Farting on my Dog and other Fun Things

I really do enjoy farting on the dog.  The best is...HE NEVER SUSPECTS IT'S COMING.  I guess that should make it stop being fun eventually, but it always is.  He'll just be standing there, and I'll walk over and put my butt as close to his nose as I can.  He doesn't move.  And then, WHAMMO!!!  I blast one right in his face.  Man, that never gets old.  He starts doing that dog sneeze thing and rubs his paws on his nose, which just kills me.

That's really all I have to say about that.

Ok, time to talk about the elephant in the room.  It's been awhile.  I've been busy.  Really.  Big project at work, lots of stuff going on with the kids, some dating here and there, I've been busy.  That's all.  I also didn't really have a ton to write about.  Every time I'd try to start back into the Chalean Extreme program, I'd injure a knee in the sumo squats.  It didn't really leave me much.  I have been running consistently, so let's talk about that.

First thing I'd like to talk about is the upcoming schedule.  I have three races coming up that I am planning to do.  First is the September 1st Mason & Grant 5k right here in Auburn.  Basically runs around Emerson Park.  No biggie there.  Should be fun.  Second is The Finger Lakes Mud Run, which is a 5k with an obstacle course interspersed around the course.  I might be trying to get a team together, which would probably just do the shorter version, which I think is only 2 miles or so.  I'm not positive.  But I'm pretty excited for that one.  The last one is the Ithaca 5k, one that has a special meaning for me.  I don't really need to get into it, but let's just say that I should have seen the problems in my marriage with what went down the last time I tried to do this one.

On the running itself, I had been noticing some numbness in my left foot recently, usually starting around the 1.5 mile mark and getting worse.  As soon as I would be done with the run the numbness would go right away.  So I've done two things.  First, I switched to a parallel lacing method on my shoes, which allows more room in the toebox of the shoe.  'Toebox' is runner-speak for 'the front of the shoe', but it's WAY cooler to say 'Toebox'.  Try it.  'Toebox'.  It's like...if Robocop were a runner, he would have a big toebox.  Does that sound slightly sexual to anyone else?  All I have to say about that is, I need a BIG toebox.

What was I writing about?  Oh yeah.  Numbness while running.  This morning's run was one of the best ones I've had in quite some time.  I was really thinking about my form and my gait.  I noticed that I somehow tend to time my left foot hitting with the first beat of each measure of whatever song I'm listening to.  Must be a leftover from marching band in high school or something, but I tend to synchronize to it, so my left foot hits on beats one and three, in 4/4 time, which is probably 95% of the music I listen to while running.

Beats one and three are usually kick drum beats.  Which are harder, heavier sounding.  I paused the music, without changing my form.

Yup...I was almost STOMPING my left foot.  I never even noticed it with the music playing.  I was putting that foot down hard.  So I fired up the music again, but from now on truly thinking about my form and keeping my footfalls even.  Made all the difference in the world.  No numbness.

I'm going to end this here.  I've got more to write about, like the new weight program that I'm doing (which might even include a workout video with a fat guy and a bald guy...be on the lookout!), and the quest to quit smoking.  But just to bring things full circle...

Yup...Never gets old.