End of Year Ruminations

I covered 1,305 miles this year.

My longest runs were two 13.1 mile jaunts, one a race and the other a course preview a few weeks prior.

My shortest recorded run was a 1200 meter jaunt around my sub-division so that I had an even 900 miles for the year at the end of that week.

I set a nine second best in the mile from last season by running a 5:27 at the Sizzling Mile.

I set a 25 second best over two miles from last season by running 11:56 at the Parade Run.

I set a 27 second best through three miles from last season by running 18:32 at the Polka Pace Race.

I set a 33 second best over 5K from last season by running 19:02 at the Polka Pace Race.

I improved my 10K time by 1:59 by running 42:06 at Abe's Amble.

The race I think I ran exceptionally well at is the Passavant-Powerade 10K in early June where I ran splits of 6:59, 7:07, 6:52, 6:43, 6:40, 6:36 and 1:16.

I am also happy with my races at the Premier Bank 5K on July 4th, the Sizzling Mile and the Shoreline Classic 15K.

PPR was a good race but I wish I'd run mile three about 3 seconds faster.

"Daniels' Running Formula" works for me.

Tempo runs are my friend.

I am not afraid of hills.

I didn't puke at all this year.

I came close a few times.

Black coffee is my favorite beverage. . . anytime.

Goals for 2008:

1. 5:20 for the mile.
2. 11:45 for 2 miles.
3. 18:45 for 5K.
4. 41:30 for 10K.
5. 1:35 for the half marathon.
6. Stay healthy.
7. Take Nathan out in his jogging stroller more often.
8. Kiss my wife every day.
9. Put some Wiggles songs on my iPod.
10. Hopefully start working on my Masters degree.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!

I'm not tired yet.

So I'm going to post an entry. I've been a little pre-occupied lately with my son being sick, end of semester activities with my radiography students, Christmas shopping, planning in-services for the next year for the technologists in my department and finding a place to house the Radiology Department's Powered-Air-Purifying-Respirators (PAPRs) as well as writing a policy for inspection processes and implementing said policy.

I just got tired thinking about all of it.

About two weeks ago I ran a two mile race at our end of year race, the Frostbite Festival. There were 10 and two mile races and it was about 54 degrees so I decided to run the shorter option because I didn't need the age group points. The courses are both out-and-back and if the first mile of the two mile race was any type of indicator then the next four miles to the longer race's turn-around were going to be strenuous.

I took off with two guys in my age group who aren't club members but are at about my level of fitness. I don't know how experienced they are at running but they were running the ten miler and we all went through the mile mark together. I happened to go through at about 6:01. . . I also happened to be turning around. I was in third place overall in the two mile race and I stayed there. I finished up my last mile in about 6:30 or so for a time of 12:31. After finishing I cheered on a few people, grabbed my brand new Asics Storm Shelter jacket and went inside Fit Club to eat a muffin and drink a Gatorade.

After replenishing my carbs I jogged out to the mile mark to wait for my friend, the Bionic Woman, so I could run the last mile of the race with her. She was in second place in the women's race and was hurting so I paced her in and let her draft off me, she finished in a bit over 70 minutes. My two buddies didn't fare too well after their 6:00 first mile. One of them did okay and ran 69:45 but the other crashed hard and finished in the neighborhood of 75 minutes. After that I went home, took a shower and got family pictures taken.

Then we got freezing rain later that night.

Recap: It was 54 at 0900 when I ran my race and 12 hours later it was 28 and precipitating.

My Storm Shelter jacket kicks ass in freezing precipitation. The review says that it is only a mid-weight jacket but I get hot in it when it is in the high 20s and I'm only wearing a short-sleeve shirt underneath.

Being a Father...

Means that you do gross stuff that you never would have done when you weren't a father.

For instance, Nathan caught a stomach bug this weekend. At 2406 hours on Sunday morning I awoke from a sound sleep because I heard my lovely baby boy make a gagging sound. I threw the sheets off and ran into his room so fast that I think stuff fell off my nightstand. As I entered his room he was sitting up and I had time enough to cup my hands under his chin and catch the emesis as it left him.

Fatherhood . . .

U of I runner at Nationals

I doubt Trent Hoerr is going to read this, but good job at Nationals. Trent Hoerr, of Morton, IL, finished 16th at the NCAA D1 National Cross Country Championships this afternoon at Indiana State University. He ran 10k in 30:07 and is the first male U of I runner to earn All-American honors since Len Sitko in 1990. He is also the highest finisher for the Illini since Craig Virgin won the last of his titles.

Trent is a Peoria Journal Star Area Runner of the Year who improved enough every year of high school to place 18th at the Class AA state CC meet in 14:54 as a senior. He also placed tenth at the Foolocker CC Midwest Regional that year. Going from a 14:54 PR for three miles to 16th place at Nationals in five years is a great accomlishment and is a testament to his talent, tenacity, work ethic and coaching.

Good job Trent!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way....

Oh what fun it is to run an inaccurately marked course. . . ohhhhhhh.

I ran the Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis this morning. It was a nice day for a run with temps in the low 50s, negligible wind and about 50% humidity. I had hoped to go under 19:00 today but I forgot how many rolling little hummocks there were on this course. None of the hummocks deserved to be called a hill but they were rolling and numerous enough to prevent me from getting into any type of rhythm.

I started off pretty conservatively and hit the mile in 6:53. I must say that it was the most strenuous 6:53 mile I have ever run. I hit the turnaround in 9:57 and went through two in 12:28. If you do the math I ran mile two in 5:35. Way to go for me! Hooray me! I think the mile mark was actually the 1.1 or the 1.15 mile mark. I covered the last 1.1 in 6:57 and finished up in 19:26.

I ran a pretty strong race. The last mile I had my stopwatch set to alarm every thirty seconds to remind me to surge. The alarm dings for ten seconds and I made myself surge until the alarm stopped. I was able to surge for 28 strides each time and was able to hold off a few 50 year old men and almost run down another. The results will look like this from 13th through 16th place: Male, 52; Male 29; Male 51, Male 50. I'm glad I'm not 50. I'd have a hard time placing in my age group. I actually placed second in my age group for the second year in a row. I was hoping to complete my collection of age group medals this year as I had placed third here two years ago. I guess I have to wait until next year when I'm thirty. Hopefully I'll get it done before I'm 50.

Top-5 books

This list is going to be harder than the movie list. I have been a pretty rabid reader since my mom got me a library card for my 7th or 8th birthday. It was probably the best birthday present I have ever received. Thanks Mom!

My taste in books tends to run more toward sci-fi but I delve a bit into fantasy too. I'm not a total geek and I enjoy a lot of stuff that literary types wouldn't turn their noses up at. Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite writer and I also like J.D. Salinger and C.S. Forester. My tastes in sci-fi run toward David Weber, Robert Heinlein, and Douglas Adams. My favorite fantasy authors are Jim Butcher, Roger Zelazny(the Chronicles of Amber and Lord of Light are GREAT), and R.A. Salvatore. J.R.R. Tolkien goes without saying. I am also a fan of Harry Potter and Steven King.

I might have to make this list a twofer.

Top-5 smart people books:

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. What can I say? Mark Twain was a stud. I would have forgotten that I loved this book if I hadn't looked at my bookcase just now. I might actually have to pull it down and read it again.

4. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. The movie sucked. The book was a great yarn complete with a fascist future government, giant bug enemies and a kick ass suit of powered armor that made the future foot soldier an unstoppable force armed with lasers, flamers and low-yield tactical nukes. Great stuff.

3. Breakfast of Champions/Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I couldn't decide between the two. I can't even really describe them to you adequately. Breakfast had all sorts of things going on: mental illness, suicide, mirrors that were "leaks" into other universes, and Vonnegut inserting himself into the story to grant his recurring character, Kilgore Trout, freewill. Slaughterhouse 5 is about the firebombing of Dresden during WWII which Vonnegut witnessed as a POW. It has elements of sci-fi, absurdist comedy and gallows humor. I love them and I miss Kurt Vonnegut.

2. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. The story of a young man born to a Brahmin who goes off to find his own way in the world. He lives every imaginable extreme and at the end finds peace listening to the song of a river. This story makes me think of my Grandpa who has to drive by the Illinois River everyday just to make sure it is there.

1. The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat. The story of the HMS Compass Rose which is a corvette in the Royal Navy during WWII. It follows the ship and crew from its commisioning in the early days of the war until Germany surrenders. Monsarrat was a frigate captain in the Royal Navy and the novel has autobiographical elements to it. This book was suggested to me by my senior English teacher and I make a point to re-read this book every three or four years. Thank you Mr. Beres!

Honorable Mention: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Any of the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. Forester also wrote The African Queen which I have not read but have heard is good. Dune by Frank Herbert. All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Marie Remarque. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The Illiad by Homer.

Top-5 movies

This is going to be hard to do because I love movies. This might actually turn into a top-5 list with about 20 Honorable Mentions.



Here it is:



5. The Royal Tenenbaums. Wes Anderson is a great director and whenever I watch one of his movies it feels like something by Kurt Vonnegut. I like Tenenbaums because of the ultimate redemption of Royal at the end of the movie.

Favorite quote: Royal: "This brush with death has given me a new perspective on things."

Richie: "Dad. You were never dying."

Royal: "But I'm going to live!"



4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Eastwood in the last of his Man With No Name movies. Lee Van Cleef as a great heavy and Eli Wallach upstaging them both with his loathsome and sympathetic portrayal of a dirty, low-down scoundrel. Great direction by Sergio Leone and probably his masterpiece.

Favorite quote: "BLONDIE!!! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A DIRTY SON OF A . . . Aaiieeaaiiee ahhh!!!!"

3. Platoon. Charlie Sheen's best roll. Berenger and Dafoe are both great as rival sergeants with differing veiws on how the war should be fought. The firefight at the climax of the movie is terrifying. Johnny Depp is onscreen for about 3 seconds.

