Run, Guitar, Gentle Ben, Lame

A run today. 4 miles to the trail and to the park. Ice on the trail. Had to walk some so I wouldn't fall down and slide into the creek, where I would most likely have broken a couple ribs and could have no way of scaling the 6 foot wall of loose dirt so that I could get back on the trail and get help by tying my shirt onto a stick and waving it, like a flag, so that someone would see me.

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Was going to run again, but did not have time. Went to JTV's to play guitar. It was a good time. No drummer, but his effect has a drum machine so we had some background rhythm. He is a wildcat on bass. Hadn't hung out with him since high school.

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So today I was worried and feeling bad that I didn't get a second run in. Well, don't worry about it. That is what I should tell myself. This is my first week back and I am getting some good easy runs in. I don't want to start too fast and get injured again. Besides, I will still be at 30 miles for this week, if I do 5 tomorrow and 7 on Sunday. That will be a good start back into running.

Warm, Stiff, Dog

It was warm today. Warm as in 36 degrees with a wind that seemed hot. A good run. 4 miles.

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Legs felt a little stiff at first. But then, they loosened up. Good stuff.

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There was a dog that I made friends with. It is a huge dog, a mammoth dog, a dog the size of something big. Usually it just ran and barked at me, but today I put my hands out to it and it rubbed against me and I petted it. I pulled off some Cesar Milan stuff, for sure.

Fo sho, foo!

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4 miles
74 miles on shoe

2-a-day, Hooray!

7 miles total

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Got up and ran at 7:00 am. Then ran at 3:15. Went 3.5 miles both times. 7 for the day! Hooray! Hoorary!

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This morning's run was okay...it was strange getting up at 6:15 am. Still felt like I had to rush to get to the park at 7:00. Showed up at 7:01. Patrick was no where to be seen. I sat in the car until 7:05, then decided to head off. Did a small loop of about a half mile or so, then decided that the park was too dark and that it wouldn't be a good idea to run the big park loop because

1) it was really icy in some spots. Like 2 inches of jagged ice. I could have fallen, or I could have slipped and gashed my abdomen open. My intestines would have slid out. (this last part about the ice being jagged is not true. I was lying.)

2) didn't run the big loop because rabid animals probably hide out in the back section where there are trees on both sides of the road. They would jump out at me.

So, I took off towards Jennifer Road, and was just going to do a loop there. Some guy was driving slowly around the John Deere place, making me think he was up to no good and was going to attack me. Who else would be driving around John Deere at 7:13 in morning? (Yes, he could have been an employee, but I would think they would start working at 8:00 at the earliest).

Then I saw this small guy running on Jennifer Road. It turned out to be Patrick. He is probably only 5' 6" or so. He was wearing a nice jacket. Evidently it was actually his cycling jacket, but it works for running too. It's sort of like how you can use something for something else if you want to. You can substitute.

Went about 3.5 total. Was planning on only 3, but the small loop at the beginning bumped it up to 3.5.

Patrick ran sort of fast. Not anything terrible, but faster than I usually run. Either he thought I was someone who runs fast all the time, or he just runs fast all the time. Who knows. Who can even know? It was good for me, though, to run a bit quicker than usual for that last 1.5 miles.

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Took it out for another 3.5 in the afternoon. 37 degrees, windchill 31. A pretty nice day. Felt pretty good. Just took it easy. Walked a bit. Enjoyed the great outdoors. Saw some guys from the telephone company working on the side of the road. They didn't wave. They are mean.

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7 total
70 miles on shoe

Run, Scrap, Facts and Remedies, Whole Wheat, Tomorrow

A run today! 3 miles easy. Just enjoyed being back on the road. Ran in the country. No more jumping over all kinds of crap in town. Don't want to hurt the back again.

Felt out of shape. Felt like I went 12 miles instead of 3. Oh well. Lance came back and won the Tour de France a bunch of times. Set backs really don't have to set you back.

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I'm scrapping ndorfnz. The blog is where it is at. Plus I will keep track of mileage on a piece of paper.

Ben, remember when we were up there in Gumpin' It? Good times. Things like The Windmill Run got us there. I am going to do stuff like that again. I did The River Run in August (27 miles), and have The Aurora-Hampton Loop (16 miles). Other than that, there is nothing fun around here. I could do The Lushton Run (24 miles) too. Lushton is a town of probably 35 people. It would be a depressing place to run to, though.

