Runners LoungeCast - Episode 3 - Show Notes

Where else can you discuss Nitmos's hatred of llamas, Amy's preoccupation/hallucination with Marathon Angels and Vanilla's subtle ways to tell people he's a runner?  PLUS, you get to find out what their real names are.  Well, except for Amy.  The podcast is now available on iTunes (search "Runners Lounge"), so you have no excuse to love/hate/be indifferent about my silky smooth dulcitones. 

Happy  Thanksgiving to one and all!

Episode Title - "Be Funny"

Credits:

The Lawson's Did Dallas!

Half Fast

Feet Meet Street

Runners Lounge

Talkshoe

P.S. - The bet has been made.  I'm giving Vanilla 15.5 points.  That's how confident I am about my Beloved Huskers.  The loser of the bet has to be seen buying a beer (winner's choice, of course) for the winner in Phoenix while wearing the winning team's jersey.  Documentation will be provided.  I've been told there may even be video!

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I can't compose a complete, well-crafted post. Therefore, I plow through my seemingly never-ending writer's block by cranking out bullet points.

• Runners Lounge is doing a really cool thing right now where you say thanks to someone who has helped your running.  Too often, I take things for granted.  I don't get on my high horse often, but it's about damn time you appreciated me! 
• The Runners LoungeCast is on iTunes!  Finally!  Just search for "Runners Lounge" in iTunes and it'll pop up.  I expect a 5 star rating by the end of the day.  I don't care if you listen to it, just give me 5 stars.  You all owe me.
• I'm on Day 2 of my Running Sabbatical.  I opted for some yoga this morning, but it didn't do much for me.  I may get back on the road for a 3 miler tomorrow morning.  I suppose that's a good thing when I want to get back out there.
• I love Thanksgiving.  It's probably my favorite holiday.  4 day weekend, lots of food (both turkey and tailgate), just the right amount of booze, four days of football, and family and friends galore.
• The only thing better than that is running on a holiday morning.  No one is out and it's even more peaceful than my morning runs.  Very therapeutic. 
• I still haven't heard from a certain Buffs fan about our wager.  I even offered possible wagers and none of them involved shaving anything.  I'll just assume he knows when he's beat.  
• Since tomorrow I'm posting the show notes for Episode 3, I'd just like to say thanks to everyone that frequents this silly blog.  I'm thankful for all of your input, support and humor.  Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

GO BIG RED!

Photo courtesy of www.journalstar.com

Garmin Challenge - Week 4

One of us is injured. The other is sore. The other is burnt out.  NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT THIS PART OF THE TRAINING!

Weekend odds and ends.  

• It was a fairly uneventful weekend save for our kick-ass outdoor Christmas decoration.  If I think about it, I'll take pictures, but I'm not going to say what it is until after Thanksgiving because our 4 year old wants to keep it a surprise for MomDoodle, DadDoodle, and SisterDoodle (a.k.a. - "G", "Papa", and Aunt Eunice*).  It blinks.
  
• I was pretty proud of myself to make it in and out of Target with Thanksgiving groceries on a Saturday in under 45 minutes.  I felt pretty damn smart getting there when they opened.
• My long run consisted of a lot of podcasts and a lot of thinking...mainly about a Nebraska/Colorado wager.  It involves someone we're all too familiar with and I'm looking for the right amount of humiliation when the Big Red take out their frustrations on the Buffs.  I'll entertain any and all suggestions.
• After my run, my toes hurt.  Not my big toe - although I did manage to have a landscaping stone drop on it while putting up the aforementioned Christmas decoration - but the toes in the middle.  Very weird.
• Thanks to everyone for their advice on my mid-training burnout.  I'm going to cut back to 1 or 2 runs this week and get back at it next week with the long run.
• TypePad hates me.  I load up the podcast episodes there and they changed format late last week.  Now, I can't upload anything.  We're looking into it.  
• Finally, we're conducting an open invite to anyone wanting to join in on a discussion for Episode 4 of the Runners LoungeCast.  The topic is "Surviving the Holidays".  If you're interested, you can join us at TalkShoe this Tuesday at 8:45pm Central Time.  We're testing out the "live comments" during this episode, so we'll see how that goes.  That sounds like a lot of multi-tasking.  At the very least, it should be entertaining to see if my head explodes.

