Mid Week Mile Explosion

I haven’t had a straight up running update in a while, so I figured that I was due. Especially since, as I sit here in my underwear, I’m still recovering from a solid 9 mile run.

Monday - 3 miles, 8:00 pace

Soooooo, this run was supposed to be a recovery run. There is a reason that I normally run these on a treadmill. Just like a college kid to Natural Light beer, my body is drawn to running ~8:00 min miles. VERY good during a marathon, not so good during a recovery run when the goal pace is 8:30. Need to work on this when not running on a treadmill. Of course, the irony is that I’m working to make my body gravitate to 7:15 min miles (3:10 marathon). Stupid Boston Marathon and your stupid goals making yourself so stupid appealing….

Tuesday - 9 miles, 8:03 pace

Wowza. My mid week “sorta long” runs are really starting to ramp up. I suppose you don’t get to 50+ miles a week by running 4 miles at a time, but it never hit me that it would require running 10+ miles 3 or more times a week. That is, until today. So, I had to treat this just like a weekend run. I made sure to hydrate during the day, made sure that I was covered in body glide, and I had to make sure that I had enough food to not keel over after 7 miles. I used a gift card that my mom gave me (thanks mom!) to buy one of those hand grip water bottles to run with. I had previously been running with water bottles in my shorts pockets. It sort of looked like I had some sort of growth on each side of my legs. Either that, or I was REALLY enjoying my run and my jumblies were hanging out all over the place. The bottle was a life saver. I was able to carry 20 oz of water with me while I suffered through the Atlanta heat. Well worth the $15 that it cost.

I thought about posting a graph of my pace, but basically it just looked like a straight line hovering around 8:00/mile. So, instead here is a chart about the governator! Hasta La Vista....

My Current Facebook Status

For those of you that haven't friend'ed me yet...

Last night I successfully opened a bottle of wine in my hotel without a corkscrew. As it turns out, you CAN jam the cork down into a full bottle of wine. Adam: 1. Marriott: 0.

It takes a village

Well, we did it. We are finally moved into our new house. I’d estimate that we are approximately 92.5% moved in and unpacked. Pictures are hung on the walls, all of the furniture is in place, shoot – my wife even went out and bought two new rugs to “bring the room together”. Thank god she can decorate. My idea of decorating is a stolen “No parking” sign over the toilet.

All of this within the first 48 hours. Yes, you read that right – two days. Come to think of it, the office and the garage are all that remain. My wife has a reputation for getting things done, and she didn’t disappoint. Although, as a byproduct, I think that we were both a bit snippy over the weekend. Ok, I’ll admit that I was a bit more snippy than anyone else. This coming weekend I plan on taking out my pent up aggression on a STUIPD flowering bush that puts flower petals into my pool. That bush makes me sooo angryyyy.. *deep breaths, deep breaths*

Of course, the move was a very well choreographed exercise in contractor management. I can only assume that my own career as a business/technology consultant has gifted me with skills to manage other like employees. (Well, that and how to squeeze as many meals out of free hotel food…. Breakfast bagels for lunch AND dinner!) On Friday, we had EIGHT people in our house performing one service or another: 2 movers, cable guy, phone guy, countertop guy, cabinet guy, dishwasher guy, refrigerator/stove guy. This doesn’t even include the 4 or 5 family members that were in and out during the day. I slept WELL that night. That, and I washed my hands a lot. I swear I’ve never shook so many sweaty hands. Seriously countertop guy – wipe that bear claw on your pants first.

Here are some pictures of the end result. Feel free to stalk me in real life now that I’ve invited you into my home.

Starting to pile up the boxes:

Getting the beds set up


Some "finished product"


My brother in law and I "helping" (Sort of like a 4 year old "helps" his dad mow the lawn)

7/26 Long Run

17 miles, 8:23 pace

As consistently as Lindsey Lohan's blood alcohol level, my mileage is creeping up every so slowly. Today I had 17 miles scheduled and I cranked each and every one of them out.

