I get paid to be happy and right so it's generally easy for me. Oh, but in my personal life? I am generally just happy. Got a cab the other day from the airport to the ferry and the cab driver was a Somalian whose English was not so good. On the way I called Riblet and talked to him a bit. The Saint was at a school meeting. I said, "If you get lonely, you can always call your brudder. He loves it when you call him." After I hung up, the driver said to me, "Do you mind if I ask you a question? I am trying to learn English. What is this word 'brudder' that you used?" I had to explain that it isn't a word at all in the normal sense, but my son's pronunciation of the word 'brother' when he was very small. In our family it stuck and your brothers are just naturally your brudders. I imagine all families have such words. Well, Riblet is a Catholic too, and before I run today I am going down to Mass as he is the lector and I want to show some support. I know he will do a good job. I hope there is no passage where anyone addresses their brothers however. Roch I posted something for you on fred's 50+ today. Go get 'em Peter. Spareribs

We made it to another Friday! from yesterday... runningindc- Stop that now before you break your leg and get your eye poked out! Thanks for the incident update. How is the foot today after your sprint in your dress shoes? breger- we want more of the hot tubbing details! tallrunner, soundrunner- best wishes to your new beginnings! Jeanne- continued success with yours! Good words there. CNY- nice job with the field trip, "Mom". That "Wired to Win" presentation sounded awesome! I hope it's still playing during the weekend of the marathon, I would like to check it out. Great job on your run afterwards. Twocat- well done on the double yesterday. I'm glad your calf is semi-behaving. I would send you those extra 5 degrees if I could, but then can I also send you the wind we get, especially when it howls off the bone chilling water this time of year? deez4boyz- oye, that's scary about the incident in government center. I've been to Boston enough times to be able to visualize the area you are talking about, and it kinda brings you eerily closer to events like that when it happens. When you're 20 years old though, you have this feeling of invincibilty. I hope your talks get past his ears and into his brain. I'm happy to hear you were able to get a run in. And I'm glad the surgery went well. dtoce- that was hard and I'm gonna' suck at the marathon I know you are a very smart and talented person, but when did you add being able to predict the future to your list of talents? My guess is you are tired from working and training hard. Right now is when all the weeks of training begin to catch up with you. It's normal. Hang in there for the next couple of weeks, and then with your taper, it'll all kick in. The key right now is to stay focused and HEALTHY! PJH- how nice to be able to do speedwork with a group. Those efforts are tough, and it's good to have the boost that running with a group often provides. You've been getting some hard workouts in, it's no wonder your resting heartrate is up. Good job with the run. from today CNY- thanks for getting us started. It's no surprise that you slept soundly last night, given your previous days activities. Nice run this morning! I hope your afternoon one is just as good or better. perchcreek- nice way to start your day! Roy- great run! Wait till your trail conditions improve, or you get out on the roads... you will probably gain a minute per mile with your pace. Holly- yeah, you don't want to be moving in April! I'm sure if you tell the buyers that you have a big race that month, they'll understand. Have a great time tonight, give us a report on the concert. I bought myself a great CD for Xmas of various Celtic music, love it. Sarge- running in the AM works because you are almost done with your run before you finally wake up and realize how nuts it is. Good luck with the bloodwork to day. biketm- pretty darn good run given your cycling outing earlier! Your fitness level and ability to recover is very impressive. derrick- I hope you nail your 20 miler later! Peter- you are SO ready for this marathon! Safe travels and good luck! Run a smart race! Tallrunner- have a fun race tomorrow. I hope the weather cooperates. nonoruns- I guess you got some sleep last night? Gotta love those runs where the numbers at the end surprise you. Soon enough you'll be rewriting the "norm" yet again. Keep up the great work. Tramps- good move giving yourself some recovery time after your race. I'll bet that pear tree looks great in bloom, white flowers? I grew up with two pear trees in the yard, it was great to finish up with a workout and go pluck a fresh pear from the tree to eat after. hopeful4ever- I can't imagine why Brinkley was so pooped yesterday! I smiled reading about your night out! Awesome, and I'll bet your mom enjoyed it as much if not more than you did. Good memories. rochrunner- cycling is a good hip exercise, and a great supplement to running. Hopefully you can find a balance of both things that works for you. Ribs- were you the fodder and the Saint the mudder? There was a 1982 movie called "Hanky Panky". I never saw it, but one of my "buddies" stuck a bumper sticker from the movie on my car that said "I Love Hanky Panky". One day in a gas station, the attendant of presumably middle eastern origin asked me "what is Hanky Panky"? How do you even begin to answer that one? lyndenrunner- you're a machine! Yes, TGIF, and I hope the weekend is better for your daughter and pooch. Today's Pooh-ism: “You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.” Today's run was a 9 miler with 2x3miles at tempo pace, with a 1/2 mile recovery in between. It's during workouts like this that the usefulness of having a Garmin really shines. You pre-program it to tell you when to start and stop your intervals, and whether you are within your target pace zone or not. Of course, if it's pitch black out so that you can't see the readout, and if you are deaf, as I am, to the tones that it emits so you can't hear the warning beeps, then all of that fancy stuff means nothing! Luckily I knew the mile marks on my route today, so I ended up going by that. It was a hard workout. Harder than it should've been. In fact the key workouts this entire week have been tough runningwise. Aches and pains are starting to pop up. The demons of doubt are creeping into my brain. This is the period in marathon training that are called the "monster weeks". Weeks and weeks of miles are starting to take their toll on the body and the mind, and right about now are the peak mileage and intensity weeks of the program. Most injuries show themselves during this time. Your body's resistance is low so it's not uncommon to get sick right about now. It gets harder to get psyched for your runs. If you can survive this period, and make it to your taper, you're usually good to go for your race. I'm struggling and falling prey to those doubts, and next weeks schedule is even tougher than this weeks. Looking back at my previous marathon's training, the exact same thing happened at the exact same point in the program, and everything worked out ok for the race. I need to keep reminding myself of that. There are days and weeks when having bad runs simply don't count. Enjoy your Friday everyone. Make today better than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.

