ON THE VERGE

I've been on vacation this week, which makes it hard to update my blog and keep up with other bloggers. We didn't go anywhere for vacation, just hanging out around here with the girls and doing fun local stuff like picking strawberries, going to the water park, watching Cars (2 thumbs up), etc.

I'm trying to get consistent with my running and build my mileage back up. I've basically been running between 7-9 miles any time I head out the door this week. I did that 3 days in-a-row before taking yesterday off - and falling asleep on the couch at 8 PM. Who knew vacationing could be so tiring. After running my last 3 runs in the evening, this morning I decided to get back into a morning routine. I was out the door at 7 AM and managed 8 miles at a hair under 8:00 pace.

It's interesting what the mind goes through during an injury. There were times where I thought "What else can I do if I can't run? I could do some mountain bike races, rollerblade races, work on rollerskiing, etc." Now that I'm back to running, all those thoughts are out the window and I'm thinking about races I want to run and times I want to achieve.

Ever look at race results and think about how we'll you'd have placed if you had run? I couldn't help but look at all the races I didn't run this spring. And I can't help but think I'm on the verge of "greatness." Just kidding. "Greatness" is too strong of a word. But dare I say, "the next level." Seriously, all I would need to do would be to improve by 10-15 seconds per mile and I'd be "all set." Of course if that happened I still wouldn't be happy - but it'd be a start.

I still find it mind-boggling that less than 2% (133 of 6,913) of the runners at Grandma's broke 3 hours. Sure the conditions were crappy, so I'll "give" you 10 minutes. Only 242 runners or 3.5% broke 3:10. Heck, even in my age-group 3 hours would have placed me 11th. Results from the half marathon are similar as less than 2% of the 5,000 finishers broke 1:25 - a time that would have placed me 8th in my age-group.

So I'm using these results as motivation to not only get back to where I was earlier this spring, but to take it to the next level. Now I just have to wrap my mind around the whole process of running every day (or twice-a-day) and building my mileage again. Vacation is over...in more ways than one.

Quote of the day:
"I can do anything." - Katie, my soon to be 3 year old, as she was climbing up a small slide instead of using the stairs

LAST OF THE PHOTOS

Here are the last of the photos I'm going to post. On the left is Scott, who I ran with at UW-Eau Claire and still train with every now and then. On the right is Super Jim's Lex Luther, Jared Mondry. Jared won the 60-64 age group in 3:04:22 or 7 minutes slower than his age group winning time from 2005.





Here is fellow training partner Joyce at the 22-mile mark. Congrats to my other training partners that I haven't mentioned yet. Kevin ran 3:26, Mike ran 3:34, and Noreen ran her first marathon in 4:38. Also another UW-EC teammate, Casey, ran 3:32. And a huge congrats to Don Wright, one of Jim's friends who won the 65-69 age group in 3:43.

If you're looking for the Fountain of Youth, you may want to check out Lake Elmo, MN. That's the home of Jim and Don as well as Norm, 2nd in the 60-64 age-group with a 3:23


This last one is for Duncan because he likes shit like this. Scooby Doo ran 3:41. Of course he was written up in the paper, so we're only encouraging him. In addition to Scooby, also written up were the 4 guys that dressed as Grandmas, 2 buddies who wore Hawaiian shirts, a family that was on the Amazing Race and the guy that unpacked his shoes only to find a note from his kids stuck too them. Yeah, that's good stuff - really worth writing about - especially those guys in the Hawaiian shirts. Simply amazing!!!

GRANDMA'S PHOTOS

Here are some photos I took from the Garry Bjorklund half marathon and Grandma's marathon. First is a picture of Desiree Budd. The women's winner of the half in 1:15:33. This is the gal that placed 5th in May at the U.S. 25K championships at River Bank - beating Jenna by 3 minutes. She wants to focus on the 10k, but Jenna is trying to convince her to give the marathon a try. Given her recent 25k and half results, I'll be surprised if she doesn't take Jenna's advice.






Here is "Super Jim." As I told him last week, if I had a body like that, I'd go shirtless too.

Below is Michael Reneau leading the chase pack. He went on to finish 8th in 2:20:20. Next to that photo is Jason Finch. Jason was a freshman at UW-Eau Claire when I was a senior. Although he DNF'd this year, he ran 2:23 last year, so he'll be back. Michael, Jason as well as 6-time Bjorklund half marathon winner and OT qualifier, Ryan Meissen, are from my wife's hometown of about 10,000 people. Pretty amazing.















Here are Derek and Dave. Dave ran for the U of Minnesota when guys like Garry Bjorklund and Steve Plascencia were there and he has some great stories. There's nothing like talking to someone who "wasn't very fast" as he 'only' ran about 4:05 for the mile. Slowpoke!!!

LEG UPDATE

I went back to the doc last Thursday for my 2nd treatment. In the 7 days since my first treatment I had run 30 miles in 5 days. The running was enough for me to really pinpoint where I was having pain. This 2nd treatment focused more on the sciatic nerve than my first visit.

Friday morning I went for an hour run and there were actually moments when I thought "Damn, my leg feels pretty good."

I ended up just biking about 25 miles on Saturday but could tell that my leg felt good. With having to travel, and it being Father's Day, I took Sunday off too, but again, I could tell my leg still felt good.

This morning I went for an 8 mile run - my longest in about a month - and my leg felt really good. There was some slight pain for about the first 12 minutes and then I almost didn't think about my leg the rest of the run. Putting numbers on it, I'd say I was 75% last Thursday and 90% this morning.

I visited the doc again this afternoon and told him the good news. I have one more appointment scheduled for Wednesday and then I think I'll be on my own. He recommended a couple of books - one of which I've picked up so far. It's called Active Isolated Stretching by Wharton and it has some really intestesting concepts. I just started reading it, so I'm sure you'll hear more about it in the very near future.

Quote of the day:
"Damn, my leg feels pretty good." - me

GRANDMA'S WEEKEND

I ended up driving to my parents house of Friday and staying there with my daughter. I woke at 5:30 and drove to Duluth, parked my car and hopped on my bike. Along the way I bumped into Evan who was out for a morning jog, after running the 5k the previous evening. We agreed to hook up later at mile 22 and watch the marathon.

Soon after talking with Evan, the half marathoners came by. I thought conditions were already miserable; 65 degrees at 6:30 in the morning. Not terrible for a half marathon, but with the marathon not starting for another hour, temps were sure to rise. I saw lots of familar faces in the half, including Jim who went on to run 1:28 and win the 60-64 age group by nearly 6 minutes.

I watched for a few more minutes and then bike to about the 13.5 mile mark. I would have liked to been at the half way point, but the way the course is set up, it would have been hard to get to. At this point of the day it was so foggy that I couldn't see 100 meters down the road. What's really weird is that as soon as the leader went by, the fog lifted.

I watched my friends Jason and Jenna (both trying for Oly Trials qualifiers) go by, but had no idea how they were doing. Right behind Jenna was Dave, one of the guys I shared a room with the rest of the weekend. Derek, a friend of Jenna's who I trained with a few times, was not far behind and looking strong. After that Joyce and Scott were about 5 seconds apart and probably on about 3-hour pace at the time.

I jumped on my bike and hauled ass to mile 18 - just in time to see Dave, who said he felt like crap, and Derek who continued to look good. Unfortunately I missed Jenna, but at least that meant she was running well. There was no way to see any one else at that point and still catch Jenna at mile 22, so back on the bike one last time.

I made it to mile 22 about 1 minute before Jenna. Again, I had no real idea how she was running. She looked good and didn't give me any negative body language, but I had no idea what her time was. I had a feeling she was running sub-2:47 pace, but not positive.

I spent the rest of the day at the bottom of Lemon Drop hill watching people struggle as the clouds burned off and things heated up. I gave Jenna a call to find out she ran 2:45:51 (12th woman, 63rd overall), a PR by 1:19 and more importantly an OTQ by 1:09. Derek stayed strong and ran 2:55:27, Dave faded to 3:11:07, Scott and Joyce ran respectable times in those conditions, 3:08:26 and 3:10:24, respectively. I bumped into Jason in the evening and he said he dropped out at 22. He ran 2:23 here last year. His training partner, Michael Reneau, had an awesome race finishing 8th overall (first American) in 2:20:28.

More to come on the race soon.

Quote of the day:
"Yeah, I made it - 2:45:51." - Jenna Boren

REPLY TO COMMENTS

Normally I just respond to comments with another comment. This time I’ll create a new post to answer them and clarify things.

First off, I don’t want to diminish any of those kids performances at the state meet. I hope they’re all proud of their accomplishment. I’m just saying that Sal ran a couple of great races and set huge PRs, is it really going to matter to her whether 3 people are on the podium or 9? At least with the distance races, you still have to finish, roughly, in the top half of the field to make the podium. What about the sprinters? Do you think the guy that finished 8th wants to appear on a podium with 9 places?

And medals to the top-9? WTF? Why stop at 9? What’s the logic behind that? I’m scared that this is a snapshot into future Olympics. There will placing 9-deep. We’ll have to come up with other kinds of medals, like copper, brass, aluminum, lead, etc. How’d you like to be on the committee? “No, I think 8th place should get brass, not copper.”

Yeah Thomas, good points on the marathon and scenery. Plus, I have yet to come across a blog where the person said “I’m doing a marathon and I don’t care about my time.” Even those that just want to finish probably have a time in the back of their head – even if they haven’t shared it with anyone.

