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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

"You're Crazy"

I had a 14-mile training run last Saturday, and since it was Thanksgiving weekend, I had to do my run in the foreign lands of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My wife and I were visiting her family down in Iowa, so I had to pack up a separate bag full of running stuff (various outfits so that I could dress for whatever the weather might be).

Because my wife wanted to help cook the Thanksgiving dinner (which we were having at 1 pm on Saturday), that meant I had to be finished with my run fairly early in the day so that I could watch my two lovely children (my 3 year old son and my 18 month old daughter) while she helped with the food. That meant that I had to be up at about 6:30 so that I could finish my run (which I knew would take at least 2 hours and 15 minutes) and be back in time to help out.

I can't even count how many times some member of my wife's family said "You're crazy! You got up at 6:30 to run for 2 hours!" (Her grandmother was the biggest offender, who mentioned it at least a half dozen times).

I guess this is just what we runners go through.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My First Dreadmill Run of the Season

Thanks to the snow over the weekend, I had to suffer through a workout on the treadmill this morning rather than my normal Tuesday track workout. I guess it went better than I could have hoped, and it IS much easier to keep an even pace on the dreadmill. And honestly, I can't really complain since I live in Minnesota and it is November 22... last year my first treadmill workout would have had to have been in early October.

Most of the running paths should have melted off by Thursday, so my Thursday Tempo Run should be able to be outside (unless it is too icy), and Saturday's long run will be down in Iowa, where it won't be snowy (possibly rainey *blech* but no snow)

Friday, November 18, 2011

I'm Back!!!

So I disappeared from this blog for a couple years (and from running for a little while too). But, I want to get back into this.

Here's a quick summary of what I've been up to:
1) I finally got hired on full time at the job I was working at (nice after being laid off during the attorney purge of 2009).
2) I ran the 2009 Monster Dash Half Marathon (2:06:12... not too bad for a first time)
3) I then stopped running (at all) for about 4-5 months (oops)
4) I ran off and on (mostly off) for about a year
5) My wife and I had our second child (a daughter, who is now one and a half and loves chasing after her three-year-old brother)
6) I finally started running again semi-regularly last fall (2010).
7) I transitioned from "normal" cushioned running shoes to minimalist running shoes, and have been running in my Vibram Five Fingers ever since (I hope to write a little more about these later on)
8) I changed jobs to a new patent law firm in Minneapolis (maybe more on that later).
10) I signed up for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon in January 2012, which I will be running with some friends.

I hope to post 2 or 3 times per week. I'm going to quit posting every single workout (which I now realize was a stupid idea), but I may still post a brief weekly summary of my training. My focus will be just on what I'm thinking about running related (plus some random stuff thrown in too). I'll let the blog take shape from there.