Spring has sprung

The 2010 spring season has brought many blessings.

It's wonderful to be back in my house! I'm all settled in, and couldn't be happier with the way things have turned out. The improvements made during the renovation are all working out wonderfully, and I'm thrilled to everything restored & returned to the way it was or better.

Well, admittedly, the lawn is still a trainwreck (as it always has been), but that's pretty low on my list of priorities ;)

I've been blessed to meet many new friends both in & out of recovery, and both in & out of the running/triathlon communities. Life is good! One recent acquaintance has me particularly excited about the future, and I'm thrilled about that.

The '10 race season is off to a great start too! This season's training saw a slower & rougher start than last year, so I was getting frustrated, but then it finally began to click & fall into place...

My first "race" was the MDRA Mudball Classic last Saturday, and it was a hoot! I love that race because it is so laid-back and it has such a fun & celebratory atmosphere. I love getting to see my MDRA friends there, and it was the first time I've seen Steve this year - we had a great time catching up, and he gave me some awesome info for my IMWI training - thanks Steve!

Last Sunday, I enjoyed my (then) longest bike ride ever - 45 miles out-n-back on the Gateway Trail. Good stuff!

This weekend, I had this season's first half-marathon on Saturday morning - the Get In Gear. It went very well - though it wasn't my fastest half marathon split, it was much faster than I anticipated. I really couldn't be happier with the results. The weather was rainy & cold - you all know how much I grumble & whine about that weather before a race, but once I settle down into my pace out on the course, that weather is always just about perfect, and I'm all smiles.

Congrats to my friends Rachel & Willie who both PRd their 10Ks, and Mary who PRd her half-marathon. And to Steve, who massively PRd his half on Saturday (not GIG) - 1:22 - wow!

After that race, we celebrated with yummy Day By Day Cafe breakfast with my wonderful GF and my dear friend Rachel and some of her friends - a perfect way to cap off a great morning! I even got in a great swim that afternoon at the Midtown Y. A leisurely evening spent with my lovely GF capped off a fantastic day :)

On Sunday morning, I woke up early to head out to the Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride. I was just planning to do the 65-mile route (they offer 30, 65, and 100 mile options). It was cold & rainy again this morning, and I came very close to not doing the race at all once I got there and realized how wet & chilly it would be. But, I decided to man up & press on...

Today's BIG mistake: I picked up a course map at the check-in table, but stupidly stuffed it in a jersey pocket without even looking at it. My reasoning? "Well, surely the course will be very clearly marked at the split points, and I won't need to worry too much about looking out for that turnpoint..."

Admitting that, I know all my Herk peeps out there are shaking their heads: "Route study, and then clock-to-map-to-ground, Hydro! C'mon now!!!" You'd think such preflight & inflight skills would still be second nature to me, but I arrogantly decided to blow off my pre-mish planning. Trust me - lesson learned!

OK, so off I go... I had planned to be self-contained on the 65-mile route. Though there were rest points along the way, my plan was to do the 65 without stopping - I had enough water & fuel on the bike to make it happen. Well, that was the plan, anyway...

The first 50 miles were cold & wet. It was rainy, chilly, and windy. There was a rest stop at mile 50, and I finally decided to take a break to warm up a bit. I peed, grabbed a cup of coffee, and jumped back on the bike. I admit that it occurred to me then that I didn't recall a 50-mile stop being part of the 65-mile course, but I still didn't understand I had missed the 65-mile course turnoff (which was quite a ways behind me at that point). But do I stop then to confirm my suspicion on the course map like any sensible person would? Of course not! Ugh. So...

I start getting excited as my Garmin tells me I'm at the 60 mile point, but as I look around, I notice that it does not appear that I'm anywhere close to Lakeville (the Lakeville senior high school is the start & finish of the race). "No worries!", I reassure myself, "Surely, I must still be on the 65-mile course"

...It was then that those uncomfortable past-life memories of "Uhhh, hey Nav... What's in SCNS right now?!?" started to surface in my mind... As the Garmin mileage ticked closer to 65, reality set in - I am still out deep in farm country, and am definitely not on the planned 65-mile course!

The legs were understandably sore at that point (after all, my longest ever bike ride till this point has been those 45 miles a week ago), but I was still feeling fine overall, so I decided to suck it up and push out my first-ever century (100-mile bike ride).

Those last 50 miles were drier - only light occasional rain, but the headwinds & crosswinds were brutal. My decent average speed over the first 50 miles dwindled to a frustrating crawl through those winds. I made one more rest stop at ~80-mile point for more sugar & coffee, and then finished my first century with a big smile on my face!

I'm very tired right now, but my body feels good - sore, but it's a good, contented soreness, and nothing hurts - I'm very happy about that. I'm looking forward to a great season of many great race events coming up!

These last two weekends have combined all of the wonderful things about my spring so far - time spent with with my amazing GF, other wonderful & dear friends, and good/fun/successful training events & races.

Tonight, I reflect what a huge gift that sobriety has been in my life - all of the many blessings I enjoy today are only possible because I am sober. By God's grace, I will continue on this path, but it's a journey I take one day at a time. And I like it that way - it keeps me humbled & grateful for each day I have in this incredible new life of mine.

