Feeling good

Felt good tonight with my short 2.01 miles. I wanted to do a little more than required, and the weather was absolutely perfect; it would have been a sin just to do one mile. I hope it will stay low 60s for the rest of the summer, but I know it'll be back up to mid-80s tonight. I guess I can say that I enjoyed this faux autumn weather while it lasted.

Target Field!

I'm back, y'all.

It was a busy and super sweet weekend. Elizabeth came to West Des Moines on Thursday night. We ran a quick 2.02 miles together. It sure was nice to run with a partner, especially someone so beautiful! (Low-fat brownie points?)

On Friday, we went to Rochester, MN, Elizabeth's hometown, and spent the night there. I got in the mandatory, doing 1.08 miles with the intent that I'd get up and do a longer run the next morning. I did do a longer one, but not as long as I intended. I squeezed in 8.16 miles in just over an hour, running a 7:35 pace. I was surprised by how fast I had run it, but there was still the fear hanging over my head that I'll be running a marathon and might not get in some decently long runs.

Later on Saturday, Elizabeth's family and I went to Target Field in Minneapolis to see the Twins host the Athletics. It was a great game. I even bought a Joe Mauer jersey shirt so I could support the home team. The Twins won 2-0. The ballpark was gorgeous, and it easily beat my lone memory of the Metrodome, my first MLB experience. That game even had a couple of boyhood heroes--Ken Griffey Jr. and Kirby Puckett--in it, and still, this one topped it. I can't wait to go back next season!

On Sunday, Elizabeth and some of her friends, who I guess I could now call my friends, went to Valley Fair in Minneapolis. It's cool amusement park. We must have went on five or six roller coasters, and a couple of them (okay, all of them) either left me fearing for my life or nauseous. What a great way to spend a day. I'll consider going back to that place again... maybe.

Elizabeth and I drove back down to West Des Moines that evening. I got home, ran 1.01 miles, and went to bed early. Tonight, Monday evening, I went out and conquered large portions of the Des Moines area. I put in 14.48 miles--my longest yet for the blog--and at a decent pace, 8:26 per mile. It took me 122 minutes and 20 seconds to finish. I should have just spent that time watching a movie or doing something more pleasurable. But I'm seeing some high mileage now, and it feels good to know that I'm not too far off track. I've also earned a few days of one-milers as rest. Whoopee!

Sorry for not posting over the long weekend!

Scorcher...

Got in 3 miles tonight at a decent pace. It took me 22:40 minutes, which comes out to a 7:33 pace. I hoped to go longer, but I gave out at the three-mile point. I thought, "Man, it's so damn hot out here, and there's my apartment right there near the corner, and it's so close, and it's so damn hot out here, and it's so cool in there, man, with the air conditioner running every second of every minute of every hour, and that feels so good compared to this hot, hellish mess out here, and, man, did I mention how hot it is! Shoot, dude!" So I said hell with it, stopped right there on the corner, walked inside, and, man, it feels real good right now with the air conditioning. I'm also sitting in front of a fan.

First run in the new city

Des Moines is a hot biotch, and I learned that tonight en route to 5.59 miles. I'll try for something longer tomorrow, if it gets cooler. It's scheduled to be one degree cooler tomorrow, for both the high and low. Not very promising. But hey, there's always optimism to mislead me. It's getting to the point in the summer when I need to be very selective of the dates when I do my longer runs. I need to purposefully look for the cooler days on the horizon and take advantage of them. August 15th-17th is supposed to be upper 70s for highs. I'm going to have to use that window of opportunity wisely.

In West Des Moines...

I'm about to jump into my bed in West Des Moines for the first time. I'm very tired from a long weekend of work and fun, and I'm very ready to get my first teaching paycheck.

For the last three days, I just did one mile on the trail at Pioneer Park in Harlan. I'm looking forward to doing my first long run in Des Moines tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes...

