Turn your rut into a groove.

pm--7.25 Pace and Form work. This was the same as last week w/ 5x 1-min. at 8k pace in the middle. Felt nice and strong w/ a good group, once again. RHR--52. 

am--4.25 Lutheran Sign/Weights/Harts +. Nice morning. It looks to be the last of the cold ones for the next week or so. My legs were still a little tight from yesterday's work when I started this morning. RHR--53. 

pm--5.5 Green Springs w/ barefoot striders after. Nice run. I had a good chat w/ Sarah. 

pm--7.75 Track Tempo. It was harder work today, and I never felt truly fluid. But, despite feeling tired this afternoon, the body responded well. Kids are doing awesome things. RHR--50. 

am--8 Santa Clara Loop via the cemetery. Decent, steady progress on the run. It was warmer this morning than it has been in a while, beautiful, actually. RHR--53. 

pm--9.5 Turkey Road Long Run w/ 1, 1, 2, 1, 2 pick-ups. The run was great, overcast, and stout. I really wasn't in the greatest mood heading up. The cold that I never had remains in my chest or so it feels. But, once we got going, everything went well. RHR--56. 

am--3.5 DI/Weights/Harts+. I didn't get in as much before weights this morning. Bummer. The weather was beautiful on the run. The gloves were probably overkill. RHR--53. 

pm--3 Some miles before and after the rootbeer mile. I was manning the Instagram Live camera. Fun stuff. 

am--4.25 DI/Neighborhood Bushes. Another fine morning. By the time we finished, I was feeling decent. I'm not sure if it's age or mileage, but I need a few miles before I feel like my breathing and gait and everything else are all in sync. RHR--52. 

pm--5.75 Pace and Form work. My left calf was a little twingy as we jumped into things--the CV work was at the beginning and end--but I decided to go and see how it would feel. Actually, I didn't think much of it when I started. Made it through the first set and the second set but couldn't keep on through the third set. I awkwardly jogged around the track until the girls were done and then called it quits for the day. Icing and rolling are in order. I'm bummed because I was feeling good today. 

Also finished my 10th book of the year, Testimony by Robbie Robertson. Over the years, particularly the last few that I've been dabbling w/ the bass guitar, I've gained a great appreciation for The Band, a group that really felt their way through songs in an organic, unified way. I enjoyed the book for its protrayal of their prime years, even though it's fairly one-sided, and the early '60s-'70s in rock culture. A quote at the end, written about the few hours in the wake of "The Last Waltz," their final show together, reminded me of the end of  an xc season: 

"Many of our guests had hardly got warmed up. They'd just had a taste and needed to play more music. Impromptu sessions were starting up in hotel suites and various locations, but for me, my cup had runneth over. I couldn't play another note. I found myself sitting on the floor against the wall of the hotel banquet room as people came and went in party spirit. Marty joined me  on the floor. We didn't need to talk; we just had to remember to breathe" (491). 

I really enjoyed spending time w/ this book over the last week or so. 

pm--7.5 Light Tempo day. I took yesterday off because my calf got crazy gnarly during our CV stuff on Wednesday. I wore a compression sleeve the last few days and took it easy. Today, I planned on doing the warm-up and cool-down. During the warm-up, I felt pretty good so decided to jump into the tempo for a few minutes. I was jettisoned after 10 minutes, did a few laps, and got back in for another 10 minutes. There was some lingering soreness but no exacerbation. Nice day of running. RHR--53. 

pm--8 SC Parkway out-and-back. Things felt pretty good until I was about 5 miles out. I felt a pull in my calf and was forced to walk for a while. Getting sick of that and dreading the long, slow trek home, I tried jogging. My leg loosened up a bit, and I was able to get in a few more miles before the tightness came again. The rest tomorrow will do me good. Time to research this pain in the leg. RHR--53. 

pm--7.75 Fields Long Run. I wasn't sure what I would run today, but Josie was going to shoot for 60 or 70 minutes. I thought I would give that a shot. My calf--I'm sure I have a soleus strain--felt the same throughout the run. And I feel pretty decent getting around on it after. That's a plus. I'm not going to jump into any quicker stuff and will try to avoid hills as much as possible this week. See how that works. RHR--51. 

pm--5 Prospector from under the freeway. I felt surprisingly good today. The soleus was a bit twitchy during the stretch after, but nothing big. RHR--49. 

am--2.5 Nearly to the bank and back. Leg feels a bit better. RHR--49.

pm--7 Ran laps around the track while the kids rocked their 8k-pace workout. Boy, they looked awesome today. 

