skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Running:
What a change in weather over this past week. Right now is more like August not May. My youngest daughter ran in her HS Division 1 Regional track meet last night. She has been doing quite well as a Freshman. She ended up 10th place in the 400 meter dash with a 1:06 time. If she went to a Division 4 school this time could be good enough to maybe even get to State. For now the spring track season is done. I'm looking forward to a few runs with her over the summer in preparation for the fall XC season.
My postings continue to be infrequent, so to recap the last week of activity. Monday was an off day as has been my pattern this year for the most part. Tuesday I got out for a lunch time run of 7.5 miles in 59:59. Wednesday I ran the same route again during lunch. This time I tried to pick up the pace and treat it more like a tempo style run. I ended up running the 7.5 miles in 55:45. This is the fastest I've run it all year. Not bad considering all the hills. Thursday I again ran the same route in a more pedestrian 1:2:36. Friday I worked just part of a day from home. I got out for a morning run of 10.5 miles in 1:25:16. Saturday the weather starting turning a bit warmer. I again got out fairly early and ran 15 miles in 2:9:22. Sunday morning was really muggy with some fog. I got out for 12 more miles in 1:37:01. That got me to an even 60 miles for the week. Yesterday was really a hot day with temps over 90 in Brookfield. I went out anyway for a short run of only 5 miles. I didn't even take my Garmin or watch and just did it comfortably as possible in the heat. It's nice to have a water stop at a park I usually run through on days like this. If I had to guess I probably did the run in a little less than 45 minutes. So through 5/24:
WTD 5
MTD 181
YTD 1099
ODO 26,265
Hunting:
I decided to let the brassica's I had planted in my food plot last year keep growing. They have all gone to seed and stand 4 to 5 feet high. The bright yellow flowers were pretty cool. The height and thickness seems to be holding the weeds and crabgrass down. For now I'm not touching it. I will decide in a couple months about mowing, tilling, and replanting. Time for fall planting is late August or early September anyway and I have lots of other things to take care of.
Gardening:
Right now is one of those times of the year where I wonder if I will ever catch up on yard/garden work. There is so much to do at my place. I'm trying to take what time I have to take care of priority items and then take advantage of what time blocks and the weather give me. Besides the usual maintenance of pond, pool, cutting grass, and general maintenance a lot has happened over the past week. I have the garden completely tilled as of Saturday and have the rows ready for planting. I was able to get tomatoes, peppers, and sweet potato plants all in. I also began planting of the large seeds such as sweet corn, peas, and beans. I will need to wait for a little cooler temps before planting small seeds, such as carrots and lettuce. It's still fine as we are not into June yet which is when I like to be done. Sunday I had a guy come out and till my pumpkin growing area with his tractor. It looks great right now and took him about two hours. It was too hot to plant anything down in the garden Sunday so I spent the time planting all the flower pots and hanging baskets. I could do this under the shade of the trees. I was still wet from the inside out though before I was done. I then took the power washer and sprayed the entire pool deck and side walk area. This is really a much bigger job than you would think getting all the dirt and mildew completely off before moving any furniture down. Glad to have it done, but I would have rather been in the garden. The rest of the week I'll just be poking around an hour here and there as work and other schedules allow. If the weather holds out at least I will have a three day weekend coming up to make a good dent in the chores left to finish.
Running:
To catch up on the past weeks activity not previously discussed. I took Tuesday off. Monday I had run in anticipation of it being a really rainy day. Good thing I did. I didn't feel bad about the non running day. I managed to bike a little and do core work and lifting. Wednesday I got out for a 7.5 mile lunch break run in 59:00. Thursday I ran 7.5 miles in the morning on the treadmill since it was raining again. I ran this in 1:00:00. After entering the run in my run log I noticed I was only 4 short of 1000 YTD, so I just had to get that 4 in during my lunch break. I ran it on the treadmill at work in 29:39. Cool to hit this milestone on May 13th. Probably not a record, but it must be close. I'll have to check on that. Friday was another work day run of 7.5 miles in 1:3:33. Saturday was a little different for me. Almost all of my runs are done alone. But Friday afternoon my friend Jerry and I worked out meeting for a morning long run. He also worked out meeting with our mutual friend Dana so all three of us could catch up on things. We met up in downtown Wales just off the Drumlin trail shortly after 7am. I really enjoyed running the 13.5 miles with these guys. I really need to see about doing this more often. We ran a decent conversational pace and finished in 1:49:26. The run really went by fast. I don't think there was any silence the entire way. It was great to spend a little time with these guys. On Sunday I went out early. I wanted to hit at least 60 miles for the week so I modified one of my favorite runs a little to get in another 13. I managed to run it in 1:43:54. This run brought me 3 times past a spot where there was a dead opossum on the road. The 1st time around there were 4 turkey vultures near the road kill. Don't know if you've ever seen one of these birds, but they are huge. The 2nd time around there were 6 turkey vultures and a red tailed hawk that was keeping them all at bay. The hawk was less that half the size of the vultures, but he definitely was the boss. The third time around I counted 12 vultures with more circling above me, and the hawk still had control. Crazy to see. Sunday I ran with music, which I hadn't done for a while. I set the iPod to mix it up and ended up with the craziest mix of music you could imagine. One sequence I remember had a Punjabi song, followed by Rascal Flatts, Black Eyed Peas, and then REO Speedwagon. Try to find that on the radio.