I used my head this time and started out around 6:00am. As a result, I had one of my best long runs in about a month. It was ~90 degrees at the start with 45% humidity - not TOO bad. If you take a look at the graph below, you'll see that I did stop and walk ~4 times, but I am OK with that for now. Two of the spikes are phantom spikes where i was turning around (or something) and one spike was for a red light (that I don't think should count against me).

My goal pace for this run was 8:15, so I think that I was basically on target.

Unfortunately, I did not get my scheduled 8 mile Saturday run in. We moved into our house this weekend and I thought (Read: my wife suggested) that it would be a good idea if I focused on unpacking instead of running. It was probably a good move as we are now 90%ish unpacked. Pictures to come!

I ended this week with fewer miles than I would have liked, but still a pretty fair amount. 40 miles is nothing to sneeze at!

Beat goes on

I was talking to one of my best friends a few days ago about his heart rate monitor on his Garmin 305. We were talking about what a “good” heart rate is and what his should be when he runs. I admitted that, just like whenever anyone asks me what the song "boom boom pow" means, I had no clue. The most basic of basic formulas says that your max heart rate should be some where around 220 minus your age. So, in my case, that would be 192. Having said that, I wore my HR monitor for the ARR #4 5K that I ran this past weekend. Here is a graph of the results:

As you can see, my HR was over 200 before the first mile was over.

I’m still not sure how my heart didn’t explode out of my chest. Maybe it did and I just didn’t notice. Sort of how everyone in all of the Aliens movies don’t realize that they have a little creepy crawly swimming around in their chest until it bursts out of their sternum. I’ve posted before about how my heart rate is somewhere around humming bird speed. In fact, during the last marathon I ran my HR averaged 187 FOR THE ENTIRE RACE. I’ve done a half hearted attempt (pun very much intended) to research if this is good or bad. I’m still not entirely sure.

Right now, I’d put my max HR somewhere around 217 - 220. That would mean that I ran the 5K at approximately 92% of all out effort and ran the last mile or so at ~96% all out effort. That sounds about right. But, I still don’t know if that is good or bad. Lance Armstrong is famous for having a resting heart rate of 32 BPM, but his max jumps all the way up to 201 BPM. So, maybe high is good? Shit, I’m just glad my heart keeps doing its thing.

Running Roller Coaster

Running has had it’s ups and downs this week. I had a solid recovery run of 3 miles on Monday at an average pace of 8:12. I did the run outside because I had to work late into the night and if I went to the gym, no restaurants would still be open by the time I got back. The great thing is that by the time I got out to run @ 10pm, it had cooled off nicely.

Tuesday’s sort of long run was a complete nightmare for the first 5 miles and not too bad for the last 3. Overall, my pace wasn’t too bad at 8:07 min/miles. My quad was really bothering me and I think that I am going to have to take some very deliberate time off or lower my pace for a bit

to let it heal. It honestly isn’t so much the quad as it is the crease between my leg and my torso. The frustrating thing is that I am not quite sure how to stretch that area out. Grrrrr

Wednesday’s run was non eventful (and therefore good!). I cranked out 4 miles on the treadmill with an overall pace of 8:16. *shrugs* Treadmill runs are sooo boring. It made it worse that my radio broke so I had to listen to everyone else’s grunts and groans in the gym. Although, the guy next to me about flipped over the treadmill which made me laugh out loud. His foot wondered over to the edge of the treadmill so instead of running on the belt he was running on the side. When he placed his leg down he went rocketing forward and then slammed into the display. Ha ha.

Today (Thursday’s) tempo run was mostly a big fail whale. 5 miles completed, 8 scheduled. I have not been able to hit any of my tempo runs. I was scheduled for 40 minutes at tempo pace which is somewhere between 7:20 and 7:30. With two miles of warm up, I was able to hit: 7:35, 7:40, 7:27. I then stopped because my quad was bothering me and I was just plain tired. I’m going to have to change something if I am going to continue to do these speed sessions on Thursday (travel day). First, if I am going to do them in Georgia, I’m going to HAVE to do them on a treadmill. The hills here are killer. Second, the 7 hours of downtime from my Wednesday evening run to my Thursday morning speed session is not enough. My legs ALWAYS feel tired during the speed runs and I think that this is one of the main reasons why I haven’t been able to hit any of them well.

