CHALLENGES

A group of my girlfriends have a challenge going: do something each month that stretches and scares them.

Since this is a group of athletes, the challenges are pretty much athletic in nature: hit a new PR for a distance, do a triathlon, cycle a time trial, do a different kind of race.

Me with my Achilles tendons, my challenge for this month is to clean out my closet and cupboards. Definitely a stretch and scary..... we have so little space in the RV, it's all at a premium, and I tend to accumulate stuff, and what will I do with the stuff I clean out of the storage space???

I got the closet done; cupboards are next. The closet only took 2 hours. I had to store my hiking backpack and all its contents in the backseat of the car, which we rarely use, to make room in the closet, which I do use.

I think my scariest and most difficult challenge, though, is sitting out this Achilles issue. I'm afraid losing my cardiovascular fitness. Running, walking, and even biking are out. Swimming.... well, I don't swim strongly or fast enough for it to count as aerobic. It's more like stretching. I asked the PT about pool-running and she was afraid of that much resistance causing dorsiflexion and extension of my feet, so that's out.

I'm getting stronger with my pushups and PT, but I am going to need to build my aerobic base back up when this resolves. I'll probably be out for another month at least. Then I need to rebuild slowly, being extremely careful of my tendons and guarding against too much too soon, to walking 8-10 miles at a time, to be ready to start the AT in the spring over mountains with a 30-pound backpack on.

I find this very scary.

KNOCKED DOWN A PEG

Since I had such a hard time with Saturday's Level 3 pushup workout, today I dropped down to Level 2, where today's reps were slightly less for Day 3 than Saturday's for Day 2. (25, 19, 19, 17, 22 compared with 27, 19, 19, 15, 25.) That's 102 today; 105 Saturday/

Even so, I could hardly make it.

But I made it.

Last week I found the requirements easier if I rested two days in between, instead of just one. I think I'll go back to that, as well as continuing in Level 2.

Week 4 will go like this:

Day 1: 22, 16, 16, 14, 22 (separated by 60 seconds, more if needed.)

Day 2: 22, 17, 17, 15, 20 (separated by 90 seconds or more)

Day 3: 25, 19, 19, 17, 24 (separated by 2 minutes or more)

It looks easy enough.

At the end of Week 4 comes another Progress Trial of as many as possible.

I may not be quite the stud I thought I was, but I'm still a stud :-)

MY TICKER

Stuart Bradford, New York Times

Double-entendre here.... this post relates to the little progress-meters in my sidebar (scroll down) AND to my heart.

I have lousy lipids. I've gone the medication route but it gave me muscle pain. I've made a modest improvement via oat bran, kidney beans, apples, and Metamucil capsules.

I've been doing some reading on the relationships of body fat, body weight, cholesterol (and all its variations, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, etc., none of mine are good), weight loss, BMI, etc., and playing with online fitness calculators. I'm deciding that weight and BMI are not reliable measuring sticks; they don't tell the whole story. Especially for athletes who may weigh more because they have more muscle mass and don't fit the charts.

The new kid in town is waist-height ratio. Ideally, as an indicator of lower risk for cardiovascular disease related to body composition and lipids, one's waist should be half one's height, or less. Here's a site I like for calculating it all out and explaining it. There I found out about the Willoughby Model, after the researcher who developed it, with "normal" and "athlete" or "ideal" WHR's. "Normal" WHR is under 50%; "Athlete" or "Ideal" is 45.8%, which for me would be 28 inches.

So that's what I'm aiming for, and I've added a new ticker to my sidebar to track my progress. Twenty-eight inches would represent a waist loss of 2 inches. Unbelievably, with a new food plan (but that's another post) I'm down 0.8 inches from when I started (a week ago?) already. Or else I just measured my starting waist wrong. But I'll take it!

PUSHING PUSHUPS; ACHILLES NEWS

I just struggled through Day 2 of Week 3:
27, 19, 19, 15, 25, separated by 90-second rests.

Except on 90 seconds I was only able to do 17 for Set 2, so for the next one I rested 2 minutes; barely cranked out the 19 so after that I rested 3 minutes. The 15 were hard but not impossible. I rested 4 minutes before the 25, which were j-u-s-t b-a-r-e-l-y d-o-a-b-l-e. Just barely.

Day 3 calls for 30, 22, 22, 20, 27.

