Liftoff

Nine days with no running. I think that's the longest break I've had in 7 years.

I went to my doctor yesterday, since my shoulder has remained sore. I think it has improved a bit, but it's a little hard to say. Morning is better, but after a day of moving around it feels pretty lousy by evening.

My doctor did an ultrasound - good news was no obvious damage beyond swollen tendons. He wrote me a prescription for a strong anti-inflammatory. He's hopeful that will take care of it. The one piece of bad news was that based on the places I'm experiencing soreness, there is some chance I have a tear in my rotator cuff. At the moment he's betting against it and holding off on an MRI to see how the next week goes.

After a couple days of strong NSAIDs I'm finally seeing improvement in my right shoulder. I am shocked it has taken this long to recover from, but I've accepted that this winter is not going to be a peak season for me. Given how much difficulty I was having running with a sore hip, that was already in my mind.

I actually managed to walk/jog a bit on Sunday. I was going too slowly to truly tell - but my legs felt great. I'm very hopeful that once my shoulder heals I'm going to feel fully healthy for the first time in months.

Yesterday was a great day. We put up Christmas lights, and went on a long cruise with Anna on her bike. Elise jogged along, and they were both laughing and talking crazy nonsense the whole way. Rolling around the neighborhood with them is currently my favorite thing to do in the world.

I ran today!

AM: 2 miles, extremely slow.

PM: 1 mile with Anna on her bike, extraordinarily slow.

Busy day, so I didn't get out for my lunch run until 3 pm. But I got out and ran for 6 miles along the bike path in Westshore. I felt like the tinman for the first mile, but I slowly picked it up and ended feeling great. Not to misrepresent - I'm still a little sore, and badly out of shape. But just running again was an AWESOME feeling.

Felt better, but lacked time/motivation.

Same story as yesterday.

Already was registered for 1/2 marathon on this day, and it's one of my favorite local races. Point-to-point course that ends by a large lake. The course is very fast - almost dead flat except for a couple of overpasses, and very few turns. The post-race is also excellent...seems to be the unofficial holiday party for the local running community.

I felt ok to run it, but determined not to make the same mistake as October by trying to race and then suffering it as reality set in. This time I ran the first couple miles easy with a few friends, ~ 7:15, then gradually started dropping the pace to ~ 6:30, where I hung out for the second half. My shoulder held up fine - still some occaisonal soreness but ready to get back to training, gradually. I ended up a few seconds under 1:28 feeling good, but it would have been a different story if I was running harder.

To be honest, I was glad to have an excuse not to race - the weather was hot and humid. This has not been a good winter for cooler temps, not that is has mattered to me.

Great time afterwards catching up with friends.

Meant to run at lunch with Quint, but we both washed out with too much work.

9 miles at track. 2 sets of 4x600, 200 between items, 400 between sets.

Started with Lee, Jim and Ched around 2:15 and migrated to 1:58 by the last 600.

I was a little stiff from the 1/2 on Sunday, but overall felt good physically, except for being out of shape.

My goal for the rest of the year is to run modest, doable workouts. It's not like I'm going to really ramp things up between Christmas and the New Year. Then when the calendar turns, I'll get on it.

I've been taking a vacation from running. Not for any real reason. Getting hurt got me used to slacking off, and I've started to enjoy it.

Mostly I don't feel as good about myself, but some things that are easy to tune out when you run a lot are coming more to the fore. In particular - politics. When I'm exhausted, it's easier to take it in as a carnival.  Lately, I've been pining for an enlightened dictatorship.

14 miles with the group. Apparently, minimal training makes it hard to run distance and maintain pace.

We ran on the Pinellas Trail tonight, since track was locked up for the holidays. 3x5x300, just easy with the gang, averaged about 1:02.

Finally reunited for 8 miles at lunch with Quint.

Crazy day cooking for the family. Christmas Eve with my wife's parents went well though, and the girls were good.

Couple miles running with the girls while they rode their bikes.

2 miles with Elise on her bike, and a mile with Anna.

I missed the usual group run because our extended family headed to Legoland to celebrate my niece's birthday. Like most of life, it was a mixture of human bonding, apathy, tedium and fun. I got to put Anna in the stocks, which was pretty cool.

The last week was a crazy scramble. We hosted my wife's parent for Christmas, and I offered to handle the turkey, stuffing and gravy. I was going to document every stage of the prep, but after photographing the stuffing prep I got too busy.

I keep gaining new appreciation for my Mom. I can't believe what a beast she was to handle that and more for multiple holidays year after year.

AM: 4 miles.

PM: 6 miles at lunch with Quint.

So - I'm grossly out of shape. I'm ready to start climbing out of my rut, but it's going to take some time. I am looking to run some 5ks this winter, and avoid the usual races I repeat every winter (Gasparilla, etc). Just need something new.

AM: 5 miles.

PM: 9 miles with Forerunners. Track closed again for the holidays. Scheduled workout was 400s with descending rest, but doing that workout on the Pinellas Trail, at dusk with the local Walking Dead extras about is no recipe for success. Lee, Steve, Ched and I settled on a modest tempo run. Lee and Steve are both recovering from illness and injury, and I'm a bathtub short of Jim Morrison's Paris vacation of '71. Last night Anna slapped my stomach and asked me if I had a baby in my belly.

Our goal was 4 miles @ 6:30 pace. We ran 6:27, 6:28, 6:18, 6:09, which I'll call MP. No great shakes, but it's a weird winter with a constant dew point of 70+. It seems like everyone is injured or burned out.

One cool thing about our run today was that Steve led us out to the South Pasadena waterfront. I've never run down there, and it was beautiful.

A couple other things I am liking are:

1) My wife and I have an annual tradition of watching the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I don't end every night with Merchant Ivory or Downton Abbey... but I do think the writing in P&P is out of this universe.

2) I kind of want to join Twitter to follow this account. Some favorites:

"uncle lando said my helmet made me look like a depressed lampshade and then everyone laughed and high-fived him i hate this family so much"

"mom please don't even pretend you know what I'm going through right now also we are out of conditioner"

"holden caulfield knows what it means to commit to a bold choice of headgear and i respect that"

"this elliot smith song really makes me think of darth vader"

AM: 4 miles.

PM: Planned lunch run preempted by company lunch.

AM: 8 miles.

PM: 3 miles, 2 with Elise on her bike.

I'm not great at resolutions, but running resolutions are easier (to come up with at least). For 2016:

• Find ways to run with my girls as often as possible.
• Run with at least 10 new people.
• Be a better friend to the people I already run with.
• Run 5,000 miles.
• Run 3 PRs.

Easy! Happy New Year!