Seems like time is flying by! Every time I get anxious to have a rigid training schedule I have to remind myself that it's just around the corner and it will be here sooner than I think. I know this because that is how it goes, dreaming of the future then poof your smack in the middle of the dream. On another note, this month is full of birthday's! In fact, the next three months are full of birthday's of most my family and friends. Everyone I know except Micheal and Steve are going to be another year older in the next couple of months. I wonder how come most everyone I am around has a birthday between Sept. and early Dec.? Interesting........Happy Birthday!!!!!

My Glute Medius is coming along nicely. The Jane Fonda's are working making it very sore and fatigued but in a good way. I have been noticing less compensation during my runs but after about 2 hours of sustained running it's pooped and all my bad habits come back. Saturday I followed Susan out to Banks/Vernonia for a run. She was planning on 4 hours of flat faster running and I was only doing 2 hours. The Banks/Vernonia trail is a rails to trails project out in the city of Vernonia. I am not sure how far this paths goes but I believe it's at least 20 miles on near flat paved path through the woods. The State Park has been upgraded and a ton of work has been done to restore the path and make it a family park complete with cabins and camping. I haven't been out there for over 4 years and was surprised at how nice it was. In addition to the main path with new mile markers they have added some side trails to create small loops. It was about a 40 minute drive from Portland but if your training for a flat fast race this would be a great place to spend some time. The day turned out to be beautiful with the Fall colors and absolutely no people on the path. We clocked a pretty good pace which will come in handy for the 20th when I run a 15K road race. Getting leg speed up is a priority right now and it is hard and slow....no pun intended :). I am expecting to be slaughtered at this event by those speedy road runners but Kris, Stacey and I are all looking forward to the challenge and I am sure many many laughs.

Monday was Gorge day but we ended up hitting the Wildwood instead as Alex was home with a cold. We did my usual 7.14 mile loop and had a great time. The fog was amazing as you can see in this picture of Trisha running up firelane 1. BTW, Trisha has decided to do her first 50K! She will be joining a big group of us at Chuckanut Mountain 50K, one my favorite early season races, yeah!!!! She has gotten so strong since we first started running together and she has a great attitude for challenges. I see ultra running in her future and she has a great support system in Darin. As a side benefit I will get to run with her more!

Tuesday Stacey tried to kill me on her 6 mile loop from her house. We get to talking and before I knew it I was in 3B chasing her up the hill. I am craming a ton of excerise in because I will have 4 days of absolutely nothing but vacation ing with the family.