SSTIFY Friday

WifeDoodle has been an American Idol fan since its inception. We all kid her about being an AI historian. It's borderline obsessive. Why am I telling you this? Because this week's entry has been jammed in my head since one of the contestants muddled through it this week. I saw that one and some guy in a silver shirt writhing around. Huh? I think Fonzie is revving up the bike to jump the shark on this show. Actually, I thought he jumped a few years ago. Nevertheless, here's this week's entry and I won't give you the actual artist. I'm givin' ya the hack job that's been in my head:


Have a good weekend everyone! I may actually attempt a long run this weekend.

Whoops

I prematurely posted the LoungeCast. Usually I think about baseball when that happens, but it launched early. (go ahead and insert joke here) Consider it my Fat Tuesday contribution. The topic for this episode is a recap of the Freakishly Flexible 5K. It was a lot of fun to talk to the race director, the timekeeper and, of course, the beneficiary of all the good karma that came her way. Turns out, she's recovering and NOT dead. Listen to the 'cast and that last sentence will make sense.

A few of you guessed that I would give up blogging for Lent. If that were the case, then I wouldn't be writing this, now would I? Nope, I gave up.....
















drum roll..............














wait for it......





























Starbucks. Yep, me and the 'bucks are parting ways for 40 days. I'm not giving up coffee, mind you. I'm Catholic, not an Archbishop.

Suck It, Laziness!

3.14 miles OUTSIDE
In THE MORNING
@ 8:34/mile pace.

A big thanks to everyone who "motivated" me. Apparently, most forms questioned my manhood, both figuratively and literally (Kicking and twisting? Really, ladies?). Hell, even the military got involved.

Oddly enough, my motivation came from an unusual source (as is usually the case). It came from the new Ford F-150 commercials which, in my opinion, are pretty damn kewl. Denis Leary does the voiceovers and he mentions something about getting up at Oh-Dark-Thirty and that prompted me to get out there. I'm not a truck guy. Probably never will be, but the commercial kicked me in the ass.

Go figure.

On tomorrow's post: A preview of this week's LoungeCast episode AND what I'm giving up for Lent. Go ahead, just guess.

P.S. - I won't throw myself a party until I run 4 times this week.

*ahem*

WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE KICK ME IN THE VIRTUAL A** SO THAT I CAN GET OUT AND RUN, PLEASE????

That is all.

SSTIFY Friday

Here's a little background on how LaughTracks gets produced. I usually start the email chain going and it eventually turns into about a minimum of 15 emails among the three of us. I swear they don't have jobs. Anywho, the topic of theme songs came up* and Ian managed to unwittingly get this song stuck in my head. For those of you not hip to the early to mid 90's alternative scene, this may get lost on you:




P.S. - Want to waste even more time at home and/or work? Click here.

*upon further research, copyrighted music can be used in podcasts "only if you have a good lawyer". I do not. Case closed.

All We Need are Shrouds and Nikes

A Teacher Whose Kids Go To the Same Daycare as My Kids: Are you goin' in early? We don't have to be there until 10am.
Me: Yeah, I"m going to get a run in before I get some things done.
ATWKGTTSDAMK: You're going to run in this?
Me: It's not snowing yet.
ATWKGTTSDAMK: You're insane.

Yeah, we are, aren't we? We're all nuts. I'm tellin' ya, runners could be classified somewhere between "cult" and "obsessive" on the crazy scale. And the needle leans more towards cult.

When the forecasters called for a good amount of snow, most people would:
A) Stay home
B) Go to the grocery store before the storm hit
C) Both A and B

Runners on the other hand would:
A) Get the run in before the storm hit
B) Suck it up, put on the YakTrax or Screw Shoes and get out there during the storm.

That's it. No "C: None of the above". We just get out there because we are insane.

At some point in our running lives, most of us (save for left coasters) have made this statement, or a variation thereof:

"I got my 11 miler in yesterday morning. It was windy and snowy, but I had my YakTrax on. It felt good to get it in!"

A normal person might have these types of reactions:

• "11 miles? I can't even drive 11 miles without getting bored, tired, or both!"
  
• "In the morning? That's why God invented coffee and the Sunday paper."
  
• "Windy and snowy? Forget it.""YakTrax? What the hell are those? For traction? You're insane!"

A runner's reaction?

"11 miler. Good for them."

And there it is. It all comes down to a debate about our sanity. Here's the thing, though: I like the fact that I'm a little bit nutty. It makes things interesting. No one marvels at the athlete that gets the first tee time or plays a game of pickup basketball. Tell them that you got up early to go run and they look at you like you just told them that you should be fitted for a purple shroud and some Nikes.

The problem is....I'm an Asics guy.

P.S. - The new episode of LaughTracks is available. Amy was MIA which meant that Ian, Mike and I took our shots at her. That, and I didn't have to edit it down to a PG-13 rating. Enjoy!

