The Latest

Wow! Life is busy.

I spent much of the weekend getting the Run The Woodlands 5K results together, updating the 158-race database (after losing about 6 races to a hard disk crash) and then had work and other issues to deal with.

It is currently Wednesday morning in Tipton, Pennsylvania where I am in the basement of my grandparents' house. I look up on the wall and I see a picture of my great-grandparents, who have long since passed away (well, actually, my great-grandfather didn't pass until 1997 or 1998 and he had been born in 1900). It is always good to be "home". I'll only be here for a couple of days and even then, I'm still working (as I can carry my work with me anywhere).

I'll try to get in a run or two tonight and tomorrow before driving to Parkersburg, West Virginia on Friday for Saturday's News and Sentinel Half Marathon.

I'm going to be visiting with a good friend, Shane Brown, the new women's basketball coach at Ohio Valley College (and formerly of Houston Baptist University) -and- running the half marathon with fellow HRBer Cassie Cowan.

Workouts? After Saturday's Run The Woodlands 5K #159 where the heat, not yet consistent training and absolutely no warmup (because of the record crowd) yielded a time of 31:03.72, I later that evening added an hour on the elliptical machine at the gym and about 12 minutes on the stationery bike. (While maintaining the random setting, I upped the level to 17 and I only "covered" 4.88 miles. By the time I got to the bike, where I was trying to do 24 minutes at level 7 while doing intervals/hills, I wasn't hydrated as well as I should have been and began to cramp in my left leg.)

The splits on Saturday's run --

Mile 1 -- 9:18.63 (Barbara caught and passed me.)
Mile 2 -- 10:13.23 (Ran part of this with Jim Fredricks until I needed to back off.)
Mile 3 -- 10:32.17 (Ugly!)
Last .1 -- 59.69 (I normally cover this 5 seconds faster!)

Sunday, I was so busy that I didn't run at all. But on Monday evening, I completed the same workout from Saturday night at the gym. I covered 5.04 miles on the elliptical, I think (I know it was over 5), and completed all 24 minutes on the bike.

Tuesday had the same result -- no activity. After waking, work took hold until leaving for the airport (got there at 1:30 p.m. for a 3:45 p.m. flight ... that time of day you can utilize your normal "get there an hour ahead" routine), flying to Cleveland and then driving a little over 4 hours to my grandparents and getting here at 12:15 a.m. Eastern time.

So for those who wonder what's up with me, there it is!