Sunday, March 30, 2008

Scarsdale 15K

I threw in a 15K race today as part of my 20 miles. Did pretty good. I finished it in 1:10 which works out to about a 7:30 pace for the race, which I am quite happy with.

I ran the race with Adam and David from Race with Purpose. It was a fun race and an interesting one for many reasons. Basically heres how the race day went down:

- I show up at race wearing a mishmosh of athletic gear because in a wonder of stupidity, I left 80% of my athletic gear in the old dryer on the day it was being carted off as the new dryer was being installed! So today I just threw on my only shorts with the last 2 surviving underlayment and top. (Thank God my summer stuff was still in the drawer because I have not been using them). I am sure I made an intimidating appearance!

-At start of race Adam says he will be taking it easy will run as he feels due to being out for several weeks from Pneumonia. Dave says he is going about 9 pace because he has not trained. me I am hoping to do 8's .

Adam gives me strategy pointers during the first 4 miles, During this phase I also spot my race nemesis, lets call him "sideways", due to the fact I don't know his name, and his gait was weird.

Mile 4, pleasantries end. I decide its time to kick it in and see what I can do for the rest of the race; I say sayonara to Adam and blow by Sideways.

Mile 5, hit first Hill and while going up, Sideways the bastard, passes me. That really ticks me off. When I pass someone they should stay passed.

We hit flat ground and I catch up to and pass Sideways, now onto my next target "Blue boy"( who is wearing blue shorts).

On the next Hill, the jerkoff "Sideways" again, he passes me and I still have not caught up to "Blue boy". SO now I have my past target and new target up ahead of me grrr. Sideways is really pissing me off now, some people just don't know their place!

However, I have come to realize that Sideways is a much better "climber" than I am so, I chose to keep my pace in check ( yeah because I can really zip up them hills...not). Anyhow I was formulating a plan.

Adam was nowhere to be seen, I assumed he was just pacing himself. Blueboy was still up ahead of Sideways.

We crest the hill, and on the down hill I decide its time to employ my new strategy ...I will pass him and keep him passed! (I know not to original but gimme a break!) Anyhow, I decided I had to make as much space between me and this guy on the downhill and flats so when the next hill comes I could hold him off.

I successfully pass "Blueboy". Its now the last mile and I figure to run at what I think is my threshold HR 175. I was pushing it there, don't know what my pace was but I finally lost Sideways and Blue boy.

I come to what I think is the finish only to find out I have to enter the parking lot and then run on the damned track. Mentally, I was ready to quit back on the road. I chose a new target and on the track make a brief surge. To no end. I didn't have anything left. Then as we are about 100 feet from the finish I hear what can only be described as a roaring lion that has a laryngitis. Whoever it was sounded like he was breathing down my back, taking huge stomping steps. I turn around and dammit if it isn't Adam going all out. I was so stunned that he literally just flew by me. His face was red and he looked like a demon possessed. Breathing hard and stomping away down to the finish. I picked it up but there was no catching him.

After the finish, I see Adam bent over breathing hard making weird noises that sounded like "Huuuurdghhhtth" over and over.

But then he gets up and slowly we walk over to the entrance of the track, and he starts calling out in that coach voice, "Go get him Neil!!!" Mind you Neil is across the field, this Dude next to me looked like he was going to pass out a second ago and now he performs what can only be called a "Bellow".

What the??

Where did he get the strength to do this? But then I remember he IS a coach, and has a voice that can carry.

After some chit chat we see David coming about half a mile away, and Adam bellows again "Come on David bring it in!!!!" My throat is starting to hurt just listening to Adam make these bizarrely loud calls! Amazingly David heard him and looked at us!! This guy is only a dot in the distance and he heard Adam.

David comes in looking in good shape and spirits, having run his race as he wanted. Amazing. No training and he runs a 15K just like that. As David is rounding the the last turn on the other side of the field, Adam lets loose a "Don't let that guy catch you David!!". The folks standing at the opposite field post seemed to flinch, and I could swear the grass did bend away from us when he belted that out. It was effortless. Adam was fully recovered from his amazing final stretch push.

As David came over he confirmed he heard Adam from the opposite side of the football field, but did not know what he meant since he was unaware of the guy behind him.

At this point we went in to get post race food, my shoulder started to hurt quite badly, Adam was said he was feeling very cold and David said his foot was starting to hurt. I think we each mentioned our ailment at least three times as if from a script, "I'm cold, shoulder hurt, foot pain" only each time, it was worse. We were just sounding like a bunch of old Ladies now, so it was time to call it quits.

All in all ... a good day. Now in all seriousness, Adam seemed really out of it at the start of the race, and somehow he really pushed himself to his limits. I suppose that is what it takes to really be a competitor. To be able to reach in and drag out everything you have and leave it on the field. He definitely did that. Which is why he is a good coach, he lives what he preaches.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

There is a New addition to the Family!

I haven't really come up with a name for her yet...need to see what her personality is like, you know?

But right now I am leaning towards, Whip ( short for Whiplash) or Whup ( short for Whupass).