FF5K Race Report

C'mon, c'mon, c'mon...

Snow day, snow day, snow day.....

"______ Community Schools closed today."

Yes!

"...but teachers must report"

Shit.

So goes the policy of the school district in which I teach. I had to get into "snow day mode" Friday morning which includes dropping off the kids at daycare and the wife at work. Because our overpaid meteorologists claimed that the storm wouldn't arrive until about late-morning or early-afternoon, I'd be able to get a run in before I had to report. Note the foreshadowing.

Policy clarification: On snow days, teachers don't have to report until 10am. I could get my run in, get out of my running clothes and continue my day.

I park in my space, grab my Adidas bag and head into the school.

"Ah, Starbucks is right across the street. Get a Starbucks, read the paper and get this run in tomorrow."

I head back to my car to put my bag in the trunk.

"If you don't run now, you'll probably skip the race."

I head back to school.

"Race? It's a virtual race. Just hit the treadmill tomorrow."

Back to the car. Repeat the above a couple more times both in the parking lot and outside my office. How I got a job to influence young minds is beyond me.

I finally settle on putting my gear on and I head outside. It's completely still. To me, it always seems like this before a big snowstorm. I can't tell you why, it just does. The starting gun sounds a lot like my Garmin and I'm off like a shot!

Mile 1 - A good 1:00 under my normal 5K pace. Is that a flurry?
Mile 2 - Still a good :45 to 1:00 under. Since when was 8:15am considered "mid-morning"?
Mile 2.5 - The rest is uphill. I should be getting gassed, right?
Mile 2.6 - Why did you even think that? This is gonna suck. Flurries just turned into snow.
Mile 3.0 - I could easily throw up here. Then I'll get myself a Starbucks!
Mile 3.1 - A NEW P.R.!!!! 24:15.

And I did it all for Nancy.

I need to have snow days more often.

SSTIFY Friday Returns!

I honestly have no words for how annoying this song is.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Slowly Coming Back + LoungeCast Episode 11

It may be the venti bold talking, but I think I'm slowly getting my blogging mojo back. There's been a lot of...what do you call it....apathy? lethargy?....out there in the running blogosphere. It's affected a lot of us, not only in our blogging, but our running as well. Snap out of it people! Anyway, I've got a few things percolating in my cranium and I hope to spew forth later on.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum:

LoungeCast Episode 11 is up. I went solo and I want to thank the grand total of 5 of you that gave me words of encouragement like:

"Looking forward to All Raz All the Time podcast." - XCountry2
"Seriously? you're gonna do a podcast solo? I dont know what to say to that." - Frayed Laces
"Solo...wow, that's impressive!" - Laminator

Inspiring words, gang. Thanks.

Here's what I learned from the experience: I'm pretty sure that I need to riff off of at least one other person. For those of you that can podcast on your own for 15+ minutes AND have some sort of substance to it, my hat's off to you. I suppose I could've planned things out more, but that's the beauty of podcasts: if you don't like it, it's not a big deal. Just crank out another one.

I'm bringing back SSTIFY Fridays starting tomorrow. "Song Stuck in my head FridaY" for those of you new to ROATM or for those that just didn't give a damn from the last go around. These aren't just bad songs. They're songs that you can't purge from your self-conscious. If you'd like to contribute and annoy others, I'm all for contributions.

....and I Never Learned How to Read!

...a calendar, that is. See, normally there would be a brand-spankin new podcast episode up on the LoungeCast today. Well, yours truly is apparently adhering to the Mayan/Aztec/French calendar. I'm a day off, but I hope to have something for the masses by tomorrow morning. This 'cast should be interesting in a few ways:

1. I'm flying solo. Nobody for me to riff off of. No witty repartee between runners. Just me and my interminable thoughts. Wow, can I sell this episode or what?
2. I'm doing a giveaway.
3. I hope to talk about how I finally found motivation....and how it involved chili.

This and so much more on the next Runners LoungeCast! Thanks to those that have rated our show on iTunes. It makes me feel whole that I have more stars than Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent's new song Crack a Bottle. True dat.

Remember SStIFY Fridays? Me neither, but it may have to make a comeback because of Xenia's post. BIG thanks to Xenia for getting this song stuck in my head today:

Excuses + Excuses = FREE STUFF!

This week is the beginning of my training for the Lincoln Half Marathon. Initially, I planned on running this race with a friend of mine. Apparently, she looked to me for motivation. Fool. Long story short, she's 50/50 on the race due to scheduling/travel issues. That left me to my own devices. Do I just run the race to enjoy it or do I have a goal? Knowing full well that if I just run a race to enjoy it (perish the thought), I'll never train the way I should. So....that left me with this goal:

Break 2 hours. My more ambitious goal is breaking 1:45:00.

