Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

It's been a while since I've gotten out for any sort of a long run. Great weather for it today. 

I had to give a presentation this morning, so I was up very late last night. Obviously, I didn't have it in me to wake up early for a run, especially since I needed to be on campus at about 7:00. Instead, I ran at the gym tonight while watching TV on my phone. I felt much better than I usually do at night.

Another four miles at the gym. It's easy to throw on a TV show and go that far, but I have a hard time doing any mileage beyond that.

This site no longer seems to work with Firefox. Given the disclaimer, it's strange that i have to log into Internet Explorer to make my daily entry.

Still won't work in Firefox.

From the numbers it looks like today's run was the same as every run this week, but it wasn't. Instead of running at the gym, I bundled Moo up and took her for a nighttime stroller run on the River Trail.

That's right--a major bump in mileage this morning :)

Catherine, Elliott and I all ran together this morning. It's the first time in a while that we've done that. It was actually colder in the morning than it was last night, even though we didn't start until about 9:00, but Elliott was fine in the stroller. She was even better once we took off her hat, which kept annoying here by falling over her eyes.

It was a simple run--out on the River Trail to the par by Liberty Avenue, then right back the way we came. It's nice to be able to run outside together even in December. Probably not a great sign for the ski season, though.

I ran this same route this week that I ran last week--basically, it's a big lollipop loop on the Provo River Trail. It's starting to feel a little wintery outside (which is overdue, really, since we're more than a week into December), but I dressed appropriately and it was a nice run.

When Catherine and I ran yesterday I noticed what looked like a homeless guy camped under the first bridge we run under (by Maceys). When I ran by the same spot this morning there were three cop cars parked nearby. Then I saw three cops down by where I had seen the campe yesterday. There was a big bag on the ground, and one of the cops was talking to a guy who didn't look homeless but I guess could have been. I wonder what was going on.

I finally made it past four miles on the treadmill today. That's the good news.

The bad news actually started on Saturday abot half way through my run, when I started to feel a familiar twinge on the outside of my right knee. It went away within a mile, but it was enough to worry me.

My knee hurt again right from the start of tonight's run. It mostly went away as I warmed up, but I could still feel that something was there. Like on Satrday, it was enough to worry me.

If there is something happening to my knee, I don't know what to do. I've been consistently running 30 miles per week for the last few months with nothing longer than 10 miles. If my knee can't handle that, it probably can't handle running at all.

There's something about finals week that just makes it harder to find time to run. Expect more symbolic rns this week. And the worst thing is that I don't think I'm doing that good at these tests. I'm definitely better at law school. I guess it's a good thing that a law firm hired me.

Another two miles at the gym. The Avengers was on in the cardio cinema. That's a good treadmill movie.

One more short day, even shorter than the last. But finals end tomorrow. 

That's right--nothing. But I took my final final this morning, and now the semester is over. After the test we piled Elliott into the car and headed to St. George. Tomorrow we'll drive the rest of the way to LA. 

By the time we got here it was late and cold and my stuff was buried at the bottom of the car and I didn't want to dig it out, so I just skipped the run. I'm okay with that. Tomorrow we'll be in LA, and I can run at the Rose Bowl. That will be nice.  

Two blanks in a row. But we were in the car all day, and by the time we settled down it seemed like more trouble than it was worth to go for a run. This has been one of my worst weeks in a while for running, but it was an exceptional week, so I'm okay with that. I hope to log a bit of vertical on Monday and Tuesday, so that should make up for it.

Finally, the FRB seems to work with Firefox again.

We arrived in LA on Saturday afternoon. It's been pretty rainy and drizzly down here, which is a bit of a bummer, but it's still warmer than it is in Utah. Although not that much warmer this year.

I ran the Whiting Woods fire road this morning. The official name is the Whiting Woods Motorway, but I think that's a bit misleading, seeing as it's just a dirt road up a small mountain. Anyways, it was a wake up call--I'm a bit out of shape. But it was nice to run up, then down, and then across the valley and back up on the road to my parents' house.

I know from last year that it's 5.6 mile round trip on the fire road. I don't know how much extra there was on the road, but for now I'm going to say 7 miles total. I'll adjust later when I can drive the road route in reverse.