So, in summary, I’m still chugging along and mostly getting the miles in. In fact, I'm on target for 46 miles again this week. However, they are not the ‘quality’ miles that I would like to have. Fail.

Pool Time!

So, as much as I bitch about the house stuff, I'll be the first to admit that it is pretty damn sweet. This past weekend, we went swimming for the first time. My wife didn't go because she had a stomach ache, but that sure didn't stop me, or my brother in law / inlaws!

How do you spell PIMP? I think it starts with Barry in the pool, with a bit of Darv thrown in, but most certainly ends with Adam.

WARNING: My pool has a tendency to suck people's heads underwater. Here my brother in law is apparently working to dislodge his head from the bottom suction.

Speaking of pimp, I worked on my seducing skills in my Hugh Hefner style grotto. "Hey baby, I warmed up the rocks just like you warm up my heart"

Of course, I am not one to pass up an opportunity to practice my diving and/or flip turns. Well, that and to show off my hair(less) chest and rippling leg muscles. I keep doing things that everyone says will "put hair on my chest" to no avail. Fail.

Finally, no photo montage would be complete without my brother in law and myself jumping into the pool - like we do everything - together. You can be sure that during the jump we both let out a vigorous "weeeeeee". Unfortunately, I sort of did a crotch-flop (if that is possible) and had to rest a bit afterwards. Well, that and we SOAKED my wife.

Christmas in July

I remember a long time ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, there was only one size of iPod, and iTunes was on version 1.5. “Back in the day”, there was a lot of talk about how the ‘shuffle’ feature on an iPod would seem to favor certain artists over others. Some speculated that Steve Jobs had even programmed iPods to favor his own musical tastes over more popular songs like Britney Spears’ latest crap-bomb. All of which could easily be attributed to the TRUE randomness of the shuffle feature. (See also the birthday statistics problem) Although, even though it has been proved false, I can’t help but think that my iTunes shuffle feature is playing favorites.

My iTunes shuffle feature misses Christmas.

In between the Jonas Brothers and Black Eyed Peas (yes, I’ve recently bought songs from both – don’t hate), my iTunes seems to serve up an endless supply of Christmas songs. During the last few days, I’ve listened to everyone from Bing Crosby, Mariah Carey, and even the Bare Naked Ladies’ take on Christmas.

Now, I will admit that it has felt a little like Christmas lately. Why? I recently celebrated a birthday and was showered with gifts from people that are far too kind. Of course, each time I step foot outside in the Phoenix Valley of the Sun I am reminded 115 times that it is certainly not Christmas in July. Blah.

To be honest, I could go for a bit of Christmas. It is one of my most favorite times of the year. I am sure that it is my sun baked brain getting a bit short circuited, but I can’t help my thoughts wondering to snow angels and igloos. I’m counting down the weeks until the temperatures get cooler and I can go outside without feeling like my face is melting off. Now, I am sympathetic to the people in basically every OTHER part of the United States, but I’m told that Phoenix during the winter is the reason you put up with the heat during the summer. I guess until it gets cooler and it is actually winter, Bing Crosby is going to have to do.

Maybe if I finally upgrade to iTunes 8.123412.2132 my shuffle will get off of it’s Christmas kick and will give me some Brit-Brit.

My old house in Kansas City decked out with Christmas lights.

Arizona Road Racers #4 (5K) Race Report

Time: 19:37

Pace: 6:19

Age Group: 5/26

Overall: 72/676

A new PR by 19 seconds! Yay!

I signed up for the fourth race in the Arizona Road Racer's summer series rather late, but I knew that I wanted to run it for quite some time. The two races that I've been to have both been very well run and organized. Lots of water, lots of food, and enough heat to sweat the the balls off of a Kenyan.

