One positive to having family in Arizona is visiting there for the holidays.\u00a0 My word – 60s-70s feel glorious. I have a problem though – my right foot is still quite painful. So – do I take advantage of the warm weather and trails, or be a good boy?\u00a0 I opted for the trails.\u00a0 Today I started at my sister’s house (on the south side of Phoenix’s South Mountain in Ahwatukee) and accessed the trail system there.\u00a0 I took a dirt road out of her neighborhood East to run the Southernmost ridge that runs WNW to ESE above her house.\u00a0 I took the Pyramid Trail up West to the Bursera trail and followed that along the ridge until it drops down the backside into a valley and connects with the Gila Trail.\u00a0 That loops around the far SE end of the ridge, where I followed a trail under the power lines back over to the backside of my sister’s neighborhood.\u00a0 It felt amazing to be running shirtless in the sun on new trails – Saguaro cactus all over the landscape.\u00a0 Just beautiful. Unfortunately, my IT Bands really started hurting on the descent down the backside side of the ridge at about mile 3.5.\u00a0 And, the foot pain didn’t go away.\u00a0 While running it actually didn’t hurt to bad, but whenever I slowed down to a walk – or when I climbed back in my car – it throbbed bad.<\/p>\n