Denny’s blog

Tonight, despite being a Monday night, I ran a speed workout.  I usually run speedwork on Tuesday's, unless, I overdo it on the weekend and postpone it to Wednesday's.  I didn't get a speed session in this weekend, so I figured I'd give it a try tonight.  I started out my warmup, did 3+ miles and my legs were burning, but not dead.  So, when I got back to the track that I parked at, I put on my new racing flats and did 12x400m w/ 2 min. rest.  Started out with a couple of 81s and then got the last 6 all down to 78s and 79s.  Afterward, I ran the same 3+ mile cooldown, and now, I'm totally spent and totally dehydrated.  I've already got my weight back up to my pre-workout weight, so I've at least taken in as much fluid as I lost, but I'm still rehydrating.

Kourtney's team did their best they've done in tournaments as they finished their bracket with 4 points.  1 win, 1 loss and 1 tie.  The weather was really crazy.  I got sun burned on Saturday, and then froze on Sunday as we dealt with 53 degrees, torrential downpours and 35 mph winds.  Some soccer matches got bumped and shortened since a lot of the fields at some of the other complexes were unplayable.  Sunday when we got back in town, there were lots of sticks and limbs down in the yard.  There was one really large branch in our drive way that landed on my '94 Corolla and put a huge dent in the left fender and two dents in the hood.  But!!!  All these years, I never dropped full coverage insurance on it even though it was paid off.  So, now I'm glad that I kept full coverage as we won't have to pay to get it fixed.  Our "comprehensive" coverage keeps us from having to pay a deductable as well.  Sweet.

Show us your mother.

ShirleyParis

Today Mariah and I made our last car payment on our 2005 Kia Sorrento.  Finally!!!  We are free of a car payment!  What a load off.  And it also helps that we got a small bonus from work today as well. 

To the good stuff.  I had an excellent week running.  I've only got in 35 miles so far this week, but it's been good.  I took Sunday completely off.  I ran a recovery run on Monday, a tempo run on Tuesday, recovery run Wednesday, another tempo run on Thursday (8 miles in 52:16 with the last mile in 5:57, with a tail wind, but hey).  Then a good 8 miles easy tonight.  And all with doing the Octane during lunch each day.  Tomorrow we leave for Kourtney's soccer tournament.  I will attempt to do a speedwork session at one of the local high schools and use my new racing flats.

Also this week, my 1994 Toyota Corolla (which we've had paid off for 8 years now, yes!) rolled over to 140,000 miles.

Lastnight Erik totally blew it on Survivor.  Dumb ass.  Sorry Erik.  I was really rooting for you.  S'well.

Here's a pic of me on the Speedway around the 7 mile mark at the Mini

IndyMini2008

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OK, we'll not quite.  I had seen so much stuff on runners taking "ice" baths.  Saturday I ran the Indy Mini and totally rocked.  Not bragging, just pumped.  I took Sunday off.  Ran 6 miles Monday.  Legs actually felt pretty good.  Tonight, I ran 8.5 miles in one hour and while I had the energy to maintain 6:40 to 6:50 pace, my quads felt like someone was just punching the shit out of them.  Like when someone jokingly punches you in the arm just a little too f'ing hard?  So, tonight, I have no ice, but I figure, what the hell.  I'll try this.  I ran myself a bath tub of cold water.  I have well water, so it is a chilly 51 degrees.  I got in and HS!!!  gasp, gasp, whew!  Very shocking.  But!  after the first 30 seconds or so, the shock sort of faded.  I managed to sit in it for 12 minutes.  How long are you supposed to go in an ice bath anyway?  I'd have to say, that it actually worked.  It was like taking ibuprofen and it taking effect immediately.  The pain is gone.  Of course my muscles are still twitching.  I really should be letting my body get over the mini.

When was the last time you drove out of town?

Last Sunday, we went to LaFayette for Kourtney's soccer double-header.

To the Indy Mini.  Just 4 more days.  I took yesterday off, didn't even do the Octane.  Got up and ran this morning, an easy 6 miles with Jacki Andrew.  Going to do a "light" workout tomorrow evening (i.e. 2x800m in 3:03), take Thursday off, then do my pre-race warmup routine Friday.  Tapering is so hard to do.  It's hard to let up on the training, and hard to slow down when your legs are fresh from the reduced mileage.  Can't wait until Friday for Fazoli's and Baskin Robbins three-scoop sundae (two scoops Chocolate Mint, one scoop Chocolate, with hot fudge, whip cream and nuts).

I finally got a chance to play Mario Kart Wii.  It's pretty cool.  Hopefully I'll have more time to play it some more.

Looks like our Summer Vacation to Arizona may be very, very expensive.  Gas is now $3.75 in Terre Haute.  When we figured up our costs last December, we were banking on $3.  Damn...  Not so sure it's going to happen.

I miss my Alaska kitty.  Tonight when I was putting the chairs back after dinner, I couldn't help but remember how Alaska would sit in the chair and stare out the window at the squirrels and birds.

Finally giving Metric a little bit of a break, and I've been listening to Feist and Rush some more.  Listened to Led Zeppelin I for the first time in a while. 

