Random thoughts about treadmills coming up.  Nearly half of the hamsters at my gym, including myself, cover up the time and speed and whatnot with a towel.  Why isn’t there just a button that allows you to turn it off?  The treadmill section at my gym is facing seven TVs.  Out of those seven, three are tuned to 24 hour news stations – Now I’m all for staying well informed, but seriously, why would I want to watch 65 year old pudgy bald guys debate about who’s bridge goes to nowhere while I’m working out?  By the way, none are tuned ESPN – shouldn’t every other TV in a gym be ESPN?  I feel like the typical gym goer would rather watch sports while working out than Wolf Blitzer, but that’s just me.  Walking 1.5 miles an hour is only slightly better than sitting on the couch.  I had to run in dress socks the other day, that was classy.

Thanks for all of the nipple chafing solutions, by the way.  I picked up some Body Glide today, I’ll give it a shot tonight – but if that doesn’t work, I’m banking that they callus over…

Anyway, that’s all for now.  I moved up a belt hole, so I got that going for me – which is nice.

It’s starting to get nice out again, but I’m resisting the temptation to start running outside until all of the ice is off of the sidewalks.  I have some pretty bad ankles from the college days, and I can’t risk taking a couple weeks off with a sprain.  I have started taking fish oil though, it’s supposed to be good for repairing that sort of damage, and I don’t know if it’s the placebo effect, but I feel invincible right now.  Those 5 miles flew by yesterday, and my 2 “easy” miles today, I couldn’t help myself but run them hard.  Who knows, maybe this fish (read: snake) oil really works.  We’ll see.

I have been noticing a very strange phenomena during my daily trips to the gym.  I know it’s winter, and those of you with kids are probably off the hook, but do you really need to drive around for 10 minutes looking for a space that is close to the door?  I mean, this is forgivable in certain situations, like an ambulance pulling up to the ER, or Tiger Woods at a titty bar (too easy?).  But seriously people, you are going to work out!  You are trying to lose that fat ass and you can’t bother yourself to walk 20 more seconds!  My new favorite hobby is to walk slowly down one of the aisles until a car starts inching behind me… keep walking for a few more cars fiddling with the keys…slowly start to amble over to my car…only zing!  I parked on the other side of the aisle!

If you are still reading, I’d like to ask you something; it’s not everyday that I have an American long distance running legend in my audience!  Question to Dick – or anyone else that may have a solution – what the heck do you do about nipple chaffing?  Serious question.  Girls I assume don’t have this problem, they have the sports bra working on their side.  Guys who are conditioned runners are probably off the hook too, since they don’t look so dastardly running shirtless.  So Dick, you may not have this problem, but running is in your wheelhouse, so you may have some input.  Its a serious problem for many runners and it is the upper body equivalent of getting kicked in the nuts.  Now I know why baby formula was invented…

Anyway.  It’s cold here in Minneapolis, so you can imagine I’ve been doing all of my training on a treadmill at my gym and I have a bone to pick with my fellow runners banished to the treadmill for the winter months.  Now it’s been shown that running and walking on an incline has many benefits – you’ll burn more calories and be ready for the hills that you’ll encounter on the paths once it thaws out.  But seriously, those benefits are wasted when you jack up the treadmill to a 15% grade, and then hang on for dear life to the handle.  I don’t know how else to explain it without busting out a physics text book.  Other than possibly winding up with some killer Popeye-esque forearms, all you are essentially doing is running on a flat surface while looking silly.

I put “novice” in quotes, because this “novice” training plan has been pretty intense – no doubt when he says novice, he means that you haven’t run a marathon distance before, not that you have know idea what you call it when you walk so fast that sometimes you don’t even have any feet on the ground.  Case in point: I just finished my first week of training with my first long run of 4 miles.  Seven days in and I’m expected to rip off 4 miles?  Woof.  Good thing I’m such a naturally gifted athlete.

Actually, I was laboring pretty heavy – the voice of reason (read: girlfriend) was out of town and a voice of overindulgence (read: Joe from Pittsburgh) was in.  Needless to say, with the help of a $174 pulltab jackpot, hockey, broomball, lacrosse and the vow to close down our old college stomping grounds, we didn’t exactly take it easy this weekend.  Lesson learned.

The good news is that tomorrow is Monday, which is soon to be my favorite day, as it has been blessed by Mr. Beardsley as my rest day!  I’m 19 miles in, 1.5 lbs lighter (before this glutenous weekend) and spirits are still high.  I am a little concerned, however, that I am a week into my training and have yet to run the same distance total as I’ll be expected to run in one race…

I’ll try to keep BobcastNation updated a few times a week with my ups, downs and in betweens.  Go me!