We Run San Antonio: August 2013 Pub Run

No races in the near future for me, and though this is not entirely a plan of my choosing, it's a great opportunity to explore more relaxed/social running events that I would otherwise bypass.  Also, one of my goals for this summer is to take a break from my anxiety-junkie lifestyle and realize that if I run at a casual pace now and then it won't kill me or my training and I might just get to see my friends more often, too.  So far so good!

As one is wont to do on a Tuesday afternoon, my mind wandered to the weekend, so far culminating in a Friday night with some friends and a great plan to venerate the finest decade there has ever been at the 1980s-themed We Run San Antonio Pub Run.  I've never done one of these runs even though they've been a San Antonio tradition since 2008.  

I just can't resist the chance to jog with leg warmers, Ronald Reagan t-shirt and a side-ponytail with some good friends and a brew or two.  Come join us!  It's free!  You don't have to drink any adult beverages!  It will change your life!  Or at least overpepper it with "!" 

6:30 pm meetup, 7:00 pm run start at Pat O'Brien's, 121 Alamo Plaza, SATX 78205.

If you can't make it this month (and I wouldn't hate you for it, it's a toasty one for sure) there is a Pub Run on the first Friday of every month, each with a different theme...maybe I can twist your arm enough and get ya there in September.  To entice you further I'll do a recap and post web-approved pictures of nonsense after the run.

Hope to see you there!

Trailing it in the heat

I am in San Antonio still...and it is hot...and as promised I have been trying to re-visit some of my favorite running spots, in between all the fun, nay, character-building training the army has prescribed.  And I do mean character-building in a most Calvin and Hobbes sense...

I squeezed in an afternoon run at the Salado Greenway.  It was stinkin' great!  I refuse to bore you and myself with any more thoughts on my sub-par pace.

The path is wonderful.  Wide, well-marked, paved, with benches and mileposts.  I don't like to run with my cell phone in all the humidity since I am an unnecessarily sweaty gal, but here's a pic of the trailhead where I started, near Oakwell Farms.  Yes, yes, it's taken from the cool and breezy womb of my car, before the onslaught of the summery air-soup.

Green as can be!

I like to run 1.5 miles north to the Tobin Park Trailhead, near an overpass of I-410.  There is also a water fountain here, and a doggie water fountain.  And some information placards about the local flora and fauna.  Mountain lions?  Really??  I haven't seen one yet but I have seen the stoic heritage live oak shading the trails.  "Heritage," of course, bestowed only on the live oaks over 100 years old.  Or so I think.

From there you can veer left and follow the path all the way to McAllister Park or LBJ Park.  Which are both great runs, but for cooler, more clement days.  As in not July.  But what I like best about running the Greenway year-round is the absolute difference in ambiance that even a casual observer like me will notice.  Overwhelmingly verdant in summer, and in January, it's as bleak as the moon.  The autumn colors (and whatever color autumn is, it's definitely my favorite) are as sharp as anywhere I've seen, and the springtime is just steeped in possibility as the plants are bursting with color...and pollen.  Achoo!

This trail system is truly a prize.  It reminds me of home, the Emerald Necklace encircling the city of Cleveland.  Bash the "mistake on the lake" as you will, but I aver that Cleveland is one heck of a great place to live.  I hope to write a post from there soon!

Running out of town: San Antonio

I have not been doing very much running at all, have you?  Over the holiday weekend, it seems like every few hours we are visiting with friends and eating hot dogs!  I managed a few trips to the gym but I am not running more than 2 to 4.5 miles at a time, though pretty quickly (for me), around a 7:12 min per mile pace.  I hope this will restart my running with renewed mental energy (as opposed to calorie-massive quantities of charred processed beef ingested this weekend).  

We saw fireworks by chance as we drove across the mountains.

I am out of town for the whole summer, so I'm soliciting San Antonio (yay!) running ideas, paths and plans.  San Antonio is certainly among the top five places I've lived and I am always happy to spend time there.  

I like running along the Riverwalk (early in the morning for sure, to beat the crowds and heat), starting at the Pearl Brewery:

and ending with a post-run fancy pastry at the CIA Bakery Cafe, 

Separation anxious even with her safety goggles

 and I love the Salado Greenway, too.  This picture from last fall just oozes refreshment:

Can't wait to call this my go-to running path again!

 My road bike is coming with me (though Nugs and D are staying home in El Paso) and the plan is to get some rides in with my old bike club, the San Antonio Cycling Club.  I love to ride out in Castroville and get cookies at Haby's Bakery for the drive back into town.  It's the wrong time of year for Tour de Gruene and the Fiesta Wildflower Ride but I love both these routes and will do them solo if time allows.  

There is nothing like Hill Country by bicycle even when it's a humid one billion degrees out!

A great day = the Guadalupe in spring + road bike

Temptation is this Orangeleaf half marathon on July 20th in New Braunfels but I'm trying to ignore this compulsion...must not think about all the delicious yogurt at the end...

Hope everyone enjoyed a happy 4th of July weekend!  San Antonio fans (and who isn't??), won't you share your favorite places for running, riding, passing time?

Nugget, pondering squirrels and Texas pride

Fridge fess up...part of the overhaul!

I thought I'd take a big step in our friendship and open up my refrigerator to you, from top to bottom.  As you know I am undertaking a training/everything overhaul because of my pace dropping so precipitously.  I think I might as well take some advice on my fridgie-fridge and see how I can improve my running by doing better with the foods I eat, too:

3 types of coffee creamer and skim milk on the top shelf, good priorities in this house!

