Bret

AM - 7 miles on the treadmill in Hong Kong before heading to Zhuhai via Ferry.   Felt a bit travel weary on this run, but was pleased to get it in with a busy day ahead.

PM - after a longish day that had me up at 4 am for a conference call in the US and then traveling to the airport in Zhuhai to Shanghai for meetings this afternoon - Richie and I went out for a run in this absolutely massive Chinese city.  We had a map from the hotel for a short 5k running route, but soon found ourselves exploring the town until we reached the river which has a very nice promenade.  Luckily I ran with my iphone which provided us a way back to the hotel without getting lost and we covered about 6 miles.  There are so many people and conveyances (bikes, scooters, buses etc) it made for a bit of a "frogger" game getting back - which was actually pretty fun.  Great way to end a very fatiguing week of travel.

AM - on a cold and smoggy Shanghai morning I decided to stay indoors and ran 10 miles on the treadmill.  Did a few laps in the indoor pool afterwards too. 

PM - up early and off to the airport to travel from Shanghai to Beijing required me to delay my run until we arrived at our hotel in the afternoon.  A good bit colder (in the 20's) and extremely poor air quality conditions - literally like fog - the sun only looked like a white disk in the sky. The index showed 181 on the twitter app - which is "unhealthy" - meaning people with allergic sensitivities should avoid being outside ete.  But when we were running it was clearly much worse.  I checked the index about 30 mins after we ran and it was 481 - which is listed as "dangerous" - "the entire populations is likely to be affected." 

In any event - undeterred by the cold and air polution we ran from our hotel through an upscale shopping square and down the main drag in front of Tian'anmen Square.  Huge number of people out side walking, and on bikes and other conveyances - with a number of them smiling and kind of looking at us in bewilderment.  In fact when we got to the Square - Richie was taking a photo of me - in my running clothes - (long sleeved shirt - bright red top shirt and shorts) and a woman came up to me in a heavy Eskimo-looking coat and asked if her husband could take a picture of us together - I guess either to document the contrast in clothing or just how out of place I appeared.  Indeed - others with cameras began taking photos of us too - which got a bit comical.

It was a fun little run.  Richie was clearly having difficulty with the pollution and frankly by the time I got cleaned up in my room - I felt a little ill from it too.  I may stay indoors tomorrow if it is this bad.

AM - really bad air quality and cold temps kept me inside on the treadmill this morning in Beijing - Had a really good progression workout covering 8 miles in 56 mins. 

PM - 7.5 miles in Seoul Korea from our hotel through town and along the Han River - quite chilly outside and windy -- however compared to truly disappointing weather in Beijing where it was either dangerous air quality or socked-in due to snowy conditions and we did not see the sun for pretty much the entire visit, I was happy to get outside in the sun after arriving in Korea today.  I had hoped to have some time to run in Beijing near the Forbidden City and perhaps the birdcage -Olympic Stadium, or even drive out to the Great Wall - but the conditions pretty much kept us to our office and then hotel rooms the entire time. 

PM - after a full day of work and meetings in Seoul, I finished up after it had already gotten dark outside, so I ran on the treadmill in the hotel.  Very warm and crowded.  I was amused by the fact that all of the people in the exercise room were wearing white t-shirts and blue shorts - I guess issued by the hotel.  I was the only one wearing something other than the standard issue - It looked like either a high school gym class or a military training group.  I noticed later that evening when walking by a fitness club in town, that everyone in there was wearing the same clothing with the name of the gym emblem on the front of the shirts.  So it appears to be a local custom.

Anyway - felt a bit crappy on the treadmill but ground out the 7 miles or so just the same.

AM - early morning before heading to the airport to go to Tokyo - I wanted to get some air - so I did a short 3 miles close the the hotel before breakfast.  Will hopefully have a chance to run in Japan later today.

 PM - This afternoon, late in the day we did about 6.5 miles around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. It was a cold dark and rainy run and we got a little lost until iPhone helped us back to the hotel.

AM - easy 3 miles on the treadmill at the hotel in Tokyo - cold and rainy outside.  Will hopefully get time later today for a run around town in daylight.

PM - 5 miles easy around the park that surrounds the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.  The rain/snow mix cleared out by about 2 pm and it was sunny but cold.  Unless I get up early tomorrow, this will be my last run on this trip before heading home tomorrow.

AM - 4.0 easy untimed miles before church.  Got a solid night of sleep after returning late yesterday afternoon from Japan.   Was extremely fatigued and sleepy by the afternoon and did not get a second run in.

AM - a poor night of sleep had me up at 4:30 am unable to return to sleep due to jet-lag issues and problems with my sleep cycle - and so I was really not in the mood to run, but decided to go out around 6 am to get some air.  Actually had a pretty decent untimed 4.5 miles of running before work.  I am hoping to run later in the day if my schedule permits.

PM - was able to go out for a late lunch and did 6 quick miles on the treadmill, mostly at 8.5 mph with the last mile at marathon pace.  Felt oddly, good.

PM - 8.0 miles around Feathersound and Carillon at lunchtime.  Weather was nice and although the run was decent, I was not really mentally motivated to run today - still probably adjusting to the timezone.

