Cry me a river

As with all new sports I try, I spend a great deal of the time scared of it.  My 1st raft trip was no different. Incredibly, after growing up in Northern New Mexico and having returned here as an adult, I never went white water rafting. I never saw the point. I can enjoy the beauty of the river from the bank without freezing cold water being splashed in my face or the white knuckle zeal of ramming into rocks totally out of control!

But alas, I married an out door, sports enthusiast. I decided to suck it up and see what all the fuss was about and joined New Mexico River Adventures for my 1st ride down the rapids. The company (who is guest blogging below), was professional, friendly and focused on a fun safe ride. Immediately I felt I was in capable hands and my neck slowly grew out of a lump of stress...which some people call shoulders. The guides moved the raft with skill and ease and were a wealth of information on the flora, fauna and history of the area. Even with a dip in the cool water, I found the thrill much more manageable, dare I say even intoxicating, than the horror I had pictured and found myself excitedly planning the next trip before I was even out of the boat! If you haven't been rafting before, it is a must.

Come Memorial Day weekend, we will have a 3 day float trip down the Chama. What makes this more amazing than any other kind of trip is that we will be accompanied by Chef Ky of "Lambert's Taos" fame. These extravagant wine dinners (uh did you think I would go somewhere without wine?!) are laid out on white linens and are complete with china and beautiful glassware. This is not the camping or rafting I grew up with!

Read on for a little write up from New Mexico River Adventures...the only raft company that wines and dines you.
-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
www.vivacwinery.com

Rivers and Wine

  Yes, it might seem like an unlikely pair until you've traveled to the beautiful Lower Rio Grande Gorge and enjoyed both.  We are lucky enough to live in a part of the country that offers world class options for both.  The wine making industry in this area, 1 hour north of Santa Fe and 20 min. south of Taos, is flourishing and the canyons containing the Rio Grande and Rio Chama are some of the most beautiful and exciting in the country.  There are a large variety of things to do during your trip to Northern New Mexico, but the combination of a whitewater river rafting trip rewarded with an afternoon of wine tasting at Vivac Winery should be at the top of the list.
  Just a short drive from Santa Fe or Taos takes you to the New Mexico River Adventures Headquarters where your river adventure begins.  The Rio Grande offers trips for all ages and levels of excitement.  The most popular trips on the Rio Grande are the Racecourse and the Taos Box.  The Racecourse section is the perfect trip for first timers or those whitewater enthusiasts who only have a limited amount of time available. It is class II-III(IV at high water) and a great choice for everyone.  The Racecourse trip is also run as a full day trip by adding a placid morning float through one of the most scenic parts of the canyon with great opportunities to see a variety of wildlife including mule deer, river otter, beaver and many different birds of prey.
  The famous Taos Box river trip is truly one of the greatest single day rafting trips in the country.  Nowhere else can you find the same quality whitewater in such a remote and pristine canyon with incredible wildlife viewing opportunities. The "Box" flows through the heart of the Rio Grande Gorge some 800 feet deep. After a superb riverside lunch prepared by the guides,  the rafts continue into one of the most remote portions of the canyon.  In the final five miles of this Taos box rafting trip, the gradient increases and the rapids become more intense and come in much quicker succession. Brace yourself in and paddle hard through these steep and visually stunning rapids! You are almost guaranteed to spot Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep leaping across boulders below the cliffs or enjoying a drink from the river as well as river otter and a large variety of birds of prey as you float through this spectacular canyon.  Whichever trip you choose, you're sure to be rewarded with a highlight of your trip to Northern New Mexico.  
www.NewMexicoRiverAdventures.com

Whine on running

It seems this blog is transforming from "running on wine" to "not running, but a lot of wine".

We find ourselves staring straight into the face of Crush. Crush starts with the vineyards being harvested. Different grapes ripen at different times so this will happen in waves over the next 2 months. Once we have the grapes at the winery, we have to crush them, separate them from the stem (for whites, press the juice off) and start fermentation. Once they are fermenting in separate vats, the reds need 4 daily punch downs in which Jess and Chris use paddles to push the grape skin cap down into the juice for better extraction. The wines need constant monitoring and testing to guild them through fermentation in the slow, gentle manner we like. Then we press the reds. Pressing is a big job when you use 2 side by side traditional basket presses with hand hydraulics. This all happens (from picking to pressing) when the grapes are ready so we suddenly become "on call" during the 2 months of Crush. The grapes need to be dealt with immediately so that might mean working late into the night or at the break of day...or both.

