Bonding with Mother Nature this morning. Cattle road with the dogs. Was going to go longer but turned around after 2 miles to return in a strong, cold headwind, combined with rain and even some hail. Fortunately there was a little thunder and lightning as well, so as to keep me from getting bored!

Didn't really sleep last night, so I slept in this morning. Luckily the temps have cooled a little bit and I can get a run in this evening without burning up.

Stay tuned...

Ran 14 miles on the bird refuge. Clear skies, light breezes, comfortable temperature. While happy to have run the distance, I'm a little dissapointed at how I just sort of bonked into the 13th mile. It might be a fuel issue. I'm not in the habit of carrying Gu's etc, and I was out there quite a while. Plus, all I ate today was some watermelon, then a couple of slices of wheat bread right before the run. I hadn't planned on running long today, the opportunity just sort of jumped out at me and I decided to go for it. I should probably look into eating on the run.

Recovery from yesterday afternoons long run. 6:15 am. from the house to the jr. high field for 1.5 miles then back.

Felt fine except for my right IT band flaring up after two miles. Will look for specific stretches on the net today. This has happened before, recently, and when I ran years ago. Same side. I wonder if it's something in my form or if the disparity in leg length might contribute to the problem.   

Resting...resting...resting...

If I don't get a run in tonight, I'll make up for it Saturday...

Ran tonight on the fire break road, a really hilly course. Felt great, no IT issues...whew!

If inhaling swarms of bugs could kill you, I'd have had my last supper out there tonight.

Tour of the hood. Made my way to the school field, 2 miles on the grass, then a meandering route back home. Really nice temps.

Felt great, especially after running just last night, a twelve hour turnover. This is new to me. Twice this week I did the late in the day/then again the next morning runs. It's my way of preparing my body for some two a days sometime in the not too distant future.

Slept late. Ran in the heat. Cattle road. Ran some on the Legacy Parkway trail.

I did try something while running today. I had very little energy for some reason and was just plodding along, my legs felt fine, my breathing was good, I just had nothing to make me go. I was frustrated at my lack of...mmmph, when it occured to me that I didn't need to accept things as they were. I told myself that I knew how to run faster, how to realign my form and move my legs quicker, so I thought why not? So for the better part of mile four I was running at a pace a couple of minutes faster than the fates wanted me to run. Then I got really tired and slowed back down. This experience was different than "pushing harder" or "picking up the pace". I've never really felt quite so inexplicably listless on a run before.  It was cool to feel so detached from my body, yet have my mind running my body, albeit only for a few moments, but it was exciting to me for some reason.

Ran late this afternoon in the heat on the fire break road. Been struggling the last few runs. Maybe it's the heat, or the increased mileage over the last month. I know I'll come out stronger if I stick with it so no big deal.

Ran from the house today. Couldn't sleep so I got started at 5:30 am. Felt much better today than the past several days. Made my way to the cattle rd and ran a couple of miles there. Also ran about a mile on the new legacy highway. It was an eerie feeling to be running on a highway, in the dark, with the road to myself...I felt a little like a pirate.

Ran 6.2 slowly on the fire break road, always a good hill, strength building, pace killing course. Took the dogs. (Note to Sno - this is an area where many people bring their dogs, off leash, for recreation, not like a residential street or anything)  :-)

 My dogs magically turned into goats this morning...scapegoats that is: had to stop a couple of times at the creeks (for the dogs), had to keep my pace extra slow(for the dogs), when I got back to my car I could've and would've run more but for the...yes, you guessed---dogs. 

A good run. My focus this week has been to forego my "long run" while I try to keep my daily runs at least 6 miles. I have, until now, been peppering my week with a couple of four mile runs but want to slowly bring all that up.  

Good run from the house to the parkway trail, out and back. I'm psyched because I can access the 14 mile long parkway trail by running just a mile from my house.

Easy run down to and around the parkway this morning. Long sleeves and gloves (yesterday too), has me thinking about how dedicated I'll have to be when it's below freezing every morning, and the wind's blowing, the roads are icy, the bed is warm and the furnace is cranking. Holy crap this is going to be fun?

6:00 am is getting awfully dark nowadays. When's that time change thing coming.

West and welaxation.

Ran from home to the parkway trail, turned around at 6 miles and came back meandering through the hood to make 13 miles. Good run. It took like six miles before I felt loose though. So I ran a negative split. Met a runner who caught me on the way back and she slowed to run with me for a half mile or so. She was running 18 miles today and is running New York marathon in November. I told her about the blog, hope she checks it out.

Lots of people on the new parkway trail today. Probably about half bikers, half runners, and a smattering of walkers with dogs etc. Not bad for a Sunday.

I'm hoping my body will allow an increase in my weekly milege. Hopefully I can get 50 in for this week. The non blog week ending with today run gives me over 46 miles. Feeling good.

From home to the field at the Jr. high for 2.5 miles then a loopy route back home. Felt really good for a recovery run. Full moon in the western sky.

A fun filled ride on the fire break road today. The pace was slow but strong. Felt reallt good today. The run was like a day at the amusement park, up and down, feeling the wind in my face, legs getting tired from walking around from ride to ride.

