Kerry's Running Blog

Met up with Richard at 5:45. I thought that Antonio Lopez might join us as well, but we didn't see him. It was a bit cold (33 wind chill, wind 3 mph out of NNE) this morning, but not as cold as expected. Last night the forecast said to expect temperatures in the low 20's. We ran south along the trail and then west and north towards the high school. I left him at the flag pole and ran the normal Highland Glen loop with the Redwood Drive hill thrown in for good measure. Had some good spring in the legs today, but was a litte short on sleep. With a good nap on Sunday afternoon, it took me until close to midnight to fall asleep. Maybe I'll have a chance to catch some winks around lunch time (we've gone to a work from home schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays).

I really didn't want to get up this morning even though I was awake before my alarm went off. With the weather alternating every few hours between hot and cold, we never know whether to pull the quilt on at night or to just go with a lighter comforter. Last night my wife and I both woke up because we were too hot (she's bothered by allergies this time of year so we can't open the window to cool off). As I was trying to get back to sleep, I kept hearing very faint music and decided that I'd better get up to investigate. I looked around downstairs and even checked outside, but couldn't hear anything. I laid down and could hear it again. By that time I was fully awake and realized that it was coming from my cell phone. We have a nightly conference call with developers in India at 10:30 pm (which I took in bed last night). I must not have disconnected when the meeting ended. I'm just hoping that six hour call is covered by my plan.

Anyway, the same Highland Glen loop this morning. Temperature 38 degrees with high clouds. Everything felt good this morning, but I still took it kind of easy. Will push it a bit harder tomorrow.

Lunch run with Laureen on Highland Glen loop. Kind of a cold wind out of the north starting out, but it felt quite pleasant after we turned and headed south. Of course, we had to take Drake,  our Chihuahua,  out for a walk when we got back. He was excited to get outdoors, but decided after about five minutes that it was too cold for his taste. Now he's waiting for me to fix something tasty to eat.

Kind of a weird morning. A storm with strong winds and sleet hit just as I was getting up. Last night after working in the yard, I had some sharp pains in my knee that improved as I walked around, but were still there this morning. I took it fairly easy on the treadmill until the pain in my knee disappeared after about a mile. I gradually increased the pace, but didn't have the time to do more that two and a half miles. Since tomorrow is a work at home day, I may try to get an early morning run in and a noon run with Laureen. It will depend on what time we get to bed tonight. Our oldest daughter needs to catch a bus at 10:30 in Lehi. She's going down with a number of her blind and visually impaired friends to the Blind Olympics in Los Angeles (she comes back Monday at 4:30 a.m.). 

Beautiful morning for a run. The skies were clear and the temperature was 28. Running by the high school there were a couple of trees completely covered in ice from nearby sprinklers. I pushed it a little harder this morning just because I felt good. A doe darted out in front of me on the trail bounced over to a nearby clearing and then starting trotting along in the same direction (mocking me a bit) before racing off into the trees. It's very dangerous along that part of the trail at that time of the morning. They recently opened the road up to one way traffic as well which means that high school students try to use it for avoiding the traffic mess in front of the school and to make up for lost time. Like many of that age, they consider lines in the road as mere suggestions and come around blind curves at high speeds.

Ran the regular route today. I thought maybe I'd go longer as I've been feeling pretty good, but thought it best not to increase my mileage for the week by more than 10 percent. Laureen reminded me of how easy it is to get injured when you start upping the mileage as she's been battling a very sore Achilles tendon the last few days. Heading out there was a stiff breeze from the north north west that dropped the wind chill into the 20's, but the sun came up a few minutes later and I turned so the wind was at my back. Felt great throughout the run and am hoping to boost my mileage by another five miles next week.