We could neither run, Norwalk

Friday am, 5.3 miles in 42:48
Saturday pm, 11(?) miles in 1:31
Monday am, 4.6 miles in 39:10

Well, we could actually walk, but there was a little bout with the stomach flu last week that had everyone incapacitated for a couple days. Silas is still not quite right. I had set an unspoken goal of running at least 4 weekdays last week, but Wednesday and Thursday were out of the question. I managed a short run with Si on Friday morning, and had a very nice solo run on Saturday, out and back on the Strawberry Creek Trail in the rain. After investigating the map, I figured that I could have gone another half mile or so to hit the end of the trail. Sunday was a day trip to Santa Cruz with some hiking, and this morning was a short bagel run with Silas, battling stiff quads but enjoying the cool air.

So, I guess it's better to have spoken goals rather than unspoken ones. I was searching around for a good goal rain the spring that I could spend about 6 months working towards. I couldn't find any marathons that suit my needs, but there is the Tilden Tough Ten in May, a ten mile trail run put on by one of the local clubs.

As the name implies, it's a tough course, and I think I would shoot for under 70 minutes (garnering myself an Under-70 shirt in the process). I'm going to spend a few months building my base into the New Year, and then do some more specific training through the spring, including a few road races. The same club, the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders, has a no-frills Fourth Sunday race every month on a certified course around Lake Merritt in Oakland; runners can choose 5k, 10k, or 15k. I think that I'll do the 10k this month, just to take my pulse. As far as training goes, things will be a little erratic as Silas adjusts to Standard Time and recovers from his bug, but I will plan to run 4 weekdays and 2 weekend days each week, with Friday as an off/makeup day. The mileage doesn't need to be high, but I should be doing 40 miles/week consistently by the winter holidays (when, of course, everything will be thrown off again). So that's the plan; let's see what happens.