Author: Mark Allman

Today’s the day for the “big storm.” As usual, it’s not panning out at all like what was forecast. I rearranged the training plan to avoid today and tomorrow. Turns out to be totally not necessary. I should’ve known. I rearranged things again to get back to some distance this morning.

It was a mild early morning for a run. Temperature was about 35 degrees. The “blizzard” that was forecast to start late Monday/early Tuesday didn’t show until about 30 minutes before the end of the run and was just light rain. Yawn. About all that was a bother was the rock salt spread around on all the roads.

Today’s run was a 13.09 mile rolling hills route. Pace was 9:47. Weight was 147.4. Total climb was about 640 feet.

A foggy, mild early morning for a run. I need to get over to the Blue Hills area to see if the road to the summit is clear. I had planned to run one climb but, with the fog, one patch of clear ice that was hard to see would be all it takes. It was 18 degrees before the wind chill earlier in the week.

Today’s run was a 5.1 mile hills route. Pace was 9:42. Weight was 146.6. Total climb was about 280 feet.

A cold, clear early morning for a run. You know it’s cold when your water bottle partially freezes up. Whatever.

It seemed darker than usual. Harder to see potholes in the dark-gray asphalt roads. It also affects my stride a bit, since variations in the surface profile, e.g., some patch or small dip, can’t really be seen.

Today’s run was a 13.09 mile rolling hills route. Pace was 9:58. Weight was 148.6. Total climb was about 595 feet.

Another nice, cool early morning for a run. Temperature around 28 degrees and a cold wind. Some days you feel like the route is challenging you and other days you feel like you’re out there to challenge the route. Today was the latter case. My kind of run.

Today’s run was a 9 (or so) mile rolling hills route. Pace was 9:51. Weight was 147.8. Total climb was about 460 feet.

A rather damp, mild early morning for a run. Some of the roads have those tar strips to seal cracks — those can get slick when they’re wet. Felt good to get in a mid-distance run. Up the distance, then work on pace.

Today’s run was an 11.17 mile rolling hills route. Pace was 10:01. Weight was 147.0. Total climb was 595 feet.

No issues with the knee or ankle this morning. A rotting galvanized steel pipe started to leak in the basement on Tuesday, and that trumped any road work. Took all day to fix (I’m not a professional plumber). Tuesday evening I noticed a twinge in the right knee. Hmmm. I decided to take Wednesday off to see if it was transient. No issues this morning. One more “whew.” I’m probably paranoid and overreact when I feel anything.

Today’s run was a 5.26 mile hills route. Pace was 9:38. Weight was 146.8. Total climb was about 320 feet.

A snowy morning. Fortunately, I could wait a bit until the roads cleared off a bit. Breezy and about 30 degrees.

Ankle felt fine again. That’s a relief. Now it’s time to get back to it.

Today’s run was a recovery-ish 2.18 mile rather flat route. Pace was 9:38. Weight was 146.8. Total climb was about 90 feet.

More good news. No issues with the ankle on a run today. It was a mild (for January) very early morning. Went out early both to get back to running at that time and also to avoid a messy winter storm heading right for us. Later in the morning it first started to rain, then sleet, and as I type this it’s snow. Hopefully it’ll move out in time to get roads clear for early tomorrow morning.

So glad that the ankle and knee aren’t an issue. I actually stepped in a pothole or two and didn’t notice anything complaining. Lots of potholes these days.

Today’s run was a 9 mile rolling hills route. Maybe a bit longer if I include dodging potholes ;-]. Pace was 9:45. Weight was 147.8. Total climb was 480 feet.

Twisted by ankle (ugh!) a few days ago, and today’s the first day to try some work. The least stressful is the indoor trainer, so start with that and see how it goes. Good news: not bad at all. Dodged a bullet. I’ll take it. A few years ago I thought I twisted an ankle (stepped on golf ball-sized debris along a 12.5 mile route twice) but in fact I torqued my knee around and lost the majority of 2022 as a result.

Today’s ride was a 32-minute stiff workout on the indoor trainer.

Woke up to snow-covered roads. Nuts. If roads like mine are still covered, then the side roads I now run on are definitely bad. I’m funny this way, but, given a choice, I’d prefer to not risk getting hit by a car sliding around on a hill. There could very well be black ice under that snow. OK, switch gears: move today’s run to tomorrow and put in some work on the indoor trainer.

Today’s ride was a 32 minute stiff workout on the indoor trainer. The legs are still letting me know that it wasn’t a trivial workout.