Wow, what a crappy day for running! The temperature was 47 degrees with an east wind at about 15mph and a constant drizzle. The gun split called out at mile one was 10:20, while my split at mile two was 18:45–quite a bit faster than I wanted. I was trying to keep up with two women running a strong pace, but they left me in the dust by the half-way point. My gun split at the 5K mark was 28:30 and I ended up with a 55:28 chip time (a new 10K PR). My legs feel pretty good and the only issues I had were the crappy weather (I can already feel a cold coming on) and my aerobic performance (my breathing was heavier than normal for almost the entire race). I am going in the right direction with this race, though:

• 1999 – 1:01:15 (9:53 pace)
• 2002 – 1:07:04 (10:48)
• 2003 – 1:00:32 (9:45)
• 2004 – 0:55:41 (8:58)
• 2005 – 0:57:43 (9:18)
• 2006 – 0:55:28 (8:56) – PR

Up next: the 2006 Heart of the City Half Marathon in Burnsville, Minnesota on June 3, 2006.

This week I received my entry form for the 25th running of the Twin Cities Marathon, to be held Sunday, October 1, 2006. Since I’m attending the U.S. Open in New York this year during Grandma’s Marathon weekend, TCM will be my only marathon this year. I met my last marathon goal at the 2005 Grandma’s, when I finally finished that race in under five hours. So it’s time for a new goal and I’ve decided to aim for a new PR (currently 4:42 at the 1995 TCM). This, however, means I need to actually train. I started this weekend with a 4-mile run that went well and plan to run the annual Get In Gear 10K next weekend.

There are a lot of different training plans out there, but I like to make my own. I’ve tried everything from Galloway to stay-active-but-don’t-run-too-much. If I ever want to get to Boston, I’d have to follow something much stricter than I’ve done so far, but here is my plan for this year:

• Mondays: 4-mile run
• Tuesdays: treadmill, sit-ups, free weights
• Wednesdays: 4-mile run
• Thursdays: treadmill, sit-ups, free weights
• Fridays: 4-mile run
• Saturdays: golf
• Sunday Mornings: increasing long runs

Only 159 days until race day…DK

Edited to add: Registered online 4/26 at 12:01am.

A few of the visitors to our backyard this week…DK

Willingers is a Golf Digest four-and-a-half-star rated course in Northfield, Minnesota. They are celebrating their 15th season this year and I had the chance to play my first two rounds of the year there last week.

Willingers has always been one of my favorite courses in the state. It is close to the south metro (15 minutes from Eagan), doesn’t have any houses around it, is fairly priced, has a friendly staff and is a great design by my favorite local architect, Garrett Gill of River Falls, Wisconsin.

Located on the site of a former tree nursery, there are lots of wetland areas and elevation changes. The wind always seems to keep the windmill behind the fifth green spinning wildly. The greens this week were in spectatular condition already and the fairways had very little winter damage.

The only issues I’ve ever had with this course are the neighboring gun club (which I’m sure they’ve tried to buy) and that they’ve not found a way to add 64 yards to the “Regular” or white tees. At a slope of 142, the whites are plenty of challenge, yet too many people don’t play them because of the sub-6000 yardage. If more people would move off of the 6310 yard blue tees, I believe the pace of play would improve greatly.

I’d also like to see a new set of tournament tees beyond the current 6775 tips to draw more tournaments in the future. The current tournament tees have a 74.4 rating and 150 slope, so I imagine a set of tees stretching to 7000+ yards would put it among the most difficult tests in the state…DK

Last night we went to the final home game of the season for the Minnesota Wild. They won 2-0, but it’s sort of sad that the season is over. Of course with the Masters last weekend and the Twins home opener history, it’s now time to switch to summer sports. I have my first tee times scheduled, but I’m also thinking about joining the Wild season ticket waiting list for next season…DK

Edited to Add: Pulled the trigger on two spots in the warming house tonight.

Based on feedback, I’ve made some changes to the site since the launch. There are several new sections in the fetishes area:

• Cirque du Soleil
• Movies
• Television

I’ve also added some iTunes functionality to the footer area and the music page and added a webcam image to the contact page. I appreciate the feedback and will continue to make improvements down the road…DK