Through Sunday:
WTD 60.5
MTD 116
YTD 1034
ODO 26,200
Hunting:
Not much going on in this area at the moment. I'm waiting to get back up north again to do some more tree trimming around my stands. This is a good time of year for that type of maintenance instead of doing it in the fall. A few weeks ago we got a good look at what to do before the leaves came out. I did see twin fawns in the back yard on Sunday afternoon. I was back there checking on my trees and jumped a doe. A few seconds later I noticed both of the fawns just laying in the tall grass being still as can be. Good thing I didn't have the dogs back there with me.
Gardening:
I finished rototilling my garden one last time. All the planting of seeds will begin now and will be done over the next couple weeks. Still lots of work preparing the rows for planting. Everything should be in by June 1. I still need to get to the garden center to pick up tomato and pepper plants. I tried starting from seed a few years ago, but it's hard to get a good variety without a lot of waste. Just as easy to go pick out the dozen plants I need. My brother Tad helped me fix up about a dozen bird houses that had been damaged over the years. I got all of these hung up over the past couple days. I trimmed up several of the trees before hanging the houses up. Today is pool opening day.
Running:
Well another week since my last post. I guess my motivation for posting more often is not there at the moment. I notice this same thing seems to be happening to a few of my blogger friends as well lately. I ended up not running any race last weekend. The weather Saturday was cold and very windy. I just couldn't get motivated to run 26.2 in that. One of the things about not signing up ahead of time is it's easier to back out. As usual looking at the results of both the 50K and marathon after the fact I should have done one of them. The times for the winners in my age group were not very good. Probably could have done quite well. Anyway I didn't run so more power to those that did. They beat me.
Last week I pretty much treated a a taper week. Not running any race I guess there is benefit to using it then as a cut back week. I only managed 36 miles which is one of my lower totals all year. Two days off and no long run. Wednesday 5/5 I got out for 6 miles in 46:44 during lunch. Thursday a non hilly 4 miles in 30:54. Friday was an off day. Saturday after getting up early for one last check of the weather I went out for 10.5 when I decided I would not race that day. Ran it in 1:24:54. Sunday I ran the exact same route in 1:26:12.
Monday I ran 7.5 again during my lunch break in 1:22:39.
Hunting:
I noticed last week that the DNR has come out with the deer season framework for 2010. There will be less tags available for antlerless deer in the north. Looks like I will have to purchase additional tags for Bayfield (area 3) instead of the free ones offered the last several years. I was able to score a set of silk weight base layer (top and bottoms) for over 60% off from the Camofire.com site this past week. I watch this site every day, but have only bought a few times. Good deals sometimes if you can use the item.
Gardening:
Gardening chores are really heating up now. I planted about 10 more small trees which will be used as Christmas trees down the road. I noticed a few nests of tent worms on the fruit trees. These were sprayed to kill them. Two of the past few mornings there was heavy frost here. I covered a few things such as the strawberries just in case. I'm worried about the fruit trees though, especially the peaches and cherries that the fruit will freeze out. I finally got the potatos and onions planted. This is a good couple weeks earlier than I've done it in the past few years. That's good though as I've been a little late with them. This past week I also had another muskrat trying to take up residence in my pond. I really don't know why they find this small space so attractive. The dog did another good job helping me get rid of it. Lots of different kinds of birds are hitting the feeders the last couple weeks. I put out oranges for the orioles too. I have not seen any of them this year yet, but I do have a couple birds eating on them. As of yet I haven't positively identified what they are. I think I need a better bird book.
Running:
Been a while since my last post. I've been struggling with making a decision to run a race May 8th. I let the dealine slip by for the IceAge 50k. No real reason just not into it 100%. Running 50k is not something to take lightly and I have no one else I know doing it so I let it go. Now I have until Thursday midnight to decide on Lake Geneva. I know the back half of this marathon is as tough as they get. Have to examine how I feel real closely over the next couple days. Maybe I let them both go and keep my eye on Grandma's marathon in June.
Training is not the issue. Everything has beeen going real well. To catch up from last week: On Friday 4/30 I ran 14.5 miles in the morning before work. I did this run in 1:57:13. I was only going to do 10, but felt so good I opted for another loop. Saturday morning I got out for 7.5 miles in 1:01:01. Sunday I ran a loop I hadn't done in a while. 12 miles in 1:37:35. Miles 7 through 11 are mostly up hill so it is quite challenging especially 7 through 8.5. That gave me 62 miles for the week. Not bad for two days rest in a taper week.
I took Monday completely off. Work was busy anyway so it was a good day for a rest. Today I got out for 5 miles. I tried to run what I thought would be marathon pace and completed the run in 36:59 or about 7:24.
I'll likely do 6 or 7 tomorrow and then rest Thursday and Friday if I decide to do the race this weekend.
Through today:
WTD 5
MTD 24.5
YTD 943
ODO 26109
Hunting:
Notice all the deer on the side of the road all of a sudden? I've noticed over the years that besides during the rut in the fall this is when you see the most roadkill. I know it's related to fawning season, but can't tell you why.
Gardening:
Caught up a bit out in the garden. I've tilled it again and have pulled all the weeds. Not a small feat at all in my garden. I will likely plant potato, onions, and peas over the next few days. Lawn mowing is now again a weekly chore. Need to get started edging all the flower beds, pulling weeds and mulching. Maybe thats what I should do Saturday instead of race.
