Go, you chicken fat, go away!

The plan was to go easy and just run in the 10's.  Mission accomplished.

I had to go to the bathroom three times this morning before my run.  Also, I'm no longer in last place on the mileage board for the year.

I'm dog sick today.  But I figured I could at least do 1.44 miles.  Plus, I just had to wear this cute little number.

Still a little sick.  Stayed home from church yesterday, which was a bummer.  I love church.  Got a priesthood blessing of health from my home teacher.  He's a great guy.  I visited one of my sites this morning, a few miles from my house.  I wanted to walk the watershed, but there was a gated community.  I guess I'll have to rely on aerial photography.  Probably got about 2 miles.  Maybe a little more.

RWCD is in their "low-flow" period, also known as "dry-up."  They used to completely dry up the canal once a year to perform maintenance on it.  Now that there's fish in it, they can't dry it out anymore.  But they still have to do the maintenance.  I'll saw one zanjero in the canal wearing a pair of waders tacking on a depth gage.  His fat lead was on the catwalk telling him what to do.  That's the pecking order at RWCD.  Zanjeros are the lowest of the low.
 

Who uses more than 30 GB of data in 20 days????  Apparently the people on my plan!!  Grr!  Well, I decided not to use Runkeeper because I'm afraid it uses data to track my run.  I don't know for sure.  Maybe some of you tech savvy people can tell me.  So I just ran the same route as last time and used the stop watch on my phone.  I finished my run just before noon and I hadn't had any breakfast, so I was pretty much done.  I was running along the canal and I was noticing a bunch of tennis balls and pine cones in the water.  So I started counting to see which one would have more.  It was 3 to 3 when I started.  It ended up being 20 pine cones, 3 tennis balls.

Let's hear it for SlowJoe, who barely missed another 3 hour marathon.

Am I ever going to retire these stinky shoes???  They smell so bad!!!  Anyway, this was about 8 seconds faster than the last time I ran it.  And I saw Zanjero David.  He is the lowest of the lows.  But he's a sweet guy.

Such a beautiful morning.  There were tons of people out.  Mostly old people.  I got a lot of good mornings in.  I ran to the Floodway, went south for a mile, turned north for a mile and a half, then back home.  When I first got there, a young lady was running with another lady that I assume was her mother pacing her on a bike.  She was running the opposite way of me and looked like she was going at a pretty good pace.  When I turned north and ran half a mile, she passed by me again right after I crossed the street.  She ran to the opposite side of the Floodway and got to the next street half a mile away before I did.  I followed her for another half mile and she was putting some serious distance between us.  She turned around and passed by me again.  This time I finally said, "Looking good, ladies.  Keep up the good work."  At least her mother smiled.

Took me all day before I decided to get out the door.  It was cold and windy this morning.  Midday was warm and windy.  Evening was just right.  Except it got dark.  And that slowed me down a lot.  The last 3.7 miles were about a minute slower than the first two miles.  I stopped and talked to Bud for a little bit.  He used to be one of the lead zanjeros.  That means he's in charge of taking phone calls and supervising the other zanjeros on the shift.  He stepped down to be a regular zanjero so they could train one of the other zanjeros to be a lead.  Sweet deal for him because he gets to keep the same pay rate and have none of the responsibilities of a lead.  He's a nice guy.

I went to visit another site about 8 miles from my house.  It was up near Usery and Las Sendas, so kind of a hilly area.  I got 1.25 miles in hiking and running.  I wanted more than 1.25 miles, so I kept my running clothes on.  Did I stink?  Yeah.  I was supposed to get a call from my daughter to let me know if they had student council today.  She never called, so I went to pick her up at the regular time.  They did.  We live 4 miles from the school, so I didn't want to drive all the way home and wait for half an hour and drive back.  So I ran laps around the school.  Each lap was just over a mile.  After the third one they were out.  My daughter was worried because I wasn't there when she got out.  And she said she was waiting a LONNNG time.  Whatever.  I'm not that slow.

I waited until a little after 11:30am to go out.  I didn't have anything to eat or drink all day.  I took it nice and easy which was good because my legs are a little sore.  Beautiful day out.

I think I bit off more than I could chew today. I was dragging after 4 miles, so I stopped and walked a bit.  Then when I started running again, I thought I was going faster, but I was going slower.

I did a cross fit workout today at Road Runner Sports.  I'll tell you one thing.  I suck at burpees.  And push ups.  Need to work on those.  Later.  They had an obstacle course of sorts.  The first thing you did was either pull a heavy tire out until the rope was straight, then you pulled it back by the rope, or you did a burpee on top of a sandbag and you lift the sandbag over your head instead of jumping in the air.  Next there were more sandbags that you bend over on one leg, lift to your waist, and try to keep your balance.  5 times on each leg.  This was the hardest thing for me.  Next, you lifted a regular car tire over your head, did a squat, then pressed the tire over your head, 5 times.  Piece of cake.  The last one was dragging these tires filled with cement around a cone and back.  I got a lot of compliments about how well I could drag these tires, and for good reason.  I was awesome.  That was one loop.  You got a raffle ticket for every loop you did.  I did 5 loops.  My SIL got double raffle tickets because she was carrying around a 40 lb sandbag on her shoulders between each obstacle.  Too bad she didn't win anything in the raffle.  I won two free entries to the Shamrock Run.  Unfortunately I'll be out of town that weekend for Emily's baptism.  She turns 8 in less than a week.

