Running on Faith

My mouth is still giving me problems so I decided that since I really couldn’t eat supper, I’d just run a little bit instead.  I imagined that with each step I was taking, the hot steam from the asphalt was healing my mouth…and maybe moisturizing my 40 year old skin.  What can I say, when I’m tired and I don’t feel like running, I play mind games to help me get through it.  About halfway through the run, it started a light drizzle and it felt great.  It really cooled things off and I think I sped up a little….just a little. 

On a humorous note, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of running with Mr Xctmnt, you know that he sweats more than an ice cold glass of water sitting on concrete in August.  I mean that when he takes his shirt off after running, he actually rings the sweat out of it like it was a dishrag.  Also, if you’re familiar with our neighborhood, you know that fire ants are a big problem for us.  There’s a fire ant mound every two feet in everyone’s yard.  Well, after running 3 miles today, Paul took of his shirt and tossed it on the side of the road.  After I was done, I picked it up for him because it was lying on top of an ant hill.  Normally, those ants would be crawling all over anything that was lying on top of their home.  Not today!  That sweaty shirt actually KILLED a few of those ants.  We may be on to something….instead of spending major bucks on ant killer, maybe Paul can just run around the yard and sweat!

This is just a quick post to let everyone know I had a good training run today.  It was longer than normal for a week day run for me as I ran 4 miles in 42 minutes.  I’m hoping to get the same type of run in Thursday.  Until then….this is Flash and I’m running on faith the hot weather is gone and the cooler weather is here to stay!

The weather finally cleared on Sunday afternoon so Paul, Blake, Camren and I decided to get a family run in.  We drove to my parent’s house to visit and get a little run in.    They have a 2 mile loop in their neighborhood that turned out to be a very good training route.  I grew up in that neighborhood and rode my bike on those roads hundreds of times and I don’t remember all of those hills!  The temperature was GREAT; it was so nice to run without the sun glaring down.

 I did come across two rude little kids who called out “hey lady” every time I ran by their house.  On the last trip, they said “hey lady, give me some of that orange drink.”  Funny thing though, when I turned around and jogged back to the end of their driveway and offered them some of my orange drink, they ran back to their house screaming.  I know, I know, it was not a nice thing to do BUT I was tired and my tooth felt like someone was in there turning a light switch off and on and I was not in the mood for rude little kids.  I was also chased by a big brown dog and this dog wasn’t just playing around.  It wasn’t barking, it was growling.  It also wasn’t just following us down the road; it was nipping at my heels.  Mr. Xctmnt took care of that dog for us….Thank you baby!

 It was a great run, the best I’ve had in a while.  It wasn’t as long as I planned but it’ll do.

 I did get the root canal taken care of today and I’m optimistic that in a few days, I’ll finally be back to normal.  I’m looking forward to seeing our Running on Faith buddies at the Mockler Beverage 5K this Saturday.

 I am Flash and I’m running on faith that the weather will hold out this week so I can get a few more good runs in!

Hello to all the Flash Fans out there.  I’m sorry I’ve been silent for so long.  I have been running although not as much as I should be.  I’ve been dealing with struggles in my professional life which pretty much causes me to be in a bad mood around the clock.  It’s hard to write positive sounding posts when I feel so lousy at the end of the day.  Add to that, a lopsided face (dental issues) and a tooth that’s been throbbing since Tuesday.  At least there’s an end in sight for that tooth, I have a root canal scheduled for tomorrow.

Last week-end was impossible for a long run because we had a cross country meet for Blake on Saturday and a triathlon for Paul and Blake on Sunday in Lafayette.  Between those times, I took Camren to a Baton Rouge Playmakers play, went grocery shopping, made a trip to Sam’s and spent 4 hours at church with Blake and his confirmation group working on a service project.

Monday I was able to get three good miles in and I felt great about that.  Tuesday is when the tooth ache started.  Thursday I finally made it to the dentist and explained the problem.  She gave me a few numbing shots to last several hours so I could get a run in and eat something.   

