I'm just continuing on, slow and steady.  7 miles early this morning, but unfortunately it was already 76F and humid.  Still a nice run, though.  I am loving this schedule!

I was wondering what stunk in here, and wouldn't you know it is Brian.  Sorry but that is seriously funny. How hard is it to get rid of that smell?

I was on my way home from a run this weekend and saw an eagle fly right into my back yard woods. Gorgeous.

Kim, hope the knee is nothing. Couple of days off fixes most aches and pains.

JellyFish, hope your friend is a guy and very cute.   Anyone who runs those trail races are brave soliders in my opinion.

Any advice for how I should pace Ragnar? I'm taking the longer leg and my first run will be 6.9 miles. My best runs these days seem to average an 8:45 pace. Do I really run each leg all out? Oh I wish I had done some double runs.

Bugs, that's funny. At least you have a goal, right? The one I did in AZ had porta potties at all the exchanges. I'm sure you'll be fine. As for how to run them, we were on a pretty competitive mixed masters team, goal was to win and we did. We ran them pretty hard, and my middle of the night run (1:30 am I think) was 7 miles of downhill. Was sort of scary running fast downhill on some choppy asphalt (it was on roads) with just the circle of your headlamp light to show the way. But fun. The last leg was the longest and hardest being in the daytime heat, big downhill and then uphill, then flat to the exchange. I was glad to be done, but passed about 10 runners on that one. Oh I'd love to go do it all again!! Sometime...

Jelly, where was this hot trail run with sand dunes? Do you have a schedule posted somewhere? Our "upcoming races" thread is woefully incomplete...

Sounds like your recovery is going really well Pam. Hope you're over that cold. Remember, you need about 3 weeks to fully recover from that huge effort. I did read your RR, pretty cool stuff. (and I got all those annoying faces when I wrote my Seattle race report in Word, then copied it and pasted it into the thread... maybe using notepad or some other text program? I don't know...)

Bryan, yuk. I've never even seen a wild skunk and don't want to! What do you do for that?

Kimmie, I think you're doing really well with the schedule you have. Taking care of the kids, working, running, it's hard to get it all done! I have teenagers and it's hard enough at that! Good call on skipping the run, maybe if the knee is ok you can fit it in later this week?

Dave! Nice run, and yes sometimes you just gotta do it. Hope the stress levels drop a bit for you soon...

That Beer-Baby will be well taken care of, I'm sure. I'll bet he'll get running shoes before he's walking... Hope to see pictures soon!!

Hi Paul! Hey Jeremy! Hi Perry! Where the heck is Cash?? I wonder how Mr. Inertia, Brian and Murphy are doing... Sure wish they'd check in.

Most of the spray I received this morning hit the shoes and the lower body.  It's dark now  at 5:30am and I was running through some new construction.  Must of disturbed him where he was bedded down.  I was close to the curb next too an undeveloped lot and he popped out of some tall grass and nearly ran into the side of my leg.  My first thought was getting bit and rabies and then I saw him turn with the tail flagged.  I started sprinting hard in a straight line away from him and the smell filled the air.  Funny, I guess that I'm slower than stink.  It happened during the first mile and I went ahead and finished the run.  When I got home the dogs went bonkers running through the house barking and groweling as they hunted for the skunk.  My shoes were in the garage and they just stood at the door and barked and groweled away.  Woke the entire house up.  I've tried shoe fogger and fabreeze on the shoes to no avail.  They have 400 miles on them so they were ripe to begin with.  I already have their replacements but was hoping for another 100 miles so the new shoes would be fresher for the marathon on September 7th.  The clothes were good after one washing and I was okay coming out of  the shower according to DW but the dogs seemed to know it was on me.  Oh well, first time for everything.  Had my Boss with me the entire day so it could have been more interesting than it turned out to be.

Erika, nice mileage last week.

Dave,  work and move related tempo runs are approved.

Bugs, you'll enjoy the relay for sure.

JF:  That time on trails is not to bad at all.  I have a 50k in October I want to do and given the trail I'll be happy with 6 hours.

WRFB:  Did changing the BP meds help you feel stronger on the run today?

Lou,

Drinking enough water? That is usually a big one for me. It adds up over time. Which reminds me I need to go drink.

Going for a night run now, just to test the gear.

Ran 4 miles this morning and a bit quicker pace and felt great.  AHR didn't bump up too much and it was still an easy run.  Humid, of course, but that's par for the course.  

Bugs - I have no advice to give on how to pace, but I hope whatever you end up doing you have a ton of fun!!!!

Kimmie - so was the knee issue just a shoe indicator? I get a soreness on the outside of my knee when my shoes are dead - it only lasts while i'm running.

Erika - oddly enough it was in Michigan. And I'm possibly revamping my whole entire fall schedule over the next 2 days, but as soon as I know what i'm doing I'll go and update the race thread... ok technically i'm going to go put in the ones i've paid for already as soon as I'm done this post. Is this a Life induced cut-back week??

Pace - did you have to tomato juice your way back to freshness? 50K?? very cool!!!

Lou - YEAH FOR BABIES!!!! I'm excited!!!! and low energy - change in BP meds... crap I need to go back and catch up - you've been exciting from the sounds of it...

I did 7 yesterday and it was SLOW because I finally figured out the Mr. Plyo secret.... backwards... all the plyo's I had been doing were forward, but Monday I did one set backwards and holy cow pies the next day I was sore! It was the BEST feeling in the world!!! And it's been far too long since I had that trashed feeling. So that made for a very slow run yesterday. Made sure to stay at 65% HR (yeah, that's right, I've gone to the heart rate side of life... i like it... I know immediately if my body is recovered or if it's hurting before I even set foot on the pavement which is nice - tells me what kind of run to expect). Still sore - more muscle tightness though - and am hoping a nice run will shake it all out, but we'll see...

MTA: I am at a female friends house... no males... guess i'll have to start meeting them at the start/finish lines of races

Wish I had pace advice Bugs however I've never done a relay.

Glad to her you had a great run yesterday Kimmie! Glad to hear your knee is fine. Like Jelly I tend to get pain on the outside of my knee when my shoes are dead. 

Way to be consistant Paul. Sounds like you've got some good running going on and just wait until it cools down. All these runs in the humidity will have some pay offs!

I did the whole heart rate thing last summer Shan and it really helped me. It really helped me learn to listen to my body. You ready to get back work for the school year?  

Enjoy your recovery week Erika! I'm trying to enjoy mine but even though I know that I'm at least another week or so from recovery it feels like it's going to be forevor until I  can run longer than 5-6 miles. This is the first time I've ever felt the need for recovery. Not sure why I thought my legs would need the recovery not my cardiovscular system. My cold is ALMOST completely gone. Still got crap in my lungs but not much. It likes to come out while i"m out for my runs.

I got in a nice 5.5 mile run with Ken last night. That makes 3 days in a row for him WOOHOOOO!  Orginaly I had planned on one run and lifting weights with Ken later however  I have a pain in my neck that's been there for a few days and isn't going away. Partly due to the 100 miler partly due from not working out in forevor and my muscles aren't strong enough to support my weak parts of my skeletal (SP?) If I can't get it rehabed soon I'm gonna have to start with the muscle relaxers at night time *sigh* At least it's not interfering in my running *knock on wood*