Sorry, way too long of a break. That whole work thing limited my ability to post after hours, and blogging at home didn't work for some reason. Just to make sure my posts came back to life, I quit my job and took another. Dedication..definately.
So a ton, I and I mean a ton has gone on in the last 3 months since I last posted. My long runs have gone from 14 or 16 miles to 23 miles a few weeks ago. Heck in a mere 5 days I’ll be running 26 (a very slow 26 at training pace, not race pace). Let me think of a few memorable occurrences over the last few months:
--The most challenging of the long runs was 16 miles. For some reason that was the barrier that was the toughest to make it through. It was a warm day, I had some serious IT Band issues, but in the end I survived. So after an exhausting run, I limped into my apartment, I made it up the stairs and Krissy greeted at the door. She helped rehydrate me and then helped me into the tub for ice bath to help limit the inflammation.
As I was in the tub, I was thinking about the schedule for the rest of the day: Clean up, have little bit of food to help my stomach recover from a meal of goo, quick half hour nap, get changed, meet people downtown for dinner, go out for drinks, try to get home at a semi-reasonable time so I can get a good restful sleep. It seemed fairly reasonable. Let me tell you how it really worked out: Clean up, crawl to bed, jump in for a half hour nap…. Wake up 18 hours later. Rumor has it that Krissy tried to wake me up for dinner and I gave her a look that she took as a threat to her physical safety, so she left me sleeping. The good news is that after my 18 hour nap, I woke up feeling like a champ and was able to make my Monday maintenance run without a problem.
--I had another memorable mid-week maintenance run. It was a short recovery run on some random Monday or Tuesday. I was still sore from a long Sat run, so I found my pace around mile 2, and was sticking right to it. I was running just random streets in my neighborhood and around mile 3, I found myself getting tight, so I turned around and decided to take the quickest way home. I came off Lincoln and was running down Addison when I passed this dude. Just some random running dude who didn’t look any different from any other runner I come across. The only thing that made me remember this guy, is that I passed him. I run super slow. And by super slow, I mean babies crawling past me slow. This guy must have had an issue with me passing him, because he sped up and almost hip checked me as he shot on by. I have lost my desire to “race” anyone about the same time a 2 became the first number of my weight, so I let this guy have his victory and pass by.
I made it about another 3 or 4 blocks (still at my same pace, confirmed by my GPS watch) when I passed this guy again. I didn’t make it 20 steps past this guy when he shot right past me again and this time he passed me and then got right in front of me, like a race car who is blocking. Again, I didn’t care at all, I just wanted to get home and stretch, so continued to listen to some Local H and run at my pace. Lame-o stayed away for a while, but at about 5 blocks from home, I ended up passing this guy a 3rd time. He didn’t seem to have an issue with this (or so I thought) but then a half block later, right in front of Guthries, he passed me again. This time, as he passed by, he turned around and gave me some tough-guy look, but because of that he wasn’t paying attention. BAM! Right as he was mid-stare, a group of 3 or 4 girls walked out of Guthries and he crashed right into them. It was awesome. It completely reminded me of a Mentos commercial.
--The third memorable event is more of a goal, than a story. Slurp and I decided to run a half marathon in October in some small town in almost-canada-ville Wisconsin. This was right after I was struggling with my IT band, so I decided to run the race at my training pace (didn’t succeed, I ended up running a good 30 seconds/mile faster). Well it was a great race day but I got a little dehydrated towards the end and definitely ran out of gas (weak on my part, I know) and struggled to finish. After the race we had a great rest of the weekend and while I wasn’t pleased with my performance, it was a good weekend and we drove home through Wisconsin while the leaves were changing, so a nice 9 hr drive home. However Monday morning I was quite surprised. The race results were posted. I filtered the results a few different ways and here is the most important piece that came out: There were 2 women in the 65 and older group. Marilyn and Margaret. Margaret, I kicked her 72 year old butt up and down the course. She bowed to my awesomeness. However, Marilyn, the 74 year old woman, she crushed me. She beat me by almost 2 minutes/mile. Marilyn, if you are out there, and if they have the internet in small-town MN, I’m coming for you in 2009. You had better still be alive, because I’m going to tear you a new one. (yes, I just started talking smack to a 74 year old woman).
That’s about it for a quick update on some memorable events over the last few months. I’m back to a happy blogging place in life, so get ready, more to come.
26 miles this weekend, so I’m sure I’ll have something to say next week. Maybe.