Justin, if there’s anything I’ve learned in the last 2 months with this injury, its go see the doctor earlier rather than later. If it’s “nothing” then what are you out? A co-pay. It’s worth it. This whole “feeling better” followed by “flaring up” routine will drive you crazy. Oh yeah, if you're in college, have you thought about going to see an on-campus athletic trainer? Even if you're not part of a team, I'd bet they'd be willing to examine you. It's worth a shot.

Brent, I sent you an email. If you drive up to Duluth the morning of the race you’re probably better off parking west of Superior street and walking to Superior street or the finish area. Don’t bother trying to park near the D.E.C.C. or finishing area.

Richard, I never really describe my ART appointment, did I? Well since I hadn’t run for 2.5 weeks prior to the appointment, I didn’t really have an exact place where the pain was occurring. I described all the different places I’ve had pain (shin, knee, quad, calf, butt, etc.) recently.

When he checked out the different areas, he’d “lock” the muscle in place and then I’d contract those muscles. I know that’s not the best explanation, but it’s the best I have. For the most part it wasn’t painful – except for the rubbing of the skin – but there were a few places in my calf that stood out. He also checked the flexibility (or lack of) in my hamstrings and watched me run a little.

The examination probably lasted 60-75 minutes. In the end, he gave me 3 stretches – two are for the calf (upper and lower) and the other is for the hamstring. Basically you hold the stretch for 2 seconds and release for a moment and then stretch again. Repeat that for 2 sets of 10 reps – twice a day. He also showed me how to foam roll my calves, ITB and Quads. It’s still early, but I’m feeling a little better – I’d estimate that I’m at 75%. I go back tomorrow for a follow-up appointment.

I decided to head back to practice last night and run with the team. Nothing too exciting to report – 58 minutes of easy running. It was kind of tough listening to everyone talk about Grandma’s this weekend. Secretly, (or not so secretly now) I’m hoping for 80 degrees, sunny and a 15-20 mph headwind.

Quote of the day:
"Just remember this: No one ever won the olive wreath with an impressive training diary." - Marty Liquori

IS THIS SAD?

Is it just me or is this sad?










Do we really need a podium with 9 places? Seriously, I believe the meet only scores 8 deep. Why have a podium with 9 places? Hell, there were only 16 people in the race. You might as well have a 16-place podium.

I know, I know. It’s part of our “everyone is a winner” mentality. It’s the same reason states now have 8 different divisions for certain sports, instead of just 2 or 3 – or even 1, like back in the day of Hoosiers.

That mentality ties in with an article I read on Sunday on Grandma’s marathon. These statements jumped out at me;

“…but only a fraction of the 9,758 officially registered runners in this year's 26.2-mile race care much about speed.

More significant to most participants are the picturesque scenery along the North Shore, the supportive citizens who turn out in droves along U.S. 61, London Road and Superior Street and the festive gathering of nonsmoking revelers after the running is finished.”

The thing is; the author is not just some sports writer from the paper. He’s a runner who has a weekly column on running and outdoor recreation. And here he is talking about most runners not caring about speed. WTF? Please tell me it’s not true. If that’s the case, let’s just have 2 waves. The first one will be timed and people can wear watches, while the second wave won’t be timed and all watches must be left at home.

Yesterday I mentioned Elizabeth Yetzer. Last year I wrote about the first time I met her. It’s still one of my favorite stories.

Last year I also wrote about the state track and field meet. Freshman sensation, Rob Finnerty won the boys 1600 and 3200 – even breaking Garry Bjorklund’s Minnesota record for freshmen in the 1600. Well he ended up with a stress fracture and missed the x-c season. I’m not sure if he’s 100% or not, but he was able to run 4:13 and 9:07 – both 2nd place finishes.

It looks like things could be interesting next year as the top 8 finishers in the 1600 were underclassmen. Also, this year was the first time there have been 3 guys under 9:10 in the 3200 meters – and they’re all underclassmen.

I made it out for an easy 6 miles last night. Ever feel like you’re the slowest person on earth in terms of getting in shape, yet the fastest to fall out of shape? That’s exactly how I feel. I’m still able to run close to 8 minute pace for my “easy” days, but they’re just not as easy as they were 2 months ago.

Quote of the day:
“All I want to do is drink beer and train like an animal.” – Rod Dixon

RIDDLE ME THIS

When is it better to be “smart” than “fast?” At the State Meet, of course.



Here’s a photo of my friend Eric’s daughter, 300 meters into the 3200. She’s the one in last. Even with the cold, blustery conditions, Sal stayed within herself and ran her own race. The results: an 8th place finish in 11:12, which is a 12 second PR. The next day she came back with another 12 second PR, this time she finished 6th in the 1600 in 5:05. What a great way to conclude her high school career. Up next: more great things at the University of Minnesota.

One of her teammates will be one of Minnesota’s most-decorated high school runners, Elizabeth Yetzer, who’s broken most if not all of Carrie Tollefson’s records. Yetzer was a double winner – giving her 7 titles for her career - by running 4:46 and 10:26 over the weekend. Neither time beat her previous meet records – due to the blustery conditions.

I’ll have more from the state meet later this week – once I can find results online.

As for me, I’m a runner again. I saw the doctor on Friday and he showed me some stretches and foam roller exercises. Best of all he said “Go run.” Unlike the last doctor who said “Good luck.” Hmm, just a slight difference in those statements.

Friday night I made it 40 minutes and Sunday I made it for nearly an hour. I still have a little pain, but not too bad. I’m a little leery that it’ll flare up as I increase my mileage. At least now, when I go back on Thursday, I’ll be able to pinpoint exactly what’s hurting. To me it seems to be deep in the calf, not something I could just massage out. I’m guessing it’s where the sciatic nerve meets the soleus muscle. Just remember I majored in Economics not Anatomy.

I’m finding it’s a little discouraging to look at race results while I’m injured. My age-group at a popular 8k over the weekend was won in 29:40. The guy was 30th overall. Of the 29 people in front of him, 18 were OLDER. Heck, the first woman in our age group ran 29:45. The same guy won our age group at a recent 15k, finishing 11th overall. 8 of the people in front of him were Masters.

Today’s quote of the day is not really a quote, but a statement – one that would make a great name for a blog. Anyone interested?

“Fortitudine Vincimus (By endurance we conquer).”

HIGHS AND LOWS

Alright, as you’ve all probably guessed by now, I cancelled my orthopedic appointment and set up an ART appointment for tomorrow. I just have a sense that ART is going to be more helpful. If not, I can always reschedule my appointment.

I haven’t really posted an update on my leg (or my training) because there hasn’t been anything to post. Today is my 16th day without any form of exercise. My leg is feeling better, though not 100%. I jogged with the dog for a minute this morning and I could still feel “something” in my calf. It wasn’t painful at all, just “there.” My concern is that it’ll flare up if I start back too soon.

As for the time off, I’m not too concerned. I just read in the latest Triathlete magazine that Cameron Brown takes a month off – every year. And as another local triathlete has mentioned; athletes that don’t take any downtime don’t experience the highs and lows – just plateaus. This is the first time I can remember taking more than a week off in a long time. Hopefully it’ll lead to new highs like these guys suggest.

Just to make it clear, I haven’t been sitting on my ass playing x-box this whole time either. Here’s a before and after picture of the dining room chairs that I’ve been re-finishing. I’m done with 3 and have 3 more to go. I hope to wrap this project up this weekend. Just in time to start training again?



Another thing I’m thinking about doing is putting together a list of things I want to do some day. I don’t want to look back some day and see “just” a bunch of 5k – marathon races. I hope to have some x-c skiing, mountain biking, relays, tris, etc. mixed in. I just heard about this relay and it may have to appear on the list. Anyway, I have some things in my head; I just haven’t put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard - yet.

Today’s quote of the day comes from my friend Scott’s high school coach.

"It's your leg that's hurt. Don't let it hurt your head."

MORE HEROES

One more thing about baseball I forgot to post on Friday. This is a sport where they’re knocking the crap out of a leather sphere with a wooden bat. Do they really need to replace the ball any time it touches the dirt? For example, when a pitch hits the dirt, they’ll exchange the ball. I hope some bat boy just dusts the ball off and puts it back into the rotation.

And here’s another name to add to the list too. It’s a local DJ’s name, so I’m sure it’s made up; Andy Ditter – And he did her.

My list of running heroes the other day was mainly referring to people I admired while I was growing up. I should definitely throw my dad into that mix along with a bunch of runners from my home town. Plus there were fairly local guys that would come to all the races and clean up; Dan Conway, George Welk and Todd Sperling. In college there were guys like Bob Kempainen, Dan Held, Bob Kennedy, Todd Williams, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Carrie Tollefson, etc. Of course, that list continues to grow with each passing day.

Anyone out there know anything about Active Release Therapy (ART)? I went to a 1-hour seminar on Saturday at one of the local running stores. It was really interesting and informative. From what I found on letsrun.com, most people had only positive things to say. I’d love to hear if any bloggers have experience with this.

I have a new favorite movie comedy – Wedding Crashers. I watched it last night and really liked it. I was afraid it’d be corny and over-the-top but it wasn’t. I really liked the interaction between Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.

Finally, the other day I was trying to figure out what would be worse, being in The Wiggles or The Doodlebops. I still haven’t come up with an answer. If you don’t know who these groups are, consider yourself VERY lucky. My new idea for a reality TV show would be similar to American Idol; however the winner would join one of these groups.