I hope your spring is off to a wonderful start as well!

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Now playing: cage the elephant - ain't no rest for the wicked

Blessed

In mid-2009, I decided to become a triathlete. Though I am early in this new triathlon career of mine, I am humbled by the amazing folks I've met so far...

I've mentioned before what a blessing my friends in the distance-running community are - all such healthy, genuinely happy, and encouraging people. Folks in the triathlon world are certainly the same way.

Today, I was blessed to meet more local triathletes who are also in the recovery community. It gave me pause to consider just how many of "us" I now know - a lot!

I really shouldn't be surprised by this - folks who are sincere & earnest in their recovery are ideal candidates to excel in the worlds of endurance running, triathlon, and multisport - such activities truly are a perfect match for us.

Triathlon and long-distance running are examples of activities that most people consider completely out of reach. To folks humbled by & grateful for the miracle of their recovery (even those with little or no endurance background), we know that nothing is out of reach for us. We know that anything is possible, and that belief & confidence in ourselves takes us the distance - by the grace of God, we are able to achieve wonderful and previously unimagined accomplishments in life. And out on the road, on the bike, and out in the water ;)

To all of my fellow brothers & sisters in recovery (athletes and otherwise): May God continue to bless you, and thank you for sharing your experience, strength, and hope. Though you may not know it, all of you are an inspiration to me, and I am grateful to have you in my life today.

To my fellow sober racers - looking forward to meeting more of you and seeing you around in the upcoming 2010 race season & beyond!
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Now playing: eagles of death metal - flames go higher

2009 Twin Cities Marathon

Great day overall!

Weather? Could hardly ask for anything better. Just about as good as it gets.

I had been saying that if the weather was good, then I'd push out at a Boston-qual (BQ) pace, and just see how it played out. Very honestly, I didn't have any illusions about actually getting a BQ. I'm an optimistic person (try anyways!), but through school-of-hard-knocks experience, I'm also pretty familiar with my body's race-readiness levels, and an overall BQ simply wasn't the level I was starting this race at.

The house-fire thing has been the biggest reason for that. Sure, it affected my actual training some, but it much more affected my focus and mental prep for this race. At any level, racing for an aggressive finish time is more of a mental challenge than a physical one (in my opinion), and my head just hasn't been in full go-get-'em mode for this one. Work was busier than usual the two weeks prior to the fire, and that affected training runs too. And I mishmashed in a lot of multisport-specific training there late in the season - none of that was in the original plan for 2009. But that had its own rewards - one duathlon and two triathlons under my belt now (including an oly), and I'm really pleased with how well those three races went.

Excuses, excuses ;) I don't mention any of that to rationalize away the BQ miss. I mention it because I knew all of those things were adding up to no BQ for this year, and that's A-OK. I've got plenty of time for that later!

Race prep went well, although I clearly screwed something up in my nutrition plan. More on that in a moment...

Have been blessed this week to "meet" Willie Tibbetts through Facebook - Willie is an amazingly talented lady, and a much-loved superstar in the local running scene & beyond. We bumped into each other in Corral One at the race, and started off together. I managed to stay with (correction: near ;) Willie for ~10 miles, and then started to slip back. Willie's strong pace helped get me a start that surprised me - I hit the halfway point at 1:32:51 - I've never had a pace close to that for 13.1 miles! At that point, I knew there was NO way I was going to sustain it for another 13.1, but I just decided to keep going and see how long I lasted.

Shortly thereafter, I got the worst sideache I ever remember having. WTF? A sideache?!? I haven't had one of those in years!!! For me, these are typically related to poor hydration, but I felt strongly that I was properly hydrated even at that point, so this is still a mystery to me. And I couldn't get rid of it either. It slowed me down a bit; every time I tried to push it back up, the stitch intensified, so I had to just find a level I could live with.

The sideache wasn't the end of the world, just frustrating - I got to around mile 20, and then it all fell apart... The legs cramped badly, and every muscle started to get really sore - even my arms. I was anticipating the legs giving out since my weekly mileage had not been where it needed to be in the last month prior to the race, but I had been hoping I could get to mile 23 or 24 before they rebelled. The whole time on Summit Ave was miserable. Run some, walk, jog, walk, run, walk. Ugh. But the unusual soreness in all of my muscles tells me something was not right with my pre-race nutrition plan. So, I've got some things to think about there for next time... Live & learn!

The spectators and volunteers were all fantastic - huge thanks to all of those folks!

Mom, Dad, Katie, B, and Margo - thanks for the wunderbar family support - your signs & cheers were great!