I wasn't in a good mood this morning.  It's hard to have a positive attitude when things aren't going the way you'd like them to.  So, I was just about to run when I saw the garbage man coming.  I decided to wait until he was done so I could bring the trash bin back to the house.  Then I saw the mailwoman.  I decided to wait until she was done so I could get my mail and see how many more bills I get to pay.  Then right when I was ready to go, I saw this guy riding a bike with one hand and pulling another with his other hand.  He said something real loud to an old lady that was walking her dog.  He looked like a psychopath so I decided to wait until he had passed.  He rode passed, but then he skidded to a halt, turned around and rode up to me.  He offered me $5 to drive him to his motel.  While I could use the money, I was in a bad mood and there was no way I was going to give a psychopath who was in the process of stealing a bicycle a ride to his motel so that he could avoid the police and possibly slit my throat.  I told him, "I don't think so, dude."  He said, "You know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover."  He's right.  But that didn't stop me from saying, "I'm not judging you by your cover.  I'm judging you by your actions.  What did you just tell that lady over there?"  He said he told her good morning.  "Is there anything wrong with that?"  He asked me if it was my mom.  Nope.  Was it someone I knew.  Nope.  Then he told me, "You have a good day, buddy."  Well, I just made an enemy with a psychopath that knows where I live.  That's great.

I ran down the Floodway and turned around right at the corner where the guy wanted me to take him.  I didn't see him anywhere.  Maybe someone else gave him a ride.  I was dragging the last 3/4 of a mile.  My arms are starting to recover from my Saturday workout.  I could barely lift them yesterday.
 

I took Ginger with me for a short run.  Tonight is a special Adventure Run for people who are running Ragnar Del Sol.  I should get a few more miles in tonight.

*************************************************************************

Tonight:  I took the early shift for volunteering so that I could run in the Adventure Run.  My plan was to run and pass out Ragnar technical T-s as I went.  I had to do a lot of lifting tables and carrying boxes to do before the rest of the volunteers got there.  And it was like 85º!  When did it get so hot?!    Luckily I can now move my arms as the cross fit workout I did Saturday completely immobilized them for a couple of days.  When the other volunteers got there, I still helped out a little.  But then I went and visited the vendor booths.  I got a 20 minute massage.  I've never had one before.  It was wonderful.  WONDERFUL!  About the time they finished, it was time to run.  Technically I had run an Adventure Run before, but that was as a volunteer helping other runners.  So this was the first time I collected raffle tickets and was able to try to win prizes at the end.  I ended up running almost 4 miles.  But as I was coming back I stopped at this bike shop that was handing out tickets.  I was keeping my tickets in a Ziploc® bag in my pocket so each time I would have to let the air out.  At the bike shop I didn't feel like letting the air out and I had the thought that the extra air would help hold the tickets in my pocket.  Nope.  They helped them fall out of my pocket.  There was one more checkpoint right before finishing up and I realized my tickets were gone.  So I ran back to the bike shop (probably just under a half mile away) and searched for them.  Couldn't find them.  I figured another runner must've picked them up.  When I got back I asked the race director if anyone had turned them in.  She said, "Just take some more."  So I did and right after that someone turned them in.  I just kept the new ones and ended up winning $15 to a restaurant.  My great idea to hand out T-shirts was an epic fail because my backpack is not sweat proof.  But people took them anyway.  Except for the one that was just dripping.  Then I came home to a house where Emily had taken a marker to everything downstairs.  EVERYTHING!!  She's never done that before.  Sigh.

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday and she wanted to go to Golden Corral.  I ate way too much.  I've been dieting lately, so this was not a good idea.  I think my body was not used to the large amount of food I had just consumed, so I wasn't feeling well.  I didn't eat breakfast this morning, and I got out the door to run at 11:40am.  I felt terrible.  After the run my nose clogged up and I felt worse.  I hope I'm not getting pneumonia again, but it seems like it happens every year about this time.

3 miles up Usery Pass and 3 miles down.  626 feet climb and descent.  I was less than a mile from the top when I decided to turn around.  Gotta play it safe with Ragnar Del Sol this weekend.  I don't feel bad about it.  I only saw 3 cyclists out this morning.  Seemed like a beautiful day for a ride, but maybe everybody was at work.  Or they all went for a long ride yesterday (President's Day and were tired.)  I really have to watch the traffic as I'm running.  At least half of the vehicles on this road are towing some sort of a trailer behind them.  I don't trust trailers.  Good run.  Felt good.  Think I'll do all right at Ragnar if I take it nice and easy and pace myself.  I had a breathing treatment before I ran.  I'm about due for another one.

Slow shakeout run.  Right around 11.5 minute per mile pace.  I'll take tomorrow off and be ready for Ragnar on Friday.  Ugh, I have to get up at 2am to get there on time.
 

Ragnar #20.  Wow.  That's a lot. 

I joined my old bishop's team which had many of the same runners as the 2012 Las Vegas Ragnar.  Last year's Del Sol race was such a disaster in my mind because of the bronchitis or pneumonia that I had, that I thought it would be a better idea to be on a team with people that aren't quite as fast and competitive.  No offense to any of them that read this.

It seems the team got finalized at the 11th hour.  I was beginning to wonder if it was even going to happen.  Our team name ended up being - We'll think of a team name later.  Which is kind of funny, but seriously, that was meant to be a placeholder until we actually thought of a team name.

My van consisted of me, two of bishops's sons, Bryan and Brandon, his daughter, Stacey, a young kid from the ward, Jason, maybe 15 or 16, and a guy that nobody had met until about 3 days before the race, Irving.  Irving ended up being our star runner.  Pretty fast guy, a bit of a strange duck, but he was cool.

I was runner #2.  I had the least amount of miles in my van.  And I was ok with that.  Truth be told, it was probably the easiest set of legs, too.  Again, no complaints coming from me.  Irving was runner #1.  His first leg was over 8 miles and mostly uphill.  I'm pretty sure he averaged around a 7:40 pace.  He handed off to me.  I had to run 5.53 miles all downhill.  I took it nice and easy.  It was tempting to run hard and see how fast I could go downhill, but I knew I had two more legs to run, and after 19 Ragnars, I think I've learned how to run them.  It was just after 7am, and the weather was beautiful.  I had to wear my night gear (reflective vest, headlamp, tail light) even though it wasn't dark out.  I actually had to wear the night gear for all three of my legs.  Small price to pay for not having to run in the heat.  I remember thinking that every Ragnar leg should be like this one.

