December light

Christmas arrived all at once. My children had school through Tuesday, and that evening the in-laws arrived. The next day included a final trip to the grocery store and preparation for Christmas lunch the next day.

Activity-wise, my week has been as follows:

Mon.: no running
Tues.: swim 1600m
Weds.: 5 miles first thing in the morning (in the dark!) with two friends
Thurs. (X-mas): 4 easy miles around the loch in the evening, to get some fresh air after cooking and eating all day
Fri.: 8 mile trail race.
Sat.: no running
Sun.: 6.2 miles cross-country with a friend on a frosty morning

My knee was sore after last Sunday's run in the woods, so I was beginning to feel that I'd done too much last week (22 miles). Wednesday's and Thursday's runs were fine, though there was a little soreness. There's an annual handicap trail race nearby the next day (Boxing day -the day after Christmas), and I was keen to do it. It consists of two laps through the woods with some stiff hills. During the first lap, I thought I might be forced to pull out, as the knee was hurting, despite wearing a knee band. On the second lap, I picked it up, and perhaps because I was warm, the pain dissipated.

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Walking to the store yesterday I was struck by the late December light on the sycamore trees that line our street.

The shortest day of the year

Yesterday, as I walked home from the grocery store with my 9 year old son, the sun was setting. It was 3:30 in the afternoon! Just after 4:00 I took this photo from my back door. (It was actually darker than the photo suggests - I had a 2 second exposure.)

My running is picking up. I self-diagnosed "runners knee" (as I know it wasn't illiotibial band syndrome, a pain I know well), and backed off the running considerably. Last week I ran three miles in total, and took five consecutive days off of running. Perhaps the latter doesn't sound like much, but my habit is to never go two consecutive days without running.

I was trying to listen to my body. Every time I ran, my knee hurt. There's a simple solution to this, and eventually I acknowledged it.

But this week has been better:

Monday: 2 easy miles on the track, to test the knee. It was fine. Light upper-body weights after.
Tuesday: 5 easy miles with the running club. I cut off early as I didn't want to ramp up the miles too quickly.
Wednesday: nothing
Thursday: swim 1400 meters
Friday: 5 miles on the track, some slightly faster; light upper-body weights after
Saturday: 4 miles (3.1 of which were a parkrun race); knee fine
Sunday (today): planned 6-miler on trails

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Today is the shortest day of the year. How can I make it count?

December running

I've been nursing my right knee a bit over the past two weeks. I think I overdid it on a 10-mile run the week before last. It was hilly, on road, and I was tired. I thought I could push through - and I did - but since then my right knee has been stiff and swollen after runs or even after sitting in my office. I had a few knee twinges before this 10-miler, so I'm a little uncertain about the cause.

All this said, my consistency and fitness are coming back.

To that end, I was keen to get a few easy miles in on Saturday morning. A run through the soft ground of the woods beckoned.

The light was low, and the day was short.

In the woods there was the sound of the winds on the bare trees, the branches rubbings against one another, and the skittering of leaves under foot. I took it easy, but on flat stretches picked up the pace a bit. I did 16 minutes out, and 15 back.

I could feel my knee, but it was bearable. I'm not sure if activity or rest is the best bet now for it, but I really don't want to rest.

Running without a clear goal

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth. Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The sun is lower in the sky here in Scotland, and the shadows are long. The temperatures have been mixed; we've had some cold nights, but during the day it has usually been mild.

November can be a slightly bleak month, but the light can also be wonderful. It seems like a time to take stock of the year, and plan for the next year.

Running-wise, I'm trying to get back to consistency. I'd like to be around 30 miles a week, with at least one swim in addition.

As the year winds down, I've started thinking of goals for next year.

I could do another marathon. I will do some hill races.

At the moment, the only clear goals are:

1) To break 1:30 in the half marathon.

2) To do the Isle of Jura hill race.

These could be enough, but I rather miss the structure of a marathon training cycle to get through the winter months. Also, the miles I put in for marathon training pay dividends for everything else. I'll do a half in March, so that could be a sufficient goal.

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After some disruption from travelling, I am trying to get back to normal sleeping. The long dark nights are helping.

Running on Cape Cod

I'm in the U.S. for a few weeks this summer, combining a holiday with some teaching on a summer course at Woods Hole. This is a small, bustling town on the ocean, with ferry service to Martha's Vineyard.

