Qualifier Set

Greetings from the snowy Midwest. I don’t think it’s gone a week without snowing since Thanksgiving. Fortunately, the weather has been cooperating on the weekends lately to allow me to get my long runs in. Three 10 milers in a row over the past three Saturdays with a 12 miler planned this weekend. Of course that all depends on how much snow we get this Friday afternoon and overnight. I’m hoping for only a couple inches, but not holding my breath. I need to be able to log miles Saturday morning because of my upcoming tattoo appointment Saturday night. I’m having more of my arm/should tattoo filled in, so I won’t be able to run for a few days due to the fresh ink. So I need to get my log run in Saturday morning or afternoon or I’ll have to push-back the tat appointment.

It’s Official – Qualifier Set:
I’m registered for Grandma’s Marathon on June19th. This race is best known for its mostly flat route and ideal qualifying conditions. This will be my first attempt of 2010 to quality for the 2011 Boston Marathon! I’m excited and nervous all at the same time. Excited because the route is quick and ideal to qualify with; nervous because of the preclusive off-season of running I’ve had due to various injuries or weather-related setbacks. I feel like I should be farther along in my training and logging more miles a week than what I am (currently logging 20 -25 miles/week), and I also feel like I should be posting faster training run times (averaging 7:45 – 7:50/mile over the last several long runs). Technically I haven’t “officially” started my marathon training that LL is putting together for me, so I may just be antsy or overly paranoid at this point. Nonetheless I officially have a set date for a qualifier. In the coming months as the race gets closer, I’ll start lobbying for everyone to make the pilgrimage to Duluth to come hang out and support me as I try to achieve my goal.

I was planning on adding a countdown timer for Grandma’s, but have yet to get the stupid thing to work on this blog site. Once I figure it out, it’ll be at the top under my intro.

The Routes:
My last few long runs have been primarily the same route through Ankeny. Leaving from my house, making my way around the NW side of town to the main bike trail (formerly a railroad track) that bisects Ankeny diagonally. Then I take that path to “Old Downtown” Ankeny, then east to East Elementary School and back. If I have one complaint about Ankeny it’s that it isn’t very big, so in order to log any kind of serious mileage, I have to double loop my routes just to get in 15 & 20 mile runs. I remember getting burnt out on running the same route over and over last summer and fall. I get easily bored with running the same route week-in and week-out; especially when I’m on them for 3 hours at a time.

Training Update:
After having a couple weeks of focused core and back workouts, this last one was all legs. The good news is I can tell that the muscle weaknesses in my inner thighs and glutes are strengthening (TMI?), but I’m definitely still feeling the burn from a full hour of quad and calf focused exercises. I have no idea how LL comes up with some of the exercises she has me do, but man, they certainly kick my ass each week. In a good way, of course. Last week’s work out included exercises called, “speed squats”, “single leg step-ups”, “standing lunge step-through” and “crouching Cohen curls”. All of them are leg exercises designed to strengthen my quads, hammies, calves and my money-maker. J All of which have to be in top condition to handle the long, steep hills in Boston. I’m secretly hoping for a lighter workout today when I meet with LL, but we’ll see. I’ll let everyone know how today goes in next week’s entry.

Non-Running Thoughts of the Week:
Here are some of my non-running thoughts since my last blog posting:
- Spencer now has an open gap where his two front teeth previously were a couple weeks ago. He’s proudly sporting and empty grill since he lost both front teeth in the last 2 weeks. Mom and Dad are not proud of his ability to squeeze food out of the opening like a Playdough Fun Factory.

- Ty has now become the chattiest 4 year old on the face of the planet. I can remember just a few short months ago when he would say all of five words a day. Now he’s chattering from the time he gets up in the morning until the time he puts his jams on at night.

- I’m having a lot of fun in the poker league I joined. It helps that I’m currently in first place in the overall points standing, but I still have a long way to go to win the league (5 weeks left). Plus I have everyone gunning for me. But, I like that it forces me to keep my poker skills sharp and is helping me become a more-rounded poker player.

- I’m sick of shoveling snow.

- My wife is a damn good cook. Next time you see her, you should ask her to make you salmon or turkey chili.

- I think Shannon is going to have a blast on her ‘MILF trip’ this spring. I hope she remembers her phone has a camera.

- My contract at my client was extended through June 30th, 2010. What a relief to have that locked down.

- Last week’s long run was the most fun I’ve had on a run since Thanksgiving.

Running Rant of the Week:
This week’s running rant isn’t about a person or place. It’s about a thing: the treadmill. Let me ask you this, Mr. Treadmill: why do you suck so much? I mean, no offense, but I loathe running on you. You’re big. You’re bulky. And quite frankly, no one really likes you. It’s very rare that you’ll hear someone say, “I really love running on a treadmill. I’d rather do that than run outside.” In most cases, if someone is on you, it’s because they have to be, not because they want to be. You are to running what a slump-buster is to baseball.

I bring up the treadmill because thanks to Mother Nature being a pain-in-the-ass last week, I was stuck inside on tready for my Tuesday short run. I’ve often said that I have a 4 mile max on a treadmill for no other reason other than I simply hate running on a treadmill. It doesn’t matter what kind of shape I’m in, I still can only manage 4 painfully-long miles on tready. By the time I hit 4 miles on the ‘Machine of Despair’, I’m so mentally defeated that I can’t stand to run another 10 feet. There are just so many things about the treadmill that I do not enjoy capped off by that stupid mileage gage. Or as I like to call it, “The Gage of Evil”. For me, that is the worst part of tready; the mental mind job I get from that gage. I’ll be on a tready, running along, thinking it’s been like 20 or 25 minutes and I feel like I’ve covered 3 miles, but to my unpleasant surprise when I look down to check the mileage, it’s only been .4 tenths of a mile. Aarrgggghhh! I’m the type of runner that has to have stuff moving by me when I run; gives me the sense of accomplishment and the feeling of making progress. But on tready, I’m stuck staring at a TV screen that I can’t focus on because of the bounce in my stride. Or I’m stuck enjoying the obnoxious sounds of the heavy-footed person next to me pounding the shit out of the treadmill while clambering around, arms flailing like they’ve never run upright before. Though it’s quite comical to see, it’s annoying having all that ruckus next to me with no way to run away from it.

So, to you Mr. Treadmill, this week’s running rant is dedicated to you. With any luck, I won’t be on you for the rest of the year. It’ll be like we’re married and my birthday has already come and gone.