Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

I think it's time for me to start doing the majority of my running outdoors again. It's less tedious (for me), I run faster, and I don't have to account for travel time. That means I can do the same run in less time, or I can run more in the same time. Either way I win. 

Anyway, five miles from my house in a strange sort of lollipop loop.  

Same loop as yesterday, but today a dog chased me. I thought I was going to get mauled. It's weird, because I've run down that street and past that house more times than I can count, and I've never seen that dog before. Next time I'll carry a big rock and try to knock him out.

I ran a shorter version of the route I've run for the last two days. I was on edge because of last night's encounter, but I didn't even see the dog tonight. Just like I haven't on every other run I've been on since we moved here.

I thought it was going to be cold tonight, so I ran at the gym. It wasn't cold, but whatever. 

Four miles on the treadmill. I've felt better.  

Another 4 miles on the road. It was colder tonight than it has been, but I felt better than I have recently, so I can live with the weather. This is my second run in a row without seeing the evil dog again, but I'm still apprehensive when I run past the house. It's funny that I'm so worried, since I've been running that route for more than a year and I've only seen the dog once.

Well, something is (almost always) better than nothing, so while I'm disappointed to continue my weekly trend of declining mileage, I'm happy I was able to get out on the trails today. Sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day, and there's nothing you can do about that. 

Anyways, I went exploring at Lambert Park. I discovered a (new to me) trail that climbs one of the mountains, but I didn't have time to see how far it goes, so I have something to look forward to in the future. And although I wasn't particularly fast out there, I should be grateful I could run at all, considering I had a cheeseburger, fries, and a large root beer less than an hour before running.

Running in Alpine on days like these is almost enough to make me break out in song, Sound of Music style. Seriously. 

I'm coming down with something, and finals start on Wednesday, so this is likely to be a low[er] mileage week.

Three late miles, not feeling too great. First final tomorrow, not feeling great about that, either :)

Two miles are better than no miles, but by how much?

One final down, three to go. I feel  like it was a good start. 

More treadmill miles. 

Final 2 was this morning, and despite a good start, I ran into trouble with a few questions to go, and spent so much time trying to figure it out that I ran out of time to properly answer the last few questions. Oops. In a month or two I'll know how much that affected me.  

Four miles on the road--late at night and in the rain. I was going to cut the run even shorter, but I felt better than expected once I started. 

This was a disappointing end to a disappointing week (running wise). I was going to run a ten mile loop in Corner Canyon, but I felt like garbage on my way up Hog Hollow. When I reached the saddle all the trails were closed because of mud. Normally I'd run them anyway, but today I decided to use it as an excuse to turn around. As disappointed as I was with my run, I have no doubt it was the right call. 

Easy four miles on the road. In a few more days, I'll be two-thirds done with law school. That sounds nice.

Check out those miles. Not much to say.

Three late night miles on the road. One of my top goals for the summer is to return to a normal sleep schedule. Once I do that, I think I can start thinking about building my mileage back up. 

Another short, late run at the gym. I could have run more, but 1) I waited too long to head out the door, and 2) once I got to the gym I decided to do my strength training first. That's right-strength training. I am going to be sooooo buff by the end of the summer. 

No running today, but it was on purpose.

I'm not in the best shape of my life. In fact, I'd say I'm in the worst shape I've been in since I started racing my bike back in 04 or 05. At least as far as endurance is concerned. But sometimes I  convince myself I can do more than I should.

My last real long run was on my birthday. I knew I wasn't set to run 25 miles, but I wanted a long run on my birthday, so I did one. Likewise, I wanted to celebrate the end of the semester with a long run, so when my friend told me about the Bosho Marathon, I decided to give it a go, despite averaging just barely over 30 miles per week this year, most of them on flat terrain.

The course itself is pretty sweet. It starts heading south on the BST from the Huntsman Center for a 3-4 mile loop, before heading north for some new adventures. Despite all the time I spent on the BST when we lived in the Avenues, I never really branched out from the main trail. Today was an eye-opener as to what is available out there.

I was having a good time, and it was nice to be on the trails, but it was pretty clear to me that I was in over my head. At about 15 miles, when the course veered off the BST in North Salt Lake to climb some peak on the way back to the start, I decided to bail. I continued straight ahead to Eagle Ridge. Catherine was having her own bad run in Bountiful, so I called her and she picked me up and that was it.

I picked up a couple more miles walking along the road while waiting for Catherine (yeah, I'm counting those), but I was still shy of 30 for the week so I went out for a short road run with Catherine and Elliott in American Fork this evening.

Today's lesson is clear (actually, it has been for some time)--the residual fitness is gone. I've been slowly talking withdrawals from the massive base I built up over years as a cyclist, but after two years of law school it's gone. I'm not starting from scratch, but from now on, if I want to run well, I'm going to have to put in an honest effort.  

I ran out of time tonight and had to keep it short, but at least I got out.

I tried to make up for yesterday by . . . not slacking today. Five miles on the road, mellow pace. It felt good, other than some gnarly heartburn near the end.

Same route as last night. I felt pretty off at first, but I figure that I need to just establish a minimum daily mileage if I'm going to rebuild fitness. I'm not sure if I started feeling better by the end, but I did run faster than last night.

I used to be fine with treadmill miles. But now I absolutely hate them. Maybe it's because the treadmills at our local Best Gym Ever are rapidly falling apart. Or maybe I just don't have the necessary patience anymore. 

I spent the morning with Elliott watching Catherine run the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon. Catherine had a good run (which you can read about on her blog), and Zero and Drop told me they love me, so the morning was a success. 

After the race, I was foraging for food and I noticed several people out on bikes. That seemed like a good idea, so instead of running I went out for a road ride in the afternoon. Up and over Suncrest into Draper, than across to Redwood Road and back home through Lehi.  I felt a bit out of place on a bike. But I guess that makes sense since I haven't been on one since December. Wild.

Right after I got home I went for a short road run with Catherine and Elliott so I could say I had run today and so Catherine could round off her highest mileage day (and week) ever. Then we went to PF Chang's to use a $35 gift card that management had given us after improperly packing the ice cream in a takeout meal we bought a week or two ago. Sometimes it's good when restaurants screw up.

Worse than usual tonight. But at least I was back before the weather hit.