Monday. Not awful so far. Maybe the work craziness has simply calmed down for a while. Boss is back from vacation; seems well rested and in a good mood, which is good news for everyone, since her mood swings usually affect the whole department; heck, half of the company, I'd say. Ankle is not quite ok. Stiff, hurts a bit. Will decide on this eve's run at the last moment most probably. It's only easy 6k anyway, so nothing special.

Lisa, I had to google what a rail trail is Looks awful for running. But at least you didn't die.

Margaret, "are you with me in joining Karen’s running group?" hehe, if there are Transatlantic beer deliveries from that new sponsor - absolutely :P

Morning!  I have 5 miles and weights tonight.  Managed to hit my good knee with a table so the ITB is once again painful.

Elina, yay for the World Cup!  Hoping it's not an ankle sprain.

Liz, at least you only get three more months.  We have 5 more, if we are lucky.

Happy Monday!  I'm actually OK with it being Monday, I need a break from the activity this weekend!  Long run Saturday morning (I'm all the way up to 1 hour and 12 minutes!)    and we were off to downtown Chicago.  We were meeting up with some families that we met while adopting older DD from China.  One of the couples flew in from California, we haven't seen them since the China trip.  The other couple drove from Michigan.  Total of five girls ages 10-14 walking around downtown Chicago, much fun to be had.    We walked to Millennium Park and Navy Pier on Saturday and also did an Escape Room.  That was my first time, it was fun.  We did manage to escape barely within the one hour limit.  Deep dish pizza for dinner, it was good that we did a lot of walking.  Then the girls hung out at the hotel pool until 11:00 pm.  Yesterday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which is probably my favorite museum of all time.  So I enjoyed it. 

Elina, hope your ankle is OK!  Congrats on the 12K!  That does not sound like a fun surface to run on!  Maybe DD will want to watch the World Cup this year!  

Lizzie, I am not looking forward to the hot weather coming back.  It was getting humid Saturday morning.  Enough to make me sweat a lot.    Congrats on the Caps win!  We watched the game, DD was rooting for Las Vegas, since we had just gone there.  But when the Caps won, she said, "I'm happy for Liz and her family."    Aww, nice that you had fun with Emerson!

Karen, nice that you have a baby runner that's pushing you.    Haha, I like those old lady activities.  Nice job getting out there in the heat!  We may finally hit 80 again this week.  Just in time for DD's next trail race.     Congrats on getting the sponsor!  Brewery is good.  

Margaret, wow, awesome training run!

Sue, congrats on the AG win!

Damaris, those housing costs are crazy!

Diane, finding that sweet spot in training can be tough.  5 days can be hard to swing, since you will have 2 days in a row.  Sometimes that rest day in between is what you need.

Tessa, sorry about the damage to your grove.  That is sad!

Lisa, I am in for Glass City!  I don't know if I will be in marathon shape by then, so I may be open to the relay also!  Rail trails are pretty awful to run on.  Nice that you could cut the run short.  

Sandy, I hope you got some sunshine this weekend!  It was mostly foggy and dreary in Chicago.  But we managed to avoid most of the rain while walking around downtown.  I wonder why hockey isn't more popular in Wisconsin, knowing how big it is in MN.  I had a "blended" burger in Chicago, it was meat mixed with a variety of other things, like cauliflower.  It was good, tasted like beef.    Oh, I was driving home from work and they played your FloRida song.  I haven't heard it on the radio in years!  Thought of Liz dropping her booty.    Our weather here is somewhat unpredictable.  We get some weekends in early June that are in the high 80's and humid.  This year it's been cool.  It does seem like the hot summer weather is getting shorter and shorter every year.  The kids have summer school for a month, it's a half day.  They are also signed up for some one week camps, soccer and Girl Scout camp for younger DD and writing camp for older DD.  Last year was the first summer they were on their own.  Prior to that DH and I alternated our work schedules so we were able to be home with them Mon-Thurs.  Which was nice, I had Thursdays off and every other Weds off!    Though DH had to work every other Saturday.  Last year we both started working Mon-Fri.  Since I work shorter days and can go into work earlier when there is no school, I am home fairly early.  They sleep in also, so it's not a lot of time they are alone.  

Whew, I think I am mostly caught up.  Waves to everyone!

Cathy

Gatsby – amazing run for you yesterday!  Wow and those pictures!

Lisa – congrats to DC on his 19 miles!  Kinda had to chuckle at finishing the run after lunch and a nap.  Haha – sounds like he’s hooked!

