Checking in from LA

I'm currently sitting next to a pile of equipment racks at a large corporate event in a very fancy schmancy resort just south of Los Angeles.  I was hired to come out here and be the "master electrician" for this event.  Which means my job is to lead the installation of a large lighting rig for the event.  Normally I'm the lighting designer and I work with master electricians to install my rigs for me.  However sometimes its really nice to trade hats.  Working shows like this have only one really stressfull day and thats the first day of setup when you walk into an empty room.  But as gigs go even that day wasn't bad at all.  So now that the rig is loaded in (all setup) my job becomes more of a babysitting role.  Essentially I sit backstage and wait for stuff to break.  Sometimes that happens a lot, and sometimes not at all.  So here is my exciting view...

On the other side of a wall of drape and scenery is a big fancy lighting rig where currently a couple hundred executives are enjoying a performance by a bunch of fire dancers while they wait for their big awards dinner to start.  Here's a shot I grabbed at rehearsal.

So as you can see my job can be pretty random at times.  Point is though I'm here at this amazing luxury resort staying in this lovely villa with several fireplaces, a hot tub, two outdoor patios, outdoor fireplaces and all sorts of fabulous acoutrements.  So I really can't complain.  The part however that I can whine a bit about is that I've been going show to show for quite sometime now and I'm really missing the girl.  We've never been apart for any length of time yet so this trip being almost three weeks long has been tough.  Just 7 more days to go fortunately and I'll be home...  although sadly only for a few days and then I go off to Dallas for a week.

So last I updated I was in DC and taking a week off of training.  I stayed true to that and did nothing while I was out there but do my best to let things heal.  However once out here in LA I really wanted to get back to training.  Especially to running to see what would happen.  And at the end of that rest period I felt fairly good.  Some hamstring tightness was still there but not as bad, and my right foot still feels a little less powerfull but I felt ok to try running again.  So after a long workday in DC followed by a flight to LA getting me in at close to midnight and then working a 15 hour day the next day I went to bed with the plan to wake up early and get a run in before work.  So my alarm went off at 5am (its really easy to get up that early on the west coast when you are still on east coast time) and headed out for a run.  I was kind of excited to run here as the resort is literally on a cliff right on the pacific ocean and I'm sure the views must be spectacular.  However at 5am its pitch black out.  So I was forced to stay on the hotel's many lit paths and parking areas.  So I found a nice 1.2 mile loop of paths and just kept running that loop till I hit 5.7 miles total.  Why 5.7?  Because I wanted to run five, and from there it was .7 miles to the cafe where I planned to buy breakfast!

So how did the run go?  Well it started off well, but it didn't end so well.  My hamstring tightened up quite a bit towards the end.  Nothing awful or painfull just that discomfort again.  So that was frustrating.  My foot felt ok, but again it feels weak. I definitely did not finish it as strong as I wanted to.  Worse though was that as the day wore on my hamstring felt sore all day.  Very aggrevating!  Again not painfull...  just tight.

So now what?  Well I've decided that I have to try and run on it.  Its not injured and its not painfull so I need to do my best to stretch stretch stretch and see if I can actively rehab it.  I'll be carefull with pace and hillwork and see what happens.  So tomorrow I'm going to try and run 5 again and see what happens and if that goes well I'll try 14 on Sunday.  If I'm not able to do that then I will try a last ditch effort of two straight weeks off and then start training again for the marathon.  If I can't heal it in two weeks then I'm porked and probably wont be able to do the disney challenge or at least not the full marathon part of it.  We'll see though.  I still however have the option of racing the Donna in February as my marathon so thats still on the table and it could be really fun to try and PR and then get to celebrate with the girl and all her friends.  So still lots to figure out.

I really hope I can run long on Sunday though...   I have that morning off and its so beautifull out here and to run long along the pacific coast will be amazing.  So fingers crossed.   I also have some time in the morning tomorrow to myself so my hope is to swim nice and early, then bike a little at the gym as a nice long warmup and then go run five miles.  Saturday would then be an off day and then I'll run long on Sunday.  Wish me luck!

In other random news my eating has been much better here in LA than it was in DC thats for sure!  The plus of having the lovely villa is that its now stocked full of groceries as we have a full kitchen.  So between me behaving again at the end of the DC trip and my time out here my weight is back down to 142 from its peak of 145 so that has me feeling good.  Not that I'm a freak about it, but I do like to maintain it at 140 and keep it there.  Its been a little roller-coastery lately and thats not good.  So I'm hoping to get it back under control and keep it there.  Ok...   I should go back to staring at equipment racks now.