Nothing for me today except strength workouts (and stretching of course) at the rec center. I've been really busy at work this week, which is always the case when I'm about to go on vacation: everything that has been running smoothly starts blowing up! BTB: Really sorry to hear about your injury. It sure makes mine seem minor by comparison. I hope you can get it under control soon! Holly: Sorry about your trials and tribulations with selling and buying a house. But these things have a way of working themselves out for the better. CNY: I know it's your DS there, but your avatar is starting to make me feel chilly whenever I see it. Does he play baseball at all? Good runs to everyone today!

Good Tuesday Morning All, To many others have beaten me to the punch with April Fool's posts, so I will have to be truthful about my run today. Ran at 6 am at the track. The temp was about 53. I did 5 miles in 48:12 (9:39 pace). I have two more weeks of pure endurance runs and then back to weekly interval and tempo runs. I am actually looking forward to getting back to speed work. I am getting bored with just doing easy runs. Have a great day all! Bruce

Your wish is my command Rochrunner! There's the kiddo at a Little League picnic in New Britain, CT. All the teams (coaches-pitch through juniors) were bussed to a Rock Cats game on the hottest day of July in 2006---it was 103F in the stands that day, but the kiddo was cheesing for the camera as usual! How's that? It was time for an avatar change indeed....April 5 is the last game of the hockey season and then we are going to a Rock Cats game on Sunday with my husband's parents (76th birthday present for my FIL). They are just back from watching the Tigers play in Florida (MIL is from Michigan) and they can't get enough! CNYrunner

The origins of April Fools' Day are obscure. The most commonly accepted theory holds that it dates from 1582, the year France adopted the Gregorian Calendar, which shifted the observance of New Year's Day from the end of March (around the time of the vernal equinox) to the first of January. According to popular lore, some folks -- out of ignorance, stubbornness, or both -- continued to ring in the New Year on April 1 and were made the butt of jokes and pranks on account of their foolishness. This became an annual tradition, supposedly, which ultimately spread throughout Europe. The weakness of the calendar-change theory is that it fails to account for an historical record replete with traditions linking merriment and tomfoolery to this time of year dating all the way back to antiquity. Okay, that's from a simple Google search. Now on to running. Dale, are you hurt, or just resting? Great dialog among Perch, Breger and CNY this morning. I love to see these kinds of discussions as they help us all. Perch, let me add to your erudite comments regarding DOMS and that is to remind everyone that while this "phenomenon" occurs, it should not be taken advantage of for training unless you have a substantial base and you really have a reason to incorporate two days of speed. You cheat, or fool, the body when you do those back to back efforts. The Saint decided to walk today, as she has a ten-miler tomorrow, so I met her at the dirt track and she did 4.2 and I jogged 3.3. There has been no more mention of the cake incident from yesterday and I am sure not going to bring it up. Spareribs

What did Tetsujin post?? 20? never know what's up with him... I really like all the discussion about different paces and the application of training methods... I try to incorporate some of it but some of you guys get pretty specific and technical. Makes me feel like I just go run. Oh well, so far it seems to work for me. I suppose if I really wanted to improve I'd hire a coach, but that certainly isn't going to happen and if I tried to run any more than I do already I'd be looking for a new family... We do what we can do, I guess. Tim, glad you liked the ice bath! I really wanted to do one after my 21 on Sunday but I was pretty cold at the finish, and as soon as I was out of the shower life took off and wouldn't have had time anyway. I really do look forward to doing it in the trash can this summer... BTB, what an ordeal. At least you got a compliment... But I feel like Tammy when I'm in the weight room with all those kids, and they kind of look at me like, how neat that old lady is still doing that! Ha. Holly, hang in there. Sounds like they were out to see what they could get you guys to do, now they're going to move on to the next seller to pick on. In a buyers' market, this sort of stuff happens. I think you're smart to take advantage of what you've learned, fix/update what you can and draw the line at what you won't do. Now you've got the inspections so you can be proactive with the next offer you get. You can say, "we know x, y, and z might need to be updated or replaced, but we've accounted for that in the selling price and that's it." Might work. The Saint is, indeed, a saint. High School soccer meeting last night... the roster had our son on the JV team after he'd been told he was varsity. Coach said all the seniors made Varsity (or were cut, no options), some juniors and only a couple sophomores (DS1 is soph). So I figured, ok, he's in this for training anyway to be ready for the comp season starting soon. We paid our minimal fee for the JV shirt (varsity has to pay for full uniform and warmups), got the lecture on not missing practices and I went home to make dinner. DH calls me a little later and said there was a big mix up and when they realized who our kid was, oh yes he IS on Varsity and you need this uniform order... Ok... so it's soccer every night from 6-8 thru April I guess...Gonna be a busy month. (momma's pride shows that DS1 is one of only a couple sophomores to make varsity team... ) 30 mins stationary bike last night, 5-6 tonight sometime... not sure when, where or how...

Quote from BTB: "On the way out of the gym, someone commented that I had awesome legs. " Dear Mr. BTB, This statment is usless without pictures. Please post some right away so that we can all assess whether you have awesome legs or not. This is, after all, a professional running board and we welcome the opportunity to advise other runners. Truly yours, runningindc

Holly, get a small statue of Saint Joseph, and then bury it upside down in your front yard. Trust me, your house will sell soon.

My mom's a Real Estate Broker and does that all the time for her clients...

Great reading today -- I LOVE reading about the approaches to running. I've been a lifelong coached athlete, but only running for 3 years, so I'm not much for the school of thought of "Just go out and run". I appreciate everyone sharing their viewpoints, training plans, etc. I'll be heading out in 30 min. with the dog, husband and kids to the beach. Check this out: I have a foot cramp. No worries as long as I don't have shoes on. Shoes -- and cramp city. Soooo, I'll take my Garmin and the dog and see if I can run on this foot barefoot on the beach. I run 1 day a week that way in the spring/summer/fall, so I guess today's as good a day as any to start my spring running plan. If it doesn't feel OK, I'll scratch that and schedule it into next week. Anyway, I'll have a nice little cool bath there with the ocean temp at 47 F. Good runs to all!