Training in Montana

AM: I ran today! It felt soooo good to get out and do my normal early morning running. I was going to do it Friday but it was raining and cold and Saturday I had a Scout campout. Sunday morning I woke up ready to run, not knowing what day it was. I love that pre-wake confusion. So set the alarm last night and woke up this morning. A bit chilly at 42 but fine with gloves and a new thin hat I picked up at the SGM expo. Love the hat.

Felt pretty good, just taking it easy like normal. I probably got going a bit too fast down the hills, but 7:55 was the max so not crazy fast, but my calves were/are a bit sore. Anyhow, felt great to get out. Excited to run in the mornings and hit the Y 2-3 lunches a week, something I didn't do during the SGM training.

Lunch: Hit the Y for Boot Camp. Regular instructor was back and it was killer both upper and lower body. The upper body weights make me so light headed - I must not breathe right or something. It's been a problem for a while. Or I think I can do faster reps than I'm doing - I don't know. Great workout though.

Got out for 5 miles this morning. Legs a bit sore from boot camp, calves a bit sore from yesterday's run. Nothing too crazy though. Ran the 5 miles in 44:56, so I was going fairly slow but ran naturally on the down parts and was in an 8:10 range or so. 9:30 or so up the hills. 53 degrees, so 10 degrees warmer than yesterday. Wore a long sleeve tech shirt & the free Wasatch Running gloves I got at SGM, but could've gone short sleeve & no gloves. Beautiful morning. Nearly full moon low in the Western sky, Eastern sky starting to get light, and O'Ryan's belt directly overhead. Very nice.

5 good miles this morning. Nearly didn't wake up early - turned off my 5:45 alarm as I'd gone to bed later than planned. Then my body woke me at 5:58 telling me to just get up and get on with it. I listened and obliged. 50 degrees with a 23 mph wind so I wore my lighter sunglasses. Amber colored lenses so not too hard to see through when dark with a headlamp, but helped when running directly into the wind, which was mostly on the way back. No watch or tunes as I'd left them both at work, so just listened to the crunch of the gravel underfoot and watched the glowing eyes stare back at me from the herd of deer. Beautiful full moon lit up most everything - nice run. Will do boot camp at noon.

6 lovely miles this fine morning. 45 degrees out & cloudy with nary a breeze.

Realize I just broke 1000 miles for the year. Wahoo! Now I've got plenty of time to go for more. Need some new shoes though - please send spare change my way.

Boy howdy, today was the toughest run I've had in a long long time as I nearly cut it short by a long ways. But, I pushed through and made it the distance (He's going the distance - he's going for speed). I rolled out of bed at 5:25 as I planned out my Saturday in Outlook at work and my appointments automically add an alarm 5 minutes before but I'd forgotten that. I had my other alarm set for 5:45 so that was a bit of a rude awakening but worked fine. Had to work out some issues with my friend John, but finally rolled out that door at 6:05.

When I headed out the door it was 38 with a very slight breeze, so wore shorts & a long sleeve shirt, tech shirt underneath that, and gloves and a thin hat. It was perfect for today (but I was in need of a long hot shower afterwards to warm up completely). After 1 mile I took a short walk break. Weird. After 2 miles I took a walk break as I just wasn't feeling it - I never do that. Just past 2 miles is a fork in the road. If I go straight it's rolling hills but coming back that way it's slightly uphill. If I go left it's my tougher-than-Veyo hill and then more and more up, but on the return I can always run low 7s which is fun for a slow guy like me. All week I'd planned to go the hill route, and turn around at 6 miles. As I'd walked twice already, I'd figured to go the easier route. After going 30 seconds towarads the easy way out, I turned around and headed to the hill. I thought that if anything could get me going, it would be my favorite hill. I really do love it. So, I headed off. It's gravel road from this point on, and starts out with a stretch of downhill. Still not feeling it. Now a strech of uphill then some flat before hitting the big hill. Really not feeling it. At 3.17 miles I walk again, and this time I walk for a few minutes. This has literally never happened to me. Obviously I haven't been running that long (nearly 2 years). I think I'm not getting enough sleep, I guess I did run a marathon only 2 weeks ago, but my body feels great. Maybe it's because I'm not on a training plan and I live by the plan. I don't know. It sucked. I turned around, ready to head home and admit defeat at 6 miles, when I desperately wanted a 10+ miler. After a few steps I conquer the negative voices and decide to just go up the hill. I swallow some jelly beans, I start shuffling, then the hill starts, and I get in the groove. I shuffle some more, and soon I'm at the top of the hill. I'm feeling it! Wahoo! It took me running up a monster hill to get in the groove. That felt great. At this point it was just over 4 miles and I knew the rest of the run would be good and it was. Turned around at 6 miles and cruised back home. I cruised downhill in the low 7s, ate me some more jelly beans when I started to fade, and I moved on towards home.

With 1.5 to go I'm back on a paved country road, no cars around, and I see what looks like a herd of cattle spread across both lanes coming towards me. I couldn't figure out what it was for a while. Finally realized it was a herd of 20 wild turkeys, 3 of them albino, that live in the area. They were cruising the highway eating along the way. When I got to them I chased them off the road, gave them a stern lecture about walking in the middle of the road, and then ran home.

AP: 9:08. That was a really long post. Sorry.