Go, you chicken fat, go away!

My knees were hurting after my last run.  Everytime I would walk up or down the stairs, they'd ache.  My wife asked me if I wanted to run Usery this weekend.  I said it depends on how my knees feel in the morning.  I woke up around 5am and decided to go for it.  I said to my wife, "Hey, get up."  She got mad at me.  But she got up and we left.  There were vehicles all over the place.  There may have been some sort of activity going on.  I saw a RaceLab truck.  Or just a bunch of people getting up early to be active.  That being said, we were the only ones that parked at the sherrif's station.  That's typical.

We stretched out and headed out of the parkin lot.  I kept waiting for my wife to run, but she wasn't, so I just started hoping she'd follow.  It took her a while to start.  So I had a good head start on her.  Despite all the vehicles everywhere, there weren't that many road bikers.  I mean, there were, but not as many as I would've expected.  I remember one guy cruising down the hill.  I stepped off to the side and within moments he was passing me by.  He must've been going 40mph, easily.  A lot of the cyclists would stop at the bottom, turn around and come back up.  So I saw a lot of them twice.

I got to the two mile mark and crossed the street.  I could see my wife coming.  She was probably less than 0.2 miles away.  I told her she was almost there as I passed by her, but she had her headphones in and didn't hear me.  She just asked how my knees were feeling.  I think her overall pace was faster than mine today.  We got home and showered just in time for the first session of General Conference.
 

Emily came in our room around 4:30am.  She climbed in between us and proceeded to try and spread the sheet out for what felt like 20 minutes.  When it finally seemed like she had adjusted it to her liking, she got up and left 10 seconds later.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up to run.  I signed up for one of those challenges on Strava where you are supposed to be active for at least 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week for four weeks.  Let's see how it goes.

My legs were a little sore from Saturday.  But it was the good sore.  So I decided to just do one loop.  I also decided to not stretch out.  It was approaching 6am and it was pretty much light enough out to be able to see real good despite the sun not breaking the horizon yet.  I saw a lady walking her dog on Adobe but I didn't catch up to her  before turning on to the Floodway path.  When I got to Brown I was treated to another beautiful sunrise.  There was scattered clouds throughout the sky and the sky turned maroon and pink.

Heading back I was thinking about how I hadn't seen anyone other than the dog walker.  Yes, I was only doing one loop, but it was light out, and I would've expected for more people to be out.  When I got to Adobe I did see two other runners heading west down Adobe.  The blonde girl looked real familiar.  I've probably seen her on Strava or something.  But now that Strava has disabled Flybys, I won't know for sure.
 

I woke up at 4:57am.  I wasn't really dragging today like I do some days and got out the door and running at 5:41am.  I did stretch out beforehand today.  I wasn't expecting it to be so light outside.  The days are getting longer.  Today's sunrise wasn't as pretty as yesterday's, but it was still pretty good.  I saw a lot more people out today.  My legs were super sore.  I wanted to do two loops, but I opted for just one.

I got a late start today.  The sun had been up for an hour.  I saw sooo many people today that it was impossible to keep count.

I may have missed a beautiful sunrise.  When I went outside to stretch, the sky was pretty and pink, but I'm guessing that if I had been out there 10 minutes earlier, it would've been prettier.  Oh well.

I saw the old man that thinks I'm his best friend.  He was running towards me as I was heading south on the west side of the Floodway towards Adobe.  When he got about 20 feet from me he waved.  Then he said something that I couldn't make out, but I think it was, "I'll see you tomorrow."  Then he said, "I don't think I'll be catching you today."  I was already over half way to Adobe and was only going to do one loop again, so I said, "Not today."
 

Emily came in our room at 3:47am.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I went running.  I started at 4:26am.  It was dark.  I loved it.  I was feeling decent today, so I did two loops.  My wife is leaving today to hike the Grand Canyon again.  So I would like to run Usery tomorrow, but don't know that I will by myself.  That's also partly why I did two loops today.  I got over to University where Jeff lives.  He had a light on as he was laying on the ground.  When he saw me coming he tried to hide the light and then turned it off.  I could see something directly ahead of me in the bottom of the dip.  It was actually two things, but I couldn't tell what they were.  As I got closer I saw one of the things stand up and pick up the other thing.  It was a man and a backpack.  He said good morning to me, and I said it back to him.  I'm guessing he was a vagabond, also.

