Weekly Running Update (10/4-10/10/09)

Weekly running mileage: 10 miles

Sunday: 5 hours spent setting up deer stands up near Two Harbors.

Monday: 5 miles. And no, I didn't watch the Vikings as I ran.

Tuesday: Wild home opener with my dad! No time to run today.

Wednesday: Work meeting after work. Long day.

Thursday: Nope.

Friday: Dinner with a friend after work.

Saturday: Nope.

Weekly Running Update (9/27-10/3/09)

Weekly running mileage: 20 miles

Sunday: 10 miles. Finished in time to tune into the last 5 minutes of the Vikings game.

Monday: Didn't run.

Tuesday: Didn't run.

Wednesday: 5 miles

Thursday: 5 miles

Friday: Packing the camper to leave for the weekend. Meant to run on my afternoon off, but was called in to work.

Saturday: About 4 miles of hiking at Jay Cooke State Park. A little rainy most of the day and evening, but still had a good time. As we were multi-tasking this trip by bringing the camper loaded down with RR and V's deer stands we did not bring our bikes.

I blame my low weekly mileage directly on Ken Burns and his documentary on the National Parks. Or perhaps on PBS, who thought it would be a good idea to run the 6 part mini-series 6 days in a row. I felt tied to my t.v. for 4 days in a row before I finally had to say "enough" and resolve to watch the last 2 parts on DVD. A very good show, but I can't handle 2 hours of it every night all week. And why didn't I just run WHILE watching the show? Because it's "talk-heavy" and it's sometimes too hard to catch all the words while running. And I just didn't feel like it.

Weekly Running Update (9/20-9/26/09)

Weekly running mileage: 38+ miles

Sunday: The world's SLOWEST bike ride with my friend and her 4 and 6 year old children. I got to practice my balancing skills as I tried to not dismount the barely moving bike.

Monday: 5 miles.

Tuesday: 8 miles

Wednesday: Church group and Top Chef. Didn't feel like running while watching Top Chef. Mainly because watching Top Chef involved eating Pizza Hut.

Thursday: 5 miles

Friday: 10 miles

Saturday: 10 miles

I've been watching the Showtime series "The L Word" while running this last week. I borrowed the first 2 seasons from a friend at her recommendation. I'll admit that with her that night I watched the last 20 minutes of the last episode of the last season (season 6), so I know how it ALL ends. It actually hasn't taken away from me watching the early episodes, however. Basically this show is a drama about lesbians, and although I've found the plot lines to be somewhat predictable and contrived, I've actually really enjoyed it thus far. Each episode is approximately 5 miles long, and as I only allow myself to watch while running, it makes it quite easy to pop out 10 mile runs.

Weekly Running Update (9/13-9/19/09)

Wow, these updates are getting shorter and shorter... Last week I didn't do much running at all, mainly because I just had "stuff" going on many of the nights and didn't feel like it.

Weekly running mileage: 7 miles

Sunday: 1 puny mile. Decided I didn't feel like running.

Monday: Not feeling well.

Tuesday: Work continuing ed "webinar" online.

Wednesday: At my parents visit with family.

Thursday: Out with a friend for dinner.

Friday: Nope, nothing.

Saturday: I did do 6 miles, smooshed between finishing up my backyard landscaping and going to church.

Weekly Running Update (9/6-9/12/09)

Running mileage was down this week secondary to the holiday weekend spent at Scenic State Park and a 100 mile bike ride I did yesterday.

Weekly running mileage: 27 miles

Sunday: Scenic State Park. Did some biking and hiking and a small bit of canoeing.

Monday: Scenic State Park. About 3 hours of canoeing. Whew.

Tuesday: 11 miles

Wednesday: 6 miles

Thursday: 10 miles

Friday: Skipped running (planned 6 miles). Again, like last Friday, I don't think I wimped out, but I justified not running since I was doing a 100 mile bike ride the next day. I also planned on doing a long run on Saturday after the bike ride.

Saturday: Did the Jesse James Bike Tour 100 mile bike ride (actual length: 106.5 miles). Finished it in 6h50min, so an average speed of 15.6 miles per hour (including all stops). It was a gorgeous day. A beautiful ride. I got more of a workout than I expected as i couldn't get my bike to shift to the lowest gears for the uphills. Got home and decided not to run (planned 16). I'm not too sore (except my butt from sitting on the bike seat) and probably could have run, but decided not to get too crazy about it.