HCK – lack of motivation over here this weekend as well.  But, hey, something is better than nothing!!

Tessa – congrats on the race.  How sad about the trees.

Elina – congrats on the race!  Sounds like a tough one.  And another 8mi yesterday??  Whew, girl.  Take care of that ankle.  Oh!  I was watching track and field yesterday (some meet in Stockholm) and saw fans with red Latvia shirts.  Thought of you!

Karen – dang, you are my inspiration with all those miles in crappy weather.  Frustrating about the Garmin.  Man, I SO want to be in your running group!  And, yes, pic of the fancy hair!

Lizzie – awesome running as always.  No reason to worry about pace.  I’m glad you have a place to put the rock.  Hooray for fab hair and fab time with family and fab Emerson haha.  Seriously, though, sounds like an A+ kinda day.  How are you feeling?  Hope the scratchy throat didn’t escalate.  I had all those same chores yesterday, too.  Blerg.

Ginny – that darn back.  It needs to get it’s act together!  I wish I could take that funk away – life’s too short!  Hang in there…

Damaris – holy CRAP!  I had NOOOOOOO idea housing was so expensive by you.

Laura – nice miles.  Hope the wedding was fun.  Oooh, when’s the grad party?  What are your kids up to this summer?

Cathy – nice long run!  And that does sounds like a busy, but fun time in Chicago.  I was thinking of you when I saw the rain – glad you didn’t get too wet!  Your burger sounds interesting but definitely something I would try.  LOL on hearing FloRida on the radio and thinking of Lizzie hahaha.  That’s great you and DH could be flexible with your schedules in the summer and sounds like the girls stay pretty busy, now.  Must be hard to keep track of who is going where when!  I have friends that always are struggling with summer stuff when the kids are at that in-between age – maybe don’t want to be home alone alllllllll day but don’t really need “watching” per se.  And they struggle with getting them to the partial day camps.  I cannot even imagine juggling all that.  Leo is easy haha

Kat – how was Austin?

Only 5mi Sat, nothing yesterday and 7mi today.  Felt like a slacker weekend.  I intended to go longer on Sat (was hoping for double digits) but it was storming at my usual time so I had to wait a couple hours.  Then I was STARVING so had to eat and then it was so late (almost 9am GASP) that I could barely motivate haha  Yesterday I was just plain lazy and got chores/grocery done instead.  Kept thinking I would go for a bike ride but it was super windy so I just lazed around and read all day instead.  This not training for anything is TOUGH.  But, I’m all signed up for Richmond!  And bought my ticket – woot!  Have a few more weeks before training officially starts.

So I always see this woman in my neighborhood walking her dog and sometimes jogging with him.  We always say ‘Hi’ but never stopped to chat.  On Saturday we crossed paths again at the corner so I said “I feel like we need to meet”.  Turns out she’s an ultra trail runner (doing Dances With Dirt in WI coming up) and we know people in common.  The running community is small!  We walked a bit and talked and then she introduced me to her husband – turns out I see HIM all the time, too haha  And, turns out her nephew and my niece went to prom together a few years back.  The older one gets, the smaller the world.  But, I am excited to have a new friend. 

Rest day for me...maybe I'll go to yoga after work. Maybe. DD had excitement on her overnight bus from Barcelona to Paris. An hour at the border crossing which included everyone being lined up with their luggage in front of military/border control people with big guns. They let the two Americans back on the bus first without searching their backpacks but was a bit unnerving and with her sunburn from Spain she said her teeth were chattering in the cool night. And Paris is raining then on to London... not home until the 21st. She says she's ready for laying in bed eating chicken noodle soup. 

Elina-I hate to tell you.. but it is ignored to a quite large extent here in US. Many people like rail trail for mindless running. It's mostly flat and smooth, sometimes paved, sometime dirt. Good for speed work, which is to say, bad for me. Give me hills, twists and turns. Oh that ankle!!!

Lizzie-why yes, I am rubbing off on DC.  The glass will be full or half, or relay in April!! LOL

Damaris-funny to read you writing about "good knee" mine are back to being the usual good and bad knees. I still have some numbness and weird pain if hit just right. still some fluid too. and weird skin discolorations after I run but they go away so I'm sure it will be fine as ever. LOL

Sue-small part was paved but the rest was crushed limestone sort of surface. Yeah for making it to class!

Cathy-sounds like a great weekend!

Diane-ride the waves and know that when you're down the up is just about to start. Maybe that will help get the up swings started sooner or at least make the downswings easier to deal with.