Quote of the day:
“Listen to your body. Do not be a blind and deaf tenant.” – Dr. George Sheehan

SPEAKING OF

I just have a bunch of odd and ends to talk about today.

I love sitting back and watching a baseball game. Something about the game is just relaxing. If there’s one thing that bothers me about the sport though, it’s these batters that have to tighten their battling gloves – AFTER EVERY PITCH! Did your gloves really loosen that much in the last 4 seconds? Let me duct tape those to your wrist for you.

And how about Ivan Rodriguez? This guy makes the sign of the cross – BEFORE EVERY PITCH!!! Say he bats 4 times a game and the average pitch count per at bat is 5. That’s 20 crosses per game. Over the course of the season, that’d be over 3,000 crosses. What if I start doing that at work? I think every time I open a new file, answer the phone or send an email, I’ll make the sign of the cross. It’ll be like a little prayer – to ensure that I don’t have any spelling errors in my outgoing email – even better than spell check.

Speaking of email, I’m officially to the point where I don’t send enough letters through snail mail. Anyone else do this...put the return address label where the stamp goes? That's what happened when I was getting a graduation card ready this morning. Of course, it's a colored envelop that ripped when I pulled off the label. Now there’s a huge white spot showing through.

Our company is doing well and expanding. We’re hiring a bunch of new people – mostly recent college grads. I’ve seen a few resumes for the candidates and it’s scary. I’m not sure how some of them will ever get an interview.

Product Process Senior

 In charge of the merchandising and inventory teams.
 Receive, transfer, and move products.
 Got a MVP award as a senior.
 Recently received my fifth yearly review, in which I received a score of 4.6 out of 5.

Inventory
 Receive, transfer, and move products.
 Received multiple MVP awards.

Media
 Set planograms, put out new releases, and also sales.
 Learned a great deal about consumer purchasing habits in music, movies, and software.
 Spent a majority of my tenure in this department.
 Received multiple MVP awards in this department.

Merchandising
 Set planograms, ad sets, work trucks, and do pricing.
 Received multiple MVP awards in merchandising, which are given out every quarter.

Can you say “boring and repetitive”?

Speaking of work, one of the guys here is named Richard Payne. Get it, Dick Pain. Come on people, think a little when you're naming your kids.

Finally, this is a running blog, so I’ll end with a couple of running-related topics. Duncan’s Casey Moutlon interview posed the question “Who are your running heroes, and why?” To which Casey responded, “Bill Rodgers, Dick Beardsley, Derek Clayton, Joan [Samuelson], Jack Foster, Ron Daws, Benji Durden, Bob Hodge, Paula Radcliffe, Weldon Johnson, Brian Sell, Clint Verran, Trent Briney…I could go on forever.” What a great list, and from an 18, er, I mean twenty-something “kid”. That kind of got me thinking about runners I admired while growing up. Obviously there’s Rodgers and Salazar and being so close to Minnesota, there’s Beardsley and Bjorklund. Who are/were your running idols?

Normally I don’t like to post links to articles that are easy to find, but speaking of running heroes, this article on Boulder is a good read. Today’s quote of the day comes from this article;

Quote of the day:
"None of us knew how good we were. None of us knew how bad we were. We just all thought, 'If he can make the Olympic team, so can I."' – Steve Flanagan

HOW COULD I FORGET

Oh yeah, I had an appointment with my family doctor last Friday. He took an x-ray of my leg. Of course, nothing showed up. If something had shown up, I wouldn’t have waited 5 days to post about it. He referred me to an orthopedic clinic. When I called to set up an appointment, I couldn’t get in until June 7th. And although the clinic is right across from my doctor’s office, I can’t meet the doctor there. I have to travel 15 miles out of my way to a hospital. WTF?

In addition, I have a phone book-size list of orthopedic doctors that are “in-network,” yet I get referred to one doctor. Maybe I never go to the doctor because it’s such a hassle – not because I’m stubborn – and I don’t understand this whole process. I called my doctor’s office and they said it all depends on my plan. Some plans require a referral, others don’t. If I need to get in earlier than the 7th I can call my doctor back and talk to him.

Hell, if I don’t run until the 7th, I’ll probably feel fine when my appointment rolls around. Then the visit will go something like this;

Dr.: What’s up?
Me: My leg hurts, er, I mean used to hurt.

Dr.: When did it start?
Me: 7 weeks ago.

Dr.: What were you doing?
Me: Running – lots; including lots of downhills.

Dr.: What are you doing now?
Me: Nothing, really. Well, a little gardening and some wood work. I’m still trying to blog too, but it’s hard. I’m running out of material – fast!

Dr.: Okay, let’s examine you. Does this hurt (as he bends my knee)?
Me: No.

Dr.: Does this hurt (as he flexes my ankle)?
Me: No.

Dr.: Does this hurt (as he applies pressure to my shin)?
Me: No.

Dr.: Well your time off must be helping. Keep it up.
Me: Hmm, okay. Is that it?

Dr.: Almost. That’ll be $500.

Dr.: (on my way out the door) Good luck!

No, I’m not bitter – really. I am trying to figure out the over-under on me actually making it to that June 7th appointment.

Last Friday’s quote of the day was also a link to this Pfitz article. I had not read the entire article until yesterday. I think it’s an interesting article that corresponds with what this blog is about. I didn’t want the link to get lost within the quote, so I’m re-posting the link.

Quote of the day:
“There’s no such thing as a bad carbohydrate.” – Don Kardong

SIMON SAYS...GARDEN

Since Susan ask...here are my gardening photos. Here's a little garden I whipped up over the weekend. Actually it's a conservatory at the Como Zoo.






Here are the Spirea that I hacked the crap out of. Prior to getting my hands on my pruning shears, you couldn't see any rocks.








I also ripped out 3 very small Spirea that weren't getting enough sun and replaced them with 4 Hydrangas.

The A.C. was surrounded by this ugly evergreen on both sides. I ripped one side out and replaced it with 2 Cherry bushes. If I like how they look, I'll probably replace the remaining evergreen with more Cherry bushes.

This 7' x 8' plot was filled with more of the ugly everygreen in the photo above. Actually it was worse because it had more brown mixed in it.

HEAT WAVE

I had a nice 3-day weekend and didn’t even think about running or cross-training. Since it was 97 and 94 degrees (102 heat index) the last two days, I didn’t miss it at all. Unfortunately, the Rochester, MN and Madison, WI marathons were last Sunday. I feel for anyone that signed up for either of those races.

I am happy to report that I was able to pry the x-box controller out of my fingers and actually start working on my list of things to do. I spent most of the weekend honing my gardening/plant identifying skills. I ripped out some EVER green bushes that were no longer green. Go figure. I now have a nice 7’ x 8’ patch of dirt that I have to figure out what to do with.

In addition to my green thumb, I started re-finishing our kitchen chairs. For the last year, our table has been mahogany, while the chairs have remained brown. The thought of removing varnish/stain from 6 chairs – with lots of rungs and tight places – is not appealing, but I can’t put it off any longer.

Since this is a running blog, I’ll share a rule that I came up recently that deals with how long to wait after a race, before doing another hard workout. I’ve heard of the day for every mile in the race, but that seems like over-kill to me. My “rule” is to take the number of kilometers that you raced and divide that in half. Don't do any hard workouts for that length of time; for a marathon 42/2 = 21 days. I think it works for any race distance.

Quote of the day:
“The music is played in smoky bars at 11:30 or midnight. It would be easier if I were into symphonies.” – Bob Kempainen on his liking for postpunk, alternative music

RISKS/REWARDS

Okay. Now what the heck do I blog about?

Is it just me or do others find it disturbing when 35 year old men have a conversation about American Idol? Come on, I’m trying to work here. I don’t need to listen to your conversation about who should make the finals or how such-and-such a song fits so-and-so’s style. I know Minnesota sports suck lately, but can’t you think of something better to discuss?

Speaking of discussions, why do slower runners always feel that they need to preface each conversation with, “I’m not as fast as you guys, but…”? Heck, I’ve probably done it too. But really, it’s about passion, not speed. Are you passionate about running and fitness? If so, then we can send emails until our in-boxes are full – and we start getting those annoying system administrator messages telling us so.

The other day I mentioned that my friend Eric is injured too. He’s been rollerblading and he came up with two top-10 lists that I thought I’d share;

Why skating is better than running:
1) You get to go really fast.
2) You can carry your water without it bouncing around.
3) It doesn't hurt your knees as much.
4) Skates last longer than running shoes.
5) You can do it in blue jeans.
6) You get to see a lot more scenery.
7) Drafting is more effective.
8) You can coast.
9) You can use the bike path without feeling like a criminal.
10) You get to go really fast.

Why running is better than skating:
1) You rarely crash when running.
2) You don't need to wear protective gear to run.
3) You don't need to drive somewhere to run.
4) You never have to say "on your left".
5) Running shoes are more comfortable than skates.
6) Bumpy pavement is just as fast as smooth pavement.
7) Crossing streets is easy.
8) A downhill with a cross street at the bottom does not strike fear into your heart.
9) There are more races to choose from.
10) You get to read Runner's World.

Before running out and buying some rollerblades to see if he’s right, I’m going to borrow some from a co-worker next week. I want to see how that movement affects my leg. Since they say x-c skiing is the best cross-training for runners, rollerblading can’t be far behind.

