I had a down week scheduled since I had gone up each of the three previous weeks. However, thanks to the fantastic (note: sarcasm) weather we've had recently in the Laramie Basin (and southeastern Wyoming as a whole), it became more of a down week than I planned. The weekend in particular was terrible; beginning with the unruly winds on Saturday and continuing into a "flash" whiteout blizzard with 50-60mph winds on Sunday.
My former self would have obsessed about days missed and miles not run, and would have forced myself out into those miserable conditions, risking potential injury for no reason other than to satisfy my own compulsion. I feel now, in what maybe isn't as tough a body but what I hope is a slightly wiser mind, that fighting those conditions in January is not worth the few miles I had on the schedule. The thing that I have been most concerned about since I started training seriously again is injury. I have been derailed by injuries too frequently in the past. Tweaking my achilles while fighting the wind months out from my goal race would be extremely counterproductive. Not to mention, forcing myself out in that kind of weather to prove my "toughness" is actually nothing more than vain stupidity. It's not worth it. I'd much rather stay healthy now, worry about more miles later when the weather gets better, and not spend weeks on the sidelines nursing an injury.
In other news, we had the High Plains Harriers officer elections Sunday evening. I was unable to attend thanks to the aforementioned weather that stranded me in Cheyenne. In what I can only assume was an uncontested election, I was elected vice-president to Jeff French's president. I really look forward to getting more involved with the club and the local running community as a whole. I think we are cultivating a great group of runners and building a solid running/fitness atmosphere up here in Laramie. We seem to be stirring interest in the club and its going-ons as well as putting out a good product, fostering connections and putting on fantastic events. I hope to see more good things in 2012.
Also, the new HPH website went live a couple of days ago, here.
Mon. Jan. 16 - 3 miles in 21 min (7:00 pace). Easy recovery day.
Tues. Jan. 17 - 10 miles in 75 min (7:30 pace). The return of Tuesday Night Hills! I picked up Rachel on the three mile warm-up over to hospital hill. The program was 6x530m hills with jog downhill rest. Horsecow and I paired up and hit what I felt was a pretty damn good workout. Splits were: 1:56, 1:52, 1:52, 1:51, 1:52, 1:51. Rests averaged around 3:00. Three mile jog home.
Wed. Jan. 18 - DAY OFF. This was the first day I took off since Dec. 29. I had flirted with the idea of trying to run everyday of the year, like my good buddy Chris Schabron did last year. However, I decided that, again, my ultimate goal for the next six months is preparing for the Big Horn 50M. I'm not going to sacrifice my race there to satisfy the compulsion of squeezing in a run everyday. It is okay, even intelligent, to rest once in awhile. Let the body recover a bit. Oftentimes, it comes back even stronger. So, again, getting away from my past compulsive behavior, I took a day off. And it was excellent.
Thurs. Jan. 19 - A.M. 3 miles in 21 min (7:00 pace). Quick morning run to complement the pub run later.
P.M. - 5 miles in 40 min (8:00 pace). Pub Run. Started at Front Street, then over to The Library, back across campus to The Ranger, over the tracks to Bud's, then to Lovejoy's for dinner. Then we decided to get out of hand and had a long night cap at 3rd Street. The crowd this run was particularly rowdy; shirts were optional for stretches of the run, and it felt like more beers than usual were consumed in route. I didn't "run" back over the tracks for home until 1:30am. Good times!
Fri. Jan. 20 - 4 miles in 28 min (6:52 pace). Was feeling the pub run a little, but managed to squeeze in a quick post-work run on the Greenbelt before going out to dinner with my dad, who, since my mom was out in Virginia visiting my sister, was bored and lonely and came over. And we ate bbq. Awesome.
Sat. Jan. 21 - 6.5 miles in 43 min (6:36 pace). I had planned a four mile tempo that I was hoping to get done in under 24 minutes. After a two mile warm-up, I hopped on the Greenbelt at Curtis St. and ran south. I went through two miles in a comfortable 11:50, and then I made the mistake of turning into what had become a 40mph wind. I hit mile three in 18 minutes and shut it down. Fighting the wind had negated the point of the tempo part of the run. Again, not worth forcing something in that wind. I was pretty pissed about it and spent my two mile cool down cursing to myself, yelling at the wind, and generally being a mopey little pissant.
I thought about it later and decided that hey, I got a couple of good miles in and still kept up close to six-minute pace into that wind for another mile, so maybe it's not all bad. Again, it's January. The objective is to stay active, stay healthy, and get in shape to run more miles later in what will hopefully be improving weather.
Sun. Jan. 22 - Unintended day off. I, like my father, got bored and lonely on Saturday and went over to Cheyenne to hang out with him. My plan was to stay Saturday night and head back over to Laramie in the morning, stopping at Happy Jack on the way to do 11-12 miles of trudging. When I awoke on Sunday morning, I found a raging blizzard outside. 50-60mph winds, blowing snow, whiteout conditions, and closed highways. While I debated going out for a few miles in Cheyenne, I decided, again, that fighting the wind just wasn't freaking worth it. So I was a bum and drank some beer and watched football. Ultimately, that was a much better decision than running.
So, I ended up a few miles short of what I had on the schedule (40-45 miles). I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
Totals:
Week's Miles: 32
Running Time: 3:48
Year to Date: 139 (17:07 running time)
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