Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

Objective: endurance, getting back to long runs (3 wks since marathon)

Weather: 33 to 36 F, raining. 

Ah, bare pavement.  I'll take this rain any day.  It was so nice to have smooth, solid ground underfoot.  I did have to hop into the mountains of crud at the sides of the road, but it was glorious to have the road back again. I think I will never be much of a trail runner.

A huge interruption -- of time and emotional well-being -- occurred at about mile 7.  I was running down a hill towards the entrance to the golf course at Eagle Lake, which was blocked by a pickup truck parked sideways across the road.  A man by the truck looked frantic and I thought for a moment his truck was broken down.  He asked me whether this was the only exit from the golf course. "Yes." Long story short: he was in construction, had been working at a nearby site, had his tools stolen and followed the thieves to this point, where he was blocking them in.  The thieves thought they were headed for the open Parkway, but were trapped in the golf course grounds.  I found out that he had not phoned 911 yet, so I did that on my own cell (so glad I always carry it!). 

A fist fight between the good guys and the bad guys, flashing police cars and a car chase later,  I was running again but somewhat shaken.  I observed as much as I could and related it to the dispatcher as it happened, until my cell phone died. Regret #1: not keeping my cell phone charged every day. (I use it so little.) Regret #2: not politely ending my 911 call so that I could take a picture of the thieves with my phone -- completely forgot I had that option.  Regret #3: forgetting I had pepper spray right there in my hand -- I got so frightened when the men were fighting and I backed way off,  putting myself out of view of the thief's truck.  When a truck just like it sped away past me, I told the dispatcher I didn't think it was the thief because a) I no longer had his original position in my sight and b) I didn't think he could get around the victim's truck. Otherwise, why on earth would he have stopped in the first place?  The police arrived seconds later and could have stopped that other truck if they suspected it. The thieves abandoned their truck a few minutes later and fled on foot. 

Although I know I helped, by calling 911 (I believe the victim couldn't find his phone at first), I feel bad that I wasn't more helpful and that I was mistaken about the fleeing truck. On top of this,  I feel terrible that a man's livelihood was almost taken from him, in the middle of a depression.  I don't know whether the thieves were caught. A good deal later I was stopped by one of the police cars to discuss the man at large, for whom they were still searching. They did not know about the second thief, a young woman, and I was able to give them a description of her (partial redemption). They were very nice to me, and didn't even tell me to stop running in the street, probably seeing that the sidewalks were still a good place to break one's neck.

Objective: easy

Weather: 39F, windchill 31F, windy (13 mph gusting to 22 mph), light rain

20 core & weights

A peaceful run (compared to yesterday), except for the car that ran the stop sign when turning right and nearly hit me.  A lot of people seem to do this: being only concerned with the traffic coming from the left, they slow down for their right turn just enough to see if any cars are coming, and they only look left.  To further endanger the pedestrians, this little slow down isn't executed until they are well past the crosswalk or the stop line.  Come to think of it, there were a lot of speeding cars this morning, more than usual.  Getting back to work on the late side I guess.

I had a situation similar to the one Carolyn recently described, where my body temperature was never quite right: too hot going with the wind, too cold going into it.  But I'm still relishing these bare streets after all our snow and ice.

Objective: progression run: 3 easy, 3 moderate, 3 harder but still aerobic + .5 cool down.

Weather: mid 30's, cloudy, increasing wind (started around 5 mph, up to ~15 mph by end of run).  Patches of black ice all over the neighborhood.

15 min. core & weights.

A very pleasant run, despite the wind and the ice. I enjoyed all the different paces of the run, and surprised myself by hitting my marathon pace for most of the 3rd segment (give or take for wind, hills, hopping into the crud for cars to pass, etc). I didn't mean to, so I guess that's a good sign!

I like to think of what specific movements make the pace faster.  The first 3 miles were "jog miles," where I didn't really think about any form elements, just keeping it easy.  The second 3 miles I only added increase in cadence.  The last 3 miles I added a more deliberate and vigorous arm swing, and more power in the lower abs and legs. 

You know how far-away events on calendars like to suddenly get closer, jump out and startle you?  Boo! I have a half marathon two weeks from Saturday!!  lol  I'm not going to worry about it much. It's got some bad hills on the course, and the weather conditions can be miserable. In other words, I may not have very high expectations for my race -- just have fun.  I'll see how I feel and what the skies are doing on race day.  I signed up for it in November, mostly to add mid-winter motivation, and for the shirt. ;) It's a really pretty course and often filled with migrating trumpeter swans.  Should be fun.  I'm so glad my paces went well today; at least I won't embarrass myself.  Well, probably won't.

Objective: easy

Weather: 38F, occasional light rain & sleet, windy (~7-20 mph).

Abs & pushups.

I was so tired today, and no surprise. Yesterday was a physically demanding day (housecleaning, errands, groceries) and we had quite a bit of wind noise last night so I did not sleep well.   It's always nice to have a reason for a sluggish run! 

Happy New Year, everyone!  I'm going to try to go and retro-blog my pre-August monthly totals so my yearly mileage will be accurate.  Cheers!

Objective: easy + drills: 3 x (20 butt kicks, 20 high knees)

Weather: 37F, steady rain, windy (7-15 mph) - 9:30 AM

I went to bed with a bit of a sore throat, but thanks to the holiday I got a nice long sleep.  Still, I felt kind of low this morning. But I didn't think blowing off a run was a good way to start the new year. :)  We don't stay up late or do anything special for New Years, so I had plenty of rest.

My resolution for 2009 is to get my morning chores taken care of (along with any core/weights) before I start blogging and messing around on the computer. I really don't think it's reasonable for me to say "I resolve to spend less time blogging and surfing the internet," (won't happen), but I do think that might be the end result if I leave it until after the nitty gritty.  Moreover,  lately I've been blogging the little time I spend with weights before I actually do it, and I think I felt better when I did it right after the run -- body still warm.

This resolution means I'll probably be blogging a little later in the morning than usual. Or like today, in the afternoon. I guess that will work out. We'll see.  I'm also going to try to list the time of day (start of run) in my "weather" section.  Not much of a resolution, but in my own weird way I think it will help me get out the door on time.

Here's to a wonderful year of running.

Objective: moderate, w/ fartlek @MP

Conditions: 8:15am, low 30s F, cloudy & calm, 1" new snow

20 min. core & weights

We woke up to the prettiest blanket of snow this morning; just an inch, but without our usual gales it settled nicely on even the tiniest branches.  Everything looked so beautiful. The clouds were very colorful and high enough for some spectacular views of the valley and surrounding mountains.  About half way through my run, a slightly familiar looking yellow thing came out from behind the clouds for about 5 minutes.

Thanks to an abundance of sleep and a moratorium on sugar yesterday, I am feeling more like my old self today and had a very good run.  (I do attribute some of the sluggishness of the past couple of days to a late xmas gift of truffles we received. The 3 of us went through them like a house afire, with the result that DD had a canker sore, DH experienced a relapse of a chronic tooth absess, and I had a sore throat.) 

The "fartlek" was a collection of short periods at MP whenever I could manage it with the road conditions; I am just guessing that it added up to about a mile.

Note to self:  I may not have needed the Yaktrax this morning. They were helpful on the icy places, but they also have a tendancy to accumulate snow in these conditions. With just 1 inch I probably could have done well without them.