Ack. I'm thinking I might have to repeat Day 2, or drop back from Level 3 (the most advanced) to Level 2 (intermediate.) Level 2's Day 3 is the same as the one I did today. I might have to stay at Level 2. This is getting really hard.

On the Achilles front:
Turns out that on the right it's not just tendonitis, it's actually a small tear, which will take longer to heal although the treatment is the same. I've been allowed to bike 10 miles but even that is causing a little aching and burning so I'm down to swimming, pool-running (great, I'm not crazy about swimming, it's the part of the triathlon I do as a required formality; pool-running has to be about as exciting as watching cows chew cud) and strength-training. I've got my pushups. And PT, where I do foot/ankle/leg/hip strengthening.

~Sigh~

WOW -- PUSHUP NEWS!!

So I've been doing this hundred-pushup challenge, and just finished my workout for Day 3 of Week 2.

The program called for sets of 15, 15, 12, 12, all separated by 2 minutes, followed by a final set of as many as possible, minimum-recommended 15.

I was able to push to 25.

That's the most I've done in a row EVER!! Even when I was doing pushups all the time! This program is WORKING!!

Plus I whipped easily through the 15, 15, 12, 12, not struggling with the last ones in each set as I have on all previous days.

I took two rest days instead of just one after my last session, and I think that made the difference. So I'm going to do that from now on. It'll lengthen my "weeks" to more than 7 days, but as long as I do the workouts in sequence, I don't think that matters.

Next challenge is to rest a couple days and then crank out as many as possible consecutively. The results of this trial determine the level of the next couple weeks' training.

I'm getting TUFF!!! Look out, world.... Ellie may be pushing 60 but she's pushing iron.

HILL? WHAT HILL?

41-year-old Darra Torres just won a spot on the women's Olympic swim team for the upcoming games. FORTY-ONE!! Her FIFTH Olympics. Go, Darra!

At 41 Darra's lived enough years to be more than a one-sport wonder. Besides being a world swimming champion, she's a racecar driver, journalist, and model, to name a few of her activities.

She's also gorgeous. Check out the links.... there are photos.

Is it too late for me to be Darra when I grow up?

LIVE MY LIFE OR WRITE ABOUT IT?

I'm coming to the conclusion I can't do both. Sometimes (much of the time, most of the time) I spend so much time online emailing and blogging about my life I don't have much time left over to live it. I'd make bigger strides in the practical world if I didn't spend so much time ruminating about it on the Internet.

Time to ponder.

PUSHUP PROGRESS

I got through Week One feeling as though the prescribed reps and sets were just about all I could manage. But I was able to do them and even exceed the minimum on those last "max possible" sets. So, on to Week 2.

I was scared to try, since I felt I'd just squeaked by in Week One. I took an extra rest day. Then when I looked at the Week 2 Program today, I found that today had fewer reps than my biggest day last week. 12, 12, 9, 7, all separated by 60 seconds, then max possible, recommended at least 10, and I made 14. However, I rested 2 minutes before trying the max set. This is permitted. Recommended rest intervals are qualified with "longer if needed."

Tomorrow is a rest day, then Day 2 is 16, 13, 11, 11, then max, all separated by 90 seconds or "more if needed."

We visited our son last week, and he was sore from having done 100 pushups the day before. Not all at once; he'd just decided he was going to do 100 during the course of the day. I could probably do that: 10 at a time, an hour apart for 10 sets. But that's not the program; I hesitate to mess with the program.

Strong Woman on the way, here.

BRICK!!

Well!!

I've decided to behave as thought I might do a triathlon in September.

I have no restriction on swimming. I have permission to bike 10 miles easy, as long as it doesn't hurt.

So I laid out my transition area and did a 20-minute swim followed by a 10-mile bike. All slow and easy, total time an hour and 6 minutes.

I feel encouraged. Maybe a little too much so.... doing some math on my fingers, if I could increase my bike ride by 5 miles per week, it would take 8 weeks to get to 50 miles and then I'd still have 3 weeks to taper. Hmmm.

Hmmm.

We shall see. I'm not going to count on it. You better not either. But we shall see.

HOPE FOR SAVAGEMAN, AFTER ALL...

Photo by Aaron Schwartsbard at savagemantri.org

The physical therapist has cleared me to start biking 10 miles, easy pedaling, quick cadence. No gear-mashing, hills OK if I can keep my cadence easy.

