It's all fun and games until the tornado sirens go off.

I went on a 17 mile long run this morning.  I thought my pace and splits were pretty good overall, and I am satisfied with the run (even if my calves and knees are not satisfied with me at the moment).

However, the weather during this run can only be described as "completely craptastic."

The weather was grey and rainy when I woke up this morning.  Being a total running pro, I opted to check the weather using a highly technical process of "looking out the window at the current weather and assuming that's the way it would stay for the rest of the day."

That was a dangerous misstep on my part.

I got to my usual trail to do my long run, thinking that the day would stay grey and slightly rainy.  At least that's what I thought until it started pouring at the start of mile 4.

"Just a little rain," I thought.  "No big deal.  It should lighten up in a few minutes."

And it did lighten up to the north of me.

But to the south....

I kept heading east, hoping to dry out somewhat by the time I reached my 8.5 mile turnaround point.  I was at the very end of mile 4 when the tornado sirens went off.  I ran for about a minute, listening to the sirens and wondering what the hell I should do, looking at the sky for crazy cloud rotations as I felt the wind pick up and start blowing me around like a twig.  And then my brain screamed, "CALL YOUR HUSBAND, DUMBASS."

So I did.  And asked him if there was a tornado in my running vicinity.  He said no, and that the sirens were probably just severe weather sirens.  Placated, I got off the phone because it was pouring and continued on my way to my turnaround.

After it stopped pouring, I got out my phone to take this picture of the nicer weather behind me:

And that's when I noticed these little alerts I missed on my phone:

I also saw my husband had left me two voicemails since then, so I called him back while still continuing to run.  He told me to come home.  I told him I was only 1.5 miles from the turnaround, and it looked like it was clearing behind me anyway.  And then he screamed into the phone, "ARE YOU RUNNING WHILE YOU'RE TALKING TO ME?!?  STOP RUNNING AND COME HOME!"

It's hard to explain to a hysterical husband that you are 7 miles away from your car and that "coming home" will require that you run for at least another hour even if you turned around right that second.  The only thing that shot him back into the realm of reason was telling him my only fast option of coming home was to go and hitch a ride with a complete stranger driving down nearby Route 173 who would take pity on a poor runner girl who was soaked to the bone and had a running shirt on that was now slightly see-through because of the rain. 

Even though I reassured him that I would be OK, I pretty much freaked out for the next 5 miles or so, whipping my head around to be completely aware of when the eventual funnel cloud would be bearing down on me.  Expired tornado warnings be damned; a girl has to be prepared.  This is also why I was scouting out potential spots in the ditches that were relatively puddle-free for hiding places if I did spot a funnel cloud.

During that time it had stopped raining, and I was beginning to dry out and feel better.  I was about 3 miles away from my car when the second storm hit--and it was worse than before.  Much worse.  Sideways rain and heavy winds were pelting me from my right.

And then the hail came.  I was forced to run with my head cocked downward and toward the right so my hat would catch the hail, preventing it from poking my eyeballs out (which would make it very hard to run).  While I was busy protecting my eyesight, the hail kept slamming me in that nice soft skin between your thumb and first finger of each hand.

It was out to get me.  But I wouldn't give up.  I gritted my teeth and kept pushing on, thinking that if I could get through this, I could get through anything (including some crazy work stuff that's going on right now).  I also thought that if I could get through this without my iPod electrocuting me, I would be doing pretty damn well too.

I did make it, and was greeted to this sight as I finished my run:

The water was up to my calves, and my feet and shoes were thoroughly soaked--there was no way not to wade through that mess.  I finally made it to my car, where fortunately I had some towels in the back to dry off a little before heading home and hobbling my way into the house.

This, by far, is my most interesting and inclement weather-frought run.  But, like I said before--if I could get through that, I can get through anything.  But next time I'm going to check the weather at an official weather-type site before heading out.

(By the way, my husband has said I am no longer allowed to run after tornado sirens go off.  You'd think it was dangerous or something.)

Today's running forecast: Buh.

Check out today's running outfit awesomeness:

Neon yellow sweatshirt, grey running tights with neon orange stripes on the thighs (can't see those), navy blue running socks, and bright orangey-pink running shoes.  I sure know how to throw together a running outfit that isn't at all easy on the eyes.  But I guess that's the point when you want cars to NOT hit you.  Now if only putting together an obnoxious running outfit would keep dogs from chasing you....

