Good Morning Walt......Again, very nice race !

I got in 8.36 miles. 26 mins of that at a 7:37 pace.......good solid run. everything else is easy except for a few striders on Friday. I'll be doing my 1st 20k.

Now, after a weekend of lots of eating and drinking it's back to healthier habits. Damn there was alot of graduation cake consumed this weekend!........I really don't care to see any more Red and Black Frosting!

Good runs all !

Out with Renee in 3 nor'easter blustery miles.  Stood at the door before heading out and Bayside said, "You may just want to run on the treadmill" as our tree out front bent over to touch its roots.   I thought about it and said, "Hey what if race day's like this?"  And with that, the decision was made to go.

Thank goodness I went.  It was a blast out there!  Other than having some trashcans blow over,chase us down the street, and spook Renee...but she got used to it.   Went with the wind out and against coming back -- I'm weird, I know. At a couple points on the return, I could literally lean into the wind and be completely held up.  I had a mental picture of the gust suddenly stopping and me landing on my face! I laughed so hard I'm sure the diners, at the restaurant's plate glass window I was passing, thought I was nuts.   

Good runs to all!

Out with Renee in 3 nor'easter blustery miles. Stood at the door before heading out and Bayside said, "You may just want to run on the treadmill" as our tree out front bent over to touch its roots. I thought about it and said, "Hey what if race day's like this?" And with that, the decision was made to go.

Good Morning!

9 easy-paced miles for me today (ave 10:01) in 66 very humid degrees.  My legs were still tired from Sunday’s LR, so I didn’t push pace. 

I wear my bushy hair in a pony tail when I run, and now that I’m running in short sleeves again, I find that the tips of my hair whipping against the back of my bare arms is highly annoying.  Today I braided the ponytail, but took it down shortly into my run because the thwack, thwack of my thick braid hitting the back of my shoulders was even MORE annoying.  (sigh)

We recently bought DS a junior membership at a golf course near our home, and yesterday he and I played 9 holes, while DD rode in the cart.  This was the first time I had been golfing since before DD was born, and I had forgotten how much fun it is.  We finished up about 20 over par, with DS beating me by one stoke, but that’s a lot better than I expected after so long (not that I was any good even when I played more).

A woman named Ingrid owns a hair salon in my office building.  Ingrid, a fit and attractive woman who looks 10 years younger than her 60 years, has run 60+ marathons and 70+ ultra-marathons, including at least five 100-milers, since she started running at age 38.  I saw that she is also running a trail race I have in a couple weeks, and stopped at her shop on Friday to ask her advice about it, since I have never run on trails and she holds the course record for this race in the grand master division.  A couple of interesting tidbits from our conversation:

1.  To help prevent blisters on her feet, she sprays them all over with freezing spray (a super-strong hairspray) before she puts her socks on.  I bought some and tried this before my 22-miler this weekend.  Although I didn’t like the sticky feeling on my toes initially (you have to wait for it to dry), I did not get any blisters under my toenails in the usual spots.

2.  Re: rainy weather.  Rain during long races is usually intermittent, so she says don’t take off your rain shell when you get a break.  Instead, unzip about 2/3’s, fold it down, then tie the arms in front of you.  Later, if it starts raining again, you can just fold the coat up again.

Very kewl.

Looks like we are all back to a normal routine today, led off by Flasher Walt.

5.5 easy for me today on the dirt.  Flex workout later on.  Spareribs

chilly AM.....felt pretty good at the end."

Mary - Will miss the puppy pictures!

EG - I didn't do that much yard work, but I'm getting there.  Ticked The Hub off by planting stuff along the fence line.  His gripe is it will be a pain when mowing.  My comment - Oh well!  I have grand plans for my front and back yards, however, execution is a problem since I stink at the whole "design" thing.

Holly - You ever thought about goin' short wit the hair???

Yesterday was my first run in a week, and although it was a forced rest, it was a testament to never underestimating the power of rest when you're exhausted.  It was the easiest 3 miles I've done in a long time.

Today was 5 miles with 5 hill repeats.  Should've done 10, but there were other, um, issues that had to be addressed.  And let me tell you, that 1/2 mile to Safeway was a long one!

Have a great day, folks

Re: Tim.  I have exchanged several e-mails with him in the last few days.  He is unable to get onto RA since the recent changes were made.  He has webtv, and has e-mailed Eric Yee, and Eric has told him that all webtv users are having problems and he is trying to remedy that.  Tim is understandably depressed, and missing RA a lot.  He gave me permission to pass on his e-mail address, which is biketm42 at webtv dot net.   If anyone is so inclined, I think he would be happy to hear from his friends here at RA.