Back from my blogging hiatus and some Daylight

This is just a short update since I have been out of the blogging loop for a couple of months and have limited time to write tonight. The last few months have been very busy with a hectic end of the semester, followed up with teaching field school, and finally a few weeks in Utah seeing family and friends. In total I was on 12 ferry's and drove over 4,000 clicks in five weeks.

My running during all this madness was inconsistent at best but I did hike like crazy and hiked several hundred Km and over 100,000 feet of vert. One major deterrent was the crazy weather Utah had this May. I hardly got a chance to go above 7,000 feet because temps were low and storms which dropped significant snow seemed to come in daily. I was in Nevada on May 29th in freezing temps with horizontal snow on top of Bald Eagle Mountain in the Pilot Range. That is just crazy!

Tonight I tried my hand at my usual Mount Doug course so I could gauge my fitness and determine what it is going to take to salvage this Summer as far as running goes. Come to find out all that hiking seemed to keep me somewhat fit and I was able to run strong the first 6 clicks but began to fizzle the next 5. I was actually quite surprised but perhaps the best surprise was how nice it was to run without the upper respiratory problems that plagued me from new years to the beginning of May. It is amazing the difference being able to breath makes for your running, I think I am going to roll with the breathing for the next while. The Mountain is definitely overgrown and perhaps could use some daily visits from me to open up a few of the trails so that is my goal.

I am quite anxious to start running consistently again, I need to shed about 15 lbs so I have a one month goal to lose that extra weight so by the beginning of July I am at my racing weight. I also would like to be running a 50 Km long run once a month for the next few months and then go from there. I have been weak on my long runs and have only one over 45 km's in the last 4 months so I will need to improve there.

I have been really digging a song called "Daylight" by Matt and Kim, lately (a duo from Brooklyn). It is one of those songs that makes you want get out and attack the trails. The song gives you some pep and energy in the morning and I think it is a nice way to start the day or in the case of my run tonight it was playing in my head throughout the run. I hope you like it too.