Andrew Schrauben

A quick and dirty running update:

The big picture stuff...

• In the past 17 days I've gone running 17 times! I ran twice on 2/15 and took 2/18 off (sorta - I didn't run but I played hockey and cut wood).
• On 2/25 I went out for my 50th run of the year and also passed the 250-mile mark. Woo hoo!

Some featured runs...

• 2/24 I was back on the trails with Haven and Beacon, terrible footing and all. First I took Beacon on a 2-mile loop, then I repeated it with Haven. While on the trails with Beacon a great horned owl flew low over my head! The sound of a stumbling runner must've awakened it.
• 2/25 was a treadmill tandem with Amanda. She set a new milestone for her by running one hour non-stop! I must've been a bit inspired because I ran 8.6 miles in just under 70 minutes, a pretty fast pace for me over such a distance.
• 2/26 (holy crap, is that today?) it was 32 degrees outside and snowing, so it was warm enough for me to wear shorts, except for when passing tractor trailers splash road slush all over my bare legs! That wasn't so cool. But I enjoyed things enough to run 6.9 miles in 60 minutes.

One question that sometimes gets asked of people who volunteer for dog welfare organizations is "Why dogs?" What they usually mean is: Why devote so much of your time and energy to saving dogs, when your efforts could be spent saving children or sick people or those in poverty? Aren't people more important than dogs?

Every person has their purpose, and every living thing has its place in this world. Somebody has to take care of the dogs, and I want to be one of those people. Ever since I first visited a humane society in 5th grade, I concluded that dogs not only need our help, they deserve it. In fact, we owe it to them because we made them who they are; we created them to be dependent on us. We can't just ignore them when they become a burden.

Dogs need humans. Wolves don't. What's so special about dogs? Over the past thousands of years humans have domesticated dogs to the point that, I believe, dogs expect humans to be in their lives. Many dogs couldn't survive in the wild; those that could, wouldn't be as happy. I've always believed that, and recently I found a study that puts some science behind my belief.

A researcher discovered that dogs instinctively respond to human gestures and other such physical cues. Wolves don't respond to us like dogs do. In fact, not even chimpanzees - our closest genetic relatives - interpret our gestures the way that dogs do innately. Follow the link below to a video on National Geographic's site to see a demonstration of this study.

National Geographic Video: How Dogs Became Man's Best Friend

Note: I had to use Internet Explorer to view the video - I couldn't make it work with my usual Mozilla Firefox. The study I'm referring to is in the second half of the video, so be patient; although the first half is pretty interesting, too.

The next time your dog responds to your body language, think about how and why it could be that another species of animal instinctively understands you. No wonder we love dogs!

Yes, I dream of being able to run a 3-hour marathon, when I'm conscious at least. When I'm sleeping, apparently I have much more fanciful marathon dreams, like this recent one...

My dream began at the starting line of the Grand Rapids Marathon but I wasn't expecting a fast time - I was just running to have fun. It's a bright, clear, sunny, warm day and I'm just cruisin' along. At the 8-mile mark I check my watch and see that I'm on a 3-hour pace and still feeling strong! But I knew this race wouldn't be fast so I didn't get my hopes up; besides, this marathon was advertised as an adventure race.

Soon I find out why - I'm running through a beer tent during the Oktoberfest in Munich! I distinctly remember the giant, sky-blue and white striped circus-like tent full of very happy patrons all offering me a stein of beer. I kept saying "Nur Wasser, bitte!" ("Only water, please!") but none of them had water. So I pressed on.

Next I was running along the banks of Plum Creek... yes, the same Plum Creek of Laura Ingalls Wilder fame. The course ran us through her family's old dugout home. Immediately after that we were running through the Big Woods, you guessed it, taking a tour of her log cabin. I even had to climb the ladder into the loft, then back down, as part of the course.

