To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

[dis_or_dat]

No speculation here ... just best wishes.

 

[Ariel484]

Good luck with your secret mission! Or whatever it is!

 

[ZellyB]

Life just got very interesting for the next week and a half. I am not at liberty to discuss further. Crossing my fingers that I can still maintain the training.

Oh boy, a mystery! Can't wait to hear what's up. Regardless, hoping it works out the way you want it to!!

 

[dmross]

OH I am learning so much about running from you people!! Especially this training log.

Good luck with the next few days.

 

[DopeyBadger]

12 Weeks to Go (Quick Update)

Just a quick update. Let's see what happened...

Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Speed +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)

7/6/16 - W - Medicine Ball Workout (MBW)
7/7/16 - R - 1.5 miles @ 9:27 min/mile + 8 miles @ 7:33 min/mile + 1.5 miles @ 9:40 min/mile (0/8)
7/8/16 - F - 10 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (7/10)
7/9/16 - Sat - 11 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (9/11) + MBW
7/10/16 - Sun - 12 miles @ 8:13 min/mile (10/12)
7/11/16 - M - 9 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (7/9)
7/12/16 - T - 1.5 miles @ 9:33 min/mile + 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800, 600, 400 @ 6:39 min/mile with 400m RI @ 9:45 min/mile + 1.5 miles @ 10:22 min/mile (1/9)

Total mileage = 62.75 miles
Number of intervals within pace = 34/59 (58%)

Just one note about Tuesday. That was the hardest workout of the entire training cycle. It was 4.75 miles of 5K paced work. All things considered I am happy with how it went. That's all I got for now.

 

[opusone]

Looks like a tough week! Good job. BTW, I think you forgot to update the actual dates. Either that or you used the TARDIS to move back a week.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Looks like a tough week! Good job. BTW, I think you forgot to update the actual dates. Either that or you used the TARDIS to move back a week.

Thanks for noticing. It's been edited. Guess that would be something if I finally figured out time travel.

 

[Ariel484]

Great week! Really cannot imagine running all of those miles, especially when you're busy with other stuff. You surely must have said it earlier, but do you do your runs in the morning or after work?

 

[roxymama]

Catching up on so many journals! That part about Gigi waiting for you in the window reminds me so much of my lil stinker!
Like everyone else, I hope all is well in life. Just keep swimming.

This sentence you typed gave me some funny imagery..."It was 4.75 miles of 5K paced work"
I just had a visual of you crossing a 5k and keep running Forest gump style with everyone shouting "stop, stop, come back, it's over"

 

[DopeyBadger]

Great week! Really cannot imagine running all of those miles, especially when you're busy with other stuff. You surely must have said it earlier, but do you do your runs in the morning or after work?

Weekdays are almost always evening and weekends almost always mornings. However tomorrow looks like an 11 mile run starting at 3:45-4:00am. Probably get up around 2am then.

Catching up on so many journals! That part about Gigi waiting for you in the window reminds me so much of my lil stinker!
Like everyone else, I hope all is well in life. Just keep swimming.

This sentence you typed gave me some funny imagery..."It was 4.75 miles of 5K paced work"
I just had a visual of you crossing a 5k and keep running Forest gump style with everyone shouting "stop, stop, come back, it's over"

It is funny to think of doing more mileage paced than the distance. The walking breaks make it possible. That's why I liken my speed work to run/walk style. When I had time I was going to sit down and figure out the pace of just my speed intervals with rest to see which would be easier continuous at the pace/duration or what I did last night. Because last night was super tough and literally had almost nothing left at the end.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I was a Federal Criminal Court juror for a case involving prostitution, drugs, assault, and a weapon. I wasn't allowed to discuss the case with anyone and thought it best to not even mention that's what I was doing. However, the case is over as of last Friday so my secrecy has been lifted. This is what I learned by being a juror.

