I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 3 mile warmup, 2 miles hillclimb at 12% grade (definitely sweating a ton), 1 more

Lunch- 10.  Warm.  Then abs and weight lifting. 

Lunch- 6 on a hot day, faster than I wanted for a recovery run but that is what happens when you run with people.

Lunch- 9

PM- Paris Mtn.  Justin joined me for the first 3 miles, recounting his first ultra last week.  Then I was on my own for the rest of the way.  Felt good for about 10 miles, then just tired.  Didn't eat enough, and it was the end of a 23 mile day.  Even took a digger.  Hot and tired run, but trails are always nice.  14 miles in 2:10 with 2300 ft climbing. 

Heading to Savannah, GA tomorrow for a nice little weekend trip.  Should be fun. 

AM- 8 around the neighborhood before packing for Savannah.

AM- 10 mile run in Savannah.  Found a nice, deserted road with swamp/forest on both sides.  Did the last 4 miles quite a bit quicker than the rest.  Felt good.  Then spent the day around Historic Savannah and the Tybee beach.

AM- Hilton Head.  Ran 4.5 miles on the beach, then took to the roads.  Actually, the bike paths- almost every road in this town has a separated bike path running near it.  Very nice.  I'm jealous.  Anyways, felt good so ended up doing a progressive run of sorts, with a fair amount of 6-ish miles and a few 5:30-ish at the end.  Good day- really felt strong.

Lunch- 9 with Todd and Mike

PM- PM with Barry and Justin.  13 miles in just over 2 hrs, 1500 ft climb.  Mid-70's, so much nicer temps than last week. 

Went to bed early at 10:30 last night... and ended up tossing and turning till 2 am.  Only 4 hrs sleep.  Man, did I feel bad today- my eyes were killing me all day.  Ugh.

Lunch- 7+3 

It ends up my eyes were killing me for a reason- I have a nasty infection in them (well, hopefully- it could also be an amoeba).  Can't see anything and light causes intense pain.  Ouch.  No running today, no work, just sitting in a dark room with a towel over my eyes.  Fun times.

Eyes are much improved today, though still blurry and very light sensitive.  Doc said it will be a gradual recovery during the follow up appointment today.  Definitely cannot go outside and can't read much... so Marci took me to the gym for a nice indoor treadmill run.  Felt good to be doing something.  12.5 miles.  Might go again later today or go outside after dark.  Definitely no hilly trail run in the mountains tomorrow, though.

PM- 5.5 after dark around the neighborhood.  I sure have great night vision right now courtesy of my dilated eyes. 

AM- thanks to an overcast day, I found myself heading outside for a run (can't do it if sunny).  Waited till the family left for a bday party, though, so it was a late, 11 am start and getting warm.  Didn't want to be far from home in case the sun broke through, so ran multiple laps of the soccer complex, McCall Rd, Kilgore Farms, etc.  Got my 5 year old on her bike after 2 hrs, and she rode along for 4.5 miles, then my 3 year old joined for a few hundred yards.  Finished feeling good with 23 miles and 1300 ft climbing at about 7:30 avg pace.  Not too bad a finish for the week supposing I missed a day fearing I might be going blind.  87 miles in 5 days is a good haul.

AM- 6

Lunch- 9 more.  We tied an all time record (set a few weeks ago) of 9 people during our lunch run.  What a crew. 

Lunch- 9.  We were stinky.

PM- PM with Barry, Justin, and (for the first time ever) Aaron.  12.5 miles with 1800 ft climbing.  Justin took us out of the park and up the roads to the true summit of Paris Mtn.  My first time up there.  Good climb. 

AM- 6

Lunch- 8.5.  Warm out.  Felt tired. 

AM- 6 warmup, then did my pump and run- bench 12 times (improvement from 6) and ran 17:34 5k, then cool down.

Lunch- abs, then planned to do 6 mile run. However, right calf/Achilles have been bugging me for a week and it was very painful today. Ended up running 1.5, then xt. Hope I can fix this.

Leg still hurts, and an easy recovery run is about 1/1000th as valuable as being healthier for my long trail run tomorrow, so 4 xt as rest.