With all this free time I tried to come up with a list of things I want to do – just don’t mention this list to my wife because she’ll think it means I’m actually going to do all of them;

Re-finish the kitchen chairs
Rip out bushes and plant a flower garden
Cook dinner more often
Learn how to use the programs on our new computer – like burning a CD and making movies
Transfer photos from the old computer to the new computer
Dispose of the old computer
Read all the books I’ve bought – only to stick them on a shelf

I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a start.

Quote of the day:
“I suspect that we have been systematically overemphasizing the risks and underestimating the rewards. I suspect that we run the risk of ingrained mediocrity due to a systemic bias against risk.” – Pete Pfitzinger

SCREW THAT

Last night's run felt terrible – right from the start. We were supposed to do mile repeats at 15-30 seconds per mile faster than MP. My first was in 6:48. It's not terrible, but then I see Joyce – a gal I have be next to all winter long - running a minute faster than that. That’s where I should be. More importantly, I'm just not enjoying it and I'm not comfortable. Every stride is a struggle.

Let’s see, Grandma's would be at least 180 minutes of running at 90 strides a minute. That's over 16 thousand strides - half of which would hurt.

Screw that. I’m pulling the plug. I’ve been battling this leg-thing for 5 weeks and it’s not getting any better. “Hanging on” for another 3 weeks, only to run what would surely be a painful marathon, doesn’t make any sense to me.

After making that decision, here’s the first email I saw this morning;

"I've come to the conclusion that it matters little what the diagnosis is. Whether it's plantar fasciitis, chondromalacia, stress fractures, runner's knee, runner's toe, tendonitis or iliotibal band syndrome, the endless Latin phrases are, effectively, immaterial. But the cure is the same: stop running. A layoff of four to six weeks has remarkable curative powers. Eight weeks off will make you feel like a kid again."

Eric sent that to me from a recent article he read. A few weeks ago he pulled the plug on Grandma’s too, due to sore knees. Later this morning, Jim sent me this quote from the same article;

"Some runners turn to a health care provider the instant they feel that something is not quite right, but they are the exception. Most runners soldier on longer than they should, hoping against all logic that things will get better.

Sooner or later, though, even the most dedicated denier has to admit the truth and head for the dreaded doctor's appointment. We don't fear the needles or the cold, sterile instruments. We fear those fatal words: stop running."

So that’s where I’m at – taking time off without any pre-determined startup date set. Plus I scheduled an appointment with my family doctor for Friday. I’ll see what he has to say and then hopefully I’ll be pointed in the right direction.

Quote of the day:
“Fuck this shit.” – me, last night

"GOOD LUCK"

Hmmm, just looking at my log book and I’ve gotten to the point where I run hard or I don’t run at all. I ran hills last Tuesday, 2-mile repeats Thursday and long on Sunday. That sounds like some program straight out of the latest Runner’s World magazine; “How to PR on just 3 days per week.” I think I’ve subconsciously convinced myself that the painful warm-up period just isn’t worth the effort during an easy recovery day.

Sunday’s long run was interesting. I ran the first hour solo and basically thought about my leg the whole way. Then I ran with Jenna for another 90 minutes. Again, the pace was quicker than my solo effort, so I felt pretty good. It helped having someone to run with, so my only focus wasn’t on my leg. The last 15-20 minutes of this run I was running on fumes and just happy to roll down hill and make it back. Jenna was kind enough to stay with me even though I’m sure we were going much slower than she’s used to. It must be my charming personality that kept her around.

I saw my chiropractor last night and got an adjustment. It's too early to tell if it worked. I was planning on waking up today feeling like a million bucks, but that didn’t happen. This gal is a little "out there" – in a naturalistic sort of way. For example, she told my wife if she would juice with green veggies her rheumatoid arthritis would go away. She apparently thinks VERY highly of the kidneys too. She mentioned that my right kidney was stronger than my left - because my left leg is sore. WTF? She was asking if I was hydrated and told me to drink red and/or blue fruit juices. Anyway, I'll try cutting back on coffee and drinking more cranberry juice. We'll see...

Oh, she also said "good luck" as I was heading out the door. All I could think was, "Luck is not what I need right now."

Right now part of me wants to run Grandma's and then get this thing figured out - even if it means taking 3 months off and missing Chicago. Another part of me would rather watch Grandma's and cheer on people I know and then hopefully be ready to run Chicago. I’m still planning on running a 30k this Saturday. After those results are in, I’m going to have to make up my mind. I'm hoping to at least be able to hold 7:00 pace. Anything slower and I might as well not even run Grandma's.

Quote of the day:
“My definition of a great distance running coach would be this: someone who helps you improve but leaves something “in the bank,” and also instills love of the sport as you move on. Plus, one hopes, someone who teaches you something about life in the process.” - Mark Will-Weber from The Quotable Runner

SMALL VICTORY

The first few minutes of last night’s run were miserable. I came ‘this close’ to turning around and heading home. But I didn’t and my leg did loosen up or go numb – one of the two. I decided to head to the track for a marathon paced workout; 3 x 2 miles with an 800 meter jog in between.

I started off easy, not knowing what to expect. Since I have in my mind that there’s really no point in running Grandma’s unless I can take a crack at sub-3, I started out at 7:00 pace. The pain in my leg actually felt better once I picked up the pace. Maybe that has something to do with being more efficient at a faster pace. There was still a dull ache with each stride, but I found that if I focused on something else, like my breathing, the pain was manageable. As long as I know that I won’t do further damage, I should be able to handle the pain. I ended up running 13:39, 13:44 and 13:42 for the repeats, which is right around 3:00 pace. So that's small victory. Aerobically I felt fine – probably since I should be running about 15-20 seconds faster per mile.

I made an appointment for Monday with the chiropractor who’s been giving me adjustment for the last 6 months. I have a dream that I have a pinched nerve and with an adjustment, everything will be fine; I’ll be back to running “normal” just in time for Grandma’s. I’ll PR by 3 minutes and then look back and laugh at this whole process. I might as well win the lottery too while I’m at it.

I’ll end with another Bob Kennedy quote from the interview I posted yesterday.

Quote of the day:
“Another thing was identifying athletes and groups of athletes better than me and seeking them out as people to train with and learn from. One of the things I learned was levels of intensity. Our minds--we sometimes subconsciously set barriers in our mind about what is hard and what’s not hard, and I found very quickly that what I thought was hard was actually a whole other level than what I was capable of doing. That’s a personal thing, meaning that you have to find your own barriers and your own limitations, and that’s what I think all of this is all about: honestly seeking out what your limitations are.” – Bob Kennedy

IT NEVER ENDS

I took yesterday off, since I was feeling a little beat up from the hills. I still feel stiff in the mornings, but once I loosened up this morning, I felt better. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any pain when I try to run tonight, but hopefully it’ll mean less pain.

Right now I’m planning on running a 30k on May 27th. Being 3 weeks prior to Grandma’s, that “race” will determine whether or not I decide to toe the line on June 17th.

Thanks to “The Bear” for emailing me this great Bob Kennedy interview. He talks about his perfect races, what he did to take it to the "next level," what the U.S. needs to do to be more competitive, etc. It’s a good read. Today’s quote of the day will give you a sneak-peek of the interview.

Under the category of “I’m famous” check out the correction.

That’s it for today. Hopefully the Kennedy interview will give you something to do at work today.

Quote of the day:
“It really is more than a full time job. I’ve described it to people in the past and you know it really is a 24 hour a day job, 7 days a week, 12 months a year. Everything that you do (or don’t do) has some effect, positive or negative, on your training and as a result your competition. It is not just showing up to practice in high school or college or to your training sessions after that and doing the work out and then being done. There’s food; there’s sleep; there’s massage, ice baths; there’s core strength and flexibility. All that, and that’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Saturday, Sunday…it never ends. It is a huge, huge commitment if you are going to train at that highest level.” – Bob Kennedy

SYMPTOMS VS. CAUSE

Last night I figured out how to feel better about my injury. I just need to run with someone who’s in worse shape than me. I met my training group at Macalester College for a session of hill repeats. I held back on my effort and tried to make sure the down hills didn’t pound too much. Two weeks ago I felt good during a hill session then ended up taking the next 6 days off. Hopefully that won’t be the case this time around.

One of the guys in the group has been battling a foot problem. He says he can make it about 40 minutes before the pain arrives. No wonder he looked good early in the workout, but was dragging at the end. I felt so bad for him that I almost forgot about my leg.

After about 25 minutes of hill repeats I headed to the flats by myself and picked up the pace. I felt okay as I only thought about my leg about 90% of the time. I’m still concerned that I’m treating the symptoms and not the cause and that that will lead to me to missing Chicago.

Anyway, I managed 10 miles. It's interesting that that gives me 60 miles over the last 7 days and it feels like I'm not even training. Just a few years ago, I'd have been elated to get in a 60 mile week before a marathon. I guess my expectations have shifted.

Just to wrap up the Dick Beardsley topic, I got an email from his website saying “Thanks. We’re on it.”

Okay, as promised, here’s more from Running with the Buffaloes;

But Goucher is improving, and Wetmore attributes his gains to changes he has made in every aspect of his training. Wetmore told him he was fat, he objected, and then lost the weight. Wetmore told him he had to run 100 a week, he grumbled, and now he is doing it.

If Wetmore has a fault, in Reese’s eyes, it is that he does not encourage them to take a leap of faith in their own ability come Nationals. Wetmore’s faith is based in fact. He just wants his athletes to do what the data tells them they can do.

Wetmore knows the training can get monotonous, so he spices things up by taking his runners to cool places to get in the miles.

