A whole bunch of random crap

I have been meaning to post for a couple of days now.  For today's bit of random BS, I am going to the blogger favorite...bullet points.

• I spent a good deal of time and energy this weekend loading and unloading 2 truckloads of firewood. 


• By Monday, EVERYTHING from the waist up hurt.  When I got up Monday morning to run, I could barely walk due to lower back pain.   Does this count as cross-training?


• While perusing Facebook the other day, I noticed this back and forth between one of my college buddies and his wife.  First of all, neither one of them is what you would call healthy.  Both quite large persons.  They were making fun of a group of runners wearing Will Run for Beer shirts while eating at a place called Chunkys.  WTF, at least the runners will burn off all those calories they are consuming.  I know these people are not runners, but you are eating at the same place (most likely eating more than the runners) and you think it is ironic that the runners think they can pig out because they run!?


• Running while windy outside:  tailwind = good; headwind = bad.

Dang, for some reason I had allot more in my head the other day to write and now I am drawing a blank.

A big thank you to all our service men and women and veterans today.  Because of you, I can write the crappy blog without worrying about the gov'ment spying on me.

Someone needs to work on their algorithm

I have been reading allot of blogs talking about going to the gym. Having never been a gym person, I really have never thought about joining one.

Today I decided to look online at some of the gyms in town. I pulled up the profile of one of the gyms on Merchantcircle.com. It gave very little information, but it listed some recommended businesses.
-2 STD testing clinics
-2 local motels

Well, I guess fit folks get their groove on a little more often and might need these services.

Soccer Coaching Fail

As you can probably guess from the title, the soccer team has concluded the season winning a grand total of ZERO games.  Let me tell you about the game before I get into the coaching fail.

The game, in a word, awesome.  The girls played their butts off.  We failed to capitalize on some really good scoring opportunities, but they really played great.  Actually, both teams really played great.  At the end of regulation, we were tied 0-0.  The score had more to do with the awesome defense played by both teams.  Both teams have really gotten much better during the season (even though we missed tons of games and practices due to the rain).

Since this was part of the Regional Tournament, we had to decide a winner.  The normal process for this is called "Kicking from the mark."  If you have ever seen any soccer, the mark is the penalty spot on the field.  The coach, me, picks 5 players (that were on the field at the end of regulation) and gives the ref the order in which they will kick.  It is basically the kickers versus the goal keeper.  Most goals win.  If we are tied after 5 kicks, you repeat.

1st round: weak kick by them, but our keeper bobbled it and it goes it.  Miss kick by our girl, misses the goal. (1-0 them)

2nd round: good kick by them, goal.  Teh Daughter makes an AWESOME kick (not just saying this as her Dad, it was the best kick of the night), goal (2-1 them)

3rd round: miss kick by them, missed the goal.  Our girl make a great kick, but the goal keeper made an even better save.  It was really spectacular. (2-1 them)

4th round: good kick by them, goal.  Miss kick by our girl, missed the goal.  (3-1 them)  End of game.

It was really a great experience and the girls played so well.  A couple of these girls could be very good if they keep on playing (they just need a better coach then me, as you shall see).

Coaching FAIL:

Right before the start of the last period started, my best defender decided that she wanted to sit out.  In her defense, she has played every single minute of every game except for the 1st game.  She has been awesome and was playing great last night.  So she sat.  The girl (H) that was rotating with teh Daughter at goal keeper didn't want to play keeper the last period (she is also a good mid-fielder/striker).  I put my #4 keeper in hoping that we would score with teh Daughter and H playing offensive positions.  FAIL and FAIL.

The #4 keeper was really struggling during the kicks at the end and we would have been much better off with either teh Daughter or H playing there.  I learned today that I could have switched out the keeper during the kicks.  FAIL

Oh yeah, I ran 2.08 miles this morning.  Sorry BMI active will not let me go past 2 decimal places when I map my run, but I am pretty sure it was 2.082112544 miles. (No, I will not list times because they are pathetic)

Running happens

I know that you are all waiting eagerly to find out if I got off my lazy, pathetic ass to go running since my last post.

Surprise! I actually did.  I went out for a nice 2+ mile run this morning and it felt pretty good. 

