Hell to Pay 10K

Before I can sit down and write my blogpost on Death Valley I have to announce that I want to retire from the 10K distance. I ran the Human Race 10K today, I renamed it the Hell to Pay 10K, and it reminded me of why it's been 7 years since the last time I ran a 10K. I hate that distance, and today was no different.

I used to love 10Ks, I don't know why, maybe because I was good at them? Maybe it's because it's the first race distance I ever ran and there were so many of them back in the 1980s. Now they just hurt, I can't go fast anymore, and it's prolonged torture. This morning it was cool, in the 60s, and humid. The sun never came out from behind the clouds, which was nice. The first two miles were a gradual uphill grade up Mountain Avenue, a quick trip through the cemetery, then slightly down Taft Hill Road, then a good half mile drop, then the bike path for 2 miles, and then, at mile 5, a twisty, junked up portion of the race course through the flooded area of the Poudre Trail from this spring. It was dirt, sand, rocks, and very soft. Not a fast surface at all. Then it emerged uphill from the Poudre Trail, back down Mason, and completing the loop at Civic Center Park.

When the alarm went off this morning I didn't want to get up. I need to catch up on sleep. But I got up anyway, it was 4:50 am, I had coffee and got my butt down to sign up for the race and warm up for a couple of miles. On my warmup I felt terrible, I could not move. My legs felt tired and stiff.

When the race started, I ran okay the first two miles, 7:56 and 8:06, but then when we started heading downhill, first thing that happened was my shoe came untied, so I had to bend over and tie it, a stupid thing, but I was so out of it this morning that I guess I didn't tie my shoes very well.

As we went downhill, my pace got even slower. I could not take advantage of the downhill grade, the legs simply would not turn over. I felt like I was running in concrete. I considered walking. But I kept going, kept pushing as hard as I could, I was noticing the labored breathing of people passing me while my breathing was just fine, but my legs would not move. I was averaging 8:20s or slower the rest of the way. It sucked. I just wanted to get it over with, and I pulled up to the finish in 51:53 which is a dismal, disappointing time for me. But at least it was faster than what I would have run if I just went out by myself. I did get a decent tempo run in.

Ugh. I am glad I stuck to my plan of waking up and doing the race, but I need to not worry about the time. It was definitely not a good day for me to be racing.

As it turned out I placed second in my age group and got a ceramic coaster...how convenient- for beer! I'll need a beer after that!

I am going to get to the business of writing my blogpost and taking a good nap. It's a cool, overcast day and should be great for sleeping. Check back later...

Black Raspberry Margaritas First

I know you want to hear about Badwater and I'm keeping you in suspense. I had a busy day today between unpacking, restocking the kitchen with groceries, and a business seminar, plus it took me a couple of hours just to go through the 800 or so photos I took last week. I will be working on the blogpost over the weekend though.

Tomorrow I am running the Human Race 10K. I went for a 5 mile run this morning, my first since last Sunday in Las Vegas. All the fatigue I had before my trip should be gone by now, I was a complete slug almost the entire trip, with the exception of a 7 miler in west Las Vegas with an accurate 3.2 mile at the end in 22:45. Yes, that's correct. It's an accurate course- a 5K, plus a tenth. I triple checked it. I ran the 7 miles in 54 minutes and change, the first half was uphill.

I admit the fast part was downhill. But I did mile splits of 7:27, 7:00, and 6:47 on my way down and I was nowhere near an all-out pace. I started out comfortable and picked it up gradually. It was at 3000 feet elevation, but it was also 88 degrees when I started. What I'm trying to say is that if it had been a 5K, I would have run it in the low 22s and that would be a fast time for me right now. So tomorrow, running the Human Race 10K, will give me another check on my fitness, at 5000 feet. And it's downhill only from 2.5 to 5.5 miles, the rest is a slight uphill grade, on a loop course.

We have a killer crop of raspberries and black raspberries. I picked about two pints of berries between last night and today. I threw some black raspberries in the blender and made a margarita. A little seedy, but awesome flavor.