Perspective
The #1 thing I walked out of this experience learning is perspective. I only got a small glimpse into the lives of others during last week's trial, but it was enough for me to understand a few things. I've seen crime dramas on tv. I've watched Cops and other shows like it. But it's never been more real to hear about other people's lives than this past week has been. The things that these people went through (both the witnesses and defendant) were heartbreaking. It was emotionally exhausting hearing all of these unbelievably sad stories. I learned that I need to appreciate my life more. I learned that what I've gone through in life pales in comparison to lives like those I heard about. As each of the people were talking, it was difficult to hold back tears. I wanted to go up and give each of them a hug. And even though the defendant committed some awful things, I still felt empathy for him. I too wanted to give him a hug because of the awful things in the defendant's life. I could see a string of bad decisions led us to where we were in the court room by the defendant and the witnesses. The whole situation was sad. I gained perspective that my life up to now has been pretty easy. I've learned from this brief experience that I should appreciate my life more.

Media
I've never experienced media slant in my life. I've heard of it, but never experienced it. I have now. After the trial was over, I lifted the ban on outside information and read the newspaper articles from before and after the trial.

Pre-Trial (Local Newspaper)
Post-Trial (Local Newspaper)
Post-Trial (TV News)
Post-Trial (3rd party)
Post-Trial (Government)

I won't go into details. But needless to say, this is not all of the information. A reasonable person would read these things and immediately think to themselves why did it take 10 hours for the jury to reach a verdict. Because it wasn't that easy.

Court System
One of the things the judge said to us during the jury selection process was "Wouldn't you want someone like you to serve on a jury if you were on trial for something?" This was in reference to imploring the potential jurors to not try to deselect themselves based on their circumstances. As potential jurors, we should want to be on the jury trial because we would want someone like us if we were in the defendants place. But that begs a very big question. How is one selected to appear for the jury selection process? Well for federal court, it's whether you voted in the presidential election. And for state court, it's whether you have a driver's license (in WI case that is). I wasn't aware of this until after the jury deliberation had started (however this was never raised in the deliberations, but merely a conversation about the system in general). Who are the least likely to vote or have a driver's license? Typically the poor and disenfranchised (I think someone who committed a felony loses the right to vote for a period of time). So to me, the system seems rigged against those groups of people when selecting a jury "like them". Or to put it another way, can we consider the jury a "slice of society" when it knowingly is more likely missing a group of people more often. Seems like there should be a better way to select potential jurors (what about social security numbers?).

Also. what's the difference between a state crime and a federal crime? Well in this case, it was effecting (even in a minor way) interstate commerce. You know what counts as interstate commerce? These days pretty much anything.

Your phone carrier is from a different state - interstate commerce
Your car is from a different state - interstate commerce
The website you use is from a different state - interstate commerce
The hotel you stayed at is headquartered in a different state - interstate commerce

In today's society almost everything we interact with is interstate commerce. I'd be shocked based on these grounds that almost anything couldn't be charged in federal court if they wanted to. With it being a federal crime instead of a state crime, it carries with it different sentencing guidelines (found out after trial was over).

My role
Once the trial went to jury deliberation we were tasked with finding the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt based on the evidence presented in the court room. When we entered that room, the defendant was innocent and the evidence needed to prove otherwise. I immediately volunteered my services as jury foreman (or leader of the group). I did this for two reasons:

1) I wanted to make sure we took a VERY deliberative and analytical process in determining our verdict. I wanted to make sure we analyzed every word, sentence, and circumstance of the charges against the defendant to make sure we could prove every necessary piece of information. This frustrated some, but from my perspective was a necessary step to ensure things were done correctly.

2) I wanted to make sure that ONLY relevant things were discussed during the deliberations. Discussion about things that were struck from the record, or issues of personal characteristics, or things that just weren't appropriate, I just wasn't going to have any of it. I ONLY wanted to hear the facts and anytime anyone tried to steer the discussion otherwise, I made sure we stayed on task. I wanted our verdict to be based on facts, not emotions. Given the nature of the crimes involved, in my perspective, this was VERY difficult for some of the other jurors.

But this is a running journal
The trial upset my normal running rhythm. I run at the same time of day. I eat the same foods. I go to sleep around the same time every night. All of these things were thrown off because of this added event in my life. It made the runs more difficult. My diet was off. My sleep schedule was off. My natural rhythm to my running week was off. But, it occurred to me very early in the week. Again, it's about perspective. I'm doing something I love. I get to have this block of time in my life to get to do something like running. Yes, it was hard to run, hard to find time to do it, I was tired, and definitely lacking on my nutrition, but the runs felt different because of what I heard in other's lives. I've gained a new appreciation for my hobby of running.

