Next Stop...East Dakota

So this weekend we are traveling to the western side of Minnesota, a place I fondly refer to as East Dakota. The last time we were back in that direction was Christmas and it looked like this...



driveway



facing south



facing North

I have a 12 mile run scheduled for this weekend in preparation for Grandma's Marathon in June and I'm not looking forward to my running options...north or south. At least if I go south, I'll eventually run into a town, but that's little consolation. If I run north, you could go literally 13 miles before the road even slightly turns.  It's slightly depressing when there is nothing visually to take your mind off the desolate landscape.  I guess I shouldn't complain,  the landscape doesn't really change on the treadmill.

I usually take the treadmill in the back left

One last thing, I remember the last few years during Lent,  McDonald's had these weird/creepy filet o fish commercials, but this year they don't have them. Strangely, I miss them. This guy reminds me of the guy from the "gimp" scene from Pulp Fiction. 

Running Debate—Can You Be Fit and Fat at Runner's World

Running Debate—Can You Be Fit and Fat at Runner's World

So here's an article I found on Runner's World website. Previously I posted some comments I had on a 400 lb man who ran the LA marathon and claimed to be fit. Here's a link to the prior post if you didn't get a chance to read it.

Just some food for thought, but I think the article validates some of my feelings about the 400lb marathoner.

On a training note, I did my weekly long run today; 9 miles in 1:14:01, 8:13min/mile. I wasn't very excited about running today as it was only 18 degree's  outside when I left, but only a slight wind out of the southeast and a warm sun made it bearable.

Happy Running!

Dear Mother Nature...

Thanks for the snow yesterday! Oh, and the rain the day before! Oh, and the high temp of 34 degree's for the weekend forcast. You have 7 days to get out of March like a lamb. And take the snow with you!

Heaviest man to finish a marathon

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Sumo-wrestler-becomes-heaviest-man-to-ever-finis?urn=oly-wp14

A friend of mine emailed the above article to me about a 400lb. guy who ran the LA Marathon. I read it and I didn't know quite what to think initially. But after I digested the article I sent him this response;


That marathon article was interesting, but I’m not sure how people would react to my thoughts on it. Simply put, just because you can cover 26.2 miles, doesn’t mean you should. It doesn’t make you anymore special than anyone else who’s done a marathon and I doubt that there’s a doctor in the world who would describe him as “fit”. The man doubled in size since getting married! Talk about letting yourself go. I would have greater respect for someone who realizes that they need to shed some pounds and lives a healthier lifestyle to do it (and never having ran a mile). Besides, 9 hr 48 min is a walking pace (22:28 min/mile). If his goal was to lose weight while doing this (and swimming the English Channel) I would be more impressed, but I don’t think that’s the case. He’s only showing that you can be fat and walk a long ways. I’m happy for him.

I really hope that people don't look to him as inspiration (unless they aspire to sumo wrestle) as I think he does a huge disservice to people who are overweight and who are truly trying to be "fit".

What the hell...

my wife got to meet Steve in a Speedo! and I didn't. Damn her! While I'm home caring for our children, she's out running, setting PR's, and posing for pics with blogger extraordinaire Steve Stenzel.

"who's this crazy chick that know's me?"

My wife ran the Team Ortho 7K Saturday morning with some friends. She exceeded her own goals and had a good time getting out of the house and getting some "she" time. She was overdue for a good run and her meeting Steve in a Speedo before me was just icing on the cake. Did I mention that I have a man crush and have been cyber-stalking Steve for years?

In baby news, Harper's cast came off last night. Some time in the night her arm slipped right out of her cast. We went back to the hospital and was told the person who put the cast on didn't do it right. I guess that's what they mean by "practicing" medicine.

I got in a 8 mile run today. It felt good and I negative split by 4 seconds. 33:15 out and 33:11 back, 8:18min/mile average.

Here's hoping this week has less drama, but I have a feeling something will come up. It always does.

Oh, and one last thing, I took down some of our outside Christmas lights. Yep, I'm That guy.

What a week...

Since the last post on 3/10 a lot has happened. Some of the normal day to day stuff and some not so normal stuff. Friday we watched the State High School Hockey Tournament semi-finals, on Saturday morning we vacuumed the carpet, dusted all the dusty stuff, swept the kitchen and bathroom, scrubbed the bathtub, and scrubbed the toilet. Saturday afternoon we had lunch at McDonalds (I know, bad parents right, well that's nothing) and that evening we watched the Hockey Tournament Class AA Final (Duluth East vs. Eden Prairie) go to a dramatic 3 OT thriller and the Class A Final (Hermantown vs. St. Thomas Academy) which was played earlier in the day was a great game as well. Now as the day rolled on, our 4 year old who had a "sniffle", went on to have a full blown cold. Her nose was so congested, she couldn't breath through her nose and the pressure was so bad that her eyes were red and watering. If that had been me, I'm sure I would have gladly smashed my face into the closest blunt object in an attempt to relieve the obvious pressure. Instead we tried the shower/steam trick in the bathroom and some cold medication, but neither seemed to do much good. Come Sunday, She wasn't feeling much better so we decided to run to the store to see if we could find some more powerful drugs better medication. It was about nap time so I went alone. I was somewhere between produce and pizza's when I got the text, our 10 1/2 month old fell off the bed. I immediately called home and was told she seemed alright. A few hours later my wife noticed that when she was on her tummy and tried to push herself up, she would cry. At that point my wife decided to take her Urgent Care. She waited for 2 hours just to get in and after the x-rays it was confirmed that she had a fractured wrist. Actually it's called a "green stick" fracture. I googled it and it's basically a fracture in an infant and the term refers to the softness of the bone, like the twig from a live tree, hence "green stick".




