They all can't be "easy" runs.

5:45 am. 7.5 miles. hood route.

6:00 pm. Celery mound. 1.5 up.  5 x 0.1 mile hill sprints, jog down. 1.5 mile down. Big heat, but no bugs. Kind of crowded today.

6 am: 5.5 miles. Hood route.

7 am: 10 miles with the boys on Legacy Trail.

6:30 pm: 7.85 miles in Fruit Cove. Warm, and kind of vurpy. Mongloian BBQ was not a wise lunch choice.

7 am: 7.85 mile. Fruit Cove loop. This town is much younger than my town. There were lots of runners out, and a pack of @ 100 cyclists. This hurt after yesterday, but I got my weekly miles. This cramming stuff has got to come to an end. I need more miles earlier in the week.

The July plan: Still hold the 55 mpw, but incorporate something the kids are calling "a long run." I have heard this is helpful to marathoners. Maybe I should check it out.

Goose egg, but it's not all bad.

Started today in Fruit Cove with a canoe ride down Cunningham Creek with the boys. I let them do the work for the last half hour, and I sat in the middle. They were yelling at each other and banging the oars off the boat. Then a manatee came within a foot of the canoe and surfaced several times, and just hung out there for a few minutes. My sons were immobilized and silent. They were just studying it. It was great. Then spouse drove home through the rain and we watched the women's world cup final. Now I have thunder and lightning, and I'm not running in lightning. Rain, sure. Lightning, no. Another cram session next weekend, for sure. Here we go again.

6 am: 5,5 miles. Hood Route.

6 am. 3.5 miles. hood route. this hole is getting deep. 4 months until race day.

6 pm: Celery mound. 1.5 up. (10) x 0.1 hill sprints, jog down. 1.5 down. Very tough running today. The second I finished with the last rep, before the cool down, a storm started rolling in. I didn't get rained on, but the sudden drop in temps, with the wind, may have saved me today. There was also a 6" deep gully from all of the rain right through the middle of the path I run. I only ate a few bugs tonight.

5:46 am: 10.2 miles. Hood route to Legacy Trail to Colonia and back. Warm. The boys and I have had Soul Coughing's Super Bon Bon stuck in our heads for the last couple of days.

30+ miles to go. Not looking good.

9:30 pm. 11.5 miles. Hood route. Inspired by the YOUCANDOIT comments. Apparently, I can do it - ALL NIGHT LONG! Seriously, this run was tough. Putting on sweat soaked shoes, steam coming off the roads, heat lightning - fun, fun, fun.

I'm feeling a little better about hitting 55 for the week.

6 am: 3.5 miles. hood route. To knock the rust off from yesterday, and to set myself up for 16.25 miles saturday. Return of the long run - yeah!  It took about a mile for this run not to feel awful. I still came home looking like I just got out of the pool. I saw my dad out on his walk at the end of the run, and talked with him for a bit, which was nice. His neighbor has a jackfruit tree, and is willing to give me one. They produce 4-5 fruits per year, so this is kind of a big deal. I am excited to try one of those 80 pound fruits! I'll let you now how it goes.

https://youtu.be/okUrGG66KpQ

5:30 am. Legacy Trail to Circus Bridge and back. from wunderground.com at start: 82 deg., 97% hum., 81 d.p. Feels like 94. This was, well,... I finished. The sunrise over the bays almost made it worth it.

7.5 miles. Hood route. 6:30 am Start. 75 deg., 94% hum., 73 d.p. Almost chilly compared to yesterdaay. Today had thunder in the distance, so rain is on the way. Fairly slow stuff today, but after missing the last 2 Sundays, I'm happy to get a run in today.

6 am. 3.5 miles. Hood route.

The results of the summer bike ride challenge for June came out. Both boys were less than happy that they did not have the highest mileage (they were 2nd and 3rd). I knew as soon as football conditioning pracice started, they were going to drop off in milage. Anyhow, we did 5.5 more on the Legacy Trail tonight. Both boys have 15.5 for July, so far. Oh yeah, the kid that won the bike had 12.3 miles.

7.5 miles. Hood Route. 6 am start. Threatening to rain, but never quite getting there the whole run.

