Since last time...

Okay, last post was my marathon race report. I figured I should sneak a June post in being that it's the last day of the month at all. The reason I haven't written a blog since May 21 is because...

A. I went into a deep blogging exile and depression after not meeting my marathon time goals.
B. I was so overwhelmed by the end of the track season and school year and start of summer.
C. I vowed to not write a new blog post until the Pirates stayed under .500 for a week.
D. I took a peaceful non-internet trip into the woods for a month to meditate and find my center-balance.
E. I'm just plain lazy.

Well, perhaps there are shades of truth to A and B, but those aren't really the reasons. It can't be C because the Pirates keep winning and are currently 2 games over .500. Not really sure what D means, so it must be E. Sorry for the two fans out there who are regular readers of the blog. That's probably been reduced by 50% (thanks, Beth, for remaining a loyal follower).

So, what has happened since the marathon....

*For track, there were many outstanding performances at the WPIAL (district) finals including our guys finishing 1-2 in the mile. The jumpers performed solidly and are poised for a strong senior year next year. Two of our qualifiers for the state meet brought home hardware and our junior guy in the mile is looking like a good candidate to be among the top runners in the state next year.

*For Beth, she was the first female amateur to cross the line at Eagleman. So (in your best Forest Gump impression of seeing the president multiple times), we get to go to Hawaii...again. Our buddy Ben had a strong showing at Eagleman also and he now has a blog. Good luck to him and our other buddy Nate up in Providence next weekend.

*I'm involved in my summer elementary program again. It's called "Math in Sports" and it's a fun way to work for a few mornings a week talking about fantasy baseball, calculating BA/OPS/ERA/WHIP, and collecting data on basketball shooting percentages. Not to mention I get to be all-time QB, all-time whiffleball pitcher (with a NASTY slider thanks to how those holes are cut in the ball), and referee when they're doing anything else.

*I've been an emergency callup on a co-worker's softball team this summer. It's slowpitch so it's not quite as engaging as fastpitch (no bunts or steals), but I'm getting to play the outfield which I haven't done a lot of for about four or five years (since I mostly pitched the last few years in my fastpitch league). The first few times were a little shaky defensively, but I was feeling a lot more comfortable and getting better jumps on the ball by the last game. The one downside to this is the disparity in record when I'm there (0-4) and when I'm not there (something like 10-2). It's not like I'm doing bad and causing the team to lose, it's just they lose when I'm there. I keep waiting to not get invited back or to be given directions to an incorrect field so I miss the game.

*Also, running around the bases and the outfield has helped my speed training and make sub-90 400's feel like a piece of cake. I ran a 5k back on my birthday and went sub-18 on a pretty hilly course. It was a good start to the summer racing schedule I've laid out. I'm going to do more races this summer with the goal of hopefully making my leg muscles strong and not prone to the marathon cramping. In addition to that, the plan for the fall is to do either the Harrisburg or Philly marathon in November with the expressed goal of going at 7:10-7:15 pace and RUN a complete marathon (no cramping, walking, etc). Then, hopefully that will set me up with a solid base to train even harder through the winter and spring to finally reach that elusive sub-3:00 marathon in Pittsburgh 2012.

*Of course, I've already managed to catch several baseball games. Beth took me up to Altoona for my birthday.

And I went down to Frederick last weekend to hang out with my parents & sister.

I was there while Beth and Pittsburgh's other finest triathletes conquered the mountains around Deep Creek, MD. I'll need to get over to PNC Park to watch this juggernaut of a baseball team. The pitching has been extremely exceeding expectations and the hitting has been holding the team back from even having a better record. We'll see what the second half has in store.

*The high school XC "fun runs" start Friday. It's exciting to get back in to it, especially with all the returning runners we have.

So, hopefully a few more posts in July as I settle in to summer. I hope everybody has a great 4th of July! (I can always picture Bill Pullman's speech in Independence Day)

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Back in my Philly marathon, I identified several key factors that may have contributed to not hitting the sub-3:00 goal in the form of my running out of gas around mile 15 and subsequent hamstring convulsions around mile 24.

