Mornin' everyone.

Good runs/rides/workouts yesterday by Holly, Tet, Bioguy, Mike, Fatozzig, Mariposai, and Wildchild.

Even more than Mariposai, Mike, I'm totally unqualified to comment on your training plan other than to be impressed with how much thought you put into putting it together.

Holly, should you have a 'rental agreement' with DS and his GF? Should it be very clear who is responsible for laundry (including sheets and towels), meals, etc.? If you are going to be feeding them most of the time, should they be responsible for dinner on Tuesdays? Are they paying even a token rent ($100/month)? As long as they are treating this as 'apartment living,' they might as well get a bit of the full experience.

Hi, Milktruck! Did you run Big Lake yesterday?

Fatozzig, those are spectacular photos from your run with the ladies yesterday!

Wildchild, snow at this time of the year is just wrong.

No workout for me this morning - my toe is still sore from where I dropped the pegboard on it a few days ago, and I woke up with a sore back as well. So I figured a rest day is OK. Besides, it's going to be an active and busy day even without a workout. DW and I are heading out in a bit to host today's judged racewalks. It looks like it may be a small but quick field of racers. Rain/thunderstorms were in the forecast, but now it looks like they'll hold off till well after we are done. But those storms may get in the way of my yardwork this afternoon. There's always something... 

Have a greta Sunday!

Jay

Slow and sweaty 5.2 mountain miles with the gulpha gorge gang this morning.  70's with 85% humidity had sweat rolling off me early.  Saw one copperhead and that bugger was not interested in slithering anywhere...just sat there, head raised and made us go around him...even when we touched him with a stick (trying to get him to move off the trail), nope...not moving..ok buddy...around you we go   Dangled our (bare) feet in the creek afterwards...now that felt good!!!

Deez - vertigo sucks, I hope yours goes away soon.

I spent most of yesterday doing yardwork - cutting the grass, weedwacking, planting some flowers.  Anyway, still have lots of weedwacking to do.  I also went to a local mall where some of the artwork from various schools was being displayed.  My daughter has 2 art classes this year and both teachers submitted one of her pieces.  The email said they could only submit 20 items from the 100 students they teach.  Then there is a competition and the top 3 or so from each category will get displayed at the city art gallery.  I am pretty sure her one painting will not make the cut, but the other one - from her digital arts class - just might sneak in.  It looked to me like she had lifted the photo from the internet - but my son was there and verified it was a real photo she had taken of a classmate - then did some special effects on.  Maybe I will post it on facebook, if the artist lets me!

There was a cougar attack yesterday not that far from here.  Two young men on mountain bikes.  The cougar was following them.  One guy was killed, the other hurt badly.  Really scary that the cougar would attack two men on bikes.  The man that was killed, I believe he ran when the cougar had the other guy's head in his jaws - a fatal mistake, as the cougar went after him, and the other guy I think got back on his bike and biked away.

Woke up today with an extremely sore throat.  Picked up said daughter's cold.  Going to take it easy, maybe nap later.  I was feeling weak just walking the dog up the hill.

Now I am curious about the Hanson plan - not that I'm even running much or anything, but curious as to how it is different.

 

Holly, should you have a 'rental agreement' with DS and his GF? Should it be very clear who is responsible for laundry (including sheets and towels), meals, etc.? If you are going to be feeding them most of the time, should they be responsible for dinner on Tuesdays? Are they paying even a token rent ($100/month)? As long as they are treating this as 'apartment living,' they might as well get a bit of the full experience.

 

Since I was not part of the "staying for a year" conversation, I am still a little dazed.  I thought it was 3-6 months to save some money before they moved into an apartment.  Apparently the GF's father (who is a nice guy but a little demented) was demanding that she stay at home for 3 years after college to save money for her first house.  And I mean, demanding.  This is their only child and her dad is super-controlling, but their was no way in heck that DS was going to live in that man's house (prefers taking him in small doses), and the kids (with help from DH), thought this would be a happy medium to get him off her case about it.

