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Secret Underwater Base

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Allegro (I hate running where there are lots of buildings)

Awesome Sunday... and most of it was spent outside. even better.

Woke up and Chazzy reminded me that it was Earth Day - well, he showed me the Google Doodle, and that reminded me.

I was supposed to do work today, like real work... but when the sun shines, and adventure lies outside the house, if work doesn't get done, maybe thats a good thing. Barely watched any of the NBA playoffs... barely saw any pixels on a computer screen... barely saw the inside of the house. CC always talks about these "away from technology" days, and man, it felt good. Definitely gonna do it more often.

M and I grabed rakes, and ho's (insert Don Imus joke here... ) and went to town on the disaster that is the backyard of the meth lab. Years of being ignored turned it into a briar patch of raspberry vines (thorned tentacles of death if you ask me), dead grass, dead trees and general broken-down things. Put in a solid afternoon of it, and it looks somewhat respectable now. A trip to purchase green, pretty, flowery things will make it look that much better.

Then I washed off most of the mud, cleaned up my raspberry thorn wounds, and took off on a 20 miler. Felt great, used CarbBOom gels instead of Accel, and they were so much more palatable. I'd link to CarbBoom, but its late, and you can google search it instead.

20 miles in 2hrs 44 min. 4-5 miler scheduled for tomorrow at noon... will be good to stretch out tired legs and brighten up my day.

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

I Feel Fine

Wasn't going to post tonight, but tonight is one to remember.

Rained all day today. Rained for 80% of Saturday. Grey skies have become the norm for the last few weeks (literally), and I am stunned when I see the sun - If only for a second.

That Black Lab lyric that came through so clearly on this week's episode of Phedippidations really sums up the state of the union right now: "I can't see the sun anymore, but I don't mind, you're by my side, and I feel fine."

The "I feel Fine" bit is starting to wear a little thin. The forecast is calling for the sun to break through on Friday of this week... and if not, I'm just going to break down and sue. I'm going to sue the weather network. I'm going to sue Al Gore. I'm going to sue Mother Nature... because this ain't right.


Today's rain stimulated a day of couch surfing. Watched two horrible basketball games, and then caught up on some TV shows (Lost and Jericho). Before I knew it, it was 10pm... and as I went to slowly get my running gear together, my iPod battery was flat. Left it to charge, hoping the rain would miraculously let up.

By 11pm, it was charged enough - and I ventured out, for what I had bargained down to a few miles. It was supposed to be 12 miles, but my mind had decided that I had a slight hamstring pull and that my soleus was tight. My throat had made up a dry feeling, bordering on what some might consider to be the early stages of the signs of oncoming illness. My stomach felt too hungry to run 12 miles. And I think my dog had eaten my homework. Excuses ruled the day. And it wasn't raining anymore... it was snowing. It really was.

I started out, and before I knew it, 10 miles were in the books. I pushed on, ice pellets stinging my eyes and face. I was soaked to the core, my hands too cold to move. As my Garmin beeped for the 12th time, I killed all the music. I walked home, staring at the snowflakes in the against a blue black sky.... like frozen fireflies dancing in the rising mist. The streetlights cast an awful glow against the wet asphalt, but its lonely orange colour, was reminiscent of that burning star that has forsaken us for so many weeks.

I still can't see the sun, but I'm alright, and I feel fine.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Slow Down!

Next time I ever start to think that my old shoes are still comfortable - shake me until I come to my senses. The next time I wax philosophic about the worn treads being one with the pavement, the holes in the upper allowing the shoes to breathe like a true organism, or make a witty homophonic comparison of soles and souls (no, the homophone is not some metrosexual version of the iPhone.... look it up).... remind me...

My new shoes have wings. I swear.

5 mile run tonight, and it was a struggle to keep my splits slower than 7:30/mile


I <3 Mizuno Wave Creation 7

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Saturday, April 07, 2007

One week later

What a differnce a week can make. Last week, I was in the midst of the inpenetrable blahs of a recovery week, and this week is cruise control. I shouldn't speak too soon, as most of my mileage is ahead of me, but so far - things are looking up.

5.5 miles on Monday, a 10 miler on Tuesday (6 with flicker), 5 on Wednesday, and an endorphon laced 45 minute tempo on Thursday. The weather has been as bad as was advertised... cold and rainy. The average high for this time of year is 10 C, and we're sitting at a balmy -2 C. Hey Al Gore .... I believe you and everything... but send some of your warming this way.

10 miler on tap tonight, which will take place indoors. New shoes + treadmill feels like running on clouds.

20 miles tomorrow look daunting, but more because of the weather than anything. High of 4C and snow in the forecast ... how motivating.

The meth lab is no longer a meth lab... went on a serious metro binge the last two days... yesterday was cleaning and laundry. Today was spending - dishes, curtains, clothes. Necessary.

The snow accumulating on the roof outside my window makes me feel like watching baseball. Not really. Jays are up early against the D-Rays... If its this cold in Iowa, I hope Shoeless Joe has a warm jacket.

Soundtrack tonight is a heavy dose of Placebo. Started with Black Market Music, and letting it shuffle from there.

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Sunday, April 01, 2007

Mid-program drudgery

Today's run was so blah. Unbelievably blah. So blah that, under any other circumstances, I would be disappointed. But, based on the circumstances, I'll just let it slide.

4°C and rainy, one week after a 30km race, did 800m repeats on Friday... that all adds up to seriously blah conditions. I hammered out an unremarkable 10 miles and came home to recuperate. Opened up iCal and mapped out the weeks to come, all culminating in the day I get revenge on Ottawa... May 27th.

I'm slightly nervous about being overtrained right now. The weather forecast for this week doesnt look overly promising.. cold and rainy straight through.

4 day week at work coming up... gonna take advantage and get some extra sleeeeep. 20 miler next Sunday... sleep is my biggest ally right now.

Also - gonna start breaking in a new pair of Mizuno Creations. Right now they feel like plastic.. but the old ones feel like mush. I should just pay someone to walk around in these things all week. Any takers?

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