Saturday, July 12, 2008

Recovered - finally

I took Friday off because my legs were still killing me. This morning, I finally ran again - a hilly 8 miler - and my legs felt pretty good. It was warming up and muggy when I ran, but the real issue was deer flies. They are usually at their worst right around the time of the Vermont 100, so I should have expected to deal with them today.

After running, my son and I did some yard work. I bought a chainsaw last weekend to deal with some downed tree limbs on our property. I wanted to do the work earlier this year, but I kept imagining myself unable to run Western States because I'd sliced off half of my foot with a chainsaw. So, I finally took care of the work today.

My wife and daughter are gone for the weekend, so it's just my son and me here. We must live pretty boring lives, because I'm playing on the computer and my son fell asleep watching a DVD. We'll probably go for a swim in a while and then figure out what to do for dinner.

Tomorrow morning, my son and I will go to the gym to lift. This time, I'll be a lot more careful with the weights I use.

It feels kind of funny to not be tapering for the Vermont 100 right now. I've run it the past two years and this year, I'll be pacing rather than running. Of course, in some respects, I've been tapering for about 6 weeks right now.

3 comments:

Jamie Anderson said...

Sounds like a relatively chilled out weekend. Awesome. See you next week, I'll keep an eye out for you.

David Ray said...

Deer flies. I hate 'em.

Yesterday I doused myself with Skin So Soft before the run and again after the first lap. The flies were buzzing me but didn't hang around to bite.

Damon said...

David,

Do you know the dryer sheet trick with deer flies? I learned this one from the horse riders at the VT100. Apparently, there is something in those little dryer sheets that deer flies hate, and they also like the "high point" of their target. So, if you fasten a dryer sheet to a hat and wear it, they won't bother you as much. It looks silly but it works well.

At the VT100, the horse riders will wear them on their helmets and then attach a couple to their horses.


Damon