Trying to post last night, the site kept blocking me the the warning, in red no less, that "restricted content found"!  I read and re-read the post, as did my reading specialist wife, and could find nothing that was offensive or needed restricting.  Anyone else ever had that happen?

I had a great Tuesday 5AM run, 4.5 miles in 48 degrees, saw a pair of sandhill cranes walk across the road with little chicks scampering in front of them!  priceless.  I had to run past them, but they were totally cool and didn't even make any of their warning cries as they sometimes do.  Tomorrow morning won't be so pretty, low of 75 tonight! 

Run safe but fearless!

linuscatch - Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." She always belonged to Him. And as a parent, i would be devastated, even knowing that. Waterton Canyon , Saturday, 6 am, I'm doing that canyon for Avery.

EMTTrix - stay cool. 106 and Wisconsin humidity? No thanks. Here in Denver it's been 105 and 5% humidity. A little easier. There are a lot of training plans out there. I picked up a book called Road Racing for Serious Runners at a used book sale. You might just search Stevensbook.com for running books.

For those struggling with hills, I was advised to walk the first 2/3 of the uphill, then run the last 1/3. This gives you physical and psychological momentum as you top out. And we know that runners need all the psych help we can get!

1.25 mile warmup, 8x100 striders, 2.8 mile cooldown. I ran to the Oval Torture Chamber (high school track), did my speedwork, and then took the long way home. 5:00 am, only 63 degrees!

We have over 100,000 acres burning withing 50 miles of here. The entire town of Last Chance, out on the prairie, burned Tuesday. All the buildings were pretty much abandoned. What hurts is 45,000 acres of grass gone in less than 12 hours.. There's nothing to feed the cattle now. Hundreds of homes are destroyed in the foothills. And it's supposed to be hot and dry for a while yet. Pray for rain.

Run free, and fearless!

Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful and hearfelt responses about Avery and her family.  I have passed some of them onto John so he could know just how broad an impact his 11 year old baby girl had.  I told him what a great group you all were and how supportive you have been to their fight, even though many of us have never met.  "Fearless" will be Avery's legacy and she will never be forgotten.

Coyote: I will let John know of your run for Avery.  I know he will be touched by that.

Am in Austin on business and was unsure where to run.  Found a "hiking" trail about 1 mile from the hotel so ran downhill to the trail head and plunged into the woods, with absolutely no idea where I was going or what I was in for.  It was awesome!  I am not a trail runner so this was almost completely new to me.  I quickly learned that I needed to let me legs and feet go where they needed to go on the undulating, uneven terrain, and instead focused on keeping my core stable and quiet.

Although I "attacked" the trail too hard to start, I settled into a nice rhtyhm and cadence and made sure not to look at my Garmin as my pace was substantially slower than on pavement.  I started to feel muscles and stabiizers engaging that I don't normally use on pavement and got totally in touch with how my body was reacting to this new experience.  Saw lots of people along the way so stopped to say hi or pet their dog.  Had to run under and over fallen trees, across dry creeks beds and flowing streams.  Had to climb up and then back down man made stairs in trail at different points.

Thankfully, it was almost completely shaded as it was 80 degrees and about the same humidity.  I left the music at home and got lost in my thoughts.  Thoughts about my wife and kids, Avery and her family, Caleb and his fight, all of you and what I would say about this run, and hoped that you all were having as much fun as I was at that point.

Sadly, it ended as I had to return to the hotel.  And the big climb back out from the trail head nearly dropped me.  But I told myself that this hill would not stop me and I looked at my "Fearless" bracelet and plodded to the top.  Got lost on way back but ended up with 6.1 miles in about 73 minutes.  I am beat.

Sorry if that bored you real trail runners out there but as a newbie trail guy, I think I might be hooked.

As coyote said, we are in dire straits in CO with the forrest fires.  I am truly scared that we have not seen the worst of it yet. So I echo his request to please pray for rain.  And please pray for Caleb.

Stay strong, run free and be fearless.

