A few pics my wife took of the day..

and :finger: Very jealous as that looked awesome. As Culdeus has confirmed, beer is a great recovery drink!
FYI, considering a 100 mile century ride in early June. There's one that starts about an hour from my home and weaves up into Wisconsin. I've been thinking of doing one, and early season would be good. It'd force me to get my miles in during spring. This record-setting snowfall might be melted by then.
DO IT!! I'm learning that my bike is my best training friend. I had troubles walking up the one flight of stairs to my office this morning, but had no problem (or pain!) riding my bike 7 miles to work today in 35 degree weather.
Bankerguy said:
5k tonight in the snow and slush, felt like I was running in quick sand.
Glad to be back.
Keep the other updates coming. You guys keep me motivated.

Giddy'up Bankerguy!
bentley said:
I did some interval work for the first time in a long time on the treadmill tonight. It was pretty tough. Did a warmup mile at 9:15 then 3 miles of 800m @ 7:10 and 800 m @9:10 and a final mile at 9:10. Feel like I probably should have done a fourth mile of intervals but I was hella gassed.
6x800 intervals is mighty fine! I still can't do intervals on the treadmill, but commend those who can. There's a rule of thumb, that whatever time you can run 800m @ (with 400m recoveries) ten times, you can run a marathon in. In your case, if you can get to 10 (w/ 400m recoveries) at 7:10 pace (3:35 per 800m), you should be able to run a 3:35 marathon!!!
gruecd said:
I'm gonna run pretty easy tomorrow night, but I'll probably throw in a few 3-minute spurts at 6:30-6:40 pace just to get the blood pumping a little bit.
Very jealous. It's looking more and more like I'm out for this weekend's race
Bankerguy said:
gruecd said:
Bankerguy said:
I am lucky to have a hot wife

(You had to know it was coming....)
You'll have to take my word on this one.
:tease: Prosopsis: No excuses = make sure you get your miles in today!
_________________________________________________
My update:
Even after another massage, and ice/heat treatments last night, my calf is still freakin' sore/tight. I spoke to my Dr. yesterday (a sports medicine specialist), and he strongly suggested that I not run this weekend. From my symptoms he's estimating that I have between a grade 1 (micro tears) and grade 2 (partial tearing) calf strain. Even if it's grade 1, I should typically have 2 weeks off. W/o the two weeks, he suggests that it could turn into a grade 3 tear pretty quickly into the race (complete tear), which could require up to 6 months to recover

. Even more importantly, a grade 3 strain greatly weakens the overall gastrocnemius structure (the muscle I've hurt) = I'm likely to have chronic problems later. Thus, unless I go pain free in the next two days, I'll be sitting by the computer on Sunday living vicariously through Gruecd.
While I'm pretty depressed, I'm hanging onto the fact, that I had an amazing last 20 miler in California, which I'll at least visualize as "my marathon" this year. No medal or t-shirt, but my daughters got to watch me run most of it, and I was able to run 4 miles of it with Mrs. Liquors (so I have that going for me...which is nice!).
Also, I'm winning the highest research award (being named a Research Fellow) that my college gives out today

atsselfonback:, and I'll count the award as a different marathon/medal (= I'm reaching, but need to somehow cope with how pissed-off I am about my leg).