Slept in

Running:
Friday I was able to get out during my lunch break and get in an easy 7.5 in 1:02:20. Last night I was up a little later than I expected to be to watch the Packer game on TV so this morning I slept in a bit. If you call 6:00 sleeping in. Because of that I decided to do my long run on Sunday and just went out for 8.5 today. The sub 8 minute pace this morning (1:06:07) felt quite easy. One week from today I'm hoping to run a half marathon race. So next week will be a reduction in miles and a couple of days off. Not really a taper just a cut back week.

Hunting:
This morning I figured out where I'm going to hang another deer stand on my property. I cleared a bit of the brush from around the tree I'm going to use. More clearing will be required when I get the stand in place. I stopped yesterday to get a few of the free deer carcass tags available from the DNR. This will allow me to get a few extra deer this year if I happen to see them.

Gardening:
Last night after work I picked about 10 gallons of plums from one tree. There are probably about 5 more gallons not quite ripe yet. The branches were so heavy with fruit that one of the branches broke. Now to figure out what to do with all of them. Have to look into making jelly or something. Today will be getting started on the weekly lawn mowing chores and hopefully getting out to the garden to clean up a bit.

First XC race

Running:
Wednesday I got out at my lunch break for an easy five miles over my usual work route. I ran this in 41.02. Today I got out for another 5 over the same route. Today I pushed the pace a bit and ran it in 35.05. Looking at my run log today when entering this last run I noticed I'm up to 230 miles for the month so far. This ties me with the most miles in a month this year with still 4 days to go. I'll likely end up in the 260's. Today I went to watch my youngest daughter run in her first XC race. Her time for 4k was 18:34 I believe. This was the 6th or 7th fastest on her whole team and will likely get her a spot on the varsity squad as a Freshman.

Hunting:
My timing for getting my food plot seeds in couldn't have been better. It rained quite a bit over the last two days. This should get the seeds sprouting and off to a good start. The opening for bow season is two weeks from this coming Saturday.

Gardening:
With the rain the last couple of days I haven't been in the garden. It sure is nice to not have to worry about watering chores though. I know I'll be picking lots of things by the time this weekend is over. The tomato vines looked exceptionally full of ripe fruit. The Japanese beetle population seems to have taken a nose dive from my trapping. I see a few around but nothing like a couple of weeks ago. I've been taking the frozen bugs over to the neighbor to feed to their chickens.

60/60 Workout

Running:

Monday I took an off day from running. My legs didn't feel bad at all yesterday after the three hour effort on Sunday. Not wanting to get injured again I just felt a day was in order. This morning I got out early for what I call my 60/60 workout. This is basically the non track/fartlek version of 400 meter repeats. I started off with a 10 minute warm up. Then I run repeats of 1 minute hard with 1 minute slow. The fast pace segment I try to get up to 5K pace, which for me I still consider 6:30 per mile. This can be challenging when the fast portion occurs while running up a hill. The slow portion I don't worry about time. I just make sure it's slow enough to get the wind back before beginning the repeat. I did this for 50 minutes or 25 repeats, then just ran in the remaining portion. Including warm up and the last segment I completed 8.5 miles in 1:04:20.

Hunting:

I did finish planting the seed in the food plot yesterday. Now I'm just praying for rain. There is supposed to be some tonight. I sure hope so. I did buy a little extra of the same seed just to go over the spots that may sprout unevenly. By next week I should see what's coming up.

Gardening:

I went to FleetFarm yesterday and got a new tire for my lawn tractor. They had it done before I finished work so I stopped on my way home to pick it up. I got the tire on and actually finished mowing last evening. It took me until 8:30 to finish so I was mowing in the dark for the last 20 minutes or so. I swear the neighbors probably think I'm crazy sometimes. Maybe they would be right.

