They all can't be "easy" runs.

10 miles. 5:40 am start. Legacy Trail with Johnny on his bike. Started at Venice Avenue, to just south of the Circus Bridge, back north to Laurel Road, back south to Venice Avenue. We saw heat lightning, a yellow moon, a kingfisher eating a frog, a possum, some cool colors and clouds with the sunrise over the bays. Johnny thinks he saw a Gator. My favorite part: Johnny singing Weezer's Pork and Beans as we went by the lumber yard.

We're going to try the same thing tomorrow with Tommy.

10 miles. Legacy Trail. Same route as yesterday. Much hotter / humid today. I had Tommy on his bike - whistling. Constantly. I'm going to try for 3 days in a row. Johnny is going tomorrow.

5:40 am. 10 miles on the Legacy trail with Johnny on his bike. He really pushed me today. "Dad, let's race to the next bridge", etc. About 8 miles into it, he got a bug in his eye, and was out of sorts for a bit. I thought he was blowing things out of proportion until:

6:00 pm: Celery Mound. 1.5 up, (5) x 0.1 mile hill spints with jog down, 1.5 down. The gnats were everywhere. I was so coated with bugs at the end of this run, people in the parking lot were pointing at me. I had to run most of the time with my chin on my chest, in the hopes that the bill of my hat would prevent the bugs from hitting my face. I had to breath through my nose. I have a pretty full beard, and it was loaded with gnats. The good news is that all of the rain has caused some washout areas on the paths. If I wasn't running with my chin on my chest, I could have twisted something. < that's the best positive spin I can come up with.

I have complained about bugs before, but this is the new standard by which all other buggy runs will be judged.

4.5 miles on the legacy trail with Tommy. 5:40 am start. We had an early morning appointment, so we cut it short. He's going again tomorrow, because both kids have to have the same mileage. So we'll get 5.5 tomorrow, and then I don't know after that. They start football conditioning next week. Doing this with me is going to make them too tired for foosball, so this might be the end of it. It was a good week, though.

5.5 miles. 5:40 am start. Legacy Trail with Tommy on his bike. This morning he rode with an mp3 player. He was belting out Livin' on a Prayer and More than a Feeling. It was awesome. At one point, he screamed "That's the guy that never says good morning!" Awkward! Son, you are going to have to learn to control the volume of your voice. He had to stop and take in the sunrise over Roberts Bay. It was ridicuous sky-on-fire, choirs-of-angels-singing stuff. This has been a great week for me and the boys. I will miss this later.

Running-wise, a good week, as well. More miles, and faster paces than usual.

5.5 miles. Hood route. No kids. Sweaty Sweaty.

7.5 miles. hood route. I wanted more miles this morning, but stuff happens.

Got up to run this morning, but put it off until the afternoon. 3.5 miles around Benderson south lake. Pretty hot. I threw the cast net a whole lot this weekend, teaching the boys, and now my shoulder is a bit stiff. The first time Tommy got the net all the way open was great! I just wish he would have caught a fish!

We should invent a duathlon, where you run a 5k, and then fish. The winner has the best time / biggest fish. I'm sure this exists someplace. If they have speed golf, they have got to have this.

5:30 am start, Hood route. 1.5 miles. Had to go back home. Then 5.5 miles. Rained on the way back. Not a great start to the day, but I got some miles in.

The kids had their first football conditioning practice tonight. The coaches were saying things to them that I say all the time. But for some reason, I think they heard it tonight. Maybe if I had a whistle,...nah. Anyhow, they are going to sleep well tonight!

7.5 miles. Hood Route. 5:30 am start. So humid. How humid? ..... Sounds were muffled.

Skipping the Celery Hill tonight. I have other obligations. I'm sure the gnats will miss me.

9:15 pm start. Hood route. I felt guilty about not running this morning, so I went out and ran tonight. You know, with the light breeze, it wasn't half bad! It was warm as usual, but just without the bonus gravity. It was pretty steady moving.

am: 3,5 miles. Hood Route. Slow and clunky. Last nights run was a bit too late.

pm: 8.6 miles. Venetian Waterway Park with Johnny on his bike. The rain stopped long enough for us to go. Tonight we did the West side of the intracoastal waterway. We saw eleventy rabbits, and one really cool owl that took off in flight as we passed. There were several gopher tortoise burrows near the airport. For some reason he decided to "Boo" loudly at Venice High. That was kind of weird. We saw the sunset over the ICW. When we got back downtown, there was a singer / guitarist playing at the gazebo, so we went over to check it out. Then I let Johnny play in the fountain. Oh yeah, the running was also good.

