I'm retired from racing. Really.

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.