Yesterday, I sat at a cross country meet for 6 hours.  Yes, that’s 6 hours and in the rain at that.  As I watched those young people come in to cross the finish line, I felt the running inspiration come back to me which is something I’ve forgotten over the last few weeks.  Several of them were crying, some were grunting and growling and some were just yelling in pain.  I know exactly how that feels and I don’t run nearly as fast as most of them do.  If you’ve never witnessed a cross country meet, you really should one day.  Just leave early enough to get a parking spot because most areas of land that are big enough to have 2 to 3 mile loop for a run like this have very inadequate parking!

This morning, Paul and I got up at 6:00 a.m. to run, I was nervous about the tooth but I took the prescribed pain meds and hoped it would get me through at least 12 to 13 miles.  At 6:30, on the way out the door, Paul decided to look at the radar.  Great idea.  It showed rain on its way and approaching quickly.  We decided to wait it out for 20 minutes or so and we just laid down on the couch and chairs in the living room.  And wouldn’t you know, 10 minutes later the sky opened up and the rain came pouring in.  It rained like that for 3 hours and we now have Lake McCullough in our back yard.  Perhaps we should cross train today and switch to open water swimming instead.  We may try to get our run in later in the day if the weather holds out but as least I finally got to sleep late!

This is Flash and I’m running on faith that my running will get back on track!

I was so excited about completing the Cajunman Triathlon that I forgot to tell everyone that I did get my training miles in last week.  I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and Thursday.  I know it’s time to increase the mileage on my week night runs but it’s very difficult to find the extra time.

 Saturday, I had the pleasure of visiting with fellow Running on Faith teammates Tim, Christine and Louise.  It was great to see you guys and share a laugh or two!

 Sunday morning, our alarm goes off at 6 a.m. 30 minutes later, Paul and I are walking out the door headed on a 2 ½ to 3 hour road trip.  We have a packed ice chest, skin protectant, sunglasses, music, towels, a small amount of snacks and Paul has a cap on. GREAT!  It sounds like we’re headed to the beach or to a nice lake, right?  WRONG.  We’re walking to the end of our driveway to set up an unmanned aid station.  My goal was 13 miles and I was ready.  Of course, you know Paul, he wants to go 14 miles and “one up” me again.

 The run started out good, the weather was cool and the humidity was decent.  I started to feel tired around 7 miles and I knew I needed some fluids.  When I made it back to our driveway, it was the 8 mile mark and there was our makeshift unmanned aid station waiting on me.  I took a 3 minute break and while walking, I ate a bite of bagel, swallowed 2 electrolyte tablets and grabbed a melon flavored Gatorade for the rest of my “road trip”.  The next 2 miles felt great and I think I picked up the pace a little bit.  Things went sour around the 9 miles; my feet started to really hurt.  I was wearing new running shoes that only had about 10 miles on them and maybe that wasn’t a good idea.  I decided I should take a two minute walk break but it actually hurt more to walk so I picked up the pace and started running again.  By this time, I started to feel lonely too (I’d been running for almost two hours); Paul is always out there with me but we don’t see each other much. 

 I made it back to our driveway to complete the 13 miles in 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Considering the pain I was in, I was thrilled with the accomplishment.  Paul let me catch my breath before we started packing up our supplies.  Then he gently informed me that I miscalculated again and I only ran 12 ¾ miles, not 13!  I cannot describe how disappointing this was but I didn’t have it in me to turn around and run another ¼ mile to make up the difference.  I’ll just have to get it in next time.

 I’ll be traveling back and forth to Lafayette this week for work related business and I’m concerned that this will affect my week day training (the weather won’t help either).  I’ll post and let everyone know how that works out.

 This is Flash and I’m running on faith that I’ll reach my goal for donations.  I’m so close…please help me help the kids of St Jude!

I spent several days out of town on a business related last week so my training was limited.  I did squeeze in a 3 mile run Friday morning and it was a good one.  It wasn’t fast but it was very pleasant (probably because I was running in a brand new pair of running shoes).  While I was running I was contemplating the CajunmanTriathlon and wondering how I would pull off those distances.  I wasn’t prepared and I was worried.