She also said, when I asked her, that the International Distance at SavageMan might be possible, especially since I was past the International distances on bike and run when I stopped with the injury.

She's using a therapy modality called ASTYM, "Agressive Soft Tissue Mobilization." She scrapes the hard edge of a hard plastic plate over my skin, and as it "bumps" over areas of fibrosis and scar tissue lumps, it breaks them up. Then stretching (I do specifically-prescribed stretches 4 times a day) helps to re-organize the damaged tissue fibers into smooth straight alignment as they heal. It's supposed to work faster and better than other therapy modalities on chronic injuries.

It also hurts. Youch. Not excruciating, but I'd say a 7 on a scale of 10.

Pushups today: 15, 13, 10, 10, then max, at least 15, which was all I was able to squeeze out. Total of 63! I found this challenging but was able to make it. So I guess on Sunday I'll be on to Week Two, since I hit no major stumbling blocks in Week One.

Sarah had a doctor's appointment today. She weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. at birth; today, at 5 weeks 3 days, she weighs 11 lbs. 9 oz. Doc said, "I guess we don't have to worry about her getting enough to eat." She's had nothing but Mommy's milk since birth.

I've got a sore mouth. Yesterday, for no apparent reason, I walked right smack into a glass door instead of opening it. Smacked my mouth good, chipping a crown and knocking it a little out of line, said crown having been placed after I ran into a pole at age 10 and broke my tooth off. There's no live tooth there now.... had a root canal after the break, and a silver peg was installed to which to attach the crown. Anyway, the surrounding tissue is really sore now. I'm eating on the other side of my mouth, which is difficult, since it's a front tooth. Since there's no live tooth, I'm waiting to see if the soreness dissipates over some time. Hope I don't need dental work, since our insurance doesn't cover it.

RECLAIMING

Photo by Ellinor Hamilton, 2004

Our minds are too busy. Our lives are too busy. We too-easily and too-often lose sight of what is central. This is the case with me, anyway; and, from what I see and hear, with a lot of other people as well.

I've had a line from somewhere circling in my consciousness: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." I couldn't place its origin, so this morning I Googled it. It's Wordsworth:

"THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US; LATE AND SOON"

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Yes, that's it. This is what I've been trying to say. This is what I've been trying to think. This is why I want to put a few eartly goods necessary for survival (and a few for comfort) into a pack on my back and walk from Georgia to Maine.

I fully plan to do this. I've wanted to for over 40 years, since I was 15. Things sometimes do, and sometimes don't, work out the way we've planned. I expect to fulfill my dream, but if life intervenes and throws in insurmountable obstacles, I hope I'll have the strength and focus to find somewhere deep within myself the same detachment from things, expectations, and striving.

(Notes)

Proteus: Greek sea god capable of taking many shapes.
Triton: Another sea god, often depicted as trumpeting on a shell.

PUSHUP DAY TWO

Whew! The program today, Day 2 of Week 1, called for:

12, 12, 10, 10, separated by a one-minute rest after each set, then as many as possible, aiming for at least 10.

I thought I might repeat Day 1: 10, 10, 8, 6, then max. I'm still a little sore from Day 1.

What the heck, though, try it and see.

I not only got through all of Day 2's reps, I did 15 for my final set. Total of 59 pushups. Day 1, two days ago, I did 43.

Wow. I'm surprising myself.

IS IT JUST ME?

Or is my blog suddenly in super-triple-size-extra-bold font?

Does it look normal to you?

Maybe my husband did something to the computer without telling me....
____________________

Update: There, I fixed it. Thanks for the input -- just wanted to make sure everyone else was seeing it, too, before I made it micro-mini :-)

FREAKIN' BONANZA!!!!!

Holy freakin' smoke!!

Look what someone threw away in the Dumpster at our campground!! It's gotta be at least a 4-person tent.

I've been planning to make a larger rainfly with vestibule for my current tent. Look at that rainfly, in back over the picnic table!

Look at all that fabric (stuff sacks, etc!) Look at all that no-see-um netting (ultralight see-thru stuff sacks, bug bivy, etc.!!) Zippers! Even some shock-cord pole that I can use for my rainfly/vestibule (although not all the poling for the whole tent seemed to have been thrown away... wonder why they kept that???)

