Days 1302, 1303 and 1304 -- Jogger's Progress

	Trip	YTD	Feb
Distance	8250.2	237.2	127.4
Time	56 days, 21 hrs, 2 min	1 day, 17 hrs, 30 mins	22:03
Days	1304	38	19
States	26	3	2

Once again, the end of the week got me. I managed to run Thursday morning, took a scheduled day off on Friday, ran again Saturday morning, and this morning got in 15.5 miles, my longest run of 2011. I just didn't manage to blog any of it.

Since tomorrow is another scheduled day off, it is time to catch up to Jogger's Progress. February was my longest month since September, boosted by four reasonably long Sunday runs. Interestingly, I was 0.2 miles short of last February, but last February, I did it in 21 days. This month, I only ran 19. I'm planning to break 20 in March. If I make it, that will be the first time for that since September.

Day 1301 -- More Boston

Well, I never know what to do about copyrights. I mean, every single one of these pictures was taken by someone else, without really planning that I was going to stick my ugly mug into it. Or in this case my ugly lower half. Of course when there is a copyright notice, or some general statement about further use, I try to respect it. For example, on this photo from freefoto.com, there's some restrictions, which I'm not sure I understand. Plus they want me to hotlink to them, rather than putting it on my own blog. Which, of course, wouldn't allow me to add myself. So, I googled a very different photo of the same scene, from Schon, which seems to be the company that built the sculpture in the first place. Which seems only fair.

Six miles this morning.

Day 1300 -- Framingham

Framingham is a bit west of my actual running route, but we have some good friends from graduate school who live there, so I thought I'd stop in.

I did a nice five miles this morning. I stepped up the pace just a little bit. No world record, but still it was a good workout.

Day 1299 -- Boston!

In the running community, "Boston" isn't a city, it's an event. If you say, "I'm going to Boston," you don't mean "I'm going to one of the oldest cities in the U.S., the capitol of Massachusetts, to see all the important historical and cultural sights." You mean, "I'm going to stay in a hotel room, rub elbows with 20,000 sweaty people, and probably not be able to walk up a flight of stairs the next day."

This, friends, is as close as I will ever get to the Boston Marathon. It's one of the few marathons in the world for which you have to qualify. The qualifying standards are age graded, so there is some hope. If I am still running at 80, and I can match my personal record, I can qualify.

I'm not actually running through Boston. Mapquest has plotted me a course from Maine down to Rhode Island, and they took a route that skirts around Boston. But somewhere in here, I'm crossing the marathon course. And here I am, the second silliest looking runner in the photo.

Eleven and a half miles this morning. A nice run.

Days 1295 through 1298 -- West Peabody

Geezer alert! This, young people, is a Fotomat booth. Years ago, when cameras had film in them, you had to take it to a professional to get the pictures developed. One place you could do that was at a little tiny booth, usually in a strip-mall parking lot, just big enough for one person and the necessary equipment. This picture was taken in 1987, by not_on_display, a certified geezer. He had a summer job, here.

It has been a long, long week. I have been running, right on schedule. I have also managed to give an exam, grade it, grade homework, attend six meetings, skip one, get the MAA-WI newsletter out, get the stomach flu and spend an afternoon in bed, and not blog. A lot of not blogging.

Day 1294 -- Massachusetts

Massachusetts is far too hard to spell. Give me Iowa any day.

I didn't quite make my full 13 miles this morning. I stopped at about 12.3. I probably could have walked it out a little, then run the last mile, but I didn't. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day.

Sorry I don't have much time to blog tonight. I've spent much of the day trying to prepare an exam for my Precalc class, which I have to give tomorrow. I want it to be challenging but fair. Frankly, these guys as a group aren't working very hard, and I want to light a fire under them.

Days 1292 and 1293 -- Hampton

During the week, I set my alarm for 4:45. That gets me out the door by 5:15 or so, an hour or so at the gym, home by approximately 6:30, and I'll get to work by 7:30 or 8:00. On the weekend, I set the alarm back to 5:45, since I'm not in much of a hurry. This past Monday, with no run scheduled, I kept it at 5:45. I don't remember what happened on Tuesday, but as I've already reported, I didn't run. On Wednesday, I woke up about 4:30, so I turned off the alarm and went to the gym.

So Thursday, the alarm was still set for 5:45, but I didn't realize it. I woke up, turned off the alarm without really looking at the clock, and headed for the gym. I noticed that it was getting light earlier than I was expecting. Cool, spring is coming. I got to the gym, and no one was there, so I got to work. I was nearing the end of my six miles when I finally looked carefully at a clock, and realized I was running an hour late. Fortunately, I don't have an early class on Thursday.

