I had full, grand, genuine intentions yesterday to get up and run my 6+ mile loop– except I managed to set my alarm click for “PM” rather than “AM”… so today, the clock was set right, it was a t-shirt weather wram morning at 5:30, and I got in a fairly good run… managing to shave a whallopping 4 seconds off my best time .

I have a lot of worries with the Valley of the Sun 1/2 Marathon a week from Sunday, and the longest I have trained recently is 10.5 miles. Thursday is likely my last chance for a longer run, as by the weekend I ought to be tapered down.

Oh well, again, I just want to finish…. well, I do prefer to best my previous time, but we will see.

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It’s my last day in Austin, and was hoping to take advantage of the nice running trails to take a good 10 miler or maybe better.

The weather gods had another idea since the morning was all saturated grey skies (something not seen in Arizona in months, if not years) and a lot of rain. So I resigned myself to use the treadmill in the hotel fitness center.

I’m not very fond of treadmills, but I did find it was good to use to check my paces- I varied between “virtual” laps at a 10:30 minutes./mile clips, 1 at a 9:00 rate, and a few resting ones at 11:00. But damn, even with an iPod I got major BORED and could not go much more than 30 minutes.

Now I am in Austin Texas for a 2 day meeting and I fully intended to use the running gear I packed. This morning, I got out at 7:00 Am for a run along the Town Lake trail which is a wondefully laid trail on both sides of the “Colorado River” that runs through downtown.

It’s back home to the Valley. I slacked off yesterday relaxing ion our last vacatiuon day at the cabin, and was detemined/hopeful to have a good run this morning.

And it was.

This was my “regular” 6.3 mile loop following the canal paths. Still dark and a bit chilled at 5:45 AM, but the pace was strong and I shaved a minute off my best time for this route.

It’s closing in on 3 weeks until the Valley of Sun 1/2 Marathon, and I am feeling my training is lagging a bit behind the intensity of the training for the Rock and Roll run in January.

My wife and I are doing a nice long 5 day escape/visit to our cabin up in Strawberry. We got here Friday, and it’s worth a day or two of altitude adjustment (we are at 6000 feet here) before running, so Saturday we did a nice hike with a bit of a steep climb. That was warm up.

Today I set out to try and get in 12 miles. It was a chilly morning, still in the mid 30s at 9:00 AM.

There is very little flat here, and about the best route to use is Fossil Creek Road. I measured out that running from the highway 87 intersection out to past the end of the pavement, and the base of the hill past the Llama ranch was 3 miles, so I could get my miles in my doing 2 out and back loops. I started off fairly slow, but felt okay, like I could keep on going. I got back to my starting point (6 miles) at about 1:08, swapped water bottles, and headed out again. I had a good burst of energy that carried me past the Strawberry Schoolhouse (7.5 miles), cruised slower out to the turn around point (9 miles), and really felt a bit like dragging as I hit the pavement again (9.5 miles). I made it to the schoolhouse again (10.5 miles) and decided to throw in the towel,a nd call home for a ride.

On one hand I was disappointed not to hit my 12 mile goal, but did feel good at crossing double digit miles, actually only the 4th time I have done so. I am planning to get a 12 miler in next week at home.

Ugh. Just flew home from Canada last night, so much to do with washing clothes, sorting mail, cathing up on work, so this morning I ws not game for a big jaunt. I decided to do a 3.25 mile loop I’ve done a lot- 2 laps around Chaparral Lake, and a longer loop to get back to the house. I tried a bit of alternating paces a few swifter segments.

My training now crosses the international boundary… I am in Canada this week to attend the Northern Voice 2006 Conference and staying with friends in East Vancouver. I had grand plans to do a lot of running here, and the weather amazingly enough was cooperative.

While Arizona has jad a record period of no rain (110+ days). this part of country has had the opposite record- almost 2 months of daly rain. That ended the day I arrived- for it was sunny the entire week I was there.

My one run was down a gentle hill on Slocam to the Portside Trail along the Burnaby River. The trails here are marked amazingly well, and following east a bit it led past a few industrial areas, and I went as har as the Second Narrows Bridge:

It was not the most brilliant of running days, but good to keep the legs going.

Morning reluctance.

Thought about stopping after 3/4 mile.

Didn’t.

Ran the whole dang 6.3.

Yea!!!!!

As mentioned earlier, there are no flat runs here in Strawberry, and although I was reluctant to head out after yesterday’s dismal showing, I picked something “different” though I have run it before.

Running from our cabin and around the Ralls Road Loop is an exercise in hill climbing. It is a paved road the stair steps up, and up, and UP, and when you get to a high part (majestic views of the Mogollon Rim), it drops down, and down, and DOWN, to highway 87. I added on a little bit by heading towards Pine and turning around at the Pine-Straweberry trailhead. Then I do the whole thing in reverse.

It was slow going, but non stop.

Now I’m getting a little worried. I’ve overlaid the training schedule I used in November/December to plan for the March 12 Valley of the Sun Half Marathon, and today’s run should have been 10 miles. I am forgetting I’ve only done double digits 3 times prior, one of them the Rock and Roll Half Marathon.

There is was, looming, a big 10 on my calendar.

We’re spending a 3 day weekend here at our cabin in Strawberry, so 10 miles cannot be done without some hills. I plotted to run west on Fossil Creek Road. I knew it was 3.5 miles to a point I had done back in October, so I just needed to go 1.5 mile more.

It’s February here, and it should be winter, but boy was it warm (70s?). I started out okay, knowing it was not a great pace, but accounting for the altitude difference. At about 2.75 miles is a sharp rise up a hill, a gravel road. It was slow but steady. Once crested, it felt pretty good. I passed the point I had run before, and kept going. The road started dropping a bit, and then a lot. I was using my pace to guess turn around point was about at 57 minutes, just past the turn to the Fossil Creek trail head.

Wow, it was stepp going up. Even slower and steadier. Plodding. It was again nice to crest that rise, and I was treated to seeing 3 small whitetal deer skamper across the road. I cruised down the hill, back towards the place where Fossil Creek Road pavement ends.

I was really feel gassed out. I felt like I could have run/walked the last 2.5 miles, but really could not see how it would help much. I ended up calling home for a ride.

I’m really kicking myself for coming up short, and trying to look at the 7.5 miles I did.