There’s a lot going on tonight considering free agency officially begins at 12:01 A.M. Friday.  One such thing is the rumor that DE Corey Williams is being traded to the Detroit Lions for a draft pick… a late round draft pick.

I’ll just say that I’m not happy about this.  Corey Williams didn’t exactly play lights out for us since he’s been here, but I think he was starting to come along.  And it’s not the trading part of this rumor that I don’t like, it’s the late round draft pick.  I’m considering “Late round” to mean 4th round because that is the bare minimum requirement for me NOT to have my jaw drop to the floor and say “Whhhhhhaaaaaattttttt????”  I honestly think anything less than a 3rd round pick is a complete waste considering I don’t put much value into the draft after the 3rd round. 

There’s a rumor floating around Indy this week that the Redskins are looking to trade QB Jason Campbell to the Bills for Safety Donte Whitner and a draft pick.  Since Campbell is a restricted free agent this year, Washington could simply put a tender on him and pay him a little over 3 million, or get 1st and 3rd round compensation picks for him.  I think most likely, Campbell will end up playing for the Redskins another year. 

However…  the only reason I even mentioned all of this is because I’m wondering if the Bills would be interested in either of our QB’s.  I think it would work out for both teams if we could trade Anderson and Quinn for Whitner.  I know we’d do the trade, but I don’t know if they’d do the trade.  The Browns need a Safety and we could use one less QB, well at least one less of the two we already have.  This trade, if it were to happen, would take away the sting of missing out on Eric Berry this year, who will likely not be on the board when the Browns pick at 7.  If he is on the board, he’ll be a Cleveland Brown, I hope at least.

It has been announced today that the Cleveland Browns settled financially with former GM George Kokinis for his grievance filed against the team.  Kokinis was fired by owner Randy Lerner at the end of last season supposedly without cause.  The details of the settlement remain confidential, which means the numbers won’t be released for a couple of days.

I was one of the few people who believe that Kokinis was fired WITH cause.  He was worthless as a GM.  That’s why I say the Browns settled with him twice… key word is “Settled”.  We settled with him the first time when he was hired because any other GM worth anything didn’t want to be hired AFTER the head coach.  You can say it’s Mangini’s fault because he wouldn’t let Kokinis do his job and all that crap, but it doesn’t matter.  The fact is that Kokinis didn’t do his job, regardless of whether Mangini was getting in his way or not.  He didn’t even try to fight it.  There are a lot of stories that floated around about free agency last year when Kokinis screwed the pooch on setting up interviews with players, or didn’t even discuss what kind of players Mangini wanted.  Any GM who’s good at his job will consult his head coach to find out what type of players are desired so that he can go get those guys.  As far as I’m concerned Kokinis didn’t do that.  He deserved to be fired. 

Don’t get me wrong, Mangini was at fault too and probably deserved to be fired as well.  I’m happy the way it worked out though.

Donte’ Stallworth has signed with the Baltimore Ravens, per www.profootballtalk.com. 

This signing could either make me laugh on a weekly basis or be a weekly irritation.  It’ll make me laugh if he never sees the field due to injury concerns.  Yep that’s right, I’ll laugh if the guy gets hurt.  Normally I don’t wish injury on a player, and I’m actually not wishing him injury, I just will find it funny if he can’t play.  How often did this guy miss playing time because of a hamstring issue or whatever else the whiner was complaining about that week.  He did absolutely nothing for the Browns and I hope he does less for the Ravens. 

On the other hand, if he lights it up for the Ravens it’ll just be another slap in the face to the Browns.  Not so much so because we let him go, but because he did nothing for us when he was here.  It’d be like, well you’re playing good for the Ravens, why’d you have to suck for the Browns?  I still wouldn’t want him on our team this year no matter what, but I still hope he plays like crap for the Ravens. 

And I’m not surprised.  In less than 24 hours of his reinstatement, Donte’ Stallworth was officially released from the Cleveland Browns.  There’s a lot of bad publicity to be had from keeping the guy around after his DUI manslaughter, and it was in their best interest to let him go.  Some say he did his time and he should get another chance, and some say he shouldn’t play another down.  Regardless, it’s hard to find fault in the Browns for wanting to go into the new season with a clean slate. 