The marathon continued to the great plains of Africa, where I ran through a humongous wood-frame tent with translucent canvas walls. It was easily the size of a large farm barn, if not larger, yet the interior looked like the inside of a zeppelin with catwalks everywhere. Again I had to climb a ladder, this one about 40 feet high, and then run along the rafters! Yet I wasn't nervous at all; in fact I was enjoying it and made a point to remember to thank the race director. Sleeping on panels of canvas all over the barn-tent were native tribal African couples. I ran out of the barn-tent and ran a big lap around an open field, then back through the barn-tent. This time through one of the sleeping couples were making love right in front of me! They ignored me and I did my best to ignore them, too.

My race was nearing the end but there was one more building to traverse - an old Spanish monastery somewhere on the California coast. It had stucco walls and mostly ceramic tiles on the roof, except for the tower which had an old, rotting, wooden roof. Once again I scaled a very long ladder to reach the tower roof and became nervous about having to run across the roof - it didn't look very sound. A monk appeared wearing a nun's outfit and coaxed me to come across, insisting it was safe. I took a few steps and my left foot suddenly crashed through! The monk-nun grabbed my hand and helped me the rest of the way across. As I climbed down the ladder on the other side I looked at my watch and saw 5:30 elapsed time, and figured I'd finish within 6 hours. I was quite satisfied with this time and thought to myself "This was quite an adventurous race! I'll sign up again next year."

The end.

...days like today. After weeks of temperatures below 20 degrees, today we hit 40! It felt like spring. My legs are still very sore from playing hockey over the weekend. Actually, just my hip flexor muscles, my right one in particular - I can't raise my right knee halfway to my waist! But I wanted to go running away, so I went for an easy one.

I took both Haven and Beacon and dealt with the extreme pulling as we ran the half-mile to the North Country Trail trailhead, then I was able to let them off leash. They loved it! So did I. The wind was calm, the sun was setting, the air was warm. Warm enough that I was wearing shorts despite running through six inches of wet snow! What a blast!

A perfect run. I have to remember days like this on those other days when I don't feel like running, because being able to run with my dogs on days like today is one of the reasons why I'm a runner.

After playing hockey on Sunday, we headed over to Megan's family farm to cut wood. Before that, we were treated to a yummy lunch of homemade mac and cheese, homemade dill pickles, and some flavored hot cocoa (among other things). Satisfied, we dressed into our cold-weather gear and hopped on the wagon as Megan's dad Greg towed us with his tractor out to the trees.

We were clearing dead trees from a swamp, a task made much easier since the water was frozen solid so it felt like dry land under all the snow. In fact, you could hardly tell if you were on land or water most of the time. Greg brought two wagons out for us to load up, and among the group we had three chainsaws to put to work. Most of the work, however, was the arduous task of hauling the cut logs from the swamp to the wagon on the other side of a fence.

One of the highlights of the evening was Amanda using a chainsaw for the first time in her life! I made sure to take a few photos and also caught the event on video:



A few hours went by and slowly but surely we loaded up both wagons with wood. The sun was setting and it was time to head back to the farm, where yet another meal awaited us.


Haulin' out. Left to right are:
Eric (head barely peeking above wood, far left)
Megan (pink scarf)
Ryan (dark yellow hat)
Amanda (gray brimmed hat)
Kenny (bright orange hat)
Greg (Megan's dad, driving the tractor)


Heading back to the farm with the first load of wood.


Megan's family farm - the little tractor is towing our first load of wood.


Looking back across the field as we haul our last load back to the farm.

Before sitting down to eat we took a little tour of the farm, visiting some of the resident cows and calves. Those calves can be pretty cute!


Amanda gets a friendly greeting.


One of the cute calves at Megan's farm.

During the farm tour we noticed a neat phenomenon: steam hands! We'd worked up a sweat chopping wood and hauling logs but with the sun below the horizon, the air cooled off quickly. Add in a hot human hand and a well placed light bulb, and see the results:




Ryan proves to Megan that he's one hot dude.

Dinner was yummy, of course, this time with tuna casserole, chicken salad, pickled beets, more flavored cocoa, and finally a "taste test" of the frosting for Ryan and Megan's wedding cake. Naturally we started talking about weddings and us elder folk provided Ryan and Megan (and Eric, since he's getting hitched a month after Ryan) with some cynical wedding advice. Basically we explained how we don't remember any of the details that seemed so important back then. Plus, all the stuff that got screwed up, it didn't really affect anything. My mom had the best tale: "My dad missed my wedding - he spent the day in jail for driving drunk and my mom was too angry to bail him out! But I didn't mind."

