running hunting and gardening

Four months and counting

2011-10-22T23:01:00.000-05:00

Running:

Haven't posted much. A lot of that has to do with starting my new position at work in July. Life was busy before, but now there doesn't seem to be time for anything extra. That combined with my not being able to run. I had started this blog with the idea of posting my running updates as a few of my friends were doing. Then decided to also post about my other past times of gardening and hunting as well. Obviously with no running there has not been much to post here.

I still haven't been able to run other than a few test miles since June 18th. That's four months and counting. This past week I saw a different doctor with the hopes of getting a second opinion and seeing if he could use his minimally invasive techniques to try something different. The bad news was, his opinion was the same as the first guy. If I ever want to run again I will need to have surgery to remove the bone spur that resides behind and up into my achilles tendon. Here is a link to what that surgery will entail. I have a really big decision to make. As of today the pain and swelling has subsided. There is no pain at all doing any regular activity. I can hunt, walk in the woods, climb trees to get in my stand, and was able to drag a deer out of the woods with no problem. I can garden, mow my lawn, and do any outside chores just fine. I can bike, use the elliptical, or my rowing machine for exercise. This makes the decision harder. While both surgeons were confident they could help me, there is no guarantee things will be better. There is a slight risk of infection or improper healing. That is my biggest fear is that something goes wrong and all the activities I can do now will be impacted. Then I'm out a lot more than not being able to run. On the other hand running is such a part of who I am. The other forms of exercise give me little pleasure compared to getting outside for a good run. For now I'm just going to sit on this decision. With hunting season here I am not going to risk anything for a while. I likely wouldn't do anything until late this year or early 2012.

Hunting has gotten off to a decent start. I've had fun putting out a couple trail camera's in different locations to see what is out there. I've had a couple does and fawns regularly coming into the back yard. As of yet I haven't seen a buck out there. I'll likely not hunt there until I see that a buck has shown up. The food plot looks great right now and should help provide some excitement as other nearby food sources run out. I did get a real nice 11 point on camera on a different property back in early October. Right now that is the one I'm after. Last week into the weekend was a four day antlerless season here in SE Wisconsin. On Saturday it was very windy. I was able to get out late on Saturday at about 5:00. The wind died down a bit as the sun started to set and the woods became alive. I could hear deer and other animals moving all around me. At 6:15 three deer came out of the thickest part and stopped only 10 yards away from my stand. I thought for a while about letting them all pass and then changed my mind. I picked the biggest deer and fired. The deer ran off a short distance and I heard it fall. After a short search I found it about where I thought I heard it last. It was a long drag out from where I was, but despite my foot I made it out just fine. The next day I didn't need to go out so I spent the time butchering the deer. I must be getting better at it, as it only took me about 3.5 hours to complete the whole job this time. Today was back to bow hunting. I could have easily taken another doe both in the morning and this afternoon. I saw a total of 5 deer today, but not the big one I'm after. I'll be heading out again both morning and afternoon on Sunday.

Gardening:
2011 was a real good year for the garden. I'm sure part of that has to do with my water line that was put in this spring. Made watering chores so much easier. I had well over 100 pumpkins this year that I either sold, traded, or gave away. I picked about two bushel of pears and five bushel of apples this fall. Still don't have the spraying quite right, but the fruit was pretty clean considering. Biggest problem was with scab or deformities more than bugs or worms. The hot humid August could have had something to do with that too. Lots of squash, carrots, and potato's to get through the winter. Just this week picked the last of the tomato's, peppers, and kohlrabi. I've rototilled the garden already this fall and have begun to dump the chopped leaves I bag up on the garden as I've done the past several years. Got a deal on tulip and daffodil bulbs last week. I've got lots of planting to do before the ground freezes.

Grandma's marathon recap

2011-08-04T21:48:00.001-05:00

It took far to long to write this but here is a race recap for Grandma's marathon back on 6/18. It is still painful to think about marathon number 19.

As I posted previously I signed up at the very last minute on June 1st for this race. I had run it a couple times before and really love the course. The weather unfortunately in my previous attempts was terrible for running. Both years were very hot and one of them the course was even black flagged. Despite that these were still two of my fastest marathon times. I just hoped the weather would be OK this time and besides that my wife and kids were not going to be around that weekend so it just made sense to me to try it. I had run the IceAge 50k only 5 weeks before but was feeling good as race day approached. Running back to back long races makes training properly difficult. I t's hard to rest for a couple weeks, train hard for one, and then start the taper again. On the other hand you are not starting all over again with base training so resting properly actually becomes the most important facet of the short cycle.

I paid extra to have my race packet sent to me. This allowed me to leave a little later in the day Friday as I didn't need to get to the expo. Previously I had stayed in Superior with my sister, but this time because the rest of the family was away I had to take the dogs with me. I stayed at my mom's house in Bayfield instead. This meant I would need to get up a little earlier, but not by much. I had to be in Superior by 6AM to catch a bus to the start line so leaving by 4:30 at the latest would give me plenty of time. I made it to Bayfield in time to watch the local news to catch the forecast for the next day. All week the forecast looked like it would be perfect running weather with only a real small chance of rain introduced late in the week. Well Friday night that all changed. They now were calling for soaking rains all night and well into the morning. I was able to get to sleep shortly after 10:00 and actually slept pretty well for a race night. The rain pounding on the roof did wake me at least once.

Waking in the morning it was pouring. A quick look at the weather channel and it looked like the forecast from the previous night was going to be right on. Nothing but green well back into western Minnesota. I ate my usual prerace meal of pancakes and a couple banana's. Accounting for what looked like a race in the rain I repacked my drop bag to be sure I had enough warm and dry gear for after the race. A cut out garbage bag for the start of the race and an extra rain poncho for the time waiting until I needed to get the drop bag in the truck and line up were added as well. I was underway well before 4:30. It rained hard the entire way to Superior. It rained hard as I made my way to the bus. It rained the entire way to the start in Two Harbors. Funny thing though as our bus stopped the clouds got lighter and the rain quit. I didn't expect it, but it didn't rain again the entire day. We arrived about 6:45 or about 45 minutes before the race start. I quickly got in line for the porta potties. I knew this would take a while and I was right. With about 20 minutes to go I changed into my race shoes and got my other gear (watch, Gu, etc...) ready to go and packed up my drop bag. Got the drop bag to the truck and fought my way towards the appropriate starting place. The temperature at the race start was about 50 degrees with a NE wind off the lake. This is as perfect as it could possibly get. I decided I would attempt to go for it. I was going to run with the 3:10 pace group and at least give myself a chance for a PR.

The race started pretty much on time at 7:37. Taking off with the pace group I didn't have to worry too much about a fast start. These guys are usually pretty good at keeping pace. The beginning was crowded. As with most races there are people up in front of you that should not be there. It didn't take more than a couple miles for things to spread out so you could get settled in. I was feeling real good and passed the 10K mark right around 45 minutes. About mile 12 I was back of but still had the 3:10 group in sight when I felt a little twinge toward the back of my heal. Affected me for a few steps so I didn't think much about it at the time. I passed the half right around 1:37. I had fallen a little back of the 3:10 pace group, but was still feeling OK. I felt at this time I was still in for a good race, but didn't think a PR was possible any more. I've never run the 2nd half faster than the first in 18 previous tries. So unless some magic would happen it was not to be. The weather was good, the crowd and scenery were great and I felt good so I was just going to do my best and enjoy the day. A few miles past half way the issue at the back of my heal started up again. By mile 18 it was becoming a big deal and by mile 20 I had slowed from an early 10K pace of 7:14 pace to 7:42 for 20 miles. It was right after this that I almost fell to the ground as I took a step on my right foot. I stopped for a bit by the curb and pulled my shoe off to check for anything. The back of my heal had swelled but that's all I could see. I starting walking for a while to see if the sharp pain would go away. It did not. I contemplated dropping out at this point. I had never DNF'd before so my stubbornness kicked in and I decided I was going to get that finishers medal if it meant crawling to the finish. Little did I know it almost had to happen. After walking for a while I tried to run again. After realizing it hurt just as much to "limp run" as it did to walk I decided I would try to run. Each step for the last 6 miles was harder than the one before it. With the cool temperatures and the walking I really cooled off. I believe I was becoming hypothermic as I was shaking uncontrollably. I found a cut off garbage bag along the road and put it on to save some heat. I wasn't running fast enough to generate enough to keep me warm though. Now I'm coming into town with people lined up on both sides of the road. I must have looked terrible. At least people were offering lots of encouragement. Nice as it was I really didn't want to hear it. If they only knew. Every time I heard "come on 4587 you can do it" or "one foot in front of the other 4587" or "almost there" as people were passing me all the time it was just frustrating as hell. I just put my head down and tried to ignore it all. These last miles were the worst running miles I have ever experienced. Not anywhere soon enough the finish was in sight. I struggled through the chute to pick up the well earned medal. My finish time was a very disappointing 3:40. I know many people will never run a marathon that fast, but for how optimistic things were after the rain quit and the race started so well it could only feel that way for me. Now I could barely walk. My right foot was almost useless. I made my way painfully to pick up my drop bag. I limped to the closest table I could find and changed into dry and warmer clothes. I still couldn't stop shaking as I had gotten so cold again after stopping. Now I had to walk almost a mile back to where I had to catch the bus. On my way I stopped at the beer tent to spend the free beer ticket they give you when you finish. I actually found another on the ground so I had a couple. I actually warmed up a bit in the tent and enjoyed the beers. The alcohol didn't help much with the pain though. That was one long miserable walk to the buses just to pile on for the day. I eventually made it back to the bus and then back to my car in Superior. It hurt, but I was able to use my right foot to drive.

What a day. I certainly hope this is not how I end my marathon career, but it just might be. The update on my heal is that is is a bone spur or traction spur. It is located at the back of the heal where the Achilles tendon joins the heal. Underneath this is a bursa sack. This also became inflamed and really swelled the back of my heal. I could not wear my normal shoes for about a week. I spent three days on crutches. To this day over six weeks later I still have not run. It is very possible I will have to have surgery if I am ever going to run again. Second opinion coming tomorrow.

Marathon ready?

2011-06-15T21:39:00.000-05:00

Running:
Marathon 19 is now only a couple days away.   For this marathon I will have to rely on the volume of training already in the books and hopefully a little race day magic. At this point all training is completed and the only thing that can possibly help my time now is a couple days of complete rest. Last week I ran a total of 31 miles with only one longer run. On Saturday I ran 12 miles with most of the middle miles at expected race pace. This was a good run and gave me a little confidence for my expected time on Saturday. This week I only put in 14 miles with runs on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I will be resting tomorrow and Friday. My miles for this month are a little light, but that was on purpose. A high volume since finishing the 50k about 4 weeks ago would not have been helpful. For the year I've logged 1229 miles which is above where I have been the last few years. As mentioned I will be relying on this base to get me through Grandma's. Right now the weather is looking to be as good as I could ask for. Low of 50 and a high of 70 with a chance for NE to E wind.
Logistically this race will be a little tougher than usual. I will be staying overnight in Bayfield so I'll need to get an early start in order to make it to Superior were I intend on catching the bus transport to the start.   If I get everything ready the night before I won't have to get up much earlier, just need to eat and get going right away. Hope everything all works out.   Miles through today.
WTD 14
MTD 77
YTD 1229
ODO 28500

Hunting:
Not much going on here. I did manage to get the corn and sunflowers planted in the food plot. I got them in yesterday just in time for the rain today. I have some minor repair to do on my hunting blind in the back yard. The wind blew off one of the windows.  The hinges were small and only into some thin particle board doors I had cut in half to use for the windows. Didn't hold up too well.

Gardening:
Right now I have everything in the garden planted except one more crop of beans. I saved a place to put in some bean towers to try growing pole beans for the first time. First I need to build the bean towers. I've seen a few model designs on the internet to try. I still have a few weeks if I need it to get this done.   As usual there are a few seeds that didn't sprout requiring replanting of partial rows and to fill in squash and pumpkin hills.  The carrots got the worst of it. They sprouted right when we had the three 90+ degree days. Not good for such small fragile seedlings.  The strawberries are starting to come in. This is a couple weeks later that usual for here. There are quite a few though and they are quite large this year so far. After I return from the marathon I will have the rest of next week off to try and completely catch up with all the yard work. And there is a lot of it.

May wrap up

2011-06-02T22:57:00.000-05:00

Running:
Since I’ve been on Facebook my postings have become much less frequent. Much easier to just post a quick status update that type a long blog post. First to recap the rest of May since my last post. Running has gone quite well since the IceAge 50k. Recovery was pretty quick from the longer effort. I remember discussing this with a couple other runners on race day that it is actually easier to recover from the longer trail race than a road marathon. Basically the weeks after the 50k were a reverse taper. A couple days off and then 38 miles the immediate week after, followed by 44 the next. No runs were longer than 11 miles. On May 30th I made it out to Lapham state park and ran 9 miles on the trails. It was a nice change of pace, and a great day for a run. I’m beginning to learn the trails a bit. There are a couple loops of the ski trail called “the rollercoaster” and “the wall”. These portions are properly described. After completing about 6 miles on the hilly east side of highway “C” I ventured across the road to the west side to see what those trails were like. This area is much more open and prairie like than the heavily wooded hills on the other side of the park. I added a nice 3 more miles before calling it a day. Adding on 5 more miles on 5/31 and I brought my monthly total to 206. A pretty good total considering there was a target race in the middle of the month requiring a reduction in miles both before and after. This is the 5th month in a row over 200. June 1 was the deadline for signing up for Grandma’s marathon in Duluth. With only a few hours left I decided to register. My dilemma now is to figure out how to train these two weeks until race day. I’m thinking now I have a pretty good base. I have 6 runs of over 20 miles in this year so far including a marathon back in April and the 50k last month. I will likely go for something in the 2 hour range this weekend and then 1.5 hours next. In between will be a few off days and runs of 5 to 7 miles. Probably just some race pace miles, short tempo, and fast finish thrown into the shorter stuff. If the weather is OK on race day I will try to tag along with the 3:20 pace group. If it is hot again like the last two times I ran this marathon I will adjust appropriately and also will never even think of running this again unless they move the registration close much closer to race day.
Totals through May 31:
WTD 14
MTD 206
YTD 1153
ODO 28424

Hunting:
The clover I put in my food plot is doing quite well this spring. My design will change a little this year. I’m going to leave the clover grow basically in a circle outlining the area. In the very center well within bow range I will plant several short rows of corn since this is what the deer seem to come in for come late season. Whatever room I have between the corn and the clover I will plant with a fall crop such as winter rye or forage oats. It is definitely fawning season now. I’ve seen a couple probably ony a few days old over the last couple weeks. You can also tell by the large number of animals on the side of the highways. During rut season or fawn drop you always see an increase in road kill because of the increased activity.

Gardening:
I always try to have the garden planted by the end of May. This year was no different. After tilling once more a couple weeks ago I took a few hours before or after work in the succeeding days preparing the rows. Then started planting this same way. Potatoes one day, onions the next, sweet potatoes and peas, then sweet corn, then last weekend finished everything else including carrots, kohlrabi, beets, beans, lettuce, spinach, three kinds of watermelon, cucumbers, summer squash, and 4 kinds of winter squash. Asparagus and Rhubarb harvests are well underway right now. I have some space saved for an addition few rows of sweet corn and green beans that I will plant in a couple weeks. My last thing to finish is my pumpkin patch. This year I will plant 20 hills of pumpkins, 16 of an orange variety and 4 white. As long as I get this done by this weekend there should be plenty of growing days left before we get a frost. Here are a few pictures of the garden before much growth or the weeds try to take over.

IceAge 50K 2011

2011-05-16T23:43:00.000-05:00

Running:
This update will mostly be a recap of the Ice Age 50K trail race I competed in 5/14. But first just a little catch up. The two weeks prior to race day were mostly just a taper period for me. I know not everyone who runs long distance agrees with the length or extent of the taper period. As I’ve gotten older I believe in more rest time than I had previously. My last long run was the 20 miler on the trails on May 1 with Dana and Chris. The following week I ran only 44 miles with the longest being 11 miles on Saturday. Half of these 11 miles were on the road and half on the trails. On Sunday I went out to Lapham Peak and was planning on an hour run. Shortly after I started, my GPS watch ran out of battery. I just kept running for what I thought was just short of an hour. To my surprise when I got back to the car I had already run 1.5 hours. This run felt easy and fun and gave me a little confidence for race day. I’ve run some at Lapham before, but I hit some new trails this time. What a beautiful park to run in. I definitely will have to do more running there in the future. The week of the race I took Monday and Friday off. On Tuesday I ran 6.5 miles, Wednesday 5, and Thursday 4. This is pretty typical for a marathon or longer race week for me. I read some time ago that you get no training benefit from the miles you put in from the immediate few weeks, and that in fact you can do more harm than good by overdoing it and not allowing recovery time for your legs to be strong heading into the event. No matter how you slice it the last few miles of a marathon or 50K are hard. I’d rather try to save a little strength in the legs and at least try to minimize the chance of injury. Sometimes I still wonder if I shouldn’t rest even more than I do.

Race prep actually started on Friday night. I got all my fluid bottles together along with all the race clothes and extras that would go into my drop bag. The weather looked like it would be pretty miserable on Saturday with rain and wind forecast for most of the day. With that in mind I packed more extra shirts, socks, and a pair of shoes just in case they would be needed. The layout of the 50k course allows you to pass by the start area where your drop bag would be, two times. This is great for a quick clothes change and also allows you to not have to carry a lot of gels or special fluids with you. Race morning went pretty smoothly. I slept pretty good for a pre-race night and got up around 4:30. This was plenty of time to eat my usual pre-race breakfast of pancakes and bananas and drink a few cups of coffee. I left the house around 6:15 which is the time I had intended getting out there, but it was still plenty early. Right after arriving I ran into Dana Schulz and Chris Ponteri, my friends I knew were running the race and training partners from a couple weeks earlier. After picking up my race packet we joined back up and shared some stories, talked a little strategy, and watched the first of the 50 mile runners come through on their first loop. They had started around 6am. Some of the fastest guys were going sub 7 minute miles at that time by our calculation. It’s hard to describe the feelings at about that point knowing the race start is not far ahead. There is nervousness, anticipation, excitement, and even some dread and fear knowing the difficulty of the task ahead and the pain that will come with it. About 20 minutes before race start I made the final clothing preparations and drop bag inventory and headed over to the start.

The race started right at 8:15. I'm in this picture in the blue shirt right center. Dana and Chris as expected took off well ahead of me. I started towards the front, but not right up there. Having done this race before I had hoped to run the first out and back (13 miles) in a little less than two hours. Ideally in about 1:50. What I tried to do was run 8 minute pace or slightly better when I could and then just take what I could on all the up hills. A couple miles in I ran into a guy named Todd. We were running a similar pace and talked a bit for a couple miles. I wasn’t real comfortable yet and found myself huffing and puffing more than I remembered heading up the hills. I did not walk, in that I used my arms and kept the running motion going. I’ve found that to be easier than actually walking the steepest hills like most people. Anyway Todd soon was out of sight and I fell into a no man’s land where there was no one either ahead or behind me for minutes. I was still a couple miles from the first turn around when the first place guy came screaming past going the other way. Several minutes back was a pack of 3 guys including Dana and again a few minutes back of that I saw Chris. It was good to see both of these guys running so strong on their first ultra events. Counting the people returning I was in about 25th place at that time. I hit the turnaround at about 57 minutes and took a decent amount of time to be sure I got a gel down and a good drink of water. I was a good minute into the return trip before I saw anyone else. On the return of the first out and back I started to feel more comfortable. I knew I wasn’t pushing as hard as I could, but at least I found a comfort zone and a pace I thought I could sustain. I ended up making it back from the first loop in 1:59. A little slower than I had hoped, but feeling strong yet. I stopped by my drop bag to get my special electrolyte drink and a couple more gels. I went without a shirt change and decided since it was cool enough I would forgo my fluid belt for the first loop. This stop must have taken longer than I thought. Looking at my watch a little down the trail I was already at 2:02. I knew now if I was going to equal or better my last 50k attempt I would have to run 1:20 or so for the first 9 mile loop and then still throw down a 1:30 or so second loop. I pushed on. I was still in a place where there were not any runners anywhere close to me. A few miles into the Nordic loop I ran into the place where the half marathon runners join the same trail. Most of these people were on their last loop and slower runners. It was nice to see people but I was continually running past all of them. Half way through the first loop, just past the aid station I ran into Todd again whom I hadn’t seen since early on. Apparently he had a cramp that had slowed him that he had worked through. We again started running together and were holding a pretty good pace. We decided we would try to stick together for the rest of the race and try to push each other to break the 5 hour mark. We finished the next 4 miles to the start area chatting and stride for stride. I was looking forward to finishing with someone. As we approached the finish of the first loop I was surprised to see Dana off on the side. He told me he had dropped out after taking a wrong turn. What a bummer this must have been after looking so strong in the beginning. This first Nordic loop took about 1:25 as the total time back at the drop bags was about 3:27. Now I know I needed a 1:30 final loop just to break 5 hours and that beating my last 50k effort was not possible. I grabbed a drink, took another gel, changed shirt and hat, and put on my fluid belt with one bottle of electrolyte mixture and another of flattened cherry coke. Todd and I met back up and headed off for the money loop. Within the first 50 yards Todd pulled up with a cramp, and encouraged me to go on. I wished him well and took off. This was 22 miles in. I was still doing pretty well considering, but knew the challenge this last loop brings. The hills on this loop are not overly long or steep but at least on part of the loop they are relentless. Up and down one after another. Here is an example of one of the hills (not me).

The second time over them, this many miles out they really take a toll no matter how in shape a person might be. About 7 miles to go I passed up a guy I thought might be my age group. Turns out I was right. Afterwards I found out he was last year’s age group winner. With about 5 miles left I started sipping on my cherry coke. I’ve done this a couple times before instead of taking another gel. The calories and sugar boost have helped get through the last few miles. Unfortunately not as much this time as before. With about 5 miles I figured I still had an outside chance to break 5 hours but was struggling. Not to mention it was about here the wind picked up and the rain started to fall. So now I had weather, my head, and tired legs to overcome to make my outside goal. I pushed on as best I could, trying to run a little faster downhill or when flat and still trying to run rather than walk up any hill. With no one around me to encourage or anyone in front to try and catch it was just one foot in front of the other. Finally I hit the last two killer hills just before the finish, turned the corner and could hear the finish line crowd. Giving all I could, I crossed the tape in just over 5 hours. 5:00:50 to be exact. I was somewhat disappointed I couldn’t break 5 hours, but some of that sting came out a little later when the results were posted. I ended up finishing 21st overall out of about 140 finishers (20 or so must have DNF’d) and 1st in my age group of 33 people. Let me tell you any time you can collect hardware, especially on a nationally known event such as this you had a good day.

After the race I quickly grabbed my bag and changed into dry warm clothes. I then met up with Chris who had a very good race for his first time at the distance. He finished 15th overall in 4:39 and 2nd in his age group. He told me had talked to Dana who had just left back for home. They have a really good post race spread with lots of good food and beer. Chris and I and several other runners spent the next couple hours sharing lots of stories and partaking in the food and drink. The award ceremony was a couple hours away so all this camaraderie made the time pass quickly. Somewhere around 3 the ceremony was to start, but it got off late. While waiting for the show to start I happened to run into Todd. He ended up finishing about 4 minutes behind me and ended up taking the 3rd place award in the same age group as Chris. One thing about these events is they are pretty laid back and there is an exceptional number of nice friendly runners and volunteers. After Chris left, Todd and I talked a bit longer over another beer like we were old buddies. Overall it was a good time with some old, newer, and brand new friends. When you first finish you wonder why you do it, but then after taking in the whole experience as it is, you wonder how you could not do it again.

I will need to decide by 5/31 if I will sign up for Grandma’s marathon which is 6/18. Today I feel pretty good except for a little tweak on my heel. If recovery goes well and I can get a couple quality runs in before the end of the month I will likely do it.
Recap of mileage totals through 5/15.
WTD 47.5
MTD 110
YTD 1057
ODO 28328

Hunting:
It's been a while since I posted anything about my favorite hunting shows or sites. Here are a few links to a some of my favorite hunting blog sites. I like these because they have good articles, good bloggers, good tips and advice, and good pictures and videos.
The first is from field and steam called whitetail-365.
Next is a site from Deer and deer hunting magazine deeranddeerhunting.com
The third is from bowhunting.com bowhunting.com/blog/

Gardening:
Last Tuesday I took the day off from work and got caught up with a few chores. I was able to get the lawn mowed and the entire garden rototilled. I was hoping to get some planting in, but it's done nothing but rain and of course the weekend was filled with the race on Saturday and a birthday party on Sunday. With lawn mowing season here I have recruited the neighbor kid to help me this year. He was looking to make some money anyway so this will free up a few hours a week for me and allow him to buy the mini bike he really wants to get. I may need a day or two off over the next few weeks to get caught up again.

