Words of wisdom from my Dad

I could hear my Dad in the background, "She's nuts."

And he was probably right. I mean it was 92 degrees outside and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Most sane people would be running for the air conditioning, or at least a fan. Me? I was heading out for a 4.5 mile run.

My Mom had already scolded me. Told me I should have gotten my lazy butt out of bed at 5:30 a.m. in order to get the run in before it turned into an oven outside. But I'm quite fond of sleep. So 5:30 a.m.? Not my friend. After the scolding, Mom turned into the worrier. Did I bring water? Yes. And are you taking it with you on the run? Yes. And I even have an extra water bottle for once I'm done with my run. And remember, if you start to not feel well, stop. OK Mom, I got it.

Sigh. My parents. They've supported my crazy decision to run this half-marathon, even if they don't completely understand why I want to run 13.1 miles, just for the heck of it. And they listen as I complain about miles that I have to run or the brutal weather that I've had to run in. And my Mom has come out to watch me in all the races I've run so far this summer and will be standing along the race route come September. And although he hasn't said it, I'm pretty sure my Dad will be out there too. And they won't care if I come in first or dead last.

But as I was giving myself the pep talk today before I took off for my run, I had to agree with my Dad. His daughter, the girl who quit the middle school cross country team after one season, who spent her time on the tennis court during the fall sports season? There can only be one reason why she's decided that this running thing, especially when temperatures are hovering around 90, is fun.

"She's nuts."

Today, I couldn't agree with him more.

Oh yeah, the run itself? It wasn't too awful. Yes it was hot and yes the 4.5 miles felt like a gazillion miles. But overall, it wasn't too bad. I forgot to take my watch along, but I think I finished it in about 50 minutes, so my pace was just about what I normally run, even though I felt like I was walking at one point near mile 4.

The monthly page review

Considering how busy I was in July, I'm actually quite pleased with the number of pages that I turned.

During July, I finished four books for a total of 1,961 pages. Not bad considering I almost had a heart attack when June ended and a total of two books were read.

So what'd I read in July? Here's the list:

A Match Made on Madison by Dee Davis
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes by Joan Ryan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

That brings my total for the year to 31 books and 12,030 pages.

While the "TBD" notation has been getting way too cozy in the On Deck circle lately, have no fear, I have plenty of things to read. At the moment, I have a smallish stack checked out from the library and a large stack of books that I own that are still patiently waiting to be read, starting with "Water for Elephants" once I finish up "The Final Frontiersman."

It was so bad, I just hit repeat

If I was playing golf, I'd be taking a mulligan. If I was playing tennis though and just hit a dandy of a serve into the bottom of the net, I'd get a second serve. I'm not sure if Hal has a nifty word for it, but I do.

A do-over.

As in, I slacked so badly last week it wasn't even funny. So I'm repeating training week 7.

The week started off OK. I got in a nice leisurely 5 mile bike ride to watch the air show on Monday and followed that up with a 4.5 mile run on Tuesday. But after that? Yeah, I just marked up my training plan using the big ole fat Sharpie marker with the words L-A-Z-Y. Wednesday was horribly humid. So I didn't run. Thursday, I had good intentions, but then the radar told me it was going to start pouring and storming at any moment. Silly me, I believed the weather people. Too bad it took 2 hours before the first raindrops hit the pavement. Instead of making up a run on Friday, I felt it was a better use of my time to head north and have dinner with my parents. And Saturday, well, I spent the day walking around the EAA grounds and standing in awe, watching the Raptors.

So there was no way I was ready to attempt a 7-mile run on Sunday. Instead I opted for the do-over plan. I set off on the Wiouwash Trail with intentions to do a 6-mile run. But around mile 2.5, the EAA weary legs let me know that 6 miles just wasn't going to happen, so I opted for the 5.25 miles I got in. Which I was OK with.

Even thought it was 90 by the time I got home from work, I'm happy to admit that I still headed out for an 8 mile bike ride. And If I was smart, I'd set the alarm for 5:30 or 6 tomorrow morning to get in my 4.5 mile run before the mercury rises into the mid-90s and it gets humid. But since I'm having issues waking up before 7 lately, I'll probably leave the run until after work, and then complain about how brutal it was. Because that's what I do.

Hopefully this do-over week will go better than last week's awful first attempt at Week 7.

Did you just hear that?

They were so loud, the walls of the shack shook.

