It's over, man. Let her go.

It had been one of those days, plus I had rested the achilles for almost 3 weeks, so I decided to go do a few easy miles despite the persistent pain that hasn't left yet.  Walked the hills, very slowly jogged the flats going out. Coming back, I was still feeling the pain so I just walked the last 2 miles.  Did some easy stretches when I got back to the car, came home and took some Ibuprofen, am icing it now and will get off to bed.

I'll do some weight training tomorrow and avoid running for a day or two and see how it feels.  I'm really hoping to be in a position that I can run the race on the 27th (time doesn't matter, I just want to do it), but I don't know.  I may have to rest it completely until a couple days before when I do some slow miles and see how it feels.  I have to register by the 7th so I need to decide before then.

Just some light core workout...nothing to brag about.  :-)

Did some upper body and leg weight training.  Nothing major but Static and Shock are feelin' it tonight!

Ok, so explain this to me (because obviously I didn't get it):

Who in their right mind would do an upper body/"guns" workout to the point they know they'll feel it, the day before the forecast was for "8-10" inches of wet, heavy snow - knowing they'll probably have to shovel it?

Oh, and for once, our weatherman was right (shocker!)...we did get "8-10" of snow by Saturday night"....only we got that by 8pm FRIDAY night!  It's 7am Saturday and we have 24"+!  I wouldn't care except that I had to park my car at the grocery store at the bottom of our street (very steep hill) and walk up last night since I couldn't get up the hill.  I'll have to shovel my way down our long, steep driveway to even go see if my car is still there or whether they towed it.  And...our street isn't plowed enough yet to get my car up here anyways!

I only got 3.5 hrs of sleep last night because I couldn't fall asleep - not unusual - but at 3am, I look out to see that about 18" of snow is making our gazebo start to lean to one side.   Memorandum:  This spring get that darn thing on solid footings and level!  So, I have to go find my heavy rope in my messy garage, go out and secure the gazebo to the only big, heavy object close enough to it - the van - with the rope, then get the ladder and rake out and go get all the snow off it before going to bed.  It's got another 6" up there now, so I'll be out doing it again soon.  My wife can thank my insomnia (and my mad Eagle Scout knot skills) for the fact that we still have a standing gazebo since guaranteed that thing would be on the ground this morning if I hadn't secured it properly.  It was leaning pretty badly under the weight of that snow.

FRB friends:  pray for my arms, chest and back...and for me to get a brain by the next time I think about doing a "guns" workout before a predicted snow storm!  :-(

Evening update:  Ok, so we got about 18-20" which is a blizzard for us here.  Apparently, it rivals the "blizzard of 1996" or something like that.  Finally got the driveway shoveled and the car up the hill and driveway at about 6pm tonight.  Here's a few pics for you to enjoy!

Gotta get them knees up to get through the snow!

Workin' on the form  :-)

Getting pelted by my daughter while my wife was trying to take a nice photo of me!

The Fam

Planned "rest" day...spent about 4 hrs shoveling the snow, 30 min eating a late lunch, and 30 min soaking in a HOT bath trying to soothe my very sore arms/back.  :-(

Lazy day today.  Had to work from home since you can't really get to downtown.  Was just fine with me.  We're supposed to get hit with more snow tomorrow afternoon.  I may go try out my achilles tomorrow before the snow comes and after the temp gets above freezing.  :-)

Aaah, getting back in the groove!  I went out for a little walk/jog to see how the achilles was doing.  Went to an area where I usually run that's usually plowed well, but I ended up having to run the sidewalks since the streets were just wide enough to get two lanes of traffic through.  The sidewalks were occasionally shoveled, but mostly packed/semi-packed snow 4-6" deep with ruts from where people had stepped.  It was firm in spots and soft/slick in others.  I don't know how you Utahns run on snow packed trails and stuff if it's anything like that!

I walked for about 1/4 mi then jogged for 2 miles, weaving in and out of traffic, up onto the sidewalk, back on the street, etc.  It just wasn't worth risking a twisted ankle or going down since it was so slick and uneven.  Plus, I had my old running shoes on that don't have very good tread anymore (my good shoes, watch, ipod, etc are at work  :-(  ).  On a positive note, my turnover rate was excellent due primarily to trying to keep my feet underneath me!  I was feeling the achilles ever so slightly toward the end when I decided to stop jogging, so I walked the rest of the way back to the car which was a good cool down.  Stretched well and headed for home.