At work last week I got a call from my brother Ryan inviting Amanda and I to the farm of his soon-to-be in-laws to help them chop some wood. It's always fun to be a lumberjack so I agreed to go. Then Ryan added: "You might want to bring your skates - we're gonna play hockey first!"

Last time I saw my ice skates I was vacuuming mouse turds out of them... They've been sitting in the basement forever. I hadn't skated in seven years! I warned Ryan about the potential for rust - both on my blades and in my legs - but he didn't seem to mind. Would I remember how to skate?

Honestly I wasn't worried that I'd forget, but I was afraid I was going to be pretty sloppy. I used to skate a lot in high school and college, although I rarely had a hockey stick in my hands. Mostly I just skated for fun - I loved to zoom around on the ice. While other kids played hockey on the neighborhood pond I instead would shovel a winding race course on the snow-covered ice and then pace myself in time trials, trying to go faster every time around.

Sunday morning there I was trying to squeeze my size 14 feet into the size 13 hockey skates that I got in high school. After puttering one lap around the rink, my other brother Eric handed me one of his sticks along with the advice: "It's easier to balance if you lean on the stick." Gee, thanks!


All six of the hockey players; left to right:

Megan (sky blue coat)
Ryan (green sweatshirt)
Andrew (black jacket)
Kenny (orange hat)
Eric (gray shirt)
Dad (blue jeans butt)

Mom is walking in the background, camera in hand, between Eric and Dad

Eric, Ryan and I never played any organized hockey growing up. However, Eric has been playing in men's rec leagues the past few years and now he actually looks like a real hockey player! He brought his friend Kenny along, and Kenny IS a real hockey player - he played in high school and still plays in men's "A" leagues (I think Eric plays in "D" leagues). Ryan, Megan, Dad and I just do our best to stay upright when chasing the puck. It didn't always work.


Getting up after taking a spill into the "boards" at the edge of the ice.

I had more than my share of tumbles. Once I fell into the snow bank, turning my black fleece jacket into a white one. Another time I was chasing the puck and looked up just in time to see Megan doing the same thing - from the opposite direction! WHAM. Somehow I landed hard on my knees so they're all bruised now. Other than that, my falls were relatively harmless.


Despite being about twice Megan's size, I was the one worse for wear after we ran into each other! My knees hurt, so I figure they must've hit her head when she jumped. ;)

After an hour of horsing around we decided to make a game of it. Eric, Ryan and I banded together as the "Three Brothers" against Kenny, Megan and Dad, who Megan dubbed "The Champions". Needless to say, she's pretty competitive for a hockey player who wears figure skates!

I don't think anyone kept score. At one point I scored three goals in a row (my only goals of the day), which really annoyed Megan because when we were practicing beforehand I was lucky to get the puck within five feet of the net whenever I took a shot. She exclaimed "Since when did you learn to shoot?" I save the good stuff for when it counts!

Eventually we decided to play "next goal wins". The mighty Three Brothers got the puck in front of the net when Megan swatted it to clear it out; however, Ryan intercepted her clearing shot and put it right into the back of the net for the winning goal! The Champions got chumped.


Notice the smile on Ryan's face as he redirects a nice pass from Eric that Megan and Kenny were unable to block. I was backing up Ryan just in case he whiffed. :)

After getting our skates off we headed over to the farm where Megan grew up, but I'll tell that story in another entry...

Triathlons are probably the most popular multi-sport event out there. I've never tried one, although I have completed a few adventure races. One thing that has intrigued me over the years is that most triathletes I know are cyclists who converted to triathlons, or for whom cycling is their strongest discipline. There are a few runners who dabble in triathlons but I don't know many swimmers gravitating to the sport.

Why? At first I assumed that the meticulousness required of cyclists to maintain their bikes is an attitude well-suited to triathlons - you have to keep lots of gear in order. Maybe this is why most adventure racers seem to hail from backgrounds in either mountain biking or rustic camping.

