All Good Things

Must come to an end! The weekend was pretty good, probably the only bad part being the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I ended up seeing it Friday night with my bro and posse. This was by far the worst of the 3 Pirates movies, and overall just a horrible flick. The best part was when the goddess in human form morphed into a 40 foot goddess in human form. Ashton Kutcher's line, "Wow, that is one Super Hot Giant Alien!" from Dude, Where's My Car immediately came to me. (which was probably a better movie). I recommend Ask a Ninja for further analysis of the Pirates movie.

Saturday I helped a friend move in the morning. It went great, very fast and easy. Worst part was that we could not fit the queen size box spring into the upstairs at the new place. Mom was watching Megan that afternoon while Andrea was out to lunch with a friend, so when I got home I went for a quick run since Megan had just went down for a nap. I enjoyed World of Warcraft the rest of the day!

Yesterday was typical lazy Sunday. More World of Warcraft and resting. We ended up watching "The Prestige" last night, which I also did not enjoy that much. I thought the ending was too stupid and/or not well built and unconvincing. Sure, I can suspend belief as much as the next person, but a movie has to do it in the right way for that to occur.

This afternoon, Andrea and I enjoyed a quick lunch date while Mom watched Megan again. We originally had plans to go all fancy because we have a $20 gift certificate to McCormick & Schmick's. Turns out they weren't open for lunch today, so we just went with Major's and DQ for dessert!

Thought I'd end today with a recent picture of Megan waking up in the morning:

Shrek, Weekend, New Goal, OH MY!

The 4 day weekend has begun! And off to a great start. Last night I ended up wussing out on a planned bike ride with Steve because I couldn't handle the cold, and ran inside instead. This morning however, was perfect weather for an outdoor run and I was able to get an excellent 9 miler in.

After that, we got ready to do an early showing of Shrek 3 at 10:30am, before Megan's nap. She got really bored half way through the previews, who doesn't? Eventually when the movie started she got very excited and sat through the first 20 minutes or so. We thought she would have sat through it more, but alas, the possibilities to explore a giant theater were just too much. Anytime Puss'N Boots came on screen she would stop and just start clapping and smiling. Overall, I think she had a good time, but still not quite ready to sit through a whole movie. If we do it again, we will try to time it differently, to go during a "low-energy" point of Megan's day, so she might be more apt to just sit and enjoy the movie.

Lastly, I can't say enough good things about Ben, the creator of Buckeye Outdoors, the new online exersize logging web site I am using. I was able to dump all my run data for this year into an Excel file and send it to him, and he manually loaded into his web site for me! So now I have a years worth of data for the world to see. Me? Show off? I don't know what your talking about.

The thing I noticed was the total milage for the year. Seeing that total lead me to finally nail down a new goal for the year. My first thought was 1000 miles total for the year. Nice round number... but I realized that would be a little too easy to achieve. I'm already half way there and not even half the year. And since the whole point is to set the bar higher to push myself, I've set a goal of running 1200 miles in a single year. I think I can do it, but it's going to require a continuious level of running. But it's exactly what I need to keep me motivated, as lately I've found myself wanting to just quit in the middle of runs.

Time to play some World of Warcraft... I could be in the processing of being sucked back in!

Short Week FTW

I'm really glad this week is only 4 days. I'm taking Friday off to enjoy a 4 day memorial day weekend. Nothing too big planned for the weekend. Shrek 3 with Andi and Megan on Friday, then I'm helping a friend move Saturday morning.

This morning started off on a bad note, and not just because it was Monday. First, my alarm wasn't set because I screwed up so I was up 20 mins late. Then to top that off, I had a not-so-good feeling which has developed into a full blown cold tonight. If I'm lucky, it might be a short lived cold that I can shake off by the half marathon on June 2nd.

Speaking of that, I thought maybe I'd just post here and personally invite you, yes YOU, reading this post, to come out and cheer me on for my first half marathon. I've never had anyone come out to cheer for me, so why not you? If you want to, here is an offical link to the course maps. Below is my home made trace of the course... it's a little odd, I'm not even sure the whole thing is paved.



You may have also noticed a new item on my side bar, which I shamelessly stole from Poignant Irrelevance. That is the theme of my blog after all, nothing original here! Just a cool little tracking program that shows all my runs. (and eventually bike rides...) I'm not sure if I'm going to go back and fill in all this years worth of data, maybe if I all of a sudden come across 2 hours of spare free time. Stranger things have happened.

On the topic of free time, I did get a Dungeons and Dragons session in this weekend. We finished the large "epic" adventure that I had put together over a period of a month back in, oh I don't know, Feburary? It took 3 sessions to get through everything I had planned, which technically speaking was only 1 more then I thought it would. Too bad those 3 sessions took place over 4 months. Not quite sure where it will go next if anywhere, time will tell.