That's all. I appreciate the well wishes and other statements. I wanted to be less vague and let you all know nothing bad happened, but I felt it best not to elaborate until after the trial was over. As always, thanks for reading.

 

[cburnett11]

Good read as usual.

Coincidentally, I had county jury duty last month during the earlier stages of my Hanson training... I didn't get the opportunity to sit for a case this time, but I was selfishly concerned about my running schedule. It ended up not being impacted. About 20 years ago, I had federal jury duty and sat on a case that lasted over a week.

 

[Barca33Runner]

I was a Federal Criminal Court juror for a case involving prostitution, drugs, assault, and a weapon. I wasn't allowed to discuss the case with anyone and thought it best to not even mention that's what I was doing. However, the case is over as of last Friday so my secrecy has been lifted. This is what I learned by being a juror.

Perspective
The #1 thing I walked out of this experience learning is perspective. I only got a small glimpse into the lives of others during last week's trial, but it was enough for me to understand a few things. I've seen crime dramas on tv. I've watched Cops and other shows like it. But it's never been more real to hear about other people's lives than this past week has been. The things that these people went through (both the witnesses and defendant) were heartbreaking. It was emotionally exhausting hearing all of these unbelievably sad stories. I learned that I need to appreciate my life more. I learned that what I've gone through in life pales in comparison to lives like those I heard about. As each of the people were talking, it was difficult to hold back tears. I wanted to go up and give each of them a hug. And even though the defendant committed some awful things, I still felt empathy for him. I too wanted to give him a hug because of the awful things in the defendant's life. I could see a string of bad decisions led us to where we were in the court room by the defendant and the witnesses. The whole situation was sad. I gained perspective that my life up to now has been pretty easy. I've learned from this brief experience that I should appreciate my life more.

Media
I've never experienced media slant in my life. I've heard of it, but never experienced it. I have now. After the trial was over, I lifted the ban on outside information and read the newspaper articles from before and after the trial.

Pre-Trial (Local Newspaper)
Post-Trial (Local Newspaper)
Post-Trial (TV News)
Post-Trial (3rd party)
Post-Trial (Government)

I won't go into details. But needless to say, this is not all of the information. A reasonable person would read these things and immediately think to themselves why did it take 10 hours for the jury to reach a verdict. Because it wasn't that easy.

Court System
One of the things the judge said to us during the jury selection process was "Wouldn't you want someone like you to serve on a jury if you were on trial for something?" This was in reference to imploring the potential jurors to not try to deselect themselves based on their circumstances. As potential jurors, we should want to be on the jury trial because we would want someone like us if we were in the defendants place. But that begs a very big question. How is one selected to appear for the jury selection process? Well for federal court, it's whether you voted in the presidential election. And for state court, it's whether you have a driver's license (in WI case that is). I wasn't aware of this until after the jury deliberation had started (however this was never raised in the deliberations, but merely a conversation about the system in general). Who are the least likely to vote or have a driver's license? Typically the poor and disenfranchised (I think someone who committed a felony loses the right to vote for a period of time). So to me, the system seems rigged against those groups of people when selecting a jury "like them". Or to put it another way, can we consider the jury a "slice of society" when it knowingly is more likely missing a group of people more often. Seems like there should be a better way to select potential jurors (what about social security numbers?).

Also. what's the difference between a state crime and a federal crime? Well in this case, it was effecting (even in a minor way) interstate commerce. You know what counts as interstate commerce? These days pretty much anything.

Your phone carrier is from a different state - interstate commerce
Your car is from a different state - interstate commerce
The website you use is from a different state - interstate commerce
The hotel you stayed at is headquartered in a different state - interstate commerce

In today's society almost everything we interact with is interstate commerce. I'd be shocked based on these grounds that almost anything couldn't be charged in federal court if they wanted to. With it being a federal crime instead of a state crime, it carries with it different sentencing guidelines (found out after trial was over).

My role
Once the trial went to jury deliberation we were tasked with finding the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt based on the evidence presented in the court room. When we entered that room, the defendant was innocent and the evidence needed to prove otherwise. I immediately volunteered my services as jury foreman (or leader of the group). I did this for two reasons:

1) I wanted to make sure we took a VERY deliberative and analytical process in determining our verdict. I wanted to make sure we analyzed every word, sentence, and circumstance of the charges against the defendant to make sure we could prove every necessary piece of information. This frustrated some, but from my perspective was a necessary step to ensure things were done correctly.

