The Groundhog was Wrong

Wednesday's mid-day doctor appointment gave me the opportunity to take the day off. I headed over to Bonelli, of course, got some vitamin D exposure. I walked my usual 5 mile loop and then I ran 4.5 miles on the trail that heads north on the opposite side of the park. It is 2.25 miles of mostly down followed by 2.25 miles of mostly up. I was pleased that I did both directions within a minute of each other. The temperatures were in the low 80's and the sun was shining wonderfully bright. I got a little head start on my summer beach tan. I love that.

The next day, a cold winter storm rolled in from Alaska. It rained pretty steadily until Friday and has rained off and on through this afternoon. The weather heads say we'll get more tomorrow. On Tuesday I was pretty happy that the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Our winter so far has been exactly like the day I described above. Who wouldn't want more of that. But winter decided to come a couple of days late. So much for the the groundhog.

There was a wonderful break in the rain during the Cruisers planned run on the 2 Parks-2 Loops course in Brea. I upped the ante to 4:1, nothing too drastic. After about the third cycle I fell in step with John, a 73 year old member of our group. He'd just had double hernia surgery 4 weeks ago and was back running. We ended up running the remaining 8 miles together. He walked when I walked. The pace pushed him a little but he was happy to have the company. He's got some great stories from a long life lived well, that's for sure. I ended my run after the second loop while he continued on for a couple more miles.

Today I headed out after one of our scattered showers and was able to get 3 miles of running followed by 3 miles of walking on the Picnic Loop at Bonelli. My legs were feeling a little tired so I decided to give the muddy wet trails a chance to dry out before I wandered them again.

I ended up with 17.5 miles for the week. A nice gradual increase from the 1 mile I got 6 weeks ago in Peters Canyon. The weekly progression has been 1 - 5 - 8 - 12.7 - 14.6 - 17.5. My legs were kind of tired and the ITB was singing pretty good on the 3 miler so I think I may scale things back a tad next week before heading on up towards 20. Right now I'm only running three days a week. Once I can run 20 for a couple of weeks comfortably I will try to add back in the fourth day. Ultimately I'd like to get back to being a 5 day, 40-50 mile a week runner like I was back in 2007. That may take until 2010 for all I know.

That doctors appointment I mentioned earlier went well. My wife has been seeing the same guy for her knee and we both had appointments within an hour of each other. In addition one of my wife's coworker's wife had a knee replacement done by this doc. According to the girls he is "easy on the eyes." Apparently he is one doctor's appointment they don't mind keeping. Anyway, my hip problem is just really bad IT Band Syndrome and bursitis. The doc is a runner so he understands that not running is not a good prescription for someone like me. He prescribed a regimen of Aleve and is sending me to a physical therapist for a couple of appointments. This guy is a runner as well so I am optimistic that I will be getting good care and advice and should come out the other end OK.