Wine over Running

The "Up and Over" race at the Taos Ski Valley in Northern New Mexico, is literally just that...up and over... a notoriously steep mountain. A 10K (6 mile) race, this is not for the faint of heart, literally. Starting at the base of chair one (at 9,207 feet) the race drags you straight up the face of the mountain, over the top and back down to end at the base of chair one again. An awful lot of work to end up right where you started don't you think? It seems like a great example of Buddhist philosophy.

The scenery is gorgeous, the air temp holds a slight chill and the "path" promises danger with every step. This is what you call off road racing. This is what you call an accident waiting to happen. This is what you call a good time for my husband Jesse.

So I know you guys are holding your breath in anticipation, did I derby (see "Being Derbied by Running")? No, no I didn't...because I was sitting in the sun at the base of chair one with a chilled glass of Chardonnay gleaming in my glass. I too started and ended at the base of chair one, but my experience was a hell of a lot more fun!

Jesse ran this race as part of his training for the ever nearing "Deadman Ultra". He joined me, with his  legs like jello, for a glass of wine at the end of his race and we marveled at the beauty of the mountain together.

I also enjoyed the feeling of satisfaction as I watched people wretch at the end of the race and Jesse complain of muscle fatigue, ahh yes, I again made the right decision, wine over running, yes definitely the right choice.

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

Being Derbied by Running

The Olympics are over. Have the tears dried?

I was so inspired during the Olympics, seeing the life time goals reached by these incredible athletes, tears streaming, heavy sobs of joy as golds were attained...and the athletes seemed excited too!  By now all of you should realize I am a crier. This joy was juxtaposed to dreams dashed like raw eggs against a wall, tears of agony on their faces. OK, and yes mine too.

One particular athlete I was moved by, was Morgan Uceny. She tripped on the last lap of the 1500M final just as she was poised to take off from the pack, Olympic goals coming into her sights, only to trip and end up on her knees sobbing; absolute heart break.

I had a special connection to Uceny as I have "derbied" several times on long off road runs. Derbied is a term I have given to my particular style of flailing into the dirt. One of my all time favorite people, Lindsey,  plays Roller Derby and having been to some of her bouts, I have seen girls fly in a way that looked like it was more than painful! Derby falling is not just the usual fall onto the hands and knees, but is face crushing spills that wrack the body into strange contortions. This is the style in which I seem to fall on my runs...thus "Derbied".

I have derbied twice, tripped many times, but nothing is quite like the derby fall. Blood, busing and swelling are absolute results. I once fell so hard on my chest that the wind was knocked out of me and all I could think was 'wow, glad I don't have those fake boobies yet!'. The other derbied fall gave me the fun task of running the 6 miles back to the car with bleeding hands, knees and my left hip. I had to have looked like I had been attacked by a bear. Sweat had swept the streaming blood into a swirl down my legs, arms and through my clothes. It seemed only natural to tell my husband, who watched the fall and subsequent hemorrhaging, "Ya, that's right, go derby!" followed by a list of possible derby names that included wine puns or running puns. I think those 6 miles back to the car were very long for him. Amazingly I didn't cry! My supreme wit must have taken up all the juices left in my body.

Morgan Uceny wasn't "derbied" in quite the same way, but lets face it, falling in the final lap at the Olympic finals is a pride crushing, emotionally wracking event that would leave anyone in contortions of pain and bewilderment.

I hope someone had a lot of wine ready and waiting for her.

I recommend our new Riesling for wounded pride, our Refosco for emotional pain and our '09 Syrah for all contortions of pain.

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

No Rest for the Weary

It is 3:00AM. I need my rest, but can't seem to get it. Why is it when you need it the most, it seems the farthest from your mind? You trick yourself into thinking your determination can alter the base needs of your body.

Rest from running is no different. I was determined that I would stay in Marathon shape so that I could simply jump into another race without as much work, HA! Not so much work, what a joke! Staying in that kind of shape is work, hell it is a full time job! Not to mention that your family has to be on board for support and their own amount of sacrifice. But beyond that, there is the body's need for rest. But what does the right amount of rest look like for your body?

Every body is different, but as I obsessively read "Runner's World" magazines and find that the recuperation of a full Marathon may take weeks or months, I tried time and again to rush it. Some how I didn't think I should need the amount of rest my body obviously did.

The pay off to taking the time to rest, is the renewed love of running. But you have to actually take that time off. My haphazard running schedule, and obvious denial of needed rest, has included a run with my husband Jesse who is deep in training for a 50 miler which means he is working on speed as much as endurance...and determination. He took me out on what would be a "quick run". In my mind this meant short, in his mind it meant...QUICK. They say, men say exactly what they mean despite women reading into it. This is a great example.

