A little less than I would have liked to have got this week, but that seems to come a bit with some travel trips. The long work days, combined with the short light days, being in a tech park with highways around me ... it made for less of a running week. I even did some stuff this week on the treadmill. It has been a minute since I have done that.
So, Deerfield for a good part of the week with runs of 3-5 in the AM and/or evening.
Got back Friday and hit Rails to catch some Slyjax.
Then bolted over to the HS to participate in the basketball game half time recognition of the 2016 XC girl team getting into the Broomfield HS Sports Hall of Fame. They get inducted on Sunday.
Saturday was more music - Off the Rail at Rails End, the Jons as the opener at the Gothic - and then of course another Roger Clyne show.
Sunday included a 7 miler, part of Donnie B's 30 over at McKay Lake for his birthday (48k for 48 years). Great to shoot the shit with the boys and clip off a few laps. Need to do more of this.
Sunday evening was the Broomfield High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Fun to catch up with folks at this event.
Monday AM - Dallas in the dark - 7.1 miles ... slow.
PM - it was pouring out so and I really didn't bring gear for that so I hit the hotel treadmill before meeting back up for work. 3 miles playing with the buttons. The treadmill is no longer a real preferred option for me ... I just get stupid with it. And it is so unrealistic for me anyway.
Tues AM - significantly cooler. 7.2 slow wake up miles through the nearby cemetery.
Tuesday PM - 3.5 easy on the hotel mill while listening to a call recording playback to catch up. Pouring rain out again.
Wednesday - headed over to Huntsville AL. Got out for an afternoon run on a mid 50s not rainy but otherwise very wet (almost foggy) run. 10 miles with a fartlek of 10 by 2 minutes on, 1 minute off. Wet, wet, wet.
Thursday AM- 7.6 AM slow. Yesterday I ran the Indian Creek Greenway. I couldn't do that today as the rains last night flooded out the river. I was definitely a bit tired and feeling the effort of yesterday.
Thursday evening - did 3 miles on the hotel mill.
Friday - back to CO. Lots of snow down and around but it was sunny enough that I had the shirt off for a bit. 10.8. Dragging a bit on this one.
Saturday - back with the Eagles for morning practice. 9.8 miles with GW. Easy plus.
Took JZ and KZ over to Inmotion to pick them up some kicks. JZ couldn't resist checking out the illegal gear out from Nike.
Sunday - started the AM with an easy half an hour with TZ. It was a nice little wake up. Around 9, I joined up with Greg for a long run. JZ joined us too - which was great. Gabby and Eryn also joined in. We moved a lot quicker than I expected and I ended up with 14.3 at 7:24 pace, including the climb over Davidson.
78.6 on the week, with a fartlek session in the middle of the week. Still hacking a bit from the pneumonia but I think I am coming around.
I kept to my recent "policy" of not drinking alcohol while on a work engagement. That was a little different given the group I was with went to a brewery on Wednesday night. Folks seem to have more of an issue with it than I do - which oddly makes me a bit more comfortable with it (perhaps I enjoy that it throws them off balance more than it does me).
Music project from Dallas. This was city 15.
Music project from Huntsville. This was city 16.
Here is a little video of "Sweet Home Alabama" with Amber Cole from last week.
I heard a podcast with Scott Fauble recently and he mentioned an app he uses to meditate. It is called Headspace. I decided to give it a trial. It has been a good little way to try to get more into this thing I have dabbled on and mostly off with over the years. The guided 10 minute meditations have been helpful for me establishing some start to a practice. We'll see if it sticks.
Test drove a 330 and 335 at Wildwood this weekend.
I got a good night sleep, but I was tired to get started nonetheless … AM, 3 miles on the mill. Again starting slow but getting pace down by the end (just under 25 minutes).
In the evening – back to the hamster wheel … 7 miles with 15 minute warm up, then 10 by 90 seconds on, 90 seconds off, starting at 6:25 pace and then carving down.
