I wish my face had wiper blades...

Last week was good up until I ran into my old friend Jasper Hassel from Cambridge on the beach path on Thursday. I was doing speed work, 4x1miles with 1 min rest, and noticed on my 3rd mile that some dude looked exactly like Jasper. Of course I yelled out "JASPER!" and got no response. I yelled it again, "YO JASPER!" And still nothing! By this time everyone around me thought I was a guy with non-cursing tourettes. But I was sure so I flipped around and caught him and lo and behold it was him, visiting from NYC on business. So after about 15 minutes of catching up we made plans to grab a drink later, and I tried to start up the rest of the workout... turned into a run home. I had already done 35+ miles that week, so I was pretty pooped and could tell my body needed to recuperate. I then took off 3 days by accident. Combination of friends being in town, roommate moving to Denver (sad day), and a trip to Toledo for Coach's retirement party. So today I knew I needed to do something big. I ran 15.8 miles at a pretty good pace, just under 1hr 50min. My training started late today, so by the time I got to mile 10 it was dusk and I quickly learned the advantages of running in the morning rather than at night... no walls of bugs! Lets just say after the run I wasn't too worried about my protein intake for dinner! YUCK! I had to put my sunglasses on in the dark to protect my eyes from all the gnats. I learned that basically I need to stay on the directly near the beach and away from trees to avoid the bugs. It was kinda funny seeing people swatting as they ran (i was doing the same and probably looked just as doofy). My legs are pretty sore right now, and my arches are still a bit sore as well. I took extra time to stretch today, something I have not been very good about doing over the past 4 months. Everything I have read says that stretching not only improves recovery time, but also makes you faster in the long run. I think why I have been so reluctant to stretch is because I am not nearly as flexible as I used to be while I was rowing. I used to be able to wrap my hands totally around my feet. Now I'm lucky if I touch my toes!

Alright, tomorrow is going to be tough... i hate you morning... you always ruin the best part of my day!