When I was a kid, my older sister asked me if I would like some ice cream with chocolate syrup. Of course I said yes, but I was also wondering why she was being so nice to me?? The "ice cream" was kind of hard as if it was a little old, but that didn't keep me from shoveling a spoonful into my mouth...... and then run to the sink to spit it out! She had taken a couple scoops of Mashed potatoes and froze them, poured choclate on them and fooled me!! It was The most awful April Fools joke ever done to me ...... and I fondly think of her every April 1st.

Just popped in to say, it is snowing outside, and this is not an April's Fools joke. Where is spring? Wildchild, glad to hear your Dad is doing well. Tetsujin...good one.

I learned something today at one of my meetings, GM folk right now don't think practical jokes are funny...but everyone else thought it was. Who thought a dude would get all jumpity jumpity with the "fake mouse going across the floor with a string trick".....you really had to be there Erika, if I ever feel like you do, I just take off on a "fun run" with no watch - Garmin - HRM, and listen to some nice music you may like. Tet, you crack me up buddie....no hill at 16 miles scares me well, kinda worried about all the hills Hey Slo, I was thinking the other day. I wonder why they have exact distances for Ironmans - 1/2's - Olympic - but sprints Triathlons are all over the place distance wise. Wouldn't it make more since to have these uniform also? Some of my sprints tri's swims have been 400 meter / yards - 1/2 mile - and everywhere in between. Same with the bike, but most all end with a 5K run. Well, another (yawn) meeting to go to. Wonder if the mouse trick would work again. Nope, think it will be dropping a spider from the ceiling with a string trick...already have it set up where the speaker will be standing...well, I had some help with this one. TimBo

biketm add me to the list of people who are glad to be far, far away from your reach today! I am writing this from London home of the G20 meetings. To celebrate nuts from all around the world are here! In response to the potential riots and threats of violence, the police closed down several stations along the tube. This I only found out when my train reached the transfer station that was now closed. That meant the doors stayed shut and I could not actually transfer there. In the end I wound up doing a figure eight loop on the tube to get to my hotel this morning. Took forever! I should have probably taken a cab but everybody said traffic was a nightmare so maybe it would not have helped. I met my team at the hotel this morning. They seemed pretty chipper. Two just flew in from Hong Kong, so I have to say looking chipper at that point is pretty impressive. It also shows you why it is good to be 24 and not 42! Personally, I am betting they will win this thing! Well it is now officially eight weeks of no running and my leg pretty much feels the way it did on day one. So score one for the orthopaedist who told me that not running would not help. (Mostly because he thinks my problem is neurological and has nothing to do with running.) What comes next? Assuming my doctors stick to the original plan they will schedule me for an MRI. If it shows something (please let it show something!) the orthopaedist will open me up to see if he can figure out what is going on. If it comes up blank (NO!) then it is back to the neurologist for more tests. Hopefully, though this next round will finally lead to a diagnosis and then a solution.

And the winner of the design my run contest is: Tetsujin! (That was funny tet.) 2 mile warm up 4 x 800 @ 8:00 min/mile pace 200 jog recovery 1.5 mile cool down for total of 6 miles. That was the plan. Holly, SLO and Mariposai had the work portion correct. SLO and Enke had the recovery correct. I think Mariposai was thinking of K's instead of 800's when she suggested 5:05, but of the pace predictions Enke was closest. Lame had 7:45 and when we look at actual performance, that was closest, but let's take another look. Here is what really happened: My preference is one minute of recovery for 800 to oneK, but I have found just jogging the 200 very slow works just as well, as it takes me 1:10 to do that, so that seems to work for me. Here is where I went wrong however. My 800's were: 3:55 (7:50 pace) 3:57 (7:54), 3:47 (7:34) and 3:51 (7:42). So you can see I was all over the place. At 8 minutes per mile intended, I should have been able to do each of the 200's at one minute, so it should have been easy to correct my pace. I did my first in 55 seconds and then reined it in and was fine, but the recoveries were not working for me. After the second 800 I had to walk part of the recovery 200, hence the quicker third 800, and then had to walk again after that. So I am not so comfortable running 8 minutes a mile; it's one of those paces that is hard for me to find. Everyone has a pace like that that doesn't feel right I think. But I learned a lot, and that was the point. So next time I am going to ease off to find 8:20 pace (credit goes to Enke) so that I can continue the 200 jog recovery, as opposed to keeping the speed and elongating the rest interval. As for people who had other suggestions, honorable mention to Breger and PJH who suggested tempo, because I believe he was correct. Sans Souci said the same thing. And to PBJ who suggested just a couple of mile repeats, to get the feel of pace and comfort. This was wise counsel and I agree, but there is nothing like the track to get me focused and that's why I did that workout. As to other workouts, both CNY and Twocat proposed ladder work. CNY's would have been too difficult for me. I just don't have the stamina yet. Glad she thinks so highly of me! Twocat's logic is perfect in that he was trying to give me some options to ease into track work, and I appreciated that. It was a good idea. His 8:31 pace showed great logic as that was my last 5K race pace. I feel very comfortable now about going back to the track. My inner clock that always faithfully told me my pace has been somewhat reset, and I have a more realistic view of the work pace that will help me train more effectively. Thank you all. Spareribs

Nice workout Ribs I'm doing my intervals tonight.....I just haven't decided if I'll hit the track or sissy out and use the treadmill. 30mph winds today....it'll be hard to maintain a consistant pace at the track. Qx for you.......Needing to walk part of your recovery.......do you attribute that soley to your pace? I've found that at times, even though I really wanted to walk, If I stuck it out at my recovery pace I have always recovered and that I was able to complete my next interval at target. Sometimes it just mind over body......Having said that, I've also fallin off target....then I do know that my pace was too aggressive.

Ah, somebody has to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw SLO, you make a great point. Some days you are so confident about your conditioning that even when you're dead you suck it up and go after the next one. Tim is like that. So is Mariposai. And there are others like Tallrunner who can run through walls. But I lacked confidence. When I was huffing and puffing through those recoveries my only thought was, "I think I bit off more than I could chew." On Kickrunners, where I also posted this question, most of the contributors suggested more liberal recovery times, Enke and Holly took that approach here. But I want to work on keeping recovery short and the speed less intense. There was nothing magical about 8 minutes per mile. I'll do better next week; just wait and see. Spareribs

The average high temperature for Seattle this time of year is 56. 25ish days of March were under the average high. Today, it is currently 35 with a wind chill of 26 and it is snowing hard. This has been one groovy winter in Seattle. Which apparently it still is. I did 10k worth of 1000m intervals this morning. On the treadmill.