Running Seward

I came down to Seward yesterday afternoon to referee a basketball tournament.  As I usually do when I travel, I brought my running gear along.  I couldn't run last night due to the games, but I knew I'd have plenty of time today.  

Took off for a rare middle of the day run shortly after 11 AM.  Seward is a pretty small town that has about 3,000 year -round residents.  Not much traffic in town as I ran in the 25 degree, packed snow and icy streets.  Beautiful morning for a run.  THe only thing not beautiful about it -- the hill I saw as I stepped out of the driveway at the Bed & Breakfast where I'm staying.  But I pretty much knew that no matter where I ran in Seward, I was gonna have to face at least one hill of this size, so why not knock it out at the start rather than the end of the run.  Off I went.  Made a loop around town, went out toward the port, and even the local cruise ship dock.  Not much cruise ship traffic in Alaska in the middle of  February.

Had some great views as I ran today, both of Resurrection Bay as well as the Mountain Ranges on the back side of Seward.  Right in the middle is Mount Marathon -- a mountain I hope to get the opportunity to race up soon.  The Mount Marathon race is held each July 4th in Seward, when this town goes from 3,000 to about 30,000 people.  It's a race I've only seen in the paper, and watched some live streaming of before.  But I will enter the lottery again this year to see if I can get one of the coveted 350 spots in the men's race.  Last year they only admitted about 35 new runners through the lottery.  They have changed the rules up a bit this year to try and get a few more new people into the race.  Deadline to enter the lottery is March 31.  Winners notified around April 15th.  But you better be training before you get drawn.  The race itself is only about 3.1 miles total.  But you better be ready for the elevation -- 3,022 feet up the mountain.  Hope I get drawn!!

W1D5 -- 45 minute run scheduled.  Ran for about 52.  Then my 10 minute cooldown walk back home turned into 29 minutes and about 1.7 miles when I missed my turn, asked someone where I was supposed to turn, and they pointed me in the wrong direction.  Oh well.  A little extra walking never hurt anyone did it?

Making Tracks

I love running in fresh snow.  I got to do that tonight, kind of.  This morning as we left the house at 6:10 AM, there was a light snow falling.  Through the course of the day, we probably got about 2-3 inches.  It made my bike ride to work a little more difficult, but nothing unbearable this time.  Same for the ride home at lunch, but by the time I rode back to work, the plows had come by and even done the sidewalks.  How blessed I am to live in a small town that is quick to clear both the streets and the sidewalks of snow pretty quickly after any significant snowfall.  It's great living right in the middle of town on a street that is usually one of the first to be cleared.

I've really come to enjoy running outside this winter.  One thing I notice as I run outside are the various tracks left by others.  Tonight as I ran, it was fun to see a single of bike tracks between my house and my office during the first half mile of my run.  ;)  I also notice plenty of animal tracks, specifically, MOOSE.  It's amazing to me to see how many times moose cross the roads and trails that I run on.  Sometimes, I can even follow their tracks right down the sidewalk I run on.  

Tonight, I saw what I will call some tracks of service.  As I was running down one street, I could distinctly see where a snow blower track left one driveway, went down the sidewalk, and then up the next driveway and into the garage.  What a nice neighbor, to go and clear their friend's driveway like that.  There's a lot of good people where I live.

As for the run itself, 40 minutes plus some form/stride drills were on the agenda.  Mission accomplished.  A 4.5 minute cooldown in between.  It can all be found at www.runkeeper.com/bballrob. Or on connect.garmin.com.  I will try to get links to both locations set on my main page.  W1D3.

The Quest Begins

February 4, 2013

This is a post that I wrote 2 nights ago after my first training run.  I started a blog on another site because I forgot I had used this one before.  The other one has now been deleted.

The Quest Begins

Tonight I began my next marathon training.  40 minutes of running.  That’s all.  Pretty simple really.  This year I will be doing a fair amount of outdoor training even in the cold and the snow.  I’ve already done a fair amount of that prior to the start of the training period, and I have really enjoyed it.  I bought a good pair of running pants and a good running shirt back in the fall, and that has kind of motivated me to get out and run, no matter the weather.  Well, almost.  And at the family christmas party this year, I even got a set of headlamps that have come in handy.

The race will be in June.  20 weeks away.  I’m looking forward to it.  And this year, I will RUN the whole race.  No walking is the goal, other than to walk through the water stations so I don’t spill gatorate and water all over myself.  Feel free to comment, encourage, or call me out when I’m not running like I should be.  

I’m going to try to link my training calendar to this blog so you will know exactly what running I should be doing each day.  If I don’t do it, let me hear about it.  Be nice.  Be mean.  Heck, I don’t care.  I can take it.