Amazing how this "running" always makes me feel better, but I don't do it enough.  (Yes G, I am talking about running)

Tomorrow night, is the start of teh Daughter's Regional soccer tournament.  Since our team is 0 for the season, we get to play a "play-in" game with the other non-winning team.  We played them this past Saturday and tied.  At least someone will get a win on the season.  It may take overtime or penalty kicks, but one team is finally going to get a win.

If we win tomorrow, we play again on Saturday morning.  Our chances of winning that game are around 0.0000012%.  This team beat us 7-0 earlier in the season and it was not that close.

Death of a blog

No, not this one, yet.

Since I am such a loser, I was listening the NPR on the way to work yesterday.  (I commute with another employee at work and NPR is a much safer station that trying to find music we both like)  NPR ran a story that the web service geocities was being shut down.  Geocities was the site of my 1st lame-ass blog.

This was back in the late 90's and I remember playing around on yahoo one day and seeing where I could create my own webpage with a blog.  I am pretty sure that I had even less people read it than this one (if that is even possible).

I cannot even remember what kinda crap I put on it, but I think that it was back when I was running some and I posted a bit about it.  There are some similarities between these two "blogs."

1. Crappy writing Check


2. Boring topics Check


3. Very few readers Check


4. Running infrequently Check

Wow, after all these years and still the greatness shines.

Back to running:

Need someone to kick my ass into gear.  I am becoming teh Excuse Master every morning and have not been running very much.  I even have a plan to follow and my lazy ass still doesn't go.  Please help by making fun of me until I get off my duff and get some running done.

Back from my hiatus

I know that absolutely no one has missed me and I cannot blame you at all.  I have been too lazy to get off my butt and write a post.

Well, since no one saw my last post due to the fucktardary of wordpress (go ahead, read it), obviously no feedback on teh daughter running with me.  Today was our first run together and it was awesome. 

We were planning on running Monday, but the downpour outside gave me the perfect excuse to just go back to sleep for another hour instead of running. 

The weather Tuesday was great, but I was lazy again (go figure, and you will see this trend rather prominent in my posts).  Wednesday morning was misty rain and temps in the lower 60's.  I tried for about 5 minutes to get teh daughter up, but she refused.  I did go running, just with out her.

Yesterday was a rest day for me (the schedule I am using said to walk for 30 mins, but as you know by now I am just lazy).  This morning she got up and went out with me.  It was a PERFECT 56 degrees outside.  I put a reflective vest on teh daughter and out we went.  Since she is starting, we are doing a run-walk program together.  I have run 2 half-marathons and attempted on full, but I have always been super slow.  My thought is that I will do this program with her running at a much faster pace.  I want to improve my snailish 13-14 min/mile pace to around 10 min/mile.  I think this program is my way to do it.  We ran 2 minutes and then walked 2 minutes.  We went out from the house for 11 minutes and then back.  We covered 1.9 miles in 21 minutes.  Damn good running pace.

The schedule call for another run tomorrow morning and we are planning on doing it.  However, since I found out that teh daughter will be playing soccer tomorrow, I may just do it by myself.

Also, please think warm thoughts for me this weekend.  The whole family is doing a cub scout camping trip and it is supposed to drop into the 30's Saturday night.  Brr.

Have a great weekend.

No, Mrs Needle didn't kill me in my sleep

Ed note:  I actually wrote this thing 10 days ago and for some reason it didn't publish.  Damn wordpress.  So today you will get a two-fer.  Sorry.

Greetings! I have been thinking about posting for a couple of days, but every time I think about starting I realize that I have nothing interesting to say. Life has been pretty boring lately. It has primarily consisted of soccer, football, work and a little family time. Do you notice what is missing? Yeah, running.

Last weekend we had a soccer game at 9 am (we lost, as usual). For the season we are 0-5-1. Not sure why that one team stunk so bad and let us tie that one game. S, teh daughter, finally got to play this past weekend. She is doing ok, but you can tell she has missed allot and is kinda out of shape (being in a cast will do that to you). C, teh son, also played Saturday and he is doing pretty well. However, the poor guy got kicked in teh n*ts@ck during the game. REALLY felt bad for him. He kept saying he got kicked in teh weenie!