This also means my sister-in-law Lili and I pick up the slack, a lot of slack, both at the winery and around the house. When Crush is over, all of us are exhausted.

So when the hell do you run?!

Distractions have already pulled Jess from training. Having just returned from Los Angeles CA, Jess found that his excitement for surfing outwayed the want to run and so skipped a week of running; a stresser for him as we hit Crush.  I have been on the path of self destruction pretty much since I ran the Napa Valley Marathon this spring and have only haphazardly run. I think it is safe to say I am no longer training for anything. Chris, with 2 kids in toe and Lili's family visiting from Mexico has left him with an acceptance of not running until next year! This isn't looking good for any of us. So with Crush being physically exhausting and extremely time consuming, there is very little time for family much less a 2-5 hour long run during this time. Yet Jess is trying to train for a 50+ mile race, I simply would rather not start at the walk/ run training all over again and Chris? Chris is probably running in his dreams, so that might be enough training for him to wake up one day and run a marathon. Bastard.

What is interesting is that, Liliana is working out at home, my parents ran every day while they were in CA on vacation and several other friends that were "inspired" by this blog are now running races! I have no idea how my complaining has inspired anyone, but cheers to all of you!

What we do seem to be doing instead of running is consuming large amounts of wine! Is it the busy season that kicks us into high stress modes, juggling working on the road, working at night, going on vacation...the new vintages that just taste so damn good? Any way you size it up, the wine is winning over the running...for now.

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
www.VivacWinery.com
 

Getting your Freak on

It is an interesting journey, running. I use to say I would only run if something were chasing me. Now I am trying to run on vacation. If I can find a race somewhere interesting and call it a vacation, even better! So what happened? My crazy husband and his crazy brother happened.

When you watch someone run well, it is inspiring. Even if you think they are a little crazy for doing it. Maybe that is why it is so inspiring.

This past weekend, Jess and Chris ran yet another Marathon, this time in Taos. Jess had a PR of 3:48 (5th place over all) and shined with pride at the finish line. Chris, who was unable to do the training necessary to run a Marathon the way he would have wanted, finished 13 minutes behind his brother. The look of frustration and irritation was apparent. I started to feel bad for him. I started to empathize with the idea of not doing well despite all your hard work. Then I had a thought that stunned me into reality. Chris ran a few long runs, skipped most of the training and then ran a 4:01 Marathon at 7,000ft! Wait wait wait, I don't feel sorry for you! That is absolutely not fair! He came in 7th over all at the race. This is NOT a sad race day! 

It is at that point that I realized these crazy people I am surrounded by are more than just crazy. They are Freaks of nature. Jesse told me stories of working the packet pick up for the race and the number of people that were simply on vacation and saw that there was going to be a marathon the next day; they thought "hey that sounds like fun!". Who shows up to a mountain town and unexpectedly runs a FULL MARATHON?! Crazy people? No, Freaks!

Turns out there was a guy that ran a 100 miler 3 weeks previous and ran 2 full Marathons since then...he signed up for the "fun little Taos Marathon" because he had never run here before. WHAT?!
Women, men, it didn't matter, they flooded in and signed up to run...while on vacation. This is a whole new level of crazy runners.

For those of you not up on the running or training of a full Marathon, let me fill you in. 16 weeks is considered fast training for a Marathon and requires you to be a runner before hand, that means you run regularly, this is not a couch to Marathon program. Then as you increase millage, and want to kill yourself, you push your body to the brink, then you back off giving it much needed rest before the big race. It is important to mention at this point that people will refer to a Marathon as "little" in reference to the draw, the crowds or organization, NOT the length. A Full Marathon is ALWAYS 26.2 miles, always, even if it is a "little" race. So when people decide to run a Marathon on vacation, these are people that run Marathons a lot, people that are in such good shape that they do not need a taper, they can simply run 26.2 miles any time they want. They are, say it with me...FREAKS!