Weekly Running Update (8/30 - 9/5/09)

Well, I broke the rules again and increased my mileage by more than the recommended no-more-than-10% a week. I went from 15 miles during the first 2 weeks of August, to 22 miles the weekend of Ragnar Relay, to, oh, a 300% increase to 62 miles for last week. Feeling fine, however, especially after taking 2 days off over the holiday weekend. We hauled the camper up to Scenic State Park (north east of Grand Rapids) for an absolutely gorgeous weekend, much better than the complete rain-out we experienced in our tents 3 weeks ago. Did about 3 hours of canoeing on Monday, about 5-6 miles of biking, and a couple miles of hiking.

All this week (M-F) I worked on my landscaping for a few hours after work (in running clothes) before jumping on the treadmill. I found it to be as close to train running on a treadmill as I could come, as by the time I'd start running I'd be covered in dirt.

Sunday: 6 miles and then off to the State Fair.

Monday: 8 miles

Tuesday: 11 miles

Wednesday: 5 miles

Thursday: 10 miles

Friday: Skipped running (planned 6 miles). I don't think I wimped out, but I justified not running since I knew that by the time I finished my landscaping it'd be awfully late and that my Saturday run would be important.

Saturday: Was not sure I'd have enough time to sneak in a quick 15 mile run, but due to the combination of setting my alarm for reasonably early on a Saturday (7:45a) and the fact that we didn't end up even being close to leaving for up north until noon, I had more than enough time to run, shower, and pack. Watched some movie on Labor Day about a couple who helped catch a man selling babies under the guise of adoption.

Ragnar Relay update

So, last weekend I did the Ragnar Relay, the 12 person relay from Winona to Minneapolis. The team was mainly co-workers... 7 of us from my company, my friend Vanessa, a sister of a co-worker, and then 3 other friends. I ended up having a lot of fun. I was not really looking forward to it, although I knew that once I was doing it I'd have a great time. That did turn out to be the case.

As I had not been doing too much running all last winter, spring, and early summer (any running I did was sporadic, nothing consistant), when I had to "declare" my pace for the relay I decided I'd do 10 minute miles. I figured that this would be something I could most likely do without much problem over most terrain (hills, etc; stuff I don't find on the treadmill), and that I could probably still average that pace without training.

I was runner number 5 which overall was the toughest, having all 3 legs be fairly long and hilly.

My first leg was 6.6 miles and started in Alma, WI at about 10:45a on Friday morning. I told my van-mates that I'd stick to 10 minute miles although I could maybe go faster. They advised me that I should go as fast as I felt comfortable going, as we might have other team members go slower than their predicted pace. "Okay," said I. My first leg was not too hilly... very lightly rolling, and I averaged 8.5 minute miles without much problem.

My 2nd leg was 6.8 miles and started at about 11p on Friday night. It started with a LONG hill that I slowly plod-jogged up. The middle section was fairly flat/rolling, and then I got to go down the big hill I'd come up. I FLEW! And this is where trail running comes in handy, because I'm pretty comfortable and keeping up a high speed and watching my feet as I somewhat-recklessly-looking careen down hills. I kid you not that I was averaging down the hill about 6-6.5 minute miles. I passed a few people cautiously braking down the hill. My leg ended with a half mile hill that I had to take a couple walk breaks on, but overall I averaged 9 minute miles.

My 3rd leg started at about 8a on Saturday morning around Afton. The sun was up and it was starting to get hot. This was my longest leg (about 7.5 miles) and was very hilly. This was a little more of a struggle for me with the combination of hills, sun, and fatigue (no real sleep the night before and more miles than I'd run in months and months). But I plugged away and finished it, averaging 9.5 minute miles.

Overall I was happy with my performance and had a great time. It was a renewing experience, because I was able to do this without training and still have some respectable-for-me times over the miles. Makes me feel like I could train and get some speed back again.

So I bought a treadmill Wednesday night. Got a killer deal on it as a Sears closeout. It's a Nordic Track Elite zi. (I got it for $750). I have it set up in my garage/workout area again. Lifetime Fitness, of which I was a member until next month, is only 1/2 mile away from me, but it's so much easier for me to have the treadmill right at my house with my t.v. right there.

Vacation is official!

Well, we got off to a rough start, but we are now officially in relaxation mode!

When we bought the camper it came to us in a mish-mash of tires: 2 were ST175/75R13 and 2 were ST175/75D13. The "R"'s are radial tires and the"D"'s are bias tires. The radials are better for the load we're pulling, but really there was no excuse to have 2 of each.

