Colton CA

While waiting on our load this morning, I ran 6.25 miles around our employer's terminal.

I spent some time working on my goal of not walking during my next marathon. I had discovered that even slow jogging is faster than fast walking. Quite a bit faster. I noticed my resperation slows at a jog, but something in me still likes to take a walk break. Today I walked a couple of times to see what the appeal is for walking.
When I walk I look around at the scenery more, and stretch my arms and shoulders. On my subsequent "jog breaks" from my 9.5 minute per mile pace I tried incorporating scenery viewing and stretching. I do think the breaks were more satisfying. Ahh, progress.

The temperature was 70 with no clouds. (Worked on my tan too!)
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Prosser WA

While waiting to load at Treetop, the apple juice people, Cindy dropped me off downtown to drop some mail at the post office. I ran back to the docks. 3.6 miles fartlag.

Nice run through the downtown area of the small town, and out past some orchards and vineyards. Temperature in the mid-forties, high hazy clouds.
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Santa Nella CA

Today I ran 3.5 miles at tempo pace just north of the Pilot Truckstop in Santa Nella CA.

The idea has occurred to me that this blog would be a great forum for keeping track of where are good places to exercise around truckstops.

The area just north of the truckstop has a loop that has a continuous sidewalk around the whole block. The area was leveled for development, but only has a Subway and a gas station on one corner. One lap is 0.7 miles. No grade on the run at all.

I may think of other categories later, but for now:

Safety: Good. It is in a wide open area, no running through shrubs or near places criminals can hide in. Little or no traffic on two of the sides. No streets to cross.

Pet factor: good, most of the area is open fields.

Scenery factor: Nice view of the Diablo Range to the west. Flat farmland and Interstate 5 nearby.

52 degrees, mostly cloudy

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Buttonwillow CA

My knees did better today, they loosened up after only a half-mile. I ran five miles around the T/A Truckstop's neighborhood (a typical collection of restaurants, fast food, and gas stations).

65 degrees with light rain
"If it ain't raining, it ain't training"
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Midland TX

I had set out to run another five miles today. My knees were a little stiff starting out. I expected them to loosen up in a mile or so. Instead I started getting some pain. Since our schedule should allow for a longer run tommorrow, I decided to call it a day after two miles

High clouds, warm, windy. 80 degrees
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South Beach FL

I got in another five mile miles today. I ran three miles along the beach and another two along the boardwalk and the beach walk. Great place to people-watch

Beach Walk

I ran a couple of miles along the beach walk, then did some exercises on the kid's playground equipment. I was the biggest kid on the playground! (I was also the only kid on the playground at sunrise.)

Sobe to Haulover Beach

Today we rented a tandem bike and rode up to Haulover Beach, about a 22 mile round trip. We had a picnic lunch, enjoyed some sun, and rode down to the tip of South Beach. We took this great retro picture there. After exploring Sobe somemore we turned the bike in. We ended up with well over 30 miles and sore butts.

Miami Beach FL

Our hotel is a "not-quite-on-the-beach" beach hotel in South Beach, the southern part of the city of Miami Beach. I took off to run about four miles, but got caught up in the beauty of the sunrise and had 5.5 miles in before I noticed.

An Update on Updates

What happened? Did Danny fall off the ends of the earth? Did he stop training, or just stop updating his blog? Maybe an injury? Maybe brain-damage? An injured pinkie finger so he cannot type any ; : p P ) 0 ' " characters?

Well, to make a long, uneventful story longer and more uneventful, the minus 13 degree weather that happened on my next training day slowed me down a bit on running. We also celebrated Christmas with our families that weekend, since we plan to be driving the truck on Christmas. Then we prepared for, and went on, a trip to the Caribbean.

I have been running. In fact I lost weight on the cruise even while eating 20 meals per day. But the progression has not inspired me to update the blog.

2009 is a new year. Every day is a chance to do all things better.

Update I shall.