28 posts tagged “soccer”

I think.  Lots been going on.  Last weekend, we had major flooding as we had 9" of rain over night (15" for the week).  Not good.  Lots of people losing stuff.  We managed to get by with just 1" of water in the basement.  The floods were a good half mile from our house.  Some people that I know couldn't get out of their house, and one of my wife's friends couldn't leave her town for two days.  Looks like I might be able to see Rush after all.  Turns out that poor weather in Denver pushed a make up date to June 25th, which is the day they were supposed to play Indy. Rush is now going to play Indy on July 24th, so I may see about going to the show.  Less than a week before we go on vacation. I'm getting excited.  Work is hectic as I try to keep up as my two other co-DBAs are on vacation this week, so I'm going solo.  And I've got to wrap things up before I leave. 

I've been trying to watch the Euro 2008 soccer tournament on my new HD TV...  Haven't quite had the time.  Finally got to wrap up the French Open three days after it finished.  Nadal wins again.  Federer didn't look good at all in that match.  So, now only Nadal and Bjorn Borg have won the French Open four straight years.  Lots of good sports coming up on TV.  Euro Soccer 2008, USA T&F Olympic Trials, Wimbledon.  Been running really well.  Have our Half Day Relay race this Saturday.  Can't wait.  Gotta make sure I eat right and get enough sleep the rest of the week.  Looks like we're going to get a bit more rain through..

Kourtney is reading her first Dean Koontz book.  Looks like I need to put down the Wii controllers and try to read a little bit at night.

TooMuchRain

Long time no write.  Weird.  I have so much going on right now.  Kids are out of school, yet so busy.  Work was really crazy last week.  A lot of pressure and high visibility.  I've been there before though, and I made it through again.  Really didn't have much in the way of sleep last week.  Or even last night.

Storms last night left 25 gallons of water in the basement.  Apparantly we got over 4" of rain last night, and the drainage system just couldn't carry the water away quick enough.  So, that's what Mariah and the kids did this morning.  Austin is going to like an honors math program 5 days a week.  Kourtney's soccer conditioning for Terre Haute North High School starts next week, and she's still not even done with travel league until the 15th. 

Running has been going great.  I've had some really productive runs.  Although, for about 6 days now, I've had some achilles tightness.  Last Thursday, my right achilles started to hurt during my tempo run.  I finished the tempo run and it hurt pretty bad the rest of the night, and all the next day.  So that ended 102 miles in 11 days.  Ran 2 the next night in excruciating pain.  Then Saturday and Sunday, 100 minutes on the Octane.  Monday, 30 minutes Octane with 1 mile easy with Austin at his running program.  Tuesday, it felt a little better, and I ran a really quick 3.25 miles just a hair over 20 minutes with the last mile in 5:41.  Today, did 30 minutes on the Octane at lunch, then tonight, ran the same 8.5 miles as I did last Thursday.  Achilles was just a little tight the last two miles.  I had to alter my running a little bit and land a little harder on my heels as opposed to pushing off.  Range of motion is a little limited.  I started out really struggling, but even with that I was still running 7 minute pace.  On the way back from my out-and-back, I averaged 6:10 pace on the way back.  And it was really hot and humid.  Post rain.  Lots of trees down and some power lines down in Deming Park.  Pretty amazing.  It's supposed to get really hot in a few days.

Hehehehe.  Austin is doing downward dog on Wii Fit.  Never thought my 10 year old would be doing Yoga.  Funny.

I'm dehydrated.  I need to drink.  And get some sleep.  After I play some Williams Pinball on Wii.  Still trying to keep up with the French Open.  I'm two days behind.

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.

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

This has been a pretty good week running.  42.5 miles in with one day to go.  I need to go between 10 and 15 tomorrow.  That will put me over 50 miles for the first time since last February.  Today I did a really good workout.  It was sunny, 46 degrees.  I ran a 3.5 mile warmup at roughly 7:00 pace.  Then ran 12x200m up Shrine Hill w/ 200m jog recovery with the sprint starting at the top of every two minutes.  Felt strong through the entire workout.  The cooldown was 3.5 miles back home, against 15 mph west wind.  My quads are a little sore.  Tomorrow is going to completely suck as it's supposed to be 10 degrees in the morning with sub-zero windchills. 

With last weeks storms, lots of trees and power lines went down.  In our yard, we just lost a lot of branches from our two oak trees.  I think our maple is going to die though, as it is leaning, leaking water out one side, and the bark is all compressed on the opposite side.  We'll see.  Today should have been yard cleanup day.  With Kourtney's soccer game and me running and the other stuff we had going on today, the yard was neglected once again.  And tomorrow it is going to be blustery.

Yard Day After Storm

Lots of mud in the yard due to flooding.  A couple of branches are actually "stabbed" into the mushy ground.

Kourtney's soccer team won their indoor game again today, 9-0.  The girls are really coming together and getting really good off-season work with this.  I took Kourtney to her singing contest today.  She did really well after waking up with a sore throat.  But with a good warmup at home and a warmup with her Choir director, she was able to sing.  She earned a gold medal for it. 

Running wise today entailed a very challenging workout.  It is a 30 minute "random" fartlek workout in which you run with others.  Each runner gets a 5 minute segment, in which they can decide what will be run, whether it's 1 min. on 1 min. off, or whatever.  Today was a little different.  Today didn't really emphasize time intervals, but using landmarks instead.  Another thing different was that we would run tempo, then step it up even faster, then up to near sprint, back down to tempo pace and then back to recovery pace.  Covered a good 4.5 miles in the 30 minutes.  Now my hamstrings are soooooooo sore.  A lot of scenarios covered such as race acceleration, finishing kick, etc.  Tomorrow's long run is going to be a little scaled back.  Gotta figure out what I'm going to do running wise next week since next week's race is on Sunday.