6 miles with great running weather, not too warm, not too cold and NO WIND!   Must be that once in a year day...

dhuff: I hope the doctor is wrong with his diagnosis. Considering it was an ER doctor, chances are he went with his worst thoughts just so that he can't be sued later for not recognizing it.

Sandy: Nice to get the miles in after sitting in meetings all day!

AT: Worst season ever. Closely followed by football season in a college football town, but that one at least is local (for the most part).

Berto: Some people deteriorate really quick, and I am one of them, too. That's why I can't understand how people do 3-week tapers before a long goal race, and don't run at all in the week before the event. I'd be back to square 2 by then. "Use it or lose it" could be my motto. Hope you'll build up again really quick and be able to enjoy more consistent running without setbacks.

XT: Yay for the highlight in a creaky week. However, you are posting fast runs pretty often, seems you rather have speedy weeks with a few creaky runs thrown in here and there.

DD1: That's a lot of trees. What are you going to do with that field, just enjoy it as a wild place?

warden: Looks like the coyote had a great dinner. Sad for the deer, hopefully it did not suffer much.

"Wild" story for you on the side: In Germany, they have mouflon sheep livning in the wild, which were introduced for "decorative purposes" about two hundred years ago from Corsica and Sardinia, and which originally live in mountainous areas, where they climb cliffs. Still, the mouflon sheep were doing well in Germany and spread throughout the country. Now that the wolf has been re-introduced in Germany as an original natural predator (which had been wiped out about 150 years ago), the mouflon sheep are being reduced in numbers quickly. The reason is their bizarre flight behavior: They run fast for a short distance, then stop and stay put. Great chance for a wolf to make a kill. The reason is that the mouflon sheep have the instinct to just jump up and over a few cliffs in their indigenous environment, where this is enough to outrun/outclimb their natural predators, then they can stop (to preserve energy) because they are safe. Obviously, their behavior has not adapted to their new, flat environment in Germany yet, also because it was not necessary as there were no natural predators hunting them there. Now authorities are discussing whether to keep the mouflon sheep as "decorations" to parks and landscapes (which is why they were originally introduced as a foreign species), or whether to keep the "bad" wolf which is indigenous to Germany (but also kills farm animals, and people are very upset about this).

Jamie: Not running is tough. Hope you'll get back into it soon again. Any word from the doc?

Queen: Nice sighting.

moonlight: Scary story. Good thing it turned out ok.

QOTD: A relative has MS, he was diagnosed when he was about 18 or 20 years old, after a long journey from one doc to the next (and his dad is a neurologist!). He has flare ups every once in a while, but then there are years without problems at all. He is in his 40's now, has a job and a family of 5. He has to be careful with stress and physical activity, but is doing well most of the time.

I hope things come back negative for your DD, dhuff!

7.2 miles today. Quads still sore but otherwise starting to feel normal...or as normal as it gets for me.

qotd:  knew a couple students with MS when I was an undergrad, but that goes back 50 years.  I'm sure the treatment and prognosis has improved a great deal since then.

warden, I agree. Let the native species take its environment back, even at the expense of introduced competitors.

Problem with the wolf is that people in Germany have an absolutely unreasonable fear of the wolf (inspired by fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood), disregarding all the facts about wolves. Add to this their conception that their sheep and calves will suffer under the terror of the wolves, and the occasional loss of one or two every year will cause them disabling financial losses, and you have a pretty bad situation for the wolves. I find this pretty heartbreaking.

Another interesting possibility is that the mouflon sheep might actually learn to adapt their flight behavior over the years, just like rattlesnakes have "learned" (by selection) to be silent rather than rattle when they detect a threat because the "rattlers" were more likely to be killed by humans, or certain birds have increased the distance from which they perceive a car as a threat and fly away (leave the road) because the "braver" ones have been killed by cars.

There are several examples how a seemingly set-in-stone genetically programmed behavior has been modified by new environmental factors.

DD1: That's a lot of trees. What are you going to do with that field, just enjoy it as a wild place?

It's about 3/4 of an acre that is kind of isolated from the rest of my fields and even from the neighbors.  About 1/2 of it is rather wet and decades ago my FIL put in drain tile. With the bigger tractors that they are using these days that has been crushed and now the wet part is almost like a swamp.  I'm going to replace the drain tile so I can keep the weeds and mosquitoes under control.   It will still be quite wet and not the best for farming except for pasture land. Since it's right along side my woods it just stands to reason to plant trees in it.

I'm going to set up a shooting range so I can safely shoot from my back deck .  I was getting frustrated with owning a little over 10 acres and not having any place to play around on. A few years ago I wanted to shoot some clay pigeons and didn't have any place to do that as they make a mess in the yard and you don't want to mix that in with pasture or hay ground.

Last year I planted about 25 trees most of which survived the first year.  If I get a 90% success rate I won't need to plant 100 trees which is good 'cause I hate planting stuff.  Hopefully in about 10 years I have the start of a nice somewhat groomed wild space.  Should have done this 25 years ago. It would be really nice now.