Back from vacation

2011-05-04T11:48:00.000-05:00

Running:
It’s been an interesting couple weeks of running. Shortly after my last post on 4/18 we left for Florida for a week long family vacation. My youngest daughter needed to get her training runs in too so that helped to be sure I got out there. It felt so good to run in just shorts and a t-shirt and be warm. Some days it was a little warmer than I would have liked and certainly warmer than I am used to. Every day started off in the mid 70’s and got to mid 80’s. I ran every day while down there at least 1 hour and one of the days I ran 14 miles or about 2 hours. About .5 miles from the condo where we stayed was the entrance to Henderson Beach State Park. There was a loop of about 3 miles in length from one end of the park by the beach to the other end in the campground that was nice and quiet for running. The section along the beach gave good views and a stiff ocean breeze to keep things cooler. There also was water and bathrooms available throughout the park. There were no hills to be found anywhere nearby. The week of 4/18 which included 3 days running in Florida I logged 57 miles. Returning home to freezing temperatures was quite a shock. I got right back into the usual routine of running on my lunch break on week days. Saturday was very windy and I needed to spend most of the day at a track meet, but I did manage to sneak in 6.5 miles in the morning. Knowing I needed to get some trail miles in I contacted my friend Dana. He was meeting up with another friend Chris to run on the John Muir trails early on Sunday. This was perfect. I met up with Dana about 5:15 and we drove to meet Chris together. Chris was going to run 3 loops of the blue loop or about 28 miles. Dana and I felt a little less ambitious and only wanted to get about 20 miles in. It was a very nice run. I had met Chris briefly before, but had not run with him. I look forward to doing it again. It was great to chat with both those guys on such a nice morning for running. It sure made the time pass by quickly. Before I knew it we were done with the two loops. Dana and I then just ran an out and back of 1 mile to complete a full 20 for the day in about 3:10 and change. We ran a little slow for most of the miles, but that is OK for two weeks before the race. So my miles for last week were 58. I ended up finishing April with 220 miles giving me 4 in a row over 200. Sometime this week I will pass 1000 miles for the year. After taking 5/2 off my miles through 5/3:
WTD 5
MTD 25
YTD 972
ODO 28243

Hunting:
The day after returning home from vacation the dogs were spending an extended period of time outside without returning to the house. It didn’t take long to see what they were up to. There was a dead deer, a young buck that was laying dead in the back yard. Apparently this deer had been hit by a car and wondered into my back yard to die. After making sure the dogs were inside I just dragged the carcass way into the back and am now hoping the coyote’s and crows eat it up before my dogs find it again. I noticed this video of the largest antlered deer ever recorded. What a freak. If you watch close there is so much antler it struggles at times to keep its head up.

Gardening:
It’s getting to that busy time of year again. Good thing it has stayed a little cool as it has held things back a bit. I finally did order all my seeds, onions and potato sets. Now I need to till the garden so I can begin to get some of the early things planted. I’ve spent some time applying the 10 or so yards of wood chips/mulch I picked up. Just a little bit left before I’m done for now. I noticed that the asparagus is now up a couple inches so it won’t be long until it gets to the dinner table. Last weekend my friend Keith came over with another roll of PEX. We ended up extending the waterline we put in a couple weeks ago all the way back another 100 feet to my back garden where I grow pumpkins, corn, and have my food plot. I now have a working faucet near my main garden and way in the back. This is really going to end up saving me lots of time over the coming years.

April catch up

2011-04-18T17:02:00.000-05:00

Running:
I posted last about my Trailbreaker run, but haven’t posted anything regarding training numbers so I’ll attempt to catch up a bit. There has been 4 full weeks since my last post.

I ended March with a total of 248 miles giving me 738 miles heading into the marathon April 2nd. This was my third month in a row over 200 miles and gives me a pretty good start to the year. I also noticed on my run log that after completing the first mile of the Trailbreaker my lifetime odometer number flipped over 28,000. As I mentioned in my marathon race post I ran quite a few of the miles this past winter on the treadmill. This allowed me to be consistent, but it’s just not the same as running outside. The lack of outdoor miles and particularly training on the hills hurt me a little for the marathon I’m sure. After the marathon my legs felt a little beat up. I basically did a full reverse taper, taking two full days off and then coming back slow with some recovery runs. I logged only 40 miles the week after with nothing fast or long. Last week I got back on track logging 59.5 miles over 6 days of running, including a 20 mile run on Saturday. The run Saturday was interesting. Initially I had thought of going out to run on the trails for my long run. The soaking weather Friday night and into Saturday morning changed my mind. I didn’t get out early because of the rain and did some other stuff until late morning when it looked like the weather was OK. I dressed in running tights and long sleeve shirt with my running vest. When I left this felt about right. About 9 miles into my run I came across a dog I had never seen running this same path hundreds of times. This was a large, thick pit bull looking thing that seemed to mean business. He started chasing after me and then when he got about 10 feet off to the side of me bared his teeth and went on the attack. I placed a well timed kick right to his jaw and he ran away whimpering. I hated to do it, but it was obvious to me I had to or I would be bit or worse. About 2 more miles into the run I had a deer almost run me over. It came busting over a hill across the road right in front of me. I could have reached out my hand and grabbed some hair it was that close to me. Now the temperature was beginning to drop dramatically along with the wind picking up. With the light drizzle that had fallen most of the run and the added sweat I was soaked. Dressed lighter than I otherwise would have been had the temp been that cold at the start, I could really feel the cold. Even to the point I was worried about hypothermia. I decided to pull the run short at 15 miles. I changed clothes quickly and jumped on the treadmill to finish 20 miles for the day in a total time of 2:41:21. Looking outside after my treadmill run the ground was white. It had gotten cold enough to snow again.

I think I’m on track for the 50K race three weekends from now. One more week around 50/60 mile range and then taper time again. Through 4/17.
WTD 59.5
MTD 126
YTD 853
ODO 28,124

Hunting:
I noticed an article regarding the deer season framework. for the 2011 season. It appears that earn a buck rules may finally be eliminated in all but CWD zones. It’s about time. The other big thing is that the early October gun season also looks like it may go by the wayside except in CWD zones. I still haven’t heard anything regarding the use of crossbows. This is one of the topics being brought up at the Sportsman spring meetings. I actually would like to see the use of crossbows expanded. I think it would get a few more people into the sport and would make hunting easier for older hunters who may have had to give up.

Gardening:
There has been a few nice days over the last few weeks to make it feel at time like Spring is finally here. Then we get a day like today where it’s barely above freezing all day and the ground was again covered with snow this morning. Work around the yard has started though. I finally finished all my pruning chores before any new growth started. I was able to get all the flower beds cut back from last year’s dead foliage, and grass pulled and raked up. I thinned and caned all my raspberries which is another job I should have done late summer or fall. I put fertilizer with crabgrass preventer in the few trouble spots I had last year and put Milorganite over the rest of the yard areas. Last Saturday I hauled about 10 yards of wood chips home from the recyle center. I will use these on a few of the less visible portions of my flower beds and will get some good mulch in a few weeks for the rest. A few things I still need to get to are cleaning the pond, and the first tilling of the garden so I can get early crops in like potato’s.

My big project garden wise was putting in a waterline from the house down to the garden. No more hoses across the walkway and lawn most of the summer. My friend Keith came over Sunday and we spend the whole day installing the line. He’s had experience doing this install at his and his mother’s house and offered to help me do it. We were working with a material called PEX . We put in 250 feet ¾ inch diameter of the stuff from the house down to the middle of the garden. We first dug a trench the whole way by hand. We then busted a hole through the concrete block into the house. Then we laid the PEX in place and connected it to the water supply. Then we buried the PEX into the bottom of the trench about a foot deep the whole way and covered it back up. In portions of the lawn where the grass was thick enough you can’t even tell where we were. Having ¾ inch uninterrupted water supply to the garden will allow me to run multiple sprinklers at once saving me a bit of time. I’m sure I’ll wonder why I didn’t do it earlier.

Trailbreaker recap

2011-04-11T22:35:00.000-05:00

I had the Trailbreaker marathon on my radar as a possible race all winter and spring. As the April 2nd date approached I kind of adjusted training as if I was going to run this. I didn’t do all the preparation I would have for a usual target race though. I did get plenty of miles in. At the time of the marathon I had over 700 miles under my belt for the year. One big difference from previous years was the number of miles I put on the treadmill. I’m not sure of the exact number, but I’m pretty sure more than half of those miles were inside either at home or work. This kept me very consistent, but in the long run didn’t help me with a difficult marathon. I was able to get a pretty good 20 miler in a few weeks ahead of the April race date so I had some confidence I could at least run close to what I had done in the past (3:30 – 3:40) range. I really only took a one week taper period for the race basically using it as a training run for the 50k trail race coming in May. I took Friday as my off day and only did 4 easy miles on Thursday. In hind sight I probably should have taken at least one more day off.

I didn’t sign up for the race ahead of time. I kept my eye on the weather and training and was up in the air until race morning. I don’t suppose “carbing up” on pizza Friday night was the best decision I could have made. I got up at my usual time a little before 5:00am giving me plenty of time to prepare. I did my usual race morning breakfast of pancakes and banana’s. Deciding I felt pretty good I made the decision to give it a go. The morning was crisp and cold with only light winds at the time. The forecast called for it to stay cold with winds picking up throughout the morning. Good news the winds were supposed to be Westerly which would be at my back on the return of the out and back. I made it down to Frame Park in Waukesha in plenty of time to sign up and get ready. They had a nice blue technical shirt as a race give away this year. Right around 8:00 I got myself to the start line in time for the national anthem and then we were off. I started off easy this time instead of blasting off from the start. I stayed behind a couple people I had seen at previous Trailbreakers that finished around where I did. I just tucked in behind them and tried to keep pace right around 7:30 miles. This worked pretty good through the half marathon turn around point. It was this early on though I could feel my legs just weren’t going to have it that day. I already wished I had only signed up for the half marathon. I tried to hold the pace, but a group of at least 10 people passed me up in the next few miles while I slowed to the 7:45 range. I pretty much hung in here as we got to mile 11 water stop. It was at this stop they provide a place for a drop bag. I had put a different pair of shoes and socks along with GU and hydration needs in my pack. I made the decision to change into my trail shoes for the haul up the trail to the Lapham Peak tower turn around. Even though it cost me some time I was happy to have made that decision. This was my 3rd Trailbreaker and I never found trail conditions as bad as they were this time. The ice from the previous week had mostly melted, but that made those areas really muddy. There were spots where I was up to my ankles in mud. I made it up to the top of the trail where there is a set of about 50 stairs before you reach the base of the tower when I started seeing the people I had been running with early. I would guess 3 or 4 minutes behind them at that point. The picture of me at the top of these stairs above has me looking pretty defeated already. I certainly felt that way too and the mental games had already begun for sure. I fought my way to the top of the tower, gathered myself and headed back down the hill for the return. On the way back down I slipped and fell. I had hoped to make up a little ground here, but now had to run cautiously to make sure I didn’t get injured. I made it back to the drop bag spot at approximately mile 16 and again changed shoes. Again I think this was a good decision in that the others were very muddy, wet and heavy. The wind was now at my back, but it didn’t seem to help or make any difference at all. I had a lot of trouble with the transision from dirt trail back to paved trail this time. I was kind of in no man’s land here for several miles. No runners were around me either ahead or behind that I could see. I just tried to focus and keep moving really fighting off the urge to drop out. When I got to the half marathon turn around on the way back I knew I was in trouble. In previous years I had run into masses of mid pack people running the half marathon. The only people I was running into now were walkers or those struggling to make it through. No one to try and run with. I tried to focus on the next runner ahead of me until I caught them which isn’t saying much, but it was something to try and stay in the game. Finally I got off the trail and back into Waukesha city limits. I willed myself to complete the last couple miles until finally the finish was in sight. I tried to give it a little the last couple hundred meters but my legs would have none of it. It never felt so good to finally cross that finish line in a real slow 3:50:16. So I did finish, but it was by far the hardest marathon I have ever run. This was my 18th completed since 2004. I picked up my medal and made it back to my car where I changed out of some of the wet clothes and put on a warm jacket. I went inside to view results and have a couple post race beers while I was waiting. Turns out my time was 30th overall and 5th in my age group.

For a low key, early race this event is really pretty well run. Signup on race day is a bonus. The nice shirt they give away and the post race food and beer are also good things. The point where the race turns north across highway 18 up toward the Lapham tower is only a few miles from my house so it feels like my home course. I guess that is one of the reasons it tempts me each year. I will consider doing it again, but not unless I think I’m more prepared than I was this year. The only good thing about the race this year for me is I proved I could finish even if I was struggling with both the physical and mental part of running such a long event.

Trailbreaker? Probably

2011-03-28T12:27:00.000-05:00

Running:
Last week I finally made the decision to try the Trailbreaker marathon on April 2nd. While the last several days have been cold the warmer weather over a week ago cleared most of the snow and ice. The long range forecast looks to be about normal or 30/50 low and high temps which is nice for a marathon. I haven’t signed up yet because I can do it on race day, so as long as the weather holds and the injury bug doesn’t bite I’m going to do it. I’m not confident in guessing my time, but I would hope to be in the 3:30ish range as my last two efforts of this race ended up. Yesterday I ran the single track trail up to the Lapham tower and there was some slippery spots, but the trail was quite runnable. Both of the last couple weeks my total miles were 53. I got there in different ways though. This last week my longest run was only 12 miles on Saturday and no day off. I’ve still only taken one day this year so far. With the marathon coming up this weekend my total this work week will be low. I may take as many as three days off including today to be sure the legs are rested enough.

The past week I’ve had to break out a couple new pair of shoes as my older ones reached the 500 mile level. I scored on a good pair of Asics Attack trail shoes on eBay, and a pair of Asics 2150 trainers on sale at SportMart. Both were real good deals and much less than ½ retail price. The trail shoes are a bit lower heal profile which I found quite comfortable on the few runs so far, especially the trail yesterday. I will likely use these for the IAT50k run in May. Mileage through 3/27 :
WTD 53
MTD 229
YTD 709
ODO 27980

Hunting:
I had a couple links presented to me that I thought are interesting the past couple weeks. The first is a link to a news clip regarding 7 deer killed in a Southern WI field by lightening. A year ago or so I posted a link showing three bucks with their horns locked together. Here is a link to another recent article and pictures with the same thing happening in Ohio this past December.

Gardening.
Two weekends ago I was able to finish pruning all my apple and peach trees. Still some minimal pruning on the pear, cherry, and plum trees. These don't need close to as much work as the apple and pear do. I also was able to burn two large piles of brush accumulated from wind damaged limbs and normal pruning last year and this winter. I noticed the crocus flowers were out as well as the leaves sprouting on the tulips on the sun side of the house. Spring can't be far now.

Much needed rest day

2011-03-14T18:11:00.000-05:00

Running:
Running continues to go well so far this year. Today I took my first day off since late December 2010. Yesterday I managed to get in my first 20 miler of 2011. I’ve put on a lot of miles with no time off, so the end of that run hurt a bit. I finished the run in 2:45:52 which wasn’t a bad time considering the volumes I have been running. I figure I’m due for a break before my body makes me take one. I’ll likely use this week as a cut back week. Then I need to decide if I will run the Trailbreaker marathon the first week in April. If I do think I will run it, I will not run anything too hard for a few weeks. Maybe one day of speed work and a moderate length run of 15 miles or so on the weekends. If I’m not going to run it, I will start to target peaking for the 50K race in May. I would likely start to pick up with some hill work and more tempo style runs for the next several weeks. I continue to run both outside and on the treadmill. I have put more miles on the treadmill this year already than any other year of my life. The one thing this has done is allow me to be consistent. There was never a day when I couldn’t run or didn’t want to run because of the weather. Totals through 3/13:
WTD 63
MTD 123
YTD 603
ODO 27874

Hunting:
I still have not been out in the woods to retrieve my stands. I contacted the land owner about a month ago to say I would be coming out one of these weekends, but something just keeps coming up. If I don’t head up north this weekend hopefully I can get it done. The last couple of weeks I have seen so many deer in the fields near my house. One day last week on the way to work in the field closest to me I counted 8 deer. That’s just the ones I could see in the field and a little ways into the woods. I didn’t see any with antlers so likely they have fallen off by this time. Many of these deer are also coming into my back yard searching for the last leftovers. The dogs are frequently barking at them when they notice they are out there. This is a real good sign for next season. I don’t ever recall seeing this many nearby over the previous 7 winters in this house. Just as I was beginning to feel guilty about not doing much late season scouting I read this blog post at bowhunting.com. It makes sense to me and made me feel better that I wasn’t wasting my time.

Gardening:Two winter chores still to finish. I have a couple of large brush piles that I want to burn before I lose all the snow. If I don’t get it done over the next few days I may lose my chance for this year. I still have to prune about ½ of my fruit trees before the weather gets warm too. I still should have a few weeks for this chore. This weekend I noticed my fish came out of hiding. I hadn’t seen them for months. I also noticed several frogs had crawled out. I guess two signs that spring can’t be far away.

February recap

2011-02-28T14:24:00.000-06:00

I’ve been very neglectful in my postings this month. That’s mostly because on the topics of running, hunting, and gardening there isn’t much going on. At least much that seems worth writing about. This update will be only on running and basically a recap of February

Running:
I finished February with a total of 254 miles and 479 YTD. This is slightly higher than last February, and keeps me in the ballpark of where I want to be heading into the spring season. The last 4 complete weeks I ran 62, 67, 61, and 66 miles. My streak is still intact in that I have run a minimum of 5 miles every day this year so far. My longest runs were only 12 miles. From here forward I will be attempting to increase the distance of at least one of my weekend runs. This past weekend I did sign up for the IceAgeTrail 50K race in May. On Saturday morning I noticed a Facebook post that mentioned only 15 more openings for all races. It forced my hand. I quickly signed up and made it just under the wire. Shortly after there was a post saying registration had closed. Looking afterward I was the last person to sign up for the 50K. Now if I can get the proper training in over these next two months and stay healthy it should be lots of fun. I will need to decide over the next few weeks if I will run the Trailbreaker marathon the first weekend in April. If I can get my long run increased close to 3 hours I will consider it, otherwise I will just keep working towards the 50K in May.

Totals for February:
WTD 7
MTD 254
YTD 479
ODO 27750

Just SUPER

2011-02-07T17:44:00.000-06:00

Wow. What a season, what a victory for the Packers. I was so nervous for this game. I did all sorts of things to distract me on Sunday right up until game time. I don’t think I sat down much at all. I just kept pacing or going to get something to eat or drink. Even when the Packers were up 21-3 I felt better, but knew we were up against a tough team that had a history of fighting back all year. The outcome wasn’t known until 56 seconds left, but in the end they pulled it out as it should have been. An unbelievable end to an unbelievable year with lots of promise for years to come. It’s great to be a Packer fan right now. Kind of makes up for a couple of the lean decades while I was growing up. I couldn’t help thinking how great it would have been to have shared this game with my dad in person, but I know somewhere dad was watching with coach Lombardi and sharing lots of smiles. It was just SUPER.

Running:
Running continues to go pretty well. Two weeks ago I finished with 63 miles. Last week I finished up with 62 which gave me 226 for January. That’s a few less miles than previous years, but still a good start to 2011. For now I’m just trying to get the runs in. Nothing fast or far or difficult, just consistent. I’ve still got my streak going for 2011. I have run at least 5 miles every day this year so far. Most of the runs have been on the treadmill either at home or work because of the road conditions. My usual routes outside from work are the most dangerous right now. There is absolutely no shoulders to run on, the sidewalks are not plowed, and some of the roads are quite busy. Running from home the roads are more snow covered, but they also are quieter. Makes it a little easier to get out as long as the plows have been through and I get an early start. I can’t wait until things warm up a bit to melt all this snow we have. Since I have no planned runs on the books yet I can keep going the way I am for a few more weeks anyway. Pretty soon I will have to pick things up to get some more meaningful training runs in. Through 2/6:
WTD 62
MTD 53
YTD 279
ODO 27550

Hunting:
I still haven’t made it out to the woods to get my stands out. Every time I have wanted to something else has come up or the weather was brutally cold. Lots of time really just don’t want them damaged by the cold or the material chewed up by squirrels. I’ve noticed how many deer there still seem to be around since the season has ended. They are still digging around my food plot nightly to get under the snow to find whatever they can. I frequently see deer in the fields or woods on the way to and from work. Good signs for next year.

Gardening:
I got about half my apple trees pruned a couple weekends ago. It was a lot of work and was quite cold. I was happy to get a start on this at least. Probably will take the most of another day when I get a chance to finish one of these days. The apple and peach trees are by far the most work. Plums, pears and cherry trees only need a little work. We have gotten so much snow I needed to take the time to rake off my roof last weekend. This was a lot of work. Some of the drifts on the lower roof from off the higher ones were probably 5 or 6 feet deep. My shoulders are still sore. Good cross training and probably better than lifting weights.

Bring home the ring

2011-01-26T12:30:00.000-06:00

What a sweet run for the Packers this year. Unbelievable that they are actually going to play in the Super Bowl. The NFC Championship game last Sunday was much closer than it should have been, but how awesome to beat the Bears and make it to the big show. It’s been 13 years since I will actually have an interest in the game. The Steelers will be tough, but I still think the Packers can win it all. Bring home the ring boys!

Running:
Last week was a first for me. I managed to get 56 miles in. That’s not unique in itself, but the fact all of the 56 miles were done on a treadmill is. I’ve done all my miles in a week on the treadmill before while coming back from injury, but this total would have been less that 20 miles for sure. I guess it was just a combination of bad roads, cold weather, work responsibility, and timing that caused that to happen. In past years I would have probably just skipped a couple runs, but with my new attitude toward the treadmill it allowed me to get it done. Last week’s total was the most since September of last year. The most unique run was on Sunday. I was so nervous in anticipation for the game I thought it would be a good idea to calm myself by running and watching at the same time. I ended up running for the entire first half, getting in 10 miles. Almost time to buy another pair of shoes to use for long runs. I’ve been keeping my eyes out for the right ones on eBay but so far nothing to pull the trigger on. Still on track for 200+ miles in January. Through today:
WTD 27
MTD 181
YTD 181
ODO 27452

Hunting:
I never got out to remove my stands from the woods last weekend. It was brutally cold and since there really is no hurry I thought it better to wait for the temperatures to moderate a bit before climbing up trees to unhook things with frozen hands. Cleaning up my hunting stuff last week I found my trail cameras which got me to thinking I should put them out for a few weeks to see what is still around after season. I’m especially curious on my bow hunting property to see what is making all the tracks and beds in a new area I found while last out there. One of my cameras is an old one that uses 35mm film. Hopefully I can still find some film and someone to process it. I wonder if Walgreens still does it and what it might cost? Here is a link I found with ideas to help a hunter with post season cabin fever.

Gardening:
This next month is the time to get out there and prune all my fruit trees. At least I need to do it before March and any warmer weather that would start the growing process. I really need to hit the trees hard this year as last year I didn’t do enough. It’s always hard as you think you are taking off too much and will hurt the tree or at least production of fruit. From everything I read and examples I have viewed of how to do it up in Bayfield I believe I can take off much more than I have been. With all the trees I have, to have less fruit but better quality would be a good thing.

Bring on those Bears

2011-01-17T16:56:00.000-06:00

What a Packer game it was last Saturday. The whooping put on the Falcons was comparable to the game I went to against the Cowboys back in November. The game it sets up against the Bears is even more interesting. Playing your biggest division rival with a chance to get to the Super Bowl sets it up to be one huge game. I can’t wait until we put those Bears in their place next Sunday.

Running:
My running streak for the year is still intact. My runs during the week are still usually only 5 miles. This past weekend I ran 10 on the treadmill on Saturday while I watched the early football game. Then on Sunday morning I ran 8.5 outside in 1:08:54. It was only in the single digits, but it was a good run. The roads were quiet and in fairly good shape. I used my new Garmin for the first time on Sunday’s run. I did notice that it registers the miles a little longer than my old one. What had been my 8.5 mile run came it at only 8.25. I’ll have to check out a few more routes to see if this is a one time thing or if I have to adjust my route mileage a bit. Half way through the month I’m close to on track for 200 in January. Through Sunday:
WTD 43.5
MTD 98.5
YTD 98.5
ODO 27380

Hunting:
It’s a good thing there was some good football on this weekend now that the hunting season is over. It takes up some of the time until I adjust to not having that activity to do on the weekend. I got all of my hunting clothes and gear reorganized and put away this past week. This weekend I actually got the garage clean since it was empty of hunting gear. I can now park one of the other cars in there over night. I haven’t been able to do that since the beginning of fall. This coming weekend I’m going to try and get out to remove my stands from the woods. Hopefully get a little scouting done too to figure out a few things for next year late season. My fix for hunting for a while will have to be some of the shows on T.V. Each week there are several that I can record that are worth watching. Speaking of watching something. Here is a short PBS video on the white deer herd in northern Wisconsin. I think you will find it interesting.

Gardening:
The garden catalogs just keep coming. I also get bombarded by e-mail from the few places I typically order from. Some of these are kind of deceiving. The recent e-mail I got from Gurney’s told me about a big sale, up to 70% off. Go to the link provided and try to find anything approaching 70% off. I only saw a couple non popular items that were on sale for that much. I guess that’s the point though. Get you to go there and order early. I’m not ready yet.

1st post of 2011

2011-01-11T16:41:00.000-06:00

Can't believe this is my first post of 2011. It certainly has been busy the first 11 days of the month. Yesterday I had a tooth pulled and a post for an implant inserted. I was sure thinking the worst on how this would feel. Especially when they handed me the tooth and I saw how big the roots are on a molar. Then knowing they had to drill into the bone some to insert a post I wasn’t optimistic. Turns out it didn’t/doesn’t hurt much at all. Other than having to change what I eat for about a week it seems at least so far, this will be a non event. Thank God.

