G - day minus 151

We are officially in taper week 2010 phase 1. I say phase one because I'm going to do an official taper for at least two more races this year. I'm not so thrilled about it- I really don't know what I'm going to do with my life for a week with minimal running. Read more books I guess, and watch my sorry looking beard grow. I'm going to shave it off after next weekend, but I heard that it made you warmer, so I'll keep it for the half. That and my razor went dull so I had to throw it out and I don't have money for a new one.

Saturday I had to skip my long run which was kind of depressing. I work until noon Saturdays anyways, but yesterday I had to help my Grandparents for the rest of the day, so running didn't work in to my schedule. I went 10 on Sunday, but it wasn't really the same feeling since I don't consider 10 miles a long run. Why didn't I go further? I don't know, I was feeling pretty deadlegs, I hope I'm not overtraining...

Today I went 9 miles pretty easy. I went to the Pioneers and Soldiers cemetery and back on the Midtown Greenway trail. It was pretty nice outside actually, all except for the hill going toward the Lake Street bridge. There was ice on the path or whatever, but it was patchy and rough, the kind of ice that you can't slip on even if you tried. Same on the Midtown Greenway, although there wasn't that much ice or melting ice. I love to run that trail, I don't know if you could call it scenic, but its pretty cool being able to run through the city without getting stuck in traffic.

In other news, I came across a blog called Steve in a Speedo?! Gross! Its written by Steve who is a Triathlete from St. Paul. One thing about runners, and I've noticed this reading a couple back- issued posts, so like every runner, I feel like I know this guy already: I run some of the same races he has, I run most of the same routes. Except of course, he's a lot faster than me. I should probably work on what Philanthropy and brotherhood stuff we should do since I'm the chair of both, but I really want to finish Citizen Soldiers, I'm like 80 pages from the end, and I think I can finish it tonight.

G day minus 155

Get it, its like D- day except G day for Grandma's... super lame I know. So, start the countdown now, because I just registered for the marathon this morning, although I probably shouldn't have because I've got to pay second semester dues for Sigma Chi soon and have no way to afford them, but whatever. I'm so excited for the half marathon in a little over a week, running is coming so easy right now. I may have nothing else going for me, but I'm clicking off the Miles like nobody's business. The only thing is Hockey Day Minnesota is the 23rd as well, so I'll get home from running and lay on the couch and watch hockey all day, it'll pretty much be a dream. Nothing really out of the ordinary to report in my running, except its been really warm, with a windchill above zero every day this week, which bodes well for my running for sure.

Wednesday I did a seven mile tempo run- my first tempo run in forever. I went one mile warm up, then four at around a 7:40 pace, then two cool down miles. It was tough, but I got through it. Really, it was harder going slow than going fast, but I think I looked like a trainwreck going at tempo pace because my form is admittedly terrible. Plus, there was a bunch of melting snow and nastiness on the ground which made it hard to get a footing.

Today might have been one of my best runs ever. I'm serious. It was 11.5 miles or so, my longest midweek run ever. I ran up to the U, down University ave. and then across the Stone Arch Bridge and back. That might be the greatest spot in the world, the Stone Arch Bridge- I love running across it. I can't wait until its nice outside, then it's going to be amazing running it, not to mention pretty romantic I guess when the sun's setting. I may incorporate that into my long run route this weekend, we'll see.

I was going to write a post on the Casey Martin v. PGA supreme court case because we were talking about it in ethics and I want to go into it more in depth, but I don't know if there are enough hours in the day. I have to read some of the Summa Theologae for like the sixth time in the sixth different class (how I haven't memorized that yet, I'll never know,) and make some dinner, so we'll see.

Half the calories, all the what?

I'm sure you've seen the Gatorade commercials for the new low calorie sports drink- oh, I'm sorry, the G commercials. Way to go Gatorade legal department. Anyways, who actually buys that? who are they trying to fool? apparently, a lot of people or else they wouldn't have made it. Riddle me this: If Gatorade is marketed as a sports drink, then it is targeted towards athletes. Athletes who, by the very definition of playing sports, expend hundreds of calories that have to be replaced. Which is precisely why they drink sports drink, correct? to replace calories which are tuned into energy. I don't see what the appeal of G2 is, but I guess there must be a market for it, or else it wouldn't sell. Who that market is is beyond me.

Wait a minute... 8x10%=.1, .1+8=8.8. Whoops.

