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We’ve got ice dams. Like really bad ice dams. Realized it yesterday evening when the GFI in the downstairs bathroom kept tripping, and I found water dripping in the baby’s closet. Crap.

I tried climbing up to the roof to break them down – Uh, no. Sorry. Maybe I’ll swing by EMS tomorrow and pick up some crampons, or by Home Despot and grab a 20′ ladder to reach one of the non-suicidal pitches of my roof, but I the climbing was not happening.

So I spent part of tonight drilling holes in the ceiling and arranging twine and buckets to catch the runoff. Oh, yeah! But patching a small hole is going to beat replacing drywall in the spring. I climbed into the attic, too, to see if I could see the source of the leak – no dice, which means almost certainly that it’s pushed up the shingles near the edge of the roof. Guess this means I’m installing more soffits next summer.

In any case, helplessness and frustration got the better of me (and the boy pulled his all-time worst stunt ever just prior to bath time – I’d document it, but I’d rather just pull it out for his dates in high school), so I headed down to the Y to take out my issues on my body.

45 or so laps – 10-ish breast, 2 sets 10 free, 1 set 5 free with speed breathing pattern, 5 breast to stretch and cool-down, and a couple kickboard laps thrown in for good measure. Good times.

I was feeling kind of bad because the guy next to me was flying, and regardless of what I did, I was having a tough time keeping up. I saw him in the locker room after, and the dude was like 6’6″. So on every stroke he made, he was reaching a foot further than I could. Granted, I, sometime in the future, can probably make up the time by concentrating on turnover, but it was kind of amazing to watch. He also had the coolest flip/turn – When he did his flip, he’d slam his heels/calves into the water and make kind of a “boom” splash sound. Very authoritative.

My motion was much smoother than it was the last time – I didn’t feel like I was thrashing. Swimming seems to be a whole lot like yoga – all about form and repetition. Watching the tall guy swim, I could tell he was reaching further than I did. As a result, I concentrated on getting full extension with my arms, and could feel a speed increase without having to work any harder. On my last set of breast stroke, I concentrated on stretching my arms WIDE, and sweeping them back. Very relaxing.

Or how I learned to stop whining and love the jog

(Apologies for typos – there’s a couple of sticky keys on the machine I’m using, and I want to publish and go to sleep)

Best of intentions today to get out and enjoy near-melting temperatures. I really did have them. Except, once again, reality sets in, work becomes a priority, and I blow off running during the day. I was wrapped up by the afternoon, and probably could have snuck out on my way home, but my lovely wife had been strapped with both a big project for her job and her fourth day of being snowbound with the boys. We love them, but I really could feel for her – Jake’s pre-school was closed on Monday for snow removal, and his class at the Y was cancelled today for much-needed painting, etc. (Hopefully they’re bringing in a few new machines; the resolvers are sticking around longer than usual. Good on ’em)

So, after bath time, it was down to the basement again for another little while on the treadmill.

Plod plod plod plod plod plod – 9:30 pace for the Simpsons. It was the episode where Mr. Burns finds true love on Flag Day, but she runs off with Snake. Good start to the episode, but after a while it just drags.

So, I’ve made it through the Simpsons and still have a half-mile or so to go (fast-forwarded through the commercials). Next on the tape? Monday’s 24 (Noon – 1). The show’s been good up to this point, but not great. I think I enjoy it most for the government in-fighting. Finally, an accuate portrayl of turf battles. Although, I doubt anyone’d really scuffle if lives were on the line. In any case, the episode opens with Jack Bauer storming a terrorist stronghold to rescue the Secretary of Defense and Jack’s girlfriend. Oh yeah. Much of the first 10 minutes or so was shot to look much like a first-person-shooter video game, so much so that I was having flashbacks to hours playing Doom/Half-Life/whatever. Pretty stinking cool.

So I kicked up the pace a bit, and knocked out another mile plus at about 8:20 while Jack and SecDef killed bad guys and waited for the Marines to show up. Wow. Just wow.

