Every day is a new day

Planned day off.

Legs still hurt from Sundays run.  I suspect the very hilly nature of the run was mostly responsible.  Of course it might have been the uphill mile with the jogging stroller.

Ran a very slow 3 miles on the treadmill to lossen up.  Tonight is mountain run with the group.  Hope this warm up keeps the legs loose.

P.M  I did a 2 mile warm up in 18:00 before the mountain run.  Because of this weekends race we shortened the run to 2.7 miles to turnaround and only 1200' elevation gain.  I kept to the mormal pace but it felt pretty easy.  Kept it slow on the run back down.  Legs are tired so will be careful the next two days.

Just 5 easy treadmill miles in 45 minutes as a taper day for this weekend.

Last run before leaving in the morning for the race.  Steve and I did the CC course plus .15 in a very easy 30 minutes just enough to shake out the legs.  Felt good no new issues.

Leave in the morning for the Skagway, AK to Whitehorse, Yukon Territories relay run.  Ten legs, ten runners doing legs as varied as   from 5.6 mile mountain leg to 16.2 mile rolling hills leg to 13.1 downhill leg.  We start at 7:30 PM and will end up 110 miles down the road some 15-16 hours later.  We are a team all over fifty five men and five women. We will finish near the middle of the pack but will be better in our senior mixed division.  A total of over 140 teams will be racing in what can only be described as a great event.  Last years highlight included a runner followed up the mountain leg by a bear, it was close enough for him to be able to feel the breath on his legs.  The bear followed him for many minutes before tiring of the race.

My leg will start about 2:00 AM and is a 14 mile route with one major climb and three or four moderate hills.  Looking forward to it.

Just back from the Klondike Trail of '98 road relay race.  Take one RV, ten mixed masters and a remote, hilly and historic 1898 gold rush route from Skagway, AK to Whitehorse Yukon Territory.  Total distance 110 miles. The group is more fun than competitive.  Makes for an interesting weekend.

My leg 5 route is described as follows:

Description of Leg 5
After leaving Checkpoint #5, runners will follow the shoreline of Tutshi Lake. The lake is to the right with steep mountains very close to the road on the left. This leg of the race consists of mostly rolling hills with lots of curves. At about KM 14.5 there is a fairly challenging 2.5.KM uphill stretch, followed by a 3 KM downhill.

We started at 7:30 P.M. with my leg starting at 01:45 AM.   I started out slow not sure what the hills were really like and did not want to burn out early.  Running at night with no reference, no experience and no GPS makes for a cautious run.  Two early hills confirmed my need to be careful.  Then about 4 miles of flat got me into a steady pace.  I passed and was passed by the same number of runners.  When we hit the hill,( one of those that has a passing lane due to steepness), I slowed to moutain climb pace and worked my way up the 1.5 mile climb.  When I got to the top I knew a long downhill was due.  I actually passed one of the guys that had passed me in the second mile during the downhill portion.  The leg finished with two short but steep uphill only sections.

End result is I had a lot of gas left in the tank, felt great and should have been quite a bit more aggressive on the first half.  Oh well, we were a fun run group not a competitive group.  ,  I ended up at 2:00:30 for an 8:38 pace, well below my 8:15 expectation.  But given the hills and cautious nature on the first half, I am satisfied with the race.  Next year I will try to run the leg I do in advance to avoid being too cautious.

Just 6 easy treadmill miles to start off a travel week at work and probably a low mileage week as well.

Working out of town this week so I get to run on different roads.  The town I'm in has some nice roads with gentle rolling hills with wide shoulders.  Had a nice run this afternoon all miles between 8:00 and 9:15.  Legs still a little sore on the uphills.

Same run as yesterday.  Quite windy today as well as heavy rain.  Surprised myself with running the 9.5 miles in 1:19 which was faster than Tuesday even though the return was straight into the wind.

Same route.  Legs were very sore today and I had a tough time getting goingor finding a good steady pace.  I guess running into the srong wind yesterday and maintqiningpace gave me a bigger workout than I thought.  After about 5 miles I started to feel better but never quite right.  Total 9.5 miles in 1:22.