-Following the high school’s cross country training schedule during the week and just doing a long run on the weekend
-Going out WAAAAAY too hard (like a 1:23 half and some sub-6:10 miles in the first ten)
-Could have been better on my nutrition plan (no gel before the race, not enough fluids, too long between gels)
-Rushing to the start line after long port-o-potty lines and not enough pre-race stretching

So, to address these issues, I:

-Mapped out a training plan from the “Advanced Marathon Training” book and followed the daily mileage to a T
-Resolved to maintain a 6:50 pace and go through the half right around 1:30
-Work doing the same nutrition for my weekend long runs through the race. Oatmeal, powerbar, and a gel right before the run. Gels every 5 miles on the run.
-Scouting out the port-o-potty’s before the race and know where to go to take care of business quickly before the race, so I get a complete warmup and stretch.

It’s a little misty on race morning, but not too bad. If anything the mist cooled things off. Before I knew it, the race took off. I saw Cheryl Gatons and knew she would be running under 3:00. So, I told myself I was NOT allowed to pass her in the first few miles or else I’d be going out too fast. Even with this, mile 1 was 6:33.

Whoa, throw on the brakes! Mile 2 was 6:40, but then I settled in to my rhythm. 6:48, 6:53, 6:53 was miles 3-5. Mile 6 and 7 were a little downhill and were 6:41, 6:39. On to the south side and miles 8-11 were 6:45, 6:44, 6:45, 6:49. Mile 12 was the uphill into Oakland and I resolved to not push it too hard up that hill and drain the legs – 6:59. Into Oakland I was 6:37 for mile 13 and through the half in 1:28:30. Slightly fast but on pace for a 2:57.

Miles 14-17 were 6:41, 6:52, 6:50, and 6:44. Up to this point, things were comfortable. I had been using the word “effortless” when talking to people this week. That may be exaggerating it, but it felt like I was executing my plan. Mile 18 over in Homewood is when it started getting harder, but I figured it was merely because the entire marathon wasn’t going to be easy. I knew it would get hard. Mile 18 split at 7:02. I took in my mile 20 gel between 18-19 to try to jumpstart me. But, it got harder. Mile 19 was 7:15.

I memorized two splits going into the race: Be at mile 10 around 68 minutes. Be at mile 20 by 2:17. I go through mile 20 at 2:16:43 (still on pace), but my split for that mile was 7:32. Not quite 6:50. I would need to split 6:52’s the rest of the way and could feel it slipping away.

After an 8:16 for mile 21 I knew it wasn’t going to be in the cards to crack 3:00. I figured, “back off a little and still earn a PR and get it in the 3:0X’s.” I could feel the legs getting fatigued. I took a long stroll through the next water station to fuel up on fluids and to finish the deal. Mile 22 is 9:15 as I walked through that water station.

Fueled and with the downhill mile 23 past Bloomfield back towards the strip district, I “improved” to an 8:33 mile. However, the fatigue, the upset stomach (did I mention I had a little throw-up around mile 22-ish?), the pounding of the downhill all came to rear its ugly head in the strip district. First, the quads cramped and I was reduced to a walk because there was a knife being driven into my right quad, just above the knee. Must press forward.

Then the hammies and groin start getting tight. I’m starting to yell at those muscles, “YOU STAY IN THERE!” urging them to not ball up like the knotty mess they became in Philly. I alternate squeezing and massaging my hamstrings, quads, and groin and could only imagine what the spectators were thinking of my hand placement as I’m shuffling along. Mile 23 to 24 was 11:19 because I had to walk a few points due to the beginning of the cramping and massaging.

2.2 miles to go. I make the left off of Penn at 16th Street and then the quick right onto Liberty. Almost to downtown. Then, it happened. Again. It’s as if someone shot BOTH my hamstrings at the same time. Pretzels for hamstrings. I tried to somehow get into a position to make the painful contractions in the hammies go away. However, unlike Philly, there was no 2-foot wall along the side of the road to lean up against. My legs couldn’t move. It was all in slow-motion, but I went DOWN. Literally fell over. There was nowhere else to go.

I crawled to the sidewalk to get out of the way of the runners but was in a lot of pain as the legs were throbbing from the pain and there was no way to make it go away. Somehow, just like in Philly, there were medics only about a block away. I am so blessed to have them that close that quickly. Three medics started working on my legs and making the cramp go away. They asked was it my left or my right leg. I said, “YES!” They asked was it my hamstring or quad. I said, “YES!” At least I had a sense of humor while gritting my teeth.