AM- Met Justin at Blue Wall on the Palmetto trail, same place we ran in Feb.  Had a good run- lots of climbing the first third past fresh bear scat, lots and lots of overgrown plants the second third (stinging nettle, briars, thorns- very painful on the legs), and beautiful singletrack the last third to the turnaround just before 10 miles.  2 miles before the end, I turned around and added 1.35 more miles climbing and 1100 extra feet climbing- I ran all of the uphill and felt strong, then ran down at a good pace.  Not sure I'll do this route during the summer, though, since it is so overgrown- Justin and I alternated yelping in pain and growling at all the prickly plants.  Tick infested, too- pulled 9 off me, 1 off Justin.  Finished with 22 miles and 5500 ft climbing.  Pictures on Justin's blog.

AM- 8

Lunch- 10.  Legs were surprisingly sore today, the first time I remember being sore in a while.  Saturday's run caused some DOMS, I guess. 

Lunch- 8 + abs

PM- PM with Barry, Aaron, and Justin.  Not many people on the trails thanks to intermittent thunderstorms.  Cool, humid, thundery, and rainy.  Getting ready for the PM 11/12k on Saturday.  12.5 miles, about 2 hrs.  Barry is leaving on a 3 month leave-of-absence to ride his motorcycle across the US, even visiting Alaska.  What a trip. 

AM- little workout- 3 warmup, 8 tempo in 48:30, 2 cooldown.  13 total in 86 min.  I was sweating buckets for some reason today, whereas I usually hardly sweat.  My clothes were drenched halfway through the run and sweat was flying everywhere.  Not sure what was different today.

Lunch- meant to do 6, ended up with 8 with some of the guys on a very humid day.

Lunch- 15 min abs, then 6 miles behind GE with Dan-yuhl and Aaron.

Lunch- ez 4 before the 12k trail race tomorrow.

AM- Paris Mtn 12k trail race- quick report.  First year of the longer course (used to be 11k).  Finished under old CR pace, but so did the reigning CR holder who beat me by 28 sec.  I was happy to hold of a hard-charging young buck by 10 sec, too.  Race was 7.3 miles in 51:11 with about 1100 ft climbing on my normal PM stomping grounds with semi-technical terrain.  Good times, lots of friends, definitely the fastest I've run in a few months.  Full report later- going on a date with the wife to see Avengers right now.

Full (short) report:

Short race report- Paris Mountain 12k was a nice local race. CR holder Trent Humphreys started very fast and put ~30 seconds on me in the first mile. I was in second and then third during the steep climb, but pulled away as soon as the hill mellowed out.  One of the young bucks, James Brooks, stayed in contact behind me for most of the race, and was right behind me as we flew down the switchbacks after the aid station. Definitely the fastest I’ve run on trails in a long time- lots of 6 min miles on technical terrain. Not wanting the race to come down to a sprint, I pushed as hard as I could with 1.5 miles to go and was able to open up a small but adequate gap. Trent won, I was 29 seconds behind, and James was 10 more seconds back. All 3 were under the old CR pace (but not CR time, since the trail reroute had lengthened the race from 11k to 12k). Lots of food at the finish, and lots of making new running friends while recounting the race with Barry, Justin, and Aaron. Nice, low key race that is super cheap- can’t beat that.

Garmin data from the race.  Nice climb for a few miles. 

AM- early morning trail run with Justin.  Left at 5:30, drove to Isaqueenah forest- first run there in over a year, I think.  It was as windy as ever- it seems like you just keep twisting on top of yourself endlessly.  Hot and humid and lots of spider webs, but no prickly plants.  Ran on the south side (Doyle area) and waterfall.  Felt good and kept coaxing Justin to go further and further.  Stopped the watch for a while, but ended up around 17 miles in just over 3 hrs.  Elevation gain is hard on the garmins- SportTracks says 2600, Garmin says 1600.  

Just talked to my dad- he ran a 47 min 10k to place 3rd in his age group and the Bolder Boulder, one of the biggest races in the country.  Good running!  Now time for a Memorial Day BBQ.

Lunch- 10 with the guys.  Jim and I got poured on during the last bit.

PM- PM- Barry came the first 30 min, talking all about his 3 month motorcycle trip to Alaska starting this week.  Then I continued the rest of the way by myself.  Just over 2 hrs.  Very, very humid thanks to rain today.  12.5 miles. 

Lunch- too tired for my morning run, so just did a longer 11 mile run at lunch with the guys.  Getting hot these days.

AM- BW- 3 mile warmup, 10 mile tinman tempo in 61 min, 2 mile cooldown.

Lunch- 5.5 more easy miles.  Warm out- 87 deg and humid.  I'm hoping Logan Peak is super hot and humid, as I'll likely be the runner most acclimated to that weather.