OK, I may be injured, and off the trail for now; and I may be broke, and wondering how I can afford a lot of the stuff I want.... but this find looks like a message from God that my hike can go on.

OK, HERE I GO....

Day One of Week One of the 100-Pushup Challenge!




(That's not me, and it's not my body...thanks to Warrior Fitness World)

You do your 3-times-weekly workouts in 5 sets, or "Levels," of reps, each level separated by a rest period of one minute (a little longer if needed.) You take a day off between workout days.

Here's the schedule for this week, based on my initial test, in which I did 15 full-body pushups nonstop. (I was surprised at that. I haven't done pushups in months, and thought I might manage 8 or so.)

Day One:

• Level 1: 10
• Level 2: 10
• Level 3: 8
• Level 4: 6
• Level 5: Max possible, at least 7 (I managed 9.)

Day Two:

• Level 1: 12
• Level 2: 12
• Level 3: 10
• Level 4: 10
• Level 5: Max, at least 10

Day Three:

• Level 1: 15
• Level 2: 13
• Level 3: 10
• Level 4: 10
• Level 5: Max, at least 15

Eeks. That's a lot of pushups. But I got through the first day, even exceeding the minimum-max for the last set (although I rested 2 minutes after the first 4 levels, which I probably will keep on doing.)

Total pushups today: 43. Yo!!

MAKING FIREWOOD (LEMONADE, QUILTS, ETC.)

When life deals you blowdowns, make firewood.
Lemons.... make lemonade.
Scraps.... make quilts.

So I'm no longer training for SavageMan because if I don't get this Achilles issue cleared up, I won't be hiking the Appalachian Trail next year. Actually I'd be out of SavageMan anyway even if I kept training, because I don't think my tendons would let me finish training.

This gives me a couple hours a day of time I didn't have before. Time is money.

So I'm working more at the campground. I'm now on Pool Maintenance. This is easy, peaceful work, running a water-vacuum over the bottom of the pool sucking up leaves etc.; putting clear drops in a test tube of clear water and watching it turn a pretty pink or yellow to indicate the chemical balance; and sweeping up leaves and grass.

What I do now, here at Candy Hill:

Clean bath-houses, laundry room, game room, club lounge, trolley (for ferrying groups around town, a fun thing), and anything else that needs cleaning; tend front gate and welcome guests during busy check-in periods; care for the managers' 2-yr-old son; clean and maintain the pool and its deck; and do grounds and yard work.

In a nutshell, my job is to make this the cleanest, neatest campgound you'll ever stay at. And friendliest, if you stop and talk to me :-) This is a great place to work. Training for a humdinger triathlon? They plan my schedule around my training (or let me schedule myself.) Need the race weekend off? You go, girlfriend. Want more hours? Hey, we'd love someone on regular pool maintenance.

With the pool added to my responsibilities, I have one more skill on my resume, and I can save for a down sleeping bag, SmartWool socks and hiking apparel, even a little down pillow (I saw one in the outfitter's, $40 and sooooo cushy and it compresses to nothing in a backpack.)

My buggered-up tendons have killed SavageMan for me but have made other things possible.

ONE-HUNDRED-PUSHUP CHALLENGE!!

Hey, I found this on Jeff's blog: Six-week training program to 100 consecutive pushups!!!

I did my initial test today, with 15 successful good-form full-body pushups. At 55+, that puts me at Level 3 of 5 for starting. (Results were age-ranked but not differentiated by gender.)

This is something I can do instead of SavageMan training, and it will serve me well in hauling a backpack, when my feet get back to backpackability, as well as in just about everything else I do.

Fun! How many 56-year-old women can do 100 pushups??? Who else is in?

BEAR'S DEN TO ROD HOLLOW SHELTER

This is a wonderful hike, and it's my hope that anyone who Google's it for info will find this post and learn helpful stuff.

Stats: 10 miles, southbound along the Roller Coaster section of the AT in Northern Virginia. That's it for my stats.... I don't have elevation changes in numbers, but this hiker reports over 5,000 feet of climbing, one way. My subjective take is an effort of 8 out of 10.




In case you're wondering how far to wherever..... here are signs at the Bear's Den Hostel, which, by the way, offers thru-hikers a very sweet deal of bunk, shower, pizza, ice cream (B&J), and other perks (laundry, internet) for $25. You can also buy a few short-term supplies there, as well as AT souvenirs (patches etc.) You can get water you don't have to disinfect or filter, and you can just rest and hang out until you're ready to move on.




