Kudos to the RDs for a job well done.  Unfortunately, they are still letting active.com handle the business end of things, but it was MUCH smoother than last year.  I logged on at about 10 til noon yesterday and after clicking the “register” button a couple of times only to get the “too busy” errors, I found a registration page.  I quickly entered my info and pasted in my qualifying link and I was in.  A couple minutes went by before I had Josh’s entry confirmed as well.

The qualification criteria certainly seemed to have slowed the rush down to a much more sane pace and it took a whole 67 minutes for Wave 2 to fill.  Compare that with 9 last year.

We spent a bunch of weekend nights on the incline last year and I don’t think that will cut it this year.  If we get the regular incline crew going over to Ruxton again once things warm up, I’m going to spend time running up Barr instead of trudging up the stairs on the Incline.  Hopefully, I can make the Sunday workouts with the Incline Club as well.

Now that I’m in, it’s time to talk about goals.  I’d like to finish in under 5:00:00.  I had trained for this last year and was hitting a pace close to that on the bottom half of the course and also above tree line during training runs.  On race day, I abandoned all pace strategy and settled in with the back of the pack and never pressed the pace after the W’s.  Lesson learned.  I’ll continue to take my time on the W’s again this year, but will certainly look to make up time after No-Name and up to Barr Camp.  I’ve got a long time to go before I need to get serious about hitting splits on the pace chart.  It’s all about putting in the time and miles on the hills for right now.

Got the 5K on St. Pat’s Day this Saturday and I’m going to get out on a trail on Sunday also.

On the weight front, I hit 204 this morning.  I finally decided to commit to some dietary changes to go along with the increased training.  I was still eating the same crap and wasn’t seeing much in the way of weight coming off.  The changes have already paid off.  I was bouncing between 207 and 210 depending on the day and I feel like I’ve already busted through a plateau.  I actually weigh less than I did at race time last year, so I’m pretty pleased with that.

It finally warmed up yesterday afternoon and Josh and I headed out to Palmer Park with intentions of tackling the Palmer Point loop.  Once we found the trailhead, about a quarter mile away from the parking lot behind the stables, we headed out.  The trail is much smoother than the Templeton trail which follows the ridge above the Palmer trail.  I ran for maybe 5 or 6 minutes and was drenched in sweat and had to stop to remove my windbreaker.  We continued on around to Lazy Land and I was beat.  A full day of snowboarding on Saturday had pretty much trashed my calves and they didn’t want to move me up the hills on Sunday.

We ended up at the parking lot at the top of the Mesa and found the Templeton trail and headed back to the trailhead.  We hit the cutoff for Edna Mae Bennett and Josh noted it was only 2.5 miles at that point.  Instead of continuing down, we stayed on Templeton and ran the rest of the way around the canyon and back around to the southwest edge of the ridge before doubling back on the spur down to the trailhead.  We ended up with 4.85 miles on the trail in about 1:18.  I did most of the stopping and slowing down.  It was a nice mix of terrain and a beautiful day to get out in the park.

After all that the week of 3/2, I managed no miles running this past week. Had midterms, weather, and life get in the way. I did manage to get a full day of snowboarding in on Saturday and my legs feel it. My shins do feel a little better, though.

Felt really good about mileage last week. It’s probably been since I was running to Barr Camp and back on the weekends last summer that I have done this many miles in a week. Good thing is I’m starting a lot earlier this year.

Mon - 3.5mi

Tues - 3.75mi

Thurs - strength training

Fri - 5 mi on the bike and strength training

Sat - 3.75 mi

11 mi, 3:45.  All the running this week was on a technical trail that requires some power hiking over pretty nasty rock fields.

Is it summer yet?!

… are what make living here absolutely amazing.  We headed out to run Templeton yet again today and got to the trailhead a few minutes after 9am.  It was easily already 50 something degrees and no wind.  The trails were packed with people and dogs, but it was a perfect day for a run.  Josh had his Forerunner 201 on so I got an accurate measure of the trail distance.  It’s only 3.75mi not the 4.1 according to PPRR.

Shin splints are still bothering me a bit.  I’m sure I upped the mileage way too much this week but it’s not too bad.  I’ve been icing them and eating ibuprofen.  It never bothers me when I run but I can usually feel it for a couple days afterward.  I’m planning on getting most of my work on the bike next week and let the shins rest a bit.

Speaking of the bike, I decided to ride the 2.5mi one-way to the gym last night to get in a workout.  You never notice the hills until you’re running or cycling.  Of course, its mostly downhill on the way to the gym and uphill on the way back.  Nothing too terrible and makes for a nice workout.

I decided to head back out to Palmer Park again last night and see if I could make the entire loop around the north end of the park on the Templeton Trail.  Started at the same trailhead and went left at the merge for Templeton to head north along the ridge.  Once around the ridge on the Union Blvd side of the parkit got real cold and the morning snow hadn’t melted off.  Glad I brought my gloves.  Made it around to the end of the mesa and lost my way.  Finally took a random spur and ended up back on Templeton on the other side of the parking lot and made the rest of the loop around to North Canyon.

Trail maps on PPRR say it’s 4.3 mi.  I’ll call it 4 since I cut out a bit coming in on one side and exiting the other side of the canyon.

Going to do the entire loop on Saturday morning again and maybe some additional.  Feel free to ask me how to donate to my Garmin Forerunner 405 fund so I can figure out just how far I am running.

Pulled up the Palmer Park trail maps online today to search out a new run.  Settled on the Templeton trail and headed over about 4pm with the dog in tow.  I left the North Canyon trailhead and started out on Edna Mae Bennett trail and quickly merged onto Templeton.  Some technical and rocky switchbacks lead up to the top of the canyon.  As I neared the top of the ridge, there was a spur that I jumped on and it lead me to the mesa.  I ran the length of the mesa and back to the spur and continued on the Templeton trail.  I made my way around the top edge of the canyon until I found the EMB trail again and took that back to the trailhead.

I was hoping to make it all the way around on Templeton, but the impromptu trip out on the mesa made that unneccessary.  I’m going to hit that up later this week or this weekend for sure.

I was all kinds of antsy to get out and run at work today so hopefully the jet lag is finally wearing off.  I talked to a co-worker on the trip with me and he said I wasn’t alone feeling a little ragged.  It was both of our first trips across the pond and neither of us knew what was in store when we got back home.

4 miles; 1 hour.

Just the Winter Series 10k in 1:18 to report for this week.

Spent most of last week in England. Glad to be back home where I can focus on running again.

Total: 6.2 mi; 1:18

Last race to close out the PPRR Winter Series and I was not excited about it. I just got back from England late Thursday night and still felt a little jetlagged before the race. The course was icy thanks to a little snow that fell early Saturday morning and a few people managed to hit the ground in the first couple miles before it started thawing out. Also unwelcome were all the hills on this couse. I haven’t really done much in the way of extended hill training thus far while building a base. I charged up the first hill and had to walk at the top as my calves were on fire and felt like they were close to locking up. This was just after the one mile mark and I knew this wouldn’t end good.

I walked a couple more hills and ran the flats and downhills before getting out into the northern end of the forest where we lost tree cover. It was extremely windy up there and I didn’t feel like I was moving at all. I just kept moving and thankfully the last quarter mile or so was downhill. I cruised in with a dismal 1:18:07.

Cliff notes: jetlag sucks and it makes me run slower than my normal slow self.

Palmer Park run - 4 mi; 1 hour

Neighborhood loop - 2.5 mi; 35 min

Total 6.5 mi; 1:35

Meh.