4 November 2009i

So what have I been doing?

Riding my bike. As much as I can.

It's cold. About 38°F this morning and my hands and feet just freeze out there.

Tried 2 pair sox & gloves, still freezing.

Thursday 22 October 2009

45°F, fog, stars, piles of multicolored mist int the trees. Blue sky toward the end, clouding up now.

Keating 55:39.58. Difficult, painful, slow. Slippery wet leaves are thick on the trail now.

Saw no people at all, but before dawn as I approached the starting line a hawk came screeching, screaming a sound unlike any I'd heard before, from a scrubby tree near the trailside, then beat his wings across the highway into the black fog toward the creek, far across the field to the north. A few minutes later I heard dogs, coyotes, and demons from hell howling like rusty machinery dragged to work on a freezing morning.

Tuesday 20 October 2009

40°F, stars visible, partly clear. I saw Orion's belt over the twin cedar trees as I walked out of the trail head.

Keating 59:03.18, possibly an all-time slow-time but I survived it.

Halloween candy is poisoning me. It has a will, and a life of its own, and it wants me to die. My teeth feel like they have decayed in one day. I write this as funny but it is not funny. Sugar may be as insidious as alcohol. No, it is.

In the last steps of excruciation as I approached the finish line I encountered Herself, IHK, and I was so glad that I cried out "hello!" and waved, and I am afraid that I caused her Royal Personage some annoyance.

Monday 19 October 2009

49°F, misty, and very dark at 0635.

Keating 56:57.51. I survived it.

Nobody out there today.

Sunday 18 October 2009

57°F, partly sunny, calm, nice day. Lots of blown down leaves and stuff from yesterday's blustery hard rain.

Keating in 54:34.55, amazing to say that's actually faster than yesterday, because every part seemed to be impossible, I thought I was going to give up even in part 1.

Lots of cyclists, a few walkers, a guy with a giant dog. When it leaped at me, thankfully restrained by his leash, he told me that was a good morning. Ha ha. Pure white mushrooms growing by the trail in part 1. The county truck again, what's up with that? Perhaps picking up brush, there was some in the back.

Three runners died in the Detroit Marathon today. Here's a link to a brief news report. I don't understand this thoroughly, it's bizarre on the surface.

Saturday 17 October 2009

How's that for a long knockoff? Ten days of nursing a left foot blister, still have that midfoot soreness, blah blah blah. This all adds up to weight gain and a general self-contempt, a rather hard to explain chain reaction of rebellion against my own mind.

60°F, rainy, overcast, mist floating in the trees. Hard rain at times, and thunder more than once. It wasn't really windy or cold, though, so the weather wasn't really bad for a run.

Keating 56:11.64. Naturally this was difficult, mostly the whole thing.

I think there were three cyclists and--oddly--a County truck (it's Saturday, right?). The two cyclists that passed me were typically without a clue, no warning.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

43°F, calm, foggy. There was enough moonlight until the sun came up to make a well-lit trail. On trail at 0622.

Keating 53:47.87. I was really challenged to complete this run. I actually felt short of breath and very tired in parts 5 and 6, and had to voluntarily breathe faster than autonomous demand. In retrospect, I don't think it was as cold as I had thought and I may have been overdressed, which, with other factors, may account for this. Other factors being skipping an entire week last week and/or last night's sleep interrupted by a running toilet which was not simple to fix.

Encounters: IHK Herself in part 5, just before the end of that part, trotting ahead of me for a while, stopped and watched me go past. I was honored. Later on, I saw Mommy's kitty cross the street in SP while I walked back to the truck. She stopped to look at me before heading off into the blackberries. No humans.

Monday 5 October 2009

35 degrees F (1.7C) this morning. Full moon, ground fog, autumn sunrise over Rainier, the disc visible in mountain vee at 0736.

Keating 54:03.04. Very difficult at the end. Cold, wore sweater, hat and gloves. Meant to wear my jacket too but forgot to bring it. Ah, early morning brain.

Only humans on trail: in part 5, bitch hill after Bar King, passed a skater accompanied by person on one of those strange triangular things you pump from side to side to make it go. Both female, I think. No kitties, few birds.

As I topped the hill on SP road coming home the fading white lozenge of moon, big as a medicine ball, centered in the blue sky and threatened my driving, beckoning me to stare at its wispy map.

Sunday 4 October 2009

50°F, partly cloudy, light breeze from the NW at times. On trail at about 1040.

Keating 53:07.50, didn't feel too bad after a week off. The sun came out toward the end and it warmed up a bit. I was wearing a jacket and knit hat, and took them off.

Wooly Bears. Not one single cyclist warned before passing today. A perfect record.

The kitty motorhome was open today. A woman seemed to be escorting a large black cat toward 1st Street from the motorhome. She was holding a drink in a clear plastic cup that had a slice of lime floating in it and a stir stick. I also saw a Persian mix on the flatbed trailer next to the motorhome, and on the way back there was a white kitty running around nearby, but she disappeared before I got close enough to see her well.

Saturday 3 October 2009

After a week of not exercising at all, I went down to the trail and walked from the South Prairie trailhead to Arline Road and back. It felt pretty good. I kept up a decent pace and was quite warm and sweaty by the end. It was a cool fall day, with some color in the trees now. Wooly bear caterpillars are crossing the trail. As I approached my normal "finish line" when I run, I saw IHK herself off to the right side of the trail, in the brush. When I approached, she burrowed well into the vegetation. There were some folks fixing a flat on a bicycle nearby, and I don't think she approved of that activity.

Last week I worked 8:30-5pm due to a class I was told to attend, and that was a much too convenient excuse not to run all week. Why that kept me from running last Sunday is hard to explain, but I felt so crummy last Saturday after running that I didn't feel like getting back to it. In truth, all week I have contemplated quitting entirely, but it's not that easy to do.

Walking is nice, but I would have to spend an awful lot of time walking to get the benefit of an hour of jogging.