Rest day for me today.

PDR and I are both sore.  She ran, but I figured a day off every three weeks is fine

All I have is pictures:

And that second picture is AWESOME! 

It is a picture of togetherness and health and enthusiasm.  We should all be so lucky.

Bugs, that's so cool!  Glad you had a great weekend!

First picture -- right, Dave?  Second picture just shows why our quads are sore.  Actually PDR fell down a few times (she says she's clumsy, but is a good sport), and she's sore from that, too.  I fell down once (drew blood, but just a scratch really), but had many close calls.

But this is nothing to you folks who run trails all the time.  Just new to us.

Awesome trail running, Lou! Love that picture of you two.

Yay Bugs on the successful relay! I hope you post a link to your RR (Relay Report) here so we can find it easily. Yes, I'm lazy.

Paul, I had a "long run" like that a few weeks ago. What was supposed to be my first 20 miler ended just after 9 and I was so very, very done with it. Oh well. Life goes on, as they say. You'll get it together, just need to regroup a bit.

Wondering how P2R is and how his little run went this weekend...

I ran a crazy 10k yesterday. Over 400' elevation gain from just before the second mile to around the 3rd. Then mile 4 was mostly back down that hill (weeee!), mile 5 mostly trails, mile 6 was back down and on the flat. Race was long, almost 11k so almost ran out of gas at the end, but hung on for 3rd woman and 5th overall (only two guys ahead of us three women!). Fun race and I think I win a bagel gift card, but final results/awards aren't posted yet.

Gym day at lunch for me today, my back is pretty stiff and sore from the berry picking on Saturday and the pounding down the hill yesterday. After the race, I went on for 6.1 sorta easy miles and I could feel my lower back complaining the whole time. Need to drag out my PT exercises I think.

Nice relay race Bugs! It's hard to get much if any sleep on those things.

Great picture  Lou! 

Made the drive back from Colorado Springs today.  My splits are below.  Some kind of fun and for sure an experience. It starts in Manitou Springs with the first mile winding through town on streets to the Barr trail head.  At the base it  is groomed dirt and wide, not many rocks.  As you progress it become single track and the rocks start to take over.  It was warm this year with the temp in the 60's.  Running uphill you keep moving towards cooler air and more wind.  After mile 7 the trail gets technical.  You start having to step up in some sections.   After the treeline it becomes a moonscape of switchbacks.  The air is so clear and it looks like you never stop climbing.  It was two-way traffic now with those going back down having the right of way so I had stop several times and lean against rock to stay out of the way.  My slowest mile was 11- 12 which took  just over 40-minutes.  The hardest portion was the 16 golden stairs (switchbacks) between mile 12 and 13.  It's mostly climbing and gasping.  I was holding good through mile 9 and thought I had a 4-hour ascent in the bag.  Then it just kept getting steeper.  Between miles  9 - 10 was  when Matt Carpenter came flying down the hill.  He finished in 3:51.  Going up miles  10 - 13 was all kinds of jacked up.  I got back spasms and leg cramps.  I learned that the only way it really worked to breathe was to take one long deep breath as deep as you could pull it in.  short breathing just made me dizzy and nausious.  I couldn't keep much form with my legs and the step ups really took it out of me.  I don't know what brought the muscle problems on.  I was constantly drinking water and taking e-caps every 45 minutes.  The desecent was much stronger for me and I was able to move up several places.  Going  down hill made breathing easier even above  12,000 ft.  The Montrail Hardrock trail shoes I was wearing gave me blisters again but the protection in the shank and toebox was worth it.  I was able  to land hard on the set, pointed rock and didn't  jam my toes when I kicked a few of  them during the run.  Many who were wearing their road shoes had to slow down or walk going back because it was  too painful on their feet and toes.   I was very happy not to fall.   I had some hard stumbles and some toe busters  but no falls and yes I did see some impressive falling going on.  Some gashed heads, rashed up hands and lots of knees being cleaned out in the med tent at the end.  Hope to get some pictures posted later.

  5:12:33  2:42:17  7:54:50 

Wow is right.  I almost can't fathom that kind of hill climbing effort, P2R.  Quite an achievement.

I opted for a bike ride with my wife last night instead of a run.  Almost an hour with a few hills thrown in.  Helped a guy push a van out of the road a hundred yards or so and felt like I got in my interval training.  I was seriously winded after that.

Nice evening though. 

I hope you guys took a look at p2r's race in his log, specifically the map/elevation profile.  And I was whining about my little 650' hill.  Wow again!

5 recovery paced miles this morning, on legs with sore quads (9:18/mi).  I upgraded sporttracks and their weather plug-in, so now I get these kind of stats: Min./Max.: 62.8 °F/63.0 °F; Pressure: 1013.2 mbar; Humidity: 89.1%; Wind Speed: 0.6 mph; Precipitation: 0.0mm/h.  All that's missing to easily cut/paste is the dew point (was 60°).  I'll send the guy a suggestion and I bet it'll be added soon.