The Charities Challenge crew was fantastic as usual - thanks to Coach Gary, Coach Jeanne, Tom, and Roxann for the awesome support during & after the race. Cheryl - it was SO cool to see you there with Parker and Mark - you guys made my morning - the signs you made were so cool! I can't express enough how much it meant to me to see you guys there and have your support - thank you so much! :)

In no particular order, mad props to:
Rachel - first marathon ever - looked strong and finished strong - SO proud of you, Rae!!
Marcy, Hetvi, and Bridget - first marathons for them too - all finished strong & smilin'!
Tanya - great job rockin' another solid PR today - you are kickin' butt and takin' names!
Sandi, Amy, and Gary - so great to see you guys at the Dome - congrats on another rockin' TCM!
Willie - 3:03:51 - wow! What else can ya say? Congrats, Willie - and thanks again for the early push!
My friend Nicole Cueno - 2:49:37!! I'm embarrassed to admit that I had ZERO idea Nicole was such a marathon rockstar - big congrats to her!
Steve Stenzel - crushed the TC 10-Mile race with a 1:02:43 (95 out of 5797!!!). Awesome job, Steve!

My results. A 26.2 PR by 20 minutes (no, I'm not counting seconds here, lol), so I'm very pleased with that.

THANK YOU to my dear friends who have been so generous with your support & encouragement. I am so blessed these days to enjoy the wonderful circle of friends that I have today - I am so very grateful to all of you for your kind support today and always - thank you from the bottom of my heart!
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Now playing: gnarls barkley - run (i'm a natural disaster)

A weekend at the races

Wow. What a weekend it's been!

The "Great River" Ragnar Relay was absolutely incredible - I thought it would be fun, but it far exceeded my expectations! A total of 233 teams (!) participated - most were 12-person teams with 2 support vans per team. There were a few "ultra" 6-person teams also, but I was floored by the sheer number of folks who participated - it was absolutely awesome.

Everyone was so enthusiastic & fun - some of the teams were just insane - wild costumes, crazily decorated vans, bullhorns, sirens, booming radios, all sorts of flashing lights - it was so much fun. And all of the folks (other racers and volunteers) were fabulous - everyone was so supportive of each other throughout the race - we were all in it together. We had a blast getting to know some of the other teams we were pacing with at various points over the two days.

Overall, "The Loo Lovers" (our team) did impressively well - we soundly beat all of our forecasted legs times, and finished the race well ahead of schedule. Unofficially, it looks like we averaged 8 minutes per mile over the 195 total miles. I was very happy with how I did - I was runner profile #11, and my three legs were all ~4.5 miles. My legs were all pretty flat, so I just hit the gas as hard as I could. That got harder as the relay went on, since I got maybe 2 hours of sleep over the two days - and that was better than some folks who didn't sleep at all - our opportunities to rest were few and very brief!

The weather was fantastic throughout. The night leg was my favorite. It was completely dark (no moon and zero street lights on most of the leg), but temperature & conditions were perfect, and it felt great to tear it up. My headlamp provided enough light to see, and our van kept our nighttime runners in sight the entire time - they just leap-frogged along as the runner progressed, and could thus immediately provide cheering, water, or any assistance. This was a luxury that the usual daytime traffic on the roads would not afford - during the day, the van provided support to the runner at 1, 2, or 3 points along their route, but that was the best we could do.

I will absolutely do Ragnar again. Many more times, I hope! It made me remember again why I love running - the camaraderie and just plain simple fun of it provided a much-needed recharging of my training batteries. The whole experience was incredible - it was a celebratory 28+ hour running love fest - as close to a Woodstock as the running world can get :)

Some pics from the race can be found on the Facebook Loo Lovers page. Hopefully, more will be added over the next several days...

I was finally home from Ragnar at about 4 pm on Saturday, and then...

It was time to get ready for the St Paul Triathlon on Sunday morning - my first-ever triathlon. I had registered for the "sprint course" before I was asked to sub in on my friend's Ragnar team, so I figured I would still try to make this tri if at all possible - it was paid for, so why not? ;)

I washed some clothes, packed up the transition bag, prepped the bike (didn't swap to race wheels for this one - not enough energy for that effort ;), and got to bed as soon as I could - I needed to get up at 4:30. Ugh.

I got about 7 hours of sleep, but that's for sure the best night of rest I've ever had before any big race - I usually don't sleep very well the night before big races.

Brewed up some coffee, and hit the road to Lake Phalen. Randy (race director) confirmed I would be able to pick up my race packet that morning, so I wanted to be there right when the transition area opened. No problems there at all - got a good transition spot and built my nest.

The sprint race was a 0.5 mile swim, a 20K bike, and 5K run. It went far better than I expected - I was extremely happy with my times (events & transitions both) - one, it was my first tri ever (woot!), and two - I had just finished Ragnar and was still physically ass-kicked from that whole experience (crazy schedule, off-pattern eating, lack of sleep, lots of running, etc). Here are my final results from the tri.

I thought the event was very well done. I've heard that some of Randy's events can be a bit unpolished, but this one was quite impressive in execution. I like that his events (Vacation Sports) are comparatively quite a bit cheaper than other races - that's nice! The transition area security left a bit to be desired (no bike-to-rider verification upon exit, opened back up too early to finished racers [some folks were still in T2, so that's not cool]), but even so, I wasn't at all worried about my bike or gear in there, so I can't really complain. Plenty of friendly volunteers and great support all the way from pre-race, along the courses, and post-race.

Some good lessons-learned...

