34 posts tagged “rush”

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.

OK, lots of voxers have done this.  I have been a VOX member for a little over a year.  I made my first post April 1st 2007.  And this is how it looked.

April Fool's Day

Hello?   Hmm...  April Fools Day.  My daughter just had her 13th birthday party.  Lotta fun.  Did not run today.  Haven't run for 5 weeks.  I've had a sacral stress fracture since about February 26th.  Nasty.  I think I may have been hurt before that.  Left IT band tightness, nasty blister on my right foot from new shoes causing my right foot to be stiff and favored, plus combination of slipping on snow, ice, lack of core strength and a shipload of miles probably all contributed... And, no, I'm not getting old, just older. Damn.  Right when I was starting to really hit CRs around home and a breakthrough 5 mile race.  Sure puts a dent in plans, but hey, went 4 years between major injuries.  But, with my wife's foot problems and my injury, we bought an Octane elliptical and are getting back in shape.  Lots of challenging races for my training buddies lately.  Jeff Andrew winning a couple of trail run Ultras and Tom and Tim doing the Marathon Des Sabels.  And, wow, thanks for everyone's support regarding my stress fracture.  I'll be back.  25 years and going.

New Music!  Rush's new album "Snakes and Arrows" due out May 1st (www.rush.com) and (Leslie) Feist's new album "The Reminder" due out May 1st (www.listentofeist.com).  Rush tickets go on sale April 14th for their August 26th show at Verizon Wireless in Noblesville (Deercreek).  Gonna have to save up my money.  Korn's new unplugged CD pretty good, new one coming out July 18th using Terry Bazio of Missing Persons on the drums!.

Mario Party 8 out for the Nintendo Wii on June 2nd.  Ready for that. 

Kourtney is doing better with her knee surgery recovery.  Today, I worked from home for part of the day to stay here with her.  She's going do go to school tomorrow.  Probably won't be very easy, but she's dying to get back to school.  Next week is Spring Break and she would have gone totally nuts to have missed this whole week.  Mariah stayed home with her yesterday, and I stayed with her today.  She pretty much did homework, watched MTV and played Guitar Hero III. 

Had a really good track workout lastnight.  Did 5x1000m in goal race pace.  I ended up going a little faster than I should have, but still in the ballpark.  3:38 to 3:42 on all of them.  3:45 is 6:00 min per mile pace, which is what I aim to run for my 10 mile race on Saturday.  And still looks like the weather is going to be nice.  Lower 50s, partly cloudy, slight breeze.

So, I'm watching American Idol with Mariah.  First time I've really sat down and watched it.  Pretty talented bunch.  I'm glad I'm not as goofy looking as Ryan Secrest.  Not quite.

Starting to get fired up for the Live Rush CD coming out April 15th.  Going to see Feist with the family April 11th.  I really wish I could go see Iron Maiden in Chicago this June.  That's way out of bounds unfortunately.  Tickets are going to be outrageous and Chicago is just expensive anyway.

Today I've got the day off from work.  I'll keep my mind off of it and not dial in and check my e-mail.  I've got a lot of stuff to do today.  I ate lunch with Austin, I've already run 6 miles this morning, need to get my hair cut, do the dishes, laundry (running clothes and towels!), get the wristband on my watch replaced, take Kourtney to her MRI.

I've managed to run 47 miles in the last 6 days.  If I count my 90 minute workout on the Octane on Tuesday, I'd equate that to about 9 miles, giving me about 56 miles of running.  Does that count?  My body seems to be holding up pretty well.  And I'm maintaining hydration levels and energy levels pretty well.  And it's finally starting to get warm!  This morning it was 36 with overnight snow melting.  50+ degrees on Sunday.  It will be nice to run 13-15 miles without having three layers, tights and running pants on.