When the first one blew last summer we assumed it was a fluke... maybe we just drove over something. Then the other night when we got the 1st of this trip we started thinking something was wrong. We made sure leaving Rapid City that we had 4 radial tires on.

Of course the 2nd flat of our trip made us realize that something was screwes up. The salt in the wound of these flats isn't only the painin the butt and the cost of the new tire, but every time we lose a tire it does hundreds of dollars of damage that we are lucky yo have RR to fix for us.

Did some internet research and found that now days all campers of our size (21ft and loaded weight of about 5000lbs if not more) have ST205/75R14.  Found out that the "ST" means it's a trailer tire so it has greater ply but thinner sidewalls. The "14" is the size of the wheel/rim. The "205" is the width of the tire in mm's, and the "75" is size of the sidewall, represented as a % of the width of the tire.

We started blaming the RV people who sold us the camper, thinking they must have thrown on any old tires they had laying around, all which were too small. This was our belief until I found the manufacturer's sticker that said that yes, the ST175/75R13 was what was supposed to be on it.

We thought about just buying the new bigger tires and wheels, but not only would that be expensive ($800), but it didn't look like there would be enough clearance in the wheel well.

We compromised by buying 4 brand new tires that are ST185/75R13, so a little wider, able to withstand heat a little better, and with a higher load rating. Overall we've gained an extra 500lbs of load carrying ability. Hopefully this is enough to precaution to get us home comfortably.

Vacation started officially last night has RR and I carted the mountain bikes 20 miles out of town and then blasted down the mountain highway. V and E clocked us at about 55 mph down some of the steeper hills!

What happened when we got the 2nd flat tire

Well, the title of the post gives it away: 10 miles before arriving in Buffalo we got our 2nd flat tire on the camper (rear passenger's side, for those who made side bets involving which tire would be next to go).  This flat caused so much vibration that it bounced the fridge out of the wall, actually breaking the cheap camper interior wall. Also a casualty were all the drawers on that side of the camper... all the pieces of wood that separate the drawers fell off.

To compound the mess were the 2 dozen bottles of protein drink (boost and EAS) that suffered a 75% casualty rate, being smooshed and oozing all over the camper floor.

Oh, and the container of powdered protein also exploded.  Our camper reeks of protein.

So day 3 of the trip has been spent running around for camper pieces. Luckily RR is completely capable to fix it all... it just sucks that we have to do this on vacation.

Tomorrow I will enlighten everyone with a post on tires... stay tuned!

Wyoming reports

Day 1... got on the road a little later than planned... 4:55pm. 35W detours slowed us down as well as general construction further south of the cities. Even further slowed down when a camper tire blew, right in the middle of the Enforcer and I watching "Point Break." We successfully changed the tire in record time on a deserted South Dakotan road outside Mitchell. Pulled into Al's Oasis Inn at about 1:30a for a good 8hrs of sleep.

Day 2 has been fairly uneventful. Although we were in a tornado watch zone east of Rapid City, we were not picked up and blown to Oz. In fact we were far enough south of the storms to be able to enjoy watching the dark and billowing clouds.

We got a new tire at a RV place in Rapid City and we are now on the road again, blasting west towards the WY border. We'll be parked in Buffalo tonight.

Random thoughts:

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers". I LOVE all his books and highly recommend them.

I bought a 2005 Chevy Tahoe on Monday on my lunchbreak. It has 70K miles on it and is fully loaded with all sorts of upgrades, most of which I will enjoy. I will for sure love the heated leather seats come this winter (and the 4WD). We're planning on taking the Tahoe to Wyoming with us in July to pull the camper to "home base" in Buffalo, and then using the 4WD to get us closer to mountain trailheads. The Tahoe has a DVD player for the 2nd row seating and we've already told the Enforcer he needs to watch "Point Break" at least once on the trip to remember to act like a "dude".

I hiked about 4.5 miles in a 20lb weight vest this evening up at Sherburne Wildlife Refuge. I would say that I enjoyed the sounds of nature--I was the only vehicle at the parking lot--but actually I listened to "This American Life" on my ipod.

My treadmill is still not put together. I could attempt it myself, but from the reviews online I've been warned that it really is a 2 hour project for 2 people and since it may involve schlepping around 100+lb parts, I don't think the math holds out that it would take 1 person (being me) 4 hours.

I think I used the word "schlepping" because the podcast I was listening to had a segment with two Jewish people talking. Or because there's a chapter in "Outliers" talking about Jewish lawyers.