The tagline for the summer series is "Run like it is hot". Well, that is exactly what I did. I ran like it was hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. Pat suggested that I have an over 90 (degrees) under 20 (minutes) contest for the summer. Let's just say that I can check that one off of my "life list". +90/-20.... DONE.

Mile 1: 6:19

The first mile went by with little to no fanfare. I forgot to turn on my IPod at the start of the race, so I was running in silence for the first 3 or 4 minutes. This race was rather large for a 5K. there were nearly 700 finishers, so there was a lot of bobbing and weaving at the beginning.

Mile 2: 6:35

This mile was TOUGH. There were a ton of hills both uphill and down. I tried my best to essentially sprint down the downhills and really chugged my arms during the uphills. Overall I slowed down a bit - actually a bit more than I wanted which was a bit annoying. But, I did get my IPod cranking with some JayZ - Big Pimping.

Mile 3 (and 0.1): 6:40 (6:10 pace)

The last mile was essentially an exercise in holding everything together. My legs were screaming and I was grunting them out, but I did! I even was able to pass a few people who were certainly "looking" the part. Hey, if you can't be good, look good - right?

Foto Friday - Contractor Lovin'

I’m doing things a bit differently for my second house. Lovin' me some CONTRACTORS! No scuffs on my hard hat this time! For our first house, I was a walking talking construction man. I scraped the ceilings, painted the walls, painted the cabinets, ultimately painted the trim, and finished off the basement. Had I not done that I would have likely ran out of man cards long ago and sprouted a healthy set of man boobs.

Why the change? Time! I simply have no time to do any of this stuff. So far we’ve had assistance with:
Getting the pool cleaned (I made sure the pool boy was VERY ugly)
Getting the sprinklers working
Replacing the cabinets
Putting in granite counter tops
Painting all of the walls and trim
Cleaning the carpets

It is all enough to give myself (Read: My bank account) a coronary. So, just like in real life, most of my ‘work’ has been to work the phones. I’ll admit, I did feel like I was eyeballs deep for a while, but I am finding my groove. I’m cracking the whip with the best of them. Now, on to shop for a new Indiana Jones approved leather hat and bull whip.

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I’ve had a few great runs in the past few days. My 2nd ‘recovery’ run of the week was upped to 4 miles and upped from a recovery run to a run at a ‘comfortable pace’. 4 @ 8:11

This week’s speed workout was 5 x hills @ 400M. I did the intervals @ 6:25, 6:11, 6:13, 6:15, 6:17 pace (most of the 'actuals' were around 1:34 seconds long). I’m not sure why that first one was slower, but I did hit some pretty good times after that.

I’m looking to hit 45 miles this week – one short of my weekly PR…which I will beat in two weeks!

Interesting thoughts about hotels

Ever notice how you use a ton of towels in hotel rooms? When I am at home, I’ll use the same towel for an entire week. Not at a hotel! I use no less than 6 towels during a 24 hour period. All of which I toss in the corner after I am done.

When you are in a hotel, you do everything in bed. Eating dinner? Bed. Typing up some work emails? Bed. Reading a book? Bed. Building a fort? Bed.

I’ve noticed that the temperature needed to cool or refrigerate everything in a hotel is “bucket of ice” cold. Everything from beer to last night’s leftovers can be chilled to perfection using the standard issue bucket of ice. It is like I’m in 1900 and refrigeration hasn’t been invented.

It never fails, whenever I come home from going out to dinner, drinks, or the occasional bindge drinking "event" my room is at the opposite side of the elevator. This then causes me to jog the entire length of the hotel like a sugar filled 5 year old to make it to the bathroom on time.

The mini bar should be illegal. Drunk Adam + Mini Bar + $18 can of Pringles = dangerous. Thank god most of the hotels I stay at don’t have them anymore.

When you are in a hotel, you get…. creative. The chair in the corner is my hamper, the desk chair is my drying rack (for my sweaty clothes), and the hair dryer is my wet shoe dryer.