I thought about taking DS aside and having a gentle conversation about "the year" part, but DH urged me to take a few days and ease into the transition.  The kids are so excited and having such a great time setting up their new space, I don't want to put a damper on it.  We have discussed the fact that they will do their own laundry and pay for their own food for the most part.  DS is also now responsible for his own gas, car insurance, and repairs from this point forward.  We have helped with these things until now because he is a fulltime student living at home and commuting to college, which is being paid from scholarships and his own loans.  Since we were not paying for his college, we were happy to pay for everything else.  However, he has a fulltime job this summer, which will transition to a part-time paid internship during his last year next year, so he has enough money for things like gas and car insurance.

I know it may seem to some that we have coddled DS a bit, but he has always been "the good child," honors student, easy-going, kind-hearted, and has barely given us a moment of trouble.  While he is a fulltime student, I am happy to help where I can.  Though in the name of fairness, I am going to have to offer the same deal to our more challenging DD when she graduates.  Although she will likely be out of here like a shot just as soon as she can....

Spacityrunner - copperheads? - and Enke - cougars? - Yikes!  We have a few mean geese around here, but mostly that's the only thing you hear attacking runners.  Except cars.

12.1 miles for me today on a lovely morning with temps somewhere in the 70's.  No more peroneal tendonitis, but my legs are still a bit tired.  This is about where I usually am 2 weeks post-marathon.

The Copperhead and cougar talk is making my treadmill look real nice!     I did get out and walk 2.6 miles this morning.  I really dislike walking as exercise.  I want to be as fast as Jay, and, in reality, I am NOT a fast walker and I get bored.  It’s better if I am NOT walking my run courses.

Got home after midnight last night from the trip, so I’m exhausted today.  Animals were glad to see us, even though we have a great pet sitte who stays at the house.   I’m glad to be home, even though I love St. John.  I was glad to send my son back to the northeast.  7 days of him is very taxing.  Love his girlfriend, though!  She is low key and helpful.    Daughter traveled with us and got home at midnight and had to preach 2 services today.

Started heat acclimatization training today - not too sure that I meant to jump into the fire like this though. 8.2 trail miles at 88F (feels like 95, with 70% humidity and 71 dew point). At least there were not as many deer fly with it being so hot! Livestock sightings - an armadillo and the usual squirrels - think I heard a couple of snakes rapidly retreating into the leaf litter as I passed.

I persevered with the 5 mile race yesterday. Race report in the separate thread.

Outside in the heat/humidity at 9:30 am for 2.6 mile walk.  Jogged a little bit at the end and butt was a lot better.   Got on the treadmill (no snakes/cougars) late this afternoon to watch recorded TV show and did 3 more miles with some very slow jogging mixed in.  I'll see how the butt feels after that.  It lets me do it without much complaint, which is a lot different from earlier in the week.    So- 5.6 miles for the day of some combination of mainly walk some shuffle/jog.

Nothing today.  Well, that's not true - I made ham and cheddar cheese waffles for breakfast, then sent The Hub to the grocery store while I swept and dust mopped.  Started laundry and then spent about 2+ hrs digging out the crap I unfortunately planted a few years ago that has completely taken over a section of my yard.  Then more laundry, massaged some analgesic ointment into The Hub's neck with my achy hands, made chocolate chip cookies, fed the cats, and finally got to sit down for the evening.  I feel like Holly!! 

Holly - What is your DS majoring in?  Hope things work out with them.

Very sad about the cougar situation all the way around.  Unfortunately, in those situations a person's instinct is to run away, but that's the worst thing you can do.  After all, a cougar is a big cat and cats like to chase things that are running away. It sounds like it was definitely bent on attacking, and fighting back is the best way to survive. A number of years ago, we had a cougar attack an older couple of on a trail I like to run.  The man was attacked and the woman fight back by jabbing, if all things, a pen in the cat's eye until it ran away.  I don't remember if the cat was hunted down and destroyed.  The guy was hurt pretty bad, but he survived.

Tom - The Idiot in the Van - so happy nothing happened to you.

My quads are sore from yesterday's downhill running fest.  I think the yard work - squatting up and down, crawling around - actually helped a bit.