I'm not sure I'll have time between now and when I leave so I thought I better write these down and make them known so I hold myself accountable for this upcoming little jaunt I have this weekend. These times might not mean much to you, but pay attention and read along and you might figure out why they mean more to me. For my marathon on Saturday, my different levels of happiness will depend on the time I get. In order from slowest to fastest they are:
4:14 or better (happy): this was my time in Fargo this past May. It would be nice to be able to improve upon this time after a full spring, summer and fall of training and racing.
4:08 or better (happier): this is my current PR set exactly 10 years ago as of this Saturday, on 11/01/98 on my 30th bday.
3:59:59 or better (even happier): if I'm going to beat 4:08 I might as well try to get under 4 hours, right?
3:58 or better (happiest): yes, Wade, you and your PR are still a small reason why I'm running and one I hope to beat someday so I can have bragging rights (it's a guy thing).
This isn't to say that if I bomb on Saturday all hope is lost. It's my birthday so I have to make the most of it. If I don't have a good run let's just hope there's a "water" stop along the way that has some barley and hops in it. I might have to stop for a pint or two and say Happy Birthday!
Marathon recap to follow early next week. Check back to see if it's about my running success or birthday success.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Not My Study, But I Hope It's True!
One of the many reasons why I run. Read this article and then get out there and postpone the need for a cane!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
A White Halloween
I didn't carve my pumpkin last night just so it could get covered by snow today! October 26th and it's snowing. Too early! One of the things I like about MN is the change in seasons and the variety they offer. It helps you to appreciate the season you're not currently in. For example, during the heat of July and August I think about winter and how refreshing the cold weather would feel at that moment in July. Now that it's here though, it's too early and will make for a looooooooong winter if it stays like this or gets worse.
Makes me wish I was in Ireland or Indiana.
Makes me wish I was in Ireland or Indiana.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Boys' Night
Tonight was the night the kids and I look forward to a lot this time of year. We carved our pumpkins! We went to a farm outside of New Prague to pick out the perfect pumpkin for each of us. It's amazing how that farmer can grow my perfect orange sphere each following year after thinking I already had it the preceding year. Devon keeps saying his is the perfect one. Conner claims his is the perfect one. Boys, I've been doing this a lot longer than you have. Mine's the perfect one! :) Of course I tell them theirs are each the perfect ones, but secretly I know better. Shh, don't tell them though.
We started out by Daddy-o cutting the top off of each and every intention was for each person to scoop out the innards in their own pumpkin. That worked for about 2.5 seconds after I got done telling them that was the plan. Devon actually did attempt to. He scooped awhile with the spoon and then did stick his hand in there and yank some out after some coaxing and seeing me do it. Conner...not so much. He just sat there with his spoon daintily taking one or two seeds out at a time, making sure his hand didn't touch the sides or any of the stringy, hairy, slimy innards. After awhile I caved and helped him out. Maybe next year he'll be brave enough to touch it and do it himself.
Conner did get to man the knife all by himself this year though and he did a great job cutting his (pumpkin) face out. No blood anywhere! Devon drew what he wanted on his and then I cut it. Before I cut his though, I confirmed he wanted it cut exactly how it was drawn. It's not the most symmetrical faced pumpkin on the block, but I dare you to look at it and not chuckle. You should have no problem picking out which is whose. We all like them all!
Of course this activity isn't complete until the seeds are roasted so we got that taken care of too. I didn't even burn those this year so the 2008 Pumpkin Season was a success!!
Happy Haunting.
P.S. I know I'm taking a great chance in jinxing things here, but the weather looks perfect so far for the marathon next weekend!
We started out by Daddy-o cutting the top off of each and every intention was for each person to scoop out the innards in their own pumpkin. That worked for about 2.5 seconds after I got done telling them that was the plan. Devon actually did attempt to. He scooped awhile with the spoon and then did stick his hand in there and yank some out after some coaxing and seeing me do it. Conner...not so much. He just sat there with his spoon daintily taking one or two seeds out at a time, making sure his hand didn't touch the sides or any of the stringy, hairy, slimy innards. After awhile I caved and helped him out. Maybe next year he'll be brave enough to touch it and do it himself.
Conner did get to man the knife all by himself this year though and he did a great job cutting his (pumpkin) face out. No blood anywhere! Devon drew what he wanted on his and then I cut it. Before I cut his though, I confirmed he wanted it cut exactly how it was drawn. It's not the most symmetrical faced pumpkin on the block, but I dare you to look at it and not chuckle. You should have no problem picking out which is whose. We all like them all!
Of course this activity isn't complete until the seeds are roasted so we got that taken care of too. I didn't even burn those this year so the 2008 Pumpkin Season was a success!!
Happy Haunting.
P.S. I know I'm taking a great chance in jinxing things here, but the weather looks perfect so far for the marathon next weekend!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I Love The Taper!
I had my last "long" training run last weekend and it went quite well I think. I had the help of Kimmi and Kris to keep my mind preoccupied and get me through the distance, so thank you very much ladies. I won't say which is which, but one of them ran the first 11 plus miles with me and then went home and partially died even though she's of Ironman caliber and I made the other one entertain me and talk more during the last hour and a half than she probably did the rest of the entire day. If I have a successful race I owe part of that to you two. Wanna come to Indy and do it 1 more time to get me through the race?! :)
Speaking of the race, tomorrow is the day I start to become neurotic about it. Tomorrow marks T -10 and anyone who's ever done any racing knows what that means, don't you? Yup, I get to start checking the weather forecasts multiple times throughout the day! Tomorrow it'll just be a couple of times, but by the time the day or two before the race comes around I'm usually looking at the updates hourly. I know it's so unproductive to do because I can't do anything about changing the weather, but hey, it's just part of the routine now. I'll be taking clothes for all scenarios anyway so why not just watch the weather the night before the race and leave it at that, right? That'd be too easy. I guess I want to know beforehand if the weather is going to be crappy so I can mentally prepare myself.
