Oct 1 - 19 (11:09)

Pretty good week of training. Started out with a solid workout on Monday, followed by a few good days, before cutting back a little. Bit of a sore hip from driving to Toronto with my wallet in my back hip pocket (stupid!). Felt better each day though. Feels good getting some longer runs in again. Look forward to increasing further.

Weekly total = 11:09

Mon/13 (2:00)
am (1:23) Gazelle. Great hilly tempo run on Everest Lane (actually called Everett Lane, but Everest seems more appropriate). First day using this road and is an awesome spot for a hilly tempo. Some really good climbs, but also sections where you can open it up. Ran 40 minutes of tempo in the middle of run. Will be great as we can start from Gould Lake Barn and get in an hour or more if we want to. Really great find. Looking forward to getting back out there. (Ab w/o).
pm (:37) Skylites. Easy run with Sara on Cataraqui Trail East. Also, picked up my new training partner for Rock and Ice...an old car tire. Attached a rope to my waist pack and ran while pulling it back to the car. Will be starting to add some runs in while pulling a tire behind me to get ready for the pulk. Good fun!

Tue/14 (1:53)
am (1:10) Gazelles. Easy run at Lemoines before work. Was a little tired getting going, but felt pretty good after about 40 minutes. Nice morning.
pm (:43) Crosslite3. Easy run to polling station to vote (Go Greens!). Legs a little tired from the past few days.

Wed/15 (2:01)
am (1:16) Crosslite3. Nice run up north trail and a loop of the Sandpit. Beautiful morning with a cool breeze. Legs felt much better once I got going. Everything great (except that Harper got elected).
pm (:45) Skylites. Easy run on Cataraqui Trail West with Sara. Legs a little tired tonight, but not bad.

Thu/16 (:40)
pm (:40) Raceblades. Easy run on Cataraqui West Trail w/Sara. Took today as a recovery day and just ran once. Drove to Toronto for a meeting with Canadian Running Magazine. Interesting meeting brainstorming ideas for their April Trail Running Issue. Picked up a pair of running snowshoes to review for January issue as well. Enjoyed the trip to Toronto, but wouldn't want to live there. Good to get home and out for a run. Was going to stop part way home and run, but just wanted to get back as soon as I could. Sara had done a track workout earlier, so was nice to get out for an easy run with her on her pm run.

Fri/16 (1:40)
am (1:20) Crosslite2. Easy run along Cat Trail West to grass hill past curl road. Beautiful crisp morning out. Felt a little sluggish, so went a little shorter than I had originally planned.
pm (:20) Frees. Easy run on our grass trail with Sara, Siku and Jesse. Right hip a little sore from drive yesterday, so took it easy.

Sat/17 (:40)
pm (:40) Raceblades. Easy run with Sara on Cat Trail West. Hip still a bit sore, but better than yesterday.

Sun/18 (2:15)
pm (2:15) Raceblades. Great run at Frontenac Park with Sara. Beautiful day out. Sunny, cool and still some good colours on the trees. Ran Big Salmon Lake Loop from Parking lot. Footing tough on the south shore with lots of leaves covering the rocks and roots. Hip felt better today. Heartrate was already high before even starting to run....On the way to the park, a kid drove an ATV out onto the road from a driveway without looking, forcing us to hit the brakes hard to avoid hitting him. Crazy!!! The kid must have been about 6 yrs old. The parents were following along behind the kid in their ATV. If they'd given the kid a shotgun and a case of Budweiser, the ATV lesson would have been complete. Just another reason why ATV's suck, and kids should not be allowed to drive them. Felt a little shaken after. Was good to get into the woods.

Oct 6 - 12 (10:40)

Great week of training. Feels so good to get back into more mileage again. Felt pretty sluggish early in the week, but much better as the week progressed. Knee is getting better each day. Still a little weak, but improving.

Weekly total = 10:40

Mon/6 (1:34)
am (1:34) Crosslite3. Nice trail run at Frontenac Park with Aaron. Ran Arkon Loop from Trail Centre. Longest run since Haliburton and really pleased how knee felt. A little bit of stiffness near the end, but not bad. Beautiful day out. Was great to get back into Frontenac. Can't wait to increase more this week and aim to get a longer run in by the weekend too. Fall colours are amazing.

