Happy Tuesday! Wildchild- not long ago you were suffering in the snow, now you're saying it's too hot! Good deal about the extra severance pay, that'll pay for a few more pairs of running shoes. Congrats on your 5k PR over the weekend and AG win! Aamos- I thought you liked my cooties! Spareribs- You are definitely the man with a plan! Mariposai- I hope my recovery takes a very long time, if it means I'll be getting butterfly hugs! Yep, pretty small townish here where I am, sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not. Craneium- hope all is well. Good to see a post from you! Get that insomnia fixed and enjoy your run later. halllar- thanks very much for checking in despite not running today, and thank you very much for the well wishes. Teresa- was "My Sharona" really that long ago? Yikes! I'm glad the minnow in a blender thing never made it to my graduating class. Yuk! Nice run for you and your friend today! The bright sun really makes the daffodil colors explode. evanflein- Thank you for the well wishes, for me and for Amy. She will really need them. Enjoy the company this weekend! Your biceps will get a great workout carrying that baby around! Congrats to your sons soccer team! What a great start they are off to! Sorry your 5k didn't turn out as hoped for, but your legs certainly deserved to be tired. tomwhite- regarding my surgery, you gotta make things fun! How are your injuries coming along? Feeling any better? eliz- aka SPEEDY! It's nice seeing improvement, isn't it! Just wait till another 3 weeks pass. lyndenrunner- diet day #2... are everyone's arms still safe? Nice job on your 10k this past weekend! Cmom- congrats to you and your daughter for some fine running this past weekend! Good thing you two aren't competitive with each other... PDR- nice running for you too over the weekend. Not bad for just running a marathon and being sick! Good job volunteering too, it does become addictive. Saint- what a gutsy effort it was for you this past weekend, running a half marathon on an upset stomach and with a sore back. Hope things are feeling better today. Sarge- congrat to you and your wife on your half marathons last weekend! Don't kid yourself, that is a tough course. You both did very well! Congrats! I like your new goals. Keep running Sarge, keep running... Roy- Another one in the books for you. One day closer to your goal. hopeful4ever- what was your mile split when you encountered MrBlackCat? Sunrise runs are the best, aren't they? Tallrunner- I'll bet you rock those yasso's tonight. You are running really well, your legs will know what to do. SueT- thanks for the treadmill answer, now it makes sense. Hopefully Jesse gets back on track today, so that you can too. Holly- when I saw the picture of your house, I thought to myself... hmmm, those stairs should be fun after some of your long runs. Just think of the strength workout you got carrying those boxes. Somebody will sleep good tonight... in their NEW HOUSE! Twocat- all those miles you put in this year weren't for nothing. You'll be fine for Missoula. perch- good thought about putting a hill early in your run to get you revved up. It sure will get your blood moving without having to really push too hard and stress the muscles, as long as the hill isn't too steep. dg- glad you are taking a day off. Does the cross training bother your hammies? Instead of cutting it out completely, maybe just cut back on it, unless it really does aggrivate them. Sometimes doing a little something is better than doing nothing. Regarding the track, can you do MWF one week, and TTh the next week? Doing back to back longer runs isn't a problem unless your body says it's a problem. - Thanks again everyone for all the well wishes yesterday! You really helped! I was feeling so giddy last night, the foot was feeling great, I was so happy to have this done with. Then the anesthesia wore off! DOH! Oh man did things hurt then! I was still giddy though! Twocat emailed me to say don't expect to be feeling 100% for a couple of weeks, and I'm sure he's right. Took a nice walk this AM with Jake, about 1.5 miles. It's important to keep moving, otherwise I can see how things would tighten up and form adhesions. It was painful, but good to get out. It was also good to be able to shower afterwards, after being told not to yesterday. For those of you that need to keep wounds dry in the shower, saran wrap works very well, sealing off the ends with surgical tape. I'm hoping to be able to join Twocat at Missoula in July. It looks like a beautiful area, and the race got good reviews last year, for a first time event. I spoke with a fellow I know who ran it last year, and he highly recommended it. I would only do the half though, and have a beer waiting for Twocat at the end as he finishes his marathon. Amy got checked into the hospital yesterday. Her nutrition and petiteness has become a concern. They are investigating several possibilities. One may be a thyroid problem. Another may be the size of her tonsils. Out of a scale of 1-4, they are a 3.5. They will more than likely have to come out, but due to her heart condition, it wouldn't be an easy procedure. Cardiology would have to be involved with it. Kids are great, they go with the flow. The parents.... not so much. It's really hard on them. On a more positive note, Amy's mom was so inspired by by the whole Boston marathon experience, including all the messages from everyone here, that she decided to enter and run a 5k race this past weekend, out of the blue. It was her very first race. She does a mix of running, cycling, and various aerobics classes at the gym, so she was reasonably prepared for it. Her time was 27:57, which I thought was great! She loved the entire experience, and said she enjoyed the freedom of being out there, and is hooked. We all know what that's like. This is so good and muchly needed for her. I hope everyone has a great day today!

