Kelly - Congrats on getting noticed! Woo hoo! Keeping fingers crossed people go to your race report and then check out your coaching site. Chris - Saw on the news that things were under control. Even the newspaper were like, "Raging fire in January? In Colorado??" I'm going to try some easy running tomorrow morning. Had a pretty bad bout of feeling terrible most of the afternoon yesterday, therefore, I thing I can still cling to my laziness as part of my current unstable state of health. Actually, pushed the workout aside this a.m. to come to work early and clean, clean, clean! My work area is an absolute disaster. Have a good one.

My excuse this week is that I'm having my VO2 tested Sat morning so I'm resting up. Honestly, I feel like I'm going through some life transformation in that I have to do some soul searching, clean my inner house and make some changes. To say any more would be too much information right now and it might prove that I'm some crazy runner .

Have fun with the VO2 tomorrow, Kelly. And hang in there, girl, you'll get the rest figured out.

Boy, we all seem to be in the midst of crises. What's up with that? Kelly, if you don't mind, I would like to ask a favor on my sister's behalf. She called me today and we got started talking about Pilates and I know that you are an instructor. Do you know any decent Pilates DVDs that she could buy. She is very athletic and conscientious, so I know she will pay attention during a well-instructed video. She has a very busy life, with full-time work, two small children and training with Masters for open water distance swimming. I do not think she would have time (or money for that matter) to learn at a studio. Today was a beautiful, warm (if a little windy) day, so I took a bike ride with my exchange student. We pedaled at her speed, very slowly, but we stayed out for an hour and covered over 8 miles. I guess that is okay for an off day. Tomorrow I will try a longer run at a slow pace. I will see how far I can still go. Winters of all kinds (discontent, health, calendar) come to an end eventually. Time is our friend, dear ones, so hang in there. Kitrin

Morning everyone. I'm off to run a local 5k, using it as my tempo run this week. This is the shortest race I've run, by a factor of ten, in years... should be interesting. I'm trying to figure out whether to wear my Nathan or Ultimate Direction pack... also wondering if they'll have boiled potatoes at the aid stations. :-)

All right, some of the numbers are in....it wasn't as bad as I thought. Actually, when he said alright, test is done I thought 'wait I can go more' even though my HR was at 190 and I haven't had it that high since maybe last summer. Unfortunatley, I wasn't there long enough for the machine to register so my HR peaked at 189 and I fabulously recovered by being at 112 two minutes after. I was tested almost exactly a year ago and since then have put on 5 lbs so that lowered my VO2 max (bummer since I only put on this weight recently) so it peaked at 45.8-without the weight I would have been around 50. What does this mean? I don't know or care because all I'm looking for are the training zones. As predicted, I've raised the upper limit of zone 2 to 153. My zone 3 has shifted up to 154-166. This is the gray area of training where most athletes hang. Some training here is OK but below in Zone1 & 2 is where all the efficient, fat burning training effects take place and above zone 3 is the lactate threshold and speedwork. I'll get a full report within the next couple of days in which he'll also tell me I need more sleep and food. I had my resting metabolic rate tested as well. I need to eat (can or should eat) around 3000 calories a day with only a half hour of exercise that day. Well, I'm probably somewhere around 2000 so that's why my body won't let go of the 5 lbs I've put on. Timing of when I eat is important as well. Anyhow, I'll let you know what the report says when I get it. Time to get off my butt and enjoy the day! Kelly

