hopeful, that was a nice picture of a sunset you posted Fri from your fishing trip.  evan, nice trail race.  Twocat, I'm glad to hear your heel is better.  Tet, good job on your latest marathon.  Twocat, congrats on the shirt.  Mike, great XC pictures.  henrun, glad to hear you're recovering.  deez, good luck with your foot problem and with Justin's situation.

Nice long runs for Twocat, holly, fatozzig, Evan, Mike (with Ryan), and Econo.

Yesterday morning, it was about 60° with a light breeze.  I got in 6 miles at an 11:21 pace.  This morning was a repeat of the weather conditions.  I got in 4 miles at a 10:45 pace.

As I've mentioned many times, I've slowed a lot in the last couple of years.  Until about 4 months ago, however, I was keeping up my mileage.  At that time, I had my "meltdown" run and things have gone downhill rapidly since then.  My legs felt tired and weak most of the time, walking, running, or just sitting around.  My mileage dropped quite a bit and I didn't feel like getting out the door.  A couple trips to the doctor and a stress test didn't indicate any problems.  At my second trip to the doctor, I told him my opthamologist had given me new eyedrops with a beta blocker.  I had heard somewhere that beta blockers caused muscle weakness in some people.  The doctor didn't think that the amount of beta blocker in a few eyedrops would be a problem.  I had an opthamologist appointment lastTues, got to thinking about the eyedrops again, and googled them.  One of the side effects was muscle weakness.  In checking my log, my "meltdown" run was 3 days after starting the new drops.  I asked the opthamologist (a runner - we usually talk as much running as we do about my eyes) if they could be a problem.  He was quick to say that was a side effect for some people and he'd change me to a different kind of eyedrops immediately.  Wed, I did my  normal 4 mile walk and it went a bit faster than usual and I felt less beat at the end.  Thurs, I did a 6 mile run at a faster pace than any training run in a month, felt less bad at the end than usual, and recovered quicker than I had been.  Fri. was another  good walk.  Sat, I did another 6 mile run, slower than Thurs but better than a lot of recent runs, again feeling not too bad at the end and recovering quickly.  Then, we spent the rest of Sat walking around a music festival and I felt fine.  This morning, my 4 miles was at a faster pace than any training run for a couple of months.  I am cautiously optimistic that I may be able to get back to where I was 4 months ago.  If I'd seriously considered the new eyedrops as a problem earlier, I could have asked our resident pharmacist, tomw, for advice (for the record, Tom, the eyedrops I was taking were Combigan and, as you probably know, were to reduce the pressure in my eyes that goes along with my glaucoma).

A good day and good runs for all.

TomS

Jay, I've seen bears on the trails. I'm still more worried about skunks. Maybe it's because no one will laugh at you if an unpleasant encounter with a bear occurred. 

Very cool pictures MikeE. Them kids have well defined muscles.

Ah crud Denise. Being a grandparent rocks, however...one thing at a time is preferable. A tri may not be one of the one thing at a time things.

Holy Moly I love the AD Bots!!! There's a cologne called "Batman for Men"!! Hell Yeah!!! I hope it's as good as High Karate!

TomS, I'm so very glad you have a runner eye Dr.

Yesterday's 1.5 miles on the trails was rough. I debated on calling  for help. 40 hours in three days was a bit too much. Tonight, DW Tag and I went on the same loop. I kept telling Tag to save some juice for Monday's race. He listens like a spouse. DW got her first close look at a fat partridge the dog spooked up. Very kewl. Closer to the end, we heard a dog bark and I grabbed Tag's collar. Then it started howling and a chorus of howls were erupting  just around the corner. Coyotes!!! AT least 6! I'm running towards them while trying to keep the mutt back and yelling for DW to get her phone so we could get pictures! Too slow but lots of fun.

22.5 miles on the Equinox course today, from start to 11.5 then back, walked the last half mile. Glad that's done. Sorry don't have time to ready up and comment, will try to catch up later...

Awesome pictures, Troy, and fun sneaking that DD picture in there! I sure love this state....

Nice photos mike and troy. thanks.

Everyone's probably lucky though I can’t show the post-marathon photos under the full moon  from the hotsprings. No wonder I love running so much.

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TomS - and all this time I just thought you were getting old, I wish I could blame mine on the 5% saline eye drops I have to take.

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. Troy - do they have the Lazy Mountain Run 18 mile run there anymore? I was inspired nearing the summit one year only to find out the people I thought I was catching up to were just some hikers out picking succulent, white-meated mountain blueberries. Hope you c an sneak off to the Equinox with Erika and Holly.

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. After flying without much incident all these years until my luggage went to New York while I went on to Tokyo in April, the same kind of rain squalls that blessed our otherwise muggy marathon on Saturday delayed departure from Narita for two hours. However, the airline’s restaurant certificate got me the most expensive sushi ($10) on the menu of the airport sushi branch: uni sea urchin eggs and seared toro belly maguro tuna. It was worth it. Unfortunately, though my wish for another two hour delay came true, we were stuck in the cabin sitting on the runway so long that they had to go back and refuel. This time all we got was a plastic cup of water. .

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 Returned to a call from 81-yo Ironman Frank about getting together at the annual nearby Labor Day Half Marathon that Francesca used to think was a long run. .

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 In the meantime, no particular reason but I think I need a mailing address for two certain goddesses from Wisconsin <<<(red/red)>>> and also  Olympia. <<<(pink/pink)>>> jon at runningbarefoot dot org .

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 ps troy - no particular reason either but do you ever fly up the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes and over Mt. Katmai. Does it still have a now 100-year old glacier inside the caldera? I wouldn’t mind seeing the top of Mt. Katolinat sometime either if it turns out to be convenient, . . . to say nothing of Dumpling or anything around Brooks. Bears are not my favorites anymore though. Not too much at once though as everything you do on its own is pretty overwhelming for what's left of my  brain. . thanks.

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pps erika - I used to think about that same question about how in the world anyone who is actually running can take so long to do it for 26.2 miles. You'll know the answer too in about twenty more years. : )