Leg #2 was at 8pm.  I decided not to wear my hat because the sun was down.  I wish I had worn it because you can't feel the headlamp with it.  I was feeling great, but the further I got into the run, I realized I was starting to crash.  The distance was only 5.19 miles, and I think it might have gotten ugly if it was any more than that.

My last leg was 4.63 miles.  I started at quarter after 7, so the sun was up, but it was nice and cool.  This leg was all uphill.  It wasn't too bad because it was only 100 ft/mile as compared to Usery Pass which is 200/ft mile.  So I knew I would do all right if I kept a nice easy pace.  It's kind of nice just to go out and enjoy running instead of trying to go as fast as I can like I've done in the past.  I had a good time and enjoyed the company in my van.  Brandon hurt his ankle on his second leg, and Irving picked up his last run for him.  Our team finished somewhere between 34 and 35 hours.  I'm looking forward to next year, when I will do my 10th Del Sol relay.

Tonight was the mandatory volunteer meeting for the Adventure Run.  It was also what they were calling the Launch Party for the new Adventure Run T-shirt.  They had a short group run, which I decided to do.  It was only 2.34 miles, but I quickly found out that I couldn't breathe.  I haven't done any breathing treatments since before Ragnar, and man, I was wheezing!  The meeting was boring, and annoying to me because I stunk and couldn't breathe.  At least they had pizza, and my brother-in-law is signing up to be a volunteer.
 

Sasha and Benjamin are staying the night at my house again  this year as they attempt to break the world record fastest father and son half marathon times in the same race tomorrow morning at the Phoenix Half Marathon.  I don't know if there is such a thing as that world record, but they're bound and determined to break it.  I ran 1.9 miles after Sasha talked me in to it.  Still very restricted with my breathing.  I haven't done a treatment since before Ragnar.  But he reminded me of the importance of running 6 days a week without fail.

This morning I got up and took Sasha and Benjamin to the start line of their Half Marathon.  Then I went and picked them up at the finish line.  Benjamin came in 7th or 8th with a 1:13.  Sasha finished in 1:16 something.  Jake Krong came in 5th with a 1:09 something.  Spoiler alert.  (Why do I always say spoiler alert after I've spoiled it?)  Then I came home and walked 3.61 miles with my wife.  We ran a little, but mostly we walked.  We had a 16:30 pace which isn't much slower than my running pace lately.

I felt good when I started.  Then I started wheezing.  This is getting old.  I'm getting old.  Time to see a doctor.

Something to do while you're waiting on me to blog/run again.

The battle of the wheeze continues.  Last week at the Adventure Run, I ran a little bit.  And I felt good.  So I decided to do some hill sprints today.  I've really been lacking cardio lately.  By lately I mean for about three years.  The hills were small, but it was a good workout.  The cool down back to my house was tough because of my wheezing.  I'll probably be sore tomorrow.

I told you I would be sore.  I took yesterday off.  And even though I think I'm more sore today, I wasn't going to miss another day.  I was going to run an additional mile, but my back started to tighten up, so I called it a day.  I took a puff of my inhaler before I left.  I think it helped.  The wheezing wasn't as bad.

Today I was going to do hill sprints again.  First Emily wanted to come with me.  Try telling her no.  Anyway, after about half an hour of walking around with her in the front yard, checking the mail, and looking at imaginary cloud animals while laying in the driveway (there wasn't a cloud in the sky), I was able to go.  I went to the same place in the Floodway as last time.  But after my first attempt, it felt like my quads were going to explode from the inside.  Not wanting to pull a muscle, I stopped and just ran home.  It was pretty warm.  Low 80's probably.

Once again I waited until noon to go running.  Didn't eat breakfast.  It's a nice warm day out with a beautiful gentle breeze.  I felt pretty good today and was running faster than normal.  I was on the east side of the Floodway and thought I saw a work truck over by the canal.  I got to University and saw a Flood Control truck underneath the bridge.  I ran to the other side of the Floodway and saw the canal gate open.  I figured it must've been Flood Control that opened it and by this time I had forgotten about the other truck I saw.  Then I saw it parked under a tree and realized it was Ronnie who had opened the gate.   I stopped and talked to him.  We literally talked about nothing for half an hour.  Anyway, I finally broke away and finished my run.  A little slower than what I started, but still faster than normal.

My legs didn't feel fresh at first, but I was running faster than yesterday.  Feeling better.  I saw a flock of six or seven rosey faced lovebirds.  Or peach-faced lovebirds.  At least that's what the internet said.  I took a couple of pictures, but they didn't turn out that good.

These guys have been sitting on my shelf for a few weeks waiting for me to call their number.  Today they got their chance.

What a difference an extra mile makes.  I chuckled to myself when I remembered that I used to tell people that anything less than three miles was a waste of my time :)

I haven't been doing my breathing treatments on a regular basis like I should be and it showed today.  Ran a 10 min. pace and it felt labored.

Well, I missed another full week because of a lung infection.  Even this morning I was still hacking up yellow stuff.  But I decided to go anyway.  The 10 min. pace felt sustainable.