They are going to get bored with this someday, and it is going to be very sad for me. But for now, these runs have been great.

am: 5.5 miles. hood route. 7 am start. Like I was swimming.

pm: 5.5 miles Legacy Trail from the Train station north to Laurel and back with Johnny on his bike. We really had to push it at the end so we wouldn't get home too late. Great sunsets over Roberts Bay and Dona Bay. He now has 39.6 bike miles on the trail in 14 days. Tommy has 25.5.

It was my goal to hit 55 miles per week for June. Johnny was nice enough to go out with me for the last 5. Hopefully, next week will not have the miles so loaded to the end of the week. 

9 pm. 7.5 miles. hood route. heat lightning and bats. Seriously, bats flying around my head. So much sweat! Of course this was stuck in my head....

https://youtu.be/m7_Joe8sY24

I have heard that song a couple of hundred times in the last 6 months.

7.5 miles. Hood Route. 8:45 pm start. My Mom's birthday, so I had fudge for dinner. Somehow, that makes sense. Cooler than I expected tonight. Pretty smooth running.

3.5 miles hood route. 6 am start. I needed to take it easy today. back at it tomorrow.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6 am start. Yeah, so much for getting a jump on the miles this week.

7.5 miles. hood route. 9:30 pm start. this one was ugly.  84 deg., 78% hum., 75 d.p.

Hood.

5:30 AM: I started running, and went about 1/4 mile. My left hip felt not so good, so I turned around and ran home. By the time I got home, it felt fine, so I turned around and ran 7.5 slow, hot and humid miles. But I did it, so whatever.

7:00 pm: 10 miles on the Legacy Trail with Tommy on his bike. Train Station south to just past the Circus Bridge, then North to Laurel Road, then back to the Train Station. He is now up to 35.5 miles. Johnny has 39.6. The sunsets over the bay were cool, and we saw a snake. Right before we got out of the car, we heard Michael Jackson's Wanna be Starting Something. So for the whole run, it was MUMMA-SAY MUMMA-SOW MUMMA-KOOSAH! I was really beat up during this run. It was a real struggle. I timed it for funsies, and I can't beleve we did it in 78:09. We stopped 3 times to drink, and I stopped the watch then. But still, we beat the 8 minute guy? It was miserable out there.

I'm getting close to actually meeting this week's mileage goal. The cram session continues....

7.5 miles. Hood Route to Legacy Trail and back. 7 am start. Now it's time for the beach.

7 pm. 10 miles with Tommy on the Legacy Trail. We saw the same snake we saw on Thursday last week, which we named Chip. Everybody likes Chip, even though he is a low down snake in the grass. Then we saw a new snake that Tommy named Slim Jim. Some folks fishing off the Hatchet Creek bridge caught a very small Snook when we passed. Anyhow, since I'm out of town next weekend, and this week is loaded with football training and whatnot, this is the end of the month for the boys logging miles on the trail. Johnny finished with 39.6. Tommy had 45.5.

6 am: 1.5 miles. late start, didn't feel great, blah, blah, blah...

6 pm: Celery Mound. 1.5 up. 10 x 0.1 mile hill sprints, jog down. 1.5 down. NO BUGS! It was still hotter than all get out, but no bugs - I can live with that. Also, the grass was not cut on the levee warm up / cool down runs, so I had to get my feet much higher than normal. If the point of the exercise is to promote higher knee action / lengthen stride, than I think this was a good workout. I have no idea what I'm going to be able to do Tuesday. I'm betting I'll be sore.

Took yesterday off. I was losing focus on my racing goals, and instead focusing on a streak. So, I broke the streak.

5:30 am: 7.5 miles. hood route. My legs appreciated the day off. Springy.

6:30 pm: 10.2 miles. Hood route to Legacy to Colonia and back. Not so springy. No life-saving breeze on the way home.

5:30 am. 5.5 miles. hood route. I saw a bobcat as I walked out of my house. I ran back in and told spouse. She came outside and it was gone. I swear! It was right there! No, it wasn't a bunny!

Running around lakes in the rain in Loda, IL. Th cooler temps were awesome,.

Still in Loda, IL.

Flew home from IL. Picked up the boys from summer camp. Then we went to the beach. The waves were too big for skimming, so we went boogie boarding. There was a red flag at the life guard stand - bad rip currents. Exceptional parent that I am, we went out anyway. We don't get 3 to 4 foot rollers here too often so you have to take advantage. Anyway, it turned out to be a mostly safe day for riding waves. There was an excellent sandbar right at the breakers, so I was standing in knee to chest deep water the whole time, and could focus on my kids. The boys got some great rides. I even rode a couple. There was a moment when Johnny and I were riding the same wave, that I am going to hang on to for a while. So after getting beat up in the gulf for over an hour and straining against the current and eating a big bowl of jambalaya, I went running.

It felt great. Against all reason, it felt smooth. I still have figured out very little about this sport.

5.5 miles Hood Route. 6 am start.