Viva Las Vegas

Sandy and I are headed to Las Vegas for a brief weekend getaway.

Really it’s for the impending wedding of Tim Emmett and Kathy Maj

I’ll be taking running gear with me but I can honestly say that there will be a lot of drinking and gambling going on!

Our flights are at ungodly times going and coming back, so sleep will be at a premium.

This should be a fun trip since a large group of runners are going and these people like to party! I may not be able to get in my daily requirement of gambling…..

For any of you Fall marathoners this is a good weekend to get in a long race and to see if all of that training is paying off….

Ice, Ice, Baby

Should I just stop running and let my knee have a rest period before I go under the scope?

Of course not! Why not go and do some speedwork with the Hanson’s running group?

That’s right, in lieu of running with the Downtown Detroit Runners/Walkers, Sandy and I ran with the rabbits.

As fate would have it, the night we run with them is speed or strength night. We had a choice between 3 x 1 mile or 2 x 3 miles.

I chose the one mile repeats, since I’m not actually training for anything. Plus there were a few TNT runners that I knew I could run with.

Sandy decided to go for the gold and do the three miles repeats, is that crazy or what.

The object of both was to get familiar with your pace, so for me it was just get through it without hurting any body parts!

I did on occasion have my knee buckle a little but not enough to cause a fall.

Oh, and add to all of this the 88º temperature and it made for an interesting evening.

The ice bag on my knee and the cold beer made everything better for a while………

The Date is Set

The date is set! We’ll be going under the knife on September 14th.

Well, it’s really not a knife but we’ll be having the knee scoped out.

The doctor makes it sound as if the procedure is really simple, with two incisions and no real bad side-effects.

Then again, when have you heard of a good side-effect?

I’m not sure how long the rehab will be or if I’ll be able to run without discomfort.

I just know it’s time to pay the piper for all those glorious years of running!

Post-Crim and Mo’ Stuff

What always marks the end of my summer is waking in the dark to drive to Flint for a day full of running and drinking.
What else can you do in Flint?
I can’t remember a starting line for a race being soooo crowded, we were literally on the sidewalk waiting to start.
I was running with TNT participants from the Fall/Winter team.
Sandy was going to run with a few of her members and I would just free-lance.
I started with Bob (check out his account of the race) and Rachel, both wanting to run around 10-minute miles.
I think the crowd actually helped keep them at that pace for the first few miles.
I knew I wasn’t going to run the entire ten miles and I did want to see the winners finish, so I left them at mile 3 and headed back to the finish line.
It’s amazing how many times I heard someone says, ‘..you’re going the wrong way’!
This is the first time that I’ve ever been able to see the finish of an elite race. The winner finished the 10 mile race in 47 minutes and eleven seconds! Bob and Rachel hadn’t made it to the five-mile mark yet!
It’s amazing to see what two legs can do when propelled at a faster than mine rate of speed!
I was able to stick around the finish long enough to see quite a few runners that I knew finish in under seventy minutes.
I went back on the course to run/cheer for other runners and it was a blast. I was able to spark a few people around mile 9 when things weren’t going so well.
Everyone finished and then the rain came down. The rain did put a damper on a lot of folks staying, but we continued with our normal trash talking and beer drinking.
So long summer!

Fantasy Weekend

Its Fantasy Football Draft weekend and I don’t have a clue who I should draft on any of my three teams.
That’s right, I’m into fantasy football and I promise myself each year not to continue, but they drag you back in each and every year.
I have the Number One draft pick in one league, which means I’ll be taking LT!
I have number nine in another league, which means God only knows who I will take,
And my last league doesn’t pick draft order until the draft day.
So the weekend will be filled with a ten-mile event and some beers, followed by a day of fantasy football smack taking and a few more beers.
Anybody else out there without a life that indulges in fantasies?

Meteorologist Ken

I’m could be a weather person.

I can truly say that my right knee tells me when it’s going to rain! That’s right, I did absolutely no running or jumping and my knee was throbbing all night. Lo and behold, it began to rain.

Yes, I have a second career, local weatherman.

I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do at the Crim on Saturday. I know that running the entire ten miles is out of the question.

I have officially signed up for the Detroit Free Press Half-Marathon. I’m thinking that even if I have my knee scoped in September, I could recover soon enough for the October race. I know, I must be Superman to recover that quickly but it could happen!

Sorry I had the comments portion of the blog incorrectly set, feel free to comment about anything.

Terrific Tuesday

It was a painful Tuesday evening run but I’m not disappointed.
My right knee didn’t bother me as much as it has in the past but it did swell a little.
We had a really good turnout for our end of summer picnic in Grosse Pointe.
Windmill Point Park is really and the surrounding homes are very impressive to run by.
I performed course marshal duties, since a few of the individuals had never run from the park. It doesn’t bode well when newbies get lost on their first-time run/walk with the group.
I knew that I wouldn’t run with anyone in particular, so I didn’t even attempt to pace myself. I just ran, which is becoming a regular thing for me.
I enjoyed the people and the atmosphere.
I’m trying to regain the enjoyment of just running and not being concerned with time or distance.

Meeting of the Minds

I was able to cycle and run this weekend without any significant knee problems.

Well is wasn’t like I did an Ironman, I rode for twenty miles and only ran for three but no knee pain. It’s the little things that keep me going now.

The weather has taken a dramatic change from the hot humid days to the cooler almost fall-like mornings. This would have been the perfect weekend for a long run, but not for me. I don’t think I’m going through withdrawals just yet but I sure it’ll come soon.

I just received my coaching assignments for the spring 2008 Team in Training season. We begin Informational meetings on October 29th.

I’m also involved in the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon, so that means attending meetings for this also.

Don’t you just love meetings?

Broken Blog

Don’t ask me why but my WordPress Blog is broken.
For some reason the domain website has an older version of MySQL and the latest version of WordPress needs version. 4.0.0 or higher.
So I’ve created this Blogger version.

Maybe

I happened across a local newspaper article about a runner friend of mine and it got me to thinking about a couple of things. Will I ever get back to training and running like I did earlier in my life? Can I alter my biomechanics to run more efficiently? Somewhere along the way I lost my desire to train hard and race hard. I’ve been putting in just the minimums for both training and racing. I’ve been able to rationalize why I shouldn’t run hard, whether it be cutting the grass or not risking an injury. I've talked myself into stopping for breaks during training runs, even when I knew I could have slowed down or even maintain the pace. I'm not entering many races, which is a convenient way to excuse the bad training or lack of training. Some of the things that I might miss:
The lung burning sensation or running the first mile too fast and never recovering in a 10k race.
Having an answer when asked, “what race are you training for?”
Having a goal finish time and knowing what it will take to accomplish it.
Going for a top age group finish and seeing what other competitors were racing that day.

Hopefully I’ll be able to regain that spark or whatever it was years ago that kept me coming back for more.

Here’s a link to the story about Doug:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708170396