Running:
So far this month I’ve been able to run every day. All my runs have continued to be in the 5 to 7.5 mile range and 40 to 60 minutes of time. Again I continue to run outside as time and weather allow and on the treadmill when they don’t. I’m not purposely trying to start a streak it just turns out that way so far. Now that hunting is over I will likely try to increase the length of my weekend runs to get the weekly mileage back up near 50. When I get my mileage back above that I’m sure I will make at least one rest day part of the routine again. I still haven’t used my new Garmin, but that will change shortly when I run outside more consistently and on longer runs. I’ve given some thought to which races I intend to run this year. Tentatively I will shoot for the Trailbreaker (half or full) in early April, either Journey’s or GB or Ice Age50k in May, Grandma’s in June, Paavo Nurmi in August, and probably Whistlestop in October. I will also probably run the Lake Country half marathon Labor Day weekend and a few 5k’s over summer. Not much different than my plan for previous years. I just need to keep from being injured so I can run them all.

Through 1/11/11.
WTD 10
MTD 65
YTD 65
ODO 27336

Hunting:
I was able to get out hunting a few times in January and had several chances at deer, but chose to pass on all of them. I was really waiting for one last opportunity at a big one and didn’t need to get another doe. The last day of the season I received permission to gun hunt off my bow stand. I was really pumped about that. The last time I was there I saw 7 deer including two nice bucks. I was really hoping for a chance. I ended up seeing nothing in the morning, and it sure was cold. Temps were a few degrees below zero as I was driving out there. I only stayed a couple hours. In the afternoon I decided to forgo watching the beginning of the Packer/Eagles playoff game. I ended up seeing one nice buck that never presented a shot and two doe that I passed on. Next year this stand location will have to move a little bit. The tree I’ve been in the last couple years died this year and will likely not be safe next year. I have a couple trees in mind and will probably do the work to get the new location squared away yet this winter.

Sadly hunting season for 2010/11 has come to an end. The guns are already cleaned and put away until next year. It was a good year over all. I can’t complain with 5 deer total, including 2 nice nine pointers with my bow. Before the season began I was sure excited with being selected to hunt on the Ottawa conservancy. It was nice to have another option for gun hunting without having to go on public state forest land. It just turns out with the other success I had there wasn’t a lot of need to spend much time at another place. At first I was disappointed because all the other guys that hunted there had already taken all the prime locations. There were stands everywhere. After spending some time though I learned a few good locations way on the back of the property that I will use if and when I am selected again. Having access to the back side of the property through the land I have permission to bow hunt opens opportunity for me that is difficult for others having to access from the normal parking area. As always I learned a few new things this year and can’t wait until next year to take advantage.

Gardening:
As usual with the rolling of the seasons this is the slowest time of the year related to anything gardening. In fact with hunting ended and nothing much going on garden wise it is the slowest few months I have all year. I will be thinking about cutting down a couple of the big maples in the yard over winter. The silver maples are really messy trees with shallow roots and I think portions of the yard will do much better with them gone. There will also be garden catalogues to go through, hunting stuff to put away and some running to do, but that leaves lots of time for other things. Will try to make time for family things and house chores until spring comes around to busy things up again.

Happy New Year - 2010 recap

2010-12-31T13:12:00.000-06:00

Good bye 2010

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous New Year. 2010 was by far a better year than 2009 for me. Last week was filled with celebrations including Sandy and my 19th wedding anniversary, Alia’s 16th birthday, and Christmas celebrations here and in Bayfield.

The picture here was taken on 12/27 as the sun rose over Madeline Island. Looking out the window I noticed this tall glowing spike over the island. I’m sure it’s just a jet plume, but it’s kind of weird how it is not even and just ends. This was really impressive a few minutes earlier as the sky was darker, and the spike was brighter against it. It changed quickly as the sky brightened, but the picture still turned out OK.

Running:

I was able to get enough runs in the last weeks of December to be able to reach my revised goal of 2100 miles for the year. Not a bad number considering I was again forced to take most of 8 weeks off from running in July and August. I ended up getting a new Garmin for Christmas. Santa brought me a new 305 with heart rate monitor. I will start using it in January. I have never trained regularly with a heart rate monitor so that will take some getting used to if I choose to do it. I also see there is some new software with it to keep track of my runs automatically. There also is a way to log manually if a run isn’t done using the Garmin. This is why I didn’t use the old Garmin log. Now I will have to decide if I want to change or keep using my .XLS spreadsheet for logging.

Some stats for 2010
27,271 miles on the Odometer as of 12/31
2105 running miles
279 running events
288 hours and 06 minutes of running
7.54 miles length of average run
1 hr 2 min time of average run
74 miles highest week
247 miles highest month
40.5 miles average week
175.5 miles average month
238 miles on the treadmill in 34 runs (7.0 mile average)

Miles by Month
Jan 243.5
Feb 241.5
Mar 204.5
Apr 228.5
May 247
Jun 174
Jul 117
Aug 113
Sep 187
Oct 117
Nov 98
Dec 134

Hunting:

I was not able to get out hunting now for well over a week. This is the first time since early October when that has happened. I did get out fishing last week with my brothers Todd and Scott, cousins Randy and Dusty, uncle Arthur, and Randy’s friend Brian. It was an awesome day. I bet we caught between all of us maybe 70 fish. Most were thrown back, but we took home 19 fish between all of us, all over 24 inches with the biggest probably about 30 inches. Todd, Scott and I took home 16 of the fish so we had lots of cleaning to do. The picture is of just the fish we took home. It was a great to catch so many fish and to spend time with all these guys.

I know a lot of people didn't have a very good hunting year again. For me this was one of my best ever. I spend 365 days a year thinking about, planning for, and actually going hunting. I may have spent fewer hours in the woods than normal, but that’s only because I was able to be successful early. My food plot layout and crops again turned out well, but I think I will plant one section with all clover since that seems to be what the deer like best. I was able to get 5 deer so far this year. Three with a bow and two with gun. The two nine pointers I got with my bow on back to back weekend was definitely the highlight. I also had chances at lots of other deer both bow and gun hunting so it was an exciting season. There are still ten days left in the season so there is still a chance for more if I can find the time to get out there.

Gardening:
It was a mixed year for the garden. The vegetable garden again turned out lots of produce this year. The interesting thing was I never had to water the garden once all season. The rain came down regularly and in the right amounts. This has never happened before and is not likely to occur gain. The apple, peach, and cherry crop were terrible this year. The hard freeze we got on Mother’s day weekend killed almost all the blossoms and ruined the crop. The watermelon and pumpkin crop were really good. I had all the watermelon we could eat and harvested over 100 large size pumpkins. Winter is the time to plan for next spring and go through all the catalogs again to order for next year. Last year I waited to long and some of the new variety of seeds I wanted to get were already sold out. Hopefully I can get my order in a bit earlier so this doesn’t happen again.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-22T16:37:00.001-06:00

This will likely be my last post until after Christmas.
Merry Christmas to everyone.

May you find
some quiet
moments of gentle
joy to blanket
your Christmas
season with peace.

Running:
Running continues to just be on a maintenance path. I did manage 35.5 miles last week on 6 days running. As has been the case recently half my runs were on the treadmill and half outside. Everything is primarily in the 8 minute range. I did get outside on Sunday morning for 8.5 miles in 1:8:22. This was my longest run in over a month. It was quite cold, but calm and made for a nice run. The roads are as snow and ice covered as at any time since 2004 that I can recall. On Sunday morning things are pretty quiet so I can run right in the middle of the road for the most part. The other thing is that the cold temperatures actually make the snow less slippery. I’m closing in on 2100 YTD miles. I think I should be able to make it. That new GPS watch has made it to my Christmas list. Maybe Santa will be good to me. Through today:
WTD 16
MTD 101
YTD 2067
ODO 27,233

Hunting:
With the snow that has been around it’s real easy to see how hard the deer have been hitting on my food plot. Multiple deer have been coming in daily from all different directions. They have been pawing through the snow to get at the turnips and clover and continue to chew on the few remaining corn cobs that are left. This past weekend I just hunted in the back yard and only the last hour of each day. Saturday there was a few inches of fresh snow, but the deer didn’t come in. Sunday was a different story. The first half hour there was nothing. Soon two small deer came in and started to eat. I just sit and watched them. Pretty soon two large does came in to join them. I thought about taking one of them for a while, but decided to pass. I had the bow up and went through the motions for practice, but never let the arrow fly. The shooting time then quickly passed, but I was stuck in the stand. I didn’t want to get out and scare them away. I knew if I did that my chances of seeing them again would diminish. With the upcoming special “holiday hunt” where we can use a gun I hope we can get another chance. So I sat there. On most nights when I see them out there from the house they don’t hang around long. Not this night. Pretty soon the four deer got a little skittish and ran to the far corner. It was soon apparent why. The biggest buck I have seen so far this year made its appearance. Just a beautiful tall racked 8 to 10 pointer. It was all of 15 to 20 yards away from me at one point. The moon was up and almost full making the deer really easy to see against the white snow background. Pretty soon they were all out there again in the field together. It was so neat to just watch them, but I was starting to get cold and had to think about finding a way to get out of there. At about 5:45 someone let the dogs out to do their business and that was just what I needed. The dogs noticed the deer in the back and started barking at them. They didn’t run back there, but it was enough to scare the deer away. Normally this would not have made me very happy but it sure did this night. When the deer were all out of view I quickly scampered down and back to the house. Judging by the tracks the last few days I would say they didn’t get that scared. I recognize the buck track now and I definitely still see that he is coming in too. Should be an exciting last couple weeks.

Gardening:
So far I’ve held off on getting a snow blower. My driveway is quite long and wide near the house and certainly could warrant having one. I really don’t mind shoveling and in all the years at the current house have really only faced a couple snowfalls where I wish I wasn’t as stubborn. Maybe someday physically I will have to, but for now I’ll continue to hold out unless the right one at the right price falls into my lap. Despite not having one I take pride in knowing my driveway is cleaner than all of my neighbors that snow blow or have a service take care of it for them.

Treadmill change of heart

2010-12-16T16:52:00.000-06:00

Running:
In previous years I’ve done whatever I could to avoid the treadmill. This year I’m having a little change of heart. I have decided at least when my runs are short I will treat the treadmill as my friend not something to be avoided. This will be true only until the roads clear and my runs increase in distance as training progresses. I’ve actually used the treadmill several times over the past few weeks. Sometimes for convenience, sometimes because of the weather, and lately because of the conditions of the road. None of my runs this month have been over 5 miles nor much over 40 minutes. The treadmill can be bearable for that short of a time period. Last week I ran all seven days for a total of 34 miles. This week through today I am up to 20 miles on 4 days of running. My outside runs continue to be watch less. On the treadmill I sometimes run steady 8 minute miles other times I run 8:30’s and a 6:00 last mile. I probably won’t start increasing my weekly mileage until the week of 1/10 when all of the hunting seasons are over with.
Totals through today:
WTD 20
MTD 69
YTD 2035
ODO 27201

Hunting:
December 9th through the 12th was an antlerless only season through the whole state of Wisconsin. In this neck of the woods you could use gun or bow. I didn’t get out much for any of it. The motivation to go out to only have a chance to get a doe put a damper on things. I wasn’t able to get out of work early enough to get out on Thursday or Friday. On Saturday I did get out in the afternoon in the back yard, but it was pretty nasty. A storm had started and the precipitation began as rain. It was raining pretty hard while I was out there and this continued through most of the night. The deer just were not moving. Overnight it got colder so by morning we got some snow. The snow continued a bit through the morning and into the afternoon. Sunday afternoon I got out again after shoveling out, but this time the wind had really picked up. There were gusts well over 40 MPH. Again the deer were not moving. Wouldn’t you know on Monday afternoon I got home a little early because of a dentist appointment and there were all kinds of deer out in the back as night fell. One was a buck that I could tell. Not sure if it was big enough that I would want to take it but it was fun to watch. I might get my decoy out during these last few weeks and see if that does anything to draw them in. I’ve had lots of fun using it in past years.

Gardening:
Despite the temperature going below freezing and staying there for a fairly long time the pond is doing OK so far. The biggest problem right now is when the water level drops because too much of the water is locked up as ice. When this happens I drag a hose from a basement hookup and melt some of it by running hot water until the level rises again. Cleaning the filters and some of the dead vegetation is a lot harder when you are sticking your hands in the freezing water.

2000 YTD milestone surpassed

2010-12-10T10:32:00.000-06:00

Running:
Now that the 9 day regular deer gun season is over my running has gotten back to normal for this time of year. Nothing spectacular. I’ve been running 5 miles 5 days a week the last couple weeks. Still taking the weekends off to hunt and complete other chores around the house. I’ve been running without the Garmin since I ran the Lakefront back in October. I had been using just a regular watch since I was running known routes. When the battery on my other watch went about 10 days ago I tried the Garmin again and it no longer works. Now to figure out if I want to get a newer version or get the old one fixed. My runs the last couple weeks have been untimed. But I would guess around 40 minutes give or take a minute for each one. I’m writing them down as 40 minutes in my log. On 12/09 I passed the 2000 mile YTD mark. This is the 5th time in 6 years to match or surpass this milestone. Last year I hit 1900 miles and in 2004 I hit 1800. My seven year total since I started training for my first marathon is over 15,000 miles. Through 12/09.

MTD 35
YTD 2001
ODO 27167

Hunting:
I was able to get out hunting both Saturday and Sunday last weekend. On Saturday afternoon I just decided to go out in the back yard. I didn’t even go out until a little after 4PM. I wasn’t there very long when I heard a deer munching on the ears of corn still standing in my food plot. Sticking my head out of the tree blind a bit I saw there were three deer. Two were bigger and one small. At one point I could have taken any of the three. The two bigger does then walked off out of range while the smaller deer continued to feed just below me. After watching for 10 minutes at least to see if a buck was going to come I decided to take the smaller deer before time ran out. I didn’t need more meat, but would be happy to earn another buck sticker. I took aim and fired. I could see the arrow made a complete pass through and could tell I made a pretty good hit. I waited a few minutes and then went to follow the trail. The deer went off my property through the neighbors. I followed it a couple hundred yards across a small field when it jumped up. I knew I had to wait then. In the morning I picked up the trail and found the deer right away. This was my 3rd deer with the bow and 5th this year. Pretty good so far. On Sunday I had the most exciting hour of hunting I’ve had in a long time. I went to hunt on my bow stand where I got the two nine pointers earlier this year. I hadn’t been there for several weeks. With the new snow, the first of the season here I was excited to see if the deer would be active. I watched the entire Packer game so I got out a little later than I had anticipated. I wasn’t there long when 4 does approached from the west. They walked single file within 10 yards of my stand passing over my tracks I made on the way in. Each deer stopped to sniff as they passed my trail. I could have taken any of them, but chose to pass. Not more than 5 minutes later I saw another deer approach on the tracks of the does. Turned out to be a nice 8 point about the same size as the two 9 pointers I got earlier from this same stand. Again I chose to pass and just watched the deer as he passed through. When it was off a ways I decided to test my grunt call just to see how/if the buck would react. I grunted a couple times, when right behind me a deer blew and ran off. I never saw or heard the buck larger than the eight pointer and his little pal 6 pointer approach from behind. Can’t believe I screwed up like that and amazed that I had 7 different deer within shooting range in less than an hour of hunting. One of those does must have been in heat or about to be, to attract that kind of following. Too bad this weekend is an antlerless only season with that kind of activity going on. I still might go out a bit just to scout if nothing else. With the snowfall last night and more forecast for Saturday I can get an idea where they are bedding and traveling for late season.

Gardening:I don’t know how many garden catalogs you all get, but I get dozens of them. Seems if you order from any place they must sell your name to others to get that many. I always order from the same two or three places, but I always keep a few that have unique plants, good ideas, or some new things to look at. Most just end up in the recycle bin. Used to be you didn’t get any until after the new year. Not any more, they keep coming earlier and earlier. Kind of like the Christmas music and decorations do.

Catch up through November

2010-12-02T17:57:00.000-06:00

Running:
It has been a while since my last blog post. Hunting season will do that to me. I’m finally getting caught up with things neglected since mid November. This update will take me through November and hunting season.

Not much has been happening in the running department since my last update 11/17. Over hunting season I ended up taking seven consecutive days off from running. Except when I have been injured this is as long as it gets between runs for me. For the month of November I ended up with only 98 miles. This is my only sub 100 mile month this year and is likely to be my only one. This week I’m back on track and have run every day. Through 11/30
MTD 98
YTD 1971
ODO 27137

Hunting:
Hunting season was interesting to say the least. Lots of stories, but no buck for me, at least that I shot. I got up north to Bayfield the day before the gun opener. Kylli and I left about 3 in the morning on the Friday before. We stopped on the way up and sighted in our guns in Ashland. We were actually in Bayfield before noon. We went out in the woods to check our stands and place some bait in a couple of them. When we walked down to my brothers stand we smelled something not right. Someone had sprayed perfume or similar substance all over his stand area. Stunk like crazy. Who would stoop to such a low level? All the work all year long preparing this area only to have someone trash it the day before season. We have our suspicions, but no firm proof as to who the culprit is.

Opening day we headed out in the woods early. It was a cold day, no higher than mid 20’s all day and it was dark in that a storm was approaching for the next day. Around 9:00 I heard a deer as it made its way towards me. I caught a glimpse of it, but even though it was angling towards me it never came where I saw it again. Nothing else for me until the last 10 minutes of the day. Again I could hear a deer approaching well before I saw it. In the middle of the day I would have seen this deer earlier. In the fading light I did not see it until it came close to my shooting lane. I raised the gun and saw the curve of an antler which was enough for me. I steadied my gun on the shooting rail and aimed at the shoulder and fired. I heard the deer run off. I waited a few minutes and got down from the tree to check. I already needed a flashlight to see anything. When I got to the spot wouldn’t you know but my new flashlight quit. I had to go out of the woods back to the truck a quarter mile away and then go back in. I took my brother Todd and another flashlight and went back expecting to see a dead deer. We searched everywhere with no sign of a hit. This is not a shot I would miss. I have no idea what might have happened. Kylli and I both ended up staying in our stand location over 11 hours on opening day. This is normal for me, but I think quite a show of patience for her. I hunted the same spot the next morning and searched for a couple more hours again with no sign of anything. After totally tromping all over this area I decided to hunt another spot in the afternoon. I went to my bow stand where I took my big 8 point last year. A little after 4pm a doe came into the stand. I wasn’t going to shoot it, but I texted my brother and he said shoot it for him. That’s what I did. I had it gutted and dragged back to my stand by the time he arrived shortly after 5. It turned out to be a pretty big doe. She weighed 133 pounds on the registration station scale. Monday evening I had two does in by my stand for quite a while. Even though I had an antlerless tag I chose to not to shoot. Kylli also had a couple deer by her but no chance to shoot them as she only saw the legs.

On Tuesday afternoon we got out a little later than hoped. Kylli went down to her ground blind and wasn’t there more that 45 minutes when a deer appeared. She shot. I had her go check for blood and she saw none. I got out of my stand and over by her as quick as I could. We found blood right away and not more that 25 yards away a dead fork horn buck. She was happy as was I. She really is a good shot. I said this before, but the only thing better than getting a buck myself is being with your kid when they get one. Brought me back to thoughts of dad and me and some of our early hunts together. We dragged the deer out together and were back to the truck before it was dark. Wednesday was somewhat uneventful except that we had a DNR game warden in the area. Todd was checked, but none of the rest of us were. I’ve hunted in this particular area for 40 years and have never seen a warden. Not that we were doing anything wrong, but it opened our eyes to be sure everything is by the book as far as hunting on State/county land from now on. There are new rules is place regarding blaze orange markings on ground blinds and providing identification even when the blinds aren’t occupied we will have to pay attention to. We headed back to Dousman on Thursday morning with the plan to make it back by Thanksgiving dinner. On the way back the car started acting up. All I could think about was how in the world if we broke down I would get home with all of our stuff in the back. The problem turned out to be mismatched tires. Before I went up the previous week I had two replaced because one of them had a screw in it and the tire was not repairable. The uneven circumference of the tires apparently caused an issue with the transfer case. My mechanic was right as two new tires ended up solving the issue. Hunted just in the yard Friday and didn’t see anything.

Saturday I made my way out to the Waukesha conservancy. Not seeing any cars there I thought I would walk around instead of sit. When I got to a location on the way back of the property I noticed quite a commotion going on in a grassy/swampy area a little ways from me. When I got there to check it out I found the carcass of a large buck. Almost everything was eaten or pulled away except for the head and neck, a few rib bones and a couple of the legs. I cut the head off and brought the head home with me. What a unique 8 point rack. One tine was clearly broken off. Both sides didn’t match at all, but it still is impressive. Nothing else much happened on Saturday and likewise on Sunday. So the regular season ended without me getting a buck for the first time in several years. Like I said at the beginning it was an interesting season with lots of stories. With my earlier success I’m not disappointed at all how this one went and besides we aren’t done yet.

Gardening:
Just like with running not much going on in the gardening area. The recent warm spell and rain softened the soil so I dug up another big bunch of carrots. The rest I covered with a layer of leaves and a tarp in hopes of digging more in a few weeks. As of yet we have no measurable snowfall here. There is several inches forecast for this weekend though. By the end of this weekend I will have the outside Christmas decorations out. In the morning I hope to cut our tree down from the back yard and brought into the house.

Like a kid at Christmas

2010-11-17T17:17:00.000-06:00

Running:
What a nice week last week was for running. I only ran 4 days but I was able to run in shorts every day. Temps were in the upper 50’s to almost 70 degrees during the early part of the week. I ran 5 miles on Monday during my lunch break in 40:11. Tuesday I ran from home and did 8.5 miles mid day in 1:05:50. Wednesday I ran 5 miles at work in 40:22. Thursday I again ran from home mid day and did 6.5 miles in 52:02. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I took off from running although there was lots of work and walking getting deer stands ready for the upcoming gun season. I also noticed that at least so far, my weight has held the same since the week before the Lakefront marathon. The worst month for gaining is coming up though. Over the gun season and Thanksgiving I will take my largest number of days off. In the past I’ve taken as many as 11 days off during this time and of course with Christmas and lots of extra treats and still reduced miles through December I will always add a few pounds. Mileage through last week.
WTD 25
MTD 59
YTD 1932
ODO 27098

Hunting:
Gun season is this coming weekend. The closest way to describe it for me is that the anticipation is like a kid as Christmas approaches. The nights or I should say mornings are sleepless as the day gets closer. I find myself waking earlier and earlier in the morning and can’t get back to sleep. What will Santa bring? That fancy new bike you really wanted or that big buck of your dreams maybe?

This past weekend I was up north getting everything ready. I also fit a little hunting in. I got up to Bayfield late on Thursday. Friday morning I headed out to a new stand we put up last time I was there. I scared a deer on my way into the stand, but saw nothing in the few hours I was out there. During the middle part of the day I put some bait at a couple of stands locations and checked out a few others. In the evening I made my way down to my favorite bow stand. I again scared a deer on my way in and saw nothing. This night was one of the quietest I have ever heard in the woods. It was so still and absolutely no creatures of any kind were moving about. Not a squirrel, grouse, crow, blue jay, deer, or any animal. The few remaining leaves on the trees were not even making a sound. Complete silence for a few hours. It was almost spooky. Early Saturday morning sometime the weather changed and some heavy wet snow started to fall. I went out hunting at dawn for a couple hours. I stayed out until I was soaked and couldn’t stand it anymore. For most of the rest of the day I spend hanging my primary gun stand, putting up another ladder and putting some final touches on a couple ground blinds we have up. The temperature was hovering right around freezing. Near the lake all the precipitation fell as rain. Up the hill where we were it was alternating between mostly rain and all snow. This continued all Saturday and into Sunday. Sunday morning I went out hunting for another couple hours and saw tracks where deer had been near my stand overnight but I saw nothing in my time on stand. There seems to be plenty of deer sign, but the amount of buck sign is down from what I have seen in the past. All I can say now is that I think everything is ready and can’t wait for opening day to get here.

Gardening:
Not much happening on the garden front these few weeks. Most chores are done other than a little leaf and pond cleanup once in awhile. I did help mom shut down her pond for the season. Doesn’t consist of much other than pulling the pump out and putting it in a bucket of water, pulling the filters out and cleaning then, and trying to get out leaves and dying vegetation the best you can. I leave my pump running all year round or at least I have the last few years. I was having trouble burning up pumps in the spring until I started doing this. Anyway it works for me.

Packer game

2010-11-10T12:41:00.002-06:00

My weekend was interrupted in a good way in that I was again invited to attend a Packer football game with a friend from work. Nice to know someone with season tickets that is willing to share once in a while. What a great game to see in that the Packers beat the Cowboys 45-7.

Running:
Running wise for last week it was déjà-vu from the previous week. I ran five days at work 5 miles each day over the same course again. The only difference from last week is that all my runs were less than 40 minutes. I took Saturday off. Sunday morning I ran 8.5 miles in 1:06:19. This gave me again 33.5 miles for the week just like the previous one. So totals through 11/7.
WTD 33.5
MTD 33.5
YTD 1907
ODO 27073

Hunting:
Only got out hunting a little on Saturday. In the morning I hunted the stand where I got the 2 bucks already this year. I could see the scrape I hunt over was still being worked by another buck so I knew there was at least one around still. I didn’t see anything though. I didn't see anything and only hunted until 9:00 and then decided to go on a short scouting trip. I found a few hunting spots on the conservancy land that I can easily get to from the land I have permission to bow hunt on. I’ll need to approach the landowner to see if she has any issue with my using this route to gun hunt this spot later this month and in December. I can get to it from the parking spot on the conservancy, but it is a real long walk coming from that way. Saturday evening I decided real late to just go hunt out in the back yard. I wasn’t there more than 20 minutes when two does came in to feed on my food plot. I could have shot either one of them at some point, but chose to just watch. They were kind of nervous and only hung around for about 15 minutes before walking back in the direction they came from. I haven’t seen the buck yet that has been scraping up trees in my yard. This next weekend I will be heading up north to get my gun stands ready and also do a little bow hunting up in Bayfield.