After I dropped my girls off at school, I drove up to South Mountain.  I haven't been there in forever, but it has the best hills, I think, for training for a Ragnar trail race.  The first mile and a quarter is on a dirt road.  Then you hit the trail.  The trail is much steeper and more technical.  I had to walk numerous times, even though I only went up three quarters of a mile.  I took some pictures at the top and ran back down.  On the way down I almost ran into a snake.  It wasn't a rattlesnake, but it scared the ladies that were on their way up.  I couldn't get a picture fast enough before it slithered away.  I also saw a turtle when I was driving out to the main road.  Some ladies were in the road making sure it got across safely.  It looked like a large red-eared slider, which are not native to hear.  It probably was once someone's pet and now lives in one of the ponds at the golf course.

Yesterday was the Adventure Run and I was hoping to get to run with a group last night, but I got stuck on ID checking instead.  But that's ok.  It's all about the free shoes.

My legs were still sore from South Mountain on Tuesday.  Other than that I felt relatively good.  I got to the turn around point and saw Rob Carlock.  Rob is the main boss of the zanjeros.  That was the first time I've seen him since I quit.  We had a good talk.  He reminded me about the time I lost my weir stick in the lateral pipe.  I ran a mile back down the canal and saw him again.  He complimented me on my pace (even though it was slightly over 10 min/mile.)
 

I wanted to drive out to Usery Pass this morning as soon as my girls left for school, but I got an email from a client that wanted to come by to have me sign something.  He said he would be by between 8:30am and 9am, so that put my plans on hold.  Later he emailed me and said it would be closer to 9:30am and hoped that would still be all right.  So, after he finally came I still drove out to Usery even though it was getting pretty warm.  Google said it was 81º.  So, it really wasn't too bad, but warm enough that a sheriff's vehicle pulled up alongside me and asked me if I had plenty of water.  I showed him my water bottle and told him I would be fine.  In between the heat, my back bothering me, and the sickness I've been getting over, I turned around after running 1.5 miles up 300 feet.  When I turned around the breeze was in my face and it felt good.  I felt good.  I contemplated turning around and running another half mile up, but I didn't.  And I never once thought about the runners on the Bostom Marathon course.  This run was all about me.

I drove up to Zion's Ponderosa Ranch Resort on Thursday with three of my teammates and one of their boyfriends.  We got there just in time to set up camp before it got too dark.  It was beautiful out and the stars were bright.  Night was cold, but I was prepared with my sleeping bag, an extra blanket, and two pillows.  My tent buddy, Ajit, brought an air mattress, and that was nice.  I was warm, but everyone else in the morning complained of freezing.

Our team captains, Marc and Marianna, stayed the night at a motel in Kanab.  They barely got there before the start of the race at 9:40am.  I checked our team in since they hadn't arrived yet.  About that time I saw a single grey cloud come over the mountain top.  My first thought was, "here it comes."  Marianna was our first runner and she arrived with just enough time to get her stuff out of the vehicles, put the bib on, and go to the starting line.  But the race started about 5 minutes late anyway.  I helped set up their tent and canopy.  Then I went over to watch her start.  She was at the back of the pack as they all ran by me.  Somehow she got lost out on the course.  We started getting worried after a while and we reported her to the race officials.  They sent someone to look for her and one of our guys ran the loop backward to see if he could find her.  He did as she eventually found her way back on course.  So, an hour and 45 minutes later, she had completed her 3.2 mile loop and the rest of us could run.

I was runner #6 which was the long loop, 7.8 miles.  By this time everyone of us had gotten rained on during our runs except for runner #5, Bao, who must've been awfully nice to Mother Nature.  The elevation is higher than what I'm used to running in, so it took about a half a mile to a mile before my lungs got acclimated.  The hills were steep in the first 2.5 miles, and I found myself hiking up the uphills and running the flats and downhills.  I felt relatively good until I reached the halfway point.  That's when I think the muscles in my legs were getting deprived of oxygen.  It was really hard to keep them moving.  I knew it was the elevation, and I hoped that it wouldn't be a problem in my next two legs because the distance was much shorter.  In fact, I would already have run over the half of my overall distance with this loop. 

About two miles into the run, I saw a runner off in the woods.  She hollered at us and asked us what loop we were on.  We were on red and she was on yellow.  Poor thing was lost.  I hope she found her way back.  I saw one guy cut the course I was running.  I don't know if he did it on purpose, but I yelled at him that he was going the wrong way.  I told him the course goes this way where I was going.  He turned around.  Then I realized the trail switched back around and would go right back to where he was, so I told him, "Never mind!  Go back to where you were!"  He only cut out about 100 feet and I quickly passed him.  I was surprised at the number of people I passed because I really wasn't running that fast.  But trail running is tough, and there were a lot of walkers.  The rain didn't bother me at all, but at about mile 3.5 it started to hail.  There were small pellets, but it made me say, "What the hail?!"  I'm glad they didn't get any bigger, and it only lasted for about a minute.  But still, that's 60 seconds worth of stinging hail.

I'm pretty sure I saw Jun at the race, but wasn't positive because he was wearing sunglasses.  I never approached him to ask because I'm sure he still thinks I'm a racist.  Anyway, after our last runner ran, it was Marianna's turn to run again.  Now she was doing the long loop and this is when the rain really started to come down.  She made it through, but they decided to stop the race for three hours and hope that it would let up.  They were going to let the next three runners on everyone's teams not have to run.  But the rain would only stop briefly, and then it was coming down again.  So they postponed it another 5 hours and were going to have everyone only run two legs.  I spent almost all the time in my tent.  I got a lot of sleep.  A lot!  Come morning, they opted to let the hardcore teams finish if they wanted to, but everyone else could call it a day and still collect their medals.  That's what my team decided to do.

It was kind of fun, but I won't do this one again.  Last year a similar weather front came through, but it snowed them out instead.  Either this race is cursed, or it's just bad timing and they need to move it to next month.  Very pretty area though.  And here is our team picture.  You like?