2) I wanted to make sure that ONLY relevant things were discussed during the deliberations. Discussion about things that were struck from the record, or issues of personal characteristics, or things that just weren't appropriate, I just wasn't going to have any of it. I ONLY wanted to hear the facts and anytime anyone tried to steer the discussion otherwise, I made sure we stayed on task. I wanted our verdict to be based on facts, not emotions. Given the nature of the crimes involved, in my perspective, this was VERY difficult for some of the other jurors.

But this is a running journal
The trial upset my normal running rhythm. I run at the same time of day. I eat the same foods. I go to sleep around the same time every night. All of these things were thrown off because of this added event in my life. It made the runs more difficult. My diet was off. My sleep schedule was off. My natural rhythm to my running week was off. But, it occurred to me very early in the week. Again, it's about perspective. I'm doing something I love. I get to have this block of time in my life to get to do something like running. Yes, it was hard to run, hard to find time to do it, I was tired, and definitely lacking on my nutrition, but the runs felt different because of what I heard in other's lives. I've gained a new appreciation for my hobby of running.

That's all. I appreciate the well wishes and other statements. I wanted to be less vague and let you all know nothing bad happened, but I felt it best not to elaborate until after the trial was over. As always, thanks for reading.

I was also selected for jury duty earlier this year. I was the first juror in the first group of twelve seated for voir dire in a murder trial. The judge in my trial also gave a speech before voir dire began detailing the importance of serving jury duty and his own experience serving on a jury. I am quite sure that the negative connotation jury duty takes on in popular culture and the comical measures that many in popular culture take to avoid it are a pretty heavy burden for the court to overcome. I think a lot of people enter the process trying to think of ways to get out of jury duty and those lectures are pretty effective in eliminating at least some of the tepid excuses with which many have come armed.

During my experience there was a gentleman who twice interrupted the judge and lawyers to enter his concerns over his ability to serve on a jury. I was never asked a question or addressed by the lawyers from either party during the entire voir dire. Even though I have never practiced, I have a law degree and was pretty sure I wasn't going to be selected for this reason; but it was pretty odd to have been completely frozen out. I felt a little bit angry that I was put through the charade when it was clear that neither party wanted someone with a law degree on the jury. I was excused from the jury after the first round of voir dire along with four others...the gentleman who tried to get himself excused was not.

It's certainly an interesting experience, even the limited one that I had. Glad to hear it was nothing serious on a personal level that was bringing your ability to run into question.

 

[ZellyB]

Really interesting to read about. I've only once been summoned for jury duty and I was going through some medical treatments at the time so had to be excused. Otherwise, I agree that it's important that people fulfill the duty. Thanks for during your civic duty and even volunteering to be foreman.

 

[Ariel484]

Very interesting. Glad that you took it so seriously and that it didn't last too long.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Good read as usual.

Coincidentally, I had county jury duty last month during the earlier stages of my Hanson training... I didn't get the opportunity to sit for a case this time, but I was selfishly concerned about my running schedule. It ended up not being impacted. About 20 years ago, I had federal jury duty and sat on a case that lasted over a week.

Thanks! That's interesting that you called for jury duty as well. Like anything else these days, my first thought was how will this affect my running schedule. LOL!

I was also selected for jury duty earlier this year. I was the first juror in the first group of twelve seated for voir dire in a murder trial. The judge in my trial also gave a speech before voir dire began detailing the importance of serving jury duty and his own experience serving on a jury. I am quite sure that the negative connotation jury duty takes on in popular culture and the comical measures that many in popular culture take to avoid it are a pretty heavy burden for the court to overcome. I think a lot of people enter the process trying to think of ways to get out of jury duty and those lectures are pretty effective in eliminating at least some of the tepid excuses with which many have come armed.

During my experience there was a gentleman who twice interrupted the judge and lawyers to enter his concerns over his ability to serve on a jury. I was never asked a question or addressed by the lawyers from either party during the entire voir dire. Even though I have never practiced, I have a law degree and was pretty sure I wasn't going to be selected for this reason; but it was pretty odd to have been completely frozen out. I felt a little bit angry that I was put through the charade when it was clear that neither party wanted someone with a law degree on the jury. I was excused from the jury after the first round of voir dire along with four others...the gentleman who tried to get himself excused was not.