Anyway, after soccer, we headed to Mississippi to watch the old college team lose, again. See a theme here? My teams and losing? Geez. We had a good time tailgating before and after the game. We stayed in Mississippi Saturday night and went back to campus to watch the women's soccer team play. It started raining about the time we left the hotel and didn't stop the rest of the day. We only watch about 30 minutes of the soccer game and about 20 minutes of the women's volleyball game before we decided to head on back home.

See, really, really boring.

I do need some advice though. Teh daughter really wants to start running with me in the mornings. Which I think is great. Problem though is that I go running on the roads around the house while it is pitch black outside. I have no problem with ME running at dark thirty in the morning on these roads, but I really don't like the idea of HER running at dark thirty on these same roads.

Should we drive the 10-15 minutes each way to the nearest town and run in the park? Run an altered route around the house that does not include so much time on the busy road (there is almost no traffic on the side roads)? Needs me some help here.

I have found Glaven's house

see more Fail Blog
The Heisenberg Household

Hopefully, this will work right.

After weeks of searching, I have found the Heisenberg abode.

Rain, rain and more rain

Sorry for the lack of blogging for almost two weeks.  As I have pointed out previously, I am a slacker.  What did you expect?  Daily blogging?  Interesting stuff?  Yeah, right.

There really has not been much to write about lately.  In my neck of the woods, it has rained ALOT.  None of the rain has interfered with my running (that slacker part did that just fine). 

This morning, on the way to work, I heard the news lady warn that there was fog close to my place of employment.  Gut reaction: F*ck! Damn! Sh!t!

The morons that make a similar to commute to myself have a hard enough time driving like they have any sense when it is sunny and the roads are dry.  Now these same morons have to drive through fog?!  F*ck!

Fog = Needle late for work because people don't know how to drive (not that it matters if Needle is late because he is salaried and nobody give a sh*t except him that he is late - I am anal like that) (and no, Glaven, NOT like that).

Oh yeah, running.....hmm....yeah, I have done just a little of it.  Need. to. get. more. consistent!  Why, of why, will I not get off my lazy a$$ and go running when I know I should be??  I wish I knew.

Have a great day and I promise to post a little more often, I swear!

Surprise! I am a MORON!!!

Hi.  My name is Needle and I am a dumba$$.*

I went for a run this morning and after taking a shower and getting some coffee, I went to bimactive.com to add the run.  I use the hybrid map because I know the landmarks.  As I was looking at the map, it dawned on me that I have been using the wrong house as my start point.

Now, to those of you that live in a neighborhood, you are thinking "Pfffft, it is only like, what, 20 feet!  What kinda loser writes a blog post about 4o feet during a run?!"

First off, I don't live in a neighborhood and secondly, I am that kinda loser.  My neighbor is almost 0.1 of a mile into my run.  So I have been shorting myself, almost 0.2 of a mile on a 2+ mile run for a couple of weeks.  How could I not notice that I was using the wrong house as my starting point?!?

Time for a day of soccer and football.  (For my non-existent Euro-trash readers, that would be football and American football).

Hare a great weekend everyone!

*I have heard that admitting your problem is the first step.  The first step to what, I am not sure of.

Hu-fuckin'-midity

I went for a run this morning and by the time I was done I was just pouring sweat.  I knew that I had run at a decent pace for me (about 3 minutes faster than yesterday for a 2 mile run).

Well, I get to work and I add my run to bimactive.com.  It has a nice feature where it records what the actual weather conditions were during the run.  The temp was a nice 66 degrees, but the humidity was 100%.  I am not making that up.  100% hu-fuckin'-midity.  No wonder my balls were a sweatin'.

Knee Pain:

About a month ago, I was taking part in a soccer coaching class for U10.  As part of the training, all of the coaches went out to the field and did some drills and then played a game of soccer.  The idea was for us to get a clue as to what the players are going thru.  Being the competitor that I am, I went all out during the game.  The next day, I could barely walk and my left knee was in pain.  This same knee is still hurting, but only during side to side movements.  It does not bother me at all during my runs and the only time I notice it is when I am stretching and I put force to one side or the other. 

Should I be worried about this?  After my run, the pain in the knee is very small.

Running update:

2 day streak going (impressive, I know)

Was thinking I needed a new title

I believe Needle SHOULD be Running would be a better name right now.  Let me go ahead and let you in on a secret......I am a slacker.  I have no will power.  And I am not much to look at either (but that has nothing to do with running).