I’m not sure if everyone is downloading the latest Paris Hilton sex video via Napster, but the internet in hotels is always slow. Free high speed wireless internet? Try again. More like “free wireless internet that is only good to check TvGuide.com – because you’re going to be watching TV”

Frequent stay hotel points are worth their weight in gold. I have coworkers who would pack their shit up each and every day, change to a hotel room across downtown every day, all in the effort to get additional hotel points. I can, even after my week long Virgin Islands vacation, I can stay ~30 days in the lowest level of hotels for free.

Put a smile on that face!

First, thanks to everyone who read my post yesterday. Even if you didn’t comment or even read it! I was a bit frustrated with all of the things going on and unfortunately, my blog and to a MUCH greater extent my wife, bore the brunt of my frustration. Either way, I’m back to my normal self. I had a pretty good 3 mile recovery run yesterday and even had an accidental day off (sort of) because of a massive flight delay. Just what the doctor ordered. Well, that the first class upgrade, and the one two three gin and tonics that I was able to drink since I was going to arrive in Atlanta too late to make it to the office.

Now, enough with the lovey-dovey talk. I’ve got a bone to pick and it is with the cyclists in the Phoenix metro area. I realize that the tour has you all heads down. The Olympic games do the same thing to me. But come on. What is up with not waving at me?

I’m a happy runner. Since a picture speaks a thousand words, let me offer up a few pictorial examples:



Since I am so happy, I waive and/or give the obligatory head nod to all runners, walkers, bikers, and even the occasional car that lets me cross a street in front of it – all the while holding up traffic. I usually get some sort of response from most all of the groups. The exception, of course, are the bikers! (Well, them and the girls in the sports bras – I’m sure I DO seem like a creeper….) Sure, the bikers look good in all of their color coordinated gear, but I’d like to think that I look just as good with sweat on my shorts in the shape of a pee stain and salt on my face.

I realize that they have lots to think about – with all of those gears and whatnot. To be honest, I’d be pretty focused if I had cars whizzing by at 45 mph as well. But that shouldn’t stop them from releasing their death grip on the handles and give a quick finger point. Right?

So, if you are in the Tempe/Gilbert area and you see a sweaty guy waving at the old couple walking their dog, give him a wave. I know he’ll appreciate it!

Male PMS

Does this exist? I'd bet that there are a lot of females who are going to be reading this that will reply with a resounding "YES!" I may be willing to join them....

You see, I've been in a sort of a funk lately. A bit of male PMS. The stress of everything is starting to overwhelm my normally Mr Rogers-esk personality. (Just the other day I threw my toy trolly across the room in a steroid induced rage) "Everything" that is bothering me I think can be classified as most things house related, work related, and maybe even a few things running related.

During my 10 mile long run on Sunday, I did a lot of thinking and I think that most of the issues

are because I have no time to just "chill".*** You see, I'm mostly a homebody. While, I love a E filled, glowstick waving rave as the next guy, generally speaking I like to just hang out on the weekends. During the week, while I am traveling, I have no problem with being all places at all hours. But, the weekends are mine to just hang out. In fact, in chapter 1 of "The Care and Feeding of Adam" it prescribes 3 hours of solid TV watching couch time per weekend. I'm sort of like a 2 year old that way - if you don't let me rest for a while I get a bit out of sorts. A bit of male PMS if you will - Pre-Moving Syndrome.

The main thing that has been prohibiting my couch time is this house. We're replacing the kitchen and painting all of the walls. Thank GOD we're not doing it ourselves, but each decision still requires intense thought and consideration. If it isn't the 800 different types of counters, it is the 40 types of sinks.

But, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel - so all will be right with the world soon. I'm thinking that I'll be in the house within 2 weeks and most of the other 'stuff' can wait. That'll give me plenty of time to turn my mind to mush with the likes of Big Brother 47.

***Of course, as my wife and I get closer and closer to having kids, I realize that this chill time is going to be increasingly few and far between.

