i'll have the milk steak boiled over-hard and a side of your finest jelly beans raw.

So I decided not to check the actual temperature before I went out for my run tonight.  A check of wunderground.com after the run let me know that it was 32 degrees out.   I thought it was cold but I figured it was right around 40...so much for that.  In my brilliance I decided since last night I was pretty warm with pants and a long sleeve. I wore a lighter long sleeve and shorts for my run tonight.  Whoops.

Anyway I just did the standard out and back 4 miler that I have been doing for a while now.  Turns out according to mapmyrun.com the distance is actually 4.23 miles.  Who knew?  I just figured I was running slow I am after all in horrible shape.  I completed the run in 31:44 which comes out to 7:30 pace, not too bad.  If only I ran 10 miles at that pace with a lot less effort and I could be moderately satisfied with it.

So the last mile of my run I kind of zoned out thinking about racing again which was a great feeling and it definitely made the time pass by quicker.  What confused me about it though was that I wasn't thinking about getting back in shape and running any kind of PR's all I thought about was running either to help pace someone else to a good time or as part of a distance relay race.  I have always felt this way about running and I am not sure why.  I have always preferred races where I was part of a team vs running just for myself.  Sure I always had my own goals for my races but I when I made the decision to run in college my ultimate goal was to run as a part of a 4x800 at Penn Relays not to qualify for nationals in anything individual.

Even when I was in my last year of college, I missed cross country nationals because of an injury and for whatever reason the coach chose not to run a 4x800 team at Penn Relays.  Still my two best races of the year were 1 the 4x800 at the New England Championships which we won and I had my best split of 1:55 and our conference championship where I chose to rabbit the mile for two of my teammates that were looking to get better new england championship and national qualifying times(Kevin didn't even have a new england's qualifying time yet)  I set a perfectly even first 1000 meters till they went flying by, at which point my coach told me if was ok to drop out, but I thought I could still hold on to score some points for the team so I did.

The point of this rant is I have no idea why it is easier for me to motivate myself into racing again to race with other people vs just motivating myself to race just for me.  I enjoy the experience of racing and I am always happy to run personal bests, I loved the ability to go out some days or nights and do a run as long as I liked 10 miles or 15 it didn't matter to me they were both just as easy, but none of that compares to being a part of a team and having the entire groups hard work pay off.  Who knows.

I thought this was a pretty funny quote as I had listened to some new Pat Condell videos on youtube I ended up going back and checking out some old ones.
So, I hope the Hindus have it right, because if there's any justice in this world, you (Islamists) will be reincarnated as a female, homosexual Jew, and then you'll find out what a pain it is having to deal with violent, primitive dickheads like you. (to domestically violent Muslim men) " - Pat Condell


So are there any relay trail or mountain races?  I know there are some relay Marathons

Climbing My Way Back

This will be be a shorter entry as I get ready to go raise the intensity level before watching the Pats Saints game at Pete's.

I decided to do as hilly of a run as I could today given my location and how poor shape I am in.  It was a bit shorter than 5 miles according to mapmyrun.com it was 4.8 miles but it seemed as if it were shorter.  I had 3 significant hills in the run and a few other bumps that I don't really count but it was good to keep things interesting.  I had to zig zag my route a bit to account for all of the hills and keep the distance at least somewhat close to 5 miles.  I started of going what I thought was slow but my first mile said otherwise at about 7:30(I'm not sure exactly where the mile marker was).  I felt good on the first two hills, starting to feel it a bit towards the end of the second one.

Then coming down after the second hill I probably encountered the longest flat part of the run with an exception of the first mile and Going to California by Led Zeppelin came on my iPod and that slowed me down quite a bit, it wasn't till the song ended right before the last big hill that I noticed my slower pace. I tried to work the hill but I was definitely starting to feel it and thoughts of maybe cutting the run short started entering my head.

Luckily for me I came to my senses as I came down the other side of the hill and kept to the original plan.  I ended up finishing the run just over 38 minutes which  made my pace 7:54 per mile.  I am pretty happy with that it is certainly nice to seem some progress coming.  Still to slow to do real training with any of my running friends but I am 4.8 miles closer than I was when today started.

I will update this in a bit with picture of the elevation part of the run(not that impressive) once I get a chance but for now I am heading over to my friends to get ready for some football.

Edit:

It only looks like 2 hills here really.  but that little bump after mile 1 is a decent hill.

Lunch with Pink Floyd

So while I sit at my desk eating lunch I though I'd write a new post with some of the random things I forgot last night and an update on the uneventful monday morning I had.

I'm going to take it as a good sign that when I was driving to work this morning I almost started going the wrong way because I was busy thinking about how to make my runs have more hills instead of  actually getting to work.

I don't think I've mentioned blondie at all before here but I'll start now.  Not the band from the 70's and 80's but the real good looking girl that I see running around my town.  Granted I know her name because she graduated high school with my younger sister and used to come over my house when they were friends but that takes away the fun.  Anyway I told my sister if she saw her at her 5th year reunion this weekend to let her know that if she ever needs anyone to go running with I am available.  Sadly she did not attend.  Mission failed.

If you heard a strange sound recently and couldn't figure out what it was it was Mike Huckabee's political career going down the toilet.

I'm a little behind but apparently creationists have proof that disproves evolution...who knew?

By the way the Pink Floyd part of my lunch was because The Gunner's Dream came on my ipod this morning on the way to work so I decided to listen to some more while I ate.

Alright time to get back to work, I'm pretty sure I did say I'd like to make 500k a year so I don't think I'll do that by blogging.