Gardening:
Amazing how warm it turned again. We’ve had 4 or 5 days in a row over 60 degrees which is crazy for this time of year. I cleaned the pond real good over the weekend so hopefully other than cleaning an occasional filter and fishing out a few leaves there won’t be much to do until spring. I got all the gutters cleaned once more too. However with the way the leaves are falling so slowly this year I will likely have to perform this task one more time before winter. I got the lawn mowed one more time, so I think now this will be the last other than maybe to bag some more leaves using the mower. Only a few things remain in the garden to harvest. We’ve had a few real good freezes so the only things to make it are the root crops like beets and carrots, the Brussel sprouts, and some lettuce that I had covered with a tarp.

9 point X2

2010-11-01T12:09:00.000-05:00

Running:
It is so hard to believe that November is here already. October was such a busy month. A marathon at the beginning of the month, beginning of some serious hunting, and lots of yard/garden work really filled up the time. As mentioned in previous posts my running kind of takes a back seat for a few months after my fall marathon is over. This last week was again fairly normal as far as running. I ran each work day again. Four of the runs were on my usual route and one of the really windy days I ran inside on the treadmill. Again all of these runs were 5 miles in length and within a minute +/- of 40 minutes. On Sunday the last day of the month I was able to fit in a morning run of 8.5 miles in 1:05:11. With a couple more months to go there should be no problem making 2000 miles for the year. Totals through October.
WTD 33.5
MTD 117
YTD 1874
ODO 27040

Hunting:

I can’t even believe the year I’m having. This past weekend I was able to bag another nice 9 pointer. That makes three nice deer in 3 weeks time and two of my largest 4 bow kills ever. I think I’ve only been out bow hunting on 5 occasions. I remember a few times going a whole season without even getting a chance for a shot during bow season.

On Saturday morning I made it out to my stand well before light. I snuck out as quietly as I could and was sitting quietly by around 6:15. This was the same stand I shot the deer the previous Saturday evening. I wasn’t quite sure what impact all our walking around the previous weekend would have on this location, but I know it is a good spot and thought I would try anyway. Until shortly after 8:00 there was no action at all. I had lots of things to do so I was thinking I would only stay until 8:30 or so. All of a sudden I caught some movement in the tall grass directly in front of me. It didn’t take long to notice the good size rack on the top of this deer. At first I thought it might head directly across the ditch out of range. Then it made an immediate right turn and headed straight for the scrape I’m hunting over. When it was behind a bunch of trees about 20 yards out I drew back and waited. The deer walked right into the scrape and scratched it with his hoof as I released the arrow. The arrow didn’t pass through, but I knew it was a good hit. I watched it run 40 yards out and stop for a few seconds. It then started walking back towards me stumbling a bit. When it got back within about 20 yards it just fell over. No drama like with the previous week’s tracking adventure. When bow hunting it is always a bonus to be able to see your deer go down. From my experience it doesn’t happen often. While watching this deer another small buck (4 point) made its way on the same path as the other and stood right below me. It walked it's way over to it's buddy and couldn't figure out what was going on. It ended up just walking away. I climbed down and went to tag the deer when I realized I had left both of my buck stickers in with my gun back tag. I had to run home to retrieve it and then head back out. Because this deer was so close to the owners house (at their request) I have to either carry the guts out with me or gut it elsewhere so the dogs don’t get into them. I chose to take it away from there and brought the deer out to the conservancy to take care of that. While there I ran into a guy named Charlie who told me he thought he had a trail cam picture of my deer. In fact he told me he had pictures of two 9 pointers one with 5 points on the right and one with 5 points on the left. He sent me both of the pictures and I think these are the same deer I got the last two weeks. Kind of neat to have the trail cam pictures to go with the harvest shots.

I’m happy the year is unfolding as it is, but sad only that it will keep me out of the woods some during this exciting time to be out there. Maybe I’ll just go out with the camera or at least not shoot anything else unless it is a true giant. With gun season(s) coming up there is lots more hunting to do, but this sure changes the complexion of the rest of the season. The freezer is full, so there is not much need for me to take another unless I can find someone else to take it.

Gardening:
Because I got the deer on Saturday I was able to spend Saturday afternoon mowing the lawn for the last time this year (probably) and all of Sunday on lawn/garden cleanup chores. It is amazing how much you can get done in a day and a half. I was able to put all the planters, hanging baskets, and lawn furniture away. I was able to clean up the last of any remaining leaves and spread them on the garden. I turned my whole compost pile one last time before winter, and harvested lots more vegetables like carrots, Brussel sprouts, beets and lettuce that are still growing out there. I noticed I had a buck rubbing up some of my evergreens in the back again. This just started in the last couple days. I sprayed some stuff on them that is supposed to keep deer away. Kind of funny that I plant stuff to attract them and then have to keep them off other things. Now what will I do with myself these next couple weeks if I don’t go hunting and have all my chores done. I guess that is a good problem to have at this time of year and certainly a rarity for me.

9 pointer and 27,000 miles

2010-10-26T12:52:00.000-05:00

Running:
My running last week was just normal for this time of year I guess. I ran on all 5 work days and took the weekend off to hunt. My runs were all on the same 5 mile route. Each run was less than 30 seconds one side or the other of 40 minutes . I see on my Odometer I surpassed the 27,000 mile mark. Totals through last week.
WTD 25
MTD 84
YTD 1840
ODO 27006

Hunting:

I wasn’t sure how the weekend hunting was going to go. The horse farm I have permission to hunt on had an adult camp going on last weekend. I only have restrictions when riders may be out there riding some of the trails along the woods. I totally understand that as the last thing they would want is for a horse to be spooked by my walking out of the woods and throwing a rider. I had a backup plan for places to go, but was really looking forward to getting out on this property.

Saturday in the early afternoon I ran a bunch of squash out to the owner and checked how things were going. Because it had rained there were no riders outside. They were all in the inside area in their riding barn. She told me I could go ahead and hunt if I wanted to. I got out there sometime after 4:30 and settled in. Looking around from my stand I could see two scrapes in the same place they have been the last few years and could tell by no leaves in them they had been recently worked over. The woods was fairly quiet. There wasn’t even a lot of squirrel activity compared to usual. The evening passed fairly quietly until about 5:45. A couple of raccoons came in and started chattering away and eating acorns. I had never seen a raccoon eat an acorn before. They were quite noisy cracking them open and chewing them down.

About 6:10 I started hearing footsteps across the drainage ditch moving from west to east towards me. I watched as a deer passed through the ditch and right up to one of the scrapes I’m hunting over. I quickly identified it as a shooter buck, what I thought was a 10 point. I listened as he sniffed at the scrape and scuffed the ground a bit. I couldn’t pull back my bow right at that moment and risk the deer detecting a sound or movement. It walked east behind a large buckthorn clump and as it did that, I drew back. I got my anchor point and sights all lined up and when the deer stopped 15 yards out quartering away from me I released the arrow. I looked at my watch, it was 6:15. After analyzing the deer’s reaction I knew I had hit him good but maybe a little far back. I left the woods after 30 minutes sitting quiet and went home to wait and have some supper. I returned to the woods at about 8:30 to search. I found my arrow right away and a good blood trail. The blood was dark though so I suspected a liver hit. Still with all the blood I expected to see it laying there just ahead in the light given by my flashlight. I followed the trail across a drainage ditch where the blood suddenly stopped. After a frustrating and bewildering search for most of an hour on my hands and knees, I marked last blood and left the woods.

After a sleepless night listening to the rain pour down, I rounded up a friend (Pat) to help me track on Sunday. We went out around noon after the heavy rain quit. There was no sign of any blood, even the heavy blood trail I had followed the night before was completely gone. We decided to start grid searching. Back and forth we went with nothing at all found for two hours. Pat’s son Patrick came out with a friend just about when we were going to call it quits to help us look one more time. We went to where last blood had been. Patrick looked where the last blood had been and said "if I were a deer I would go this way" and he took off. Within 15 minutes he yelled "found it". We had been within 50 feet of it at one point. It was down near one of the neighbors ladder stands in a meadow north of the ditch he crossed. Absolutely incredible tracking skills on that boy. To me there is no question it was more than luck. I am still amazed when I think about how he pulled this off, it was almost magical.

As suspected the liver was shredded. The exit hole looked good though on a quartering away shot. I’m shocked it went that far. I gutted the deer and the boys dragged it out for me even though I wouldn’t have minded doing it. Took the deer in to be registered and then took it home to wash it out good and get some ice on it. I loaded up the chest cavity with ice and hung the deer up in my tree along the side of the house over night. In the morning I brought it in to the processor. I would have had to take the day off from work if I was to do it myself and felt it worth it to have someone else do it for me this time.

Not that this is a bad deer at all, but my initial thoughts when I first saw it was that this deer was bigger. That maybe it was the 8 point that gave me fits last year from this stand, but a year older. Afterward, I don't think this is the same deer as last year. There is no question the buck I saw last year was bigger than this deer. Still overall I am pleased with this one. It’s incredible when everything comes together as this hunt did. It could have ended so differently. To go from excitement of seeing such an animal and thinking I had a good hit, to dismay when the trail was lost, to the sick feeling as rain fell all night and into the morning, to frustration over not finding anything with all the searching, to elation when the deer was found was quite a hunt to remember.

Now I’m looking forward to hunting for the true trophy and can be as patient as at any time in my hunting career. I’m also going to focus my efforts during upcoming gun seasons to be able to make sure my daughter Kylli gets a crack at a good one.

Gardening:
It sure had been warm and dry this October. It is still warm around here, but at least we finally got a fair amount of rain. Just in time to save me a lot of work. I noticed Sunday that some of the day lilies and Russian sage are blooming again after the rains. A sure sign of how warm it has been. The leaves have been falling at a leisurely pace this year. This has allowed me to keep up with the cleanup fairly well. Although there is something to be said about taking care of them all at once too. All the leaves have been going on the garden so far. Today we are getting a massive wind storm expected to last at least 24 hours along with a little rain that will likely take care of whatever leaves are left. This coming weekend will likely be the time to finish up any remaining lawn chores including putting away furniture.

First deer of 2010

2010-10-18T17:37:00.000-05:00

Running:

My running last week got back on track, at least as far as post marathon training goes. The runs are really just basic maintenance running. Things will stay this way until the new year. I’m running just enough to not have to start completely over in January and hopefully enough to keep from gaining more than a few pounds this fall. I will be running about 5 times per week. 4 or 5 weekday runs and if time allows only 1 weekend run. This past week I ran 5 miles during my lunch break at work 4 times. Each time the same route. Monday I ran it in 41:09, Tuesday in 40:32, Wednesday 39:45, and Thursday 39:22. Friday I took an off day. Saturday morning I got out for 8.5 miles from home in 1:06:09. Sunday was also an off day from running.

WTD 28.5
MTD 59
YTD 1815
ODO 26981
Hunting:
This past Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was a four day special antlerless gun season in parts of the state. I was able to get out Friday after work, and a little bit on both Saturday and Sunday. I spent the entire time on the Ottawa Wildlife reserve (OWR). I’ve mentioned in previous blog entries that Kylli and I are 2 of 14 hunters whose names were drawn for the rights to hunt there. Just a beautiful property and lots of nasty thick and swampy areas for the deer to hide real well. This was my first time out there to hunt and the other 12 guys have been at it for a month. From my scouting they seem to have all the close (to parking) areas already chosen. Everywhere I seemed to find that looked like a good location there were stands hung.

Sunday morning while I was scouting an area way in the back of the property I noticed two deer that were making their way toward me. I got down on my knees behind a tree and waited until I could see for sure what they were. When I saw the first one was a large doe I didn’t hesitate and took the 50 yard shot. The deer ran only about 50 yards. It was very easy to find. After I found it I began to question why I had done such a thing. I was so far back on the property that I knew the drag out was not going to be fun. Was I right about that. After trying to cut across a swamp for a bit of a short cut I gave up on that. The swamp was large clumps of grass with oozy sticky mud in between. I back tracked my way out of the swamp and then decided to go back out the way I came. After skirting the swamp through some of the thickest tangle of
brushy trees I then made it to a spot which was clear cut a couple years ago. Lots of small shrubby trees were overtaking this area and workers were cutting them down over summer. I had to drag the deer several hundred yards over 4 to 6 inch brush stumps and old left over branches. This was like dragging the deer over a big comb. After that I had about 1/8 mile uphill through an oak forest. Once through the forest I still had about ¼ mile up an old road back to the car. This was one of the most difficult drags I have ever had. I was wet from sweat inside out. All for a doe. Had it been a giant buck at least it would have eased the pain a bit. Still good to get the 1st one of the year in the books.

I loaded the deer up, took it to be registered, and then brought it in to be processed all before the kickoff of the Packers game. Time for some serious bow hunting now, but having some meat in the freezer will allow me to be a bit more patient.

Gardening:
It has been extremely dry around here that last few weeks. I’m actually thinking I will need to get out and water a few things so they survive the winter. Evergreens can really have some trouble if they go into winter on the dry side. If it freezes hard before we get significant rain I could have a few things in trouble. I got the garden tilled this weekend so now I have a place to dump the abundance of leaves. I usually throw most of them on the garden to decompose over the winter and then till them in come spring. This has worked quite well and has significantly changed the soil for the better over the last 7 years or so. My entire pumpkin crop was sold. Nice to not have a few dozen to wonder what to do with. I got a premium price for all of them since they were all so nice this year.

Recovery

2010-10-13T07:35:00.000-05:00

Running:

Not much running last week. The only day I got out to run was Wednesday. I did only 4 miles with no watch, just to loosen up the legs. I went up to Bayfield over the weekend and was tempted for a while to run in one of the Whistlestop races which were taking place on Saturday. They run a full marathon, half marathon, 10k and 5k. The 5k winner was over 20 minutes so I would have had a chance at winning a race for the only time ever. I did find this short video of the start of the marathon race. Brings back fond memories. I think next fall I will target this race again if I don’t run Chicago.

Hunting:
As mentioned I went up north over the past weekend. My brother Todd was up there as well. The mornings were spent fishing, the afternoon working on getting several deer stands up or ready for gun season, and the evenings bow hunting. The weather was incredible for early October and all the leaves were at or just past peak near the lake. Quite a sight. We went fishing in the morning going out before it was completely light. It was something watching the sun rise over Madeline island and completing making the Bayfield hillside look on fire with all the color. Crazy being out on Lake Superior in October in short sleeves. Unfortunately in two days we only caught one small Coho salmon. We marked lots of fish near the mouth of the rivers, but unfortunately we could not entice them to bite. In the afternoons Todd and I spent time refreshing a couple of ground blinds with natural material. One of these is a new spot that looks like it has real promise. We also put up a ladder stand in a new spot, and another bow stand on this same property close to the road and easy to get into. Just a little more work to be ready for gun season next time we get up there. In the evenings I was out hunting. It was much too warm, but I had to try anyway. It was nice to be out and the woods was incredibly beautiful despite the lack of deer. Looks to be plenty of sign including lots of rubs on trees, but they were likely just lying low in the warm temperatures. Here are a few pictures taken near my bow stand. The first is the stand my dad last used for bow hunting. I go past it on the way down to mine. The second is a picture of the woods near my stand, and the third is a picture standing at the base of my stand looking out toward the big oak tree in my opening. Thanks to my brother Tad for taking these.

Gardening:

Gardening chores are now pretty much related to fall clean up. There is some harvest of remaining vegetables, but mostly pulling all the vines and old plants and rebuilding the compost pile. Also lots of leaf raking and pickup. Most of these will end up being put on my garden and rototilled under over the next couple weeks. Out of 100+ pumpkins I started with I only have a couple dozen left. Within the next week I expect them to all be gone except those I keep for decoration myself.

17th marathon in the books

2010-10-05T13:02:00.000-05:00

Running:
Last week was all about the taper, last minute preparation, and the race. Last week was three full days of rest, three relatively easy runs, and the race on Sunday. Monday was an off day. Tuesday I ran 5 miles mid day at about 7:30 pace. Wednesday I ran an easy 4 miles mid day with the last mile at 7:30 pace. Thursday I ran 6.5 miles in the morning with the last half at 7:30 pace. Friday and Saturday were both rest days.

Friday I made my way down to the expo and packet pick up after work. After picking up my packet and getting my chip checked I walked around and checked out all the booths. I really wanted to try and find a new racing hat, but nothing struck me as nice or unique enough to justify a purchase. Looked around at lots of things, but nothing was overly exciting or such a deal I had to buy it. Usually I run into a few people I know, but not this time. So over all I didn’t spend a lot of time downtown and got home relatively early.

Saturday I got all my running things together so Sunday morning would be a snap. It was hard deciding exactly what to wear since it was going to get pretty cold. I decided to stay minimal with just shorts and a t-shirt, but brought along a throw away shirt to start the race with. This turned out being a good choice. The morning of the race I got up at around 3:30. I got close to six good hours of sleep which I was pretty happy with. I don’t always do that good on race day. I did the usually routines with having a little coffee, eating a breakfast of three pancakes and two bananas, having a glass of juice with my liquid vitamin/minerals. Finished dressing and packing the bag and was out the door at 5am. I met my wife’s cousin Don at a park and ride on the way to the shuttles so we could ride together. This was his 5th marathon and 1st Lakefront. This was to be my 17th and 4th Lakefront. We made it to the park and ride at almost the same time and then got downtown as the first shuttles were loading. Had a good bus ride to Grafton and then settled into the cafeteria to wait out the start. It was nice to have someone to chat with to make the time pass by, and not have to worry about leaving your stuff as you took restroom breaks and such. Before we knew it the time had come to get the drop bag into the truck and line up. Don was hoping to run a possible 3:25, but his ultimate goal was to BQ with a 3:30 at least. I had decided I would like to try for at least a 3:20 and would start with the appropriate pace group. I had also decided to run without my Garmin for the first time since 2005. I was going to go completely watchless, but realized I had not taken my other watch off my wrist. Too late as I already had dropped off my bag.

The gun went off and I positioned myself right behind most of the 3:20 group. This projects to about a 7:38 average pace for the whole race. They went out a little fast as the first mile was 7:24. This felt pretty good to me though and I wasn’t worried especially since this was about a half minute slower than my usual start. For about 4 miles I was right in with the group. From the first water stop I pulled ahead by a bit and then stayed there. After about five miles there was a small group that was just ahead of the 3:20 pacer that started to put a little distance from the group. I decided to stick with that little group. Looking at the race results afterward I see I passed the 7 mile mark at a 7:31 pace. Mile 8 was seconds over 1 hour so I knew I was still on target. I felt really good and was running quite comfortably at this point. I continued to hang with the small group and we probably put about a minute between us and the big group by the half way point. At least I couldn’t hear all the chatter for a while which was fine with me. I was still feeling real good and passed half way at 1:38:49 or 7:32 pace. I’m not sure I ever ran that consistent of a half before. At mile 16 I was still less than a minute over 2 hours and well on track for less than 3:20. I passed mile 20 at 2:31:29 still feeling quite strong for that part of the race. I usually hit some kind of a mid race slump somewhere between 15 and 20 miles in, but so far I didn’t face that. It was here that I made a slight technical error. It was time for my 4th and final GU, but the water stop snuck up on me. I had trouble fishing the GU packet out of my short pocket and didn’t get it in time for water. I decided to delay the GU until the next water station. Wouldn’t you know it but I hit that slump somewhere in miles 21 and 22. The 3:20 pace group passed me somewhere in here and I just couldn’t keep up. By the time I got my GU down and gathered myself and broke from the slump they had probably put a couple minutes on me. I could still see them when there was a long straight stretch, but knew there would be no catching them anymore. At least I had gotten some of my pace back and seemed to be running even with them. I passed by 24 miles in somewhere around 3:04 if I recall. Pretty sure my 3:20 was gone, but feeling relatively good at that point. The last miles are always hard, but I really felt OK considering it was the last few miles. This was probably as good as I’ve finished a marathon in a while. Making the final turn along the break wall I mustered as much as I could and gave it all the final .2 to the finish. Final time 3:22:06. 196th overall and 15th in my age group. After getting the finisher medal and blanket I went over to watch for Don to finish. Didn’t take long as he pulled in just under 3:30 for his PR and BQ.

I’m both OK with the 3:22 and disappointed at the same time. Maybe that’s just my own unrealistic goals. The 3:22 was exactly what my Parot time said I would run so I shouldn’t be surprised. I guess I have to be OK with a BQ time by almost 14 minutes, to finish 196th out of almost 2000 runners, and top 10% of my age group . Also considering the quad injury I had that delayed the start of the training cycle and affected the entire 12 weeks in lots of ways I put down a time that falls in the middle of my 17 tries. My positive split of just over 4 minutes was way better than I’ve done in a while. The reasons for some disappointment are to have an almost perfect day weather wise and still miss the 3:20 goal by a couple minutes and still not being able to put down a complete race. I knew there was no chance for a PR this time around and didn’t even try, but I still refuse to believe I’ve hit my last marathon PR. Staying injury free will be the only way I have a chance so I will need to examine the training program closely over this winter and do something’s a little different next year.

MTD Sept 187
WTD/MTD Oct 26.2
YTD 1783
ODO 26949

Hunting:
Hunting can be my focus now that the marathon racing and training is done for the year. I will still run as regular as possible on weekdays, but will back off the bigger weekend miles. Last Thursday I had the afternoon off from work. After getting some chores done around the house I actually got out hunting for the first time. I went to the land just west of my house I have permission to hunt. It was a nice quiet night and I did manage to spot a doe and fawn about 6:30. With all the cover and noise the squirrels were making I’m not exactly sure where they came from. I noticed them about 40 yards away walking through a tall grass opening. Too far for me to even think about a shot. Still good to see something on the first night. I had hoped to get out Sunday after the race too, but decided against it as the time to go out approached. This was one time I felt just too tired to head out and didn’t want to worry about falling asleep up in the tree. Should have taken a nap when I first got home, but had to watch the Packers squeak one out. I’m taking a long weekend coming up and will be able to get out a few times so no worries yet.

Gardening:
We had big time frost over the last few days so growing season is done for the most part. I harvested most anything left that I couldn’t cover and knew can’t stand up to a freeze. I even found another quart or so of fall raspberries. I also covered a few things so they still have a chance for a week or two since it seems it’s suppose to warm up for a while. Fresh picked beets, lettuce, beans, and a few peppers will taste pretty good yet if they make it. I started selling my pumpkin crop. I will end up selling about 50 myself and another 50 through Wales Lawn and Garden.

Final prep

2010-09-28T21:55:00.000-05:00

Running:
It’s hard to believe the Lakefront marathon is only a few days away. I think I am as ready as I can be. I really tried to take the taper period seriously this training cycle. I think in previous marathons I over trained during the taper and went in with legs not fully recovered. Any way I’ll see if this strategy helps me at the end of the race. I think I’ll be going down to the expo and packet pick up on Friday night after work. Saturday could get busy with some other things so I’d rather not take a chance and be rushed to get downtown. Right now the weather is calling for very chilly morning temperatures the day of the race. Frost warnings will likely be up even near the lake and highs should only be in the mid 50’s. This should help produce some pretty good times if this holds up. It will be interesting figuring out what to wear and I still have to decide on which shoes. Also still contemplating my race pace and strategy. I’m really leaning toward at least starting with the 3:20 pace group and adjusting as the race unfolds. I don’t want to sell myself short either if race day proves to be better than anticipated.

Last week I ran a few miles of each run at expected race pace. Most of the miles were just at a comfortable pace for the distance. I took two complete rest days. Monday was one of those rest days, the other was on Friday. Tuesday I ran 6.5 miles in the morning before work in 54:44. Wednesday I ran 5 miles during my lunch break in 37:33. Thursday was 4 miles mid day in 32:14. Saturday I ran 6.5 miles in the early morning in 51:59. Sunday I started at 7:30 am which is close to race start time and did 12 miles with 6 at race pace in 1:33:05 total time. This week will be three rest days and three run days (about 15 miles) and the race Sunday.
Totals through last week.
WTD 34
MTD 172
YTD 1741
ODO 26907

Hunting:

I still haven’t been out hunting yet. I’m starting to feel that itch now though. I’ve been practicing shooting regularly in the mornings and things have gone quite well. I have been seeing several nice deer while on my morning runs, and seeing hunters cars out in the state forest after them. After the marathon is over that is where my attention will shift. I’ve been watching a few hunting shows to get the blood flowing. I really like some of the hunting I see up in Canada. Maybe someday I will be so lucky to try it. I noticed two products I thought were interesting. The first is the airskinner. It uses air pressure to help peel the hide off of a deer. If this works it looks like it will save lots of time and make less of a mess. I’ll keep watching for reviews. This next one is a blood finding agent product that is supposed to make blood glow. It’s actually the same product that can be used by forensic experts for crime investigation. They advertise it will even work in the rain. Several other tracking products sold at this site (trackem.biz) look interesting too.

