The Weather Made Me Do It!

I’m still here. I’m also pretty happy about now that I don’t have a goal race soon.

The weather has been awful here in Southern California. The rain started Friday. Today is Tuesday. It hasn’t stopped. I keep looking for the line for the ark. To put things in perspective, a “normal” rain year here would be somewhere around 13 inches. It’s rained 5.25 inches since last Friday. The forecasters are saying another 5 (inches) before the storm blows out of here day after tomorrow.

Now I know what you’re saying – “Pshah! It’s only rain!” Yes. That’s true. But my attitude of rain (and weather in general) in Southern California is “Why run in foul weather today when tomorrow it’s going to be nice?” Of course I wasn’t anticipating seven days of rain when the storm started….

There’s other good news too. My knee is doing much better. Last week I got out for three days of running (somewhere around 12 miles) and the pain that has been dogging me the day after is abating. Yes! Now all I need to do is start working off the extra weight I’m dragging along and get back into shape. One step at a time.

I’m not posting a training plan for this week because, well, it’s going to rain until Friday! Yes sir. That’s what the weather person thingy on TV keeps saying. And then, this being Southern California and all, it will take a day or two to dry out (my normal running route in the Back Bay is currently closed due to flooding, and the trails in the local wilderness parks will be closed for a few days due to muddy conditions – yes – that’s they way we roll here in Southern California). I’ll take it as it comes.

And just in case you think we don’t know what bad weather is here in Southern California, I leave you with this photo:

That’s one night’s worth of snowfall in Mammoth Lakes (about five hours north of here) where they have had a mind boggling 12 feet of snow since last Friday!

Stay warm! Stay healthy!

And So Another Week begins

I’m not trying to set a new record or anything – but this is my second post in two days.

Yesterday was a non-run day. Went out with my youngest son (who is now at least two inches taller than I am) and shot some hoops instead. It’s nice having the clan home for the holidays.

(Note: This photo was from my youngest son’s High School graduation last spring. The two on the left are both at UC Irvine, youngest at UC Riverside, and the one on the right is some fat guy trying to steal the spotlight).

This week’s workouts will be more of the same of the past couple of weeks:

• Monday: Scheduled rest
• Tuesday: 4 to 5 easy miles
• Wednesday: Scheduled rest
• Thursday: 4 or 5 easy miles
• Friday: Scheduled rest
• Saturday: 4 or 5 easy miles. Going to see if I can handle an easy trail on Bommer Ridge
• Sunday: We’ll see how Saturday goes.

In addition, I’m doing some quad strengthening exercises (from Cool Runnings). I’ve got to get some core work started as well. Perhaps this week. At least the cruiser is turned and heading the right direction.

One of the reasons I haven’t started the core work yet is really a lack of available time. The time suck that I’ve been engrossed in is fellow blogger Patrick’s little project. He has resurrected the Endurance Athlete Project. This has some serious legs!  I look for it to be the Facebook for the Endurance Athlete. And before you poo poo the fact that he’s a triathlete and you’re not, EAP is flexible enough that anyone who runs more than a half marathon qualifies as an Endurance Athlete. Come on over and join in the fun! Look me up (gwjones) and friend me!

Lurking

Hello folks. I’m still around. Been in serious lurker mode for the past couple of weeks. Couldn’t do a whole lot else that was very exciting.

Here’s where things stand – I’m back to running. Sort of. First off, if I try to run every day right now, I end up paying for it by the end of the week. So – I’m running every other day. Second, since I have been a little (okay – a whole lot) less than disciplined with my diet, the extra poundage I’m carrying around makes it difficult to go a whole lot further that 4 or 5 miles at a time. But – I’m at least moving.

One other thing I learned is that right now I’m not in shape to do anything serious. As a result, I passed on my opportunity to run the Crystal Cove XTERRA 17K on Sunday. Luckily TeaTime was able to take advantage of my absence in the race. All was not lost though – if you ran the race I was the guy behind the table at the first aid station (just past mile 3) filling the water cups. Hope you had a great time running!* I know I did just helping out:

* Note: We had an unseasonably warm weekend here. At our aid station, the temperature was pushing 75F when folks started showing up around 8:45 AM under sunny and breezeless skies. We heard of two cases of heat exhaustion, and while the ranger was driving us back to the start area, we had to stop and assist a hiker who was in heat distress. Glad I was just volunteering!