7.5 miles. Hood Route. 6 am start. Celery Mound tomorrow.

There is a lot to cover today, so let's get to it:

5:45am: 5.5 miles. Hood Route. light rain.

6 pm: Celery mound. 1.5 up. (10) x 0.1 hill sprints, jog down. 1.5 down. Light rain until Rep #4, then downpour until Rep #8, Then light rain for the cool down, then rain stopped altogether back at my car. It was awesome. Watching the rain roll in from on top of my mini-mountain was really cool.  No running tomorrow. Going for 16.25 Saturday again.

Then I went home and had a great dinner with the family. (Once again, I am so happy I no longer have the night job.) Then this happened:

https://goo.gl/photos/PZVKC7XaB3WJrJEb6

Jackfruit is the sweetest naturally occurring food I have ever eaten. It tastes like Juicy Fruit Gum. The texture is bizzare, as well. A bit stringy, a bit custard-y, a bit slimy. It is almost TOO sweet. So we made some into smoothies, and that was easier to handle. I have, like, 10 pounds of Jack Fruit now. This was a really neat experience.

5:45 am start - Hood route to Legacy Trail to Circus Bridge and back. I knew this run was going to be bad when I left the driveway. I was still a bit sore from the hill stuff Thursday, and the temp / hum. / d.p. thing - I don't even want to know. I am starting to think that maybe I should wait until sunrise to start. The moisture seems to break up a slight bit after sunrise.

I felt like giving up at 3.75 miles, and then walked for a bit. The canals on both sides of the Legacy Trail are flooded out, which usually means bugs, but today, it meant frogs. Frogs singing at a volume similar to a space shuttle departure. Stopped again at the Roberts bay bridge. There was a huge gator hanging out under the bridge, which is wierd, because that is less than a mile to the gulf. That's salt water, not brackish. I guess all the rain changed some of that. Started raining in full sun with 2 miles to go. But by then, I was already too far wasted for it to do me any good. Then with 1.5 miles to go, some goats had got out from one of the farms I pass. They were standing in the sidewalk, bleating at me. That's unusual.

So short story long, even though the run itself was miserable, I feel very fortunate to experience the stuff I did this morning. Jack Fruit Smoothie Recovery Drink? Yes, please!

4.5 miles. Legacy Trail. Johnny on his bike. Tommy RUNNING with me for 4. At 2 miles, Tommy had to stop for a POP. Johnny and I continued to the turn around and picked him up on the way back. This is the farthest he has gone on one run, and he struggled, but finished strong. He really kicked well at the end.

It was super crowded with bikes out there today. I work really hard on my boys to pay attention, keep to the right, etc. Some of the folks on bikes said things to me like "it doesn't get any better than this..." etc., which is cool. But then 2 guys on bikes yelled at Johnny for not getting out of the way fast enough for their satisfaction. Johnny was about 100 yards ahead of me when this happened. So, to put is mildly, I'm a little upset about that.

He's 8 years old. What is wrong with people?

Hood route. Run fail. Then i picked up 2 nights mopping at the YMCA for an injured coworker. Then slept 3 hours. Then flew to portland. I tried to sleep on the plane but could only sleep in 10-15 minute intervals. Then in portland, we couldn't get ourroom due to the time c hange.

Portland. Ran over 3 of the bridges downtown. Ran by a submarine and a seadoo factory, OMSI, beer fest, concrete plant, uncountable homeless, and that is not in order. My initial gut reaction to this town is that it is beautiful on the macro scale, but ugly on the micro scale.

Portland. Great sunny weather. The course was so packed, i had to remind myself i wasn't in a race.

3 miles in portland. Overcast and misty out there. I fly back home in a couple of hours. It has been a wacky week.

7.5 miles. Hood route. The intent was to cleanse the system. To that end- 12:40 pm start. 88 deg. 71% hum. 78 d.p. feels like 101. I ran with a shirt, and still beat the 8 minute man. I made it as painful as possible, and I am whooped. As good as it was to step back a bit and see my brother, I'm ready to get rolling again.

7.5 miles. Hood route. Sweaty, but i've been through worse.

Hood route. 6 am. rain. good times.

5:30 am start. hood route.