I'll ice it again tonight and take Aleve.  I hadn't taken any meds for it or iced it for 24 hrs because I wanted to see how it really felt when I went for a walk/jog today.  I knew I could run on it while on Aleve, but I wanted to really know how it was doing.  So, it feels like it's about 80-90% back to normal and so a light workout (with core & bike) this week should probably get me back to where I can do some recovery training the next week or two.  I may just make the Half at the end of March after all...and have a good race!

Thanks to the snow, I've been "forced" to work from home this week, which has been good for recovery.  I haven't walked the 1.5mi each way in to work, and have just been hanging out in the den during the day.  I'm happy about my recovery!  Although I'd love to make the Spring Thaw in a couple of weeks, I'm not going to push it, especially when it looks like I'll be well enough to run the Half at the end of March!  Yeaaaa!

It's 1:30am here, so I suppose it's ok to post my report for "today" even when I haven't slept yet...  Burt wants to see the rollercoaster pictures, and as we all know, Burt gets what he asks for.  So here they are.  Now realize, my wife grew up in SoCal and practically lived at Disneyland.  She's seen places in Disneyland very few have ever seen - or were ever intended to see, but that's a story for another time.  On the coasters, we wanted to make the scariest faces knowing pictures were going to be taken.  ;-) 

This first one, in 2004, was near the end of the night, the first time my kids had been on it, and it was very dark out.  The kids loved it until the "surprise" drop off into a seemingly black hole (all except for the flash as the pic is taken).  I know it's not obvious, so I feel I need to point out that my daughter was scared. 

This one was taken in 2007...daughter is scared into euphoria

And then there's Space Mountain...This was probably the 5th time on it, hence my son's thumbs up.  Daughter claims this is the one we were all supposed to look scared for the picture...

Did I hear someone ask "But what about the Tower of Terror?  Didn't that debut in 2007?"  I'm glad you asked...

Wait...let's get a close up...

Although you can't see my face in this one since I was off camera, I found this one truly frightening...no, seriously!

And as I was perusing through my photos, I didn't realize that my fellow flame-loving blogger, RAtTLeTrAp was there!  I just really liked his hat!

I had to have run a mile today while running up the sledding hill with my son, then sliding down and wishing my old body didn't hurt so bad afterwards.  Kinda got me depressed, so I decided to pass it along.  Enjoy!

Final rest day before starting to kick it back in this week.  Achilles is feeling good and a few short test runs tell me I could be out of the woods!  This week will be the test...

Yep, feeling a bit fat today...

Warmed up on the weights and rowing machine.  Ran an easy 1 mi to warm up on the TM then ran the 5k program in 33:29.  Achilles was a little sore still so I iced it and took Aleve.  Feeling good tonight, so I hope it isn't too tight/sore in the morning...

Went for a short run today on the TM.  Weather is still snowy and the roads are lucky to be plowed, let alone the sidewalks.

Took it really easy, warming up about 1/4 mi then jogged at about a 10-11:00 pace for the rest.  Some cool down, then 15min or so stretching.

Achilles felt sore during the run, but less sore than Monday.  After the run no real soreness, it's only when I'm running.  I'll plan on running on Friday, then increase mileage and add a day of running next week.

Wow, today will be three run days in a week!  That deserves a little challenge.  Background: I was driving my daughter to seminary this morning (yes, Utahns, us outside the state have to 1) actually get in our cars and drive to the church and 2) have seminary before the freaking sun comes up :-),  and on the way home I had my iPod on shuffle.  We have over 50GB of music from the late 60s, through the disco years, into the big hair 80s, the rap 90s and into today, plus all the church music, musicals & soundtracks, etc.  This is a fairly obscure song, I think, but maybe not. 

I'll give you a few distinct lines and see if you can guess it.  It's a one-hit-wonder and is a total ear worm.  I'm hoping by posting this the song will leave my consciousness for the rest of the day.  No cheating by going and searching Google!  These are randomly selected throughout the song (taken primarily from the "rap" part of the song) based on how funny they are:

You know my first impulse was to run up on you
And do a Rambo

But I didn't wanna mess up
this thirt-seven hundred dollar lynx coat
So instead I chilled -- That's right chilled

I gave you silk suits, Gucci handbags and blue diamonds.
I gave you things you couldn't even pronounce!

