That Soon?

Ok, according to the website we have less than 6 days until the start of the Flying Pig...starting to get a bit nervous.

Here's the deal: as mentioned following my first (and only HM) back in October, I was drastically under prepared (mostly due to an ability rationalize missing/skipping training runs) for the Grand Rapids HM. This time around I feel better prepared...especially in the last few weeks, but due to the unexpected reappearance of winter the first week of April and the havoc it wreaked on the baseball schedule, my training suffered a bit down the stretch. Not where I want to be, but I think training-wise I'm in a better place than October.

Ran 2:15 in October, so that is pretty much my goal for Sunday. Of course the Grand Rapids course is pretty flat. The Pig isn't.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Jessica - kick some ass this Saturday.
Trevor - Congrats on the BQ this past weekend.
Maria, Bob, Larry, et al - sounds like you guys had a blast in Jersey. Will see some of you this weekend.

Without giving too many details (not sure how she would feel about it) please keep my Mom in your thoughts/prayers (if you do that sort of thing). She is dealing with some health issues right now and it would be greatly appreciated.

Standards

From the Oxford Dictionary:
• noun 1 a lesson about right or wrong that can be derived from a story or experience. 2 (morals) standards of behaviour, or principles of right and wrong.

I’m choosing to focus on #2 – “principles of right and wrong” maybe not in the evil/good (yes I listed evil first) connotation but we have an idea of the right way to go about doing things, both in our personal and professional lives. Believe me, as far as personal lives go, I’m a resident in a glass house so I’m not picking up any rocks…so the focus of this is, for the lack of a better term, Professional Standards.

Bottom line, I’ve let mine slip, and I’m not proud of that. Due to a host of reasons my mind has been elsewhere lately and that has affected my attention to detail. I work in a detail orientated profession…records must be kept, communication is a priority, and things can’t fall through the cracks and I have been going through the motions for about the last two months. It’s time for this to stop.

You’re probably asking why I’m putting this out there…some of you reading this might be surprised, I was too as I sat back and looked at how things were going. I was starting to slide into a lack of professionalism and it scared me, I needed something to refocus me.

That refocusing…wow, no matter how many times you hear it, “No” still stings. Even worse is the absence of information until after the fact.

I mentioned way back in January that I was applying for a job. Thought I was pretty qualified for the position, turns out my opinion differed greatly with that of the people actually making the decision (personally I am sticking by my guns). Funny thing is someone in the decision making process had the chance to tell me “you’re not in the running for this” three days after the committee met (we were at the same event, sat together, went for drinks at the same place later that evening) and chose not to do so. Interviews are being conducted this week.

I get it.

No time to dwell. Back on task.

So thank you, XXXX, for getting my head out of the clouds and back where it belongs: taking care of kids (is it ok to call college-age students “kids”?) who say “thank you,” who are appreciative of the little things you do for them and their teammates, who don’t have delusions of grandeur as far as their place in the scheme of things…basically doing my job.

Only better now.

Spoiled?

I'm standing in Meijer's tonight (for those of you on the west coast not to be confused with Meyer's) on the way home from tonight to pick up some last minute things to add to dinner...garlic bread and a bottle of wine.

I make my way to the wine aisle and after walking up and down it for 10 minutes I come to the following realization: I was completely and utterly spoiled in Oregon when it came to shopping for wines. The supermarkets there had an excellent selection of wines to choose from and were, for the most part, well organized so you could find the varietal you were looking for.

Not so much here, although they did have a EXCELLENT selection of Manischewitz.

Things

This post may seem random, but here goes:

Busy week this week - due to the winter weather in April we have a backlog of outdoor athletic events to muddle our way through this week: Baseball home games today (regularly scheduled), Thursday (make-up), Saturday (make-up), and Sunday (regularly scheduled)...all double headers so that 10 games (they play on the road Wed)in the next 6 days. Track decided to host a meet Wednesday night since they haven't been able to compete (they don't like to run in the cool/cold - good thing they don't compete in Oregon). So it is a fun week for me.

State of mind - mine hasn't been the best the last few days...I fear a crossroads approaching that might effect things, (Before anyone jumps to conclusions T and I are great...more professional related that I refuse to discuss on here because I don't know who might be reading this) and I'm afraid that it is effecting my mood/demeanor/outlook a bit much. Which is why I'm glad I made it out for my run this morning...helped me clear things out a bit.

18 days, 21 hours until the Pig...am I ready? Not sure, but I am looking forward to it.

100,000 and counting

Miles that is. Not me running, but on my Saturn. The odometer rolled over that number some time last week, however I wasn't able to witness it as T had it that day (due to the possibility of a baseball game - yet another lovely feature of my job, the baseball field is about 10-15 minutes away from campus and the city who owns it has wisely not turned the water on at the field, so everything must be taken from campus to the field. So on game days I have to switch cars with T and drive the Explorer).

That's 100,000 after almost 10 years, one cross country move, and 500 miles per week commuting that first year in Oregon...not a bad deal when you factor in that I've put about $800 total in upkeep beyond oil changes.

Training for the Pig is going quite well...I'm back to logging consistent miles here the last few weeks and starting to feel like I'm making progress.

Have a great weekend people...the sun might actually be out here in Michigan today.

Uhm...Excuse Me?

Can anyone tell me where spring went? Yesterday at 5:53 PM the temp was 55F. Today at the same time it was 30F with a light snow falling.

IT IS APRIL F*CKING 4TH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SNOWING.

Oh, that's right...I live in the midwest again! The place where you can have all four seasons in one day!

Damn Michigan weather.

On another note - any comments/suggestions on the "running log" in the right hand column of the blog?

Comments

Thanks Erin...and from what I gathered reading on the cluster map website is this: while it updates everyday, you have to have a certain % increase in order for it to show up.

Other than that I don't know...maybe your IP server is in some super-secret bunker out there on the west coast?

T showed me the website for the cluster map...I'm going to blame her.

First Quarter Review

Now that March is officially over, thought I would take the time to see how my running is shaping up compared to list time last year (no injuries, setbacks, etc).

Month	# of Runs 2006	# of Runs 2007	2006 Mileage	2007 Mileage
Jan	11	16	45	83
Feb	10	15	38	68
March	14	15	55	62
Total			138	213

So, there it is…despite all the issues that I’ve dealt with these last 8-10 weeks I have:

1) Been out on the road more times that last year

2) Run more miles

According to my cool log/spreadsheet as of today I am 37.4 miles behind in my goal of running 1000 miles for the year, but when I look at the comparison above, I’m ok with that! Lot of days left in 2007.

Oh, 33 days, 20 hours left until the Flying Pig HM.