Gardening:
This past weekend I harvested what was left of my three rows of potatoes. I ended up with a large garden cart full. I also harvested half of the sweet potatoes and beets which ended up being about a five gallon bucket full of each. Picked the last of the green beans and picked all of the squash. I have about two wheel barrows full of squash of different varieties. We dodged the frost the other night but by this weekend we are supposed to get it again. I’ll be scrambling between now and then to harvest all the pumpkins and get them covered. Looking this morning there will be about 100 or so real nice ones. Almost 100% of them have turned orange already unlike last year when half were still green at first frost. I also managed to get the entire lawn fertilized over the past couple days. It’s nice to get it done after the aeration last week and before the leaves fall in a few weeks from now. The pool is scheduled for closing this coming Thursday.

Garmin is back

2010-09-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

Running:
The past couple weeks I have been operating without my Garmin. As long as I was running familiar routes I didn’t really need the distance, so my backup watch was OK. The power cord was not functioning properly so there was no way to charge it. I was really thinking of getting a newer model, but after finding a new cord on eBay for $20 and free shipping I decided to give it a try. I received the new cord late last week at it works perfectly. I guess I’ll just have to wait a little longer for the new model now.

I notice that another local race has gone by the wayside. This race was in Wales and I ran it last year as a tune up before Lakefront. In previous years I had run one in Mukwonago that no longer exists on the same weekend. What’s up with that? I’m trying to see if there is any other race this weekend locally worth considering. Saturday will be busy so unless it is close I don’t think any race will work. It’s too bad. It really is a confidence builder to race and have a good result and is a good fitness test.

Training this last week went pretty well. In fact my run on Saturday was as good as I’ve felt in a while. I’m trying to examine my race strategy based on the last few weeks training. Everything I see points me to about a 3:20 marathon. Last week’s Parrot predictor told me 3:22. Plugging my last 5k time into the race predictor I get 3:21. Plugging in my half marathon time from a few weeks ago I get 3:22. I think I see a pattern. I have a couple of thoughts on this right now. My first thought is to start off with the 3:20 pace group and then hopefully have enough left to leave the group sometime after 20 miles. My second thought is to run at 8MPH. I would then be slightly ahead of the group. If I kept that up through mile 24 I would have 2.2 miles left with 3 hours ticked off the clock. So still an opportunity for a good race time. The first look at the weather that far out on race day shows things to be trending slightly lower than the normal of 50 low and 70 high.

Last week I took Monday off. My weekday runs were all done during my lunch break at work. Tuesday I ran 5 miles steady pace in 38:30. Wednesday I ran 6 miles in 47:11. The first 5 steady pace and then 1 mile on the treadmill at 7:20. Thursday I ran 5 miles easy in 39:02. Friday I ran 6 miles in 45:45. The first five steady pace and then 1 mile on the treadmill in 7:20. Saturday morning it was raining heavily and this was the only time I could run that day. I jumped on the treadmill and ran 7 miles in 52:30 or 7:30 pace. Sunday was a beautiful morning. I ran two loops of my favorite course. The first 8 miles I ran fairly easy, the second loop I pushed the pace up to 7:20. It was surprising how good this run felt. This was really a confidence booster and gives me hope for a somewhat decent marathon time. For the week I finished at 44 miles which is right about where I expected. This week will likely be in the 30’s.

WTD 44 miles
MTD 138
YTD 1707
ODO 26873

Hunting:
Second year in a row I didn’t get out hunting on opening weekend. Saturday and Sunday were just too busy. I thought about just going in the back yard on Sunday afternoon, but my lawn chores ran a little late and I decided otherwise. Having the tractor out in the back so late wouldn’t have helped my cause anyway. If I needed an antlerless deer to get an earn-a-buck sticker my thinking would be a little different. The stickers I got last year are still good for this year so a little pressure is off.

Gardening:

With all the rain over the weekend I was glad to get the lawn mowing chores done on Saturday. Sunday after the Packer game and the rain stopping I was able to hook up the lawn aerator to the tractor and get the whole lawn done. The ground was nice and soft so it worked well this year. It was great timing as we got more rain Monday and Tuesday of this week. Purchased all of my fall fertilizer and will be attempting to get that spread on the lawn this week. Twice a year Steins has a good sale on Milorganite and I try to stock up when I see it. Also have a couple bags with weed and feed for a few trouble spots

20 miler

2010-09-14T22:34:00.001-05:00

Running:
Less than three weeks to marathon day. Last week was a pretty good one for me. I was able to ramp up the miles to 63 which is a little low from where I wanted to be, but considering the shortened training period because of the injury I am happy to get there. It’s like the switch was just flipped on the weather. From hot and humid to cool and dry just like that. The days and especially mornings have been excellent. The taper period now begins. This week I hope to be solidly in the 40’s with one long run and the rest of the focus on pace and tempo style runs.

Last week I had no off days. Monday I ran in the morning 6.5 miles from home in 57:57. Tuesday was 5 miles from work in 40.15. Wednesday I ran again in the morning 8.0 miles before work in 1:3:22. Thursday was 7.5 miles during my lunch break in 57:.58. Friday was again the same 7.5 miles during lunch break in 1:2:07. Saturday I ran after the rain storms stopped and got in 8.5 miles in 1:09:48. Sunday was my big run. I ran my 20 mile country road loop in 2:45:36. I started off while it was still dark. I chose to take the iPod for this run. I didn’t use it right away, but it helped a bit during the last half of the run. Overall this tune up run went pretty well. I felt comfortable and ran fairly even pace the whole way. Looking back over my run log from last year at this time I was a full 5+ minutes faster on this same course. Another good sign for upcoming marathon.

Hunting:
Only a few days now from the bow hunting season opener. Still haven’t decided if I will go yet. This week I purchased my license and picked up 4 of the free bonus tags available for this area. I should be set with tags now. I also have two earn-a-buck stickers left from last year so I won’t have to shoot an antlerless deer first. This makes it quite a bit more exciting to get out there. I also got my stands squared away, both in the back yard and on the other property I have permission to hunt. I cleaned up quite a few limbs, branches, and brush that had overgrown sight and shooting lanes. The deer sign looks real promising.

Gardening:

So many vegetables. Everything except the brussel sprouts is either done already or available for harvest. The number and variety of squash this year is incredible. I’m really excited about a new kind called “baby blue” Hubbard. This one looks and tastes like a true Hubbard but is only a fraction of the size. The full size ones are as big as a good size pumpkin. Nice to have something much more manageable. Picked several quarts of fall raspberries. I put the plants in a couple years ago and these are the first pickings. They taste a little different than the early summer kind, but still quite a treat to have at this time of year. Had enough to make a fresh berry pie with some.

Lake Country half marathon

2010-09-07T22:10:00.000-05:00

Running:
This past week I opted to try something a little different with my running routine. I knew I wanted to try running the Lake Country half marathon on the weekend and didn’t want to go into it wiped out, but I also didn’t want to take a full taper week. I opted for easy runs to keep the miles up and then a series of strides thrown in at the end of each run for a little speed work. Monday was 5 miles, Tuesday 5 miles, Wednesday 5 miles, Thursday 6.5 miles and Friday off. When I run at work the fire hydrants are about 100 yards apart. The last .7 miles I would run fast (5k pace or faster) to the next hydrant, then jog to the next, then fast, etc… until back at the office. When I ran from home I would use telephone poles in the same way.

For the race Saturday I really didn’t have a good feel for how I would do. Coming back from injury I had not been able to push myself with either speed or distance yet. I didn’t sign up until Friday night as I was watching the weather closely. I would not have signed up if it was going to be really hot. That was not going to be the case, but the forecast did call for strong winds as the day went along. At 7am though it was nice with just a little wind and temps in the upper 40’s. I set a goal for myself of trying to hit about 7:20 pace at the beginning and see how that went. The race went along well. The splits off my Garmin, with the auto lap feature set were 7:15, 7:19, 7:07, 7:17, 7:22, 7:20, 7:44, 7:08, 7:40, 7:32, 7:31, 7:34, 7:38, and .51 (6:31). There weren’t a lot of hills, but they were found on mile 7 and mile 13 accounting for some of the slower pace. The wind directly in my face the last mile didn’t help much either. I think mile 8 was short and 9 long which happens sometimes so they would average out. Final time was 1:37:18. I was 85th overall and 4th in my age group. The previous two years I was 1st in my age group for this race and only a little over a minute slower. Funny thing is this same time last year would have still been good enough for 1st, so it really all depends who shows up. In hind sight I should have set a faster goal. I had lot’s left at the end and I felt real good immediately after and the next day. That’s usually proof I could have pushed harder. Any way I came out of it well and with a little confidence for the upcoming marathon.

Some good things about this race for me are: that it’s close to home, the timing is right for fitting into the schedule for an early Oct marathon, registration can be last minute, packet and chip pick up are easy, nice technical t-shirt, lots of good food and drink afterward (no beer though), plenty of water stops and even a gel stop, well marked course, nice bunch of volunteers that seem to make the whole event run smoothly.

Some not so good things, it is rather expensive for a half marathon at $50. Get there early or you will be stressed finding a place to park. The course sucked this year. It’s advertised as music along the course…water…woods…scenery. Granted construction caused this to happen, but it was pretty boring in the current configuration. It was mainly just through different subdivisions with lots of corners to take. Previous years it circled the lake with lake views probably ¾ of the way at least. The only music I saw/heard was a single woman playing guitar near the beginning and a chair with a boom box going somewhere in the middle.

Here is a link to some pictures from the professional photographer. They are pretty bad so I don’t think I will buy any.

To finish the week I ran a recovery 6.5 miles on Sunday giving me 41.1 for the week. I finished August with 123. On Labor Day I ran another 6.5 slower miles. My weekly average is still over 45 and my monthly average is right at 196 despite the recent down time.

So through Labor Day Monday:
WTD 6.5
MTD 37.6
YTD 1607
ODO 26,773

Hunting:
I’ve gotten out to practice shooting with my bow a few times, but still haven’t been as consistent doing it as I should be. I have been good with the grouping of shots so I’m not real worried about it, but the more you can get out to make the shot feel automatic the better. I finished trimming the shooting lanes around my back yard stands this past week. Things are ready for the opener if I choose to go out 9/18. I have had deer in the back almost every day this past week. I’ve seen a few of them, but also know some are coming in at night to eat apples and pears that fall from the trees, and some of the corn standing in the back. I also notice that one or two have a preference for spaghetti squash and have demolished a couple of them.

Gardening:
Just about a year ago I posted that I had seen some salamander lizards while cleaning the pool skimmers. That same thing happened again this past week. Two days in a row I pulled out yellow spotted ones. One of them was as big a salamander as I have ever seen. All the vine crops are starting to shut down now. This is a little early, but there are lots of squash, watermelon, and pumpkins out there so I’m not worried about getting enough. In some ways it will make the harvest easier as I won’t have to leave them there and risk having to scramble when the forecast calls for a hard frost or freeze. The watermelons have been fantastic this year. I’m so glad I learned how to tell when they are ripe. We went to parties on Saturday and Sunday where a dish to pass was in order. The melons went over well both times.

Watermelon time

2010-08-30T17:45:00.000-05:00

Running:
This past week turned out to be bigger than I anticipated. To recap last week. Monday 8/23 started off as usual with an off day. I took the day completely off and got a few errands done during lunch. Almost every day last week was awesome as far as the weather. A little cooler and brilliant sunshine. Tuesday I decided to try my 7.5 mile lunch time run. I hadn’t run this in a couple months. I completed the run in a nice and easy 1:03:11. Wednesday I did the same run a little faster in 1:01:22. Thursday I again did the same route in an even faster 59:13. I wore my “fast shoes” Asics Speedstars for this run to try them out. My hope is to wear them for the Lakefront marathon in October. The shoes felt great and light and no hot spots or other issues. Friday I backed off a little and only ran 6 miles with no hills. I did this run in 49:54. On Saturday I only had a short time to run since I had to be in Watertown early to watch my daughter run her first XC meet of the year. I only put in 5 miles in 38:54. Sunday I got out a little earlier since the forecast called for near 90 degrees. The weather was great early although it did get warm near the end of the run. I managed 16.5 miles in 2:17:16. This gave me 50 miles for the week. A total I haven’t seen since early July. I have had no issues at all with the leg/quad muscle. The only thing now is fatigue since I’m building the volume back fairly rapidly. At this point I’m leaning toward taking somewhat of a cut back week and running in the Lake Country half marathon this coming weekend. The cutback coincides with what would be a taper week anyway. If for some reason I decide not to sign up I can catch up on my miles with the holiday weekend. One thing I don’t like is that I received an e-mail that because of construction they changed the course for this race yet again. I don’t think there has been a year when Oconomowoc hasn’t had some construction going on that affects this race in some way. Right now the weather looks good in that a cool down is supposed to happen in a couple days and stick around through the weekend. I really don’t even anticipate anything close to a PR or even to make last year’s time of 1:35. I’m just very interested to see what my fitness level might be right now.
WTD 50
MTD 113
YTD 1559
ODO 26,725

Hunting:
The mosquito population has finally been dialed back a bit. I think I can now get out to practice shooting the bow at least once a day. I’ll be trying to take at least 10 or so shots either in the morning or afternoon. Bow season opener is on September 18th so less than three weeks away. Usually I’ve been shooting regularly for 2 or 3 weeks already.

I asked and again received permission to hunt on the property just west of my house where I’ve taken 2 large deer over the past few years. You can never take for granted the privilege it is to obtain such a right. I’ll be heading out to hang stands and cut some brush in the next week or so. I may not hunt there until closer to October when it is cooler.

Gardening:

Harvested a few meals of sweet corn. I really had to fight the raccoons to get any. The cobs were a little on the small side this year, but were as good as ever. The latest thing to be harvested is watermelon. This is the biggest crop I have ever had. I planted 3 kinds, but so far have only noticed 2 varieties. There is a small personal size yellow watermelon that is very tasty, but has lots of seeds. I have another larger red seedless variety that is also very good. I also planted an orange flesh variety, but as of yet not found one. In previous years I always waited until the stem of the watermelon started to dry or turn brown before harvesting. I found some tips on the internet about how to tell a melon is ripe and they have been right on so far. There are squiggly growths called a “tendril” that grow along the vine. These tendrils help the vine attach to things to secure them. When the tendril closest to the melon has turned brown and dried up and if the melons “belly” is yellow the melon is ripe enough to pick. This has worked on every one I've eaten so far.

Tow of shame

2010-08-23T15:18:00.001-05:00

Running:
It feels so good to be back to running regularly. I’m still easing back into it, but there have been no setbacks to this point. My runs have mostly been in the 4 to 6 mile range. Two weeks ago I ran 24 miles on 5 runs. Last week I did 32 on 5 runs. This week should be up near 40. My run Sunday was 12 miles in 1:39:38. First time I wore my watch since starting back. This was a little slow, but I was happy to get my first run over 1 hour since July 11th under my belt. This run put me over 1500 miles YTD.

At this point the Lakefront marathon on 10/3 at least looks possible again. I’m doubting I have enough time left to get in the proper training to do well. At this point I am settling on doing enough to just do reasonably well and by that I mean a minimum qualifying BQ time. I'm counting on the YTD miles to help me out.

I still have my sights on running the Lake Country half marathon on 9/4. I will decide the night before based on the weather forecast and how the training is going. I will have to see if I think a couple days off and a race will give me more benefit than a longer training run and less time off.

Hunting:
Antlerless tags went on sale this past weekend for available units. I was able to get one tag for area 3 which is near Bayfield. You were allowed 1 per day and only 300 were available. I noticed the next day they were sold out or I would have purchased a second one.

On the weekend of the 14th/15th I was up north for an extended weekend. One of the days my brother Todd and I spent a few hours building a new ground blind for hunting season. We brought in the chain saw and cut up the already downed trees to build a real good base. We actually lashed several of the logs to trees to give support for the structure and provide for correct gapping for the sight windows. We have a little finishing work to do, but I think a real good blind in what looks like a highly traveled area.

The other exciting part of this trip was our fishing adventure. We knew the boat had been used, but didn’t fill up with gas before we left. This was kind of on purpose rather than have a lot of gas go bad since no one had plans to use it for a while. We went early in the morning as the forecast called for increasing winds throughout the day. By afternoon there was potential for 7 to 10 foot waves in the open waters just beyond the islands. We first tried the spot we had been the previous week out near Outer Island. We caught one fish, but it was kind of slow so decided to move after a few hours. After trying to get out farther we just decided to head closer to Bayfield and fish for a while at Oak Island out of the wind. We caught another fish, but again it was pretty slow and we decided to call it a day around 12:30. Heading back in towards Bayfield the motor started running rough and finally just died. It’ a real good thing it conked out when it did because had it been earlier we would have been drifting out into the open lake. The way it was we threw out two anchors, but they weren’t holding us. We were being pushed by the increasing winds ever closer to the rocky shore of the Island. Finally after getting within 20 feet or so of shore the anchors caught. We ended up having to call the Coast Guard and had to be towed back to Bayfield by a boat like the one in the picture. Over 40 years of fishing the big lake and never had anything like that happen before. Turns out that even though the gas gauge registered ½ tank it was actually bone dry. How embarrassing to experience the "tow of shame"! I guess we learned a few lessons the biggest being to always fill up with gas before heading out on the lake no matter what.

Gardening:
Really amazing that I still haven’t had to set up my sprinkler system on the garden this year. I think at this point I’m not even going to worry about it. All plants are mature enough that they should make it fine for a week or two with no rain. Before this year I couldn’t even imagine such a thing. Each week in previous years I spent hours watering. Everything other than the Brussel Sprouts and the winter squash are either done or able to be harvested now. The pears are really plentiful and large this year.

This past weekend we had our annual summer harvest meal get together with several friends. Everything we eat comes from the garden. The meat on the menu was venison tenderloin that I saved for this occasion. The dessert was fresh “no bake” berry pies. We had blueberry, blackberry, and black and blue (combo of each) all of which I picked myself. I think blackberries are my favorite fruit. Quite a treat. We had a great time and the food was excellent as usual.

Back in the Saddle

2010-08-10T12:14:00.001-05:00

Running:
I am finally back to running a little bit. It feels good to be back in the saddle again. About three weeks to the day between runs outside. I still need to take it easy and can’t rush things. Here is an example of how I’ve progressed the last several days. On Wed 8/4 I did my first running. I only run/walked 1 mile on the treadmill holding on to the side most of the way to keep weight off the legs. On Thursday I ran the whole mile holding on to the sides. On Friday I ran the whole mile not holding on. On Saturday I ran 2 miles on the treadmill sometimes holding the sides sometime not. On Sunday I ran 2.5 miles mostly not holding on. Yesterday Monday I ran 4 miles outside during my lunch break. No watch, just took it easy and completed the entire run in the almost 90 degree heat. I’ll gradually be increasing the length of my runs with a similar type progression. I’ll likely need 1 or 2 days rest the next couple weeks despite the low mileage. I wish I had some idea of the root cause of this injury. Without knowing and not correcting anything I could just face it again. I sure hope not.

Hunting:
I started to clear some shooting lanes by cutting down some of the scrub trees (mostly buckthorn) and brush in the back yard. I’ve been wanting to do this for a couple years. Now that I have a working chainsaw the job will go easier and faster. Last year I set up a stand in the middle of the property. The one problem with this stand was I could hear deer at the back edge of the property as they moved through but could never see them unless they came right in front of me or out into the field. The lanes I am clearing will allow me to see all the way to my bow stand to the left, as well as the back of the property straight ahead in addition to the field on the right.

Gardening:
Garden harvest of most things continues. That is when I can stand fighting the mosquitoes. I have never in my life seen them as thick as they are this year. Absolutely unpleasant being in the garden for any amount of time right now. I’ve dug up about 10 gallons of potatoes so far. They are really nice size this year and so far not all chewed up by grubs. It looks like some sweet potatoes will also be ready in the next couple weeks. You can tell because they get so big the soil starts splitting where the large tubers are growing. Also pretty close to being able to harvest some pears and the first sweet corn. I’ve tried a hot pepper wax product on the beets and it seems to be keeping the mice away. I’ll also be putting this on the sweet corn to see if it discourages the raccoons. I noticed this morning that some of the baby fish I mentioned a few weeks back have started to turn colors. They look like they are baby Koi not Comet's. Still not sure how many there might be.

Stubborn injury

2010-08-06T12:12:00.001-05:00

Running:
This quad injury is really proving to be stubborn. I can tell just by trying to jog to the mailbox that there is still an issue. Until there is no pain I can’t even try to do any distance. As of now it has only impacted a couple of 5k races I would have done. Next weekend I had hoped to run the Paavo Nurmi marathon in Hurley. Those plans will also now need to be scratched. Any longer than another week and other fall race plans will have to be altered. I’m guessing I could get ready in about a month with a one week taper period if I needed to for a marathon. That’s based on the number of miles I’ve already put in this year to draw back on. No pain doing anything else other than running. Being on vacation last week helped by being a distraction from not being able to run. My workouts have been about an hour a day on the elliptical, rowing machine and/or bike. The last two days I ran 1 mile on the treadmill holding onto the sides so my full weight isn’t on the leg. I might continue to do this as long as it seems to not make things worse. All the yard work in this heat has also helped to keep some of the weight off during this time. I suppose I might even have to start watching what I eat. Oh no!

Hunting:

While on vacation I was able to get out fishing one day with my brother Todd. We really wanted to get out to Outer Island to my favorite spot. The wind and waves the day we tried kept that from happening. We got most of the way there, but when we reached the farther Islands there were remnants of an overnight storm that still had the lake riled up. We chose to try a new place that was half way between Cat and Outer Islands. We happened to see an old map of Dad’s that had this spot circled. Neither of us remember fishing this spot of hearing dad talk about it. It turned out to be a good choice. We ended up catching a salmon before we even had the first line in the water completely. We ended up catching our limit of lake trout in addition to the salmon. We even had to throw one back and had several other fish on. So it ended up a pretty good day. Here are some more fish pictures.

Todd and I also went to check our deer stands one afternoon. The deer sign around my spot seems to be significant. They really hammered the mineral lick I have created and built up over the past several years. Lots of activity and trails from all directions coming in.

These are pictures looking out from the new tree blind in my back yard. The first is looking left over the corn and the second straight ahead and right over the brassica’s and clover.

Gardening:

The vine crops (pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, and watermelon) seem to be doing quite well. There seem to be a few less pumpkins than past years, but the ones that are there are doing quite well. There is still time to generate lots more as long as the vines hold up from disease and pests. We have had so much rain this year that other than the first week the garden was in I haven’t had to water at all. This has saved lots of hours of work over past years. Unfortunately it makes the weeds grow better too so more time needs to be spent keeping them under control. The first sweet corn from my garden is only about a week away I would guess. If I don’t get it first the raccoons will let me know when it is ripe to pick.

I have one peach tree left that is big enough to bear fruit. I picked probably about 100 or so peaches from this one tree this week. This tree isn’t in as much sun as I would like, so most of the peaches are on the smallish side, but they sure are good. Who says you can’t grow peaches in Wisconsin.

Life without running

2010-07-28T12:02:00.000-05:00

Running:
It’s been a really tough week with no running. The only miles I got in last week was 2.5 on Monday the day my injury worsened. The diagnosis was an injury to the reflected head of the rectus femoris muscle. This is the quad muscle at the front your leg that attaches it to knee and hip. The reflected head is where it attaches at the top. At least we ruled out a stress fracture. I will need to take an additional 2 to 3 weeks off before resuming running. This next week I will be on vacation so when I get back I’ll begin to test it a little. This past week I managed to use the elliptical, bike, and rowing machine each day. Over the weekend and the last couple days has been a lot of extra yard work which is also good cross training.

Hunting:
Worked with my brother Tad a couple more days on the new hunting blind. Other than some minor finishing touches it is mostly complete. It is built much more solidly than the old one. It even has lift windows on pulleys on three sides and a real door. Also fixed up my bow stand in the back with an extra board for width and a new 3x4 foot plywood platform on top. The food plot is really coming along. Mowing down the brassica’s worked well. The seeds are really sprouting with good coverage and not many weeds. The corn is also growing real well with all the rain and heat. Last week I got the word about some free broad heads. I had heard it was a free 3 pack worth about $50. I was disappointed to find out this was not the case. It was still a deal, but they only sent one as a sample. The f-15’s look like a good model though. Received my permit, rules, and maps for the Ottawa Wildlife Refuge. Now to go scout it closer one of these weekends.

Gardening:
Here are some new pictures of the garden taken 07/28. Lots of yard work the last several days getting ready for a few days vacation. Wouldn’t you know the drive belt on the tractor would break with about ¾ of the mowing done. I’m not very mechanical, but was able to replace it with some help instead of having service come or drag it over there. Lots of baby pumpkins, squash, and watermelon. Hopefully they all make it to maturity. The rest of the garden is doing well. Lots of cucumbers, potatoes and onions. I picked almost a wheel barrow full of beans last night and that’s even with tossing lots of them away that were past ripe of chewed on by mice/voles. I can’t even imagine how many of these critters there must be. They sure do lots of damage.

Another injury

2010-07-20T12:41:00.000-05:00

Running:
Last week started off quietly as far as running goes. I was looking forward to a 5K race on the coming Saturday and then at least 18 miles Sunday. My how things changed.

With the race I was considering I was planning on taking Friday off so I ran on Monday instead. Only 5 miles during my lunch break in 37:21. Tuesday was really warm so again I opted only for 5 miles and not fast in 38:52. Same route on Wednesday in 39:14. Wednesday I felt a little tweak in the upper thigh area during the last half of the run. Just ran through it and didn’t give it a thought. Thursday I got out between rain storms and ran the same 5 miles in 40:06. This run had me a little concerned though. The tweak of the day before turned into a constant dull pain during the run. Still ran through it. Because of this I had to try running on Friday to see if the pain was still there. It was, but I still finished the run in a slow 42:11. I could not run fast without the pain becoming more intense. There went the race plans for Saturday. Instead I opted for off completely Saturday and Sunday.