I stood at the finish line chatting with a new friend, a runner. He spoke of the blights of running a Marathon, the pain and destruction of your body. He spoke of how he loves the 5K or 10K. He sounded like the voice of sanity amongst all the crazies. My mom bought it hook, line and sinker. She looked at me, always the caring mother and I could see she was thinking "you see, maybe that is too much for your body" (not everyone is in the Marathons-are-fun crazy sector and family members are usually the ones most concerned for your health). I whispered to her that she was right, this guy wasn't crazy at all. He modestly told stories of running, but left out that he has run Duke City Marathon 14 times, placing 3rd last year and has run countless other Marathons around the country. No, no he isn't crazy. He is a Freak! He is actually the guy that trains Freaks!

So now as I started to see that I had joined the ranks of the crazy, there was yet more to aspire to. I am not yet a Freak. I don't know if I ever will be. I looked at my husband, he had just PR'd at 7,000ft and this was simply a training run on his way to a 50 miler this fall, definitely a Freak. I looked at my son, wearing my red "Fueled by Vivác" shirt, eyes beaming with excitement and pride at his dad, he has already run a 5K at age 5 and can't wait for his next opportunity to run another race and I see that we have probably spawned a little Freak.

So, as I pour another glass of wine, I am left to ponder, when will I discover my inner Freak?

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

www.VivacWinery.com

Can drinking improve your workout?

     "Can drinking improve your workout?" Well that was enough to catch MY eye in a recent "Runner's World Magazine"! Being that Chris, Lili, Jesse and myself own a winery, our running is always accompanied by a drink. How else do you sooth sore legs? How else do you reward hard effort? Congratulate a friend on a PR? Or in my case, even finish a run without the promise of a great glass of wine. I know, for some of you it is a beer or you like the hard stuff, but I promise once you get yourself over to wine, you too will be chatting CAB! CAB! CAB!  (and I don't mean the vehicle that you wish would come along and save your sorry butt, I mean Cabernet Sauvignon!). I mean really, who works this hard and DOESN'T drink?

    Well it turns out a fair amount of do-gooders are out in the world and they think you should NOT drink the night before a run and that it actually lessens muscle recovery. Boo!! What do the scientists say? After an initial study measuring performance, they found that men actually performed worse and women better if they drank the night before a hard run! Cheers to me! So what does that mean for you? A shopping trip to Vivác Winery of course!

    All kidding aside, they found, like all studies, that they need to study more, but I do like the initial conclusions and I think I will "run" with that!

    Now where did I put my wine?

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

www.VivacWinery.com

The Wall

It is Monday and just getting out of bed feels like a marathon. Maybe I have hit "The Wall".

"The Wall" a term most people are familiar with even if they are NOT runners, is a term most runners fear. My fear around it comes with the complete melt down at my half marathon. The training was tough and haphazard due to injury, but I finished the race...then proceeded to be sicker than ever in my life. I decided that perhaps running is not good for my body. With time I began to train again, like a child, distraction had completely erased the details of the event (or my massive consumption of wine had killed those brain cells). This time as I approached the 12 miles and the cursed 13, my gall bladder gave out and I had to have surgery. Recovery took much longer than expected and once on my feet again, I found I was determined to train AGAIN. What can I say, my husband was/ is sneaking me crazy pills. As training picked up, I again faltered at 12 miles and the ugly 13 miler won. Jesse continued to train and ran another Marathon with Chris. It was obvious that "The Wall" for me was mile 13.

Friday, I ran 14 miles. As Jesse and I ran past mile 13, Jess said "look, there was no big brick wall there" and he is right, I ran past mile 13 without my legs disintegrating under me or my heart exploding in my chest.

I have tender feet and heavy exhausted legs. Monday morning means a new week and a looming 16 mile run. Today I somehow have to will myself onto the treadmill for a 7 miler. They say that "The Wall" is as much mental as it is physical, so what keeps you running when all you want to do is stop? What gets you out of bed on Monday morning when all you want to do is sleep?

I will ponder this while I put up my feet and have another cup of coffee...or...is it too early to have a glass of wine?

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

www.VivacWinery.com

Jingle knees, jingle knees, jingle all the way!

