Sunday, October 19th to Saturday, October 25th: 17.5 miles

I ran 3 times last week:

Mon: 5.5 miles, 41:58, a little hard, 55F, sunny, calm, mild right knee pain, no stops, 7:41 pace
Wed: 6 miles, 46:54, easy, 38F, light mist to sprinkle, windy, mild right knee pain, no stops, 7:49 pace
Fri: 6 miles, 46:28, easy, 55F, cloudy, windy, mild right knee pain, no stops, 7:45 pace

Lots of stuff going on. I will be moving up to Rochester shortly. I was busy apartment hunting this morning.

I had a coffee date at Tim Hornton's just as the all day rain was ending. She is an active woman but no spark on either end. There was a pretty rainbow as the sun set on the way home.

Gas prices continue to go down. It's $2.999 in Newark and more expensive in Palmyra at $3.099. Usually it is the other way around. But I am happy to see lower prices for sure!

Keeping active, Doug

Sunday, October 12th to Saturday, October 18th: 23.9 miles

I ran 4 times this week:

Sun: 5.5 miles, 42:31, easy, 50F, sunny, calm, mild right knee pain, no stops, 7:43 pace
Tue: 5.5 miles, 42:23, easy, 55F, sunny, calm, mild right knee pain, no stops, 7:42 pace
Thu: 5.5 miles, 42:51, easy, 55F, sunny, calm, mild right knee pain, no stops, 7:47 pace
Sat: 7.4 miles, 1:32:07, Jensen Stables 12K, hills, mud, water ... oh my!

I just got back from the Jensen Stables XC Challenge 12K. It was chilly when I got there but it warmed up to 45F by 10AM. I wore shorts, a ls and ss tech top, hat and gloves. There were hills, a creek crossing with water up to our knees, mud, then lots of hills, then a pond crossing where you had to either swim across a 50 foot pond or take a penalty lap (I pulled myself across on the rope), more hills, a mudslide, more mud, more hills, a haybale obstacle and the finish. I had the usual mild right knee pain but disregarded it and plodded onward. I finished 92nd out of 116 in 1:32:07. Overall results here, age group results here. I brought a complete change of clothes and certainly needed them! The swag was a nice ss tech top along with some beads at the finish. There was a good feed afterward with pulled pork sandwiches, salt potatoes, cookies and cider catered by Beale Street Cafe. I christened my new Asic Gel Trabuco 11 WP trail shoes that I bought Thursday from the good people at Fleet Feet with the help of their $25 off coupon. They are certainly muddy now!

Just exiting the knee high creek crossing!

There was a lot of running going on in Rochester on Saturday. The Run for Hospice 5K had 673 runners, the Run for Hospice 10 Mile had 245 runners, the Black Diamond Duathalon had 126 runners/bikers and the Jensen Stables 12K had 116 runners. You can't say that Rochester doesn't have active people!

A mild reminder: I take running safety seriously. I wear reflective gear when I run during dusk. Please, runners ... make sure you are seen and can hear! You don't need to listen to music so loud that you can't hear someone coming up from behind you!

I like that gas prices are coming down ... sometimes very fast. I was on the way home on Thursday night and filled up in Perinton for $3.499. I was irked when I got to Palmyra and saw that gas was $3.299 there ... costing me $2.40. Gas was $3.199 in Newark when I headed out this morning.

A minor peeve ... it would be nice if married women wore wedding rings. I tried to hit on a runner around my age who wasn't wearing a wedding ring ... then she started mentioning her husband! How am I supposed to know?

Dating is so not happening. I just ended my paid subscription to fitness-singles.com. I had been on this site as tallrunner57 for 6 months ... I have met one woman there in the flesh, no date. I "met" 3 other women that I can email or call, no dates. I still think that internet dating is great for the type of women that I want to date, not so much for me ... though I have been wrong before. I do not want to date a BBW, I want to date an active, fit woman around my age ... I know she is out there.

