The relaxed atmosphere of our time up here in the cabin in Strawberry got me a little less inclined to run Wednesday and Thursday… well not inclined at all.

If I was in town, this Saturday, last day of 2005, would have been a Team-D 6 mile run at South Mountain, so being up here, I ran my own 6.5 mile run our Fossil Creek Road. This is a gentle meander out the paved main road in town, past the bulk of the homes. This stretch is unusual as it seems to be slightly downhil both coming and going.

But the real thrill is after the pavement ends, and the road bends left then right, and climbs steeply perhapd two hundred feet up, past the Llama Ranch, past the last few large private homes, and finally reaches the boundary of Tonto National Forest. A few more miles out the road, th bottom drops out for an 1800 foot descent into the bottom of Fossil Creek Canyon. I’ve done this before on mountain bike, but not today on foot, maybe in some future lifetime when I am in shape for a triathalon.

Today, the boundary was more than enough.

Forest Boundary marker, with some surrealness via PhotoShop

It was a nice steady run out and back, pretty much on the slow side, but without stopping. I was a bit sore in the muscles (a dip in the hot tub always helps!), but felt good that I ran the route I set out to day.

Did you know... Jerry Mathers, actor of "Leave It To Beaver" fame is/was diabetic (from Diabetes Health Magazine)
See more diabetic facts...

Our training schedule had today as another 30-40 minute intermediate run. Stuff I have read about running suggests alternative activity to mix things up, physically, and emotionally. So I could say today’s decision to not run was that strategic.

We are still enjoying the slow pace at our cabin. The weather is absurdly warm, almost 70 degrees in the sun. A good day to get some outdoor chores done. First was cutting down a dead oak tree. Ther’s nothing quite like power of a working chain saw, yet the effort os much more upper body work than it looks. Then there was some splitting of the larger pieces with an axe. More gratifying work. Next came the easy job, planting a tree.

For our third year here we had continued a tradition of buying a live tree for Christmas, and setting up on our covered deck for the holidays. The trees we are buying are Austrian Black Pines, which are supposed to grow fast and be immune to the bark beetle which has decimated the native Ponderosa pines with a prolonged drought.

The last two we have planted following Christmas have grown tremendously well. So it was time to prepare a spot for tree number three. A spot was picked, a place where a Cypress tree ended up not doing too well.

So today’s exercise was pickand shovel physical labor.

Now digging a hole may not sounds like much, but the “soil” on our property is not far above bedrock of sandstone, and you cannot stick a shovel in the ground without hitting 2 or three other rocks, small pones, pebbles, medium sized footballs, and extra large giant slabs. We’ve managed to landscape our entire property with sandstone block walk way paths.

So it was no surprise when I started digging a hole for the new tree when I hit the tell tale corner of one of the larger ones. It seemed obvious this big rock would be an undesirable obstacle for roots of the new tree. It had to come out.

It was maybe an hour of chipping, prying to get the big rock loosened enough to get it out, but there was a problem– it was 2-3 feet down in the bottom of a hole, It weighed some 150-200 pounds and not very liftable.

So my wife and I decided to deploy a method that was worked well before- rock rustling. We work a 50 foot rope under and around the rock, tie it to our pick-up truck, and tow it out. With the angle, there was only about 15 feet of forward movement available, and the rop broke twice. But try number three was successful, and the wayward rock is now out of the way.

The effort took longer, and the planting is left for tomorrow.

So no miles down today, but one big ______-ing rock was moved out of the way.

I’m still enjoying this week of R&R time in Strawberry. To mix up the run routine, today, I decided to take on a course full of hills. From our place, it is a drop down across Fossil Creek Road, where I followed the arc of Ralls Road counterclockwise to Highway 87, and then back again.

But more, than a gentle arc, Ralls climbs perhaps 200 feet, in a series of sttp ups, short steps, and more ups. Then it drops again back down to the highway. There is likely no stretch more than 1/8 of a mile that one might call “flat”.

The up hills were slow, but steady, with a few stretches where I tried to push the pace somehat. On the way out, I took the downhills pretty slowly, not wanted to get carried away, or slide in the gravel. But on the way back, I picked those up as well.

I was not thrilled at first, but I made myself determined to do the route I set out to do. So this day goes in the pile of “good runs”.

Also, in the reaching plateau department, I am very grateful to my friends/colleagues Ruvi and Bert, whose recent donations have shoved me above my $1500 fund raising goal. Thanks!

If I wrote early on in this blog that I was “only” running 5 miles, I might think I had been doing something bad, like freebasing Bodyglide or inhaling Gatorade. After our big run this week of 12 miles, Coach Dave has us in the 3 week phase of “tapering” down the runs in preparation for race day on January 15.

We are up at our cabin in Strawberry from now through January 3rd, and it has been just a lot of relaxing and enjoying the slow-down of the end of the year. My mom is visiting from Florida, and with the kids visiting, we have a small (860 square feet) cabin full of 7 people and 2 dogs.

