I just finished reading yesterday's thread -- the highlights for me were the evanflein soccer report (well done, boys -- I was a defender and there no feeling like making the job easy for your goalie), and the econo/twocat dinner report -- mmm, clams. Econo is one of my favorite people so I know this must have been a fun dinner. One of these days, I hope to meet twocat as well. MTA: oh, oh forgot about the puppy picture -- that was definitely a highlight, too! I can't keep all this in my head when I'm posting... Today we ran in a nature preserve, somewhere near the midwest (I'm pretty sure we're between New Jersey and California, anyway), which was really nice given we are in an airport hotel. It was a surprise and great bonus that the nature preserve is right across the street! 4.1 miles, 34:31, 8:30/mi, AHR 152 (78% MHR) Most of the run was on a dirt road, but the trail to get to the road was a steep hill with several sets of stairs. I tried to turn around in the road at pace -- I do this because I don't like the slowdown in my pace graphs (yes, OCD) -- but of course the gravelly road didn't hold much traction and I went down. Just scraped up my leg a bit, and my pride. And now my pace graph is all messed up, too :^)

It was neat reading about the Econo/TwoCat dinner. nono, sorry to hear you've got a sick husband. I hope it doesn't last long. evan, congrats to your sons on their great soccer match together. hopeful, nice progression run. SLO, it sounds like you had a nice 5K, fast (high OA and AG placing), friends, niece's first race and sister in law's 2nd. Congrats to all. Nice long runs for srlopez, Franc, CNY, breger (with fast miles at end), Peter (with hills), and buehrle. Good job on the speedwork for ribs and Tall. This morning, it was about 40° and with a little wind. I got in 12 miles in about 2:00:30 for a 10:02 pace. A good day and good runs for all. TomS

Erika -- so cool about your boys!! Holly -- enjoy the Flying Pig!! Bill -- you are so ready to rock your race!! Mary -- love the puppy pics!! Karin - i'm hoping for date night with my Mr. tonight too!! no run for me since wed --- had a great swim workout thursday then work just kicked my butt the last 2 nights - did a 7p-11am 16 hour shift thursday into friday morning, slept in a call room from about noon-6ish then back to work 7p-7a-- it's been crazy busy - so now having my coffee and hoping to get in an easy run this afternoon then a more decent run tomorrow before going back to work again for sunday and monday nights.

Your correct Ribs. My last two races were in strong winds, those were run right at 7:0X pace. I was expecting a much better performance today. Mile 2 was at a 7:00 pace if the person calling the split times was correct. I know you can't always depend on them to be accurate. As a side note: Many athletes share an attribute......superstition......since I did poorly wearing my garmin in the last two races I chose not to wear it today....or a stopwatch for that matter.....LOL Next race I'll wear a stop watch. I even made sure the shorts and shirt were different. Hmmmmm maybe a bad combo. Nike shorts and a champion shirt...probably bad mojo.....????? Anyway....back to mile two. My goal was to run a 6:45 - 6:55 1st mile, I knew I was fast and possibly dropped the pace too much....or not enough for mile 2 ???? The competition around me didn't change but for the most part we were pretty spreadout so there wasn't much asshole and elbow changing going on anyway. Mile 3 felt good and while I didn't quite find the razors edge suspect I ran the last 800 at a 6:30 or so. I agree that more tempo work is needed in my regime......I used to love doing 20 min tempo's but I haven't logged any for quite some time. I have a 5k coming up in June that I need a good showing for. It's in the town I went to High School in.....Gotta show 'em who the jock is now !

Rosie?...Is that your new forum name? I don't have any suggestions but if you give me an address, I can tell you what kind of neighborhood it's in....Let me know your schedule, it would be fun to meet up with you and Ralph when you are in town. CLT is an easy airport to get around in....

Thanks Peter! I will PM you later. Yes, it'd be cool to meet you, too. See you mid-May!

EGH3 building back up slowly is tough but the right thing to do. I started under two miles and it seemed to take me forever to get back to HM distance the last time I had to take three months off! But in the end it worked out just like it was supposed to. This time with 5+ months off I may have to start by seeing if I can run 100 yards! SLO_HAND went to a race let alone a run without your Garmin?! [Editor Quick, somebody get a doctor! Twocat either passed out or had a heart attack!]

SloHand, congrats on the 3rd place finish in your AG! Erika, great story about your dynamic soccer duo. I've heard you complain about them before but it's nice that they can make you proud, too! I took Tazzie and Ladybug out for a hilly 6 miler this morning, in between dropping DD off for her SAT test and picking her up afterward. The weather was 48° and couldn't make up its mind if it wanted to be foggy or hazily sunny. At least I got out before it started raining. This is the first rain we've seen since about last September - all the precipitation since then has been snow. Yay - it must finally be spring! (Although we could get snow overnight - grrr)

Wow, nice long trail run Mari! I'll bet your wings are tired... Just wanted to wish Holly good luck at theFlying Pig half marathon tomorrow. Someone in the main part of the forum joked that you'll have to watch out for SWINE FLEW at that race!