Hope everyone has a good week.  I'll be thinking of you on the roads while I'm on the couch.

*not her real name.  I'm just protecting her identity.

Midterms

I looked at my widget on my blog and noticed that I'm less than 2 months away from my marathon.* My first thought? Holy s**t! Except I didn't speak asterisk. It was a little over a month ago that I got the wild hair to do this. So, I think it's only appropriate that I grade myself half way through training. I'm a teacher, that's what I do.

RazZDoodle's Midterm Running Report

(teacher comments in italics)**

Physically - B - "He's doing well, but I'd like to see a little more effort out of him."

My knees ache on really cold mornings (like yesterday) but, overall, I think I'm doing OK. I don't want to talk about injuries because I don't want to jinx myself. Runs feel good although they're getting slower. I'm blaming the colder weather and not the fact that I may be getting a bit fatigued. This was addressed yesterday.

Dedication - B+ - "I'm very proud of RazZdoodle. He's really stepped it up the past few months."

I would've given myself an A for this, but I have missed the occasional short run. Come to think of it, running more than 3 miles on a treadmill should give me an automatic A+.

Nutrition - C+ -"RazZ needs improvement. He knows the material he just chooses to 'forget it'"***

Really haven't done well in this category. "Guarding" my daughter's Halloween candy didn't help, nor did hotel food for 4 days ($14 for a friggin' omelette???). Also not helping was a conversation I had last night about bacon. The question asked: Is anything NOT better with bacon? I. Think. Not

Excitement Level - A+ - "I'm very proud of RazZDoodle although I'm concerned that he's not focusing on the reality of the assignment."

Still pretty excited about the whole concept although thoughts of "The Wall" and bonking have crept in. People that have run a marathon have told me about the last 6 miles. I appreciate their honesty.....sort of.

Intensity/Focus - B+ - "He's doing well, but I see a little wiggle room to be even better."

This grade is solely based on my long runs. I really try to go out slow and steady. I find myself, however, creeping into my mid-week pace. I really need to work on maintaining. I've entertained negative splits, but that seems like more focus than I'm accustomed to. I get distracted by shiny things, you know.

*Yeah, I read my own blog. What of it? I need to get my numbers up.

**Apparently, I missed the class in teacher school about tailoring your comments towards the individual. These quotes are usually in my bag of tricks. They can apply to most of my students.

***Yes, I have used air quotes in front of a parent.

***URGENT MESSAGE***

Yet again, I was going to write something humorous and poignant about this crazy sport we call running.  I was going to write about the synergy of psychology and physiology in the sport and how it can affect one's performance.  I was going to finish up my closing statement and work on the APA style of documentation during my run this morning.  And then....

I actually went out for the aforementioned run.  It was there that I determined that I may be getting just a little burned out.  

My body just feels completely run down, folks.  Not an acute injury or anything, just sore all over. Couple that with an overall lethargy and I think my whole body is telling me something.  Usually after a run, I have an inordinate amount of energy and I'm as chipper as a....a....hell, I don't even have an analogy. 

I thought about how this can happened and it dawned on me that I've essentially been in training since early June.  To catch people up, I had originally intended to run my first marathon in October, but injury/stupidity/laziness forced me to drop down to a half marathon.  I really haven't taken a week off since.  

My question to all marathon trainers and/or finishers is this:  Can this happen?  Do you get burned out at some point during training?  What do you do?  Run through it?  Take a small break?  

