All week we have been forced to take our runs up the mountain to avoid the smoke that has settled here from both the Southern California and Yosemite fires.  The smoke finally gave us a reprieve this morning for our 12 mile tempo run.  Although the visibility wasn’t as clear as our Mammoth days usually are, I didn’t smell smoke in the air when I woke.  We all had good workouts this morning and Ryan ran in some sweet custom-made ASICS shoes that seemed to work for him, but I’ll let him tell you about it.  The creek didn’t seem as cold this morning as we iced after the workout.  It may have been because Mike gave me an Atomic Fire Ball and who can focus on the cold creek water when there is a fire inside your mouth?

Earlier in the week Ryan and Sara Hall had a house warming party.  Their new place is great and who needs a television when you have huge windows with bats flying around outside!  We were entertained after dinner by moths outside attracted to the lights coming from the house.  It was scary even with a thick pane of glass between us, but we were all glued to the windows.  The bats, in their clumsy flight, flew by the windows and scooped up the moths one by one.   It was fascinating.  And how can I forget the bear I saw a few days ago.  I was taking Aspen, my chocolate lab, up to the lakes above our house when a bear peaked out from the bushes.  He didn’t even reveal his whole self, just his big knobby head.  When he saw Aspen, he retreated back into the shrubs.  Aspen was too obsessed sniffing around to notice, but it never gets old seeing the wildlife here.

Just as the previous week, my mid-day is filled with a lengthy nap.  I’m not too productive from noon to 3.  With my marathon training at its peak, I am sleeping a lot more to balance out the workload.  Last week was my first week over 100 miles since I broke my foot last summer.  I was pretty psyched to know I can handle the workload again.  The next couple weeks will be full of marathon specific tempo runs and long runs.  I’m off to the gym for lifting followed by a second run.