Where In the Heck am I in Walla Hi?

Walla Hi County Park is located about 4 miles from my house, and every time I go there, I love it even more.

Every time I run at the park I end up on different trails, heading in different directions, and continuously stopping, looking around, and admitting I've gotten myself lost, once again. As you can see by the map, the park consists of a single large horse trail and a couple hiking trails that branch out to the horse trail. I can tell you first hand that in real life, Walla Hi County Park has about 3 times as many trails as shown there, and none of them are marked all that well. On Saturday morning Parsenn and I went out to Walla Hi with the single mission of using the 405 to map out the outer horse trail. This link shows how I fared. As you can see, the first part of my run took me on a loop (the lower right part of the map) that has nothing to do with the horse trail. I then ended up on another loop that seems to be part of the main hiking trail. At this point Parsenn got himself lost from me, which delayed my progress a couple minutes. The dog has no sense of smell (although he pretends he does) and apparently can't see or hear all that well either. He was wearing his blaze orange vest and I could see him running back and forth in the woods about 20 yards away from me, looking around and trying to find me. What a dog.

After seeing a sign for the horse trail, I joined it tried my best to follow it. The good part is I actually completed a loop...although I had to turn around twice because the trail dead-ended with DO NOT TRESPASS signs. I only ran about 5 miles total, at a measly 12 minute pace, but had an AvgHR of 156 for the run, which speaks to the up-and-down-and-up-and-down nature of the park. It's my mission to figure this place out. Next time I'm bringing a pen and paper to take better notes. Perhaps some orange spray paint would help me not get lost, too.

This morning I was back out for 8 miles. We had a 15 mph wind out of the West, so I headed that direction first and had splits of 7:19/7:39/7:45/7:41 before turning around and running 6:46/7:00/6:49/6:39. I actually surprised myself a bit on the way back and felt pretty decent. Hopefully the upcoming week goes a bit better than the last two!

Week Sans Running (again...)

If you look off to the right a bit and into the "Odometer" portion of this page, you'll see another Goose Egg under this week's mileage. Yep. Besides running 13 miles last Saturday, not much has changed since the last post. I'm still a bit busy and haven't been running much. There are several reasons for this, and some of them bum me out, but others I'm okay with.

In my haste to get the office running and looking how I'd like it to, I spent the majority of Sunday night painting, framing pictures, and arranging rooms. In the effort to get it done by Monday's first patient at 8:00 AM, I was moving Zenith HiLo (big, heavy adjusting tables) tables around, room to room, at about 10:30 PM. They're heavy. I'm freakishly strong not as strong as you may think I am, based upon my writing ability and stunning good looks, and pulled something in my abdominal region. I won't get into what it feels like, but it feels like a kick to the groin. This week has been spent making sure this thing doesn't fully erupt and trying to explain this part of my anatomy to my wife. Add that to a bit of plantar fasciitis in my right foot that flared up on the 13 miler last weekend, and I decided to take it easy on the running front, and get some new shoes (I'm still running in the same shoes I ran 3 marathons and a 50 miler in last fall. Not smart.

At the same time, this mini setback has helped me get a grip on my diet. A little "chink in the armor" like this makes sure to remind me that I'm no longer invincible and the most important aspect of retaining what invincibility I still have is through DIET. With the increased stress regarding work (Mad Props to those of you out there that own your own business...I fully understand how the work never ends...), and the stress regarding running that I kind of touched on in the last post, my diet has suffered a bit. Adam's blog has been fantastic, as it's reminded me about the nutritional plan I buy into--The Paleo(ish) Diet. I add the "ish" in there because I definitely don't buy in to all of it but completely trust the basic premise. I've pulled in the 'cheats' in my diet, and things are looking up!

While keeping up on other blogs, I've noticed quite a bit of chatter about punching children in the face or locking them in dog cages. Because I'm not yet a parent, I figured I'd get into the act by beating on Parsenn a bit.

Last week I came home for lunch and found our living room a disaster. Parsenn was cowering in a corner, knowing he was in deep trouble. He had chewed up 3 full rolls of paper towel along with 3 magazines. It was amazing how small he got every single piece of paper. I was NOT happy, although the fact he didn't chew up our Smithsonian magazine helped. He did chew up the most recent Runner's World, which I was okay with. The last thing I need to see is another guy on the cover with very little clothing on. Kara Goucher I'm okay with. This? Not so much.

Anyway, back to my physical abuse of Parsenn...

After kennelling him the rest of the day, I began to feel bad and partially responsible for his bad behavior. I blame this guilt on the fact I was raised Catholic. Parsenn hasn't been getting the exercise he probably needs due to the F.C. weather we've been having. So I decided to start playing ChuckIt with him again. This morning, armed with the ChuckIt in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, we headed outside. Parsenn was beyond excited to see the ChuckIt loaded and ready to go. I raised my arm. Parsenn takes off like a bullet. I then rotate back my arm and begin the forward motion to release the tennis ball. That's when I remember the ChuckIt has been outside all winter and the ball is frozen inside the cup. Uh Oh.