I haven't slept well with the hot flashing and it will be another ice pack night. The margarita is cold, and maybe it will make me run faster tomorrow. After the race I meet with a client, and after that I will be blogging away so I can share the stories and photographs from this year's unique race.

Hail Mary! Twenty Miles of Chopped Salad

I haven't been blogging much this week, it's been crazy. I've been busy with work, which is awesome, and getting my miles in even though my legs don't feel as fresh as I'd like them to be, but we've had a few mini natural disasters around here lately.

It started innocently enough early this week, nice clear skies in the mornings followed by late afternoon thunderstorms, which is typical summer Colorado weather. I ran the bike paths early in the week, everything was green and growing and summery.

Tuesday was a great day, especially in the evening when I had my radio show on KRFC. The podcast isn't up on their website yet and the host of the show told me she is behind on getting those things up so it could be August before it's available. But the good news is it went very well and I will likely do another show in the future. As soon as the podcast is up I will post the link. It was fun, I really liked it and I felt comfortable with Lindsay, the show host.

I had a lot of client appointments this week which gave me a good indicator of how busy I will be able to get before I need to hire some help. I'm not there yet but I have some thinking to do over the next few weeks so I can start putting all of that in place and be ready in case...

Tuesday night we had a massive hailstorm, the girls were both on the bed with us, trembling. We could hear the hail crashing on the roof, I went in the back office and looked out the open window and could smell the parsley, being shredded in the dark. It sounded like the windows were going to break at times, and like someone was pounding the roof with baseball bats.

The next morning we surveyed the damage. No damage to the cars, windows, or obvious damage to the roof, everything looked intact. But the yard...

The garden was shredded into what looked like chopped salad.

We'll have to start over, the good thing is it's June and we still have another two months, we can at least plant lettuce and other things again. The baby tomato plants are gone. Lucky I had just harvested the broccoli and most of the cauliflower the day before the storm. The beets might survive but most of them are big enough to pull now anyway.

I had a 20 mile run planned and got out there and did it. I decided on a tour of south Fort Collins, which turned into a Hail Mary tour.

The piles of hail along Lemay Avenue were easily a foot deep, deeper in some spots.

As I ran up the Power Trail there were areas that were flooded, and other places that looked like a blizzard hit.

When I got to the place where the Power Trail was a lake, I decided on a detour through the golf course.

That was flooded, too. I ended up running through mid-calf-deep icy water!

Everywhere I turned there were more piles of deep hail.

It made for an interesting and adventurous run. I felt like I was in the mountains again, something I've been missing lately. In July I plan to get up to Rocky Mountain National park, regardless of the bad ankles, I'm going.

This morning it was speed day and usually I run with Wheaties Boy but he was out of town, so I decided to sleep in and do my miles in the daylight, and on pavement, which helps. Finally busted through the 7 minute mark again, despite my dead legs. The next two were close, but no cigar...7:08 and 7:02. Still not bad for tired legs.

Tomorrow I have a long run planned. While the rest of Fort Collins is downtown at the Brewers Festival, I am hoping to have the roads to myself and run a good portion of the day, maybe 6 hours or so. Next week is already the 4th of July, Isabelle's birthday on the 5th, and I am looking forward to three weeks from today.

That's when I take off to Lone Pine, California to be on Badwater Medical again. I cannot wait to get back out there and see everyone, I missed it so much last year when I was stuck here in that horrible torture session at my old job. I'm driving this time, 17 hours total each way, but will stop off and visit friends along the way in western Colorado the first night, and of course make my necessary Sushi Koma stop in Las Vegas.

But mostly I'm looking forward to the long hours on the road, with the windows down, no AC, hot wind blasting in my face, and clearing my mind. I need a reset button!

Overflowing...

I have so much on my mind, it's hard to hold my tongue, it's overflowing!

The past few days have been busy and full. I'm trying to prepare for an hour-long radio show next week, and I got a new client last week, and then got a call from a former patient yesterday who wants me to come work with her. I met with an advertising rep from a paper in a nearby town, and I'm staying on top of things, but the pace has increased.

Working with clients has been rewarding and satisfying beyond description. I loved working with patients at the hospital but you were so limited in what you could do or say. There wasn't enough time to give them. Now I can spend the time, and give them the attention I always wanted to.

