The Pain Shower!

No, it's not the sequel to The Hurt Locker...it's literally a shower of...pain.

See, it's like this: after a nice long run on the treadmills at Dixon (hey, it's raining - I'm not going to run outside!), I head down to the men's showers. "Men's", so the women don't scream and/or hurt me, and "showers" so I don't smell as bad as the rest of the people on the bus home...if that's even possible. So, stay with me here, heading into the showers, turn left, then from the three showers on the right, choose the one in the middle.

Yep, that's the Pain Shower.

The water comes out of that thing like it's the elephant showerhead from Seinfeld. It's not the sharp little pinpricks, it's like hundreds of wet little fists of fury! It hurts your head when you duck under the pounding stream of water. And don't even think about letting that high pressure water smack against your...tenders. I can tell you from experience that holding that...area, and screaming like a little girl, doesn't exactly make friends in the locker room. So you sort of have to hold one hand up in the spray to deflect the deadly stream, while trying to get the backspray to rinse off your shampoo. It's tough.

So why, you ask, does the R's actually use that shower. Well, first and foremost, as a guy, I have to follow the Rule of the Public Showers:

You may use any shower, as long as:
a) you never choose a shower right next to someone else if there are any other open showers that have a space between users, and
b) stare at the tile...even if you're really wondering why the guy next to you would actually have a snake tattoo on...look at the tile!

So sometimes you just get stuck with the Pain Shower.

Be safe out there.


Thanks to the Chase Corporate Challenge for the Firetruck Shower photo.

It's...sorta...slow...zzzzzzz...

Let's face it, if you can find a race at the end of January, you're a better man, or woman, person, whatever, than I. It's slim pickings out there.

But don't think you don't have to run! You need to be out there training! Run! Run! Run!

Speaking of which: I was foolish enough to challenge the wife to a Nike+ challenge. First one to 100 miles wins. Have I mentioned that she's ultra-competitive? Yeah...that's going to be a tough one to win. Wish me luck.

Let's run.


RACES FOR WEEK OF JANUARY 25th TO JANUARY 31st

January 30rd / Willamette Mission Trail Challenge 10k / Salem, OR

January 30rd / Groundhog Hustle 5k / Skamania, WA

January 31st / Fitness for Vitality 10k and 5k / Seattle, WA

Dude, wake up! It's the Freezer!

OK, pay attention now. The Beaver Freezer Triathlon is coming up on April 3rd. I know, I know, that's a ways out there, right? You've got lots of time to train, right? Lots of time to be sure you're ready before you have to sign up, right? The holidays just ended, so why is The Two R's rushing me to think about a triathlon in the middle of the stinking winter, right?

Could you please try to pay attention for just a moment here?

See, if you want to take part in the 2010 Beaver Freezer Triathlon, you've got to be ready on February 1st...at 8 am. Yeah, no kidding.

In 2009, registration opened at 8 am on February 1st and the race was sold out two hours later. Two hours! So take it from the R's, if you want to race in April, you better be waking up early on February 1st.

Hey, maybe you could win a pretty green ribbon too!

1500 and counting!

Yes, that's miles, not meters.

Did a little 4 miler yesterday on the treadmill at Dixon and it pushed me over 1500 miles on the Nike+. Yowza!

That's a lot of running. Yet, I'm going to predict right here and now, the next 1500 miles will come faster than the last.

What Runners Are Searching For...

Pretty much the same as everyone else on the web...hot chicks!

OK, maybe that's just the male runners out there - but please note in this very interesting article on The Biz Runner that there are lots and lots of general, generic, running terms that people are Google-ing, and one and only one actual runner...yes, it's Kara.

Apparently, I'm not the only runner out there in cyberland with a little crush on our hottest runner in Oregon. Go Kara!

Let's run!

RACES FOR WEEK OF JANUARY 18th TO JANUARY 24th

January 23rd / Freeze Your Fanny 5k / Lewiston, ID

January 23rd / Winter Predictor 13k and 6k / Eugene, OR

January 23rd / Stride Toward Freedom 5k / Salem, OR

January 23rd / No Sun Fun Run 5k / Puyallup, WA

January 23rd / Five-K Frostbite 5k / Deer Park, WA

January 24th / Vancouver Lake Half-Marathon / Vancouver, WA

One is good? Two is better.

I actually had a completely different song picked out for this month, but the new White Rabbits song, "Percussion Gun" is just so completely freakin' awesome that I couldn't wait until February to post it. What gives it that feeling of extreme awesomeness, you ask? It's right there in the name of the song!

Percussion. Or in this case two percussions. That's right, dueling drummers! As you'll see by just my few examples below, the two drummer idea is hardly new...and yet, it almost always works.