It's certainly an interesting experience, even the limited one that I had. Glad to hear it was nothing serious on a personal level that was bringing your ability to run into question.

We had two of the ~47 people with law degrees. Neither were selected and one was removed "for cause". Other than the initial introduction that I did (was originally seated 12), I never raised my hand to any of the judge queries during the voir dire. I was surprised they chose me. Can you confirm that after the "for cause" how do they do the final selection from the jury pool? Do they select the jurors they want (defense gets a choice then plaintiff gets a choice), or do they remove people from the pool in secret (defense removes some from the pool and then plaintiff removes some from the pool)? It wasn't clear which they were doing to me, but it seemed like they were eliminating jurors, not selecting them to be seated for the final 14.

Really interesting to read about. I've only once been summoned for jury duty and I was going through some medical treatments at the time so had to be excused. Otherwise, I agree that it's important that people fulfill the duty. Thanks for during your civic duty and even volunteering to be foreman.

I knew this might be the only time I'm ever selected (since it's random). But I knew that if I were in the defendant's place, I would want someone like me to be the foreman making sure everything is done to the best of our ability.

Very interesting. Glad that you took it so seriously and that it didn't last too long.

Originally, they gave us an estimate of 1.5 weeks (Monday through the next Wednesday). I was surprised when he told us this after being selected on Monday. I figured 2-3 days which was what the original instructions given to us weeks in advance said. But I like I said earlier, I would hope if I were a defendant that the jury would work as hard for me as we did for our defendant. It was 10 hours of intense debate.

 

[Barca33Runner]

We had two of the ~47 people with law degrees. Neither were selected and one was removed "for cause". Other than the initial introduction that I did (was originally seated 12), I never raised my hand to any of the judge queries during the voir dire. I was surprised they chose me. Can you confirm that after the "for cause" how do they do the final selection from the jury pool? Do they select the jurors they want (defense gets a choice then plaintiff gets a choice), or do they remove people from the pool in secret (defense removes some from the pool and then plaintiff removes some from the pool)? It wasn't clear which they were doing to me, but it seemed like they were eliminating jurors, not selecting them to be seated for the final 14.

It has been nine years since I passed the bar and over 10 since I took any courses on trial procedure (I was focused on securities, not that I remember much of that either), so I am not much of an expert. Things differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but, in general, each party has an unlimited number of dismissals for cause. The judge has the discretion to consider whether the dismissal for cause is merited. Each party then has a limited number of peremptory challenges. These are basically their chance to excuse jurors for no stated cause. Not sure how the procedure worked in your court, but as jurors were excused it was likely because of peremptory challenges from one of the two sides. It tends to be a process of elimination rather than one of active selection.

 

[roxymama]

Not quite the secret mission we were hoping to hear about; I was thinking you now work for Saucony or something. (I kid)

I have never been selected to a jury. I've been called at least twice but they never got to me to even question me. My husband was foreman in a murder trial that didn't last very long because the guy was basically caught by the police very quickly and there were a lot of witnesses. It was gang related. My husband was elected foremen because he said "well first we have to pick a foreman" and everyone said "ok, you"
You seem similar to him in your sentiments about wanting to get things right.
The judge told the group after the trial was over that this was one of several murder trials on the defendents schedule for the next couple of months.

 

[DopeyBadger]

75 Days to Go (Running Rhythm)

An abnormal running week for me. Runs were done at different times than normal, on different nutrition patterns than normal, and with less sleep than normal. All of this added up to a disrupted running rhythm. Let's see what happened...

Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Speed +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)

7/13/16 - W - Medicine Ball Workout (MBW)
7/14/16 - R - 1.5 miles @ 9:15 min/mile + 8 miles @ 7:33 min/mile + 1.5 miles @ 9:05 min/mile (8/8)
7/15/16 - F - 9 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (7/9)
7/16/16 - Sat - 10 miles @ 8:33 min/mile (2/10) + MBW
7/17/16 - Sun - 16 miles @ 8:13 min/mile (14/16)
7/18/16 - M - 8 miles @ 9:11 min/mile (0/8)
7/19/16 - T - 2.5 miles @ 9:39 min/mile + 4 x 1 mile @ 6:39 min/mile with 400m RI @ 10:01 min/mile + 2.5 miles @ 10:03 min/mile (0/4)

Total mileage = 63.75 miles
Number of intervals within pace = 31/55 (56%)

As I said yesterday, this past week's cycle has been a bit discombobulated in terms of what I normally do. The timing, nutrition and sleep patterns were all off and I could definitely feel it during my runs. Let's go over how each day went.

