Two weeks of training and a fair amount of beer.

It's been a couple weeks, time for a slight update on all things running and beer related.

Running wise, my last two weeks have looked like this:

Jan 14-20

Mon: 6.00 miles @ 8:20 pace
Tues: 8.00 miles @ 7:22 pace
Wed: 13.00 miles @ 6:43 pace
Thurs: 6.00 miles @ 6:50 pace
Fri: 11.00 miles @ 6:59 pace
Sat: 6.00 miles @ 8:05 pace
Sun: 17.00 miles @ 6:42 pace including final 8 @ 6:25 pace

Total: 67

Jan 21-27

 Mon: 6:00 miles @ 7:31
Tues: 14.00 miles @ 6:52
Wed: 10.00 miles @ 7:09 pace
Thurs: 6.00 miles @ 7:27 pace
Fri: 6.00 miles @ 7:30 pace
Sat: 18.67 miles: warm up/cool down and half marathon 1:21:26
Sun: 9.33 miles @ 7:16 pace

Total: 70

Biggest thing was last week was running the Securian Half Marathon.  This is my fourth time running this race, and up until now I've never liked it.  It's cold. It's hilly. It's just not that fun. This year was a little different. It was cold. It was still hilly. Really wasn't all that fun, but it was the best I've ever run it. Two minutes better than last year, 30 seconds faster than a half I did in September. 9th overall, and a coffee mug that I'll never use because I don't drink coffee. Next race is Get Lucky Half.  Hopefully it's warm like last year.

On the beer front, I had two things going on.  First, last week I started to brew my own beer.  I got a kit from the Brooklyn Brew Shop, therefore I know it's hipster approved. It's a one gallon jug that comes with the grains, hops and the rest of the stuff you need.  Was a five hour process to get it in the jug brewing, and now have to wait 4-6 weeks for about 10 bottles of beer and let's be honest, do I really know how to make beer better than people who do this for a living? Probably not, but entertaining to be making it on my own.

 Seeping the grains. Basically making oatmeal

 Boiling the wort. Added the hops. Basically made my house smell like stale bread.

Into the jug with the yeast to turn that sugar into lovely alcohol.  

Also, after the race yesterday, I headed to the St. Paul Winter Carnival Beer Dabbler.  Over 100 breweries. 300 or so different types of beer. A lot of waiting in line to get about 4 ounces of beer.  I tried a fair number, but in the end, nothing different really stood out.  Some of the best were the old standbys. New Belgium. O'Dells. Fulton.  Mostly because after about 5 or 6 different beers, your palate is shot and you really can't taste much, and who wants coconut porters and cranberry ales? Can't we just get a bunch of IPA's? Biggest disappointment was just missing out on Badger Hill Brewing's warm stout with whip cream.  Sounded awesome. 

The best thing? Probably seeing Koo Koo Kangaroo.  Two white dudes rapping about dinosaurs and your favorite colors? It's ridiculous. Check out them teaching how to do the. Dinosaur Stomp

Now that I successfully have that stuck in your head it's my time to leave.

Week 1 of training done

Mon: 5.11 miles @ 8:03 pace
Tues: 13.55 miles @ 7:09 pace
Wed: 9 miles @ 6:44 pace (4 miles @ 6:03)
Thurs: 6 miles @ 7:53 pace
Fri: 5 miles @ 7:36 pace
Sat: 7.50 miles @ 7:05 pace
Sun: 16.00 miles: 1st half: 7:07 pace. 2nd half: 6:44 pace

total: 62.16 miles

After one week of training I have to say, this is going to be hard.  I still don't have the speed I feel I had during the summer, but hopefully I'll pick that up with a few more weeks of training. That Wednesday run was supposed to be faster than 6:03 so hopefully I'll see some improvement.  17 weeks to go.

Also, why the heck do I continue to plan for spring marathons? When do I think it'd be a good idea to train through single digit temps and icy roads? Granted, it's Minnesota, so my window for good training is limited to about two and a half months, I'd much rather run in 90 degree weather with humidity than putting 5 layers on just to make sure my junk doesn't freeze.  It's irrational is what it is.

First real workout

Training started this week and today was my first real work out. 9 miles, 4 miles at 15k to half marathon pace. Sadly, I'm not in that type of shape right now so it ended up being just under goal marathon pace.  Makes me realize I do have a ways to go still and a lot of miles to log before I get to where I want. In the mean time, I did determine that Girl Talk is some of the best music to have on my iPod while running.  I mean, who doesn't want to listen to a mix of music with Busta, Avril Lavigne, Fergie, Ace of Base, Jay-Z and the Beach Boys? Mainly it gave me an hour of music to figure out how many different songs I could recognize. I'm guessing I'm way behind on this, but I don't care.

In the beginning, was this lame post

Well, I guess it's time that I start a blog about running, because we all know that everything I say is gold. "GOLD JERRY!!!!!" What better name for my blog than Shoes and Beer, the two things that I spend the most amount of money on.  Heck, I'm drinking a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale right now, my favorite winter beer. If only I got discounts on beer, then life would be good.  Anyways, tomorrow starts official training for my quest to sub 2:40 in the marathon and I'm sure I'll have a lot of pointless, slightly humorous things to say. Please, tell your friends.