Gotta go put the Megster to bed now, and try and get some decent sleep myself.

In Loving Memory

Today's post is a short message in honor of my Father, Michael David Anderson. 16 years ago today, he passed away from a heart attack. I never even memorized the exact date until a few years ago. If you asked me why I didn't know the date, I don't think I could even say. It's strange to think that I've been alive for more years without him then with.

I may not even be remembering this correctly, because I've learned that my memory around that time is very disjointed and sometimes totally wrong. After his passing, there was something that my brothers elementary school did in his honor. They planted four trees for him in the front area of the school. I believe it might have been a boy scout troop that actually did it. Those trees are still there, and to this day they bring a smile to my heart and remind me of my Dad every time I drive by. I may not think about him every day, but at least once a week, and I still miss him just the same.

Knows What She Wants

Yesterday ended up being quite the annoying day at work. I was in a very foul mood on the way home from work. To top things off, my right ankle was bothering me all day so I decided to skip my run and spend 2 days recovering. I needed something to take my mind off everything, so by the time I got home I had resolved to make everyone go to Best Buy with me while I picked up a copy of Pan's Labyrinth, which just came out.

After arriving, we basically just let Megan run around for awhile. She was in pure heaven. First she ran up and down the rows of big screen TVs, then around digital cameras, and finally into the car stereo section. She was just laughing and smiling up a storm, really having a great time. Eventually I had to corral her up so that I could actually browse some stuff, and we wandered over to the PC Video Games.

Megan did not want to be held, so I had to put her down before she threw a fit. Just as I did that, I recalled that a Shrek 3 video game was coming out. I glanced over at Andrea as Megan ran off down the aisle at mock 10. Before I could finish saying, "Hey Andi, there is a new Shrek game coming out, maybe we should look for it?" Megan had stopped, grabbed a box off the shelf, and was running back towards me with a copy of the new Shrek video game in hand!!

It was just priceless! Not even talking yet, but she can pick out a video game she wants! I ended up buying it for her, even though it's not something she can really play yet. Maybe she will grow into it. I have a feeling that going to see the Shrek movie next week will be a very enjoyable experience.

The Adventure Continues...

As we got back to the hotel on Saturday afternoon, the weather was shaping up to be perfect for a run. In the end, I decided to drive back up to the Gooseberry area so that I could run on the paved portion of the Gitchi-Gami State Trail.

A combination of the great weather, the new location, the awesome scenery... all contributed to one of the best runs I've ever done. From start to finish, I just felt great the entire time. The end result:

Duration: 1 hour 58 mins
Distance: 14.06 miles
Ave pace: 8'26" / mile
Ave heartrate: 164

14 miles is the farthest distance I have ever run. It's amazing what a change of pace can do to help push yourself. Is that level of running something I can do regularly? Heck no... I was pretty damn sore that afternoon, and the next day. It was tough walking up and down stairs! But it was a good sore... by today, my body felt good enough for a 5 mile run.

Turns out there wasn't much adventure left to the remainder of the weekend. Andrea got in a run herself while I was doing mine, and we just rested the rest of the afternoon leading up to an early dinner. We did try swimming around 9pm but once again, the pool was both too cold and too crowded. Not to mention, the jacuzzi in our room was bigger then the whirlpool... in the end we just went back up to the room so Andrea could enjoy another jacuzzi and I watched some Kill Bill on cable. That was actually pretty funny in itself... The way they edited it for TV was HILARIOUS. You know the part where O-Ren gets to top of her head chopped off, and the camera pans up to reveal part of her brain? They actually edited it and extended her head to the top of the screen. The best part was Andrea yelling out, "THEY GAVE HER MORE HEAD!!!"



Sunday morning, the sun woke us up bright and early. We tried our damnedest to sleep in, but only managed to sleep until 7:30am. We stopped off at Betty's Pies to grab an Apple Pie for my Mom for Mothers day, then a quick breakfast and we were on our way home by 9:30am. All in all, it was a nice relaxing weekend. Couldn't have asked for much more.

Weekend Trip Part 1

What a great weekend!! Things got off to a good start Friday morning, as we were able to get on the road exactly on schedule. Wasn't sure if we'd manage it because I ended up not doing any of the furniture moving until the morning. But luck was with us...

Our first stop was Grand Casino in Hinckley. Turns out that our good luck was still with us, because I won $22.50 playing black jack. Andrea also "won" $5.36. I use the term "won" loosely. You see, being that she doesn't actually like to gamble, she took to roaming around the casino out of bordem. While doing so, she ended up finding a few discarded cash vouchers in machines. Hey, free money is free money! Our winnings paid for the buffet lunch where we both ate entirely too much food.