Seeking a better explanation, I started by comparing the lengths of disciplines involved with triathlons, specifically the iron-distance variety: 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run. Is running a marathon equivalent to swimming less than a tenth of that distance? Let's examine a hypothetical situation...

Three buddies are training regularly for Ironman Hawaii. Each has a background as a single-sport athlete in each discipline. Sam is a Swimmer, Bob is a Biker, and Rick is a Runner. As a result, each is 10% faster than average in their specialty; in the other two disciplines they are average. In theory, they should each finish at the same time, right? Let's look at the results for the 2006 Ironman in Kona.

First up was the swim leg - average time was 1:16, which is when Bob and Rick came out of the water. Sam was 10% faster, so he finished at about 1:08.

Next was the bike leg - average time was 5:47, good for Sam and Rick. Bob's 10% advantage has him finishing in 5:12.

Finally the run leg - average time was 4:10, which is what Sam and Bob ran. Rick was 10% faster and finished in 3:45.

(We'll assume that all three of them were average in transition times at 4:30 per transition, 9 minutes total.)

You can probably see where this is going... Bob was the first of the buddies to finish, crossing the line at 10:47 and putting him 4.6% ahead of the average overall finishing time of 11:18. Rick finished 10 minutes later at 10:57, 3.1% above average overall. Then "straggled" in Sam at 11:14, his swimming prowess placing him just 0.6% above average overall.

No wonder most triathletes are primarily cyclists - they get the most bang for the buck! Swimmers get the shaft. For this reason some have proposed re-scaling the distances so that each discipline takes a similar amount of time, based on single-sport athletes' records for each. This has been called an "equilateral triathlon". For comparison, a traditional iron-distance swim/bike/run is 2.4/112.0/26.2 (in miles) while an "equilateral" iron-distance triathlon would sport distances of 7.5/60.0/26.2, where a world-class single-sport athlete could finish their respective discipline in just over 2 hours. Quite a difference!

However, is that really a fair comparison? What's more difficult: swimming 2 hours, cycling 2 hours, or running 2 hours? Maybe Sam's 10% swimming advantage only saves him 8 minutes of time, but also saves him proportionally more energy so that in theory he could do the next two legs a little above average, while Bob's 35 minute savings on the efficient bicycle doesn't gain him much extra energy over other racers.

Here's how I'd do it: Find out how many calories the average world-class marathoner burns over 26.2 miles. Then determine swimming and cycling distances where athletes of similar caliber would burn the same number of calories. That way competitors would strive for equal skill and efficiency among all disciplines in order to maximize their overall endurance. I believe that such an "energy distance" triathlon would be truly unbiased!

During my early workout Thursday morning I passed 200 miles on the year! Including today's run, my 43rd of the year, I'm at 217 miles. Not too bad so far.

This morning was another treadmill party with Amanda. Since my legs were still tired from my Thursday double, I took today easy, running a 9:00 pace for 6.75 miles. To make sure I was running at an easy pace I didn't let myself breathe through my mouth - the whole hour running I breathed through my nose only! I'd never done that before.

I'll let Amanda tell her story, but I'll give you a hint: she hit a pretty cool milestone, doing something she's never done before.

I haven't written about rehab in a while, but it's been going well. My shoulder is getting much stronger and doesn't click nearly as bad as it used to. I can actually put my hands in my back pockets and then take them out again without a loud popping noise in my right shoulder. My exercises now consist of higher strength stuff - my favorite (and most difficult) is the "step-up" where I get into a push-up position, arms extended, and then walk my hands up one stairstep and back down again, over and over. Walk up, walk down. Very tiring but my shoulder is quite stable while I do it, so that's a good sign.

I'm also rehabbing my rib cage injury. The PT discovered that it's not costocondritis (rib cartilage inflammation) as my primary care doc thought; rather, it's a strained abdominal muscle. I did some stretches for a week and it felt noticeably better very quickly. Now for this week I have to do planks. Those are also tiring, but also quite fun, especially the ones you do on your side, kinda like a sideways push-up.