That said, I have been able to get a few good runs in. I had my first good MP run in a while with 7 miles at 7:32 pace. In fact, it was just a bit faster than MP - which I liked. I didn't go on the group run like I said that I was going to. I wanted to get out there, but I couldn't have done that and get to my house to meet an appointment with a painter. Blah.

My "long" run this weekend, which was a stepback week, was a pretty easy 10 miles. I cranked them out in 1:21:58 which is a 8:11 pace. I would have liked to be around 8:15 or even 8:20, but I suppose after taking off Friday, my speed day, I had all sorts of pent up energy.

Group Run?

The local running store here in Phoenix (well, actually Tempe), Sole Sports, holds free group runs on Saturday mornings. Pat told me about the store and I just bought a new pair of Brooks there this past weekend. They run along a canal behind the store, have free water, and is within 2 miles of where I am currently staying. I'm really interested in running with a group, but I have a bit of a secret. I've never done it before. I'm a group run virgin!!

I have all of the normal worries with doing anything for the first time (including THAT thing). I'm worried that I'll be too slow or too fast, that I'll talk too much or too little, and that I won't be able to find a groove. Strange how something so simple can still get me a little worked up! I've been running for 3 years now, time to be OK with this. I'm going to try my best to get out there for a quick 7 miler. The only issue may be getting the run in and cleaned up by an 8:30 appointment that I have at my new house.

Does anyone else do any 'formalized' group runs?

On a side note, I took a bit of a break this past week, missing my first speed day of my training season. My left quad is feeling a bit strange. Not sore so much as just.... Strange. Almost an itch or a burn. If my quad starts to discharge puss, I think that I'm going to get it tested for syphilis. Until it does, I decided to take it a bit easy.

In spite of my quad, I have been able to get quite a few good runs in though. I had a pair of 3 milers at 8:15 and 8:30 recovery pace. On Tuesday, I had a very good 7 miler at 7:55. I really wanted to hold somewhere between 7:55 and 8:00 - pushing a bit harder than I normally would and I was able to do it with only moderate effort.

On Saturday, I have a 7 miler at marathon pace. I'm going to try to hit 7:40 - 7:45 which would put me around 3:23 marathon. Maybe Rock and Roll Arizona would let me run that 4x over the course of a week and set a new marathon PR!?

House Progress, Work stuff, and Yogging

Bulleted lists make me drunk with organizational POWER!

• I’m nearing a close date on the new house. While I don’t have a date locked down, it will likely be within the next 2 to 3 weeks. My wife and I can’t wait. It doesn’t help that we must go over there at least once a week to take care of the pool. I dropped $250 on chemicals alone this weekend. You’d think that this pool ran on crystal meth! (That would certainly make swimming a lot more ‘fun’). Shoot, I’d put meth in it if I thought that it would be cheaper to operate.
• Work has been interesting. Because I am a contractor, I can be kicked to the curb faster than Larry King buys suspenders. My contract is written in a way that I only stay as long as there is money to pay for me – not a specific time. Well, the money is starting to run out. I figure that I have approximately a month to 6 weeks before I’ll no longer be going to Atlanta. Hopefully, this timeline will work out so that I can take some time off to work on the house. Unfortunately, I don’t have any specific finish date, so I don’t feel comfortable looking for a new project yet. When I do, I’m going to look hard for something on the west coast!
• Running is continuing to progress. I ran 41 miles last week which is my second highest weekly total ever (second only to a marathon week). Since it was only week 5 of 18 in my marathon training plan, I have a feeling that I’m going to be running a LOT more in the future.
• I had dinner with a buddy on Sunday who recently found his first gray hair. He, like I would, freaked out. He didn’t have a full on “buy a Porche” freak out, but I am not sure that I wouldn’t if it were me. (I’d buy an S2000) Fortunately, I THINK that based on my dad I should have a few more years until I have to worry about that. If I do start getting them, I’m totally going to paint 'em with a Sharpie.
• Finally, this weekend my brother in law gave me my first house warming present. (Picture below) It is a picture of me running in Fargo, ND towards my 3:29 finish. I’m even still smiling! Something to hang next to my marathon medals for sure.