Normally I don't talk about Wednesday, but in this case I had to make a decision on when to run on Thursday. Based on the trial's progress I was guessing we would go into deliberation on Thursday at some time. We might decide to pack it in for the night and head home on time or we might decide to push through and see if we can come up with a decision that night. So my choice was run Thursday morning getting up at 2am and running at 4-5:30am, or I take a risk and wait to run in the evening with the chance it might be late. Because of the lack of sleep the past few days I opted to go with taking a risk and running in the evening.

Thursday came around and as expected we went into deliberation. We decided we couldn't make a decision on Thursday and broke for the night around 6:30pm. So I was able to get home and start running around 7:30pm. A huge benefit came from running this late. The sun was going down and the temps were dropping. The temp + dew was 130 which is about 20 degrees less than what I've been running in every afternoon. I wasn't sure what my body was going to give me after sitting for 9+ hours for the past 4 days, but to my surprise things went really well. I was able to hit 8/8 paces for the first time this training cycle. And a few of the intervals were actually slightly below the desired pace. This was a big confidence booster and re-affirmation that the temps have been playing a huge role in my lack of hitting my times. I wasn't having to hold back like I have in previous training cycle tempo runs, but we're getting closer.

On Friday, the trial ended mid-day. So I went home and decided to run mid-day (about 2.5 hours earlier than normal). It ended up being a bad decision. My lunch wasn't fully settled and it made the run uncomfortable. I also had to make a bathroom break because I hadn't timed my pre-run water intake well. This hasn't happened to me in like 2.5 years, so I was a little perturbed. In all, I hit 7/9 paces but it wasn't comfortable to run. After the run I had to go pick up my wife, so my normal meal that occurs within 90 min of finishing was more like 180 min. I think this played a role in Saturday's run...

Saturday came and I was tired. It's becoming a trend that my hardest run is on Saturday. I have the least amount of rest between the Friday/Saturday run. In all other cases I have about 24 hours rest for weekdays, or 36 hours between Sunday/Monday. But for Friday/Saturday, I typically have ~12 hours. I could feel it right from the beginning. So again it came down to effort trumps pace. I could try harder and hit the scheduled paces, but it would mean the workout would increase in difficulty because of the increase in effort. So I decided, as always, to let the effort dictate the pace and just let what happens happen. I ended up only hitting 2/10 intervals (at 8 and 9), but again since my effort was even amongst the run and relative to other EB runs I was happy with it. I needed to make sure not to push too hard because I had my longest run yet of the training cycle on Sunday.

It was clear from Saturday evening that a severe storm was going to be rolling through Sunday morning. The question was will I be able to run before it gets here. My wife was leaving for work at 8:30am. So my run had to start no later than 6:00am to ensure I could complete the entire run. Which meant I got up at 4am. I had to make the decision at 4am whether I could finish the whole run without the threat of lightening (thus 6:00-8:15). When I checked the weather at 4am I estimated that the storm would roll through at about 8:30 so it looked like I was good. I would have some rain, but I'm fine with that. At about 5:00am it looked like the weather had started to change and a new storm was popping up that would hit around 6:00am. So I decided to start prepping as if I was going to run, but likely it wasn't happening. Around 5:35am I was at the make or break point and I took one last look at the weather. Nope, not going to happen. The new weather pattern had accelerated the big storm (although it looked like it had weakened it) and the little one was going to hit around 6:15am. Sure enough, the small storm hit at 6:15am with some intense lightening and then the big storm kinda hit but was broken up around 7:00am. Final conclusion was I made the right choice in not running in the morning. Since I had already eaten my pre-run breakfast (PB bagel and banana) I had to also eat my normal large breakfast (eggs and oatmeal) because my MIL was coming later in the morning so I could run. I needed at least a few hours between big breakfast and this long run. My MIL came to take Gigi shopping at 10:30am and I was off. The run went well but it wasn't easy. I went into the morning fairly tired. This run served as a very good representation of the end of the marathon. Tired legs, needed mental motivation to continue to run. When I hit 8 miles my Garmin warned "low battery" and suddenly I had a jolt of energy. There's no way I'm letting the Garmin run out of battery before I finish this run. Suddenly it became easier to run. I was wary of the watch because it kept warning me I was almost out of battery. I kept memorizing the time of day after each mile marker so that I could try and figure out how much I ran after my watch inevitably died. Since I run the same route everyday I knew what it would take to run 16 miles, so I knew whenever the watch died I'd still know how much I had left. Past 10, then 11, then 12, then 13 miles and I kept thinking I'm going to make this before it dies. Then 14 and 15 miles. And once the watch hit 16 miles I got the dreaded "low battery" with black screen. This means there is 1% battery left... I quick hit stop and save. Success! My run had been saved. And in no more than 30 seconds from that I looked down and the watch was off. JUST IN TIME! I got home and I was wiped. I did it, but boy was I tired.