We made it to another Friday! dtoce- that was hard and I'm gonna' suck at the marathon I know you are a very smart and talented person, but when did you add being able to predict the future to your list of talents? My guess is you are tired from working and training hard. Right now is when all the weeks of training begin to catch up with you. It's normal. Hang in there for the next couple of weeks, and then with your taper, it'll all kick in. The key right now is to stay focused and HEALTHY! Today's Pooh-ism: “You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count.” Today's run was a 9 miler with 2x3miles at tempo pace, with a 1/2 mile recovery in between. It's during workouts like this that the usefulness of having a Garmin really shines. You pre-program it to tell you when to start and stop your intervals, and whether you are within your target pace zone or not. Of course, if it's pitch black out so that you can't see the readout, and if you are deaf to the tones that it emits so you can't hear the warning beeps, then all of that fancy stuff means nothing! Luckily I knew the mile marks on my route today, so I ended up going by that. I was a hard workout. Harder than it should've been. In fact the key workouts this entire week have been tough runningwise. Aches and pains are starting to pop up. The demons of doubt are creeping into my brain. This is the period in marathon training that are called the "monster weeks". Weeks and weeks of miles are starting to take their toll on the body and the mind, and right about now are the peak mileage and intensity weeks of the program. Most injuries show themselves during this time. Your body's resistance is low so it's not uncommon to get sick right about now. It gets harder to get psyched for your runs. If you can survive this period, and make it to your taper, you're usually good to go for your race. I'm struggling and falling prey to those doubts, and next weeks schedule is even tougher than this weeks. Looking back at my previous marathon's training, the exact same thing happened at the exact same point in the program, and everything worked out ok for the race. I need to keep reminding myself of that. There are days and weeks when having bad runs simply don't count. Enjoy your Friday everyone. Make today better than yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.

well said, Bob...I agree with you that cumulative training load at this point in the marathont training block puts people at risk and we have to be confident and do our best to get the workouts done as well as rest enough/eat enough/sleep enough...don't let self-doubt creep in at this point...it's normal. (Remember to take good care of yourself for the next couple of weeks, 'K? Especially when running deaf in the dark...) I was reminded of this by my DW and several others today. Thanks for your reminder, too. And nice workout for you, btw. Boston's looking good for you. I am in agreement that HR monitors are terrific for MP and tempo training. Takes all the guesswork out of it and does allow for longer workouts without the risk of running too fast...Nice. Stay strong!

