I'm retired from racing. Really.

PM long day at work, finally got out for a run at 5. Did 42 min on the trails behind GE. Knee didn't hurt at all, yeah. Small muscle soreness, but lots of muscle fatigue. It was very, very slow. Which is just fine. We'll call it 5 miles.

Lunch- I'm assigned to a new project at work, and it's rather hectic. I fear it may cut into my running. I got out for a late lunch run, just as Jim was wrapping up. He ran 40 min with me, then I went behind GE by myself. Just as I was turning around to get back for a meeting, I found Tom the Turkey behind me. Sure enough, he gave chase again, which was very painful on still-tired legs. I circled around a loop and lost him, then headed back to the gym. 8 miles or so in an hour.

Lunch- 10 miles, including a few with Jim behind GE hunting the turkey. Hot out- mid-80's. The temp jumped 30-40 deg from last week so feels very hot. I got my first sunburn of the year today.

Lunch 12. Uneventful. Very thirsty by the end.

AM- slept in a bit, then went for a run around home. Jason was going to come, but backed out with some lame excuse about his wife going into labor. **Priorities**  Anyways, today is the first run I felt some spring in my steps. First bit was easy, then picked it up and the rest was 7 min pace or faster. 13 miles in 1:35 on rolling roads. Mid-50's, nice run.

AM- Pouring rain and 45 deg out led to a TM BW. 3 miles warmup, 10 miles tempo slowly increasing pace in 60:30, 1 mile cooldown. Sweaty, lots of grunting. 14 miles in 90 min.

Lunch- very rainy, chilly run with the guys at lunch. Forgot bandaids, so actually had to take off my shirt when I started getting some bad nippage. I had arm warmers, though- so arm warmers and no shirt. My knee, which hasn't hurt since last Tuesday, really started hurting again. Bummer. And my calves and Achilles. Looks like I did a bit too much this morning. 6.5 miles run, then a bit of eliptical.

Lunch 10. Knee is improving, Achilles hurt. Not so much that I didn't do. A full run, though. No speed work for a while.

Lunch 11 miles in 84 min, inc SAMs club with Jason and Jim.

Lunch- 10. Went into the hilly Huntington neighborhood for the first time in a couple of years. Finished with a mile on trails. Not much else to say.

Lunch- Right at the start, Paul saw the turkey abotu 30 yards away from the track, the closest I've ever seen him. He puffed up and strutted around, but didn't chase us. Paul agreed with me that he is a huge turkey, puffed up or not. Once Aaron and Rob showed up, we decided to chase him to put some fear of humans back in him, but he quickly disappeared into the woods. Jason, Paul and I ran to Sam's club, then Jason and I ran to the tunnel. Then I did some xt. 9.5 miles run, 26 min xt (1:38 total).

AM- Perfect morning for a run, 50 deg. Met Jason and we ran around the Georgia Rd area at a descent clip over hilly roads. Saw 4 runners, 0 bikers. Ran 19 miles in 2:15 with 1200 ft climbing. Felt good, lots of 6:45-7 min miles. Avg HR 139 (rare for me to wear the monitor). Lots of people in SC own big dogs.

Barry and I are working the aid station this evening at the Blind Pig 100, the first 100 miler ever in SC. Should be fun. It's a loop course, 11 loops, so we'll see lots of runners.

I'm pleased with how this week turned out. I wanted 100+ miles, but my knee was achy enough on Monday that I scratched the remaining doubles. To still get 80+ miles on singles is acceptable.

AM- 10

Lunch- 10 more. It's spring break here, so not as many people around. I did the last 20 minute by myself, heading behind GE. Guess who I ran into? My good friend the turkey. He chased me, again. When I got near the track, I stopped to keep egging him on, curious how far he would come. He approached me on the track, so I went into the parking lot. He kept coming, about 50 yards into the midst of cars. He's a brave, stupid turkey. Only an arriving pickup scared him back. He then tried to scare a group of 3 guys on the track. I told them it was too bad none of them had a shotgun. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'm going to keep heading back there alone until spring is over- this turkey is too annoying.

Lunch- 8-ish miles on a rainy-ish day with a couple of guys. Slow-ish and tired-ish.

PM- PM with Barry and Seth. Very tired, slow, and light-headed the first 30 min, then started feeling a bit better for the rest of it. Typical loop, 10.5 miles or so in 1:40-something.

I'm all about generalities today.

Lunch- 12. Cold and sunny and windy today- mid 40's. Looked as warm as last week, but it wasn't. Tired and slow, still. Need to sleep more.

AM- plodded through 13 miles in 97 min. Started to wonder mid-run if I was doing too many normal runs (possibly junk miles?) and should cut back mileage to be able to get some meaningful speedwork. Thoughts?

Lunch- Legs were pooped before I started, whole body is tired and achy (I really think I'm getting sick, plus 3 of my kids are sick), and ankle really hurts. Decided to start a run but wasn't sure I'd make it more than a mile. Ended up plodding through the full 9 miles.

