Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

Third run this week, same as the first two.

I'm really digging the Minimuses. Minimi. New Balance shoes. Whatever. 

I hit a pretty wild bump in my recovery last night. Catherine, Elliott and I were up at a family party at the Lion House for my grandma's eightieth birthday. I thought I was almost completely over my cold or whatever this is, but just before we went home I started to feel a little cold and sensitive all over. When we got home and I stepped out of the car, the weather felt too cold to handle, and I started shaking violently. An hour or so later I decided to take my temperature, which wound up being a shockingly high 103.5. Obviously, no run for me.

I was up against a deadline to submit a draft of my paper for one class, so I stayed up writing  till 2:00, fever and all (I wonder if the draft I submitted was full of delirious ramblings), before calling the hospital to see if I should go in. Obviously, they wouldn't say over the phone, so I stayed home and slept out on the couch so as not to infect Catherine and Elliott. A few hours later I woke up drenched in sweat but not feeling chilled. In the morning my temperature was down under 99. I'm not sure where that fever came from, but I'm glad it was brief.

Anyway, the late night fever left me feeling drained today, so I waited until tonight to head over to the gym and hobble through a short and easy (10:00/mile) run. It didn't feel great, but I was glad to be running. 

A very short and very slow run on the treadmill tonight because 1) I just don't seem to be getting over whatever it is I have, and 2) my first final is tomorrow, so I have other priorities tonight.

By the way, believe it or not, Elliott is six months old today.

Whatever I came down with, I can't seem to get rid of it.

Still sick, still slow.

Another 30 minutes on the treadmill, finally picking up the pace a bit. Don't get to excited, though--that only means about 8:00/mile. This wasn't a fast run, but it was my first not-slow run since I've been sick.

I've been running every day this week, but I've fallen behind on the blog. I'm up to date now, although there are some pretty boring posts behind me.

Today I was back to slow (9:00) running, but that's because I wanted to reintroduce some moderate speed and see how my legs and lungs reacted. Every fifth minute was at 6:00, and I felt alright.  

I was planning to run farther today, but I hadn't eaten for more than 12 hours when I finally got around to starting my run. With all the other deficiencies in my "training" these days, I really need to stop shooting myself in the foot like that.

Anyway, I was going to run 8-10 miles, depending on how I felt, but instead I stopped after one hour and 7.4 miles because I was feeling pretty drained. 

Another day, another thirty minutes on a treadmill. I ran 9:00 miles, with every fifth minute at 6:00 (and the last at 5:30). I like the easy running, and I like the intervals, mostly because they break up the monotony and keep the time flying by.

Other than the intervals being slightly faster (5:45 rather than 6:00), today's run was essentially the same as yesterday's. Too bad there were no good games on TV.

With so much to do today, running fell by the wayside. By the time I got my chance, the gym was closed and it was cold enough to override my motivation.

On the plus side, my last two finals are tomorrow and on Friday. The end is near. 

Also, I seem to have lost a lot of weight. Which means I can go ahead and gain it back over the break. Score! 

I didn't have much time today, but I wasn't ready for a second blank in a row. So, two miles on the treadmill, the first at 8:30, the second at 6:00. Could be better, but could be worse.

Another blank. That's two this week. But I have an excuse. Finals ended today, and now we're on the road to Los Angeles. (Blogging on the road--hurray new smartphones). So really, there was no time. For real. But I'll be running in the sun tomorrow.

I guess it's about time for me to check in for a moment. we arrived in LA at about six in the morning on Saturday and finally got some sleep in the afternoon, but not enough to feel ready for a run. The next day we headed up to Mammoth, so on Monday I skied rather than ran. Today I stayed in the condo with Catherine and Elliott, and in the evening Catherine and I headed down to the local high school track with my sister. It want much of a track, but it was good enough, and I fit in a quick three miles. I felt very out of shape, though, thanks to the altitude.

Two days of running in a row--I'm on a roll.

We were still in Mammoth this morning, so I skied for a few hours before we headed back to LA. I decided to get a short tun in tonight, so I headed down to the high school for an easy three miles on the track. An extra half mile would have put my shoes to 100 miles, but that seems like a poor reason to alter a run. Plus, the lights shut off halfway through my run and I didn't want to run in the dark longer than necessary.  

Catherine and I went down to the Rose Bowl for a short run together this morning. Southern California feels very nice at this time of the year. Catherine tells me Elliott wants to grow up here.

Catherine and i went back to the Rose Bowl this morning. I ran am extended lap up through the neighborhoods, which only added a quartet mile, them I headed back along the route to meet up with Catherine and Elliott and finish the run with them.

In the evening I went out for a short run to get a little mileage in the hills around my parents' house. The loop was short, but I feel like I ought to do more doubles if I can't do longer runs. Anything to pad the mileage. 