Yesterday Monday 7/19 I was off of work. I decided to give the leg a try since it seemed to feel OK. I got out 2.5 miles when all of a sudden on my step the leg had an intense pain that almost made me fall to the ground. I walked the rest of the way home. Now my leg is really sore. I made an appointment to go and get this checked out on Wednesday. I’m hoping my worst fear of another stress fracture does not come to be. If that is what happened it will be 7 or 8 weeks off running. That would likely mean no fall marathon this year for me. Whatever this turns out to be, it is quite a disappointment from how training seemed to be going this whole year. I was getting in some good miles and no major issues at all until now. The funny thing is the last 4 or 5 weeks my miles have been significantly reduced from earlier in the year. Why now?
Through last week
WTD 25
MTD 105
YTD 1444
ODO 26610

Hunting:
The big news for this last week was that Kylli and I were selected to be able to hunt deer on the 350 acre Ottawa Reserve. We will be 2 of only 14 hunters with the privilege to do so this year. This property borders the land I already have permission to hunt on for bow only. It will be real nice to have another place down this way for the multiple gun seasons and another spot close by to not over hunt my other bow spots. The past several years there were antlerless only restrictions on this property to reduce the herd. This year the restriction is lifted for regular rules. There should be some big bucks running around if they managed to not venture out very far last year. This past weekend I mowed down the food plot. The seed heads just exploded as I mowed them down. The remaining stalks were chopped up pretty good to provide a little mulch too. Now with a good rain the stuff should really sprout and fill in the area. If for some reason this doesn’t work I still have time to till and plant something else. My brother Tad came over yesterday to help me tear down and rebuild the hunting blind in the back yard. We got the old one down, the new floor and the support corners up so far. Lots more to do, but good to have this started.

Gardening:
The garden harvest is starting to heat up right on schedule. I should be picking zucchini like crazy right now, but something is still sucking the life right out of any plant that starts growing. Only the zucchini have this trouble. I really suspect grubs or mole crickets. The raspberries are just about done now. Blueberries are just starting as is the second round of ever bearing strawberries. I’ve picked the first tomatoes, cucumbers, and peas and I noticed this morning the first beans and potatoes are available to pick too.

Had trouble with the pool pump again this week. The guys came out and replaced it again yesterday. This is the 3rd time in 4 years we have had trouble. Hopefully a brand new one fixes this once and for all.

I noticed when cleaning the pond over the weekend that I have some fish babies. The small fish are born a very dark color so they are hard to see. Not sure how many or even what type they are. I have both comets and Koi that are brightly colored with orange and/or white. I will have to wait a while for identification. This is the first time in the 7 years or so having the pond I’ve ever seen any little ones.

Imperial moth

2010-07-12T12:44:00.001-05:00

Running:
Another warm week of running. I managed a few more miles this week, but still shy of 50.

Monday 7/5 was a holiday for me. I went out for a morning 9.5 mile run in 1:20:39. It was really hot and sticky and my leg was actually a little sore from the bee stings a couple days prior.
I took my off day on Tuesday. The forecast had been for rain but we ended up getting none. Didn’t matter as I needed the rest day anyway.
Wednesday was back to work. I did my usual 5 mile route in 36:23
Thursday was the same route in 90 degree weather in a slower 40:03. Half way through I was stuck in a popup thunderstorm and pulled into the shelter at Marx park to wait it out a few minutes.
Friday I ran 5 miles at work, but did a different route. I ran it in 39:09.
Saturday I got out early and ran the same 9.5 miles as Monday. I ran it in a little faster 1:16:02.
Sunday I made it out for my first longer run in several weeks. I ran 15 miles in 2:05:21. There were lots of turkeys and deer out and about during this run.
WTD 49
MTD 80
YTD 1419
ODO 26585

Hunting:
Still no word on the status of the drawing for hunting rights on the Waukesha Land Conservancy. I assume the drawing was held last week. In this case I know no news is bad news so hopefully this week I hear something.

I know it’s only July, but it’s time to get the bow out for some practice. Like last year I will try to get out a couple times a week for a few shots. Decision time is also coming up on what to do with the other half of the food plot.

I’m thinking if I mow down the dead brassica’s and all the seed heads the plot should reseed itself. My biggest worry is things being taken over by weeds and then running out of time to do anything this year.
I suppose worse case is I have 6 rows of corn standing so I at least have something.

Gardening:

Found this huge moth on the driveway the other day. The wingspan is almost as big as my hand. This is called an Imperial moth. It is rather rare in our area, but is apparently at the northern fringes of its range.

Finished trimming all the Spruce and pine trees in my yard this weekend. Here is a picture of 4 of them. I counted 21 of them along with 9 white pine. Getting to be a big job now that most are over 20 ft tall.

The pond seems to be doing quite well this summer. The lilies are filling out nicely and started blooming the last couple weeks. I found a lotus plant growing in between the water irises. My guess is the seed came from the neighbor’s pond a couple years ago when he gave me a few different color irises.

I noticed over the weekend that the pumpkin plants have started to show the first blooms. From past experience its right when this happens there is an explosion of cucumber beetles. If I’m not vigilant to keep the cucumber beetles off I risk losing the whole crop to the bacterial wilt these bugs drag around with them.

Bald face hornets

2010-07-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July holiday. We celebrated at some friends house. Each year they have a big pool party with lots of good food and drinks. Played a little horseshoes and volleyball too. We missed the big fireworks shows and since we did the kids talked me into doing something I normally wouldn’t do. We went to buy some for ourselves at a local place. Just so happened they were packing up the tent for the season. The guy offered us a deal I couldn’t refuse. If we spent $100 he would throw in at least $300 worth free. Man did we get some fireworks. The neighborhood really got a show last night.

I realized that last week was the 1 year anniversary of starting this blog. I started off with good intentions in 2009 and logged daily entries for about a month. This lasted until dad’s health became an issue and it just wasn’t any kind of priority. I then was down to 2 or 3 entries per week and now it seems I can only muster a weekly recap. I will have to make time for more entries again especially when there is so much to write about like this past week.

Running:
For the month of June I was only able to log 174 miles breaking my string of 200+ for 2010. I’ve run about the same number of days just cut down on the miles for each run. My weekday runs were mostly around 5 miles and my weekend longer runs were 10 or 11 it seems. My weekly average is still right around 52 miles for the year which is good. My average pace per run dropped a bit in June with the lesser miles. For now it’s kind of like treading water until the time comes to get serious about training for my fall marathon.

For the weekly recap:
Monday 6/28 was an off day. I took the day completely off.
Tuesday was a lunch time run of 5 miles in 36:39.
Wednesday morning I brought my car into the body shop for some repair. I ran home the 11 miles from the shop in 1:27:11. This rounded out my month of June with 174 miles.
Thursday was another lunch time run of 5 miles in 38:13.
Friday the same 5 mile route in 39:20.
Saturday morning I ran 10 miles in 1:20:19
Sunday morning I did 10.5 miles in 1:26:54
WTD 47
MTD 30.5
YTD 1370
ODO 26536

Hunting:

As you can see from the picture of the tree house turned hunting blind it is in need of some serious repair. If I can’t figure out how to lift the stand to reattach the base boards to the tree I will likely have to dismantle it and rebuild. That probably wouldn’t be a bad option anyway, but would be a lot more work. I managed to get my hunting application in at the deadline for the Waukesha County land conservancy. Sometime this week a drawing will be held to determine who gets to hunt this year. It would be great to have another option for a place close by for the multiple gun seasons we have here.

Gardening:

I took some new pictures of the garden this morning. What a difference a month makes. Everything is coming up now and most things are doing quite well, although I’m having trouble with zucchini this year for some reason. Several of the plants appear to have broken off at ground level. The inside appears hollow like a borer had at them. I thought borer’s attacked when the plants were bigger though. The plants that are making it seem misshaped and/or stunted. I’ve never had trouble with zucchini before so I’m at a loss so far with this one. Everything else seems to be doing quite well at this time. I’ve learned that can change in a hurry though from weather, disease or bugs. Raspberries continue to come in strong. I’ve picked 6 to 8 quarts of berries each of the last several days. Froze some and made 2 large raspberry glace pies yesterday. There is nothing better. If you like fresh berry pies this recipe is good for strawberries and blueberries too. My big story in the garden this week came last Saturday. I had sheared about 10 of the large blue spruce in my yard without incident. I had one more tree to finish before I was going to quit for the day. I climbed up to about the 5th or 6th rung of my ladder with my pole trimmer when I realized I had a large hornet nest directly in front of my face. The first bee stung my arm and when I smacked it that must have signaled the others to attack. I had them all over me. I was stung an additional 6 times as I was jumping off the ladder and rolling on the ground. My ear and neck, forearm, and knee/shin really swelled up for a while. This is much better today, but still itches quite a bit. Those black and white hornets are some of the meanest bees I’ve ever come across. Bought some spray today to get rid of them tonight after sunset.

Raspberry and kholrabi time

2010-06-29T17:37:00.002-05:00

Running:
My running this past week was again on the lighter side. Just continuing to put in a few miles with no real urgency to any of the training.

Monday I had originally planned to do a cross training day, but when I got to the workout room both the elliptical and the bikes were in use. Since it was such a nice day I just went for an easy 4 miles without the watch to warm up instead. I then did some lifting and stretching for the rest of the time. Tuesday through Friday I ran the same 5 mile route from work when I could get away from my desk. It was kind of a crazy week and I had to take the opportunity when I could. I got out anywhere between noon and almost 4:00. Tuesday I did the run in 37:09, Wednesday was 40:03, Thursday was 39.05, and Friday was 37:39. Saturday I got out fairly early and ran 10.5 miles in 1:28:32. Sunday I got out after the first round of storms and finished just before round two started. I ran 9.5 miles in 1:19:10. No hills this week, no real fast runs, and no long runs. It looks like my streak of 200+ mile months is about to end. With no long races for a while June is as good as any for a little bit of a cut back. So totals through Sunday 6/27.
WTD 44
MTD 158
YTD 1323
ODO 26489

Hunting:
Here are a couple of links hunting related I thought were interesting. The first link is some discussion on what is a proper maximum distance to take a bow shot at deer. I tend to agree with the blogger although my personal limit is probably closer to 25 yards. The second link is to an ingenious way to carry real rattling horns. If any of you have done this it really is a pain to carry real horns. They always seem to be in the way and clunking together as you walk to your stand. This design looks good to make them easy to carry. I will be attempting to do this with the pair I use.

Gardening:

Raspberry season is here. First a handful, then a pint, then a couple, then quarts until they peak. Right now I can pick several quarts of berries every day. I don’t have a real big area, but I have more than enough for me, neighbors, friends, and coworkers. The mosquitoes are really bad this year. Picking berries in the evening I don’t ever remember them being this bad. The other thing I started to harvest is kohlrabi. I think this is my favorite vegetable. From now until frost I will have a bag of cut up kohlrabi in my lunch every day. This past weekend I started trimming my large blue spruce around the yard. I also got my chain saw working and cut down a large leaning scrub tree that was creeping ever farther into the yard. I also used it to cut some of the lower limbs off some maples to lift the crown a bit. Sure have a huge pile of limbs and brush to burn next winter.

First day of summer

2010-06-21T12:43:00.000-05:00

Can't believe it's the first day of summer today. Hope all you Dads out there had a great Fathers day weekend. Kind of a strange feeling for me over the weekend. It was the first Fathers day without one for both my wife and myself. While it was great to still celebrate my own fatherhood, it was just one of those firsts where I really missed my dad and things felt quite empty when my thoughts drifted that way. If I was not up north with him over this holiday there was at least a lengthy phone conversation regarding the latest fishing stories and goings on.

Running:
Looks like I missed my chance to run Grandmas marathon in decent weather. While it wasn’t overly cool at least the temps seemed reasonable. Most of the running would have been in the 60 degree range. There was a fairly strong west wind that would have been in your face the whole way. This is likely as good as it gets for Duluth in later June and certainly better than any time since I started running marathons in 2004 and paid attention to it. I just wish they could hold signup open a little longer as long as the race isn’t filling up in recent years. Having said that I’m sure they need to close it to plan and most people are not like me and need to sign up for something to have training motivation.

This past week was another on the lighter side for me. I was able to fit another 5k race in on Saturday though. More detail on that in the weekly recap. I really need to rethink my training. I realize I’m getting older, but I refuse to believe my days of setting PR’s is past me already. I took some time over the weekend to really examine my 2006 running log. 2006 was a good year running for me. I set PR’s in 5k, half marathon and marathon distances. One big difference is that most of the year I was about 10 pounds lighter. My understanding of how much this could impact pace is 2 seconds per pound, per mile over ultimate running weight. That could be 20 seconds per mile for me if that is right. The biggest mileage difference I see is that most months I ran far less. I did have 3 or 4 huge months coinciding with peaking for Boston, Grandmas, and the Lakefront. The other months were far fewer miles with most runs only 4 or 5 miles per day with long runs on the weekends of 10 to 12 miles. The shorter runs were almost all done in the 6:45 to 7:30 average range.

Monday last week was an off day. I chose to take it completely off.
Tuesday I ran my 5 mile work loop during my lunch break. I tried to run it a bit faster, but the legs felt heavy and tired despite the off day. I ended up finishing in 37:03.
Wednesday the legs still didn’t feel right. I ran the same 5 mile route in a slower 40:09. I made it back just prior to a huge downpour. Hearing the thunder in the distance pushed me the last couple miles or I would have been much slower.
Thursday I did my hill repeat workout. This was probably the warmest temperatures I’ve done this in. I finished the 8 repeats and the total 7.5 miles in a pretty good 1:04:05.
Friday I was debating taking another rest day, but it was such a nice day I decided on an easy 4 miles instead. Didn’t even take the watch just went out to enjoy the time outside and get away from my desk for a bit.
Saturday I headed to Delafield to run in a local 5K. I’ve run this race every year since 2006. This race has never been my best despite it being close and I think accurately marked. This race used to be in the afternoon and part of the “Taste of Delafield” weekend. I never did like racing in the afternoon. It also had been the weekend after Grandma’s marathon, so pushing through a 5k was a little tough. This year the race was moved up to an 8am start. I thought I would try a little different tactic and try and start slower and speed up through the race. This did not work out that well. I fell into about 25th place before hitting the 1st mile and was not able to improve on that at all. I even had one person pass me in the last half mile which never happens. I tried, but just had no response to be able to keep up. I did OK finishing 2nd in my age group with a time of 21:30, I just really thought I could do about a minute better than that. A lesson learned I guess that for me I have to give it out of the gate and hold on to do my best at the 5k distance. With warm up and cool down runs I got a total 6 miles for the day.
Sunday morning I made it out early for 13.5 additional miles. I ran over familiar ground, just modified the run taking different loops than usual.

WTD 41
MTD 114
YTD 1279
ODO 26445

Hunting:
With the rain this past week the corn I planted in the food plot has all sprouted. The rows look as complete as any I’ve planted in the past several years. Nice to get this off to a good start. The tree house I built for the kids when we first moved in (turned into a hunting blind) is really in disrepair. The heavy winds and storms along with growth from the tree have caused many of the boards attaching it to the tree to come loose. It will have to be torn down and rebuilt sometime this summer. I guess knowing it will only be used as a hunting blind now I can build it differently and better for that use.

Gardening:
This is one of those rare occasions where I actually feel caught up with lawn and garden chores. Not having to spend hours watering things has helped. I still have things to do such as trim the yard evergreens, weed and edge the flower beds, and apply some mulch but this is the normal time to do these things. I’m not scrambling because the time to do a certain chore is behind schedule or due to be completed for best result. Over the weekend besides the usual lawn mowing chores, I got the garden completed weeded, the pumpkin patch weeded and tilled once more, and also tilled between the rows of corn in the food plot. Things look pretty right now, but the back feels it though. On Fathers’ day before we went out to dinner I spent a couple hours trimming bushes and cutting brush at my mother in laws. It was due some care. It felt good to help her out a bit. On a sad note it appears the Mother's day weekend frost made a bigger hit on the cherries, apples, and plum blossoms than I first thoughtl. Not much of any of these fruits are left on the trees.

Turkey day

2010-06-14T12:21:00.000-05:00

Running:
I have some catching up for the last week since my last post. This was a pretty good week for running. With no long races on the agenda it’s a little harder to stay motivated to put a bunch of miles in. Last Monday I took a planned off day. I took the day completely off to rest. I will take at least one day off for a while and Monday seems to work pretty good especially if my longer run of the week was on Sunday. Tuesday because of a combination of the rainy weather and a situation at work I was forced to take an unplanned day. Again not really a problem since there is no long race on the horizon. Wednesday I got out for my typical lunch time run of 7.5 miles in 58.05. Thursday I ran my hill repeat workout which I had skipped for a couple weeks. Total distance 7.5 miles in 1:05:02. I’ll be trying to run this at least once a week again for a while. If for no other reason to just mix things up a bit. Friday I ran the 7.5 mile route again in 1:01:21. Saturday morning early I got out for 10.5 miles in 1:27:13. This was baby turkey day. I saw several flocks of turkeys with hundreds of chicks on this run. They startled me several times as they scurried about on the side of the road as I passed. Sunday I decided to head west from my house up around Pretty lake instead of my usual South routes. I ran one loop around the lake and then south around Ottawa Lake and Hwy ZZ. It was a good change of pace. I ran 14.5 total miles in 1:59:45. Totals through Sunday:
WTD 47.5
MTD 73
YTD 1238
ODO 26404

Hunting:
Saturday I was able to get the food plot tilled where I wanted to plant the field corn. I prepared enough of the soil to make six rows and was able to then get them all planted. Also planted one row of giant grey stripe sunflowers that the wildlife seems to like.

Gardening:
The garden continues to come in pretty well. Strawberries are at the peak right now. I have been able to pick at least a gallon every other day this past week. Sunday we made strawberry and strawberry rhubarb freezer jam, and also made a strawberry rhubarb crisp. The crisp was awesome. All of the rows of seeds seem to be germinating pretty well. Only a couple of spots will need to be filled in a bit. We seem to be getting just the right amount of moisture and good temperatures for now. The crows are driving me crazy though. The other morning I watched as they pulled a few of my pumpkin plants right out of the ground to eat the seed that had just sprouted. Luckily I chased them away before they killed too many plants. I replanted these few spots and also put some rubber snakes out to help scare the crows away. This works as they haven’t been around since. I need to fix up my scarecrow too and get that out there soon. Last year the one I made had shiny helium balloons tied into the long sleeves of the shirt. The movement and sparkles coming off the balloons seemed to work pretty well, at least for a while.

Not in Kansas anymore

2010-06-07T14:57:00.001-05:00

Running:
Looking at a race calendar last week I noticed that one of the local 5K races I usually run was coming up. The weather looked reasonable so Friday I decided to give it a try the next day. At first I considered taking the day off Friday, but with two days already off I went out for a fairly easy 4 miles in 31:52. Saturday morning I made my way to Oconomowoc to run the Yellow Brick Road 5K. Interesting that they had a local theater company there with all the Wizard of Oz characters. Something strange about Dorothy starting the race. I took off with a group of about 10 runners that I could see most of the first mile. There was a lead pack of about 3, a middle pack of another 3 or 4, and then a few people running with me. I passed the first mile mark at 6:15. This was a little fast for me. I was really sucking air so I backed off a bit. One guy went a little past me, but no one else did. I passed the second mile marker at 13:09 so much closer to where I should be and was feeling more comfortable. Right around here the middle group all had missed a turn. The turn was marked properly and easily viewable so I don’t know what happen to them. The guy just in front of me started that way too, but I wasn’t going to follow him. He asked me which way, and I said I’m following the signs not the people ahead of us. Good choice. Three miles in I was at 20:05, but no longer matched the markings on the course. The third mile had to have been marked incorrectly. I ended up with no one else passing me with a time of 21:36, but my Garmin read 3.25 instead of 3.10. I was pleased to be 5th overall and 1st in my age group. I would have been 8th or 9th had the runners ahead of me not gone off course. I think I would have still been 1st in my age group. If the course had been marked correctly I would have been solidly in the 20’s which is where I thought I would be. I still have some work to do to break 20 again. Sunday my legs were a little tight from the faster pace I think. I still managed to get out in the morning for 10.5 miles in 1:27:55. This marked my lowest weekly total of 40 miles in many weeks.
WTD 40
MTD 25
YTD 1190
ODO 26356

Hunting:
Ordered some special field corn seeds online from R.H. Shumway for the food plot. These seeds are supposed to have a shorter time to maturity than usual field corn and are produced for northern climates. I should have more than enough time to get them to maturity if I plant by next weekend. There appear to be lots of deer again in the neighborhood this summer. I saw several on my run Sunday, and the back field have many sets of prints in the bare dirt.

Gardening:
I see all of the seeds have started to germinate in the garden with all the moisture. Now with a little sun and temps that don’t get too warm everything should get off to a good start. I had to replant one row of potato’s that wasn’t coming up. Digging up some of the seed potato’s it looks like they rotted in the ground. About a month ago when I got them in it was pretty wet and I was a little worried. I don’t know why only one row was hit so hard though. Plenty of time to get a full crop in. Strawberries are coming in good right now. I’ve been able to pick several quarts every other day for a week now. Nothing better than home grown berries. Besides the usual lawn mowing and pond cleaning chores I got a few other things done this weekend. I also pruned some of the low hanging branches on my maple trees to lift the canopy a bit to let more light in. I was able to get the last of the annual plants in the ground, and even trimmed my 100 or so Christmas trees. Lot’s to do yet, but at least I feel caught up with the “have to do” stuff.

No Grandma's

2010-06-03T17:26:00.000-05:00

Running:
Well I decided to bypass Grandma’s marathon in Duluth again this year. I really do love this course and think it could be a PR course if the weather were right. I just kept having bad feelings about how warm it might be again this year. I will probably be totally wrong, but it has been exceptionally warm since April and from as far as the long term forecast goes out it doesn’t look like this will change much. I guess the worst part is feeling like a lot of training was wasted. I put in a lot of miles this winter and spring to have only run one marathon (Trailbreaker). Because of that decision I didn’t do much running this week. My training for the next couple of months will be geared towards becoming faster again. Hopefully I can run some 5k’s consistently below 20 minutes this summer before starting into the fall marathon plan. After my 15 mile run on Memorial day I took two days completely off. I really felt beat up anyway from the combination of lots of miles and lots of physical work in the garden. Today I managed to get out for a 7.5 mile lunch time run in 55:29. The legs still didn’t feel as fresh as I would have expected from the days off. Last week I was able to pick up a pair of new Asics Speedstars for $30 including shipping off eBay. This is at least 60% off normal retail. I love it when I score cheap shoes like that.

Hunting:
I decided to look out on the Waukesha Conservancy website and noticed the deadline for hunting applications is coming up on June 30th. I applied last year but didn’t have my name drawn. One of the properties is adjacent to the property I bow hunt already. Each year only a few hunters are picked by drawing to be given access. It would be nice to have another option this fall.

Gardening:
I am really happy about the good dousing of rain we got last night. Usually it seems the storms pass all around us, but last night we were in the bulls eye. The TV said we got in the neighborhood of 2.5 inches in this area. I currently don’t have a rain gage up but sticking a ruler in a bucket I had outside I showed over 3.5 inches. It looks like the garden took most of it OK. I just hope some of the small seeds that hadn’t sprouted yet didn’t wash out of the rows. I’ll know in a few days. I finally got out to take some pictures of my garden. These are the baseline pictures as only a few things have sprouted so far.

Highest MTD total for 2010

2010-06-01T18:52:00.000-05:00

Running:
Another week has just flown by.   Still have not signed up for Grandma's marathon. I have until the end of the day today to decide. After seeing the issues with heat at the Madison marathon this past weekend I have this bad feeling about Duluth in 3 weeks.  The last few years have been brutal temperatures for running at that race. I read an article just this morning this was one of the reasons they were guessing attendance is expected to be the lowest in years. Last year the temp reached 80 degrees by 10:00am in downtown Duluth.   I've been training so well and have no issues though so I may still take a chance.

Since my last update I got out Tuesday 5/25 for 7.5 miles in 1:2:45 during my lunch break. It was really hot this day as most of the last couple weeks have been. Wednesday I ran the same route in 59:44 even though it was still warm. Thursday was my day to pick up the pace a bit so it's a good thing the temperature and humidity both dropped. I ran the same route as the previous two days, but pushed the pace a bit. I ran the 7.5 miles in a new record for this year of 55:03. The 7th mile was at 7:00 min pace and the last .5 was at 6:40. I hit 200+ miles during this run for the month. That makes 5 in a row for 2010. Friday I ran the same 7.5 miles again in 1:2:20. Saturday morning I ran from home my usual 10.5 mile route. I ran it in 1:31:05. Sunday I again ran in the morning the same route as Saturday. I ran it in 1:31:59. This brought me to 56 miles for the week. On Memorial day I was able to get out in the morning after the rain quit for 15 miles in 2:7:18.   This 15 miles brought me to 247 for the month of May, which is my highest monthly total this year.
A bonus on the Monday run is that I found a $25 gift card to a restaurant laying in the road. When I checked the balance online I found out it had not been used yet. Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? Cool!