Planning Day

We spent a lot of time today planning our trip to Wyoming, and I think we have it almost figured out.

We also made it out to Greenhaven golf course to do 9 holes. It's only my 2nd time out this year and I golfed a 63. I have 3 years worth of old score cards to pull out to make a comparison, but I didn't take the time. I'd have to say that's about average for me on this course.

We had some jerk tee off almost right into us... we had teed off but then couldn't take an approach shot as the people ahead of us were still on the green. For some reason the guys behind us didn't pay any attention and almost conked us.

Beautiful day, and we finished before the light sprinkles came through.

I bought a new incline treadmill and I'd LOVE to have it set up right now. It's a 2 person project that will probably take a couple hours (or I can have RR do it by himself in 1 hour). I'm debating going out to take a look at it.

This treadmill does not have roots and rocks on the belt, but as it goes up to a 40% incline, I am debating trying to train for a mountainous 100 miler only using the treadmill. Hmmmm...

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, for about the last 3 years we've had big plans to go mountain biking in Chequamegon National Forest. Every year like clockwork we make plans to go for Memorial Day weekend, change our minds a few days before, re-plan the trip for Labor Day, and then decide to put the trip off until the next year. 2009 was no exception.

The Friday of Memorial Day weekend we decided, at about 10pm, that we'd go check out the mountain biking at Camden State Park instead of Chequamegon (and we'd do that trip Labor Day...). We loaded up the truck and hit the road at about 3:30p on Saturday afternoon (nope, no holiday traffic worries for us...). Set up camp at about 8:30p and heard a train coming through. Yes, there are train tracks that run THROUGH the campground, rumbling and blowing their whistles. After hearing the train every hour, we finally decided at about 1am to grab our overnight bags and go find a hotel in Marshall.

Sunday we did about 8 miles of hiking through Camden before packing up and moving on to Blue Mounds State Park.

The Enforcer (my tent-mate, or more accurately, my ex-tent-mate) decided to stay up by the fire until 3:30am. He went wild with the zippers of the tent and completely woke me up, just as the birds were starting to sing and the sky was lighting up. I never did fall back asleep, so I was up at 6:30a doing a 7 mile hike wearing a 20lb weight vest. Wow, did I feel that in my legs even later that night! The group of us did about 7 miles of mountain biking through the park that afternoon, arriving back home about 11pm (again, no holiday traffic).

I brought my new Amazon Kindle (an e-book), which I love. I read "The Daughters of Juarez" which was recommended to me by my realtor about 2 years ago. Also read "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. I highly recommend any of his books. I listened to and loved "Blink" when I listed to it on audiobook last winter.

Very quick running analysis

This is going to be a very short perfunctory analysis of where my running is at this point. I'd go more in depth, but I must start packing the truck to go camping because if I'm not packing the truck, it doesn't get done, or worse, it gets done, poorly and unsuccessfully meaning I must then unpack and repack. I kid you not... I had to do that once in Wyoming last summer when I got all uppity and decided, "why should I have to be the one who packs the trunk all the time." Well, V and E tried but ended up not being able to fit everything in, which obviously wouldn't work as we were leaving a hotel. I unpacked and repacked with extra room to spare.

So...

I used to have at least a little bit of running speed. I qualified for Boston in May 2006 (3h38m) and I could run a 5k in about 21 minutes. Then I started focusing more on ultras and running very slowly for long periods of time. Then over the last year I was so busy with house stuff and other stuff that I hardly ran at all... not fast, not slow, just sporadic distances in little fits and starts.

That leaves me now today with no speed and really no endurance, meaning I pretty much need to start training from scratch. A little disappointing, but such is life. The sun is out and the weather is beautiful. The appraisal of Party Central (my Anoka house) came in well and the Enforcer is buying it, closing next week. I work 5 miles from home, a max of 40h/wk. I'll only own 1 house. All is good.

I'm committed to doing the Ragnar Relay with a pile of co-workers this August. For this run I'll have to run 3 legs of something like 3-7 miles over two days. For training I decided to follow a 10k training plan that has low mileage but I can start building some speed back up. I also plan on increasing the "long run" of 6-9 miles to something more like 6-16 miles.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Tada! Front Exterior Pictures!

I'll post more pictures from my realtor tomorrow, but will quick get these up tonight. I'll probably re-post, as my "after" shot was done without the best lighting.

Oops, I left ya'll hangin'...

I seem to remember posting a cryptic message about some "house stuff" being in the works, but I never did follow up on that.

