Seeking a better country...

Hiked to the rope swing with my 6, 8, 12 and 14 year old.  Everybody made it back without a broken leg.  Unfortunately, the clouds blocked our mountain view of the eclipse.  Anna and I spotted a rattlesnake after it buzzed at us and slithered away.  Fortunately, it headed in the opposite direction instead of striking.  The older 3 kids walked right by it.  By the time we came along, I guess it had lost patience.  Talk about a rush of blood to the head.  That's my 3rd rattlesnake ever.  

So both the little girls are on board with going camping for a month in the canyon.  I doubt my employer will be as enthusiastic.  It's probably for the best, as I'm pretty sure I'd miss Jack, and the rest of them. 

a.m.  I don't know what happened.  I was going to get up and go for 11 this morning, but at 3:30 I woke up and puked my guts out.  I don't have a fever, so I must have got some bad food, or my wife or kids are trying to poison me.  Weird.  I'll have to run tonight, which is too bad; temps would have been so much better this morning.  But when the alarm rang at 5:30, I couldn't force myself to get up and eat bile-flavoured oatmeal and head out the door.  

p.m. After finishing up flag responsibilities for the scouts, I left at 9:30.  It was dark, cloudy and somewhat cool.  I ran from park to park for drinks, and was disappointed that the municipality of Farmington still hasn't activated their fountains.  What the #$#?  Traffic was pretty quiet, so I got some line running in, with pickups here and there, and fartleks past the churches.  77 minutes overall, which isn't bad.  Whenever I get to exhaling every 4 steps, that's my top sustainable effort.  (5:50-6:20 pace)

My garmin 305 still keeps track of stuff, but the mode button doesn't work, so I can't see workout data unless I hook it up to the computer, and cannot change any settings.  I got three years out of it, better than any other Father's day gift I can remember.  I love that thing except for 2 items;  I'm not all that impressed with it's water resistance, and the wristband size was exactly wrong, in that one hold was too big, and the next tighter one was too tight.  This sounds like an obituary.

8-9 p.m.  Tami had planning commission, the kids were busy with plays and concerts, so I stayed with the little ones.  After doing the dishes I put Jack in his strap in seat at the counter, loaded up Baby Einstein on youtube, and left the 6 year old sister "tending" while they watched.  What could go wrong?

I did 1m warmup, then 3@6:40, downhill.  I paused to come upstairs and check on the kids.  They were watching teletubbies in french.  Whatever.  3 more @6:40, then .5m cooldown.  My quads were tight the duration of the run, otherwise things felt good. 

8 p.m.  Regular 10k to Farmington.  The first 4 miles felt pretty bad, but it's taking me that long to warm up lately.  I came home and Grace joined me for a bonus mile.  Laps around my block are .5 exactly, so while she got her stuff on, I added on some more.  I've got to grind, grind, grind at the grindstone...while childhood sifts like sand through a sieve.

6:30-8:30 a.m.  BST to Farmington pond, home via Lagoon trails and 106.  Great run with Andy.  The trails were nice, other than a rolled left ankle.  (it matches the one I rolled on a rock last Saturday)  Stupid Farmington doesn't have a single outdoor fountain turned on.  Maybe they are doing Memorial Day to Labor Day.  2 packs of Smarties for a 15 miler might be too little, but I ate oatmeal, 2 toast and choc milk for breakfast, so I couldn't have been too low.  The last few miles Andy must have felt peppy; he picked it up, then we took turns creeping the pace faster and faster.  He got me exhaling every 6 steps, then down to every 4 steps, and held it for the last 4 miles, so that was a bonus-  kind of an inadvertent "little big". 

After the run, I pulled two 7 gallon buckets of weeds.  Hung out with the baby and Tami for a while, then got really hungry.  Nena and I went for lunch.  We stopped at Wendy's for frosties and fries, then went to In and Out for burgers, and took all the food to Carl's Jr. to eat it.  Next time we'll get Frosties, Carl's Jr. fries, In and Out burgers, and eat them at McDonalds.  

Then it stopped raining and we went and mowed a couple lawns the boys missed this week.  My mower didn't have self-propel, so I am very tired.  Good Saturday!