Anyway, I am finally back on the running wagon.  I only ran twice last week for a total of 4.3 miles.  Pathetic.  I am back to trying my FFBS plan that I have talked about numerous times and will keep you updated.  Occasionally.

So, what did the Needle Clan do over the holiday weekend?  We went to watch some college football, of course.  Mrs. Needle and I are both alumni of Mississippi State University.  Also, Mrs. Needle is very fond of going to football games (what can I say, I got it good).

We spent ALL day Saturday in Starkville and had a blast.  We tailgate with some friends that I went to college with.  Drank many beers and had a great time.  Poor S had to walk all the way across campus in her cast.  I am more than a little pissed at all the university golf carts that drove past us and none of them offered to pick her up.

Needle and Dicks

Sporting Goods, that is.  I was really surprised to read Nitmos' post today about his return from vacation and the fact that I won the $100 gift card to Dicks.

I would like everyone to know that I am the person that NEVER wins drawings.  EVER.  Until this contest, my grand total for winnings is one (1) Mississippi State Baseball can holder that I won in 1994.  That basically sums it up.  I did win a knife about 6 years ago in a work drawing and only because they had enough stuff so that EVERYONE got something.

I am also taking this as a cosmic hint to get off my ass and do some more running.  I am modifying the FFBS plan, effective tomorrow.  The new FFBS plan is going to try to incorporate a form of STREAKING!  Yep, in order for me to do anything run related, I have to really simplify it.  So if the day ends in "y," I will get my butt up and run.  Now, I will not do anything too stupid, like run when I am hurt or it is pouring rain. 

Am I crazy?  Am i stoopid?  Possibly and yeah.

Why Needle?

People who know me in real life don't have to work hard to figure out why my nickname has been Needle for many, many years.  So to those in blogland may wonder, where does the name Needle come from?

It is quite simple actually.  First of all, Needle is short for Needled*ck.  Now, I know that everyone is thinking bad things about my manhood at this point, but I can ASSURE you that is has nothing to do with my actual anatomy.  Really, it doesn't.  I swear it doesn't.  NO, REALLY!  Ok, maybe a little....

Basically, my last name can easily be turned into Needled*ck.  As a matter of fact, even a slow middle-school kid could come up with the nickname.  Over the years, it has just been shortened to Needle (even my wife calls me Needle half the time).

How it became an officially official nickname:

When I was in college I marched in the drum line.  Since we had allot of material to learn, we always started a couple of days before the rest of the band.  At that time, all of the members of the band were listed on a huge board in the Band Hall.  As I walked into the Band Hall, on my first day on campus, with all my stuff still in my car, I introduced myself to the drum captain and the other returning drummers.  Immediately, BC yells across the room "Hey! Your Needled*ck!  As soon as I saw your name on the board, I knew this was going to be your nickname." 

It was custom for everyone on the drumline to have a nickname and I was the first of the new drummers to get one.  Even before I had showed up.

Needless to say, this nickname has stuck with all of college drum line buddies and most of my college friends.

So there you go, a little synopsis of the name.

Weekend of FAIL

This past weekend was the first game for teh daughter's soccer team.  It was not an official game, just a "friendly" to help out another region.  We had to travel about 30 minutes to play.  First of all, the soccer complex is ok.  I am kinda spoiled with the awesome fields we have, so not much can compare.  The field we played on was WAY too small.  I don't think they go the memo about proper field size.  They also don't believe in calling all those pesky "rules" that everyone else follows (such as offside, tripping in the penalty area, etc).

Anyway, the poor girls were kinda lost out there.  We really have not worked allot on positions and what to do when in a certain position.  We tended to get out of position on defense and gave up 4 easy goals.  The girls played hard, but you could tell the other team had a couple more weeks of practice than us.  Also, we really miss not have teh daughter out there playing.

Running FAIL x 2:

Even though the weather was absolutely PERFECT all weekend long, I did not get in a single run.  We are talking low to mid 60's in the morning and I stayed my lazy ass on the couch.  I have got to start getting at least one run in on the weekend because Monday is always a rest day for me (it just can't get going on Monday mornings).

Today was 2.24 miles in 30 min for a 13:25 pace.  About 15 seconds slower per mile, but I know that I did the first mile too slow and kicked ass on the second.