After they got to the point of having me straighten my legs without contractions, they then helped me get the legs moving in a SLOOOOOW bicycle-like motion as I laid on my back on the sidewalk. After a good minute or so of the slow cycles, we determined it was time to get up and try walking. Success!

So, I started moving forward with the EMT’s escorting me along my walk. I have to really hand it to them. When the legs cramped up and I went down. I was done. I was ready for someone to radio in a cart to pick me up and take me to the finish. I thought about how that would be letting down all the people who supported me through the Alzheimer’s Association but I was so down about cramping up severely again and it just didn’t matter.

However, the first thing the lead EMT said to me was, “You’re so close. Less than two miles to go. We’ll get you loosened up and get you to that finish line.” What a great motivator. Once the legs started loosening up doing the “bicycles” I then thought about how I MUST finish because of all of the support and backing I had from all of those great people that supported the Alzheimer’s Association. So, a-shuffling I went. This entire ordeal from mile 24 to 25 somehow “only” took 15:22 even though it felt like a half hour.

Shuffle downtown on Liberty. Shuffle to make a right onto 6th street. Shuffle over the Clemente Bridge. Shuffle as I make the left onto General Robinson Street (Mile 25 to 26 a speedy 11:04). The last 0.2 in 2:07. I cross the line in 3:22:28 and just reached for my hammies. The medal handing-out lady could tell that I was not in good shape, so she requested a medic. I did not resist the gurney escort to the medical tent. Anything to get off my weary legs. After some fluids and more stretching of the hammies, I was released and went to find Beth.

It took a little while, but found her and relayed to her my yet again disappointing second half of a marathon. Like the awesome wife that she is, she was able to help me accentuate the positives and set up a plan for improving next time. Probably the best part of the day was that I didn’t have time to sit around and pout. There was the Etown alumni post-race get-together. Seeing the gathering of 15-20 people and hearing their positive stories from the day helped lift my spirits.


So, back to the drawing board. No rash decisions yet. Let the race marinate for a little bit and then set up a plan moving forward. Thank you again to all the supporters of the Alzheimer’s Association and I look forward to meeting my goal in the future.

Marathon Scouting Report

So I allegedly have a blog. I guess I should post something from time to time.

This whole routine of wakeup, walk dog, drive to school, run, teach, coach, drive home, dinner, odds & ends, sleep is just about over. The marathon is Sunday. Track season is in its final weeks. Whew!

Our boys and girls teams both made it to the district team finals. That's a fun event because it recognizes a true "team" where it's dual meet scoring between the teams. Not like invitational scoring where a few outstanding individuals get 10 pts each for first and win the 'team' championship. We're going up against my alma mater, so it should be fun to compete against the old coaches.

Okay on to the marathon scouting report for Sunday.

****************************************
***Spoiler alert*** If you're interested in winning some FREE granola from Nuts About Granola, go to Beth's blog and predict my time BEFORE reading on. Otherwise, that's kind of cheating.
****************************************

And, prior to going into any of the details, I want to say this marathon preparation has already been a HUGE success. I went into it wanting to make a difference beyond just running faster than last time and I feel like I have accomplished that.

First of all, Beth was asked to be the team dietitian for the Alzheimer's Association Alz-Stars. I went with her to a meeting and ended up signing up to be a fundraiser. Through the awesome generosity of nearly 50 individuals, somehow they decided to give a total of $1,830 to the Alzheimer's Association on my behalf. I am truly grateful and speechless for all that giving. What a difference you have made. I'll be thinking of you and your family members when things get tough out on the race course. If you're one of those amazing people, THANK YOU!! If not, you can still help and donate here.

Secondly, I wanted to help others get involved with the marathon weekend and I had two main groups I was involved with. First of all, from my high school I teach at, there are two others doing the full, 5 more doing the half, and a couple on relays. I've been an 'advisor' to them throughout the process (don't know if you can really call it a coach).

