It's been awhile since I've written. I'd like to say I've been hard at work training, but that just ain't so I went through a funk in July, coupled with a long vacation and some work travel that left little time for running. But October 11 and the Baltimore Running Festival is drawing closer and I definately needed to get going with the training. Thank goodness for the great base we've created in the last 18 months. I was able to jump back into the long runs at about the 16-mile point. Not fast, but in the DC summer heat, I slow down a lot anyway. But now I'm back on track and feeling great about it. This is an off week -- my mother in law passed away and my family is embroiled in the funeral so not much time for training, but that's okay -- I'll be back on it next week.

I decided to run Baltimore as a part of "Team Sadie" representing Sadie's Gift Charity (http://www.sadiesgift.org/) if they'll have me. So if this kind of charity interests you, please let me know how much you would like to donate and I'll hook you up. More on that later.

I've been trying some protein mix in my fuel for the long runs and this seems to work well for me. Or, at least I don't feel bad or anything. Hard to tell if it is actually doing anything, but as the runs get longer, the protein may pay off. We'll see. At least I'm not smelling amonia anymore.