I thought I would be crazy nervous for the swim - I have never done a swim of that distance, and this was my first long open-water swim (OWS). But, I wasn't nervous at all. I was actually a bit concerned that I had zero race nerves - usually, at least some nervousness is a good thing, but I had none. I would like to think that was because I was so well prepared, but that would be a huge lie! I guess it was just the fact that I was still emotionally drained from Ragnar - my body was just saving all energy for the race - nothing to waste on nerves. If that's the answer, it works for me!

I wore my wetsuit for the swim, and that did wonders for my confidence and performance. I feel like an invincible super-hero when I swim in that thing! Realizing that my swimming skills leave much to be desired, I waited a few seconds and left the beach towards the back of my wave. The "washing machine" wasn't bad at all (lots of contact, but all minor), but the frustrating thing was other slow swimmers - throughout the course, I kept running into lines 5 or 6 abreast of lollygagging swimmers, and I'd have to pick through them - it was hard to get in a good rhythm at any point during the swim. But, I felt really good throughout the swim overall, so I was greatly relieved by that.

Running to T1 was a trip! Everyone told me to be prepared for being dizzy and light-headed getting out of the water, but wow... that was intense! I got through T1 fine and without any major shenanigans, though I struggled a bit getting out of my wetsuit quickly due to my balance still being eff'd up. No big deal.

ALWAYS know thy courses! I didn't carefully review the courses because I didn't have time or energy to do it last night (dorked up that set of priorities!) And, of course, that bit me. Nothing bad, and I found out later numerous other people did this same thing - the bike course was an out-n-back, and as we were nearing the transition / race area again, I thought that was the end, so I reached down and slipped out of my shoes. Yeah, well... not so much the end... We actually shot around that area for a quick out-n-back. So, I had to reach down and get back in my shoes - not a huge time loss overall, but that loss would've been easily avoidable if I'd reviewed the course. I didn't race any of the tri with my Garmin since this was such a short race, so I had no way of knowing total distance - another dumb mistake.

I also had some embarrassing getting-into-my-bike-shoes buffoonery coming out of T1 - that was due to my being uncoordinated in general, and not enough practice yet with the whole leave-shoes-on-bike thing (admittedly, shame on me for bringing that unpracticed weak-sauce to a race). Shook off that snafu, and proceeded to have a solid overall bike portion - I was pleased with my pace. My quads were screaming from Ragnar when I first started to drop the hammer, but they soon quieted down. Or maybe they just surrendered and went numb. I'm not sure which.

T2 went really well - dismount from the bike went smooth, booked it to my spot, slipped on the Zoots, grabbed my visor, and I was off - 35 seconds from TA entry to exit - booyah! The first mile of the 5K was total murder - my legs were so effin' tight - I thought I was in for the longest 5K of my life... But then the legs loosened back up just fine, and I was thankfully able to settle into my usual form. By some miracle, I actually PR'd the 5K - now, where the heck did that come from?!?

All in all, a most excellent weekend - I am one happy camper right now. And grateful too - I'm blessed to have my good health, wonderful friends, and the available resources to enjoy these great opportunities!

Next events on the schedule:
8/30 - Minneapolis Duathlon
9/6 - St Croix Valley Triathlon
9/13 - volunteer at Ironman Wisconsin
10/4 - Twin Cities Marathon
10/31 - Monster Dash 1/2 Marathon

See you out there!
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Now playing: death cab for cutie - i will possess your heart

Balance

My Mom often proffers the following advice when I update her & my Dad with what I've been up to lately: Keep your balance.

Wise words.

It's very easy to let things get out of balance, even when I may feel I have it all pretty well under control. The biggest thing I must balance is maintaining my recovery as the #1 priority in life. I feel I do a good job of that overall. Room for improvement? Of course! But that's why I stick with working my Program on an ongoing basis - I'm always learning.

But smaller upsets in my balance can easily grow and oscillate into other areas, so that's what I need to remain well aware of. While the vast majority of things happening in my life do not pose any sort of direct threat to my recovery efforts, improperly handling them certainly has the potential to snowball dangerously ("Serenity NOW!!!")

Right now, I'm taking some me-time to reassess my training plan & goals.

I began this season with the upcoming Twin Cities Marathon (TCM) as my "A-race" for the year. Then, mid-season, I decided to get into triathlons, but wisely shelved any immediate entry there (i.e. significant races) until next year. However, I have been accumulating tri gear, equipment, and training plans, and have admittedly been quite distracted by this exciting new world of tri. I am very pumped to hit triathlons hard next season, but I have to remain faithful to this season's plan - a good show at the TCM.

I've recently been blessed with a fantastic opportunity to participate in the 2009 Ragnar Relay, and I'm very much looking forward to that! Though I remain focused on the TCM as the big fish in the pond, I don't see any real conflict with that and Ragnar. However, I did sign up for two sprint triathlons this season ("Just to get a feel for things"), but one didn't end up working out schedule-wise in the end, and the second one is scheduled for the same weekend as Ragnar. While there's an outside chance I could still do that second tri, I don't see it happening. It doesn't make sense to push that hard - especially considering it would be my first tri race. So, while it stinks to eat those race entry fees, it's a small price to pay in terms of experience if it means I stay healthy and true to my goal for this season.