The other group is through one of the colleges I went to, Elizabethtown College. It's located out by the Harrisburg/Lancaster area, so there aren't a lot of alums here in the Pittsburgh area. However, our alumni group thought it would be neat to organize for the marathon either running or volunteering. Through this, we have 2 people running the full, 2 running the half, 2 relay teams (10 people), and 5 or so people volunteering on race morning. It's so exciting to see so many people get involved. Some are even from outside the area and just coming in to Pittsburgh for the weekend.

So, before the gun goes off on Sunday to start the race, it is certainly a success (and part of the reason I haven't gotten around to blogging much trying to keep all of this organized). However, it is still the ultimate priority of mine this weekend to redeem myself from the ill-advised greedy start and paying for it the last 5 miles Philadelphia Marathon.

My training has gone well. I have followed my plan throughout--especially the mid-week long runs. With that said, I'm feeling confident that I have put myself in a position to crack the 3:00 barrier. How will it turn out? We'll find out Sunday. One thing I do know is that I will NOT be going through the half in 1:23:11 like I did in Philly. The goal is to click off that 6:45-6:50-ish pace and come through at 1:29:29 or so. Then, as I get to around mile 20 I will assess things. The best advice I've heard is that the marathon doesn't start until mile 20. Keep it under wraps until then!

I have checked out the course on several long runs and have seen the entire course (except for this little 1-mile part out by the West-End Bridge) twice. I know what to expect and just have to execute the plan. I didn't take my camera on my long runs on the course but, through the use of Google's StreetView, I'll highlight some of the key parts of the course for me.

Miles 1-5 are about getting into the rhythm. After mile 6, you go on to the West End Bridge. I don't really drive over it too often, but loved taking in the view of Heinz Field and downtown during my training runs. I figured I'd do it then because it's all business on race day. Not time for sight-seeing!



After that uncharted 1-mile rectangle past the West-End Bridge, you proceed along Carson Street on the South Side. I again liked looking back towards downtown and admiring the skyline.


Mile 10 is at the end of the South Side, you cross the Birmingham Bridge and then work your way to the only true "uphill" of the course into Oakland. I tried to capture it with this shot. You can see the Cathedral of Learning on Pitt's campus in the background. Just run towards that up the hill.


Then, it's through Oakland, Shadyside, East Liberty (a little scary) and then back into Shadyside. Around mile 22, you're at the Bloomfield Bridge and this is where it could get exciting on Sunday. I could feel the anticipation brewing on my long runs when I got to this point. It's pretty much downhill and flat from here on in to the finish.


You continue down Liberty Avenue towards the Strip District. As you go past mile 23, you can see downtown in the distance and know you're getting close!


After going back through the Strip District (and I can imagine a lot of people lining the streets), you cut through downtown back to 6th street. Make a right onto 6th street and head towards the Clemente Bridge and PNC Park. Less than a mile when you can see PNC Park!


Once over the bridge, hang a left around Left Field of PNC Park onto General Robinson St and it's a straightaway to the finish as you're running towards Heinz Field!

That's how I'm hoping it plays out on race day. We shall see. Thank you for all of the well-wishes I've gotten already. If you're interested in tracking people in the marathon, they have set that up here. You have to set up a username and password, but then you can have the splits every time we cross over mats (every 5 or 10 miles?) emailed, tweeted, texted, facebook-ed to you.

Time to get some rest for the big weekend coming up! Good luck to all racing in this weekend!

Martha's RR, Track, and The Big Easy

In what is a LOOOONG overdue blog, here we go.

Martha's Run 10k went well. Unlike last year when the top three were long gone two minutes into the race (winning time 33:48), the makeup of the running group was different. I looked around at the start line and saw one local big-time runner (and a big fan of giving high-fives) and the college kid who went to Mt. Lebo and wrestled but is now getting really fast at road races.

The starter said "GO" and I took off from the line....and nobody went with me. And it stayed that way for the first mile and half. I told myself this is just like my morning runs on the course....except it's light out....and I'm running on the road instead of the sidewalk....and I'm following a fire truck...and I'm running faster. Other than that, just like a morning run.

Finally, around two miles into it, the big-timer caught up to me (I was starting to think he was just using this as a tempo run). We ran together for the next mile, but then he started to put a gap on me. He was about 5-10 seconds ahead as we got to the 5 mile mark. We descended down the last big hill and I couldn't close the gap (similar to my experience from last year). We get to the final flat (about a half mile long) and I picked it up and tried to close the gap but was unable to. The end result: 2nd place 36:32 (5 seconds behind the winner), just under a minute faster than last year.