Yes my friends, today I finally got to see the F-22 Raptors, the newest fighter jet in the U.S. Air Force's fleet. It made my week long wait to spend a shift working at the EAA AirVenture Convention totally worth it.

And they were cool. And loud. And super fast.

Before I trained my eyes to the sky looking for the Raptors, I got a chance to listen to Maj. Paul "Max" Moga speak to the media. Moga's an Air Force pilot who gets to fly the Raptor. He said when he climbed into the cockpit, ready to take his first flight in the Raptor, which was solo since it's a one-seater plane, it was a mix of emotion. "I was half thrilled beyond belief that I was sitting there. The other half of me was so damn nervous that I was going to screw something up."

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the full Raptor demonstration today. This was mostly because the air space Moga was working with here was too small. So convention goers got a scaled down display of what the Raptor could do, including reaching speeds of Mach. Which was still cool. And loud. And fast.

"When they see the jet doing things they've never seen a combat jet do before, they think, it just isn't supposed to be able to do that," Moga told the media earlier today.

Exactly. A fighter jet, it's not supposed to be able to do stuff like fly straight up into the air and who knows what else, because I wasn't able to see everything it can do today. But check out this video and you can see some of the mind boggling things this plane is capable of.

But did I tell you it was loud? See for yourself, since the plane was flying way too fast for me to take a picture, I tried out the video function on my camera.

I've slacked...but I've got excuses!

The running thing? Not going so well this week.

Sure I got in Sunday's 6-miler and a 4.5 mile run on Tuesday, but since then, my running shoes have sat by my breakfast bar. Neglected.

Blame it on Mother Nature and work. Last night, I got home from work late, around 7ish and it was super humid and gross outside. So I gave myself the day off. Today, I came home and thought about going for a run, even though it was still incredibly humid. I flipped on the news to catch the weather and the radar was showing this blob of green, yellow and red moving towards the City on the Water. Me? I'm not a fan of storms, so I thought I better skip the run rather than end up on the trail, 2 miles from my car in a downpour featuring hail and lightning. If I had known the rain would take almost two hours to get here, I would have probably snuck a run in.

I'm crossing my fingers I'll be able to lace up the sneakers tomorrow.

I want to talk about Harry, but...

I'm not allowed to.

At least not until Krista's finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Because she's been known to frequent this blog and has threatened to hurt anyone who dares spoil the ending.

And have you seen her mean look? Scary. :)

So until she's finished all 759 pages, I'll wait. And maybe that's a good thing. Because what I finished reading yesterday, it's still swirling around in my head. And I'm not sure if I'd be able to string together coherent thoughts yet.

And I think the final installment of Harry's adventures deserve a decent, well-thought out post.

But I will say this, after I finished the last page, I closed the cover, sat it on the floor and went "Whoa."

I'm up already!

Now that's what I call an alarm clock.

It was just after 9 a.m. and I admit, I was already thinking of getting out of bed (come on, it's my last day of vacation) when I hear a roar.

A roar that steadily got louder and louder until I swear the stuff on my walls was shaking.

Then the roar died down. But it came back. Multiple times.

Gotta love the fighter jets that come to EAA's AirVenture Convention. And if today's any indication, I have a feeling I won't be late for work any day this week.

Apparently these fighter jets were of the F-15E variety. And they were loud. But I'm sure the F-22 Raptors, which come to EAA on Thursday, will be so much louder, and so cool.

But I'll make sure I'm awake and on the grounds by the time they show up.

Half-marathon training: Week 6

Well, I'm halfway through my half-marathon training program. And I must say, things are going pretty well.

Today I logged my second 6-mile run. I was a bit slower than last week, about 5 minutes, but I also think I ran a little bit farther this week. Last week I skipped the smallish hill right around the mid-point of my run and headed back to the car. This week, I sucked it up and ran uphill. It wasn't much farther, maybe a quarter of a mile, but still, it was farther.

So today's run. It went OK. I got to try out my water bottle thingy I bought and I was very pleased with my purchase. The 21-ounce bottle held enough water for me not only to drink, but also squirt over myself when I started to get really hot around mile 5. I made decent time during miles 1 through 3, but I think I slowed down a bit during the second half of the run, but I'm OK with that. And I only took one 40-second walk break today, around mile 5.5.

The rest of my training went pretty well this week too. I got in two 4-mile runs and a 3.1 mile run in addition to two bike rides. Total mileage this week was 22 miles on the bike and 17.4 miles of running. Not bad.

Only 62 more days to go.