#949

Ran a mile on the Pioneer Park trail after a workout at Anytime Fitness in Harlan, IA. My legs are a little tired, but I'm satisfied with my progress this week. I get to run in brand new scenery beginning Monday in West Des Moines, so I'm expecting to get in some fun long runs next week.

I'm officially excited for football. I usually think football gets too much press coverage during the off-season (and even too much during the season since the sport is largely confined to weekends, yet all seven days of the week [and all 24 hours of each of those days] are devoted to it). But with the Hawkeyes getting some love in all of the preseason polls and picks, it's hard not too get excited. And even though I'm a Packers fan, I really, really, really, really, really (REALLY) want Brett Favre back for the Vikings. When he's playing, I watch. I usually don't plan my day around sports, but there are a few events during the year that get 100% of my attention. The NBA Finals get it. The World Series gets it. The Super Bowl gets it. The MLB and NBA All-Star Games get it. A few college bowl games get it. Packers vs. Bears gets it. A Federer final gets it. Colts vs. Patriots get it. LeBron, Shaq, Duncan, and Steve Nash get it. And Brett Favre always gets it. He's too energetic, youthful, and memorable to not watch--at least that's how I feel about him.

Classic Challenge: My Dirt/Gravel Road

I got home earlier today, and I will be spending the next three or four days in Harlan before I settle into my West Des Moines apartment for good. While here, I'm going to check out the Anytime Fitness in town and see what it has to offer, and I will also be doing some farmhand work this weekend in the form of helping put up grain bins with my father. Probably won't be as relaxing as it could be, but at least I'll avoid being lethargic at home.

Tonight, I ran 2.01 miles on my dirt and gravel road (1800 St. between "New" and "Old" Highway 59s in Shelby County). This two mile out-and-back has always been one of the toughest runs for me. There's the N. Dubuque St. Hill in Iowa City, and then there's the Too-Unknown-To-Be-Named Hill out here in on 1800 St. We'll just call it The Hill and be done with it. It's a typical country road. It's consistently hilly. It's unpaved. It's barren, except for the multitude of bugs trying to sit in your ear or bite your legs, arms, and the back of your neck. If I were to invite anybody to run with me for a week, and each day I presented them with a run that has challenged me, then this would be the first day's activity. It's only two miles, and that's the manageable part. Anymore and you'd be begging for mercy.

The run starts off near my house (it's the one immediately above the starting point and to the left of Highway 59--if you're using the satellite view, not the street view). This part of the run is gravel, and it's a slow and moderate incline. Running on gravel is not fun. It's somewhere between sidewalk and sand, with sidewalk being easiest and sand being hardest. You have much less traction than on a paved surface, which makes it difficult to carry your momentum forward. Losing any momentum makes each step that much harder. After this short stretch, the road turns to dirt. Here's the easiest part of the run, assuming that it hasn't just rained in the past few days, in which case you'd be running through mud instead and have no traction once so ever. It's also too bad that the mud has been molded numerous times by trucks and trailers and tractors to create Mini Grand Canyons in the road. Don't sprain your ankle. This part is downhill for a while. A good confidence boost. Then comes The Hill. Just as The Hill starts, the road turns back to gravel. It's the perfect way to kill the confidence boost. The Hill lasts about a quarter mile on a steep grade. The only good part is the part when you reach the top, panting and sweating, and realize that there's some fictitious (yet entirely true) law of science that says what goes up must come down. You coast down the hill and reach the out-and-back point, Linden Rd. (or known as Old Highway 59 if you live around here). Then you get to see The Hill from her other angle, going back up her and thinking--no, repeating--to yourself that your life has no meaning, that everything sucks, that you should just stop because there's no point anymore.

But then you keep going, tackle The Hill a second time, and also have a face-to-face confrontational with the other angle of that long downhill slope you enjoyed at the beginning of your run. Get over her, and you're pretty much home.

It'll come off as dramatic, but trust when I say that this blog post didn't come close to doing this run justice. If this run were an Aretha Franklin song, I'd have a tough time picking between "Respect" and "Chain of Fools."