Hi Folks~ Good Luck vibes to Kelly on her job, Leslie and Jewels on their upcoming races, and to Mairead bonding with her new buddies! I have a similiar situation when Buddy and I head to the soccer fields/track a couple miles away.We pass a house that has two beautiful and quite large German Sheppards.Both are a lot bigger than Buddy. The first time we saw them ,we were on the street passing their unfenced yard.They were at the edge of their yard so I thought I would let them meet Buddy. Well, Buddy is not friendly while on the leash ( puts on the tough guy act ) and snarled at them. No owners in sight and I thought "this is where it ends for us".Those Sheps were really cool though and just looked at Buddy as if to say "Hey, what's up with you? We could have you for lunch, but we're too cool to snarl." We have passed them other times and Buddy has been better, though I don't get him close to them.Those dogs are so well behaved that they walk right to the edge of the yard and go no further, even with no masters around. Jewels -good job resting the knee, no need to stress it. Ev and Jim- Glad your weather's good and you're getting out in it. Arla- your log looks tremendous! Great job! And yes, I would use whatever hill you have, it will certainly help in SF. Inadvertently had 2 runs in one this afternoon/evening. Decided to try the trails and discovered what it's like to run through about 7" of loose powder (kinda like running on slippery sand) on the narrow and hilly single track. No snow was falling but it was cold and I was getting wet feet and head from knocking the clumps of powder from the low hanging branches. After one lap on the 4m loop, I'm back at the car. Just happen to have dry socks,dry running shoes and dry fleece.Throw that on, I'm warm and toasty for another 4.5m on the mostly snowfree and flat bike path nearby. Down to single digits again tonight but supposed to be 50* this weekend, Yahooo!

Hey, Gang - Arla - Address sent. Joe - Glad it's gonna warm up for you. It got to the high 60s here on Tuesday - very weird - but we're back to our normal low 30s overnight and high 40s to low 50s during the day. Although, some rain is suppose to be coming in today, thankfully. Was suppose to do 4 miles this morning, but I got to my cool down spot, looked at the ole Garmin, and it read 3 miles. Wha . . .?? I actually stood there for a few seconds trying to figure out what had happened. The light bulb finally went on, and I remembered turning around at the 1.50 mark. What a bonehead! Oh well - it was a good run: Av/Best/HR 1. 10:01/8:56/136 2. 9:22/7:56/151 3. 9:15/7:47/159 Went to my first HS basketball game in, oh, 24+ years last night. Had a great time, and the last period was fantastic. Unfortunately, the team we were rooting for lost by 1 pt at the buzzer.

Carol - this is gonna sound strange but often I find that the best thing for leadleg is a super-short, super-slow run, maybe even just a mile or two. I know - makes no sense whatsoever. Maybe it just gets the juices flowing! What's your long run schedule for the weekend? Arla

my nephew who I just married 2 weeks ago has been having headaches and a burning sort of feeling in his head. He had an MRI today and was told he has a brain tumor. Jesus........please say a prayer for him guys!

Wow, Jewels. Not much can be said except my thoughts and prayers to him and his new wife and family. Carol - What kind of workouts/rests do you have? A very slow, very short run just might do the trick, and maybe try getting the DH to give your legs a good rub down. Better yet, go treat yourself to a massage. Very beneficial . . . oh, and it feels quite nice, too.

Yep, I'm not going to jump to conclusions on the nephew. Just hope it is operable. Will find out soon....... Another chilly morning this morning. Hovering right around 42*. Yesterday didn't quite break a record but did get officially to 31*. Warmed up to only 55*. Warming trend on its way.........predicted high for Sunday is 77*.......I'll be long done by the time that temp hits. Thank gawd.......should be between 55*-65* during my half. Jim, love the hodge podge pics......... Have a nice day everyone and make each day/run count.........Jewels

Jewels - Good luck with your half! Will be sending good thoughts and vibes to that knee of yours. Jim - Nice setup! Do have to say that the top 3 pics are my favs. Now that's some ingenious recycling. Rest day today, Clam Beach Run tomorrow. Found out last night my one of my buddies is doing the 5 /34 mile walk. We were talking creek crossing strategy. Told her she needed to get one the cute Coasties to carry her across (she's 62 yo). Had to give wormer pills to my cats last night. And since they're all good size, they each get 1 1/2 pills. Actually, 2 of them went much better than I anticipated. With the 3rd, I got one pill down, but it was a battle to get the second one down. Cornered him in the bathroom. Tonight we have to figure how to give them to our no-longer-feral-but-still-sketchy kitty. I think it might require thick gloves and a thick towel to make a "kitty burrito." I am definitely NOT looking forward to it. All this reminds me of the ole "Twenty Steps to Giving Your Cat a Pill."

First, good luck to our RACERS, Jewels and Leslie this weekend! Probably Sr. Lopez as well??? Anyone else?? You guys have a blast! Jewels, so sorry to hear of your nephew's news...what's his first name? Such scary news, and each case is so different. Even if inoperable, he may live a long time. One of the brothers who started the co. I used to work for had a brain tumor. At diagnosis, they didn't think it likely he would live long. But with some aggressive treatment, he had a couple of really long remissions and went on to have a beautiful family and life. Finally did pass away, but after 20 more years he thought he'd never have. As for the legs, thanks for the suggestions! Short runs are all I could manage towards the end of this week. Taking a rest day today, and did part of a yoga tape this morning, so hoping for the best tomorrow. Tried hitting hubby up for a massage (told him you said so), but he wasn't buying it, LOL! May be about time to hire a professional. You asked, so here's my workouts lately: Last Week: 1/25 rest / walk 1/26 5.01 @ 11:02 1/27 rest 1/28 4.87 @ 12:09 1/29 6.05 @ 11.28 1/30 rest / walk 1/31 10.01 @ 11:01 This Week: 2/1 rest / walk 2/2 5.59 @ 10:45 2/3 3.1 @ 11:10 2/4 3.13 @ 15:50 (planned 6, but wheels fell off after 1 mile...walked after that) 2/5 4.94 @ 12:14 (walked last mile of this) 2/6 rest / yoga 2/7 planning on 9 or 10 Guess I should start using the log here and save some typing . Go 40s!

{{{{Jewels!!}}}} eerily enough, I just got sent this in an email: http://media2.foxnews.com/112008/worm_tumor_700.wmv I have some family dilemma's (always) going on here....will bounce off of you later....gotta go tend to clients just now.... Ciao! Cindy