I just want to thank all the folks, some I know well, some not at all, that responded to my request for sponsorship via some blog posts and twitter announcements. With an end of the year tremendously generous donation by my colleague Teddy (who I now owe lunch for sure as she lives in Phoenix), I am past my fund raising goal of $1500.

So I may hate running, but I really like the power and connectivity of the internet. This is a long way from some of the first charity bike rides I did in the late 1980s where you would cart around sheets of paper to pester people for pledges. Now its all online, baby!

Did you know... "Winnie Mandela, South African anti-apartheid leader is diabetic" (from Diabetes Health Magazine)
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This break from work, home, life after Christmas has instigated a bit of slackness in training, but hey, this is taper, right? I had planned Sunday to run the long one scheduled for Saturday… but ended up instead moving 40 bags of dirt, compost, and manure for my mother-in-law’s garden. Felt good to do some lifting activity.

So today was time to get back to the running game. Its been a bit warmer these last few days up on the Rim (day time temps hitting the 50s) and it was rather sunny when I set out at 3:00 PM, for the usual out Fossil Creek Road. The pace was fair and steady. Hardly anyone was out, just a few folks trotting along merrily on horseback. Got past the transition to dirt road, past the mega mondo new forest mansion that faces the valley (our house could easily fit inside their garage), and around the curve, slowly up the hill, about a 600 ft climb in 3/4 of a mile, and taking it all the way to the crest, into the National Forest Land.

Just before it starts to gently slide down (and it goes a long way down if you keep on going, like 2000 feet down to Fossil Creek), I took a forest road that cut to the south, and had some fun jumping and stepping through the dried muddy ruts. Then it was turn around, where I could savor a long, long downhill stretch. At about the 7 mile mark, near the Strawberry School House, I felt a little soreness in my right knee, and paying heed to Coach Dave’s warnings about staying away from injury, I decided to walk the last mile.

But brrr- once I was not generating running heat and the sun was down it was frigid cold! My hands were numb by the time I got home.

Anyhow, I am done for running in 2007!

It is absolutely winter cold up here on the Mogollon Rim. The temps this morning were about 18 degrees (F) and even by 11:00am it had warmed to 36. With some family visiting the last 2 days, I shuffled my schedule to rest yesterday and run today, with tomorrow (saturday) being the new Friday (off, yoga day) and then long run on Sunday, rather than Saturday.

For today’s run, I did the loop around Ralls Rd, with its fun steep hills, out to highway 87 and then as far towards Pine before the side line squeezed out. I’d be interested in going down that hill but the traffic is gnarly and there is little to no shoulder. I charted this one on MapMyRun which I found gives the elevation change, this loop as about 500ft of ascent and descent in less than 2 miles of map distance.

It was nice and s-l-o-w all fitting being in taper mode the next 2 weeks.

The next long run is “only” 14

We arrived in Strawberry for an extended stay past New Years. Shucks, we missed the snow from 2 weeks ago, just some patches left in the shade. But man, is it chilly! It could have not been much over 40 in the middle of the afternoon. The lazy mode was kicking in, but I bundled up at 4 for a jaunt out Fossil Creek Road and back. It felt.. pretty good, not bad, not great.

I could sure use some different routes, as I know this one all too well. Every inch.

Thanks again to all on the internet you have jumped in with sponsorships, some from people I dont even know by name. That is so cool. I am only $170 from my $1500 goal, so please, please consider chipping in $10, $25, whatever you can spare in the name of someone you know affected by diabetes, even if it is me

Thanks.

Peace

Tis a lovely sunny Christmas day in Phoenix. Our festivities were yesterday, and today is that house as quiet as a mouse feeling. We were scheduled to run yesterday and rest today, but I flipped the calendar, and headed out for the schedule 50 minute run.

It may have been sunny but the wind was full force as I headed east to Pima and even more heading north towards the canal. And even more when I turned west on the canal looking right at Camelback Mountain; I believe that camel was trying to blow me across the Superstition mountains.

Turned around at 23 minutes (oops should have been 25 to be precise) and wow, that as easy. The tail wind blew me home in 48 minutes.

With not feeling any ill effects form being sick last week, I’m hopeful to stay on schedule through the taper time of training.

One run at a time until the 13th. And that is just a run too.

I finally got around to posting the log graph of the training, with blue bars for miles run (236 as of today) and red bars as hours run (46 total). The big old gap in the middle was an Australia sized hole bitten into the training.

