I'm retired from racing. Really.

Lunch- 7 easy with Jim.  Not quite as hot or humid today.  Now off to Missouri.

AM- 8.5 on the trails of Cumberland Mtn State Park in Crossville, TN.  Generally nice, although 3 or so miles were way too overgrown and thorny.  If I don't get poison ivy, it is only because I am among the 20% of people who aren't allergic, because I ran through literally miles of the stuff.  Saw 1 deer, 0 people.  Nice way to start the day- now 8 hrs driving.  1:17, 8.5 miles.

AM- 17 miles in 2:05:50 on a very rainy day on the dirt farm roads around Curryville, MO.  Rain feels nice when it's 70 degrees and you aren't wearing a shirt (except I wasn't wearing good socks for the rain, so it was over-squishy).  There is a very large Amish population around here, so I saw as many horse and buggies as cars.  Felt good- nice start to the week.

PM- 8 very easy in ~68 min.  Saw tons of Amish, and one young man even challenged me to a race (I told him he would win, on account that he was in a small buggy pulled by a fine looking horse).  The Amish sure have a lot of beautiful horses, some long-legged for buggies, some big chested for working.  The last half of the run was magical- running at dusk in a cloudless sky towards the dying light, with the last vestiges of orange and red fading into blue, purple, and black with just a sliver of moon overhead.  My gravel route was lit by the thousands of fireflies twinkling alongside, edging the woods and fields as the bats fluttered overhead and the distant coyotes sounded.  

 Happy 4th, everyone. 

AM- 11 easy on the farm roads in Missouri again.  My shin started hurting late yesterday, and actually caused me to cut my run a mile short today.  Will monitor and adjust accordingly- don't want any serious injuries, and the past 2 weeks have been pretty high mileage.

Well, I'm back.  Took the rest of the week off to rest my strange calf/shin issue, which I think was caused by 1000 miles of driving (aka pushing the gas pedal) combined with a hard day running.  We'll find out if it's better.

In the meantime, back to the wonderful SC weather.  It is 76 deg with 94% humidity at 7 am this morning, with a predicted high of a humid 95 today.  And it appears tomorrow will be my first ever 100 deg day here- should be wonderful.  At least I can run in the cool, 78 deg weather tomorrow morning...  Eat your heart out, Logan.

Lunch- 10 with the guys on one of the hotter, more humid runs of my life.  Hot.  Leg felt pretty good- as good as I hoped.

 Yeehaw.  I'm not sure which I enjoyed more- the 101 high, the 77 low, the Feels Like of 110, or the humidity.  We'll call it a tie. 

AM- 10 with Jim, Jason, and Dan.  All I can say is shoes should not be squishy wet from sweat during 6 am runs.

Lunch- 6 with Aaron.  Hot- see below.  Then 4 on the treadmill.  Didn't want to run by myself in this weather. 

AM- 5 run with Jim, 5 xt.

PM- Paris Mountain with Barry in the heat, heat, heat.  I carried 2 bottles for our 90 min run.  Lots of good talking- fun to run with him.  He's heading to Alaska for a while next month- sounds awesome.  Finished with 10 miles and 1300 ft climb in 92 min.  Shin is fine, but Achilles on other foot has sore spot.  Hmm.  Definitely finally retiring my Pace 2 shoes- at 565 miles, my highest mileage pair ever.  By about 40 miles.

Long day at work, no run.  Which I wasn't planning to do anyways, since my Achilles really hurts.  My Achilles pain last year was general tightness- this time it is very localized pain on the tendon, indicating the start of tendinitis (possibly).  Head it off at the pass.

Lunch- a bunch of crosstraining.  A stormy, cold front moved in, with a low today of mid-60's and a high of 68 with rain off and on all day.  The high today is lower than any of the previous lows the past 9 days, and is 10 degrees colder than the low on Wed (79 deg).  It figures I'm stuck inside just as it finally gets bearable to run outside!

I skipped Sat run to rest my sore Achilles.  And this morning I had my right big toenail removed and permanently killed, so I'm home resting my throbbing toe.  I'll start running again as soon as the pain is bearable.  Anyone want to see a before/after photo?

