They all can't be "easy" runs.

4 hilly and dangerous vacation miles near Bryson City NC. State route 19 and some on SR 1336. One of the most amazing things about this run was that I noticed that the foundation for the road I was running on in some places had stacked up old cars from the 50s. You could really see the crushed cars in the river embankment.

Four more hilly vacation miles in the big meadows campground on top of the Shenandoah mountains in VA. The weather and the lack of stickyness was awesome. Definitely a foreign experience. Also running by deer was kind of cool. Later in the day I had a 0.8 mile run up a mountain from a waterfall so I could get the car and double back to pick up my wife. But I'm not counting that one.

Back from vacation. The Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina and Skyline Drive through Virginia were awesome. Today's run puts me back in the soup. Hood route to Legacy Trail and bathroom stop at Laurel Park and back. 8 a.m. start. 60 days to race day. Now that vacation is over... No more mister nice guy... time to get serious.

5 on the trails. 9 am start. 89 deg. 68% hum. 76 d.p.

0.5 up. then 7.5 on legacy trail. venice ave north to mile marker 3.75 and back. 1:00:57. 0.5 down. Not that bad of weather, as it was slightly overcast. 

Followed by one of the weirdest homeless people interactions. So I am parked under the bridge. (Venice ave is right next to the bus station) I started my car to cool it down for the ride home, as I was drying off . This woman comes up behind my car, cying her eyes out, asking me to use my phone. She said that she got on the wrong bus, and that she didn't know where her boyfriend was, and he was supposed to meet her, but was not where he said he would be,.... She says she doesn't even need to hold my phone. I can hold it and put it on speaker. Okay fine. I just handed her my phone. she calls her boyfriend. Because my engine is running, the phone automatically goes to blue tooth, and their conversation is loud and echoing around under the bridge. They swear a LOT. She was leaning  very much into my car. When she tells him about the wrong bus thing, he goes into the most profanity filled screaming fit ever. I guess busdrivers are supposed to give you your money back when you get on the wrong bus. Who knew? so now the conversation has turned to the unspeakable acts of violence he is ready to commit on the bus driver, if he ever sees her again. At this point, I am ready to pull the plug on this whole thing, and am hoping to never meet this boyfriend guy. They finally get the conversation back to where each other is. Again, full of F bombs, and echoing around under the bridge from my car speakers. He says do you hear that ambulance? I am very near that ambulance. She says she can't see the ambulance. I said Yeah, but you can hear it, right? It's like 100 yards away, going up the bridge. She says again that she can't SEE it. So she starts walking towards the ambulance noise. She is now far away from my car. He is still giving profanity filled directions, now to just me. I'm like she's gone man, she's coming your way. and i hang up the call. I leave the parking area, and I'm driving east on venice avenue, the north side of the bridge. and I see the boyfriend coming west looking for the crying woman. To the surprise of no one, she chose to go looking for him, headed east on the south side of the bridge. so they are now separated by the up ramp of the bridge, and passing each other again. I just sighed when I saw this happening. so when I needed to merge into traffic coming off the bridge and I saw her on the other side of the road. I rolled down my window, and yelled across the street to her "he's back that way! he's on this side of the street. He's over here!" She seemed to understand what I was saying, even though there were cars stacked up behind me, honking at this point. 

You would think that would be the end of the story. - That I was instrumental in reuniting two lovebirds under the venice avenue bridge. But no. 

About 2 minutes later, my phone rang again. I didn't know the number, but I had a pretty good feeling I knew who it was. She said "Hi this is Shauna, who is this?"  I said "I'm Tom." I could hear her tell him "He says it's Tom." Then he grabs the phone and says WHO THE F.. IS TOM?! And then I hung up again.

I see a wonderful future for those two. Surprise pm run. while Johnny was at baseball practice. From the high school fields to Venetian waterway park, north to under north bridge, then over north bridge to quarter deck restaurant and back. The bridge was at effort. But the rest was nice and easy.

Late start at track, but the weather was decent. 2 up. (4) x 800M repeats with 400M AR. 1 down. 3:30, 3:30, 3:19, 3:23. I could have done more at this pace, but I ran out of today. I really felt like I did not leave it all on the track, and that I was getting stonger as I went.  

4 on the trails. 9 am start. 

