarter. But suddenly the final quarter was there - I mean, miles are SO SHORT! and I started picking back up. I was definitely on pace for 5:40, probably under if I could speed up!  And then the worst thing ever happened. As we made the final turn, I had to choose: go wide around two guys in front of me, or go inside and squeeze between them. In a split second, I went on the inside, and to my horror the guy in front flopped his arms down and gave up in defeat. It was only a few seconds, but I was boxed in, unable to sprint, and watching in shock as the clock ticked toward 5:40. I finally wriggled free, started my belated sprint, and crossed the line in 5:38, a 5-second mile PR! I was extremely pleased with that time. Neither the weather nor the course were conducive to a PR (it's flat, but there are too many turns to make this a fast race), I haven't been training for the mile at all, except for the two other (track) miles I ran, and my poor judgment at the last turn probably cost me a second.
I ended up fifth female, but to my astonishment I was 46th overall. We get some FAST milers out there! My Garmin splits were less than helpful given how far off they were (I got 1:03 Garmin, thank you corners), but they sort-of tell the story of the race: 1:23, 1:22, 1:23, 1:21. My teammates were 2nd and 4th, so we did well overall. I can't wait to get back out there next year and better this! I think if I trained I could run under 5:30 - after all, I went from 5:46 to 5:38 in just a few weeks, mostly just from getting a better feel for the distance. If I can keep my old joints working, I might be able to pull that off next year!

A mile PR

Racing weather!

I've been taking advantage of the summer all-comers track meets hosted by St. Martin's Episcopal school this year. They're supported by the New Orleans Track Club, and free for anyone who shows up (which is mostly high school track teams). At the last one, I tied my mile PR; this time, I bettered it!
It was a rush again to get to the school after work - I often work late Friday, and I need to change, drive to Metairie, sign in, and get a warm up in by seven (my store closes at six). But I made it in plenty of time, and proceeded to warm up in the 95 degree evening. It's annoying that the mile is the first event: the sun is still beating down at 7pm, and the track doesn't start cooling off until well after the sun goes down, anyway. I drank some water before the race started, and this time I lined up at the front, to the far right. Much smarter move than last time! Last track mile I was terribly boxed in after choosing (for who knows what reason) to start all the way in the back.

Fellow Power Miler Van and I after the mile (he smoked me)

This time, I was able to easily go out at the gun and cut inside, putting me near the front of the group. I knew I'd only move up further, as most of the runners last time tired in lap three. I had run a nine-mile aerobic workout that morning, since this mile was a last-minute addition, so I didn't feel super fresh, but I felt like I was putting forth adequate effort. I caught my half split at 2:51, but once again, I slowed a little in my third lap. I think that is because the people around me start drastically slowing, and I get influenced by my position relative to those around me. Despite that, I was passing people, and I started lap three as sixth person overall - although it was hard to keep track at that point, since I was lapping youth runners. I was feeling a little sticky, sweaty, and overall miserable as I rounded the track, but at 200 to go a runner near me egged me on: "Do it, let's race!" I kicked a little more - I am not good at kicking! - and ended up with 5:43.1. That's a PR! So thanks, track dude! I'm 35 and have done ZERO fast work in over a year, and I PR'd the mile!

Next up? The Power Mile, a one mile road race my club puts on: on the road. It will be my first road mile, and you know I'm nervous. I don't even know if I can break 6 minutes on the road!

Anyone have any tips for running a road mile? 

In which I take a spill(way)

Sunday was the Spillway Classic, a 3 mile trail run in Norco, not to be confused with the Armadillo Dash, a 3 mile trail run in Norco two weeks prior.
I knew this race would be...interesting. It was race five out of five in three weeks, and it was the morning after the big move.
Oh yeah, we moved, by the way. In case you haven't seen all my Instagram stories about my adorable new place!
Moving all day is not conducive to racing well the next morning, but I actually registered before we ever even saw the house - it was a whirlwind sale - so I wasn't about to skip it just because of some sore shoulders. I showed up at the Spillway with ample time to find parking and get in the bathroom line, except...no bathrooms. The Port-a-potties never showed up! I started to warm up, but then saw the delivery truck lumber over, full of potties, and turned back around. It was an ordeal - they still had to set up and that took a while. But I managed to get in a bathroom stop and a really quick warm up just in time for the start.