Favorite quote: "Yeah, you's a killa Bunny"

2. The Godfather Part I and II. I know they're two movies but if you watch them together you get a better feel for what's going on and it is a great way to kill an afternoon and an evening. Pacino is amazing in these movies with a very understated performance (compared to Scent of a Woman which is a good flick but damn! Pacino annoys me in that one.) Only watch Part III if you want to see what happens to Michael Corleone. In fairness to Part III. It only sucks because Parts I and II were so great.

Favorite scene: The christening/hit at the end of Part I. Innocence and cold blooded murder. What a contrast.

1. The Empire Strikes Back. This movie was my least favorite of the Star Wars franchise when I was a kid mostly because of the bummer ending, Luke is the son of the most hated man in the Galaxy and the abusive ass cut his hand off. What I like is that Luke feels that he can redeem his father and turn him away from te Dark Side of the Force. I seem to have a thing with the redemption of fathers.

Favorite quote: "Luuuuke. I am your FATHER."

Honorable mentions: Patton, Legally Blonde, The Life Aquatic: with Steve Zissou, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dodgeball, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later and The Exorcist.

Top-5 books tomorrow.

Top-5

I was watching the movie "High Fidelity" the other day with my kid and it got me thinking about my top-5 lists.

Here we go:

Top-5 favorite songs:

5. Jolene, by Cake from "Motorcade of Generosity"
4. Shore Leave, by Tom Waits from "swordfishtrombones"
3. Subterranean Homesick Alien, by Radiohead from "OK Computer"
2. Paranoid Android, by Radiohead from "OK Computer"
1. Something, The Beatles, I prefer the demo version from "Anthology Vol. 3"

Jolene is a good driving-home-late-at-night-in-the-dark song. Shore Leave is actually the song I listen to before I race. It tells the story of a homsick sailor getting drunk and missing his wife. SHA was a song that I listened to ALOT when I was in the service, especially early in the morning when I was getting up to run. It tapped into the feeling of alienation, uncertainty and homesickness I was feeling at the time. . . my late teens and early twenties, oof. Paranoid Android is just a song that doesn't know what it wants to be. Slow and sweet or angry and loud? It ends up being both. Something, especially this particular version, is the song I said I was going to dance to at my wedding. Nevermind that I hadn't met my wife yet, good thing she's a Beatles fan as well.

Honorable Mention: Hotel Yorba and I Can Tell That We are Going to be Friends by the White Stripes from "White Blood Cells." Just a hell of a rollicking good tune in the case of Hotel Yorba. Friends is just a sweet song and can be heard at the start of "Napoleon Dynamite." Both songs were featured at our wedding, Friends as they announced us and Yorba just for the hell of it. We ended up having the dancefloor to ourselves for a second first dance.

Top-5 movies tomorrow.

Official results

Jordan placed 6th in 15:12. Winnebago handed Elmwood its head 81-122 for the title and Emerick (Elmwood guy) place 3rd overall in 14:53 getting outpsrinted for the title and runner-up places. Parker Thompson from Tremont won with a 14:49 and Brian Thompson from Fieldcrest nipped Emerick at the line with a 14:53 clocking as well.

The Elmwood girls placed third overall behind Winnebago and Eureka. 65-90-113. A girl from Elmwood finished in 7th place in 18:19, two seconds and one place behind Megan Hermann of Havana. Hermann has run pretty much the exact same time at the State Finals all three years she has been in high school and has managed to get 17th, 12th and 6th. Hilarious.

The Class A Girls' State Champion ran away from the field, winning in 17:27 to 17:53.

Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin girls win the 2A State title throwing down on two Peoria area schools (Notre Dame and East Peoria) 63-140-147. SHG packs three in the top-11 and four in the top-30 and strings their girls out between 17:53, 17:54, 18:06, 18:33 and 18:59.

Class 2A girls champ beats defending champ for only the second time ever in a race longer than a 1600, 16:37 to 16:50. Third place time is 17:44.

Chatham Glenwood boys place second in 2A while locked in a dogfight for the last two trophies. Sycamore runs away with it, no pun intended, 73-189. Second through seventh place in the team race are all within a 12 point spread: 189-193-194-196-200-201. Neal Anderson from Chatham placed third in 14:49 while in a melee for second place. It looks like it came down to a sprint for the bridesmaid spot as Nick Holmes from Bartonville (Limestone) ran away with it in 14:21. 2nd, 3rd and 4th place were 14:48, 14:49 and 14:50.

Springfield High School placed 4th and the Central State 8 conference, the conference for the Springfield area 2A schools put two other guys in the top-25 besides Anderson. Osborne from SHS placed 9th in 15:09 and Frank from SHG placed 24th in 15:28.

All Stater. . . .

I just got off the phone with Jordan's mom and he placed 6th in 15:08. She said he went out very smart and was 25th at the 800, 12th at the mile, and 6th coming out of the "triangle". She said he almost caught the guy in 5th but came up short. He also beat the defending State champ who went out crazy fast and faded. She thinks he dropped out. A kid from Tremont, who was the favorite, outsprinted a kid from my hometown for the win but she didn't have a time for either.

Good luck Jordan!

My friend Jordan Patterson is running in the Illinois High School State Cross Country Championships' Class A race tomorrow at 1000 hrs CST. He is in good shape for a top-five finish, in my opinion at least. Illinois Prep Top Times has him ranked at 6th and other "unofficial" pundits have him ranked anywhere from 9th to 13th. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict a 4th place showing in 15:05 with him beating the defending State Champion, Matt Feldhake.

The Weather Channel is predicting race time temps of 47 degrees with 52% humidity and NW winds at 7 mph as well as a dewpoint of 30 degrees. It looks to be a pretty fall day in early November!

Is this bringing back memories to a certain two time Illinois cross country all-stater?

Results will be posted here.

Running, playing and thinking.

After my last post detailing my long run and 3x1 mile repeats at tempo pace I closed out my week of running with a 6 miler in 48:46; an 8 miler in 1:04:06, where I ran splits of 8:03, 8:03, 8:10, 8:06, 7:59, 7:58, 7:52, and 7:54. This run was fun because I had just downloaded Radiohead's latest offering, "In Rainbows", onto my iPod. It is freaking awesome. A great moment during my run was during mile three when "Bodysnatchers" started playing.

Sunday afternoon I ran an easy four in 32:19 in preparation for Monday's intended 3x1200 at 4:29 each. I warmed up with two miles in 16:07 and hit rep #1 in 4:28.19 and after an 800 in 4:40 I ran rep #2 in 4:27.45. I jogged a 400 in 2:52 and decided that I'd had enough of this particular practice and jogged a little over a mile back home.

Yesterday I ran 5.25 miles in 42:37 and felt pretty good.

Today's run was a three mile tempo run at 6:32 pace. The last time I attempted this particular practice, three weeks ago, it was 75, calm with 34% humidity. The practice turned into a death march that I covered in 19:46.83 with splits of 6:29, 6:37 and 6:40.

The conditions today were a little more mild at 55, NE13 and 46% humidity. I ran two miles in 15:46 to warm-up, mile two had some 40-step pick-ups mixed in, and after that I switched into my race flats.

I took off pretty easy and visualized myself starting the Jingle Bell Run in a nice relaxed pace. I kept my breathing easy and hit the 800 in about 3:18. I didn't consciously make myself speed up but I hit the mile mark in 6:26.84. I cussed in my head, did a self-assessment and decided that I still felt okay and I was going to go with how I felt. I kept my turnover nice and fluid and my breathing unlabored and threw a few surges down as I turned corners until I hit the two mile mark in 12:54.80 with a mile time of 6:27.96.

I started feeling like I was working just a bit when I emerged from the cover of the trees and felt that nice 13 mph wind hit me in the face with about 1200 to go. The wind would be in my face or slightly oblique to my face until I finished and I also had a bit of a rolling hill to contend with from about the 700 mark until the 500 mark. I felt myself slowing in the face of the wind and the hill but I was still able to hit my last mile in 6:31.32 for a total time of 19:26.12.

After a 45 second breather I ran a cool down mile in 8:17, stretched out and ate dinner with my family. Salmon, salad and rolls.

My wife and I ended up not going to North Carolina this weekend for her friend's wedding due to some family problems but we were able to have a good time playing with our son and hanging out together. Kim went grocery shopping Sunday afternoon and left me at home with a restless and bored 15 month old little boy. I put a long sleeve shirt on the little man and we drove out to the covered bridge south of Chatham. I led him to the trail that went to the bridge and let him loose. He promptly took off on his little legs and only stopped long enough to pick up a pebble and a small stick each of which were handed to me with a "tahnk oo" (thank you) from him. He continued his journey by going up, over and down the bridge and continued a few hundred meters down the trail under his own power until I picked him up and carried him a little closer to the bridge and a little farther from the bank of the creek.

By the end of our jaunt we had: thrown walnuts down the trail, dug in the dirt, given him names to everything he pointed at, and acquired a pebble, a stick, half a walnut shell and an acorn. We also saw two deer carcasses in the underbrush and took half a dozen pictures that I will try to post on here soon. I didn't take pictures of the deer carcasses if anyone was wondering.

I like being a father. I hope I end up being a good one.

Long runs and mile repeats

I finished up my week on Saturday with a ten mile long run. It was a pretty morning, a little overcast, 52 degrees with very little wind that I noticed. The humidity was about 80% and rain was predicted in the forecast. We only got a little though.

I did an out-and-back on the bike trail and covered my first five in a very relaxed 41:13. I felt pretty good and decided to pick it up a little bit on the way back in and didn't realize how fast I was going until I hit the 9 mile mark in 1:12:41. I decided to just go with it the last mile and ran a 7:00 mie to bring it home in 1:19:41. I was pretty happy and only a little tired upon returning home.

I skipped my run yesterday because my brother drove up from Texas for leave and spent the night at our place. It was good to have my baby brother here and hanging out with us. Nathan took a shine to him and was hugging and kissing on him up until the minute he left. My brother leaves for Iraq next month and won't be back until until February or March of 2009. I can't wait for him to get out of the Army.