I forgot to mention Friday that when I took my shoe off, I looked inside at the heel and could see straight through them!  Will they last another 15 miles?  We'll see.

Last night I had two bouts with sleep paralysis.  The first time I tried to wake myself out of it as best I could.  I tried slinging my arm over the side of the bed.  But who knows what I'm really doing when this happens.  I finally managed to get my arm close enough to my night stand that I could knock on it with the back of my fingers in the hopes that my brother would hear me and wake me out of the sleep that I could not escape.  The plan worked.  Kind of.  My wife shook me awake.  I realized that I haven't shared a bed with my brother in 30 years.  I'm telling you, it's weird when you're dreaming something, but you think it's reality.  About an hour later I rolled over.  This time, the mere thought of sleep paralysis put me back in it.  Luckily my arm was close enough to my wife that I was able to nudge her so that she could wake me again.  It was almost 4am now, so I just stayed awake and got ready for a run.

Normally I try and have a bowel movement before I run.  But we're down to one bathroom in the house still and I heard someone upstairs in the one remaining bathroom, so I decided to hold it in and go later.  As soon as I stepped outside I saw a white cat running down the sidewalk.  It went and stopped under a car.  I stretched out and then heard noises in the leaves by our front yard orange trees.  I went to take a look and I saw a different cat jump up on the fence.  At least, I'm pretty sure it was a cat.  It was dark out.  I definitely saw a dark tail.  Anyway, I went over to the wall just to make sure it wasn't a coyote.  I shined my light, but I wasn't sure if it jumped in my yard or the neighbors yard.  Hopefully my neighbors didn't see me shining a light in their yard.

When I got to Adobe I could see a light coming my way.  I knew it was a cyclist.  I said good morning as the passed by but got no response.  I also saw a runner coming my way on the south side of Adobe.  I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman.  I started my first loop.  It was so dark this morning.  Some of the lights were blinding me again where it was hard to see the trail.  I got to the west side of the Floodway heading south towards Adobe.  I could see tail lights ahead.  I figure it must be an RWCD truck checking Canal levels.  Then the lights got dim.  At the same time, some white lights started to get bright right next to them.  It took me a second, but I realized the vehicle must've done a 360.  Now I had headlights shining at me, but I was still far away.  After a while the lights suddenly turned off.  I started imagining that the RWCD truck had driven into the Canal, and that I would have to make a dramatic rescue of the zanjero.  That actually happened to Mosiah once.  Luckily someone saw it happen and helped him get out.

Once I got to Adobe I saw a black car parked next to the fence.  So my dreams of being a hero were dashed.  It wasn't long before I saw a shadowy figure ahead.  It was a man walking two dogs.  He held them close as I went by.  When one of the dogs barked at me, I said, "Good morning!"  The man said good morning back.  When I got to University, I could tell the sky was getting a little blue instead of black.  I ran to Adobe and it was even bluer.  It won't be long before I won't be able to beat the sun anymore.

11 miles to go on these shoes.  I slept decent last night, although I woke up a bunch of times.  Mike King and I used to live right by each other.  We shared back walls.  One of our neighbors died yesterday.  I texted him about it.  Around 3:30am I looked at my phone to see what time it was.  Right when I did, Mike responded.  That has nothing to do with running, but I just thought about it, so I blogged about it.

Our dog Herbie had the runs last night.  My wife told me he went all over the stairs.  When I got up at 4:40am I saw that there was more on our welcome rug and at the top of the stairs.  I had to clean it all up.  I was already sweating by the time I started running. 

I just did one loop today.  It was getting light out already.  I saw lots of people walking their dogs.

I guess I forgot to blog today.  (Today being Thursday, but it's really Friday.)  I don't remember much.  I know I didn't run the day before, but I did walk Herbie.  I do remember it was dark and I heard a voice up ahead on the Floodway Trail.  Then I saw a guy zig out of my way with his dog.

