Summer came and went

I have much catching up to do.

I'm consistent on getting out during lunch time for 5 or 6 miles, depending on the day, and I'm managing to stay in shorts as no really cold air has descended upon us yet. Mornings have been crappy. Either I discipline myself to be up by 6, which means going beddy bye by 10, or start running after work which I really don't want to do, I have precious little evening time as it is.

I ran a whopping 2 races this year. The Hair of the Dog on Jan 1 and the Mad Dog scramble on Oct. 30. Maybe any race with the name 'dog' in it is all I want to be doing. During summer I did some doozy lunch time runs in up to 100 degree heat because it seems to feel so bad-ass to run in 100 degree heat. And that's without the humidex. It takes about an hour to cool down even in the AC of the office.

Currently I'm just trying to get some semblence of volume in. I managed a couple of 200+ mile months, came up shy in November with a busy final week for work and a couple of crappy weather days thrown in. Most of November was near perfect running conditions, unlike some years when it's just wind and rain and basically just miserable for outdoor running.

I have no plans right now but I would like to be in decent shape for the Dog on Jan 1. Last year it was something like 42 and change for me, not my best but not my worst either but conditions were really good. It's one month away so I need some big weeks with some speed tossed in and then a good final week post Christmas.

Also I avoided all of the 5 peaks races despite them putting on a one-race-a-month schedule from April to October. Next year I might sign up for 5 of them and see how it goes. I've been spending the occasional weekend on the offroad cycling trails and selected a section from east end of the trailhead to Pottery Road to do time trials on. So far I've managed A 27:26 going westbound and a 27:42 going eastbound 2 weeks earlier. The trail will be too messy to run soon as wet snow is starting to be common. I'll add more hill work over the winter and spring and be ready if I decide to go.

I'm avoiding getting to docile after it slowed me down so much last spring. But it was probably all well and good and gave me some much needed recovery after 10 years on my feet. According to my logs I've gone past 19,000 miles. Still a ways to go before I've virtually circled the globe.