7/4 Weekend Runs

7/4 – 7 miles, 7:51 pace
7/5 – 14 miles, 8:48 pace

“I really REALLY need to figure out this desert running thing”

Saturday’s run was pretty fun and generally uneventful. I started out from my in-laws house and went towards Sole Running, a running store that Pat recommended. I started out a bit late at 8:30 or so but the heat didn’t seem to bother me too bad. It was around 80 degrees with minimal humidity. I was able to keep my goal pace with minimal effort and my splits were really consistent - which is what I was trying to do with this run. I wanted to be around 7:55 minute miles which is MP+10. My times were: 7:55, 7:50, 7:51, 7:55, 7:50, 7:50, and 7:45. All within 5 seconds of each other with the exception of the last mile where I let myself speed up just a bit. Nice!

My run on Sunday was an entirely different story.

The day before, when I ran 7 miles, I carried two of my four 10 oz bottles (20oz total). While running that shorter distance, I drank about half of the water that I was carrying (drank ~10 oz). So, using my analytical brain, I figured that if I ran twice as far I would have just enough water and all would be right with the world (2 x 10oz = 20oz). I was wrong – very wrong. A few things were different about this run:

• It was about 10 degrees hotter
• As I found out, the rate of water consumption is not linear across distance (that is, the further I run, the more I drink per mile)
• My legs were a bit heavy from the long run the day before
• I overslept and had that “rushed” feeling while I was getting ready to head out

I left the house with only two of the bottles filled. Bad move. Essentially, I ran out of water around mile 10. This is especially not good because it was around 96 degrees and there was not a spot to fill up in sight. I looked and looked for a McDonalds or something that I could use to fill up my bottles but I couldn’t find one. So, to avoid passing out in a pile on the side of the road, I ran / walk the last 3 or so miles. Oyy. Not good.

Lesson learned… Take ALL bottles completely filled on every desert run. For that matter, have some money with me so that I could buy some water if I needed to.

AIM Convo: Dating

I'm going to be starting a new segment that I stole from a friend of mine called "Funny AIM conversations". All names will be changed to avoid stalking....

[15:37] SuzieQ: So Billy is kinda dating some girl and at the beginning of last week he, Frankie, and i were sitting around

[15:37] SuzieQ: and Billy goes, "want to hear a voicemail that pretty much sums up my dating life?"

[15:38] SuzieQ: and we're like: "uh sure"

[15:38] SuzieQ: so he plays it on speaker

[15:38] SuzieQ: and it goes:

[15:38] SuzieQ: "YOU PISS ME OFF! YOU PISS ME OFF! UGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" *click*

[15:39] SuzieQ: that was it

Freedom...and Pink Boxers

Happy July 4th! Go out and celebrate by watching some shit blow up (errr, fireworks). I saw the following story (an the above real photo) on yahoo. Too funny. If you know a member of the military - give them a hug. They are so dedicated, they go to work in their underwear!

In this May 11, 2009 file photo, soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province. Spc. Zachary Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas, far left was wearing 'I love NY' boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members. From far right is Spc. Cecil Montgomery of Many, La. and Jordan Custer of Spokan, Wash, center. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says American soldiers have more than their military might and training on their side in the war in Afghanistan. Some have pink underwear.

Friday Funny - Consultant's Love Life

I was recently sent this "Romance Analysis" by a consulting coworker who was sent it from another consulting coworker. (We’re everywhere!) Consultants can turn ANYTHING into a PowerPoint presentation. In fact, I think that I am due for another bulleted list blog post here sometime. Never the less, I can’t help but admit that I’ve seen some guys try to put analysis like this into action.

Here is the first portion of the analysis, with my speaking notes.

Good use of bullets, nothing can start without a solid agenda. Really, a win/win proposition for everyone.

Obviously, this slide depicts the well rounded nature of a potential relationship with the subject in question. Fortunately, the attributes that are lacking (e.g. Beer / Sports) are provided through other channels. Additionally, those attributes that are only obtained through the subject channel (e.g. sex) are sufficient in quantity for the time being. A real value add here with only positive upswing potential.