“Damn, I felt fucking good. I’ve gone through this a million times in my mind: thinking about this race, what I’m going to do. Turns, tangents, I knew it, perfectly, without even thinking I was doing it.” – Ronald Roybal after improving his performance from last year by over a minute

It is bitterly cold on Mags this morning. The bitterness of the cold is exacerbated by the knowledge that it is a beautiful sunny morning down in Boulder. Wetmore, however, is not about to change their plan to make life more comfortable.

He has the desire not necessarily to win, but to better himself. To be better than he ever has in his last year of competition. – Lear describing senior Jay Johnson who is coming off a disappointing track season.

Quote of the day:
“I like running because it’s a challenge. If you run hard, there’s the pain – and you’ve got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is ‘Don’t overdo it’ and ‘Don’t push yourself.’ Well, I think that’s a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond.” – Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager and NHL Hall of Famer

FROZEN INNARDS

Last night was another hard night to get my body loosened up. Figuring it was just a recovery day, I stopped after 4 miles. Normally, I’d run at least 5 or 6 on a recovery day, but right now things still aren’t “normal.”

As for my trivia, if you haven’t read the comments, they listed Beardsley’s time incorrectly. As Duncan pointed out, it’s even wrong on dickbeardsley.com. I sent an email to his website as well as the publisher and editor of the publication, which went something like this;

I enjoy your publication, but can't let you "get away" with your latest cover of Dick Beardsley. It's a great photo, but you may want to re-check the time you listed as the course record.

Thanks,
Chad

I just got this nice response.

Dear Chad,

Thank you, on both counts -- the compliment and the correction. As you might imagine, your note created some waves around here this morning. Nothing will freeze a person's innards like finding out they've printed something wrong ­­ and done it big, to boot.

I am completely responsible for printing the error. Unfortunately, I relied on Dick Beardsley's website and took it as the consummate source, without cross-checking at Grandma's site. The error on Dick's site is no doubt a typographical error.

This mistake hurts quite a lot, but I am very grateful to you for taking your time to contact us. I haven't yet fully decided how to handle publishing a correction, but will be posting something today on our website, and will consider how to handle it in the next issue. Do I have your permission to publish your name/letter, or would you prefer your correspondence to remain private?

Finally: I've always thought it mildly cheesy when a company sends out samples of its product in response to a complaint -- but all I have to offer you is a complimentary mail subscription. If you'd like that, please send me your mailing address and shirt size.

Sincerely,

Trudy M.
Publisher

This is a complimentary publication that you can pick up at the local running stores, so getting a free subscription is not a huge deal, but it’s a very nice gesture. Frankly, I’m surprised the no one else pointed it out to them.

Okay, I’ve gotten away with writing snippets from Running with the Buffaloes, but I haven’t forgotten. I’ll try to get back on track tomorrow.

Quote of the day:
“My feeling is that any day I am too busy to run is a day that I am too busy.” – John Bryant, deputy editor of the London Times

TRIVIA

I found this regional running publication at one of the most popular local running stores over the weekend. It took me about 2 seconds to spot the error. Can you tell me what's wrong with this photo?

NEW DIAGNOSIS

I’m happy to report that I’m feeling a lot better. My new diagnosis after all this B.S. is that I have some VERY tight muscles – especially quads and calves – that are pulling “things” out of whack and causing knee pain and what I thought were shin splits. I took Evans advice and bought The Stick over the weekend and have been going to town on my legs.

Friday night (before buying the stick) I had a really hard time getting loose. I had to walk and jog before stopping to stretch, before finally walking, jogging and running. I managed a very slow 5 miles. Saturday I had a nice 12 mile run. 10 of those miles were on trails and I only saw 2 people that whole time. With Mother’s Day, I didn’t get my run in during the day. Instead I waited till Survivor was on and I hopped on the treadmill for 14 miles – nearly 2 hours.

Last Tuesday I was sure there was no way I’d be running Grandma’s. Now I know I can cover the distance. I just don’t know how fast. It seems like I missed a ton of training, as my last 4 weeks have been 32-36 miles. However, I did cross train quit a bit, so maybe I’m not in that bad of shape. Part of me wants to run as many miles as possible in the next 4 weeks before taking a week-long taper. With this recent cut in training, I can’t really see taking more than 7-10 days to taper. I haven’t really figured out what kind of speed workouts, if any, to include during the next month. Right now I’m just happy to be running again. I’m trying to get consistent and get into a groove.

My last post mentioned that Jim and Jenna were racing over the weekend. Jim ran 1:28 for his half marathon and was a little disappointed with that performance. Jenna was the 14th woman at the U.S. 25K Championships with a time of 1:34 – that’s 6:04 pace. That’s a very solid performance, but I’m not sure if she’s happy with it or not. A gal she beat by 10 seconds in a 10k two weeks ago, beat her by nearly 3 minutes.

Now that we’re getting into the race season and people are posting reports, I thought I’d (re)post my “stance” on commenting. Yes, I know we all want to get along and be positive and supportive. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just think there’s a better way to do it. When someone just mentions that they didn’t reach their goal, they’re not happy with their performance, etc. it doesn’t seem to make sense to say “great job” in a comment. Heck, someone shouldn’t have to say their disappointed either. If they run a 5k and each mile is 30 seconds slower than the last – they’re probably not happy with their performance.

I’ll use Andrew as an example since he knows how I feel. He was shooting for a sub-3 marathon but ended up running 10 minutes slower than that. If someone misses their half goal by 5 minutes, their 10k goal by 2:30 or their 5k by 1:15, is it still a terrific time? Those are basically the equivalent to missing a marathon by 10 minutes. If I miss a 5k goal by 1:15 it better be due to heat, wind, up hills AND a long course.

I’ve been trying to figure some of these comments out a little bit by applying math. Let’s say the average marathon time is 4:20 or roughly 10:00 pace. Missing a goal by “only” 10 minutes is about 20-25 seconds/mile. So maybe running 10:00 pace instead of 9:35-9:40 pace isn’t that big of a deal because you have more room to work with – meaning you have lots of opportunity to go faster. However, when you’re running low 7:00 miles, shaving those same 20-25 seconds per mile becomes a lot harder. This would be amplified even further for an elite runner finishing in 2:18 instead of 2:08. I doubt that runner would be happy with their outstanding performance.

Quote of the day:
“The ‘talk test’ was the greatest news I’d heard since I found out it was okay to eat pasta: If you’re out of breath, slow down. What a great deal?” – George Wendt, Norm from ‘Cheers’

BEER ME

Well the girls had a sleep-over at Grandma’s last night and my wife stayed at a friends’ house because they’re doing a garage sale together. So I had the entire night to myself last night. First stop on the way home - the liquor store. Woo-hoo!!! I was pleasantly surprised to see that my favorite beer manufacturer has added a new Sunset Wheat beer to their lineup. Yummy!!! Those of you in Minnesota and Wisconsin should be able to find it fairly easily, but I’m not sure about the rest of the country.

Besides drinking beer I was able to read, watch TV, run AND play x-box. What a night!? It was a nice change of pace, but of course I couldn’t handle that every night. I’d miss my family too much. Actually, now that I think about it, it wasn’t really a change of pace; I just got to do a few more things than normal.

My run consisted of 8 miles on the treadmill at 8:30 pace. I felt pretty similar to Wednesday night’s run, but I didn’t need the pre-run massage or walking to get loosened up. And I didn’t need to stop after 15 minutes to stretch. This was a solid 68 minute run – except for the pee breaks due to the beer.

I normally don’t read many of the articles that I get from active.com. However, with my recent injury, I thought this article on inflammation was pretty good. Thanks to Jim for sending that to me.

I just wanted to wish good luck to Jenna this weekend as she’s racing in the U.S. 25K Championships Sunday in Michigan. Good luck to Jim too, who’s running a local half marathon on Saturday. It’s a race I had been planning on running too. Looks like it’ll be about 50 degrees, rainy and windy. Darn, too bad I’m going to miss it.

Quote of the day:
“The difference between a jogger and a runner is an entry blank.” – Dr. George Sheehan

I'M A RUNNER

Well the good news is that I’m able to run. The bad news is that I can’t just roll out of bed and go for a run. Last night’s run required a lot of warming up, stretching and massaging – before, during and after – to make it happen. After taking the dog for a walk I stretched and massaged my legs. Later in the evening I walked at a 3% incline on the treadmill for 10 minutes - gradually picking up the speed. Then I jogged for 15 minutes. My knee either loosened up or just went numb – I’m not sure. My calf was a little tight. So after the 15 minutes I stretched and massaged my quad and calf. Then I jumped back on the treadmill for another 5 miles and felt pretty good. I could have kept going, but thought better of it. Afterwards I stretched and then iced.

I think we can pretty much rule out a stress fracture. I guess I just need to keep treating it aggressively. I need to try and run through it rather than just sitting on my butt and expecting it to go away on its own.

I'll be interested to see how I bounce back tonight. I'm a little sore this morning, but that could be just from stretching and massaging more than I’m used to. Typically I feel better in the evenings than in the mornings. Now if I can just get Grandma’s race director to switch the race to a 5 PM start, I’ll be okay. Seriously, Tuesday I thought there'd be no way I'd run Grandma's. Now I'm thinking it's a possibility. I’d definitely have to adjust my goal. Maybe I could take a crack at sub-3, along with Eric, Jim and Scott. That’d be a nice little group to run with. We’ll see.