A cool tidbit - one of the patients that I've seen frequently at rehab is a basketball player for Western Michigan University (I'm not sure if he's current, or recently graduated). He's only about 6'0" (short for basketball) but this guy is RIPPED. Watching him do some exercises, he's as strong as he looks - I would describe his movements as "explosive". He tore his calf muscle a while ago and he's getting it back to full strength. The way he was exercising, I'd say his injured calf is stronger than my healthy one! He's a pretty nice guy, too.

Lots of running stuff to catch up on, so I'll do it bullet-style...

• The day before Valentines Day I ran with my "second loves", my dogs. It was 14 degrees and very windy, but they loved it. Back to back, first Haven for 2.9 miles at an 8:20 pace, then Beacon for 1.4 miles at a 7:12 pace. Dogs were born to run.
• Still running outdoors with my co-workers, but some of them are wussing out on account of the weather. Monday the 12th we endured steady snow flurries that made it hard to see (snowflakes on the eyelashes) and "balmy" temps in the mid 20's, the warmest we've had in a couple weeks. Wednesday the 14th we braved 9-degree air temperature with strong north winds. Today it was 19 degrees with a howling WSW wind.
• Thursday was a double workout. At 6am I was already running on the treadmill at work doing "pops" - alternating 5 minutes of fast pace (ranging from 5:30 to 7:00 miles) with 5 minutes of slow pace (9:00 miles). Then before leaving work I hit the 'mill again, this time doing hill repeats - 2.5 minutes at incline alternating with 2.5 minutes of flat. My first incline I jacked it all the way up, which was 15% grade - holy crap, I just about fell off the back at a 10:00 pace! I barely survived that one. The rest of my inclines were at 10% grade.

My legs are rather tired now, so tomorrow will be an easy one-hour run on the treadmill with Amanda. I also signed up for my next race, another 5K on March 17.

Last week I used some math to illustrate the difference between Amanda's legs and mine. Today I'll use video!

Here's a clip of Amanda's legs moving at her normal running pace:



And here we have a video of my legs, for comparison:



Which one has to work harder per mile? :)

My first race of the season is complete! This morning I ran the Heart and Sole 5K, finishing in 22:44. That time was good for 6/13 in my age group and 33/160 overall. Not bad, but I was hoping to finish under 22 minutes. I never really got into the groove during the race - I just felt slow and unable to speed up. Part of the problem was the trace amount of snow on the road - not enough to risk falling but enough to reduce traction a bit. Oh well - I'm planning to run another race in about a month and hopefully the weather will be warmer! It was 15 degrees for today's race.

The race runs part way around Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids; you can find a rough map of the race course here (I say "rough" because I don't know exactly where the start/finish line was). The entire route runs along blocked-off residential roads with a few mild hills.

Amanda and I arrived plenty early and I warmed up a bit by running the first part of the course. I saw that Roger Bonga was there... Roger is a local endurance athlete who I met at the Cascade Winery where he works. He's a very nice guy and a very fast runner. I ran part of my warm up jog with him and he told me that he was planning to "run it easy" and finish in about 20 minutes - I wish I could run "easy" at that pace!


Ready set go! Enjoying the first few seconds of the race.

The race organizers were very no-nonsense. We got a "5 minutes to start!" warning, and the next thing we heard was "10 seconds!" No speeches, no instructions, nothing. At the starting line I placed myself among the middle of the pack but once we got going, I quickly passed a few dozen people. However, it took forever to feel settled at the pace I wanted; usually after a couple minutes I'm locked in and cruising, but today my stride didn't smooth out until around seven minutes into the race.

Occasionally running among us were local residents simply out for a morning jog. Aside from the finish line, there were two spectators and three volunteers out on the course. Unfortunately there really aren't any good highlights to this race.

Around 12 minutes along I starting feeling pretty good, but at around 15 minutes I felt totally dead. Luckily that only lasted a minute or so and after that I was just "race tired". I pushed hard for the last mile but it just didn't feel like I could accelerate. You can see how hard I was working in the photo as I approach the finish, and also how worn out I looked immediately afterwards. However, within 15 minutes I was feeling recovered! Apparently I didn't run fast enough...