After returning home from work tonight I ran 3 x 1 mile repeats at tempo pace. My tempo pace is supposed to be 6:32. I ran a mile warm-up in 8:03 and hit my first mile rep in 6:30.87, which was a little faster than I wanted but was pretty good. I gave myself 1:00 rest and ran rep #2 in 6:28.71, which was still a little faster than I wanted. For rep #3 I made myself take it out a little easy the first half and then attacked the last half. I attacked a little too hard and ran my final rep in 6:23.00. I knew I was running a little too hard because the last one hurt a bit.

I covered 30.25 miles last week to bring my total for the year to 1,070.25 and my cumulative total since I started running again to 3,005.5.

Jordan Update

Jordan ran the Patriot Invitational today at Detweiller Park in Peoria. He took the lead at the half mile mark and it became a three man race between him, Brian Peterson of Fieldcrest and Dustin Emerick from my alma mater, Elmwood. Peterson and Emerick pulled away toward the two mile mark and he let them go because he thought they would come back to him on mile three. Peterson outkicked Emerick 14:58 to 15:03 (which is third all time on Detweiller for my high school's list) and Jordan took third in 15:22. He hit his first mile in 4:58 and two in 10:04. In the space of about five days Jordan has run 15:17 and 15:22. I think he's got a pretty good shot at going under 15:00 at State if he can work on running stronger during mile three. Good job again, Jordan!

Holy Crap!

My buddy Jordan P. of Williamsville High School won the Carlinville Cross Country Invitational by 37 SECONDS last night with a time of 15:17. If I remember correctly, that is a PR by about 20 seconds or so. I think the Carlinville course runs slightly faster than Detweiller does. Last year he ran 15:36 or so at Carlinville and had a bad race at State where he placed 31st in 15:47.

He has been flying under the radar a bit this season but he is running at the Patriot Invitational this weekend and will probably bust onto the scene as a darkhorse for a high finish at State.

Good job Jordan!!!

I have added a link to Jordan's blog over on the side bar.

2 x 1.5 Cruising

I arose at 0500 today and treated myself to a cruise interval practice. It was a pleasant 65 degrees with 80% humidity and a slight breeze out of the south. I warmed up with two miles in 16:30, stretched out for a minute and took off. I ran my first 1.5 mile interval in 9:49 with a mile split of 6:33 and a half mile split of 3:16. I felt pretty good and was excited to run the next one but didn't take into account that the bike trail was COMPLETELY OBSCURED IN DARKNESS!!! I forgot to grab my headlight when I left and since I rolled my ankle on the bike trail a year or two ago by stepping on a stick I couldn't see I have been paranoid ever since. I hit the first half mile of the second interval in 3:14 but got a little freaked out and slowed my turnover down the next half and was unable to recover any time when I finally got to where I could see anything. I ran my last mile in 6:44 for a total time of 9:58. Dang it!

I cooled down with an 8:29 mile, stretched out, drank some coffee, forgot to eat breakfast and left for work. How did I forget to eat breakfast? I was more interested in coffee, shaving, showering and getting my lunch together. I've gone so far as to get my cereal out of the pantry, then been distracted by my son and after taking care of him have left the house and not realized I was hungry until getting to work.

Having kids makes you pretty stupid.

I always remember to drink my coffee though.

19:??

I was going to get up this morning at 0430 to do my three mile tempo run but my bed felt nice and I had been up at 0130 with Nathan. I rolled out of bed at 0530, ate breakfast, drank my coffee and got my baby ready for daycare before heading off to work.

Last night before I went to bed I was sitting at our breakfast bar eating Oreos and reading as Kim was putting Nathan down. We usually give him a bottle on the couch and then carry him to his room when he gets sleepy. Kim took him back to his room and came back out to talk to me and he started fussing a few minutes later. She went to check on him and I continued eating my cookies until I noticed her walking down the hall holding our son. As they entered the living room and approached the couch, Nathan looked at me, grinned and waved as if to say, "Hello there! How you doing?" It was such a funny scene that I almost snorted cookie out of my nose and Kim about shook herself to death trying to hold her laughter in. My little man definitely has my sense of humor.

After getting home from work I warmed up with a mile in 7:57. I then changed into my flats and did two quick strides to make sure everything was ready to go. The weather wasn't as nice as it was at 0430 this morning with no wind, 75 degree temps and 34% humidity. It felt hotter than 75 and I think I was a little on the dehydrated side.

I started my run and was on pace at 400, 800 and 1200 to run a 6:32 first mile. I must have picked it up a bit the last 400 of mile one because I went through at 6:29.01. It was a little faster than I wanted but I felt fine, if a little parched. I focused on keeping the turnover going and hit the 1.5 mark in about 9:47. As I got onto the bike trail I ran into clouds of gnats and ran through them almost to the 2.5 mark. Running through clouds of gnats sucks.

I hit mile two in 6:37.03 with a total time of 13:06.04. I didn't think I'd slowed down too much and I tried to up the ante a bit to see if I couldn't gut out another mile in the mid 6:30s but the gnats, heat and dehydration took their toll on me and I closed out the tempo with a 6:40.79 mile to finish up in 19:46.83.

I only give myself a B for this practice because my pacing was way off. I like that I ran 19:46 in these conditions but I wish I hadn't slowed down each mile.

I cooled down with a mile in 8:29 and then was rushed into the shower by my wife so that I didn't have to watch our son while covered in gnats as she went and bought him some new shoes.

Slow day

I took an easy day today after my track workout from yesterday. I ran four miles in 32:45 with splits of 8:15, 8:15, 8:05 and 8:10.

Tomorrow's workout will be a 2-3 mile tempo run at 6:32 pace. I'm a little nervous about this workout as I haven't gone under 20:00 for three miles in practice since I was about 21. I tried to do this workout a few days before Shoreline but I went out too hard and called it off after a mile and a half. It was very hot that day and I figured that gutting the practice out wasn't going to help me run fast four days later. I remember being nervous for my first three mile tempo run that called for 6:51 pace back in June. I ended up running that one in 6:48 pace so I think I'll be fine.

Gearing up

I am back in the grind of training again this week after having taken two weeks to chill out, drink beer, hang with my wife and kid and run some easy miles. I ran over to the high school track and did 3x(2x200 + 400). The intent was to run the 200s in 41 and the 400s in 84. My legs aren't used to running quite that fast and it was a shock to the system.

I ran a mile warm-up with 800 worth of strides and covered my first set in: 42.32(1:07), 42.99(1:19), and 1:26.62(2:27). I ran 200 m. recovery jogs after the 200s and a 400 m. jog after the 400s. I also ran them slow.

Set number two: 39.54(1:15), 41.48(1:17), 1:24.97(2:26).

Set number three: 40.64(1:17), 40.98(1:23), 1:24.60(2:12).

I cooled down with an easy mile, stretched out and ate italian beef and washed it down with some water and some peanut butter Oreos with Silk.

Last week I ran 27.75 miles and have covered over 1,000 miles for the year. Barring any illness or injury I am looking at running about 1,300 this year.

Time Off

I've been slacking on my posts lately but, to tell the truth, there hasn't been a whole lot to post about since the PPR. The week after the PPR I was in my training conference and that weekend I ran the Shoreline Classic 15k in Decatur. I hadn't run a 15k since Steamboat in 1999 where I ran 1:03:16 after a training cycle that consisted of running about 15 miles a week as fast as I could with my long runs consisting of a few seven milers.

My training has gone a little better than that this summer but, unfortunately, I am also eight years older than I was when I ran Steamboat back in the Nineties. I entered the Shoreline Classic leading my age group (25-29) in my running club's points series standings. I had the guy in second beat, there was no way he was going to catch me in the last four club races as he hadn't beaten me all season. The guy in third, my buddy, the illustrious Iron Tim was back in third and had a chance to tie me and win on tie-breakers as long as he ran the last four races of the series and won our age group each time. Tim is a very solid competitor (12:02, 19:07, 41:20, 1:35 and a Full Ironman Finisher in 11:58) and there was a pretty good chance he could pull it off. Tim owns a 3-2 record against me his losses to me came at Steamboat, where he picked up his race packet 10 minutes before the start and got the the line right as the gun went off and started the race behind a few thousand people. The other loss came at the PPR 13 days after completing his Ironman.

His very convincing wins came at the Lincoln Memorial Half Marathon in early April where he obliterated me, 1:35 to 1:44. Win number two came at the Passavant/Powerade 10k where he won 41:20 to 42:16 and his third win came at the Scholastic Challenge 5k, 19:07 to 19:25.

Tim ended up skipping the Shoreline Classic to nurse his knee and I had the points series clinched before the gun went off. It ended up being a little anti-climatic.

I started off the race with a 7:08 mile and then spent the next two miles chatting with people in the club. I covered those miles in 7:18 and 7:50. When I hit 5k in 23:05 I decided that I should probably kick it up if I wanted to run close to seven minute pace like I had intended.

I ran the rest of the race in 7:20, 6:48, 6:46, 7:11, 6:59, 6:47 and 1:53 for a total time of 1:06:06 which is 7:05 pace. Mission accomplished.

I ran my last two 5k splits in 21:38 and 21:23 for a total 10k time of 43:01.

I took the next four days off after Shoreline and didn't run again until Friday when I ran 3 miles in 24:58. Yesterday morning I ran 7 miles in 56:33. This week I am going to run easy miles and then I intend to ramp it up a little to get some training in for one last attempt at going under 19:00 for 5k at the Jingle Bell Run on November 17th. I can't let that 19:02 at Havana stand, I need to dip under so I can focus on the 6:00 barrier next season.

Knowledge

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in a comprehensive class about education and training presented by an instructor from ASTD. I learned so much that I can't remember all of what ASTD stands for. Something about American Society of Training blah blah blah.