Continuing that theme, there's simply no good reason to push so hard in general to mishmash in so many adventures & experiences just because I seemingly can. I'm young, I'm blessed with amazing health these days, and I've got many, many years of running and racing ahead of me - plenty of time in the future for many more goals!

So, it's time for me to throttle back a bit. One nagging result of my distracted training imbalance has been this tight right calf. Still there. Not worse, but not better. I've decided to take some time off from running to give it a rest. That will also be a good time for me to reassess my game plan for the final months going into the TCM. I'll plan to do some swimming in the meantime, but overall, I'm taking a break from scheduled training - I need it to restore my balance, and I'm very confident good things will result ;)

A work in progress...
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Now playing: cat power - breathless

Grandma's Marathon '09

This race was a very good learning experience for me. I made several big mistakes going into it, and I'm very fortunate and blessed that I not only finished with a PR (personal record), but that I finished injury-free.

In no particular order, I'll break 'em down...

Mistake #1: No long-distance training in sun and hot weather yet this season. I've been blessed to have some other great races (GIG 1/2, Stillwater 20-miler) this year with regard to my paces, but they've all been under near-ideal weather conditions. So far, I've only done distances of 4.5 - 5 miles when it's been hot and sunny. That's a big hole in my training!! So, I must incorporate some long-distance training runs when it's nasty like that out. The upcoming TCM in October could be brutally hot (like in '07), so I need to prepare for that option. When it's nice & cool or overcast out, that's a whole different game than when it's sunny, hot, and humid :)

Mistake #2: I went into the race with a questionable calf injury. Well, not so much an injury - but this lingering, nagging tightness in my lower calf/Achilles area I've had for the last several weeks. Two results from that: It's hampered my training (especially distance runs), and it was dumb to start a race like a marathon with a wildcard issue like that - I could have easily shredded up that calf or Achilles during the race and I'm very fortunate it feels good today. Actually, I'm a bit spooked right now - it feels perfectly normal today (is that good or bad?!? I expected it to be quite tight!). It didn't "hurt" per se during the race, but I definitely felt the tightness. Did it slow me down? Yes, but not from pain or anything like that - it was more from that stupid "Can I pick it up? Yes? No? What if I push too hard and blow it out? Go faster? Slow down?" loop-of-doubt that kept playing in my head. You shouldn't race if you know you are going to be distracted by such things - it just messes with your focus and clarity. And I knew darn well that loop would be playing, so I should've considered more carefully at the start whether this race was smart to do.

Mistake #3: Past results do not themselves equal future success. This ties in the previous two mistakes, but is a lesson I need to get real about - especially as I migrate into triathlon training! Just because my training so far this year has been ahead of schedule, I can see now that was had a lot to do with the great weather we've had so far (cool temps). My rigorous marathon training history is only about one year old now - I've certainly come a long way, but I can't get too far ahead of myself. As I continue to whittle my pace times down, I need to be much more patient and realistic than I have been. This race at Grandma's was a very good wake-up call - if I want to BQ at the TCM this year, I realize now that I have much more work to do than I previously thought! I was getting far too cocky in my training and goals this season, so Grandma's definitely helped knock me down a few levels...

Here's a breakdown of my Grandma's results. It's almost the complete opposite of my '08 TCM performance - instead of my pace slowly improving throughout the race like the TCM, my pace steadily degraded all through Grandma's. I started out too fast, and was thus behind the proverbial power curve when the temps ramped up, and it all went south quickly from there.

So - Grandma's '09 - definitely not my finest work. In fact, it was the worst race of my career so far. I guess that sounds odd for me to say when I PR'd, but this was only my 3rd marathon ;) It may have been a PR, but it's not one I'm particularly proud of - given my mistakes, I was very fortunate to just finish this race at all. Great lessons learned here for me, and I'm taking them all to heart!
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Now playing: electronic - breakdown

One day at a time

I've had a couple of great races this past weekend. The weather was beautiful, and the races were a blast. I'm starting to meet more & more good folks in the local running community here, and I'm enjoying that.

Leading up to Grandma's and the Twin Cities Marathon (TCM), I've signed up for a bunch of shorter races this spring & summer. Publicly, I've said that I'd just be doing these for fun, and would have no goals for them, but that's not entirely true. I do have goals for the longer ones, since some will be convenient trials for the marathons.

And, indeed, I did have goals for this weekend. They had to do with my big goal, which I have for this year's TCM: a Boston-qualifying time (BQ). To qualify for Boston this year, I need to average 7:30 min/mile, so that was my goal for these races this past weekend. I was able to do it for both, but as I was crossing the finish line each time, I thought to myself, "26.2 miles at THIS pace?!? No effin' way!!!"

I cannot afford to think like that.