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Not to get ahead of myself, but I need to have fun places to run. I probably won't go farther than 15 in January, unless I "get serious." Hoo-tcha!

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Depressing Fact: in 2007 I ran 82 miles the first week, with weekend runs of 26 and 18. That was when I first started training for an ultra. The first week of 2009 is looking to be around 27 miles. Oh well.

Remedy to Depressing Fact 1: gradually build up, slowly. I think a 50 in June is not too big of a goal. A big one, but not too big. Like a sandwhich. You don't want some kind of dang sampler appitizer thing, but you don't want that triple deck thing from King Kong either.

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Depressing Fact 2: in April 2006 I ran my first marathon in 2:57. Right now, almost 3 years later, you'd think I'd be in the 2:40s. But no. I probably could go 3:15, if I went balls-to-the-wall and had a pacer and was being chased by a grizzly. Oh well.

Remedy: get back in shape by training for ultra, throw in some tempo runs and get back into running fast-ish long runs. Run a marathon in the fall. 2:53 sounds good for now. FA!

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Made some pizza today. Used a whole wheat crust. Whole wheat flour is so good! The best! It tastes so good! So good!

I might start using only whole wheat. I might make pancakes tomorrow, using whole wheat flour.

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Tomorrow I am going to run with Patrick. Ran with him a couple times when I was about a junior in high school. He is just getting back into running. Good for him! A couple years ago he was pretty hardcore, and completed an Ironman. Since then...pretty much no training.

Yoga, SOP, Good Eating, Crack, Read, Cube

I hadn't done yoga for a while because of the back, but I decided that it was time to do it again, and man, did it feel good! I was a little tight (not having done it for about two weeks now), but I felt great for the rest of the day.

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Spent a large amount of time working on the statement of purpose. At the same time I chatted with Tristan via gmail chat. Then he called me. So I really didn't get all that much done on the SOP. But enough. Enough.

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Ate incredibly healthy today, with no processed foods at all. Nothing that came in a box (except for the pasta). Ate a lot of fruit, some veggies with the pasta, apple juice, yogurt, a lot of tea. Yum yum. I felt light on my feet and ready to get into a fight. Something like that.

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The back cracked a bit!

It was in a good way, not a paralyzing back crack.

I was doing a one-armed pushup to because they asked if I could do one, and the PHYSICS of the pushup must have disbursed the energy throughout my body in such a way that resembled a chiropractic move.

FA! FA! (you know what that means).

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Read some at work. I had not been reading due to Rubik's Cube. But I read tonight. It was good, clean fun.

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Abby, maybe you should buy your son a bigger cube. It is addicting! It is! Check this out:

http://www.v-cubes.com/

Watch some of the videos, too. AMAZING!

Training, Lubricaiton, Birthday

I have been playing with the Rubic's Cube for the past month or so. Since I am not running or doing PT, The Cube is what consumes a lot of my time.

Today I timed how long it took me to do the cube. I wrote down the times at work (work = time to train on Rubic's Cube). Here are my times:


Group 1 - 1:21 average
1:13
1:21
1:27


Group 2 - 1:33 average
1:44
1:22
1:33


Group 3 - 1:21 average
1:16
1:37
1:11


Group 4 - 1:30 average
1:47
1:21
1:23


Group 5 - 1:22 average
1:19
1:22
1:24


Group 6 - 1:39 average
1:33
2:00
1:24


Group 7 - 1:34 average
1:43
1:30
1:30


Group 8 - 1:41 average
1:51
1:30
1:41


Group 9 - 1:36 average
1:50
1:20
1:38

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Remarks:

It is sort of saddening to see how the times got slower towards the end. I had cleaned out and filed the cube on Thursday, but it started to be all creaky and what not again. I might have to clean it out and maybe put some lubrication in there.

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Yes, I am sort of a nerd.

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To make me even more nerdy, I just bought a 4x4 cube and a 5x5 cube. They should be here sometime this week. Hooray!

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It is my mom's birthday right now. January 4. Whoo! Happy Birthday, Mom!

Haven't Run All Year

I haven't run this year at all. What a bum I am.

The back is feeling better.

I almost went for a walk, but didn't. I guess you could say that I am lazy.