Lunch- 8 xt, then 2 running.  Didn't feel too bad, considering.  But my toe has got some nice runoff (mixture blood and clear stuff) that is supposed to continue for up to a month.  Might need some new socks.

Lunch- 10, and boy was it hot and humid.  We ran on some trails for a bit and it was so humid you could taste it- felt like a tropical jungle.  But the worst part is having to put my clothes in the backseat of my car afterwards to dry- when I return to my car to drive home, the stench is so bad it gagged me.  Yummy.

AM- 7.  Toe doesn't really hurt at all anymore, surprisingly.

Lunch- 11.  Hot and humid.  I feel like a broken record, but it's impossible to run in it and not make note.  Shoes, socks, shirt, and shorts are completely soaked by the end. 

AM- 2 run, then 4 xt to rest my Achilles.

Lunch- 6 run, then 4 xt cause it was so hot.  At least it was Fresh Fruit Friday at the gym- lots of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, and apples.  

My wife made a blog post of my toe surgery.  Pictures here. 

AM- Long run.  Left the house at 5:45 am, drove 70 miles to FHT Sloan Bridge.  Ran the trail to WWF and Bad Creek, then turned around and ran past Sloan Bridge to Fish Hatchery and back.  Just under 22 miles in 3:55 with somewhere between 3500-4000 ft climbing.  Finally got home at 1:25 pm- over 7.5 hours.  Gee, I can't understand why long trail runs don't interest Paul!  I finished with 76 miles this week- I'm happy with that, considering my toe surgery plus the fact I only had 20 miles when I woke up Thursday morning.  So 54 miles the last 3 days.

You know it's hot when:

a) It's 75 deg with 95% humidity when you start... before the sun is up

b) You take off your shirt within the first mile

c) You sweat so much that your Nathan Krissy vest actually puddles sweat in the big back pocket such that you have to empty it and wring it out

d) The heat index is triple digits when you finish

e) All of the above

Ok, enough about the heat.  It was quite the delightful run- I was much better prepared than a few weeks ago and had plenty of water (drank ~1 gallon during run, another gallon before and after).  In my 22 miles, I saw one small camp of 4 backpackers, but did not see a single other soul on the trail.  Solitude.  Beauty and solitude in the great outdoors on some wonderful trails.  Except for the wasp/bee/spider that bit me midway through- man, it still stings.  And I bonked my head 4 times on branches- ouch.  No wildlife of note other than a black salamander.  And the spiders- the webs were worse than ever (I might have had a 30 second stretch sometime where I wasn't wiping webs from my face or body, but I can't recall it- also took a web right in my open mouth).  Overall, though, really an enjoyable run- biggest issue is Achilles, which is painful but held up ok.  Toe is fine. 

Recap of the trail to aid me with FHT attempt- Bad Creek to WWF is 3 miles- runnable at first, and the uphill wasn't as bad as remembered though sometimes technical and slow.  WWF to Sloan is 4.5 miles, uphills for a ways but mostly runnable, and the descent is awesome.  Sloan to Fish Hatchery is 3.1 miles- flat, but pretty technical and slow the first 1.5 miles or so, then very nice singletrack with slight uphill grade to the aid.

AM- 9 easy miles in about 66 min.  Felt real good- too bad I wasn't doing a workout.

Lunch- 8.5 in the heat, then 2 xt for kicks.  Achilles started hurting a bit at the end.  Got stuck at work an extra hour due to a crazy thunderstorm- winds, torrential rain, and lightning everywhere.  Finally ran the 400 yards to my car when it let up a bit, but was still soaked.  Drive home was interesting, too- some water/creeks across the road, up to 1 foot deep.  The thunderstorms here are sure something impressive.

I hit 2000 miles for the year today, my earliest ever (edging out last year on July 30).

AM- 10 ez.

Lunch- 6 with Brad and Jim.