PM - on a day that I was not particularly motivated to run, I had a pretty good workout on the treadmill.  I started out very easy but within less then a mile I was running 7:15 pace and found myself running marathon pace to better the last 3-4 miles and feeling pretty solid doing so.  Covered just under 9 miles in an hour. 

PM - had to go a dentist appointment nearer to my home than to my office around lunchtime, so I went home after the cleaning and then did my run from there before heading back to the office.  Very pleasant run.  Was using the iPhone Runkeeper app - which had some features I should have known about when I was traveling the last couple of months.  It has an integrated camera with google maps and an auto pause feature.  So you can stop, take a picture and then continue to run.  When you get finished with the run and post it to the Runkeeper site, it shows the google map of your route and places the photos on the map where you took them.  In this case it was a photo from my home and the old Chimp farm (officially called the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary) along the Pinellas Trail.  http://runkeeper.com/user/bjardine/activity/62961780

AM - finally got what I consider a full night of sleep, post jet lag/time zone adjustment.  Woke too late to get much a run in - so I just went out to stretch my legs a bit for 3 untimed miles.  Have my department's Christmas party this afternoon - so unlikely to get another run in today.

PM - from the Canyons - out toward Park City on the McLeod Creek Trail which was mostly snow and ice covered, making for a bit of a slow, cautious pace and cold!

PM - after a day of skiing at the Canyons - I did 7.5 miles on the treadmill indoors to take it easy on my quads.  

AM - had a really interesting run with Rob Murphy this morning who was kind enough to pick me up from the Canyons and to act as a sort of running sightseeing guide in a little jaunt up City Creek Canyon.  Had some difficulty in the climb with the altitude, coming from sealevel, but it gave me a few opportunities to stop and shoot some photos and chat.  Once the road got a bit too snowy and icy we turned around and then Rob took me around the Capital building and inside and the through a tour of town including the Temple Plaza.  Very cool run and a great way to finish up a quick few days in Utah with my family on a ski vacation.  Nice to see you again Rob - give my best to your family and have a Merry Christmas.

PM - long overnight flight home from Utah yesterday and then straight to work left me unmotivated to run.  I awoke this morning with a cold - probably my first one in quite some time.  Anyway, sometimes a run makes me feel a little better when I have a cold, but my run at lunchtime in 82 degree weather pretty much drained me.  Gonna just veg and watch Christmas movies the rest of the afternoon while my wife bakes and wraps presents with my girls.

PM - still not feeling well, but went out for an easy, slow 10 miles on a warm humid Christmas eve afternoon. 

Easy relaxed 11 miles after taking yesterday off for family time, and recovering from a nasty head cold.  Enjoyed running up to Dunedin High School and running along the sidewalk and path between County Road 1 and Pinehurst behind the track and stadium where I used to run with the cross country team and with the distance crew during track season - which is basically the same as it was 25 years ago (Rob and Doug). 

PM - lunchtime back at work for hopefully a quiet week where I can get caught up on a few projects and do some planning for 2012.  Started to run outside but the valet outside the Wellness Center told me the radar said a strong storm was closing in within 25 mins. So I turned around and went back inside on the treadmill and did a steady state 10 miles.  The storm actually hit about 15 mins into the run and was not all that fierce - but just the same I stayed dry inside. 

PM - late start for a lunchtime run.  Very cool by Florida standards (low 60's less than 50% humidity) - but I wasn't feeling it today.  In fact as I started off, I felt like I had tweaked something in my left calf muscle - and stopped and then began again slowly.  Seemed to be running along fine until about 7 miles when it started really becoming painful again - so I ended the intended 10-11 miles at 9 and used the foam roller in the gym to try to stretch it out.  Feels like it may be lingering from skiing last week in the ski boots where you kinda press forward against your shins.  Odd though that I have not had anything in the way of severe soreness there since then.  Will keep an eye on it, and may give it a days rest or cross train tomorrow instead.

PM - lunchtime.  Left calf was extremely tender and painful following yesterday's run - so I decided to take it easy today.  Started off just planning to walk and then test it a little bit.  Turned out to be a bit of a walk/jog for the first mile or so where I was very cautious to not put full weight or power on the leg - and as I warmed up a bit, I was able to manage a very light 3 miles of easy running around 9 min pace, careful not to push into a full run effort.  At the end it felt much better than it did yesterday.  Will contintue to nurse it along until things feel normal again.  Used different shoes and stretched again on the foam roller afterwards.  Don't know what happened to the calf and never experienced an injury/pain in that area ever before.  Weird.

PM - cross train day.  Decided not to test the calf strain today - so I went for a bike ride of about 20 miles.  No issues of pain or discomfort at all regarding the calf while cycling.  Bought some compression socks yesterday for the legs and wore them for a few hours and did some self massage and deep active release using the "stick".  Will give this a few days of rest.  Works out ok as middle daughter wants me to train with her for a triathlon in February, so I need to get some cycling and swimming training in anyway. 

Cross training again - today did 1000 yds of swimming with Riley.  Going to give my calf a full week of no running to see if it improves sufficiently to start back running again.