Sunday Runday

here is a map of my run today. big THANK YOU to T for allowing me to get out for an hour or so to kick some asphalt.
when i went out the door, i was immediately aware that i had misjudged the temperature, so i went back inside to add another layer to my top. this must have been when i dropped my left glove, but i didn't know it was missing until i got out of the truck to start the run. good thing that the back seat is so cluttered; i was able to find an extra work glove that i wore on my left hand. let's just say that the fingers are mostly worn through and therefore it didn't offer very much protection from the cold. better than nothing, though.
as i headed north along rt. 5, the wind was coming right at me. brrrr.....and that part of the route is a long (almost a mile) uphill that doesn't seem too bad until you get about half way through it. left turn, out of the wind, but then up, up, up....i considered walking a bit, but that only lasted about 10 steps. i went into slow jog mode, and decided not to walk at all this time around. i did drop to the 10 minute pace two or three times, but tried not to stay there for too long.
when i got back to rte 5, i hadn't covered nearly as much ground as i thought i would have, so i had to get creative with the route to make the distance.

was thinking about bloggyland friends running down in Miami this weekend, and training out on the west coast. plan for tonight is to snuggle in and read my new Runner's World, drink some tea, and try really hard to stick with my new 'rule' of not eating anything after 7pm. so far, so good. T is snuggled in with B, Z is watching the NFL All Star game, and M is about to get on the gazelle for an hour or so.
Hope you all had a great weekend!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

my Internet Buddy over at NCRunnerDude often has contests. I have entered about 5 of them so far, but had never won anything.
UNTIL TODAY!!!
"Congratulations to Gene Soboleski, the winner of RunnerDudes's AudioFuel/London Marathon Song Nomination Drawing!"
All i really did was submit a song that i thought should be part of the London Marathon Sound Track, and my name was pulled out of a hat. I get 20 pounds worth of goods from the sponsoring web site, over there in the U.K.! Their site is here. I plan to go there tonight and get my goods. After I have had the chance to listen, I will review the product here. I must say, though, that I enjoy running with music, so i am particularly PSYCHED to be getting this prize.
In other news, my cousin and his wife down in Sarasota, FL, welcomed the newest member of our family, Syndney, to the world today.Congrats from Vermont!
I am posting from work, and it has the feel that something 'interesting' is about to happen. Keep in mind that I work in an ICU, and that 'interesting' means different things to different people.......
peace, YO!

Relatively speaking...

****danger, danger****
this post probably won't contain much, if anything, about running. feel free to click the 'back' button now.....
why can't i relate? to what? to much, actually.
football season is rearing it's ugly, much over-hyped head, and this means that the talk around town often turns to 'who do you think will win the game?'.
more often than not, my inner reply is, "what? there's a game today? oh, right, it is the weekend again, and that means that we all should give to sh!t$ about whatever big game is being played. like i care."
my outer reply, though, is more like, "i am not sure. i usually just root for the offense when i watch." which, as you might expect, earns me some blank stares. As I intend, though, it usually stops the conversation right there. dead in its tracks. perfect. moving along now.
i cannot relate to football. i know the rules. i understand the game play. i don't understand the hows and why's of each position, and can only be counted on to identify the following positions with relative accuracy: QB, kicker, punter, center, and wide receiver.  i know the difference between off sides and encroachment, but cannot tell you what 'illegal man downfield' means. when i was younger, my friends and i would talk about football players. sure we would. those were the days of Roger Staubach, Fran Tarkenton, Lynn Swan, and that QB turned announcer from the Steelers....oh yea! Terry Bradshaw. Coaches like Tom Landry were the norm, and yelling, screaming coaches hadn't (de)evolved yet.
At home, we wouldn't gather around the snowy tele and watch the game, yelling and screaming at the magic box. we might catch the tail end of a game while waiting for 60 Minutes to come on, but we'd generally find something ELSE to do. My highschool didn't have a football team. Neither did any other schools for about 50 miles. Maybe more. We played soccer (which, incidently, is known as 'football' by every country in the world except for America). Do i watch it now, like other by-gone football players watch football now? No, i don't. I can say that i have more respect for the FIFA World Cup than i do for the Baseball World Series. Why? Let's examine.....one word sticks out in my mind. "WORLD". that's right. the soccer version actually has OTHER COUNTRIES involved. Teams from around the PLANET are able to compete. not in baseball. just the US. (oh, and one or two miscellaneous Canadian teams. Sorry, eh.) But I digress. A lot.
The silver cloud surrounding football comes at the end of the season. No, not THE end of the season (that's the pot of GOLD). The lining is that the playoffs and championship games are ONE AND DONE, not a dragged out, painful best of 10,000 series. You lose, you get to play golf the next day. Or beat someone up, or bet on dog fights, or whatever they do. Maybe some of them should give the University of Phoenix a call. Whatever.
So this will be my last rant about football. Next up, the Final Four. Remember when colleges were about actually EDUCATING people?