PM- Today was a very rare 3-a-day.  I think I've only done this once or twice before.  Greenville Track Club puts on an All-Comers Track meet at Furman, with an emphasis on kid races.  It was the first races ever for my girls, and a lot of fun.  First was the kid 50 yard dash, which I ran with both girls.  Then was the parent-kid relay, 50 yards each (my girls collided during this and both got cuts, but finished).  Then I did the adult mile, placing third in about 5:10 (splits were something like 70, 80, 80, 80).  Given that it was my first mile race in 14 years (college freshman), plus my third run of the day and mid-90's temp with humidity, it was the best I could do.  But my first mile at my last 5k was faster!  Oh well, I just don't know how to run fast enough anymore.  We finished with Kinley running the 200, then me doing a 200 in ~30 sec.  Plus a lot of warmup and cooldown- 5 miles total.

It was a lot of fun to see my girls do some running.  I think they liked the long jump the best, though- jumping into sand can't be beat.  The performance of the day was an 800 meter guy who ran 1:51.  Of course, he is an OTQ, but he looked so smooth and powerful- amazing.  One of the fastest 800's I've ever seen.

I passed out today.  Clean out for 30 seconds.  But first things first...

AM- 2.5 run, then my toe hurt so much I had to quit (small shoes, I think, which resulted in very bloody toe), followed by 7 xt.

Lunch- 6 run, 1 xt.  Hot.  Very hot.

After work, I went to give blood so Marci and I could have movie tickets for a date- I'm O neg blood, so they call me all the time asking for donations with bribes of tickets.  I had to first convince the worker that my 90/60 blood pressure and 40 bpm heart rate were normal.  The blood donation went fine, until the end when I started feeling a bit woozy.  Then, just before I finished, all the background noise faded out and I had a nice dream for 30 seconds or so, before even the dream faded to black.  Next thing I know, they are shoving ice all over me and waving smelling salts under my nose trying to wake me up.  Wow, that was quite the experience- never happened before.  They made me sit in their chair thirty minutes, monitoring me and taking bp (80/48 five minutes after I woke up).  Needless to say, I was very late meeting Marci for dinner.  And, they were out of movie tickets so will have to mail some to me.  I still feel a bit groggy and light headed even now.  I think I'll just do some easy xt tomorrow rather than run in the high heat and risk passing out again.  My toe really needs a rest, anyways, since it is all swollen and sore.

Lunch- I kept my promise to the blood center ladies and didn't run.  Wasn't worth the risk of passing out, plus my toe needed a break.  8 on the arc trainer, instead, which is a pretty good workout in and of itself.

Lunch- 8 hot miles with Jim and Mike.  The went camping with my boy scouts- didn't see family at all today.

Jon- "Barry, this is almost my highest mileage week this year, and I want to make it even harder.  What do you think we can do?"

Barry- "Let's go for a 22 mile run over the most rugged terrain in South Carolina."

Jon- "Sounds good.  And I'm already weak from my toe and from giving blood and fainting a few days ago."

Barry- "Great!  How about we do this run during the hottest Saturday yet in Greenville, with a high of 98 and heat index of 107."

Jon- "Splendid.  And since they suggest limiting outdoor activity between 10 am to 4 pm, how about we purposely wait to start our workout until 10:30 am, then don't finish until just after 4 pm."

Barry- "The only thing that could make it better is if you somehow had a campout with boy scouts last night where it was so hot all night you couldn't sleep much, plus had a dog making noise nearby all night long."

Jon- "Sounds like a good plan, see you Saturday.  Oh, and I thought of one more item- driving 90 min home afterwards in 98 deg temps with no air conditioning would be the final cherry on top!"

Yup, that was my run.  Enjoyable, very hot and long- I think I drank 180 oz water during the run.  22 miles, 4:26, 5300 ft climbing.  Gorges State Park- Auger trail to FHT Bear Gap camp, all along to FHT to Rock Creek, a bit more up the stairs (to where I had done before), then up Cane Brake trail.  There was some steep, steep stuff- on the FHT Cane Brake steps, you climb 330 ft in under .2 mile.  It was so nice to be able to do a long run with Barry again.  We even saw a few people I knew, including Dan Hartley who was crazy enough to attempt the entire 77 mile FHT today.  Final note the self- XT Wings shoes do not hurt my toe at all due to where the bend is.  No shoe pain today at all.