or Friday... you know same thing - apparently! hahaha mta: i got a good deal on flights to Minneapolis! and me and some friends are gonna ride together to fargo

Kimmie, I don't know how your relay is laid out, but the Ragnar Relay I did was sort of like 3 10k's run in a day (24 hours). We were on a team that was pushing for first place so there was pressure to run hard. As for your half, I think it depends on you yourself. What are your plans then the rest of the week? How well do you recover? I think if you run it smart, you could still 'race' the HM, recover with rest and recovery runs during the week, and be ready to go for your relay. No matter what you do, your last leg of the relay will be hard because you will be tired from the previous runs and lack of sleep. Sort of comes with the territory. But they sure are fun! (I guess that's my way of saying, do them both!) We got snow last night, not much but it'll make everything pretty sloppy. I think I'll run on the treadmill tonight and let the boys take the car to soccer practice.

6.2 miles of spectacularly stupid rain running for me today. When I'm cold and wet, I have very little patience for "easy running". It was a little drizzle when I started out. By the end of the first mile I was soaked and it was a steady downpour. So I start rationalizing. "I'm already drenched. Might as well run the full 6 miles...". At one point I saw a bunch of ducks drinking out of a rain puddle and actually thought of Pam wanting to drink out of the river yesterday. Too funny. 8.12 average pace the day after hard intervals. Stooopid.

Wife and I met after work at a park to run intervals, but we both cut our interval goals short, due to rain & cold & wind. I'm plenty tired now anyway. Never mind about pace, I just want my race this weekend to be sunny or at least not raining

Just an article on stress fractures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is 1 new post in "The View from Sports Center" The Biggest Loser's Guide to Hip Fracture NBC's "The Biggest Loser" lost a contestant, Laura, 24 years old, to a stress fracture of the hip yesterday 4/14/09. I'm not a fan of the show partly because the premise is absurd (how much weight can you lose in a really short period of time) and I can't watch trainers yell at their clients, humiliate them and them put them through drills that even Lebron James would find tough. Apparently, Laura had been complaining of hip pain for some time so her trainer, Jillian, decides to take her in to a physician to be examined. An xray of the hip confirms that she has a stress fracture (a stress fracture is a tiny crack in the bone). Both the physician and Jillian repeat to Laura how unlucky she is to get a stress fracture as if there's something mysterious about what happened. "You've worked so hard and so long, and now this! I feel so bad for you!" There are a lot of reasons for a stress fracture but one thing's for sure. If you place too much force on your body without enough rest and sufficient nutrient supply, you set your self up for a stress fracture. Tiger Woods suffered from a stress fracture prior to the 2008 US Open. Stress fractures don't care if you're a professional athlete or a person who needs to lose 100 lbs. Too much stress is too much stress. There are three things about what happened on the Biggest Loser that are troubling: That a contestant was injured from a training routine that, from what I saw, was absurdly beyond her ability and the injury could have been prevented. That people watching the show think that a stress fracture is just an unlucky thing that just sort of happens from training. That Laura believed she should not or could not exercise and continue on the show because of the injury. I know, this is TV show, and such nonsense makes for good ratings. But, it doesn't make it right because someone, somewhere makes a ton of money off the stupidity of one person and the resulting misery of another. Ok, I'm done. DK

Interesting article on TBL, Cash. Thanks. 6.67 miles today. It was a nice mid-week long run, but my knees got a bit sore and my HR was kinda squirrelly. I think 6 consecutive days of running is too much for me right now. Tomorrow will be a well-enjoyed rest day.

Harriet is also bringing two pairs of shoes, I think. Regarding hard drive crashes, we use a backup service called carbonite. It's $54/year per computer but the peace of mind is worth it. Let me know if you're interested and I can send you a referral -- or you can search for them on the internet (I would get free months for the referral though ) Came home last night to a sick cat. Poor kitty. He seems better this morning, but just in case we'll take him to the vet before we get on the road. Short little recovery run this morning. 3.1 miles, 28:33, 9:09/mi, AHR 136 (70% MHR)

6.67 miles today. It was a nice mid-week long run, but my knees got a bit sore and my HR was kinda squirrelly. I think 6 consecutive days of running is too much for me right now. Tomorrow will be a well-enjoyed rest day.

Great job on the mid-week long run, Paul. I think those made the biggest difference in my training. Don't sweat the days off. My legs get tweaky with anything more than about 4 days consecutive. I'm pushing the limits of that now but am not sure it will end up helping. I was really tweaking after yesterdays run. Little bit of a limp walking out to my ride home. Elevated some last night (should've iced) and felt better this morning so I may go again just to keep the streak alive. Looks like beautiful weather today. Sorry to hear about your hard drive issues, Erika. I've got an external drive running Timemachine (one more thing to like about Apple) but I'm considering Carbonite for the off-site backup. Lou, send me a referral please (email in signature). If I sign up, I'll expect a beer next time we link up post-race