Week 8: insert funny title here?

(Monday, 31 December)
Down and around the lake (short way) and back. About 6 miles? I hadn't been around the lake in a long time. I felt pretty good, and it was nice to run without a watch.

Things that are different in a good way: the water was much nicer looking, the area around the lake looks much cleaner and there's some cool buildings going up.

Things that are different in a bad way: the Canada geese have had their ecological niche taken over by some stupid coots. No, seriously - there used to be HUNDREDS of Canada geese all over the damn lake that you could grab, and now there's just these stupid round little birds that I detest. Also it still smells pretty bad.

(Tuesday, 1 January)
Actually went running with my dad! Well, sort of. We both went running. It was fun. It was also kind of cold. I didn't run hard, but not easy either. Spent the day stuffing my face with treats. (BV to the bathrooms then took the road out until I thought it had been about 20 minutes and then I turned around.)

(Wednesday, 2 January)
Took the day off thinking I'd run in Pope Valley on Thursday. Also vaguely depressed.

(Thursday, 3 January)
Beat myself up all day about not going running because it was sub-40 and raining hella hard and the wind was enough to scare the shit out of me at least 4 times just sitting inside reading in the cabin. So. I am a fat, lazy fuck. By the time I got back home it was gusting and dark and my right heel was hurting again as it does occasionally.

(Friday, 4 January)
Decided to brave the slightly warmer (low 50s) and wet conditions. Went to track to run on turf (as to not be hit by a car or slip and fall on wet sidewalks and leaves). Turns out turf was already covered. Covered in 1.5" of water that is. Yiiikes. So I ran on the track, pretty hard, but not for long (40 minutes?). Worked hard on form: knees up, bring those feet up, elbows in, shoulders relaxed. I was soaked through my windbreaker by the end, but the cap made it manageable. The only dry spot was on my ass. Which made it look like that was the only WET part, which was lame. But the only folks I saw were a couple of high school kids streaking around in their underwear. All in all it was fun, and I would have gone for longer had it not been so boring going on the track that whole time.

Right heel felt okay, but right shin gave me a few complaints while I was on the track. Got better after a few laps though.

(Saturday, 5 January)
Drove down to Pasadena. Cat seemed to do fine - no whining, just cowering. No big storm or anything, and I brought my tire chains just to ward it off. When I got unpacked, I went for a run, my place to Ian's, then picked him up and did SM to Huntington to Virginia (almost got hit by a car but Ian got all puffed up and yelled at the sombitch). Gmap-pedometer says 7.8. It was a fairly good clip and felt good. I confess to being quite spooked by the potholes in the grass though.

(Sunday, 6 January)
About 8 miles on the trail around the RB, starting from the CA entrance and heading up around the golf course to the 210 overpass. Nice trail! I didn't even really realize the north portion was even there! Super. New goal is, when running with Ian, don't go out too fast and then slow down. Not optimal training there, pardner. The Arroyo was pretty damn full and moving fast, and it was raining hard the last 20 minutes or so. Great run. I felt good afterwards.

By dinner time (after seeing "Juno", which was pretty okay) I wasn't feeling so hot. Stomach = horrible. I hope I feel better tomorrow.