Three More Runs

Saturday, Dec 20:

St Croix Valley Runners, five miles. Lots of snow on the route today, which makes the run more difficult, like running uphill the whole way. "New Mike" ran with us for the first time. I hope he comes again - he’s a good guy. He’s "new Mike" only because there is already a Mike, who is now "old Mike." New Mike is pretty fast, though we didn’t really test him today.

The group stuck together much of the way, and then Mike & Luke took off. Roy was visiting from Chicago, and Dave (old Dave) & Paul ran too. Nice group. I finished with Dave in 43:48, which is plenty good considering. Pace 8:46. Nike Miler shoes did well; they have an aggressive tread and little ventilation.

It’s pretty dark at 7:00 am these days - we run the first mile in the dark, reflective clothing advised. In fact the solstice is tomorrow, the shortest day. The latest sunrise will be a couple of weeks later, for reasons that I have never quite comprehended. Believe it or not sunSET is already getting later, and after tomorrow it will be getting later faster than sunrise is getting later. This offset varies by latitude, apparently, though I’m sure I’d need to set up a model of the sun and the earth to understand it.

Gosh the "blizzard" just hit here. As we watch, and as I write in this journal, the easterly breeze which carries the snow has suddenly snapped over to the northwest and become a gale. The change is dramatic and intimidating. Yikes. Time to put another log on the fire.

Thursday, Dec 18:

North St Paul Community Center indoor track, five miles. I wanted to do a little speed work at the end, but this was not the day for much of it. I was happy to be able to push a little in the last three laps. The very last lap was 32 seconds, which corresponds to a pace of about 7:12. That’s probably about as fast as I ought to try to go on that short, banked track.

As always I did my stretches after the run. After that, my right knee hurt a little, just walking along. For the previous day or two I had noticed pain in that knee as I got up from a chair or turned on that leg. The running and stretches made it a little worse, though there had been no pain during the run. But the pain went away within a few minutes. I’ve had this "trick knee" symptom before and it went away. Maybe a floating piece of garbage in there? Anyway I have the name of an excellent orthopedist if I need to go there. Hope not.

Splits: 8:59, 8:35, 8:45, 8:52, 8:33, total 43:42, pace 8:44.

Tuesday, Dec 16:

North St Paul Community Center indoor track, five miles, no problems. I was a little tired, so I didn’t push much. Splits: 8:59, 8:41, 8:46, 17:45, total 44:12, pace 8:50.



Dinner: Grass-fed bison potroast (crockpot) with parsnips, organic mixed vegetables, shredded parmesan cheese, organic grapes. No doubt this was complemented by a hearty porter or perhaps a brown ale.