The race is in memory of a Mt. Lebanon graduate Martha Dixon who worked for the FBI Cold Case Squad. A gunman entered their office and began shooting. She returned fire and wounded the perpetrator but was killed in the exchange. The goal of the race is to raise money to build playgrounds to keep kids active. The playground in the picture below was the first one built a few years back. Their next one is going to be in conjunction with the South Hills YMCA.

Sunday was a long run (17 miles) and I hit that pretty good. Monday I did 6 miles. Then, I hit the wall. My legs felt like lead the rest of the week. I think I overdid it. I took off Tuesday, ran a sluggish 10 miles Wednesday and 5 miles Thursday. Then, I took Friday off with the travel day and started to finally feel better on Saturday. More on the New Orleans portion in a minute....

TRACK
Our weather continued par for the spring. Cold, rainy, throw a little snow in there. While we were in New Orleans, the invitational got cancelled due to wind and rain. It's been a crazy spring. In spite of that, our boys and girls have been adapting, adjusting, and excelling and we haven't lost yet heading into our final week of section meets. Hoping for a string of nice weather for the final month of the season.

NEW ORLEANS
Off to a new and exciting place again. Beth's triathlon season has started. We did our usual routine--Beth packs her bike and everything Thursday night. Friday morning I drop Beth off at the airport before school. She flies down while I'm at school and practice. Then, I fly down. My flight from Pittsburgh got delayed about an hour. Then, due to thunderstorms, the Atlanta airport closed and we were left sitting on the runway in Pittsburgh.

A half hour later, we finally took off and made our way off to Atlanta. The descent into Atlanta was a little dicey. There were lots of corrections made by the plane due to the wind. A lightning bolt flashed right outside of the window. Whoa! After a hard landing we made it. My flight to New Orleans was also delayed and didn't take off until around Midnight. I get into New Orleans around 2am central (3am eastern), making for a 23-hour day.

On to the weekend, Beth had her usual pre-race routine. She went in the (choppy) water and I did an hour run. The legs started to come back a little bit. Sunday was race day. The choppy water ended up forcing the cancelling of the swim. Beth did awesome and was the 4th amateur to finish and she cracked 1:30 in the half marathon! I did my usual thing of being out on the course.

While I was out there I snapped a few pictures. These pictures turned out pretty clear since our new phones have a higher resolution.

Beth about 3 miles into the run.

While waiting for Beth on the run, I was snapping shots of the pros (some of which are on FB). This one was interesting, though. Racer number 57, Kelzie Beebe, threw me for a loop as I was cheering the runners on. She says, "You're Beth Shutt's husband, aren't you?" I guess my reputation is starting to preceed me.

Beth about to overtake 4th place with about 3 miles to go. She was trucking!

This was a little tricky since it was point-to-point for the run, but I made it work. I checked it out on mapmyrun and it turns out I logged 11+ miles on race day.

POST-RACE

With it being our spring break at school (and because tickets were a lot cheaper to return on Tuesday) we stuck around an extra day than usual and actually had a chance to check out the host city. New Orleans has been through a lot with Hurricane Katrina. Some parts, like the French Quarter, seem like they've fully recovered. Other parts up by Lake Ponchartrain, had areas that have recovered but others still with the spray paint on the houses. The roads were real bumpy in that area. It also looks as though they are working on levee projects still there.

The French Quarter was...unique. Driving the course on Saturday we saw a whole bunch of people out including people dressed up as pirates (not from Pittsburgh). There were beads everywhere and I can only imagine what it was like there at night.

I found a new favorite treat in beignets - doughy funnel cake-like donuts with mounds of powdered sugar on them. Cafe DuMonde does ship the mix!

We went past the Super Dome. It's so much bigger than Heinz Field, an amazing structure.

On Monday, I ran along the Mississippi River levee. It just went on forever. My 8.5 miles out went pretty well, however I melted on the way back. Must have been something to do with the 80-degree temperatures and humidity since I was coming from 40's and 50's.