I've given serious thought to taking next week off.  I won't miss the long run, but maybe I need a break, do some light cross-training, drink copious amounts of booze, eat lots of turkey and tailgate food, watch a lot of football, etc.

I leave my training decision to the blogosphere...save for Vanilla.

Runners LoungeCast - Episode 2 - Show Notes

Runners LoungeCast - Episode 2 

Title: "Running the Full 26.2."

Summary: A roundtable discussion with runners that have completed the marathon. The offer great advice, insight and motivation.  

What is the marathon really like? What is some of the best advice? Some of the worst? Is it worth it?

Laura from Absolut(ly) Fit, Frayed Laces, The Running Laminator, Topher, The Running Joggler, and Tom from Runners Lounge are the guests.

Links:

Laura - Absolut(ly) Fit

Topher - I'll Run for Donuts

The Running Laminator

Just Your Average Joggler

Frayed Laces

Tom Green

Questions/Comments:

email us at joinus@runnerslounge.com or runningoffatthemind@gmail.com

*production note - we're working on getting this podcast up to iTunes ASAP.  It should happen as early as today.  Just search "Runners LoungeCast" in the store.

Insane in the Rain

First off, here are the results of this past weekend's runs:My run was interesting to say the least.  "When am I going to run?" pretty much consumed my thoughts for a good portion of our 8 hour bus ride.  Well, that and, "how do I pee in the bus' bathroom while going 70mph?" On Friday I had a small window of opportunity to run, so I took it.  It was either run in the rain on Friday or run in much windier and colder temps on Saturday.  Friday, while wet, was a good choice.

I headed out to the Gateway Arch park and hooked up to the riverfront trail.  Here's how to describe the view.  Gateway Arch = cool.  Anything north of the Arch = a dump.  Well, they call it "industrial", I call it a dump.  Not only that, but I didn't even see much of the river.  I saw a helluva lot of the flood wall, but not much Mississippi River.  So, a dump off to the left, a wall to the right.  In the rain.   With no iPod.  Perfect.  The only motivating part about the run was running over the Mississippi into Illinois.  A multi-state run!  After I ran around the "Welcome to Illinois" sign, I headed back.  I didn't think being in East St. Louis was a great idea. Curiously, my splits got better at this point.  All in all, it was a very wet run and my kids were in awe of me.  It probably didn't hurt that I consistently told them how far I ran.

Student:  Raz, I'm really tired.

Me:  Really?  Why's that?  Did you run 13 miles in the rain into another state?  Huh?  Go to another session, punk.

Other St. Louis odds and ends:

• Had some high school drama right off the bat when we got to our hotel.  It kind of set the tone for the rest of the weekend.  Does it really matter who you room with?  Tears were shed, phone calls were made to mommy and daddy.  Welcome to St. Louis!!
• My kids did well.  We placed in the Top 10 for the first time for Best Broadcast Program and 4 of them won individual awards.  I was proud of 'em!
• There is nothing to do in downtown St. Louis.  There's the arch, but by the time we got done with the conference the arch was closed.  It's a nice town, but not really a hotbed of activity.  This coming from a guy living in Nebraska.
• Went to a great Irish pub for some music and a Guinness.  *note - the kids were at the convention's dance.  It was a younger crowd, so their taste in libations was limited at best.  There needs to be a law:  If you're at an Irish pub, you do not order a Bud Light or shots of Goldschlager.  

That's all for now.  I'm glad to be back, though.  I have a lot of catching up to do in the blogosphere.  

Runners LoungeCast - Episode 1 - Show Notes

Maybe I should've been more specific with my off-hand comment at the end of yesterday's post. This will probably be my last post until I get back from St. Louis. Just wanted to see how many of you were paying attention.

Internet connections being what they are AND the fact that I have to keep about 20 kids in line, I may be busy. I have a long run scheduled while the kids are in sessions, so I hope to get a kewl picture of me, my Garmin and the Arch. If the weather doesn't cooperate, I may be looking down the barrel of a 13 miler on a hotel treadmill. Imagine my delight. Laura and Topher, if you have any pointers on how to do that, let me know. Anyway, on to the big announcement.

