Dave59 well if it makes you feel any better I took today off due to my right heel as well. Hopefully for both of us a couple of days off and all will be well.
tselbs as my former training partner used to tell me you do not have to beat everybody, just those that show up which is what you did! Congratulations on your overall placement.
fatozzig I just noticed your avatar. I am not sure I will be able to recognize your posts without the world's most disturbing avatar of the month under your name!
As I mentioned above, no run for me today. In fact, no elliptical or walking or anything else other than shopping and cooking for me today. Last week I thought I had whacked my right heel on a chair. It was sore but not where people who get heel pain from running complain about. Sort of high on the heel on the inside. Since it still/again not sure which this morning I decided rest was the better part of valor today. In fact, until it feels 100% better I am going to try and stay off my feet as much as possible.
I have a friend who makes the best chicken you have ever had. No, I am not kidding even a little bit. It is better than any chicken you have had at a restaurant, at home, at a friend's house or anywhere else. I finally asked him for the recipe. It turns out the word "recipe" is something of a misnomer for what he does. He has a dry rub he creates and puts it in under the chicken skin with a long handled iced tea spoon. Quite clever that, I never thought to do it that way! He then dumps some of the rub in the chicken and then stuffs the cavity to the gills with fresh herbs like tarragon, sage and rosemary as well as lemon and from what I can tell some random fruit but often an apple. Finally, he smokes it on a rotisserie. I know he likes to use apple wood. Today I tried to duplicate his chicken and I am very happy to report that I succeeded! I used hickory wood because I like its flavor better. Other than that I followed his guidelines. I will get the recipe up on my Allrecipes page in the not too distant future for those of you that want all of the details and a way to easily get to them.
Live like you are dying not like you are afraid to die.
Drunken Irish Soda Bread and Irish Brown Bread this way --> http://allrecipes.com/cook/4379041/
Holly, I'm behind on my schedule because of other stuff going on earlier this summer, so will be doing the 2 week taper thing. And hey, let's hope for dry weather the week before Equinox, ok? No reason...
Ok, yeah, there's a big reason. This course is a lot of trail running. Most of the trail is pretty good, through the woods on old ski trails that have been established for many years. But part of it is run on new trail just finished this year, and single-track mountain bike trails that are a couple years old. And mining roads. We've had a lot of rain the last couple of days, and last night and all day today it's been rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. The running club sponsors training runs throughout the summer, and today was the last one, "the annual long run." There are a few distances you can choose from, and many runners start with the club run and add more miles to get whatever they want for the day. I took the longest route of the three options, 16 miles. Start just past mile 8 of the course and go up the new trail up Ester Dome. OMG what a muddy mess! After trying to dodge the mud for a bit, I just said heck with it and ran through most of it. I started late (9:30) and could see lots of slip marks from the runners ahead, so tried to move to the side in the leaves for those parts. All in all, a tough slick slippery trudge up the hill.
The "out and back" was actually in pretty good shape. Seems like someone graded it recently and most of the big washouts and ruts were gone. That was nice. Down the Chute very slowly because all the rain and the loose rocks made it pretty scary, really. Probably my slowest trip down the Chute, but I was fine at the end so that was worth it. Parts of the "aspen trail," frequently listed as most runners' favorite part of the course, were so muddy and mucky I thought I'd lose my shoes! But... I didn't, just got really muddy. Finished with a run down "St. Patrick's" road, a dirt road turned into a muddy quagmire in spots, and most of it slick as snot. I was so glad to get to the paved road again to finish the run!
It was about 50° when I started, and most of the run was in fog and smoke from the wildfire, a very surreal experience up there way up on the hill and not being able to see anything more than 1/4 mile away. So that wraps up my "cut back" week with three pretty difficult runs. Just because the miles are down, doesn't mean it's an easy week, that's for sure!
Marathon Maniac #957
Twocat - can you do that if you don't have a rotisserie smoker? Sounds awesome, though.
Erika - too soon to start watching the forecast, but sounds like this will be quite an adventure!
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."