Woohoo Leslie! Free time to yourself-hope you did something fun and didn't clean all day! I was busy with watching my son play football. He's in the 7th grade and usually plays on the 7th grade part of the 7/8 team but was asked to play today with the 8th graders. He did a great job as water boy and once they were winning 26 to 6 in the 4th quarter he got to go play! That was this moring and then in the afternoon I met with a young woman who is going to hire me as her personal trainer to help her lose weight-woohoo-a new client! I finally went for a run around 6:30pm-I was waiting for the humidity to lighten up and ran 7 miles on the trails out back. It was getting rather dark towards the end-around 7:40pm. That time of year is coming soon! Planning on a 20 miler for tomorrow.

Only did a quick 7.5 miles tonight. Worked the GoLite warehouse sale all weekend (insane deals) so most of the weekend was spent standing around on concrete floors fondling tons of outdoor and running gear. Not a bad way to spend a rainy weekend, though I spent 3 times what they paid me

Worked the GoLite warehouse sale all weekend (insane deals) so most of the weekend was spent standing around on concrete floors fondling tons of outdoor and running gear. Not a bad way to spend a rainy weekend, though I spent 3 times what they paid me

Darn those sales, anyway! Sounds like everyone's still percolating right along. And nope, I didn't do housework Saturday. Watched me some chick flicks and drank Cosmos. . . . .Okay, I had 3. That's about my limit on any alcohol anymore these days, unless I really want to pay for it the next day. Hey, what can I say. I'm a cheap date!

I think what was left of Ike blew through here last night and this morning so the humidity is gone! I got in 20 slow miles yesterday. My usual 10 mile loop at the trail center takes me about and 1:40-yesterday it was 2 hours. I forced myself to go 5 more on a couple different shorter loops and went home and did 5 more on the trails out back. I might also just be bored from running the same loop! Anyhow, some advice for Kitrin and her bum knee. This is one of those where you have to listen really good to your body-you could be right on the edge of either running through this or injuring yourself again. I say go for some shorter runs-on dirt-no pavement and hopefully you remain pain free the whole time (shorter being 30-40 min). Don't up the mileage or time-hang here while your body adapts to it. If all goes well this week, then shoot for an hour run over the weekend. If it starts to hurt again try to run through it to finish-no longer-unless it's worse then stop and walk and do what you have to do. I don't quite agree with the no running through an injury. We always have aches and pains-not every ache and pain is an injury. I've been running with a very tight hamstring all summer long. But listen to your body and do what's right for you-you can tell the differences in the pain and what you can run through and can't. That's my advice-attached is my liability waiver-please sign here................ So Chris-what did you get me at the GoLite sale? Is the box coming in the mail? Leslie-I'm right there with you on the cheap date thing-my limit is one. I'd rather eat the calories in the form of chocolate than drink them and feel awful the next day. I never feel bad after eating chocolate! Buddo nice to see a little chime in from you. How are the new shoes working? I'm still happily unemployed-I have however picked up a new personal training client this week and just got home from meeting with a trainer who has his own gym and is lookingfor trainers to work there with their clients. So we'll see where that leads. Next up is my own first 100 mile race this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me everyone-there is a 36 hour time limit-I'm hoping I'll be done sooner than that! Speaking of running, I guess that's what I should go get done now and get on with the rest of the afternoon. I also have my first test due in the online anatomy & physiology class I'm torturing myself with. Like I said-cross your fingers!

Howdy folks. Thanks for the considerations. The new shoes are pretty good I guess. I think the hip pain may have been more from overtraining, too much too soon. I backed off and am taking it a little more slowly, only increasing 10-20% weekly. I'm also listening to how I feel. I can run 5-6 comfortably. With the hiking mixed in though, I can push it beyond what I can do comfortably, and I think that's bad. So, I've junked all plans and am basing my training on how I feel. Got this from Karl Meltzer and David Goggins, both who say, just go run man. So, no low hr training, no barefoot. As it gets colder I may throw a block of low hr training in, also as I drop some weight. It's been cool to see how pushing the hr up high-170's- makes 150-160 feel easier than it used to. I still have a weird pain in my hip/buttocks/low back on my left side that bothers me after I run. This is an example of a maybe/maybe not injury. Could be misalignement, inflammation, not sure....Morton's Nueroma in right foot flaring up a bit. I'm falling apart! I guess I'm no spring chicken at 40 anymore. Hard to swallow. Y'all take care.

GOOD LUCK, KELLY, WITH YOUR FIRST 100-MILER!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!

Greg, you are probably right about Kelly running as we type. My prayers and thoughts are going out to her as well. I am glad you had a good run this morning. The moon was FABULOUS last night, so I envy you your view. The night was so perfect last night that I was tempted to go running after the campfire cookout I attended with friends. However, I was way to tired and went home. I ran for an hour today and finished strong. I power walked ten minutes after as a cool down. I appreciate Leslie and Kelly's advice. I ran three miles on Wednesday, but had to split it up. My knee started stiffening at two miles and I almost quit. I decided that the better choice would be to power walk the rest of the hour to keep my body conditioned to the elevated heart rate for that amount of time. After about a mile, my knee was better and I took a chance on running again. I finished another mile and had no problems with toes or knees. I am VERY happy that my knee held up today. I could feel that it was not 100%, but it really never is these days, regardless of activity level. I think I am going to keep the plan of walking whenever I need to (if I need to) and putting the miles on my legs any way I can. It appears that changing to a walk, which is not much slower than my run pace , and allowing my knee to recover in the middle of a run is an effective way to cope when I need it. Perhaps this problem will fade away as I earn my "running legs." I hope everyone's weekend weather is a great as ours! Kitrin