Joe's Running Blog

Bad news on the 'mill front. The deck is officially gonzo, so I layered up and braved the cold. And lemme tell ya, it's COLD here in Cokeville. And slick, and I get weird looks from people driving. Only got 4 1/2 miles in, but it was a solid pace the entire way, and for once I didn't feel like a meatball like I have for the past two months or so. I don't know if Nordictrack will replace the deck or not, if they don't, then we'll probably take some money from when we sell our home and get a nice one. We have used this one often, so we figure it's a worthwhile investment. Out.

With the mill on the fritz, I happened upon a bit of luck. I guess the town hall here in Cokeville has two heavy duty treadmills in the basement of the senior center. Yee haw. With any luck, I would have the place to myself. I finally made it over there about 5 this evening, and hopped on one of the treadmills. Nice toy. Unfortunately, it was steaming hot in there, seemingly almost as hot as our den room where our own mill was recently laid to rest. Anyhow, I decided to do a mini-fartlek workout. Basically, I did 5x1 minute hard with one minute recovery. The last one was a 2 minute effort, so I felt good about it and even survived. Maybe I'm not a meatball after all.

Early morning basketball, and the mileage entry is an estimate, but I'm gonna count it as something. Too bad I can't count the elbow I took to the chest as something, too. I'm told I have a new nickname--"fetch". Our team rebounds it, someone hucks it down the court, and I fetch it. I actually scored a few buckets this morning, and definitely got a good workout.

The previous meatball comments made about myself were not intended to draw sympathy or warm fuzzies from anyone, though I appreciate the encouraging words from those who commented. But trust me, I've got a ways to go before I'm back to where I was even last spring. But I'll get there, of that I know. I think I'm going to run the Casper marathon, June 8th, in Casper, Wyoming. Don't know why exactly, but I think it will be a good one. Definitely low key, and winnable. I don't even think there are any prizes to speak of, but it will be one in which my family and friends can come watch. Should be fun. My plans are still to pace my friend Nate Wilcox in the Ogden Marathon, he's trying to break 3:30. I believe if he stays injury-free and keeps training smartly, he'll smash 3:30.

Stacy, if you read this, I commented on your blog last night, but I believe it was on your entry for 1/14/08.  Thanks, Joe.

Solid workout today, probably the best of 2008 for me. Decided to give the treadmills at the senior center another workout, and despite the heat and boredom of no tv, I hopped on and after 5 min of warm up, and did alternating 2 min hard @11 mph, 1 min recovery @ 8 mph. The pace for those is 5:27 and 7:30, respectively. The first two hards were exactly that--hard. But after that, my heart rate fell into a predictable rthythm and on the last two, I increased the pace a little. Nothing too spectacular, but a good step in the right direction. Makes me wonder how the heck in college we would do 15X1000 meters at 2:58-3:00 with 60 seconds rest. Those were what we called "come to Jesus" workouts. We were on our knees, begging for mercy. out.

Great run today. Ran from AnnMarie's parents' house in Layton, as that is where she is staying until it's time to go into the hospital for delivery of child #2. We're not due until the end of Feb, but I don't think we'll make it that far. anyhow, decided to hook up with nate Wilcox, who lives just off Gordon Ave at about 3400 west or so, so I decided to run out to his place, and then run with him for 60 more minutes. It's just under 5 miles to his place from where I started, and after a little warming up, I kicked it into cruise control and picked up the tempo a little. Total run was just a hair over 90 minutes. After breakfast, went to Cabela's in Lehi with Myles and Nate and probably walked another 5K in that place. It's huge! Great store.