Oh my gosh, I actually ran 20 miles. For the first (1.0) time.

Can barely type, much less walk.

it did not help I cought a cold Monday and did not run all week.

It was rather chilly at 7am, a notch above 35 according to my truck. This was a slow paced training, which was no problem for me, along the canals starting at Granada park, with 2 of those loops past the unrealistic mansions of Biltmore circle.

The First Eight were great, the next 4 not bad, the next 4 a bit slower, and the last 4… well it was all I could do to keep moving.

So… can I do another 6.2 on top?

That’s the plan.

While some consulting work I did raised enough funds for me to run this year without pestering my family and friends for donations, I was still hoping to go a bit above the minimum. So in turn, I appealed to readers of my CogDogBlog site; see “Ain’t to Proud to Beg (sponsor $$)”, and that automatically got posted to my other online outlet, the space of Twitter.

I am not aiming to explain what this online space is, but it allows me to connect and communicate with a wide range of people, many I know, many I dont know– some 500 “follow” me, yes it may sound creepy, but it is harmless, I am sure. I am an Internet Professional. Somewhere I have a badge. It came out of a gumball machine….

So I posted the plea to my “twitterverse” at http://twitter.com/cogdog.

And just like that! IN 2 days already 13 people responded and sponsored me, from Australia, the UK, heck, even Phoenix. And I’m closing the gap quickly on my goal of raising $1500 thanks to them.

I must issue an apology though, as I did suggest that if half of them stepped up with a $5 sponsorship, I’d double my fund raising. That part is true. But I just noticed that the credit card site for the ADA has a $10 minimum. That sounds like a scam! So my offer is; if anyone who wanted to donate $5 can get me that in any other form (check, cash, gold coins), I will match that amount in-kind as an extra donation.

Join the fun! Sponsor me!

Oh, the training log takes another hit this week. I felt great after Saturday’s run. On Sunday, as a different excercise, we walked about 3 miles total going to a movie and back (for what its worth we saw, “No Country for Old Men”).

And Monday, I felt IT coming it.

IT was that coughy, achy, sore throat thang that sidelined me a month when I caught it in Australia (or as my colleagues there called it, “CogDogWog”– that is another long story). I had to wait til Tuesday to get to the docs so I could get a magic pill (antibiotics), but this weeks was perhaps “No Running for Sick Men”.

Even more ironically, I had a new employee in our organization fly in for some training on Wednesday and Thursday, and he was sick too! As was everyone in our office.. we traced a common thread to a colleague from our office who was coughing all over the place at our meeting last Friday in San Jose.

I’m feeling on the upswing, and hope enough rest can happen to at least get me out on Saturday’s long run- this is the 20 miler!

Yikes!

I was just in San Jose last nght for the end of a work meeting, caught the late flight home (got there at 1am), all so I could make the Team D run today at Kiwanis Park. This was a low part in the jigsaw climb, as we ran 70 minutes timed (I did about 6 miles) so we could all meet up for a holiday potliuck, and get the scoop from Coach Dave on tips for next week- which will be the longest training run… the …. 20-miler.

I felt really spry out the gate, a better than normal pace… I slowed a bit to catch up with my colleague Gaye, a walker, who I;d not seen in a while (so glad you are still on track, great work, on a bum knee, Gaye!)

That’s about it. I ran, I listened, I ate some groovy food.

Now I just have to run this week and gear up for… the …. 20-miler.

The “morning after” a Wednesday night track training is one where the Excuse Train seems to have a lot of pull. It was chilly (below 40F), dark this morning, and the legs seemed a bit tight. But this was my only good window as I have to be ready to leave at 10am to catch a plane to San Jose for a 2 day meeting.

So I opted do to 3 laps around Chaparral Lake and the northern ball fields, as the path is lighted. I did each one at an even pace, about 15:10 per lap. I did not really need those lights as the sun crept up silently, vigilantly, casting glorious colors on nearby Camelback Mountain.

The highlight was coming around the south bend, looking up, and seeing the contrails of a recent jet in the sky, and the snake of its path wa exactly thr route of the east side of the loop. So I merrily followed along, chasing the contrails in the sky, and pondered where they are leading me.

This is all part of the head games to play with the mind so it is not focusing on the fact I’d rather be at home sipping coffee… but maybe not, today felt GOOD.