Coastwalker gets a wonky 3 race walk miles.Sorry to hear about your ankle but kudos for getting out.

Jlynne exerts the stair stepper for forty minutes. Ten on the rower and twenty with weights and core.

Joe618 braves the elements for 6 miles.

Welcome SophiaK. Thanks for popping in. We're an online support group for people who pound themselves to a miserable pulp athletes of with various fitness goals.

Dave59 hits the arc trainer. Sorry about the burnout. It's unpleasant.

RunnerKSA has a Southern 3.3 y'all. I dated a girl from Knoxville and there's something about the way "you ain't right" sounds with the Tennessee accent.

Rochrunner has 4.1 good ol' out door miles!!!

Stumpy plays hide & seek with contractors.

Tammy is hoping to keep it out of the gutter.

HopesMom stretches into the weekend.

Anzlo has a nice 3 Oregon mile walk.

Fatozzig has a cookie dodging "I love Karen" day. A hotel I worked at fired all the managers. Called me back, I went in to show the GM how I could bail her out and then left.

Tom White, I'm glad the knees are responding to the new exercise.

Spacityrunner offers to take one for the team.

The beloved pro from Dover has 14 miles that add up to 20.

BTY has greta elbow news and signs up for some serious competition.

Surly Bill is trippin' on his run. Ugh...sorry.

MikeE gets a evening 8.

TwoCat keeps us in line.

Tetsujin209 logs three miles and counts stairs.

Falconfixer runs 7 at the airport.

Mariposai fills a forum with sunshine while keeps her knee on a leash.

Evanflein has 5.2 before boarding for Texas.

Thursday, I had to call a supplier because they made another mistake on our order. (I don't get to choose our vendors, I'm sure the corporate level decision is influenced by kick-backs end of year rebates.) As usual, I start the conversation with "My life is ruined and it's all your fault!!". We resolved the situation and then I went on one of my rants, ”We got lucky this time. What if we ordered baby sea otters and you sent rabid goldfish?" The guy on the other end paused and said,"I've heard of you". I responded with "I'm so sorry" and we both started cracking up. I can only imagine how many angry calls some of these people get.

There was freezing rain in the AM. No thank you. Things cleared up so Tag and I picked up Marley and went for 6 miles.

Traffic wasn't bad.

The choice was either running on what's left of the ice and having it shift and break away. Or sinking in mud. Marley preferred the mud, but she did a pretty good job of listening when I reminded her of her mom's wrath. Tag seemed to prefer to stay clean, but wet.

Thankfully, we made it to the ice cream store!!

The dogs fell asleep quickly.

Now to wash the truck and get wet dog smell out.

I've been awake since 4:00, so I decided to get up and get some transcription done.  So far all I've done is watching a recorded program and now I'm in here. 

Nice wet pic yesterday, Joe.  I have one somewhere of a trail run I did in the Bay Area a few years ago.  It poured non-stop the entire time and it was fricking cold.  When the race started, we could hear the thunder rolling, so it should've been a sign.  It was 2 big loops and I tell ya, I had a real hard time not getting in my car and leaving after the first loop.  I stopped at it to get some dry gloves (which didn't last long) and I remember standing there looking at the car seat and thinking, "It's warm and dry there."  Then I closed the door and slowly shuffled away.  A volunteer at an aid station about halfway through the 2nd loop got me through that race.  He had to open a can of Coke for me 'cause my fingers wouldn't work, and I remember sitting at the table totally dejected and he just kept telling me I could do this.  I could get it done.  I saw him at the end and thanked him profusely for not letting me give up.

SteveP - You have very happy pups.  And this is for you:

Okay - Time to get some work done.  Later ~~

Thanks, Steve. I didn't think it was possible to get wet dog smell out.

jlynne--candy cigarettes?!! Say it ain't so! (more detail)

 you just haven't lived till you're down there doing your business with skeletons in the culvert.

That's the closing line to the chorus of a great country song, "Skeletons in the Culvert."

Thursday afternoon, I did about 4 hours of trash pick-up along the road I run, getting about 8 big trash bags about 2/3 full. Yesterday was rain all day, so no running. Today I run and there are at least a half dozen new bottles and cans in a mile and a half stretch of road. I just don't understand some people.

4 miles running (and picking up more trash). 

