Gone But Not Forgotten

Hello, loyal fans (all two of you)! It’s been a while, I know, but that’s what happens when actual work gets in the way of updating my hobby blog that doesn’t help pay my bills. Oh well. I’m back now, with a goal to keep this darn thing updated more often.

Here’s what’s been going on since my last post:

1. The back is better… I got some TLC in the form of massage, chiro work and foam rolley goodness, so huzzah for that.
2. …but the hamstring is not. A combination of weighted one-legged squats (curse you, Eli! *shakes fist*) and lots of run mileage has led to a tight right hammy, right where it meets the pooch butt. I’ve been stretching and icing it, so hopefully it’ll play nice over Christmas break so I can get my 18 miler in.
3. I ran the Las Vegas Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon. Jason did the full and shaved ten freakin’ minutes off his PR, thus capping off a fantastic year of racing for him (Mark has dubbed him “Mr. PR,” which is no joke — I don’t think he had a single bad race all season). I, meanwhile, did two minutes better than the Seattle half in June but was still 2 minutes off my PR. The goal for 2010 is to do a sub-1:50. I think that with my diligent training for Canada I should be able to pull it off.
4. I’m training for a marathon in February. It’s a podunk tiny marathon in Goodyear, Arizona that should only attract a couple hundred runners. The race is February 14th — what better way to celebrate a Hallmark holiday than to run 26.2 miles? This will be my second marathon, and I’m hoping to PR by a lot (about 20-35 minutes). The pipe dream is sub-4 hours, but I’ll be happy with low fours.

That’s about it for the time being. I’ll check back in after this weekend’s long run and workouts. Hope you all have a happy holiday and that you receive a stocking full of gu and PRs. :)