traitor joe's and whether.com: you're on notice!

What do Trader Joe's and weather.com have in common? They're both on my s..tlist! p-loop and I have been running fools as of late (well, p-loop has actually been a gunner for the entire winter with her running class. I on the other hand...), running Tuesday evening before our Shan-E-Punjab feast (sorry, no link to the restaurant but their phone number is 734-332-0055. And yes I'm addicted.) with the rest of the AARS crew. It was such a great run that we decided to run on Thursday evening, too. But lo and behold, weather.com is all, it's going to snow and have freezing rain from 3p through Thursday night. So instead we got up REALLY early (7:20a!) and run in the a.m. instead. It was a great run, but did I mention it was early? And as those of us still in AA know (no, Ann Arbor silly. There's nothing anonymous about our drinking!), it was BEAUTIFUL all Thursday afternoon. No snow, no rain, nothin' but bright sunny skies. Thanks weather.com for making me get up unnecessarily early!

Meanwhile, TJ being in the dog house has nothing to do with running. Unless one can make the argument that their industrial size Salsa Verde and edamame make a better runner, and since they have officially stopped carrying the former and are consistently out of the latter, well, yeah, that's why my legs ache and I'm so slow...

bad boys, bad boys

whatcha going to do when they come for you??

today, i had a little "run-in" with the law. apparently, i was going a wee bit fast on my way back from the airport (you owe me a big, fat dinner CJB) in Romulus. he claims i was going 67 in 45. i say more like 55ish. the conversation went something like this:

"You know why you got pulled over?"

"Because I was, um, going a little fast?"

"Why the hurry, miss?"

"I just dropped my friend off at the airport and I can't wait to get back to writing my dissertation!"

and with that, i got it ticket for being a nerd.

i think it's karma for making fun of ecshelto for driving under the influence of pancakes and having a minor fender (non)bender. my neck still hurts, btw.

i heart aars

here's some reading on measurement error and expected value, in honor of valentine's day.

bring on the spam!

mara-wha? disser-who?

i've been reluctant to pull the trigger on the whole marathon thing. it's just so damn long, not to mention all that training sucking up every weekend.

turns out my time drain excuse doesn't have legs anymore, per this article in today's wsj.
(due to technological difficulties, here's a snippit of the article)

Traditional marathon training typically emphasizes mileage, calling for 35 to 50 miles of running each week, and sometimes more depending on how long you've been training. The scaled-back programs usually don't exceed 15 to 35 miles a week. The programs vary depending on what the runner wants to accomplish. Some runners train with relatively easy combinations of running and walking three days a week. Another program has the runner do three days of higher-intensity running, and adds in two 30-minute cross-training workouts each week. The length of training also varies, ranging from 16 weeks for more-experienced runners to 28 weeks for beginners.

Mr. Galloway pushes a simple, three-day workout. The method calls for a 30-minute comfortable run/walk combination on Tuesday and Thursday and one longer run/walk on the weekend. The idea is to get in shape by progressively increasing the one long weekend run -- not by running a lot of mileage during the rest of the week.

The "long" weekend run starts at three miles and increases one mile every week. After 10 weeks, the formula changes so that the longer runs increase by two miles but occur only every other week. Once the distance reaches 17 miles, the long run shifts to every third weekend. On the other weekends, the "long" run ranges from about four to seven miles, depending on where you are in the program.

The Galloway program also advises runners, no matter what their skill level, to incorporate walk-breaks into the workout. A walk-break is a scheduled one-minute or longer brisk walk during a workout or race, taken even if the runner isn't tired, to help the body stay fresh and avoid injuries. Some free information on the program can be found at www.jeffgalloway.com. Mr. Galloway says he has trained about 100,000 runners through his for-fee clinics and e-coaching programs, and says 98% of them finished a marathon or achieved other race goals.

Another three-day running program from Furman University in Greenville, S.C., has the marathon community buzzing with a recent endorsement from Runner's World magazine. The 16-week program is shorter than many marathon-training programs and is best suited for someone who can already run eight miles comfortably.

