Turn your rut into a groove.

am--3.25 Tortoise Road out-and-back w/ a nice group of kiddos. First day of xc practice. We had a great group of kids come out. There is a good feeling to this group. I'm excited to see who steps up this year. 

am--5.25 Barefoot grass loops w/ 8 x striders in the middle. 15 warm and 15 cool. The running was briskish, but a good group held together, and some decent chat happened. Proud moment of the day: a girl was talking about how she had to miss a bit of time at the beginning of summer practice for trek and family stuff. She was glad that if she was going to miss something, it would be the "easy" stuff and not workouts. Fearless. RHR--49.

am--4.5 A nice run up past Maverick into the desert. It's fun to run and chat w/ the kids. We need to work on letting everyone's goofiness out. RHR--56 (A little high. More sleep is the prescription.)

am--3.5 Dogtown stroll. We took it easy today. Finished w/ striders. The group of girls running together is bigger than ever. I love it. RHR--52.

am--5.5 Pine View Park neighborhood loop. It was the longer run for the week. We went and picked up Meskerem, which really cheered her up, and the girls looked at a goat or something. We finished briskly as we got back to the park. RHR--50.

pm--7 Default Tready Fartlek. I decided to watch Kershaw pitch while I ran. He was pitching a gem, but the Dodger bats were making Jaime Garcia look like Bumgarner. The 3-minute fartlek sections were in the mid-7s.