There's a rule that says never run 10% more mileage than you did the week before or you'll get injured ingeniously called the 10 % rule, which was the calculation I did in the title, but don't blame me if I did the math wrong. Anyways, point is that I went from four miles per week two weeks ago to 8 miles last week, and 51 this week, and I didn't get injured. Honestly, not the greatest idea in the world, but I'm not going to run 9 miles a week three weeks away from my half marathon. It felt good though, hitting high mileage again. The only thing is when I'm not running, I'm eating. Running's an expensive addiction, but I could be addicted to worse things, right?

That's pre on the right, but if you didn't know that you probably shouldn't read my blog anymore. I don't know why I put a picture of him up, probably because he's a baller.

So, my 13 miler, somewhere in there. I called it 13.3 in my log because when I mapped it it came up as 13.5, but when I came back from my run I saw I double counted a little. Doesn't really matter, I'll remap it and see what we figure out. But the run itself went from the east bank of the U of M to the west over the Washington bridge, which has like a covered sidewalk above the road, which was weird, I've never run that before and am not sure I like it- it was like running through a sauna. Other than that, I bonked, hard midway through. I've done that before, and should have seen it coming because I have no energy gels and didn't eat that many calories the night before. I was pretty dehydrated as well, and started seeing stuff all over the place.

Funny story- I was oh, 10 miles in or so, and thought I saw this girl I knew from high school, so I stopped and started to talk to her, I mean I was really 'macking on her, or what I thought was her. This other runner taps me on the shoulder after five minutes or so, asks me if I'm okay, and hands me an electrolyte tablet. I answered that I was, and he's like 'are you sure, because you're having a really dirty conversation with a traffic pylon.' Whoops. I mean I finished the run up okay and in a respectable time, but I definitely could have taken that traffic cone home with me, I think she was really impressed.

Fun weekend, but lame at the same time. Friday night me and my roommate went to Midtown Global Market where we had to help my roommate's friend move a mixer from his house to his restaurant there. Before we did, my roommate's friend, who owns the restaurant hooked us up with some free food. His restaurant is called La Sirena Gorda (that's a link) and its like a seafood place with a Mexican flavor to it. I had the mero asado and the sopa de almejas and the hibiscus ice tea. It was delicious- If you're ever by Lake St. in Saint Paul, definitely pay him a visit. Saturday night I brought a girl down to Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub (also a link) to watch the Wild- Blackhawks game. After sitting through a sobering two periods that saw our boys down 5-1, the place just went crazy in the third. It was like being at the game. No one sat down, the service pretty much stopped for the third, OT, and the shootout because everyone had their eyes glued to the TV. It was so loud you couldn't hear yourself think. After Harding made the save on John Madden, everyone was hugging each other and shouting like crazy. We stayed for a while after the game, but then went home and fell asleep in pretty short order- I was exausted from my run.

I'm counting the miles, and cursing the signs in between

That's what I've been doing over the last couple days, just hammering with all I've got. Three hours of one class, four days a week, plus ten hours of work a week. For most other college kids that would mean 146 hours of getting drunk and arguing over girls. Not this guy. I'll let girls figure themselves out, thank you very much. I just love running this time of year, and I'm going to tell you why: because very few others do it. Like Dick Beardsley pounding his fists into his thighs every night, running through snowdrifts up to my knees probably doesn't do that much more for me, but it makes me feel like I've got an advantage, when that's really not the case. Plus, there's so much more to see during winter runs, and you have to go slow enough that you have a lot of time to look at the scenery.

Monday began my abbreviated half marathon plan with a five miler. I ran down the river road, across ford parkway and then back up Cleveland. Big mistake. The river road was really nice and ice free, however cleveland and even the better part of ford parkway were terrible. It was like an ice rink, but the key was to keep moving. Yes I fell a couple times, but I tried to go fast enough that I couldn't stay on a patch of ice long enough to slip on it. I made the same mistake on Tuesday as well. I tried to add an extra loop to put some extra milage on my Tuesday group run by going up cleveland and looping around St. Kates. Bad news again, although there are no fatalities to report.

After that I kind of figured things out. I did my mid week 10 miler mostly on the river road and university ave, which was really nice. Yesterday I did 8, which quickly turned into 9 and a half. I'll put the route at the bottom of this post, but it was nothing special. It was snowing relatively hard when I went out, and because of that I only saw like four runners out. It was cool though, the sense of community that runners have; I'd high five another runner when I saw him, and run along talking about nothing for a while- people I didn't know. The only dicey part was the Franklin bridge. It was runable, but icy, and the wind coming off the Mississippi was just brutal. The snow had drifted up along the running paths which made it slow going at times- more of a resistance workout than anything- but that's what made it so fun.

