My legs are killing me right now. No kidding, I can barely walk down stairs. This breaks my heart because all I did was take a week off from running to go train here with Rigging for Rescue and the National Park Service Denali climbing rangers:

Moving up towards the Eklutna Glacier for a day of crevasse rescue technique training.

Great training, awesome location, but not a step of running.

With the craziness surrounding the last couple of weeks with Rider, I had to scale back my mileage goals, but up until last week, I was putting some good daily volume into my legs. 16-17 mile days with 10 mile runs as one of the daily doubles. I think I peaked out somewhere in the mid-50s for four to five days of running. I wasn’t sure how a week off would affect me, but I certainly didn’t think I’d be dealing with as much soreness as I am right now. But, it is what it is, and really, what’s a little DOMS between friends?

In other news, I tried out a local running group yesterday: Peak Performers Track Club. We did a pretty short workout: 11 x 200m hills. I hung with a UK expat named Mark and it was nice to run with some company for once, even if the workout wasn’t overly taxing. We started running the hill intervals at about a 6:10 pace but by the last few I pushed it down to 5:15 pace for funsies. Truth be told, it just felt good to stretch the legs a bit and work some turnover. Next week the group moves to a track only about a mile from the house, so I think Jen and I are going to hit it up and see if we both like the track workout scene. “Like” may be a strong word in Jen’s case, but as most of you know, I consider the track home. Hopefully it turns out to be worthwhile, as I think both of us could benefit from a group training environment.

Oh, remember those Brooks Pure Flow I talked a few weeks back? Yeah, starting to like them less and less. I’ve put in between 50-75 miles on them, and some longer runs of 10-12 miles. They are just too damn soft, to the point that I’ve had visions of running in sand. I have a feeling that they are going to end up as solely a pre-track warmup/post track cool down shoe, because anything over 2-3 miles in them is more work than it’s worth. I want to pick up a pair of the NB MR00, but I haven’t yet because I have a pro deal with NB and they aren’t available through the pro deal quite yet. So, I’m stuck with my trusty old MR10s for the time being.

Bubba and I strike poses

In other news, Rider is recovering well, peeing sideways, but not quite out of the woods yet. We’re hopeful for a full recovery over the next couple of months. Writing-wise, I’m still working on the last couple of Tsunami Debris installments, and I’m hoping to put out a Strength for Endurance series sometime in the next month. Stay tuned for that.

Well, I gotta run (literally, to work).

Miles…