Usually when I run this slow, I feel nice and relaxed.  Today I felt like a slogger.  A sloggerknocker.  I felt real tight as I went through my regular pre-run stretch routine.  Guess I'm not fully recovered from Zion Ragnar.
 

I'm trying to remember this run since today is Tuesday and I'm finally getting around to blogging about it.  Let's see.  Ah yes, I took Ginger with me.  I let her run loose most of the time until we came up to someone walking their dog.  Well, that's all I can remember.

We've been getting some nice rain for the last few days.  Early this morning it was still cloudy, but I didn't run while they were out.  Instead I waited until it was 10am and headed out into the heat.  Oh well.  I had stuff to do.  I passed one lady and asked her why we waited so long to go running.  In her mind she said, "Because we're idiots."  I decided only to do 2 miles, but I felt great like I could've easily done three times that amount.  But because it was so late, and hot, and I hadn't eaten or dinken anything yet I stuck with the 2.  I don't think my shoes have any cushion in them.  My heart told me to throw them away when I got home even though I'd be breaking a solemn promise to get 800 miles in them.  But they were hurting my feet so bad running on the rocky path.  I decided to keep them and just run on the sidewalk with them from now on.

50 days in between runs is fine, right?
 

https://youtu.be/NHcCs-HQwTw

Has anyone seen this?

It's my friend, Lex.

88º at 7:46am.  I'm still sweating.
 

I had a great idea this morning.  Set my Runkeeper for hiking so that when my Runkeeper friends see how slow my pace is, they'll actually think it's a fast pace for a hike :)
 

Today I discovered that I've made a critical error in shoe management.  How could I have done this???  I've been running in these old shoes that I thought were my Mizuno Wave Inspire 7's.  You know, the ones that were killing my feet as they've completely lost their cushion?  Well, those were my old retired shoes that I was keeping for my next mud run or whatever.  No wonder!!  I'm such a fool!  Now I've entered all these miles in for my 7's that were actually run on my 4's.  I don't think I'll ever be able to recover from such a dim-witted blunder.  My whole life has been turned upside down.
 

Cloudy day today.  I guess that means it's time to ditch one's clothes in a tree.

There was a light drizzle  this morning.  It felt oh so good.  I got passed on the trail about 4 minutes into my run by a guy running with his dog.  I hardly ever get passed because not a lot of people run out there.  Lot of walkers, an occasional biker, and lots of different ways to go.  Anyway, he said good morning to me and that the rain felt great.  I agreed.  I'm just glad he didn't pass me when I was five minutes into my run because then my alert would have went off and he would have heard how slow I was going.  Not that he couldn't see, but to hear it is just demoralizing.
 

It was already 92° this morning at 7:30am.  

Another hot day.  Up until today the shirt has either fallen out of the tree and the shorts remained.  Today they were both on the ground.  What can it mean?

Our dog Ginger went missing yesterday.  I suspect foul play.  I don't think she could have got our by herself.  I kept my eye open for her today on my run, and the kids will be making posters today.  Wish us luck.
 

Saturday the whole family pulled weeds in the backyard.  It was very hot.  After I was done, I jumped in the pool with all my clothes, gloves, shoes, socks, you name it.  It felt great.  Anyway, I'm very sore today from all the squating and hunching over.  Also, the pool is green now.

I had a little wheeze this morning when I first started.  It went away soon, but it's annoying because I had gotten over it, and now it's back.  I picked up the pace the last half mile and it came back again.  Also, my nose felt clogged with dried boogers.  I don't usually pick my nose while running, but I felt I had no choice.  No sooner did I flick them into the canal then a kid on a bicycle passed me up. 

Last night was the Adventure Run.  I hardly ever run the Adventure Run, but as a volunteer I'm still out working on my feet for 5 hours.  So I was a little sore today.  I decided to only do the small loop around the floodway and RWCD canal.  As I was running up the canal, a rather large lady was walking her dog.  She was scratching her posterior with one hand and conducting music with her other hand.  The dog was swimming in the canal.  See?  I'm not the only one does embarrassing stuff.
 

Cadence Running Store has a group run every Tuesday.  I went once last year when I held a Ragnar 101 Clinic there.  But I didn't run with them.  Tonight I was invited by a couple of the Ragnar higher ups that were in town to come run.  Del Sol has a new race director, so I met him.  It seems they get a new director every couple of years now.  Anyway, they always do a 3 mile loop in the summer.  There was a discussion beforehand about whether or not it was truly hot enough this afternoon to qualify as summer.  One said the current temperature of 106º did not qualify.  But I thought it was hot enough.  I put it in 11 min/mile mode and just had a nice hot jog.  After the race they had a raffle and I won nothing.  But I did help myself to an Otter Pop®.
 

I took my wife to this Scavenger Hunt/Run at Road Runner Sports.  We probably only ran about a mile.  But I knew she'd be a good partner because she's pretty good at this kind of stuff.  Especially because there's a Ross right next to RRS and she works at a Ross.  It was fun.  We demo-ed these Newton shoes.  That was not fun.  They probably take some getting used to, but they sure made my ankles hurt and the balls of my feet sore.
 

I got violent hiccups today.  They would go away after I ate something, but as soon as I did anything even remotely physical, like walk up the stairs, they would come back.  They went away during dinner.  Then we went on a walk as a family and they came back.  The walk was 1.5 miles, but the last quarter mile I took off in hopes that the hiccups would go away.  It worked.

HICCUP!!

Dang it!
 

I knew this wasn't going to be pretty because I was wheezing through the night.  I did a lot of walking and a lot of hacking up.  Not sure if exercise makes it better or worse.