Distance-running training is very similar to recovery. If I just stare at a final goal, the road to it looks overwhelming and impassable. But if I take it one day at a time, and work each day to the best of my ability, meeting smaller goals as I go, I travel along that road just fine. Sure, there are inevitable missteps along the way, and it can be discouraging at times on a day-to-day basis, but I simply must do the honest best I can today. If I do that, then I truly can have no regrets with the outcome, even if that means I don't make my goal at the desired time. And that's the cool thing about life - it's rare that you truly don't get a second chance, at least with the really important things ;)

Just as I do a daily 10th Step inventory for recovery, I do the same thing with my BQ goal for running. What right action have I taken today -- just today! -- towards my goal? Where have I fallen short? What is my plan for tomorrow -- just tomorrow! -- to accentuate the positive and amend today's shortcomings?

When I take it one day at a time, my small steps add up to those long distances over time.

When I was in my early sobriety, The Promises of AA seemed completely out of reach to me, but they have all steadily come true over time. Similarly, my goal of doing the TCM last year in under 4 hours seemed beyond reach when I first started training late last season. But each "goal" has been realized one day at a time, and each continues to enrich my life today.

The fruition of AA's The Promises are a blessing that I'm grateful for every day, and my success at the 2008 TCM has motivated me to continue further with running. As a result of each, I've met wonderful, healthy, happy people who enrich my life, and I myself have grown as a happier and healthier person. Good stuff!

If a BQ doesn't happen this season, no worries. Heck, I've got the rest of my life to get one ;)

A work in progress...
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Now playing: billie holiday - i've got a date with a dream

Yikes

This is a bummer of a run. I'll keep my run-related whining in check now...

Tonight was a great run - it's gorgeous out!
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Now playing: moby - flying foxes

Bummed

My running has been a mixed bag since the marathon. I'm now just running every other day, and ~4-5 miles per go. My paces overall have been great, but the runs themselves have been a struggle for the most part. I feel like I'm fighting through them too much. I think it's mostly due to getting my nose, throat, and lungs conditioned to the colder air. And now that the TCM is done, there's just a certain level of psych that's missing as I go into the winter season. I'm confident it'll come together again; it's just a bit frustrating in the meantime. I'm blessed to have my health, and reflecting on that does gives me strength and cheer.

And I'm bummed that I'll (most likely) need to remove the big ol' ash tree in my backyard. After consulting at length with the arborist about it, I think that's the best thing to do. Unfortunately, it's also the most expensive solution (and, wow, it's expensive!). But even with any cheaper band-aid fixes now, it would just be a matter of time before I would need to take it down - that main trunk split is killing the tree and catastrophic structural failure is just a question of when, and not if.

I'm waiting on a more detailed estimate once the arborist's take-'er-down guru stops by to make an assessment. It's most like going to involve a large crane (numerous reasons pointing toward that being the best & safest solution). Oy. Oh well, I was planning to plant a couple of fruit trees out front this spring anyway, and now it looks like I'll be planting a nice shade tree in back too.

Many thanks to my good friends Matt & Todd for their suggestions on a follow-on tree. A couple of wiseacres, youz guys...