Ice, Ice, Baby!

Spent the better part of today as a chaperon for Z's field trip to the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT. The event was well organized, and it looked like all of the kids, teachers, and other chaperons had a great time. The morning was broken into two time blocks, and then another one after lunch. Kids were able to choose from a variety of activities, including snow golf, ice skating, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, snow soccer, snow football, sledding, and some indoor games.
Z first played golf, and I took off across the lake with a bunch of kids and a few adults to find animal tracks. Surprisingly, we found a few sets of fox tracks. It was fun to listen to the teacher explain how to determine the type of animal based on the clues that were left behind.
In several spots, the snow disguised 4-6 inches of slush. I must say that it is a BIT unnerving to be waking through slush that is on top of ice (one HOPES) that is in the middle of a lake. Today was a big step in me getting more comfy on the ice. I don't like it. Not at all, not one bit. Can't say as I do.
In other news, Z had a good time playing football. It was pretty much all he talked about after he got home.
I wore my garmin (p.b.t.n.) while I was snowshoeing around, and managed to eek out 3 miles for the day. Hey, it all counts toward the 1000 miles for the year. I am still WAY behind schedule, but am determined to get there!
Sorry so short tonight, and not that interesting, but we are sharing the laptop, and my time is up.
Peace, YO!

from our friends in South Africa

i have been loosely following a blog from called "The Science of Sport". the authors are PhD's in, well, go to the page and read their resume. it is listed on the right side. at any rate, they have had some wonderfully insightful things to say about the recent Worlds in Berlin, Pistorius, new swim suits,  marathon analyses, and on and on.
they are in the middle of posting a three part series (ok. FINE. they are 2/3rds of the way through) on weight loss and exercise. to sum it all up, i have been right all along, and i am very happy with myself.
there. i wrote it. not the articles, but that i am happy with myself for forming the same theory that these 2 PhD's came up with. weight control is a simple formula of calories IN and calories OUT. want to gain? tip the scale toward the IN. want to lose? duh, yes, to the OUT.
simple.
micro managing it will not work, as part 2 explains. carbs versus protien don't matter, unless you are a performing athlete. just try to keep an eye on what you eat and what you DO.
looking for articles on controversial topics? looking for arguments that go against the main stream media and bleeding hearts? check out their blog. web page. whatever. just go there. or not.
the colts versus ravens game is on in the living room. Z is giving us (T and I) a play by play analysis. i think he must spend too much time watching ESPN (it would only have to be 30 seconds to be considered too much time), and he talks constantly, and offers stats, data, and insider information as if it was something that we actually give two sh!t$s about.
this is when a dreadmill at home would be a great idea. did i just say that? i must be delirious.
i
hate
football.

Venturing out into the cold.

Or so I thought. Before I went to bed Wednesday night, I got cold weather clothes ready and put them in the bathroom. I made a deal with myself that if it was 20 degrees or warmer, I would run before work. There is a hilly 4 mile (out and back 2 each) route that I thought would give me a good pick me up before work. I set my alarm for 4am, and eventually fell asleep.
At 4am, the temp was 18.9 degrees. Yep. 1.1 degrees COLDER than the 'deal' temp. So what did I do? You guessed it. I went back to bed. Tossed and turned with my decision for about half an hour, then drifted back to sleep for 45 minutes before my real alarm woke me. Of course, I was grumpy because I wussed out. For more than one reason, I need to get outside and run. At least once a week would be nice. I quickly decided that I would try to run AFTER work, getting in as much as I could before it got dark.
I got out a little late (20 minutes), but rushed to get changed and dashed out to Elsie (i named the truck L.C., after Lewis and Clark, since it is a ford Explorer..get it? i know. my clever-ness is aMAZing).
I wasn't sure where i was going to run, but I wanted to be in neighborhoods (not that they have sidewalks here or anything) since I was hoping for less traffic. I decided to park at the bowling alley and go from there. Once there, I could see a road that went out back toward a storage facility. Thinking that the out and back would be a quick warm up and test to see if i had on enough clothes, i went. and then found another road that ended up looping back to the main road (whew). Down the hill into the back side of White River Junction. Ran through town, then up the hill behind the Catholic church. Up the hill behind THAT hill, and finally on to flat again (this IS Vermont). Through the neighborhood and back to the main drag. Reversed the loop by the storage place, and back to the truck. Walked back to the storage place, and thought that the coupla hundred yards would be a fun sprint. so i did it. it was WONDERFUL to be flying down the road!!!!!! twas getting dark, though, so i headed home.
BUT..........since it was still early, i went to Watson Park, right near the house. In the summer, kids and adults use the field for ultimate frisbee, field hockey, soccer, and kite flying. in the winter......nada. i thought that running a few back and forth sprints would feel good. to my wonderful surprise, there is a well worn path around the field. just over a quarter mile loop per Garmin (p.b.t.n.). i managed to do 4 laps.

