Pining for the Fjords

Chris and I have a wonderful local running store, Tortoise and Hare Sports, owned and operated by a lovely set of folks including Nathan (the main dude) and Kristen.  Personally, I’m eternally thankful to Kristen for winning the overall women’s division in the recent City of Peoria Runner’s Series, as her removal from the age group awards allowed me to place first in mine, winning my first major running award: Sweet! We’re often in Tortoise and Hare, but it’s mostly for packet pickup for City of Peoria events – T&H is one of the major sponsors.  This time, however, we were there with an intent to actually spend money, since it was their Semi-Annual Sale and Clearance!  Hooray!  I initially didn’t find anything I desperately needed, but since I was killing time while waiting for Chris to get measured for shoes, I wandered around and found a few things.  Time for a gear review!* We’ve been subscribing to the Chow Locally veggie box delivery service for the past fou

So, I know it’s totally not cool to watch a lot of tv anymore.  Almost every week, I hear someone discussing* how they canceled their cable, and now they have ample time to build authentic toothpick replicas of the Brooklyn Bridge/save the endangered male boil slug/plant, grow, harvest, then cook and make ice cream out of their own durian. That would be ill advised Well, we’re not those people.  Granted, the DirecTV would be one of the first luxuries to go if we lost our jobs and needed to make a lifestyle change, but for now, we watch a lot of tv, and man, do we love it.  Below, a sampling of our summer favorites, arranged by day of the week…** Sunday: Food Network Star I don’t think either of us is overly proud of this one, but there it is.  I’ve watched the past few seasons, and I’ve finally lured Chris into sitting and consuming episodes with me.  I think we may watch this one for all the wrong reasons: to listen to Giada get all ghetto Italian with her pronunc

In other words, base training has begun for our big fall/winter endurance events. May the calorie differential be ever in your favor! As I may have mentioned earlier on the blog, I signed up for the full P.F.Chang’s Marathon, which will occur in January 2015, and Chris has officially paid for the SOMA half Ironman distance triathlon, a local race that occurs in late October.  Neither of us is in the thick of training yet (although Chris is getting close-ish), and after a summer spent just staying in shape,* we need to build up our base level just a bit.  That way, when the hard stuff rolls around, we have a decent base already constructed from which to build. Not that base, you nerds. Chris is currently swimming two mornings a week, attending spin class with buddies two days a week, doing weights once a week, taking one day off, and filling the seventh day with either running, biking outside, or some other activity.  For the past few weeks, I’ve done easy runs

In stark contrast to Ann Coulter’s recent incoherent ramblings about how watching soccer makes you a crappy American (and apparently an illegitimate one at that), I’ve been following and thoroughly enjoying the World Cup over the past few weeks.  Chris and I have been exercising a standing engagement with some of our friends each Saturday or Sunday at the Scottsdale branch of Four Peaks Brewing Company* for the past two weeks, and tomorrow, we’ll host a viewing of the Netherlands/Costa Rica game at our house.**   Although I plan to continue following the tournament until the end, probably catching some of the weekend games, I have to admit that my enthusiasm has dimmed a bit now that the US is out.  Unfortunate as this is for the delightful group of gentlemen on the American soccer team,*** the timing works well for me, as it allows me to swing my focus onto my favorite summer sporting tradition, the Tour de France.  One of the major bike races here in Arizona is the Tour de Tucso