Sunday my day started at 3:50 a.m.  It was raining and I felt a sense of doom.  Was I really going to drive to Lafayette and participate in the Cajunman Triathlon?  I knew I would have to ride a bike for 20 miles in bad weather, (they don’t cancel triathlons because of rain).  It rained the entire way to Lafayette and my sense of doom was almost overwhelming by the time we parked and unloaded the bikes. 
As we packed our gear down to transition, we noticed something crawling and biting us, even as we were moving.  What in the world?!  Mosquitoes, that’s what!  We took care of the body marking and it was quite a challenge to stand still while being eaten by mosquitoes. Thankfully Paul and I had consecutive race numbers. By this time, I’d already had a nice little anxiety attack, complete with all over shaking and tears so to have Paul racking his bike next to mine was a blessing.  I know he was probably a little worried about me but he didn’t let it show.  We quickly set up our transition spots because they were planning to start the race early.  The swarms of mosquitoes were taking my mind off the fear of riding the rain.  I was thinking that I may not crash my bike but I could catch West Nile Virus!  We headed off to the port o’cans which provided another challenge.  Try to take care of business in that thing and avoid getting eaten by fire ants at the same time!  I did OK but Blake wasn’t so lucky.

Time to head down to water….and it was quite an interesting body of water.  There were a half dozen miniature submarines docked along the water.  Great, that means the water must be REALLY deep.  No fear here…  Paul’s group started 12 minutes before mine so he had to leave me and head down to the water.  I tried to look brave as he kissed me and walked off.  He left me in good hands; Blake and Cam were there to keep me company.  I made my way to the water and walked down the steps.  The temperature was surprisingly comfortable and I immediately starting putting my face to get used it. We had to wait in the water for a while and I was having serious trouble touching the bottom and getting concerned that I’d be worn out from treading water.  A nice lady moved over on the mud bar (it certainly could not be characterized as a sand bar) so I could plant my feet for a few minutes.  All this time, I’m trying to find the first buoy that I needed to swim to…and I could barely see it.  I wasn’t scared however I knew I wasn’t prepared for this swim so I figured I would be in the water for at least 30 minutes.  The actual swim was uneventful and pleasant enough.  I was able to swim freestyle except for when I was looking for the buoys, the shoreline or avoiding getting kicked in the face.  I could hear Christine saying, “This stroke’s for me, this stroke’s for God.”  Thanks Christine, that really does work!  I swam those 800 meters, made it back to the dock in good shape and the nice gentlemen yanked me clean out of the water which eliminated the need for trying to find the steps.  Blake and Cam were there waiting on me and they ran with me until I made the turn towards the transition area.  (I would like to know who had the sick idea of running uphill on concrete with sharp points in it AFTER swimming a ½ mile.)  As we’re running to transition, I told the boys to get to car because by this time, it’s really dark, it’s raining and the lightening is pretty bad.  I ran through the mud to my bike and attempted to put on shoes and socks while standing up and dodging rain drops and lightening bolts.  I kept asking myself if I was really prepared to do this and if they really planned to send us out there on our bikes.  They did not cancel the race…  My face was really wet by the time I hit the 1 mile mark and to be honest, I’m still not sure if it was tears or rain drops.  I’ve ridden 20 miles a lot of times but never in these conditions and never without Paul.  I settled into a good, safe pace and was finally catching my breath from the swim when I came across a dead skunk in the road somewhere between mile 3 & 4.  That really woke me up, kinda like smelling salts when you faint.  By mile 6, it was really raining hard, the wind was getting stronger and I started praying.  I could hear Paul’s voice in my head telling me I could do this and I would be OK.  Have you ever seen the movie “Days of Thunder”?  That voice in my head was saying something like, “you have special tires that are a perfect match and if you go to the outside, you can hold it.”  I was really hugging the side of the road so if I did crash, at least I would fall in the ditch.  I had to have faith in my bike and my ability to ride so I moved away from the side of the road, shifted to a bigger gear and got down to business.  Before I knew it, I was at the 10 mile mark and making the turn to head back.  It was a rather uneventful ride at that point.  I was getting used to the wet roads and the rain beating me in the face.  There was one terrible hill to climb and as I approached it, I said a few choice words out loud.  Paul’s voice popped back into my head and he was saying “shift woman, shift!”  So, I shifted to a smaller gear like he taught me and made it up the hill in one piece and still on the bike.  Someone had the good humor to spray point the word OUCH on the asphalt at the top of the hill and they couldn’t be more right because that’s when I hit my lowest speed of 10 mph.  After that, the rest of the ride was great, I was hitting up to 20 mph and I knew I gonna be able to do it.  Thank you Paul for always asking those dreaded words on Saturday night….”so, do you wanna ride tomorrow?”  If it weren’t for those Sunday morning rides, I would never have made it.  Here’s your “I told you so” moment!  I made my way back to transition and feeling a little disoriented because I’d been pedaling on that bike for an hour and 20 minutes.  I heard Paul calling my name.  He congratulated me for completing the bike portion but he was concerned about Blake and Cam, he couldn’t find them.  I sent him to the car; they were probably still taking cover from the weather.  We said our quick goodbyes and I headed off to complete the 5K run.

