Welcome to Flatville, life in 2D, and my tesseract

Carl Sagan told a story of life in Flatville, where the 2 dimensional inhabitants knew only length and width, there wasn't a 3rd dimension (height). Well, that is life in southern Minnesota farm country. But I'm finding the quiet flat roads challenging with the 25 to 35 mph sustained winds! But yesterday the heavens had pity on me, as the winds were mild. My morning ride was just over 100k.

So back to Flatville, where if by chance a 3 dimensional object would come into view, I wouldn't be able to describe it other than perhaps a UFO or other such unexplained phenomenon. I could perhaps concieve of a 2 dimensional representation of what the 3rd dimension might be, ala the tesseract (3 dimensional object representing the 4th dimension). But I'm stuck in this vortex of reality for the near future.

Journalism 101, Don't bury the lead. I'm in this land because my Mother fell and broke her hip. Surgery went great, she's doing fine, and prognosis is excellent. She'll be coming home from the hospital in the next few days, and I'm here to help however I can.

My mom is 91 1/2 years old, and she's my inspiration to dream big, respect the neighbors, but live life loud! Hurry up and get well Mickey! I love you.

How not to run a 1/2 marathon

Last Saturday I ran the New Prague 1/2 marathon, finishing in 2:10. I did the first mile in 8:18, and was under 34:00 minutes at 4 miles. My 5th mile was about 9 minutes, and that's when I "blew up". Years ago I could have easily held that pace, but not this year. I had to walk, and the rest of the run was at 10 and 11 minute mile pace (ouch!).

But....I kept telling myself it was good training, to have gone out too fast, and then be forced to keep going. I wanted to quit at mile 6, but still had 7 more miles to go! Hundreds of people passed me, as I shuffled along, wishing it was over.

This reinforces what I need to do. Up the intensity of workouts. I'd rather run 1 mile at 7:00 pace, than 10 miles at 9:30. So today at Bally's I ran fast mile, 1/2 mile, 1/4's on intervals. Once or twice a week I'll do intervals, and lots of steady tempo stuff. Then, hopefully, those 8:30 miles will come real easy. We'll see.....

Lake Minnetonka RR, and now May we pump up the volume?

Last week was recovery week, this week More is More!

LM 1/2 marathon: Perfect weather, fantastic course, loads of people, and tons of fun! Yes, it was fun, even with all the hills. In fact, LM 1/2 is hardly ever flat. It's a series of undulating ups and downs for 13.1 miles. Even had to climb a 2 tier steep hill at the end, but got the a fun short downhill and tight turn to the finish.
Very conservative beginning, low HR and easy breathing. Picked up the last mile, and felt strong. My mile times were:
9:37, 9:37, 9:32, 9:31, 9:30, 9:46, 9:26, 9:20, 9:32, 9:13, 9:25, 9:05, 8:25, 0:38.

Over 20 minutes off my PR, but I'll take it. I haven't been running much, so I was happy with how good I felt during the entire run.

This week is back to big volume, and not sure if I'll run New Prague 1/2 or not. We'll see....