Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

I decided to try bumping up my daily mileage by a tiny bit this week. The idea is that I'll be able to increase my weekly  mileage gradually without much of a noticeable difference to me. I'm not sure how that will actually work, but so for so good. 

I've been running the same basic route since we moved here, so today I decided to try something new. I ran up along University into Orem, then I headed north on State and ran a loop around Costco and the mall before dropping down through the residential streets behind Gold's Gym and back home. It's pretty dark on some of those streets, but the route was good and it's nice to have some variety in my routine.

About half of the students in my program are at a career fair back east right now. Since this is something the Marriott School encourages, the rest of us don't have class this week, so I'm home with Elliott. We took advantage of the situation by going for a longer run than the usual Wednesday five. It was nice to go a little longer. Also nice to sleep in a bit.

I like this no classes thing. It's nice to wake up and see how cold it is and decided to just go ahead and wait a couple of hours instead of bundling up and running anyway. And since I was running later, I brought Catherine and Elliott with me. 

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to say once more than it's nice to not have to wake up early to run. This morning, Elliott and I were on the River Trail at about 9:00. Any earlier, and its too cold for her.

I finally got some trail miles this morning--that doesn't happen very much any more.

I ran from the shooting range in Orem up to the Little Baldy shoulder (actually, a good turnaround point just before it) and then back down the way I came. Unfortunately, I bonked on the way down. But it was still nice to be out there.

I realized as I was running that it's been a year since Jun and I ran the Grove Creek-Big Baldy loop. We should do that again this year.

I ran up State into Orem and around the mall this morning before dropping down through the neighborhoods behind Gold's Gym and back home. It's nice to have some more variety than what the River Trail has to offer.

It's starting to get cold outside, at least in the mornings. This wasn't the first time this year that I've worn a base layer, but it was the first time that I was glad I did. Also, I think gloves are just barely optional right now. I think I'll wear some tomorrow.

It wasn't nearly as cold today as it was yesterday, which is a good thing for me because I forgot to wear gloves again. The thermometer at the bank near our house said it was 41 degrees, but who knows how accurate that is--it certainly felt warmer to me. 

Last night Catherine and I went to the 24 Hour fitness at the end of the street to check out the facilities (with winter coming, it's time to make sure we still have treadmill access). We had  a uch better impression of the place than we did when we went by a couple of years ago, and we love how close it is to our house. Also, one of Catherine's friends says the childcare is very good there. But we've had a pretty good experience at Gold's for the past couple of years, and I love that the one in Orem has those new treadmills with a 30 percent grade. If anyone has a strong preference for either Gold's or 24 Hour fitness in the Provo area, I'd love to hear about it.  

I brought gloves with me this morning but ended up carrying them instead of wearing them. I guess Monday was an anomaly, for now at least. 

The Samurai ran St. George on Saturday in something like 2:48 with only 5 or 6 weeks of running leading up to it. That makes me want to finally go out and run a marathon to see what I could do. Maybe I'll put my name in the Ogden lottery this year. It would be nice to have something specific to train for.  

Catherine and I are running the BYU Homecoming 5K on Saturday, so I ran about two miles of tempo or something this morning. I figured I should try running fast at least once before the race.  

I was so tired this morning, so I stayed in bed instead of getting up to run. But because class starts later on Thursdays, I went out for a morning run anyway. All I did was an out and back on the River Trail to Geneva Boulevard, but for some reason I ran faster than usual. I think my slowest mile was about 6:50, and my fastest around 6:20. 

This afternoon, Catherine and I renewed our Gold's Gym memberships after letting them lapse about a month ago. Ultimately, we decided that the small extra drive was worth it for the ability to pay one year at a time (instead of two at 24 Hour to get the same price) and for the freaking awesome new treadmills in Orem.

To celebrate our new memberships, I ran on the freaking awesome new treadmills in Orem tonight. Only four miles, with several quarter mile intervals thrown in. It will be interesting to see how tomorrow's 5K goes, since other than this week it's been months since I ran fast, and even this week I haven't run that fast. In other words, I expect to be slow. Sub-18 and I'll call it an awesome day. I really hope I can at least break 19, though.

Catherine and I ran the BYU homecoming 5K this morning. When we ran it two years ago I ran Timp the day before and still ran a 17:11. This year I didn't run hard the day before and still barely managed to keep it around 18 minutes. I do wonder if I could have found six seconds somewhere on the course, but I was pretty pleased with the effort, all things considered. Things change.

The biggest change between then and now, of course, is Elliott. And today was her race. She's been in plenty of races in the jog stroller, but today we signed her up for the 200m kids run. She was the youngest and the smallest (and the slowest) girl in the race, but she had fun the whole time. Of course we filmed it all, and I've posted the video below (at 2:30 she stops to dance--running may not be her top priority). According to Runner Card she finished in a solid 4:14, averaging a blistering 34:03 per mile. 

It's getting cold, but I had gloves this morning, so life was good. My legs were tired yesterday from the 5K, but they felt pretty normal this morning. 