You may have heard that I've offered to produce a podcast for Runners' Lounge. I've been about as subtle about it as some are about training for a marathon, but I digress. Each Wednesday, I hope to have a new podcast episode of "The Runners LoungeCast"* and, each Wednesday here at ROATM (is that really the acronym? Sheesh.) I'm going to post the show notes. What can I say, I'm a giver!

*see? I promised a link and I give you a link! Click on it and you can download the link to subscribe.

Title: "Welcome to the Runners LoungeCast!"

Summary: It's our first show and I was fortunate enough to talk with Tom and Amy, the co-founders of Runners Lounge. How and why did the Lounge get started? What does it take to keep it going?

Links:

Runners Lounge

tom@runnerslounge.com

amy@runnerslounge.com

Questions/Comments/Concerns:

email us:

joinus@runnerslounge.com

or

runningoffatthemind@gmail.com

THIS is why I teach.....

2 of my reporters just turned in, quite possibly, one of the best stories I have ever seen produced in my class.  It was balanced, well researched, well produced and very thorough.  They put a lot of hard work in it and it paid off.  I'm very proud of them and, more importantly, they were proud of themselves.  I attribute their success solely to good teaching although they might disagree.

Oh, I should be a bit relevant and talk about my running today.  Relatively non-eventful.  I had to hit the Hamster Wheel of Death this morning because of 35 degrees and rain.  I didn't want to put in my contacts, so I ran with my glasses on.  After about 1/4 of a mile, I took them off and counted the simulated "track" on our treadmill.  I didn't take into account that I walked .25 miles, so after what I thought was 4 miles, it turned out to be only 3.75.  That's kind of like waking up 5 minutes before your alarm.  See?  Exciting stuff. 

Tomorrow.  Big debut and quite possibly my last post.

Weekend Odds and Ends

First off, the challenge continues.  Alas, it's another push.  I'm giving serious consideration to having these beers compile into the following week.  Congrats to SisterDoodle on her 10K!  She wasn't thrilled with her time, but she got some more race experience.  Here are this week's Garmins:

Other news, notes, and observations:

• I wanted to do my long run on Saturday, but I woke up, heard the wind, and thought better of it, so Sunday morning was the day.  If you look closely at my Garmin, you'll notice the time that I finished and that it took me a little under 2 hours to complete my long run.  For those that are mathematically challenged, I started on the road at 4:30am.  Read that again.  The things I'll do to avoid paying out a beer.
• Temperatures aside (23 degrees), it was a great run.  I felt good and I stayed hydrated.  When I got back home, I finished off the Gatorade I had taken with me.  It was a slushie.  Ahh....running in the winter.
• "It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn" would've been a more appropriate post for this entry.  I almost ran into a deer.  Scared the living crap out of me....and probably him, too.  I assume it was male, I didn't stick around to check.
• I was completely jacked up about my long run during the whole day.  Had that superiority complex going on.  Even managed a few, "Man, my legs hurt."  Ya know, just for good measure.
• I was proud of my 2 college teams this weekend.  The Huskers bounced back from a HUMILIATING loss to the Sooners by beating the KU Jayhawks.  That was promptly followed up by my Hawks beating Penn State.  It was a good sports weekend.
• I write a blog.  I produce a podcast.  I have 2 iPods.  I have 4 email accounts.  I Twitter.  I am in a Fantasy Football League. I am a tech geek, and yet, I am the only one in my family NOT to have a Blackberry or iPhone.  The hell?  My mom has one now and I'm sure she'll love it....when she remembers to turn it on and leave it on.
• Hey, when you do the self-checkout at your local grocery store, there needs to be some sort of sign that says, "Hey, jerkwad, no more than 5 items please.  Anything more than that, just leave it to the professionals.  Also, the rest of us that have a modicum of common decency don't want you clogging the aisle because you can't figure out how to type in the code for cilantro."   I don't know what was worse, that or the couple that was practically dry-humping each other while checking out.  Really?  After scanning each item do you need to celebrate by sticking your tongue down each others throat?  I'm not exaggerating.
• Finally, I put together episode 2 of the Runners Loungecast last night.  I won't give it away, but I was fortunate enough to chat with some very cool runners that many of you know.  Stay tuned!  I'll post the link as soon as I get that part figured out.

