Lenox Winter Vacation

Arrived Saturday in Lenox for some snow and cold. Big storm walloping the east coast with New England expected to get hit hard Saturday night. Woke up Sundy morning... not a flake. Just cold and blustery. Doah!
Was hoping to replace some miles of running with snowshoeing.

Wizard of Voz

Talia, now 6 years old and a voracious reader, just watched the "Wizard of Oz" again for the 1st time in a year or so. She always thought it was the Wizard of 'VOZ' rather than "OZ". Easy to mistake the difference if you've only heard the name but never read it yourself. How cool.

Holy Shit- I ran 18 miles yesterday

Ran to Saguaro at the Broadway trailhead, then to the main loop. Instead of turning around at the Visitor's center, I kept going around the loop. Achilles was killing me the whole way, but the rest of the body was fine. Feeling fatigued 1 day later, but great. No pain. I really shouldn't vary from my training plan so much, but it was a beautiful day and I couldn't stop running.

Hoping I don't hurt myself. 15 more weeks to the LA Marathon.

130.71 Miles in November

According to my Nike+ log, I did 19 runs for a total of 130.71mi at an average pace of 8:02/mi. I think it's overestimating by about 4-5%, but still, that's way more than I've ever run in a month before.

I'm generally fatigued and always fighting off the next potential injury- but my LA Marathon Training is still on track.

Back to Running- with a New Goal

The calf is feeling capable and I'm back to running. Really enjoyed a 15mi run up reddington pass last weekend, so it got me thinking. I'm in position to train for a marathon. First time in my life.

We'll see what happens as I work through the training program, but right now I'm 17-1/2 weeks from the LA Marathon.

I feel like I'm at base camp at Everest with a goal in sight. It's taken almost 2 years to get to base camp. If I don't summit (26.2) on 3/21, then I sign up for another and try again.

5K run- won my first race (sort of)

I was nearly crying inside as I watched the half marathoners start and run off without me and my soleus. Damn soleus. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful morning and I trotted off on the 5K run. I started towards the back, went out slow and comfortably, not trying to race, but just enjoy the ride. I did slalom between the cones and stretched out my legs as they began to warm up to the race. Grabbed gatorade at the half way point (Note to self, gatorade doesn't taste good until 10 miles) and then missed the turnaround... probably cost me a good 15 to 20 seconds.

Passed one person after another and ran down a 27 year old woman on the final few hundred yards.

Surprise- I ended up 9th overall (out of 209), 7:35 pace and 1st place in the 45-49 age group. Got a nice etched beer mug as a prize. cool!

http://www.everyoneruns.net/results_details.asp?RaceID=13&ResultsID=37

http://www.everyoneruns.net/results_details.asp?RaceID=13&ResultsID=38

2 days to go

I've gotten in 3 easy 3-mile runs on the treadmill. Soleus wasn't especially sore today after the run. I'm thinking I might be able to do the half, but it certainly would be a risk to the fragile soleus. Plus, I haven't trained in 3 weeks. don't know what to do. Aaargh!

Injury Report- 1st attempted run today.

Warmed up the injured calf on the elliptical for 30 min. Stretched out and tried a slow jog on the treadmill. Felt OK. Slowly upped the pace and incline and made it 1.5mi before my Soleus said "hello!". Stretched. Foam rollered. Hot Tub. Massaged. I'll call it a success after only 9 days. 12 more days to go before the half marathon. I'm determined to be ready.

Amy back from Colorado

Amy returned from seeing Judy Rosen in the hospital, recovering from surgury to remove ovarian cancer. Lots of fluid build-up. Not doing well right now. Very sad.

I came up lame! Shoot me.

I’ve been training for the ½ marathon on Nov 1st, and have done 12 mi runs for the past 3 weekends, with an 8min/mi pace. My 10K training pace has been 7:35 or 7:40 – a couple of those every week. I was feeling cocky and anything better than an 8min/mi for Sunday’s 10miler would have made me happy. I thought a 7:45/mi was easily in reach for me.

Went out at a 7:30 -7:40 pace, knowing that might be a bit fast, but was feeling good. Then I felt the calf pain at ~4 miles. Had to stop and felt if I could just stretch it out and massage it, it would feel better. Thought it was just a calf cramp- which I had never had before. Turns out, by location, soreness and inflammation, it seems to be a soleus tear. Finishing the rest of the 6 miles on it, probably didn’t do it any good (except for the experience of running through excruciating pain). And moving furniture all afternoon (instead of RICE) I’m sure just made it worse.

I was hydrated, had breakfast- including a banana that morning- so probably not an electrolyte deficiency. Especially not at only 4 miles. My diagnosis of the problem- No warm-up. Normally I run 2.5 miles, then stretch out, then continue my long run or intervals. I didn’t do that on Sunday. Just walked up to the starting line and started to run (dumb for a 45 year old). Also, my right leg is chronically tight and I always need to stretch it more (Karma Kintzler pointed this out to me).

At first I was just annoyed at my 1:21 time. But now I’m wondering how long it’s going to take this soleus tear to recover and if I just killed my HM coming up. Doah!

Race Results: http://www.azroadrunners.org/results/detail/get_moving_tucson_2009_results

Big Air and 100hrs

Big air over miller today as the Aspen trees were beginning to change color. Huge areas of lift were enjoyed by 4 stiffies and 3 baggers today. Dr speck, j-lo, rafe and e-tucker were riding the stiffies. Rafael got a long soaring flight today and had his first experience in finding it challenging to get down. Eric enjoyed the big lift after a year's hiatus, and j-lo was all over the huachucas before he decided to cross the valley and land at the bird sanctuary.

Of the flaccid fliers, I dummied off first in what turned out to be the only good breeze that came up launch all day. It lifted me right off the hill and that thermal didn't stop until I left it at 13.5k. There wasn't much breeze on launch, but Terry and John Wolf managed to get off the hill. Up wasn't ever a problem today. I crossed most of the valley without turning and still stayed above 12k.

It was pretty sporting conditions for we aluminumless pilots today, with peak climb rates into the upper teens. Most of the lift covered tremendous expanses of space and had reasonably soft edges, but it still got your attention.

The common conversation in the lz were stories about how difficult it was to get Down!

For me- I crossed 100hrs in my paraglider. Almost 25 in my Atis2. Not very many in 8-1/2 years of flying

Looks like I've got a new newphew. Colton Shepard Zuckerman 8lbs 13.3oz

Long Run

Did the longest run of my life yesterday. 12 miles
http://slowgeek.com/ru/morey000/1745572677
Felt fine.

It's taken me 20 months to get to this point, battling a variety of injuries along the way.

Training for a half marathon on Nov 1st seems to be going well and on schedule.


The Saguaro run on Labor Day was a real turning point for me. 8 (hilly) miles. Felt great at just over an 8min/mi pace. 143rd place out of 660ish. There I am in the back of this photo.

Here's the only other pic of me from the 8mi Saguaro run. This is pretty close to the finish, about 7.5 miles.

Gotta' start somewhere

While eating my tuna sandwich and reading some blogs from the Santa Cruz Flats hang gliding competition, I realized that I've got a facebook and twitter account, but haven't secured the precious 'morey000' account on blogger. Don't know what I'm going to do with this account yet, but it's mine... all mine. Who knows- I might have something to say some day.