As I was saying, I learned how to do a needs analysis (did anyone ever notice that analysis has the words "anal" and "lysis" in it?). I also learned to write an effective learning objective, I learned about the adult learning cycle, the three types of learners, icebreakers, group exercises, styles of teaching (I'm a coach), presentation skills, how to deal with a difficult audience (you beat the shit out of them), and methods of evaluation. There was quite a bit more but I would have to look at my notes to remember all of it.

I'm glad I went to this course. I have a more concrete idea of what I need to do to instruct my students and co-workers. I have ideas for future inservices and classes. I swear I dreamed about all the information I absorbed and I even woke up with some learning objectives in my head this morning. In an Educators' Network meeting this afternoon I came up with a whole class about portable radiography in ten minutes with the help of a few of my contemporaries in which we facilitated learning to the three types of learners (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) as well as a method of evaluating their knowledge by using film critique and then throwing them to the wolves.

It has taken me eleven years but I think I have finally become what I always wanted to be, a teacher.

Maybe I should seriously consider working on that Masters in Education that I've been hemming and hawing about for the last five years.

PPR me, ASAP

I hopped in the car at 0600 with my wife and child and made the trek to Havana, IL to run the Polka Pace Race. The PPR has a special place in my heart as my Dad's side of the family comes from the Havana/Bath area. I can park my car at my grandparents' house, which happens to be around the corner from Nate's parents, and I have a built-in cheering section made of my grandparents, my dad, my wife and my little Nathan just before the two mile mark. A block later I run into Nate's Dad and then I know I'm on my own the last 1.1 miles to the finish in "downtown" Havana. If my cheering section moves fast enough, which gets hard with Grandpa's emphysema, Grandma's knee and hip replacements and Kim pushing Nathan in the stroller, I have my family yelling and snapping photos as I sprint the last few blocks to the finish line. After the race I meet relatives I haven't seen since I was this high (gesturing at knee level), girls I knew in high school (Rachel Ebert) and then I get to eat lunch with the grandparents and have a nice visit.

After arriving in Havana a little after 0700 I picked up my race packet, pinned on my number and went out for a warm-up jog. 47 seconds into my warm-up I ran into Nate's Dad and talked to him for a bit and finished my jog. I ran a mile warm-up and at the conclusion I was a dripping wreck. The humidity was going to be a bit of a challenge I surmised.

I don't have any Weather Channel stats but if I had to guess I would say it was at least 65 with maybe 70% humidity. There was a bit of a breeze but not enough to hinder, or help, us during the race.

After making some announcements and introducing the Havana Citizen of the Year, Coach Caton took his place on the starting line next to me and my buddy, IronTim. I don't know what Tim was thinking seeing as how he did his FULL Ironman about thirteen days ago but he's running a half marathon relay tomorrow with his sister too. Tim is just a stud. Way more studly than me anyway.

The starter started us and we all took off. David D. and the Bionic Woman worked their way up ahead of me, David by alot and the Bionic Woman by a step or two, and Coach and I ran side by side until the downtown area where coach decided I was running too fast for him.

Upon hitting the downhill to the river and essentially letting myself fall down it, while still keeping my feet, I passed the Bionic Woman and a few others. David had at least a 15 second lead on me at this point and looked very strong. I thought maybe he was going to uncork a good race and then, though I hate myself for this, I chuckled internally and told myself that if I was within 100 meters of him at the mile I was going to beat him.

I hit the first mile in 6:00.18, right where I wanted to be, and just tried to relax and continue gaining ground on David. A block later, as we headed east toward Broadway, I saw David sneak a glance over his shoulder to see where I was. I knew then that he was mine for the taking. I caught him on Broadway, right before we made the left to get on Pearl, and as I came up on him he surged hard for five or six steps. I let him go because I knew I was going to get him on the incline. I passed him halfway up and rasped out a "good job" as I went by. As I turned the corner I heard my cheering section yell and take pictures and I surged a little to try to catch up to Carl B. I told myself that Carl was going to break 19:00 and that if I stayed close I would too.

Right before the two mile mark I was passed by someone who ran up on Carl's shoulder and parked there. I was about three seconds back and starting to feel a little bad. I hit the two mile mark in 12:12.35 with a mile time of 6:12.17. I slowly started falling off the pace after that and Carl and the other guy built up a bit of a lead on me of probably 20 seconds. I noticed that my shoulders and arms were migrating to my ears like a punchy boxer trying to avoid a knock out late in a fight. I forced myself to lower my arms and surge and I kept telling myself, 4 minutes to go, 3 minutes to go. I came back to life with about a half mile left and started making up ground again.

I hit mile three in 18:32.73 with a mile time of 6:20.38. It wasn't what I wanted but it is what I got. I told myself going in that if I could hit the three mile mark between 18:15 and 18:20 I would comfortably dip under 19:00. I had 28.2 seconds to cover 0.1 miles and I did it in 30.18 to break the line in 19:02.91. I finished in 7th place overall, second in my age group and ahead of the Bionic Woman, IronTim and David D. Bionic Woman won the women's race in 19:27, IronTim took third in our age group in 19:34 and David finished in 20:25. Coach nipped David by about ten seconds, running 20:14. Carl B. and the guy who passed me at the two mile mark ran 18:47 and 18:52, respectively. Dang it.

I'm pretty happy with my race. I wish my third mile had been a 6:17 instead of a 6:20 but a 33 second improvement from last year is reason to cheer. This is quite an improvement over the Scholastic Challenge in June where I ran 6:05, 6:12 (12:17), 6:33 (18:50) and 35 (19:25). I got out faster, finished stronger and finished ahead of some people who trounced me then.

I'm going to take it easy this week and on Sunday I am heading to Decatur to run the Shoreline Classic 15k. IronTim will be there as well. He said he's having some IT Band soreness so I hope he feels okay after today and doesn't exacerbate it tomorrow in the half marathon relay he's running with his sister.

Grandma Gladys

My wife's last remaining grandparent, and Nathan's maternal great-grandmother, passed away Saturday evening around 1800 hrs. She was 86 and had bladder cancer and it finally caught up to her. She was a funny little old lady and I'm glad I had the chance to get to know the tough old bird. The first time I met her, and for about five years after that, I had no idea what it was she was saying. She would mutter something and then cackle wildly and we would all look at each other, shrug and laugh along with her. I finally was able, in the last two years, to decipher what it was she was muttering and it turns out that Grandma was a pretty funny lady.

One of my favorite stories is when she got a little saucy at our wedding and Kim's mom cut her off from the Bud Light. She wasn't too happy with Mom but I remember seeing her sitting quietly in the corner of the reception hall sneaking sips from her plastic cup. I remember wondering who she had sweet talked into getting her a brew.

Another good one is when she went to the fridge at my in-laws' house to get a Coke and "inadvertently" opened a can of Busch beer. Unbeknownst to Grandma Gladys, as she was exclaiming "I meant to grab a Coke! How did I get a beer?!", it was a non-alcoholic Busch and they let her drink it none the wiser.

She liked me for some reason and I would always give and get kisses from Grandma when we showed up for visits. She loved her youngest great-grandson and would light up when she saw him. I wish that Nathan was old enough to remember her.

All I know is that she is going to be missed by her daughter, her grandkids, great-grandkids and her favorite (and only) grandson-in-law. . . me.

Down the ladder

I got up this morning at 0430 again to run a track workout. Being this close to the PPR I decided to not do anything too hard but I also wanted to do some longer repeats. I decided to do a ladder workout starting with a 1000 at 3:48, a 600 at 2:08, a 400 at 85 and 2x200 at 42.

I left the house and had some nice temps in the mid sixties with low humidity and a barely noticeable breeze. I ran a mile warm-up and then did 800 worth of strides on the track before starting my workout.

I hit my 1000 in 3:46.09, jogged 600 in 3:30, hit my 600 a little slow in 2:09.20, jogged a 400 in 2:30, hit my 400 spot on in 1:25.36, jogged 200 in 1:19, hit my first 200 in 41.21, jogged another 200 in 1:18 and ran my last 200 in 41.15.

I'M PRETTY HAPPY WITH MY WORKOUT, and I have no idea why I'm yelling but I don't feel like re-typing it. I'm getting excited for the PPR and I can't wait to crank one out as I am feeling VERY strong right now.

Tomorrow's run is going to be an easy four miles. A week ago I was running my four mile loop and took a spiderweb full on the face. I freaked out and was running down the bike trail in the dark whipping myself with my t-shirt just in case there was a spider on me.

Eclipsed

I got up this morning after having a semi-rough night with my son, he was up-and-down from about zero-dark-thirty until 0400. I was afraid I was going to wake him up as I got ready for my run at 0430. I stepped outside with my dog and since my house faces west I was able to watch the eclipse enter the totality phase as my dog relieved himself. After he had done his business I started a five miler and kept my eye on the moon until I had to put it at my back to finish my run.

I'm glad we got a clear morning so I could see the eclipse because the last time one was visible, back in 2003 when we lived in St. Louis, Kim and I were out watching it in our apartment complex parking lot with two of our neighbors. We had beer, snacks and binoculars and just as the earth's shadow started creeping across the moon a fricking cloud blew across and obscured the show. It stayed cloudy the rest of the night and we took our beer, snacks and binoculars inside and watched tv instead.

I like astronomy and I know most of the constellations and I can usually locate Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Unfortunately, my telescope was damaged in our exodus to the Springfield area four years ago and I have never replaced it and it puts a damper on the viewing of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

I like the late fall and winter constellations most of all and I purposely go on runs later in the evening in October and November so that I can look at Orion, Canis Major, Taurus and the Pleiades. Orion is one of the first constellations I knew when I was a kid. It was hard to miss the three stars that made up his belt. From left to right they are named Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. The names of the stars that make up the hourglass shape of Orion's body, starting from the upper left and going clockwise, are Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel and Saiph. If you follow the sword down from his belt you can make out the Orion Nebula as a hazy patch.