Monday night, we saw a AAA baseball game between the New Orleans Zephyrs (Florida Marlins) and the Round Rock Express (Texas Rangers). It was a good game, but selfishly I was a little disappointed because there weren't any real top prospects playing in the game. In fact, there were a good number of late-20's journeymen who I recognized from playing in the big leagues.

The first pitch. I think it's in the air, but you can't see it. It's out of the pitcher's hand, the batter is still looking out and the catcher still has his target up.

Like with many things in New Orleans, there is a levee incorporated as part of the outfield beyond the right-center fence.

Our flight back went smooth and soon after I got home, it was off to another track meet, where it was 50 and rainy (of course).

I'm excited for Easter this weekend to see family and to remember the whole reason for our faith. Jesus loved us so much to die for us and take our place for all the bad stuff we have done in our lives. We don't owe Him anything, but knowing what He did for us makes you want to make a difference for Jesus with other people.

Spring Has Sprung?

It's April! Start of the baseball season! Two track meets so far in April and......IT SNOWED AT BOTH!!!! Here's a picture of me driving to Saturday's meet.




Today, we had more snow flurries at our meet. My workout this morning was in the rain/snow of mid-30's temperatures bringing back memories of the Turkey Trot. It's just not right. But, hopefully things will start warming up.

Training is going well. Last week I had 5x1000 at 5k pace on Wednesdsay, 17 mi with 14 miles at marathon pace on Saturday, and 5x600 at 5k pace today. I'm doing a 10k Saturday (Martha's Run from last year) and 17 on Sunday. This weekend will be 5 weeks to go. It's getting close. And, thanks again to all who have been so generous in donating to the Alzheimer's Association on my behalf. It's so awesome to see how many people are willing to support. If you haven't had a chance yet and would like to, you can donate here.

I also need to get around to my Pirates preview. Last spring, I wrote a blog on why the Pirates couldn't be any worse. Well, they were worse. So, I'm not going to write an opinion on whether they'll be better or worse. I'll just focus on individuals.

Even though it's a few days late, my concern for the year is starting pitching (off to a great start) and infield defense (kind of ugly so far). I feel Neil Walker will regress to his minor league stats (he's off to an awesome start) but think Tabata and McCutchen will take off this year (so far so good). Through five games, they LOOK better. But, we shall see.....

AND HOW ABOUT SOME WARMER WEATHER!!!!!!

Tornado in March

I heard on the news how a tornado in Western PA in March is very unlikely. But, it happened. Somehow, nobody was killed but a lot of people have a lot of cleaning up to do near where I grew up. I've never had something like this happen so close to home (literally) and my heart is saddened over the recovery.



Being the map aficionado I am, here's my perspective of it. The path (red) ripped through right by a house where I was babysat as a kid (off the screen left) then by the high school & middle school, past my cousin's church and then over into the neighborhood where I used to ride my bike. Then, (perhaps because of the hill-valley topography) it must have went back up in the clouds. I don't know much about tornadoes but if it had continued, my grandparents may have been right in the path (black circle). Thank God for that. I grew up in the green circle.

Here's some more shots:
Roofs just torn off of houses. How powerful.





At the high school, it took off part of an auditorium roof...

...and took down the scoreboard and other parts at the stadium.


Just left speechless.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a lighter note, I was all planned to write a blog Wednesday night with stories of how we dodged marble-sized hail at track practice, a great announcement, a funny story, and basketball update. So, here they are:

*With many generous donations by many great people, I have hit my target for fundraising for the Alzheimer's Association. The deadline is mid-April, so I figure I'm just going to keep asking and see how much more we can raise. If you are interested in donating, click here.

*Training has been going well. I had a 11 (supposed to be 12) mile run with 7 miles at half marathon pace on Wednesday morning. I was unsure if I'd be able to hit the pace that early, that cold, and on my own. But, I hit it and was excited about that. Due to my schedule this week with track meets, I then had to run 12 this (Thursday) morning. I was going to complain to Beth Wednesday night about the back to back hard running days. However, I remembered over the weekend she did a 4-hour bike ride then 2-hour run Sunday followed up by a 2-hour run on Monday. No sympathy in the Shutt house! But, aside from some sluggish hills, I plodded along at my desired pace and got it done. Whew!