So, How do I restart things?

I apologize to all four of you guys who read this for not updating in a while. Its been like three weeks- thats pretty out of hand. I meant to take a break for a week off for finals, but after that I just got lazy. In fact, I only ran twice in two weeks of Christmas Break (I can call it that because I go to a catholic university.) Not such a good idea a month and a bit out from a half marathon, but whatever. So, honestly, what do I say after a three week hiatus? here's a couple things:

My roommate found a futon the day before new years. Who knows how he got it here but it looks super-legit once we rearranged our dorm. So, if you're looking for a good time, stop buy our dorm (but actually don't)

Oh, My race schedule for '10! Without consulting with my parents, or more important, my checkbook, here are the races I've scheduled myself to run:

January 23^rd- Securian Winter Carnival Half Marathon

March 28^th- Human Race 8k

April 24^th- Get in Gear Half Marathon

May 17^th- 10k Race

June 19^th- Grandma’s Marathon

September 20^th- Ft. Snelling 5x 5k relay

September 27^th- Twin Cities Running XClassic 8k

October 18^th- USATF Minnesota Cross Country Challenge 5k

October 24^th- Jack’s Run 5k

October 30^th- Monster Dash Half Marathon

November 14^th- USATF Minnesota XC Championships 10k

So, there you go. I color coded them by priority, so blues are C races, Greens are B races, and Reds are A races. I may upgrade the Monster Dash to an A race, depending on how my training goes, since I know I can rock that course. Its a pretty ambitious schedule, I think, but I'm ready to get serious. This kid that I work with is an ultrarunner and he's only a year older than me. I can not let that happen. Plus this springs from two fifty mile weeks within three weeks that I felt amazing during. Call me crazy.

Marathon training!! yes, you may have noticed I've put Grandma's on my calendar. I'm upgrading myself from baby runner to big boy runner. My buddy's girlfriend, after running the TC10 mi said she wanted to run Grandmas. Well, my buddy was pretty hesitant to do it with her, so we were talking about it over work. To convince him, I told him I'd do it if he did, and he agreed, so February 15th training starts. Now this kid is an off and on runner, and he doesn't even have a pair of running shoes. So immediately I was like, "ohmigoshI'msponsoredbyBrooksIcantotallyhelpyoufindshoesIlovedoingthiskindofstuff"and BAM! next thing I know I hooked him up with a pair of GTS 10's.

So, I've thrown together a month training plan which seems overwhelming, but I've got a lot of time on my hands. So today called for a five miler. Terrible! Never run down Cleveland Avenue in Saint Paul, never, and here's why: they never shovel their sidewalks, so there's footprints in the snow, and then that freezes, so there's a sheet of ice covering the footfalls. They're ankle breakers, I'm telling you man. I fell once, and landed on one of my fingers and now its all messed up. It swelled up pretty bad when it happened, and now it hurts to move, although its getting better, so I'm not too worried about it.

One last thing: My J term reading list. I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands even with running and work and class, so here goes.

Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen E Ambrose

The Jungle by Upton Sinclar

Again To Carthage by John L Parker

I'm already 50 pages into Citizen Soldiers, its definitely a page turner

Setting 'em up and knocking 'em down

That's pretty much what I feel like right now, I'm just doing things for the sake of doing them- school, work, even running- just seem terribly monotonous right now. I really need to re- prioritize, slow down, and refocus. Running has gone well, and I've been doing it a lot lately; I'm trying to get back consistently to 40mpw seeing that I don't have anything to train for until January 23rd. Sigma Chi seems to be in full swing, I'm opting not to go to the Theta Gama initiation at Drake this weekend, but even still I've got the Christmas party this weekend, and next weekend we've got the initiation of another brother from Iota Tau, as well as a retreat, so It'll be busy. I've got a few final papers in addition to the daily boring homework, which just seems to wear me down. I've been going to bed late and running early, which is never a good combo. Plus, I've got to find a date to the Christmas party and have to worry about all this rediculous crap that doesn't matter. I just need to take a deep breath, take a quick 5 miles to clear my head, and make a list.

Note: College is easy, until the last three weeks