If you follow the line of Orion's belt to your left until you see a very bright star that star is Sirius, the Dogstar, and the brightest star in the sky. It is often mistaken for a UFO. Probably by drunk rednecks. . . or people who never look up.

Taurus is slightly north and west of Orion and is distinct because of the V-shape it takes. Aldebaran is the alpha star in Taurus and is the eye of the bull. I love to look at Aldebaran through binocs because it is a very pretty orange color. If you go slightly west of Aldebaran until you see a star formation that looks like the Little Dipper you have actually discovered the Pleiades. The Pleiades are called the Seven Sisters or sometimes the jewelbox. They are an open cluster and look magnificent in binoculars.

Next time you are out in the dark at 0430 look up and see if you can't find these constellations. They won't be in the early night sky until October.

IronTim Final

Tim finished his Ironman and he did a darn good job. He just wanted to finish and thought that he could do it in about 13:00. I think he over-achieved.

SWIM: 1:11:15
BIKE: 6:14:14
RUN: 4:14:16
OVERALL: 11:58:24!!!
POSITION: 335

Good job Tim.

IronTim Update #3

Tim is still going strong but it looks like he was having trouble around the half marathon mark. He should be done here pretty soon.

TOTAL SWIM
2.4 mi. (1:11:15)
1:52/100m
500

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT
22 mi (1:16:51)
17.18 mph

SECOND BIKE SEGMENT
23 mi (1:16:35)
18.02 mph

THIRD BIKE SEGMENT
30 mi (1:42:28)
17.57 mph

FINAL BIKE SEGMENT
37 mi (1:58:20)
18.76 mph
TOTAL BIKE
112 mi. (6:14:14)
17.96 mph
644

FIRST RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (33:37)
8:24/mile

SECOND RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (38:34)
9:38/mile

THIRD RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (42:15)
10:33/mile

FOURTH RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (33:32)
8:23/mile

FIFTH RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (--:--)
--/mile

SIXTH RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (--:--)
--/mile

FINAL RUN SEGMENT
0.6 mi. (--:--)
--/mile
TOTAL RUN
26.2 mi. (--:--)
--/mile
443


TRANSITION
TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE
9:47
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN
8:52


PENALTY
TIME
TOTAL PENALTIES
--:--

IronTim Update

Tim is going strong at Louisville completing the 112 mile bike portion in 6:14:14. Due to an "unexpected problem" the website is unable to display any results now and I'm lucky I got to see that he finished the bike. I imagine that everyone and their brother is trying to access the site to track people they know and have shut it down.

IronTim

My pal Tim is competing in the Louisville Ironman Triathlon today. At 0904, my time, he has completed his 2.4 mile swim in 1:11:15 which is 1:52/100m. He was in 500th place coming out of the water and took 9:47 for his transition to the bike. The race started at 0700 so he is only about an hour into his 112 mile bike and I expect that it will be well after noon when he transitions to his run. I will try to update this when I get more information. We are going to a hot air balloon festival in Lincoln and I probably wouldn't be too far off in thinking that he may be just starting the run portion by the time we return later this afternoon.

Good luck Tim! I can't wait to hear about it.

Lectures and coffee

I made it to my inservice this morning and actually learned or re-learned quite a bit about our computed radiography system. It only took my regular two cups of coffee at home PLUS a nice 12 oz. cup of Panama coffee from the Bean Counter at the hospital to make it through. Did you ever have a guy in college or high school who would fall asleep almost daily in class and still do reasonably well in the course? I'm that guy. I got so good at falling asleep when I was in the service that I could fall asleep standing at Parade Rest. I knew a girl who could sleep as we marched to class and I didn't believe it until I witnessed it myself. I never attained that level of proficiency.

I got up yesterday morning and ran an easy 5.25 miles in 43:36. Why 5.25 miles you ask? I ran my five mile course backward and the 5 mile mark is a quarter mile, or more, from my house so I just counted it all. I hit my splits in 2:23, 8:29, 8:22, 8:19, 7:57, and 8:06. The last few miles were faster because there was lightning moving in from the Northwest that was getting alarmingly close and I didn't want to become part of the small percentage of the population that gets hit by lightning.

This morning I got up at 0430 and ran an 8 miler. It was 72 with WSW 6 mph winds and 93% humidity. It actually felt pretty nice outside in spite of the humidity but I could have done without the cloudburst from the 3.5 to 4.5 mile marks. I started off easily and stiffly in 8:48, 8:23, 8:14, 8:15, 7:56, and since I have no idea where the 6 and 7 mile marks are at, 24:56 over the last three miles for a total time of 1:06:33.

I have 27.25 miles for the week which gives me 899.25 for the year. I am tempted to go and run another .75 just so I can have an even 900. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll do that as a warm-up for some yoga. I'll only need 500 miles in 18 weeks to hit 1400 for the year. I'll have to average about 27 miles a week the rest of the year though. 1400 is possible but I'll have to be careful.

84s

I got up this morning at 0430 and jogged over to the high school track to run 6x400. My new VDOT intensity calls for 400s to be run in 85 seconds. It was in the low 70s with a nice breeze coming out of the south-southwest but was still a little on the humid side.

I got in a mile warm-up and did 800 worth of strides. I stretched a bit and took off into my first rep with Orion and his dog watching from the southeast corner of the track. My rep times follow:

1. 1:24.59 (200m. recovery in 1:30.36)
2. 1:24.35 (1:30.64)
3. 1:24.74 (1:30.29)
4. 1:24.71 (1:30.51)
5. 1:24.49 (1:30.38)
6. 1:24.11

After rep six I sat on the track for a minute and then ran about a mile and a quarter to cool down.

I feel pretty good about the practice. I felt pretty good and didn't start feeling uncomfortable until the last two reps and the discomfort was minimal. Tomorrow morning I am going to run another easy five miles and Saturday I will run eight before I have to go to work for an inservice over our computed radiology system. I'm going to get four hours of Continuing Education but I would rather be chilling out with the newspaper and a cup of coffee at 0800 hours instead of sitting in a lecture.

Fiver

I got up this morning and ran an easy five before work. It was 73 or so with very little wind and 90% humidity so I ran easy and didn't push the pace. My legs felt pretty good and I hit my splits in 8:50, 8:40, 8:23, 8:18 and 8:04. I ran 42:16 which is actually ten seconds slower than I ran my 10k on Sunday morning.

Tomorrow morning I am going to go to the track and run 6x400 in 85 seconds each. I am moving up my VDOT intensity based on my mile and two mile races from the last few weeks. My two mile time gives me a VDOT of 52, which is one level above my present level, and my mile time gives me a VDOT of 54. I've decided that jumping three levels is probably a bad idea so I am going to see how level 52 feels and gradually work my way up from there. Even if I run the PPR in 18:50 that will only give me a VDOT of 53. I want to avoid injury at all costs so I'm going to play it safe.

Recovery

I ran four miles after I got home today and I could really feel the pounding my lower legs took on the downhills at yesterday's race.

The Weather Channel said it was 77 with winds NNE3 and 83% humidity but the Weather Channel was lying. My thermometer said 83 and the school's said 85. It was certainly humid and there wasn't a whole lot of wind and it made for a heavy, wet and sluggish run.

I covered my four in 33:25 with splits of 8:23, 8:21, 8:24 and 8:17. I loosened up and felt pretty good which means that tomorrow's five miler is going to suck because of the two day lag.

I think that Wednesday, if I feel good after a two mile warm-up, that I will run some 400 meter repeats. I want to hit some fast and short reps to tune up for the PPR in about three weeks. I'll probably do a seven or eight mile long run this weekend but I'm not going to continue to do two hard workouts and a long run every week. I may up the intensity again in October to close out the year on a good note at the Jingle Bell Run and the Frostbite Festival.

Abe's Amble

Today dawned for me at about 0500 when my son woke up and needed a diaper change and a bottle. This was fine with me as I had set my alarm for 0530. I ate a breakfast of water and Fig Newtons. Nathan decided he was awake so I sat on the living room floor with him and his mommy and stretched. At about 0600 I ran a mile warm-up around my neighborhood, kissed my wife and son goodbye, picked up my neighbor and drove to the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The weather, before I left, was 75 with winds 3 mph out of the NNE and 69% humidity. Not bad, but a far cry from the beautiful 66, ESE11 and 61% we had yesterday morning. It drizzled a bit on the way there and continued to do so the rest of the morning.

I picked up my timing chip and jogged a half mile and did a few strides. I felt pretty loose and ready to go. After the National Anthem was sung the gun went off and the race was underway.

I was standing next to David at the line and he took off like a bat out of hell. I wondered in the back of my head if this was the race where he broke out of his slump. I had him in sight at the mile and watched him go through in about 6:08. He looked pretty strong but I decided not too worry unless he was still ahead of me at 5k.

I hit my mile split, well ahead of where I wanted to be, in 6:36.01. I didn't feel like I was breathing hard or was in any danger of going into oxygen debt so I made myself shrug it off and keep going.

David was still quite a way ahead of me heading to the two mile mark but I could still see him. I don't recall what his two mile split was but I could tell that he was feeling his 6:08 first mile. I ran a more conservative second mile in 6:45.92 and had a total time of 13:21.93. I was still feeling pretty good but knew the race didn't really start until the 5k mark when we started hitting the hills.

Mile three, once we entered Oak Ridge Cemetery, has a few rollers that I didn't remember from last year but I lowered my arms and shortened my stride and let myself go on the downhills to try to make up for lost time. On one of those rolls I caught and passed David as he pulled up and went into survival mode. I hit the three mile mark in 20:12.96 with a 6:51.03 split and went through 5k, 41.7 seconds later, in 20:54.66.

There is a pretty nice hill going up out of Oak Ridge and even though I didn't charge it too hard I still passed two or three people as I went up. I was also passed by the woman who earned runner-up. Ironically, the only people I remember passing me the whole race were women. The winner, runner-up and fourth place finishers all passed me at some point on the course. The winner passed me entering Oak Ridge, the runner-up passed me exiting Oak Ridge and the fourth place finisher passed me just after the mile mark. After the first or second mile I don't remember being passed by any males.

