July 25 to July 31

Still feeling the effects of a 50 mile race, this will be a "more lively" week than last but still not back up to full speed ...or distance! The good news is that the foot has healed well enough that it is not an issue.

Monday; July 25:  A quick...well, maybe not so quick...8 miler with Traysen. Sluggish on the uphills but not a bad outing.

Tuesday; July 26:  Down to the gym with two dogs in tow...a good session of chest, back and then easy abs. Traysen and I then headed out for a very nice 7 miler. While not a hard effort, it was a solid run.
Each day the ole bones are recovering from the race and soon the training will be back in full swing.
Not 100% sure I can make the outing, but good friend Lynne has proposed a girl's weekend out in September to run the Lead King Loop 25K in Marble, CO. This would be an excellent goal to pick up the speed training and run a shorter race.

A highlight of this run:



These two guys were bouncing around, most likely driving Mom insane!!!

Wednesday; July 27: Late night into San. Fran.; finally down to the sauna/gym around 8am. Despite messing with the thermostat in the small gym room, it was like a sauna! Way too hot!!! But still a good weight lifting session of biceps, shoulders and abs and then to the treadmill. (luckily, there was a fan in the room that was directed right at the treadmill). A nice 7 miler that included 5 hill repeats of 3% grade for 2/10s of a mile at 6.0 mph pace. Still not ready to really push the limits on the hill or interval training.

Thursday; July 28: Into Cincinnati after an ugly redeye; luckily, a descent amount of sleep and then down to the gym for a quick 5 miler on the treadmill. This was a "git 'er done" kind of day.

Friday; July 29:  Waking up in SFO with very limited time, out the door for a basic 7 miler; although I was able to push the pace for several short sections. Running on the Bay Front trail just south of the airport is always a  mix of beauty and buildings/pavement/people/trash, etc....I try to admire the flowers and shore birds and ignore the rest.

http://www.baytrail.org/Maps/SF_Peninsula.pdf

In the map above, the trail goes quite a ways. I usually run from the airport area to the Coyote Point Park area back....



Greenery!! Even with recent rains at home, we don't have this lush green!

Saturday; July 30:  To say that I am ready for this trip to end is an understatement! A long 5 day saga with a redeye and short overnights along with 4 almost transcon flights...Yuck....With the early departure and long flying day with the commute at the end, it was a day off. Needed all the rest I could get in 10 hours off duty!

Sunday; July 31: A slow start but down to the gym for abs and legs and then out the door for a good 8 miler. While not able to push the pace, the effort was solid.

Summary: Nothing very exciting happening at the moment with the running. Which is ok....it is time to pull the focus back and just enjoy the running.  A few thoughts have been going through the one brain cell: a. when ready for some intense training and a future race goal, pick something shorter and aim to run it faster than able in the past. (by short, a 25K or possibly a half marathon would be options) b. forcast the rest of the year to run more miles in one year than ever before (2780.0 was last year and was the highest year so far), c. find another 50 miler and focus the training there...this goal would fit nicely into the long term plans of wanting to run a 100K next year. All of these goals are easily accomplished concurrently; just a matter of making the commitment.
Total miles for the week: 42.0
Total miles for the year: 1822.0..which is about 100 miles ahead of this time last year.