PLANET3RRY

For someone who loves to manipulate numbers, I sure have slacked on my Running Log numbers. I have a bunch to enter into BuckeyeOutdoors (the web’s premier Workout Log Website) and I am not even sure what I actually ran in January, much less most of 2009. Perhaps I can find it before the end of this post.

My last blog entry was the calendar for 2010 of what I want to run, what I may run and the things that I plan on running. Obvious I can’t do it all… there’s just not enough of me to go around. Plus, the cost for all of this would be outrageous!

I wasn’t sure, at first, what I wanted to do for a Spring Race. I am once again volunteering for the Knoxville Marathon and am staying as a course monitor this time and not a pacer. Perhaps in the future I might be ready to be a pacer again, but I’m going to be on the course this year. Without a clear Marathon to choose from, I looked toward a shorter distance… I thought perhaps I could work on the shorter distances, maybe even go for a new 5k PR time. I wasn’t quite exited about that, at least not in the spring, perhaps summer/autumn time. So that left me, with what to run?

The local racing scene here has a Winter series that culminates with the Knoxville Marathon distance. The first race is the Calhoun’s 10 miler, then Strawplains 1/2 marathon and then late-late February/Early March is the Whitestone 30k. So, it seemed to make sense to shoot for a goal race with some distance to it. And looking at the calendar, the Rittenhouse/Emory River Half-Marathon (don’t have an event URL yet) on 4/24 seemed to fit the bill perfectly. It’s far enough in the future to get some good workouts on my feet and it’s a (relatively) short enough distance to build up speed during that time.

The Summer months will be a periodization of shorter but faster work-outs. One, the weather is much too hot for the longer distances and the shorter workouts will also keep things interesting (I love the Ladders!). As the fall approaches, the race that I love to do is the Quad Cities Marathon… one, it’s really close to my birthday at the end September, plus I have a lot of family in the Quad Cities on my Late Biological father’s side. They know that I run and I am sure that I am a maniac… and they would be correct! The marathon runs through Moline, Il and Davenport/Bettendorf IA and Mile 20 is on Rock Island Arsenal… in fact its’ really close to the cemetery that Bob Tripp is buried. So this race has some very unique ties to it… but it doesn’t sit well with the school schedule and traveling to it, etc.

I have every intention of Running the Flying Monkey Marathon again this year! This year, I am registering EARLY to avoid having to worry about getting in! I’ll be bib #438 and will be shooting for a time 4hr 38min or faster! It’s not a race for the timid… if the Hills don’t kill you, the Flying Monkey’s sure will!

I could do both marathons, the Quad Cities (Late Sept) and then Flying Monkey (mid-Nov), but if I couldn’t do that combo… then I’d like to do Rocket City in Mid December. It’s 4hrs away and a little easier on the logistics. Where as a marathon PR at Flying Monkey would be difficult, I think a PR time at ROcket City would be doable, especially, if I could get serious about training in the Fall.

The other marathons highlighted are ones that might be able to make, if the timing works out.

On the morn of the day after I write this, I have the Whitestone 30k… a 18.7 mile run around some non-so-friendly hills around these parts. Should be fun… wonder how far I’ll get before I wear out. Maybe mile 11, maybe mile 18.6… who knows? To make things even more exciting, I had a stomach bug on Friday, that purged my system… which is nice because that’s less weight that I’ll have to carry, but it tends to dehydrate an individual. So we’ll see… I was going to have a Guess My Time, Win Crap contest, but honestly, I don’t think it would be fair to anyone right now… I’ll have it for some of the races this spring though… don’t you worry…

This is what I want to run for this year (well, considering that I am FINALLY posting it near the end of February):

Legend:
The Races in BOLD are the ones that I have every intention on doing
The Races in GREEN are ones where I have a Time Goal in mind for that race
The Races in YELLOW are Marathons that I would contemplate doing if the logistics worked out
The other Races are ones that I would like to do, but I probably won’t because of time & cost, but I may volunteer at them

Local Knoxville area races can be found at the KTC Website
US Marathons can be found in a number of places, I usually go to Marathon Guide.com

Or in my case: Strollers Broke!

We purchase a double stroller for the kids back in 2007, which I have taken on a number of different runs with me (including the 2007 and 2008 Worldwide Half Marathon) and some family excursions. Here’s a picture of the kids in the stroller on the 3rd Creek Greenway sometime in 2008.

We Like Running with Daddy

Well, on January 16 when I took the kids out on Third Creek Greenway from the Bearden Entrance to Tyson Park (2.5 miles one-way) where they can play on the nice big City of Knoxville playground. On the way back, I noticed that with about 1 mile to go, the stroller wanted to pull to the right. This was odd because The Elder was sitting on the left side and Vector Theory would suggest that it would pull to the left. I thought that it might have been a tire issue, with the right back tire having less pressure (thus creating more friction) and slowing that side down.

When we got back to the parking lot, we went over to look at the map of the Greenway and I showed the kids, where we were and where we went, etc. Then, when I went to leave, the kids seat dropped… how odd.

Getting back to the van, I took a closer look at the stroller and found a couple of places where it had broken:

EGADS! It’s pretty DARN broken there at the weld. I am not sure that even Duct Tape could fix it at this point. Looking at it with an engineer eye, I figured that it could be disassembled and the broken tubes could be replaced. I thought that the manufacturer would be able to supply the pieces for me, either for free or for a low-low cost.

So, I went hunting for the Dreamer Design website…

The first site that I found was for Stroller Ideas, where the had this to say about Dreamer Design Strollers…

“Dreamer Design does just that “Dreams to Design”. With years of Jogging Stroller experience behind their creative team, they have taken all the requests from parents over the years and turned them into an AWESOME stroller line. They back up our product line with a 20 year warranty and include features that no one else offers. The extra foot brake for added safety and the all weather canopy included with the purchase, just to name a few. From their creative research team to our customer service staff, your buying a name that says quality and strollers from the heart.”

and then when I went to the

Dreamer Design website… this is what is there:

Yeah! So now I am screwed! I can’t get any help from the Manufacturer… there are “no” spare parts. I’d basically have to buy a used one and gouge that one for parts, or just buy a new stroller. It totally sucks! The little glimmer of Optimism’s Flame is that now that The Younger can ride his bike, I can him with me on shorter runs. There is also the possibility of using a “not-really-for-running” stroller for The Elder while the The Younger follows behind. But the traffic on 3rd Creek is a little too much for them right now.

I have UPGRADES to planet3rry.com
I have POSTS partially typed
I have POSTS in my noggin
but your going to have to wait… but not too long!