68 WTD

Running:
This morning was just an awesome running day for summer. The temp was about 50 degrees and there was a light fog meaning it was also still. I got off to an early start and got in 21.5 miles on my out and back course to Sullivan. I run three miles north and catch the Drumlin trail going west. Part of the way is on crushed gravel which was welcome relief for the legs. The way out was 1:30:30 and the way back took me 1:30:49. That's 3:01:19 total time today. This gives me 68 miles for the week which is a new weekly record total for me this year. Totals through this week.
WTD 68
MTD 211
YTD 1242
ODO 24508

Hunting:
I finally finished preparing the food plot area this afternoon. I tilled it today and then added lime and fertilizer. Tomorrow morning I will plant the seed and rake it lightly.

Gardening:
I started mowing the lawn today. I got the push mowing all done and had started with the tractor. I only got a few minutes in when I realized my front tire was flat again. I had to quit. Now I have to get a new tire and finish during the week sometime. This is the second flat I've gotten this year. I think there is something sharp out in the yard that I keep running over.
This gave me time to finish the food plot though.

Peaches

Not running, hunting, or garden related but I have to share this. Gosh I hope Favre fails miserably this year.
Couldn't happen to a better team in my opinion.




Running:
Yesterday I got out during my lunch break and did 7.5 miles in 1:3:31. This morning I got in 8 miles in 1:8:27. Ran into a guy on the road from Chicago who was getting in his 20 miler today in preparation for the Chicago Marathon. He was camping at the local campgrounds. He had his route planned but was asking where there might be some water stops. The way he was running I was able to direct him to two places. I'm going to try again for 20 miles on Sunday.

Hunting:
Today when I finished my run and turned onto the road were I live there were three bucks standing in the middle of the road. They were crossing right between the neighbor and my house. Bucks often run together in bachelor groups during the summer. None of these was very big, but still cool to see right in the yard.

Gardening:
From the one peach tree I have left I was able to pick about 2/3 of a five gallon pail full of peaches yesterday. I brought a few into work to share. Other than being a little extra fuzzy on the outside they are by far the best tasting peaches I've had. The ones you usually get in the grocery store can't compare at all to taste and texture of these.

Acorn drop

Running:
On Wednesday I did complete the double. Kevin and I ran my 5 mile work route in 37.35. A pretty good pace considering I had already run 6.5 in the morning. Today I got out for another 11.5 miles in 1:36:59. This puts me at 31 for the week and 174 MTD. This is already more than I had last month with 11 more days to go including two weekends.

Hunting:
While running this morning I really noticed the acorn drop. What a mess on the roads in spots where the big oaks hang over the roads. There appears to be more than normal amount of acorns on the burr oaks found around here. Lots of food for the wildlife this fall. I saw two groups of about 40 turkeys near the two biggest stands of oaks. Maybe they were out for a snack. For sure the squirrels were.

Gardening:
Got out this evening to clean up the garden a bit. Pulled some weeds and picked a few things.
The big prize today was the carrots. Many are more than big enough to pull now. I pulled some white, yellow and the normal orange ones. Some of these will be in my lunch tomorrow.

Another double?

Running:
Monday was an off day from running. Based on 64 miles the previous week I just needed to take a day. Tuesday I got out for 8 miles at my lunch break. I ran it in 1:06:16. Even taking a day the legs felt a bit sluggish. This morning was just beautiful for a run. Upper 50's and calm. I couldn't resist. I went out for 6.5 miles in 56.46. Nothing fast just out to enjoy the morning. I'll likely get another 5 in this afternoon running with a coworker who asked me to run with him today.

Hunting:
I was able to get a few practice shots in with my bow again this morning. The groupings were right where I left off a couple weeks ago. I really do need to get a new deer replica target. I can't believe it's only about 4 weeks away from the bow hunting opener.

Gardening:
It seems as if my Japanese beetle trapping has at least put a dent in the population. It now looks like it will take several days to fill the traps instead of every day. I notice quite a few less on the fruit trees and rose bushes. Picked the last of the blueberries last night and noticed that the second crop of strawberries is starting to come in.

64 mile week

Running:
Got out for another 8 miles Sunday morning in 1:9:33. This gives me 64 for the week tying my most miles for a week this year. Back in February I hit 64 once. I think I will do one more week of higher miles, then cut it back a bit and add some faster running and marathon specific training in the weeks leading up to the Lakefront marathon in October.

