My Achy Breaky Foot

Here we are, exactly one month from the marathon, and I've been out of commission ever since. My foot still has this nagging case of tendinitis, forcing me to sit on the sideline against my will. Surprisingly it hasn't been as bad mentally as my injury last summer. I'm DYING to start running again but the withdrawal has been much more manageable this time. I guess because I reached my goal and I'm no longer pressed for time to train for my first marathon. I have gained 7 pounds though. I'm starting to get a little antsy too. There's a lot of exciting runs coming up, and I need to be out there training for them. Since I won't be running the full marathon at Cowtown in late February, hopefully I can help my friend train for his first half-marathon and run it with him. If not, I'd like to go up to Lake Texoma that weekend for a half-marathon trail run on a course that has a reputation for being very difficult. I'm halfway considering joining up with "Team In Training" to help raise money for Leukemia and earn an all-expense paid trip to Alaska where I would run a marathon with my team members and running coach. I'd have to raise $4400 which seems like a lot. The marathon is in June, so I'd have 6 months to do it, but I'm not real comfortable asking people for money. Especially since I just did last month. Another ambitious run is the Pike's Peak marathon in August that I would LOVE to do! You run up a trail to the summit and then back down. The difficulty of that challenge really wets my appetite! Anyway, there are plenty of local runs to train for, but these 3 are sort of the "big dogs" I'm thinking about. They may not be feasible logistically or financially this year, but maybe 2009.

I got a GPS watch for Christmas from Jennifer. It is awesome...except for the fact that I haven't even really been able to use it. It will allow me to step out the front door and just run wherever my feet want to take me. I will always know exactly how far I've been and I'll be able to back track if I don't remember how to get back home. It will also give me all kinds of stats like time, pace, calories burned, elevation changes, etc that can be uploaded into a computer program, which makes for a pretty sophisticated training log. Hopefully within the next week or two I can start using it.

We finally bit the bullet and got a new Dell computer. It is so awesome and was a great deal! Initially I selected a base model until I found a coupon code online that allowed me to save $350 if I spent $300 more! So...I beefed up everything a little, entered the coupon code and got a much better computer for the same price as the base model! How cool is that! Some of the highlights of the computer are the 19" widescreen flat panel, Vista Home Premium, upgraded sound card, and stand alone video card with dedicated memory - all of which are very, VERY cool! The coolest thing so far on Vista is the Windows Media Center. It lets you watch Internet TV for free, consisting of all sorts of current news reports and tv shows. It's like TV on demand! Instead of reading news articles or entertainment blurbs, you can watch short video segments! I can see society continuing to become more and more reliant on media and technology...maybe in 75 years we won't even need to learn to read anymore! HA!

With each of the last 3 presidential elections I have become more and more interested. This year I have actually been following the caucus and primary in Iowa and New Hampshire and I'm looking forward to Michigan. It's been interesting to see these candidates and know that one of them will be the next president of the United States. I will be voting republican, but I'm not sure who will receive my vote yet. If I had to guess, I think right now we will probably end up with a democratic president - UGH! I still need to study each candidate's stance on the key issues. I will say this - Hillary Clinton makes my skin crawl. I am not at all against a woman president, so long as it is Condoleeza Rice instead of Hillary Clinton! Too bad she's not running! And that Barack Obama - what an amazingly charismatic speaker! He could be the antichrist that unites everyone together! HA! I can see a lot of fence-walkers, or uninformed republicans deciding to vote for him because he's so likable and sounds so good in his speeches. However, despite not knowing much about his actual stance on key issues, I have to be skeptical because after all...he's a democrat. When he says he will provide a tax cut to the middle class, I'm not THAT gullible. One of two things will happen...he will either classify "middle class" as $20,000/yr income or less...or he will raise everyone else's taxes to offset it. Democrats don't lower taxes. I have heard that his plan to reduce health insurance premiums is supposed to be pretty good, but I'm not sure what his plan is. I'm sure it involves raising taxes though and making the government bigger. If anyone has a good website where I can study the candidates' views, please let me know!

There will be some GREAT football games this weekend! Both Green Bay and Dallas are in the divisional playoffs, so it will be very exciting! I also get to see if my prediction from about 4 weeks ago pans out. Call me crazy, but I think Jacksonville has a GREAT shot at beating New England! If their secondary can play well, their pass rush will knock Tom Brady off his game, making him mad. The Jags will control the game with a successful running attack (remember Baltimore vs New England?) and in the end, I think the Jags just might pull off the upset win! My Super Bowl prediction from 2 weeks ago...Jacksonville vs. Green Bay.

Work sucks. Seriously. Tomorrow is Thursday and I have already put in close to 40 hours this week - about 10 of which was from home. The market finally fell through its support line so we've been repositioning our accounts every day this week. On top of that, the guys from Indata (the software we have been trying to convert to for a year and a half...yes, I know...ridiculous, you're preaching to the choir) are in the office this week wanting to spend most of their time with me. Also, our transfer agent left a few weeks ago (ugly mess) so we are short-staffed and having to pick up her slack. So I've been reviewing resumes, interviewing, checking references, and discussing opinions with my boss all in between helping my trader buy/sell securities and hiding from the Indata guys! HA! All I really want to do is come home, play with the family, run, play with our new computer, run, and dream about what it would be like to enjoy my job!

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. I just need to heal so I can run again. Sure, I'd also like to be a better husband and father, read more books, eat better, etc etc...but running makes me feel content and I think makes me a better person overall.

One night last week when I was a bachelor, I went to the dollar movie ($1.75 now) and watched Saw 4. I love those movies!! Jenn and I watched the new Die Hard this weekend and it was pretty good. I want to find a cool DVD to watch on our new computer! Any ideas? It has dual optical drives - a DVD-Rom/CDRW and a DVD burner...not that I would burn DVDs or anything. ;)

The last UFC fights were awesome! My man Chuck Liddell won an INCREDIBLE fight against his toughest opponent ever. Also, Matt Hughes lost! He's a cocky dude and I don't like him.

I subscribed to a Quote of the Day service from Runner's World. Here are my two most favorite quotes so far -

"Run when you can. Walk if you have to. Crawl if you must. Just never give up" Dean Karnazes

"If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."

OK, I guess that's enough for this month...