Hey there! Where on earth did the summer go? It's been almost three months since I've posted anything; it wasn't an intentional hiatus. I "talk" to you on my runs, but when I get back feel like I don't have anything to say. I feel like I'm always running around and never catching up.

My summer was spent training for New York. I was doing pretty well for a while, following the Bart Yasso training plan published in the July Runner's World. Got strong running some incredibly steep hills (see elevation chart). Then my training went, ahh... downhill. I had a few trips come up and wanting to keep my weekly mileage up, I moved some workouts around. That resulted in jumping one week from 29 miles to 39 miles, with two long runs and two hill workouts. Of course I knew better, but I was feeling so fit.

One morning I stepped out of bed and felt some slight heel pain. Fearing the worst, I took a week off from running. The heel pain lessened, but didn't disappear completely. I think it was from some older sandals, so I got rid of them. I've also been dealing with some hip pain, just behind my right hip bone. I attribute it to overuse. I turned 56 in July and I guess the old body can't do what it did at 50. I was actually becoming afraid to run.

Between traveling and resting, I kind of lost the fitness I had. New York is in 6 weeks and my longest run was 16 miles. This seems to always happen--I start out training strong and then midway my training falls apart. I was planning to run two 20 milers and a 22, now I'll be lucky to run two of them. I'm going to try to run 18 miles on Wednesday, then 20 the following week.

Last weekend I was in Minnesota for a women's weekend. We stayed up in the Brainerd Lakes area, a place I've been to six times in as many years and always ran while there. Saturday I put in 12 miles, though I had to break it up into 7 and 5 miles. It was nice to be running in such familiar surroundings. Then SD picked me up at the airport on Monday and we spent the night in Monterey. The next morning I ran on the Monterey trail, which I've told you before is one of my favorite places to run. I only ran 5 miles, from Fisherman's Wharf to Lover's Point, but it was great.

Today marks a new training week, and Bunny and I put in an enjoyable 9 miler through wine country. The grapes are filling the vines and the birds are happy. To keep the birds from eating the fruit, vineyard managers employ a variety of tactics. One is a cannon which booms whenever a bird lands on a vine. It sounds like a shotgun--you can imagine how pleasant that is. A less obnoxious technique is to play recorded music of birds chirping. The idea is they sound like predators and the birds stay away. I'm not sure how effective that is, but it sounds nice when you're running by.

Adieu for now. I'll stop by your blogs and say hi. Hope to report on an excellent 18 miler later in the week.