Strong weekend

Foot. After I abused my foot last weekend by trying to roll out its pain I turned to bending my toes back, stretching my achilles and generally babying the foot. It's pretty good now. Good blood flow and no swelling in the midsole to complain about.

Training or not. I ran 9+ miles last Sunday and then skipped every day until the guilt overcame me on Friday when I went out for a less than 4 mile slow start to the month of June. For May I barely logged 50 miles. April was 70. March, with the Georgia Marathon on the 25th, was 102. February peaked at 130. So you can see I have been more not training than training lately.

Which is not to say. I can still lay down some good time and all. Today was the Sunday run. I started very slowly with Chris until the four mile water stop. That's when Kim showed up from behind us. Being the Florida Gator fan that she is we had to disect the "for the money" move of basketball head coach Billy Donovan from UF to the NBA Orlando Magic. Kim was not happy and it made her run faster and before you knew it she and I were way ahead of everybody.

Kim is a fasty to start with and I've always wanted to run with her for the challenge and the social aspects of a new acquaintance. Her usual running mate Mary is out with an injury so Kim runs with just about anybody now, just for the company.

While I had had designs on a slow poke pace for maybe six miles or maybe nine, I found myself running alongside Kim for the full 10. I knew we were hoofing it because we made it to the Episcopal church at mile 9.5 in time to see the processional lined up outside the front door. If I make it there by then I know I've been booking.

Swedish Bikini Team. Jack was in Italy the last two weekends. He's the senior member of the Sunday group and the unofficial leader and Web contact for the Orlando Runners Club. People from all over the world find their way there and he invites them to run with us on Sunday mornings. While he was away he deputized Chris, Dave and Ed to be the perfect hosts for anybody who showed up.

On Tuesday I sent Jack an e-mail from "Ingrid and Helga Svenson" thanking him for setting them up to run last Sunday with the guys. I made it clear in the e-mail that Ingrid and Helga were Swedish models from Stockholm who owned a bikini company; and that they hoped to meet Jack next time they were in town for a show.

Jack spent the rest of last week trying to track down Ingrid and Helga, googling them, their company, grilling Chris and Dave (who played along), all the while smelling something fishy but also thinking he missed a run for the ages.

Saturday I got an e-mail from Jack that pretty well summed up his final analysis:

Your contrived story and mail fraud have put you in dire jeopardy of the law. We know who you are, we know where you are and we are watching you.

The Sunday morning running group was in hysterics this morning as the story was shared and replayed with ribald Swedish accents.

Next week New York? I hope to hear from the NYC Marathon next week so I can finish plugging in my training plan for the big one. If I make it (with Susan and others) the plan kicks in the week of July 2.