Here is what Bart Yasso has to say about today's comments about Yasso 800's and the story I just posted: "Spareribs, As you know I'm a very approachable guy and I go out of way to help every runner. The past 3 weekends I've been selling my new book at race expos. "My Life on the Run" Chapter 10 has the whole story on Yasso 800s. At Boston this year I think about 90 % of the runners in the race came up to me and said I did my Yasso 800s I'm ready for Monday. http://www.bartyasso.com/ Bart Bart Yasso Runner's World CRO Chief Running Officer 135 North 6th St. Emmaus, PA 18098 610-967-8276 cell # 610-393-6151" So write to him if you like, or better yet, give something back to him by buying his book. He truly has the runner's generous heart. Spareribs

Speed day for me today. 6 miles w/6x800. I started with a 1.5 mile wu and then did the 800's with 400 recoveries. The 800's were 3:52, 3:56, 3:53, 3:54, 3:57, 3:59. I faded a little on the last two, so maybe I need a little more recovery time. Next week I am going to try doing 1000's with 4-5 min recovery. My total time for 6 miles was 53:27 8:58/mile pace. Bob: Glad to here that your surgery went well. I will be praying for you and of course for Amy as well. Have a great day everyone! Bruce

Bob - very sorry to hear about Amy - definitely keep us posted. Awfully cool that her Mom has jumped into the running arena. There's nothing like paying it forward. dg - according to my sports doc, running on a track in one direction all of the time isn't problem unless the track is banked. I was concerned at one time because I was having unilateral injuries, and I was doing most of my runs on an eighth mile track. The facility refused to alternate directions. I just knew that the track was the source of my problems, but he said no. It's an gorgeous day here, so we took the noon yoga class outside. You can't beat a corpse pose under the sun with a gentle breeze blowing. I was covered in Bradford pear blossom petals by the end of the class. It was hard to make my way back to the office ;-(.

Hey everybody. It's good to be back online. I'm enjoying reading everyone's RR's, especially the other Eugenians. Thanks for the comments on my Bonk posting. My wounds are healing but they're still rather raw. I need a few more days. I'll post my "real" RR eventually. Ribs it's time to change your avatar. I know you're the President of my Fan Club and all, for which I am appreciative, but the fact is other Fan Clubs are much more fun right now! BTB glad to hear your surgery went well. Heal up right! Keep us up to date on Amy's condition. I'm glad her Mom ran the 5K. We've hooked another one! Holly very nice job completing your Maniac 3rd in 5 weeks. And already back doing recovery runs! It's amazing how our biggest doubters are frequently ourselves. (Looking in the mirror there I might add.) DiveChief glad you're now able to run. Good news. Bill

Speedy recovery, btb. Nice that you got out for a walk. It is important to get up and around as soon as you can. Hugs to Amy, and also to her parents. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a child with Amy's condition... I did think of her yesterday as I watched my big healthy (adorable) 16 year old son out on the soccer field. It's easy to take their health and vitality for granted, so knowing about Amy reminds me of the gift I have. Holly, it'll be interesting to see how that recertification thing works out with the Pig. Congrats on your new house! I can't believe the prior owners left it dirty though. That just seems like really bad home-selling etiquette! I'll be interested to hear how you like living in the hills. I will say that I think my hill running really helped my Boston race. I start every run from home with a 2 mile descent, and finish with the ascent to get back. It's not super steep, but it's looooong. I got up early today to run! Wow, those birds are sure active at 5 a.m. I filled out the calendar with both boys' soccer schedules, and Wednesday night is the only evening I'll have to run this week. So... 6.2 miles down the bikepath and back up, avg pace down and back to the base was 8:15 or so, pace up was 9:01 and 9:12... overall 8:34 avg. Average paces are funny though... Sort of like saying if you put one hand on the stove and the other in the freezer, on "average" you should be comfortable! Spareribs, I've had the Yasso 800's explained to me a few times but I still get confused about it. Couldn't explain it to anyone... I think I'll get his book. thanks.

And now I just put a rhubarb pie in the oven with fresh rhubarb: 30 minutes from our garden to oven. I'll let you know tomorrow how it turns out (unless one of you wants to drop over today for a slice).

I'll be right over! Any of you remember TomS's rhubarb crumble? I still have the recipe - both the original and one I modified slightly, and now I can hardly wait to make it again. Have to get my miles up first, though, because I have very little control when it comes to that yummy stuff. Erika - we bought the house from a young couple who were only there two years, maybe don't know about house-selling etiquette. They left huge quarter-sized holes in both kids' bedroom walls where they took down who-knows-what, didn't even try to spackle. I'm glad I specified in writing that I wanted them to leave the closet organizers, or those would have probably been torn out, too. Aamos - if there are any boxes left unpacked in a week, my DH will be threatening to throw them out....and he really will.....