30th on the 30th

Get out of the way, Parsenn.

Edwin is now SEVEN months old. And he's kind of a big deal.

Thank you, Parsenn.

Yessirree, today's my birthday. My 30th. The big Three-Ohh. Yikes.

I'm going to celebrate with a nice 3 miler followed by 30 minutes of running.

Goals for my first year in the 30 year old age group include:

• 1. Breaking 3 hours in the St. Louis Marathon.
• 2. Breaking 4 hours at the Ice Age 50k.
• 3. Running all 31 miles of the Northern Kettle Moraine Ice Age Trail.
• 4. Breaking 4 hours at the Glacial Trail 50K (probably the most ambitious goal).
• 5. Finish in the Top 10 at the Fall 50.
• 6. Run at least a mile every single day of the year.
• 7. Read Atlas Shrugged.
• 8. Wake up at (or before) 5:05 AM 300 of the 365 days in the year.
• 9. Not sure what this 9th goal will be. TBD.

It's gonna be a GREAT YEAR! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to All!

Fun With Math

Take a look at the picture below and use some sin/cos/tan action to give me the angle I've got my treadmill rigged to!






Not long after that post was taken (you can see him appearing stage left in the above photo), Parsenn appeared, stood in front of me, and wondered why exactly I would waste my time on something like Geometry when I could be outside with him playing in the snow.






Speaking of snow...here's a photo of me being told I'm not allowed to re-enter my home until I get rid of all the outer clothing that was worn while on snow removal detail. Welcome to Wisconsin! Today included a total of 5 hours outside clearing snow from my driveway, my sidewalk, and my neighbors' driveways...





In other news, I got in a couple decent runs this week. I'm battling a bad back--I know...not a good thing for a chiropractor to have--so I've limited the miles in favor of yoga and other activities. I ran 7 miles at sub-3 pace on Thursday, with a couple extra miles for a warmup, and then on Saturday, before the storm arrived, I ran 5 repeats of a local Ice Age Trail hill. I'm very disappointed to learn how little overall elevation change there is on this hill. But, then again, considering the events I'm training for (St. Louis Marathon, Ice Age 50K, and later on, Glacial Trail 50K again), I guess I don't need a TON of elevation. I only need the ability to hold a decent pace while doing a little bit of elevation over and over and over again.

Age Group Win!

In my last race as a 20-something, I was able to bring home 1st in the 20-29 age group at this year's Sleigh Bell Run. I surprised myself with a 32:02 over 5 miles.

I'm pretty sure the age groups get tougher from here on, though.

Also, I should really try and have my eyes open for the photographer.

After today's 7.5 miler I've decided that my official training goal is to break 3 hours at St. Louis.

There. I said it. Well, I typed it. "Out loud," for all 6 of you to hear. Time to get going!