Quote of the day:
“Running is the classical road to self-consciousness, self-awareness and self-reliance. Independence is the outstanding characteristic of the runner. He learns the harsh reality of his physical and mental limitations when he runs. He learns that personal commitment, sacrifice and determination are his only means to betterment. Runners only get promoted through self-conquest.” – Noel Carroll

CONFIRMATION

A couple a weeks ago, after biking for 3 hours, I mentioned how great the Twin Cities are, especially for outdoor enthusiast. Last night’s bike re-affirmed this too. While my training group was running hills, I followed the bike trail through Harriet Island and beyond for 8 miles before turning around and heading back. I believe there were 2 stops signs during that 8 mile stretch. It’s hard to beat that. And looking at downtown St. Paul from Harriet Island on a gorgeous night was breathtaking.

With that said, does anyone know why it’s called an Island? Evan? You probably know. Anyway, it looked like a perfect place for a Twins stadium to me, but that will never happen.

Jenna gave me the once over last night and my leg feels better. She seems to think the down hills caused tightness in my quads which is pulling things out of whack - including my knee. Gotta get back to icing, stretching, massaging and taking drugs religiously.

One minute I think there's no way I'll run Grandma's and then the next I think it's possible. Who knows?

I did get my confirmation number in the mail yesterday for the Chicago marathon. It's hard to be too fired up about it - being on the IR and all. But it is a reminder that there are other races out there.

Here’s a story and video of the first sub-4 mile on Wisconsin soil.

Quote of the day:
“Running is real and relatively simple – but it ain’t easy. It’s a challenge. It takes work. It takes commitment. You have to get out of bed, get out the door, down the street. You have to risk getting cold, wet, or too hot. Maybe whack some over-zealous hound on the snout – or “Hot Rod Harry” on the hood – every now and again. And, of course, you have to take your very first run.” – Mark Will-Weber from The Quotable Runner

BIGGEST FEAR

It’s “funny.” Each morning I wake up with ideas of staying in the best shape possible floating in my head. I could bike, swim, lift, really watch what I eat, etc. Heck, I even thought about buying some roller skis and skiing all summer. Then in February I could ski the Birkie, like I always say I’m going to do. However, by the time I get home from work all I want to do is play x-box and drink beer. Luckily (or unluckily) there’s no beer in the house.

My biggest fear is that I’ll be productive with all this free time and actually start to like not running. I’ll wake up one day and my kids will be busy with their activities, so I’ll be carting them all over the place. Besides, there are always projects that never seem to get done because I’m too busy running. Last year I re-finished our dining room table, but I never did the chairs. I suppose I could use my free time on that project.

No x-ray last night, so nothing to report on that front. The pain now seems to be just below my knee. I guess as long as I have running books to quote, my blog will be semi-readable.

More from RWTB:

“Scar’s our number-one man now.” Wetmore to the team after Oscar Ponce ran 25:27 at the CSU invite and was 6th overall and the first CU runner. Two years ago when he entered CU, Wetmore told Ponce, “We have a pack of lions. And every day a different lion roars. If you want to be part of this team, be patient, and work hard. I’m looking for an investment from you. You won’t see changes for two years. You’ll be sore for two years.”

“Don’t get greedy. Bad things happen when you get greedy.” – Wetmore addressing the team before a workout.

Here are a couple of lines from when Wetmore addresses the entire team for the first time during the season;

“Everyone in Boulder wants to be you. The dilettantes, the posers, the dreamers, the schemers; they all want to be you.

The Wally Rutherfords [walk-ons] of this team, you’re the envy of them. Being the real deal is the price of this team.

We’re interested in doing it. We’re here to run races. I run the time trial to scare off people who think this is the camera club. Races are scary. You could vomit.

We’re here to run races. This is leading up to the caveat emptor. Because we’re not the jogging club, I have to pay attention to the first nine athletes first. There are 54 people on this team. I need fourteen. Seven men and seven women go to conference, districts, and Nationals.

If we go four days without talking, understand: our number-one priority is to beat people.

Remember it takes 100 days to impress me. No one day impresses me.

We have a good, good year coming. I don’t like to give a lot of rah-rah talk.

I don’t need to build you up. I don’t want you to leave here smashing your head against the wall. Be businesslike, patient, and methodical. Do a little head smashing every day for one hundred days.

Not just everyone in Boulder wants to be like you. Everyone in this university wants to be like you. You’re the top-ranked team in the school.

We live in a city on a hill. When your alarm goes off and you’re tired, think, they all want to be you. No one knows that Heather or Jen are one minute ahead of last year. No one knows I have six freshmen women who one month from now will be among the top ten freshmen in the country. I like it that way.

Rules. I have only one rule: that you be a young man or young woman of character. You follow that rule, and I’ll take care of the rest.

Quote of the day:
“I was hurting, and once I heard that, I was like, ‘Fuck, I’m a little bitch.’ I didn’t even feel my pain anymore, I was like, ‘Fuck, I’m feeling sorry for him!’” – Oscar Ponce during a 20 mile run after talking with a local Kenyan that is doing 40. He later learned he meant 40K, not 40 miles.

RIDICULE AND SARCASM

Not much new to report. I didn’t do anything on Friday or Saturday – partially because my parents were in town. Sunday I was able to get in a 70-minute mountain bike ride. Some of the best trails in the Twin Cities are about 3 miles from my house. It was a lot of fun, but I’m not sure how much of a workout I got. Most of the trail was single-track with lots of twist and turns and rocks and trees. It wasn’t like I was zipping all over the place. I was just trying to avoid trees and stay upright – which I managed to accomplish.

I’m hoping to get my leg x-rayed tonight. I want to rule out a stress fracture. Even if x-rays aren’t 100% conclusive, I’ll start there. The doctor I saw last year for my foot is also a runner so maybe he’ll have some advice.

You’d think with all the miles I ran over the winter and being on the cusp of the racing season, I’d be really pissed about this injury. However, I’m probably more at peace than I’ve been with other injuries. I think part of the reason is because my last 2 races provided a glimpse of what I’m capable of with my new training program. I know once I get healthy and build back up I’ll run more great times. Sure it’ll be a lot of work, but I know the results will be there. Besides, the people that are important to me wouldn’t care whether I ran 2:05 or 3:05 or 4:05.

Here’s some more stuff from RWTB:

“Yeah, he’s a strange bird, isn’t he? He’s hard to communicate with, but that’s OK, the best ones are.” - Wetmore to Goucher regarding freshman Steve Slattery

Batliner skipped all his classes today to tend to his sore calf, spending the entire day alternately massaging it, icing it, and stretching it. (Hmm, maybe I should try that.)

Hills are the only strength workout that the men are assigned. “The men are doing 85 to 95 miles a week. Trying to do circuits (of weights) would be borrowing Peter to pay Paul. That’d be taking away energy from their running. I leave it up to them if they want to pursue it.” – Wetmore

“Putting in the miles, that’s all it is. That’s Wetmore’s system. Running as many miles as you can for as long as you can. Put in all the miles you can possible handle.” – Berkshire after running 25:50 (1:30 faster than 2 years earlier)

“That guy used to kill me. He used to run laps around me and give me the business for sure. I love that [beating him]. That’s the coolest thing ever.” The interminable hundred-mile weeks now seem worthwhile. – Berkshire, looking at the results of him beating CSU’s Sven Severin

Quote of the day:
“The watch is useless for this workout; there’s no sense in using a watch. I’ll be somewhere on the hill using ridicule and sarcasm.” – Wetmore before a neuromuscular workout.

FREAKING ROLLERCOASTER

Crappy running = crappy blogging – writing and reading. I ended up taking Wednesday off. I talked myself out of running that evening, more because I was lazy than because of my leg. I took the evening off with the condition that I’d get up early today and run before work. As much as I’d like to run afterwards, for the reasons I mentioned the other day, I just can’t get into an evening routine. I’m a morning runner.

I’m happy to report that I did get up early today. I took Bailey for a mile jog and was in pain. After dropping her off I tried to run some more but shut it down after 2 minutes and walked home. No sense slogging along on a bum wheel.

This evening I took a different approach. I warmed up on my bike for 20 minutes and then jumped on the treadmill. Same result: pain. I dusted off a knee strap but it didn’t help at all. Fuck it - back on the bike for another hour.

The nice thing about the bike is that I was able to watch the Twins (lose) and read a book by this author at the same time. You may recognize his last name. Right now I’m reading The Lazarus Vendetta and it’s really good so far. Sure he’s a good writer, but is his marathon PR?

My friend Eric is struggling with a knee injury right now too and he had some good comments lately. “I wouldn't say running is less of a priority for me, just that I need to rest the ol' bod for a while. The required rest is dictated by the fact that running IS a high priority for me.”

Right now I’m struggling with shutting things down which would basically eliminate any chance of racing Grandma’s. I may be able to get healthy enough to complete the marathon, but I definitely wouldn’t be racing. If I do shut things down, I think I’d still have time to recovery and build-up for Chicago.

The problem is that some days I feel okay and am able to run fine, like Sunday’s 20 and Tuesday’s hills. I just don’t want to make the mistake of struggling along and missing both Grandma’s and Chicago – or worse yet, running shitty at both races.

It’s a freaking rollercoaster and it sounds like I’m not alone as Eric writes this; “Although it is pretty pathetic that I'd let a minor detail like this injury have such a major impact on my life. I have good days when I think I can still go sub 3:00, then I have days when I want to pull the plug. The good thing for us is that there's ALWAYS another race, so if we have a less than optimal Grandma's, it isn't the end of the world.”

