Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I was going to skip today because of my long run yesterday, but I wanted to start the year off right.  Around noon I decided to throw on some running clothes when my wife tells me that our girls want to go get sushi for lunch.  I was like, "Have fun with that."  But she wanted to make it "family" event, so I had to come along, also.  I had thrown on a tight fitting shirt, and decided it was too tight for wearing in a public restaurant, so I found  one of my new shirts I got for my birthday.  But it didn't have sleeves, so I pulled out an old BodyArmour® shirt that I haven't worn in forever and put it on underneath.  I figured that would be good since it was cold out.  So my shirt was black on the bottom half and neon yellow on the top half.  My shorts were like this camouflage red and black.  My wife says, "Burt, you don't match."  No matter how many times I told her it didn't matter because they were running clothes, she just wouldn't listen.  She made me change.  I put on my new neon yellow running shorts, and she said it was okay.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to run all the way home from the restaurant.  It would be 5.8 miles, and my ankles are still tender from yesterday.  Plus, how would it be running on a tummy full of sushi?  I'd have to make the call after I ate.  I don't think I over-ate, but I had my fair share.  Plus I had a glass of Sprite®.  I went to the van and briefly stretched out.  I told my wife to drop me off at Higley and the freeway.  I figured that would be around 3.15 miles.  It was 3.17 miles.  Nailed it.  Kind of.  I kept it nice and slow.  I could taste the sushi come up a couple of times, but if I can run a mile and a half after consuming 6 donuts, I should be able to handle this.  It was a decent run, but I definitely need to start my diet again.  Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm 1 for 3 on this run.  I texted Glen and Mike to see when they wanted to run today.  Mike said it was his wife's birthday, so he wouldn't be joining us.  We haven't run together since before Thanksgiving!  Glen and I decided to run Usery at 8am.  My alarm still goes off at 3:30am on Saturaday mornings.  I should change that.  I woke up and decided to tinkle, but then I couldn't go back to sleep.  I ate too much at Red Lobster last night.  I was hoping to pass some of it, but nothing happened.  Around 7am I got a text from Glen that something had come up, so he couldn't come either.  I decided I would attempt the run again where my wife drops me off at the top of Usery Pass, and I run home.  Of course she had to stop at another property she's been looking at beforehand.  We saw a couple of coyotes.  We walked around the property.  I wasn't too impressed.  Then we drove to Usery Pass.  It was 9am when I started to run.  Immediately my right shin was hurting.  After two miles I stopped to try and stretch it out.  It didn't help much.  I kept going and hoped that it would stop after I was warmed up.  I got to Brown Road which is 4.1 miles.  I texted my wife to let her know.  She texted back asking if I was good, but I didn't respond because it's hard to text and run.  But I felt fine.  Less than half a mile later my knee started to hurt.  I thought I could run through it, but it didn't take long until I knew I had to stop.  I tried stretching again, and tried to run, but a few steps later I texted my wife to come pick me up.  She must think I'm such a loser.  I walked about a half mile by the time she got me.  And she had donuts with her, so that made me feel better.

I ran 2 loops today.  My knee seemed to behave.  So that's good.  Day 1 of starting my diet again.  Gained almost everything back over the holidays that I lost last year.  So that's bad.

I was running down the street when my neighbor pulled up behind me and yelled out the window, and this is a direct quote, "Looking good, Burt!  You got those calf implants going."  I was wearing my saggy shorts, so I was pulling them up the entire time.  I made one loop and had to stop for traffic.  Once I started running again my knee started to hurt, so I stopped.  I walked the rest of the way home.

I finally ran again with Mike.  And Glen.  Mike said he would pick me up at 6:15am, but he got here at 6:00am, and I was still on the toilet.  I got ready and was out the door by 6:12am.  We picked up Glen and headed out to Usery.  On the way there we had to stop as at least 9 horses were crossing the road, including some young'uns.  We stretched out and Glen and I started running with Mike following us shortly thereafter.  Glen and I ran together for about the first quarter mile.  Then he started to pull ahead.  Mike was right behind me so I was a an Oreo.  But since I'm fat, I was a Double Stuff Oreo®.  Speaking of behing fat, I did start my diet again this week on Tuesday, and I've already lost 8 lbs.  Weird.  Anyway, I was worried about my knee, although it felt fine, so I kept it nice and slow.  A runner passed me at the 2.2 mile point.  The his buddy passed me at the 3.1 mile point.  I had told myself that I was going to play it safe and turn around at the 3.1 mile point, but after being passed by another runner, I decided to run a little further.  I texted Mike to let him know, took a quick tinkle, and headed back down.  Glen caught me with just under two miles to go.  That means he ran a mile more than I did, and beat  me by 5 minutes.  I finished before Mike by about a minute.  Well, I just looked at Strava and it was precisely 31 seconds.  My knee was good, but there was one moment right around 1.2 miles to go, where I thought it might start to hurt.  But it behaved.  It was a nice run.  Not too cold either.

It was a beautiful morning out.  A tiny bit cold, but perfect for running.  When I started to stretch out, I realized how sore I was.  But I felt good when I was running.  I saw a tent in the bushes.

I started my run at 6:25am.  It was still dark out, and it remained dark the entire time.  I didn't bring a light with me, and there are no lights along the Floodway and Canal paths.  There was just enough light for me to see where I was going.  I was wearing real dark clothes, too, so I must've seemed like a creeper.  But the nice thing was, there weren't very many people out on the path.  I felt real good, and the weather was awesome.
 