My monthly totals for this year:
Jan 243.5
Feb 241.5
Mar 204.5
Apr 228.5
May 247.0

YTD 1165
ODO 26,331

Hunting:
Not much going on here, except I was able to get the plot tilled where I intend to plant corn in my food plot for the deer. I've planted both sweet corn or field corn over the last several years. When I plant sweet corn it creates some extra for me, but the raccoons get more than the deer of what's left. With field corn it has lasted all through the winter, but that's mostly because it isn't as popular. Not sure what I will grow yet.

Gardening:
What a busy week. I was able to get all of the garden in finally. The exception being those rows of beans, corn, and lettuce where I plant a little every week or two weeks to make the season last longer. Now to get some rain so I don't have to spend so much time watering everything. The pumpkin patch took the most work. Spent almost all of Monday preparing the hills for planting, and actually got the seeds in the ground this morning.   It was kind of fun to take monthly pictures of the garden last year to see the progression take place. I intend on doing that again. I'll likely post the first ones within a few days.

Garden priorities

2010-05-25T12:35:00.000-05:00

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.

1000+ YTD miles

2010-05-17T14:04:00.001-05:00

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.

Garden chores heating up

2010-05-11T08:27:00.000-05:00

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.

To race or not to race

2010-05-04T22:21:00.000-05:00

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.

Clean the man cave

2010-04-28T22:52:00.001-05:00

I have lots of catching up to do. Last Friday afternoon I headed up to Bayfield for a long weekend. I knew heading up it was going to be more work than vacation. Spent all of Saturday and a good portion of Sunday and Monday going through 50 years of accumulation of Dad's stuff in the basement. I miss him terribly with sometimes being worse than others. This was the most I was affected by him not being here in a while. This was Dad's "man cave". The place where he spent untold hours doing god knows what. He just liked it there. As we went through the stuff, many of the items didn't mean anything to me, but each one I picked up I would wonder why dad kept that. A particular tool I know he used to help me fix something, or his handwritten notes would trigger memories long forgotten and widen the loss. I'm glad my brother Todd was there to help. It would have been an unbearable job to tackle alone.  Part of the problem with everything still down there is you would always feel like he was just out and would be returning any minute. I guess all of this is just part of the healing process that will likely continue the rest of my life. We got a lot done. The basement wouldn't even look the same to anyone who has ever been down there.

Running:
Because of the chores over the weekend my running schedule got a little messed up. I arrived in Bayfield late (for me) on Friday and didn't get up as early as usual. Saturday I just couldn't justify taking time out knowing we had so much to do. It wasn't a bad time to take off, but it was my first Saturday with no running this year. Sunday I went first thing in the morning and got in a nice 10 mile run in 1:20:15. Bayfield is a really hilly place for those that don't know. There is no way to escape hills, but there are routes to take that are reasonably flat.  I ran up past a few of the orchards and berry farms. So for the week I only managed 48 miles with no long runs.  Monday I wanted to gain some of the lost ground and headed out early for a 20 mile effort. What a beautiful morning it was. I headed south along highway 13 towards Washburn. The wind on the way out was not bad and was from a easterly direction. Without the leaves on the trees there was a good view of Lake Superior almost the whole way. The sun was out and sparkling on the lake waves. There is an artisan well a few miles from town as a first water stop. For my second stop I grabbed a bottle I had planted Friday on my way in to town near my turn around point. So almost to Washburn I turned around and headed back.  What I didn't notice running south was how much the wind had picked up and had switched to North East. The whole way back I fought the increasing wind. I believe it was in the 20-30 MPH range which is quite stiff when I finished. I was swearing to myself as I headed up the huge hill into the wind in the last couple miles.   I made the whole run in 2:53:40 (1:25:39 out and 1:28:01 back). Tuesday I took another rest day as I traveled back home. Today was my first day back to work. My run was my hill repeat workout again. 7.5 total miles with 8 hill repeats in 1:04:22. So through today:
WTD 28
MTD 214
YTD 904
ODO 26070

Hunting:
My brother and I took a little break Sunday to go check some hunting areas. I was shocked to see a turkey on the way out near the Bayfield ski hill. First one I had ever seen there. There was lots of deer sign near my primary gun stand area. We cleared some more trees and brush for a possible new stand position. I had been eyeing up a different tree that has a better view of where a few deer had escaped me in the past.   We then went to a spot we had found last season and cleared a tree and shooting lanes for a new location next season.  This area had lots of sign last year and looks really promising. Should be usable as a bow hunting stand also. A bit of bad news is that the land I shot the big 8 point last year is up for sale. I would consider buying it, but $68,000 for 10 acres is crazy.   There is no lake view and there is a wet ditch than runs all the way through the middle.  Not sure this land would even perk for a mound system. I keep thinking how if the land sells at least my last year on it I got the biggest deer I ever saw there. I just hope it doesn't sell yet this year until I can figure a few things out.

Gardening:
Didn't get much of my own stuff done, but I was able to get Mom's pond clean. I drained all the old water out and power washed all the stones and rocks. Same as I did to my pond a couple weeks ago. It turned out great. The water is now crystal clear again. The power washer also worked good at cleaning off her deck and the lawn furniture. Also helped turn over her small garden, spray the apple trees, fertilize the lawn, make sure the lawn mower works, and a few other little things I know a bit about. I did get home in enough time Tuesday to get my own lawn mowed.   I guess we got near 2 inches of rain over the weekend. This really greened things up. I picked about 2 lbs of asparagus that also really took off with some moisture. This morning we actually had a pretty hard frost.

Fawns already?

2010-04-23T10:23:00.001-05:00

Running:
Still no decision on my May 8th race. I figure I'll know more after this weekend. Right now my plan is to try and run 20 miles on Saturday or Sunday. I'll be up north for a couple days so we'll see. At least it's not supposed to rain up there. Catching up on training runs since my last post: Tuesday I ran my hill repeat workout (7.5 total miles) in 1:6:20. I've only missed a couple weeks all year getting this run in. It should help if I do the trail run. Wednesday was a lunch time run of 7.5 miles in 1:1:58 and Thursday the same route, but in 59:43. Today I had to take the car into the shop for repair (again). Wheel Bearings this time. I ran home after dropping the car off this morning and tacked on a little extra for 10 total miles in 1:19:55.

Hunting:
Today on my run home I noticed a doe with a couple spotted fawns. Obviously just born within hours or days. Looking up the facts on whitetails I see that their gestation period is roughly 200 days. What this means is that there would have had to be some breeding going on in late September or early October. I saw no sign of this while hunting last year. The rut didn't seem to be on until November. I missed something.

Gardening:
Finally got my tiller back from being repaired. Was able to get the garden tilled last night. This tilling was just to get the leaves I put on last fall really mixed in with the dirt for final breakdown. I'll need to till once more in late May before planting. The timing was good in that we are supposed to get a bit of rain over this weekend. Also mowed the lawn for the first time this year. Not all of it needed it yet having been so dry. That will change if we get the predicted rain over the next few days.

Rolled 26,000 miles

2010-04-20T07:55:00.000-05:00

Running:
First a congratulations to my friend Jerry Cameron who hit a milestone of 30,000 running miles this past week. Also congrats to Dana Schulz (2:47:xx) and Don Fell (3:32:xx) who both completed the Boston marathon yesterday. The weather looked to be perfect and both of these friends ran great. I'm looking forward to seeing a race report.

I did sign up for the Lakefront Marathon here in Milwaukee this next October 3rd. I had to commit now because the race will likely fill up sometime this week. I still haven't decided what my next spring race will be. I'm thinking of one of two races May 8th right now. The first is the IceAge Trail 50K and the next is the Lake Geneva Marathon. I've had fun with the trail run before, but I've also wanted to also try this marathon. I have until May 2nd to figure it out, which is the last day for IceAge sign up.

Catching up on my own running activity: Over the weekend I logged two longer runs. On Saturday I ran 15 miles in the early morning. This course was one I've done several times over this winter in that it's two longer loops of my favorite route. This allows for a water dropoff about a mile in that I can hit on my second loop around. I ran this in 2:3:20 which was my fastest time of the year looking back over my log. Sunday I ran a little shorter route of 11.5 miles in 1:32:02. On Mondays I had been taking off for most of this year, but when I saw my odometer was only 5 miles short of the next milestone I had to get out for a run. I didn't even take the Garmin and ran a nice easy 5 miles to hit the 26,000 mile mark. Doesn't compare to Jerry's, but I'm slowly catching him. My total miles for last week were 61.

Through Monday:
MTD 144
YTD 834
ODO 26,000

Hunting:
Have had several turkeys running around in the back yard the last few days. I really do have to see about getting the tags for hunting them down here. Dad used to hunt turkeys and enjoyed it a lot. I just haven't had the time with all the other hobbies/activities to take this one on too. Someday.

Gardening:
Spent all day Sunday cleaning out the pond. What a job! I really took a good whack at the vegetation that was starting to take over. I first drained the pond of almost all the water leaving just enough for the fish and frogs to live for a short time. I had to get into the pond and cut and pull lots of the root systems to have any success. I pulled about three full wheelbarrows full of plant material out. Some went in the compost pile, the rest just in the woods out back. What a difference it made. The fish actually have lots more water in to swim and you can actualy see them because they don't have all the places to hide they used to have. Now that many of these plants are established I really have to make this an annual event to keep up.

Bunions and Blue Herons

2010-04-16T23:31:00.000-05:00

Running:
Been a normal week back for the most part. I have developed a pain at times in my right foot. I've been terrible at self diagnosis before, but I'm quite certain I've developed a bunion on my right foot. It's most noticable with my newest pair of shoes. They fit OK, but there is a piece of overlay right over the bunion area that makes them feel tight when running. Most of the time with other shoes with the exception of running fast or up a hill there is no pain at all. I'll likely get in to have it checked out next week. Nothing that has impacted the length of any run to this point. Catching up on my runs since last Monday. All my runs this week were during my lunch break at work. Tuesday I did my hill repeat workout. Eight repeats along with the trip out and back for 7.5 miles total. The next three days I ran my 7.5 mile Springdale loop. Each day successively faster. Wednesday I ran it in 1:3:44, Thursday 1:0:55, and today 59:12. My total for this week so far is 34 miles.

Hunting:
I pulled down my hunting ladder from the back yard. Just took it down to keep it out of the elements for a few months. I still have a couple stands in the woods over on my bow hunting property. I will get these out over the next couple weeks too. The food plot I put in late last summer is growing like crazy now. I thought all the plants would have died. They are mostly turnip like plants or "brassica's". I'll have to just till them all under I guess as I don't think they will be edible to the deer over the spring/summer. On the other hand they might just keep the weeds down if I leave them there for a while.

Gardening:

So much to do, but not much time during the week to get anything done. I really need to get into my pond and get the plants under control this year. I might just do that this weekend. This morning I saw a pair of Great Blue Heron's in the back yard. They really have quite a unique call are are cool to see. Just not in my yard. I scared them away, but I suppose they found their way in to eat some frogs and fish while no one was home today.

Frogs everywhere

2010-04-12T22:27:00.001-05:00

Running:
Bib, finisher award, and age group placement certificate from the Trailbreaker a couple weeks ago.

Catching up from over the weekend. Friday was a lunch time run. I did a typical 7.5 mile run in 1:00:12. Felt strange running in tights and long sleeve shirt again after last week. Saturday I went out in the morning for 11 miles. I had toyed with the idea of running the Badgerland Strider half marathon but decided I had better catch up on chores around here. My run Saturday took me 1:27:17.   Sunday I ran the same exact route again in the morning in 1:26:46. So through Sunday:
WTD 51
MTD 79
YTD 768
Today I was going to cross train and do some weights, but the bike was not working and the eliptical was in use. I decided to jump on the treadmill and get a few miles in to warm up. I ended up running 4 miles in 30 minutes. Then lifted and stretched before hitting the showers.

Hunting:
I haven't taken up Turkey hunting yet, but I keep thinking maybe I should. There are several places on my runs where I have encounters with flocks of them frequently. Sunday I had several Toms putting on a show for a hen that was passing by not more than 20 feet from the road edge.   Also saw five deer in the yard last Friday. They all looked so shaggy, I had to look at them several times to figure out what was going on. It appears they are shedding their winter coats.

Gardening:
Spent at least 8 hours Saturday and 7 Sunday working in the yard. Mostly cleanup, raking, and burning debris from the flower/perenial beds around the yard. Also got the compost pile turned, lawn fertilized, leaves I put in the garden last fall turned over, and pulled the cover off the pool to clean and shock it.
Still lots to go but I feel good about catching up a bit. A big surprise was seeing all the frogs sunning themselves in my pond. They were sure enjoying the warmth on Sunday. I got 13 of them in the
picture, but there were more before a few jumped to safety.

Vacation catch up

2010-04-09T08:54:00.001-05:00

Running:
Just got back from 9 days in Florida. We flew into Fort Lauderdale and drove down to Key West for 6 nights. Then returned to Fort Lauderdale for 3 nights until we returned.

After running a marathon, the next week is really all about recovery. It was nice to be able to recover in the warmth of the Florida sun. My youngest daughter is in track this spring so she had some workouts to get in while on vacation. I was able to do some of these workouts with her to keep her on track too. The Garmin stayed at home, so all of my runs were just based on time. I'll estimate the mileage to be able to put something in my run log.

The day before we left 3/29 I ran/walked a couple miles just to get the legs loose. 3/30 was a travel day with no running. 3/31 I ran 40 minutes in the sand on Smather's beach in Key West or maybe about 4 miles. That brought my March total to 205 miles. A little low, but expected in a marathon month for me.

The next seven days I ran about one hour each day. Each day was a little different with intervals and shorter or longer warm up/cool down times, but I did manage close to an hour each day. 4/1 I ran a few 800 repeats with my daughter. 4/2, 4/3, 4/4 were runs on the road/boardwalk along the Key West beaches out and back. There were lots of people out running in the morning. There was always someone to chase down or who was trying to catch you it seemed. Added a little incentive to pick things up at times. On 4/5 we were in Fort Lauderdale so had to find a new route. Ran up over bridges along the inland waterway and managed ten 400 meter repeats with my kid. Challenging workout. 4/6 was over the inland waterway again and loops around a subdivision we found the day before. 4/7 the day we were leaving I ran up the road along the beach out and back. So I got in about 53 miles over vacation which was pretty good. 4/8 the first day back I took a rest day. The weather was nasty and cold anyway so it was a good time for a rest.

Now back to normal and figuring what might be next on the racing calendar. Also have to decide in the next few days if I will run the Lakefront marathon this October. The race is filling fast.

WTD/MTD 49
YTD 739
ODO 25905

Trailbreaker Marathon recap

2010-03-29T16:29:00.002-05:00

On vacation for a while starting 3/30 so probably no updates until after I'm back.

Running:
First a recap of the Trailbreaker Marathon 3/27. Here is a link to the race results.
My time for the race was 3:36:18 which put me 19th overall and 3rd in my age group. I got an award for 2nd place because the person who finished first moved up to grab the Sr. Masters award. For those who don't know this award is given out to the first runner 50+ years old in some races.

I knew going into this race my speedwork had been lacking. My time for the race shows this. The 3:36:18 is my worst marathon time ever out of 16 tries.   I can't feel real bad about my time as it is within minutes of where I thought I would finish and this race is a very difficult one. Another comforting thought is that probably 80% of all marathon runners of any age on any course wish they could run 3:36. About 6 miles in the middle of the race are on very rugged trail with lots of roots and rocks and some portions are very steep. The turn around point is the top of the Lapham peak tower which is 60 feet tall and yes, you have to climb to the top.   I met my main goal of finishing with a decent time and uninjured.

The day of the race everything started pretty well. I did feel a slight tweak in my calf which had me a little concerned. I spend a bit of time with the foam roller and rubbing it out before I left the house. Never turned out to be an issue which I'm real happy about. I had all my stuff laid out the night before so I didn't need much time getting ready. Got through my usual pre-race eating and drinking routine and headed out a little after 6am. The race started at 8am. Got to Frame park plenty early and got a close parking space.  Checked in and ran into my friend and coworker Bill. We talked for a bit then headed to our cars for final preparation.

The race started a few minutes late. They just started giving information and then signing the national anthem at 8 so it was at least 10 after before we started. My goal for the race was to try and run 7:3x pace on the way out, do the best as possible on the trail portion, and then see what's left for the return trip. I tried to keep the 1st mile under control, but still ran 7:10. From here I backed off a bit and hit the target pretty close for a while. I hit 4 miles right at 30:00, hit 8 miles in 1:01:xx, and 13 miles in 1:41:xx. In the 14th mile is the steepest part and the tower climb. This mile took me 12:31. Returning to the Drumlin trail and the blacktop after the trails is a difficult transition. The legs just start to scream at you. There is a drop bag location at the aid station right after returning to the trail. I stopped for about half a minute to examine the condition of my shoes and decided to not change them or my shirt. I grabbed an additional glass of water and just kept going. After eventually getting used to the transition and feeling consistent again I noticed my pace was much closer to 8 minutes than 7:30. I knew this was about as good as it would get on the way back. I tried to pick it up for a while, but didn't feel comfortable. I decided to just dig in and see what I could do. At the half marathon turn around point (approximately 6 miles left) I started passing the half marathon runners.  I was still running pretty good, but starting to have to dodge and weave through runners got to be annoying. You just want to keep your head down and run straight and focused not zigzag and pass.  Looking back at my watch I did pretty well until 23 miles. My last few miles were in the 8:50 range. Didn't crash or hit the wall, just couldn't pick it up.  It was after mile 23 where the guy who eventually finished 2nd in my age group passed me. I figured he was as old as me and I tried to respond. I'm disapointed I couldn't keep up. You'll see from the results if I could have finished 1 minute faster I would have been 1st.

After the race I ran into several other runners I knew. Many of them ran the half marathon. Congrats to Bill who finished 9th overall and first in his age group and to my friend Jerry who ran a pretty good half marathon and also received an age group award. It was good to see him and share a couple beers over the stories. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Hunting:
Finally after 3 years, 3 months, and 16 days I have my deer head back from the taxidermist. It's a beautiful job, but absolutely ridiculous it took that long. If anyone wants to know where not to go for this service let me know.

Gardening:
Spent some of Sunday out in the yard cleaning up the flower beds. It felt good on the legs to be out doing something. Lot's more to catch up on when I return from vacation.

Game on

2010-03-26T08:47:00.001-05:00

Running:
Well I finally pulled the trigger Thursday and signed up for the Trailbreaker on Saturday. The weather really turned cool again. So tomorrow morning will be cold to start. Otherwise the weather and wind direction (south) will be pretty good. Still questions about what to wear for the race though. I don't have any real expectations for this race other than to finish in good shape. It's almost like I have to run this race since it's so close to home. Tomorrow afternoon/evening I have a good friends 50th birthday party to attend. I might need a nap after the race and before we head over there.

This week has been all about resting the legs enough while still getting a couple marathon pace runs in. Monday was the usual off/cross training day. Tuesday I did 5 miles in 38:09. Wednesday Kevin from work went out with me again and we ran 5 in 37:36. Thursday was another off day. I took it completely off and went to lunch with a few people to carbo load early. Today I might run just a couple miles to loosen the legs and stretch a bit. Nothing major.

Next update will likely be a race recap.

Seeds bought

2010-03-22T07:53:00.000-05:00

Running:
Still haven't signed up for the Trailbreaker. I looked over the weekend and online sign up closes 3/25 at 10:00am. I'll probably sign up Thursday morning if I continue to feel good. The weather looks to be OK.
Friday I actually ran with some company. Kevin from work went out with me for 5 miles. He's going to run his first half marathon in a couple months. We ran at a good pace, completing the run in 37:11. Saturday I got out for 12 miles in the morning.  I wanted this run to be a trial marathon pace effort. I felt good and completed the run in 1:29:10 or about 7:26 pace.   This would seem reasonable for the non Lapham portion of the marathon. Sunday I got out for another 8.5 miles in 1:6:25.

Looking at my Parrot number from last week I was able to drop it to 3:21 with the shorter faster runs.  We'll see how close this is. Also looking at my numbers from my run log my easy run pace, that is what I classify those runs where I just run, not long or no specific purpose dropped to 7:59 pace in March.  So the numbers through Sunday.
WTD 40.5
MTD 163
YTD 648
ODO 25,814
Hunting:
Finally some good news from the taxidermist. On friday I received a call that the deer I brought in December 2006 will be finished this week. It's actually done now and needs to dry until mid week.  Can't believe it took this long. I'll be so happy to finally get it back.
Gardening:
Ordered all my garden seeds yesterday. This year I ordered everything from Jung's instead of from a couple different places. I was satisfied with this company last year. I still may order a couple unique or interesting items from other places, but at least all my usual/common items are bought. I will pick out some plants when they become available from local stores.

Quiet week

2010-03-19T06:53:00.000-05:00

Running:
It's been a quiet week. This will be just a short recap entry. I have been tapering this week as if I will run the Trailbreaker Marathon on 3/27. I likely will not sign up until the last day of online signup which is 3/24 I believe. 3/25 will be the anniversary of when I had the stress fracture last year. I've been taking steps to avoid it, but it's the exact timing of when it occurred last year. That is, while in the taper for running in this marathon. My runs this week so far have all been 5 miles in length and all during my lunch break at work.
It was great to have the weather warm a bit and actually be able to run in shorts a couple times. Monday was my usual no running day. As usual did weights, some bike, core work, and stretching. Tuesday my run took me 40:12, Wednesday 38:50, and Thursday 38:45. So for the week only 15 miles. Somewhere around 40 for this week is the plan. Today will likely be 5 again, 12 to 14 Saturday, and another 6 or so Sunday.

Gardening:
Been getting an hour or so each day to rake the lawn a bit. All the snow this winter really matted down the grass, and the last spots with snow have a bit of mold. It's always good to lift the grass in these spots to get some air flow. Seems early, but my tractor will be coming back next week from the winter storage program.

Lapham Peak

2010-03-15T08:25:00.000-05:00

Running:
A wrap up of the weekend. Friday I got out for my lunch break at work. I ran 7.5 miles in 59:31. It felt so nice to be able to run without multiple layers. Temps were mid 50's with no wind. I'm sure this was responsible for the faster time. Saturday morning I had intended on doing my long run, but I woke up to pouring rain. I had things to do later in the day, so after watching the radar for a while I just decided to get a shorter run in on the treadmill. I ran 10 miles in 1:21:00 and got to watch a couple hunting shows. Better than not getting out at all. Sunday was pretty windy, but I headed out into the wind towards the Lapham Peak tower. I really wanted to see what the trail looked like before I decide on a run at the Trailbreaker in a couple weeks. The trail was still very muddy and had ice in a couple spots. I only fell once which was quite an accomplishment. Luckily no damage done. The run from home to the top of the hill took 1:07:03. The portion from Hwy 18 to the top took about 22 minutes. It also took 22 minutes on the way down. The entire trip back took me 1:05:20. I caught up to and ran with a couple other runners for a while. That's part of the reason for the faster return trip. A little motivation on the trail never hurts for a training run. Still not sure about running the Trailbreaker, but I'll start to taper as if I will and will continue to watch the weather.
WTD 62
MTD 122
YTD 607
ODO 25773

Hunting:
Late last week the Journal Sentinal ran an article about the DNR boosting deer population goals in many areas of the state. Great to see they are finally listening to hunters. One draw back could be the elimination of bowhunters being able to take a doe in some of these areas. It had always been OK for bowhunters to fill their tag with a doe anywhere in the state.
Gardening:
Felt good to get out in the yard a bit over the weekend. I found out that my fish still live. As mentioned before I wasn't sure what happened to them since the muskrat invaded my pond. I was happy to see they were just hiding. Cleaned up the winter mess from the dogs and raked up the main area they mess up all winter. Got down to the garden and was surprised to find that I actually had some edible carrots survive the winter.

Slow Parrot

2010-03-12T07:25:00.000-06:00

Running:
Just a pretty normal week of running so far. Monday was an off day for cross training, weights, and stretching as has been the case most Monday's this year. Tuesday was a lunch time run of 7.5 miles in 1:1:56. The sidewalks along my usual paths are now clear of snow so it feels better than being so close to traffic at times. Wednesday looked like the afternoon might be a washout, so I ran 6 miles on the treadmill at home in the morning in 47 minutes. Turns out the rain lifted and since I brought my stuff I ended up heading out during my lunch break to run hill repeats. I ran the usual 8 repeats plus out and back in 1:8:12. Slower than usual, but I'm sure the morning run had something to do with that. Thursday I again got out at work for another 7.5 in 1:2:9. That brings my WTD number to 28.5, MTD 89, and YTD 574.

I noticed on my run log my weekly average this year is 57.4. I also noticed how slow my Parrot predictor number is this whole year. I really need to start doing more faster work. My fastest Parrot week is only 3:28. If I run the Trailbreaker I'd take a 3:28, but in 2007 my Parrot number was closer to 3:15 and my trailbreaker time was 3:30. I know I've put in plenty of miles to finish, just not sure what I should use as a pace to start the race at this point.

The warmer weather and rain the past few days has cleared the trails. I'm sure they are sloppy and still have some places with snow or ice but at least it's looking more realistic to get some trail practice in. Maybe this weekend I'll attempt the Hwy18 to Lapham tower portion of the Trailbreaker route.

Hunting:
With the melting of the snow it's time to try some shed hunting. It's always fun to scout the hunting areas and find shed antlers. It's a sure sign that big one from last year made it through the hunting seasons. I have to make it out in the woods to take my stands down yet too. No hurry really, just want to get them out of the elements until it's time to hang them up again.