7 am start. this was supposed to be a 20+ miler, but things fell apart (heat, humidity, lack of Gu). I have not finished 20+ miles since October 7, 2018 (Towpath Marathon). Hood route to legacy trail over circus bridge to caspersen beach and back to venice avenue / train station, where I called spouse for a ride. 8 weeks until race day. this is not good. over the last 10 years, I have gone from wanting to finish a marathon, to wanting to race a marathon. It seems like I'm back to wanting to finish a marathon again. 

On the plus side, I met some nice people that just finished their bike ride while I was waiting for spouse. Curtis, who gave me some Gu packets from his trunk. And Janice, who is from Levittown PA, like me. It is a small world. 

3 on trails. 8 pm start.

Am: 1.2 miles.

Noon: 4 on the trails.

Pm: 8 on Venetian waterway park during Johnny's baseball practice

82 deg. 93% hum 80 d.p. 0.4 up. 7.5 miles hood route to Legacy trail and back. 1st 3 in 7:45, 15:38, 24:29. then I hobbled the rest of it. I was pretty down on myself for falling apart like that. But then when I got home and saw what the dew point is / was, I feel a little better. I don't think I've never seen 80 before. I was thinking of changing my training strategy to no speed, just medium long and long runs, to try to ensure a finish. But now I realize that my brain was cooking out there. 

pm: 8 miles on venetian waterway park during Johnny's baseball practice. 

5 on the trails. Yes, I skipped a track workout yesterday. Sometimes life gets in the way of running. I admire all the guys on here that are really disciplined about their running. I can hold it together for awhile, but then I get overwhelmed by other responsibilities. A couple of things - 

1. While I was out there, I was thinking about the amount of water I was breathing. I know I have thought this before while running. Is this like Vaping? Why would someone choose to breathe this? 

2. After mile 4 I talked to a guy walking his dog. The dog was a Big Yellow Lab (as oposed to the guy was a big yellow lab). Anyhow, I pet the dog for a minute, and didn't realize how much shedding had stuck to my sweaty hands, until I started to rub my face during mile 5.  I am still freaking out about the clingy dog hair. 

3. I finally met JG from the blog last Saturday. He lives just outside of Venice and is going to start up running again. I'll see if I can nag him to start posting again, too. 

4. Going for 20+ again tomorrow. I did an extensive amout of forensics this week to figure out the problem with last week's run fail. I'm not guaranteeing success. But optimism is high. 

20.75 MI. Hood route to Legacy Trail the circus Bridge the caspersen beach and back. I ran a lot smarter than I did last week. I had good nutrition and good hydration and better pacing. But the big difference from last week was no sun. It was overcast for the whole run. I think that helped me a lot. I'm glad that this 20-mile + hurdle has been accomplished.

2 on the trails. Then 5.5 miles hood route. There appears to be no real damage done by yesterday's long run. Today was in full sun, and was a bit tough. But no specific soreness anywhere. So I guess I'll keep going then. 

4 on the trails. 

6 am start. 0.8 around the block miles. Then 10.2 miles. Hood Route to Legacy Trail to Colonia and back. 1:26:17. Drizzled the whole run, but poured for mile 2. 

same drill as yesterday, only @ 10 minutes slower. 7:40 am start. 0.8 around the block miles. Then 10.2 miles. Hood Route to Legacy Trail to Colonia and back. Rained cats and dogs for miles 4-6. Then after that, running into the sunrise was kind of miserable. 

I worked a full day in the office yesterday for the first time in a year and a half. I had 3 meetings. I only plan on going back if I have days scheduled like that. I'm thinking this could work like, Oh you want to meet? Let's schedule it for Tuesday! 

5 on the trails. I got rained out this morning. So this run happened at 12:30. 

5 more on the trails. 7:30 am start.

20.75 miles. Hood route to legacy trail over circus bridge to caspersen Beach and back. 6 am start. Way better running than last week. I was slow but in control the whole time. Full sun from 8 miles to finish. I have never seen this many manatees splashing around. It was crazy. On the other hand, there were lots of dead fish, down by caspersen. The red tide has finally shown up. The venice avenue boat ramp was already packed at 7 am. People want to get out on the water right now? It's gross but I might go out with boy #2 later.