Try and have a good Monday!

Not Quite a SSTIFY

We still don't have access to YouTube and I still can't come up with a decent running post.  I could post my running log like some people I know, but I'm not that kind of person. That'd be kind of like driving around in your new car and leaving the price sticker on it.  Classy.

This is my contribution to the blogosphere.  Dancin' on the Ceiling by Lionel Richie is, for some god awful reason, is stuck in my head.  

What is happening here? 

Something is going on
Thats not quite clear
Somebody turn on the light
Were gonna have a party
Its starting tonight

Oh, what a feeling!
When were dancing on the ceiling
The room is hot...thats good
Some of my friends came
By from the neighbourhood
People were starting
To climb the walls
Ooh, it looks like everybody
Is having a ball

Everybody starts to lose control
When the music is right
If you see somebody hanging around
Dont get up right
The only thing we wanna do tonight
Is go round and round
And turn upside down
Come on, lets get down

So come on, lets get loose
Dont hold back
Because it aint no use
Hard to keep your feet on the ground
Because when we like to ball it
We only want to get down
What? you say what?
Its love now...
Just get started
Everybody clap your hands, come on
Everybody have sense...

Have a good weekend, gang.  Keep on dancin'.

Best of Both Worlds

My morning ritual for my runs is pretty much the same. 

• Get up. 
• Curse at the alarm clock. 
• Go downstairs. 
• Click on The Weather Channel. 
• Dress accordingly. 
• Head out.

The good folks at the Weather Channel told me that my city was 45 degrees, winds at 10 mph, and the radar was clear (can you see where this is going?).

Short sleeve shirt and pants.

I walk up to my starting point, stretch out and I feel a couple of drops. No biggie.

I run my first .25 miles. The drops are becoming a little more frequent than I'd like.  Considering I didn't head out with any rain gear and I'm wearing my glasses (damn faulty contacts), I had to make some route decisions.  Long story short:  I cut my intended 5 mile run to a measly 2 miler.  Feeling more pissed off than bummed when I returned home, I opted to head downstairs and cap off the last 3 miles on the Hamster Wheel of Death (a.k.a. - the treadmill).  

Thanks Weather Channel.  Thanks a helluva lot.

Other observations:

• It was good to see people excited about voting again.  It's the first time in my lifetime that that has happened.  I'm not gonna lie, when I got my ballot, I had a little hop in my step.
• Thank God the political ads are off the air.  Just in time for the Christmas ads!  I saw my first one last night.  Thanks Hallmark!  
• Has anyone ever requested a transcript from their favorite show?  "Ya know.  I missed the subtext and nuances from last week's episode of Sally Jesse Raphael, "My Life With a Transsexual Horse." Where can I get a copy of the script?
• My son refused to let me put a diaper on him, so I let him run around unencumbered before his bath.  All he did was run around and play with his junk.  I teared up a little.
• I think that all of the podcast "research" during my runs is actually hampering my ability to compose a decent blog posting.  See what learning and research will do to you?  

Pumpin' More Wattage to Your Cottage.....

I know all of you have been waiting with breathless anticipation hoping that each new post would reveal what I was doing.

Cue Big Voice Announcer Guy (with echo)

I'm happy to announce the debut of the The Runners LoungeCast with your host, RazZDoodle!