Exactly the same route  as yesterday .  The weather was a lot nicer and my legs felt a little better.  Ended up at 1:21 for the 9.5 miles today.

Switched days off as I felt beat up yesterday.  Ran the same route out the road and back as the last number of days.  I extended the out portion to the next town which was 7.15 miles.  I decided to run at a little faster pace since I took yesterday off and ended up the run  in 2:14:20 for about an 8:45 pace.  This is about as fast as I want to go in a non race situation for this kind of distance.  I was more than a little tired this evening.  Good run though, I am sure glad I did it.

Just 6.5 easy recovery miles today as I just got home from a week away.  Legs hurt from yesterday.  Slow uneventful run.  Saw a bear on the road this morning exactly where I say the wet footprints while running yesterday.  Actually saw two sets of very distinct black bear tracks while running.

Just an easy 4.5 miles on the treadmill as a warm up mid-day for tonights mountain run.

Ran the Harbor mountain road.  Went up in 36 minutes and down in 25.  Total of 1600 feet up in 3.2 miles.  Heavy rain and fog most of the way.  Good solid run.

Easy treadmill hour.  Trying to cut back a little to see if I can cure the ever worsening plantar pain.  I do ok for a while but every multiple day or long road run brings it back with a vengance.  I am going to try cross training a lot more to see if that helps.

I only had time for a quick 5 mile run in the park.

Nice day!  I did two warm up miles while waiting for the "group".  I thought they would do 8-10 and wanted a couple of more, especially since the group runs together at the slowest persons speed through the salmon carcasses and bears on the route.  Turns out only two showed up.  Both young ladies are training for marathons and the sum of their age plus their two children is still less than mine.  I started to think this run would be just a bit challenging.  The course is a gravel road with numerous long hills but on the out and back is elevation neutral.  I led the way out, ended up I was told to be 6 miles, and set the pace at a little under 9:00/mile. My friends kept saying we must be at 9:30 or higher.  I assured them it was the hills that made it seem that way but I was sure we were under 9.  Also turns out they were running by time not distance so the twelve mile run was actually 125 minutes.  We decided the turn around would be at 59 minutes.  Turned out to be 6.7 miles and an 8:48 pace.  On flat ground this would be just right, but with the hills this was work.

On the return run I had one of my partners lead and on the return run we did 60 minutes for the 6.7 miles and an 8:57 pace. Total of 13.4 miles in 1:59.  A little faster than I would like since this equates to about 1:51-2 half  on a flater road course.  In the end I was tired but glad we all finished together.

Final count: 30+ salmon heads and zero bears on the road.  Only two bears nearby.

Just an easy 4.5 mile recovery run.  Felt like after a race this morning.  Felt good to move.

Harbor mountain run.  2.3 mile warm up then the pain of the mountain. 3.2 miles with1580 elevation gain in a slow 38 minutes. Then 3.2 easy miles back down.Total of 90 minutes.

Ran the Heart Lake trail. I had forgotten about the hills. After yesterday they about killed us.  Only made 5 miles since wewerealready worn out and I want to run tomorrow.

Another nice day.  Ran for almost an hour in the park for 6.5 miles.  Legs sore and tired so did not push it.

Five miles in 400 intervals during the four races. Boys and girls made state.

No time for a long runtoday.  Very bad weather so I did 73 minutes on the treadmill.This ended up as a 8:41/min average. Just a little fast for an easy day.

Ment to do a tempo run today.  Did a 2.5 mile warm up then started the tempo.  After a 1.5 mile run the blisters on both arches really really started to hurt.  I slowed down and finished at a slow pace but all four blisters popped and was quite a problem.  Need to take care of this before I have real trouble.

Blisters on my arches are better today.  Decided that I would try to do my tempo again today after having to stop yesterday.  Ran a 1.5 mile warm up then moved into the tempo.  Ran 5 miles at a 7:45/ min  pace.  Felt great until the last mile which was a little labored but not bad.  Then ended with a 1 mile cool down.  This has been the best tempo wworkout in a long while.