Last Year

Run: 37.9 Miles
Bike: 17.0 Miles

This time last year I was in Week 4 of Half Marathon training, but I wasn’t competing in or for the $2 million half-marathon that was being run in the UAE.  I highlighted my then new running group the MDRA and extolled the benefits of grinding pavement with friends.  Emerald Nuts setup a funny site to promote themselves and their race series, but it seems to be defunct now.  This edition of Foto Friday was a picture of my new wall of fame with all my race numbers.  During the weekend last year a marathoner from Wisconsin died after finishing the Little Rock Marathon.

This Year

Monday was a nice easy 3 mile recovery run along the LRT and Midtown Greenway. It was about 3 above with no wind. I ran the loop in 24:55 and felt pretty good.  I did push-ups, back work, hip thingys, and used my ab-roller before the run.  Everything feels ok at the beginning of a step-back week.

Tuesday I ran a hill workout again.  This time I went closer to downtown and ran the hill on the path near Mill City from the river up to street level.  It was about a 32% grade and the first 4 were a tenth of a mile and then I extended them to about .13 tenths of a mile (230 yards).  I ran them in 0:46, :48, :45, :44, :38, :49, and :52. It was 19 with a 9 wind chill and the path was pretty much free from any ice.  Overall it was a good day.

Wednesday my heal had been hurting a little bit off and on but today it was pretty bad and I’ve struggled in the past with dreaded plantar fasciitis  is what it felt like to me, so Tuesday night I iced and popped some pills and didn’t run today.  It felt a little better by the end of the day.  It comes and goes so we’ll see if this helps.

Thursday I decided to keep my scheduled day off and take advantage of the step-back week to see if my heel would feel any better.

Friday I  actually thought about running but not before a 7:30 breakfast meeting or the 12 lunch meeting.  The sunny afternoon was begging me to run but I had a lot of random stuff that needed to get done that kept me from getting out.

Saturday morning we took Cross Country Ski lessons at Elm Creek Park Preserve and did about 5k of classical skiing.  It was a lot of fun to learn to ski and we will probably try to do it more often next year.  It was both of our first time and we caught on fairly quickly, I think.  It might take some time to perfect and get comfortable though since only spent three hours total for the day (including instruction time).  We finished the day up by going camping at Afton – yes winter camping! Saturday’s part including snow shoeing to the campsite went pretty well.  It was the cold part of the night that really hurt.  Even with having 0 degree bags both of our feet got really cold.  Waking up Sunday was pretty painful though once we started moving again it wasn’t quite so bad.  We only snow shoed about 3 miles.  It took almost 20 minutes in the car before my feet thawed out!

Weekly Mileage –

Running – 8.6 miles

Skiing – 5k

Snow Shoeing – 3 miles

February Totals

Running -117.7 miles

Biking – 22 miles

2009 Totals

Running – 225.1 miles

Biking – 30 miles