Saturday I helped my wife's BFF move.  I'm not used to manual labor anymore, so I was sore.  I was also wheezy when I was done.  But after resting Sunday, I finally felt like I might be able to hit the road again.  I decided to run my small 1.44 mile loop down the floodway and up the canal.  It actually didn't hurt that bad and there was no wheezing.  After, I started cleaning the pool because it's a green mess.  As I was cleaning, I kept hearing this nose behind the wall in the floodway.  It sounded like either a kid or a cat because it kept making the same noise.  I didn't want to check it out because Emily was with me.  A couple of minutes went by and decided it sounded more like a kid than a cat.  So I told Emily to sing me a song and not stop so that I could hear her and go look over the wall.  I saw a barefoot girl walking along the trail.  (This is the same trail that kills my feet when I'm wearing the wrong shoes.)  I thought she was calling for her mom.  From behind she looked like a girl that I've seen at church that has mental health issues.  I hollered at her, but she didn't hear me.  I got Emily out of the pool area, locked the fence, and took off.  I had to run all the way around the block to get on the trail.  The trail winds a little and has some trees next to it, so it took a while before she came into view.  She heard me coming and turned around.  It wasn't the girl I thought it was.  I asked her if she was all right.  She said yes and that her dog ran away last night.  I told her I would keep an open for it and that she worried me when I saw her walking barefoot on the trail.  Anyway, after that embarrasing situation was over, I started my GPS and ran back home.  So, I got over 2 miles in today.  Hooray for me!

I ran about 20 sec/mile faster today without really trying.

I wanted to run more, but as usual when I go out on a site visit to map out watersheds, there are fences in the way and no tresspassing signs and junk like that.  I don't know why I try.

My butt cheeks were a little sore today.  Like they were being pinched in from the top.  I bet that helped it to look cute, though.  I'll ask my wife later.  Also, I ate too much ice cream last night.

I felt sore for the first time this week.  Usually when you start again it's on the 2nd day.  But it was the 5th day for me.  That's a testament to how slow I'm running.

I stopped and took a few pictures today at various locations.  But I'm only posting this one.  Some of the other ones can be found on my Facebook page for McCumber Engineering.  This is one of the many wells along the RWCD Canal.  Wells aren't the primary source of water for the canal, but they do turn them on a couple of times throughout the year.  This one has been running for about two weeks now.  It's amazing how much groundwater there is.

Same route as yesterday, except that I ran across the cul-de-sac to pick up my neighbor's trash can that fell over.  Last night at dinner time we had a torrential downpour of rain.  The wind picked up and pushed some rain clouds right on through.  It dumped on us, but for only about 20 minutes.  It was muggy out this morning, but not too hot.  I stopped once a little over half way to stretch out.  A lady pulled up on her bicycle and stopped and asked me if I had seen her teenage daughter who was wearing cream pants.  I told her I had only seen one other female on the canal and she didn't look like a teenager.  I wished her luck in finding her.  What is up with the girls on this canal lately?

A tiny bit faster today.  Not that I'm trying.

Tonight is the Adventrure Run.  I hope you all can make it.

The cycle continues.  I get over being sick and my back goes out.  My back gets better, I get sick again.  My back was a little sore after the Adventure Run, so I thought a few days of rest would make it better.  It was getting better.  But now it's worse.  It was so bad last night I thought I was going to die.  I've decided that after my next Ragnar I'm calling it quits.

I asked my wife if she wanted to go running with me today, and she said yes!  It was kinda slow, but that's ok.

Another nice little jog.  This time with Ginger.

I went a little farther today.  I haven't taken this route for a while.  It was a beautiful morning.
 

I didn't have a lot of energy this morning.  Maybe because I ate too much yesterday or maybe because I was running 20 sec/mi faster than normal.  Still haven't broken the 10 min/mi barrier, but I'm getting there.

I felt a lot better today.  That's because I was running slower.
 

Same route as yesterday.  A little bit faster.

I added another loop to my route today.  A "loop" is another half mile down the canal.  But since the canal is at an angle to the roads and the roads are half a mile apart, each half mile loop I add is adding about 1.1 miles to my overall distance.  This has nothing to do with plate tectonics.

This morning I felt pretty tired, and I was just going to do my 2.5 mile loop.  I run on the east side of the Floodway until I hit Brown Road, then I run on the west side of the Floodway which is the east side of the RWCD canal.  As I got about half way between Brown and Adobe, I saw a guy in the trees.  He appeared to be dancing to the beat.  But there was no beat.  The closer I got it looked more like he was having a heated conversation with someone.  But there was no one.  It became obvious pretty quickly that the guy was either high on drugs or was not all there together mentally.  Either way it made me concerned for the many old ladies that walk along the canal every morning.  As I ran by he purposely kept his back to me.  I saw an old lady down the way with her dog.  I made up my mind to warn her about him.  I realized she was heading the same way I was, so I asked if she had seen him.  She said she did not see him at first, but that her dog had sniffed him out in the trees.  We both skirted around saying that we thought he was a nut job, but the more we talked, we finally felt at ease enough with one another to come out and say it.  We discussed whether or not to call the police.  For all we know he was perfectly harmless, but still, we agreed this was a great place for a murder.  I told her that I had planned on running down another half mile, so I would instead just run another loop and see what he was up to.  Then I would decide if I should call the police.  She told me about a guy years ago that used to expose himself "for the benefit of the ladies."  We bid adieu and I ran back around to the east side of the Floodway.  I kept an eye out for him because we could see that he had started walking down the canal.  By the time I got back to Brown Road he was there.  I stopped on the catwalk by the canal gate and watched him.  He was definitely crazy.  Poor guy.  Was he dangerous to others?  I don't know.  But I decided to call the police anyway at the very least for his sake.  He was kind of hovering around a power pole with his backpack leaned up against it.  Then he crossed the other catwalk by the radial gates and went into the orange orchard on the west side of the canal.  That was the last time I saw him.  But I told the dispatcher that he wouldn't go far because his backpack was still there.  I gave her the best description of him that I could, which was not very good.  I suck.  Green jacket, brown hair, possibly facial hair, can't remember what color his pants were, 5' 10", 150 lbs.  So, I figured I'd done my civic duty and I started to run back towards home.  I looked at his backpack as I ran past the power pole.  It wasn't a backpack.  It was indeed just part of the power pole.  A covering for some of the wires at the base, I suppose.  Yeah, I felt a little dumb.  I got about a quarter mile away and I saw the officer arrive.  I kept running, but then the guilt of the backpack made me turn around.  Just then Mesa PD called me back and asked me if the guy was on the south side or the north side of Brown Road.  I told her south and that I was jogging back that way and I saw the officer so I would speak with him.  The officer never asked me about the backpack so I didn't bring it up.  I told him he had gone into the orchard, so you may not find him.  He asked if there was another locked gate over at Adobe.  I said yes.  Then I told him I used to work here and I could make a phone call to see if someone was around that could unlock it.  As I was calling my former coworker another officer pulled up.  He told him to go look around Greenfield Road.  By the time I had explained to my friend what was going on, the other officer had found another way to get in through the orchard.  So, they both went around and the second officer who had entered the orchard first drove down the west side of the RWCD canal.  I jogged behind him on the east side.  He came up to a lady and stopped to talk to her.  It was the same lady that I had talked to.  So when I caught up I told him that he was in the orange grove somewhere.  Anyway, that's about it.  Nothing too exciting.  But maybe I'll see him again some day.