It also might have a little to do with the fact that Stallworth has been next to worthless production-wise for the Browns.  I for one would much rather have a couple of rookies playing WR than this guy.  Hell, I’d rather have Cribbs playing WR and most of us know how I feel about Cribbs playing WR.

I think the Browns did the right thing here.

Did anyone else shove metal skewers into their ear drums during the half time show?  That is if you hadn’t already done so during Queen Latifah’s singing of American the Beautiful.  The Who was absolutely awful.  It was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen and it’s clear that Roger Daultry is DONE!  And this is coming from a Who fan… somewhat.  There’s a few songs that I actually think are great and Baba O’Reilly is one of them.  It still irritates me to no end when someone calls that song Teenage Wasteland.  It’s like how “Friends” of mine used to download music on Napster and think that The Doors sang “House of the Rising Sun” because some idiot titled the MP3 wrong.

Anyway, yes the Who was bad.  There is some speculation going on that they were lip synching, but I’m not so sure.  I mean, there was a moment in a song where it looked like Daultry’s lips were off with the sound, but if they were going to lip synch, why wouldn’t they have a better recording of it all.  It was THAT freaking bad.  I haven’t seen such a bad half time show since Aerosmith teamed up with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.  At least the Rolling Stones can still put on a good show.

The NFL would have been better off exhuming Jimi Hendrix’s body and billing that as the half time show. 

Here’s the link and see what you think.

I can’t believe I’ve made it this far.  I mean I’ve always intended on making it the whole way to the marathon, but when I think that I’ve actually followed the training schedule verbatim for more than 3 weeks it’s a little shocking.  You would think so too if you knew me.  I’ve found out that the training schedule also makes the weeks go by so much quicker.  The days fly by when I’m either looking forward to a run, or more often dreading one.  Before I know it, it’ll be the halfway point.  By that time, Winter will be over, Spring will be here, and I’ll be in a much better mood because I’ll be running outside.

This week should be easy as far as the runs go.  The short runs are getting longer, but they’re not bad.  Luckily I don’t have to deal with another 10 miler this week and only have an 8 miler to look forward to.  Tuesday night I had to run 5 miles, which would have been a long run a few weeks ago, but now it’s just an average run.  What I like about these short/average runs is that it gives me an opportunity to crank the treadmill up a little faster and improve my speed.  I increase a little bit each time and I’ve noticed that it has improved my long run times too.  My short term goal is that when I run in a 5K later this Spring, I’ll be able to beat a couple of my friends who I run with.  I’ve never gotten a better time than them and this would be a first.  It’s the competitive nature in me, and its what keeps me running.  Once I finish this marathon, (Notice how I didn’t say “If” I finish this marathon), my goals will be more along the lines of getting faster so that I can qualify for Boston.  Some people like to make fun of that dream, like Bill over at Tribal Pursuit, but it doesn’t bother me.  I think it’s a good goal to have.

Anyway, I ran the 5 miles no problem.  I did the last mile at 7mph which is getting a lot easier.  I ended up finishing LA Confidential while I was running.  If you haven’t seen it, I definitely recommend it.  It doesn’t sound like a good movie from the title, but it is.  I may have to break down and buy some dvds of a show I haven’t seen before and just go through the episodes while I run.  Some of my friends have suggested I watch Lost, but I’ve never been interested in watching it.  I know there’s a lot of fans out there, but the show seems way too ridiculous to me. 

I’ve got a 4 mile run coming tonight, and this one I’m looking forward to.  Not really for any particular reason, I’m just in a decent mood today. 

I had been dreading the 10 mile run on day 3 all week.  I’ve never run that far before and running that distance meant I’d have to do it outside in the cold.  As you all know, I hate the cold.

I had been invited to run with a couple friends from EDS Network C.A.R.E.S. Saturday morning, but I unfortunately was not able to make it.  I hope they still invite me for future runs.  I had been out late the night before and wasn’t able to wake up in time Saturday to meet them.  Instead I went out with a couple of other friends around 11am to get some lunch and planned on running later.  You see, that’s what I do when I’m not looking forward to something.  I put it off as long as I possibly can.  It got later in the day and I still hadn’t run yet, and I was supposed to head down to Akron around 6pm.  So at about 4pm I got dressed and headed outside.  I ran about 50 ft before I realized that there was no way I could go 10 miles in the cold.  The wind was hitting my face and even with a hood on, my ears were freezing.  Plus I couldn’t get my headphones to stay on and with all that, I turned around and went back to the house.  I didn’t have much time left so I just hopped on the treadmill and ran the 3 miles that I was due to run Sunday, telling myself that I’d just switch the days up.