The Taper Period is weird. You train all season and always look forward to the 2 or 3 weeks before the marathon so you can rest up, but once it gets here you feel like you haven't done enough and want to get out there and do a couple of more training runs. At this point there isn't anything you can do to physically improve other than rest up, but that's the last thing you can make yourself believe. It's a matter of trusting what you did up to this point will help you succeed. So does that mean self-doubt is more prevalent than self-confidence? Ah, that's too deep for something that's just meant to be about running.
I better go find something else to do for the next 10 days.
Speaking of the race, tomorrow is the day I start to become neurotic about it. Tomorrow marks T -10 and anyone who's ever done any racing knows what that means, don't you? Yup, I get to start checking the weather forecasts multiple times throughout the day! Tomorrow it'll just be a couple of times, but by the time the day or two before the race comes around I'm usually looking at the updates hourly. I know it's so unproductive to do because I can't do anything about changing the weather, but hey, it's just part of the routine now. I'll be taking clothes for all scenarios anyway so why not just watch the weather the night before the race and leave it at that, right? That'd be too easy. I guess I want to know beforehand if the weather is going to be crappy so I can mentally prepare myself.
The Taper Period is weird. You train all season and always look forward to the 2 or 3 weeks before the marathon so you can rest up, but once it gets here you feel like you haven't done enough and want to get out there and do a couple of more training runs. At this point there isn't anything you can do to physically improve other than rest up, but that's the last thing you can make yourself believe. It's a matter of trusting what you did up to this point will help you succeed. So does that mean self-doubt is more prevalent than self-confidence? Ah, that's too deep for something that's just meant to be about running.
I better go find something else to do for the next 10 days.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday Night Date
Had a date tonight. Nope, not another one with my buddy Shawn. This one was with someone more important and a member of the female persuasion even!
I suppose I could try to string you along, but I won't. I took my daughter, Kayli, to the Guthrie to see the musical The Little House on the Prairie.
It was a good show. Beautiful voices, but the songs and a few of the characters didn't really jive. One of the cool things about this musical though (and you had to grow up watching the show 30ish years ago like I'm not too afraid I did to really appreciate this) is that Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls in the tv show back then, is in the performance for this production run. She plays Laura's mom this time around though. I don't think she could've pulled off still being Half Pint.
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I got Booed at work yesterday morning by a coworker. Can you believe it? Don't you wish you worked there? Actually, it's a good/fun thing. It's a secret "Boo" as in Halloween. It's loosely like the secret Santa, chain letter thing. I don't know who started it, but I got to my desk yesterday morning and there was a little decorated Halloween bowl filled with candy sitting on my desk with a Halloween poem and instructions and a Boo sign. I have to leave the sign hanging on my wall to show that I've been Booed and secretly do the same thing to 2 others - leave a little treat/trinket and the instructions and sign - within 24 hours and then each one of them does it 2 people and so on and so on. Eventually if everyone follows the instructions the whole office should have boo signs hanging by everyone's desk. I think I'll take mine down so people think I haven't gotten it yet and maybe that way I'll get more candy.
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Another good run today with a little bit of speed work thrown in. Confidence is gaining heading into these final 2 weeks.
I suppose I could try to string you along, but I won't. I took my daughter, Kayli, to the Guthrie to see the musical The Little House on the Prairie.
It was a good show. Beautiful voices, but the songs and a few of the characters didn't really jive. One of the cool things about this musical though (and you had to grow up watching the show 30ish years ago like I'm not too afraid I did to really appreciate this) is that Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls in the tv show back then, is in the performance for this production run. She plays Laura's mom this time around though. I don't think she could've pulled off still being Half Pint.
-------------------------
I got Booed at work yesterday morning by a coworker. Can you believe it? Don't you wish you worked there? Actually, it's a good/fun thing. It's a secret "Boo" as in Halloween. It's loosely like the secret Santa, chain letter thing. I don't know who started it, but I got to my desk yesterday morning and there was a little decorated Halloween bowl filled with candy sitting on my desk with a Halloween poem and instructions and a Boo sign. I have to leave the sign hanging on my wall to show that I've been Booed and secretly do the same thing to 2 others - leave a little treat/trinket and the instructions and sign - within 24 hours and then each one of them does it 2 people and so on and so on. Eventually if everyone follows the instructions the whole office should have boo signs hanging by everyone's desk. I think I'll take mine down so people think I haven't gotten it yet and maybe that way I'll get more candy.
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Another good run today with a little bit of speed work thrown in. Confidence is gaining heading into these final 2 weeks.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I'm Back (I Hope)!!
Just had to get this down while I'm still feeling 'high' from it - had a great 7 mile run over lunch today! Woo Hoo!! Hopefully Saturday's experience won't repeat itself anymore this training and racing season.
...But comparing Saturday's run to today's has made me wonder if I've become a warm weather training wuss.
Saturday - sunny, low 70s (slightly warm by a runner's standards)
Today - overcast, low to mid 50s (perfect running weather by my standards)
I used to think I did pretty well in the heat...maybe not.
...But comparing Saturday's run to today's has made me wonder if I've become a warm weather training wuss.
Saturday - sunny, low 70s (slightly warm by a runner's standards)
Today - overcast, low to mid 50s (perfect running weather by my standards)
I used to think I did pretty well in the heat...maybe not.
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