Friday rant

I think I am back with training. Thurs I went to the gym for an hour and half (1/2 of it was x-training and another weight routine, not full, but better than Tues). Then the sun was out (the weather Gods must have screwed up and forgot it's OR) and I went to Tryon park and did my regular loop - yep, the whole 10 miles of it, with all the hills. I actually felt surprisingly good on it and instead of recovery 9/1 run/walk ran at good pace the whole thing and only got pooped last 15 min or so on the last hill. Then I just walked in the park for another 10 min, looking at trilliums and soaking the sun.

That night while cooking dinner I decided - hell with this strvation diet. I actually was adjusted to not eating, my stomach wasn't grumpy, but I missed real food, and been the one who makes dinners (and every night, let me tell you) it's hard to stay there and smell...so I cheated, but only little, and plan on slowly adding on boiled veggies today. I lost 8 lbs and hasn't quite reached my goal, but that's ok. May be I should eat mindfully...yeah, I've said it before. Not that I eat junk food - I don't at all, but most of the Russian kitchen is fried food, and that's how I like it (heritage).

Today I ran with Gail (finally! after 3 weeks) and we had lots of catching up to do. She encouraged the idea of more people reading my blog since it's does make me as a normal mortal and have people to think about themselves too. There was a man here, Scott McQueeney (he died 3 years ago crossing a finish line at McForest of heart attack), and he put hinmself out there for people to see every day, with all the bad and good, accepting himself and making a step by step to be a better person. I wish I could have met him! He is always remembered in PNW running community for what he outcome, how he dealt with things and how he helped everyone he met on his life path. We are all regular folks, we have lives, we go through ups and downs, and hopefully learning lessons on the way, and may be sharing this lessons with our friends sometimes...

Of course, it wasn't all serious talk. We just had to talk about our "great" bodies, especially because I was lagging behind slowly low on energy from all this sirup drinking and yesterday's good workouts. Laughing while pointing at our "favorite" flabby parts, yet admitting that these chubby legs and hanging stomach rolls somehow bring us to the finish line time after time - whether it's a daily run, a 50k or a 100M.

Forest park is gorgeous! We've run into a group of supporters of FriendsOfForestPark, and Gail went into rampaging about a new project. Nice to see people care! We also got the usual "are you related?" line (same body type, same face structure, same eyes), and it always makes us smile. Here you go, sister!:)

Charles left a comment on the last post if I miss NY trails. Charles, i don't know how often you come visit me here. Of course I remember Van Cortlandt park and our group runs with VCTC, little 5k series every other week (another prove of me been a trail runner - I PRed there at both 5k and 10k races vs roads after running a long run prior and walking every hill during a race). I will never forget how Firdaus told me about exsitance of Rockefeller preserve - and right in my backyard, minutes from work and a mere 5 miles from home! All the long runs there, all the fun...May be Vannie is a bit not hilly enough for me now, may be Rockie is a bit too wide on the paths, but it's like first love - how can you forget? I remeber doing my first night run there training for a first 100M. I went with Oleg, who wasn't even running much back then, for 45 miles, starting 10 pm. Lots of trails go by cemetery, and it was spooky, Then Oleg got tired and would stand waiting for me while I'd do little 1-2 miles out-and-backs, and at one of those I saw a herd of wolfes! Yikes, their eyes were bright looking right at me at night! I just dashed back! After that we simply looped 3M around a lake many times, Oleg walking opposite direction of me running. We met a first running sunrise that day...I have to add, Oleg still thinks there is nothing like Rockies, and how funny we felt when we saw people there - like it belonged to us, why nobody asked permition?

Stephen has his first ever baseball game this Sat, and it's a big affair for the family! Then on Sunday is a Gorge run with some friends. Life is good...I wish I could have gone to Peterson Ridge 60k to volunteer, but I need to be here, especially because I'll be volunteering the following weekend at cap Peak 50M with Stephen. Gotta choose...I am looking forward to some quality time with my family and catching up on home stuff that was left out for a week.

Boy, so nice to see the sun out! I almost forgot what it looks like:) Hope y'a all having a good day!

More picture from AR50 from Brightroom photography - sorry, if you're interested, you have to click the link, they are copyright protected. But it's a sure prove of how much fun I had!

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=11345&BIB=504&S=230&PWD=

p.s. Don't touch that dial:)

I went for my first Rolfing session today. I have no idea what it is, but I was recommended to try it by Kristin Jossi. It's some kind of naturopathy/chiropractor/massage mix working on the whole body allience thing. Supposedly, it might help my compartment, and what do I have to loose besides money out of pocket? And I don't have those right now anyway:) between paying for Alex's rehab and just sheding $1k for the car fix and buying a ticket to Russia.

So I checked in with this guy, and the first thing comes up - I gotta get butt naked. Well, may be not quite that, underwear is allowed, but the skimpier the better. OK, may be I am not the most inhibited person in the world, but c'mon, I've been married for over 16 years, I don't know, man...
Anyway, as he works with his hands and elbows on my body (and in-between every couple manipulation I am supposed to get up and stand in front of him), it feels like he tries to separate the muscle fibers, pull them apart and allow them to re-allign more economically efficient or something. He even did one side of my chest first so I can feel the difference standing up - and it's huge!
I am not sure what's going to be after, and I am obviously not going to stop/reduce running (what's recommended - though I will put on halt Graston for now as it's contradicts the treatment), but as I walked out of the office, the body felt strangily different, especially my ribcage, as well as all the leg parts that usually get re-injured. So there are things happening in there. I have to do this Rolfing every 2 weeks for at least 10 sessions, what will take me through the summer (unless I begin to hate it or him). What means I am missing out on seeing John (the Graston guy I am a big fan of). We have to get together for coffee...

Another possible option for me - Lisa told me to videotape my running so she can send it to some dude-orthopod in CO for gate analysis and put me on orthotics. Taping failed (I was gliding too fast through the aid stations at AR50:-)), but I could still do it somewhere here, and Gail is working on it - getting me to the right person.

Aren't my friends the best?!

You now can return to your usual tasks, no more explicit deatils will be posted today.