On Sunday I was a little more determined to run the 10 miles than I was on Saturday, but I still wanted to put it off for a little bit.  I went over to my parents in the morning for some breakfast, and then headed off to Dick’s Sporting Goods to look for a winter hat or something to cover my face while I ran.  I don’t like wearing winter hats because I think I look stupid, and I do, but everyone always tells me its more important to be warm than look good… I’m not 100% sure about that.  I bought a hat and also found some ear buds that have a tight fitting clip that goes over the ears.  I’ve been looking for headphones that would actually stay on my ears while I was running and wouldn’t require any adjusting from me.  I’ve gotten really irritated with headphones mid-run before and ripped them off my head and threw them somewhere.  I hate having to deal with them.  Anyway, I put these headphones on and it was perfect.  They didn’t budge.  I’ve found the best possible set of headphones for me… Until I came home later that night from dinner and found them laying on the floor, chewed to pieces because my dog sucks… sometimes.

Well, before my dog mistook my headphones for food, I did get to try them out.  When I got home from Dick’s Sporting Goods, I knew that it was time to get my run in before it got dark.  I got dressed, this time with an extra layer, and headed back outside. 

And then I ran 10 miles!  There were a few moments at the beginning when this pain or that pain would make me think about stopping, but I forced myself to keep going and eventually I felt fine.  I actually picked up my pace around mile 6 and got faster as the run continued.  It took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to finish the 10 miles, which I don’t think is too bad, for me.  I was mostly warm throughout the run, except for when I’d hit a clearing and the wind would knock me off my stride.  The hat I bought was nice and the headphones were great.  I’ve never had a run where I didn’t have to mess with my headphones at least a few times.  By the way, they were SkullCandy headphones with the ear clip.  I also had a Garmin Forerunner 305 with me, which keeps track of my run with GPS so that I know how far I’ve gone and what my time and pace are. 

All in all, I’m glad I successfully ran the 10 miles without stopping.  This coming week will be a little easier I think, and now I have something new to dread for the week after.  I’ve got a 13 mile run…

Last night I ran 4 miles on the treadmill and thought I was going to get sick.  Not because the run was exhausting or anything like that… It’s because I ate too freaking much for lunch.  I’ve been a little too careless with what I’ve been eating lately because I figure the training will make up for it, but I’ve got to say that there will be no more lunch buffets in my future.  Yuck, I feel sick again just thinking about it.

Ever since the first week of training, I’ve been being very cautious on the treadmill because I’m afraid my leg will start hurting again, or some other ailment.  Well I decided last night that it was time to start pushing myself again because the runs are getting boring and easy.  If my heartrate doesn’t elevate while I’m running, what’s the point?  So I started out with the treadmill on 5.5 mph for one mile as sort of a warmup, then I bumped it up to 6 mph for a mile, then increased it to 6.5 mph for a mile, and for the last mile I ran at 7 mph.  The best part was that while 7 mph was faster than normal for me, it wasn’t too difficult.  I wasn’t gasping for air.  Then I did some calculations in my head.  If I was able to run the entire marathon at 7 mph, I’d clock in at 3 hours and 43 minutes, which would be good enough to qualify for Boston.  I’m not getting ahead of myself one bit, because it’s still a pipe dream.  At this point I can run 7 mph for one mile, not 26, and certainly not over hills.  But whatever, it was a fun thought.  At the moment I’m looking forward to the Old Oak 5K run coming up in April to see if I can run 3.1 miles at 7 mph, and then I’ll see about going longer. 

Remember what I said before about not watching comedies while I run?  How laughing your ass off on the treadmill is definitely not a good idea?  Well I’ve been following my own advice until last night.  I somehow failed to realize just how much of a comedy the movie “Hackers” is.  If you have seen the movie from the mid-nineties, you probably love it, but only if you saw it years ago for the first time.  I can’t imagine anyone seeing it today and thinking it was a good movie.  This was the movie I decided I’d watch while running.  Oops!  I can already quote the entire movie from start to finish, but now I can’t help but laugh at how awful the movie actually is.  There were moments when I almost fell off the back of the treadmill because I was laughing at how cheesy the movie lines are.  And now… I’ll be quoting the movie all day.

