a bit off track

When we last "spoke" (so to speak)

It was Mid April…  I'd already run over 100 miles for the month…  training had been unspectacular but quite consistent…

My injuries (Piriformis, ankles) were better despite the heavy training load

That's about where things went a little off track.

On the 19^th I had Lasik done…  Doc said no running for a week…

Then on the 25^th Judi and I got married….

And on the 26^th we started moving

We emptied 2 houses and filled one up with two 24 ft. truckloads of crap… in 26 hours

Next we cleaned the two old houses stem to stern…

Finally we tried to put the new house into some semblance of order

A Process that is still ongoing…

No big deal right?  Everybody needs a some down time…  But it's not that I'm all tapered and rested…  on the contrary…  I'm exhausted.

And…

Well…  my "A" race for the spring…  heck the only race I've signed up for in 6 months is Saturday.

http://www.performancemultisports.com/j-2-j_results.htm

It's a small little ultra on the beach… I guess we'll see

We went for a little run yesterday after work…  and definitely felt like we were in Remedial Running 101…  I even sang the "Welcome Back Kotter" theme song

Yoga and Running and Sleep

That pretty much sums up what I did this past weekend.

We signed up for a yoga seminar instead of a Duathlon…  Now Judi comes along on plenty of junkets with me (do-it-yourself Ultramarathons, cyclocross races, centuries, long distance ocean swims) that I'm sure push her beyond her comfort zone.

In fact two of the parenthized (is that a word?) items above she has vowed to never do again.

With that in mind, when she asked me to do a weekend yoga seminar I acquiesced…

The seminar was led by Kathryn Budig and was 4 sessions.

http://kathrynbudig.com/index.php

Friday night, Saturday (morning and afternoon), and Sunday morning.

During the first session she asked how many people in the class were yoga instructors…  over half of the hands in the class went up…  and so did my level off apprehension.

A funny thing happened tho…  I focused…  and decided that the best way to not look like a doofus was to pay close attention and try to do exactly what I was told to do.

I made it through the Friday session unscathed…. And surprised myself that I was able to at least go through most of the steps to get into each pose.

We got up Saturday morning and dutifully ran our 12 miles in 2 hours…  a bright beautiful morning… then showered, ate, and drove back to the yoga class.

More of the same trepidation….  Followed by calm focus and resolve ensued.

I was not able to even begin some poses…  like this one Judi could do…  so I took her picture.

The Saturday AM session was all about inversions… 

And to my complete surprise I was able to do scorpion pose:

As well as tripod and did some decent handstands

The afternoon session was all about hip openers…  not quite as much fun but excellent stretching and therapy for this old runner's hips.

Sunday morning was all about back bends…  and I was once again under enthused.  It turned out to be okay because in order to do a backbend you need to be  really flexible in the quad and psoas…  so we spent an hour or so stretching and working those areas.

After yoga we had a 4 hour run to do…  which we knocked out like a couple of yeomen.

We started basically in the center of the city and after doing a loop of the downtown bridges we began to work our way upriver as evidenced by this sequence of pictures.

We finished the weekend off with homemade pizza and a nice bottle of wine.

And sleep…  much needed sleep.

My City has a zero tolerance policy

For criminal activity of the cycling kind…

The essence of UltraRunning

At some point we have all felt like this....

Going on once the body has said stop

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

-Kipling

Guana State park

My Favorite place to run….

Valley Forge

Just a bit over a week ago I had an opportunity to run for a few hours at Valley Forge.

For those of you who want to brush up on the deets…  http://www.nps.gov/vafo/index.htm

Some nice trails there both paved and unpaved.

Checked out the housing

Found Mt. Joy

Loved the trails there…

I ran them 3 or 4 times

All in all quite a beautiful place to run.  I got in 15 or so miles.  I would have taken more pictures but my hands were freezing.

When I got back in the car I turned the heat on full blast...  where it stayed for the next 30 minutes while I thawed out heading back into the city...  searching for a resturaunt.

and what is it with Philly???...  the resturants in that city seem to be placed nowhere near the freeway exits.

never fear I did find somewhere to eat.

Trainer ride last night...

Yeah…  it was this much fun