My Double Trouble 2006

My race day started off at 7:30 after a night of some tasty food, a couple episodes of House (a great show), a couple episodes of scrubs (another great show), and a late night whooping in Uno by Kristin. We started playing Uno a few months ago and I consistently beat her in the first few sessions, but now it seems as though the apprentice has become the master, cuz I can't win a game. I awoke hoping this Uno-slaughtering was not an omen for the race to come.

The drive out to French Creek went quickly, but the clouds looked quite ominous. I met up with Kevin from PR after registration and had a quick jog before the race to try and see how things were working. I immediately got sharp pains in my stomach... so I stopped running, and thought to myself, "things seem to be in order... lets race". In all previous Ron Horn races, I have started near the front of the pack and went out quick at the beginning. This race, however, after the start, I got stuck in the middle of the pack and was quite frustrated for the first 1/2 mile or so because the course was pretty tight and there wasn't much passing room. The course eventually widened a bit and I was able to get some open running room. I didn't see any mile markers (i believe they had them last year) so I really had no idea of the pace I was running, but I felt fairly strong throughout the race.

The rain came midway through the race and was initially welcomed for the cooling effects, but later cursed for the "Each of my shoes weighs around 4 lbs and every time I push off I lose half the energy because it is so damn mucky"-effect. I ran in normal street-training shoes and i wonder if trail shoes would have been any help in those muddy conditions. I don't remember many specifics about the race, but I was extremely happy about how my ankles faired throughout the race. Last year, my ankles were rolling all over the place and were incredibly sore for at least a week afterwards. This year, I didn't twist my ankles until after the last water stop, around ~7.8 miles I believe, and even those ankle twists were relatively minor.

I finished the 15k in around 1:25:xx for a 51st place finish which I think is around a 1.5 minute improvement over last year, which I am happy about. I can't imagine running another loop and I have immense respect for anyone who completed yesterday's 30k. Mad props to them.

My Bonnaroooo!!

this past weekend we went to bonnaroo. For those of you who don't know, Bonnaroo is a yearly music festival in TN that generally has hippie type music. It is about a 13.5 hour trip one way (total of 27 hours driving packed into 3 days), so the driving was long, but the trip was definitely worth it. We got to see a bunch of cool bands, camp out, and meet some interesting people... definitely a fun weekend.

this week, however, I am reaping the consequences of my rock star/trucker lifestyle. I started getting a cold monday night and I am hoping to recover by this weekend for the double trouble on sunday. I am hoping to hit the road tomorrow to make sure my legs still work, but maybe the break from running will act like a taper on sunday. I think last week I only got 2 runs in for a total of around 14 miles, but one of those was ~9.3 miles (about the length of the DT) with 7 of those miles on the trails in Ridley creek state park. I ran 2-3.5 mile loops of the same trail course and I was able to drop the second loop to under 30 minutes, which sounds slow, but felt extremely fast. it is a hilly course so hopefully it is somewhat representative of the double trouble. we will see on sunday... i ran it in 1:24:xx in RCSP which is a couple minutes faster than the DT last year.

My Self Discovery

I discovered a skill this weekend that I never knew, nor expected, I had. Beer pong. Having been through 4.5 years at a public university you'd expect that I would have played the game. Not being one for drinking games in general, I guess I somehow steered clear of it throughout college. Saturday night, we went to a party at a friend from ISU's house, and kristin and I took on the reigning champions of beer pong. Before our arrival on the beer pong scene, they had held the table for maybe 2.5 hours without a loss. Kristin and I warmed up our form (had a few beers) and challenged the champs. the first game started out ugly... i think we had 1 cup left to there 5... then we went on a tear. we eventually lost the first game by one cup... but being a bit of a competitor, i had to redeem myself. Even though both Kristin and I have no depth perception, we were able to dethrone the champs in the second game. the next challengers were old pros at the game, but again fell to the our depth perception challenged team.

