Seeking a better country...

6:30 a.m.  1 mile warmup, 5 switchbacks.  I was probably faster with the jogging stroller a couple weeks ago than I was today.  Luckily I didn't have my watch to find out.  My legs feel a bit more shredded than they did yesterday.  The uphill was fine; the downhill was a little less than fine.  No harm done, however.  So I guess I'll register for a marathon today.

28/100

8:30 p.m.  6 more switchbacks.  I got two done before it was dark enough to break out the flashlight.  I ran into two ladies and a dog who were coming down, other than that, I was on my own.  I didn't see any snakes, but one big huge spider.  I should have stopped to inspect, but the willies overcame dispassionate scientific interest.

Now I'm sitting home killing time awaiting treadmill delivery.  The window was 9-1.  I hope it's closer to 9.  

34/100

8:30 p.m.  No switchbacks for a change.  I needed a break.  Those are doing a lot of good, though.  I just ran tonight; a couple miles with my son, then 6 or 7 by myself, easy loping along.  .2 miles on a new treadmill.  It took 3 hours to set it up, but should have only been 2.  The power went out at work, so I got home with time to kill.  We killed it, all right.  Reading the instructions is a great idea, at least that's what Grace and I discovered.  Everybody wanted to help, including Jack.  He was walking around with wrenches and screwdrivers, trying to put things together.  The only damage was Gus and Anna pulled a curtain rod out of the wall.  I got after them too much.  

I wanted to do 5 but it got too dark. I figured not breaking an ankle coming down would be better than doing all 5. My legs feel completely dead, but I kept the ups at 5:00 +\- :10.

38/100

Mueller-North Canyon Loop with Twinkies and Tara.  Good times.  The climb was pretty good, the descent was decent.  I couldn't keep up with Matt coming down; he's a real billy goat.  We looped back to the car, and I headed back for 4 more on the Blvd.  My internal GPS works pretty well; I was only off by .1 on my turnaround for 2 miles.  Coming back to the car for the second time I dropped a 6:50 mile, which was nice to do 17 miles into the run.  We had good chats about racing and race day psychology and mental preparation.  More than ever before, I'm locked into finishing the switchbacks by marathon day.

When I got back to the car for the second time, I went to the creek and made a sufficiently deep wallow to sit in the cooling and soothing waters of Mill Stream.  I've never felt this okay after a long run.  That's a good sign... 

I can't wait for the TOU half reports to start rolling in.