*My brackets are busted (nothing new). Too bad Pitt lost (hee hee). Penn State played a tough game, much of it without their 2nd best player Jeff Brooks due to foul trouble and then re-separating his shoulder. In spite of all that they lost on a last-second off-balanced jumper. Arizona had a good first weekend (both close games--whew!) but now has a tough matchup against Duke tonight. I would consider Duke the big favorite, but I guess you never know. That's why they call it March Madness. The only trouble is the game isn't going to start until almost 10pm (past my bedtime). I guess I'll just have to check out the score when I get up.

Time to watch some hoops.

The Madness is Coming

One of my favorite times of the year - March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament snuck up on me. As noticed by the absence of blogging, lots going on. When that happens I don't sit down to write a blog either because (1) I need to catch up on sleep instead of writing a blog. (2) I'm busy doing my next activity. Sleep or overscheduled. The two ends of the spectrum.

Anyway, I'm sure it's like that for everybody so I'm just enjoying the journey.

Lately:

We did the Spring Thaw a few weeks back now. My target going in was to run 15 miles (you had the option of 10, 15, or 20). I wanted to 'race' the first 10 around 6:00 pace and then try to sustain 7:00 pace for the last 5 (trying to simulate later in the marathon). Just about hit my goal - I was 60:19 for 6:02 pace. My third lap was 36:14 (7:15 pace) partly due to fatigue but also due to me being stubborn about not taking a gel right at mile 10 and waiting until mile 13. Too late at that point. Lesson learned.

But, overall a good day and training's been going well so I'm hoping I'm on track for the marathon. It was fun seeing so many people at the race - Beth (of course), fellow teachers (Ben, Heather, and Veronica), and the triathlon crew (Chad, Jen, Jeremy, Jocelyn).

This past week I hit my first 20-miler of the training cycle, and it went well.

Track started Monday. We had two nice days of weather, but today was pretty soggy. Looking like more sog and maybe even some snow on Friday.

The other big story I had was driving home last Monday. I'm coming up the hill about a half mile from home when I see a dog (40 lbs or so) running in a yard by the road with a kid behind him. This road is a two-lane road with a speed limit of 35 mph. At rush hour, it gets a little busy. I see in my rear view mirror that the dog crosses back over the road with the kid chasing it. I start thinking about if that was our little Roxy and I was scared for the dog (and the kid for that matter).

So I pull off on a side street, swing back around, park the car and get out to help out the kid. As I get closer we start to surround the dog, but then it decides to run back across the street. I play traffic cop as me and the kid go back across too. The dog wandered over to a bigger backyard and we finally corralled it as the dog laid down. I pet the dog as the kid puts on the leash and that dumb dog squirts out and starts running again.

Fortunately it didn't head back toward the road (I put myself between the dog and the road to force him away from the road). After another few minutes of the dog running around (it was all a game to him) I think it started getting tired and laid down. This time I grabbed the dog's collar and helped the kid put the leash on--no taking chances. All is well and the most stressed of the three of us was certainly me. The dog loved running around and the kid (4th grader-ish?) didn't seem too concerned about the whole situation.

Back to the March Madness, the conference tournaments wrap up this weekend and the selections are on Sunday. This are looking a little better than last year:

*Arizona - rebounded to win the Pac-10 regular season title this year after missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1986 last year. The ended up with a good record, but no real big wins. The ESPN "Bracketologist" is predicting a #5 seed

*Penn State - just shot themselves in the foot too many times this year. They ended up with a 9-9 record in the Big Ten, but it could've easily been 10-8 or 11-7. That would've looked a lot better. Overall, they were barely above .500 and ugly losses to Maine, Mississippi, and Virginia Tech don't help either. Their only shot is to probably win the Big Ten tourney.

*Davidson - they won something like 10 of their last 12 and looked like a team that may make a post-season run. However, they lost in the first round of the Southern Conference tournament. But, they've got a lot of talent coming back so hopefully they'll be in the hunt next year.

Any picks out there of who will win? I think it's so tough anymore with all the turnover in college basketball.

I'll be sending out invitations to the NCAA Tournament bracket challenge again this year. All about bragging rights and seeing who's picks stink the least. If you're interested and don't get an invitation, send me a message on Facebook. The more the merrier!