One good thing about sick kids- my two oldest were in bed at 7:30 (~90 min earlier than usual- and this is spring break week), my 2 year old was down by 7:50, and the 1 year old by 8:15. Marci is gone at a church activity. It's 9:14 pm and I'm going to bed. Might be my earliest bedtime in 5+ years. I need it.

Lunch- 10. When Jim is out of town, I always end up doing the last 10-20 min alone.

AM- Everyone was busy, so it was a solo Sat long run. My ward boy scout troop backpacked in to Virginia Hawkins falls on the FHT, so I figured I'd go visit. It was supposed to be cold, windy, and rainy, but ended up not so bad- the rain sstopped just as I started and it was 50 deg. As bad as I felt Tue-Thur this week, I felt fine today. It took me 75 min to go 7 miles in to the troop, where I stopped and chatted a few minutes. They told me it had rained hard all night. I kept going on the FHT till just before the NC border, then turned around, catching the troop half way back, walking with them for a few minutes. A few older boys who are on the track team and wanted to beat me had left the rest behind earlier. I caught them with several miles to spare- not really a fair fight, with them carrying backcpacks. It started raining just as I finished. 21.5 miles and 3600 ft climbing in 3:42. Everything felt fine during the run but my fickle knee really tightened up after and is still sore. I'll definitely have to milk this through MMT.

The most notable item of the run: with less than 400 yards to go, I was steadily running up a hill, just looking ahead, grinding up. Suddenly, "wham!" I was brought to a complete stop and almost leveled with a blow to the head that jarred my teeth and hurt like the dickens. Unsure what had just happened, I looked up and observed a 4-inch diameter branch crossing the trail at hairline height that I had completely missed. It was just high enough to not be in my view as I looked down, and just low enough to contact my noggin. I think my visor is the only thing that prevented blood, though I do have a bit of a bump. That may be the hardest I've ever run head-first into something on the trails.

AM- 9

Lunch- we did a late lunch run so we could watch Meb kick some trash at Boston. Now that was a good race- exciting, and he held off everyone at the end. Watching Shalane before that, I was hoping she would tuck into the pack, but she pushed hard and died. Lots of fun following the FRB'ers and other friends. Fun the see Seth Wold surge up with the leaders for a few miles, too.  Boston is to runners as March Madness is to basketball fans- streaming webcasts rock. Anyways, it was a Phil run, "an honest pace" as he would say. In other words, started at 7 min pace and just got faster from there. Jim and I did 80-some odd minutes, 11 or 11.5 miles. We'll round down this time.

AM- Brilliant morning for a run, 50 deg and beautiful. 11 miles, mainly around the GE track. Took Rob's advice and did a bit of fast stuff, ended up doing 4x 1 min, as fast as I could, with 2-4 min in between. Kind of a fartlek of sorts. Good stuff.

Lunch- 10. Warm.

AM- 6 on the track. Wanted more, but my knee was bugging me. Ever since Leatherwoods, but especially the past week, my knee has felt... off. Loose, somehow, not stable. Sometimes painful and weak, like standing up or going down stairs. It's a bit worrisome seeing as I have Massanutten 100 in 3 weeks. Probably time for some good R&R. Trying to milk it through the race, then I plan to take off at least 2-4 weeks entirely from running.

Lunch- skipped lunch workout due to my knee and being very, very busy at work. I'll be glad when this week is over, as I'm responsible for a very important document that has to be completed on Friday.

Lunch- skipped morning run due to knee and fatigue. Lunch run was nice, if a bit warm. 74 min.

AM- 10 with Jim and Jason. Nice temps, though Jason still soaked through his shirt and shorts.

Lunch- an hour. Jim agreed that 3-4 hrs between runs is really not enough time to recover much.

I finished a huge document at work that I've been working on for a year and was due today. Just in time. Nice to have it off my plate. In other news, the whole family signed up for a 5k next Friday- we'll push the jogging stroller with the youngest 2, and the rest of us will run/walk.

0. Proving once again that if you don't get in your run first thing Sat morning, it probably isn't going to happen. That's ok- it was a very busy day, and my knee needed the rest. I'm officially in taper time, anyways.

AM- 12

Lunch- 9. My left ankle is really bugging me, which is a new thing on top of my balky left knee. Not sure what is causing all these issues. I think I'm going to cancel most remaining doubles and just do singles till MMT 100, after which I'll take 2-4 weeks entirely off running.

Lunch- 10 miles. The weatherman was predicting severe thunderstorms all day but it never developed. Nice.

PM- Our Boy Scout troop has been doing the Personal Fitness merit badge, which includes a mile run every 2 weeks. Today was the last day so I agreed to run it. We even offered I would buy pizza if any of the boys could finish within 40 seconds of me. The loop was actually about .93 miles and I ran 4:53, while the next boy was 5:55. No pizza. Good hard mile, though.

Lunch- 10 miles. We were supposed to have severe thunderstorms for 2 days now. Nothing. I won't complain.