Ill with a dose of winter camping

Oh jeeezz! Its time to really start ramping up the training for the Fargo. I not only got deathly sick, but also went winter camping in the boundary waters. After I got back from winter camping I started a new job. I have had a strong dose of disorganization in my life... If that is not enough we continue to get pummeled with snow which is covering my trails. ugh!! All that to say that if I dont start putting in at least one 13+ run in a week I am not gonna be going for a PR. Please be a nice spring. I need Miles!

Nevermore!

On Sunday Mornings you can run wherever you want. I feel like it's a secret.. If you go out early enough on Sundays you have the cities completely to yourself. It's a perfect day for long runs. There is a 10 mile route that I just started doing, and the only problem is that I have to run on Chicago ave for 2 miles (one of the busier side roads in Mpls. ) On freezing cold winter mornings at 5 am when everything is frozen over I choose to run on the oncoming traffic side of the road. When a car comes I just switch sides. I noticed that I started to hate concentrating on not slipping the whole run. Plus at that time of day there is virtually nobody up yet, so it is actually very nice.

The payoff I got this morning for being up before daybreak was a about 20,000 crows on the trees and in the sky along the trail. I was scared that i was going to get my poor eyeballs plucked! I don't know if it was a payoff but it was a site!! The sound was intense. Why birds don't just go hang out somewere in woods? We wont ever know.

Options are good!

Today I brought my bag of cold weather running gear to Jamba Juice. The babysitter can keep the kids until 5pm without extra charges. It does lend me a new oppurtunity that I haven't had in years. I can run after work without leaving my wife to tend to the kids another hour. It helps when my phone says its sub-zero I can make the decision while laying in bed to "run after work". It really opens up some doors. I mean it can only be a 30 to 40 minute run.. tops. I get off at 4pm drive over to the target parking lot. Where I work i am surrounded by the busiest freeways in mpls. There are lots of frontage roads and overpasses I have to navigate. But i found parking in the target parking lot which is a half mile from Jamba Juice eliminates 50% of the navigation. The loop I do drops me into some wooded roads and down in the marshes of Minnetonka. Really it ends up being one of my nicer routes after I get off the frontage road and the trail by the freeway. I feel a little odd going to get the kids in my running clothes, because they are the last ones there, and I know the babysitter has been pretty much waiting for me to get done with my run. I guess I pay her till 5 though. The option is just nice!!

"Running is bad for the knees!"

But he had to quit because his knees are wrecked.(yeah yeah this happens occasionally to people, it could happen to me) I don't get why people try to fashion different excuses for not sweating. I have a great idea... lets not run because we may ruin our knees. instead.. lets get overweight and outta shape, then wreck our knees from our extra burdenssss!

Who knows the best answer, all I know is number 1: you can't lose weight and get in shape from walking around a mall with trekking poles.. ha ha ha. Number 2 you CAN NOT GET IN SHAPE UNLESS YOU SWEAT, WORK HARD, DO SOMETHING THAT HURTS. And NO you don't have the right to not run because, "running is bad for your knees!"

2011 Fargo Climate

Are you hoping for 40 degrees and sunny like I am for the Fargo Marathon? I am!! The first year of the Fargo Marathon was perfect. It was like 30 degrees, and I can't remember if it was cloudy or sunny?? Then I skipped the 2nd year and ran it the 3rd. The 3rd year was nice and cool, but it was very windy. I don't feel the wind affected my performance since I did PR!! Then I skipped a few years more and ran it last year. I ran a race called the bridge to bridge bash one hot day in the summer of 08. I did well and my prize was a free entry to the Fargo. I ended up missing that one, so I asked the race director if I could redeem it for the 2010 race. I did and that race was my favorite. If you ran the Fargo last year you remember the torrents of rain at the start of the race. I was a little on edge at the beginning thinking of a soggy shoe race. But a few miles after the gun the rain subsided and we got some nice weather. I actually thought for anyone running longer that 3 hour marathon, they might have some heat. It was an even run, I kept my head the whole way and even had some kick left at the end. It was a blast and I am just totally pumped for 2011. I want that 40 degree crisp/calm sunny day. The kind of marathon where you need light gloves but short sleeves. It gets me excited thinking about that possibility... actually I think Ill just make the prediction right now, and I think we deserve it --- putting up with this nasty winter.

Who am I even talking to? I don't have one person following this blog. Myself I guess>> Shoulder shrug.