Get this one on the iPod fast - it's fantastic to run to.

A great live version of Percussion Gun from Letterman.

And the official video of Percussion Gun.

Sound sort of familiar? Well, Adam and the Ants were rocking it with two drummers about 30 years ago.

And of course, Washington homeboys Modest Mouse kicks it with two drummers as well. Hey, it just never goes out of style.

Past Best Running Songs:
December: Deftones / "Knife Prty"
November: The Kooks / "Always Where I Need To Be"
October: At the Drive In / "One Armed Scissor"
September: Silversun Pickups / "Lazy Eye"
August: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros / "Johnny Appleseed"
July: Deathray / "I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh)"
June: Raconteurs / "Salute Your Solution"
May: Tea Party / "Save Me"
April: Bloc Party / "Like Eating Glass"
Ever: The English Beat / "I Confess"

Let's go Snow-Running!

Yep, the last time I ran the Nookachamps in Mt. Vernon, there was a LOT of snow. Was that two years ago? Three? Anyway, some of the run was on the road and it wasn't snowy, but it was sort of slick. No fun. Then we went off-road and the snow got much deeper! Mucho fun! I like running through deep powder - it's just about as different as you can get for running, and yet, except for tight corners, you really don't have to go much slower in the white stuff.

Weather report for Mt. Vernon on the 16th? Rain and 41 degrees. Well, that ain't gonna cut it. How are we going to run in snow with that?

Let's race!

RACES FOR WEEK OF JANUARY 11th TO JANUARY 17th

January 16th / Magnuson Run 15k, 10k, and 5k / Seattle, WA

January 17th / Nookachamps Winter Runs Half-Marathon, 10k and 5k / Mt. Vernon, WA

January 17th / Cascade Half-Marathon and 10k / Turner, OR

The Year in Review, Part II

All righty, let's take a little peek at the 2009 totals:

5k: One (it was the girls on the run...where they didn't turn us around on time - actually about a 7k)
12k: One (Brutally hilly, but I was happy with my run)
8.2 Miler: One (ahhhh, on the beach in San Diego...races don't get much sweeter than that!)
13.1 Miler: One (back in the saddle! Let me tell you, if you're going to do your first half in years, make it a flat one like the Cowtown!)

Sprint Triathlons: Two (Well, the first race out of the box, way early in April, was better than the second race in May. Hey, sometimes it happens like that)

Olympic Triathlon: One (Hadn't done one of these for a while. It was hard, but fun)

And for the writing? Five articles, all for RaceCenter Magazine. And yet another failed attempt at Nanowrimo...sigh...I'm not even going to link to that.

And for 2010? It looks to be fewer Triathlons (any? maybe not) and more runs as I build up to my first marathon since 1996! Eugene, here I come!

Looks like a good time for a...Training Run!

Man, this time of year...it's all about the training. And burning off the five pounds you put on from Christmas and New Year's. You don't have to worry about races...because there aren't any! Just get out there and put in some good training runs. It will all pay off later in the Spring. I promise.

Let's run!

RACES FOR WEEK OF JANUARY 4th TO JANUARY 10th

January 9th / Resolution Run 5k / Oregon City, OR

January 9th / Lake Samish 6.5 and 13.1 mile Runs / Bellingham, WA

Aaaaaaannnnnndddddd, about 36 Team in Training meetings over the next month here and there, but other than that - nothing.

What can I say? It's that time of year. Until March, you just don't have a whole lot of options out there. Deal with it.


Thanks to Kaleb for the photo.

The Year in Review, Part I

Well, what do you know? It's twenty-ten. That's a fun one to say: "Twenty-Ten!" Let's face it, "two thousand and nine" was a bit wordy, so I'm happy to be in the new decade.

And now, we can look back at the year that was in running. Probably not as good as some years, but definitely better than others. And the most important part: it was mostly injury-free. Yes! After I spent the entire month of December 2008 not being able to bend over even enough to put on my socks, this year was a lovely change indeed.

So after studying the 2009 Nike+ numbers, it looks like this: slow start, strong summer, winding down a bit in the Fall, then a great December as I look toward 2010 and my first marathon since 1996! Fourteen years, baby! And I'm back! Look out Eugene! I can't stop using exclamation points!

Now where was I? Oh yeah, running...oddly, my worst month of the year, October, was the month I ran the Cowtown Half-Marathon in Sacramento. Shortly after, I shut it down for three weeks to rest my sore quad. And my best month was the month just ended, December, with 69 miles for the month. Not world class, but pretty good for me.

So for the year, I logged 583 miles on the Nike+, ran for more than 84 hours, and burned more than 75,000 calories!

That's nothing...just wait for the 2010 totals!