Sandy-it was funny since we did first 13 miles at his place then came back to mine. I left him while I ran to the store to get stuff for my week ahead. Came back and he was zonked in my bed. Sometimes you just have to nap. LOL Was good that he was able to bounce back and do the 6 more miles. That's cool to meet a trail runner in the neighborhood! You can be training for Glass City!

Judy-tons of bunnies out all over! Yeah for the bean sprouts!

Did not get in the 5 miles yesterday, did run just 3 this morning and felt terrible!  The back was fine though, just one of those terrible runs.  Right now I have not signed up for any races and I kind of like it.  I don't feel like I have to run so many miles or have to keep up my pace.  Maybe I just needed this break, running was beginning to feel like a chore.  We have had very dreary weather the past week and same thing today.  What happened to summer?

Liz...please don't wish for Fall already, I can't handle it!  Glad you had such a fun weekend.

Karen....cool about the sponsor!   Hanging with the oldsters sounds fun. You moved into a great neighborhood, so fun!   My hair frizzes in the humidity too, I was having a fit this morning getting ready for work...hate doing my hair.  Loved the picture on FB of you and Riley.

Lisa....I don't enjoy straightaway running either.  I don't like to be able to see too far ahead!

Glass City is starting to sound funner and funner!  Who knew so many would be able to come to Toledo????

Sandy...like you, if I don't run really early I won't do it, 9am is late for me too.  Have you ever tried running in the evening?  I have and it was terrible, I feel like I can't breathe and my legs feel like lead.

Ginny

Hi all,

5 easy miles for me today. I ran into (not literally) the girl from the next neighborhood out running again today and we stopped and talked for a bit again. She said she saw me running all the time when they moved in about a year ago and said she wanted to do that. So she started and couldn't even run a mile and now she runs 5-6 most days and 10 once a week. She also told me "i meant to tell you that you look amazing. I told my husband that my goal was to have legs like yours." So anyway, I love her. She's my favorite person in the neighborhood. I think next time I see her I'm going to ask if she wants to meet up a couple mornings and run together - I could possibly have a RN of my very own!

Then laundry, groceries, a little cleaning. I don't have a good picture from old lady night. Someone posted the group pic we took, but I'm standing in front of a dark picture on the wall so you can't tell I actually did my hair - doesn't really look any different from normal. I swear it did, especially at the beginning of the night. But here it is anyway, DH said I was also wearing old lady clothes. For the record, white capris and one of the tops I got from the Gap are not old lady clothes! He's just used to seeing my in race t-shirts and shorts. Also for the record, the chick in the t-shirt next to me is younger than me, the other three are in their 60s. Actually the one on the end may be late 50s, I can't remember.

Elina, I hope Monday remained not awful. Yikes on the ankle, I hope it's not too bad. And I don't know, most of the US can ignore the World Cup even when they have a team in it.

Lizzie, it could be worse. You could have 4-5 months of this weather left. Our worst weather is August and September. I don't remember when I got the watch, but I think they will replace it. The guy said in the email to try the reset and if it still was acting up he would initiate the paperwork for a replacement. So I replied with a link to what the HR monitor did yesterday, which is obviously still messed up.

Tessa, congrats on another Shadow done. So sad about the trees though.

Damaris, wow, that woman is crazy. No reason for all that drama! Sounds like your new boss is pretty cool and can handle her, at least.

Cathy, busy weekend for you. Sounds like you had a blast in Chicago. That's really cool that you kept in touch with the other couples adopting when you adopted your DD. I bet the girls enjoyed hanging out with each other too. Yay for the yes on Glass City. Half, full, relay, doesn't matter what you end up running.

Diane, thanks. Sorry I haven't been able to come up with anything. I just really don't have the experience and every time I sat down to try and start something, I'd give up. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the 100.

Sandy, high five on the chatting up random running woman in the neighborhood. Total small world stuff going on there. Also, you are not a slacker. Signing up for Richmond is not the action of a slacker. Plus that's in November, you have plenty of time.

Judy, wow on the deer standoff. Or stare off. Glad they decided to go on their way.

Lisa, nice run for you and DC yesterday. I kinda like rail trails. "Excitement" is a nice way of putting it, glad DD is handling things well.

Ginny, nothing wrong for taking a little time and running just when you feel like it. I've been trying to take some time off from training here and there. I used to run in the evenings almost exclusively, and now I can hardly imagine it. I did a double one day last week and that evening run was just miserable.