Monday 3/7/11

Happy Lundi Gras to everybody back home! Even my parents are in on the action...they sent me a photo from the French Quarter today. I pretty much bummed around, and when the temps warmed up I headed to Clifton to hang out at Sitwell's Coffee Shop. Pretty eclectic crowd in Clifton, probably since it is right next to the Unversity of Cincinnati. After that I headed to Clear Creek Park to attempt a run on my messed up toe. With the help of some tape and multiple advils I managed 4 miles on the grass fields in 28:38 (7:09 pace). Other than my toe hurting I felt really good. I had to cross a blacktop path a few times, and every step I took on it with my right foot I thought my toe was going to crack. On the grass it was tolerable, so I guess I will be spending a lot of time at this park in the next couple days. Here is something funny I saw in a book today about running:

Rule 1.2-Expand Your Definition of Fun

For runners this may include:
-waking up at 5:30am to run 10 miles
-running in blistering heat
-running in the rain
-running in 400m circles
-feeling as if your lungs are about to explode
-paying a race director good money for the privilege of turning your own toes black and blue
-any combination of the above

Sunday 3/6/11

I skipped the Sunday morning group run to rest up some aches and pains, and around 9:30am I slammed my pinkie toe in the corner door. Awesome. I may have let out a few four letter words. I had socks on and once I limped back downstairs I looked down at my feet and noticed a discrepancy between them. I took my right sock off and noticed my pinkie toe was facing sideways! I had no choice but to pop it back in place. That was interesting to say the least. I headed into work at 11:30am, had a crazy busy day, and once I got home I took my shoes and socks off to see if it had swollen. To my shock it was solid red and purple. Again, awesome. I have a bag of ice on it as I type right now and plan on attempting to run on it tomorrow. I am pretty sure I broke it, and the thing about a pinkie toe is that there is not much you can do with it and it can't really get worse...just going to hurt like hell. Here is a picture I took when I got home from work around 6:30pm.

Saturday 3/5/11

I had to work from 8am-5pm today. Not much running going on with my groin not feeling good, raining pretty hard outside, and wanting to chow down on some Indian food. The rain is supposed to turn to snow in the morning so I will probably skip the Sunday morning group run. I can get my long run in Monday or Tuesday since I am off work both those days. One crazy thing that happened today was at the gas station at Kenwood Rd. and Montgomery Rd. I walk into the gas station to buy something and there is a young guy and middle aged lady working the registers. The young guy is checking two teenagers out and as they walk off the lady, who is checking me out, says "Those kids are freaks." I laughed out loud a little and she then says "No, they are freaks. That bitch told me one time that she didn't know if I was a man or a woman. I wanted to tell her that she should check between her legs to see if she had a dick." I was shocked and just started cracking up! I am sure her manager would not approve, but that is what free speech is all about.

Friday 3/4/11

Woke up to a rainy day, pretty nasty. Had work from 9:30am-7:00pm then headed home for a run. It was my first night run in a while and I was really looking forward to it since it was 50 degrees with a foggy, misty rain. After about 2 miles I could feel something was wrong with my groin. I figured I had tweaked it during the track workout yesterday that I had no business doing. Finished up the run pretty slowly, only 5 miles in 38:10 (7:38 pace). I was going to run tomorrow, but may take the day off to let this groin issue heal up. Hopefully it is better for the long run on Sunday. Finishing up the pot of jambalaya right now with a big glass of chocolate milk while watching the movie The Chase with Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson. Only Charlie Sheen could have sex with Kristy Swanson while driving a car at 90 mph that is being chased by tons of police cars. If that is not a winner, I don't know what is.

Thursday 3/3/11

First thing that needed to be done today was wash clothes and go to the grocery. Once those chores were done I headed to a small high school about 10 min. from home. I planned on doing 16x400 at 80-82, but after I ran the first couple way too fast I decided to cut the workout short. This was my first time on the track since Aug. 24th at Fleet Feet Fenton speedwork. Needless to say, I was WAY off on pace. After a 2 mile warmup I ended up doing 10x400m with 90 seconds rest in 77, 76, 74, 76, 75, 76, 75, 77, 78, 77. I then decided to tack on 4x200m in 36 seconds each. I had to dodge a lot of high schoolers that were conveniently just walking in the first 2 lanes. I didn't really enjoy being back on the track, so I think from now until the marathon I am going to do workouts on the grass or tempos on the Little Miami River Trail. After the workout I decided to take Finn on a little adventure to Ault Park and Alms Park. We made jambalaya for dinner again, and once again it was just a little bit better. We used a different sausage which I think helped a lot. Here are some pics of Finn on our adventure today.

Wednesday 3/2/11

Didn't do too much today except watch CNN, Sportscenter, and play with Finn in the yard. I was going to go to the track, but decided instead to run to Hyde Park Square and all the way down to Marimont and back. It was so nice out, 53 degrees and sunny, that I wanted to enjoy it a little. It ended up being 9.5 miles in 1:05:32 (6:54 pace). 7:00 pace is getting to be pretty easy which is a good sign. I think tomorrow instead of a track workout I may see how fast I can run 10 miles. That sounds fun right? This nice weather is really making me want it to be summer. I am sure it is just a tease, since there is always that one last March snowstorm.

Tuesday 3/1/11

Woke up to a gorgeous day, although it was still a little chilly. Headed to Clear Creek Park for another run on the soft grass, trying to take it easy on the legs. Covered 6 miles in 43:29 (7:14 pace). I felt really good and am really looking forward to the next two days. We are supposed to have perfect weather and I am off work both days! Work was interesting with having the store closed and having to re-inventory everything along with training on the new POS system. One cool thing I received in the mail from my mom is all our old family videotapes that I had no idea even existed, but converted to DVD's. There are videos from holidays and birthday parties along with me playing basketball at Madisonville Jr. High, little league baseball, and high school cross country/track. It was crazy to see how young we all looked! One of the coolest videos was one of me, my dad, my brother, my uncle, and my grandpa who died in 2002 all standing around chatting at some park. Good memories.