good morning all, thought i would need a rest day after an achy afternoon following yesterday's long run, but it became a recovery run instead. 3.61 miles in 50 minutes, cooler weather though the sun peaked through to heat things up on and off. even had a few puddles to jump from the nighttime shower. followed by fjord dip... reading with envy about huckleberries and blackberries - our blackberries are just ripening here, and maybe with the little rain they'll do better than the huckleberries and raspberries which fizzled in the drought (though all those berries do create distractions from running good runs, good luck to racers, and good healing, susan

shhh, looks like everyone is sleeping in around here!

Good morning everyone. IRC here today. Sunny, blue skies, LOW HUMIDITY and a comfortable 63F. The best part of the morning was I got out for 3 miles before I felt "the tweak." Then walked two more miles to cool down and strech out some muscles. Painfully slow 10 minute pace but hey - at least I was able to run! I'm icing my leg right now and popped a couple of Aleve so I'll keep my fingers crossed. It sure felt good to be running again. Susan - nice run this morning. I had fresh raspberries on my cereal yesterday - they were delicious. Great long workout this morning Holly. Keep at it - I think you're on the road back! With not running as much, I've been afraid to get on the scale. How are you doing? Dicky G - I've got 18 holes planned for later this morning as well. My husband and I took 3rd place in the husband/wife tournament at the club we belong to last weekend. We "ham and egged" it pretty well. Even though we're in the high handicap flight, we had a lot of fun, and even won a couple of bucks. Some great race reports yesterday. Hope Spareribs is able to check in soon and give us an update. Have a great Sunday, everyone. Jeanne

Wonderful racing yesterday! Dicky—For 10 years I lived in Richmond close enough to RIR that we could turn the race on TV, open the windows, and get surround sound! It was pretty funny. We still laugh about that every time we see an RIR race on TV. Never actually went to one, though. 18.3 miles for me. 68F and 85% humidity at the start; about 78F with lower humidity by the finish, bright sunshine, decent breeze; IRC for this time of year. It was gorgeous running down by the river. Flat/rolling hills route. Two experiments on today’s long run: 1. I usually run without gels but started to experiment today with fueling. When I did use gels I used to use the Clif Shot brand but recently learned their high level of simple sugars (as opposed to complex carbs) can be a source of stomach problems, to which I’m very susceptible. So I tried a new brand for me, GU, and used 3 gels—a huge amount for me—at miles 6/10/14 to see how I stomached it. Water only. Incredibly sweet (yuck!) but seemed to sit in my stomach okay. 2. I was feeling a little bored with long runs in the summer heat so I came up with an elaborate progression schedule to keep myself mentally engaged and see if I could ramp up past MP for a few miles late in the run. The plan was to start with 2 miles in the 9:20s, then pick up the pace by ten seconds every 2 miles (2@9:10s, 2@9:00s, 2@8:50s, etc) through the first 14 miles to MP (8:20) and finish up with 3 sub-MP miles and a cool-down jog for the rest. (Think Lennon: “We're playing those mind games together / Pushing the barriers, planting seeds.”) Mind games worked pretty well and it was actually kind of fun to try to hit the ever-changing target rates as closely as possible. Rolling hills in places made it tough to be consistent, but still, not bad eh?. 1. 9:26 (115) 2. 9:09 (125) 3. 9:12 (126) 4. 9:13 (129) 5. 9:04 (132) 6. 9:05 (137) 7. 8:41 (141) 8. 8:55 (139) 9. 8:42 (145) 10. 8:42 (142—stop to refill fuel belt) 11. 8:30 (137) 12. 8:24 (144) 13. 8:20 (150) 14. 8:22 (153) 15. 8:09 (152) 16. 8:04 (157) 17. 8:04 (161) 18. 9:38 (146—cool down) It was a good exercise in discipline and pacing and a nice distraction. Demanding but quite doable.

"I'm guessing your 2-mile warmup was 20 minutes, not 20 seconds?"

DickyG, I knew when I wrote this it was probably going to be misinterpreted. Bad writing. Hemingway has nothing to worry about. What I meant was I ran a 2 mile warmup (in 19 minutes). But the 20 seconds was meant to say that I was warmed up after 20 seconds given the H&H. Going to the gym later to get in a few recovery miles and a 1/2 hour or so of weights. The legs are still a bit sore from the 5K yesterday but not bad. I'll take it easy today. Bill ETA: ran 4 miles on the treadmill and felt surprisingly sproinky. So not as slow as I figured it would be.

as it's one minute before noon, I'll say good morning to all. 4.2 miles in 38 minutes this morning. no overly ambitious attempt to go from 4.2 to 6.4 in one fell swoop, so once agian no cranky knee. added in 3 50 stride striders (including one in the last mile) that also felt pretty good. Tim--I'm on my 4th pair of adrenalines (1 gts6 and 3 7's) and have loved them from the start. my miles don't compare to yours, but I've been very happy with the time they last. I'm rotating two pair now. dg--glad to see you stopped typing right after you said it hurt Teresa--WTG on the 10K PR. seems like you've managed to keep a lot of your fitness during your ankle problems. Kevin

Must be long run Sunday... 20 miles in 2:42:30...8:08 pace Now to watch some NASCAR!!!

hi everyone. Holly, very nice workout. everything feeling ok? Jeanne, nice to hear you're able to run. Perch, are those the same hills that were a problem before? Tramps, very cool. Larry, how great that your son will be home. enjoy. Incredible long runs today! Kevin, nice of you to notice. pretty exemplary, wasn't it? . As was your run. Glad your knee wasn't cranky. 4.8 mile run by the river this morning. sure was a pretty day. . I was going to try to catch up, but it is too nice out to sit at a computer. enjoy your day, everybody. anyone hear anything from Ribs or the Saint?