Rhett

17 weeks 

Weekly Review 

My decision to quit running for the week was definitely the right call. My calf feels great today and I'm hoping that as I resume running this coming week, I will be over it. Although I didn't do any traditional running this week I still managed to cover 27 miles walking, hiking, weighted vest hiking, refereeing, and downhill jogging. The crazy thing is, I feel like I got in a serious week of training and my quads are still a bit sore from the back to back mountain hiking/jogging with the hard bike ride yesterday. I also got in core work 3 times this week and ride the bike trainer twice. I'd really like to squeeze in some swimming but the only time I seem to have available is early in the morning and it is so hard for me mentally to swim when it is dark and cold outside. 
 

This week was supposed to be a recovery week after my first 3 weeks of building miles. Instead I'm back to the beginning so I'm hoping to run 3 miles a day with a long run on Friday and maybe some weighted vest hiking on Saturday. Of course I'll try and squeeze in 3 core workouts, a couple lower body weights, and some cycling as well.

117 days

AM. I did a nice easy but hilly 3 mile run this morning.  I was able to run the whole way without my calf quitting on me, but I did slow down a few times because it was feeling off.  

PM. Core. 
Looks like tomorrow will be a snow day!

116 days

Snow Day!

I know what you are thinking. A snow day in the middle of the Mohave desert at 500 feet elevation? Well not exactly. I work in our Kingman office on Tuesdays and Kingman is at about 3000 feet and it snowed hard enough to close down all the roads this morning, so we closed the office for the day. There was snow on the mountains surrounding Havasu though which is very rare.

After getting some work done that I’ve been procrastinating, I did some core core work then headed out on the trails with no real plan but to run easy and have fun. I found a new trail and was enjoying the run when I stepped on a rock wrong coming down a steep decent and sprained my ankle. It hurt real bad at first but I walked it off and finished the last mile of my run gingerly. I’ve sprained my ankles many times so they don’t swell too much anymore when I do it, but it aches pretty good right now. I’m sure it will be sore for a few day but I should be able to run on it still.

115 days

AM. This morning my calf felt the best it has since I hurt it, but my ankle was a bit painful from spraining it yesterday. Maybe that is why I didn't notice the calf. Anyways, I kept it short and easy yet hilly this morning for 3 miles.

PM. 1 mile TM walk. Lower body. Core. 30 minutes bike trainer. 

114 days

AM. 3 more easy but hilly miles.  Calf is close to the point where I don't need to worry about it anymore, but not quite 100%. I have another high school soccer game to ref tonight as the assistant again.  Saturday I get to be center ref!

PM. Assistant referee. 2 miles +. Good thing my calf is on the up and up because tonight's game was a nice competitive back and forth game. Looking at my data it looks like I got in about 15 sprints. It's like getting paid to do your sprint work and getting to watch a soccer match at the same time!

113 days 

My goal today was to get about 4 hours on my feet. I'm not in good enough shape right now to run for 4 straight hours so I took a route that required some very technical hiking that is not runnable. It was a rare cloudy drizzley morning in Havasu for the first hour of my adventure which made the rocks slippery but I managed to do ok. Then then sun finally came out as I was getting to a more runable part of my run. I was enjoying running when all the sudden I hit a rock and went flying shoulder first into a big rock. The side of my head glanced off it first. I'm lucky I didn't slam my head right into it. I laid there for a few seconds and tried to get up but everything hurt to bad. So I laid there a little longer and finally forced myself up and tried to walk it off. The outside of my knee hit something too and I couldn't walk normal at first but it gradually got better and I got back to running. I finished my run right about 4 hours and covered 19 miles with about 2800 elevation gain and a bunch of scrapes and bruises. I posted a picture on Strava. It doesn't look good and it feels worse. I did enjoy the adventure though. 

112 days

I was still feeling beat up from yesterday's fall when I awoke his morning, so I passed on the Saturday morning group ride. We had a young men's breakfast at my house at 9:00 and I would have been pushing it to get back in time for that anyway. I finally decided I was feeling good enough to ride in the afternoon and headed out around 3. I ended up getting in a solid ride of 33 miles and averaged 18 mph.