Occupy..

Sorry! Just had to post it…..

Can You Look out Your Window Please?

My motivation may be running past. If you see it can you please catch it and send it back home?

As you can gather from the title, last week was a fail. Got in the runs during the week, but just couldn’t get motivated to get out the door on the weekend. So, I put in 14 miles, but my long(ish) run went out the window.

Assuming someone catches my motivation and sends it back home, here’s what I’m look at this week:

• Monday: Scheduled rest
• Tuesday: 4 miles
• Wednesday: Schedule conflict – scheduled rest
• Thursday: 4 miles
• Friday: 6 miles
• Saturday: Schedule conflict – rest day
• Sunday: 10 miles on the trails
• Total planned: 24 miles

Thinking about it, I’ve been reading about a lot of motivation issues lately. Maybe it’s a conspiracy?

I Guess Summer is Over

We’re in a weird transitional season in Southern California. Kind of in between what we call summer (a little bit of heat with no humidity) and winter (more like spring in the rest of the country).

The thing that identifies fall in Southern California are extremes. For example, in the last week, we had had days of upper 90’s (here at the beach – triple digits inland) followed two days later with fog and temperatures barely in the mid 60’s:

Saturday was absolutely spectacular with temperatures in the low 70’s, light breeze, and bluebird skies:

But, unlike the rest of the country where autumn looks like this*:

Here in Southern California, autumn looks like this:

Sigh.

Keep your head down and feet moving!

* Just to rub it in – the fall colors photo above was taken in Southern California – about six hours north of Orange County.

Another Week

Well – I was conspicuously missing from these pages last week. I had a busy week (too much busy work, unfortunately not enough productive work) and some weather issues (over 90 here at the beach early last week) created some scheduling and rescheduling requirements. Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday became Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Then, a last minute appointment on Friday put the kibosh on that day. Finally, I found out (not surprisingly) that I’m not in as good a shape as I want to be in when I hit the trails for a 12 miler on Saturday. I made it through 8 of the miles. Man. What a sad sack.

Saturday’s run slog was spectacular though. We are very much into Southern California fall.

The good news is that goals are made to strive toward, and plans are the road maps to get there. I think I’m still on the right road – but hey – I’m a guy. I don’t ask for directions:

• Monday/Tuesday: Scheduled rest
• Wednesday: 4 miles
• Thursday: 6 miles
• Friday: Scheduled rest
• Saturday: 12 miles (heading back into the hills – so will probably be 8 to 10 miles to be realistic)
• Sunday: 4 miles
• Total: 22-26 miles

Nose to the grindstone and all that crap….

Committed

I guess that has one of two meanings. You get to decide which one fits: http://www.bhs50.com/index.html

The past six weeks have been all about hitting the reset button and making sure my body is able to handle some training stress. I’m handling four days a week pretty well. Starting next week, it will be about lengthening out. It will be about spending more time on my feet.

I picked up a 50K training plan (don’t make fun of the source guys – these women can run circles around most of us) and made a couple of adjustments. You can keep track of my progress here.

So – come join me as I learn about the ultramarathon world. Enough of the streets for me. Upcoming this week:

• Monday: Scheduled rest
• Tuesday: 3 miles
• Wednesday: 5 miles
• Thursday: 4 miles
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: 12 miles
• Sunday: Rest
• Total mileage: 24 miles