Love Match!

Oh. my . GAWD!!  I just took the new Altras for a test run....it's a perfect match!!   They are the Altra Lone Peak 3.0 Mid height, neoprene/polartec trail shoe.  They look like this:

Briefly, I am going to be bold and say that they are the best running shoe I have ever worn, IN MY LIFE!  Ha ha ha, no, really.  I'm being serious. 

I will have a full review soon.  For some reason my photos won't upload to my server from my phone today, but I have a few from our jaunt around the mountain and if they ever show themselves in my mail folder I will share.  These shoes are awesome.  Comfort and performance perfectly melded.  Tell my husband I won't be home later because I'll be out romancing my Altras.....

Also, a quick nod to The Running Schlub for the inspiration for my post-run pbj!!  If you haven't checked out Schlub's blog you should do so!  He's one of the most enthusiastic, motivated runners out there and I always enjoy his posts.  He's taking on the BIG TRAIL RUNS and training for his first 50k trail race !   Need a dose of inspiration and positive vibe? He's your guy!!

Fall Color

We've had some GORGEOUS fall weather up to this last weekend, then we got slammed with lots of rain.  I think we had a couple of inches on Saturday!  But precipitation is good....that rain will soon be snow!

And then there's fall color of another kind....these new Asics trail shoes!

I finally found a shoe I can run in and that fits relatively well!  Is it a perfect match?  No. But it's close.  It's the Asics 2000-4 Trail running shoe.  I had the road version last year and liked it well enough.  When I  first put this shoe on the big thing I noticed is the lack of toe room.  I think this runs small, as did the road shoe, so I sized up half a size.  However, I have gotten used to shoes like the Altra with great space in the toe box, and while this is long enough, and wide enough, there isn't a lot of space up and down in the toe area and the top of my toe actually rubs on the fabric!  SO annoying.  I think it will loosen up, as will the entire shoe, as it feels a bit stiff all over.  Great heel cushioning, if that's your thing.  I think it could use more forefront cushion.  Though when I started downhill I immediately appreciated the extra cushion in the heels. Awesome tread!  Pretty much bomb proof, no slipping whatsoever.  I ran on everything from grass and forest duff to recently dug up gravel and loose dirt roads.  This however was under dry conditions.  And THAT, is one thing that hurts this pair...when the rain came and the conditions were wet (Hey it's THE NORTHWEST),  my feet were soaked instantly! The fabric has no water resistance at all and in fact seems to soak up water like a sponge.  Not very enjoyable.  The tongue also is a bit short for me....I am one of those weirdos who hates to tie and untie shoes.  I like to get them just right and then put them on with a shoe horn?  So when you go to put these on, the tongue is rather small and doesn't open up enough for me to slide my foot in....again, one of my strange peeves but if you get what I'm saying?  Then you have strange peeves too! 

Overall, this shoe is adequate.  I gave it an 8 when I first put it on but by run's end it had crept up to an 8.75.  They cost me $95 on Road Runner Sports.  meh.  not super thrilled as far as cost to worth for me personally but these days it seems anything under $100 is a score.  

Next up....that pair of neoprene shell Altra Lone Peaks....They are sitting right here awaiting a run up the mountain.   Should I say that I wish it was a rainy day??  

Mountain Mess?

Well, Saturday I did go out shopping looking for running shoes.  And I bought....RUBBER BOOTS!  That's right, you can't run in those. Well, you can, but it would be sloppy and awkward.

I am so thrilled to have found these though because they are the perfect thing for walking the dog in the morning. The fields we play in are soaking wet this time of year and last fall and early winter my feet were soaked every day! These fit perfectly, YAY!!