I skied a lot today, but it's been a long time since I've skied. My legs can only handle so many steep slopes and so much heavy Sierra snow--my quads are trashed. So, I ran one mile on teh hotel treadmill at the end of the day and called it good. 

Today was like yesterday, but with a little less skiing, and a little more running to compensate. 

The highlight of the day (and possibly of the trip) was putting Elliott in a backpack carrier so she could ski a couple of runs with Catherine and I (also cool--Catherine skied today). Elliott and Catherine both had a good time, and I loved it.

On the road. No chance to run. That's not entirely true. I could have run this morning, but I wanted to run in the evening. But when we got to our motel, there were only a few minutes left before the fitness center closed (I had assumed it would be 24 hours). I didn't want to gear up just to run on the treadmill for a fraction of a mile, so I let the entire day go. 

It was over 40 degrees when we got home, which is way warmer than it's been in Mammoth Lakes, so I decided to go for an outside run. I expected it to be bad, having spent all day in a car and having eaten a steady diet of road food, but I felt great once I hit the road. I guess there was plenty of energy just waiting to get out of my legs. I probably should have gone farther, but by that point of the day I was ready to get home and wind down. 

Catherine went out for a long run with RAD in the snow this morning. I'm not as tough, so I stayed in the gym. It was surprisingly crowded--surprisingly to me, at least. I had no idea that Christmas Eve was such a busy day at the gym. 

Anyway, the low mileage doesn't tell the whole story. After having my butt kicked by two days of skiing, I decided I'd better spend more time working my quads on the incline. So that's what I was up to. 

By the time I got to run, it was cold and icy and treacherous, so I kept it to a one-mile token run.

Elliott had a great present. People gave  her age-appropriate gifts :) I wish I had been so lucky as a child. 

I guess I've been slacking on my blog, but in my defense there hasn't been much to report. I've just been spending about a half hour each day at the gym, sometimes running fast, sometimes running hills, and sometimes just plodding along. On Monday I start training in earnest for the Ogden marathon, so I guess that's when I should start taking both my running and my blog more seriously. 

I pretty much blew this week off--I'm not going to pretend it's anything other than what it was. Elliott was sick all day, and by the time I got a chance to run tonight I just didn't care. So when the side stitches hit me on the treadmill, it was easily enough to overcome what willpower I had left. 

I've said it before, the real work starts next week.

I thought I'd jump the gun a bit and write my year-end post a couple of days early. I don't think there's any reason to stick to a 365 day schedule, and since my training for Ogden starts tomorrow, as far as I'm concerned my 2012 running year ended yesterday. 

This was not a great year for me. I've struggled to maintain consistency in the past because of injuries, but since Elliott was born a year and a half ago I've struggled to maintain consistency because of a simple lack of time. With family life, school life, and sleep to compete with, running sometimes just loses out. 

I had my best stretch from August through November. When we moved back to Provo, commute time was suddenly available for running, and I was able to settle into a nice routine of running in the morning before school every day. The late arrival of real winter weather really helped with this. In fact, I think it's the cold that derailed me in December. There were other factors--finals, travel, sick Elliott--but I don't think any of these would have stopped me if it weren't for the cold. When there were other things to worry about, I had a hard time motivating myself to either a) bundle up and head outside or b) run on a treadmill. This is bad news, since these will be my only options for the next few months. With any luck, the upcoming motivation will help keep me going. 

I've mentioned marathon training several times in the past few weeks. That's because I'm actually going to try to follow a plan to prepare for Ogden. I found a 20-week schedule that seems reasonable and that I plan to start tomorrow. I'll make some modifications as necessary to suit my personal goals, and I won't be so blind as to adhere to the plan at all costs (I've learned that that's a recipe for injury), but I do plan to follow through on this, and if I can avoid injury I should be in great shape at Ogden. When I was a cyclist, there was nothing I could do better than grind away at threshold pace for 2-4 hours. If my running strengths are similar, I should be able to run a solid 26.2.

Day 1 was pretty easy. Thirty minutes, cycling between 5 minutes easy (8:00) and 1 minute hard (5:45). I went to Gold's at about 7:30, and I don't think I've ever seen the gym so crowded. A lot of people wanted an early start on their New Year's resolutions, maybe.