Finished another book this evening: Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. He's one of my favorites. I learned something about Armenia and Abstract Expressionism. Vonnegut mixes history and humor in a most palatable way. 

pm--5 Out-and-back on Telegraph. We had a big group most of the run. RHR--52. 

am--3.5 Neighborhood bushes and STG Running Center Loop. Nice drizzly morning, but, boy, was I tired. The weekend can't come soon enough. RHR--56.

pm--5 To and from the hill workout. Kids look strong. The leg feels a lot better. Next week should be a real week again. 

pm--8 Progressive Run for ~65 minutes. The leg felt decent. Upping the speed towards the end made it a bit tight. I erged for 10 minutes after. Good week. I seem to be on the up-and-up. 

am--8 Hurricane Rim Trail. I've never run this trail before, but today was a great day for. I had a blast, talking and talking and talking the whole time. Happy birthday to Jacey. RHR--53.

I also did some reading today and finished 2 books. The first is a classic--Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I've read it once before but liked it even more the second time. It took  my mind to Huck Finn. Huck and Pip are very similar. Joe and Jim, as well. My AP Lit kids complained that it was long--it comes in at 497 pages--but it reads quickly. 

The second book I finished was The Team Captain's Leadership Manual by Jeff Janssen. The book outlines a 10-week plan to train team leaders. Once I got in the groove with the book, it flew by. Lots of great info that could be applicable in XC and the classroom. I want to put together outlines of each chapter. That's my next project. 

am--1.5 Weights and Harts+. Perfect weather this morning. I felt decent lifting. RHR--50.

pm--5.5 Green Springs. I love this run. Some hate it. We kept the run pretty chill today. I was feeling antsy in the back. 

I finished a short book this morning--Together is Better by Simon Sinek. The book is basically a quote book with illustrations. I love this author. He has a great interview about millenials in the workplace and has written one of the best books I've read in the past year or so--Start with Why. The latter was very helpful as we put together a mission for PVXC. 

am--2.5 Wells Fargo and back. Lovely morning weather again. Jacey taught us some self defense. RHR--52. 

pm--8.25 8k-pace work 2x(4x 400 and 1x 800) w/ 4x barefoot striders. Nice workout. The 400s feel like something we could do all day. The 800s take a little more focus. My soleus feels a lot better. The striders get to the calf some, but, overall, today was a good day. 

am--1.75 Weights and Harts+. Feeling good w/ the lifting, and the weather is coold again. We could use a few more days of that. RHR--54. 

pm--5.25 Middleton through the new underpass. Nice run w/ some people doing some nice things. Most people seemed pretty peppy after the work yesterday. 

am--2.5 Cold morning run to Wells Fargo and back. There was a headwind on the way out that made the first few minutes miserable. The wind settled down after that. RHR--53. 

pm--5 Telegraph Church run. We had some new faces and others starting to step up. Good stuff.

am--9.25 Southgate out-and-back w/ 1-, 2-, 1-, 2-, 1-min. pick-ups. Sufficiently tired after this one. The elevation profile shows that it's a slight downhill on the way out and a little climb on the way back. It did feel harder on the way back. The pace overall was strong. Even though the soleus feels good, I would've been rumbling, stumbling by the end of 13 miles. Guess I'm saying not running Dogtown was a good choice. RHR--53. 

am--3.75 Wells Fargo w/ StG Running Center Loop to add. Felt good this morning. The girls were peppy even after their awesome half-marathon efforts on Saturday. RHR--53.

pm--4.75 Some Miles when I got home from practice, a date w/ my daughter, and a choir concert. My calf still has some tightness.

am--4 DI/Weights/Harts+. Fine morning. I'm lifting more each week, which feels good but also makes me anxious about my SI joint. I didn't run in the afternoon because we were timing kids. 

I did finish another book during a long day of ACT stuff. Why Die? is Graem Sims' bio of Percy "Only the fit are fearless" Cerutty. What an interesting guy. He was curious and crazy and innovative and egotistical. Bill Aris claims that Cerutty's work  is the foundation of what he does with his FM kids. That's what initially intrigued me about Percy, but his vision of athletics and life keeps me digging for more: 

"Many of their talks focused on the development of the Christ Consciousness in Elliott. Cerutty believed that the pain experienced in training and competition acted as a purifier, and that by accepting it and using it, rather than resisting it, a man might come to understand Christ's sacrifice, and develop more compassion as a result. The subsequent miracles would be wrought on the race track. Athletics, while requiring a degree of selfishness in an individual, would ultimately uplift mankind" (190). 

Good stuff. The thinkers that influenced Cerutty--Alexis Carrel and his book Man the Unknown, George Hackenschmidt and his book Physical Strength and How I Acquired It, Arthur Newton and his book Running, and, finally, Jiddu Krishnamurti--give me some more rabbit holes to explore. If you can get your hands on the book, it's worth the read.