When I got the call from my former patient, it was this feeling of gratitude that came over me, I felt like melting into the ground. I happened to really like working with this person and I felt like I'd just been handed a gift. To be able to help someone in ways that they never can be helped in traditional health care.

It was a strange coincidence, maybe, that the same day I got the call from the former patient, I also ran into one of my former co-workers, and was contacted by another former co-worker on Facebook. I was out running and saw one of the nurses I used to work closely with. We spent a lot of time talking and catching up, and whenever I hear from people I used to work with, they say things haven't gotten better. They look tired, spent, and are looking for ways out.

It's so sad. I think it's sad that in our rush to implement the ACA we've allowed the new health care model to be a wholly profit-centered big corporate one, where the people calling the shots have no idea about what it's like to work directly with patients as a health care provider. Fits right under the armpit of our oligarchy. I have a lot to say about that, as you already know if you've followed this blog for any length of time.

And I am writing about it...and will be putting quite a bit of time into that project before long.

Which reminds me, this cartoon from this tweet by @MalwareTechBlog cracked me up this morning!

Ran with Wheaties Boy at the cemetery this morning. I ran as hard as I could but only got into the 7:20s for my miles. My legs are still tired, but at least I was consistent and I did them. I will have improvement in the coming weeks. I feel better this week but my legs are still sluggish. The half-marathon on Sunday should be interesting. I am so glad I didn't sign up for the full marathon. I will end up with between 75 and 80 miles this week.

Last night I made a pizza at home on my travertine tile in the oven. It was for sure the best pizza I have ever made, thanks to the tile. It works the same as a pizza stone. You have to use an unglazed tile. I need to get motivated to post the recipe on Bitchen Swill. I got the ingredient ideas from Whole Foods but I did it differently than they do.

A few weeks ago I was starving and walked into Whole Foods (generally a verybad idea) but they had these different pizzas, and I tried a couple, and this one was amazing. It was a barbecue sauce base with barbecue beef brisket and pineapple, some hot peppers, and I can't remember what else. But I decided I needed to make it for Dennis. I used fresh mozzarella cheese, cilantro, red onion, and tabasco in addition to all those things and of course my own pizza dough recipe, which worked out much better on the tile.

For our anniversary I asked for a pizza stone- or something like it, and a tile is a lot less expensive. Even though I do shop at Whole Foods on occasion, I don't like to pay more for something than I can get at a much more reasonable price. When I found out you can use an unglazed tile as a pizza stone that's what I asked for, on one of Dennis's trips to Home Depot. Where else can you get your wife an anniversary present for a couple of bucks?

The one thing I've had to push back is writing. I really want to work on my writing project and all these other things are priorities right now, but I have one more presentation in mid-July to prepare for, and it won't take too long, but as soon as the radio show is done I will have more time to focus on the writing. I have so much I want to say, things that want to spill out of my brain constantly and I've been making notes and the notes are piling up and taking over! So much to say...

Ain't Skeered...

It's Friday the 13th and a full moon, and Wheaties Boy and I had plans to do speedwork in the cemetery. If there was anything creepy waiting for us, we would just have to run faster!

As far as I was concerned, Friday the 13th already happened yesterday. The water pump on my car sprung a leak, so I had to get that replaced, and then the dishwasher died. Not exactly the kinds of things that you enjoy dealing with, especially when you're living on a limited budget. But...what can you do?

The dishes.

It was freezing again in the morning, this time it was 48 degrees, and I kept my long sleeved shirt on during the warmup. My legs have been toast all week. Actually this morning when I went downstairs to make coffee, it was the first day all week that it didn't hurt my quads to go down the stairs.

I woke up at 1:14 am, and couldn't go back to sleep. At 2 am I gave up, got up, made some coffee, and started reading my e-mail. I got to the cemetery early, I needed to get a good warmup in before Wheaties Boy arrived and I picked up the pace. When he showed up, he said his legs were toast and he didn't think speed was going to happen. I felt the same way and we decided to bag the mile repeats and just run laps around the cemetery. That was perfect. I got 10 miles in at a decent pace, even though it was slow, it was faster than I would have run alone. And Wheaties Boy and I finally had a chance to catch up, we usually only can do that on our recovery laps, warmups and cooldown.

