This weekend was the annual, neighborhood Tennessee/Florida party.  Our neighbors, (and most of their friends) are Tennessee fans, their son, Terry, played for the Vols at one time.  So a couple hundred people, a pig cooked in the ground all night long, and TONS of other food, about 8 big screen TV’s, music, karaoke, games, well, it was a party.   As the night wore on, and the band was playing, they asked William if he wanted to play some guitar.  I missed some of the first part, but got most of it, though it’s on my digital camera and the sound is aweful.   It was all spur of the moment, so he didn’t have any written music or anything planned, he just played a few things he knew from memory.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4pJj96q48

Then Ashley and Emily got Mandy all duded up in Tennessee colors to give pony rides to the children.  They had a great time, and got a lot of laughs with their ‘Gator Entrance’ billboard on Mandy’s butt.  Don’t get me wrong, we’re Gator fans, but in honor of our friends, we let Mandy represent the Vols.  (click the photo for fullsize)

At least I can’t, not anymore.  As much as I love running, over the last few years of ‘only ultra-running’ type workouts, ie. SLOW RUNS, my upper body has continued to get weaker, and my body fat has gone UP.  NOT a good thing.  So I’ve started a new program with some high intensity running, and high intensity weight lifting.  Not isolated, body builder type stuff, but explosive, full body workouts including uphill sprints and gymanstics ring workouts.   All it REALLY means is that right now, I am very tired, and very sore, but hey, I’ve lost 5 lbs. (only 25 more to go!) 

Update on the HISTORY CHANNEL Modern Marvels SUPERHOT episode, that features the Badwater Ultra, with a few seconds of ME running in the event.  It will be rebroadcast Saturday the 28th at 7:00pm Eastern. look for #32, Spiderman shorts and cowboy hat.  Shouldn’t be difficult to find, huh?

Ashley, the horse whisperer, has trained another of our Arabians to ride.  She did the same with my horse, we got them as youngsters, having never been ridden.  And two weeks ago, she got on Uno (TCA The One his registered name, we call him Uno) for the first time.  Since then, her and I have done several rides around the property and he’s just doing great.

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 Fathers Day has come and gone, and my big present?  A pedicure from Emily.  Full blown deal, she primped, painted and ground dead skin off my feet with this electric drill thing.  Don’t I look pretty in my flaming Superman pajamas and painted nails?  Thanks Emily!

OK, I admit, not my first pedicure either! The first was by Tamara the night before 2003 Ironman USA, in Lake Placid, NY.  Which was one of my most memorable events, not my best, but very cool, finishing in the same Olympic Skating Oval that Eric Heiden dominated the Olympics with 5 gold medals many years ago.  LINK TO REPORT OF THAT EVENT  Her and Ashley gave me French Pedicure.   Pretty weird, I know.

Horses on Saturday, Motorcycles on Sunday.  What could be better?

On Saturday, Ashley and I, took Reggie and Rocky to Croom for some trail riding.  It’s a State Park about an hour from us, hundreds of acres of hiking, biking and horse trails.  I’ve run hundreds and hundreds of training miles out there,  now I’m starting to rack up miles on my horse.    We ended up riding about 4 1/2 hours and had a great time.  Covering a lot of ground that we’ve never seen,  I was on Rocky FAR longer than I ever had been.  We did quite a bit of trotting, and though I worried about overdoing it, he never acted like he was tired, and today, Sunday, he does not seem sore.   He truly seems to love the trails as much as I do, he’s curious, wants to see what’s around the next bend,  hates to stop, and always wants to be moving, and moving quickly if I’ll let him.  I’m lovin’ it.   Ashley and I were both exhausted when we got back to the trailer.  Here are some photos from our day, and a couple of videos.  Click the thumbnails to see a larger photo, and click the link to see the video segments.

Croom 2008 Video 1

Croom 2008 Video 2

Then Sunday, I was to meet a buddy for some motorcycle riding in the dirt.  He ended up not being able to make it, but I headed out to get dirty anyway.  I hooked up with a couple of other riders on the trails, and not a mile after that, I ran out of gas(having to turn my tank to reserve.)  That sent me heading out of the woods, back down the road to fill up.  After that, I went exploring on many trails in the Withlocochee(sp?) Forest that I’d never been on, and found and marked on my GPS a trailhead for some horse trails I’d also never seen before.  Maybe a future trip for me and Ashley.  Never crossed paths with any other motorcycle riders, but did see both wild turkeys and deer.  I rode about 75 miles total, and was so busy riding I never stopped and took any pictures.  

  Back home, safe and sound.  Awesome weekend.