I ran with Catherine and Elliott on the Provo River Trail from Geneva Blvd. to the lake. It's very pretty out there right now, and I love running with the family.

I've been running consistently for more than a month now. I think this might be the first time since we had Elliott, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's funny--my mileage is pretty low right now, but because of the consistency I'm running much better than I have in a while.

I saw a giant rat on the river trail this morning. Seriously, that thing was huge. It kind of freaked me out. 

Also, my MR10s are now at 1000 miles and still going strong.   

PM: I went to a Zumba class with Catherine and my sister at the Orem rec center. I can't dance, so I was pretty bad at it. Afterwards, Catherine and I ran a couple of miles together on the 70s-style track in the basement. 

I was a little scared getting on the river trail this morning because of the rat I saw yesterday. Fortunately, no rodent sightings today. 

According to the bank, it was 30 degrees at 7:00 (I got a late start this morning). That's pretty cold. But I hear it's supposed to be a (relatively) warm weekend. 

This morning I tried a third, shorter variation on my Orem mall loop. It didn't turn out to be much shorter. In fact, I think all three variations of the same run are withing a one-mile spread. 

The MBA spouses association thingy put on a 5K(ish) fun run this morning, so Catherine and I ran it together with Elliott in the stroller. We won, too, so hurray!

After the fun run I headed up to the gun range for a trail run. I thought I would run the Dry Canyon loop, but I felt like garbage running up the Little Baldy side so I stopped at the Altar, rested for a bit, and ran back to the car. Only 5.3 miles or so on the trail. Lame. I shouldn't be surprised, though. I hadn't planned to run late in the morning, so I hadn't made sure there would be anything in the tank. That is, I didn't eat enough beforehand.  

It was surprisingly warm this morning. I put on all my layers before heading out the door but then I turned around and took them all off (except my outermost layers, because I can't run naked). 

By the way, I put my name in the lottery for the Ogden Marathon. I assume that means I'll get in, so the real question is whether I can make it to May without a knee injury.  

This morning was windy rather than cold. That means the weather sucked for half the run but was pretty nice for the other half. Go, tailwind!

I'm eating a bowl of oatmeal right now. I've been back on a consistent running schedule for two months now, so it's time to start getting other things in line. First up is breakfast. I used to have oatmeal and juice every morning. For the last few months, it's been Diet Dr. Pepper and a sweet roll or cookies (I know, I know). It's worth a few minutes every morning to improve that.  

Mornings like this are the reason I have a gym membership. Honestly, I didn't even like walking across the parking lot, so I'm glad I didn't have to go outside and run. 

Treadmills get harder for me to do every year, so I need to mix things up to keep myself interested. This morning I did a five-mile progression run, starting at about 8:00 and finishing at about 6:20. 

Yesterday our landlord sent a plumber to fix a minor leak. The result is that our shower is now broken completely and won't be fixed until (hopefully) this afternoon. Although I probably would have run at the gym anyway because of the weather, today I really had no choice because I needed a shower before school.

I was going to run for 4-5 miles running the last quarter of each mile at 6:00. But the first fast quarter mile turned into three miles, so it was more of a tempo run than an interval run. It felt pretty good. 

Yesterday I was feeling something in my knee that I didn't like, so today I backed off a bit. Four miles of plodding on the treadmill at Gold's. Very boring. I would have rather been running outside, but I'm not that tough. It was a very cold morning down here. 

Catherine is pacing a group at the Halloween Half today, and that means an early start for her. I didn't want to wait until after her race to run, so I got an even earlier start and headed to the gym at about 5:00.

Basically, I just spent my time plodding along. I ran for about 70 minutes alternating between flat at about 9:00 and 6-12 percent grade at about 9:00-10:00. I ended by hiking for 20 minutes on a 21 percent grade. Nothing too demanding, but I think it was a good workout overall.

I did feel some twinges in my knee, enough to make me worry. I'm not sure if it's a sign that something's about to go wrong or if it's just me being paranoid. But it's been a long time since I've run consistently for so long without something going wrong. Sure, my mileage is low right now, but maybe I just get injured when I run regularly, no matter how far I'm running.

The weather made a shift for the better over the weekend. That's good, because I'm not quite ready to move all my running indoors yet. 

This morning I ran one of my usual loops, but I don't think I've ever given it a name. And I don't think I will now, either.  

Today's run was pretty much the exact same as yesterday's--same time of day, same route, same weather, same sweaty shorts (okay, not that last one). I guess I wore different shoes, too.

I'm still worried about my knee, but based on experience more than anything. I do seem to fell better when I run outside, though. I think the variations in stride help my knee, and you just can't get those on a treadmill. Of course, now that it's getting so cold I'm going to have to start worrying about protecting my knees from the cold.

Last night was looking to be a late night, but I decided to go to bed and have an early morning, instead. Unfortunately, I was too busy with homework to go for a run. So tonight I went up to the gym instead. (I didn't want to run outside because I thought it would be weird while everyone was out trick or treating.)

Running in the evening really isn't my thing, so I kept it short and easy. Four miles, no surprises.