Howdy folks,  I'm still here!  I went out for 6+ trail miles at lunch at the state park near the office - it's the lowest and flattest place I've run in a while!  I only work in town one day a week, and work the other days at home, so most of my runs lately have been on steep trails or dirt roads in the mountains.  I sure do feel faster down in the flatlands, but I know the hills are good training, especially since my next two races are mountain trail races.

Enke, nice race last weekend!  That looks like a beautiful course - that's near your cabin?  I'd love to run there with you sometime!  And nice run this morning, too.   I don't know why you'd want to track your weight in 0.2 lb increments - that's only about 3 oz. or 90 grams!   My bathroom scale is a very inaccurate dial-type - I think it's maybe accurate to ±5 pounds, which is good enough for me.

I'm enjoying the time with my DD - she's here for 2 weeks.  She brought some workout videos with her called T25, that she's been doing with a friend at school.  We've been doing one per day, and she's starting with some of the easier ones (stretching on Monday, circuit training Tuesday - mainly lunges and planks, and abs yesterday).   She said she's doing easy ones because she's still getting used to the altitude, but we're going to ramp up to harder ones each day.  I think she's gonna kill me!

But I do not get how FB is a good replacement for RA.  Here I get semi-daily mini reports from others that like to run.  Everything from running to family life.  I get to know them a bit, even if only indirectly.  If we are not friends in the true sense of the word we become more than acquaintances.  People I would like to see not that I just happen to run into at a conference or whatnot.  On FB none of that happens.  Why would I read or get a news feed from some random person?  There are millions of runners, what I am going to try and "friend" them at random?

I'm in several groups on FB that are sort of like communities similar to how it is here in RA. You get to know the people in the group because you share common interests, and can have discussions on threads that, at least for me, seem more manageable when following a train of thought.

That said, I wouldn't say FB is a replacement for forum-based interaction like RA. It's just easier to navigate and interact with people, as I see it. My two cents, that's all.

But I do not get how FB is a good replacement for RA.  Here I get semi-daily mini reports from others that like to run.  Everything from running to family life.  I get to know them a bit, even if only indirectly.  If we are not friends in the true sense of the word we become more than acquaintances.  People I would like to see not that I just happen to run into at a conference or whatnot.  On FB none of that happens.  Why would I read or get a news feed from some random person?  There are millions of runners, what I am going to try and "friend" them at random?

I try very hard to limit my FB friends to real people that I am friends with, and family.  The difference for me is that I have non-runner family and friends on FB.  However, I post more often here.  Still, sometimes I duplicate on FB, for those friends who are not here.

Well, I have my issues with fb.  I believe it is detrimental to relationships, and a false way to make people feel connected to each other.  So I make everything public there and would not ever post anything deeply personal on it.  I had to delete my stbx recently, because of his inability to keep his emotional state and what I inferred to be his current dating status off of it.  Ridiculous.

Of course, this forum is public, and I have posted some deeply personal things here (as I just did).  But I figure the world is not examining me here, and the one or two people that do know me that are not part of this forum, that may read what I write here (not likely), can just go ahead and do that.

For non-runners, I imagine, it would be extremely boring to read through these posts anyway!

I don't even really know what twitter is, except something with very short posts, like the silly "status" updates fb used to have?  Twit - ter.  There you go.  I always think of the definition of "twit" when I think of it.

Yeah, 0.2 increments, Wildchild, I really need that...if I am down 0.2 pounds tomorrow, I will honestly be encouraged!  I can drink half a glass of water and see it go up 0.4.   It's really cool!

Wild, that photo of the trail, that would have been for the 21K summit run.  My 10K run was all heavy tree cover.

By the way...does anybody know if Ilene is okay?

I was wondering  the same.

I too feel like RA gives me the running family atmosphere that FB will never give to me.

4 miles with the Easy Pacer this morning ( he is very happy because he was able to run the whole 4 miles and not walk/run as he got used to doing while training for the marathon. Tonight I hit the  gym the minute I got back home. 80 minutes total.

Twocat, you have my sympathy about bad Italian food. The way I look at it is that if I am going to eat Italian food, it better be good. I hope your mother in law enjoyed her outing.

Enkephalin, great job on the 8 miler!

Bregarcito, it is so good to see you running strong! Yes, it would be interesting to see your HR while doing 1/2 mile reps.

Busy nights for me cooking and then dehydrating backpacking food for our Wonderland trail 93 miles backpacking trip that is coming up next week.

I agree with Mike, I don't really understand Twitter and don't have the time to figure it out. When we were in NY last December my niece set my account up and she does post a lot... but I hardly ever check it. I just don't get it. I think it was Orange Mat who said anything that limited her to so few characters just wasn't for her.

And yeah, Enke, I agree with you, too! (Heh... Twit-ter... indeed!) While this is a public forum, the audience is pretty much naturally limited. Not that that makes it "private" by any means, but really...

DH and I just got FB accounts earlier this year when DS1 was in Europe. And it's been really helpful to communicate with our Marine (who will soon be going to Camp Smith in Hawaii!) and fun to see what our other friends are up to. But I really limit who I'm "friends" with because frankly, I don't have time to wade thru the minutiae of so many distant acquaintances' daily lives. And some people post when they feed the cat... really. It's amazing. And we've seen the full courtship and dating life of a former High School friend, in full detail, as she negotiates a new love life. Ok, really. That's enough....

RA is a greta group of runners who share their running experiences and other aspects of life in general. It's greta! Where else would I learn about Zombie running apps, talking dogs, race walking on the East Coast and forest fire smoke that rivals what we have here most summers. And flat land runners suffering in HHH, to some who don't usually run under 9,000 ft., or prnb with God knows what in the next lane! There's just nothing else like it. So... I'll be here, even if not every day.

(and yeah... what happened to Ilene?)

Been trail running all week. After the HM, it's time to work on trails! 10.4 miles tonight after work, same route as a couple weeks ago but a little better pacing on the first few miles than last time. Yesterday was 6.7 miles on the same trails but earlier in the day. Then DH and I went out on the boat to enjoy a late summer evening on the Tanana River. Tonight we had dinner on the deck by the river and it was even better than yesterday. This has been an amazing summer with record stretches of warm 80+ degree days and hardly any rain. And not too much forest fire smoke (sorry, Tammy!), but these nice days will wind down soon. Gotta take advantage when we can, so I'm taking tomorrow (Friday) off work!