I had the freedom to go run a 4 mile race this morning.    24:58 which was good for 3rd masters and 1st 50-54.   I have to give 11 years and 30-40 secs to those two youngsters in front of  me.   Actually was 28 secs slower than last year but already 85° at the start under full sun; so I'm okay with it.   3 mile warmup, race, and then ran the 4 mile course again.  Going to a wedding this afternoon and then the kids and inlaws come over for burgers.  It's a good day.

HELLO TO EVERYONE OUTTHERE.  I AM A 60 PLUS JOGGER FROM PACIFICA CALIFORNIA,  AND I LOVE TO JOG.  LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO HOOK UP WITH.  MY PACE IS 9 MINUTE MILES KIND OF SLOW I KNOW BUT WHAT ARE U GOING TO DO.

Ksrunrrrrrrrr...woe...1st place in a race...and burgers w/family...fantastic...hope you had a happy 4th...take baby steps to prep for you 10/04 marathon...good to hear ;you have family in S.F.   I spent 7/04 in Pacifica with my brother''s in-laws' family...you know a Filipino gathering with tons of food.  It was also my brother's wife;s bday, too. At least I was wearing Nike's bright pink shirt with the words "BE YO (yellow) SELF (navy) " to the family gathering.  I have a nephew Greg who is a sophmore in high school...he's a swmmer and tennis junkie.  So...

Want to say a warm "Hi Sweetie" to Bob the Nerd's five year old Nerdlet; and Kudos on your 15 to 16 miles this past week

Hey there to SimonnR ...hooray on your five runs  you put in...that's a whole five fingers worth.  Woke up to watch beginning of the Tour de France, the Williams's sisters at Wimbledon on OLN/VERSUS & NBC...then catching a bit of the AT&T National Golf thing with Tiger Woods as host before heading to Pacifica for lunch. I loved when you wrote about looking ahead of you in one of your races to the "Mizuno shirt'" to aim for...brilliant strategy. It;s like what I hear golf commentators say about golfers aiming at a target way off in the distance before making a golf shot.

Just a short tthank you  note to all you wonderful folks out there...I haven't smiled so much on a Sunday morning reading all the welcomes and good thoughts from all of you.

Unfortunately, didn't make it to the Freedom Walk/Run yesterday in San Fran cause had some other issues to take care of.  I have plans to bring my relaxation tape along with me on early morning walks this week heading to a small pond less than a mile  north,  just off Lincoln Way & 41st Avenue into Golden Gate Park.  I look forward to talking to the ducks and koi swimming in the water.

This is really my very first time communicating with a grand group of folks.  How am I doin"?  You all have a good week.  Ms. B.B.

Nice 10 miles, Ribz.

Bee, you're doing fine. I know the koi pond you're talking about. I lived in San Francisco for 12 years (several of those in the Sunset near GGP (Lawton and 24th). I used to run in GGP all the time. Very pretty place. There's a number of out of the way places to explore on a walk.

Seven miles for me today on the high school rubber track this morning. Clear and mild. I'm still taking it easy on my hip so I'm going slow (and not going on too long a run). I'm not planning on any speed work and I'm not even picking up the pace much on normal runs. I have once or twice and all's been well, but it's better to be cautious. So, steady state right now. I don't feel anything that rings alarm bells but just a little ache here and there. Stretches and core work afterwards, and I iced my hip. I was tired from yesterday's swim plus run. Not so much at the time, but later I felt it. I read that a 1 mile swim is equivelent to about 4 miles running. That seems about right.

This is the first 4th of July weekend that my husband and I have spent at home in many years (we're usually backpacking). I'm enjoying these mid-summer days.

Hi all and welcome, Mike!

Outstanding race in that heat,KS! 

Bee, its a good thing the Willaims sisters don't have any brothers or that family would own tennis!

Fred, I always wonder how research and training methods from other sports might apply to running.

For example, the riders on the Tour de France are very specialised at different jobs on the team, sprinters, climbers and all-rounders (general classification competitors) depending largely, I assume, on the balance of the different types of muscle fibre. I know they do a lot of testing on VO2 max, measuring power output in watts, etc. (Any sport where there is a lot of money involved has probably  attracted some pretty good research.)

Another sport involving a lot of money, and with many parallels to running, is horse racing. (I put this in partly because you restricted your question to humans!) The diet of the athletes is likely a bit different, but the basic mamallian physiology is similar, so there may be things we could learn from the methods used to train race horses. The distances raced are much shorter, of course.

When you describe yourself as a fast twitch athlete, Fred, is this because you have actually been tested, or a conclusion based on how you perform at different distances? I wonder what you were training for when you did the downhill running, was that for the 800 or 1500m?

Simon.