After the red faced, heart pounding want-to-throw-up "quick" run, I stopped running again. I could say it was my work load, or the kiddo being out of school for the summer, but the truth is, I simply needed the rest. I would like to tell you I was cross training, but that wasn't regular enough to really claim either. I was on exercise vacation. I felt guilty about it too.

A recent conversation with my brother-in-law Chris alleviated that guilt. Chris is a natural born runner that has run several Marathons, most with abbreviated training, he is what I call "a true runner". He had previously decided to give up running after a Marathon that he essentially did not train for at all (and managed to score a time at elevation that most people would be VERY proud of) however, he really hurt for the first time afterward. He needed rest. Needless to say, he stopped running for about 6 weeks and found that with a sudden surprise, the call to run was coming back.

Jesse took 13 days off running and missed about 80 hours of training! Ya, no joke. So he is back at it and running circles around me. Literally. We went out for another run together and this time I was on guard to run my pace, not his. So with our 52 pound 6 year old  son crammed in our BOB stroller (thank you Gods of BOB strollers!) he bolted up steep hills and back down past me, around and back up to meet me for a few minutes, then bolt off for another sprint ahead of me and circle around to find me again. It was a good run for both of us. I felt good when we finished and he got an OK work out. It was exactly 6 months to the day from running my first full Marathon.

In all honesty, this is not what I had wanted to have the evolution of my running look like, but the truth is, we can't determine what path our running (or our lives for that matter) will take,  as much as we try to. I am finally wanting to run again and that feels great. I watched the women's Olympic Marathon race and was inspired to run another Marathon. I am actually looking forward to the training! Of course first thing is first, our family has to see Jesse through his race. Who knows how much rest he might need after that, or how much wine...I am guessing a lot of wine.

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

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
 

Creative Counting

When there is no time to run, I find that I get very creative with delineating what activities "count" as exercise. I have been in a hotel room for a week so everything is off schedule. Sure there is a gym at the hotel, but I am traveling with my son who can't be left in the hotel room alone (or can he at age 6?) and I certainty can't take him with me to the gym, he would die of boredom (or would he play with the iPad like a happy little camper?). Well I can't get caught up in silly details, but the gym is out! The heat takes running outside out. I could probably find a YouTube video to do...something, but...but...I have no reason why I didn't do that. Damn, that would have been a good idea. But then, what would I write about? I would feel so bad that you wonderful, deserving people didn't hear me gripe this week and I simply couldn't do that to you.

What the hell was my point? Oh yes, counting OTHER activities as exercise. So in a typical day, while on vacation, I have had to heave my 50 lb child into and out of various preferred viewing positions at museums. That counts as bicep curls at least! Chase a running 6 year old up and down stairs and around museums while carrying my purse, packed with every sort of Armageddon necessity, along with my child's backpack full of... crap, that definitely counts as weighted sprints. The 9 million times I drop things on the floor out of my purse while searching for something that has fallen to the bottom of my bottomless pit, then bending down to pick those fallen items up is obviously squats. And of course, the countless times I had to snake on my belly under a coffee table into the "cave" to reset the broken DVD player counts as yoga AND Pilates!

So when I start to feel bad about being off schedule with my running (Again!), I breath a sigh of relief. Sure I didn't run this week, but I got a mean work out.

You know if you add in lifting my wine glass each evening...

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

Work it baby, work it!

The alarm is silenced after a few painful seconds of beeping. It is 5am. The darkness blinds me. Every inch of my body resounds with the reverberation of the alarm, every cell clenched. The sheets hush my tension, the perfect weight against the chill in the air. My pillow softens under my head. I wonder for a moment how the bed can be so cruel? At night as I crawl in, the bed seems too hard, the sheets like rough paper and the pillow a rock. I spend so much of the night too hot or too cold only to awaken to the world's most perfect, comfortable cloud of a bed! Absolutely cruel.

Ahhh, the sweet joy of rolling over and falling back to sleep, cradled in the soft warm sheets.

Why didn't I get up? Because getting up at 5am is crazy! If I could I would sleep till 9am or 10am every day. Getting up at 5am to go running? I don't think so. No, that alarm was for Jesse.

Jess diligently rises with the buzzing. He heads out in the soft morning light to meet Scott, a new friend and one of the best track coaches out there. It just so happens he lives in Dixon. Jess runs 2 miles to their meeting spot, then runs sprints, intervals and various other disgusting exercises designed to make you puke. When the torture is over, he runs 2 miles home.  Que "Rocky" theme music.

