track fan

1:47:55.  I felt pretty good today - I don't know exactly how long the run was, I just know that most of my miles on the way out were in the 9 minute range and most of my miles on the way back were in the 8:25-8:40 range.  Many interesting things today!

First, last week we had some days where the highs were in the 80's (I did not want to rub it in so I did not tell you about these ;) ) - this morning I woke up to snow on the mountaintops!  The high today is supposed to be in the high 50's.  Then, I was running on the river path and about 2 miles into my run I look over in the wash and there is WATER!  I have never seen water in the wash before.  I took a little detour from my usual run (it is a good time training-wise to explore) and ran on the south side of the trail for a little while.  It was fortuitous I did because I ran into a friend on that side!  Kelly Liljeblad and her sister are in town training for a couple of months.  Kelly is a professional runner we met in Flagstaff a few years ago - she  took the bronze at the USA 10 mile championship last October (won the Houston marathon in 2005 and was chosen for the world championship team) - she is a great runner and very nice person.  Her twin sister is a professional triathlete - her coach lives here in Tuscon which is why they are here.  I knew they were coming to town, but I had forgotten to ask her when they were coming, it was so cool to run into them - they were blazing down the trail!!  Lastly, I went through at least two ecosystems on my run today!  It was chilly (relatively) when I started so I was wearing shorts, short sleeve shirt and gloves.  I figured by the second mile I would warm up.  Well, I did, actually at about mile 4 I was wishing I was wearing a singlet!  Then after I hit the turn-around I was freezing - it was raining/sleeting and I was soaked.  Luckily, the sun came back out and by the time I finished my shorts and shirt were dry again! wow.

Well, off to the salt mines - lot's of work again today.

Happy Sunday bloggers!
 

6+ 54:47.  I am pretty sure it is longer than 6 because I lost a glove and went back a ways to see if I could find it -- probably not much more than 1/4 of a mile long though.

I have to get all the grants reviewed by tonight so I can upload them to the NIH website.  It is taking much longer than I had estimated and it looks like its going to be a very long day/night.

Happy Monday bloggers. 

AM: ( 8.5 miles)...lost the time I had written down, but it was somewhere about 1:12.  It was a quick run because I was in a hurry to get to the airport!

PM:  (4 miles, 37 something).   It was about 9:00 before I got to the hotel, I hurried and put on my running clothes and hit the treadmill.  Honestly, if I had to run on a treadmill every day I might not run - I would find another sport.  It was so painfully boring.  I don't think the treadmill was calibrated but I set it at 2.0 incline and ran about 9:00 min pace (though it felt much slower).

So ... here starts my two days of not being in touch! 

1:11:36.  4 mile steady state run + 2.5 mile wu and 2 mile cd.  Got up at 5 to run (3 my time) because our meeting today started at 7 (we worked from 8 - 7 last night with a 30 min lunch break).  I am exhausted.  It takes us somewhere between 2-3 hours to review one grant.  These grants are huge (about 500 pages/grant) and worth a whole bunch of money.  It was dark and windy -- the Rock Creek Trail was about 2+ miles from my hotel, once I got on the trail it was even darker because there are no lights, but the moonlight came through the trees just enough for me to "mostly" see in front of me (I did run off the trail once into a mud puddle, almost fell!).  I was a little worried I was going to run off the trail and fall into the creek, but luckily that never happened ;-).   The worst part was that it was very windy and there were tree branches all over the trail - I could not see these until I was right on top of them so my legs are all cut up and bruised from being hit by them -- I kept wondering what would happen if I did a face plant and got knocked out -- it would take hours and hours before anyone would find me and they wouldn't know who I was because I did not have any id on me ... and the NIH group would be really mad!  

I am not sure I was actually running the exact pace I was supposed to, but the effort was solid, and I felt like I was able to get a solid run in.  

Unfortunately, there is no way I can run my evening run tonight ... 

1:21:20.  Great run this morning -- ran out and back on a different part of the Rock Creek Trail - it is a great place to train, slightly uphill on the way out (runs along the creek - you can barely feel the uphill, the splits are just about 5 secs/mile slower) and there are lots of rolling hills in it - none too steep, but enough to make you work at them.  There were some strange 1/4 - 1/2 mile markers on the trail (permanent markings, not painted) with arrows going in different directions.  I could not figure them  out - I guess it is like a "secret handshake" you have to belong to the Montgomery County Road Runners to get the key (ha ha ha this is a jab at mcdermo if he is still lurking on the blog).  

Anyway -- I have a very long trip home, I don't get into Tucson until 11PM tonight. It has been a long week! 

AM: (8.5 miles, 1:14:52).  Tried a little exploring -- not really a great route for more than 7 miles.  A few notes though: I saw a gaggle (?), flock (?) of roadrunners!  very cool.  I ran along a railroad track for a while -- it was pretty cool, especially when the train went by.  The novelty was a little tempered by the dead fox I saw laying on the tracks though :(.

PM: 4 miles at my favorite little park!

Can you believe it, I have to go to work.  Despite the fact I was working really hard this week, my "work" here at the university fell behind ... I am so tired too.