Every Race is an Adventure!

I went 6.2 easy miles solo this morning wandering through the streets near home. I can tell I still need to take it easy on my left heel, but it didn't bother me during the run. The temperature was in the 40's again this morning, but it sounds like it's going to be cold again in the next day or two.

I got stuck in a meeting and missed getting out with the rest of the guys at noon. I ran Eagle View anyway and passed Nate, Will, Darin, and Steve on their way back. Although they were clearly not pressing as hard as when Tom was pulling them the last two weeks, I think they were still going faster than I wanted to go. I ran it in 37:00 (7:24/mi) last week, when I pushed too hard and hurt my foot, and in 41:50 today (8:22/mi), a much saner and safer pace for me.
 

I wandered the foothills of Orem with Larry again this morning. I don't think either of us could retrace our route, but we enjoyed the conversation as we meandered about. The weather was a little cooler, but only cold when the wind kicked up.

I did a circuitous solo run around nearby neighborhoods this morning. It was similar to the serpentine route I've been doing recently but with a couple of modifications. Instead of skipping dead end streets I went into every one, and there are quite a few. Then instead of doubling back like I've been doing, I went straight up 1600 N from 400 W to 400 E, a mile of steady uphill that seems to get steeper as it goes. I think I ended passing by 1/2 to 2/3 of the homes in our stake boundaries. As a new stake clerk I'm still trying to learn the ward boundaries. Maybe if I study the stake map and do more runs like this it will help.

It was much colder this morning. It was a little hard getting going but it helped to know that I had to keep moving to keep warm. I really enjoyed this cold meandering run this morning. My foot didn't really bother me and I felt pretty strong. I even included a couple of steep uphill dead end streets I could have skipped near the end. I averaged 8:45/mi for the 6.9 miles, starting at around 9:00/mi, slowing a little on the mile long uphill, then running the last couple of miles at 8:30/mi and 8:15/mi.

In addition to the traditional overeating today, I also overdid with the traditional turkey bowl football in the morning and the traditional extended family basketball in the late afternoon. I did show some restraint by not also throwing in a long run, or even a short easy run, but I'm afraid my body is still going to take some time to recover.

I did well to just be able to get up and walk around today. I was reminded that there are a lot of muscles that running doesn't use very much, but that football and basketball do, and all of them hurt today. An easy run would probably have done me some good today, but I decided to take the rest of the extended weekend off to rest my left foot that has been bothering me. I plan to return to easy running on Monday.

By the way, we went and saw "Enchanted" today, and I was...enchanted that is. My wife, three of my daughters, and I all quite enjoyed it. I guess it's not a very manly movie, but I liked it anyway.