My Pal's Favorite Super

If you have a young son, you will more than likely be familiar with the metal encased superhero IronMan.  Billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark and his amazingly cool toys.  IronMan's suit made from space age materials and technology allows Stark to battle villains from this worlds and beyond.

What powers this super suit is a miniature ARC reactor created by Stark while held captive in a cave.  Its the telltale light emitting from his chest that lets you know its an IronMan suit.

By the time IronMan 3 rolled around the ARC reactor had taken on a few different shapes.  One of the suits displays a triangle on the chest.

This is where I actually make a connection to my run tonight and the rambling of my blog.

During a physical therapy session that My Baby Girl had a few weeks ago, the PT (which is also my wife's extremely cool boss) talked to her (and me I suppose) about proper running techniques.  He discussed that when you are running properly with your arms and legs in sync, you also have your chest expanded correctly.  He described it as an upside down triangle and how you should always have it "open".

Now this explanation is much better in person and I know I did a horrible job of trying to describe it myself.  But the whole thing reminded me of IronMan's suit in the latest installment of the movie.

Now when I run, I'm not saying that its anything like IronMan...in fact its more like Darth Vader.  A lot of difficult breathing sounds.

Tuesday night was suspended due to feeling crappy.

Tonight was horrible, couldnt even finish a full 3 miles and I stopped to walk twice.

2.99 miles, 33:48

Later

She's an enabler..

So I've written about how awesome My Woman is in previous posts.  How supportive she's been of my running.  And how she's spoiled me when it comes to my running gear.

Well I've discovered tonight that she's not a supporter...she's what the folks on Intervention call an enabler.

Just when I think I want to quit she says something or does something for me that motivates me to keep going.

Perfect example:
I've been talking about how cold the weather is getting and trying to figure out what I'm gonna run in.  Leave it to My Woman.  I come home on Monday and she's already picked me up some gear to try.

A couple pair of long running pants (I'm not gonna call them tights), long sleeved Duo-Dry shirt, and a thin running jacket.  She's amazing!

...crap.

Now I have to go out and run in this weather.  Not only was it cold tonight, but the wind was blowing.  I think the wind chill was somewhere around -25 degrees or so.

So I put on my new gear and laced up my Brooks and hit the pavement.

F-f-f-f-f-reaking A!  Why am I doing this!?!

I had to go back in the house to put on one more layer!

Once I got going the gear worked great!  Yeah it was chilly but it beats running in a parka! 

Good run tonight.

4.62 miles, 49:19.

Later.

Monday Night's Run

Some nights there's just no material.

Theres just running.

That was tonight.

3.45 miles, 36:09

Later.

Chicken Run

Back in the day it was the place to eat when you wanted killer fried chicken.  People would come from miles around and stand in line for the food.  For the weary traveler it was a welcome respite to rest and refuel (both the body and the family truckster) before heading back out on I-70.  For many folks in the area (including members of my own family) it was the place to work too!  

Nickerson Farms was a place from my childhood that conjures up nostalgic feelings of family and food.  We didnt get to go there often as we didnt live in the same town but the times we did were amazing!  Back before families dined out as much as we do now, going to a restaurant was a special event.  Children would be analyzing the menu slowly trying to decide on their main course as if choosing a college to attend.  When in reality it didnt matter what you chose, it was going to be delicious anyway!

Now the fact that I was probably around 8 or 9 the last time we were at Nickerson Farms probably clouds my perception of what it was really like.  But isnt that the fun of childhood memories anyway?  Things probably aren't as bad or as great as you remember.

Anyway, the reason for another of one of my trips down memory lane is my run this Sunday.  While My Baby Girl was at open gym at the Jr High, I decided to do my run.  I knew it was going to be a painful run as I've run once in the last 16 days...yes, yes, I feel the shame you are all sending my way.  That was one of the reasons I decided to make my running journey public.

So my run tonight was in that same small town as one of my favorite childhood memories.  Nickerson Farms exists no more, replaced years ago by a winery.  I decided that since MBG was going to be at open gym for nearly an hour and a half, a nice 45-60 min run would be good in getting me back in the groove.