Yesterday, I had some mild intentions of running, and after lunch said I was going to rest a little before going running, and headed for the hammock. It was pretty comfy, and I fell asleep pretty peacefully. The funny thing was, my wife started getting concerned as she thought I was out running, and it had been 2 hours, I was not answering the cell phone I usually carry (it had been put in silence), and she went out in the car looking for me… it was only after she left that someone peered through the trees from the deck and yelled out, “hey, Alan’s out there napping!”

So let folks know for sure if you are going running or napping

Anyhow, today, I again took a hammock snooze, but around 4:00 it was either go/no go (run/no run) time. The weather up here has been unseasonable warm, so I decided to head out for a run in just shorts and a t-shirt. Yes, this is December. I ran out Fossil Creek Road west towards the far end of town, a route I’ve done a number of times. When running up here at 6000 feet elevation, i try to take the pace extra easy, and even so, I felt like it was a pretty good clip for a relaxing run. I ran out 2.5 miles to where the pavement ends, turned around to make it almost 5 miler. It was very serene with the sun dropping to the west through the gap at the end of the valley, and the town quiet in the anticiupating of Christmas Eve.

So it felt great to get the hour’s run in, and likely will be taking tomorrow off, but picking up some more easy runs for the rest of our week here. It would have been fun in town to run some of the holiday runs that are available, but then again, being up in the mountains is rather good for the mind and soul.

I hope anyone reading this is having as great a holiday time as we are up here!

Woo-hoo! This morning was the long Team-D traning run, and I ran all 12 miles, in fairly good form, no pains, and no stopping (beyond water breaks).

It was drak when we started at 7:00 AM, but the sun came our quickly, in full force, and it was HOT. I wish I had not worn the long sleeve top.

We ran again along the canals starting from 20th St and Maryland, near Granada Park. We went north on the Canal to Northern Ave and back, then past the starting pount southeast on the canal across 24th Street, around the mansions of Biltmore Circle, and farther east on the canal to 40th St, and then back tot he starting point.

Allright! I am ready to rock n’ roll

Today’s 3.1 mile loop run felt great, a strong pace, and I felt the best I have ever been running. My pedometer/stopwatch batteries had dies, so I am not sure of the time, but it was I bet the fastest I have run this route.

All is on target for tomorrow’s big run.

I hope.

The search for a cause of my persisent cough goes on. I have been asking my general pracitioner about this since September 2003. So far what has been rule out includes:

• Allergies (tried generic Clariton)
• Asthma (inhaling Albuterol did not improve the diminished lung capacity)
• Infection- two bouts of Levaquin the “atomic bomb” of antibiotics, did not kill the cough cause
• ACE Inhibitor side effect (a plumonary specialist thought this was a good possibility- taking an alternative form two weeks ago, and I am still hack coughing

I left a message with the pulmonnary specialist today and was pleasantly suprised when he called back afew hours later…. this Doc gives service! He informed me of 2 remaining likely causes- a sneaky sinus infection or some odd form of acid-reflux. To rule out the latter easily, he suggested I take Prilosec and Pepsin AC for a few days,a nd let him know if there are any noticable changes.

The pill parade goes on… cough, cough , cough, cough.

I ended up not running at all on Saturday; my friend Tim was in town from Oregon, and I took him up to our cabin in Strawberry for a quick visit. We did a short hike up on the Mogollon Rim, but not even mileage worth logging.

So today, Sunday, I went on the Canal 5 mile Loop I have done 3 or 4 times before, and ran a good pace, and finishing in under an hour, better than any time before.

There is not a whole lot that was remarkable about the run- the sun came out and by 8;30 it was very warm (the gloves were just hand weights). All is gearing up for the 12 mile practice run on Wednesday, which will be the longest run yet until race day.

I was not eager to run the morning after a Wednesday night run and tried to reach for the Excuse Parade. My wife sensed my lingering, so it helped when she suggested we take the dog to the park for a walk, and then I tacked on a 2 mile loop home.

Beyond that, nothing noteworthy!

Tonight was the last of the Wednesday evening track trainings at Scottsdale Community College with Coach Dave. Our Team-D ranks are getting thin, down to 5 of us, and I hope everyone is just busy with holiday and life stuff and not hurting.

We ran 6 sets of 8oom runs- each two lap set done so we increased the speed every 1/2 lap, and trying to get consistent times for each set. The trick is starting out slow enough to leave room to accelerate!

The 2 minutes of rest went by way to quick, but I felt as strong in the legs as I have ever ben, and had all my times betweem 4:29 and 4:38.

At least up front Dave told us how many sets there would be, so there would not be the repeated series of “One more!”

I’ve learned a lot doing these track runs, and I would have never done this sort of speed and pace work on my own.

Next Wednesday is the morning where I wil do the longest team run, a 12 miler.