Back on the road, we arrived at Superior Shores by mid afternoon. The room itself was great, although I wasn't quite sure why we had a bird house in our room.




We had a very nice view of the lake, a jacuzzi in the room, and a DVD player to boot. (we watched Deja Vu Friday night). The only complaint about the room was the window shades. The window faced directly east, and in morning the sun made the room very bright even with the shades down. Neither of us got to sleep in much, Andrea was awake as early as 5:30am this morning. (although she did go back to sleep, it was still kind of annoying).

So being that we couldn't sleep in, we started off Saturday morning with an early breakfast at a place called Vanilla Bean Cafe. It had been recommended by a friend of Andrea's, and it didn't disappoint. We ended up going there again Sunday morning for breakfast as well.

After breakfast we went up north to Gooseberry Falls area, Andrea had never been there before. It seems like they have done a lot of work in that area for the tourists. The new visitor center was pretty impressive. We walked around, down to the base of the falls and back up.
After that we stopped at Splitrock Lighthouse but decided $21 dollars wasn't really worth parking + tour + walking around which we had already done at Gooseberry so we just headed back to the hotel.

That's all for now... Check back tomorrow for the rest of the weekend, including my report on a new personal best distance run!

Hot Run

I got a little refresher course in "How Temperature Effects Your Heart Rate 101". Here is the data, then we can analyze!

Distance: 7.45 miles
Average pace: 8'24" / mile
Average heart rate: 165

That data is from a run last Thursday around the lakes at work. Typical nightly run for me, the temp couldn't have been much more then low 70s.

Distance: 8.05 miles
Average pace: 8'41" / mile
Average heart rate: 178 !!

This is from tonight's run around the same lakes, only with the temps in the 80s. Even running at a slower pace, my heart rate was up there. It was my first real high temp run of the season, and I'm sure it's only going to get worse! Considering the half marathon is the first week of June, I better make sure I'm ready.

You might be thinking, 165 is only slightly lower then 178, what's the big deal? Actually, that difference is pretty huge. 165 is what I would consider a "comfortable" zone. I'm not sure how it compares to other runners, but it's kind of my target heart rate. Anything over that means I'm pushing myself... anything over 170 means I'm really struggling. 178 is VERY high, probably even higher then my average heart rate for the 10k.

Anyway, the point is, I have to be careful as the summer progresses. If I'm running outside in 90 degree weather, I can't be running at a fast pace, or my body is just going to freak out. It actually gives more reason to sometimes run indoors, despite my recent posts to the contrary.

Tonight we are busy packing for our trip tomorrow, and I was just taking a quick break to blog. I'm pretty much done except for picking out some DVDs (our room has a DVD player), some CDs for the car ride, and the rest of the stuff that you can't pack until the morning. We are going to attempt to get going early tomorrow to allow for a more relaxing and long drive up. I think we are going to stop at Hinckley so I can lose $40 bucks gambling and then eat at the casino buffet!

The other good / bad news is that I also have to move all the furniture around in my basement at some point tonight. That's the bad news... the good news is that the reason I need to do that is we arranged to have our ceiling fixed while we are gone this weekend!! It will be nice to come home to having that all taken care of, so I can't complain there.

I think this weekend will be exactly what both Andrea and I need. I almost wish we had planned for it to be even longer, but I know that's asking a lot. I'm sure my Mom will be in for a busy weekend as it is, watching Megan for 3 days. Not sure if I'll get a post up right away on Sunday night, so if not, have a good weekend and check back Monday for trip pictures!

Love 105?

Are you f'in kidding me? Talk about the worst thing to ever happen to Minnesota radio. The once decent channel of Drive 105 is becoming some stupid love channel. Wow... the first song I heard on the way home was the theme to Greatest American Hero. Don't get me wrong, I was a big fan of the show, but that's the last thing I want to listen to on the radio.

Things are pretty much back to status quo at work. That is, I once again find myself riding a ship with no one at the helm. Strangely, it doesn't seem to phase me as much this time around. Pretty soon it will just be "normal" and I won't even think twice about it. Pretty strange how quickly the mind adapts to its surroundings.

This weekend is our get-a-way trip to Duluth, Superior Shores resort. Sounds like we are going to drop Megan off super early Friday morning and head up right away. It should give us some time to enjoy the drive up, maybe even stop off at Hinckley for some gambling. What we do the rest of the weekend will probably depend on the weather, but no matter what it should be fun and relaxing.