NEGATIVE SPLITS:
1st lap (exploratory lap) 2:26
2nd lap 2:14
3rd lap (not neg) 2:15
4th lap 2:06

oh, happy night. I think that I was easier to 'deal with' at home, too. You ever have days like that???? ahhh..
Running: it is cheaper than therapy.

ok, a little update

more later. not using Facebook for a while, and i have turned off the automatic updates for when i post here. if you want to be a follower, go ahead and follow me (see link below, on the right). or add me to your reader RSS feed. more on that later, too.
my FB conversations were thrown in my face yesterday, and i am not happy about it. true to my usual MO, i am shrinking back into my shell.

Re-view Mirror

isn't that what yer cousin Bubba has in his truck?
sorry.go ahead,  hate me. i don't mind. the back button still works, right? :)

this year, like all years, i received some WONderful gifts. here is a breakdown of the ones that i have been able to use ALREADY (i am so psyched!)

le stick. ok, it isn't really French. but it looks like this: ummm...it looks like               <-----THAT. almost like some sort of torture device, but you use it to roll along your muscles to stimulate blood flow and the release of the pent up toxins lovely bits of greatness produced by exercise. you have to apply pressure while you roll it, and MAN does it feel GREAT. (more fun is to be had when you do it to kids and other unsuspecting adults. it has a very TICKLISH effect......) The video is fun to watch, too. Produced in the late 80's or early 90's.....need i say more?



The next item up for review is RICE DREAM. what? yes. Rice Dream beverage. Santa was very gracious again this year. He knows that we love us some 'regular' items under the tree. So this year I received some
(what's with all the empty space up there????? ^^^^^^) and tucked it away for a rainy day. or the next day. whichever. does it really matter? For the record, it took me only a few days to finish it off.
                   I got some delish Clif Bars, too. Blueberry Crisp was my fave.

Just enough sweetness to make me think that i am eating a candy bar, but just enough NOT sweet to remind me that candy hasn't crossed my lips in 27 MONTHS. what was i THINKING? 

Socks. I got some runnin' socks. EMS ankle running socks. I haven't run in them yet, but they ARE comfy to wear to work. Thank you, thank you!

Got some cool t-shirts with savy-sayin's on them. One says, "I am out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message."

And books. I got 4! Yes, me. I got books. If i could only remember how to read, I'd be all set. Thankfully, one of them is a CD version. Lance Armstrong's second book, something about Every Second Counts. The others are a running log book (to track my miles, types of running, etc.), and the following 2 books:

 and     . For those of you keeping score at home, "Running from the Devil" IS a work of fiction. Yes you read me right. Fiction. As in made up. As in someone had a bad dream, wrote it down, and is now making a bunch of money from all that. I read "Born to Run" in less than a week. It has inspired me to try to run with 'better' for started reading the fiction book a few days ago, and have had a hard time putting it down. Shhh. Don't tell the Russians anyone.
Well, as Click and Clack may agree, I have squandered enough of your time for this post. Feel free to check back later, as I will be letting you know how my Push Up Challenge is going. ok. I will spare you the suspense....it is GONE. i lasted a week, then couldn't keep up with it. Sue me.

....this one isn't uplifting at all.......

Tom Petty said, "the waiting is the hardest part." standing here, at my patient's bedside for the past four days, I have come to strongly believe it. this poor guy is dying, slowly. he's probably been clinically dead for the past 24-36 hours. but we hang on. we wait. a sister was due to arrive from TN last evening, but her flight was grounded for mechanical issues. the next flight out wasn't available until today. so we wait. and we increase dosages and settings. and we wait. and we console, and we listen to his favourite music from the Moody Blues.
and we wait.
because times like this are stressful for all, including staff, we (the staff) often find release in humor. and then little things creep in, like a glance from a co-worker taken the wrong way, or a percieved attitude in an email, and we snap at one another. at best. at worst, we take these things home and snap at OUR family; kids, wives, husbands, dogs, cats.
and then they wait.
for us to get better. for us to stop taking things out on them. for us to be able to take the pain and stress that comes along with our jobs and deal with it in a more productive manner; without the yelling, and the short remarks, and the unreasonable expectations.
and so I run. people ask me if i am running away from something, or running toward something. before i answer them, i wait.
when i give it thought, i do both. away from things in my past, decisions I've made, things I have done, demons that i have created. toward a better, brighter future. toward the ability not to better control my emotions and reactions to things that get me flustered.
so i run.
and i wait.