5/4 thru 5/10

Monday 5/4

45 minute spin

Tuesday 5/5

1:30 trail run with some good climbing. Kind of a breakthrough. I felt a little more worthy than I have. It was hot, but a good breeze to keep temps in check. I have a good route near downtown I can count on now: rolling and up and a ~1k dirt “track,” repeat. Broke out the trail shoes for the first time in a while. Finally.

Wednesday 5/6

Off

Thursday 5/7

1:02 (hey every freakin min. counts!) run with 3x5min on 5min off along the way. With no Garmin/HRM, I’m PE on the status quo and the tempo. It was hot and the run was FLAT. But these runs are key. My little schedule is working for me: variety. A hot relatively hard run along the jetty and around Fiesta island.

Friday 5/8

45 min. spin, fairly committed (~110 rpm) for me.
30 min. run. Felt great. I concluded with some solid incline, mellow pace, but up.

Saturday 5/9

Should have run early as we were going to the desert for Mother’s Day. Because I was so "feeling the pillow" and knew we would have a chance to run later in the desert as Jack would be hanging with Nana, I passed on the early run. Mistake. Finally made it to father-in-law’s taco shop (epic grinds), about 100 degrees: tacos and cerveza. That was around 1:00. Wife and I went back to hotel, checked-in, and I had a sixer of beer in my handy little fridge. Hmmmm. I pulled a genius move. Ran to the base of the mountain, and started up. Climbed about 1000 feet in ¾ of mile. I mean UP! It was rattlesnake paradise, but no sign. So, after about 20 minutes of UP, I turned around and headed back. Running the rocky down, down, down, and Boom – ate shit! My wife actually saw me from the hotel room (this picture is taken from the room and that there rocky mountain is were I went); “I saw your red shorts going along and then you went down.” She’s right. I was dazed. I ate shit! Back to the room for a few more ice cold beers. Slept like a rock.

Sunday 5/10

Knew we were in for a huge brunch buffet, so I hit a run in the morning. Not as long as I wanted, but about 45 minutes of ez run consisting of some pretty good incline repeats on a sandy trail going up the mountain (This pic shows kinda where I went -- that water tank in the distance was pretty much the turn-around). The heat was already on at 7:45am. The run felt good. A little core and then off to the buffet. This was the key for my weekend: I ate smart at the buffet. I did not go nuts and eat 3 insane omelets, a few slaps of beef and a bunch of shrimp followed by two plates of chocolatey mouse-like desserts. Instead, lots of veggies, fruit (even oatmeal) and too much salmon with red onions and capers! Yum. And some bubbly.

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So, things continue to get better. I don't feel as old as I did (do not take too much time off once you get "old." Geezerville! I learned my lesson).

The desire to run has returned too. I have to admit, I was fighting some of the runs over the past few weeks, knowing I had to get out there on a consistent basis. Now, I want to run.

Some trends: I'm starting to climb more. The hilly trail run last week was great. Tomorrow (Tuesday 5/12) is another hilly trail run. My treadmill runs have a lot of variety to them, as well. More incline and these feel good. My body is adapting to the stress. Between Trevor and Lucho, I am developing a good running soul (that sounds a little cheesy and brash but those guys are solid, sick athletes and I have learned a lot from both!).

Trend #2: variety. I'm mixing things up. Some hills, some flat with a little tempo, some ez, some spinning on the stationary. This feels right. I'm also needing variety in the runs. I slept-in on Sat. for the afternoon run in the desert because I was dreading another run around the neighborhood, from the house. My weekend work-outs will enable now to drive and launch. I need the variety. And the Wed. off is very nice. Tuesday is big because Wed. is off., followed by big Thurs., ez day and then the weekend. Applause. I'm in a solid polygamous relationship with running.

School is almost out. I have manifesto post coming-up in which I reveal how simple running/training should be. And a preview of the summer. As for a teaser, I'm off to Arrowhead this coming weekend (local mountains, elevation ~5000ft.) and Lake Tahoe in June. My form is building so I should be able to make something of these travels.