Running like Usain Bolt

Ok, not really but today I did the second run of my new far-fetched bullsh*t plan. And teh results are:

2.22 miles in 29:15 for a pace of 13:11

Back to Usain Bolt, it is absolutely amazing what he has done the last year. Every 100 and 200 meter race has been a world record. Just amazing.

Ok folks (hey I can say folks, plural, now that more than just LooMoo came to visit yesterday. Thanks again for the link love) I gotta get to work now.

You gotta love politicians

First of all, greetings to the couple of peeps that followed Teh LooMoo's link to my page.  I hope that you didn't run screaming at all my crappy writing.  Maybe one day, I can actually learn to create coherent sentences and paragraphs.

This morning on the way to work I was listening the NPR (because I am a geek) and they had a story about Massachusetts politics.  As most everyone knows, Sen Ted Kennedy is battling brain cancer right now and he is planning on stepping down in the near future.  The problem is with the laws of succession in Mass.  According to the story, in 2004 Mass had a Republican governor.  This is when John Kerry (I hope that is right) was running for President.  In order to make sure that no republican would be appointed prior to a special election, the Mass legislature changed the law so that no one would be in office from the point of resignation until a special election is held 5 months later.

Now, they have a democratic govoner, and Sen Kennedy does not want their seat to be emplty for 5 months.  You just gotta love politics!

Anyway, since I am probably the only one that finds that funny, I will move on.

I am desperately seeking a fresh start to my running and this is my plan.  For the last 2 months, I have been "running" around 2.8-3.0 miles at a 14:30 pace.  I am such a speed demon.  I have been obsessed with getting in the distance and then eventually working on getting faster.  Well folk(s), I ain't working.

My new idea/plan/far-fetched bullshit is to cut the idea of mileage, pace etc completely out of my head.  I will run 15 minutes out and then back.  Pace will be as fast as I can go without reaching the puke threshold.  I am allowing myself walk breaks as needed.  My goal is to be running the entire 30 minutes in 30 days at a 12:00/mile pace.

Yesterday I ran 2:08 miles in 30:00.  Today, nada.

(Full disclosure: I am really neither a democrat nor a republican since I think they are all crooks)

Eva Bank Midnight Run

Finally getting around to writing this race report to be read by my one reader.  I apologize for the delay, but I was traveling for work yesterday and in general I am just lazy.

This run was last Friday night and started at 11:59 pm.  Before the run, I also had soccer practice for my daughter's team.  This started at 7 and ended around 8:15.  After practice, I headed home to eat some supper and try to take a nap.  I was able to rest for about an hour before I had to get up to go to the race.

No issues pre-race.  I ran into one of my old bosses and a couple of friends from the area.  I could not belive how much this race has grown.  There were almost 700 runners.

Overall craptastic race.  I ran the first mile way too fast for my slow ass.  I ran like a race rookie, but I did finish and that was my only goal for the race.  I was very surprised at the number of runners that were wearing cotton shirts.  That had to suck in that weather.  When I added the run to bimactive, it told me that the actual humidity during the run was 96%.  WTF!! 96%!  No wonder I was sweating so much.  So my offical excuse for sucking ass in the race is the humidity.  Hey, I will take what I can get.

Going to try to post a picture now and see what happens.

[caption id="attachment_20" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Teh daughter with a new fashion accessory"][/caption]

She has what is believed to be a stress fracture in her ankle.  She will miss the first 4 or 5 games of the soccer season and she is bummed.

A new PW........WOO HOO

I will write up a full race report later of the Eva Bank Midnight Run.  Before I forget, here are my mile times:

Mile 1: 12:45 (WAY, WAY too fast....wait for the crash and burn)

Mile 2: 28:45

Mile 3: 42:11

0.1: 44.10

Times not great, but I will take them.  This is the first 5K that I have run in over 2 years.  I spent all of last year on marathon training and slowing my speed to do these long runs (I am a moron for not using a training plan).

Hope you have a great weekend o' 1 reader of mine!

I got ice cream....I got ice cream....

Last nite I had to cancel my daughter's soccer practice due to heavy rain and impending storms.  Of course, after I cancel it the weather clears up and no more rain until later in the night.  Oh well.