No run for me yesterday and Chiropractor today. I felt like I needed a rest (feeling fatigued for some reason, plus a sinus headache)...so I'm listening. I did do some major Kettlebell swings yesterday though! 

jmsab23 Nice miles. Your 5k route should be fun and fast! That's good advice you gave Mary Kay about pacing yourself. Smart!

linuscatch Thanks, Re: the diet-slow-carb-Paleo thing. I do like this slow carb diet because it seems really healthy and my ultimate goal is to turn any extra fat into muscle. Supposedly our bodies "learn" to burn fat for slow burning fuel instead of fast burning carbs. Tell me about your 1/2 training plan. I've combined Jeff Galloway with Hal Higdon so that I'm running many small runs through the week (3 days), one speed run and then one long run on Sundays. My 1/2 is Sept. 30th.  My long runs are at 7 miles right now. I am not aiming for speed on this 1/2 though, I just want to finish feeling strong. The last marathon I ran was over 30 years ago, so...

AlfNiner That's so cute about running your little Lhasa apso. Bet those little feet were flying! *High Fives* for feeling so strong and fast.

linuscatch God bless little Avery. So much wisdom and courage from such a young girl. Thank you, Avery for empowering us with your courage. Prayers for her family. I loved, loved your trail run description! Thank you for brining us along.

EMTTrix Good for you for getting that boy out of your head and treating yourself like the Goddess you are!! I hope you get that Friday run in and THANK YOU for the beautiful prayers!

mkayc YOU are an inspiration, girl! Funny about the car change scene. Rock on, Mary Kay!

jdcarnes 35:52 is still decent! And you're right, there is always next time.

runslowdan How cool about the cranes! I've never gotten a warning from this site, but I must say...I wish we could all move over to a Ning forum.

Old Coyote Thanks for running for our little Avery-Angel. "Oval Torture Chamber "<~ Funny. OMG, I really feel for all those families in your area! Stay safe.

NRDgirl Wow, haven't seen you in so long! Good luck on your training.

Well, I did my running club workout of the week last night. I have to admit, though, that I walked the 200 recoveries after the first two jogs. I kind of knew if I was going to run 20 400s, I wouldn't be able to run the recoveries. Not yet, anyway.

But I did manage to get all 20 of the 400s in, with a range of 1:39 to 1:47. Guess when I was running the 1:46 and 1:47 times? My legs were like cement on the final four or five repeats. But, trying to overcome that mental demon that told me I should stop, I pushed on as hard as I could. I finished th efinal one and ran a 1/2 mile cool down that felt like heaven.

Easy 2.6 mile walk/jog with the dog tonight.   Will try for 10 miles or more Friday.

Runslowdan.... I haven't gotten that particular message, but I do get some funky ones hee once in a while.

EMTTrix.... best wishes with your SCBA training. I was a volunteer here in ME for 21 years. In heat like this, add another 5-7 pounds to your gear weight due to the sweat-laden clothes you're wearing under your turnout gear.

Coyote.... I've said before, I hate hills. And there's a 5k in the next town July 7 that draws a lot of people. It starts out with a 3/10 mile uphill climb, then has another steep uphill section at the 2-mile mark. I ran it last year, but walked some of the second hill. I'm debating whether or not to run it this year. I will try your hill advice around here a couple times between now and then, and see if that helps. I've tried lots of other things (some physical, some mental), so one more idea won't hurt.

NRDgirl .... Running is probably more important than posting, so it's good that you're still accomplishing that. But don't forget to drop in every now and then to let us know how you're doing.

Linus... I'm still a pavement guy, but was looking at trail shoes at the local sports store the other day. That curiosity together with your descriptive post, who knows?

Live strong, they say. Run fearless, we're saying. Everyone have good days.

Snerb:  I love that song (Of Wolf and Man) and have it on my playlist as well. The very next line "I hunt, therefore I am" should be "I run, therefore I am!" 

Ran 2 miles this morning and set PRs for both 1 mile and 2 mile!! Down to 8:25 for 1 mile and 17:16 for 2 miles. Was about 78 humid degrees this morning when I went out but I felt pretty good overall. Tomorrow will present my biggest challenge yet.....8 miles. Haven't run anywhere near that far yet but I can do it!!! Time to break out the new hydration belt and energy gels!

Happy running and good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

I was moving the sprikler at dusk last night and saw a huge bear and two cubs about 15 yards away. She had to be 400-500 lbs.

6 miles 64 min. Ran up summersby road the steepest hill in town. Saw another bear crossing the road.