I suppose that would mean I should do some sort of speed work. Here's a little known fact about me. I've never done speed work. Fartleks appeal to me because when people say how my run was I can tell them I fartleked. Intervals are something I worked on in math class. Or were those integers? See why I majored in Communication Studies? (a.k.a. - College of Optional Math) Hmm. Looks like some research is involved.

Motivation right now is low. Lower than low. Now that I have a plan, I'm sure it'll pick up, but there are a lot of excuses running around. Runners Lounge is giving free stuff away for the best excuses not to run. At first, there were the "I don't have an excuses" sort of responses. Hell, I broke that streak right quick. So, in the spirit of this week's theme, the LoungeCast will announce the Top 5 Best Excuses for not running on this week's podcast. I'm looking for creativity here, folks. "Too Cold" won't do it. "Too Cold and I saw a couple of polar bears foraging for people in Mizunos" might get you in. Got it? You have to post your entry in the Runners Lounge forum (click on link above) by this Wednesday at 4pm Central Time. Here's the best part:

The winner gets a prize! Tom and Amy gave me the keys to the prize closet! OK, maybe not the keys, but Tom is opening it up and supervising while I forage for a gift for you! Get your entries in or I'll claim the prize.

P.S. - I'm flying solo on the LoungeCast this week. Should be interesting to see how much the Internet can take of my incessant rambling.

Birthday World Tour

I'm calling this photo "RazZDoodle Karma".

This is KidDoodle1. She turned 5 this weekend. Her crazed look was echoed by her father. 3 birthday parties in a span of 24 hours. One for KidDoodle, and 2 others for her friends. Each one strategically placed on opposite ends of our fair city. Oh well, she had fun.

I Ran a Marathon....the audio version.

Did you know that Vanilla and I ran a marathon? We did. And we're taking a few more punches out on that dead equine before we obsess over something else. Well, I'm over it, but Vanilla keeps mentioning it in his blog.

Tom over at Runners Lounge was nice enough to interview us and get our keen insight. Of course, I edited it, so I sound a helluva lot better than Vanilla.....which doesn't take much.

Enjoy!

I Like Flexible Women

In between stints of eating chocolate pie, skipping runs and editing podcasts, I managed to sign up for a race.

It's in honor of a very cool cat that just got a crappy diagnosis about her running. Seems Non-Runner Nancy will not be running because she's too damn flexible.

For those of you who may not know Nancy, she's one of the first bloggers I read on a regular basis. She kept me motivated when I started out and she gave me the sage advice of, "It's your blog. You can write about whatever you want to!" So you can either thank her or blame her for that. Anyway, she was the BEST at organizing virtual races. So, in honor of her I'm running the Freakishly Flexible 5K on Valentine's Day.

I think I can pry myself away from the pies to do that. Unless Village Inn is giving away free ones.

The point? SIGN UP NOW!! Let's honor flexible women everywhere.

Weekend Odds and Ends

Let me clear up some things from Friday's post. I'm not retiring, on hiatus, etc. I've been having a quality/quantity issue. I assure you that that internal debate has been put to rest. After this post, I'll leave it up to you to determine what I went for. I'm sticking with the bullets for now. They've been good to me.

Some things I noticed while skipping another series of runs:

• It's been awhile since I've hit the road...even the treadmill. It's even harder to wake up at 4:30am when I don't need to. So I don't. And then I get too busy after school to get out there. It's a slippery slope, folks. I need a race to train for or this could get ugly. The next thing you know, I'm sitting on the couch watching QVC, eating Cheetos out of the folds of my stomach and washing myself with a rag on a stick.
  
• I saw a ton of runners on Saturday (not literally). It was 55 degrees. I felt guilty, but I'm still clinging to the "I just ran a marathon and am in recovery" excuse.
  
• I rocked my marathon t-shirt on Saturday to subconsciously justify the above.
  
• Before doing some grocery shopping, KidDoodle 2 and I went in to Sports Authority and checked out the new Under Armour running shoes. Looking at them, they don't do much for me. They look clunky even though RW gave it a pretty decent review.
• While making some empanadas (yeah, that's right. I cook!) for yesterday's game, I hear Journey's Don't Stop Believin' on TV. I thought, "Wow, I didn't know Steve Perry came back to the band." He's not. It's this guy. Um, was anyone a little jarred by this? What's more disturbing, Journey with a new lead singer or the fact that I linked to an MTV "news" article?
• Springsteen is still one of the coolest cats on the freakin' planet.
• Great game. I was rooting for the Cards. Ben Rothlisberger is the ugliest, most impressive quarterback in the game today. Suck it, Peyton Manning!
• $3 million per spot to air those commercials? From here on out can we please stop overhyping the commercials? They were good, but I don't remember about 80% of the advertisers. Isn't that the point?
  
• I don't need 3 hours of Meredith Viera, Ann Curry, et. al blabbing on and on and on and on about the Super Bowl 3 hours before the 7 hour pregame show. I don't need them blabbing about anything, but that's a whole different post.

3 miles tomorrow morning. Hell or high water, folks.