I typed an entirely different update here...

then I deleted it. You want to know what I've been doing? Honestly, I spent 47 miles this week trying to outrun my problems. So far it's not working, so next week I'm shooting for 50.

Yeah, it's been a while.

In my defense, I was on tour for a month. Or, I'm lazy. :P Now I'm home, so I have no excuse. Here's the tour recap:

Week 1:

Lincoln kickoff show was rad. Played a house show in Omaha with Houston Calls (great band. awesome dudes.). Two days in Springfield with our good friends. Went cliff jumping (50 foot cliffs) at a lake and grilled in the evening. Hot Springs, OK with The Last Slice (great ska band. crazy kids.). Another couple show in Oklahoma.

Week 2:

Dust storm in Lubbock, TX and friends. Show in a weird metal venue/practice space and friends. Day off at Elephant Butte Lake with Mike's relatives. Awesome relaxations times. :) Tucson show where kids were singing the words to our songs. Tempe with Nebraska friends. DISNEYLAND!!!

Week 3:

San Diego - got to eat at Sombrero's! Couple shows in the L.A. area. Awesome backyard house show with our Claremont friends. Concord show with our NoCal friends. Beautiful drive through northern CA kind of reminded me of home. Hotel in Oregon upgraded w/ a pool! Beautiful running trail. Portland has the biggest bookstore I've ever been in. <3

Week 4:

Unexpected Nebraska friends in Seattle. Met Mike and Tom from MxPx in Bremerton (Tom was our bartender at the venue)! Super nice people made us feel at home. The Pacific NW is beautiful. It's a crazy, mountainous forest! :) Boise is an AMAZING town with really cool people. Two shows that night. Todd was super great to us. Logan, UT is quaint. Slept in the venue. Had a great (and hilly) run there. Beautiful views. Ft. Collins show was a bust, but got to see old friends. Fun show in a weird venue in Denver. Drove home that night. Blew a tire on the trailer at 6:30 in the morning. Made it back alive!!!

Came back to my job at The Lincoln Running Company. Love that place. Picked up a second job at the YMCA (so I can do swim workouts again). :) Ramping up my training in hopes of doing the Des Moines marathon. Will be my first full if I can make it without getting injured. 36 miles last week, 42 this week. 14 mile long run this morning with Ben. Went in the country where it was SUPER hilly. Both of us felt bad. Averaged about 8 minute pace. That's not going to cut it, but I'll worry about speed later in the training (and on a day when I'm feeling better). Top of my right foot has been hurting a bit. Don't know what it is, but it's not slowing me down so I guess I won't worry about it for now.

Now you're all caught up.

Wicked

     I've had some good times since my last post.  Got to hang out with Evan Bovee.  It was good to see him, and I'm excited to hang out with him again in a few weeks when we play Springfield, MO.  Kate and I skipped the Jason Mraz show and just hung out.  That was probably the best decision of my week.  I always have a great time when I'm with that girl.  Thursday I packed a bunch of friends in the van and we headed to Lawrence, KS to see NFG with Bayside, Set Your Goals, and Fireworks.  NFG played for well over an hour and didn't play a single bad song.  It was a great show.  Last night I went to Omaha with  my brother and some friends to see Wicked.  It was absolutely amazing.  We went to Old Chicago and got some food and drinks after the show got out.

     The band has been stressing me out lately.  Between single-handedly booking our month long June tour to the West coast and spending all of the money I have, and some I don't have (I had to sell my bass cab) to order new t-shirts and reorder our CDs, I've just been going crazy.  I feel like I'm not getting any help at all.  So it goes.  We've got a few things in the works that might turn out to be good for us, so I just need to keep it together and get through this.  

     Guess that's about it.  Nothing fun specifically planned for this week, but I'm sure something will come up.

-E

...and then Kate called me out.

So now you get another update.  It's been just over a month since my last blog.  Here's what you've missed:

We went on a short, week-long tour through the Midwest.  Didn't really make  much money, but we had a KILLER time!!!  :)  Lots of fun and friends in the Midwest

I can run again (kind of)!!!  My IT band is still really tight, but I've been  stretching, strengthening, and using the TriggerPoint on it (this stuff is AWESOME), and now I can run pain free for about 30 minutes.  Slowly but surely, I guess

Because of said injury, I was unable to run the Lincoln Marathon today, but I went out to cheer on all my friends.  It kind of bummed me out being around all the excitement but not being a part of it.  However, I saw my friends go through some amazing and heart wrenching things today:  Kate ran the half really fast and hit her goal time!  Ginni ran her first marathon in 3:31 and qualified for Boston!  Ben, founder of Market to Market, killed the half with a PB 1:27!  My training buddy, Jorge, had a bad day - he's a new daddy :) - but still ran a 2:53 marathon!  Mark's legs shut down around mile 22, forcing him to mostly walk the rest of the race.  I saw him break down in tears after crossing the finish line, only to learn later that he was on pace to run 3:25 before mile 22, but ended up running 3:34 and missing his qualifying time by 4 minutes.  

This week I'll be seeing Jason Mraz (yeah, you read that right, Barrett) and The Plain White Tees with Kate.  Mraz is a little chill for my tastes, but he's growing on my.  Plus, I've always wanted to be just like Barrett.  That show is on Tuesday.  

I'll stay in Omaha Tuesday night and drive to Ames, IA to pick up our new trailer.

Thursday night I'm heading to Lawrence, KS with some friends to see New Found Glory, Bayside, and Set Your Goals!!!  Can you tell which show I'm more excited to see?  Ahaha.  However, I'm more excited to go with Kate on Tuesday than with the pop punk friends on Thursday, so it all evens out.  :)

Friday?  Maybe a date...maybe.