AM – four miles on the mill as it was –3F ambient and negative stupid something with the windchill. I started SLOOOOW – like 10 minute pace – as it was a wake up affair. I did end up with four averaging under 8 min/mile though when the coffee kicked in.
As KZ mentioned to me, this is the part of my day then where I am supposed to fall in and then become a super hero.
Evening – tired after a full day but another 6 on the mill. Yeah, I am wimping.
“Slept in” … meaning I woke up around 7:30 rather than the typical 5:30 or 6. It was –2 out but it was sunny on the fresh four five inches we got. I still chose not to get out in that and caught up with TZ over way too much coffee cake she made … and then headed out to the airport.
Waukegan is where I am now. And it is 9 degrees here but with a pretty rough breeze. And while I get to travel to some pretty nice sites at times, this is one where I am a bit locked in between a couple of highways and without a car.
So it was me, and the the Courtyard Marriott treadmill tonight. 5 miles before heading to bed.
Greg stopped by the house in the AM and asked me to point to where my foot pain was. I pointed to the front ball of my foot around the back of the second and third toes. His quick read was, “congratulations, you have Morton’s Neuroma.”
So there is that. He set me up with a pair of Superfeet inserts and a met pad for the right foot. We will give this a shot for a few days to see how things go. In the afternoon, I jogged with those in my fattest and freshest Hokas to practice and then did another four on the treadmill. I am still aware of the neuroma but it was a tad bit more bearable. We’ll see how this goes.
In the evening I headed over to InMotion Running (Greg’s shop) to catch the Billy Yang movie about Dave Mackey, called “Leadman.” The movie is good (also very good is the video that Bill Hanson did on Dave shortly after his amputation). Even better than the movie though is getting together to see everyone for a few minutes. I noted in this shot that you had at least three guys who had lost some part of their body to amputation. Even in that category I am the least accomplished of these guys. Anyone recognize the guy who apparently is not happy with that last bite of pizza?
One of the best ambassador’s of the Boulder mountain all things scene – Bill Wright.This is mostly a shot to make JZ jealous because he was home doing calculus homework. Bill Hanson video.
AM - I eyeballed the temps and with the windchill it was -6 or something in Philly. I went the route of the old timer and hit the hotel gym and did the treadmill for 4.1 miles, rationalizing it was a better run than what I would have got had I braved the elements, and that I'd get out in the evening.
Treadmills in hotels seemed to have come quite a ways over the decade I have been using them in hotels. I don't even mean all the TV junk they build into the console. They are just sturdier, better equipped to manage higher speeds, and have bigger decks. And hotels seems to have at least three or four of them versus just one. Maybe this is just a Marriott thing though.
For a treadmill run, it was pretty good. When I ran on the mill in Singapore I was just slogging. That might have been the humidity and the jet lag though. I was a touch sore still from the weight work that I did on Tuesday, but I'll take that as a positive.
I did get out in the evening for 6.1 along the river trail. It was pretty fun, and I wasn’t the only runner out there. And there was even a guy doing the split shorts in the teen temps.
January ends in a weird way. I got in some workouts (6), some miles (234), hardly any vertical (less than the Pikes climb for the whole month), and got some gym work (5 days I tagged as days worked out) I have a right plantar that is not happy, and I spent a better half of the month (seriously like 2 damn weeks) fighting some cold flu funk. It ain't the training month I wanted but it is the one I got. Better now than in July.
Keep on pluggin. Back to CO tomorrow if all goes well.
I slept pretty hard and got a good chunk of sleep despite being upside down on the time. I had already decided not to run outdoors, because I can’t really run directly from the hotel (it is in the middle of the airport and all the roads from here are highways) and we were going to be pressed for time this AM to get to the site. I headed to the treadmill, and I was sort of thankful not be outside because as I left my hotel room, I hit the outdoor humidity … so rich my glasses fogged immediately. I got 10k on the mill, and even though it was cooler in there, I made it look like I had hit it with a fire hose of sweat.
This is mostly a shot to make JZ jealous because he was home doing calculus homework.