A kind day-hiker offered to take my picture before I started out from Bear's Den Rocks.



I set out on this 20-mile round-trip to test out my backpack after its surgery, which reduced it from its original 6# (which I'd modified down to 4.5) finally to 3.2 pounds. It worked for me!

The footing on this stretch is a combination of easy, smooth path and rocky, treacherous, White-Mountainesque boulder fields:



Many creek-crossings, all of them fairly easy with rock walk/hops across. Be a little careful though.... some of the rocks "rockle."


Long green tunnel.... is it any wonder I love this Trail???

This is the way: walk ye therein.


In general the AT is well-marked with those familiar white blazes. If you can't see the next one from where you are, look behind you to see if you see any going the other direction, and if not, go another couple minutes or so, and if you still don't see any, go back to the last one you saw and re-navigate.

I offer this because there is a spot on this Bear's Den to Rod Hollow hike where I lost the trail, and you could, too, if you are southbound, if you aren't paying attention. Me, I can get lost rolling over in bed, and it was a pretty easy feat for me to lose the trail here.

Maybe 7 miles south from Bear's Den towards Rod Hollow Shelter (sorry I can't be more specific) you come to this beautiful bridge:

After two more looong uphills and downhills, be on the lookout for these two closely-spaced creek-crossings:






Followed immediately by a blazed left turn. After this, the blazes.... well, they need to be more frequent. I followed what seemed to be an old logging road or something, thinking this wasn't typical AT trail, and where were the white blazes, but there seemed nowhere else the trail could have gone. I backtracked and soon saw a northbound blaze and thought, I was right after all, and turned around again on the logging road. No blazes. I followed it till I came to a "Private Property No Trespassing" sign. Hmmm... Back down the hill. Look carefully. AHAAAAA! Here's a sign (backwards to me. I missed it going out b/c it's NOT white-blazed, it wasn't what I was looking for):



Seems so obvious, but it wasn't what I was looking for, and it was way above my head, and I just plain missed it. Just so you know, on my return trip I counted strides and it's 160 of "my" strides past the blazed left turn after the two creek crossings. I'm small, so it may be fewer than 160 of yours. Be on the lookout. You will turn right off of what seems to be that logging road.



A few more loooong ascents and descents, and you realize you've lost track of how many (there are 10 in 13.5 miles) and finally you come to a sign warning northbounders what they're getting into, followed a half-mile or so later by this sign, finally!!!

The AT Thru-Hiker's Companion detailed the capacity of the Rod Hollow Shelter, but not whether there were tentsites. I asked a few people along the way, and they said they'd stayed there and there were. I prefer to tent rather than sleep in shelters.... I don't like fellow sleepers snoring, and then there are the mice, and the hardness of wood flooring compared to ground.

Ahhh! There ARE tentsites!! Four of them. My 3 X 8 foot tent was too long, so I pitched it diagonally, staking it just outside the platform. Sorry, no picture :-(

The Rod Hollow Shelter.

Critter-baffle in the shelter. Although bears don't do big-time business in this area, there are still mice in the shelter and 'coons, skunks, and 'possums in the woods. Best to hang your food bag and defy any mouse to scamper from the roof past the little can down the cord to your food.

The water source at Rod Hollow. Turns out there's another one, a couple hundred feet to the left, labeled "Trail Shower" -- it looks cleaner, plus it's higher above the spring, better for filling a Platypus or Camelbak bladder (which I use for an in-camp waterbag/dispenser.)

There were half a dozen hikers in various stages of thru- and section-hiking, including another woman solo-hiker, rather unusual. Most of the women you see are with at least one man.

Let's see, who was there? Old Buzzard; Long Portage; Shamrock; Strange Habit (the girl, who, if she stays inside the shelter, pitches her tent in there for critter protection and privacy;) Sam (no trail name); Tim (had a trail name but I didn't catch it.)

Strange Habit and the young guys Sam and Long Portage stayed up late, 9 p.m.; Trail hikers are early to bed and early to rise.

A few more trail impressions:

Some kind of fungus/lichen/? I've never seen before.

Another one. I found both of these on stops I thought were ill-fated (one while I was trying to re-find the trail, another one for hot-spots/blisters.) No cloud without a silver lining.