My running in the past week has been sporadic, as I was visiting family in Cleveland and recovering from jet lag. Now, with two weeks in the Cape, I'm hoping to get back to more structure.

This morning I was up at 6, before any other members of the family. I wanted to squeeze in a 10-miler along the bike path from Woods Hole to the larger town Falmouth.

After coffee, toast, Facebook, and the New York Times, I dressed and headed out. I headed a bit up the road on which the Falmouth Road Race takes place, and then up onto the bike path. This path leads from Woods Hole to Falmouth (and perhaps more).

There were a surprising number of runners out! Young, older, and some very old. Lots of people were on bikes, too.

I followed the bike path through the woods, past salt marshes, and emerged at the beach. It was overcast, and there was a breeze. Parts of the beach were closed off for nesting birds.

The path took me into Falmouth, and here I peeled off to do a loop through town. I ran past the town green, and the many shops on the main street. I headed towards the beach, past trim, wood shingled houses.

It felt very much like summer in New England. I thought about how enjoyable it would be to relax with a thick Stephen King novel, or listen to the Red Sox on the radio in the evening.

As I headed back, the breeze gave me a boost, and my pace picked up.

And when I got back home, everyone was still in bed!

Swim, bike, run

This was my second sprint triathlon, and third triathlon overall.

I racked my bike early, and was impressed by the bikes of the other triathletes. My bike isn't anything special (aluminum frame, carbon forks), as I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a bike that would mostly hang in the garage.

I had a cup of coffee, and a bit of a pastry while waiting for the race to start. The swim was run in heats, so I watched the first swimmers. I checked out the transition areas to see where I'd be entering and leaving.

My heat assembled. There were five of us in my lane, and we did two lengths to warm up. The race started. I was second in line. Someone tapped my foot to signal that they wished to pass within a few lengths, and then we settled into our positions for the remaining laps.

In my first race, I'd gone out too fast, and was out of breath for much of the swim. This time, I relaxed, and tried to focus on taking big strokes. I'd been keeping up my swimming even while training for the London marathon this past winter, and had upped my training a bit in the six weeks betweem the marathon and this triathlon.

I finished in 16:37. This was one minute faster than my previous sprint.

The bike was fine. I tried to get up to speed right out of the start, and then settle into a steady pace. I was passed by some, and ultimately passed others. All in, the 20k bike took 45:39.

I had a good transition for the run (38 s.), and was off. The run was two laps, with a steepish hill at the start. It was sunny and warm. I passed more people here than passed me, and finished the 5k in 23:02.

All in, I was 1:27:56. This put me in the bottom half of the field, but I enjoyed the event.

And now my bike is back hanging in the garage.

After the marathon - what next?

Since the London Marathon, I've been lacking a goal.

For the marathon I'd followed a relatively strict schedule, the Pfitzinger 55 mile plan, for four months. On the day, maybe because it was warm, maybe because I'd gone too hard in a 10k the weekend before, I didn't run as I felt that I could. That said, my fade at the end of the marathon probably only cost me about 5 minutes all in.

But I was disappointed. So, in the immediate aftermath of the race, it was tempting to just sign up for a fall marathon - like Loch Ness - and start a new training cycle.

But fall's a long way off. I am away a lot this summer with various teaching and family things, so my training might be difficult to fit in. But that's just and excuse: my real problem is that I could dedicate myself to marathon training for five more months, and maybe cut off five minutes from my London time, but so what?

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Prior to the marathon I'd signed up for a nearby sprint triathlon. So, this has been my proximal focus.

My problem with triathlon isn't running (obviously), and not swimming (which I enjoy as a complement to running). It's biking.

And I like biking. I just don't have a social structure that reinforces it. I ride on my own, and it is fine. On warm spring evenings after work, with the light on the trees, it's actually fairly good. I like poking around on roads that I haven't explored, out in the countryside.

But I haven't quite committed to cycling. I dabble. And I think I need to do more if I'm going to do more in triathlon.

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So this was my week:

Mon: swim 1500m
Tues: run 4 miles in evening
Weds: bike 47 mins on turbo trainer (wife out for the evening)
Thurs: swim 1100m, 750 of which were hard to get an indicative time for the race
Fri: bike 15 miles + run 3.5 miles after
Sat: run 5 miles (3.1 of which were an all out - PB! - parkrun)
Sun: run 9 miles

I wanted to get another ride in on Sunday, but was out all afternoon. Maybe I'll try to ride tomorrow.