Almost there! Pushing hard down the final stretch to the finish... and not smiling.

Sadly, when I finished there was nobody nearby that I could chase to the tape - I love sprinting out a contested finish but the nearest competitors were about 25 yards ahead and behind me. Speaking of my competitiveness, only two women finished ahead of me! :)


Recovering just after the finish... whew!

Race headquarters was at the nearby high school and I used the locker room there to change into street clothes since Amanda and I had to head directly to the Grand Rapids Museum for an adoption event, helping out Vicky's Pet Connection. Our foster dog Joyce was there along with two others. I'll leave it to Amanda to tell that story.

Two nights ago I dreamed that I worked for the Air Force at Cheyenne Mountain. I was on an airliner, traveling on a business trip to the east coast with a Japanese woman, sitting in a window seat. Looking out the window I suddenly saw contrails arcing into the sky from the ground; one of them passed near our airplane and I instantly recognized it as an ICBM since I worked with those at my Air Force job. I watched the first stage of the rocket separate and somehow even noticed the MIRVs being prepared for deployment.

It occurred to me that a massive nuclear conflict had begun, and that we were still four hours from landing - being airborne, there was nothing we could do about the devastation that was about to happen. "The world is going to be a different place when we land" I thought to myself.

Then the airline pilot decided to divert to Kalamazoo. We landed in no time - before the missiles hit, even. I decided that I needed to find an airplane and fly myself to a desolate area outside of any potential radiation zones that would be near populated cities. My Japanese business partner and I ran through the hangars of the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, looking for an aircraft that was airworthy. Finally I found a WWII fighter plane in working order, except that it was missing a propeller!

I desperately searched the other museum aircraft trying to find one with a suitable propeller. Finally I found one (I remember it had a red hub) and tried to remove it discretely - there was a tour guide and her group of tourists wandering about the museum and I didn't want to attract attention. I got the propeller off, but I really struggled trying to install it onto that flightworthy aircraft. I was getting very frustrated...

...and I woke up. What an interesting dream!

Remember the Hoth Wampa creature from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back? It would've enjoyed the weather for today's run: -1 degree air temp, -20 windchill, roads covered in packed snow... Luckily I didn't encounter the Wampa!

Actually I didn't feel very cold - it helped that the sun was out, which caused the temp to rise all the way to +5 degrees by the end of my run. I dressed quite appropriately: screw shoes, wool running socks, heavyweight tights, long-sleeve fleece, wind jacket, thick gloves, ear warmer around my neck, ear warmer around my ears, hat, sunglasses, and most importantly a fleece scarf around my face. That scarf really saved my nose and lips when running into the wind, but it's tough to suck air through the fabric! Whenever the wind was at my back I pulled the scarf down. Screw shoes are a dream on hard-packed snow! I had very little trouble getting traction.

None of my usual co-workers dared to brave the elements with me and preferred instead to remain at Echo Base. That's OK - the Force was with me and I had a great run, somehow managing a 8:20 pace under the weight of all that gear!

On Sunday while running the treadmill side-by-side with Amanda, I conducted a little experiment. I counted how many steps I took per mile, then I counted how many steps she took. The results?

Andrew:
(~1200 steps/mile) * (7.1 miles) = 8,500 steps

Amanda:
(~3200 steps/mile) * (4.4 miles) = 14,000 steps

I ran 61% farther but she took 65% more steps! How? Well, I bounded 4.4 feet with every step while her stride covered just 1.65 feet. Why? Partly because I was running an 8:30 pace while she ran a 13:00 pace, and partly because my jeans measure a 36" inseam while hers would be 26". (FYI - I'm 6'4" and Amanda is 5'0".)

This doesn't mean that longer strides make you a better runner. In fact, a study of collegiate cross country runners (I wish I remember where I read this) found that as the runners became faster over a given distance, their average stride length became shorter! Apparently turnover is more important than stride length?

Another mantra of running is that smaller people = faster people, since they have to carry less weight and also require reduced torque for their muscles to effect rotation about a joint. (This is also why smaller weightlifters can, pound for pound, lift relatively more weight than bigger folks.)