I dropped a lamp on my foot about 7 or 8 days ago.  It wasn't a particularly heavy lamp.  But it landed right on top of my foot with the complete weight of it behind it.  Running on it wasn't helping it.  So I took some days off.  Today it felt fine, but my legs felt rather heavy.  I didn't see the crazy guy.  He probably killed whoever he was going to kill and moved on to the next neighborhood.

Today was the first day in a long time my run actually felt like a workout rather than a slog fest.

Today as I turned the corner to head over to the floodway/RWCD canal, I saw a bunch of people over by the canal and a bunch of cars parked in the street.  I wondered what was going on.  I thought maybe it was an organized clean up day or something.  As I got closer I saw some orange coolers and realized it must be a drink station for a race course.  I went to do my normal loop, up the east side of the floodway to Brown Road, cross the floodway, run on the east side of the RWCD canal, and now I could see that it was a color run.  They were throwing colored dust on the runners.  I wondered if I'd be able to run by there.  I made up my mind that I was going to run through it, and if I happened to get dusted, that's their fault for not checking that I didn't have a bib on.  So I got to Brown Road and crossed over right about the same time 4 young girls, maybe 12 to 14 reached the turn around point.  I guess they were just running up and back as many times as they could in a certain amount of time.  So that would be just over a mile each time.  Anyway, I asked them what was going on.  They said it's a color run, but they're almost out of color so by the time we get back, we probably won't get any more thrown on us.  At this point I had a dose of reality of how slow I run lately as one of the girls who was short and stubby was running faster than me.  Oh well.  I'm ok with who I am.  We got about half way there and a man said they had 6 minutes left.  They were starting to slow down and I had caught back up to them by this point.  I told them they could walk and still make it in 6 minutes if they wanted.  They thought that was sage advice and decided to heed it.  Well, they were out of color by the time I got to the end.  I was hoping at least they would cheer for me, but all I got was a cute little three year old girl offering my a lollipop.

I was sore this morning.  I guess that's what 4 days in a row does to you.  Haven't done that for a while.  So, I was running down Adobe and I saw a lady with a stroller running towards me.  I crossed the road, and then she crossed the road.  I was wondering if she was going to follow me on the Floodway road.  I was running as slow as normal, and deep in my heart I didn't want a lady with a stroller passing me.  Well, after a while I decided to turn around to see if she was coming or if she had continued on Adobe Road.  She was behind me, but she had stopped at the entrance I guess to let me go on ahead.  Clearly she thought I was a rapist and now that I turned around to see if she was coming, that confirmed it for her.  Dang it!  That's what I get for wearing sweat pants today.  I didn't need them.  It was cool, but not cold.  I just have so many of them and I never wear them.  Anyway I kept going.  She had given me a head start and she almost caught up to me by the time I reached Brown Road.  At least she didn't pass me.  She followed me over to the west side of the Floodway and gave me another head start.  That was the last I saw of her.  But I really wanted to turn around and tell her I'm not a rapist.  Wouldn't that be the right thing to do?

I was running super slow today.  I had to go #2.  I threw in an extra loop today which had me going down to Main Street.  Between University and Main there are retirement communities on both sides of the Floodway/Canal.  As I was coming back I heard music coming from somewhere.  I turned my head and looked through a screened gate to see that it was a swimming pool with a bunch of old ladies doing water aerobics.  So now, not only am I a rapist, I'm a peeping Tom.  I just need to run with my eyes closed.

I'm closing in on 800 miles for my Wave Inspire 7's.  I think I've been saying that for 2 years now.  Today was nice.  It was cold, but still shorts and T-shirt.  I don't know if it was the brisk air or the 3 days off, but I finally cracked the 10 min/mi pace without trying.  I guess that's something.

Why didn't I run yesterday?  Oh yeah.  I had a meeting in north Scottsdale at 10am.  I guess I had enough time, but I wanted to get some things done first.  Today I have two volunteer shifts at the Adventure Run, so I took it nice and easy with a short run.  Average pace was 10:02.  Wow.  That's faster than all my runs lately except for Tuesday's.
 