Sunday I went out again looking for the perfect running shoe.  No luck.  I went to Road Runner Sports and tried on about 6 pairs.  I really am a lot like Goldie Locks here ....too small, too big, rock plate, toe guard, bad tread...ugh!  On Wednesday I checked out one more local store but had no luck.  So finally, after driving my husband nuts talking about running shoes for WEEKS, I ordered another pair of Altras and an Asics GT2000 trail.  The Altras are the neoprene/polartec waterproof MID version of the Lone Peak 3.0  .  I'm not thrilled with the changes to the Lone Peak over the 2.5 version I have but if these are "right" they may be exactly what I'm looking for to wear in the mountains through early winter (gaiters!!)  The Asics are the fall back pair.

As soon as they both arrive I will give an update....right, because it's SO exciting to talk about my running shoes....

Okay, on a side note....did I mention (ya probably) what a big fan of Harry Chapin I was?  So, I have Sirius radio and honestly the BEST thing about it is the crazy old gems that pop up as you surf channels.  Awhile ago I heard Taxi and it just is SO INCREDIBLE.   Taxi... go on, take a listen.  "There's a wildman wizard, he's hiding in me, illuminating my mind".   And the part about having "something inside me, not what my life's about"?  oh man!

The funny thing about this is that I kept singing it, playing it, yelling it, writing it down, working out to it etc.  And I thought about a concert I went to back in the 70's.  Harry came out after the concert and talked to us, shook our hands.  It was just us, a small group of high school friends who hung around after the show.  He was such a nice, regular guy.  He even signed a leather visor that I was wearing at the time.  ya, a leather visor that had "Budweiser" tooled into it.  To my complete delight, my best friend found a photo of the two of us, circa 1978, and there I am, wearing the visor!  It was completely coincidental too!  Just like that...BAM, I've got a photo of me in the visor!!

I must have really been into hats as the newsboy cap on my friend is also mine....

Well, there you have it.  An update from the mountain mess that I am.  Maybe I spend too much time alone with Mae?  ya, maybe... I hope your first week of "fall" is going great!!  Drop me a note.  Got a favorite old song that lights up your day?  Share it!  

Still Looking...

I really thought that I had a match.  I’ve been looking for new running shoes for so long and I picked up a pair of La Sportiva’s .  I’m not sure what I was thinking with them , as they were the opposite of most shoes I like.  But you know, they felt good in the store.  Dont’ they always??

But on my feet, on the trail, up and down the mountain?  They felt like WAY too much shoe. After wearing shoes like Altras, Newtons and even my favorite original Brooks Pure Grit, this shoe did not have enough room in the toe box .  I had even sized up half a size, but my toes were hitting the very hard toe guard and that was fairly uncomfortable.  The laces were annoyingly long.  Sure, I didn’t lace the top hole but that was because the tongue was also huge and uncomfortable. The laces also tended to come undone, despite double knots.   They did have excellent traction, especially descending, I’ll give them that.  That feature was probably the only thing I did like about them.

But overall , it was just too much shoe.  They seem more like a nice hiking shoe (for someone else) but I was not comfortable wearing them running , or actually wearing them at all.  So glad REI has such an excellent  return policy.    I’ll have to keep looking…What are you wearing ??

Tuesday Afternoon Fun

You know lately, all I want to do is wander around in the mountains with my dog.  Is that so wrong?   Here are a few shots from our Tuesday afternoon at the "lake"....

Someone pulled the plug....

It's okay, there's still MUD!

There's not much of summer left.  How are you spending your final days of the season?  Heading back to school?  Sending off the kids?  Sneaking in some last vacation days?  I hope it's all great!

Dogs and Houseplants....

This is a  quick post to relate something scary that happened with Mae last night.  We were getting ready for bed and she wanted to go out on the porch for a drink, (she has a bubbler fountain on porch) so I opened the door to let her out.  She came back inside and my husband yelled to me that she had something in her mouth.  Well, it was part of a silver jade plant that is in a pot on the porch, been there all summer along with  Aloe and other succulents.  We pulled the leaf out of her mouth and within a minute she started having what appeared to be an asthma attack, wheezing and having difficulty breathing!!  It lasted about 10 scary minutes and finally she was ok!!  A  quick check online though told me something I didn't know....Jade and Aloe are toxic to dogs!  While it's not likely they will consume enough to poison themselves, they can have irritation, stomach upset and other symptoms.  I had seen Mae nibble the ends of the aloe but never thought much about it.  Who knows why at 11 pm she decided to start eating a jade plant that she has sat next to all summer??  Dogs!!!  Anyway, just a heads up if you love succulents and dogs....like Lilies and cats, they might not go together!

