4/19/12 PM run commute & 4/20/12 AM commute

Another slow run to work Thursday night.  Legs tired.  Foam rolled the soreness out but not the fatigue.  Strong headwind didn't help.   Running with a pack is hard & adds to the fatigue exponentially.  Luckily not too hard a night at work.  Lots of unnecessary stress though that I can't discuss.  The mental kind that wears you out.
AM run home started out ok.  The overnight rain stopped but the wind had turned out of the North & the temps dropped a ton.  It dropped another 4 degrees while I was running home to bottom out around 42. 
I left work in shorts & a t-shirt with my super light GoLite jacket stashed within reach.  I made it just past 2 miles or about 2 min after turning into the wind before having to put my jacket on.  Run went downhill from there.  Pace went to crap & motivation with it.
Was beat when I finally got home.  Put a bunch of clothes on to warm up.  Crawled under a blanket on the couch.  8 hours later I woke up still on the couch.  Amber says I slept through her cleaning house, Alex throwing a fit, & my in-laws coming by.  Guess I was really tired because I was out cold. 

4/18/12 AM ride commute PM run commute

Slowww ride home.  Had a hard night at work was pretty tired.  Had trouble falling asleep.  Wasn't helped by finding The Longest Day on the sat.  Seen it a hundred times & never gets old.
Ran to work.  Just set a comfortable pace not looking at my Garmin.  Nothing else really to mention.

4/11/12 AM&PM run commutes, Podcasts & the Barkley Marathon

Brrr! It got cold this AM.  Brought a long sleeve beenie, & gloves. Knees got a bit cold though uncovered. 42 degrees is a bit cool for shorts.

Was listening to a podcast that had an interview with Dave Horton. He was talking about finishing the Barkley Marathons 100 miler . A race so hard only 1% finish its 100 miles. That's 13 to date!  Here is a race report by the 13th finisher.  Read it for sure!

Anyway I've been reading a lot of ultrarunner blogs lately. Not sure why but most have cool mountain pix. Last week or so I read mention of the Barkley. It sounded vaguely familiar for some reason.

Back to podcast. Dave mentioned having to rip pages out of a book to prove you have run the right course. Again this sounded really familiar. I ran a bit more and a memory hit me. In 2004 I did a 4 day adventure race called the Beast of The East.  It had an Orienteering section in Frozen Head State Park. I recall JC saying something about a race here blah blah maybe the Barkley?  Don't recall much since this came at day 3+ my mind was shot not to mention fighting the pain in my knee.

This was after the swelling went down some.

Now that I've rambled my point is I've been over a big chunk of the 20 mile loop that makes up the Barkley and all I can say is Screw That.  Some great before & after pix of the Barkley runners. No way i'd put myself through that 60 hours of torture.  I vividly remember the climb out of Frozen Head 8 years later.

Back to my commute.  Run home the watch said 6.66 miles.  Oh that can't be good.   Out of podcasts on the shuffle so go to load it back up & itunes doesn't want to play nice.  I was to tired to fight it & Apple makes me angry to begin with.  So I put the podcasts on the cheapo China shuffle knock off. 
Run to work.  The cheapo China shuffle stops working less than 1.5 miles from home. Craptastic. Oh well enjoy a run with just my thoughts.  Hit the gate at work look at my watch.  6.66 miles.  Uh oh not going for 3 6.66 runs in a row so in AM I'm running a different way home.

** I'm posting this from my phone so I'll clean up later & add some links and a pix of my Beast knee.
*** Obviously I've edited this

4/10/12 AM&PM run commutes

Weird weather going home this AM.  Comfortable, then cold, then comfortable, then cold & drizzle.  Repeated all way home.  Typical Missouri spring.  Though I read the NOAA says March was the warmest on record along with January & February.  I'm not complaining but it is a bit worrisome.
Learned another network oddity this AM as well.  I haven't been able to get my phone to connect to my computer for a week or so.  Been a pain.  Had a moment of clarity.  Checked my IP addie.  Damn it had changed.  Well crap didn't know that was possible but Google says it happens quite frequently.  I guess I need to write a script that checks my IP daily & emails it to me.so I can keep my phone configured correctly.  Learn something new everyday.
PM run was uneventful.  Temp was nice at 65.  Big hill before work kicked my butt though. 

4/9/12 AM bike & PM run commutes

Riding home this AM was a bit chilly.  44ish degrees.  Had to break out some gloves.   It's pretty unusual for me to see people on the greenways near my house in the am.  Today I saw a pretty pissed off looking old dude who gave me the stink eye long after I was by.  I turned & looked because I could feel him stairing.  Strange but I figured out his deal on my run to work. 
I really need to keep my camera/phone at the ready.  I saw I turkey take flight in front of a deer hauling ass into the woods.  Was an awesome sight.  I guess not all the turkeys felt like flying since I followed 2 for about a quarter mile running down the center of the greenways.  This section is heavily wooded on both sides so not sure what they were thinking.  It made me laugh. 
This section has become a dumping grounds of sort.  Some furniture a truck bed liner random trash & a boat.  Yes a boat.  An old inboard missing the motor & lower unit.  Funny thing is it keeps moving.  I'm guessing its kids or the meth heads who are steadily burning off the dozer piles.
Anyway yesterday I noticed someone had dumped a bunch of used lumber.  Stopped & checked on it.  Was worth driving to get.  Have some good useable recycled lumber now for a project to be named later.
Ran into work tonight.  70 degrees & blue skys had the greenways pretty busy for this section.  Nothing else special just an easy run in.  Going to be a bit chilly running home in the am.
Almost forgot about stink eye dude.  He was a contractor.  A lot of work went on today while I was sleeping.  They started pouring the concrete for the path to connect the bridge that goes over Wilsons toward Rutlidge.  No more dirt path.  They also fixed several sections of pavement on the new part of the greenways.  Not sure why since there was nothing wrong with it.  Looks like they just made the trail more level side to side.