Wii finally got our Wii shipped off to get it fixed.  They told us it should take about a week for the whole thing, delivery there, repair and delivery back.  Now if it's gone for 6 weeks or some sh*t like that, I'll be pissed.  I'll sick my wife on them.  Meanwhile, we've brought out Pikmin again for the GameCube.  Pikmin was one of the first games that we bought for the GameCube.

After watching "Across The Universe" this past weekend makes me think I need to listen to some of my Beatles albums.

Survivor was really cool lastnight.  Mikey B got voted off.  That is hilarious.  Ozzy found the hidden immunity idol and fabricated a "fake" idol and place it in the original location.. That will be so funny if someone finds it and tries to play it.  Ozzy is for real.  I finished second in our Office Pool with him a couple of seasons ago.  $50 I think.  I'm routing for him and the cross country runner dude.  This season I have Joel, which I like the guy.  The emotional wreck people need to go though.  The ones that are spent really need to be sent home, as they bring down morale and overall team strength.  Although it looks like the tribes are going to be "mixed" in the next episode.

Looks like Iron Maiden isn't going to be coming this way.  They're hitting all the big stadium cities.  Can't really blame 'em as they always sell out the stadiums.  S'well, maybe I could win a contest or something.  Maybe they'll have a DVD of it and have it out by Christmas.  Rush's new Live CD is due out April 8th, while their Live DVD is supposedly due out in August, but we know how that goes.

Kourtney has her first outdoor season soccer practice tomorrow.  Hopefully she doesn't have anything seriously wrong with her knee.  They'll have some nice weather tomorrow.  Their first game is an away game in Fishers Indiana on March 15th.  I have a race that morning on the East side of Indy at Warren Central HS, so following the race, we can head up to Fishers.  Going to have to rent my hotel room for the Papa John's 10 Miler in Louisville March 29th.

Wow, I am really hooked on my new Metric DVD ever since I bought it a couple of weeks ago.  I had an excellent race yesterday.  Started out a little slow, feeling a little disgusted the first two miles, but I got going pretty well.  Five miles in 30:33, splits 6:20,6:09,5:59,6:03,6:01.  I really competed that last mile catching and holding off two runners.  I had the results e-mailed to me before I even got back in town from the race:

I'm a little sore, but I'm going to go 10 miles later this afternoon.  My next main race is the Will Power Run March 15th.  There is a local 10K race this week that I may do as a workout depending on how I hold up this week.  I need to hit 50 miles per week for the next two weeks, and then prep for the Will Power 10K.  10 more weeks until the Indy Mini.  I'm a long way off of being able to run 6:06 pace for 13 miles.  That is a pretty aggressive goal, but I may be able to hit it if I can get another strong 8 weeks in.  The weather has really improved today, probably about 38 degrees.

We've resurrected the Game Cube since our Wii is out of commission and I've been playing on of the first games that we ever got for it, Pikmin.  Pretty cool game.  Strategy and multi-tasking at its best.

Iron Maiden is going to be on tour this May and June.  Boy, I would really like to see them on their "Somewhere Back In Time" Tour where they'll be focusing on their mid-80s material.  But, I also still want to see Rush in June, and we're going to see Feist in April.  Don't think I will be able to make all three.

Today I braved the ice and freezing rain during my lunch hour to drive to Circuit City to spend some of the remaining $40 on my Circuit City card that I got for Christmas.  I was going to pick up the new Live DVD from Metric.  And, they didn't have it!!!!  But!  I did find Iron Maiden's "Live After Death" on DVD.  I've had the double-album since high school (1985).  I never even knew that they had a concert film of it until today.  They just released it on DVD, and I must say it is really good. Probably THE best ever produced live concert soundtrack.  It's ironic that lastnight I listened to the (double) CD when I was doing the Octane, and during the song Revelations, at a certain part, I paid real close attention (as I had headphones on because everyone else had already gone to bed).  I heard what I thought was a third guitar in the center channel.  And I'm thinking, I've never really noticed it before, but how are they doing it?  They only have two guitar players.  Well, now, watching the DVD, Bruce Dickinson (the vocalist) actually plays some melody parts in this song.  I had no idea! 

