Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Low to mid 40s, light rain.  Endurance w/ negative split and Leg Builder Hill in miles 19.5-21.5.   

I had a great run today.  I tried to make the first half really relaxed to get a negative split.  I ran around various parts of Snoqualmie Ridge and descended the Parkway around mile 9.  Ran in Old Snoqualmie and a bit on the SVT before returning up the hill.  Coming up the Leg Builder was a lot harder at 19.5 than it usually is at 13 or 14, but extremely satisfying.

Another running forum I watch is discussing ice baths right now.  I know they are wonderful for recovery, every smart runner respects them, and elites swear by them.  However, I am far too much of a hedonist to embrace ice baths.  After eating a huge post-run brunch, I took a long soak in a nice HOT bath and loved every minute of it.  This has been my routine for some time now.  Someday I'm going to write a book called "Every Running Rule Can Be Broken."  

I'm pretty happy about the week's running. I missed a scheduled tempo run on Thursday, but I just didn't feel up to it and the wind was over 20 mph most of the time.  I'm still close enough to my last race that I think it's fine.  

Weekly summary for Mon-Sun

Total 57.78

Mon 7.86

Tue 9.59 w/ hill repeats

Weds 5.56

Thurs 7.62

Fri 4.93

Sat  off

Sun 22.22 

Low 40s, cloudy and light winds. Recovery run. 

My legs feel surprisingly good this morning. There is some soreness to the touch in my quads, but it didn't seem to affect my little run at all.  I was able to keep the pace just under 11:00, which is better than the average recovery run by 15 to 30 seconds.  This is good. This is very good.  I wanted to run farther but ran out of time. 

Low 40s, mostly cloudy. G-A run, finished on TM.  Abs & pushups.

 Nice run, though it took me a long time to warm up. 

47F, mostly cloudy, windy.  Easy run.  Bit of core, stretching and strength work.

Nice morning. Late start, but enjoyed the time I had.  It's great to be a runner. :) 

44F, partly cloudy w/ stars, wind 10 mph.  VO2 workout (4 x 1K w/ 3 min recov.).  Finished up on the TM w/ VFFs.  Core & pushups. 

My first rep ended up being a little long, due to "operator error." (Me pushing to the wrong button on my Garmin after a bathroom stop.)   The repeats were done on roads, with wind and hills, so I am not looking at pace - just effort level and breathing.  

I was very interested to see a bit of light in the eastern sky as I was finishing up.  Not enough to remove the need for a headlamp but enough to see the Cascade Mtns outlined.  It won't be long before I've got a bit of daylight at the ends of my runs. And shortly after that, I'll be plunged back into darkness by the accursed DLS time change. 

Mid 40s, raining. Easy run. 20 min. strength work.

This is another "weird week," when I will have to do a long run on Sunday and miss out on my club run Saturday.  Maybe when I get back on schedule next week there will be some new folks at the club and I will actually have someone to run with.  I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow - not missing the run but sleeping more!   

I'm sorry - this is going to be a long post. I have reason to be extremely happy this morning!  This has nothing to do with running, except that I've been trying to solve this problem for even longer than the time I've been trying to get my marathon time down to a BQ.  

After over four years of repairs, wasted money, and endless experimental (and unsuccessful) fixes... we now know what is causing our living room windows to leak.  We have this beautiful wall of picture windows looking out on Mt. Si that has leaked every winter since the year we moved in.  

Since they only leak in heavy rain with a strong east wind, we have had a small window of opportunity every winter to try to find and fix the problem. The first two winters were a Blame Battle between the builder of the house and Milgard Windows, with various ineffective "cures" performed on both sides as proof of the other's culpability.  Since only certain kinds of storms caused leaking, the last fix of each winter would always have to wait for autumn to be tested, and always with disappointing results. 

Just before the third winter, Milgard agreed to reseal every window by hand and the Sno family footed the bill to have all the siding around the windows replaced (with all new flashing as well) and the attic examined and sealed up. Results? Zip.  I won't even bother to list all the subsequent measures we took to find and stop this leak.  The money, the new contractors brought in, the dashed hopes when the next big storm came and we heard drip, drip, drip. 

The gentleman who finally found the problem had all the past failures of others to go on, and I guess it was inevitable that we'd hit on it sooner or later. But I am ready to nominate him for president I'm so happy.  He too tried some unsuccessful fixes. But we tested a new, temporary "fix" on two of the three leaky windows this week and last night the "perfect storm" arrived.  This morning, towels in the windows show our victory: one wet towel, and the other two: dry!!!!

I'll bet you want to know what it turned out to be.  Not interested in waiting 4+ years like I had to do? Well ok.... Weep holes.  Somehow, during the window installation, a "fin," attached to a hollow chamber, underneath a trough for draining moisture -- was pierced on several windows. The specific conditions we experienced during heavy winter storms caused water to be sucked into the weep holes (pressure differential in the house in high winds), filling up the chamber, whose wall was breeched by the fin crack, and flooding over onto the frame of the window below, which then dripped from the top of the frame onto the sill.  

If you stuck with my narrative this long, thanks a lot for listening.  Where else could I tell my tale and shout my joy?  I was beginning to think we might never see the end of this problem, and spend every winter laying plastic wrap and towels on our window sills and saying no to all travel opportunities.   Happy day!!!  

May your troubles find solutions as well. Persevere and keep hope.  :)