Totals through this week.
WTD - 64
MTD - 143
YTD -1174
ODO - 24440

Hunting:
I worked most of the day yesterday pulling crabgrass from my food plot area. I still haven't planted anything yet. I'm so close to being able to get this done, although my lateness will have to change what I plant. Spending most of the beginning of August away just put this chore behind. Also suffering has been my practice shooting. Time to get back to that too.

Gardening:
I finally got fed up with the Japanese beetles destroying everything in the yard. I purchased a couple of traps to try and cut the population some. In just a couple of days the traps have been completely filled twice. This would easily fill a one gallon container. I'm trying freezing them to kill them. I have no reason to doubt this will work.

First 20 miler

Running:
First congrats to my friend Jerry and his wife on the new addition to their clan. Hope Danielle Cameron arrived yesterday morning 8/14. Jerry reports everyone is doing fine. I have a link to Jerry's running blog below where he promises to post pictures soon. Jerry is the coworker (now ex coworker) I mentioned that got me started into serious running back in 2004. He also convinced me I could run a 50K and a marathon 4 weeks apart. He also talked me into starting this blog. Good thing he's not a trouble maker or I wonder what else he could talk me into.

Yesterday I ran at my lunch break at work. I ran 7.5 miles easy in 1:04:21. This morning I got up early and completed my first 20 miler of the year in 2:50:54. I'm OK with these pedestrian paces for now, especially considering I have 44 miles over just the last three days and 56.5 for the week already with one more day to go.

Hunting:
When I was up north over the past weeks I made it out to a couple of my deer stand places. There sure is a lot of deer sign right now. In some ways this was quite sad for me as my dad usually comes out with me to do this. More than my other brothers, dad and I have usually hunted and scouted together since we generally hunt the same area. This is especially true over the past twenty years or so. It's sad knowing he won't ever be doing this with me again.

Gardening:
The garden is overflowing. Picking all sorts of things from apples, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, kohlrabi, beets, blueberries, onions. Lots for me and I've brought some up north and to work to give away. I've attached new pictures of the garden. Included are a few pictures of our trip to the dock fishing perch with the kids. Dad loved to to this, including the required stop for ice cream afterward. I'm glad we could make it one more time.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Jeff.Paavola&target=ALBUM&id=5370226079177747665&authkey=Gv1sRgCM26uKrR2OfymQE&feat=email

Catching up

First a very brief update on my dad. The current diagnosis for what he is faced with is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It is absolutely terrible watching him go through the rapid changes this is bringing. I've spent the most of the last two weeks with him trying to get the most out of the remaining good times he will have. I've had a hard time coming to grips with this, but the last two weeks have helped me some what. For now we have chosen to not even tell him anything about this and just take advantage of the remaining time we have.
A few years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. For now he believes the things he is experiencing are complications of that. I have lots more to say about this good man who has helped me shape my life and will likely incorporate some of that over time. Please bear with me as I work through all of this.

Running:
Lots to log since I haven't given an update in almost three weeks. Here are some stats.
7/28 8.0 miles in 1:6:16
7/29 7.5 miles in 1:1:11
7/30 6.0 miles in 48:12
7/31 4.5 miles in 38.0 *********** 172 miles for July
8/1 16.0 miles in 2:15:26 *********** 50 miles for the week
8/2 8.0 miles in 1:10:16
8/4 7.5 miles in 1:0:1
8/5 8.0 miles in 1:9:43
8/6 8.5 miles in 1:11:21
8/7 8.5 miles in 1:10:21
8/8 8.5 miles in 1:13:31
8/9 14.0 miles in 1:59:10 ********** 55 miles for the week
8/10 5.0 miles in 43:16
8/11 7.5 miles in 1:03:09
8/13 9.5 miles in 1:19:59 am
8/13 6.5 miles in 53:24 pm

The last four weeks have been 42, 50, 50, and 55 miles. Hopefully 60 this week.

By month this year:
Jan 221 miles
Feb 230 miles
Mar 206 miles
Apr 0 miles
May 88 miles
Jun 115 miles
Jul 172 miles
Aug 107.5 miles so far

1138 miles YTD

Hunting:


Gardening: