I’ve run only once this week so far. It was a pretty good 7 miles on Wednesday (47:37) but the other days I just got too busy. I did ride the stationary bike twice, for 90 minutes on Monday alone and rode neighborhood hills on Tuesday morning. I unwrapped a jump rope I’d bought 5 years ago and tried to jump but I kept smacking my feet (which hurt) so I made a mental note to find my old lighter rope before I try again. I also consumed a bag of pretzels, which is probably as bad as it’ll get this week from a bad snack perspective. Yesterday, I bought mostly fruit and vegetables.

Floyd sent me an e-mail saying that he was doing 1000 meter repeats around 3:15, which is pretty fast. He also told me that Richard Mendez did an 800 in 2:05. I wasn’t nearly that fast in high school as a 120-pound sophomore. I printed out Floyd's e-mail and taped it to my cube for inspiration.

I signed up for Sisson’s Rogue trail race on Sunday. It’s called “the Loop”. There was a 10k and a 30k option. Since I haven’t run more than 9 miles since February, I decided to run the 30k (18.6 miles) for my first trail race. This is really dumb on my part. The course is supposed to be tough. I have no trail shoes. I’m out of shape and could easily bust my ass and set my training back several months. On the other hand, before I heard how challenging the course was, I was imagining myself sneaking in to win. Right now, I thinking that I’ll be lucky to finish in the 25%. I ought to be able to do it in 2 ½ hours, but who knows? I wish I’d registered in a fake name. Floyd was saying that if I finish early enough I’ll get a free hamburger. God, I hope I get a hamburger!