They all can't be "easy" runs.

5 miles on Venetian waterway park. Decent weather. Then I hung out and watched boat ramp hijinx from across the waterway for about 25 minutes.

5 on the trails mid morning

2 on the trails @ 5:30 pm. Then, because of stupid daylight saving, 3.5 hood route miles. 

As I was sitting at the picnic table, watching the boat ramp last night, I was thinking about this Ragnar race that I am officially signed up for now. I was thinking that this race is going to be different than anything I've done before. Every race I've done - the gun goes off - I run until I cross the finish line - race over. This race will have multiple starts. And how should I train for it? Since the race is basically (3) 5-ish mile trail loops, 2 days in a row, the best way to prepare, I figure, would be to run (3) 5 mile trail loops, 2 days in a row. I should do at least 1 of those runs after dark, with a head light, so that my first time running trails in the dark with a head light is not on race day. 

I don't know what I'm doing. But this plan seems specific to my race, and would be better than, say, 8 road miles a day until race day. You wouldn't prepare for a hilly race on flat ground. I'm just trying to replicate what I've committed to do. I'm the oldest guy on the team by 8 years. My goal is not to be the slowest. 

5 on the trails - 8:30 am

5 on the trails - 12:30 pm

5 on the trails - 6:30 pm. Experiment with running with a head lamp that I used for fishing 12-ish years ago. I tried it a bunch of different ways, but it is kind of bulky and the elastic is shot. I got the best results when it was wrapped around my hand. When I was running in sand or shell (white surfaces) the path was clear. Things got a bit tougher when I was running on grass or pine straw. I've got 16 days to figure this out. 

5 on the trails - 10:00 am late start. I then wasted too much time talking to the shirtless tire dragger. Getting 3 runs in today is going to by challenging. 

5 on the trails. I saw a very large bobcat on mile 1. - 4:30 pm. 75 deg., 85% hum., 70 d.p.

yeah, I'm done for the day. I'll try again tomorrow. 

5 on the trails - 9:00 am 80 deg., 62% hum., 65 d.p. I broke 1,200 miles on the year. I saw a Bald Eagle up very close at the start of the run. Later, there was a woman walking the trails in flesh colored spandex. At a distance, with my bad vision, I thought I was looking at something different. 

5 on the trails - 3 pm 75 deg., 66% hum., 73 d.p.

With this run, I have logged 24,901 miles (the equator) since my first logged run (3.5 miles on 2/28/10.) It took me 15 years, 8 months, and 23 days. Which is roughly 1,586 miles a year, or 132.45 miles a month for 188 months, or 4.34 miles per day for 5,744 days on average. 

I realize that jtshad has done 2x the equator in the same time it took me to do it once. But I still think it is a pretty cool benchmark. 

I was at something that was described as a football game between the Gators and UT, but I saw no evidence of that.