Running Aimlessly Around the Countryside

Every so often I look at my calendar and realize what a crazy life I keep. And that doesn't even include my planned exercise. I keep the activities color coded to represent work or the owner. The average work day is probably 1/3 to 1/2 meetings, and then things get really ugly. The kids need to be at this practice or that, meetings at Church, board meetings, Jil's occasional work night... People have seen my weekly calendar view and are amazed. But that's only part of the story. When I'm not scheduled to be somewhere, there's always additional information processing to do. There's e-mail to read, Facebook and Twitter to follow, blogs to stay up to date with, podcasts to listen to during commutes. The full schedule and the information bombardment are a big part of my drive to run and ride. Those activities allow my time to breathe. I'm a non-iPod person during exercise, so that is the one time during my day where it's just me. The only input is natur...

Every year brings certain milestones to us. We all experience birthdays, which of course marks our increasing age. We also experience anniversaries of many events. This past weekend was full of milestones for me. My wife and I shared our wedding anniversary and two days later, I marked another birthday. This year neither event was a milestone date, other than the passing of another year. The birthday was a normal workday with work and our regular busy schedules, but the anniversary was special, in what some may consider a little twisted. So how was the anniversary special? It began like just like any other fall Saturday with Jil and I splitting up. I headed off to a nearby community to support Anna at a cross country meet while Jil stayed home to make sure Will got to his playoff football game on time. By the way, Anna was second on her team, 10th overall, and the team placed 3rd in their conference. Will played very well with 4 big tackles and a 15 yard kickoff return, but his team...

I've continued to recover from my illness and I still don't think that I'm 100%. My training is getting back on track with where I was before, but all my systems are feeling completely normal and that includes my brain wanting to hit the road. Of course after I get out the door, I feel better. Without a goal race on my calendar I'm just trying to get my base to a nice level and my weekly long runs into double digits. I'll start looking for a spring goal race in the next few weeks, just so I'll have something to keep me motivated on some of those cold winter days. The kids have had a couple of good weeks of cross country. Anna logged a couple of number one finishes on her team. At the Indiana Middle School State meet she finally recorded a personal best, going back to the same meet last year and finished about 10 places higher than last year. Will has gotten his first experiences at the 3k distance and has done pretty well. I think he is now getting to the poin...