Nice weather here today. Comfortable with low humidity and have had the windows open and AC off for the past few days. Plan is for a tempo run on the local trail at lunch. See if I can break the 49 minute mark that has been teasing me.

Last night, an easy doggie joggie with the Lady out at Coventry Woods. The conditions were fantastic, the running slow and plodding. It's all good. 6 miles in total up and down the hills with a stop at the pond for the lady. We startled something big in the water and saw a good size rat or water snake curled up on the bank of the pond.

QOTD: Saw this quote in an email from Trail Runner Mag. "As a runner you'll fail lots, and you'll fail publicly. That's part of the point". Discuss amongst yourselves.

First of all, my grandmother is cringing because of the word "lots". She chided me often and called me the "lots" kid as I used that word too much I guess as young one. Or was it "gots". Oh well. The mind is a terrible thing. Personally I am not a big fan of focusing on failure. Sure, I've missed almost all of my a-race goals but it certainly wasn't the main point of the race or adventure. Learn from your mistakes? Sure ok. I get it. Fail to often and it becomes the norm. Always put a goal out there that you can achieve as well. I found the quote a bit over the top but I suppose it made me click on it. 

I ran a super short run this morning. I was running a little late, but I didn't want to waste this beautiful weather. I may end up with some more hiking miles after work because I need to clean up the trail a little bit.

QOTD: I don't know the full context of this quote, but I guess if you race a fair amount, you will have some failures that will be public. But in the broader sense, I think that understanding that you will suffer failure in running helps you deal with failures that you may experience in other parts of life. By getting out there and pushing the limits of your physical capabilities, it eventually pushes you beyond what you thought were your mental capabilities. I think it gives you more confidence to push into unknown areas of your life outside of running. It allows you to start to see possibilities that you (and/or others) previously viewed as impossible and act on those things without the fear of failure. I have always been fascinated with people like Brett Favre who could go out onto the field and throw interceptions on consecutive possessions, and get right back out the next time like the previous two interceptions never happened. Failure is an essential element to success.

qotd: At first I too thought it was fall, which I do a lot of.  I've been thinking of the "fail" part a lot lately given my year this year and all the DNF and DNS I'm racking up.  I'm also thinking of the "why" right now a lot due to not being able to do much of anything pain free.  Yes I've failed a lot in a bunch of different aspects of my life but each one has taught me something even if I didn't see that lesson for years afterward.

Right now I'm somewhat depressed about this back thing but it might just be a good thing after all.  I'll be forced to be patient and then when I can get back to it I can be more consistent and instead of just bulling my way through things I can take my time and do it right, or what's right for me.  If along the way I do lose my sight entirely (I have Cone Rod Dystrophy-slowly progressing towards legally blind) then at least I know I tried and I did succeed in achieving my "why".

This is Squiggy, one of the dogs we ended up with from MIL who died last year.  He's some kind of basset/shepard mix?  He's an odd dog that's for sure.

Here's the other dog we got from MIL...some sort of lab

 Soju? I guess you are in S. Korea now. I haven't heard or seen that stuff in a very, very long time.

Well spotted LB2, yes Soju is the national hooch of Korea.  But we are currently in London.  I'm here as part of an international association at an international safety regulation formulation meeting.  So, there are a few Korean guys in the group and they kindly contributed a few bottles of Soju for our enjoyment.  BTW, the Russians brought the vodka and the Brits brought the gin and beer, French the wine, etc, etc, etc.   I would have brought the whisky or bourbon but they didn't give me enough advanced notice....  so I just contributed some funding.....   next time.

But as I said, I behaved myself.... 

Ran 5 on a new to us trail....mostly flat and along a canal.  Continues on a single track which we need go get back to and explore when we aren’t “training”.  Beautiful overcast morning.

We sold the house and have to be out 7/15.  We are storing all our stuff 8 hours away  so packing and DH delivering.  So bring on the stress, not by me because I don’t stress too much, but man DH sure does.  Of course during all this, I’ll be in Michigan 2 weeks.  I’ve heard this a couple times already, although he told me to go fir two weeks.  Bring on the wine!  Maybe if I had a sweet spouse like Bert-O I would quite drinking too. 

May be TMI but due to my low heart rate I received less  anesthesia for my colonoscopy than last time and woke up in the middle while he was trying to ram that thing further up.  Was pretty uncomfortable.  It was interesting seeing the inside of my colon though....especially as the camera came out.

Qotd:  Sure we all fail running....publicly fail not really.  Pretty sure the public doesn’t give a shit about me.  Unless the public is this small group and the other small group I run with.  Of course when I feel I failed, these two groups always disagree because they consider showing up as a success and the rest doesn’t matter.

Warden QOTD:  One of those Mercedes Camper Van thingys.

Duffman:  Nice pups....

Dr Jamie - That core work will definitely help. Fall often and publicly. Yes, that is/was me. Worst one was at JFK. Tripped on the trail (towpath none the less) right as I entered an aid station.

Queenie - Yikes on that one. I woke up during knee surgery once but was numb to the world and for all I knew they could have had something jammed up my rectum and I would not have felt it. Congrats on the house sale!

Warden - I see we did the daily double today. My wife was the big car person. She had one of those Audi TT convertibles (turbo) and a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR6 twin turbo. The 3000GT was super fast. I know it went at least 135mph. 

Just checked into our Airbnb. Nice place. Huge kitchen, so Sue, looks like well host pre-race dinner.

Nice hike up Niah-Kah-Nie mountain yesterday. Probably more aggressive than we should have done, but worth the climb for the view.

Drove around Mt. Hood today. Saw the starting area and finish area now heading for a walk to the Columbia River to sit and relax.

View at the start.

Dhuff - nice dogs and horses. Sorry about race schedule, but looks like good call.

Mandy and NH - enjoy the hike.

Sue - congrats on house sale.

Sandy - can’t you help with that Brexit thing ?

QOTD :  Secret to overcoming failure is to not take yourself too seriously.  As far as trail running, i do it for my mind, so even if i dont hit my C goal, i still try to see the fun in it.

QOTD: I had a used Mercedes 300E several yeRs ago. Id but a new Mercedes. Loved the way tbat car drove. DW slid it into some rocks on an icy road and damaged the engine, so the insurance company totalled it (with very little body damage).