Winter showers bring Spring…
…weeds. Lots and lots of weeds, as in my entire backyard overflowing with all types of weeds. Tall ones with yellow flowers, creepy-crawly ones with purple flowers, bushy-stickery ones with pinkish fuzzball flowers, and a variety of grasses. When they first started growing, they actually made the yard (which is basically a big old bare patch of dirt) look pretty good, but as time went by and they started to dry out and get scraggly, it began to look more than a little tacky. So in honor of Spring Break, I decided to break out the old "hula hoe" and take them on - speaking of which, I have to wonder who invented the "hula hoe" and if it's strictly a Tucson (aka - "The Old Pueblo") kind of thing. I don't remember ever running into one of these when I was a kid (though I did my fair share of weeding) and it really is a pretty clever contraption. Anyway, it cost me three days, lots of sweat, a couple of blisters, and sore abdominals (which makes me wonder if I should capitalize on this whole thing and churn out one of those exercise videos that seem to be so popular in today's day and age - instead of tae-bo or pilates or pole dancing or whatever type of workout they're offering now, this could be the "hula-hoe" workout, with the added bonus that you get a weed-free yard in addition to a stronger core). Bottom line is that I have finally managed to transform the big old bare patch of dirt that was overflowing with lots and lots of weeds back into a big old bare patch of dirt without any weeds - at least until the monsoon season hits.
Say it isn't so
If you read last week's installment, you may recall a certain little rant I went off on that had to do with Miley Cyrus and her serving as a mentor for "Americal Idol," and how I couldn't see that as a viable option for a variety of reasons which I won't get into here, because if I did, it would just be rehashing an old rant, and nobody wants that. On a related note, though, I was more than a little surprised to find out that within 48 hours of my posting last week's rant, Miley announced that she was giving up singing - apparently because the music industry wasn't positive enough for her. Wow! Imagine my surprise when I heard this news. I had no idea of the power I held at my fingertips. When they say the pen (or in this case, the keyboard, or maybe the digital universe - not sure what's the best way to phrase this phrase) is more powerful than the sword, I guess they're really not kidding. So I suppose the lesson I take from all of this (and one that I hope all of the millions of readers out there in cyberspace take as well) is that we all need to be very, very careful about what flows from our minds out into the universe, because the dire ramifications of the consequences that can follow are sometimes extreme and completely unexpected, and because of this, they can catch us all by surprise. Duly noted.
Ultra-Light
For those of you in the know when it comes to running long distances, you've most likely heard of a dude named Dean Karnazes who wrote a book about himself called "Ultra Marathon Man" in which he shared some of the amazing (and slightly insane) things he's done related to endurance sports (like running a marathon at the South Pole, or running 300 miles, or winning some of the crazy ultra-marathons like Badwater and the Western Open). Anyhow, with apologies to Mr. Karnazes, I've decided that my (as yet unpublished - and unwritten) autobiography should be entitled, "Ultra Half-Marathon Man," because I just completed my first "ultra half-marathon" this past week (actually, there really isn't such a thing as an "ultra half-marathon" but I think there should be because it's not only manageable for us mere mortals, but it's also kind of fun to run one - and it sounds really impressive even though it's not really all that big of a deal). What is an "ultra half-marathon" you ask? As stated above, it doesn't actually exist, but if it did, here's what it would be: any race where you go longer than a half-marathon, but it can't be a full marathon, and it also can't be a designated distance between a half-marathon and a marathon (like, for example, a 20-mile race - that would just be called a "20-mile race"). So the way I accomplished this was by signing up for the Arizona Distance Classic, which is a half-marathon (and which I ran as a Team in Training alum - thanks to the students in my classes who donated over $1,000 for the fight against cancer) but instead of driving to the start, which most people do, I decided to do what any other ultra half-marathoner would do and ran to the start instead. So I got up at around 4, left the house at around 5, and ran 10 miles to the start, then lined up for the start of the race and ran the half-marathon for a total of 23 miles. Since this was also my last long training run before Boston (2-1/2 weeks to go) my goal in the race was to run my slowest half-marathon time ever, which may sound a little strange, but if you know me, you know that once a race begins something crazy happens to me and I become this crazed person who runs as fast as he can rather than taking it easy and enjoying myself, and I didn't want to do that in this particular race because it was a training run and there was no reason to risk getting injured a couple of weeks before my marathon. So I figured tacking on the extra ten miles before the race would force me to slow down, and lo and behold, it actually worked. I stuck to my planned pace, I ignored all the people who passed me (people that I could have easily passed had I wanted to - just saying) took walk breaks every once in awhile, stopped to say hello to my wife and daughter at their water station, and generally had a very relaxed and pleasant run. And at the finish, I felt good - tired, but not completely spent like I sometimes am when I run really hard. So all that was good, and I'm now in the tapering (or peaking, depending on which term you like) phrase of my training, and I'm feeling ready to go.
Guess that's all for now, so until next time, may your accomplishments be ultra-magnificent, may your gardens remain weed-free, and may your phrases remain short and pithy.
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