Besides my inability to choose an acceptably matching running outfit, it's also the time of year where I don't really know how to dress for a run.  I will probably will be too warm when the 15 mph winds are at my back, and too cold when I'm running into them.  It's 40 degrees outside, the wind is howling, the day is grey, and even though I have an easy 6 to do today, it just looks like I'm going to wish I were done the entire time.

Time to suck it up, buttercup, and get it done so I can get back home and work the rest of the day.

Advanced half marathon running craziness. And new shoes.

Been running off a lot of work frustrations in these shoes rightcheer:

Brooks PureFlow, they are, and I love the color and I love how they feel.  Lightweight yet with enough cushion to satisfy my feetsies.  Very impressed; other shoes in Brooks' Pure line have simply hurt my arch with their weird arch support thing they have going on.  But these PureFlows...I think we have a permanent connection here.

I ran in these for two of my three running workouts this week.  This advanced half-marathon training plan is kind of kicking my ass all over the place.  Crazy intervals of 400, 1200, then 3200 (!?!?), and then repeat that goodness all over again. With warm-up and cool down that was almost a 9 mile workout.  The next day I had to do a 5 mile tempo run, meaning a speed work day after a speed work day.  Then a 6 mile easy run.

With all this advanced running craziness, I'm surprised this isn't somewhere on the schedule:

"Die from running too much.  Resurrect yourself; Run 4 x 1 mile repeats.  Go forth and work miracles the rest of the day."

Only 2 more weeks.  We'll see how much only 5 weeks of training after a 3-week marathon recovery will do for me on this half marathon.

Goodbye, Green.

Hello, snow.  Goodbye, green.  At least it was nice for my 12 miler yesterday.  I guess the face-freezing sideways-snow blowing days are upon us.

I will tolerate all of the brown.  But I will never accept it.  Circle of life be damned.

Good thing it was a "rest" day today.  I did a Cathe high step circuit DVD that was awesome because it used the barbell.  It was not so awesome because you had to do 32 leg presses at the start of each circuit.  There were 5 circuits. I'll let you do the math.

DAMMIT, CATHE, HOW MANY LEG PRESSES DOES A WOMAN NEED?

Well, I guess this woman needs a lot.  I have to lose 20 pounds.  I got on the scale and had another meltdown this morning, the end result of stress-eating Halloween candy for 2 weeks.  Here we go...time to get lighter, stronger...and faster.

Today's Long Run Recap

I haven't blogged here in a bit.  I think I finally got a handle on my new job so that won't be all-consuming of my time, so I have decided to post more often here, even if it's just a picture with a smarmy caption.

Cue picture:

There won't be a smarmy caption this time.  However, there will be a step-by-step rundown of the key events that occurred on this run, using a magical system called "the numbers below correspond to the numbers on the map above."

1. Around a mile into the run.  I want to stop because I ran 6 miles in 70 minutes the day before on the treadmill in minimalist shoes, and I can feel my right ankle protesting.  But I speed up because two dogs start chasing my ass down the road.

2. Reveling in the joy that is running head-on into cold winds.  Thinking about how much fun it will be to train through the winter again for my next marathon.  Trying not to cry.

3. First encounter with scary pit bull.  This dog doesn't jump over the fence, mainly because there are three strips of barbed wire across the top of it. It's the same dog that escaped one time and almost got me.

4. Encountered another dog, one that I call "carpet dog" because once, when I rode by on my bike, I thought someone had left a big pile of old white shag carpet out in the middle of their yard.  Until it moved and started barking.  Decided to turn around and head back early because I didn't want to find out if the walking carpet also had jaws of steel.

5. To make up some mileage, I headed down a side road that was surprisingly paved.  Nature called along this road, and I answered that call behind a bush with no leaves.  At the exact moment I hung up on the call, a car drove by and spotted me.  Damn-my first sighting.

6. Second encounter with scary pit bull.  This time, as I rounded the corner, he shoved his head and one shoulder through the chicken wire-esque fence as I scampered southward.  SCARY.

7. After doing some math, realized I was going to come up short in my mileage if I didn't do something.  Decided to suck it up and run westward into the wind one last time for the sake of making up a mile.

8. Realized my mental math capabilities totally and completely suck, because after some quick recalculations I now figured I would have about an extra quarter of a mile to run after I hit my target 12 mile mark.  Decided to take a sort of shortcut so I wouldn't have to run past my house and then come back (which is sheer agony, I tell you, to do at the end of a long run).

Even though it was cold, the sun was out, and it was a very nice fall morning.  I better enjoy them while they last-before the face-freezing sideways-snowing running days are upon me.