I took a scheduled day off yesterday, although I had thought about making up the lost day from Tuesday. Today, I did five more, at a stately pace. And I've made it to somewhere near Hampton.

Day 1291 -- More Dover

There are several photos of this covered bridge on the Google Images page for Dover, NH. I chose this one from Pilgrim Presbyterian Church. I like church pages. Not that long ago, I was a web-spinner for my former church. I'm not sure I would have included a local covered bridge, but maybe I would have.

On Sunday, I completed my third week in a row of sticking to my running schedule. Not an unscheduled day off for three weeks. I almost said something about it, but I didn't want to jinx it. I guess even thinking about it jinxed it. I couldn't struggle out of bed yesterday, and of course I felt lousy all day. This morning, I did yesterday's scheduled tempo run. Tomorrow, I'll do today's scheduled easy six. If I don't skip Friday, I could actually make five runs this week. We'll see.

Day 1290 -- Dover

"At home in Dover, New Hampshire" says this page on the ActiveRain web site. ActiveRain seems to be a real estate page, but that doesn't explain their name. Anyway, they say that "Dover has a beautiful rejuvenated downtown area" and is "Home to TWO former Olympians...Jenny Thompson and Cathy Schiro-O'Brien. " So, drop in for a visit.

I admit, I was struggling for the last two or three miles of my 12 mile run this morning. But I decided that if I could tough it out, that would be a good omen for the Packers. I did, and now they have to hold up their end of the bargain.

Day 1289 -- Gonic

Yes, the windows of this shop say, "Signs" and "Guns". I believe that they do more business in Signs, because they are called Renaissance Signs, Inc., and advertise themselves as "Purveyors of Quality Handcrafted Signs". But if you need a sign, and, while you're out, want to pick up a gun, this is the place for one-stop shopping.

Easy five today, preparing for a twelve mile long run tomorrow. I hope.

Day 1288 -- Rochester

This gazebo is from the park in Rochester. If you show up in the summer, you can go to Pajamas in the Park a free concert series geared toward fun and family entertainment. Sounds like fun.

Day 1288 was yesterday. I went down to the gym for four miles on the dreadmill. After a hard nooner on Wednesday, I knew that I wasn't going to have a great run, and I didn't. But I survived, and I took today off.

One reason that I didn't have enough time to blog last night was that I came home late. I went to a talk at the university. It wasn't anything that I had to go to, but it sounded like a good topic. The main talk was by someone I don't know well, with a response by a good friend of mine. I was excited. Until the talk started.

It was horrible. I decided that it was a Jackson Pollack painting. There was some sort of overall theme, and it might have meant something to the speaker. Depending on your mood, and your prior experiences, it might even raise particular thoughts in your head. But it didn't mean anything in and of itself. And my friend had to respond to it. How do you respond to a Jackson Pollack painting? He did the best he could. He more or less said, "You know, that reminds me of something..." and went ahead and gave a coherent talk.

Day 1287 -- Milton

This image of the Milton Town House, from NHLiving.com, was definitely the best one to paste myself in front of. However, how could I resist this beautiful kitten, from the Love of Thai Cattery, also in Milton. It was featured on The Cat Pages Online Cat Lover's Community. I grabbed the photo with no intention of pasting myself into it, but apparently this kitten had other ideas.

After sleeping in this morning, and basically lounging around, I finally got out at around noon and did six miles on the dreadmill. I never would have made it, if it weren't for the kindness of a neighbor, who used his plow to do most of the digging in the driveway. If I'd had to do it all by hand, that would have been my exercise for the day.

Snow Day!

I have no idea how much snow we've gotten. The wind has been so strong that it's swirled up in mounds and drifts. The nice thing about this snow day is that they anticipated it. The University and the public schools both announced yesterday that they would be closed today, so we just slept in.

I suppose that sooner or later, I'm going to have to go out to shovel. Other than that, it's a great day.

Day 1286 -- Sanbornville

Happy Birthday, John Romeo Alpha.

The town hall in Sanbornville is at 2 High Street. In case you need to set your GPS. Sanbornville seems to be the economic and administrative center of Wakefield. Apparently, Wakefield is the region, and Sanbornville a town in it. Or something like that.

Today was my first tempo run of this training period. Ten minutes slow, ten minutes fast, ten minutes slow. It went OK. Tempo runs are easier on the dreadmill, which both holds your pace and keeps time for you.