Gardening:
I can finally see the grass in the yard and the flower beds. It's time to make some exploratory trips into the yard to see how things made it over the winter. The field mice and/or voles have really done some damage in past winters.

Muskrat fry anyone?

2010-03-07T22:34:00.001-06:00

Running:
Saturday morning I got an early start. I knew it was going to be a nice day and warm up later, but I had to get going early to get the run in I wanted to do. Temps were probably in the low teens when I started out before the sun was over the horizon. I ran three loops of one of my normal training routes for a total of 21 miles. Running these three loops allows me to drop water about a mile out, then I pass this same place two additional times. Makes the logistics of the long run fairly easy. Each loop is nice mostly through portions of the state forest and quiet rural subdivisions. Lots of rolling hills and varied terrain. I ran the 21 miles in 3:00:22 or about an 8:35 pace. On Sunday I ran in the morning again. I ran 8.5 miles in 1:7:59. This is the fastest I've run this loop in many months. I was pleased with this considering the 21 miles the day before and the big totals over the last 4 weeks in particular. I managed 60 miles for this week. Not bad for a cut back week. Through today.

WTD 60
MTD 60
YTD 545
ODO 25711

Gardening:
Saturday afternoon I managed to complete all my fruit tree pruning. I also cleaned up a few branches on some other trees that were broken over the winter. Glad to have this chore completed. On an update to my muskrat story of a few weeks ago. I haven't seen any fish in the pond the last several weeks. I wasn't sure what muskrats eat so I looked it up on the internet. As I suspected they primarily eat vegetation, but will sometimes eat frogs or fish if they are easy to come by. I don't think he could have eaten all of them, but I'm worried. Hopefully they are just hiding well. I did notice this interesting detail on Wikipedia about muskrats. Hence the title for this posting.

"Muskrats have sometimes been a food resource for humans. Muskrat meat is said to taste like rabbit or duck. In the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, there is a longstanding dispensation allowing Catholics to consume muskrat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent (when the eating of meat, except for fish, is prohibited): because the muskrat lives in water, it is considered equivalent to fish.

Lenten dinners of muskrat are traditional in parts of Michigan. The meat is occasionally consumed in Belgium and The Netherlands, and is traditional dish on the Delmarva Peninsula and in certain other areas and population segments of the United States."

100th post

2010-03-05T10:34:00.000-06:00

100th post milestone today. When I started this blog back on 7/1/10 I had every intention of posting something of interest every day. I really thought it would be easy. I quickly found out that life gets in the way sometimes. Also the number of interesting things to post isn't easy to come by in the normal daily stream of things that happen. Anyway it is a milestone and I hope you have enjoyed some of these 100 posts.

Running:
A little quieter of a week for me. I purposely am cutting back a little bit this week after posting big numbers the previous three weeks. On Monday of this week I took an off day. Did some biking, weight lifting and some extra stretching. Tuesday I got out for a 7.5 mile run during my lunch break. I did this run in 1:1:55. On Wednesday I ran my hill repeat workout. Eight repeats again, plus warm up and cool down for a total of 7.5 miles. Ran this in 1:5:22. On Thursday I ran during my lunch break again. I ran the same route as Tuesday in 1:3:23. This morning I got out for an 8 mile run before work in 1:6:09. So for the week and month I'm up to 30.5 miles. For YTD I crossed 500 and am up to 516 through today. I'm hoping to get another 20 mile run in this weekend and then have to consider tapering for the 3/27 Trailbreaker marathon if I'm going to do it.
Gardening:
Still haven't ordered any seeds yet for this year. I continue to get new catalogs, e-mail and flyers on sale items. I usually order in March so I'm not behind yet. I also continue to work on pruning my fruit trees. I am really going after them hard this year. I would guess I'm about half done. Maybe I can finish this weekend.

Back to back to back 70's

2010-02-28T22:04:00.000-06:00

Running:
February is finally over. The weather was pretty strange this month. Nothing really uncomfortably cold, just cold and nothing even approaching a warm day. None the less it turned out to be a pretty good month of running. This week I was able to reach 70 miles again. This is the first time I have gone 70 or more miles three weeks in a row since I started marathon training back in 2004. The scarry thing is I feel good. I hope this means good things in the coming months. To recap Friday I got out for 6.5 miles in the morning and then 5 miles during my lunch break at work. Total running time 1:34:56. On Saturday I made it out for 15 miles in 2:3:44. This is the same route I've run several Saturday's this year. It was the fastest I've run this so far. This was despite the freezing drizzle that was falling almost the whole time. Parts of the roads were very slippery. I knew I needed 15 more to get to 70 for this week. I started early and did 6.5 on the treadmill and then ran my favorite outside loop for 8.5 to make it to my goal. Total running time on Sunday for the 15 was 2:03:08.

Through 2/28:
WTD 70
MTD 241.5
YTD 485
ODO 25651

Gardening:
This weekend I got to burning a large pile of brush I had accumulated since last spring. Lots of twigs and branches from a maple tree I cut down and from pruning several others. When the flame got going it was quite a fire. I think a couple of rabbits aren't happy at the moment that their house is gone. Also got a start on pruning my fruit trees. Still have quite a few to go, but I should have at least a month to get it done.

Punjabi Beats

2010-02-25T22:57:00.000-06:00

Running:
This past Monday I took a very much needed off day from running. I managed to get about 30 minutes on the bike and did weights and stretching.   I will never be able to have a long running streak like I did a few years ago with large weeks like the last couple.  I just can't handle it anymore.  Tuesday I got a morning run in before work. I ran 11 miles in 1:36:10. Wednesday I ran my hill repeat workout again. 7.5 total miles in 1:5:52. I took music with me for running the hills for a little motivation. The snow was coming down so hard during parts of this run I couldn't see the top or bottom of the hill at times. Thursday I ran 3 miles at 7 minute pace on the treadmill in the morning and then ran 7 during my lunch break. 10 total miles in 1:21:52.
So for the week I'm up to 28.5, for the month up to 200, for the year 444.

A couple of years ago when I was in India we had for a period of time a Sikh driver. I found some of the music he was listening to quite interesting. I came to find out it was called Punjabi music. Most of it has a very heavy beat. As with any music you can find faster or slower, but I thought some of the faster stuff might work out for running. Before I left I had some help picking out a couple of CD's, and since one of the guys has brought some more for me to pick from. I have loaded up on my iPod a folder of this music that I sometimes use for a change of pace.  Here are a couple of examples of the music. I have no idea what the words mean and for me and probably most Americans the videos are kind of lame, but you will get an idea of what I'm talking about.  Close your eyes and just imagine running to it. What do you think?

Punjabi with rock beat

Punjabi with typical beat

Another big week

2010-02-21T21:53:00.000-06:00

Running:
Catching up on this weekend. I was able to get in my first 20 miler of 2010 on saturday. There was about an inch of snow on the ground here when I got up in the morning. I knew getting 20 outside would be tough so I improvised a bit. I got an early start and first ran 9 miles on the treadmill. I then took about five minutes to change, refuel and hydrate a bit and headed out on the road. The 11 miles on the road turned out OK. Doing it this way made it seem to go by faster I think. Overall it took me about 2 hrs and 50 minutes to run all 20. This morning I got out for an additional 8.5 in 1:11:55. So this week I ran 6 days, but my total for the week was still just a bit higher than last week. With a full week to go it should be no problem going over 200 miles for February.

WTD 71
MTD 172
YTD 415
ODO 25581

More snow is expected over night and into tomorrow. It will be a good day for a rest/crosstraining day. I'm just ready for winter to be done with. The 15 day forecast doesn't show much warming either. Looking at the trails at Lapham this weekend I have no idea how they will be in shape to run on by the end of March for the Trailbreaker marathon. Last year I was out practicing on the trails by the first weekend in March.

Hunting:
I saw this interest quiz and thought I would post it for my hunting friends. I think I'm close to being a full fledged geek!

The Everyday Hunter’s Deer Hunting Geek Test

Everybody knows the word “geek.” It’s a slang term, and one definition says it describes “a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics, etc.”

That three letter abbreviation, “etc.,” means we have more geeks than just computer geeks. There are all kinds of geeks, so I probably don’t need to tell you that we have some deer hunting geeks around, hunters who are peculiar, odd, and obsessed about deer.

I’ve devised a little test to help you determine if you’re a deer hunting geek. (Circle the ones that describe you.)

1. You have copies of deer hunting magazines on your bedside table, your coffee table, your kitchen table, your desk, your workbench, your floor, your TV, and in your bathroom, your truck, your briefcase, plus a half dozen stacks of them around your house – and none of them ever gather dust.

2. Deer hunting websites are the most prominent bookmarks on your computer.

3. Your idea of dinner and a movie is venison burgers and a deer hunting video.

4. You never ask before you show someone a picture of your most recent buck -- and only AFTER that, you might ask “Wanna see pictures of my kids, too?”

5. Your family photo has a date and time stamp across the bottom, along with the logo of your trail camera.

6. You have to think for a minute about how old your kids are, but you can tell at a glance whether a buck is 1½, 2½ or 3½ years old.

7. You schedule next year’s deer season vacation time early – with a written request on December 1.

8. You’re driving down the road on an October evening, gaze out the passenger side window and say, “What a beauty!” and the pretty lady sitting in the passenger’s seat knows you’re not looking at or talking about her.

9. You hardly ever mow your yard because it takes all day to move your 3D archery targets.

10. You’re trying to invent a way to remodel your lawnmower into a tree stand.

11. Your idea of bad timing is having a child born during deer season.

12. You wonder why Chanel No. 5 is so expensive, but never question the price of doe urine.

13. You think every antler you see is the most fascinating thing you’ve ever seen.

14. When you tell someone you went hunting for shed antlers on April Fool’s Day, they say, “Figured as much.”

15. You carry your own swizzle stick to parties -- an antler you found that was shed by a spike buck.

16. You keep notes about your deer hunts in a safe deposit box at the bank.

17. You have a list of things you’d be willing to trade to a landowner for exclusive permission to hunt, and your firstborn is at the top.

18. You hunt near home, and refer to home as your “lodge” or “camp.”

19. Deer meat – it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Between meals, you snack on jerky.

20. You floss your teeth with deer hair.

Score yourself:
15-20 – No doubt about it – you’re a certifiable deer geek.
10-15 – People think you’re a deer geek, and with a little more effort you’ll be certifiable.
5-10 – People know you’re a deer hunter, but you’re at no risk of being a geek.
0-5 – You’re not serious about deer hunting. You must be a geek about something else.

Deer gone wild

2010-02-19T21:59:00.001-06:00

Running:
Running continues to go well. On wednesday I did my weekly hill repeat workout. This workout seemed much easier this week. I finished the total 7.5 miles in 1:03:12 which is the fastest yet this winter. Both Thursday and Friday I pulled a double. Thursday I ran 5 miles on the treadmill in the morning then got out for 7.5 more at my lunch break. 12.5 miles in about 1 hr and 45 minutes. On Friday I ran 6 miles in the morning and then another 5 this afternoon. So another 11 miles and about 1 hr and 30 minutes. This afternoon was great. It was near 40 degrees and the sun was out. It atually felt warm for a change. So for this week I'm up to 43.5 with two more days to go. I'm hoping to get in 20 miles on Saturday morning.

Hunting:
Saw a couple of things I thought were rather interesting. First check out these deer blinds. Some of these are pretty unique and interesting. Hunters can get pretty creative sometimes. Next check out this video of some deer gone wild.

Home work

2010-02-16T15:46:00.001-06:00

Running:
Today I worked the day from home. This is a real benefit to be able to do this once in a while. I had to bring the car in for repair this morning. There is some sort of sensor needing to be replaced in order for the 4WD to work. After dropping the car off I ran home taking the long way and getting 11.5 miles in for today. It was a little slippery because of the inch of snow received over night that hadn't melted yet. So todays run was a little slow in 1:38:16. This afternoon a technician from Sears came over to adjust and clean my home treadmill. It doesn't get used a lot, but it is nice to have when needed. I think I'll let the warranty expire now as it is getting old. When it goes it will just be time for a new one.

To back track a little I did get 10.5 miles in on Sunday giving me 70.5 miles for the week. Looking back over my running logs this is my biggest week since September of 2007. On Monday I took a needed off day and did some cross training during my lunch break. I did 30 minutes on the bike and then did some extra weight lifting and stretching.

Happy Valentines Day

2010-02-13T12:12:00.002-06:00

Happy valentines day to everyone. Hope you have someone special to spend it with.

Running:
With 1 more day left in my running week I'm off to a real good start. If I get my scheduled 10 tomorrow I will hit 70 miles for the week. I haven't done that since 2008. To catch up a bit... On Thursday I did my hill repeat workout. I had been running this on Wednesday's, but chose to wait a day for the roads to clear a bit. I ran the 8 repeats as usual, but reversed my out path on the way back instead of taking the long way. I ended up with 7 total miles in 59:09. Friday I ran 5 miles in the morning on the treadmill and then got out for an additional 6 at my lunch break. Total miles 11 in 1:31:13. This morning I got out early for a 15 miler again. I've run the same route on Saturdays now for 6 weeks in a row. This morning I actually ran with music which I haven't done in a while. I completed the run a little faster than I have all year so far in 2:04:10. I'm training like I will run the Trailbreaker full marathon on 3/27 so next week I'll be looking to increase my Saturday run to 20 miles. I won't decide for sure on the full or even sign up until about a week out though. So far through 2/13:
WTD 60
MTD 90
YTD 334
ODO 25,500

Hunting:
I found this interesting video of a Black Bear looking as if it's doing a pole dance. Just something fun.
Deer have been all over our yard and neighborhood the past couple weeks. Even during the middle part of the day. Must be the bit of corn I left standing is some of the easiest food left around to get.

Gardening:

Now that I have a complete drawer full of garden catalogues it is time to get serious about my orders for this coming spring. A lot of places run deals if you order before the end of February. I have a couple of new books to look through that have some very unique seeds and/or plants. I always like to try to grow different type things. Last year I really liked the white carrots I had found.

New shoes

2010-02-10T22:31:00.002-06:00

Running:
With the approaching storm Monday I had to get outside for my run. On all of my runs from work I head south and west from the office. I decided to try something different and ventured east on Davidson. From the office building I can see a couple subdivisions along the freeway. I poked my way around several of them. Sometime running into dead ends and back out. Good thing for the Garmin. I ran about 7 miles in a little less than an hour. Tuesday morning there was about three inches of light snow on the ground with more scheduled. I decided to head out for a 7 mile run. It was a little slippery, but quite comfortable and peaceful to run in the storm. At my lunch break I jumped on the treadmill for an additional 3 miles. I ran the 3 miles in 21 minutes, so much faster than anything I've run in some time. Overall 10 miles for the day in about 1 hr and 20 minutes. The day after a snowstorm is usually the worst for road conditions so today I opted for the treadmill. I decided to split up the run. I ran 5 miles in the morning before work and 5 miles during my lunch break. The morning run took 40 minutes and the afternoon run was 38. I have 301 miles YTD as of today.

I'm nearing the magic 500 mile mark on three pair of my current rotation of training shoes. I'm trying to balance the load to run them out at about the same time. Just in time for prime spring training. I have my replacement shoes already purchased (pictured below). Last October I bought a brand new pair of Asics Nimbus 10 at a running expo for $50. More than 50% off retail. Over the winter I bought a pair of Asics Landreth 5's for $42 including shipping and a pair of Asics 2140 trail shoes for $36 including shipping, both on eBay and both well over 50% off. eBay has been great to me for shoes, but I've learned you have to be patient for the best deals. Sometimes you have to look really close. The shoes may be labeled incorrectly (ie womens instead of mens, no size listed), spelled incorrectly (acics, a6, Broks etc...) , or the model is listed as a feature of the shoe (Asics AHAR, Asics DUOMAX, Asics SOLYTE etc...) .

Not much else going on otherwise so I'll end on this running update for today.

Cut back week

2010-02-08T08:02:00.001-06:00

Running:
I'm glad last week is over. The last time I had run this little in a week was back in November. I only ran three days last week. Wednesday I ran my usual hill repeat workout as I mentioned in the last post. Thursday at work was one of those days where things just didn't work out. Friday I got out for a typical lunch break 7.5 mile run in 1:01:51. Saturday I made it out in the early morning. We had several friends coming over for dinner that evening and there were lots of chores to get done. I knew if I wanted to get a longer run in this would be it. I ran my same route as the past several Saturdays of 15 miles in 2:06:00. The dinner party was great, but as you could guess lots to eat, maybe too much to drink and a late night. I ended up just taking Sunday off. That gave me a total of 30 miles for the week and 274 YTD. A little light, but pretty close to where I wanted to be for a cut back week.  Right now the legs feel real good and I'm ready for a few more solid weeks. Snow is scheduled for tonight and tomorrow so we'll see what this turns into and how screwed up the roads get.

Hunting:
Not exactly hunting related, but I had this song brought to my attention on Facebook.  Have to share it.
Johnson Outboard song

Gardening:
I had this link brought to my attention on Facebook also. I don't know if you've ever witnessed starlings flocking in the fall, but it is quite a sight. The only thing missing is the noise they make.   Beside the air show the noise is deafening as well.

Muskrat

2010-02-04T08:57:00.000-06:00

Running:
As much as January was a good month this one has gotten off to a bad start. On Monday I was down and out with the flu bug. I had to take only my 2nd sick day in 21+ years at my current job. Needless to say there was no running or workout of any kind. I was over this quickly and felt much better on Tuesday, but chose to still take it easy and no running. I was just thinking last week about having a cutback week. I just didn't think I would have one forced on me. I will use this opportunity to reduce mileage by 40% to 50% this week before resuming next week. I'll get there just from taking at least 3 days off and maybe reducing my long run Saturday. I did run my hill repeat workout yesterday during my lunch break. I did the 8 repeats but even though the legs felt good I was a couple minutes slower in 1:08:03.

Hunting:
Monday when I was home the dog was absolutlely going crazy barking and jumping at the door. When I mustered enough strength to get up to see what was going on I saw she was barking at 5 deer out in the yard. One was a nice buck with only half of his rack left. Where were all these deer during the day when it was in season? I watched them for quite a while and then let the dog out after they were gone.

Gardening:

This morning I had a big surprise. I check my pond every day to make sure it hasn't frozen solid, that the pump is running properly and there is enough water. Well today it wasn't running well. When I went down to check to my surprise there was a muskrat trying to make a home in the skimmer. What a mess it made. It tore up the rubber liner to the skimmer, probably to get in. It ripped up some of the pond plants I suppose to eat them or the roots/tubers. I finally got him out and the dog chased him down and killed it for me. My biggest concern now is that the liner isn't damaged to the point I will have to completely replace. Time will tell. What the hell was it doing out in February in my little pond?

Good first month

2010-01-31T14:24:00.000-06:00

Running:
First a recap of the rest of my week. The weather sure turned cold on us here in Wisconsin again. Temps with wind chills most of this week have been below zero, especially in the mornings. In the middle of the week the wind chills didn't get above zero all day. On Thursday 1/28 I got out for a lunch time run of 8 miles in 1:5:30. I did the same 8 miles as the previous weeks with 3 laps around a local subdivision. On Friday I did my Springdale/Davidson loop of 7.5 miles in 1:2:12 during my lunch break. Saturday morning I ran the same 15 miles I have the previous 3 Saturdays. I ran it in 2:05:05. This is two loops around my favorite home course. I can drop water about a mile out so I can grab it on my second loop around. This morning I got out for a nice 10 mile route around Pretty Lake and back. I ran this loop a little slow in 1:25:51, but it was an enjoyable morning.

This year is off to a very good start. The runs above capped off a 65 mile week for me. I only had one week all last year higher than this total. That gives me 244 miles MTD/YTD. Again last year I only had 1 month with a higher total. My run log shows me I averaged 55 miles per week in January. The Odometer is now up to 25,410. I'll for sure be taking Monday off for a rest day. I will also be looking to take a fall back week sometime soon. Just not sure if it will be this coming week yet though.

Hunting:
I did pick up the two deer heads from the taxidermist last week. They look fantastic. I can't wait to get them hung up for display. I'll get a picture of them posted as soon as I can.

Gardening:
I really need it to warm up a bit now so I can get out to prune all my fruit trees. I have a couple months yet I suppose to get it in. As long as you prune them while dormant it will be OK. Not much sense working outside on this job when it's this cold. Running or hunting isn't bad, but working in it isn't fun for me. Dormant oil spray will also need to be applied, but I know you can cause bud damage if it is too cold when you apply it. Should be lots of time before the end of March to get this done.

200+ MTD

2010-01-28T07:47:00.001-06:00

Running:

It's been a good month running so far. For this week I mentioned Monday mornings run already in the last post. Monday during my lunch break I continued my cross training with 20 minutes on the elliptical to warm up followed by extra weights, and stretching. Tuesday I again went in the morning before work for a 9 mile run in 1:15:08. It's back to cold again especially early. Had to be careful for icy spots where the melting snow froze along the sides of the roads. Wednesday I ran my hill repeat workout again. This is the 4th week in a row I was able to do this. I ran the out and back and 8 repeats of the hill in 1:05:13. Again a slight improvement from last week.  The runs this week have pushed me to 204 miles MTD with a few more runs to get in. All except 7.5 miles have been outside. Not a bad number for January and certainly a good start to the year.

Above is a couple of pictures of my training hill. From down below looking up and above looking down. You can get an idea for the steepness of the hill, but can't see the full length because of the turn at the bottom of the hill. I would guess this is about 75 to 100 foot incline over .20 mile. The .40 up and back repeats take somewhere around 3:30 to complete.

Hunting:
Wednesday I got some good news from the taxidermist. Today I will be able to pick up two deer that I brought in. The one I shot in 2008 with my bow and the one I got last year during gun season.  I'm excited to be able to get these back in my possession. I still don't have one deer I brought to a different taxidermist back after three years and a month. Shows you how one taxidermist has totally been ignoring my job when you see how quickly they can really be done.  Last I checked about a month ago I was 8th on his list to be completed. I'll have to go check again.

Outdoor streak ended

2010-01-25T07:55:00.000-06:00

Running:
I need to recap a few runs. On Friday I got out for 7.5 miles during my lunch break. I ran my Springdale loop in 1:2:01. Based on the forecast I knew I would need to get out for my long run on Saturday so I'm glad I got out early. I did the same 15 mile course as the previous week. I ran it Saturday in very close to the same time as last week in 2:6:59. So up to this point the week was exactly the same as the previous one. At this point I don't see much need for running more than around two hours. Too many miles too fast will likely get me burned out a bit before I have anything even planned for sure. Sunday morning the rain was really coming down. I knew I had to run in the morning if I was to get out, so I opted to end my outdoor streak for January and just did 7.5 miles on the treadmill in exactly 1 hour. This gave me 53 miles for the week and 179 MTD. Since I had a little easier weekend than anticipated I got out early this morning for 8 additional miles in 1:5:58. I will likely still work out at my lunch break today, but no additional running. I'll see how the week goes, but maybe I won't take an off day. Just an easy/shorter day or two.

Repeat last week

2010-01-22T08:51:00.002-06:00

Running:
Looking like ground hog week. So far the same exact runs and training as last week. Monday was an off day. Tuesday was a lunch time run of 7.5 miles in 1:1:40. Wednesday I ran the hill repeat workout again. 8 repeats and a total distance of 7.5 miles in 1:5:30. This was over a minute faster than last week and I felt stronger running them. That's a good sign. Thursday was another lunch time run of 8 miles in 1:6:03. Three loops of 2 miles around a local subdivision plus out and back. Forecast calls for rain starting later on Saturday and lasting for the rest of the weekend. Will have to get the longest run of the week in on Saturday morning. So far all my runs in January have been outside. Sunday that could change. Good luck to those who might be running in the indoor marathon or half marathon this weekend at the Petit center. I can't imagine doing 90+ circles for the full. I have no desire to ever try this event.

Hunting:
Not much going on in this area except reading my usual websites and blogs and dreaming of next year. I found a couple of things to share. Here is a music video to a country song called Crazy white boy
Seems to fit. The fish jumping in the boat in this clip are Silver or Big head carp. These have been in the news around here recently and are threatening to invade the Great Lakes. Can you imagine boating on Lake Michigan and being in danger of these things flying at you?

Here is a short clip to part of a training video. Couple of kill shots along with practice tips. Good TV program. Arrow Affliction

Freezing fog

2010-01-19T07:51:00.000-06:00

Running:
Every morning since last Saturday there has been freezing fog in the morning. Temps have been in the mid 20's making the fog freeze on everything making for some interesting scenery. Here is a link to some pictures from Sunday 01/17. Sunday I got out for another 11 miles in 1:29:44. This gives me 57 miles for last week, 126 miles YTD and 25,309 on the Odometer through last week. I again took Monday off and did some cross training, extra stretching, and weights. With the higher mileage weekends this is working well. Pretty soon I'll have to nail down some kind of schedule for spring so I can adjust training. For now I'm just going to try to build back the base and stay healthy.

Hunting:
I found this excerpt of an acticle by Ted Nugent. If you didn't know he is quite a big hunter. There is a lot of controversy about deer baiting in Wisconsin. I kind of agree with uncle Ted on the issue.

Gardening:
Doesn't really fit here but back in November, I attended the Packer/Cowboy football game in Green Bay. Here are some pictures of that Packer Game

I finally got some of the Christmas pictures downloaded. Here is a picture of the concolor fir we had this year. We had a nice Christmas tree 2009