...uh wrong!

Probably should be happy I did as good as I did all things considered, but when you get the running bug, you always feel like you could have done better.  I did find out though that it is exactly 1.4 miles from the Junior High to the parking lot of the old Nickerson Farms/now winery.

2.80 miles, 31:03.

Later

Cheese curds...NOT on the runner's diet.

Obviously it's been a few days since my last post, which means it's been a few days since my last run!  Needless to say I have been busy.

Well I won't bore you with tales of cheese curds, cheesy beer spread, tailgating and victories at legendary Lambeau Field.

Instead, let me just say, coming back from the frozen tundra did not instill in me a renewed sense of running.  So getting started again was a bit difficult.

But I knew I had to do it, so Thursday night I hopped in my Brooks, turned on Pandora, and hit the pavement.

Not too bad for missing nearly a week.

2.84 miles, 30:22.

Later.

Taking the show on the road.

...well.  I may have found my new training route.

Tonight was football practice for My Pal. And since it was being held in the same town as our district's high school, I took the turn carpooling my kid and a few others. 

Practice runs for 2 hours and rather than sit and watch I decided to make good use of my time and run.  So I laced up my Brooks and hit the pavement.

Now My Baby Girl runs cross country as I have written about before, and this is the same town that she practices in.  She's told me about the different routes they run and how difficult they are.  Being her dad, I know there are times when she can exaggerate about things, so I figured her descriptions of these difficult routes were as well.

...uh, I was wrong.

Holy Crap!  The first thing I did was something they call "Watertower Hill".  I assume its similar to climbing Mt Everest!  I do believe the temperature dropped 30 degrees by the time I reached the summit.  Trees stopped growing about half way up.  ...get my point?  All I could think is wow!  If the cross country team runs that during practice, thats impressive.  And Coach Alderman is evil.

What goes up, must come down.

So then after dodging a few mountain goats, I started on the downhill portion of this hill.  Take a sharp left and you're met with a steep drop that has to rival some of the roller coasters at the Amusement Park east of our area.  I'm certain that whatever time I lost due to the incline, I made up on the decline!  Even my RunTracker program told me to slow down!  I must have looked kind of funny as I ran with my arms straight up and screaming.

As I continued my run, I stayed away from "Watertower Hill" road itself.  But as the roads that run north and south in this town head toward the hill, they do have a pretty good incline.  Tonight's run was a real test of where I am in my training and stamina.  So what did I learn?  That wherever I run my races, it better be FLAT!!  

I remember when I took physics in school (yes, I know, shocking but I was kind of good in math) and we discussed things like inertia, acceleration, mass, and momentum.  As an object of mass requires force to move it up an incline, the force must increase based upon the degree of the incline.  

Basically what that means is that in order to get my fat carcass up these hills and inclines, it requires a helluva lot more power from the muscles in my legs, air in my lungs, and blood pumped by my heart to get this Wheezing Gorilla to the top!

whew...

I'm kind of tired just typing the post after thinking of Thursday night's run.  Overall it was a good run.  Its always nice to run someplace different than where you're used to.  Will probably do this route again, just for fun.

3.50 miles, 36:29

Later

When a Wheezing Gorilla runs in the country...

...does he making a wheezing sound?

Uh...yeah.

So its been a few days since my last run.  Ok, its been a full week.

Again, I wont give reasons for the lack of dedication this week, they are nothing but excuses that don't get me in any better shape for my first 5K.

I laced up my Brooks and headed out a little early today.  It was early enough that it was still light out.  My Pal was at football practice, and My Woman and My Baby Girl were shopping for basketball shoes.

I headed out east of town to run on the short gravel road that goes around our town.  Its a nice little road without much traffic that one can run in relative anonymity.  Its a good thing to as no one needs to see all this (waving my hands in front of my body).

With the weather changing for the cooler, running with the sun might be a good idea.  Don't want November sneak up and kick my butt.

2.66 miles, 29:18

Later