Happy Saturday, Runners! My morning is off to a great start!  Today was my first stab at swimming butterfly and IM's since back in the first session, which ended before Christmas.  I set the bar low enough to expect success (  ) .  After a 1/4 mile warmup of alternating 25 yards breaststroke, back stroke and crawl, I took a short break and then alternated 100 yard IM's (25 yards each butterfly / back / breast / crawl) in 1:35'ish and 2:25 rests.   I have to admit that I like the variety that swimming brings, since I was always one to mix up different paces for my running workouts.  In fact when my workout was over today I was contemplating how I might work Fatigue Fighter Intervals into my swimming workouts; then I realized that my shortest running races took 21:00 and my longest took 1:40:00, while my shortest swimming races are going to be less than a minute long, and the longest only about 2:30.   This is all confusing to me because primarily I'm swimming for fitness, just like I started running for fitness.  But ultimately my competitive nature takes over and (especially) once I  sign up for a race, my focus is completely off of fitness and I start thinking of ways to do "that race" better.  Fitness becomes secondary.  Probably OK for a young'un but as I climb towards 60 and then beyond, I think I have to refocus on balance and err towards fitness. Can I get an Amen?    So today I got in the race specific training in at 7:00 AM and after that, I got to enjoy a pancake breakfast with my wife, my youngest son (now 23, a senior in college and preparing to move in with his oldest brother in a few weeks) and my daughter, our youngest, (now 21 and working several jobs while transitioning from Community College graduate to nursing student).  I don't often get to enjoy them like that, when they're relaxed and happy, and I was grateful for that opportunity this morning.  If I get all of my errands completed this morning (and I did), I'll have an opportunity to get back in the pool for an hour or so (I did) and do some more fitness related swimming, maybe a 1.5 miler at a much easier pace than the morning IM repeats workout. (Actual - 2,250 yards in 50 minutes or so -  just over 1.25 miles)   Perhaps in that way I can get both the race specific, strength/stamina training and the endurance/cardiovascular training in on the same day.   Monday is also designated as a long swim day and my plan is to build that long swim up by about 10% per week for the next 9 weeks.  That will get me up to almost 3 miles about two weeks before the races - seems like as good as any plan I can come up with on my own.  
Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have great runs today!

Better than Yesterday

Thanks, Steve.  Great start and great pics.  That looks like a mess, though.  I'm glad it is finally spring here!

Jay- glad your wife liked the picture!       BTY- you are doing great with your swimming.  It really is a different deal and mindset than running.  I did quite a bit of Masters swimming in the late 90s in Dallas.  My excellent coach said I swam the same pace for a 50 as I did for a 1500.  I couldn't quite get used to the pain of the sprints.

I RACED TODAY!  Some of you might recall that I am a mental case about racing- for NO reason.  Even races that don't matter in the least (like this one).  I think it's because I haven't figured out how to do them "just for fun".  They hurt!   So- I was filled with my usual dread and regret that I even signed up for this 5K on the airport runway.  Packet pickup yesterday was a nightmare and made me late for a meeting that my boss was in (but he was late, too).  It started late due to traffic and parking logistics.  Age groups were terrible-  12 and under, 13-17 and 18 and over.  Really???  BUT- EVERYONE GOT A MEDAL!  (it's actually a nice medal)    I managed to run a perfect race for where I am with my speed and running-  30:19 and got faster every mile.  I mean- you can't ask for a much faster course than a runway, right?  Negative- lots of concrete.  LOTS of concrete.  So- I was ecstatic at the finish line and proud of myself.  Warm chocolate chip cookies and bananas sealed the deal.  DONE!

Steve - Nice song, but maybe a little more "wild" than a little rain. Great pics, and between running on muddy snow trails my preference would be rain as long as the chill factor ain't too bad. Love your dogs, brings back memories of times long past when I grew up with large dogs, labs. Along with flying, big dogs went away when I got married.

Tramps - Thanks for your public service.

Not out yet, had to adjust schedule this morning when I usually get out.  Need to run mid day or afternoon in order to deal with a couple things, but actually mid day might be better anyway today.  I prefer morning because its keeps my diet in better control. And to those who asked, I am a little north of Salem.

Hope your Saturday is going well runfolk !

...Gee, and I was afraid BTY was gonna OverDo it......

=============

..40-min PoolRun, no belt....

Went out after Marj for 3.1 as she mentioned. Have a choral concert and rehearsal afterwords this afternoon. Run was a good way to get rid of stress. Most of the singers in this group have been doing it for a number of years and are much more familiar with the music, most of which is not in English (most is in Yiddish or Italian) and this is my first year with this chorus. We have several concerts coming up in the next 2 months.Unfortunately I’ll be away for the major one. Adding to the stress is a second small chorus I joined. Guess I’ll have to drop that one.

Have a good weekend all.