Since we were planning on being at the soccer fields last night, my wife didn't lay out anything for supper.  We decided to go to Chick-fil-a (chicken crack) and get some food.  Tuesday nights our Chick-fil-a has a kids eat free and I love me some free.  We decided to just go thru the drive-thru and go home to eat.  When I pulled up to pay, the cashier asked if I wanted to try a peach milkshake, for FREE!  I, of course, said HELL YES! (actually just said sure).

So my craptastic day at worked ended with free ice cream and it was good.  Maybe this running isn't soo bad for my mental health.

No run today because I am a slaker.

Running is bad for my mental health

The days of my last two runs have sucked ass.
Last Wednesay: Got Cujo'd
Today: IT did something wrong and lost all of my work for the past year. All. of. it. Hundreds of documents, lists, surveys, etc on a SharePoint server.

I will be spending the next forever working on trying to restore it.

Am finally going to go run again

Spent the weekend in Chattanooga with the family.  Took the kids to Ruby Falls and Rock City.  We had a good time, but alas, I did no running.   Mrs Needle told me I needed to wait until this week to start running again after the Cujo attack.

I am planning on running the Eva Bank Midnight Run 5K this Friday night.  The run starts at 11:59pm.  I have been wanting to run this ever since I moved back from Mississippi 8 years ago and this is the first time I have been able.  Last year I SEVERELY sprained my ankle in July and didn't train for almost a month.  Prior years my work schedule always fucked it up.  I have no goal for this race but to finish and not die.  Think I can handle that.

To my one reader (LM), I apologize for somehow deleting your comment.  That is what I get for trying to do it on my Blackberry.  I somehow made the blog eated your comment.  Sorry.  Maybe one day I will have another reader so that I can eated his/her comments.

I got Cujo'd

I first posted a summary of this story in the comments section of The Loose Moose.  She graciously replied and I finally decided to create my own running blog.  So here goes my first real post, hope it doesn't bore you....

This past Wednesday, which is actually my anniversary to my better half (MBH), I went for my early morning run around the neighborhood.  I have a nice 3 mile loop, with a couple of pretty hard hills, that I like to run.  Within the 3 mile loop, there are about a dozen dogs.  None of them in a fence or on a chain, just running around.  I have been running this loop off and on for the last 4 years.  Most of the dogs barely even acknowledge my existence anymore, execpt 3. 

1. Dog #1, aka fucking retard dog, ALWAYS comes running out at me barking like I am trying to steal his food.  A very aggressive dog that I fucking hate


2. Dog #2, aka pretty sweet pit bull, an older dog that usually comes out to say hi, occasionally trying to get me to pet her


3. Dog #3, now known as Cujo, usually barks like the dickens but generally doesn't come within 10 feet of me

So, I am doing my run thing and at about the 1.5 mile mark (where Dog #2 and Cujo live across the street from each other) I hear Dog #2 and Cujo to my right.  Cujo comes running out like he is going back to his house (like he has done numerous times before).  Unlike his normal routine, this time Cujo decides to BITE MY LEG.  He bit me just below the left knee and then runs off. 

My first reaction is WTF???? The next sequence of events went as follows:

1. I stop my watch.  I am not going to let Cujo attacking me mess up my time.


2. Have the following conversation with Cujo:
   
   
   
   1. Me: You fucking bit me you god forsacken mutt!!!
   
   
   2. Cujo: Bark
   
   
   3. Me: What in the ever living crap are you doing?  If you hadn't just bitten my leg I would chase down your sorry ass and beat it!!!
   
   
   4. Cujo: Bark
   
   
   5. Me: Fuck you! 
   
   
   6. Cujo: Bark
   
   
   
   


3. Neighbor from across the street comes out to see what I am yelling about and to see if it was Dog #2 that bit me.  He helped me get cleaned up since I had blood running down my leg.


4. Finished run

I ended up bleeding thru 4 bandaides before I finally went to see a Doctor that morning.  Doc gave me some anti-biotics and bandaged me up.

I found out yesterday that the dog was a "drop off" dog that my wife's uncle's brother-in-law had taken in.  Finding dogs in your yard is one of the things that happens when you live in BFE (bum fuck egypt).

The doctor recommended that I not run for a few days, so I have been a good boy and listened to him.  I will be running tomorrow morning, but I am probably going to try a new route that does not include so many dogs.