The Week of December 25 – 31, 2006

Synopsis of Week’s Training:This week will be chalked up as a sick week. I woke up on Christmas morning knowing […]

By on January 16, 2007 | Comments

Synopsis of Week’s Training:
This week will be chalked up as a sick week. I woke up on Christmas morning knowing that I was sick. What a bummer. What’s worse, it linger through the week and possibly beyond. Despite not feeling well, I completed my Christmas tradition, but with a new twist this year. For the past 15 years (may have missed a year), every Christmas day I run down to the annual Washington crossing the Delaware reenactment (think back of the New Jersey quarter), which is about about a mile from my parents’ house, and then continue up Continental Lane, the route that Washington and his army took en route to attack the Hessians in Trenton on a Christmas day so long ago. This year I had a special guest for this tradition – my sister! I don’t think she enjoyed the much, but I think she had a good time. On the way back to the house, I left here with my mom and her husband, who were watching the crossing. Not 100 meters later, I see a man trying to find a cop. He sees me running and let’s me know that he’s looking for a cop because an elderly person had “gone down” up the road and asked if I could go get a cop that he’d seen in the other direction. So I took of sprinting and let the cop know. He immediately called for an ambulance, which, fortunately, was on standby down at the crossing. I never figured out if this incident was a heart attack or merely a fall.

I took off Tuesday due to feeling bad. Wednesday through Friday were easy days. Saturday I got my ass kicked by the Boyer’s Furnace fatass. Not long into the run I realized that I *hate* the Massanutten Mountain Trail. *ALOT* Too many rocks, not enough running for my liking. Thankfully, I had great company and it was a beautiful day. I caught up with some long time acquaintances/now current friends and got to know some folks I’d never really talked to. Somewhere near 30 miles, I had a bit of unneeded drama that I didn’t need – I sprained my ankle pretty badly twice in a row. Normally this would suck bad enough, but I still had to traverse Short Mountain on seven miles of the nastiest, rockiest trail a person could imagine. Earlier in the day I had expressed my dislike for the trail, by this point I was cursing up a storm. Pretty much every couple steps I would reaggrevate the ankle. Yuck. At the tail end of daylight, Keith Knipling and I made it back to the start a bit less than 10 hours after we started. On Sunday I was supposed to conclude 2006 with a run up Signal Knob with some VHTRC folks and Elaine, a friend who drove out with me. Unfortunately, my friends all decided that some drizzle was enough to keep them inside, so we didn’t go.

By The Numbers:
Monday – 5. Easy.
Tuesday – Off. Sick.
Wednesday – 5.5. Social track.
Thursday – 5. Easy.
Friday – 5. Easy.
Saturday – 43. Boyer’s Furnace Fatass.
Sunday – Off. Midnight run canceled.

Weekly Mileage: 63.5
Year-to-Date Mileage: 2743
Three Week Moving Average: 58.0
Year-to-Date Weekly Average: 52.8

Upcoming Training Goals:
Too late for posting goals.

Ps. Sorry for (ano)the(r) delayed summary. I’ll chalk it up to being sick, then apathetic, and then busy.

Bryon Powell

Bryon Powell is the Founding Editor of iRunFar. He’s been writing about trail running, ultrarunning, and running gear for more than 15 years. Aside from iRunFar, he’s authored the books Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and Where the Road Ends: A Guide to Trail Running, been a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, written for publications including Outside, Sierra, and Running Times, and coached ultrarunners of all abilities. Based in Silverton, Colorado, Bryon is an avid trail runner and ultrarunner who competes in events from the Hardrock 100 Mile just out his front door to races long and short around the world, that is, when he’s not fly fishing or tending to his garden.