Kelly - 3,000 calories?? Wow! Chris - How'd the 5k go? Hit the trails for 8.25 miles yesterday. Did much better than I anticipated, although my HR got up there pretty good a few times. The ankle is definitely sore after the run, but the rest of my feels great. It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday - it was suppose to be a high of 68 . . . somewhere, which is a nicer temp than we get during the summer months. Just goes to show that Mother Nature does have a warped sense of humor. So I have to share what happened yesterday while we were running. Okay - my buddy, Karen, is speaking at a friend's memorial service this afternoon. This woman was one of her best friends, and she died the day after Thanksgiving at the age of 47 from lung cancer. Never smoked a day in her life, but grew up in a smoking household. That's the background. So Karen's been nervous as heck about talking, and worrying that she'd start crying. Told her, so what? Gives you a good excuse to inject some humor by saying, "Hold on folks. I need to blow my nose or there'll be snot everywhere." Keep it simple, keep it the happy memories, and take deep breaths whenever you need to. Don't drink any dairy or caffeine beforehand, wear flats so you're not trying to bawl and balance on heels, wear waterproof mascara. So at one point in the trail, she has to use the bathroom. No problem, that's why we carry baby wipes and baggies. About an hour later, we caught up to our coach and we're all running together. About half an hour after that, she has to go to the bathroom again. Bill and I walk a little ways ahead to give her privacy. We're standing there talking AND we're downwind of her. Yeah, not a good place to be. Dang, girl! What the heck did you eat?? Pretty soon I hear, "Leslie, can you come here." Well, in all her nervousness, she has diarrhea and needs extra wipes. I tell Bill to go on if he wants, we're gonna be awhile, and he leaves. Then she says, "I need help!" She didn't look real well before she squatted, and consequently there were some fern fronds in the wrong position when she went to the bathroom, and while she's trying to clean up, the fronds, which now have poo on them, keep hitting her! She has poo on her shirt, up her backside, and every other way. I'm trying my best not to laugh, but it's impossible. She ends up having to strip her shirt off, and she turns around and I'm having to wipe various places on her backside where the fronds have smacked her, and in the midst of this, Charlie, her dog, decides he's going to walk through where she just went to the bathroom, and the fronds hit him in the face! I swear, there was poo everywhere! It was hilarious, and it provided the laugh she needed. Luckily, she had a jacket with her that she was able to put on, we got Charlie wiped down, too, stepped back into the trail, and there's some guy standing there with lime green sleeping bag over his head. Just standing there. I had seen him walk toward us, but he stopped just on the other side of the stump we were working behind. Charlie instantly goes into the defensive mode, and the guy's all, "Hi!" O...kay... We hoofed it out of there sort of quickly. Cripes - what a welcome back to the Arcata Forest!!

You have some crazy stories Leslie :-) That one actually reminds me of a story about Bob Roll, a famous American bike racer from the 90s. I'll try to find it... Pretty cool about the VO2 Max testing Kelly. I keep meaning to get mine testing. One of these days I'll get around to it... The 5k was actually fun. What a great way to get tempo in! It's so much easier to run hard with 1185 of your closest friends. I finished in 21:30, so averaged about 6:57, which I was happy with, considering it was freezing cold, windy, on a rolling course. Wound up in 83rd place. I'd be game to do more of them, but most are terribly expensive. It seems the going rate for a 5k in Boulder is about $35 (this one was only $15). I can't justify $12 a mile! Woke up to 6" of snow today with another 4" on the way. The forecast yesterday was calling for less than an inch. Decided to work from home and not waste 2+ hours in the car on the commute. Hope everyone had a great weekend! - Chris

Chris - That does sound expensive for a little over 3 miles. Cripes . . . Yes, somehow or another, I do end up in some unusual situations. Would never have guessed it was possible if you'd known me 20+ years ago. Let's just say I've come out from under my shell, and it's amazing what kind of world is out there when you have the courage to look! Greg - Re the weirdos in the Arcata Forest - entire town of Arcata is filled with weirdos. Lots of "earth people," which is not necessarily bad, but baths once in awhile would be nice. Last year, the authorities went through the Forest and cleaned out a whole community of people who'd been living there, polluting the place. Since the clean out, we've had considerably fewer incidents of crazies walking around. However, Karen and I always have our pepper spray with us, and Charlie has no problem letting you know he thinks someone is a threat. Otherwise, he's a very friendly, happy dog. Don't forget, Humboldt County is the home of the tree sitters. Remember the infamous Julia Butterfly? She sat in a tree for 738 days. Don't get me wrong, I most definitely am for preservation of our forests and natural resources, but most of the people who come here and are wandering the streets of Arcata and sitting in the trees protesting are young people who want to opt out of society, but want society to give them everything they need. It's a real problem for the Arcata community. A couple of years ago, the "homeless" had virtually taken over the town square. The merchants finally had had enough and started their own campaign to take back the town. Oh, I could go on and on about how stupid the Arcata City Council is, but I won't. Let's just say I'm glad I live in Eureka.