I woke up at 3am.  Herbie was restless, which means he probably had to pee, so I took him outside.  I can't confirm whether or not I relieved myself under the grapefruit tree, but Herbie started barking at something and I couldn't get to him right away.  I'm not sure what he saw.  Maybe a cat.  I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't.  So I went running.  It was 4:30am and plenty dark out.  I felt pretty good.  I live inside my head so much that I really enjoy running this early with no lights.  But sometimes my mind does play tricks on me.  Today it was wondering if I was seeing a person, but I would quickly realize it was just the warning markers next to the Trail.  I saw Jeff with his light on from across the Floodway.  Rather, I saw a light where Jeff stays.  He must've seen or heard me coming because he turned it off before I got there and tried to stay hidden.  I also saw that same car that parked by the RWCD Canal as I did a few days ago.  Only this time I was behind him.

I was surprised when my wife's alarm went off at 5am that I hadn't already woken up.  We had to hurry and go today because my daughter needed to work at 9am, and I wanted to go to Rodney Reed's funeral also at 9am.  We got to Usery at 6am, just in time to do 2 miles up and 2 miles down.  Vickie left before me and said, "See you when you catch up to me."  I wasn't sure I would.

She was ahead of me by almost a tenth of a mile.  Probably not quite that.  I closed the gap somewhat, but when we got to half a mile, I couldn't close it any more.  At about thre quarters of a mile she stopped and started walking.  But that only lasted for 5 seconds.  Then shortly after a mile she stopped again and I caught her.  I was worried that she might catch me, but she never did.  She must've taken another break at the turn around point. 

I saw two of my Strava friends today.  One of them was the guy we saw two weeks ago.  I gave him kudos and he started following us.  On Strava.  Not in real life.  He waved at me while he passed by.  Another guy gave me a peace sign when he passed by.  I didn't realize it until later that it was another Strava friend of mine.

We got home just in time for me to take a shower and go to the funeral.  The problem is, my daughter drove to work and our van is broken down.  So I just rode my bicycle.  It's only 1.8 miles away.  I went nice and slow on the way there.  It was a nice service.  Then I pushed the pace on the way home.

800 miles + on my shoes.  Time to retire them.  I think I will wear my neon yellow shoes next.  I woke up at 5am.  It's already getting light out.  By the time I was running it was completely light.  The sun was just about to come over the horizon.  I don't like that.  Anyway, I saw more people than normal.  One person was walking their dogs down in the bottom of the Floodway.  I wondered if they did that a lot, but I never saw them because it was dark.  Probably not.  As I was approaching Brown, I saw a zanjero truck pull up to the Canal.  I then turned around and saw the old man that thinks I'm his best friend.  He was running on the west side of the Floodway, and I thought for sure he would catch up to me before the fence.  He didn't.  But just barely.  As I ran toward him, he looked at me.  I could tell from his puppy dog eyes that he was sad that I was too far away to say anything to me.  He turned around and headed south.  The zanjero jumped out of his truck.  I didn't recognize him.  For sure he was putting a drop through.  I'm not even sure what that means.  That's what got me in trouble once.  I raised the radial gates instead of lowering them.  I kind of drained the top end of the Canal.  Oops.

I followed the old man down the RWCD road.  He kept putting more and more distance between us.  Within just over a mile, he must've put a quarter mile between us.  I'm slow.

I went to be early yesterday.  You know it's bad when you wake up at 12:30am and think it's closer to 4am.  I went back to sleep, but I would wake up every hour or so until I did get up just prior to 4am.  I was running at 4:45am.  Nice and dark.  Just the way I like it.  I saw a white suburban parked on the north side of Adobe on the east side of the RWCD Canal.  I wondered if I would see the driver during my run.  I kept my eyes open, but I could barely see more than 40 feet in front of me depending on neighborhood lights. 

My legs were feeling pretty tight this morning and I decided I would just to one loop.  As I was heading back south on the west side of the Floodway I could see a light in front of me. I figured it must be the suburban driver.  I guess that it was a headlamp on a person rather than a bike because for the most part, a bike is headed in one direction, so the light is constantly shining at you.  This late would turn every so often meaning that the person was turning their head to look at something off the trail.  Finally we passed each other and I saw that it was a lady I see quite often that walks her two dogs.  But then I noticed that the suburban was no longer there.  I never saw it leave. 

