Hei!

Frigid temperatures have swept across the hills of East Tennessee this week, including a meal-prep Sunday that, while 32°F, “felt like” 16°F and a Wednesday morning gym outing where the “feels like” temperature was a whopping 4°F. Needless to say, I have invested in a good amount of cold-weather running gear because I refuse to run indoors and it has more than paid for itself this week!

With it being East Tennessee, however, it’s not uncommon for us to have a sub-10°F day followed by a day in the mid-40s. I’m especially grateful that these “mild” days are landing on the weekend now that I’m at a point where my weekend long runs are, indeed, starting to get long. I’m very pleased to share that with the conclusion of this week, I’ve finally hit the 10K distance – officially halfway there!

The way that it’s set up right now, if I stick to the program (I will), my training will take me right up to race day, April 5, 2025. Bring it on, I say.

Despite the bone-chilling cold, we at least haven’t gotten any snow lately, unlike the freaky shit that’s been happening on the east coast and on the gulf coast. And even though my run last weekend was damn-near perfect weather-wise, that didn’t stop me from trying to hurt myself!

Our local greenway where I’ve been doing my training is just a hair over 5K out-and-back. Since my long run was 5.5 miles, I decided to park further into town and utilized the sidewalk system through downtown Lenoir City to add the extra 2.5 miles. It had rained that morning and was overcast when I went out. Despite it being gray, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the scenery. Our downtown area has really blossomed in the last couple of years with shops and restaurants moving into the once-empty spaces. Beautiful murals have started finding their way onto our walls and – because this is a small city – all of this beauty comes with minimal traffic.

It felt great while I was on my way out, running by the library and community college, around by the local coffee shop and lumber yard. From there, I passed a few boutiques and the “weed” restaurant (Maui Waui Cafe), then past the post office and playground on my way to the greenway. Lately I’ve been trying to maintain my 5K pace through the first 3.1 miles, allowing myself to slow down for the rest of my run. It’s really helped my endurance and has improved my 5K time by nearly three minutes. I made my way out to the end of the greenway and hit 3.1 miles shortly after coming back down it. From there, it was back onto the main drag, up past the playground and back toward the library.

At this point, I could see our cute little downtown area up ahead, there were cars parked at the post office, flags were hanging from posts along the main thoroughfare and for a moment, I was filled with gratitude. I thought to myself, “Man, I can’t believe I’m this lucky to have such a gorgeous place to come do my training.” But before I could complete this thought, a bit of uneven sidewalk jumped up, caught my right toe and sent me flying to the ground.

I went down leading with my left knee, which hit pretty hard, followed by my right knee and both of my hands. Fortunately, I didn’t hit my face, but the horror of knowing so many people driving by just saw me eat shit filled me with an enormous amount of adrenaline. I popped up faster than you can say “Cobra Kai!” and I proceeded to keep running toward the post office. By the time I reached the building, however, the pain in my knee had become apparent and I slowed down to a walk.

I noticed my knee was bleeding, but assumed it was just a scrape. I considered calling it quits early, crossing the street to my truck and skipping that last half mile, but I figured I could trot it out, so I did. By the time I got back to my truck, I realized that not only was the knee bleeding, but blood was starting to drip down my shin – I was cut up a little worse than I thought.

Fortunately, I had parked right beside my massage place and since those ladies know me fairly well, I invited myself in and asked if I could use their facilities to clean up my offensive knee. I had a list of chores to tackle when I got home, but I chose instead to sit in the comfy chair reading and napping the rest of the day. I’d realized in the shower later that my knee had swollen to nearly double in size. I spent the rest of the evening with an ice pack wedged between my knee and my camo jam pants.

My bro Aaron said, “chicks dig guys with scars!” but I think at this point my chick wishes I’d just start living in a bubble where I could no longer cut or burn myself. Forty is proving to be a very accident-prone age and I’ve only been this age for six weeks.

Thankfully the pain in my knee mostly subsided by Monday, which was leg day. It wasn’t better but I was very careful and didn’t experience any extra discomfort. At this point, my scar is sore but there’s no swelling and my knee is generally not tender at all. I even went out for my Tuesday 3.1 and kept a faster pace than usual, which made me very happy. Another thing that tickled me: the temperature was well-below freezing and when I got back to the truck, I realized that my breath had frozen into ice pellets in my beard. Science is so cool.

ANYWAY …

This is a big update since I finally hit 10K but the next update is going to be even bigger since I’ll officially be in phase 2 of my programming and will be having a celebration dinner since I will have finally reached my first destination: Lillehammer! Until then, here’s this update’s table:

Road Trip Tracker
Road Trip Mileage	Total Mileage	Percentage Complete
1,284.37	146.42	11.40%
Miles to Lillehammer	Leg Mileage	Percentage Complete
114.332	146.42	75.59%
Date	Type	Distance (Miles)
1/13/2025	Strength Day Walk	1
1/14/2025	Training Run	3.12
1/15/2025	Strength Day Walk	1
1/16/2025	Training Run	3.1
1/17/2025	Strength Day Walk	1
1/18/2025	Weekend Long Run	5.5
1/20/2025	Strength Day Walk	1
1/21/2025	Training Run	3.1
1/22/2025	Strength Day Walk	1
1/23/2025	Training Run	3.1
1/24/2025	Strength Day Walk	1
1/25/2025	Weekend Long Run	6.2

70 days until race day!

Alltid Videre!

-JTF