As we ran I was describing my running plans to him and I realized how silly I was, thinking I'd do 100 miles this week. First, I have increased my mileage consistently over the past 4 weeks, so it would be time for an easy week anyway. And then, I don't need a lot of long runs yet. It's only early June. I just raced 5 weeks ago. It made more sense to back off this week, and since my legs have already been worthless all week and I was unable to do tempo or speed as a result, might as well back off the rest of the week and then make next week a reasonable week, but nothing extreme.

I don't know what I was thinking. I need speed more than endurance now. I can run forever but I need to make my legs turn over, and beating the crap out of them with long miles is not going to help that. Lucky that I got a chance to verbalize all this with Wheaties Boy. Sometimes you just need to say it out loud before it makes sense.

So the plan is changed. No long runs this month. I don't need them. In July I can start a few longer runs.

When I got home it was light out and I could see the flower garden when I pulled up in the driveway. It's not as spectacular as it's been in past years, I might have to re-seed for next year, but it looks nice anyway. I went in the house, said good morning to Dennis and the girls as they were waking up, made some breakfast, and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

Now I'm out in the woman cave, turned on the AC because it was like a sauna in here, and Iris is looking out the door, where it's even hotter outside. I gave the girls a bath with the hose earlier. It's supposed to hit 90 degrees.

I've been making some progress this week with getting marketing projects done, and I actually spent 6 solid hours one day doing client-related work. Progress. I have a radio show coming up and then I need to prepare for a presentation I'm giving at the local running store.

I've had the itch to get back to my writing project, and I need to get some of these business projects done so that I can clear space in my mind for re-reading and making sense of all the stuff I have so far, getting back to the main idea I want to convey and what I want people to take away from reading it. That will make a lot more sense instead of what I have now, probably a couple hundred thousand words floating around in unorganized chapters, much of which is redundant. I need to pull it together in a more organized pile that is focused, and then it will be editable. Is that a word?

I need more sleep.

Loose Animals Stampeding Between Naps

Today this sign is perfect for the day.

Today our neighbors behind us are having the fence replaced and I'm keeping the girls in so they don't herd the guys working out there. They would have no fence to fight across, so they would be loose bison!

As Wheaties Boy says often, "Let the animal out" and I did that today with whatever was left in my legs for cemetery mile repeats, which wasn't much! My legs are toast for speed even though I took yesterday off. That's okay, I need to get them going again and usually it takes a few weeks before they respond. Today my splits were between 30 and 50 seconds slower than the last mile repeat workout I did. Wheaties Boy was blazing fast, as usual.

I can always tell how fast I'm going without looking at my watch by how far ahead he is at different points in the mile loop. Today, I ate Wheaties Boy's dust. There was a loose bison mom aka Buffmom, Mom of Buffaloes, in the cemetery this morning, at the back of the stampede.

I woke up at 2:55 am, 5 minutes before my alarm went off, and left the house just before 4 to meet Wheaties Boy. We only needed our headlamps for the first mile, then the sun was up. We should enjoy this daylight for at least another 6 weeks where we won't need our headlamps much.

I was home by 6 am and I had 9+ miles done. I wanted to get at least 20 today and hoped to be able to finish right after the speed workout, but I was toast. So tired and hungry, I just wanted to eat and sleep.

I came home and made some blueberry pancakes and scarfed those down, and then I showered and got in bed and slept until 9:30. Then I took Iris for a short run and after bringing her home, I went out to finish my run. I decided to head over to the track because I wanted to be someplace where I could relax and not worry about traffic, and let the miles happen.

When I got there I saw some runners I know finishing up their speed workout, and I started out by running a cooldown with them. Then I got into my pace and cranked out miles on the track for about an hour and headed home. I ended up with 22 miles for the day. Now I'm ready for food again and another nap before I have to run out to set up my booth for tomorrow at the 5K.