By now I was feeling better and decided to go ahead and do two loops.  I was running real slow.   It took me over half an hour to run, and it was actually getting light out by the time I got home.  I sat down outside my front door on the brick planter and watched the Suns game recap.  It's 9 minutes long.  I think I've mentioned that before.  My son came home after being out all night.  I mean, he's 26, so that's ok.  But he just spent a night in jail for driving with unpaid speeding tickets.  Or something.

I can't remember what time I went to sleep last night, but it was early.  I woke up at 1:30am to go potty.  I could not get back to sleep.  I tried everything.  It was probably close to 4am when I finally did.  After that, I did not feel like getting up.  But I did.  But I didn't feel like running.  But I did.  I just did one loop.  It was a few minutes before 7am when I started.  The entire world was up.  First Sis. Inglish from across the street waved at me as she was pulling out of her driveway.  Then Br. Heiselt said good morning to me when I was crossing Adobe.  There were more people out than I cared to count.  I also saw Sis. Ray and the old man in the fisher hat.

I had another bout with sleep paralysis last night.  My wife shook me out of it.  That was around 1:30am.  I woke up a few minutes before 4am and took Herbie outside.  Then I sat on the toilet for quite some time.  I heard a girl's voice say, "I'm sorry."  Then she called for Herbie.  She whistled a few times.  I thought it was my daughter, Julianna.  Turns out it was AJ's girlfriend.  I didn't know this until much later when I looked out my bedroom window and saw Herbie outside.  I don't know how long he'd been out there, but I'm glad he didn't escape.  Once he squeezes through the pool fence, he has no problem opening the RV gate.

Anyway, I started running at 5am.  It was nice and dark, but it started to get light out before I finished.  I saw a couple of guys out walking their dogs.  On the last half of my last loop I saw the two old ladies that always go walking together.  I also saw my neighbor, Kevin, in a bright orange work shirt in his backyard.  Kevin has chickens, too, and he has a bright light that shines in his backyard I assume as a safety precaution against coyotes.

Yesterday I got ready to go running.  I was surprised at how tight my legs were for not having run in 3 days.  I got almost to the stop sign when I had a sharp pain in my right knee, so I immediately stopped and walked home.

I tried again this morning.  I decided that I would start walking if I had to, but I wanted to do at least one loop.  And that's what I did.  We got some rain during the night.  It was still sprinkling this morning.  I could hardly feel it.  I'm not sure how many times I stopped to walk.  Probably 5 or 6.  At one point I saw three ladies walking towards me.  Two of them had dogs.  So I made sure to run until I passed by them. 

When I got to the other side of the Floodway I could really see the amount of sprinkles in the Canal.  I think it started to pick up, too.  Then I saw a bird sitting in the edge of the water.  I thought that was queer, so I stopped.  Did it get its feathers wet and now it couldn't fly?  It looked so sad just sitting there.  After about a minute I decided to scoot my way down to the water's edge and scoop it out.  I could see that its wing was broken and bloody.  Did it get attacked by another bird?  Did it get zapped by the power line?  Probably the former.  I reached to pick it up, but it scuttled away.  So I crawled back up the bank and headed home.

I saw another lady coming towards me walking her dog.  No doubt she saw me.  She had a rod in her hand and she was curling it as part of her workout.  Sure enough she asked me if I was taking a look at the Canal.  I told her there was a bird with a broken wing that I was trying to save.  She asked what type of bird.  I said it was a dove.  Then I showed her the picture.  She told me that she thought maybe I was taking a bath.

I woke up this morning and used the bathroom.  As soon as I finished and shut the door, I heard my door close downstairs.  That means my wife was waiting for me so she could take her turn.  As she went upstairs, she opened the front door since it was so nice out.  When I was getting dressed I heard the chickens.  I didn't think much of it at first because they often sound like that especially when they're laying eggs.  But then I thought, "It's not even 5:30am.  Surely they're still up in the tree."  So I went to the front door and looked out the side window.  There was a cat with a jeweled collar on its neck.  It was just staring at me.  Herbie was upstairs looking out the window, but he couldn't see it because it was below him.  I said, "Herbie, get that cat!"  He barked.  The cat still didn't move, so I opened the screen door.  It ran away.

