Oh, what a value!

I must have landed on someone's "gullible" mailing list. Sorry, there's no way a nitrogen fill on a set of passenger car tires could be worth anything approaching $300.

My new favorite short sleeve running shirt

The postman delivered my marathon finisher's shirt this weekend -- finally!

This week I logged another 25 miles. Other than the "Strong Seven" I posted about earlier, they were rather uneventful. I guess I could mention the Alaska license plate I saw on a pickup truck, only because of the Hawaii one I saw last weekend.

Right now I'm leaning away from doing the Park to Park Run next weekend.

It's beginning to look at lot like Springtime....

Strong Seven

I'm back from seven absolutely blissful miles:

mile 1: 10:06
mile 2: 9:48
mile 3: 10:07
mile 4: 9:38
mile 5: 9:21
mile 6: 9:56
mile 7: 10:50

It was pretty much perfect conditions -- 53F, 63% humidity and a very light breeze. My legs almost felt weightless. It felt like the only thing holding me back was that I only had two lungs to cram oxygen into myself.

At the six-and-a-quarter-mile point I looked at my Garmin and saw an elapsed time of about 1:01 -- about 90 seconds faster than my 10K race PR from last year's Pear Run.

That felt good!

Does crazy live here again?

This past weekend, I saw a car on the road that made me do a double take: It was a station wagon with a Hawaii license plate and a cargo area full of luggage. Around here!? Boy I wish I had a camera.

I logged 25 miles last week, so I'm definitely back at the level I was at prior to all the marathon buildup. Yippee for recovery.

I might be truly sick. I was looking at the website for the Seabrook Lucky Trails Marathon and starting thinking that the "Pelican Challenge" -- a half on a Saturday followed by a half on a Sunday -- might be fun. Early registration ends this week, so I'm going to have to think about this one some more. Ha!

Recovery Week Number Three

I logged twenty miles this past week on three runs. This morning's long run was eight miles, the longest since Marathon Sunday. Hitting twenty or more was significant, because that tells me that my body and mind are now fully recovered. Even after all the aches went away, I felt low on energy for many, many days after the race, so it is good to be able to actually go out and actually have something to give out there. I ran with my iPod loaded with NPR podcasts of "Car Talk" and "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" and the eight miles just seemed to float by almost unnoticed. Perhaps I should forget about music and just load up my MP3 players with comedy stuff from now on?

I'm a member of a virtual running team named "Sole Train" in the Miles and Miles game on the Runner's World online forums. In response to a challenge from another team, I've drafted a Sole Train logo. I did a bit of fooling around with Microsoft Visio and Publisher this week and came up with a design that centers around a steam whistle. To me a steam whistle is a simple, yet a boisterous and energetic symbol. Instead of a pull chain, there's a shoelace dangling from the valve lever. Adorning the bell chamber of the whistle is an icon made of two eighth notes and a bass clef, although maybe you can make something else out if you have an imagination like mine.

I've emailed the design to the other team members and will be interested to find out what they think. Next up -- a mascot? Maybe an cartoon-like locomotive, with just a little more of an aggresive streak than Thomas the Tank Engine?