You gotta get on outta here
with that alley-cat-coat-wearing,
punch-bucket-shoe-wearing crumbcake I saw you with.

You without me is like corn flakes without the milk!

Ok, that's plenty.  If you can't get it with those choice lines, you won't get it.  LOL

First person to name the song and artist gets a special Pittsburgh prize!

Update:  Warmed up .25mi, jogged 2mi @ 9:40 - 11:00 pace (intervals), then cooled down .25mi.  Everything is holding up so far.  I'll up it to 4x next week.  Really tough to hold back from increasing the pace, but knew I needed to if I want this thing to heal and get back to real training! 

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor...won't you be mine?

Running in the city where Mr. Rogers was filmed, I have to say, today was a great day compared to the many that have been in the recent past.  Although I ran on the TM (yuck!), it was a wonderful run...not because I bested by previous injured record on the TM's 5k program by 2 minutes (ha ha), but because I had a minuscule amount of pain in my achilles during or afterward!  I did walk about the 3.9k mark for a minute and took the final 4% incline hill slower to minimize the chances of doing any damage, but I'm very happy with the workout. 

It's 33 days until my Half I was hoping to be well enough to run, so that should be enough time to build up the mileage again to where I may be able to meet my previous (and only) PR on that course...at least that's the plan!

To celebrate my run, and to give a shout-out to Mr. Rogers (may he rest in peace), here's a couple of photos from when our family went to the TV station, WQED, to view the setup of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood in the original recording studio, the last time it would ever be displayed again before being retired forever.  The dinosaur sits outside WQED year-round.  During this last snow storm, I drove by the dino probably 10 times over the course of the week and it was generally cleared of snow - I watched 3 university students brush snow off it as they walked by on their way to campus.  They may be walking through a foot of snow on the uncleared sidewalk, but the dino was always cleared of snow.  A tribute to the wonderful man Mr. Rogers is and how even those growing up long after the taping of his show ended still know and love him.

Enough of my long-winded tribute.  Here are the pics.  Sorry for the poor quality - cell phone camera.  Pretty sad when you forget the real camera, but it's made even worse when you get to stand in line for 4 hrs listening to your wife tell you how it would have been nice to have a decent camera to take pictures.  Sigh...Oh well, It's good in the hood!

Really tough night last night for sleep and I'm pretty tired today.  I did get in a little sleep between dropping my daughter off at seminary and getting my son up for school.

Anyways, I warmed up with 15min walking on the TM, then jogged the 10k program on there.  Speed fluxuated between a 10:30 and 7:40 pace (mostly on the 10:30 - 10:00 pace).  Walked a couple of times for 45-60 seconds.  Felt pretty good, but was definitely not feeling much endurance today.  Slight achilles pain but nothing to really note.  Took it easy, but probably shouldn't have run as far as I did this early in my recovery.

I'll rest tomorrow and Friday I'll do some really easy, slow miles in prep for a longer 5-6mi Saturday run.

Crazy snow today and didn't go in to work/gym so I just rode my recumbent bike for 45 mins, enjoying watching Michael Jackson videos while I workout.

Edit:  Ok, so it's been snowing all day today (8+ inches).  I guess I'm glad I didn't sign up for the race tomorrow since I'd need snow shoes and I don't have any, let alone ran in them.  LOL

On a related note...I need to run tomorrow!  I have no idea how I'm going to run in this snow since they don't plow any more than just enough to get cars through, and I doubt I can get down to the gym at work unless the buses are running...  I need help!

Another snowy day so I waited until about Noon to head out.  The streets were clearer and it was 33^o so it had warmed up some.  The sidewalks were still pretty slippy so I stayed in the road as much as possible.  This was supposed to be a slow recovery run, and it pretty much was.  Did it in 1:02 without much effort or strain.  I felt like I was crawling at about 13:00 and doing the grandpa shuffle most of the time, so I'm quite surprised at the 10:00 pace and at the distance.  I thought it was only about 5.

I'm still waiting to hear from a couple of friends that ran the race today.  I'm bummed I wasn't able to run it, but it would have been too much.  Next year for sure!