Special thanks to Mandy for giving me grief and reminding me to post.
So a ton, I and I mean a ton has gone on in the last 3 months since I last posted. My long runs have gone from 14 or 16 miles to 23 miles a few weeks ago. Heck in a mere 5 days I’ll be running 26 (a very slow 26 at training pace, not race pace). Let me think of a few memorable occurrences over the last few months:
--The most challenging of the long runs was 16 miles. For some reason that was the barrier that was the toughest to make it through. It was a warm day, I had some serious IT Band issues, but in the end I survived. So after an exhausting run, I limped into my apartment, I made it up the stairs and Krissy greeted at the door. She helped rehydrate me and then helped me into the tub for ice bath to help limit the inflammation.
As I was in the tub, I was thinking about the schedule for the rest of the day: Clean up, have little bit of food to help my stomach recover from a meal of goo, quick half hour nap, get changed, meet people downtown for dinner, go out for drinks, try to get home at a semi-reasonable time so I can get a good restful sleep. It seemed fairly reasonable. Let me tell you how it really worked out: Clean up, crawl to bed, jump in for a half hour nap…. Wake up 18 hours later. Rumor has it that Krissy tried to wake me up for dinner and I gave her a look that she took as a threat to her physical safety, so she left me sleeping. The good news is that after my 18 hour nap, I woke up feeling like a champ and was able to make my Monday maintenance run without a problem.
--I had another memorable mid-week maintenance run. It was a short recovery run on some random Monday or Tuesday. I was still sore from a long Sat run, so I found my pace around mile 2, and was sticking right to it. I was running just random streets in my neighborhood and around mile 3, I found myself getting tight, so I turned around and decided to take the quickest way home. I came off Lincoln and was running down Addison when I passed this dude. Just some random running dude who didn’t look any different from any other runner I come across. The only thing that made me remember this guy, is that I passed him. I run super slow. And by super slow, I mean babies crawling past me slow. This guy must have had an issue with me passing him, because he sped up and almost hip checked me as he shot on by. I have lost my desire to “race” anyone about the same time a 2 became the first number of my weight, so I let this guy have his victory and pass by.
I made it about another 3 or 4 blocks (still at my same pace, confirmed by my GPS watch) when I passed this guy again. I didn’t make it 20 steps past this guy when he shot right past me again and this time he passed me and then got right in front of me, like a race car who is blocking. Again, I didn’t care at all, I just wanted to get home and stretch, so continued to listen to some Local H and run at my pace. Lame-o stayed away for a while, but at about 5 blocks from home, I ended up passing this guy a 3rd time. He didn’t seem to have an issue with this (or so I thought) but then a half block later, right in front of Guthries, he passed me again. This time, as he passed by, he turned around and gave me some tough-guy look, but because of that he wasn’t paying attention. BAM! Right as he was mid-stare, a group of 3 or 4 girls walked out of Guthries and he crashed right into them. It was awesome. It completely reminded me of a Mentos commercial.
--The third memorable event is more of a goal, than a story. Slurp and I decided to run a half marathon in October in some small town in almost-canada-ville Wisconsin. This was right after I was struggling with my IT band, so I decided to run the race at my training pace (didn’t succeed, I ended up running a good 30 seconds/mile faster). Well it was a great race day but I got a little dehydrated towards the end and definitely ran out of gas (weak on my part, I know) and struggled to finish. After the race we had a great rest of the weekend and while I wasn’t pleased with my performance, it was a good weekend and we drove home through Wisconsin while the leaves were changing, so a nice 9 hr drive home. However Monday morning I was quite surprised. The race results were posted. I filtered the results a few different ways and here is the most important piece that came out: There were 2 women in the 65 and older group. Marilyn and Margaret. Margaret, I kicked her 72 year old butt up and down the course. She bowed to my awesomeness. However, Marilyn, the 74 year old woman, she crushed me. She beat me by almost 2 minutes/mile. Marilyn, if you are out there, and if they have the internet in small-town MN, I’m coming for you in 2009. You had better still be alive, because I’m going to tear you a new one. (yes, I just started talking smack to a 74 year old woman).
That’s about it for a quick update on some memorable events over the last few months. I’m back to a happy blogging place in life, so get ready, more to come.
26 miles this weekend, so I’m sure I’ll have something to say next week. Maybe.
Special thanks to Mandy for giving me grief and reminding me to post.
