Seeking a better country...

Alien Resurrection; a stinkfest.  My rt knee has been sore in the aftermath of Saturday's long run, like a bruise underneath the cap.  It doesn't hurt to touch or move the cap around, but it stiffens when I sit for a while.  I started running tonight and I could feel the soreness, but it wasn't anything much, so I stuck with the plan.  2 mile warmup, 6 @ 7:30, 1 cooldown.  My knee feels fine now; I iced it for 15 seconds when I went to get something out of the garage.  It's really cold in there.

Legit snow today, very light and powdery.  Since the boys were off school, I left it to them, and went to real work.  I love when that happens.   

I heard a good song today:  Sweet Sour.  "Sour by the minute, but you're sweeter by the hour."  I think the artist is talking about running.  The sour is the lactic acid buildup when you are running hard and fast.  The sweetness is, well, it's an hour+ run with all the endorphins.  Correct me if I'm wrong. 

New shoes!  Kinvaras arrived; not the fancy 3's allie is wear testing, just some outdated 2's.  To celebrate, I repeated the Biggest Loser Progression run.  I commenced at 7 mph and bumped .2 for each commercial break.  By the end I was pretty tired, and skipped one bump during the elimination phase.  (that sounds really gross)  Max speed was 8.6, then cooled down for a couple minutes at 7.  I can't believe how dumb the red team is to send home one of their strongest players.  Don't they want to win any challenges and prizes?  

My knee is sketchy, but it doesn't bother me much.  Just enough to pitch little nagging thoughts in my brain.  

My shoe review is:  they are shoes.  They look cool.  They feel fine.  The left shoe seems to have a bulge on the medial left arch that is absent on the right.  Perhaps my foot is deformed, beyond the Morton's toe, I mean.  One 10 mile run is a pretty good test run with no problems to report. 

Tonight wasn't really my night from a running standpoint.  8 8:30 miles, nice and easy.  Modern Family wasn't that funny, neither was the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon.  On the bright side, I did manage to defeat my 12 year old in a card game.

New shoes.  I really like the mirage, maybe even better than the kinvaras.  My son had a b-ball game.  I wore my tights under my pants, so after they emerged victorious, I ran on home.  It was after 10, so nice, dark and quiet.  I had to make a pit stop at the rec center, however, and cutting across the grass was a dumb idea, since it was like running over a soaked sponge.  I enjoy running in the middle of the street, and I encountered only 10 or so cars.  

A few observations;  bbq beef isn't a great pre-run meal.  Also, after logging many treadmill miles, my stabilizer muscles and kinetic visual awareness are not so great.  I watch tv, and don't pay attention to the belt.  But running over uneven, wet, icy pavement with curb cuts, sidewalks, and slopes is very different, especially in the dark.  

Having largely forsaken my prior habits of outdoor nighttime ramblings, I was reminded of a few pleasures of being outside late at night, including waving at cops and wildlife sightings.   I was startled by 4 deer right by the post office.  I guess they had mail to drop off.     A good run.  No garmin, no iPod.  Just my breathing, slapping and a headwind.

TM, a.m. so I wouldn't be too wiped out for Sat.  SLOW.  My rt knee hurts, but motrin did the trick.  Step back next week might be wise.

Nice run with a large contingent.  The weather was spotty for parts of the run, but we enjoyed nice conditions for 7 miles.  We headed into the wind so we could enjoy tailwind benefits for the faster miles.  I took up a strategic position in the rear, enjoying the drafting.  In reality, I just can't run fast enough to be up front.  

The linkup between LPT and JRP is complete now.  We turned around somewhere on the golf course.  The the first 2 tempo miles were un-flat, the last 2 were mostly flat.  The rain was really coming down, conjuring good memories of  TOU 2011.   Splits for the faster miles were 6:50, 6:42, 6:42 and 6:30.  Afterward, we went to my house for waffles with Jake, Andrea, Tara and Emily.  Everyone else had chores and kids...

Like on day of the running lab, I spent the day sick to my stomach.  I don't think the waffles were poisoned; I'm just not responding well to higher intensity, yet.  Rt knee is bugging, but fine with motrin.  I guess I'm in the groove and popping pills.

As always, it's fun to put faces with names.  The group dynamic was good, and I really got pulled along.  I would be hard pressed to work that hard on my own.  I'm sure I could have hit those splits, but the warmup would have been much more gentle, and the recovery miles much slower.