New week people. Let's give it your best. Well here's my story for the day. Glorious day! I was up at 6AM and immediately saw the SNOW!!!!! We haven't had snow all winter. Incredible. I was in a hurry to get out and run in the snow. But did want coffee first. In the end the doggies and I left at 6h50. SNOW!!! Woohooooo. Loved the sound of the snow under my shoes. I was the first out there. Not like that never happened before, but now with the snow.... I knew it wasn't gonna last cause temp was gonna be 4C today. Dropped Spike of after 3K. Doggie already did 2x10K's in a row so today was his 'rest day". Left with Spooky again. She had to be on leash for the first 10K of our run. We ran along the rail road track. We had to get of the bike path twice because one they were spraying salt (?) on the path. Turned up the dike. Fantastic! Clear blue sky, sun was out and warm, wind was freezing though. Off of the dike again. Which is where i had my first potty break. As I was about to finish our biggiest loop of the day I saw the weirdest thing ever. I came of a bike paith, crossed a road and wanted to continue on the next bike path when a car was parked right smack in the middle of the path. Motor running. Were I alone, I would have taken another route. But I was with a big black dog which makes me kindof fearless. I passed the car on the driver's side when I noticed he was helping himself to his, you know, sexual relief.... Man, I've seen some strange stuff while running, but this is a new one. And the noise he made as I passed the car. And this was in an area where a lot of dog walkers and runners pass. Actually, a male runner must have passed the car 5 minutes before me. Anyways we continued with our 2nd biggest loop. Didn't see anyone here. Snow was melting. Too bad. But at least I can say I ran in the SNOW. The loop took me along another part of the dike. That wind was really freezing coming off the lake. I had a clear view on Amsterdam. A big menacing cloud was over the city. Looked like it was coming my way. I was glad to be off the dike again. That wind really wasn't very nice. Passed the gay meeting place. Not very busy this time of the morning. Lots of runners coming my way now. I then went to Spike's beloved mud fields. Back to the dike again. Two dog walkers here. It is a nice place to let the dogs run wild. Spooky was on her best behaviour. Back on the dike, I now had the wind in my back. That was very nice. Menacing cloud was coming closer. Off the dike and through the tree tunnel for the 2nd time. I needed a potty break but there were runners coming my way. Had to wait. But when they passed me, I noticed this older man walking. Jeezzzz, what are these people doing here. Go away. At the end, I sprinted up the last bridge. There's 15 lamp posts there. So 1st gear, 1-2-3 lampposts, 2nd gear 1-2-3, 3rd gear 1-2-3, 4th gear 1-2-3-, 5th gear 1-2-3, gasp, made it. Recover going down the bridge. Hmmm, my run has ended. Wow, i could continue... I tried to keep my pace at about 7:15min/KM for the whole run. I was very surprised I was still able to manage this pace, sort of, at the end. My pace usually slows down considerably. When i got home, i plugged the mp3 player in the stereo. i was dancing and hopping around (sugar high or runners high?) and Spooky was playing with Spike. Mike, my oldest came downstairs: how far did you run? 33.25K. Really, he said, looks to me like you need to go out and run some more. Ehh????

Teresa: you spelled Eindhoven perfectly. I'm afraid things have changed a lot since 1989. though I suppose on average we're still a friendly lot, eager to speak English too As I was running today, after about 16K running on asphalt and partly concrete, I started having shooting pains in my R-foot. Just before the heel, where the arch starts. Really bad pains. Now this is a new thing. It would be OK for 400 meters or so, then bam, this pain again. Here's the weird thing. I turned on to a path with crushed shells. The pains kept coming and going despite the softer surface. You know how little bits get into your shoe? So at the end of the path I stopped to get the bits of shell out of my shoes. I sat on a bench, took my shoes of, made sure no bits we're stuck to my socks, put my shoes back on and ..... no more foot pain. I continued running for another 14K or so without any pain! Anyone have an explanation?

6.1 today March has not been a great month for me mileage wise. Missed almost a week for illness and a week for skiing (ok that wasnt so bad ) Hope to get back on track this week so I can start speedwork.

Hey, Dutchie, no explanation, but I'm glad it worked out. The next time my knee starts bugging me on a run maybe I'll try something new . . . I managed to keep running during our house's bout with upper-respiratory infections last week, managing 30 for the week. Instead of a long run on Saturday I ran a 5K. Didn't get a PR but was satisfied b/c I really was stuffed up and coughing as I stepped up to the starting line, so I have to be satisfied with my finish time of 27:04. It was a sparse crowd, too, so I still placed in my age group! Ran 7 today. I may run another 5K this Saturday so I'll have to make up the miles during the week.

Pretty good 6.2 with Daisy, who was a big pain in the a$$, tugging me the whole way. Hillbilly dogs charged at us. Six days to the ING half.

8 this morning. felt pretty good after the first 3

12 so far this week. Imogene, I've been tinkering with RoadID and what to put on the last line. Maybe the verse reference, huh? How did your hill running feel after all that time on your tiptoes? Professer, you running the ING half? Sounds like fun! Dutchie, Floridians can't run in the rain--even though it rains every day here from May until September. Frustrating.

6.2 today in SNOW interactive? there is interactive?