Back Off! or I'll give you a forearm shiver!



Check out my busted wing.





















So here's a couple of pics of the wounded child. She has to wear the pink cast for 1 month which I can assure you will be a challenge. Now before you judge our parenting skills, I'm happy to report that we have made it up to Harper by offering her a convertible on her 16th birthday. Also, according to my 4 year old she's "back to normal" as her congestion is gone. So all is good. On a related note, I suspect we won't be getting any requests to babysit anytime soon, so I guess there is a silver lining.

Prior to the "fall", I did get in a 6 mile run and the running the rest of the week went all right. Nothing too exciting. I did get outside a couple times to run as the weather is starting to warm up. In fact, friday morning as I was on my way to drop the kids off at daycare my 4 year old yelled alarmingly "hey daddy! there's some grass!".  A sure sign of spring.

Tuesday morning I locked my keys in my car while dropping off my girls at daycare. Luckily I was able to unlock it with a coat hanger. My days of working auto theft insurance claims came in handy.

Thursday was St. Patrick's Day. So at work that meant...Donuts! What better way to celebrate the patron Saint of Ireland who brought Christianity to Ireland than boxes of flaky pastries. Thanks Pat!


I couldn't bring myself to open one for a peak.




This was left near a box, I assume someone traded up.

 Today my wife is running the Team Ortho Lucky 7K race in Minneapolis. She's been running with me on our lunch hour and building up speed. Good Luck Dear! I know you'll do great!

Wild Family!

We try and make it to one hockey game per year, but with a baby in the hacienda, it didn't look like we would make it this year. But as luck would have, we were given 4 tickets to last Sunday's Wild game. So we packed up the crew and headed to downtown St. Paul. The start time was 5pm, so it worked out good with the kids. My oldest likes the loud horn that blows when the Wild score and the youngest just wanted to eat the program. It was fun and we had a good time eating hot dogs and pizza, even though the Wild lost.

Wild Family

Girls gone wild!

I owe Mother Nature an apology for my last post. I stated that we were going to get a bunch of snow on Tuesday into Wednesday, but it only amounted to about 1 inch of snow.  I bought into the weather terrorists forecast and as a true Minnesotan, I should have known better. I'll blame it on the length of this winter and the lack of my regular snow rake workout.

So Mother Nature, I'm Sorry. But lets be clear, any significant snow fall at this point and I may snap.

The Shining (minus the murderous rage)

Anyone's who's seen the movie and experienced a long winter will know what I'm talking about here. I don't know if it's age (36), having 2 young kids (4 years old and 10months), or just that this winter has been extremely long, but not being able to do outside activities drives me nuts.

Before you get overly concerned, I did get outside for 3 runs this week; Tues 3/1 for 3 miles, Saturday 3/5 for 3.8 miles, and Sunday 3/6 for 6 miles. The overall week went pretty good from a "training" standpoint, but I did manage to miss Wednesday's run as our daycare provider was only available in the afternoon because of a funeral. Weekly recap;

Monday: Upper body weights and core, 40 min.

Tuesday: 3 mile outside run. The first 2 miles I ran with my wife, then I did one more alone. 

Wednesday: off

Thursday: 4x400 meter sprints. about 3.5 miles overall.

Friday:  5 x 90 second hills. about 3.5 miles total. 

Saturday: 3.8 miles. 8:08/ mile average. 

Sunday: 6.05 miles. 8:48/mile average. 

I could get used to running outside, but mother nature has other idea's. She's bringing more snow on Tuesday and into Wednesday. Bitch!!!

The Incredibles!

I've been following 2 blogs for a while. One for almost 2 years and another for only a few months, but the 2 people that write them are both incredible people. However, their incrediblness (I don't think that's a real word, oh well) are for different reasons and both should be noted.

Both of these people have, and still are, facing tremendous obstacles in their life. Those obstacles however are very different. The first person is Judi who lives in Cincinnati, the name of her blog name is Miles and Madness. Former heroin addict turned Ironman.  I started following her blog as she was getting ready for the 2009 Ironman Louisville. Like anyone else, everyday stresses take there toll on a person, but for someone battling addiction, it seems compounded. I'm not going to go into great detail about all the things she's posted over the years, but I will say that anyone who wants a dose of reality from someone who where's her heart on her sleeve to check out her blog.  For the record, I think it takes a special person to write about the highs and lows of their life for the world to read and make no apologies about it. 

The other blog is Chad's Triathlon Blog. Chad has a special place for me personally as he is a father of 2 young children. Chad has leukemia and has had a bone marrow transplant. He's over 100 days post transplant and seems to be doing well. I couldn't imagine the strength (mental and physical) it would take to fight a monster like that and have such a positive attitude. He's inspirational.