The FIRST marathon program, which stands for Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training, also limits you to just three days of running, even if you feel like running more. The idea is that the muscles used in running need more time to recover than many runners typically allow. The running days include speed workouts, a "tempo" run at a hard but still-comfortable pace, and a longer-distance run. On at least two off days, the runner spends 30 to 45 minutes on a different type of exercise, ideally a non-weight-bearing exercise like swimming or cycling. The details of the workouts, speed and distance all vary depending on the runner's fitness level. Information on how to personalize a FIRST workout can be found free at www.furman.edu/first.

i've also toyed with conducting my own personal experiment to determine if its harder to dissertate or harder to train for a marathon. let P represent a continuous measure of pain. my hypothesis is that it Pm is less than Pd (note: for some reason you can't use greater than or less than signs in this blog. yet another sign!).

what do ya'll think?

our clever title has been scooped, by Kiki!

It might seem odd that my running days end for the time being just as my first issue of runner's world hits my mailbox. Maybe reading it will inspire my comeback in August. Anyway, Bill brought me the issue, opened to the page titled "Road Scholars" by Kristin Armstrong (yes, Lance's ex, although she probably hates to be called that). I was not naive enough to believe it was an article about us.

Kiki's running group is a book club on legs, they call themselves "Running of the Books." The article is about their club. So just the article title is road scholars.
gotta run to yoga, I'll have to mull over this to see if I have anything clever to add.

Houston's mizuno rep

I was trying to get work done in a coffee shop this morning. Enjoyed my latte, but got little work done so I skeedaddled. What does this have to do with running? I was distracted by the cell phone conversation next to me. The guy works at the running store across the street (where we got our baby jogger) and was on the phone w/ a bud. Was telling his buddy all about the new mizuno rep in the area. I learned that Matt is 27, single but with a girlfriend. Originally from Peoria, has worked for mizuno for 6 years. Was a runner in high school. A talented runner. And on and on. Matt sounds like a hottie, makes me wonder if Mizuno picks their reps based on looks? We obviously know the AA mizuno rep is a hottie. Wonder if it is just male hotties? with n=2 (and one hottie purely by description, not by visual confirmation) more research needs to be done. My hunch is it is just male hotties they are looking for. Moral of the story? I should be working on my dissertation while in the coffee shop, not spying on phone conversations, since my chances of becoming a mizuno rep are slim based on my gender alone.

Also should report that my running has slowed to a very slow jog interspersed with mostly speed walking. Bill has to jog to keep up, which is inspiring. Running days are gone for a while for this gal. I'm shooting for August 1, able to run 3 miles w/o collapsing.

i got "we"d

no, not weed (dirty hippies) but "we"d. as in, i'm going to speak in the plural even though there's not another person around.

this conversation came up way back when at the crim expo (see, it is related to running!) where apoz in her consistently canine-fanatically-friendly way bopped up to the hot mizuno guy and his dog, slathering all sorts of attention to the golden retriever. and then she got "we"d, as in "we couldn't find a babysitter so that's why i brought the dog to the expo." debate ensued during carb loading at the olive garden whether she got "we"d to send a signal that he was unavailable, implying that she might be hitting on him, or if he was just treating his dog as the other half of "we." either way is creepy.

point being is that a burmese mountain dog pup moved into the neighborhood a few weeks ago. i saw him a couple of days ago and resisted pawing him but today i could not help but to get down on my knees and giving him all sorts of puppy love. he was just this big, fluffy cotton ball of black, white, and brown fur. feeling the need to recognize the owner, i engaged in small talk about how old the puppy was, where he got her, blah blah.

and then i got "we"d.

as in, "we drove a long way to get you but it was worth it" as he picked up and snuggled the dog. i looked at him blankly and thought to myself, "oh no you did not just we me!!"

sometimes, all you really want to say is, " i'm really only interested in the dog, not the bi-otch."

anywho, in other running-related news, today i received a new brooks running jacket that i bought from my favorite website for, like, pennies. we are going to be so hot when we go running.

not quite thirty

ah, it's the birthday that keeps on recurring, but this time it's for real!

one of our own turns a young 29! happy birthday to you!

look forward to celebrating with you at the weber inn!