Mike Has A Thought: December 2007

Monday, December 31, 2007

it's official...

i'm old, or boring as this will be my first NYE in god knows how long at home, with the wife and kids just watching a movie or playing some GH III with the family and watching the newer, greener ball drop.

i am now, officially...my father.

But all is not lost as i did manage to squeeze in a little over 900 miles running for the year. i feel pleased being able to look back and see the distance. Even with almost two months sidelined, i did ok and hitting 1000 miles is do-able but....i don't feel the need to keep track so anally for this year.

Looking back on a post from last year, i think i did a few things right...

i went for a midnite 20 miler and got that ultra-marathon feeling, by running when most up so late are finishing off last call at a local watering hole.

i took my ever expanding banker/finace career into a new and exciting direction.

i quit smoking,... again. This time it may stick....other than being the occasional have a smoke with Animal on increasingly rare days (as i have been designated the friend to have a smoke with now and then...) i haven't bought a pack in months. and while i may wax poetically about having a smoke, in truth, it would taste terrible as my tastebuds seem to have been awakened from my own tar induced comatose state. As i can no longer order top-of-the-line thai food and claim to enjoy it, hot does nicely....thank you

OK, sure i'm a little heavier than i would like, but tipping the scales at 205-210 is just temporary thing. What's an extra 10 lbs after quitting smoking.

So what for next year, from a endurance standpoint....

Well, as stated before, i'm looking forward to running in the Bayshore again. More on that in future posts as that an immediate planning goal.

Do a Tri, or two....this means a little time in the water. Swimming seems like a great way to cross-train during off days from marathon training, right????

Dances with Dirt, a can't believe i have been invited to join a team

Run the Detroit Marathon. destination marathons are great, and yeah i've heard mixed reviews of Detroit. The up side.....the bridge to Canada, the underwater mile, mostly flat....the down side, a reputation of not being the most scenic route (except the bridge), not having enough water at the water stations (which i seem to have experience in...See Chicago), and fine... Detroit doesn't have a great reputation in general. Than again neither does Flint but the Crim seems to draw ok.

Anyway, more to follow when i get a better chance to post without the time constraints of watching the ball drop.
Thanks for reading

Sunday, December 23, 2007

WOW!!!!!

NOT OUR HOUSE BUT A FEW MILES AWAY.....THOUGHT I'D SHARE.....

MAYBE YOU PREFER TO SEE THE VIDEO....

NOTICE THE SUSPENDED IN AIR WITH FISHING LINE, FOOTBALL IN THE CHRISTMAS FOOTBALL FIELD...NOTICE ANTLERS IN HELMETS

Merry Christmas!!!!

Typically, this will be a hectic few days but after an afternoon spent watching the Lions squeek out a victory, and most likely losing my fantasy football championship weekend, a few thoughts.

i watched yet another episode of Triathlon, this time a 70.3 1/2 iron man in St Croix. How is this interesting to watch??? i'm not sure but i think the road to Iron Man is a long one. First the lingo gets me confused....folks like me are called "age groupers" instead of just amatuer. This is the first change.

After checking out the lingo, i also noticed that i can't just seem to sign up. There seems to be a membership and some qualifying stuff. Honestly...i can train for anything but.... paperwork??? This is why i am a salesperson, i have an assistant for paperwork....this is not a big time ego comment, just an understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. i can do the "big picture" stuff and follow a plan and hit goals, but i'm not so much on the organization....ergo me and Fun guv', we balance each other....she's the yin to my yang.....i should probably leave my yang outta the blog post, eh??

So i will do a Tri....i have one picked out close to home... a "sprint" in New Baltimore this summer. And yes....a did the math for an Iron Man....i figure give me 3 hrs to swim 2.4 miles....best guess......but...a 16mph pace gets a 7 hour/112 mile bike ride....so figure 10 hours in and i have 6 hours to finish a marathon....it's just a matter of breaking the large event into smaller managable pieces. That's not to say some heavy duty training is not involved but.....

i am using the same math for this years planned 40 miler. Which may occur earlier than planned depending on Tange's visit and if he chooses to join us. OK got a crew...and folks to join for a few miles or so, or ride along on a bike....we're good there, always room for more but so far...things are good. 40 miles, five miles an hour and 8 hours or so....boom 40 miles.....it's not i'm planning anything else for the day. Running a 12 minute mile could be the hardest part for me (ok...weee bit of ego there, you got me), but it's the distance not the time.

But moving on to more important things....like marathon's. Well, actually...the Bayshore, as it looks like there may be 5 Steers there. Maybe 6 if i can strong arm a certain new mommy i ran with last weekend into signing up for the 1/2 or 10k. 10k would be good, cause than the Steers would be represented in each run.

But more to the point....the logo.....big thanks to GLRG, and the poll is in no ways binding, how to put it on a tech shirt and where to leave ample space for a bib, and of course.....what about our names on the back????

i'm still trying to achieve balance between; home, work, running, life and updating the blog (not to mention my blog mojo, so thanks to the friendly emails to update this thing) More on blog mojo....

i've said this, or typed this before, but to risk a long blog.....my idea to document an attempt for a BQ failed miserably after a minor injury.....so what can focus on???....random thoughts seem too random and although i believe the blog has a pace and diction, feel, mood that is honest to myself....but

i want more

i have come to realize that a few people, some who read this blog and many more who don't, have been inspired (that feels like too strong a word, but a less ego-trip inducing one escapes me, but no real ego moment) to push themselves through running, or changing a career, or approaching life differently...due, in part....to my successful (so far) reshaping of my body, through running and the changes it has brought to me.

So from those convesations....i'm trying to find a meaning to the blog....and not every post, but an occassional one....without dumping the whole thing and starting over.

So if i seem a little disconnected, my apologies as i look for a deeper, but not too deep, meaning. (whatever that's supposed to mean) - - - with occasional oxy-moronic slips, and bad punctuation...let alone spleeing.

Where was i again?? oh yeah.....

Merry Christmas!!!!!

And just due to the size, a seperate post of just pictures from a house near us.....Danny Devito watch out...you might be able to see this one from space....No flash used and pictures taken at night.....

thanks for reading

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Ran a Great 4 miles with the lovely Miss Techmacher saturday morning...she's in there somewhere.

Anyway, with the Lions playing so bad lately, i've had a good chance to flip around the channels on Sunday afternoons and well.....

i've decided....after watching the "Versus" network...formerly "OLN", .....four words i want to hear after my name....

"you are an ironman"

Not sure when, or exactly how, but see what happens when a person googles "ironman"????

Thanks for reading....