After exiting Oak Ridge I starting surging so that I could stay in contact with the lady who had just passed me because she was really moving. I ran a 6:53.67 mile and hit four in 27:06.63. I was still acceptably in my time range although I was in the upper limits of what I wanted and I knew at the four mile mark I was probably going to have difficulty running in the 41:00s like I wanted.

There was one last big hill at about the 4.25 mark that you had to run up to get to Lincoln Park. It isn't that it was a steep hill it was that it was 200-300 meters long and at a bad point in the race. This is actually the hill that broke me in my half marathon back in March so I respected it and eased up it cautiously. As I hit the top I could feel my shoulders tighten and my breathing increase so I had a bit of a weak moment as I made myself latch onto a group and hold on when I should have been pushing the pace a bit. I was nervous because I knew there was one more hill before the five mile mark and I wanted to regroup before I hit it.

Once I hit the "hill" I felt like an ass because I hardly noticed it. I had wasted just enough time being cautious that I ran my slowest mile of the day, and the only one over 7:00, and probably cost myself a shot of going under 42:00. I hit the five mile mark in 34:08.39 with a mile time of 7:01.76. Damn.

After seeing my string of sub-sevens go "ker-sploosh" I got a little angry and decided to take it out on the three or four guys ahead of me. I started throwing down surges as I left the park and when I got close enough to pass anyone I passed them so fast they couldn't respond. I saw that the lady who eventually finished fourth wasn't too far ahead of me and I made it my goal to see if I could catch her. I could tell I was making up ground on her and the fifth place female and I ran myself into oxygen debt by the time I passed the fifth placer at the six mile mark. I hit six in 40:50, a nine second improvement from the Passavant/Powerade 10k in June, with a mile time of 6:42.46. I knew at that point that I was going to have to vomit to break 42:00 but I went for it anyway. I sprinted the last 0.2 of the race in 1:14.19 and crossed the finish line in 42:05.04, by my watch.

I didn't catch fourth place lady but I probably would have it I'd had another 0.2 or so. I also didn't vomit although I did almost fall on the girl cutting the chip off of my shoe.

My official time was 42:06 and I placed 36th overall, which is exactly what I placed ten days ago at the Parade Run. The guy who won the race did so by over three minutes and went under 32:00 in doing so. My friend Jordan P. placed fifth in 37:02 and my neighbor placed second in her age group and got a cool little plate thing.

I also ended up placing second in my age group and just about sewed up the Points Series title in doing so. I still need to race well at the PPR and the Shoreline Classic to lock it up for sure but I went a long way toward doing it this morning.

The Bionic Woman was the third overall female and ran a time in the low 41s. I should have run with her. Oh well.

I didn't hit my time goal but I improved my 10k time by ten seconds on a more difficult course that the Powerade 10k. My fifth mile needs improvement and I think more tempo runs and hill running will work that out by next year.

My fastest mile was 6:37, slowest was 7:01. I ran a fairly even effort as I hit my first 5k in 20:54.66 and 21:10.38 for the harder second half of the race.

I think I can break into sub-41:00 territory next year.

Three more days. . .

Until Abe's Amble. I took today off from work and running as I am working Saturday morning. I got up a little after 0600 when my son awoke and we ate breakfast and played all day.

Yesterday morning, before work, I ran a fiver with 4x2 min. surges in the middle miles. I ran the first two easy to warm-up in 8:37 and 8:27 and then ran 7:52, 8:23 and 8:28 to close it out. I felt pretty good but I didn't push it too hard on my surges because I just wanted to get the legs loosened up and ready to run fast and didn't think that pounding the hell out of myself four days before my race was going to help me at all.

I feel pretty good about my chances of running a good time on Sunday morning. The forecast is calling for scattered thunderstorms and a high for the day of 84. That should mean that we can expect the upper-60s or low 70s for race time. As long as the humidity stays somewhat low and we get a bit of a breeze there could be a lot of good times posted.

My hill training has been virtually non-existent just like last year. There really aren't any monster hills around Chatham and I don't really like running south of town in the hills there because of the enormously peaked roads and the crazy drivers. Even if there weren't crazy drivers out that way the peaked roads kill my knees and I wouldn't run there anyway. I could drive to Washington or Lincoln Parks in Springfield but I don't like to drive someplace to run. If I skunk it up at Abe's like I did last year I may have to make a point of going someplace with hills and running there every few weeks to get used to them. I think part of my problem last year is that I had never run the course and didn't know what to expect. I think that if I had known what I was getting myself into I would have been a bit more conservative in the early miles.

The tentative plan for Sunday is to go out no faster than 6:50 pace for at least the first two miles and then see if I can't maintain 6:35-6:40 pace through miles three, four and five and then crank the last 1.2 as hard as I can. I'll be happy to keep every mile under 7:00 but I would like to hit my splits in 6:50-6:59, 13:40-50, 20:20-40, 26:50-27:10, 33:30-34:00, low 40:00 and then 41:00-41:30. I think I'm being conservative here but I've done three mile tempo runs at 6:44 pace on my own and felt pretty comfortable and I think I can handle it for a 10k or even run faster.

I'll find out on Sunday morning.

Results are going to be posted during the race as it is chip timed and will be found here.

Review

I haven't done my weekly reviews for two weeks now so I figured I ought to do that for today's post.

I haven't really done anything.

I kid, I kid.

I took a few days off the week before the Parade Run to rehab my left knee and get that healthy as I am heading into the three races I circled on my calendar: the Parade Run, Abe's Amble and the Polka Pace Race. I had/have goals of 12:00, 41:30 and 18:50 for these respective races. I accomplished goal #1 of 12:00. Even if they didn't get the times right at the Parade Run my watch read 12:00.10 after I clicked it late going across the finish line. My finger slipped and I missed the button.

The 41:30 goal for Abe's came about because I think that saying sub-41:00 was a little ambitious because I would have to take well over a minute off of my current best of 42:16 on a difficult course. I think that sub-41:00 is possible but the forecast doesn't look great.

18:50 is the goal for the PPR because I think I'm wussing out only going for 41:30 at Abe's and if I tell myself that 19:00 is the goal at the PPR I'll only run 19:00 instead of 18:59. Last year at the PPR I told myself 19:40 was the goal even though I just wanted to break 20:00 and I ended up running 19:35. Maybe I was selling myself short.

Anyway, after doing the rehab on my knee July 29th through July 31st I ran an easy four in 33:38 on August 1st along with my exercises, more rehab on the 2nd, another easy four in 32:14 (I couldn't slow down) on the 3rd and eight miles in 1:06:03 on the 4th with a side of knee rehab.

I covered 16 miles that week.

Last week I ran five miles in 41:50 on Monday, four in 33:26 on Tuesday, nothing at all on Wednesday, raced in the Parade Run on Thursday, and an easy four in 34:05 with knee rehab on Thursday that gave me a nice case of two-day lag on Saturday morning's seven miler.

Saturday morning's seven miler was run in 59:00 after getting off to an extremely stiff 8:50 first mile and then easing into 8:31, 8:24, 8:28, 16:46 (forgot to hit my split, I did that a lot last week), and 8:01. I also did knee rehab afterward and twice on Sunday.

In case you're wondering, the knee feels much better.

Tomorrow I am going to get up and do an easy four or five but I won't time it because every single Timex Ironman watch I own, three of them to be exact, have dead batteries. I even replaced one of the batteries and it worked for a few weeks until last night when it let out a few feeble beeps and went blank. I went to the Running Warehouse and bought a new watch because they have good prices and free two day delivery to the CONUS. My new 30-lap Ironman should be here on Wednesday and in time for Abe's Amble.

Wednesday I'm going to run another four or five with a few 2-3 minutes pick-ups. Thursday will be an off day, Friday an easy three or four and Saturday will be a VERY easy three with a few strides afterwards to keep me loose for the main event on Sunday morning.

Parade Run

I ran the Parade Run two mile this evening. It didn't get as hot as they predicted but when I left the house at 1630 it was 88 with 58% humidity and a nice 10-12 mph wind ouf of the NNW and a heat index of 93 or 96, I don't really remember.

I warmes up with only a mile or so because I didn't want to get too hot and overheat with a half mile to go. The gun went off and I settled in behind David D. and Carl as I knew that one of them was going to crank out a good race. I had a bad case of nerves all day and just felt very ill at ease about today's race. Once I got about two minutes into it I felt it all go away.

The Bionic Woman parked herself off my right shoulder for about the first 3/4 of a mile and fell off the pace a bit. I let David get a lead on me as he was running crazy fast. At the mile he had about a 20 second lead on me. I can't remember if I actually said "shit" out loud or just thought it very forcefully. I hit the mile in about 5:57 or so and dumped a small Dixie cup of water on my head. I would have preferred a 30 gallon garbage can but every little bit helped today.

I used a downhill to my advantage to build up some momentum and started picking people off. I would look at my watch every few minutes and tell myself, "4 minutes to go, 2 minutes to go" until my goal of going under 12:00. I did that little trick most of the last 1200 meters and knew it was going to be close when I hit the gates to the State Fair. I sprinted up the cruel little uphill to the chute and clicked my watch, a tick late I think, with a time of 12:00.10 on the read-out.

I jogged to my car and back for an approxiamately mile and a half cool down and got back in time to see that they gave me an official time of 11:56.75 and 36th place. I think something went a little hinky in the scoring but I'm not going to complain. I'll take the 11:56.

I did end up catching David with a little over half a mile to go and when I did he must have crashed because he finished up in about 12:40. The Bionic Woman won the women's division with an official time of 12:20 but a watch time of 12:10. I got 5th in my age group but every single guy who beat me was at least two years younger than me. I bet they weren't up with their kid at 0400 and chasing him around all day too after taking him to the doctor's office to get the rash on his butt checked out.