I left Circuit City, trying my best not to slip on the ice in the parking lot so I wouldn't bust my ass and break my tailbone.  Ouch that would suck.  So, on the way back to work, I stop by the mall to check if FYE has the new Metric DVD. Turns out they do, $15.91.  I only had $10 cash on me...  So, I head back to work, both pumped up from the Iron Maiden DVD, and anxious to get the Metric DVD.  So... now that I have got some money out of the credit union, I'm going to go Metric shopping and Valentine's Day shopping tomorrow.  AND!  I can't believe my daughter actually wants to do this, but I mentioned to her that Feist is going to be at IU Auditorium in Bloomington April 11th, she wants to go see her!  At this point if I had to choose between seeing Rush vs. Feist, this year, it would have to be Feist.  Speaking of which, when she performed at the Grammy's the other night, that was probably the largest crowd she'd ever played for (at least in her solo career).  I've got to find out when tickets go on sale.  Last November, they were only $21 in Louisville, which I couldn't attend.

Tonight, the weather turned from spitting ice to about half inch of powdery snow.  I called Jeff to see if anyone was going to hit an indoor track.  Ended up that we did mile repeats tonight in a pretty solid effort.  I was pretty happy with all of my repeats.  Snow and a north 10 mph wind made it a little slow.  But, my times were 6:15, 6:07,6:08,6:08,6:07 and 6:07.  Pretty consistent.  I've got the perceived effort etched into my head.  On a clear day, that would probably be more like 6:00s.  I need to run 6:06 pace for the Indy Mini to break 1 hour 20 minutes.  If I can stay healthy, I think that is still a good goal to shoot for.  My current level of fitness is about a low 1:23.  My hamstrings, butt and arches are now a little sore from running on the snow.  With the warmup and the cooldown, that's 10 miles for the day.

Work was a little hectic, although I was able to get some lingering things out of my hair.  I think my boss is pissed at me though.  I got a little short with him last week before he left town and I haven't spoken to him face to face since then.  We do some pretty stupid things at work sometimes.  Like a lot of other places I'm sure - we get put in a position that we can't best do our job due to cutting corners, perception-driven re-prioritizations, etc.  S'well...

Kourtney's first outdoor soccer practice got bumped to next Thursday.  It'll be neat to watch these girls compete at the new AA level as they all prepare to continue their soccer careers in High School starting this Fall.  It will be quite a challenge for his team, but I think the coach is doing an excellent thing in giving these girls a more realistic taste of what they may face once they start to compete for a HS team.

And even though I'm a big fan of our Wii, it picked a good time to break.  Get everyone used to getting out of the house here in about 4 weeks.  This weekend, we've got to clean up the aftermath from last Tuesday's storms.

What's the next album you're looking forward to buying?

I'm looking forward to the Live DVD from Metric on February 12th.  Actual Album wise, Rush's Snakes and Arrows Tour Live.

I logged in a pretty productive 43 miles this week.  I ran 5 days and did the Octane two days (60 minutes each).  The weather has been really cold the last two days.  This morning when we ran, it was 6 degrees, rising to probably about 12 by the time we finished nearly 15 miles.  At least it was sunny out.  Winds were a little tough at times.  Legs pretty tired today.  I have a 5K race this coming Saturday, which I'm going to train through, and use the week of January 28th to prepare for a key 7 mile race.  I'll be glad when we get some warmer weather.  Even 32 degrees at this point would be nice to run in.  I'd like to be over 50 miles a week come March 1st.
New England Patriots beat the San Diego Chargers.  Wasn't pretty, but at least San Diego showed why they were in the AFC Championship.  We'll see how the Packers and Giants game goes.  It is -1 on the field.  That field looks totally frozen! 
I broke out Rush's "Snakes and Arrows", and "Moving Pictures" CD today.  Time to check in with work again real quick.