On the last episode of "Nic's Life..."

Yikes! This site has taken a bit of a hit recenlty in posting frequency! For the 7 of you still reading (and I count Glaven's 3 comments-per-post as 3 distinct people), it's time for some random bullets to be fired off to get you updated:

• I haven't been running much at all. I haven't lost a lot of fitness, but I don't see myself gaining any training time throughout the spring, and because of this have reluctantly had to look at my upcoming races with much, much lower expectations. I had high hopes to be able to run Chippewa fast (well, for me, anyway) and then use that effort as a great springboard into Grandma's, where I really wanted to run sub-3 hours. I'm really not sure that's possible. Nothing seems to be going my way in terms of training, but there will be additional bullets fired relating to that.
• I plan on training straight through the Trailbreaker, then doing a 1.5 week taper for Chippewa, then training straight through Journeys in early May and doing heavy speed work in the last couple weeks before Grandma's.
• Work has been fantastic! The practice continues to grow, and I'm more and more humbled with the problems that my patient base has trusted me with. I'm continuing to make connections in the community and am excited to keep getting busier.
• This past weekend I traveled down to Chicago to take an Active Release Technique re-certification seminar. If you haven't experienced A.R.T. from a doc trained in it, you're missing out. The stuff is really dynamite. One of the best parts about that seminar is the fact you get tested by the guy that invented the technique, Mike Leahy. A former Air Force fighter pilot, aerospace engineer, chiropractor, and multi-time Ironman finisher, the guy's interesting to talk to and a great teacher. Where else do you get to test your skills against the guy that created the skill itself? He's worked on a lot of athletes whose names you may recognize, Lance Armstrong being the most known. I'm pretty sure he's helped out some guy named Anton Krupicka with some overuse injuries, too.
• Every lunch hour I ran from our hotel to the Chicago lakefront for lunch. On Friday it was 7- out and absolutely beautiful. The last time I was downtown Chicago was at the '07 marathon, when it was 95 in early October. This time it was 70 in early March.
• Ellie is officially signed up for Grandma's Marathon, and her younger brother ("The Doug") is also signed up, along with his girlfriend, for the Half. I'm helping them with the training program and excited for them to experience such an amazing event!
• Parsenn has not tried to kill me, despite some intertubes rumors. He has, however, really shown me that he doesn't care much for running. Give him a tennis ball or a racquet ball, and he goes NUTS, but a run around town? Not so much.
• Did I mention it was 70 in Chicago on Friday? Today, back in Wisconsin, we're in the middle of a "Thunder-snow." Seriously. It's crazy out right now--several inches of really wet snow, 25 mph winds, and thunder and lightning. WTF is going on? Is spring ever going to friggen show up?
• My car died. Yes, the Bonneville--my aid station on so many of my training runs--rumbled its last couple miles last week. Ellie and I have a new (to us) car now, and I'm right now drinking a "Pacifico Clara" in its honor. In our garage sits an '04 Chrysler Pacifica, which I am still weary is going to turn into a mini van at any moment. It's very close to one now.
• I finished the 100 pushup challenge! I was following the training very well until a couple weeks ago, at which point, much like my running, I pretty much quit. Then, last week, for some reason I decided to pop off some pushups. I got to 50 and felt pretty fresh, so I kept going...finally breaking down at 103. Not bad!
• That's all, but be sure to check back, as random stray bullets may be fired off again at any time.