I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 12

Lunch- 10.5 with the guys. Quick pace the last half. Great weather- around 60 deg, sunny. High is upper 70's tomorrow.

AM- BW on the GE track. Nice day for running- 50 deg with a slight breeze, not humid. Warmed up 4 miles with Hot Dan and Seth, then did the workout solo. Workout was 4x2mile (actually 2.05 miles, being 3 times around the GE track) with 2 min rest. Wasn't feeling perky before so knew I would ease into it. First one was 12:34 (6:07 pace), then 11:52, 11:46, 11:35 (5:39 pace). I'm not in top speed shape by any means, but always good to do some faster stuff. 3 mile cooldown on the trails. 

I rarely listen to music on a run but did today to ward off track boredom. I found it appropriate that Johnny Cash's "Hurt" came on mid-way through the last repeat. "I focus on the pain... the only thing that's real."

Every shoe I own makes the right shoe with the forefoot narrower than the left shoe. Either that, or my right forefoot is wider than left. I'm going with the former.

AM- had a lunch dentist appointment to fix a chipped tooth, so my 2-easy runs became 1 morning run. My calves were very sore when I woke up- too many Fastwitch miles. My legs were still very tired. My body was tired due to 3 very short nights. The only people running were Dan, Jim, and Todd, and Dan had said they would go fast. Nothing quite like running sub-7 miles on tired legs in the dark and rain. Yeah, it was a painful run. 12 miles in 1:24.

Lunch- 7. Tired, didn't even try to join some of the others for a workout.

PM- Supposed to run in the mtns but everyone bailed and I wasn't feeling great, so I just ran on the trails behind my work. Did one 6 mile loop, then was headed out again. At the 7 mile mark, I stumbled onto 4 turkeys. 3 ran away, but the male puffed up and strutted. I backed off, but he charged me. I hurdled a fence and ran down the trail, with the turkey in hot pursuit. For 3 full minutes- seriously. He chased me for half a mile. I snagged a 4 foot branch along the way, and had to take a few swings to keep him off me. Finally, he stopped his pursuit.

At that point, I decided to circle way around through the trees and thick, thorny undergrowth back to my trail. After about 4 minutes of carefully picking my way... "gobble gobble!" Thomas the Ticked-off Turkey, the Spawn of Satan himself, was just meters away and in full pursuit. I had no choice but to run full speed the other way, using my arms to shield my face from the thorns as best I could. I somehow stumbled into a herd of deer who scattered, but the turkey followed for another 200 yards. He finally left me alone. I found a .75 mile section of trail to run back and forth on the rest of the run, with my heartrate finally slowing after several miles.

Post-run, I can count at least two dozen scratches on my legs and my shirt is snagged and torn in at least 10 places. 

In related news, turkeys have now moved above mosquitoes and canadian geese on my "least-favorite animals" list. I've had a few run ins with this turkey, but this was by far the worst. I hate turkeys. Just wait till Thanksgiving.

Finished with 12 miles. And yes, I'm counting some of it as speedwork.

AM- 7. Not near as exciting as last night's run. No animal incidents.

Lunch- 7 with Barry and Aaron. Ran the turkey trails from last night but no sign of the culprit. I was hoping to see him again, with company this time. Had a few other people recount their own turkey tales.

AM- Quick easy run at Croft State Park, site of the upcoming Blind Pig 100. 17 miles in 2:45 or so and 1500 ft climb or so. Arches/PF are both bugging me a bit and I was predictably tired supposing this is my highest mileage training week since 2012. Listened to a few running podcasts and the last of Oct General Conference.