Well, my dreams of brown Christmas.....and a brown winter altogether have been utterly crushed by Mother Nature. Granted, November 17th is pretty damn late for our first real snow here, but I was holding out the slim hope that there wouldn't be a first snow. Of course, I probably have a better chance of winning the Powerball 10 times in a row than that happening, but one can hope anyway. Getting myself in shape for the Bighorn 50 would be so much easier if I could actually run trails all winter long (I'm not hardcore enough to strap on snowshoes and give er hell).
So, not a ton of miles last week, mostly due to two days off on the weekend while I was back in Missoula with some old college buddies watching a little Griz football and drinking a lot of beer. And I do mean "old"....we all called it a night by about 8:30 on Saturday. But of course, we started at 10:00 that morning, so it was a long day. Still, I don't remember that stopping us back in our college days. In any case, I ran 40-some miles during the week (I honestly don't even know off the top of my head...it was less than 50 though), including a good 8 mile on the Centennial Trail and a surprisingly fast 11.6 on roads the next day. Hoping to get back over 70 this week, but this damn weather isn't helping...well, it's not really hurting either (it's not THAT bad), just making motivation a little harder to come by.
The big obsession this week is Griz football. It's Griz-Cat week, the most important week in the football year if you're from Montana. Of course, there's smack flying back and forth pretty fast and furious between Griz and Cats. Much more often than not (69 times compared to 38, to be exact), the Griz win this game, but this year is a little different. This time it's the Cats sitting in position to win the Big Sky and the Griz maybe needing a win to secure an at-large playoff berth (they might get in with a loss and a 7-4 record, but would definitely get in with a win). If it weren't for the fact that the game is in Missoula, the Cats would probably even be favored, which is just damn odd. I have faith, though, that the Griz will make it 5 in a row and 21 out of the last 24. Up with Montana!! In honor of Griz-Cat week, here are a few of the better jokes that have been floating around Facebook this week:
How do you get a Bobcat cheerleader into your dorm room?......Grease her hips and push like hell.
Why do Bobcat grads put their diplomas on the dash of their cars?....So they can qualify for handicap parking.
Why is a dollar bill better than a Bobcat?....You at least get four quarters out of a dollar.
Why don't they serve ice at Bobcat Stadium any more?.....The senior who knew the recipe graduated.
Give em hell, Griz!!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Catching up
Believe it or not, I am still alive. It's been over a month since I posted here. Not really sure why, just been lazy (about posting, anyway). So, time to get back at it.
Running has been going pretty well. I've managed to get back up to 70 miles per week a couple of times and have started getting long runs in (which significantly helped in achieving 70 mpw) the last four weeks. Most of those long runs have gone very well, but I did run an 18 miler last weekend that was a struggle. Not sure why, but my legs died on me at the halfway point, but I was 9 hilly miles from home and had no choice but to keep plugging. But then yesterday I ran a 16 miler where my legs still felt fresh when I was done. The mysteries of running....
This past weekend I wrapped up 3rd place in the men's open division of the Black Hills Trail Running Series....and I didn't even run. I had accumulated enough points throughout the summer that I was assured of 3rd in the series going into the last race. Still, I would have run the final race but my son's football team was playing in the league championship (more on that later) at the same time so I was at the game instead (which was MUCH more nerve-wracking than any race I've ever run). I won the men's open division last year, but only missed one race. I missed a few this year, which hurt my chances of repeating so, really, third is about as good as I could've hoped for.
