I'm Back and A Difficult One

I'm back from 12 days in New Zealand. Northern Wisconsin decided yesterday to say "welcome home, tim" on my 13 mile run by lovingly providing 14-degree temps and constant winds of 27 mph. Perhaps, hopefully, it was the last of the really unpleasant conditions for this winter/spring training season, because in future I'm hopeful the double blast of cold and wind will split and appear individually rather than in concert. Seems we should be on the slope in the proper direction for that.

The run turned out to be quite a success though, all things considered. Gmaps pedometer said that my mazing of the country roads equalled exactly 12.92 miles and my watch, when depressed as I met my car, read 1:30.58. So 7-minute miles on the nose, 2nd longest run in 5.5 years, biting head (and tail) winds and some pretty decent gradual hills, both up and down. And it felt alright.

I am especially pleased with this effort yesterday because in New Zealand my running mileage took a nasty downward spiral. Turns out when you are traveling with non-runners in their car, you can't just ask them to sit on the roadside for an hour while you go out for a run. Well, to be fair, they would have happily done so, but I wouldn't want to ask them to do it. And 40+ hours of traveling each way added to the difficulty of achieving weekly mileage goals that should have been in the 50s.

Nonetheless, I did get out for 4 runs over 13 days, and I had an excellent 2-day hike between, around and over some mountains that certainly didn't put me in worse shape. The most pleasant run was a reunion with a 10-mile route that I ran daily 13 years ago on study abroad---an outstanding route that I was still able to navigate by memory: first, edge around the rugby fields bordered by towering trees, then zig-zag through an ancient hillside cemetery, float along quietly on the woodchipped trails of the botanical gardens, hit some street running and more gardens, then tread forested trails along a river's edge up to the circumnavigation of a reservoir, and finally trace along steep bluffs that lace the edges of the city to finish with a steep decent thus making the circular route complete. It was great to be back. New Zealand does it right. All 4 of my runs were trail runs through either pastoral farmland or forests, often with views of the ocean.

On a completely different topic, my right leg iliotibial band has been bothering me ever since I had to drive 18 hours RT to Chicago with no cruise control 22 days ago. Stretching has been helpful. I hate stretching. But it turns out I'm not as spry as I used to be, so I best get used to spending 15 minutes a day focusing on flexibility. During the 13 yesterday the IT bands felt pretty good, so I hope to have turned a corner on the problem.

What's next in the training regiment, fellas? When do the, gulp, hard workouts start? And how's everyone else feeling? I start class tomorrow, so maybe Ben and I can run in the Cities, or Jude, perhaps we can meet for a weekend long run?