Tonight, about 4 weeks late, we dyed Easter eggs!! I'm sure your wondering why we waited that long. It was really just a series of unfortunate events. First, we bought some brown eggs that wouldn't look very good dyed. When we finally got around to getting another dozen, Andrea accidentally cooked them too long and they got ruined. (the house smelled kind of funny too!) Then we just had things going on and never got around to it until now.





Megan also got a much needed hair cut today, and she looked so much better. I guess the haircut experience was not as good as our first time. In fact, it was bad enough that Andrea even talked about doing it herself next time! Oh well, maybe we will just try a different place instead.

Irresistible

What a perfect day to stay inside and relax. Too bad it's not looking to get any better... I have to admit that running on the treadmill isn't as easy as it used to be. I find that it's just too easy to stop when I get bored. At least with running outside, by the time I start to get bored, I have to turn around and run back.

I ended up going to the 10am Spiderman, and it was great. No crowd, no young kids, just a few normal adults enjoying the movie. Well... as normal as it is to see a movie at 10am. I've come to realize that my desire to see movies during the day is rooted in my dislike of crowds. Last week at the 10k, I didn't even want to get in line for the free post-race food because the lines were so stupid long. (I did end up getting in line, and it wasn't so bad).

Yesterday I also finally got a badly need wardrobe update. Mostly it was just work shirts that I needed. It was almost exactly a year ago I got new pants that actually fit, but I never got new shirts. I've been wearing 3X-LT shirts still. The hardest part about buying new shirts was deciding between Large and Medium. (I know, my life is rough...) I just couldn't convince myself that the mediums actually fit and looked better. I kept worrying that they'd shrink and then never fit, or they'd look too tight. In the end, I was able to get past whatever mental block I had and for better or worse bought a whole slew of medium shirts.

Only problem is after getting everything out of the bag last night, it looks like they forgot to put the belt that I bought in the bag. So now I have to go back today and convince them they didn't give me my belt. Hopefully that won't be too much of a hassle...

Here are some recent cute pictures of Megan. The first is one night Megan was just playing with Andrea's hair on the couch, it was so precious. Until she started pulling her hair and slapping Andi's head... Megan hits? You bet!



Andrea also bought Megan some new PJs the other day, and they are so cute on her. This picture is from just last night, she was running around and I was snapping shots of her.

Hills Rock

For whatever reason, I've been slacking and eating a litle more then I should the last few days. I guess after the big 10k, I felt like relaxing a bit. Not to mention, after finally getting my appetite back, it was nice to enjoy some good food. I got back on track tonight with a nice run outside. Funny part is, I ended up getting a little lost and next thing I knew, I was facing a very large uphill climb.

It was the very same hill that, almost 2 years ago, made me post about how much I hated hills. That time it was on a bike. This time, it was running, I ended up really enjoying it. Sure it was tough, but it was a nice way to push myself at the end of my run.

Some bad news regarding Dungeons and Dragons. Two of my players have finals this month, so we aren't going to play again until the end of this month. Sucks to only get two sessions in the last 3 months. Guess I shouldn't complain, at least I have a group that wants to keep playing.

Looking forward to Spiderman 3 this weekend, it should kick some major ass. It's interesting that one could see the movie as early as 10am in the morning. I might actually do that in an attempt to beat some of the crowds. The risk you take when going to a movie that early is sometimes thats when the parents take all there really young kids as well.

Speaking of that, we are actually going to take Megan to a movie this month also. She has been to one other movie with us, but that wasn't for her. It was that stupid Matinee Movie that promised a "baby-friendly environment". Anyway, this time, we're actually going to take her to a movie I think she will really enjoy: Shrek the Third. Shrek (and Shrek 2) are the only movies she sits all the way through and actually gets into. She loves the Dragon and the Puss in Boots. I have a feeling she will do the same in the theater. Should be a fun time!

Trip Sense part 2

You might remember back in January, I posted about Progessive's new program called "Trip Sense". Last night we uploaded the data and claimed our discounts!!



We had a slight moment of panic when Megan pulled out the Trip Sense USB connection in the middle of uploading the data, but everything worked out okay. Andrea will be getting a slightly better discount simply because she drives less overall miles. The cool part is we can go online and see all these reports about our driving habits. From how often we go over 75 mph, to how many sudden stops or starts that we have. It doesn't really define what a "sudden stop" is, but we both had about 180 over the past 2 months.

Not only that, but you can see graphs of all your trips. Here is typical trip for me heading into work in the morning.



Here is a slightly longer trip example. This is the weekend we headed down to New Ulm in Andrea's car.



Okay so maybe it's not all that exciting, but it's still cool to think about the discount we are going to get! Not only that, but this program will be continuing so we will be getting more discounts in the future. It's nice to see something in life that actually rewards you for good behavior, as opposed to everything else that only punishes you for bad behavior.