This bear is out of hibernation

The last four runs have been fantastic. The legs feels like brand new springs.

I got a tweet the other day from a friend's stream saying the Mexican smoke is back. I found a NASA satellite image that we should all check to see if the smoke is making its way to Central Texas at the particular time we decide to run.

Endurance Events No More

Participating in the Longhorn 70.3 Ironman on Oct. 17 for the third time proved one thing; I'm done with endurance-type events. I don't know if it was the bike crash or not being able to take in nutrition during the race that made me feel so bad about long-distance triathlons. The first Longhorn 70.3 race I felt great. The second one I had mechanical problems on the bike and landed in a bed of ants so that was probably the start of my ill feelings towards the event. I signed up for the 2010 event because my brother Kevin wanted to do one.

Endurance races are for the young. I'd rather be done with the event in under two hours and get on with it; sitting with friends, drinking a beer and having a meal.

Training for endurance sports take too much time away from other things I like to do.

I'd rather go fast for minutes than go slow for hours.

I noticed some avid runners, three-to-four years ahead of me in age and in my running group, were having issues with MCLs, bone-on-bone knee problems and it was time for me to take a long, hard look at what my outcome may be if I keep up with the amount of miles I'm running.

So it was a good ride while it lasted. I'm getting out with my knees intact and enough cartilage to last a few more years.

Bad Shoes

I have passed along most of the free pairs of running shoes I accumulated, from sponsored training sessions, to others whose feet are a better fit for them. One pair remained though (not New Balance) and I made sure they were designated gym shoes and would never see the light of day as running shoes. Until yesterday. I got to the trail and found I had left my numero uno pair of New Balance on the deck drying. Ugh! I felt a slight rubbing on the right side of the right foot but disregarded it inconsequential as I wasn't over five miles for the evening. I gasped when I saw my little toe while getting dressed for a gym workout today at noon. A reddish bloody blister.

The numero dos pair of New Balance will find themselves in the trunk of the car tonight and that's where they'll stay, except for when they're on my feet while on the trail. Other than the wrong shoes, the runs on the trail in the heat have been ok. I'm already getting acclimated and the Barton Springs cool-downs at sundown are wonderful.

Wednesday nights I get the added benefit of listening to Blues on the Green, a weekly concert in the park. Traffic is a little hairy and I end up parking down the road which adds another mile to the run but it's not a problem.

Maximum Weight/Low Reps Done Until Nov.

The gym free-weight workouts of maximum weight with low reps needs to be removed from my training plan. My shoulders and arms take too long to recover to have anything close to a good swim the next day. Even if they recover, it seems everything is tighter than they should be. I find myself stopping every 100 or 200 yards to rub the area where it's tight. So I'll set aside the workout until November, even though I was noticing good results from it.

I've learned every workout needs a period of time off during the year. Swimming is only enjoyable if I can take a few months away from it. Running is only possible if my legs and especially the knees get a break from the high impact for a couple of months. I look forward to going to the gym most when I haven't been in some time.

Visiting the Longhorn Half-Ironman Again This Coming October

There's only one thing that could get me back to do the Longhorn Half-Ironman again. If my brother called up and said, "Why don't we do it together?" He did.

There was a long pause of several weeks between the call and the registration. I think we were each feeling the other one out on level of seriousness. Yesterday, he registered. I manned up and registered as well.

I knew it would happen and that's why I started training a couple of weeks ago. I seem a lot more sore than I did the last time I trained for this race. I can really tell I took last winter easy.

Yesterday, I ran five miles in the heat to start to get acclimated. All I can say is thank God for Barton Springs. The 68-degree water is heaven for a dip and cooldown after summer runs.

Workouts for the day: (AM) 5K run, 1000 yard easy swim. (PM) weight machine circuits + 1 hour bike.

Phone Recluse No Longer

The Sprint HTC Evo 4G phone arrived last night.

• Android 2.1


• 1 GHz processor


• 3G and 4G capability


• GPS


• 8 megapixel camera


• 8 GB SD card

The Palm Treo never recovered from tagging along in the pool during my long swim. The dry rice trick didn't work. Many speculated on FB that I intentionally killed the Treo.

Separation of People and Toxins

"It may be that going forward we need to be thinking about the locations of industrial facilities and the locations of where people live and keeping a healthy distance between them."

Dr. Howard Frumkin
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

How safe is the air you're breathing, and where is it coming from? Tune in to "Toxic America," a two-night special investigation, with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, June 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. ET.