 

It took a ¼ mile to get my legs working right; after riding the bike for 20 miles, my legs were fried.  Once I settled down, I felt pretty good and it’s probably because I stayed hydrated on the bike (here’s another “I told you so” moment for Paul).  The run was rather uneventful except for the surprisingly big hill we had to run down and then back up; who knew an airport could be so hilly!  I finished the run leg with a very good time and I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out how I managed to do that.

I was so happy to be done and I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face.  Two minutes later, Paul placed a beer in my hand; I guzzled that beer like it was water and two minutes after that I burped louder than I’ve ever done in my life (I’m still scratching my head  trying to figure out how I managed to do that too…).

My stats are a matter of public record since Atomic Racing posted them for the whole world to see so I don’t mind telling you….I swam the ½  mile in under 20 mins, I rode the 20 miles in under 1 hr 20 mins and I ran the 5K in under 32 mins.  I did it!!!!

This is Flash and I’m running on faith that no one fell asleep while reading my race report!

My training is on track and going as well as can be expected.  This past week, I ran 3 miles each on Tuesday and Thursday.  I probably should’ve run more but in the interest of time on a school night, I cut it short.  We usually reserve early Saturday mornings for our long runs but with Blake’s cross country schedule, this will be rather difficult.  This past Saturday we had to be at the State Fairgrounds at 7:30 a.m. for an unofficial track meet so that meant we would not be able to run. I was a little disappointed because I was planning to run 13 miles.  Saturday afternoon, Paul asked those dreaded words…”so, do you wanna ride tomorrow morning?”

So, Sunday morning we were up at 7:00 and on the road riding by 7:45.  It started out pretty bad, my legs were tired from all the running and the yard work we did Saturday.  The first 10 miles were bad, I struggled but I made it.  By the time we hit the turn around spot and took a quick water break, my legs were feeling better and stronger.  I took the lead on the way back home and it felt like I was flying.  I think Paul was drafting a little bit behind me because I know I could never go that fast alone.  My top speed was 20 mph and I averaged 16.5 for 20 miles!  I was wiped out when we got back but it was a good short ride.  In the spirit of efficiency, we decided to get our run in while Blake was a track practice Monday morning.  Did I ever mention how much I love running cross country???