Saturday I work all day.  15 hours.  As usual.

Sunday just might bring a long bike with Jorge.  Looking forward to getting out on the bike more now that the weather is getting nice.  

Guess I have a busy week, but I'm looking forward to all of it.  Other than that, it's been business as usual.  Booking our June tour to the West Coast is stressing me out.  Working too much.  Not working out as much as I'd like.  Finished reading Once a Runner.  Good book.  Started reading Slapstick by Vonnegut.  So it goes.

Because Barrett called me out...

OK, so it's been a while.  I forget that some people actually read blogs to keep up with what's going on in their friend's lives (even though that's really the only reason I have one).  That reminds me, Lauren, I think you should get a blog.  Or you and Barrett need to join facebook.  If not, I'm going to have to get better about calling both of you!  Here's a quick recap:

Tour was great.  Had a blast with the Hercules crew.  Got to see Barrett AND Lauren.  Man, I miss those two.  Had lots of crazy adventures.  Made some money (well...broke even).  Decided that Gainesville, FL is one of the few cities in which I could live, outside of Lincoln.  Got to see a lot of friends, and make a lot of new ones.  Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede!!!  (google it if you're curious).  Ran (a lot).  56 miles one week!  Got injured two days before we got home, after spending the majority of tour missing out on some fun so I could go to bed early and get up and run before we had to be on the road.  Went to the beach.  Twice.  :)  Missed a month of crappy winter weather.

Since I've been home I've just been biking and swimming (and lots of strengthening and stretching to try to get the knee better).  I haven't been able to run since we got home.  Well, I did test it out tonight, since it was so nice out, but I only made it a mile before  I had to stop.  Looks like the marathon is out of the question.  I've been working like crazy.  62 hours my first week home.  Even though I get to go on tour, I still have to pay the bills.  I am a little more than 400 pages through "Lore of Running" by Tim Noakes (it's over 900 pages).  It's all about the physiology and training of running and it's AMAZING.  If you're a serious runner, you should definitely read this book.  I've been running  for years and I've already learned so much...and have been corrected on a lot I thought I knew.  I got a new toy - the Trigger Point massage kit.  Also AMAZING.  It hurts in just the right way.  I also ordered some Infinit nutrition drink mix.  I'm excited to try it out.  I'll let you all know how it goes.

Guess that's about it.  I'm very thirsty and way tired, so I'm off to chug a glass of water and go to bed.  Gotta get up at 5:30 for a swim workout.

Berzerkermode

Well, we're a week out on the JV Allstars/Hercules Berzerkermode tour and I must say that I really love those guys. Great guys, great music. Traveling with friends definitely makes tour more fun. It's hard to believe that we get 3 more weeks of this!

Running has been going well. I'm running longer miles every other day, rather than trying to run 6 days a week. Jorge and I talked it over and that seems like the best idea for training specificity (since I'm training for a marathon) and it seems to be working well with my crazy schedule. Since we left I've done 15, 10, and 14 mile runs and seem to be handling it well. I hope to meet up with Barrett tomorrow for a 16-miler. Luckily I'm not at home because that 16 miles will be a lot easier to do in the 50 degree weather than it would in the 10 inches of snow that Nebraska is supposed to get. The only thing I'm worried about is having lower volume since I'm running less days a week, but if this keeps me in relatively good shape, I'll be ready for what Jorge is calling "bloody March" when I get home. I think that means it's going to be a tough month of training?

It has been great seeing friends that we've made on other tours, but I'm excited to get out of the Midwest and start making some new friends in the South!

Oh, I have a blog?

Sometimes I honestly forget that I have this thing.  I mostly use it to keep up on other people's blogs.  However, sometimes I just don't know that anyone is that interested.  Regardless, here is an update:

Running:

     Other than a small IT band scare, I've been running well and injury-free.  I hit my miles last week (46), so that's a start.  I guess I'll actually decide if I'm running the Lincoln Marathon once I get back from tour.  I have some 50 and 60 mile weeks I'm supposed to do, and, since I've never tried to run while on tour, I'm not sure how feasable that is.  If I can get the training in while on tour, I plan on putting in the real work and signing up for the marathon as soon as I get home!

Band:

     We leave for tour in just over a week, which means I'm running around like crazy trying to get everything done (get the breaks fixed on the van, reorder t-shirts, order stickers, pack, etc.). We're headed to Florida which is exciting because we've never been there, plus, we'll be down south so I'll get to run in some better weather!  :)  Maybe I'll be able to hook up with Barrett and he can remind me of the difference between an elite athlete and us mortals.

     We're also in the process of signing a publishing contract, which is just as scary as it is exciting.  It basically just means that some guy is going to take our songs, remix and remaster them, and try to get them in movies and commercials.  That's a great step for us, however looking over and negotiating the contract is kind of scary.

     I'm also excited for the new songs we're writing!!!  :)

Well, if you know me you know that that's pretty much my life.  I'm working quite a bit so I can afford all the tours we're going on.  I'm reading a couple books, as usual.  I'm hanging out when I can (or, more realistically, when I feel like it).  Watching quite a few movies (on the trainer - it is winter in Nebraska).  The girl situation is looking pretty bleak right now.  Guess that's how it goes when you're looking for something pretty specific.  So it goes.  I don't want to end on that note, so I guess I'll just say that at this point I'm feeling pretty excited about trying to run a sub-3 hour marathon!  :)