Add me to the morning runners for once! Very unusual, as I am NOT a morning person. But I'm meeting a friend for lunch, and have an errand after work, so morning was my only option. (Note: I never considered that not running was an option - I guess I'm truly addicted. ) It snowed last night at home, but I drove to a trailhead near work, and there wasn't any snow in the flatlands. My car kind of stuck out at the trailhead with snow all over it. I got to the trailhead at 6:40 and it was still dark, but starting to get light. It was 40 degrees so I left the hat and gloves in the car, but I think it got colder after the sun came up because my hands were really cold the last mile. Anyway, about 9.3 miles in about 1:35 - I guess I really do need a Garmin so I can be more specific! It was actually nice to be out running early for a change, but I'm not sure I'll make it a habit. Only in the summer when it's too hot during the day and I don't have time in the evening. We're lucky to have a shower at the office, so running before work or at lunchtime is no problem. Good luck to the weekend racers, and to all of you training for spring marathons who are hitting the "monster weeks." I'm not training for anything specific, although I'm kinda sorta thinking about a May or June half. This morning on my run, I was pondering why I'm ramping up my long runs - just to see if I can? To see if longer distances get more comfortable as I get more used to them? Because I'm a compulsive over-achiever? I really like running for about an hour; maybe because that's what I'm used to, since I usually run at lunch. Should I keep increasing my long runs and do a half? Or should I just keep running for fun, and go however far or fast I feel like on any given day? Hmmm.

I'm not much of a gadget runner these days. I don't care what my heart rate is. And if I can guess distance within a few tenths of a mile I am fine. But today is PI day (3/14) and I wanted to run 3.14 miles. So I dug around in my junk drawer, pulled out my old Garmin Forerunner 101, put in a couple new AAA batteries, and headed out for a run. I wasn't anywhere near a mile when my watched gave me a beep. I looked and saw I had it set on km's and not miles. I had to make a choice. I could run 3.14km and call it a day, but this my first time running outdoors in shorts in 4 or 5 months so I kind of wanted to go 3 miles. So I did math in my head while running and decided 5.05km would be close enough. It's not like I can draw a perfect circle anyway.

Cool. Pi day, I had forgotten...well, I guess I'll go for a pi run later... Our household had a contest to memorize pi-it started years ago as I have been known to quote it foro 10-15 digits and my kids just rolled their eyes, but then there was an article in the paper about someone memorizing it to an umbelieveable number and we had the article printed so now both my kids and my DW (and I) can quote it to the 100th digit...heh heh...yeah, we're real party animals in the dtoce household... and nice run Dave, even if it wasn't a whole circle-it was close...

Cool. Pi day, I had forgotten...well, I guess I'll go for a pi run later... Our household had a contest to memorize pi-it started years ago as I have been known to quote it foro 10-15 digits and my kids just rolled their eyes, but then there was an article in the paper about someone memorizing it to an umbelieveable number and we had the article printed so now both my kids and my DW (and I) can quote it to the 100th digit...heh heh...yeah, we're real party animals in the dtoce household... and nice run Dave, even if it wasn't a whole circle-it was close...

I used to make my kids crazy knowing pi to 3.141592654 but 100 digits, Doc...sheeesh! I remember that article you speak of..."reminds me of Rain Man" Fran

Here is one of my favorite new sayings. "Would you rather be happy or rather be right" I find that I and many others are simply expressing ego or trying to express our knowledge when telling someone they are wrong, or pointing out the error of their ways. Everyone is so much happier and supportive when you don't tell them they are wrong. Of course, sometimes you have to fight for your rights or teach people certain things but in your day to day try to catch yourself when your being assertive and see if it's for you or your ego. Happiness is the way to go Tall

Tall, I'm enjoying your sayings. I caught myself the other evening trying to be right, but it cost me happiness, at least for a bit. My wife and I got into a brief and very minor discussion about an issue. I made sure that I was right, but it was my ego getting in the way...just as you mentioned. I look back on that and see I could've chosen to be happy rather than right. Speaking of being happy, here is another beautiful saying.... There is no way to happiness.......happiness is the way. Good runs to all today.

. (Hey, maybe I'll even feel a little taller...) ...

hey...don't forget the strong and beautiful part...they all go together sistahh Great descriptions about this late stage in marathon training. Don't we all feel those emotions at one point or another during marathon training? We must all remember that we, marathon runners, are a special breed and that the race we have chosen is not an easy quest...it is our Everest...and only thru determination and hard work we will get there. Hey, just the fact that we decided to train for one speaks loudly of our warrior spirit. Let us keep focusing in the race ahead and on how much fun we are going to have come "victory" day.