Skipping forward to the breakdown of each of the key drivers of relationship “Love”. As you can see, the subject in question likes movies, the dirty talk (verbal affection), and is a tall hottie – among other key attributes. The important thing to note with this analysis is the even distribution of each attribute across the three main categories: Companionship, Affection, and Compatibility.

I'll probably have a few other updates in the coming weeks.

Small Town Livin

I grew up in a small town. I am pretty sure that I've said before that the town that I went to elementary school in had a population of 600. People. Period. In fact, the population of hogs (errr, pigs to non-country people) by far out numbers the population of people in my county. On children's Iowa state maps, there is always a picture of a big pig in NW Iowa...

Don't get me wrong, I love living in a city. I have grown accustomed to such 'luxuries' as: paved 4 lane roads, stoplights, airports within 3 hours, and even chain restaurants. But there is something to be said about living where everyone is just a bit friendlier.

While I was running today (which wasn't a super great) I remembered a story that my dad told me while I was back for my high school reunion. It is a simple transaction that speaks volumes to the life in a small town. It is very similar to one that you could have at Home Depot, but I doubt that you ever would. Here is the story as told by my dad:

Adam: Did you get a new dishwasher?
Dad: Yeah. When the old one broke, I called up and told the people at Seilers to come put one in. They told me that was great and that I should come in to come pick one out. Well, I told them that I didn't have time for that. So, I just asked them:

Dad: I'm sure you have a dishwasher that you recommend, right?
Seiler: Well, yeah I guess we do.
Dad: And I'm sure it isn't the most expensive one in the store or anything crazy like that, right?
Seiler: Nope, it is a very good dishwasher for a very good price.
Dad: Great, so let's save your time of trying to sell me that one and save my time of driving all the way over there to just pick it out. I'll leave my front door unlocked tomorrow, come over and hook it up. Leave the bill on the counter and I'll make sure you get paid.
Seiler: Sure thing!


It is the little things like that story that make me love small towns.

Feeling great, looking...TIRED!?

I had such a great run yesterday that I had to share. In fact, I had a post scheduled for today that I moved to early next week. (Yeah, that post is going to be REALLY high quality [/sarcasm].) I was scheduled to do 7 miles at a 'comfortable' pace. For a lot of the afternoon, because I wasn't into work mode, I was daydreaming about what a 'comfortable' pace should be.

I decided on a pace somewhere between 8:00 and 8:15. However, just like the restraining order says, since I stalk, idolize listen to Hal Higdon, I decided to let my body dictate the pace.

I started out on the run shirtless with my chest hairs (two at last count) blowing in the surprisingly cool breeze. I told myself that I was going to only look at my garmin for pace every mile and let my body be my guide - just like in the bedroom. But, hopefully my run wouldn't be as awkward and uncoordinated.

First mile: 7:48

Damn it, too fast. That was supposed to be a warm up mile! I thought to myself, "Ok, I'll try this looking at the watch once a mile business one more time too see if I can't slow down."

Second mile: 7:37

Frick. Fail. Ok, best to look at my watch every 1/4 of a mile. Once I did that I was able to settle around 8:00 miles, but for some reason that pace seemed to be super slow. I cranked out the remainder of my 7 miles with an overall pace of 7:46 minute miles. Basically a marathon pace run. Honestly, just like I tell my wife every time before business time, I don't care if I get hurt - sometimes it just feels good to go fast***.

***What is the over/under on how long before I get a call from my wife where I can HEAR her roll her eyes at me? I'm guessing an hour.

Of course, even though I had a great run, that doesn't stop people from telling me that I look tired. People at the hotel (I'm friendly with them), clients at work, strangers on the street.... Seriously, someone needs to school these fools that telling someone that they look tired is code for "wow, you look like a donkey just sat on your face".

So far, I'm still on track for my 42 miles this week! Here are a few fun new graphs from Garmin's online tool. I punched it at the last 1/2 mile or so....