Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

59F, humid w/ low clouds.  Recovery run. 

Sno's Leg Recovery Index: (Scale = 1-5)  Soreness: 2.5, Perceived Leg Strength 3, Monkeys per leg: 2.  Not too bad, but I'm definitely feeling yesterday's workout.  It helped to do quite a lot of walking yesterday afternoon, as we took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island sans car and walked all over. Links here and here.  

Upper to mid 50s - in that order! (...as fog moved up from the valley).  Fog, wonderful fog!  Easy pace run. 

Easy pace, not easy run.  It took me about 4 miles before I stopped feeling like I ought to just go back to bed.  It's that 2 day muscle recovery fatigue thing. 

To me, fog is not just gray mush, but rather it makes the colors of the landscape pop out brighter.  I've heard the film directors always prefer a cloudy or overcast sky because colors are more vivid then.  

Saw the Great Blue Heron at the duck pond again today. He/she is hunting up here, and is perfectly camouflaged in the gray fog.

Dale (link in my favorites) has a great race report on his White River 50 mile ultra this weekend. Check it out!  

56F, cloudy. G-A run. 

Just now getting around to blogging this morning's run.  Very pleasant run, but I missed about an hour through the juvenile mistake (or maybe a "senior moment") of forgetting to set my alarm. How lame!  I jumped up when I heard Mr. Sno's alarm at 5:20 and it's been rush, rush, rush all day ever since.  Here's to a more responsible tomorrow!  

57F, mostly cloudy w/ increasing fog.  VO2 workout:    ~Four mile w.u. / 8 x 3 min. hard effort w/ 90 sec recovery, on roads w/ some hills / 1+ mi  c. d.   Pace on vo2 reps:  8:07, 8:09, 8:11, 7:59, 8:05, 8:01, 8:20, 8:08.

Very difficult run. During the second or third rep I didn't think I was going to make it through all 8.  Now that I see how consistent the splits were I am amazed; only the 7th rep is notably slower, and that was the one that was a bit more uphill than the others.  Even now, an hour later, my legs feel all tingly and weak.  And I do hate that lung-burning feeling. When the Garmin beeped to give me a 5 second warning that the new rep was starting, I kept thinking "so soon? I can't, I can't..."  But I did.  :)

We had a spectacular thunderstorm last night!  Only a few drops of rain (it's our dry season) but lots of noise.   I would like to personally thank whoever invented silicone earplugs.  Early bedtimes are the key to running success. 

63F, very humid.  Pretty clouds with some clear sky.  Easy pace run. 

I believe we've got some actual rain coming. Imagine that.  In Washington State of all places.  

Mid 50s, rising to low 60s, cloudy, breezy at times.  Endurance run, club run (1.5 mi w/ a new club member who had to turn back since she is a beginner), and Leg Builder Hill. 

I began this run still feeling a little sore from my speed work on Wednesday, especially in my calves.  With the breeze, it was actually chilly at first, while I was still up on the Ridge. In the valley things warmed up, I warmed up, and I got to the club run in plenty of time (for a change). 

I hit the bonanza on the wildlife sightings today. In addition to the usual rabbits and squirrels, I saw the elk herd that is often at Meadowbrook Farm (not really a farm but a county-run nature preserve of sorts). Then there was a beautiful doe that crossed in front of me. After that, I saw two coyotes in a field, occupied with some rodent I think.  Just after that, a bald eagle went right over me and perched in a big tree by the river to watch a little flock of Canadian geese that were down there honking away.  There is always some threat/possibility that Mr. Sno will be offered a promotion to LA or NY, and days like this I think I'd rather just have him retire early and us live in relative poverty than give up our NW paradise.

In other musings, I felt very low today in spite of the nice cool weather. I was doing a couple of faster miles (MP plus 15-20 seconds) around mile 11-13 and just felt no zip, none at all.  Maybe it will help that I did them anyway. But it just brought on some very dark thoughts. If I like running mile after mile at a 10:00 to 10:30 pace, why am I continually working towards getting faster?  Then again, maybe I'd be getting slower and slower without all that work.  Self doubt in every form, with the added negative voice of "why do you even try? why do you even care? how many years are you going to fly this banner ("goal=BQ") over your running life?" I have a 10K in 3 weeks, and a marathon in 7, and I felt so incompetent today. 

Then half way up the Parkway (LB Hill) I got the most dreadful stomach cramps and had to walk nearly a quarter mile to the park bathroom (and thank goodness it was that close!).  So the 1st half of my run today was beauty, nature and joy, and the 2nd half was, literally, "endurance" run.