I got up kinda early this morning.  Well, early for me.  I was sitting on the toilet when I heard a cat meowing.  It sounded like it was in distress.  I went out the back door and started following the sound.  It was dark out.  I wondered if it was a bobcat.  Or maybe a cat being eaten by a coyote.  Anyway, I got pretty close and it must've heard me because it stopped.  I don't know why I told that story.  But I was up and my lungs were congested.  I tried to hack up as much as I could before my run.  I went outside and stretched.  I felt pretty flexible.  But when I started to run my legs felt sore.  I just took it nice and slow.  It was cold out, but still shorts and T-shirt weather for me.  I saw a lot of walkers on the trail today all bundled up.  There was a cool looking fog settled in the bottom of the Floodway.

SlowJoe texted me last month to let me know that he'd be in town this weekend because his new bride's parents are renting a place in Apache Junction for the winter.  I was sick for the last half of last week, and wasn't able to run.  Joe sent me a text apologizing that he wasn't able to touch base with me earlier while they were there, but I told him it was ok because I was sick anyway.  So we planned on doing a run/hike this morning in the Superstition Mountains.  Then I realized I had a client coming over at 10am.  We planned on meeting at 7:30am.  It was a 30 minute drive.  So to be home and ready for my client at 10am, I would have to turn around somewhere near 8:15am. 

I decided to get there early, and left shortly after 6:30am.  I texted Joe to let him know, hoping maybe he'd come early, too, so that I could have a little extra time out on the trail.  But he texted back saying he was still on target for 7:30am.  He had sent me a link for directions to get there, but they ended up being directions to a gated community.  So, he ended up getting to the trailhead before I did after sending me a pin of his location.  I was only about 5 minutes away.

They were kind enough to wait while I took a few minutes to stretch.  I'm not much of a hiker, but I was feeling much better and was anxious to join them.  We started out hiking for most of the way.  We passed this sweet old lady which was Julie's (Joe's new bride) mother.  We kept hiking and we could see Julie's father up the trail, but we couldn't catch him.  It wasn't until we started running the flats and the downhills that we caught him.  He's in pretty good shape.

We made our way up to the ancient hieroglyphics.  1950's we're guessing.

There's a small pond there with a trickle of a waterfall.  I always wonder where the water comes from any time I see a stream.  Especially in a dry desert.  It was at this poin that we kept going up and got off the trail.  We bushwacked it for a little while until Joe got us back on the trail.

We probably went another half to three quarters of a mile and it was getting a little late, so I told them I'd need to turn back around.  We snapped a selfie and some more pictures and hugged goodbye.  Even though I was a sweaty mess.

I'm still kinda sore from Monday, but I need to get the miles in.  I ran 2.5 nice and easy.  It's cold out, so I wore a long sleeve T.

I still have a residual soreness from Monday, but it's my hiking muscles, not my running muscles.  I felt good when I started.  I then started to hack up 500 lbs of mucus.  I almost contemplated turning around.  But I finally got it all cleared out and was able to focus on running.  It was real cold, but there were a lot of people out.

I just wanted to do a short run this morning so that I'd be fresh for a long run tomorrow.  Much less mucus this morning.

Another early morning run at Usery Pass with Mike and Glen.  I decided to wear two running shirts, shorts, and sweat pants.  I also thought that it would be light by the time we got there, so I didn't bring my reflective vest or headlamp.  That was a mistake.  Luckily Mike had extras.  I got a little headstart.  I had to stop and wait at the intersection for three cars.  Glen passed me shortly after that, and he was moving!  I did hear him say how clear it was.  Indeed it was.  The remaining stars were bright and beautiful.  Mike caught me shortly thereafter.  I had gotten my pace down to 10 min/mile even before Thanksgiving on this course, but now I'm back to over 11.  My legs felt heavy.  Not sore.  Just heavy.  I attribute it to the hike I did with SlowJoe Monday.  My runs during the week were on a flat surface, so I didn't feel it.  But heading up the hill today, I did feel it.  Anyway, other than that, I felt decent.  Mike was about a quarter of a mile ahead of me when he got to the top and turned back around.  He said that he think Glen went down to the Park entrance.  He actually only went to the shooting range entrance.  I saw him coming back when I got to the top and we both crested the hill from opposite sides at the same time.  I told him, "Good timing!"  He immediately left me in the dust again.  There were probably a dozen or so cyclists out this morning.  We saw a couple of runners when we were going to the sheriff's station.  Mike remarked how one of them was wearing A LOT of clothes.  I saw them coming up while I was coming down.  I high fived one of them.  Right at the very bottom by the intersection I could see some people walking around with vests on and signs.  I figured they were out to bring awareness to the public of the wild horses.  That's exactly what they were doing, and we saw about 15 of them.  I took some pictures, but I'm too lazy to post them here.  Go to my Strava if you want to see them.  I also blew out a nipple.  A picture of that may or may not also be on my Strava.

I just wanted to do a nice and easy one today even though I felt nice.  It was slightly chilly, but not bad at all.  I saw this guy walking what I believe is a labradoodle.  I see him all the time, so today I worked up the nerve to ask him what the dog's name was.  Gordon.  The dog's name is Gordon.

I had sore legs today.  Don't know why they were so sore.  So I ran slow.  There was an old lady that turned on to the Floodway path about 30 yards ahead of me.  We were running the exact same pace.

Another slow run.  The exact same pace as yesterday.