It doesn't matter, I love her already! Isn't she beautiful!!




Too bad it was already getting dark when I took these pictures. But there she is my Brand spanking new P2C. Soo much lighter than the Giant OCR3 I have been riding for the past years.

I of course had to give er a ride even if I only had time for a quick 5 miles. It was sweet! There are some adjustments to make to how I ride though. I am not used to Bar end shifters. But overall it was Awsome!

There is one downside to all of this....now there is no excuse, If I don't go fast...its me.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Earned My day off

Well tomorrow is my day off from training, and I have to say I earned it this weekend. Starting on Friday ran 6 miles in the morning and in the evening squeezed in a swim session ( not as long as I wanted due to work). Saturday I led a hectic ride with ten riders for 60 miles in total. The ride itself was 40 but myself Phil and Mike did 20 miles before the start of the ride. At the end or the ride we ran for 30 minutes ( painful!). The today I ran 20 miles at an ave pace of 8:28. I am Beat!

Tommorow I am off from work and I plan on sleeping LATE!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Motivational Ad

I had this add linked on my old myspace page. I went back yesterday to see whats been happening to it and saw this gem. This ad just makes me want to go out and take on something big!


I hadthis add on my old myspace page. I went baclk yesterday to see whats been happening to it and saw this gem. This ad just makes me want to go out and take on something big!






Guinness ad With Surfers and White Horses - video powered by Metacafe

Soggy Day

Well its been raining all day so far. Of course there is no umbrella to be seen anywhere in my house. None the less life goes on. Did my 1 hour on the trainer this morning before work. Came home and ran in the rain for an hour. I ran with Simba since she appears to like water. I put some extra lights on her due to visibility issues in the rain.

It was siggy but it feels good to feel I did the work. Now I can rest easy...for today.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Sometimes, depite your best efforts you still end up drooling

Thursday evening myself and a coworker, Mike went to the "Carlos O Kelly" in Cedar Falls. This is a watered down Mexican place. One could say Applebees meets Taco Bell. Anyhow we got there and it turns out they are starting their St Patties day celebrations early and there was Lots of green everywhere. The place was PACKED! The restaurant seemed to go all out to encourage patrons to drink. Such as half price margaritas. Along these lines they had a special on a 80 ounce serving of margarita that came in what can only be called a Huge Blander with a tap. Naturally as concerned citizens we had to order one of these. Specifically the Orange Mango variety.

The food we ordered was fine, but was quite frankly not the focus of our attention. Cedar Falls is a college town and this place was just flowing with college kids and coeds. We were having fun people watching. And importantly making note of how little the level of Margarita in "The vat" went down whenever we filled a glass. Anyhow we each drank maybe 30-35 ounces of margarita, and we ended up offering to others because of the mountainous amounts of drink available.

We literally closed the place down. In fact we were caught up chatting with two couple in the booth next to us, who were fore some reason in the midst of a discussion on Douche bags. Don't ask.

I was stunned at the amount of information my coworker Mike had on the subject. I was immediately thinking he should author a wikipedia article on it. It was like a public service announcement with comments like "Every woman should douche at least once every year" and stuff like that. He immediately became "The Expert" on the subject, they came at him with questions like, "How much vinegar should be used ?" and Mr Wizard had an answer! I figure much of it was probably nuclear Margarita talking, but it sounded authoritative! I was impressed.

Anyhow these folks at Carlos O'Kelly were open 45 minutes past closing time literally only for us. We were completely oblivious top the fact that every other table around us was not only empty but the seats were stacked up. Yet no one person on staff said anything to us. Now THATS customer service.

The next day surprisingly I felt great. No hangover effect at all. Mike had a little problem in that he still felt the booze flowing through his veins. At one point he was going to hack up something when walking to the car, and let me tell you it was going to be good. He had coiled up( much like a panther ready to strike!), reared back made the hacking sound that lasted what seemed like seconds and let Loose! Only instead of seeing a giant wad of phlegm sail gracefully over the parking lot, it ended up sort of dripping out of his mouth. Yes folks, he ended up drooling. Which if you know Mike, that is just not his style.

Fortunately there were no cameras around or this "Spitter" story could have knocked the Spitzer story right out of the top google search with the visuals alone.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Swim Bands

Well today I was able to finally use the swim bands to use during swim workouts when there is no lap pool available. This unfortunately is very oftenwhen travelling. So anyhow I went and used it. It was a bit awkward at first. It felt like I was being pulled slightly up. But once I spent a little time at it I settled in and I have to say it was a pretty good workout. I don't know if I would use this on a regular basis, but its a good tool when there is nothing else available.

Another note not good to swim after a big meal. Hard to breath. Although eating Salmon you would think some of the mojo would rub off ( you are what you eat kind of thing) well it didn't work.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

40 mile week, travel

Well this morning started out very nice thank you very much. I did a 19+ mile run that finally oficially pushed me over the 40 mile mark. The gloden barrier that supposed to mean that at this point I will become lightning fast in marathons. We shall see. But none the less it was a great run, and I feel great.