The last couple of miles I detached from my body and rode on the merry-go-round, but instead of carnival music playing in the background, it was Ozzy Osborne singing "I'm going through changes..."

Running is like drugs only much, much better, and less costly.

No run this morning, so I'll GET to run in the heat late this afternoon!

Please stand bye...

Ran out on the cattle rd/marshes this afternoon. It was warm but the cloud cover and friendly breezes helped. Felt good today.

I made a concious effort to run miles 4,8 & 10 faster than the other miles, mile 8 was the fastest  with the pace being a full minute and a half faster than my average for the run. So in a way, I had a "tiny workout".

Also happy to report my non-blog mileage for the week ending today is somewhere around 51 miles!

From house to the LPT. Easy on tired legs and fatigued body.

For the first couple of miles I was being chased by little giggling hairy gnomes who were wacking my quads with rubber mallots!

Good run around the neighborhood, including 3 mi. around the jr high field. Todays average pace for the run was the fastest this week.

I humbly enter the realm of the 50 mile week with hopes that I can maintain at least this throughout the winter. In October I'll increase the mileage to 60/wk.

It was eight months ago that I decided I needed to get off my rapidly growing arse and excersize again. So, it's taken some time, but now I've acheived an important milestone, in my mind ,of running 50-60 miles a week. In a way, I feel like I'm just getting started really. 

I've lost over twenty pounds since January...I hope to never find them again.

Have a great weekend everyone and good luck to all the TOU people tommorrow!

Processing...processing...processing...

Got a late start, 8:45 am. The sun was shining and it was a little warm. Ran 1.5 mi. from home to the LPT (Legacy Parkway Trail) and out on that to 6.25 miles, got on the cattle road and headed back for about 3 miles, then back onto LPT for a mile, then home.

Felt pretty good about todays run. Left hamstring, right behind the knee, was tight from beginning to end. I think that plus the heat contributed to my average pace being about 25 seconds slower per mile than last week on essentially the same course. I persevered in spite of the discomfort, and that feels good. 

Ran on LPT this afternoon. Sunny, 70 degrees. Tailwind out, headwind back.

Today is officially dubbed "Crazy Day".

First off, my average pace for todays "recovery" run was a half minute faster per mile than any of my previous runs thus far. I wasn't trying to run faster, it was just there...crazy!

Second, there's been a standoff at a home literally one block from my house. All day, swat teams, police, spectators, and all kinds of news vehicles, have been crowding the neighborhood, while "Brian" sits in his pickup with a couple of loaded weapons. Earlier, shots were fired, but no one was hurt. Also, he originally had his wife and kid in the house with him but I guess he let them go. Scary stuff...and sad...crazy!

Makes me grateful for my relatively peaceful existence.

No run this morning, I'll have to get a run in tonight. That's two days in a row with no morning run. It kind of feels like cheating when I don't run early in the morning. Plus I miss starting the day off with a run. I hope to get back on track tommorrow morning.

The standoff one block from my house endly badly last night, shots were fired and the guy did not survive. Jury is still out on wether or not it was self inflicted or cop inflicted. Either way, the guy is gone. I heard the shots last night from my backyard, and my heart just broke. I think that's why I didn't sleep so well last night.

Ran this afternoon. Feelin' the love on the fire break rd. This always a good hilly workout. Pretty much ideal weather, overcast, 68 degrees.

Picture Julie Andrews on a mountain top singing "The hills are alive...with the sound of James getting his butt kicked..."!

Looks like another late afternoon run for me today. I'm not too stressed about missing yet another morning run. These last two months I've run far more than at any time in my life. I'm putting my body through a lot, and there is plenty of adaptation going on. I got to bed real early last night, and slept in till 6:30 this morning, and I feel really good. So I'm looking forward to today's run, I'm just missing the buzz I get to enjoy throughout the day after a morning run.

Ran 11 miles on the cattle rd/marshes. It was hot, 85 degrees.

Delivered no less than 4 horseflies to their heavenly mansions!

 Ran this morning from the house to the jr high field.

_ouch!

Great morning run. From house to the LPT and back. 55 degrees and clear. Crescent moon and stars. Felt so much better than yesterday, although I didn't really warm up until 7.4 miles into the run.

Ran from home to the LPT, out and back. Started at 5:30 am. Clear skies, mid 50's, no breezes. Everything clicked for me today. I had planned on going 15 but felt good so I added a mile. Negative split of 10:37! I know that sounds crazy, but I went out really slow on purpose, then around mile 8 something just took over,  it was cool, like auto pilot, and that lasted until around mile 11, then the rest was work, but I felt like I had full strength and energy throughout. My fastest mile was mile 14.

When I got home I still had .3 mi. to make 16 total so I ran around the yard with the dogs to make it up.

This is what I'm talking about!

Easy recovery run on the cattle road this afternoon. 83 degrees, clear skies, and horseflies.

Slow 7 on the fire break road this morning...

When I woke up this morning, running was NOT AN OPTION. But I went ahead and did it anyway.