And of course, the obligatory photo of Mae....keeping cool on a hot day in a mountain stream!

Do I Still Run?

2012 at the Refuse to Abuse 5k

Well, here's an update to answer that question.  It's more one of self-reflection than anything but the answer is clouded with all sorts of issues.  Short version, "No, not right now".   When I moved back to the mountain full time in the fall of 2014, I was still running.  Because that was a drought year, I ran off and on through the winter months and was still in decent running shape.  When we got the puppy my running schedule took a nose dive and we did a lot more hiking and walking that spring and summer than running.  Last fall however I was still running into October.  Then things went south... real snow meant limited access to running routes and I ended up doing a lot of hiking around in the snow, snowshoeing, xc skiing and snowboarding.  All of this is great.  It's just the "specificity" principle that started to hurt my running.  What else?  

Shoes...yup. I have had a terrible time finding shoes that are "right"?  has that happened to you ?  They change shoes so often that even shoes I have loved became, in new versions, terrible!  This spring I was in love with my Altras but , being that I pronate and have some other alignment issues, I only wore them for two months before they began to bother me.  The Asics road shoes I purchased also didn't seem to last very long before they became squishy and lopsided.  I wear them still.  In the lake.  I'm hoping for my birthday, next week, to go purchase a pair of shoes that work for me.  I may go back to Adidas trail shoes , which have always been my go to shoe. 

Menopause....son of a bitch.  Menopause has been kicking my ass this past year. My journey through it began several years ago but this year I had some really bad, strange set backs.  First of all, I don't sleep. Not sleeping is just not okay.  It messes with your ability to recover from anything , let alone if you are doing anything athletic.  That 3 mile run or hike becomes like a marathon to your sleep deprived body and the changes in hormones also inhibit your recovery.  The two together, nice combination! I've tried lots of ways to remedy my sleep issues .  I'm still working on it.

Muscle aches,  leg cramps, fatigue....back in April at the end of the ski season I was doing a lot and more or less dealing with the recovery problems.  But then I got hit with this stretch of awful leg and muscle pain, night time leg cramps, muscle fatigue and general weakness.  I went to my doctor (all my blood work was normal) and also to a physical medicine specialist trying to solve the problem.  Some of it was related to previous issues, like the bursitis in my right hip, an old groin pull that popped back up and piriformis syndrome in that same leg. But the pain at night, feeling of exhaustion and complete melt down was something new.  what was it?  well, it finally subsided in June.  What was different?  I had a period after not having one for 11 months and 2 weeks!  When it was over, I felt totally fine!!!!  Son of a BITCH.  Then I realized that I had other clues that all along it was hormones messing with me. But because I hadn't had a period in so long I didn't recognize them.  My asthma was really bad, which can happen with menopause, and definitely was an issue in the past few years.  I also had experienced the same type of aches, just not to that extreme.  Oh and I admit....some changes in mood.  (well who wouldn't at that point?)  I never experienced any of that stuff when I was younger so it came as a big surprise.  

Anyway, there's the long version to what happened with my running routine.  I've started back at it and have been doing a little walk-run stuff around the mountain, really paying attention to my hydration and nutrition needs, trying to sleep, and trying to not let menopause mess me up!  If it's been kicking your ass what do you do to kick back?  If you had problems during the transition have they gone away?  Body chemistry is a really complex but intriguing topic.  If you , as an athlete , have any insight to the aging body and how to get the most from it, I'd love to hear it!  Mostly I just try to  ignore it and overcome it by sheer will!  Happy Running friends!!