2 Reminders

I used to love to take my shirt off, in the summer playing baseball or basketball in the yard with friends I was always the first one to remove my shirt. Even in college when far more vanity was involved, I was eager to be on the skins team despite my lack of muscle tone or chest hair. Not quite sure why but I never have liked having a wet shirt. But nowadays I always have to think twice about taking my shirt off, even last week on the tube I had thought that maybe I had better keep my shirt on before finally deciding too remove it. Today I still have the flat stomach I did in college and sadly no muscle tone and only a few scattered hairs on my chest but I am ever conscious of the 2 impulse generators in my chest that are plainly visible. So visible in fact that one looks as if a good vacum might suck it right out of my chest!

I am also fearful of losing my hair since my ugly mop is covering 2 bumps on the top front of my head. 2 more reminders that I am not normal. 2 more reminders of what separates me from 99.9% of the world. 2 more reminders that I am lucky to be alive and living life like I am. Sometimes I think if I had this 30 years before I would be locked away in a home hidden from society. If I had this 3000 years ago would have been pronounced as "possessed by demons" and killed or far worse.

No matter how many reminders I get each day about what I have or what I am I can always walk into my girls' bedroom and get 2 reminders of what beautiful things we all can create.

Quote of the Day: "It is a happy talent to know how to play." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I bought a new car today!

Got a 2009 Chevy Cobalt. It is our first car that begins with a "2." I kind of jumped a bit going from a 1999 Subaru and a 1992 Lexus into the '09 Cobalt. I pick it up on Monday after they put cruise control on it, I drive 30 miles to work each day, all highway, I need cruise! I will post a picture of it when I get it home.

We did a 4 mile tempo run again tonight. In case you don't know what that means basically it is the speed you can run for 2 more miles for, in the case 6 miles. So theoretically you shouldn't be dead tired from tempo runs but close. What inevitably happens, especially when running in groups, is that people end up going all out. That defeats the purpose of the run. The purpose is to for you to learn to run comfortably faster. Tempo runs help you on longer distances so when you are out there doing a marathon you have some idea of what a good pace is for you, and how long you can reasonably hold that pace for. A 4 mile tempo run should be 10-30 seconds per mile faster than a marathon pace.

Quote of the day: "Character consists of what you do on the third or fourth tries." - James Michener

My iPod music

With this very mild weather we are having here in Michigan I ran at noon yesterday and only needed 2 water stops and still finished feeling great! I had thoughts of adding a 3 mile loop for 23 or even doing it twice for the magical 26 but thought better of it. I ran 20 miles with hills on the last 4 miles, finished going down a big hill, that always feels better. Best 20 mile run ever!

It was only about 70 degrees yesterday with low humidity. For mid July you can't ask for any better running weather than that.

Okay, now the embarrassing part - what is on my iPod. I have albums by Beth Orton, Def Leppard, Dido, K's Choice, Little River Band, Neil Young, and Stevie Nicks; and the soundtrack to City of Angels as well as about 20 Christian songs from various artists that my wife bought and I liked so kept on there. All I need are my Eminem, Ozzy Osbourne, and Van Morrison CD's for a complete mix of rock music (starting in 1970).

Quote of the day: "As a nation we are dedicated to keeping fit and parking as close to the stadium as possible." -Joe Moore

Tubing at Cottage

The was part of our family outing to a friend's cottage on Lost Lake halfway between Ludington and the middle of nowhere. The weather could have been better but at least the rain held off and we all had a good time. The temp. was around 60 with the water temp. around 75, so it felt good in the water but when you got out it was frigid, or worse yet, when you got back on the tube and felt the cold air at 30 MPH!

The video is me getting tossed from the tube. I could have stayed on but the crowd wanted to see a spectacular fall!

We won't show this video to the doctors who installed my DBS, they may frown upon such behavior.

I missed my 20 mile group run so I will attempt to make it up today. 20 miles on my own, oh boy! After running the long runs with a group or even a partner running them solo they can seem so much longer. Hopefully my iPod will help some. I hate using them but for solo runs of more than 10 miles the can offer a nice diversion.

Quote of the day: "God will not look you for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars." -Elbert Hubbard.

After this week this photo makes want to cringe. On Tuesday I ran a 2-mile warm then a 4-mile tempo run followed by a 2-mile cooldown. On Thursday we did 800's - 8 of them with a 400 in between and, of course, 2-mile warmup and cool downs.

I am aiming to qualify for the Boston Marathon, in order to do so I need a time of 3:15 or better. Most of my speedwork has been geared towards a 3:01 marathon to give me plenty of room for error, and maybe even a calf cramp. I ran the tempo run in 26:46. I was supposed to run the 800's in 3 minutes each, well I got 4 of them in 3:00 or 2:59 but 2 more at 3:04 and the last 2 in a dreadful 3:06 and 3:09.

This Saturday will be one of the coldest July days ever and weare running the lakeshore with a planned dip in Lake Michigan following the run, great timing, eh?

Quote of the Day: "Hockey is a sport for white men. Basektball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps." Tiger Woods

Photos from Saturday July 10 Hills Hills and More Hills

The were numerous daunting hills and some very scenics views as well, and some old covered bridges.

After these mamoth hill we get to the top only to find it goes higher yet.

This is some of us took a little post race dip or squat. It was a shallow fast moving, and COLD, river.

This is a different set of hills than the previous shot, and most unfortunately they all came after the halfway point.

I was not hit with a $5 fine even though I broke the speed limit - hopefully.

Quote of the day: " Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty." - John Ruskin

Be your own doctor

I didn't exactly ask my doctor if it was a good idea, or even if it was okay, to run a marathon. I brought a running book I was reading at the time (I have learned to always bring a book to the doctor and to the DMV!), he noticed it and commented on it and looked a little perplexed and a littled worried. I simply said, "It's like me running after my little kids, only I keep going, and going, and going." I also commented about how I had asked if I could physical activity before I had it implanted and the only thing I was to avoid were hard blows to the head (When would this ever be a good thing I thought but did keep my mouth shut). It was obvious he had never even given an ounce of thought to some one running a marathon with a DBS. He considered it and said something about the constant jarring with each step. My reply was, "it is the same as walking, only faster." Well, not really but he saw my point, if it was not going to withstand this then what would be the limitations, no jumping?

Ironically, one of my impulse generators (battery pack) did break later that year but 3 weeks after I had completed the marathon! Maybe it couldn't stand the inactivity?

We are just getting into the meat of our training, an 18-mile long run this week and the first 20-miler next week. And the midweek workouts are getting tougher too, yesterday was 8 400 meter runs at a 1:22 pace. This is the first speed workout where I did more repeats over my time than under, and it was still brutal.

Quote of the day: "The unfortunate thing about this world is that food habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones." William Somerset Maugham

Core workouts

It is great running weather here in MI this week, very cool with only scattered sprinkles of rain. I am loving it but not our workouts. On Tuesday we did more of the same hill, but 12 times this week, and today we did 30 minutes of core workout + 12 200's.

The core workout is interesting, I had never done these extensively, and especially as part of a marathon training. I think they are helping a lot but what I really need is calf workouts. That is were I am feeling the pain after 20+ miles and only a few to go, wishing I had never taken up running. I did buy some funny compression socks that I will finally get to try this weekend, as we are running 16 miles Saturday.

Started reading Always Looking Up by Micheal J.Fox, looking forward to it since I loved his first one, Lucky Man. I will let you know how it is, that is if I finish it before the marathon! I am more of a book on CD type of person so I am not sure how I will do with an actual book.

Quote of the day: "Life is short... running makes it seem longer."-Baron Hansen