Saving the best for last:
Is it any wonder I love this trail?

SAVAGE BUMMER

Photo by Dan Hickock at http://savagemantri.org

Well.

I guess I was feeling lukewarm about the training anyway....

SavageMan is down the drain for me. I've buggered up my already-buggered-up Achilles tendons.

They've been bothering me again ever since I got over about 6 miles in run-training. Then this Tuesday and Wednesday, I went AT hiking, 10 miles each way over loooong ascents and descents (called the "Roller Coaster" section) with a 30-pound pack on my back and.... well, the last few miles of my return trip, I was leaning on my hiking poles like crutches. Honest, my right AT (that's Achilles Tendon this time, not Appalachian Trail) felt so bad I was afraid it was rupturing, but the only way for me to get off the trail was to hike off it.

I knew then I was out. That if I had a prayer of hiking 2100 miles next year, I had to get this treated.

The foot/ankle doc today confirmed what I already knew. Do nothing that aggravates the injury. Like running. Or hard biking. Or hiking. Or anything that includes hills.

One thing I know as a runner is generally to question a doctor's order to "stop running" unless you have a fracture. Except this time, there was no question. I can't run on it. SavageMan is 3 months away, and as she put it, "We can probably clear it up by then, but I don't see how you can do your training."

I don't either.

I'm allowed to walk if it doesn't hurt (with arch supports and heel pads), and bike easy with no resistance. That's not the training I need for the most savage bike course in road triathlon in the world.

Maybe there's a relay team that needs a slow swimmer. Or maybe I'll go as a course volunteer.

Much as I have wanted to do SavageMan and become a True Savage, I'm reasonable enough to know that it's not right for this year after all.

I will do anything I have to do to reach Mt. Katahdin in Maine next September. Even sacrifice SavageMan.

For this year, anyway.

WOW, TWO TAGS!

Gee, I've gotten popular all of a sudden.



Jeff and Flo have both tagged me, but with the same tag, so I only have to answer once :-)

1. How would you describe your running 10 years ago?

Hmm, well. Let me think. When was 10 years ago? 1998? Oh, wow. I guess that was when I was raising money for TNT and tapering for the actual marathon, the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage, AK. I was in my second year back to serious running after a 4-year hiatus (nursing school sucked the life out of me.) I was enjoying running again and trying to give it a purpose by raising money for the Leukemia Society. Plus, I wanted to go to Alaska.

2.What is your best and worst run/race experience?

Best: I would say my second marathon, Marine Corps Marathon in 1987. I'd had a miserable first marathon (same one, the year before) and thought that couldn't be what marathoning was like or people wouldn't do it. However, I didn't expect to be able to get off work and hadn't trained for a marathon. I was running about 10 miles a week. Steve and I found out maybe 3 weeks before the marathon we'd be able to go, and we registered (you could register last-minute in those days.) I planned to run half, since I hadn't trained. But at the half I thought, well, one more mile, and then one more, and then one more, and finished in 4:29:xx, nearly an hour and a half faster than my previous one, with no training. I was exuberant!!!

Worst: In terms of how it felt? Well. That would have to be the Hatfield McCoy Marathon in July 2006. I hurt like hell all over, especially my feet. (The race scenario was fun.) Or else the marathon part of Ironman Florida, November 2006. Or the Vermont City Marathon, May 2007. Or the Austin Marathon, February 2008. Any of those 4 would vie for top spot. In combination, they resulted in my decision not to run marathons anymore.

3. Why do you run?

That depends on how things are going. When I'm in a groove and excited about races, I run because I'm driven. When I'm in a rut and wishing I hadn't registered, I run because I have to. Right now I'm in a rut. But I have a friend who likes to run with me and she's salvaging it for me.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?

Best: Every runner is an experiment of one. Worst: Run high-mileage weeks and a 26-mile training run to train for a marathon.

5.Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people know.

Although I'm adamantly pro-life and anti-abortion, I think abortion must be kept legal for the safety of women and the integrity of the medical profession.

OK, I tag (any of these who are already tagged, consider it a double-tag like me):

Nancy, Loping LouBob, Vickie, Shawn, Skatemom.

Here's how to play: Visit 5 blogs and leave invitations to play, referring others back to your blog for more details. On your own blog, list the five questions and your own answers to them. Also, let the person who has tagged you know when you're done.