Jess finds me still in bed when he returns. He beams with excitement about his morning routine. I love his enthusiasm and commitment. His face weekly becoming more and more chiseled, a far cry from the rounded face of high school reunion photos currently circling Facebook.

Scott, while I have only spoken to him a few times, has become a big part of our family. He is there for most conversations, referenced to over the course of the day and there first thing in the morning. I can see I might need to get to know Scott better.

Jess' training will culminate in the "Deadman's Ultra" in Cuba this October. No, no, not THAT Cuba. Cuba, New Mexico. I believe Cuba consists of a couple small hotels, some dinosaur stuff (as you can imagine Denim is excited) and a grocery store. I know, your jealous that I am going and you are not right?

I have to say I am not happy about the name of this 53 mile race: "Deadman". I hope they are being funny. However, 53 miles over rough terrain might be just that, a deadman's race. I certainly hope not.

After his 10 hour race, we will celebrate in royal fashion! I think we will have to pull something very special from the cellar. Jess claims this will be his 1st and last 50 miler. I say never say never. Some how I foresee that with celebration wine spilling from his glass, he will say "Maybe a 100 miler next?"

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

www.VivacWinery.com

Olympic Trials & Tribulations

This past week, as we sat watching the Olympic trials on TV, my son sat near by writing his own dinosaur book and I realized just how much has happened in the last 4 years.

4 Years ago I watched my first Marathon on TV. Jesse insisted we watch the Olympic Marathon race. I couldn't have imagined anything more boring. Watching people run is like...watching people golf, only maybe more boring. I seated myself on the floor with our then 2 year old son as he played with his very first dinosaur; a gift that would alter our lives drastically. I settled in for what I assumed would be a slow decent into a torturous death.

As the women's Marathon came to a drastic finish with athletes collapsing, crying, barely walking, some unable to finish at all, I stared shocked at the TV. Why the hell would anyone do that? As if the producers of the show heard me, they launched immediately into the history of women running, the history of the Marathon in Greece that was 26 miles (the duty of a messenger to run information about the war) to the addition of the .2 mile being added (so the British Royals could have the start of the race in front of the Palace). It was amazing to learn that running, a natural instinct of the human body, was so controversial! Women had to sneak into races and were persecuted, literally shoved as they ran in races and degraded simply for wanting to run.

Katherine Switzer is one of the big names associated with women's running. She was the first to enter and complete the Boston Marathon in 1967. For those of you not into running as a sport, Boston is to running what Krispy Kreme is to doughnuts, or In n' Out Burger is to fast food burgers. It is what all the others want to be. Naturally everyone wants to run it, so of course it is the hardest to get into. It isn't the Olympic level, however Olympians do run it, it is the 'possibly attainable mega race' for amateurs...if running multiple Marathons really fast can be call amateur.

In order to run the Boston Marathon... you have to run a different Marathon... and have a qualifying time. For example, for Jesse and Chris' age group, they would have to run a 3 hour 10 minute Marathon just to be considered eligible for registering for Boston. Then they would need to fly out to Boston, pay a steep entrance fee... and run another Marathon.

For those of you thinking it isn't at all like the In n'Out or Krispy Kreme analogy, you must not live in Dixon, New Mexico where you have to travel hundreds of miles in order to get your hands on one of these delicious, heavenly delights, or you don't have an inclination for ridiculously amazing junk food.

Wow, I got way off track. No pun intended.

So I watched my first Marathon 4 years ago thinking what ridiculous people they were and cementing in my mind that I would never do that.

Now as I watch the trials and feel the excitement of watching the Olympic games, I look forward to watching the Marathon. I see how ironic my ideas of what and who I am have been and that you can never say "never". I have run for 3 years now which means it wasn't long after the last Olympics that I picked up the sport. I have run several races including a half marathon and a full Marathon and am deciding on which race will be next. A far cry from the woman sitting on the floor mocking the runners flailing on the screen in agony.

With the 2012 Olympics, I am reflecting on how much has changed in our lives. I am not only inspired by the amazing athletes but the incredible ability for people in general to adapt, change and thrive in situations they thought were beyond them. None of the athletes at the Olympics have an easy story of how they got there. It is with this thinking that I offer to all of you... what have you said you could "never" do? Why did/ do you think that? What would your life look like if the opposite were true?

It certainly can be applied to many situations, what if Jesse and Chris had said "open a winery?" "no way! I can't do that!". We would be sitting watching the Olympics with terrible wine in our glass, wondering how we will pay for our child to become a Paleontologist. We are still wondering how we will pay for his education, but at least we are enjoying incredible wine while we do it. You never know, maybe he'll be the one to run Boston.


-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

www.VivacWinery.com