Paul, Blake and I were at Highland Road Park for 7:50 this morning and ready to run.  Blake ran off to join his team and Paul and I went the other way (I wanted to get a good head start on the Catholic High Cross Country team).  My plan was to run the 3 mile loop twice however I was concerned that I would lose my way on the hills (sometimes it’s hard to see those arrows in the grass).  Paul stuck with me for 5 miles and I know it was hard for him because I run at a much slower pace than he does.  We don’t normally run together so this was a treat for me.  Considering the fact that I was running in wet grass and mud, up and down hills, across ditches, and with the Catholic High Bears closing in on us, it was one of the best runs I’ve ever had.  However, I accidentally cut myself short a ½ mile because I misunderstood Paul’s directions.  I decided on the way home that I needed to add a swim to my day, so we quickly changed clothes and headed over to Paul’s parents house.  I swam over a ½ mile in 30 minutes.  Isn’t Labor Day supposed to be a relaxing day?????

I’ll be traveling on business this week so I doubt I’ll get a run in before Friday.  Also, I’ll be competing in the Cajunman Triathlon in Lafayette next Sunday, (I’ve been signed up for this one for a LONG time).  And I use the word “compete” lightly because I’m not as prepared as I feel like I should be.  I’ll have to swim a ½ mile, ride 20 miles and run 3 miles.  This will be the longest triathlon I’ve competed in as an individual. I should have an interesting race report next Sunday night!

This is Flash and I’m running on faith that I’ll be strong enough and brave enough to complete the Cajunman Triathlon and that I’ll be running (and not walking) across the finish line!

Thank you to Andy & JoAnn Rushing for their donation and support to Team Running on Faith.  The Rushings and their family are long time family friends of Mr Xctmnt.

Thank you to Candice & Miguel Castro.  Candice is a special friend to Flash and they’ve know each other almost their whole lives.

Thank you for supporting us!!

Thank you to Carla and Robert Kusch for supporting Team Running on Faith!  They are old friends of Flash & Mr Xctmnt.

Thank you go Anthony and Judy LoBue for their donation to Team Running on Faith!  They are long time friends of Flash and Mr Xctmnt.

I apologize for not updating my progress sooner.  As every new school year does, this one has certainly brought its challenges.  For the 1^st time in 8 years, Blake and Camren are in different schools and on different schedules.  I’ve made the training a priority however posting my updates has been shuffled to the back of my “to do” list.  It does look like we are finally settling into a routine so I should be able to get back on track.

My training is coming along well and Paul and I continue to run every Tuesday and Thursday evening.  Those runs are 3 or 4 miles, depending on the homework load AND what time Blake and I get home from his cross country practice.  Saturday is still my long run day and two weeks ago I ran 12 miles for my long run.  It was a terrible morning (even at 6:00 a.m., it was already hot and muggy).  At the end of the first 7 miles, I planned to stop at our driveway, grab a Powerade and my sunglasses.  (Next time I’ll remember to leave a small towel to wipe the sweat from my face so I will be able to see!)  Usually, once I stop in the middle of a run, I struggle to resume my pace and this run would be no different.  So, I took it as a sign that it was a perfect opportunity to start practicing the run/walk strategy that I will probably need to get through the 26 miles.  So, for the next 5 miles, I practiced my 10/2 strategy (running 10 minutes & walking 2 minutes).  I was concerned with how this would work but it was fine.  I just had to stay honest, pay attention to my watch and keep those time intervals in check.  It took 2 hrs and 27 minutes to complete 12 miles and I was very happy with that.  It was a very hot morning, my legs were tired from the increased mileage during the week and my running top was causing a very uncomfortable chafe.  Unfortunately, I kept that sick, dehydrated feeling most of the day and never really felt better until I ate a good meal later for supper.

This past Saturday, Paul and I tried something different.  Blake had cross country practice at Highland Road Park so we decided that we’d try it too.  Bad idea, I should’ve listened to Timbeaux.  Running on hills with wet grass is not safe for me.  Add a couple of disc golfers and a 100 talented high school kids from various schools (who are also running), and it just gets worse.  I ran the two mile course and quit.  I felt inadequate and I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t going to get run over.  Paul thoroughly enjoyed it and he’ll do it again.  I’ll probably find another way to get my training in while Blake is at practice…

This is Flash and I’m running on faith that I’ll settle in a routine soon so I can get back on track with my posts and keep my “fans” interested in my training progress!