Back to football, this year my son played for the first time in the Black Hills Youth Football League. There isn't a team in Belle Fourche, so he played for the Spearfish Rams mitey mite team (6-8 year olds). The league had 6 teams in the mitey mite division and the Rams finished the regular season with a 5-1 record. Their one loss came on the last week of the regular season to the Rapid City Steelers, a team they had beaten in the first week of the season (which turned out to be the Steelers' only loss of the season). So, it was pretty clear that the Rams and Steelers were the best two teams in the league. The top 4 teams advanced to the playoffs, where the Steelers beat the Bears and the Rams beat the Broncos to advanced to the Super Bowl. Everyone was expecting a good game and it definitely lived up to it. The Rams took a 12-0 lead early in the 3rd quarter, but the Steelers managed to pull within 12-6 at the end of the 3rd. The game ultimately came down to the final minutes when the Rams stopped the Steelers on 4th down with a couple of minutes remaining, but then couldn't convert enough first downs to run the clock out. So, on 4th and short from deep in their own territory with only 13 seconds left, the Rams opted to intentionally take a safety and run the clock down as much as possible. That left 5 seconds on the clock, the score was now 12-8 and the Rams had to kickoff. The kickoff was immediately covered, leaving the Steelers with one play to score from about 40 yards out and 3 seconds left. The ensuing pass attempt was knocked down and the Rams were champions! Pretty exciting to say the least. One thing I know for sure is that it's much, much harder watching a game like that from the stands, as a parent, than it is actually playing the game. I was in some pretty close, intense games in high school and never once did I feel as nervous then as I felt watching that game on Saturday. Now I know how my mom felt during all those football games I played in.
So, there are the highlights from my last month plus in a nutshell....hopefully they'll come more frequently from now on.
Running has been going pretty well. I've managed to get back up to 70 miles per week a couple of times and have started getting long runs in (which significantly helped in achieving 70 mpw) the last four weeks. Most of those long runs have gone very well, but I did run an 18 miler last weekend that was a struggle. Not sure why, but my legs died on me at the halfway point, but I was 9 hilly miles from home and had no choice but to keep plugging. But then yesterday I ran a 16 miler where my legs still felt fresh when I was done. The mysteries of running....
This past weekend I wrapped up 3rd place in the men's open division of the Black Hills Trail Running Series....and I didn't even run. I had accumulated enough points throughout the summer that I was assured of 3rd in the series going into the last race. Still, I would have run the final race but my son's football team was playing in the league championship (more on that later) at the same time so I was at the game instead (which was MUCH more nerve-wracking than any race I've ever run). I won the men's open division last year, but only missed one race. I missed a few this year, which hurt my chances of repeating so, really, third is about as good as I could've hoped for.
Back to football, this year my son played for the first time in the Black Hills Youth Football League. There isn't a team in Belle Fourche, so he played for the Spearfish Rams mitey mite team (6-8 year olds). The league had 6 teams in the mitey mite division and the Rams finished the regular season with a 5-1 record. Their one loss came on the last week of the regular season to the Rapid City Steelers, a team they had beaten in the first week of the season (which turned out to be the Steelers' only loss of the season). So, it was pretty clear that the Rams and Steelers were the best two teams in the league. The top 4 teams advanced to the playoffs, where the Steelers beat the Bears and the Rams beat the Broncos to advanced to the Super Bowl. Everyone was expecting a good game and it definitely lived up to it. The Rams took a 12-0 lead early in the 3rd quarter, but the Steelers managed to pull within 12-6 at the end of the 3rd. The game ultimately came down to the final minutes when the Rams stopped the Steelers on 4th down with a couple of minutes remaining, but then couldn't convert enough first downs to run the clock out. So, on 4th and short from deep in their own territory with only 13 seconds left, the Rams opted to intentionally take a safety and run the clock down as much as possible. That left 5 seconds on the clock, the score was now 12-8 and the Rams had to kickoff. The kickoff was immediately covered, leaving the Steelers with one play to score from about 40 yards out and 3 seconds left. The ensuing pass attempt was knocked down and the Rams were champions! Pretty exciting to say the least. One thing I know for sure is that it's much, much harder watching a game like that from the stands, as a parent, than it is actually playing the game. I was in some pretty close, intense games in high school and never once did I feel as nervous then as I felt watching that game on Saturday. Now I know how my mom felt during all those football games I played in.
So, there are the highlights from my last month plus in a nutshell....hopefully they'll come more frequently from now on.
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