However, the day is looking ....not so good at this point. I am now sitting on the floor in the concourse in Newark airport awaiting my flight and travels to Cedar Falls Iowa to begin. It already looks like THAT will be a marathon, since my flight is delayed and I will miss my connecting flight. The next flight that can take me to Iowa is full so I am on standby for that. I hjave decided that if I cannot get on there thenI will suck it up and drive the 5 hours between Chicaco and Iowa. Lets see how it goes.

I just LUUUVVV the jetset life!! lol

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Cool tools

Want to know what you think your final time may be based on your current abilities, tri the trTri Race calculator! Itcan help you guage what your goal paces and efforts have to be if you want to reach a certain time goal or what they may be based on your current level: Tri Planner

if you are tracking calories taken in, again I go to my new favorite website "Free calorie counter", that has a huge listing of foods and restaurant foods in it, pick what you ate and "calculate" it gives you all of the nutritional value. Awesome Food Index

How about how many calories you burn during any activity: Calories Burned

Ever wanted to lead a ride but hate to have to write up a route sheet, then have Google do it for you! As always google maps comes through again. This may be old news but I discovered last night that you can ask for driving directions and then move the blue line around to the route that you want. It automatically re-writes the route info! With some finagling you can create a circularroute by moving the desitation "flag" back up towards the start. I have not tested this yet but plan on doing so very soon! Google maps

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Airborne Cadence

Now that I am reminiscing, here is an oldie, but a goodie...


When I get to heaven

St. Peter's gonna say,

"How'd you earn your livin' boy,

How'd you earn your pay?"

I'll reply with a whole lot of anger,

"Made my living as an Airborne Ranger!

Blood, guts, danger

That's the life of an Airborne Ranger!"

When I get to Hell

Satan's gonna say,

"How'd you earn your livin' boy,

How'd you earn your pay?"

I'll reply with a fist to his face,

"Made my living laying SOULS to waste!"

Wake up call

Some people are morning people, Some are night folks. I am a mid-morning after 10AM but before 3PM person ;) Generally, I hate getting up early for anything. I hate getting up early period. Early is anything before lets say 8AM. Ok realistically before 7AM.

That’s why its meaningful when I am able to finally get up early to do a workout. For me when I am able to do that, it’s a signal that mentally I am ready for real training. This morning I got up at 5AM and went for a 6 mile run with Simba, my dog.

For me early morning workouts have always been symbolic of very serious training. The only other time in my life that I actually trained in the early morning was during ARMY training. Some of the best memories I have come from those days. One moment in particular really stands out, frozen in time. I was in airborne school at Ft Benning, Ga ( the REAL airborne school..HUAAA!). We would get up to do the early morning PT, but that day we were doing a Battalion level PT exercise. The Battalion had about 500 soldiers.

We were marching the battalion to the PT location and as we marched of course we sang cadence. In this case it was a song that called "Blood on the Risers". The Army never marches without a song. Anyhow here we were 500 strong and singing in complete harmony, its 5-6AM at this point, the sun is just starting to come up and we march through the “Canyon” which was a road with relatively tall buildings on either side. I remember the echo as we marched through, the rhythm of 500 sets of feet stepping at the exact same time, all of the heads of the people ahead of me moving left to right in sync. Then this Booming echo of our singing as we went through. It was awesome. Never in my life did I ever feel like part of something so big. AT that moment I felt invincible. I was 20, on my way to becoming a paratrooper, part of a long history of kick-ass soldiers, and I was surrounded by 500 of the best. As long as I live I will never forget that moment.

The ARMY had a lot of similar times, early in the morning, a lot.. not so nice like when I was "gigged" for having saw dust on my ear. Anyhow, I digress, I think because of this I think getting up early means business for me. Today I got up early and ran because I decided it was time to get real with my training, its an Ironman I am training for after all!

Until next time...

AIRBORNE!!!!!

Army Cadence Juke Box

Sunday, March 2, 2008

3 hour BRICK

OK so Saturday morning comes around and Phil calls me saying that he is going to do a self supported tri. Only it has to be indoors due to the snow. He figures only 3000 meters, a couple of hours on the trainer and then a 1 hour run. Wanted to know if I wanted to join him.

Sick Bastard.

Of course I wanted to join him! But I did not have the time to do the whole thing so I would join him on a 2 hour indoor ride and a 30 minute run instead.

DEAL.

So thats what we did, I joined Phil after his 3000 meter swim on the cycling portion of his tri torture session, we watched Shrek 3, and then portions of "Airplane the movie" ("Surely, you don't mean that! Yes I do, and don't call me Surely") for 2 hours and then went for a 30 minute run. It was beautiful. Burned a total of 2200 calories!

18 Miles

So here is the planned route for my 18 miler today. I figured this out on mapmyrun.com according to the map it is not exactly 18 miles but is actually 17.7 miles. But I figured its easy to throw in a few hundred yards if my watch says I am short on the run.

I am planning on doing this at about 10AM. It is supposed to be a beautiful day in the high 40's, so any ice from last night should have melted off. Lets see how it goes.