My legs actually felt decent in the long miles, I just didn't have any turnover this morning. That will come back. I'm not running the 5K tomorrow, and I plan to do some Rock Repeats this weekend to get some hills in.

Let the animal out! After another nap!

The Wannabe Cereal Killa...

I am so envious right now my eyes could pop out.

This weekend Wheaties Boy and three other friends are off to the Grand Canyon to run rim to rim to rim. I haven't been down the Grand Canyon since 2003 and these days it is looking like a far off dream because of the state of my ankles. I would love to do that run again someday.

I sent them all a little note with Grand Canyon tips, from what I can remember from over 10 years ago. I addressed it to "Wheaties Boy and the Cereal Killas".

This morning I was forced to get my own butt out the door and run my mile repeats alone. The good thing was that I slept in, I didn't need a headlamp, and I wasn't freezing my butt off dressing in three layers. I am just at the beginning of my taper and I took yesterday off, and I'm feeling pretty good. I missed running yesterday, which is a good sign.

I did my two mile warmup and then jumped right into it. The first mile was hard, I started out a little fast and had to let up after the first quarter mile so I could survive it. I could not believe my eyes when I saw my watch.

I thought, it will be really bad if my next two are over 7 minutes because I blew out all the carbon on this one. I took my mile recovery jog and sipped some water, then took off for mile # 2. It seemed a little easier and I didn't go out quite so hard. I felt strong at the end but it was an effort. I guessed I would be right around 7 minutes.

Holy bat guano, this is what my watch said for number 2.

Again, I did my recovery jog, sipped a little water again, and psyched myself up. I was hoping I could hang on through one more sub 7 and I'd be thrilled.


This one felt even easier. I pushed a little harder in the last 200 meters or so because I was afraid I'd slacked off.

I guess not.

I felt so good, I wanted to do another one, but it's taper time and three one mile repeats 10 days before my race is plenty. I cooled down with an easy mile and went home. Holy crap, three sub 7s in a row and not 6:59.99s either.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Not from running, but for work! Yes, I am actually getting busy. I have real work to do! It's awesome!

I'm taking the day with Dennis and the girls Friday to do some family things, and then Saturday and Sunday I will do some short easy runs and get my work done. Next week is already getting busy before my trip to Iowa.

Today's workout was very encouraging. I've got my race strategy figured out, all I can do now is plan and prepare what's left and trust that I am ready for hundreds of laps around Lancer Stadium.

Under the Wire!

Another morning in the cemetery. Wheaties Boy decided we should start a little earlier to get more miles in. Not a bad idea.

This week I've been tired, trying to give my body the rest it needs. I didn't realize how much last week took out of me. Other than having a hard time with the 3:15 am alarm, I felt decent getting out of bed this morning, and made my way over to the cemetery.

I got a new headlamp this past week, I finally invested in a decent one, the Black Diamond Sprinter. I like it, it's a little on the heavy side on my head, and I still have to get the straps adjusted right, but it gives great light. It made it much easier to see the little rocks and pine cones in the dark on the cemetery road.

After a warmup we got going. I ran my first mile in 7:05, not bad for a first one, after being so tired and last week's disappointing workout. On the second one I dug in a bit more on the home stretch and didn't look when I shut my watch off, but hoping I'd get the result I wanted. When I looked at my watch, I let out a WHOOP! Got my sub-7! Finally, after all this time, and last year barely being able to crack 8s, I made it under the 7 minute mark. We high-fived and did our easy lap, then I did my last mile, which was a bit tougher and slower, in 7:19. Still faster than I would have done if I just went out to jog.

Wheaties Boy opted for a fourth mile repeat but I started my cooldown. Three was enough for me. I have one more speed session before my race at Cornbelt, and I'll have to do it without Wheaties Boy. I'll give myself the luxury of sleeping in next week. He'll be in the Grand Canyon next weekend, with Eddie, Bard and Chris. Lucky dudes. I wish I could run there again but my ankles would not allow that, not yet anyway. I would love to be able to go back there again.

Humbling and exhilarating. Even though it was just under the wire and long ago 6:59 would be a relatively easy pace for me, I was happy to see progress, a digit makes all the difference. After I recover from Cornbelt I'll be doing speed all summer, and I can't wait to see how far down I can take those mile splits.