By now Parsenn is 50 yards away, staring around, waiting for the ball to land. It doesn't take much to confuse him, and this had him completely flustered. Much like Viper likely looks when he wakes up on a typical Saturday morning. I pounded the ChuckIt on the ground a couple times to get the ball unfrozen from the stick, and then picked it back up and began to toss it. I need to have it land someplace near him so I don't have to walk out there and get it. Because of this, I pretty much aim for him and launch the tennis ball. I'll be honest...my aim isn't all that great. I played quarterback in football until my sophomore year, when they finally realized I couldn't throw, thus moving me to tailback. I have NO IDEA how it took them that long. Anyway, I think you know where this is going...

The picture below shows about where Parsenn was when the frozen tennis ball hit him broadside, knocked him to the ground thus scaring the BaJesus out of him and a yelp like I've never heard before. Not only am I embarrassed for the sissy-like noise he made, he is too. His tail's actually beginning to mold to the area between his legs. I'm just glad he didn't try to catch the frozen tennis ball with his teeth.

The black speck is Parsenn, retrieving another of my laser-guided throws.

He recovered, however, and proceeded to have a blast outside...

He even developed a bit of a beard-cicle!

Next week, it's back to running for me. Trails. Speed. Runs with Parsenn. More paleo.

Unless, of course, work has other plans...in the meantime, thanks for keeping me entertained, blogger friends!

Week Sans Running

I woke up a week ago today and was ready to continue with my running. It was just after 5 AM and before I even made it to the front door, I could hear the wind howling. At that point, I decided that I needed a break. Running was starting to feel like an obligation, and most of my run was spent thinking about stuff I needed to get done regarding the new business. While the running was working perfectly to help me clarify my priorities and organize, I wasn't actually accomplishing any of those priorities. Realizing that and reading this post made me think...

I can afford to take a week off. So I did.

I got a LOT done at the office. Ellie and I are in the process of removing wallpaper (I hate wallpaper) from the walls of the treatment rooms and priming/painting the walls. I'm also working on frames to hang new art work in the office. That, along with marketing and meeting as many people as possible in the community, has made the week's spare time fill up quickly!

I feel good about my week off but at the same time have a better appreciation for my time stolen away from work and on my own...on the quiet roads or (the much preferred) trails. So my week off has helped to invigorate my running and my life. Mission accomplished.

Now I'm even more excited to get running and training for Chippewa in late April. Besides...there will be a bunch of people there that only know me through this website and will be meeting me for the first time...I've got to run at least half-way decent!

Tomorrow I'll be up early again and excited to run. No headphones. No real goal pace. No Garmin. Just run.

Okay, who am I kidding--I'll be wearing my 405.

Weekend Rundown

After finding about this event, an adventure race held a couple weeks ago on the Ice Age Trail, I was interested to see how it turned out. I am always intrigued to find out how long it takes others to cover certain parts of my favorite trail.

According to the results, the leaders covered the first 16 miles of the event, from Butler Lake to the Northern-most trailhead, in about 4:15. Seemed a bit slow to me.

So what's next? Run it, of course!

I was on my way down to the North Trailhead around 7:30 and arrived a couple minutes before 8. It was looking pretty quiet.

You can barely see it in the picture, but the trail is packed in, flat, and wide. Nice! This was one thing I was worried about, as I roll my ankle every time I run this trail. At this point I decided that I would definitely be able to run it faster than 4:15...mostly because all of the participants in the Frozen Otter had packed in the trail for me! I ended up finding out 4:15 is an amazing time for the leaders, who likely broke the trail for the majority of their hike.

After meeting up with a lady and 3 dogs, two cross country skiers (to ski the IAT is a bit crazy), and a couple snowshoe hikers (who agreed having their snowshoes on was pointless with the trail in this condition), I reached the Greenbush Ski area, complete with what had to be 50 cars. As I crossed a couple of the ski trails, I only saw a couple skiers:

Can you see them?

Another neat part of this trail is the access to several forest shelters, all of which were occupied, with a fire going, when I came through. Unfortunately, at some point my camera froze, leaving me with this picture of the Parnell Shelter:

Overall, I covered the Northern 16 miles of the trail in 2:58. I felt great the whole time and really seemed to hit the nutrition spot on. I felt like I could have gone forever on Saturday.

I came home raving so much about the run and the condition of the trail that Ellie was talked into going back out there today to get some miles in before I eat too much food tonight during the game. The thermometer read 43 degrees today (!) but didn't account for the 25 mph wind. It was a bad idea to wear shorts, but I enjoyed myself, nonetheless. Another 4 miles today brought up my mileage to 39 for the week. Not bad! Next week I'm aiming for 50.