Tue/7 (:40)
pm (:40) Skylites. Nice run with Siku on Cataraqui Trail W. Ran with her in harness and bungeed to my waist. She continues to be timid on the way out, but pulls hard on the way back. Big negative splits. Fun run. Looking forward to the snow and hooking her up with the rest of the dogteam.

Wed/8 (1:42)
am (1:12) Crosslite3. Great run up the north trail with a loop of the Sandpit. Knee feeling good. Body a little tired from increasing a bit this week though. Was strange....just as I was on my way back towards Yarker I came across a handmade sign on the trail saying 'Don't Stop Believing'. Have no idea why it was there, who is was there for or who made it, but took it as a sign from the Running Gawds that it was time to start cranking up my training again. The last couple miles ended up being a little quicker than planned because of this.
pm (:30) Skylites. Easy run with Sara and Siku on Cat Trail East. Legs tired, but good to be back at it.

Thu/9 (1:32)
am (1:02) Raceblades. Beautiful sunny fall day. Ran Cat Trail W to Curl road. Legs a little tired, but may be trying to run a little too quickly right now for current level of fitness.
pm (:30) Raceblades. Nice relaxed afternoon run with Sara, Siku and Neeka on Cat Trail East. Legs felt very refreshed after.

Fri/10 (1:32)
am (1:02) Crosslite2. Nice run on Cat trail west. Same run, same distance as yesterday, but felt so much better. More energy. Knee at 95% right now, the only thing is still a little bit of weakness there, but much better than it has been.
pm (:34) Fireblades. Ran McKeown trails and Hunt Camp with Sara before going to get groceries in Napanee. Beautiful run with all the fall colours along the escarpment. Really miss those trails.

Sat/11 (2:12) Crosslite2. Great run at Frontenac Park with Sara. Ran from Big Salmon Parking, Little Clear Lake Loop, through Moulton Gorge and back on Arkon East. Beautiful colours in the park. Was good to be out a little longer again. A little depleted from not enough food, but good.

Sun/12 (1:28)
am (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass home trail with Sara and Siku.
pm (1:08) Gazelle. North trail to Sandpit. Felt very good once I got going. Should have worn trail shoes as ATV butchered muddy spots on trails this weekend.

Sept 29 - Oct 5 (6:13)

Have continued to improve all week and feeling much better. Knee is getting stronger each day. Two laser treatments this week really helped at Napanee Chiropractic. Looking forward to increasing further next week. Planning a 90' trail run with Aaron at Front. Pk on Monday. Probably Arkon. Looking forward to getting back in the park.

Weekly total = 6:13

Mon/29 (:45) Skylites. Steady on Cat Trail West with Sara. Knee stiffened up a little at the end but good otherwise. Went in for laser treatment today, so a little achy afterwards.

Tue/30 (:31) Skylites. Easy with Sara, Siku and Meela on Cat Trail East. Knee feeling pretty good after laser yesterday.

Wed/1 (:40) Crosslite3. Easy on Cat trail West with Sara. Felt pretty good today. Knee seems to be improving. Less pain, just a little weak still.

Thu/2 (1:03) Crosslites3. Ahhhhh, finally. Tested my knee a little more today and felt great. Ran steady on Cat Trail West to Curl Road. Ran a little harder than I had planned, but felt so good to be out there. Felt knee tighten a little at 50mins, but no pain. Laser treatment a couple of hours after the run.

Fri/3 (1:02)
am (:21) Raceblades. Easy with Siku on Cat Trail West. Felt good. Quads a little sore from running harder yesterday, but knee good. A little bit of weakness in the area, but very good otherwise.
pm (:41) Crosslite2. Easy with Sara on north trail towards Sandpit. Legs a little tired, but knee good. Feels like it's getting stronger and can push off harder now.

Sat/4 (1:12)
am (:21) Gazelles. Easy with Siku on Freeman Trail to river. Felt good. Siku's first run in harness. Didn't pull too hard.
pm (:51) Crosslite3. Easy to Steady on north trail to Sandpit with Sara, then steady on the way back. Felt really good. Knee getting much stronger.

