50 Degrees

How great is it to be able to run outside after a full week on the treadmill? It is quite great indeed.

Training update

The half marathon training is rocking along, I suppose. All 4 workouts this week were on the treadmill, which is really boring but when it comes to the 4 days I ran this week, two were at night after long work days, and two were on days when it was in the 20's, so I don't feel too bad about it.

For anyone wondering what happened to the pace per mile on Wednesday: This was the day I decided to put in a little work for the hill climb I want to do this summer (I crank up the treadmill gradually to 15% and then see how long I can keep it there....even if I have to slow down). This week I managed to keep it there for just a couple of minutes.....because the treadmill decided to burn out on me. I really like one of the types of treadmills we have at the Y, but they do overheat from time to time. I've learned (a while ago) that they don't do very well if you want to crank it over 10 MPH, and I've learned more recently that inclines of 14 to 15% will stall the think out pretty quickly too.

Oh well.

It's supposed to warm up here mid-week and I just broke in a new pair of 769's on my 8 miler tonight, so I'll probably try and get back to increasing my long run sometime soon. I think I'm really just going to train like it's a full marathon ( see if I can work my long run up over 20 miles) and see if that helps drop my half marathon time down where I want it. To those familiar with the concept of "race weight," I'm admittedly a couple of pounds over. Laura doesn't like when I talk about it, but she's agreed that I am "allowed" to weigh the weight I'm shooting for (160). Today's morning weight was 170.6, and post-run weight of 166.0 (of course, then I came home and drank some water and ate half a pizza). It is, after all, a process.

I'm not allowed to approach my 2005 post-Columbus marathon weight of 148. The first thing Laura said to me after my very first marathon was "if I ever have to identify your body....I'll know what you'll look like". I don't remember what I said in response, but I imagine it was something to the extent of "I love you too".

That's enough bleeble blurble from me for one night.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.....

Today the trucks came through the neighborhood (accompanied by little rolling-tread-claw-grabber-vehicles) to collect the branches from the storm. Luckily I finished dragging them from the back yard yesterday, and had lined them in TWO ROWS, one on each side of the sidewalk (I thought it was better to make two rows each two to three feet tall, rather than one row six feet tall.....not to mention it allows us to see when we back out of the driveway, and thus avoid a totalled car like what happened to Laura's Jeep in 2003).

Okay, enough background. So the truck rolls down the street, and stops in front of our house, and they start with the row of branches closest to the street. Once they get this cleaned up, they get in the truck.......and move off down the street. They totally left the second row of branches laying in my yard. Now I'll switch from narration mode to dialogue mode:

I put on my coat and walk down the street(3 houses) to meet the crew, and locate the head guy.

Pete: If I move the rest of the branches up to the street will you come pick them up?
Municipal worker: Nope. We're not supposed to back up, just keep moving forward.
Pete: If you don't come get them, someone else will have to come back. I'm moving them.

I walk away, back to the house, and start moving the branches. The head guy comes down the street.

Municipal worker: I called another truck to come by and get them.
Pete: When will that happen.
Municipal worker (shrugs): Maybe today.....maybe next week.
Pete: I thought I was doing a nice thing by not making a huge pile...I guess not.
Municipal worker: Well, someone'll be by to get them. (He walks away.)

I finish moving the branches and go into the house. Grab twenty dollars. Walk back down the street (now 5 houses away) and meets the head guy again:

Pete: Here you go.
Municipal Worker: What's this?
Pete: Twenty bucks. Come and get my branches.
Municipal Worker: We're not allowed to go back.
Pete: Fine. You just took my twenty bucks. (I walk away immediately)
Assistant Municipal Worker: We'll get'em for twenty bucks.
Head Municipal Worker: He has to wait for the other truck. (I keep walking)

I'm halfway home when the rolling-grabber-vehicle throws it in reverse and starts coming my way. By the time I hit the front door, the dump truck is also in reverse, and coming back up the street. I wave and say thank you. They take may branches. I hope the head guy shared the cash.

Its official

That's right, I'm training for a half marathon in April. The Derby Festival Mini-Marathon is the goal, and I'd really like to run a 1:25:00, which I'm not sure is realistic given the shape I'm in, but I figure I'll just go to work on it and see how it goes. I decided to run because I've got a couple of friends who'll be doing the race, and hopefully one of them will let me crash at their place the night before (hint hint) so I won't have to get up at like 4 AM on race day to drive to Louisville. If all else fails, I know Rachael has a big couch.

I've added a training log widget to the blog so all you dedicated Queep-stalkers can keep track of my progress (or relative lack there-of).

In other running related news, I've been made aware that my brother-in-law of matching name has worn the crap out of his current training shoes, and he should know that new ones are on order (but not yet out of the warehouse).

I hope everyone is having a good Valentine's day. I am, and I'll list a couple reasons why:

1) Slept in
2) Got a good run in
3) UK won (45 for Meeks)
4) The dogs are in a relatively peaceful detente-type situation (I think it may be defensive posturing, but I'll take it).
5) I got to spend the whole day with "the girl"!!
6) Managed a tasty dinner by myself
7) Looking forward to more time with Laura.....and maybe some tasty cheesecake as well.
8) Strong possibility for sleeping in again tomorrow, based on the condition of my legs.

Forecast for Today:

Windy.......rainy.....rather dreary.....

Shout out to all my British Blog followers!

Spring Fever

It it beautiful outside today. I am in my office. The next three days will be nice too. I will be in the car those days.

It is 67 degrees out there, and yet I know we've surely got a couple stretches of days in the 20's and 30's before winter is over.

All I want to do is go for a long run (but I already did that on Saturday when it was about 10 degrees cooler than now).

Is anybody else as ready for spring to spring as I am?

The latest

Last week I promised images of our picturesque, snow-laden paradise. Since we ended up with the frozen tundra instead, I've been a little busy and haven't gotten around to posting the images. So here we go with a little update on what Kentucky looked like over the past week.

This is a picture of the ice on the bush across the street when we first woke up last Wednesday morning.

Pretty much all the trees looked like this, except for the ones that had collapsed under the weight of the ice. Those looked like this instead:

Yes, that IS the apple tree that used to fill up our back yard. It's a bit more broken than that now, and is surely a goner. The problem is complicated by the fact the the tree has sandwiched our power line within its collapsed branches. Here's why this is complicated:

1) The power is still ON, which means we are a low priority for the electric company.

2) The tree is probably not their responsibility, but they'll probably have to come out here to tell me that
3) Either way, they have to turn the power off to remove the tree
4) The masthead for the electric has been bent off the house.
5) The masthead is not the electric company's responsibility
6) We can't fix the masthead until the power line is free, which can't happen until the tree is cut, which can't happen until the power is turned off, which is not something that rates as a priority for the power company right now.

Needless to say, I think our back yard is gonna be screwed up for a while.