Anyway, there's no grand conclusion to be had here; just some fun numbers and comparisons. My favorites are these:
With each step of Amanda's, she travels a distance (20") less than what my two feet cover end-to-end (24")!
With each step of mine, I travel a distance (53") slightly less than her entire body covers lying down (60")!

After spending much of the day snoozing in a sunbeam, Beacon grew tired of sleeping au natural and decided to try on some PJs. Problem was, he tried on Amanda's! Pink is clearly not Beacon's color...

"What are five books that changed your life?"

Presented in the order that I read them...

The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Seuss
The very first book I learned to read, and it's still worth reading! I was fascinated by the imagination, the rhyme, the made-up words, and the colors. Very few authors can represent "creativity" the way Dr. Seuss could.

Guide to Field Identification of the Birds of North America by Golden Books
I bought this as a gift for my dad not because he wanted it, but because I wanted it - I was four years old at the time. By kindergarten I had picked a favorite bird on each page and memorized its info (coloring, wingspan, etc.) Birds were the source of my interest in flying. There's now a 2001 edition.

Watership Down by Richard Adams
My dad read this book to me in 3rd or 4th grade, and I've re-read it on my own a few times since. The story is is told from the point of view of some rabbits! The author even created a glossary of rabbit language; our favorite was "hru-du-du" meaning any motor vehicle. This book caused me to wonder if animals have language, feelings, and societies just like we do.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
I first read this in 4th or 5th grade and it really struck a chord with me. Maybe I learned that stories can evoke strong emotions? After this book - a Newberry AwardNewberry Medal and Newberry Honor books as possible. They are ALL very good and worth reading, even as an adult.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A book I read in high school (and again in college) that seemed very emblematic at the time. Despite a darkly negative setting, to me the story was about hope. It was also eerily ironic that before reading this book, I had memorized the entire poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe because I enjoyed it so much.

If want to know some good books that I'd recommend besides these five, check out my Bibliophil library!

A while ago I wrote about my 2006 goals, but I haven't discussed the goals I made for 2007. There are currently 36 goals on my list, although that's a fluid number since I always reserve the right to edit my goals if situations change - in fact, I just added one tonight! I won't list them all, but here are a select few:

• Plan a race schedule for the entire year

This has proved almost impossible since many races that I may want to run haven't been listed anywhere yet. However, I do have a huge spreadsheet with all known candidate races which I update whenever I learn of a possible race or commit to doing one. First race of the year will be Feb. 10 - the Heart and Sole 5K.

• Run a 5K under 20:08

This is a HUGE challenge - my "modern day" PR is 22:42 at the 2006 Doggie Dash with Haven. 20:08 is my high school PR, back in the days when speed was easy! I'm just hoping to get under 22:00 at my first race this year.

• Run a marathon under 4:00

I'm pretty confident I could do this if I train for it, but I'm not sure yet if I'm going to "race" or just "run" a marathon this year. We'll see.

• Run at least 250 times

Initially I was going to re-up my "1000 miles" goal but decided to go for frequency over distance. I'm training for speed this year and I didn't want to feel compelled to rack up some slow miles. I ran 27 times in January, so I'm well over pace for this goal. However, I'm sure to replace some runs with bike rides when the weather warms up.

• Track Haven's and Beacon's activities (running, swimming, hiking, etc)

Doin' it. I've run 32 miles with Haven and 10 with Beacon, but they also have their own "training" logs. Haven has gone 55 miles this year with either me, Amanda, or both. Beacon has gone 42 miles plus one session of fetch in the river. A tired dog is a happy dog!

• At work - get into a lead role or other such role that better suits my abilities

This is going to be tough. I recently interviewed for what would've been a big promotion but was turned down; still, at least they considered me despite having far fewer years of experience than the job officially requires. My company isn't very proactive so I'm going to have to be rather assertive if I want to find a better role.

• Write six article-type blog entries

My first one was a review of running socks. Let me know if you have any suggestions for future such articles!

So far, so good, but there are plenty of yet-to-be-undertaken goals on my list. 11 more months to go!