Quote of the day:
“He forgot all our strategies because he was feeling good. I think he learned a lot from that race. He learned more from that than any race he has ever won. He learned about using your head as much as your body.” - Goucher’s high school coach after he finished a disappointing 15th at Kinney (now Foot Locker) Nationals

NEW ROUTINES

Monday was my first day at our new office. Now I need to work on developing all new routines. And if that includes running from work in the mornings, I need to find all new running routes. I will no longer have access to all my soft, flat trails. This could be especially difficult in the winter when I’ll be running in the pitch black. But I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now I plan on running in the evenings, mainly because 1) that allows me to stay close to home in case my leg acts up, 2) I can cross-train if my leg acts up and 3) I can ice right after running.

Monday I tried something new – icing BEFORE my run. In retrospect, this was a huge mistake. My lower left leg was in pain during the entire 5 mile run. I was on the treadmill and probably should have stopped, but I “had to get my miles in” so I pressed on.

Before joining my training group tonight, I took Bailey for a walk and tested my leg a little. I was surprised by how well I felt, considering last night’s run. Our training group ran 2 x 15 minutes of hills in St. Paul. Aerobically I feel fine, but I do feel as if I’ve lost some strength. Either that or Sunday’s long run left my legs flat. Anyway, I managed 85 minutes of relatively pain free running.

Alright, enough about my boring running. What’s going on with Running with the Buffaloes?

Some of them (underclassmen) are feeling exhausted already, so Wetmore reassures them this is how they should be feeling.

The men have been training together for three weeks. Everything is going smoothly, yet Wetmore is concerned. “There are a lot of neuroses today.” Wetmore also refers to this as “seasonal affective disorder” or “three-week syndrome.” These are terms that describe what happens after the initial feeling-out period is over and the density of the training starts to catch up with the athletes. It occurs to them that all the hard work that has been completed is but a prelude for the more strenuous workouts that have yet to commence. For those that are already overextending themselves, it is a painful realization.

“I’d rather see them go five seconds slower and see ‘em all together, vibing each other.” – Wetmore describing an early season workout

Berkshire runs 90 seconds faster than last year. “Great. Perfect. You can’t underestimate 1000 miles in ten weeks. It’s unfashionable now and it’s not popular, but he said I’m going to risk everything, and he made it.” - Wetmore on Berkshire

Friedberg and Ponce have both run huge PR’s for Mags (CU’s hilly long Sunday run). Friedberg has slashed two minutes off his previous best, while Ponce runs an astonishing ten minutes faster than he ever has. The 100-mile weeks have strengthened him.

Quote of the day:
“There’s only one thing you’re out there to do on Sunday, and that’s to better yourself by running as fast as you can. That’s it. Dude, you don’t wait for anyone.” – Jason Robbie describing the “racing” that takes place during their Sunday runs up Mags

QUICK UPDATE

I have to keep reminding myself how beautiful last weekend was because all it did was rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday I stopped by Jenna’s clinic and got some ultrasound treatment. My leg felt really good after that. I managed 8 miles on the treadmill after that and was even able to drop down to 6:50 pace for the last 1.5 miles.

Saturday I was able to sneak out to watch Minnesota’s largest 10k while my parents played with the girls. I was able to get in 8 miles while watching the race. As I was standing near the 5.5 mile mark, this stud was out for a “jog” with a couple of buddies. I shouted his name and he looked. He didn’t seem to recognize me, so I guess he doesn’t read my blog.

Today I really wanted to get in a long run. I figure it’s time to either train through this leg pain or bag Grandma’s. Despite spending the first 1:40 running in the rain, I was able to make it 2:47, which I called 20 miles. I could basically feel my shin, off-and-on, throughout the whole run. I stayed on either a golf course or dirt trails for the entire run to help minimize the pounding. Other than the slight shin pain, I felt really good the whole way.

Not that it matters, but my last 2 weeks ended up being 32 and 33 miles. I finished April with 251 miles after taking 7 days off, including 6 in-a-row due to my shin.

Quote of the day:
“Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished.” - Jack Lovelock

ALTERNATIVE = MEDIOCRITY

I made it 8 miles today. It was similar to yesterday with my leg warming up after 5 minutes and then feeling fine the rest of the way. When I ran down hill or stepped off of curbs, I didn’t feel any pain, so things are looking better. My right knee was a little sore the last 2 days – probably from doing something dumb like hopping on a bike for 3 hours on Sunday – but it felt better today too.

There was a time a few months ago where this route mapping website was mentioned on nearly every blog around. Eric sent me an email recently with a link to a new and improved version. I found the improvements to be much easier to use – no more double clicking to map your next point. Plus you can search their database of over 20,000 routes.

Back to Running with the Buffaloes. It should be mentioned that Wetmore is a big believer in the Lydiard approach to training.

There is an alternative to the density of training – mediocrity. “Some guys out there, who don’t get it, they think they can be a Division 1 distance runner on 55 miles a week. Sure Goucher can be a Division 1 runner on 55 miles a week. But he’d be running 15:48, not 13:48.” – Wetmore

“I’m just worried we’re being stupid.” Reese had recently returned to running following his surgery and Wetmore questions whether Reese should be doing any workouts yet. But this is Reese’s last collegiate cross country season, and he is adamant about pushing the envelope to give himself a chance to do well at NCAA’s. They are both prepared to live with the consequences. – Wetmore

Chris Valenti leads the chase pack. “Valenti’s looking heroic today,” Wetmore observes. By way of explanation, JD says, “He’s been running 65 to 70 mpw for the last month.” “Oh,” Wetmore replies, “that’s why he looks so fresh out there.”

It is hard to make any judgments about this workout because everyone is coming into it with varying levels of fatigue.

“It’s like St. Crispin’s Day. Everyone here wants to be the real deal. Everyone in this town wants to be you, and everyone who wants to be you is in bed. I’m going to do my run so I can say I fought on St. Crispin’s Day.” - Wetmore

Quote of the day:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile
This day shall gentle his condition.
And gentlemen in England, now abed,
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here;
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

- Henry V, Act IV, Scene iii
by William Shakespeare

DON'T BE DUMB

I was able to swing by practice last night and have Jenna "worked me over." She definitely isolated some areas of pain in the soft tissue of my shin. Now I know where to focus my icing and massage efforts. She also recommended stretching my soleus muscle. This morning I made an appointment at her clinic for Friday to receive someultra-sound treatment too.

I managed 5 miles over lunch today. My injury felt a lot more like a sore muscle today. What took 10-15 minutes to warm-up yesterday only took 5 minutes today. Not surprising, 6 days off has left me well-rested. I averaged 7:50 pace when I thought I was running 8:20 pace.

Like I mentioned the other day, I’ve been re-reading Running with the Buffaloes by Chris Lear. If you’re not familiar with this book, it’s a year (or season) in the life of the Colorado University cross country team. It’s a story of triumph and tragedy that’s really well written with lots of great – as they say in the business world - “take aways.” Rather than go into great details regarding my injury and my limited running, I thought I’d share passages from the book that I really like. Just for clarification, Wetmore refers to head coach Mark Wetmore and Goucher refers to their top runner, Adam Goucher. Other names will most likely refer to other CU runners.

You’ll hear no splits, and you won’t see any mile markers. You’re running by feel. Pay attention to your sensory data. – Wetmore addressing the runners before the NCAA x-c championship meet

“This guy clearly made a jump from being inconsequential to being a dominant force in the conference.” – Scott Anderson (Princeton alum) talking about Brock Tessman

“To see Goucher, the top dog working with me, I know I’m going to run well. There’s no reason not to run well.” – Brock Tessman

“Park of his quirkiness is that he’s known for how he can speak under a crowd, not over one. In a race you’ll hear him say ‘You’re fine,’ in a conversational tone, and you’ll hear that.” – Shawn Found on Wetmore.

He mutters a thought that has most certainly occurred to all the harriers, “Fuck this shit!” and starts to walk. – Steve Slattery during a steady unrelenting ascent where he was dropped by Goucher.

The barometer Wetmore uses to gauge a successful season: did his team run their best at NCAA’s?

He (Wetmore) set about creating “an Edge City of physical wellness, always with a purpose” where he and his athletes would “suffer as much as we can to see how good we can be, safety be damned.”

“When it’s time to work, it’s time to work. They’ll find out on their own.” – Goucher regarding Wetmore and the upper classmen not addressing the freshman regarding their first run up Mags (Sunday’s long UPHILL run – at altitude)

“If someone has a bad day, we all pull together. A lot of people get distressed after one bad day, but we’re there to stabilize each other. We’ll say, ‘Don’t be dumb, you’re fit. There’s no way you can’t be fit.’” – Goucher

“‘The right stuff’ on this level, is some combination of these four qualities: talent, durability, determination, and courage. Not everyone needs to have a monster four, but everyone has to have some combination of the four of these. You need some level of all four, and not having one will kill you. If I came out for my own team, I’d cut me. I have no talent.” But a lack of talent can be made up for by an overabundance of courage. “You’re not gonna die. This isn’t jousting, but some people are just petrified. They can’t do it.” – Wetmore

Quote of the day:
“Batliner’s restraint is admirable. In a sport that demands compulsion, sometimes the hardest task is having the confidence to rest.” - Chris Lear in RWTB

ENJOYING THE JOURNEY

I decided to test my leg out during lunch today. I stayed on the treadmill so I could control the elevation and pace and stop at the first sign of pain. The first 10-15 minutes were a little painful, but I eventually loosened up and felt pretty good. I ended up running 4 miles, during which I dropped the pace from 10:00 to 7:30/mile. We’ll see how my leg responds to that.