I’m definitely the type of person who likes new toys.  First I bought the treadmill, then I bought new shoes, and now I’m going to by a GPS watch. This way I’ll be able to accurately measure how far I’ve run when I’m outside and I don’t have to guesstimate by what the mile markers say, when there are mile markers.  I know that the park by Midway Mall, Bur Oak, has markers every half mile, but there are a couple that are way too close together and it throws off the mileage for the entire run.  I have to run 10 miles on Saturday and I want to know that I’ve actually gone that far.  I hate the thought of doing 10 miles on the treadmill, but if it’s cold out I might have to.  Yeah I’m a wimp like that.  Anyway, I can’t wait to use the GPS watch, so that might be enough motivation to get me out in the cold.

I think I’m also starting to like the Asics I bought.  I didn’t have the same aches I had when I initially ran in them and everything felt good.  Still though, I don’t know if I want to run 10 miles in them tomorrow.  I’ll probably give it a shot just because I think running 10 miles in my other shoes will be counter productive.  We’ll see.

Well, there’s two weeks down and only 16 more to go…  There’s such a long way to go that it seems like it’ll take forever.  I’m a very impatient person and I hate waiting for things.  One of my biggest irritations is that Spring is taking forever to get here.  I hardly ever order a product online when I can just go out and buy it somewhere because I don’t want to wait for shipping.  Yes, I am of the instant gratification generation and patience is not one of my virtues.  That’s why I wish the marathon was tomorrow and I had been training the previous 5 months for it.  Oh well, I’ll just have to deal with it and take each run one day at a time.  Which, coincidentally enough, is exactly what I’ll be saying around mile 15 of the marathon when I start to think about how much further I have to go.  Just put one foot in front of the other and take it one mile at a time.  I wish I could say that I thought of that one myself, but I read it somewhere, and it may be the best advice I’ve ever gotten.

Thanks to all the posters who gave me recommendations on where to look for shoes.  Monday night I ended up going out to Second Sole in Rocky River.  I had heard of the store before and had called them the previous day to see if they had the Nikes I wanted.  But anyway, I went up there looking for any assistance I could get.  The salesman took a look at my current shoes to see the wear on the tread, then had me stand still with my knees slightly bent to see how I planted my feet, and then had me run back and forth in the store to see my mechanics.  Honestly, I felt like an idiot.  But luckily there wasn’t anyone else in the store and it wasn’t so bad.  He told me that the Nikes I wanted were more of a neutral type of shoe and that I needed more of a stability shoe.  So he grabbed a few different brands and the ones that were the most comfortable were the Asics GT-2150’s.  And just because I don’t always believe everyone, I tried on an older model of the Nikes I originally wanted and hated them!  They felt like I was running on pillows.  I know that sounds nice, but it’s not comfortable to run in for me.  Walking in them would be great, but too much cushioning would probably make me roll my ankle or something like that.  So I bought the Asics.  The one thing I really like about Second Sole, is that you can return the shoe if you don’t like it.  Needless to say you can’t really run in them outside, but once again my treadmill comes in handy and I won’t void anything on the shoes. 

I got to try out the Asics for the first time last night when I ran my Tuesday 3-miler.  I figured it was an easy run and those are good for new shoes.  There’s usually a break in period and it takes a while to get comfortable.  At least that’s what I hope.  I didn’t really have any major problems during the run, but afterwards I noticed that my knee was a little sore and so was my ankle.  My running style is not perfect by any means, so I would usually attribute this to my awkwardness.  But since I just tried out new shoes, all I could think was that these shoes might suck.  I’m not sure, and of course I’m going to give them some more time.  What I really want to know is, is it normal to have aches the first few times you try new shoes?  I honestly can’t remember how it felt the last time I bought new ones.  I’ve got to do 10 miles this Saturday, and for that one I think I’ll wear my old shoes. 

If the knee and ankle aches continue, how long should I give these shoes before I trade them in for something else?