Ah, feeling less bummed already - it's nice to vent a bit. Thanks for putting up with it.

~~~ Squirrel update ~~~

I think the thug squirrels have done what damage they are going to do to my corn-stalk thing and a few other decorations I have up (nothing edible left). The corn-stalk thing still looks fine overall, so I think we're in good shape. Some other smaller corn decorations are a total loss, but that was to be expected. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did, actually.

When I came home from work yesterday, there was a big pile of some shredded corn-stalk debris piled up smack-dab in the middle of my side-door mat -- as in, "Yeah, me & my pals really dig that corn-stalk thing. Instead of just pooping on your mat, I thought I'd rub it in your face that I own that thing, sucka!!" Hmmm...

...When you least expect it, squirrel. I got your number.
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Now playing: the soggy bottom boys - i am a man of constant sorrow

Twin Cities Marathon '08 - "Complete"

What a morning!

The marathon ended up going very well - I'm happy to say that I exceeded my personal goals, and I'm also very happy to report that I feel fantastic right now. Even after choosing to walk 14 blocks for part of the way back home after the race. No injuries, and no worrisome aches or pains - above all else, I'm most grateful for that!

The marathon start was arguably perfect weather - overcast and cool. I started off with a throw-away cotton long-sleeve shirt that I tossed after a few miles once I was somewhere close my desired first-half pace. Shortly after that, the hard rain and wind started. It got f'ing cold. Really cold. I think that was perhaps the coldest I've ever been in my life...

The rain & wind was worst when I was in The Lakes section of the course, and it was just plain brutal. I definitely considered stopping altogether more than once. To be honest, the thing that kept me going was feeling that if I stopped, I dreaded that I would literally go into hypothermic shock, so I just kept going out of pure naked fear more than any other motivation. Other than the I'm-so-freakin-cold-my-bare-skin-feels-like-it's-burning sensation, I couldn't feel a thing anywhere on my body, so I had no idea if my knees were coming apart or not; I just knew I must keep moving...

I had to pee almost right from the start of the race, but I didn't dare stop to do that or anything else, primarily because I had zero confidence that my icy legs would agree to giddyup & go again. I passed up numerous water stops & nice folks trying to give me a High-5 because I could not move my fingers out from a fist. And forget trying to have an energy gel - I never did regain the dexterity to open one of those things.

Finally, about halfway through, the rain let up. And the gaggle was thin enough that I could start attacking in earnest. Once I warmed up enough to get a feel for how my body was holding up overall, I began my push...

Since my recent knee issue prevented me from getting in any long-distance training runs (18+), I was leery of how aggressive to get ramping it up. I know now that I didn't push as full-out as I could've, but hindsight is 20/20 ;-)

My 'chip time' is 3:45:14, so I'm thrilled with that. Trying to be fancy, I dorked up hacking my watch at the start, so I thought my time was around 3:55 as I neared the finish. Had I known that I was so close to sub-3:45, I definitely would've rallied to get under it, but I'm certainly not complaining!

A ginormous "Thanks!" to family & friends who braved that hideous weather to come out and cheer me on - you all ROCK! You guys & gals are unbelievable - I can't express how grateful I am that you were there - thank you!

EDIT: Funniest t-shirt award goes to the dude who wrote I HAVE TO POOP across the back of his shirt. That's a distance-running thing, so it may not be humorous to some of you. But it was funny. Trust me.

A few pictures here
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Now playing: blur - song #2

Getting excited!

Found someone else at work who is doing the marathon, so that's neat. She's looking to run similar times to me, so if we both survive the TCM, perhaps we'll do some runs together next season. I don't mind training solo, but having any level of mutual support is definitely a good thing!

And on that note, I've recently joined a local running club (I know - nice timing, right? Just in time for winter!); I'm looking forward to participating in group runs and training opportunities with them next season.

Quiet this week - just have been doing 3-mile jogs every other day. I think I'll pick up my race packet Friday night, and then do the last couple of miles of the course on Saturday.

As long as it's a nice day, I'll also knock out some more yard work on Saturday, and then it'll be time to chow pasta and get to bed early.
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Now playing: social distortion - no pain, no gain

Lazy Sunday

Had planned to run the last part of the TCM course today, but ended up not doing it. I'll do it some evening this week instead. I've decided to do some nice-n-easy evening runs this week, and use that extra hour of sleep in the morning to ensure I stay well-rested.

However, today was a very productive day - I finally finished hanging the last of my pictures & art. My one remaining project was to hang pictures in the front "hallway" I created using my freestanding bookshelf. It's a mishmash of photos and some art, all in different frames and just randomly hung along the wall. I think it turned out pretty well. Trying to take a picture of it wouldn't really work, but you can decide for yourself if you see it sometime.

It's definitely nice to finally have everything inside the house finally in its place.

Great dinner last night with some family. Good times had by all - thanks for hosting, Mom!

Yesterday's GPS Rundown:
Nokomis Loop mod
6.14 miles / 48:57 time / 7:58 pace
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Now playing: the cranberries - sunday

TGIF indeed

Looking forward to a great weekend!

GPS Rundown:
Lake Nokomis plus
7.03 miles / 54:36 time / 7:46 pace
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Now playing: fiona apple - pale september

Me vs Squirrel

Exterior caulking shenanigans are complete. Well, as much as I'm going to do this season anyway. Outside of ongoing yard & The Gardens cleanup, the last remaining sorta big job left to do this fall is to better winterize the basement. It's actually fine now, but I'd like to beef it up where it makes sense to do it. So, a little insulation and pipe-wrap here & there, and maybe putting on a hot-water heater blanket/wrap/cozy or whatever they are called.

There's a squirrel who thinks the yard is his (hers?), and he hasn't been a happy camper ever since I've moved in. We have some good stare-down contests, and when I'm around the yard too much when he has stuff to do (which typically consists of digging far-larger-than-necessary holes all over the yard), he likes to sit on the roof or low in my backyard tree and bark out his displeasure with my presence. He pooped right in the middle of my brand-new doormat when I first moved in (caught him doing that), and he regularly pees in the middle of my walkways and on my stairs when he knows I'm around & I'll notice. There's no other explanation for those sudden little puddles.

So. Yeah. That little punk is on my list. One of these days...

GPS Rundown:
No GPS today (on purpose). No goals, no objectives - just went out for a run.