Monday came and I was ready to be back into my running rhythm. Back to normal work, back to normal nutrition, back to normal sleep. I was happy to be back. And then it happened again. Pre-run water intake must have been mistimed because I needed to use the bathroom only 1 mile into the run. Uggghh! It was uncomfortable to run again. And add on top it was quite clear my GPS was acting up because I wasn't hitting my normal spots for mile splits. Just a frustrating run in general. Because of this I hit 0/8 paces at the EA effort level. Again, not a concern because in the end this was suppose to be a very easy day. So no matter what I was to keep it very easy. Whatever very easy equaled in paces was what it equaled. This meant I was over 20-30 seconds per mile off from pace, but that's ok. It's all about the effort and time spent training. The other good news on Monday is that I officially signed up for the Lakefront Marathon. I was never not going to do it, but I just hadn't signed up for it yet. There wasn't any pressure to do it in any timeframe because they don't do price increases. It opens at $80 in January and stays $80 until they fill their 4500 person cap. It was nice to time it when I felt comfortable doing it and not based on any price increases.

Another Tuesday and another hot speed day. The goal was 6:39, but as I've found when the temp + dew point equals ~150, then the speed paces suffer. The effort is to remain the same, but the pace just won't match. The last time the speed day was hot, my paces ended up being around 7:04 min/mile. And this day was no different. The average pace was 7:05 min/mile. It's nice to see consistency even if the consistency isn't the paces that I have scheduled.

Most importantly, it's been 73 days since the Wisconsin Marathon and it is 75 days till the Lakefront Marathon. Oh we're halfway there.... Whoah living on a prayer...! Crazy to think I'm at the halfway point of the current training cycle. There's only 2 weeks left in the Speed Cycle, and then 7 weeks of Strength. In addition, there are only 8 weeks left to get better because the last three weeks are for the taper. Given the summer weather it's making it really hard for me to predict what my marathon fitness level is. It's going to be an interesting 75 days!

 

[DopeyBadger]

It has been nine years since I passed the bar and over 10 since I took any courses on trial procedure (I was focused on securities, not that I remember much of that either), so I am not much of an expert. Things differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but, in general, each party has an unlimited number of dismissals for cause. The judge has the discretion to consider whether the dismissal for cause is merited. Each party then has a limited number of peremptory challenges. These are basically their chance to excuse jurors for no stated cause. Not sure how the procedure worked in your court, but as jurors were excused it was likely because of peremptory challenges from one of the two sides. It tends to be a process of elimination rather than one of active selection.

Thanks for explaining!

Not quite the secret mission we were hoping to hear about; I was thinking you now work for Saucony or something. (I kid)

I have never been selected to a jury. I've been called at least twice but they never got to me to even question me. My husband was foreman in a murder trial that didn't last very long because the guy was basically caught by the police very quickly and there were a lot of witnesses. It was gang related. My husband was elected foremen because he said "well first we have to pick a foreman" and everyone said "ok, you"
You seem similar to him in your sentiments about wanting to get things right.
The judge told the group after the trial was over that this was one of several murder trials on the defendents schedule for the next couple of months.

Yea, you guys has much more interesting secret missions than reality. Yea, I'd imagine in Chicago it's a more common occurrence than here in Madison. That would be really tough to listen to.