I'm retired from racing. Really.

It's not often the whole month fits in 4 calendar weeks. It does this month.

AM- 11

Lunch- 7.5 on a windy day. At least it wasn't too cold, upper 40's.

Knee isn't happy today. I actually cut my second PT session short. Gotta get ready for Western. 3 friends from SC bought tickets in the past week to come to California to crew/pace.

I was supposed to go to Paris mtn with Barry and Seth. However, my all day headache worsened all day until, while driving to PM, a sneeze basically caused my head to explode and brought tears to my eyes. I finally admitted the pain would not allow a run so headed home, where I've sat in a dark room all evening. Goose egg for the day.

Good news for fans of Once A Runner 

Lunch- 10. Big group of lunch runners, 11 of us.

4 of the 6 at home have some stomach bug with either vomitting or the runs, and I'm one of them. I still went to work, not too wisely, but barely had any appetite or energy and didn't dream of running. Tomorrow doesn't look too good, either. Hopefully things will pick up by Saturday. Bummer of a week. In unrelated news, we plan to induce Marci next Thursday if she doesn't deliver before then, so this is my last week with 4 kids.

no run again. stomach.

PM- first run back post-stomach flu. Predictably slow and sluggish and painful. Slogged through 4 miles before calling it a day.

PM- Paris Mtn with Barry- we started early so didn't even need headlamps. As bad as I felt yesterday, I felt great today- amazing how quick you can bounce back. We spent most of the times railing against government, wars, etc- the usual libertarian arguments. Of course, bacon was discussed, too. 10 miles in 1:37. Threw the shoes in the trash after, too- worn out and my arches are starting to hurt in them. They were my first pair of trail M2's. Don't worry, I've got more than a dozen other PI shoes still in the box.

AM- 8. My plantar is still hurting from yesterday. I'll have to wear my Strassburg sock tonight.

Lunch- 7.5. Pretty nice day out for the 7 of us who ran.

We're heading to the hospital at 5 am tomorrow to deliver another precious baby. This will be number 5, another girl. 

PM 7.5. After leaving Marci and the new baby at the hospital. I'm a dad, again!

Am 10

Pm brought the wife and new baby Josie from the hospital today. Ran 8 miles or so on a very windy day in the afternoon.

It's 19 degrees outside with 25 mph winds and gusts to 45. The windchill is 4 degrees. We are expecting .3 inches of ice tomorrow, plus snow. Brr.

AM- Planned to run on the tm for a while. Was feeling pretty good at mile 6 so increased the speed to 8 mph, then kept increasing .2 mph every mile, till mile 14 was at 10 mph. Finished 15 miles in 1:44 or so. Didn't even feel hard till about 6:15 pace. I'll count it all as MP, which is what it is these days.

AM greenville got a solid coating of ice last night, probably .3 to .4 inches. Working from home but took a run using my pretty new MicroSpikes, my first real ice run. They worked awesome, with no slipping even on solid ice and steep hills. I don't think I would want to wear them for an ultra as they would be heavy but they work great. Just wish I had bought them in Utah rather than waiting for South Carolina. 9 miles or so.

Lunch- 10 on a cold, windy day while learning about pig farms.

Going to be a low of 5 deg and a windchill below 0 the next few nights. Record colds.

AM- 15. Nice and boring on the treadmill, as running outside wasn't really an option.

AM 10

PM- Ate a big plate of Bucky's BBQ for lunch, then had a bit of stomach discomfort during an afternoon run, but still had a good time. 17 miles in 2:02:50 with 1100 ft climb on what I'm calling the tri-counties run (Gvl, Laurens, and Spartanburg counties). Wore my HR monitor, avg was 172 which seems higher than I expected.

AM- I'm home all week on paternity leave. Took my mom to the airport at 5:15 am, then ran an hour. After taking an hour break to get my 2 oldest ready for school and drive the carpool, I ran another 50-odd minutes. Nice day for a run, much warmer than recent well-below freezing temps. Around 50 deg and light drizzle. Felt ok, slower the second half (I don't advise splitting a run in two with an hour break). 15 miles.

Most of the country would call our weather a light dusting of snow that isn't even sticking to the roads, maybe 1/4" snow total so far. In South Carolina, we call it a snow day with no school. Last week, the kids only attended school two days due to weather, and both were delayed start. I'm betting we have 2-3 more snow days this week. SMH.

PM- 10 miles on a snow day. Felt pretty sluggish and wasn't sure I'd make it past 4 miles. Rather than run my endless loops of the soccer fields, I headed out into distant neighborhoods so it wouldn't be possible to stop short of an hour. On this snow day, the roads were dry and there was basically no snow even on the grass. At least the kids didn't have to go to school ;)

PM- We are supposed to get 5-8 inches of snow tomorrow, which will mean the schools will shut down the rest of the week. That will make for 4 snow days and 2 delayed starts in the past 9 school days. I wanted to get in a BW on dry ground. 6 miles warmup, then 6 miles doing laps on the hilly bike path around the soccer fields. Splits were 6:40, 6:39, 6:35, 6:23, 6:12, and 6:07. Wore my HR monitor- not sure it was accurate, as it said my HR dropped to 175 on the downhills but was 205-210 on the uphills, peaking at 213 on the last lap. I'm pretty sure my heart doesn't really go that fast, but I was working hard. Finished with 15 miles in 1:47 with 900 ft climb.

AM- 8 miles nice and slow on another snow day. Of course, we got about .5 inches of snow and the roads are already clear, but school is cancelled.

This sums up how it feels 

http://youtu.be/kdggmS0c0lI

School is delayed Friday, even though the roads are 100% dry and snow is melted by evening Thursday.

In summary, in the past 2 weeks, we had 1 holiday, 4 snow days, 3 delayed days, and 2 regular days, in response to one storm with .3 inch ice, one storm that left a light snow dusting, and one storm that snowed .5 inch. Less than 1 inch total snow/ice. Oh yeah, plus a state-wide state of emergency. Amazing.

AM- 8 easy before taking the kids to school. My easy pace today was sub-7:30, while yesterday was a struggle to break 8:00 pace. Funny how that goes.

PM- 6 ez. Pretty sluggish.

I think I'm actually figuring out a running schedule for the year. I'm going to sign up for Promise Land 50k end of April as my only test race pre-Western. Eric Grossman has repeatedly told me it's his favorite race anywhere, very pretty. Then June is Western States, obviously. In the fall, I'm leaning towards Barkley Fall Classic in September (winner is auto-entry to Barkley, a valuable thing). Maybe do JFK 50 mile as a fall add-on. Nothing for sure, but those are where I'm leaning right now.

AM- Out for my first 20 miler since... Aug? Sept? Windy and chilly. I was hungry and thirsty by mile 5 so it was a good bonk run. Ran some new roads in the Georgia Road area. Very tired by the end but still moving 7-7:30 pace, with last mile 6:50. 20 miles in 2:28 with 1300 ft climb.

Wore my HR monitor again. Avg 175, with often 180-190 on uphills and max of 206. This seems very high, but I took my pulse by hand once and it was above 180. Does this seem normal to everyone? My resting HR is 40-50, depending on fitness.