Here’s what I’m wishing for – a treadmill that senses how fast you want to run, as opposed to how fast you tell it to run. I probably would have hit 8 minutes there for a while, but I didn’t want to click it up so high. Good stuff, though.

So confession time:

I totally blew my goals this week. I couldn’t bring myself to straddle the treadmill again. Well, that and I was feeling kind of under the weather – both boys have had a fever for a day, and runny noses, so I didn’t want to stress it. Well, that, and I was feeling lazy.

Overall, though, I did OK – an hour of shoveling the driveway today (~20″ total) works the arms, etc.

I also did about an hour of cross country skiing. There’s trails cut through the woods behind the houses on both sides of the street. And the snow rocked. It was nice, nice, nice. And godawful tough. The snow was deep.

Oh, well. One bad week does not a training program kill. I think I made the 21 days, though – it’s a habit.

Another cold day, another wenie 3 miles on the treadmill watchinng the Simpsons (Ah, the Simpsons – is there anything they can’t do?)

It wouldn’t be so bad, ‘cept I made fun of Chris for his non-running “evolution” – told him he was just trying to get out of the cold… Call it sweet hubris, I guess.

And ground out three filler miles on the treadmill tonight. Wasn’t pretty, but I got it done. So my capitulation over at April-Anne’s site was premature.

I think I’m going to set it as a goal for the year. Again, why not? It’s only an average of 20 miles/week, which becomes easy once I get back on the bike. I’m only about 12 miles short for the year, which is less than an hour of road biking.

This isn’t a serious goal like Mystic Places or Hartford, but it’s an interesting premise the more I think about it.

Sunday was the first cold, cold, cold day I’ve run outside. I’d say it was a mistake, ‘cept it was a run, I didn’t get injured, so how could it be bad?

Ran from the house in the afternoon in a vain hope that I’d catch warmer weather. Wrong-o. I was layered well on my torso, arms, and legs, and had good gloves. But I wasn’t prepared for how cold the wind on my face was. Next time, I’ll bring my fleece muffler.

Other than the chill, Sunday’s run was good. I hit the monster steep hill about a mile from my house, and had my first “gut check” in a while. Every fiber in my abs was screaming “Just walk it” for a bit, but I grunted and banged up it, then went slow till I caught my breath. Not so bad. Mile 1 – 9:10. Miles 2 and 3 were better. I turned to run with the wind, got back some feeling in my cheeks, and did both of them in about 8:30. Got to love the negative split, especially when it’s set up by running the first half uphill!

Hit the Y this morning to swim. Don’t know if I was still winded or what, but the swim did not feel right at all. Whatever rhythm I may have found last time left, and I was feeling rough. Ah, well. 30 laps, .75 miles.

For the year, I completed week 2 of the training program with no hiccups. One more week and it’s a habit!

Stats:
Mileage last week: 13.4 running, 1 swimming.
YTD totals: 25.7 running, 2.5 swimming (including today), 28.3 total, 971.7 to go

April-Anne asks “Why did you start running?”

My folks ran when I was a kid, and would drag my brother and I along (often quite literally kicking and screaming). But that doesn’t quite count as when I started running.

I ran a lot in OCS, but at first that was mainly due to the Marines chasing me. But somewhere along the route, something snapped. It was probably when I could actually keep up and shout at the same time without gasping for breath.

I would run occasionally during my time in the nuke power pipeline and while assigned to a submarine, but that was more giving into the “flight” part of the “fight or flight” response hardwired into us.

I started running while my lovely wife and I were training for the 2000 Disney marathon. I hit a point where I could do 5 miles without blinking, and I was hooked. We didn’t make it to the marathon – we decided to stop trying not to have kids, and almost immediately we were expecting, so I slacked off training in late October when the weather got nasty.

I’ve had a couple more stops/starts since then, but overall I’ve kept up with it, or at least with an intense desire to be out there.