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Now playing: echo and the bunnymen - the killing moon

Hump Day

Knee is still all good. Had lunch with one of my brothers today. It's always great to catch up with him; I really enjoy our lunch get-togethers downtown. He asked how the marathon prep was going (he's done several himself) - when I told him that I was considering doing a big-mileage run this weekend to test out the knee, he wisely steered me away from that idea. Sometimes, we just need that simple sanity check from someone else to know the right course of action to take. Thanks for the vector, big bro!

My plan is to keep on with my ~5 mile morning runs through next week (I enjoy them - Lake Nokomis is uniquely peaceful at that early hour), and to run the last part of the marathon course this weekend. From his own TCM experiences, my brother had some excellent insight on how that last stretch of the course is going to feel at various points. Good stuff!

Other than that, I've been doing some exterior caulking on the house (around the window & door frames, the basement block-windows, etc). A few more exterior things to take care of before the cold & dark of fall sets in, but I should be able to get the big-picture stuff accomplished.

Today's "Doh!" new homeowner lesson: Caulk guns do not have an off switch, so set it down in between beads - continuing to grip it will inevitably just ooze more out. And, overall, they require a much lighter touch than one may first imagine. Ugh.

GPS Rundown:
Lake Nokomis loop mod
5.05 miles / 39:45 time / 7:52 pace
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Now playing: pilooski - take care of business (nina simone)

Quick update

Forgot to post yesterday, and lost the run data. Ugh. Knee still is feeling great, so I'm grateful for that. Otherwise, not much to report so far this week. Storm passed by and the house is still standing, so that's a good thing.

GPS Rundown:
Lake Nokomis loop mod
5.07 miles / 40:02 time / 7:54 pace
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Now playing: the smiths - there is a light that never goes out

He's alive!

Where to start?... It's been a while!

The knee feels good lately. No running there for a while because of it, but this past week, I've started to run a bit again. Lots of ice and a steady diet of Aleve has certainly helped. I did 10 miles today, and everything felt great. Barring a re-injury (fingers crossed!), I'm now back at the point of definitely planning to start the TCM. I'll up the daily mileage this week, and go for one last long run this coming weekend to test those waters.

The house is looking purty sweet. I'm trying to clear out the yard and what I like to call The Gardens (ha!) before the cold weather rolls in. Lots of little maples and elms were growing in The Gardens, all along the fence lines, and too near the house foundation. Those all had to go. What I couldn't dig up (which wasn't much - even the teeny ones have roots from hell), I just had to cut back & down. PITA. So, although I got a lot of clearing out done this weekend, I still have plenty more to do. Next on the list is some serious weeding, and then transplanting some ferns and hostas to better places around the homestead. The rest of the exterior plans will then have to wait until next year.

People have been bugging me for pics of the new casa, so I'll try to get some posted in the near future.

To my dear family and good friends - be on the lookout for an email soon with my updated contact info. I'll give y'all my new mailing address, and a new primary email address that I'm starting to use. I'll get that email out this week.

Otherwise, life is good. It's nice to have the whole "settling into the new house" scene finally down to a dull roar. For the past month, I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing new house. I'm looking forward to some great fall mountain biking (yay for night riding!), and just getting back out there in general ;-)

GPS Rundown:
Minnehaha variation
10.04 miles / 1:21:29 time / 8:07 pace
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Now playing: joe venuti & eddie lang - goin' places

Sunday's spin

No run yesterday - just didn't work out with some other things going on, so I went for a big run today. My last longish run was August 16th, but I've had a strong past week of running, so I figured I was ready to go large. In hindsight, maybe not a good idea given the circumstances. I wasn't quite as well rested as I usually am for big runs, and I didn't prepare very well with a good carbo dinner the night prior, nor did I front-load my hydration as well as I normally do.

I ended up with a left knee that's killin' me right now - I'm almost certain it's not in the joint, and doesn't really feel like a tendon issue, but something down there is not happy about today's run. I'm going to ice it more tonight, pop a couple more Bayer, and get a good night's rest. Also, I'm right now hydrating practically to the point of my eyes watering - I feel like my earlier lack of proper hydration has a lot to do with my feeling ass-kicked right now. And what's up with that? The infamous Hydro seems to be losing his edge! ;-) Lesson learned, and I'll definitely be better about it from now on. I think I've just gotten lazier about hydrating properly because of the cooler weather and I'm not sweating as much - but I know that being properly hydrated isn't all about replacing the sweat, and today was a great reminder of that.

Other than my gimpy knee inducing pained grimaces & hissed cuss words that resulted in other folks out on The Lakes' trails to go wide around me and nervously avoid eye contact, the run went quite well; I was happily surprised with how the pace turned out. No stops today, and I'm proud of that too.

No run tomorrow for sure; I'm on hold right now until I see how this knee issue turns out.

GPS Rundown:
Chain of Lakes variation
18.02 miles / 2:32:24 time / 8:27 pace
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Now playing: jane's addiction - price i pay

It's Friday?

That's the crazy thing about time off work - days just start running together. Spent some time on the outside of the house today. I mowed and cleaned out the gutters. It's been at least a month since the yard was mowed, so that was quite a bit to chew through. And I'm very glad I did the gutters - they were completely filled with dirt, debris, and even baby trees. And I took down that stupid satellite dish that was on my roof. I left only the base of it on (since it may just damage the roof to attempt removing it now), but it's great to have that worthless eyesore gone.

Tonight, I'll start putting the living room together. All of the painting turned out really well; I'm very happy with it.

Good run today. I had some pent-up energy I worked out during the run - felt good.

GPS Rundown:
Nokomis loop variation
6.90 miles / 53:39 time / 7:46 pace
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Now playing: sonic youth - one hundred percent

Thursday's thrash

I've been running late mornings or early afternoons this week (that works well with the painting schedule), and will transition back to early morning runs starting next week. In the meantime, you can't ask for much better running weather than the last couple of days - it's about perfect.

GPS Rundown:
Nokomis loop variation
6.26 miles / 51:17 time / 8:12 pace
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Now playing: electronic - tighten up