Old Man Still running

After eight straight days of no running and no exercize, I rolled off the couch, put down the remote, cleaned off the crumbs from my face, and then wimped out and hit the treadmill.  10 miles on the crazy hamster machine.   Felt good and strong after four miles of warm up.  Right knee still a little loose from the Grand Canyon runs, but I should be fine.

I finally finished reading "Born to Run."  It was good, but I didn't think great.  The author's writing style was a bother at times and I lost interest on some of the tangents.  But I enjoyed the Leadville sections since I've run the race three times.   I also ran in a race with Ann Trason, I think her last 50-miler.  It was good to find out more about her.  And I enjoyed reading about other people I've met.   It is nice to have a good book about ultras.  But I'm not convinced by the minimalist hype.   I would wear the 5-fingers on the treadmill, but not really worth it because I have no intention of doing big miles this winter on the crazy machine.

Interesting that Micah True (Caballo Blanco) has been one of my facebook friends for some time.   He also spoke at the JJ100 pre-race dinner which I missed.   He certainly has stepped up his marketing and Internet use.   The 2009 race down there sounds like it brought in lots of corn and money for the Tarahumara.  I'd love to visit Copper Canyon but the drug violence down there is scary.   I've read Barefoot Ted's stuff for years on the ultralist and been in some races with him.

Utah Lake is starting to freeze.

It was in the teens this morning with a stiff wind.  I went to the clubhouse but couldn't get in.  Looks like someone might have figured out that I was getting in at 4 a.m.   The published opening time in 5 a.m.   They never reset the lock times when the clocks change.  Oh well, that only gives me more motivation to not use the treadmill.   I did do six miles until I almost died of boredom.

Bitter cold today.   It chased me indoors to the Lehi Legacy Center track which is a 1/8 mile indoor loop.    I ran about 11 miles.  Gee, that would be 88 loops.   Instead of counting loops which is a total bore, I listened to podcasts from ESPN Radio.  That worked well to kill the boredom.  When I finally stopped near the end to change my podcast, a guy commented, "Finally you stopped!   How many loops have you done?"  I didn't know for sure, I told him I had been running for 90 minutes.

Ultrarunning Magazine published my article on the Pony Express Trail 100.  Two pages!  That should get our race some good attention this year.   See: http://www.crockettclan.org/ponyexpress100.pdf

-2 Degrees today....much warmer than -6 yesterday.  

11 boring treadmill miles

Noticed duck hunters out on frozen Utah Lake today.   I'm still too chicken to go running out there.

Six on the treadmill.  Planned to do more, but boredom shut me down.

Almost two hours running in circles as the Lehi Legacy Center....about 100 laps.   Most people just do about 30 minutes there.  One guy has noticed my long non-stop running and finally wanted to know more, so I tried to help him understand what ultras are all about.

I have a knee issue I'm trying to figure out, strange popping that reminds me of how it felt in '04 when I tore the meniscus in that knee.  No pain or swelling yet.  Will have to keep an eye on it.  I think it is just a matter of time when that knee will need to be cleaned out again.

Six treadmill miles.  Yawn.  If the temperature would go back down I would go run in the snow.  Daughter Lauren getting married on Saturday, so lots of stuff going on.

Treadmill

Hit the treadmill.   The treadmill faces a view of frozen Utah Lake.   The ice is calling me, but we need two solid weeks of below freezing. 

My running interest is rather low right now, just other things more interesting right now to use me time.  That's OK.   This will be a really low mileage month.  I need to hit the ski slopes soon.

The knee seems OK.  I think the pounding in the Grand Canyon left it with some water/swelling in the knee.  The popping is gone, but some pain when I start running.  So I think it just got pounded more than usual with the extra weight of the pack I was wearing.  Got to get my weight down.  Holiday feasting has added five pounds.