could use some of oxford's rain

95 degrees here today. no wonder i like england's weather. was up early with morning heart rate at 45. not bad after yesterday's hard workout and subsequent outside working in the heat. went out to run alone as gail wanted to get back on her schedule routine. ran north on the mt vernon trail and just moved along until some of yesterday's stiffness eased it's way out of my legs. was disappointed to be going so slowly but was moving along. the morning was pretty enough along the river and the tide was in so the water was high and dyke marsh was beautiful.

ran and up and down the small hills knowing i had to come back up the big hill on the way home. went all the way down to just past the 7 mile marker so i could get almost 9 miles in. ran alone to this point and spent the time concentrating on my right leg as usual and the broken toe on my left foot. miss running on the dirt trail of the thames but the new shoes are helping. stopped at the 5 mile water fountain and met andy there. he is training for the chicago marathon in october and was out doing 20 miles today. he had 5 in when we hooked up and i ran the next three back to my street with him. was pleased to see that i could pick up the pace and still carry on a normal conversation, though my heart rate had climbed to almost my 85% level, turning a slow easy recovery day into a last hard three miles, but it was a good opportunity to test whether i can run faster with faster people.

will have to break down and find a way mentally to take more rest and recovery days. i missed about 24 days last year and will look that up in the log tomorrow, but i will need more time off to get harder, faster runs in. ran andy down to the 3 mile mark at almost 2 minutes faster a mile. can feel it now as i type this and tomorrow will be some sort of recovery day. might have ridden the indoor trainer but cannot go into the basement right now due to the damage down there.

have not hit a golf ball since i am home and that is almost funny as i was hoping being home would let me play more golf, but the reality is that with temps in the 95-97 range it is hard and we are also so busy getting life and the house set up again. have a ton of people coming out next week to help start the fix the flood problem and also to get the ac and heating unit back in shape. then the new windshield goes in and gail's car will get towed in and hopefully fixed ok and pass inspection at some point. a lot of fun ahead. this is all a prelude to knocking down the kitchen wall and the laundry room wall. more fun waiting for us.

and life goes on one busy day at a time even without a job to go to ha ha. it all seems so unimportant. more soon -