I'm selling my house in Coon Rapids to the Enforcer (assuming all goes well with the appraisal on Thursday) and I'm moving into my house in Anoka (the one where he was renting from me). The exterior paint and roof project is ALMOST finished; in fact I can probably take the "after" photos tomorrow.

Actually, that last paragraph isn't totally complete, because the master plan is NOT for me to live for long in Anoka. I now plan to try to sell my Anoka house and make a little money on it to buy a different foreclosed house to fix up. In 2 months I could conceivably be without a house at all.

Anyone know anyone looking for a very cute looking house in Anoka, close to freeways, shopping, and downtown Anoka? I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Houses and more houses

Currently on the never-ending house agenda is the new roof and exterior painting at Party Central, a.k.a. my house in Anoka, a.k.a. the Enforcer's house.

Here's a picture of the "Before" exterior:

Okay, the pictures won't post for me tonight and I refuse to fight with blogger about it.

There's been a little bit of upheaval in my housing situation... On the 31st of March I gave one of my renters, the old guy, his 30 day notice to move out. He seems to live in a fantasy world watching old music videos from the 60's and 70's, so I hope he understands that he really does have to move out. So I've been advertising and looking for another renter for the house. Meanwhile my brain has been ticking along looking at other options, some of which are in the works right now... (ooooh... mysterious...)

V is looking to buy a foreclosed house, too. She and RR have been running around town looking at houses. She's made a few offers, but the foreclosed house market is super hot right now and she's been outbid every time. Hopefully something will fall together for her soon.

Meanwhile I'm the Force's financial advisor, helping him get out of debt and stay organized with his finances. He comes over every 2 weeks on pay day and we sit down and make sure all his bills are paid.

And right now I'm working on a friend's taxes, trying to get them done right before the final buzzer. I could have been a good accountant.

Zumbro Recap

So I had just finished my 6 mile treadmill run on Friday morning and was walking my cool down period when I thought, "hey... the 100k doesn't start until midnight tonight, so I could help with the roofing of my house all day, go to church, and STILL go and do the run!"

Of course I wasn't really prepared. I had not really been running as of late; by this I mean my monthly mileage from March to the present was about 25 miles TOTAL. And I had not replaced the miles I was not running with anything else other than television watching and some very casual weight lifting. I was REALLY not prepared.

But I made the drive and gave it a go.

Starting at the finish, I stopped at 27.7 miles, which is approximately 44.7% of the 100k. 27.7 miles is what happens when one does a complete loop, plan on stopping, but then feel like one may as well do the easy first section to not look completely foolish. I think it was about 7:20a when I reached the start/finish aid station and dropped, but quite frankly I wasn't wearing a watch so it might have been 7:40a.

I felt pretty darn good when I stopped. My knees and hips were definitely sore at the time, and I hadn't cut my toenails so my toes were hurting a bit from jamming the front of my shoes.

So why did I stop?

1). I was woefully unprepared and felt that an untrained 27.7 miles from which I would hopefully recover quickly was better than pushing it too much and risking injury or too much extra time off recovering.

2). I knew I could still finish it or at least go quite a bit further just walking/minimal running, but quite honestly, didn't really feel like spending all day to finish.

I'm happy with my decision to go down and do the run and happy with my decision to stop when I did. 2 days later and I have no soreness. I was able to spend all day Saturday after the run and a 45 minute nap roofing the house and did about 5 miles of mountain biking last night.

I enjoyed the course and would definitely consider doing it again. It was a tough one. Anyone ever notice there aren't very many courses out there that DON'T include long tough ups and downs? Why isn't there a nice one with lots of rolling hills?

Zumbro

Last minute decision to drive down to do the 100k tonight. I'll spend the afternoon roofing the house- busted by the bldging inspector, so I'm blogging remotely from the City of Anoka office. Good Friday service and then I'll head down. Gmail me at dcfarmer if anyone down there needs me to pick up anything!

And the answer is...

Wow, good guesses by everyone, and I bet Home Depot noticed an increase in customer traffic this weekend as everyone attempted to find out what the heck the WDGRPR9"RLCG was.

I'm very glad that I did not include the UPC# as part of the clue, as I think that would have made it much easier.

Honestly I thought that I was probably going to have to buy everyone a 9" roller cover, as that answer seemed right on.

Unfortunately we were all close, but all wrong, and remember, "close" only matters in slow dancing and hand grenades.

The answer was: 9 In. 5 Wire Frame Paint Roller Handle.

Thanks everyone for your guesses! That was fun!