Obligatory Post

• The comeback trail is now within sight. February 10 (Saturday the 11th probably makes more logistical sense, though) was the arbitrary date on which I decided I was going to end my month off. Getting sick hurt, but I've been trying to do a decent job w/the cardio; I've done well in getting back into the groove in lifting (I probably lifted more in December and January than I did in all the rest of 2011) ; and I'm looking forward to getting back on the road.
  
  
• We've now signed up for the Kelly St. Patrick's Day 5K in Baltimore. It's on March 11, the day of Baltimore's St. Patrick's Day Parade, not St. Patrick's Day itself. The 5K is a fun race albeit one with some crowd control problems, so I'm hoping that the legs are ok and that I can get myself back in some semblance of racing shape by then. Chris will have this 5K, and then on the following weekend will run both the 8K and Half at Virginia Beach.

• Not that I am usually full of brilliant or hilarious ideas for posts, but I'm completely out of ideas right now. Therefore, I'm going to be running my first-ever contest here on the blog, with an actual giveaway from an actual sponsor. People have to be willing to make fun of themselves a little bit, but I hope it will be fun. Stay tuned.
  

It's Fun to Stay at The...

As I mentioned in my last post, Chris and I joined a gym, the Harrisburg YMCA (I'll probably be at the West Shore branch almost exclusively), but I had yet to get myself over there until this morning, when I did 45 minutes on a stationary bike at about a 16mph clip.

I'm not really sure if that's good or not, I hit the "interval workout" button and started pedaling, and I don't have an accurate distance (about 12 simulated miles) or calorie count because I accidentally reset the workout after 20 minutes instead of pausing it. Still, it was good to get some cardio in and it didn't feel like I lost all my conditioning in the last three weeks like I pessimistically feared.

I'll probably mostly bike for all next week, and then mix in the elliptical, since I remember from the last time I had a real gym membership where I used cardio (2001-2003), that I burned more calories on the elliptical. I might see if there's a spin class that fits my schedule, and I'd like to swim once a week, too, but right now I'm happy to just have the monkey off my back.

I know what you're all thinking: "Brian, what about the mystery bump?" Mystery bump didn't bother me during the ride. I wore my compression socks, which I'm sure made me look very cool, and when I pulled them down after my ride to check on mystery bump, it wasn't initially visible at all but then quickly puffed to its full size, which is kind of disgusting to watch. This seems to indicate the compression socks are doing their job, and it also makes me wonder if I have/had some overtraining injury in my left leg unrelated to mystery bump, since these were the same compression socks I wore on my last run in Jamaica, where I had considerable pain in both legs. If it's something that's only going to bother me when I run, well, that's a problem, but I still have a few weeks before I should worry about that.

One of the challenges of riding a stationary bike or using an elliptical machine or treadmill is boredom. The scenery doesn't change, and there's not even the challenge of trying to keep from falling off the bike (I used to fall off NordicTrack all the time, though) or avoid getting hit by cars. At least on a bike I can read. With my Shuffle at fall blast and a magazine in front of me, it wasn't too bad.

Today, I had an issue of Running Times magazine, which Chris got me for Christmas. Running Times is published by Rodale, which also publishes the better-known Runner's World. That seemed odd to me, but at first read, it seems like Running Times is geared toward the more serious runner...in fact, it's probably a little too serious and technical for me even though I'm sure I'll learn a lot from it. Runner's World has a lot of useful stuff and good feature writing, but also a lot of fluff, in my opinion. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, but it means I get through an issue really quickly. Ideally, there would be a weekly (so I have constant reading while I'm using cardio machines) running magazine that's right in between the two in its level of seriousness. Get on that, Rodale.

Going Nowhere

I'm not a fan of the treadmill at all, to put it mildly. But with the remnant of Hurricane Lee parked over Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future, it becomes my best option for getting as many of midweek miles in this week.

I especially dislike our treadmill. It's rough on the calves and ankles and the speedometer and odometer seem to very inaccurate. (More on this in a minute). I'm probably being too harsh on a $350 treadmill from Bocov's, especially because it has been an extremely valuable part of my training during my first two years of running, when I was quickly driven indoors by the cold temperatures that I now crave.

Since it was pouring at 7:00am, when the always-reliable weather.com said there was "only" a 40% chance of rain, I decided to wait to see if I could catch a break in the weather in the afternoon, when it seemed there was another possible break at around 1pm, where the chance of precipitation dropped back down to 40% again. Again, pouring.

So, I hopped on the treadmill at my lunch break. Like I said, the speedometer and odometer seem very inaccurate. I run about a 10-minute mile pace -- 6mph. But on our treadmill, I go flying off the back if I set it at 6mph and used to run at 5.5. I hadn't used it in a year, and today I found that I was most comfortable and my stride seemed to most closely match my usual stride at 4.3mph. Though my PRs are faster, I am probably a little slower on average than I was in 2006-2008, when I used the treadmill more often, but that seemed ridiculous! In the past, when I've used a treadmill at a gym or hotel, I've been able to set it at 5.5 or 6mph and run comfortably. To be fair, those treadmills also probably cost thousands of dollars.

At any rate, today (and any other days this week I'm forced to use the Hamster Wheel) I assumed a 10-minute mile and ran for 40 minutes, considering my four-mile obligation to Hal Higdon to be fulfilled, even though I really moved less than two feet for the whole 40 minutes.

The rest of the week's schedule is 8 tomorrow, 4 on Thursday, and 15 on Saturday. There appears to be no chance of the rain stopping anytime soon, but there is also no chance of me staying on our treadmill for 1:20. I'll keep an eye on the forecasts, and hope that I can switch the two and get the 8 in on Thursday.

Hearts All Gone (Another Stupid Music Review Because I'm Boring)

I wasn't going to do another music review until either Van Halen put a record out or hell froze over. But, there's not much going on on the running front for another week or so, when I'll start my training plan, which will be worth a couple blog posts.

Otherwise it's pretty much been same route, same pace, with the only variation being how many adorable kitties I saw on my run. (On my most recent jaunt through Manchester and Mt. Wolf, I saw a mother cat watching over two baby kittens as they pounced at each other playfully. It was probably the most adorable thing I'll ever see on a run).

So...with not a lot else going on, here's "Hearts All Gone", the second song released from the forthcoming Blink-182 album, Neighborhoods.

Listen to "Hearts All Gone" here.

I really like "Up All Night." I stand by that. But this is more of what I think most long-time fans were hoping for. Noisy and fast, it sounds at first listen more like something from Dude Ranch or Enema of the State era Blink-182, but yet, it's not. It has a heavier sound to it and more serious lyrics. (It seems like each Blink-182 album got a little more serious. I'm wondering if we've seen the last of jokey songs like "What's My Age Again?" and "A New Hope".)

Mark Hoppus handles lead vocals; if Tom is providing any backing vocals at all, I sure can't hear him. That's ok with me -- I think Mark has a good voice. That said, I think Travis Barker steals the show on this one with the drums.

So far the two new songs we've got from the new album could hardly be more different from one another (and still be recognizably Blink-182 at least). I'm looking forward to getting my ears on the whole thing in September.

(This isn't Blink-182, but it was as close as you could get while they were on "indefinite hiatus.")