Sun/5 (1:00)
pm (1:00) Crosslite3. Easy on Paudyn loop with Sara, then Cat E to boundary. Felt good, but a litle tired. Knee continues to feel better.

Sept 22 - 28 (2:51)

Felt great to get back to running a little more on the weekend. Knee slowly improved as the week progressed. At the point now where I can open up my stride a little more and run harder with just the slight feeling of discomfort and weakness. Went in to see Dr. Scot Mundle at Napanee Chiropractic and Laser Clinic today (Sept 29) and he felt it was a slight MCL tear. Getting laser treatments this week, which should help speed up the healing.

Week Ending Total = 2:51

Mon/22 (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass trail. Knee still sore if I try to open my stride up and run any faster.

Tue/23 (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass trail.

Wed/24 (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass trail. Knee seemed a little better today.

Thu/25 (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass trail. More just stiffness in knee today and was able to run faster. Will continue to take it easy for the rest of the week, but feeling encouraged.

Fri/26 (:20) Frees. Easy on grass trail. Knee felt about the same as yesterday.

Sat/27 (:30) Skylites. Easy on Cat Trail East w/Sara, Siku and Jesse. Knee felt good. A little stiffness at about halfway. Ran 4x strides and felt very comfortable. See how it feels tomorrow, but will probably try a little longer run.

Sun/28 (:41) Skylites. Easy on Cat West trail with Sara and Siku. Felt good to be out a little longer today. Knee slowly improving. Very nice day. Was surprised to see that there has been some trail maintenance on the section of Cataraqui Trail west of Yarker between the skidoo club and Curl Road. They've graded the trail and put lots of cinders down. It seems very soft right now. Will be nice when it gets packed down a little. Hopefully, all the rednecks on ATV's don't get on it and ruin it.

Sept 15 - 21 (2:23)

Mon/15 (:20) Skylites. Legs a little better. Knee still pretty sore.

Tue/16 (:21) Skylites. Easy on Cat E w/Sara. Not fair, Sara is feeling back to normal and increasing her running and I still feel like crap! Knee still pretty tight and sore. Will give it until next week before starting to worry and going to get it checked.

Wed/17 (:21) Skylites. Easy on our grass trail. Feeling a little more energy coming back, but still sluggish. Knee might be a little better.

Thu/18 (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass. Legs a little better, but knee still pretty sore.

Fri/19 (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass. Camping in Adirondacks until Sunday.

Sat/20 (:20) Skylites. Easy run at Heart Lake in Adirondacks. Also hiked for a couple of hours up Mt Jo with Brennan, Heather and Sara. Knee was hurting a bit.

Sun/21 (:21) Skylites. Easy on grass. Knee seemed maybe a little better today.Spent some time massaging it and may have helped. Continuing it ice post run too.

Weekly Total = 2:23
~ Physically I started feeling a little better on Friday. Earlier in the week still felt like I was fighting the flu, but have felt that way since the race so just my body being weak. Nice to be finally feeling a little more normal again. Just amazed that some people were racing the following weekend or two weeks after a 100 miler. I expect that I will recover quicker next time, Knee is the biggest concern now. Pleased with how it felt on Sunday and hope that the next few days it continues to improve further. Good time to take the extra recovery now I suppose, even though I can't stand it.

Sept 8 - 14 (2:22)

Mon/8 (:20) Gazelles. Very sore, very ugly run on our grass trail. Left knee (medial), pretty sore from when I fell hard in the last 6 miles of race.

Tue/9 (:20) Skylites. Still sore and probably uglier run than even yesterday.

Wed/10 (:21) Skylites. Ok, my legs are still knackered!

Thu/11 (:20) Skylites. Not much of an appetite and still feeling pretty rough.

Fri/12 (:20) Skylites. Feeling a little better today, though legs still quite sore.

Sat/13 (:20) Skylites. Easy on grass. Legs felt a little bit better today. Still very sore though.

Sun/14 (:21) Zoom Str. Knee a little bit better today.

Weekly Total = 2:22
~ Legs still very much pooched! No energy and still some stiffness. Overall body fatigued too. Knee is still very sore.