I then decided I better go check on the chickens.  I went out the back door and Herbie followed me.  I was barefoot, but there was no time to lose.  I made my way to the tree and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, all present and accounted for.  Maria was sitting on her chair, too.  But then I saw a little sparrow sitting on the ground.  It wasn't moving, but it looked alive.  I mean, it wasn't laying on its side with its eyes rolled back.  I shined my light at it.  It wouldn't move.  I pointed it out to Herbie, but he didn't notice it.  Then one of the chickens jumped out of the tree almost landing on both me and the sparrow!  One by one they all did the same thing, but I couldn't do anything because of my bare feet!  One of them actually did land on the sparrow which is how I knew it was still alive. 

Finally Herbie noticed it and started to sniff it.  That's when it sadly tried to get away.  But it was too sick or injured.  Actually, I think it got into the poison that was placed in the traps for the mice.  Once Herbie got bored of it, Maria came around.  Oh...my...gosh!  She's a stone cold killer.  She pecked it to death!  I wanted to save it.  You know how I always try to save birds.  But I was not about to get in between Maria and her bloodlust.  So I did the next best thing.  I filmed it.

Well, that story had nothing to do with running.  After I got my shoes on, I went for a walk/jog.  Yesterday I called it a jog/walk, but there was more walking today than jogging, it seemed.  I took more pictures of birds while I was out there.  So I've got pictures of sparrows, chickens, quails, and ducks this morning.
 

Today was Sarah's 2 year anniversary of running at least a mile every single day.  I had to join her.  She asked me to meet her at her house after she got off work.  Sunday the 10 day forecast said it was supposed to be 100º today.  It didn't get quite that hot, but it was in the 90's.  I got to her house and her husband, Todd, didn't recognize me because of my beard.  We talked outside on her front porch until her other friend got there to run with us.  I had a water bottle with me.  I put it in my pocket.  Also in my pockets were my wallet, keys, and phone.  As soon as we started I realized my shorts were falling off.  I took my water bottle out and held it.  I almost took my phone out, too, but decided not to.  I kept having to hike my shorts back up as I ran.

The two girls were much faster than me.  Even still, I think they were running slow on purpose.  We were doing a one mile loop around her block.  I started to lag way behind.  When they reached the final turn back to her street, they turned around and ran back to me.  I told them I would sit out the next mile and run the final one with them.  That gave me a chance to lock my wallet and water bottle in my van, and put my keys on her front porch.  I talked with Todd while they did their second loop.  Once they came back around, I joined them and stayed with them for a little bit.  Then I realized that the heat was killing me, so I slowed down so they could go on ahead and not see me suffer.  I tried picking up the pace a little when the got far enough ahead of me.  But twice they turned around and ran to me.  I didn't stick around long after finishing, but I congratulated her on reaching her two year milestone.  I went home because the sister missionaries were supposed to come over.  That's why Vickie stayed home to get ready for them.  But she canceled and we took Atticus to Culver's for his birthday dinner instead.

I might as well tell the story that happened at Culver's.  As I was getting out of the van I saw this old lady backing up in the parking lot and totally hit another car.  Well, she swiped it as she was turning.  Immediately some fool ran out of the restaurant and started cussing her out.  Then an entire mob came out and started freaking out.  By this time the old man came around and got in the driver's seat.  He wanted to park because their vehicle was in the drive aisle.  They thought he was going to drive away.  The panicked even more.  One lady was like, "Call 911!!!"  That's when I decided to get involved.  I started yelling at them to let him park.  I told them they all need to chill out.  Accidents happen.  Everyone needs to relax!  They still kept freaking out and saying, "It's a brand new car!  They can't match the paint!"  Oh my gosh.  Then my wife started yelling that they all need to take a breath.  This is what insurance is for.  A little kindness and forgiveness goes a long way.  Well, to make a long story short, the mob was baffled that the police weren't going to send an officer to arrest, imprison, and throw away the key to the mailicious offenders.  My wife ended up buying their dinner for them and telling them not to let this little accident ruin their night.  She's such a saint.