We ceded the table after this match cuz I didn't want to drink too much... but I am certain we could have beaten any who challenged us. another discovery this weekend was the love of the shmisquit from Sheetz. i partook in this delectable sandwich on my way home from the party and was pleasantly suprised by the heartiness of the meal.

running wise... i got 26 miles in this week including 7 on the trail tuesday and a few more on saturday with seebo and ian. Even though they were going easy on me, i was toast by the end of the run. This week is going to be cut short due to bonnaroo, but I will hopefully still break 20. I plan on doing another 10 tomorrow night with 7 on the trail at ridley creek. i love those trails... my ankles were pretty sore after last tuesdays trail experience, but the soreness gave in before saturday's long run so that was very encouraging. what doesn't break my ankles, is hopefully making them stronger.

My Financial Question

so I was watching an episode of the daily show last night that is about two weeks old. There was a piece about Bush signing an extension for his tax cuts that gives a break to capital gains and dividends. My question is this... supposedly these tax cuts were put in place to stimulate the economy, to help it grow. A few years ago... this would have made sense... the economy was sluggish and the fed dropped interest rates to help stimulate it as well. But why sign this tax cut extension now? The fed is concerned with inflation and continues to increase interest rates in hopes to curb inflation... and slow the growth of the economy. It doesn't quite make sense to me why we are trying to stimulate and curb growth of the economy at the same time. if we are trying to curb growth of the economy, why don't we just tax investors more?

granted i know nothing about economics and i am sure there is some sort of counter arguement as to why both of these moves make sense... but it just seems counter-intuitive to have one foot on the gas pedal and the other on the brake. Speaking of break....

tonight I am planning on 7 miles of trail at ridley creek state park. I am hoping that my weekly trail runs will strengthen all the stabilizer muscles in my ankles so I don't have as many problems rolling my ankles. hopefully this run goes better than sundays and mondays cuz I felt like crap during both.

My Great Weekend

Well folks... it is done. The wall is complete. I was 99% done last weekend, but I ran out of the caps that go on the top of the wall. I purchased them this week and finished it up this afternoon. thank god it is done... now all I need to do is find something to do with the 4500 lbs of extra wall blocks I have. My neighbor has shown interest, but if that falls through i am thinking perhaps e-bay or craigslist. here is the picture you have all been waiting for...

that is one small part of the great weekend. what else made this weekend great? Yesterday morning (saturday), I ran with PR and was hoping to get about 10 miles in at about a 8:00 pace. Yellow Shorts was there and he was planning on running 7:00 pace for the whole loop. I knew that was way above a pace that I could sustain, but I figured I would try to give him some company for as long as I could. I was able to keep up to about east falls bridge and we made it out there about at his goal. I was completely toast by this time and a little concerned about finishing up the last 4.25. Jim kept up his pace and I think I slowed down to about 9:00 pace for about a mile and a half. the last 2.5 miles I was able to bring back up to about 8:00 pace so I was pretty pleased about the run. All in all, 10 miles in under 79 minutes. I was (am) quite pleased. Total for the week is around 28 miles. the mileage is slowly creeping up... yay.

saturday night, kristin and I painted the town red... then went home at around 12:30. I guess that can't be considered painting the town red (not that I even know what painting the town red means)... but i had a great time. tasty food, the best company, and an early night. how could it get any better? this morning we woke up late... then like red blooded americans... went to IHOP, gorged on there eerily delicious pancakes and an enormous omelette. i say eerily delicious because something that tastes that good must be one of 3 things: 1.) not natural, 2.) not good for you, or 3.) laced with a controlled substance. whichever it is, i imagine as long as it isn't a daily occurrence, i will probably live.

also... props again to my sister for completing her second 5k for the grand ol' days in St. Paul. I am definitely going to get a run in with her when we visit in august. Nice work murph. my next race is the double trouble... the race I fear.... why do I fear it? read the blog from last year's race. I have a good feeling it will go better this year.