The sunrise was awesome and we still had most of the full moon. The sky turned pink during my cooldown and I could take pictures.

The temperature got up to nearly 80 today. I took a short nap and then met a friend for lunch. After lunch I went out for another 5 miles just to experience the heat. I might have to do a few quick sauna sessions in my car in the next couple of weeks to prepare myself for any hot weather at Cornbelt, we haven't had any hot days yet.

Easy running this weekend with a few hills, and I should be taper-ready. Now the hard part begins.

Animals in the Dark

Yesterday was speed day with Wheaties Boy. After taking the day off on Thursday I wasn't sure how I'd feel for speed having done 50 miles in the prior two days before the rest day. My legs felt fine on Thursday but my brain was fatigued. So Friday morning I woke up at 3:27 am when my alarm was set for 3:30 and I was ready to get some miles in.

At the cemetery we got our warmup in and then started on our mile repeats. My first one was a huge struggle in about 7:30 and about halfway in I knew it was rough. Wheaties Boy is so much faster than me that he had plenty of time to recover from his first one, and I went right into the rest jog with him as soon as I finished. When we completed that mile, I started on my next one, and was gasping and wheezing by 400 meters. Then it was all I could do to keep pushing myself to run fast. It was taking forever and Wheaties Boy was about halfway around the cemetery ahead of me. I crossed the finish line gasping and said, "I don't want to see the time" but I looked anyway and it was 8:33!

So I said, "I'll just jog easy the rest of the time. He finished his last mile as I ran easy and then he had to go to work, so I stayed and ran until I had 10 miles in. I did push myself on one more mile and did that one in 7:53. I needed to recover a bit more, but those miles didn't really help my speed at all. I did run faster than I would have if I just jogged easy the whole way, but I am hoping by next week I'll see some faster splits.

We were joined by three deer and some big birds. It was too dark to see what kind of birds they were. I've seen skunks and raccoons, owls, deer and foxes in the cemetery.

I wanted to get at least 20 miles in for the day but I was hungry so I went home and ate, took Iris for a few miles, and then ran out the Power Trail for a final 8 miles which gave me 21 for the day. I had a small amount of work to do so I got that done and then I was ready for more food and a nap.

After my nap it was almost 4 pm and I was hungry again. I thought about what sounded good. I wanted to eat everything in sight. I decided on something different, burgers, French fries and beer. I went to the store to get all the ingredients and stopped by the liquor store for some beer. I found this ginger beer from Left Hand Brewery in Longmont. I love it. You have to like ginger, but it is good! Also has lower alcohol content than most beers, about 4.5%.

When Dennis got home we inhaled all the food. I felt like the bottomless pit.

Today I will run an easy 15 or so and then tomorrow is the Horsetooth Half Marathon. It's supposed to be cold and snowing. Nice. I guess I'll savor what I hope is my last opportunity this year to run in nasty stuff. I wish.

This is Colorado.

Dancing with the Stars

At 3 am I woke up without my alarm. The coffee was set. I had my coffee, waking up before I met Wheaties Boy over at the cemetery at 4:30 so we could do our speedwork. It's still super dark in the early mornings, but this morning there was a hint of light in the sky at 5:40. It was clear, cold, and the stars were out. Still we needed headlamps in the darker stretches of the cemetery.

It was freezing, we could see our breath, and after we warmed up I tried to run in just one thick shirt layer and before we were done I needed to put on a pair of fleece sleeves. I froze my butt off on the way home driving with the heater cranked.

We did three one mile repeats and I didn't quite make it into the 6 minute range but damn close, missed it just by a hair, and not bad for running in poor light and a week after a race. I'll get there. It was great to run with Wheaties Boy again. I need to finish my workout later, that will be some easy miles with Iris.

Right now I would love to go back to sleep, but I have a busy day ahead, meeting with one new client at mid-morning and then another later. I've been getting some calls and things are starting to pick up for me. It's exciting. Chipping away each day.

