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Spring is coming

The ground hog said Spring would be here soon, I typically do not believe the little rodent, but this year I am gonna go with his shadow voodoo thing.  Linda just celebrated her birthday on Feb 2.  She has been getting cheated for years, since the big ground hog thing overshadows her birthday.  So, we tried to make her birthday a priority this year and had a great time.  She was in the midst of fighting a cold, but still managed to turn 50 with proper style.

I have been working on getting some brush trimmed on the new real estate.  This week's challenge was multa flora roses and osage orange or "hedge apple".   I grubbed out about 30 rose bushes--probably the hardest work you can do.  You take the pick ax and swing hard several times and then pull out the plant-- roots and all.  Repeat.  My back was on life support all weekend.   I also worked on some osage orange trees.  The wood is great handles for tools and fence posts.   I reset a post made from hedge apple on the farm I worked at in college, it was already 50 years old and showed little or no rot and I had to pound really hard to get any staples in the wood.   It is dense, heavy, long grained and really hard to cut with a chain saw.   I would swear it was plastic.   I hate this stuff.  The new wood also has short and very sharp spikes or thorns--something else for entertainment as you try to cut and move it.     I have a couple more to deal with.  I will definitely make sure I kill the stumps--once is enough with this crap.   I will get some really nice posts or poles out of one of the trees.   The front gate and mail box posts are great candidates for upgrading.  

I have been a little more regular with my running on the treadmill.  I suffered with a cold about two weeks ago and that stopped any running for 10 days.  It is also the cold Linda currently has. I have been doing 800 meters in 4:00 and in the last couple of days I have been speeding up to 3:53 time.   I try to do three of the 800 m without maxing out the heart rate and I feel I am progressing.   Right nowI am trying to do 3 or 4 days a week, depending on my travel and how much energy the brush leaves me.   I know my ass will be stronger from ripping this crap out of the ground-- "good riddance" as my Mom would say.   The body weight is starting to come down, I am currently at 199 pounds and there is more weight loss coming.

I am anxious to get out on the track and feel the speed a little bit.   I found a pair of Adidas spikes for $20 at an outlet that must weight 16 ounces each--which is really heavy.  I am going to try them for practice.  I think they will provide a lot better foot protection and reduce the wear and tear on the feet during the harder speed training.   Time to try out the new gear.  

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