My sister and I went out for the annual Sacred Heart run this morning. It's a nice little 6.7 mile road loop with a good climb past Sacred Heart Academy (hence the name) in the middle, and we have (or at least one of us has) run it on the day before Christmas for at least the last 7 or 8 years. It's a nice little tradition. 

Today was a pretty active day for a change. I started by running up the Whiting Woods fireroad across the valley from the house I grew up in. it climbs 1700 feet in 2.8 miles, which is more climbing than I've done on a long time.

In the afternoon I rode the El Prieto trail with my brother. It's the final trail on the Angeles Crest 100. It's also one of the best quick mountain bike rides I know of.

After that I went for a run with Catherine at the high school track, and then I went home to eat Panda Express and cookies and drink diet Dr. Pepper. Good day.

This morning I headed out to climb Mount Lukens, which is right behind my house and which I've never been up before. It also happens to be the highest point within the Los Angles city limits. My plan was to run up the fireroad from Haines Canyon, but my brother told me the better route was to take the trail from Deukmejian Park, which would intercept the fireroad somewhere past the halfway point. What he didn't specify was that "the trail" was actually one of many within the park. 

After two false starts, I wound up on the right trail, but only after spending more than 30 minutes on two miles of the wrong trails and a bit of bushwhacking to get were I needed to be. The right trail turned out to be a good one, but I was forced to turn around shortly after reaching the fireroad because of time constraints. It was too bad, because the summit was so close, and I would have made it easily within the same time if I had started out on the right trail. I'll get it next time. Maybe before we go home.

After my trail run, I joined Catherine and Elliott for a lap around the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately, I hadn't eaten enough after my earlier run, so I bonked and had to bail out after only two miles. Still, I've already run more miles in the last two days than I have in most weeks during the last few months.

You never want to let mountains have the last word, because once you do they'll start to think they're in control. So after my failed attempt at Mt. Lukens yesterday, I went back this morning for another attempt. Things went much faster since I knew where I was going. In fact, I was off the trail and on the fire road (about 2.3 miles out) in the time it took me to find the trail yesterday. 

When I wrote yesterday, I said I was almost to the top when I turned around. It turns out that looks can be deceiving, and I was only about halfway there. Once on the fire road, the route meanders around and takes its sweet freaking time to actually get to the summit. By the time I made it, I didn't have any time to hang around, so I flipped right around and headed back down the way I came. Somewhere along the way I missed a turn and cut a switchback, shaving about a tenth of a mile off the route.

In total, 10.1 miles and 2900 feet. Up in 60:54 and down in 39:33, with 53 seconds to take care of (ahem) business at the summit.

At the rate I'm going, I may actually have one 50 mile week in 2011.

I've had a pretty good running week so far, and I'm hoping to finish 2011 with my first 50-mile week of the year (sad, isn't it?). I made more progress toward that today with a solid run up Mount Wilson from Chantry Flats, just outside of Arcadia. 

The first portion of the route, the upper Winter Creek trail, was pretty mellow, both in terms of climbing and terrain. After about 2.5 miles it joins another trail, which climbs sharply up a wooded ravine for another 2 miles and change. There, the route joins the Mt. Wilson Toll road to the summit. The elevation gain is 3900 feet over 6.6 miles. On the way down I followed a cutoff trail, shaving a couple of tenths of a mile from the return trip.  

The coolest thing about the run? Giant blue squirrels.

One more day in LA, one more day running on dirt. I repeated Monday's route, but this time I wore my Garmin (and I've edited Monday's entry accordingly). My legs are feeling pretty heavy by this point, so it was pretty slow going.

Whiting Woods is a nice little climb. It's a pretty well-maintained fire road, so it's not very exciting, but it provides a nice, steady grade and a beautiful (though often smoggy) view from the top. 

Anyway, that's pretty much the end of the week (tomorrow will probably be a short and easy run--just enough to round out my mileage), and it's been a good one. So far I'm at 47.2 miles and 12,400 feet of vertical. I think the last time I ran a week like this was in late July or early August. It's nice to get my fill before the next semester starts. 

My plan was to run this morning in Saint George. I had even thought of going for a long trail run. But despite our planning for bad traffic between LA and Vegas yesterday, things turned out to be way worse than we expected. It took us 6 hours to get from Pasadena to Baker, and another 3.5 or so to make it to Vegas. We eventually arrived in Saint George 11,5 hours after we left--plenty of time to have driven all the way to American Fork on a normal day. We didn't make it to bed until sometime after 3:00, so I abandoned any plans for a morning run.

I eventually got out tonight for a quick three mile loop, and with that I complete my first 50 mile week of the year. It was kind of a drag to get all bundled up for local running after spending the last couple of weeks enjoying 85 degree weather in LA.