Today I had a really good final speed workout with jeffandrew916 and Jacki going into next Saturday's Indy Mini.  2x800m, 4x400m, and then 8x200m.  Pretty tough, but ran really well.  I got sunburned today.  Kourtney had a double-header soccer game scheduled.  Their team lost the first game 6-4, then tied the second game 3-3.  It was a victory for the girls though, as they have had trouble in the past with double-headers.  Hopefully this will be a good sign for them going into their first tournament May 9th.

Picked up my new Snakes and Arrows Live CD by Rush last week.  It is really good.  The sound quality is pretty amazing.  I'd like to see them live again when they come to Indy June 28th, but we're slated to be just getting back from vacation that day.  Tonight at midnight we're going to pick up our reserved copy of Mario Kart Wii.  So, we're going to be up a little late tonight.

So the Indy Mini is next week.  Going to let up a little as I'm going to have 52 miles this week.  Probably two easy days, one short tempo run (6 miles with 1.5 miles at race pace), then Friday, I just do my pre-race warmup routine (2 miles then strideouts).  Mariah and I both took the day off next Friday so we can go to the Expo, pick up my race packet and check out the new "Runner's Forum" store in downtown Indy.

This evening I picked up the new Rush CD "Snakes and Arrows Live".  It is from the Rotterdam show last fall.  I got to see them last summer in Indianapolis (Noblesville actually).  I've seen Rush on every tour ever since the "Hold Your Fire" tour March of 1988.  Favorite band of all time.  They'll be back in Indy June 26th, but I may still be on vacation out of town at that point, so I may not go. 

The last two days I've put three hours on the Octane.  I've run really hard the last two weeks, putting in 108 miles.  I ran really hard Wednesday and Thursday of last week.  Then ran hard again on Sunday, running 10 miles under 1:06 with the last five miles just a hair under 31 minutes.  So, Monday and today, I've really felt it in my sacrum area and have definite inflammation and irritation everywhere.  I took a hot bath and used our massager and it feels much better right now.  Gotta be careful.

Tonight, on American Idol, we got to see one of my co-workers and her husband in the audience as they watched his brother, David Cook perform.  Their family is facing some very serious challenges right now, and it is great to see that it was made possible for them to be able to see David perform.

Friday night, Mariah and I took the kids to Bloomington to see Feist in concert.  It was part of Kourtney's birthday present.  Kourtney got to invite one of her friends, C, to go with us.  Mariah and I had both taken the day off.  After we got the kids off to school, we went to breakfast together.  Pretty cool.  We then headed to 100.7 Mix FM Radio Station to pick up the $45 gift card that Kourtney had won the night before.  On our way, we had seen this building that had pretty much burned to the ground on 3rd street.  Lots of fire trucks, state troopers, local cops, local TV coverage and what appeared to be secret service personnel.  Turns out that it was the Democratic headquarters here in town for Hillary Clinton.  Ironically, Bill Clinton made a stop by the burned remains that morning on his way to Clinton Indiana.  Interesting.

Mariah and I got Kourtney out of school just a tad early and we headed for Bloomington shortly after Austin got off the bus.  It's a good thing we got an early start, because it was the kick off night for the Little 500 and also Barack Obama had visited IU earlier in the day. Busy there.  The weather was so perfect. 

Hayden opened up for Feist.  He was good.  Not too exciting.  But Feist's show was awesome.  She has such a soft, pretty voice.  The IU Auditorium is actually a pretty neat building.  Not sure what the first song was that she had done.  It was either newly written or a cover.  The stage arrangement was pretty simple.  All just instruments, mics and a big backdrop. It's interesting that the "behind-the-scenes" special effects that were presented on the back-drop weren't really all that behind-the-scenes as two artists portrayed several special effects with stencils, templates, water paints, lights, "shadow puppetting", etc., right on stage with the band.  She was very interactive with the crowd.  At one point she had different parts of the audience singing different tones.  Balcony, Orchestra, etc.  Then as she had the audience going, she went into "I'm Sorry".  Really made the hair stand up on you.  She played almost every song off of  The Reminder, and about 5 songs from Let It Die.  All very good.  I hope that one of her shows can get recorded for a live DVD. 

Kourtney's soccer team won their season opener today in a cold, rainy, sleety, windy day.  Temperatures were in the low 70s last night, but today, it was 43 w/ 15 to 20 mph winds.  Talk about cold.  Her team won 5-2.  Some pretty amazing plays by the team.  And to be the first game of the season, the chemistry was really there as they didn't seem a bit rusty at all.

This evening was a very sad one for the Utter family.  Our first pet "Alaska" passed away this evening.  He was 11 years old.  My mom and dad drove from Findlay Ohio in the summer of 1997 and gave us a new kitten Alaska. We had finally bought our first house and no longer lived in trashy apartments that didn't allow pets.  Kourtney was just 3 years old when we got Alaska.  The whole family took it really hard as we all cried together for a couple of hours.  He was so beautiful and very affectionate for a cat.  He was very funny as a kitten.  He was a basket case the first couple of years whenever guests would come to the house.  He used to get us up in the middle of the night for food or water by stepping on the buttons on Mariah's alarm clock.  He used to take Kourtney's hair ties and play with them and spread them around the house.  He was actually old enough too that he had to have his hips and back rubbed everyday.  We will surely miss our Alaska Kitty.

Alaska

Alaska and Leia

Alaska On Vox

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