Even if it holds up, there’s no way I’m racing a 10k this Saturday. Besides, it turns out my parents will be in town and I need to drop them off at the airport 2 hours after the race starts. Maybe I can talk them into going down for the race, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m hoping to get out of a work meeting a little early tonight so I can swing by practice and have Jenna look at my leg. She just finished chiropractor school and is focusing on soft tissue. Maybe she can help pinpoint the painful area and show me some tricks of the trade.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to post anything from Running with the Buffaloes today. I’ll end with a quote that I found in the book.

Quote of the day:
“If you’re not enjoying the journey, you probably won’t enjoy the destination.” - unknown

BEAUTIFUL DAY

My leg is feeling a lot better, but it’s still not 100%. Now I haven’t decided if it’s shin splints or something in the calf. Whatever it is, I’ve been icing, massaging and stretching the heck out of it and cross training.

Friday night I rode my bike on the trainer for an hour. It was boring as hell, even worse than a 2 hour treadmill run. Saturday I parked near the Mall of America and then road my mountain bike 40 minutes to Hyland Park to watch the Trail Mix 25K, 50K and relay. A couple of my teammates ran the 25K and we also had a relay team. After watching them I rode another 40 minutes back to my car.

The nice thing about training with a bunch of triathletes is that if I need to cross-train, I still have people to exercise with. Yesterday that included a 3 hour bike ride during what the morning-drive DJ called “the most beautiful day in the history of Minnesota.” Seriously, it was probably 50 degrees and sunny when we started at 8 AM. Later in the afternoon it was 70 sunny, calm, no humidity, no bugs, etc. I told my wife if it were like this every April, there’d be a lot more people living in Minnesota. The reality is that it’s not normally like this.

With the weather, it was no surprise that “everyone” was out exercising today. Our ride took us along the Mississippi River Blvd, across the Stone Arch Bridge, along the incredible bike path that is paved all the way from Hiawatha Avenue to Hopkins. This is the same path that I run on some mornings; I just didn’t realize it went all that way. On the way back went around Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet and down the Minnehaha Parkway before finishing along Sheppard Road. It’s a ride like that that makes you realize why the Twin Cities are always ranked near the top of the ‘best places to live’ lists in magazines like Outside, Runner’s World, etc.

Digging up the correct quote from Running with the Buffaloes has led to me re-reading the book. I had nearly forgotten what a great book it is. I think it tells a great story and is really well written. I’m going to talk about it in more detail and include some quotes from it starting tomorrow.

Quote of the day:
“If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don’t spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it.” Priscilla Welch

QUOTE CORRECTION

It turns out I took some liberties with that Wetmore quote. The actual quote should read;

"When you live on Monster Island, someone's breathing fire every day."

I must have combined part of it with "when you play with matches, someone will get burned." I guess it's not a good idea to paraphrase quotes from memory.

ACCEPTANCE

After a day of feeling sorry for myself, I’ve accepted the fact that I’m injured. I tried to go out for an easy run at lunch yesterday, but only made it about a minute. I’m sure I could have struggled along and maybe even loosened my leg up. But why? I don’t want to limp around for the next 9 weeks and hope things are okay on race day.

My unofficial diagnosis is shin splits (or shin split, since it’s only in one leg), probably from a combination of running down hills hard and wearing shoes with too many miles on them. A specific source of pain is very hard to pinpoint. After my attempt to run yesterday I rubbed my leg down and couldn’t find any source. I feel fine walking around on the flats and uphill, but just walking downhill is painful.

The good news is that my company has an elliptical machine that I can use. I managed 40 minutes on it over lunch. The bad news is that we’re moving to a new building in a week and I won’t be able to use it any longer. Hopefully, I won’t need it in a week. I guess I’d better tune up my tri bike too. I knew there was a reason I kept that very expensive piece of seldom used equipment.

I know no one wants to see another runner injured and that “everyone” wants me to get well soon, so I’ll save you the trouble of leaving “get well” comments. I know about new shoes, RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), ibuprofen, staying on soft surfaces, avoiding downhill and cambers, etc. No need to mention any of that stuff either. I’ve got a solid base, I won’t lose it that quickly, I’ll bounce back rapidly, blah, blah, blah.

Like my friend Eric said recently, “Once I accepted that I was injured, the pressure was lifted.” I feel the same way. I’ve known something was “going on down there” for 2 weeks, but it wasn’t enough to make me stop running. Well, now it’s enough. I’ve accepted it and I’m okay with it. I will continue to cross train and stay as fit as possible.

Today’s quote of the day is from memory so it’s probably wrong. It’s from Running with the Buffaloes, where Mark Wetmore is talking about his runners getting injured.

“If you live on Fire Island, someone is going to get burned.” Mark Wetmore

SHOULD PROBABLY KEEP QUIET

Tonight I met my training group on the north side of Lake of the Isles. Since that’s fairly close to work, I decided not to drive all the way home and then back in rush hour. That meant that I got to the lake at 5:30, but we weren’t meeting till 6:30. Hey, I already stayed at work an hour longer than normal; you can’t expect me to stay 2 hours longer.

I figured I’d just get in a long warm-up and run around Isles and Calhoun, before running 75-90 minutes of hills. It turns out that Lake Calhoun is the place to see and be seen as ‘everyone’ was out walking, running, biking or rollerblading.

By the time I got back to our meeting place I had run 55 minutes. I kept the pace easy, so I thought I’d be alright on the hills. Wrong. It turns out that chasing Jenna and Jim on the hills requires a lot of energy. After about 4 hills I was running on fumes. When I looked at my watch I had a total running time of 1:45. That’s exactly when I ran out of steam last Saturday too. I managed another 7 minutes of running tonight and called it 14 miles.

My leg was bothering me during my “warm-up” but felt fine once I picked up the pace. That makes me wonder if it is shin splits, since the pain went away. With a stress fracture the pain would get worse as I continued to run.

I should probably keep quiet – but I won’t. I just wanted to make it clear that I’m not here to make friends. If that happens along the way (and it has) that’s great, but I don’t define my blog by being part of a community and sitting around singing “coumb by ya” (or however it’s spelled). It’s a running web log of my actual training and racing, my training philosophies, what’s going on in the sport and maybe even some family stuff.

Hopefully it is interesting and entertaining. If you feel compelled to keep reading (and even leave a comment), that’s great. If not, that’s fine too. I understand that there are lots of running blogs out there (and that number will probably continue to rise) and that we all have a limited amount of free time. As a result, we all have to pick and chose the blogs we read. For me, it has nothing to do with being an elitist or not liking someone, personally. It’s about finding blogs that meet the criteria you are looking for; informative, entertaining, funny, cool photos, links, surveys, or any hosts of reasons. If I find a blog that meets my criteria, I’ll keep reading and maybe even commenting as long as I continue to like that blog. It doesn’t matter if the person on the other end acknowledges me or not. I won’t stop reading good blogs just because I don’t get some sense of community. And I won’t keep reading boring blogs in order to make “friends.”

Quote of the day:
“If you feel bad at 10 miles, you’re in trouble. If you feel bad at 20 miles, you’re normal. If you don’t feel bad at 26 miles, you’re abnormal.” Rob de Castella

WE'RE BACK

As expected, I didn’t get much done yesterday afternoon. Between tracking runners at Boston and following along with the race on letsrun.com and runnersworld.com, I didn’t have much “free” time.

I did manage to get out and buy some new shoes at lunch. I went with a pair of Asics Landreths (sorry Mike). I’m not sure why I bother buying shoes online (unless the store doesn’t have what I want), since the store usually give me a good deal. These were $72, while they’re $81 to $90 at roadrunnersports.com, depending on your membership.

Congrats to everyone that competed yesterday. I’m looking forward to reading some race reports. Of the 10 people I was tracking, everyone had a positive split of 2, 4, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 14, 30 and 30 minutes. I do like to go through the results and see the first and second half splits for people. I like to look for people that blew up big-time and those that ran negative splits. I found one guy from Minnesota that ran EXACTLY even splits; 1:28:01/1:28:01. Pretty weird.

I didn’t get to see the race on TV. Hopefully my wife was able to tape the re-broadcast, but I haven’t checked the tape yet. Anyone else think it’s weird that runnersworld.com types their webcast right from what they see on TV? Aren’t they one of the leading magazines covering this sport? Don’t they have some reporters tracking the race themselves?

Nice to see 5 Americans in the top-10. Does that mean "we're back" or does it mean Boston isn't that important to foreigners anymore? Hopefully the former.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
What’s with the people that don’t say “hi” in the hallway at work? It’s not like I work for a major corporation; the company I work for has less than 200 employees. From now on if I say “hi” and don’t get a response, I’m crossing you off my “hi” list. Same goes for runners I see on the street.

How about the people that want to talk business every time you pass them in the hallway? Oh I see; it was so important that it required a random meeting in the hallway to be discussed.

How about the guys at the urinal with both hands in their pockets? Now that’s talent. I didn’t realize taking a piss was so relaxing. Can I get you a pillow?

Is every trip to the Post Office miserable? You couldn’t pay me enough to work in one of their windows. Everyone that works there just looks so worn down. I bet you don’t have to worry about them saying “hi” to one another in the hallway or relaxing at the urinal.

Quote of the day:
“Sweat, pain and exhaustion are all temporary. Finishing Boston is forever. Impossible is Nothing.” adidas poster