I am sure I will need a nap this afternoon, I've been up early almost every day this week but I get busy and don't get to my run until afternoon, and then it's too late to take a nap. Okay by me, because the busier I get, the better.

Yesterday I did 13 miles. I felt great, and tried to hold myself back because I wanted to do speed today. It was cool and windy yesterday but nothing came down from the sky. I wish it would warm up and feel like spring. It's taking forever!

Night and Day

Yesterday my sleep was all screwed up. I woke up at 5 am and then I was exhausted all day. I got some work done, but then it was time to run and I didn't have much energy. I took Iris for her 3 miles and then I needed a nap before I could think about doing more.

I got sidetracked by stupid little things and Dennis came home at 6, and I still had not taken a nap. I told him I needed to get more miles in so I was going to sleep and then go run. I got into bed and slept until after 8 pm!

Dennis doesn't like it when I go out for my night runs by myself. I used to be able to take Iris but she can't go that far anymore, and I wasn't running with anyone else this time. I am not about to let fear keep me indoors, so I set out in all my reflective gear and lights and off to the neighborhoods I feel comfortable in.

Iris stared me down by the front door when she knew I was leaving. She wants to run with me but she goes so slowly now, and she might be able to do 7 miles, but with all the sniffing it would take all night.

I had my iPod, which I am still figuring out. Somehow I was playing around with it and ended up removing all the music I put on there except for one playlist. I figured out what I did soon after I started running, but I had enough music for my 7 or 8 miles. I was able to easily reload it when I got home.

I just have to remember to check the right boxes when I'm playing with iTunes. I also tried a battery test yesterday but didn't realize what I had done with all the music so I was unable to see what happened because the thing only had 3 hours of music on it. I'll have to try it again tomorrow.

I don't know why I'm struggling with this iPod thing so much. It's not easy to figure out. Maybe I'm just an idiot. Damn Ph.D gets in the way of everything.

Last night it was finally clear enough to see stars. The streets were dark enough to make interesting shadows on the sidewalks and I was having fun playing with the camera. When I get close to the lake, it's darker and I was watching the stars through the bare treetops and listening to trance music, and I was in runner's heaven.

When I got home, it was after 10, Dennis was asleep and the girls were waiting for me, wiggling and squealing.

Today I got my errands done, took some work stuff to the printer, picked up some Salted Caramel Gu at Runners Roost, saw our friend Steve Cathcart there and talked a while, signed up for the Horsetooth Half Marathon because I'm a masochist, and then got a new set of earbuds for my iPod because the old ones off the MP3 player are not working so well. And the ones that came with the iPod, those are made for an elephant. One who doesn't sweat.

I got stared at again by the girls as I began packing for Kansas. It's a pile, I'm driving to this race so I tend to take way too much stuff. The forecast is for high 60s maybe 30 at the start and sunny, maybe windy. But of course I will be prepared for blizzards and heat waves alike. I'll pack three drop bags in case of bad weather, hoping I won't need them at all, I should be able to carry everything for 50 miles in my little pack.

This afternoon I went out on the Power Trail and did fartlek, and saw Holley out there. I recognized her steady powerwalk. I've known Holley for a long time, from the running group I used to run with before we moved to Arizona. When I first met her she was about as old as I am now. She's gotten into ultras and has run quite a few over the past several years. She's strong and I could see her doing multidays if she wanted to. I haven't suggested it yet but maybe I should drop some hints.

I stopped and talked with her. She was in the middle of a 40 mile run! She wished me a happy belated birthday, and we talked about moving forward as we get older. She does 24 hour events these days. I told her about Prairie Spirit, and she said, those races don't have long enough time limits for me. I told her this one does, I think the 50 miler has something like a 28 hour limit.

My fartlek run went well, I feel strong. My back is much better and the only place I still feel it is in this one little spot, and only when I sit in a certain position. Next two days will be short, easy runs. I hope the drive to Kansas won't make it worse, but I can get out and stretch. I'm leaving Thursday and driving part way. I don't feel like arriving there the day before the race exhausted from the drive.

Next week, or as soon as I feel recovered from the 50 miler, I start speedwork with Wheaties Boy. Early mornings. He'll kick my butt, but it's good for me.