About a month ago - during a long run of course - I got a wild hair to produce a weekly podcast. I suppose I was inspired by those that have come before me. The issue was, could I come up with new, and interesting topics week after week? My response was a dismissive "nope". After a few miles, though, it came to me. Ask someone else to help me or to "collaborate" with me. That's where Tom and Amy from Runners Lounge came in. I pitched them my idea of piggybacking off of them. Coincidentally enough, they were talking about adding a podcast to the Runners Lounge Empire. We were off and running.

My Broadcast Law professor, who had 20+ years of experience in radio always said, "It takes a brave person, with a hint of arrogance, to be a broadcaster. You're always under the assumption that people actually want to listen to what you have to say."

Fantastic.

Much like my blog, the podcast is a work in progress. The whole premise, though, is that this will be a podcast for runners. We hope to have roundtable discussions, interviews with experts, insight from Loungers, etc. Much like Runners Lounge, we want it to appeal from everyone ranging to the Boston Qualifier as well as someone who just laced them up yesterday.

Once we establish a link to the podcasts, I'll post it here. You can also go over to the Lounge as they will be announcing the podcast soon. I've never known a podcaster who's happy with the first few episodes. I'll be tweaking here and there and am open to criticism and compliments. Feel free to email us at joinus@runnerslounge.com or post a comment on my blog. I'm a high school teacher, I can take the hits.

Happy listening.

St. Louis, Here I Come!

First item of business:  GO OUT AND VOTE TODAY!  IT'S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS A U.S. CITIZEN!

Secondly, it's that time of year again where we take a select group of student journalists (this year, 19) to a national high school journalism convention.  5000 (no, that's not a typo) high schoolers from all over the country will converge in St. Louis next week.  Imagine my excitement.  We've got pretty good kids, so I'm not worried about it really.  Actually, it's usually a lot of fun.  That being said, I'm at a loss for 2 things:

1. Where to eat.
2. Where to run.

I'm not so much worried about the eating.  We'll walk around downtown, find someplace local, let the kids grub and they'll be thrilled.  I'm more concerned about the run.  I've got a 13 miler scheduled during my time in St. Louis and I'll be damned if I'm going to skip it.  If anyone has any routes/advice/maps available for a 13 mile run in and around downtown STL, leave a comment or email.  You can save your comments about running in East St. Louis.  I saw National Lampoon's Vacation, so I'm aware of the risks.

The Path to PFCRNRM Starts Here

*Note - The following post is not the big announcement that I eluded to earlier.  That'll have to wait until later this week or early next week.

Let me set this all up:

On occasion, I've been known to neglect the Long Run.  In fact, neglecting it for 2 weeks straight and then trying to challenge Topher to 16 miles got me slightly injured and forced me to give up my quest for running a marathon in October.   

That being said, I felt as though I needed some motivation to stick to my entire training program. This is where SisterDoodle and Vanilla come in.  You may have heard that Vanilla over at Half Fast is training for the PFCRNRM as well.  He's been about as subtle as a runaway train about it. Well, SisterDoodle is training for her first half marathon in Phoenix and Vanilla and I are scheming for our first full marathon.  Here's the wager:

Missing a long run = 1 beer to the other contestants.  For example, when....er.....if Vanilla skips a long run because he spent the entire weekend doing whatever he does (e.g. - running in gorilla suits, peeing on stuff, etc) and skips his long run, he owes SisDoodle and myself a beer.  The RazZDoodles have expensive tastes, too.  Anything with "light" or "domestic" is not in our vernacular.

Here's how we prove it:

(from left to right, me, Vanilla, SisterDoodle)

Each week, we have to take pictures, send them to me and I post them here.   Fortunately, we all have Garmin 205s, so Photoshopping my long runs will be easier than I thought.  Hell, I may throw in a couple of PRs just for good measure.  Good luck to the SisterDoodle and Vanilla. Hopefully, I'm not too drunk after the race.  I'll need some quality beer suggestions from everyone out there.