Friday

Big blog break. Life has been a little chaotic. Some good, some not so good. The running is being tracked on Attackpoint. I make notes over there on each run.

I had a little plan designed (with help from a couple of very credible endurance folk) to get me "to the promised land," or at least in a position to think about such grandeur. Unfortunately, last week various things prevented me from getting after that with any consistency. I've had a little niggle in the left foot, ankle for a few weeks. Had it at Boney Mt. (I wore a compression sock for 2 straight days and nights and then wore it during the race.) Ridiculous. I'm not usually that hypocondriachical. But I am. The sock actually slid down. Ha ha ha.

That niggle became a strain of some kind to the outside of my calf. I've gotten it once before and have heard others talk about having that. Was pretty sick of that soreness (that I'd had for a few weeks and seemed to actually be getting a little worse).

Last week, it was my son's birthday. Of course, this is good times, but very busy. Between wanting to wake with him, a full day including a bunch of kids at a sick amusement park pizza joint (chuckie cheese on steroids), etc., I had a hard time getting after some quality work.

So, with the party and a little injury, I took a few days off. The time off was great timing wise with all the crappy food and cake laying around. Anyways, I was back at it on a little tempo that has been on the plan (though my warm-up and cool-down was too short) and things felt good. Really good. The two days off to rest the leg were money.

Then, work got nuts. I am teaching and still trying to do some side work. Well, some of that came in. It was stressful since I'm not all that experienced. One project was a real struggle, but the other one went pretty well. Regardless of the success (or lack there of), pretty stressful.

All of that hurt the running. One night I was up until 3:00am working. Uhhhhhhg.

Then, a few nights ago I stayed up until 2:00 watching tennis live in Australia. Uhhhhg.

So, not the most ideal set of circumstances.

What's been really troubling on the last few hilly trail runs (with some grossly steep hills) is the HR. Sure, the hills don't really give us a clear picture of fitness, but I have been GASSED. I mean, even some of the hiking has been a tough go. One of those days was after 4 hours of sleep and poor eating.

The bottom-line is my HR, in a very sober almost monotone voice, is saying you suck.

Today's run was the final straw. I hiked the steep hills or anytime my HR went over 150.

I ended with 2:16, 2300ft., avg. HR 148. Bravo. I am in no shape to race. I need to pop some LSD and just get lost out on the trail. Today's run gave me some great ideas for long days with lots of vertical. Even if I'm hiking those ascents, I'd rather do that than anything else.

In a later post I'll reflect on my viewing of "Touching the Void." Wow.
It got me super stoked to run the Grand Canyon and more.