This race is actually only half trail; the first half is (bizarrely) up and onto the levee, which is covered in big, chunky gravel. Then it dips back down off the levee into the woods. You have to GET UP THERE on the levee, or you'll be stuck in crowds in the woods. I was ready to charge up the levee, but...shoot. I actually warmed up too fast and aggressively. I was with some faster people, and then we ran out a little too far, and then we had to book it back (we made it with one minute to spare). I was out of breath at the starting line! Plus just worn out in general, I think. Either way, I was still gasping for breath at the start, and then - BAM! The guy in front of my tripped on the starting mat, knocking people every which way! Luckily everyone was fine, and I actually was able to skirt the pileup and avoid calamity, but the mishap delayed my start a little. Finally I was crunching over gravel under the hot sun, trying to make up some distance between myself and a few others who are usually my pace. Mile one ended still up on the levee: 6:20. Mile two dips down off the levee and into the soggy basin, where the trail portion of the race begins. As soon as you enter the woods, you are faced with "the gauntlet", which is just a huge mud pit. Last year, it was thigh-high water. This year, it was just squelchy mud, and I avoided sinking in by carefully picking my way around the edge. I was proud of myself for safely navigating that dangerous area and then all of a sudden, I was crashing to the ground. I tripped so suddenly that I couldn't prepare myself, and while I landed on soft mud and avoided any cuts or scrapes, my head slammed backward. I had bad whiplash, and while I bounced back up, I reeled in disorientation. Somehow I kept running, stayed on the trail, and followed the group ahead of me. I wish I could remember how I finished the race, but I can't - everything a few minutes after the fall is blank! I finished in 20:37, fourth female, but feeling very dizzy and ill. I quickly hosed off under the firetruck provided at the finish, and drove back home.
Except.
I couldn't remember how to get home. Yes, I moved the day before, but we actually moved just four blocks away on the same street! Yet I couldn't remember where I lived. At that point, I realized that I probably had a mild concussion. I had the presence of mind to ask my phone to take me home, and when I found myself at my old place (I'd never driven to the new home yet, so of course it took me to the old one!), I quickly remembered that we'd moved just down the street.
Later in the day I felt much better, but the first few hours were so weird! And my memory of that day is still patchy. Plus, my neck was really sore and stiff all week. Pretty scary.

Have you ever fallen during a race? Tell me your trip and fall tales!

Summer series: a muggy two-miler

I'm on a little bit of a race kick right now, as you may have noticed! All of a sudden a ton of race opportunities popped up within a few days of each other, and I decided to just go for them all. None of them are goal races, so none of them have been very fast. Almost all of them have been run on tired, sore leg - and Wednesday's 2-miler was no exception. My legs were so trashed from a hard Tuesday night workout!

My race schedule looks like this:

Sat: Armadillo Dash

Wed: 4 on the 4th

Fri: All-comers track meet

Wed: Summer Series 2 miler

Sun: Spillway Classic 

Yeah, five races in two weeks. That's plenty. After Sunday I get a two-week break.

So, the two-miler: I hadn't planned to run it, because we have Bible study on Wednesday nights, but we ended up not meeting because so many people are out of town or just moved away (WAH, losing two good friends in one weekend!). With my schedule open, I ditched David (poor guy), and drove to City Park for the race. I had a really upset stomach all day, so much so that I wasn't sure I could run, but I reasoned that it wasn't all for nought because it was also early packet pickup for Sunday's Spillway Classic (which was a great idea, and I think helped the turnout for 2-miler as well). 

The art museum at City Park, post-race - what a pretty sky!

It was one of those miserable muggy evenings where rain threatens for hours, then finally there's a short, hot shower, and then it's just steamy. With mid-80's and 100% humidity, I settled for a short warm-up and ditched my sunglasses - they were just staying fogged up, anyway. I had no idea how I'd feel running, but I was definitely fatigued. I'd run 7.5 that morning, but even more importantly, I'd done nine miles of fartlek the night before. When I couldn't get my warmup pace under 8:45's, I knew I was in for a struggle. But then, sometimes I feel better once I start racing, so I got up to the line to start this thing! 

Sure enough, when the gun went off, my legs still felt sluggish. The hot, wet air made it seem like we were running through water, and my heavy legs only enhanced that impression. I pumped my arms a little to try to get my legs to turnover, and it worked a little. I was in a crowd of high schoolers, but I had started close enough to the front to avoid any serious boxing-in. By about a half mile, we had settled into our paces, and I was third female; the first was in eyesight, but far ahead, and the second was about halfway between us. She was a high school girl, and I hoped I could catch her in the second half. However, when the mile beeped at 6:07, I didn't feel like I had any more speed left. I actually started to slow down some instead. I worked to keep the distance between myself and the next girl the same, if not smaller, at least! With a quarter of a mile to go, I glanced at my watch and saw that my pace for this mile had dropped to 6:10 - not my intent - so I grimaced and tried to run hard to the finish. 

Somewhere along that last part I managed to accidentally hit stop on my Garmin, but the race is timed despite being a casual affair, and my gun time was 12:15. I can't complain about that! I should be able to run at or under 12 flat for two miles, but given my recent race and workout schedule, I was actually surprised to be under 12:30. A 12:15 is better than expected, and I think it's a promising sign that I could do that on tired legs. Also, I rallied well after initially slowing in the second mile, so that is also promising. If I can just stay healthy, I can see some PRs in my future!