Keeping active, Doug

Sunday, October 6th to Saturday, October 12th: 16.2 miles

I ran 3 times this week:

Tue: 5.5 miles, 42:14, a little hard, 55F, sunny, calm, right knee pain, no stops, 7:41 pace
Thu: 6.3 miles, easy, 60F, sunny, calm, right knee pain, 1 stop, 7:53 pace
Fri: 4.4 miles, 33:10, Fleet Feet Happy Hour, 65F, sunny, calm, started slow, right knee pain

I am still struggling with a pain in my right knee that I first started to feel during the marathon. It starts after I run about 2 or 3 miles. Eventually it gets to the point where I can't take a full stride. So I have shortened my usual run from 7 to 5.5 miles. It could be getting better. I ran this 5.5 miles this morning ... it was only a mild ache. Non-runners would say "why not just stop running until it heals?" ... runners would say "Huh?" I think I will just shorten my runs until it heals.

Speaking of marathons ... I wish I had run the Wineglass Marathon instead. I heard from DS that the running conditions were ideal ... cool and misty, she ran a 3:38. My realistic goal at Rochester was 4:00 and my "must beat" goal was 4:30 ... which I met by 23 seconds.

I went down to Ithaca College for Michael's Symphony Orchestra concert. It was held at Cornell's Bailey Hall ... filled to the rafters. They played "The Planets" by Holst while pictures were shown of the planets. It was a long day. I didn't get back to Newark until midnight.

Keeping active, Doug

Sunday, September 28th to Saturday, October 4th: 15.6 miles run

I ran 3 times this week:

Sun: 7 miles, 56:22, run around neighborhood, easy, 60F, sunny, calm, no stops, 8:03 pace
Tue: 5.5 miles, 43:14, run around neighborhood, easy, 60F, misty, calm, no stops, 7:52 pace
Sat: 3.1 miles, 21:36, Safe Journey 5K, 45F, hard, sunny, calm, no stops, 6:58 pace

I ran the Safe Journey 5K in Fairport this morning. I have a good history in this race ... I either pull a hamstring or set a PR the two times I have run it. Anyway, it was a perfect fall morning, 40F when I headed out. I got there in plenty of time. I wore my new Brooks pants and a long sleeve tech shirt along with light mittens and a hat. Race conditions were 45F, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, calm. The start was good, first mile in 6:39. I latched onto a guy who was running the same pace and just kept up with him for the rest of the way before passing him in the final stretch. I was just starting to get a bit tired but then I saw the lift bridge in the distance and kept it in gear with a kick at the finish. Result ... no stops, a PR of 21:36, 6:58 pace!! My first 5K of sub 22 and sub 7 pace! I was 24th overall out of 225 and 4th in my highly competitive 50-54 age group (5th place was 1 second behind me). Oh, as usual ... an excellent race by Fleet Feet of Rochester. Overall results here, age group results here.

You would thing that everything is OK in my running world ... you would be wrong. I still am troubled by a slight hamstring ache that gets worse when I run long. I didn't notice it in this 5K.

As I posted last week I have a new job. I am working as a contractor through Burns at Synergy. Synergy won a Printer Fleet Management contract with ITT to take care of all their printers. I will be working as a Printer Concierge taking care of the consumable needs of all the printers (paper, toner, etc) in 4 buildings. I, along with the break/fix engineer, will also be upgrading all the old printers to the Lexmark brand. So I should be keeping out of trouble.

I watched the vice presidential debates between Palin and Biden on Thursday night. It was more of the same ... the Republicans trying to spread FUD to stay in power and the Democrats trying to give America hope for the future. My feeling ... Obama 08, 12. I must say though that Palin did hold her own for the most part ... though sometimes she seemed too much like a McCain cheerleader.

Oh, stop the presses! The Buffalo Bills are 4-0 with wins over Seattle, Jacksonville, Oakland and St. Louis. Three of the wins have been fourth quarter comebacks to boot. They play in Arizona tomorrow.

Update: the Bill are now 4-1 with a loss to Arizona. A complete nightmare of a game with their QB knocked out on the third play.

Keeping active, Doug