A much smarter run

I staggered out of bed a little before 0700 and set out for my eight mile run. The temperature and heat index were a little cooler this morning than they were last night at 71, E4 and 75% humidity. I started off easy and got faster as I went along but ran much smarter than I did last night. I ran my eight in 1:06:03 and hit my splits in 8:46, 8:15, 8:16, 8:16, 8:08, 8:20, 7:54(oops, I was trying to catch someone ahead of me), and 8:08. I felt pretty good afterward and the knee only gave me a brief bit of stiffness the last two miles.

I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my wife and kid and relaxing. Nathan and I ran the vacuum cleaner while Kim ran a few errands and then we had lunch and shared some strawberry yogurt for dessert.

Exciting stuff.

What the hell was that?

I came home and ran this evening around 1745 hrs. It was 88 with 56% humidity and a 4 mph breeze out of the NNE. The heat index was a little intimidating at 93 but I told myself to start off slow and taper off since this run was supposed to be a test drive for the knee.

I started off at what felt like a relaxed pace but turned out to be an 8:10.23 first mile. I eased up and scolded myself a bit and throughout the next mile made myself slow down when I felt like I was accelerating too much. I had my head up my rear end and didn't hit my mile two split and by the time mile three came up I had covered the previous two miles in 15:53.13 for a three mile time of 24:03.36. I was starting to feel a little warm at this point but since I only had two miles to go, and even if I ditched the run at that point I was going to have to walk two miles home any way I cut it, I figured I'd keep going.

I made myself slow down and thought I might be able to slog my way through the rest of my run without stroking out and I hit mile four in 8:11.44 and a total time of 32:14.80. At that point my wedding ring was feeling tight on my finger and my hands were turning red. I stopped my watch, wiped the sweat from my forehead and started walking home. I couldn't even do that slowly.

I feel pretty good now, the fingers have gone down and I can slip my wedding ring off without grunting and tearing the skin off my knuckle.

One positive from this run is that my knee feels pretty good. There was no pain or soreness and very little stiffness. I don't think I'm going to do any hard running this week leading into the Parade Run and I'm going to keep up with the knee rehab until a few days before Abe's Amble.

Tonight can be chalked up to having my legs rested up and feeling good and not having any common sense to run when it is cooler.

Back on the road

I rolled myself out of bed this morning, after being up-and-down with my teething son, and ran four easy miles. I've been doing my rehab exercises for my knee that I was prescribed six years go when I had a bad case of runner's knee. I also did the Core Secrets workout with Gunnar Peterson except I did it by myself because I can't stand Gunnar on the DVD. Lots of core work along with squats and lunges which is good for my back and my knees.

The knee hasn't had as much crepitus while squatting or extending it but I was a little nervous as I set out on my run. My knee only hurts for a few blocks once I start but will start getting sore after running for much over an hour. I think my knee thought about being sore but decided not to and I completed my run in 33:38 with splits of 8:38, 8:24, 8:16 and 8:21.

After returning home I took a shower and then had probably the best ever cup of hazelnut creme coffee as I got my son's bottles ready for daycare.

Funny story about Nathan, he is a little troublemaker and likes to change the channels on the TV and dig in the potted plants. When he does those things he gets scolded and moved away from the censured activities. His scolding is usually a variation on "NATHAN! No, no!" My lovely thirteen month old son, upon hearing his name in a higher-than-usual register, will turn, point his index finger at me and say, "Doh!" He doesn't say "doh" like Homer Simpson does when he screws up, he says it like a little boy does when he's learning to say "no". I think the finger being thrust at me as he says "doh!" is a nice touch. I can't decide if he's finishing my sentence or telling me not to scold him. Either way, I think he's being insolent.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to run tomorrow morning or if I am going to skip it like I usually do on Thursdays. I'm leaning toward skipping it just to give my knee another day to chill. Friday I'll do an easy five and Saturday, if the knee still feels good, I'll run for an hour or so and get seven or eight miles in. I'll continue the easy running through the next few weeks except for the Parade Run next Thursday and Abe's Amble ten days after that. I'll probably do a fartlek and a short tempo run somewhere in there too if I feel good. About three weeks after Abe's Amble is what is probably my new favorite race, the Polka Pace Race. I think I like the PPR because it goes by my grandparents' house in Havana and I think it is cool to run a race in the town my dad grew up in. I'll also get to see Nate's parents and Coach Caton, which is always cool. Maybe this year I'll be able to beat that Hermann girl who smoked me by 13 seconds last year.

Slacking

Last weekend, due to the last Harry Potter book, I slacked on my weekly recap. I'm going to kill two weeks with one blog entry and recap this week and last week, respectively.

I closed out this week with a nice day off from running on Thursday. I did a 45 minute Core Secrets workout and ate Subway. Friday afternoon I ran an easy five in 41:18 and aside from being hot and having a sore left knee and tight hamstrings I felt pretty good. The knee has been bothering me for a week or so and I think it is because I bang it on my desk at work at least once a day and I've been neglecting my calisthenics and yoga this summer. I have a good reason, and his name is Nathan.

This morning I got up at 0430 and ran eight miles before heading to work. After running a 9:13 first mile in dark, and twisting my ankle trying to read my watch by a street light, I clicked off the remainder of my run in 8:29, 8:25, 8:16, 8:12, 8:10, 7:57 and 8:08. My total time was 1:06:50. I felt pretty good despite some left knee stiffness and lower back tightness that I attribute to running at 0430 in the morning.

I think I'm going to take it easy this week and do some rehab on my knee so that I don't exacerbate it at all. I want to be healthy for the Parade Run, Abe's Amble and the Polka Pace Race.

I ran 26.25 miles on the week to give myself 805.5 for the year. I ran 33 miles last week with key workouts being my 3x1200 that I wrote about, 3x1 mile at tempo pace (6:45) and an eleven mile run on Saturday.

I ran my 3x1 mile practice early in the morning and had a hard time getting my legs going the first workbout. I ran that one in 6:51.31 but was able to run the next two in 6:44.55 and 6:44.29.

My eleven miler consisted of a mile in my sub-division (that I covered in 8:38) and a ten mile out-and-back on the bike trail. I covered the 5 miles out in 42:02 and the 5 miles back in 41:20 for a total time of 1:32:00.

This coming week will just be an easy week. If I do anything hard it will probably be a three mile tempo run on Wednesday. I'll just see how the knee feels.

The Sizzling Mile

Last night, at the Sacred Heart-Griffen High School Track, I competed in the 8th heat of the 3rd annual Sizzling Mile. I missed last years event, held at the Springfield High School's "square" track, due to my son only being about two weeks old at the time. At the inaugural event I ran the full mile in 5:50 and I was looking to drastically improve that time last night.

Based on my training, and my earlier trash talking in my blog, I predicted that I could run a 5:25 mile at last night's event. I showed up to the track early and helped get people registered until the first heat started. My arch-nemesis, the Bionic Woman, and I ran about two miles for a warm-up and then I watched the next few heats until it was time to stride out and report for my heat.

I was in my heat with the Bionic Woman, David D., Jordan B., and other assorted high school athletes and age group studs from the running club. Our honorary starts sent us on our way from a classice waterfall start and the early pace was very frenetic as we jockeyed for position. I could tell at the 150 mark that I was going to be in trouble if I didn't ease off and settle into my race pace. I let a little group set up ahead of me, consisting of David D., a junior high stud from Rochester and a few others. I hit the 400 in 1:20.86 and spent the next lap working my way into pouncing distance of the group I was chasing. I hit 800 a step or two behind my prey in 2:42.36 with a lap time of 1:21.50. Upon passing through the halfway point I surged very hard so that there was no doubt that I meant to break the runners I was passing. I'm sure that the spectators thought I had miscounted laps and was mounting my finishing kick a lap premature but I surged hard by design because I have learned, eleven years after my last high school track meet, that I always slow down too much the third lap. Who says I never learn my lessons? I passed the junior high stud and David D. and found myself in a no man's land between packs as I crossed the 1200 in 4:04.86 with 400 split of 1:22.50. I surged once more to discourage anyone behind me but had a weak mental moment on the backstretch where the oxygen debt hit me a little. I convinced myself, with just over 200 remaining, that I was only going to be in pain for about another 40 seconds and I finished strong with a 403 meter time, this is a full mile after all, of 1:23.00. The time on my watch read 5:27.86. I little slower than my prediction but nothing that I'm going to cry over. I'm quite happy with my race.

I broke the old 25-29 age group record of 5:35.86 with my performance, as did David D. with his 5:34 showing. Unfortunately, two minutes after my heat ended, the REALLY fast guys started their race. The 9th heat was won with a time of 4:35 and a 28 year old from Peoria ran a 4:52. I figure I held my age group record for about seven minutes or so. I'm okay with it because the two age groups below mine and the four above all had records below 5:00 and it just made all the 25-29 year olds look slow.

I placed 17th overall, a few ticks ahead of the Bionic Woman who ran 5:30.99 for 18th and first overall female. I beat her for the first time in nine tries and she said she doesn't really like getting beat by me so I'm guessing that it will probably take me nine more tries to beat her again.

Goodbye Harry.

I received my copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in the mail at approximately 1330 Saturday afternoon and by 2010 hrs Sunday night I had completed it. I was a relative late-comer to the Harry Potter saga as I didn't get interested in the books until the first movie and the fourth book came out in late 2001. My world, at the time, was a little uncertain as I had just gotten engaged, I was in my last year of college at SIUC, I was still in the Air National Guard, and September 11th had just occurred.

Harry's world grabbed hold of me like nothing had since I read "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" in junior high and the first few books of the Dark Tower series by Steven King in high school. Things were a little simpler in Harry's world but as the books progressed things got darker and scarier just like the world I was in when I first met The Boy Who Lived.