 Ahh the gift of giving...seems this Holiday Season, Jesse gave HIS aching knees to me! Jesse has recovered beautifully from his injuries and is back on the road running. I however seem to be gaining knee issues with my increase of mileage. Anyone else battling the knees?

We hit a hard going, fast 4 miles on Sunday which seems to have inflamed my IT band, not fun. I admit, I drank a bit too much the night before (but our newly bottled Divino red wine blend was too much for me to stay out of) and the entire run hurt. The vigorous effort gave me runner's tummy too. I am so lucky this year with all these "gifts"!

Today I reluctantly climbed aboard my old clanking treadmill to run the necessary 6 miles. As I started, I thought how much I admired Jesse for getting up in the dark to run his 6 miles this morning, it must have been freezing! My knees burned and I took several walking minutes. I struggled out 55 mins, unable to make the 65 mins I needed. Feeling drained, extremely fatigued and soaking in sweat, I asked myself if I could actually continue training. Do I really have what it takes? What do I do about my knees? I limped to my running log and saw, low and behold I was only suppose to do 5 miles today and the 55mins was GREAT! Instantly my mood lightened and while my knees continue to tingle (not in a good way), I felt perhaps it wasn't the end of the world. I am also really sorry I told Jess he had to run 6...in the dark, freezing cold. Oops, sorry babe!

Chris got a run in the other day. He ran a grueling 40 mins up the arroyo. For those of you who are not familiar, an arroyo is a sandy riverbed that in best of conditions is, well, sandy. In the worst conditions it is REALLY sandy or muddy. I personally would rather hug a cactus then run up the arroyo.

Chris has a son Maddox and a baby daughter Chablis which makes sneaking in runs difficult to say the least. Luckily Chris has the "gift" of running on his side, he is one of those people that can hit the road after not running for months, and then run 10 or even 15 miles no problem! It is wild. He also has the gift of an understanding wife, Liliana, who balances everything while Chris repeatedly trains for races.

Chris will run the half marathon in Mexico on New Year's Day 2012, I don't think any of us envy the pain that will rack his head that day after a celebration the night before, but what a great way to kick off the New Year!

So as I ice my knees and open a chilled bottle of our Rosé of Dolcetto, I ask, what are you hoping to find under the tree this year? I hope to find my resolve...and the commitment to only drink on days I already ran, not the night before!

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

www.VivacWinery.com

Holiday indulgence

With the holidays fast approaching, it seems even harder to hit the road running, but easier to over indulge! Any tips on keeping running ready through this time of the year?

Jesse and I (Michele) are preparing for a marathon in Napa Valley CA in March 2012, it will be my 1st. Jess has completed 2 with his brother Chris, the Valles Caldera in Los Alamos NM and the Duke City ABQ NM. Chris actually ran the Duke City twice now and ran the Grand Canyon Marathon only a couple of weeks later, making his total 4 marathons. He is looking forward to running his first half marathon in Aguascalientes Mexico when he, Lili and the kids are visiting her family this winter.

Jesse and I ran our 1st half marathon a couple years ago in Denver CO. Since then I have trained repeatedly for a marathon and not even made it to the start line. Sickness, injury and self doubt has plagued my running. I feel great now though and am excited about Napa! I love Napa.

I worry a little about Jesse. He broke a rib making wine, then ran hard at Duke City for a PR only to come out of it with shin splints. 3 weeks later he attempted running the Grand Canyon Marathon with Chris. At this time Jess also had a bad cold on top of his injuries. He made it 15 miles. Training now  has been slow for him due to the major amount of strain his body had to endure. Currently he is cross training and slowly building up mileage again. I have to admit I love having him ride his bike next to me as I run long runs, encouraging me, I feel like "Rocky" or that kid in Africa that runs crazy mileage.

Tonight Jesse and Chris treat the winery staff to a home made holiday meal (made by them and yes they are amazing cooks) where the guys spend the night waiting on all of us. The wines they pull from the private library are always spectacular. Last year we had a vertical line up of some of the first Cabernet Sauvignons they ever made, it was mind blowing that 10 years later, they were not just holding up, but gorgeous! The guys were kids when they made them!

After a night of dynamite food and wine pairing, we have to run 10 miles tomorrow. I am already dreading it. Where is the Advil and Vitamin Water?


-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family, now go for a run!

www.VivacWinery.com