The Adventure Run yesterday wiped me out.  So I just did 1.44 which is one loop around the Floodway/Canal.  Right before I got to University an old man was running towards me with a tall dog.  He looked to be about 60 years old, pretty good pace, long-sleeved yellow shirt.  As I made my way back up the Canal towards Adobe, I saw him again.  It looked like he had made quite a bit of ground on me, but that wasn't all too surprising.  Then as he got closer I noticed he was now 30 years old.  Faster pace, long-sleeved yellow shirt, tall dog.  How did he reverse his aging process?  I'd really like to know.
 

Today's run consisted of wrapping up a couple of RebBox movies, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 and Avengers: Age of Ultron, in a WalMart baggy and running to WalMart to return them.  I kept a nice slow pace on the way there so as to not get too sweaty.  My legs were sore today.  It was about one and three quarter miles to get there.  I decided to go straight to the canal from WalMart because I've done that route before, and I knew it was right around 4 miles.  On the way back the sun was shining off the water in the Canal and blinding me.  (I always capitalize canal when referring to the RWCD Canal.  It's kinda like capitalizing god when you're talking about Heavenly Father.)  Speaking of God and the Canal, my thoughts were led to my son who checked himself into the hospital last night as he was having suicidal thoughts.  As strained as our relationship has been, I have had him working for me since June.  Guess he won't be coming in for a couple of days.  The most important thing is that he gets better.

Happy Thanksgiving!  First thing this morning I went with my daughter to the neighbor's house whom we were to care for their two dogs and one cat while they were gone on vacation.  Well, I went there yesterday so he could show me where all there food was and stuff.  One of the dogs did not look well.  He thought it must've eaten a mushroom or something.  This morning it was dead.  That's right.  DEAD.  We're the worst pet sitters ever.  I felt bad because I wanted to go check on it last night, but I ran out of time before I had to leave for the Suns game.  So, I called my neighbor and broke him the news.  He drove back and later I helped him load him so that he could take him back to where they were vacationing and bury him. 

After the dog discovery, I went running.  When I got to Brown Road, I saw my home teaching companion's mother.  I stopped to talk to her and we ended up walking a mile down the canal.  The nice thing was my GPS tracked my mileage, but I paused it while I was walking.  So it shows a 6 min/mi pace.

It was almost cold this morning.  49º.  And by morning I mean 11am.  I went to bed about 2am this morning and woke up at 8am.  I laid in bed with my wife and daughter for a while.  Then got up about 9am.  I finally installed Windows 10 on my computer last night, so we'll see how that goes.  I was messing around with it this morning making sure everything still works.  Then I played a few games.  Then I went out to run.  I was wearing shorts and T-shirt as usual.  I warmed up pretty fast, then it felt great.  From the other side of the Floodway I could see Sis. Sanders again.  She was talking to a lady.  I ran half a mile all the way around and waved to her.  She stopped me and we ended up walking together again for 3/4 of a mile.  She's a sweet old lady, but I might need to start avoiding her.  LOL.  That stands for little old lady.
 

My wife had to leave early for work this morning.  That meant I had to get Emily ready for school by myself.  She stayed home Wednesday because she was sick.  Truthfully I should have kept her home today, but I hate for her to miss too much school.  She's doing so good lately.  Her reading is awesome.  She's actually understanding basic addition and subtraction.  Anyway, I probably used a gallon of detangler on her hair this morning.  I couldn't find her boots.  I barely got her ready before the bus arrived.  Luckily it was a few minutes late.  I'm glad she went because had I kept her home, I probably wouldn't have run.  I had a breathing treatment before I woke her up.  That helped during the run.  I felt a little winded at first, but after about half a mile my lungs were opened up and felt fine.  It's my legs that are sore.  They feel like they're in twang mode.  I kept it nice and easy and I was running very consistent half mile splits for the first three miles.  Then I slowed down even more.  There were a lot of old folks out walking the paths this morning.  And I saw the young guy with the tall dog.  He must've ate his spinach this morning.

My daughter, Abby forgot her lunch this morning.  She called me and asked me to bring it to her.  As soon as I got Emily on her bus, she goes to a different school, I ran down to Abby's school with her lunch.  I probably looked funny carrying a teddy bear lunch box.  The school is less than half a mile away so I tried not to sweat.  I failed.  Then I started my normal loop, but my left leg is hurting.  I think I strained something.  So I called it quits after 1 loop.

I felt pretty good this morning.  Last week was really hectic, but it was good that I took some time off because my left leg needed some time to heal.  Last night was the Adventure Run volunteer holiday party.  I won a massage stick in the raffle.  It was white elephant, but I wasn't about to let anyone take it.  So I licked it and then wiped my rear with it.
 

I may actually be able to retire these shoes this week.  Maybe.  Nah.  Anyway, I wonder how many miles I actually ran in my other pair of shoes and tracked them on this pair.  Oh well, I have plenty of other shoes to run in.  My last two pairs from the Adventure Run I've given away.  In fact, three out of the last four I've given away.  My daughter Julianna just got hers Saturday.  There was no price limit on them and she ended up getting a $180 pair of Mizunos.  I didn't even know Mizuno had shoes that expensive.  My Wave Inspires are usually around $107-$110.
 

I think I got my first ever "howdy" today.  I saw a girl running with her dog coming towards me on Adobe.  She was heading north on the west side of the Floodway.  I was on the east side, but she stopped.  Next thing I know, she's running right by me, but still on the other side.  I guess she didn't stop for very long.  But she did beat me to Brown.  She stopped again at Brown and as I made my way over to the other side of the Floodway, she took off her jacket and tied it around her waist.  I said, "Hi!", and that's when I got my first genuine "Howdy!"  It was nice.  Well, I  ran my regular loop which was another mile down the Canal to University.  She ran to the other side of the Floodway and beat me again.  I'd say both her and her dog are fast.
 

Almost at 800.........

2 days in a row of running sub 10's.  LOL!  Remember when I used to be a little bit fast?