After I caught up to book four: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", I eagerly awaited each new installment of Harry, Ron and Hermione's adventures, even going so far as to attending the midnight release party for "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". Although I didn't dress up and my wife and I got pulled over at a roadside sobriety check. I think they almost hauled us in because we hadn't been out drinking and we were CLEARLY in our mid-twenties and holding a Harry Potter book at 0130 on a Saturday morning.

I approached Book Seven with some trepidation as I knew that all the questions I had were going to be answered: Who was going to die? Was it Harry? Is Snape a bad man or a good guy? Everything turned out about the way I expected it to and Ms. Rowling did a good job, like always, of keeping the book honest in that people have secrets, people are afraid and people die but life inevitably goes on.

I can continue with my life, waiting for the next great story to come along and pull me into the lives being lived therein, and I will put Harry on my book case with other old friends whose stories have ended: Bilbo, Frodo and Sam. Roland Deschain and his ka-tet of Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy. Horatio Hornblower and William Bush. Corwin of Amber and Merlin of the Courts of Chaos. Lazarus Long. Kilgore Trout. Paul Atreides who became Muad'Dib. John Perry and Jane Sagan. And last, but not least, Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Tricia McMillan, and Marvin the Paranoid Android.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione will have some good company.

I'm sure Honor Harrington, Harry Dresden, Tavi of Calderon, Drizzt Do'Urden and John Taylor of the Nightside will be along soon.

3x1200 again.

I positively SPRANG out of bed this morning, four minutes before my alarm went off, and ran to the high school track for my workout. It was a beautiful morning: 61 degrees and calm. The only downside was the 96% humidity but with the 61 degree temp I didn't really notice it.

I got a warm-up mile on the way over and did a mile of strides and started my first 1200 in the pre-dawn twilight. I couldn't see my watch very well so I couldn't really tell what my lap times were but I ended up hitting my first rep in 4:35.21. I jogged 600 meters in about 3:30 and started my second 1200. The visibility had improved but as I passed the 400 mark I realized that my son had switched my watch over to split time instead of lap time so I was getting the total time I'd been running since I started my watch on my first rep. Despite the fact that I couldn't tell what my splits were I still managed to run rep #2 in 4:35.49. I stopped my watch, memorized my times, cleared it and switched back to lap time just in time to start my final 1200. I wasn't paying too much attention to my splits, as I'd been having pretty good luck, but I hit my first 400 in the neighborhood of 1:31 and hit 800 just as 3:04 turned over. I closed out the last lap and ran a total time of 4:35.42.

After the last 1200 I felt so good that I started walking to the exit gate and started my cool-down mile. I ran my practice a little faster than I was supposed too but it felt GOOD! My last 3x1200 practice was a little warmer and I was much more fatigued. I love it when a practice feels effortless.

I covered 6 miles this morning and tomorrow morning I am going to run an easy five or six. I think I'm going to get rained on one way or the other so I intend to run when there is no lightening.

1400 miles?

I was looking at my total mileage for the year and there is a slight possibility that I can cover 1400 miles for the year. As of right now, 28 weeks into the year, I have run 746.25 miles. Last year at week 28 I had 612.75 and ended up totaling 1,145.5 miles. Looking back at my high school training logs I was covering over 2,000 miles a year. I was also running the mile in 4:40 and dueling Nate for Prairieland Conference titles in the 1600 and 4x800. Look how far we've come in the last 11 years. Brokedown and slower but we married some hotties!!!

I closed out my week with a five mile run in 42:28 hitting my splits in 8:48, 8:41, 8:23, 8:30 and 8:07. I wasn't feeling it Saturday morning so I just zoned out and made myself slow down when I sped up, except for the last mile when I was getting hungry and wanted some coffee.

I volunteered at the Women's Distance Festival Two mile run at Washington Park. I helped with the finish line. My pal, the Bionic Woman, got beat by the defending champion: 11:12 to 11:55. The champ is pretty tough, she ran Abe's Amble last year in 38:20 and Abe's isn't easy.

The Bionic Woman informed me that we are in the same heat at the Sizzling Mile in about ten days. I'm gunning for 5:25 and I think she's going to try to hold on and see if she can't beat me. She ran 5:45 or 5:43 last year. I guess we'll see how it shakes down next week.

I covered 31.75 miles and am looking at hitting in that neighborhood again this week. Tomorrow morning I am going to rise early and hit the track for another session of 3x1200 in 4:36. We'll see how the practice feels when I haven't run a ten second best in a 5k two days prior. Tuesday will be an easy five or six, Wednesday will be either 3x1 mile cruise intervals (at 6:44 pace) or a two mile run followed by a one mile run after two minutes rest also at 6:44 pace. I haven't decided yet. Thursday will be a goose egg like always. Friday and Saturday will be and easy five and ten or eleven.

Going Long with Dinosaur Jr.

I got up this morning at 0445, stretched out and hit the bike trail for a ten mile run with my iPod Shuffle. I had spent most of the afternoon yesterday, after returning from "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", loading songs onto my iPod so I could groove to some tunes. I loaded up Dinosaur Jr.'s latest CD "Beyond", "Fashion Nugget" by Cake and assorted Wilco, Tom Waits and the Clash. I have loved Dinosaur since about 1994 when a high school chum loaned me "Where You Been". I had never heard such beautiful grunge guitar before and was hooked from the opening track "Out There". When I was doing my time in training with the Air Force I expanded my Dinosaur collection until I had everything they'd done. Everyone talks about how "Bug" is their seminal album, and I tend to agree, but I always had a soft spot for "Green Mind" and the aforementioned "Where You Been".

Dinosaur was pretty much a one man show after "Bug" as J Masicis, the lead guitarist/vocalist, kicked bassist Lou Barlow out of the band after creative differences. Dinosaur continued, over the course of five CDs, to have J Mascis playing every instrument with the original drummer, Murph, playing on selected tracks and stand-in bassist/guitarist Michael Johnson helping out on occasion.

Barlow, in the meantime, started off the lo-fi movement by recording a series of tapes in his living room with multi-instrumentalist Eric Gaffney. Thus was born Sebadoh. Sebadoh is the granddaddy of modern day "emo" bands and released quite a few decent, if disjointed, recordings. Notable among their output is 1993's "Bubble and Scrape", 1994's "Bakesale" which features one of my favorite Sebadoh tunes "Drama Mine". Their most critically acclaimed disc is 1996's "Harmacy" which features a picture of O'Dwyer's Pharmacy when the "P" fell off the sign. I thought it was a cool little double entendre.

Lou Barlow is also famous for writing the soundtrack to a little film called "Kids". A little group called the Folk Implosion had a song called "Natural One" make a surprising run into the top-40. The song was penned and performed by Barlow and his friend, John Davis.

For more info on Dinosaur Jr. click here. For more about Sebadoh, click here.

With my iPod loaded and belting out "Almost Ready" by the recently reunited Dinosaur Jr. I made my way into the 64 degree, 96% humidity and 4 mph NW winds. I hit my five mile turnaround in a relaxed 42:28 and brought myself home in a less sedate 39:51 to complete my ten in 1:22:19. Fittingly, the last song played by my Shuffle was "The Distance" by Cake. How ironic.

When I got home I got the coffee brewing and went outside to stretch and drink some water while I started reading the paper. I went back inside after I downed my 20 oz of water and had just finished my first cup of coffee when my son woke up. I changed his diaper and put him in his high chair for a breakfast of watermelon, strawberry-banana baby food and an orange. After that he got a bath and a bottle and we watched "It's a Big, Big World" and "Sesame Street" on PBS. I like Sesame Street but Big, Big World is a little weird. The main character is a sloth in the rainforest hanging out with his monkey, ant-eater, frog, bird and fish friends. It is kind cute but the monkeys are freaky and the sloth, Snook, sounds like a hippy surfer. Nothing against the hippy surfer community but I would expect a sloth to sound more tired than stoned.

Tomorrow I am volunteering to help at the Women's Distance Festival where some of my woman friends are going to be running. I think the Bionic Woman has a shot to win but the defending champ from Decatur will be a tough nut to crack, even for the Bionic Woman. I was going to wear something weird but I'm not sure what. I was thinking about wearing one of my short-sleeved blue dress shirts with my Jerry Garcia tie, my black running shorts, blue socks and my Brooks Glycerine running shoes. I guess that would be business/athletic attire.

Yesterday Kim and I went to see "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". We both enjoyed it although they left quite a bit out that could have made the movie feel a little more fleshed out. The book is about 700 pages long and they pruned and smashed it into a 90 minute movie. "Phoenix" is not my favorite Potter book but it had moments. Certain things that should have been fleshed out more in the movie were the budding romance between Harry and Cho Chang, the massive prank the Weasly twins pull as they leave Hogwarts, and I think they should have showed Dumbledore's Army ace their OWL (Ordinary Wizarding Level) exam in the Defense Against the Dark Arts since that was the reason Dumbledore's Army was formed in the first place.

Things I liked: I loved the girl they cast as the slightly "off" Luna Lovegood who suspects that the disappearance of her shoes and other personal effects are due to Nargylls. ("What are Nargylls?" asks Ron. "I have no idea." says Hermione.) The climatic battle between Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic is quite cool. Any scene where Harry, Ron and Hermione are together is great, unfortunately Ron and Hermione are relegated to the background for the majority of the film.

I think Daniel Radcliffe is going to be an exceptional actor after the Potter movies wrap. I suspect we'll see him cast as a drug addict or a murderer so he can distance himself from the Harry Potter role, although he was a horse-f----r on stage in "Equus" where he got rave reviews.

We also rented "Shooter" the other night, starring Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg. It was a surprisingly entertaining little action flick that tried to be plausible (you actually saw people reload their weapons during the firefights) but was still a little improbable (Marky Mark couldn't miss but never got winged after the first 15 minutes of the movie). Danny Glover and Ned "Squeal like a Pig" Beatty were great "shades of gray" villians as a former Army colonel and a Big Oil Senator. Definitely worth the $2.80.