Cottage cheese, eggs from our hens, blueberries, choc pudding, greek yogurt

Sugar free Red Bull, Spicy V8, Sprite...could be worse

Apples, string cheese, cauliflower, broccoli...

Cilantro, grapes, limes, sandwich thins (love em)

Yep, we bought cartons just for our own eggs...people receive them better this way

TWO pounds of butter, nutella, mustard, PB, salsa, key lime juice

Relish, jalapenos, pickled okra, garlic, applesauce, more mustard, more salsa...

Water filter, low sodium soy sauce, raspberry jelly, salad dressing, balsamic vinegar

2 types of ketchup, BBQ sauce, maple syrup, choc syrup, rice vinegar, more mustard

Yes, I store a lot of food in the pantry (pasta, soups, grains, cereals, nuts, chocolate etc) but I'd like to know, how does my food stack up?  Is this a good start for a healthy running diet?  My junk food taste is more savory than sweet (hence all the salsa and chips) but I won't lie to you, those 2 pounds of butter are going to end up in cookies this weekend.  I don't think my fridge is that bad but I admit, we do share a lot of produce with the hens and we eat elsewhere for lunch everyday since we are at work.  Also I was on a big hotdog kick while studying hence the crazy variety of condiments for two people.

Because we eat at work or out for lunch every day, we don't eat a lot of meat or fish at home, and if we do, I buy just what we are going to cook for that particular meal.  With only the two of us, stuff often goes bad before we can use it so it often goes to the hens instead of into my tummy.

Maybe next I'll share the pantry with you but I'm too short to get good pictures without dragging furniture into the kitchen, easier to wait til D is home, eh?

Epsom salts, old timey + wonderful, dust 'em off from under the sink

Over the past few years I have become a really poor sleeper.  That being said, I don't use any prescription sleep medication, and I'm pretty cautious about over-the-counter sleep aids.  My friend Barb (Leah's mom) has moderate to severe arthritis and she suggested an Epsom salt bath to help me recover from races as well as help in the sleep department and so I bought some and tried them and love them and I wish I had started using them ages ago.  I just wanted to tell you about them in case your mom hadn't told you!  Also, it's summer and overexertion is now in season and this might just be the thing to soothe your aches and pains.

Epsom is a town in England with a preponderance of magnesium salt springs.  Epsom salts and bath salts in general are just magnesium sulfate.  Medically, magnesium is very useful.  At home, you can drink it, bathe in it, or you can make it into a paste and apply to bruises and sores joints or muscles.  

I might just move to Epsom, that's some nice running weather!

 A study of people with arthritis demonstrated that a daily 12-minute epsom salt bath greatly improved arthritic pain relief and without prompting, the study participants all commented on significantly improved pain.  

Per the Epsom Salt Council, bathing in magnesium sulfate is also a way to absorb magnesium which is good for our bodies (if we are deficient).  This stuff has lots of good uses in the garden too. I used to have a garden, and then I got some chickens.  These entities are mutually exclusive.

Anyway, Epsom salt also removes "impurities" but my internet research failed to define what those impurities* might be.

For $0.88 at Walmart I bought a carton of Epsom salts which lasted about 3 baths.  I didn't measure it as I poured it into the bath so it may last even longer.  The package suggests 2 cups of salt for a regular bath tub.  Or do it like I do and just dump some salt in the bath until you think it looks good and salty.

To expand my bath repertoire, I next spent $4.88 on this larger bag of scented Epsom salts, also from Walmart.  I like this particular scent, it is fresh but not too minty or eucalyptic so it doesn't smell medicinal.

Yes you can store your Epsom salts on a pile of dirty laundry

 It makes the whole room smell nice, too.  See in El Paso, in our small home, we don't have a bathroom door, I think this is "a thing" here because at friends' homes, there are no bathroom doors either, I mean, the toilet and shower area are separate and have a door but no joke, our bedroom has an alcove with 2 sinks, a mirror, and a bathtub (well, and a giant laundry monster) but still, that's strange, right?  I digress...anyway I for sure pour too much of this scented salt mixture into the bath each time.  It dissolves well and I notice that it effervesces a tad more than the plain salts.

In all honesty I like the store-brand, unscented salts just as much as the scented ones.  They both work the same, dissolve well and I am a sleepy bunny shortly after bath time.  It's nice to have the scent, but it's nice to save money, too.  I choose the salt bath route about once a week, for after longer runs or when I just can't sleep.

Another Epsom fan

 I haven't noticed yet if the salted bath is better than a plain bath for pain reduction in achy joints and sore muscles but I am not yet facing severe osteoarthritis, either. For me this foray into salt baths started as a sleep aid.  Osmotically it makes sense that a salt bath would draw out fluid from swollen joints etc but I am probably not so in tune with my body that I'd notice.

*By "impurities" I think they euphemistically mean doodoo.  Magnesium salts (like magnesium citrate and magnesium sulfate) are laxatives so I suppose if you were feeling a little constipated you could use the plain Epsom salts and mix a magnesium cocktail per the directions on the package.  I haven't tried it...pre-op bowel prep is no party, this is about the same.  Absolutely do not try this if you have kidney impairment or diabetes or high blood pressure etc.  Actually, don't do this at all unless your medical provider suggests it...please...I don't want to lose my job already :)  And I am 80% sure the paper carton from Walmart does not have a medical license.

Does anyone else like these simple salts as much as I do?  Or do you have your own go-to homeopathic remedies?  Or are you from Epsom and can share its history?

Mommy we took care of that pesky garden for you!