One Word

Red and Rover Cartoon

One word to rule them all, and in a mindset bind them…

My word for 2006 is …

Fun

Sure, there’s not a whole lot of challenge or struggle there, but my major goal for 2006 is cementing the lifestyle. I want to have energy, I want to be fit, I want to be “that guy”. Sure, I could pick some tough and manly word, something deep and motivating, but to heck with that. I’ve got enough gut checks in the rest of my life, or have had. This running/swimming/biking thing – I do this to relax, to let it all hang out, to live life to the fullest so that when I die someone will say that he really sucked (the marrow out of life.)

So, my word is Fun.

Fun as in mud.
Fun as in bugs in the teeth.
Fun as in burning lungs trying to go full out with alternating breathing.
Fun as in cornering hard enough to hear the tires start to complain and praying that the April showers have washed all the March sand off the road.
Fun as in buying a pair of size 32 pants, then deciding to return them for a pair of size 30s.
Fun as in seeing how far I can fling the boys into the ocean while we’re at the beach.
Fun as in sunrises
Fun as in sunsets
Fun as in PR
Fun as in “Chicks dig scars”
Fun as in yelling at cagers
Fun as in standing on the road at the Tour of Connecticut screaming “Allez! Allez! Allez!” for the 30 seconds that it takes the peleton to scream by in May.
Fun as in beating my time at the New Haven 20K.
Fun as in finally getting off my butt to run with Susan again. (And the rest of the CT runners, too)
Fun as in getting the kayak back in the water and paddling until my arms ache
Fun as in chinups
Fun as in chopping wood
Fun as in seeing Jeff break three hours at Boston

Marathon year is over. Done. Finished. Water under the bridge. On the compost heap.

Fun year is here.

Now, to start planning another run at Mystic Places ;^) What are you doing for fun?

Happy New Year!

It’s been a great week. Finished building the old Trek frame up as a single-speed. Didn’t have the sack to use the lockring and go whole hog fixed gear, but it’s now running a 39 tooth front, 16 tooth rear. Good stuff.

Took it for a brief test spin Tuesday night in the rain and wind – felt good; made it up the driveway hill no problem.

New Year’s Eve – went over to Essex with my folks and the boys to see the Connecticut River Museum – Model train display, model of the Turtle (First submarine – wooden, hand cranked, attacked a British Ship in New York Harbor during the Revolution). Stopped in Old Saybrook at the “train pizza restaurant” (Pizzaworks) for lunch. Great mozzarella salad.

Home, ran some errands with the wife. About 4:15, I take a look at 2005 drifting off into history, catch a glimpse of my rebuilt Trek at the bottom of the basement stairs, and say “Hey, I’m going to take a quick spin to town and back before supper.” Before I could hear an objection, I was gone…
Continue reading Happy New Year!

2005 year in review / Shameless Cribbing off of Jon

I’ll be honest – Like most of my good writing ideas, this is straight from Jon. Were I making any money on this space, I’d send it his way in fealty.

But, let’s look at 2005 Reloaded:

So, for planning purposes, I am doing Mystic. – Done.

I’m going to be using the training plan from the New York Road Runners, specifically, the 18 week schedule starting from a 20 mile/week base. Done. I think I can still consider myself at the 20 mile base, BTW. More on that later.

My secondary goal is to avoid overtraining while still reaching achievable goals. Not sure that I really accomplished this one. I think that my tendency to blow off long runs contributed to my tightness in the calves which really really showed up in a mental toll. But, I established a new well to which I can go mentally, so in all, I’ll rate this goal a push.

(I have no clue what that previous paragraph means, but have few doubts that I’ll repeat it in a meeting in the next two weeks, with work-related buzzwords replacing the running-related words)

Hopefully I can find some time in the next week to dig into the HTML of the site and add a bar with the races I’m planning on doing over the year. – heh. No comment.

Weight – Mixed bag here. Yes, I’m down overall (won’t actually check on the Christmas damage until, say, mid-January, BTW) for the year, but closer to the start at 180 than the goal of 152. I did mark an entire year under 185, which is great.

Need to review prospective goals and get to work now…

A holly jolly Christmas

A story in three parts:

I. Chasing Sunlight
II. Wheels
III. 8,000 steps of true love

I. Chasing Sunlight

Friday evening. Day before Christmas Vacation. Not so many folks at the office, but a ton of stuff to finish before the New Year. Finished 2 out of three major tasks for the week, and decided to take the last one home to finish over the weekend (yeah, yeah – taking a couple hours after everyone else was worn out and asleep on Christmas sounded like a better choice than being late for another supper). 3:50 and I was on my way from the lab to the office to do time cards, etc. 20 minutes of paperwork and frustration later and I was on my way home.

I almost didn’t stop – it was on the ragged edge of being able to have enough time to get in a run, stop at the Arcadia Y in Wyoming for a shower, and make it to the traditional Christmas Eve Eve dinner at Mystic Pizza. But, venting the other day seems to have done me a world of good – I was itching to run. So, run I did.

The day was beautiful as I got off the Newport Bridge. Watched the sun sink below the horizon as I drove towards Beavertail. Pulled off at the beach parking for the 3 mile run to the point and back. Cool but nowhere near cold, not much wind at all.

Did the “hide behind the car door” quick change, fired up Wilco’s “Kicking Television” (another flashback – 11 Jan 2005 I was all over “A Ghost is Born” … this isn’t bad at all if I can kick the funk and avoid the end-of-season collapse in Aught Six) and ran toward land’s end. The sun had been down for about 10 minutes by the time I started running. Mini-goal was to be back before twilight gave way to darkness.

I can’t say enough about how beautiful it is running on Beavertail. It’s all elevated above the water, long views of the grey, grey North Atlantic, and the Rhode Island shoreline which is a lot less developed than one might think – it’s all cottages and homes instead of condos and resort hotels. Rounded the corner at the light, and looked over at the shrinking spot of red dotting the western sky. Looked back to the east, and saw it was still slightly rosy – good sign for running down the darkness.

The slope away from the lighthouse opened onto a field/parking lot. The beacon from the light kept sweeping across the field, a white wiper across a darkening windshield. Passed folks walking back to their cars, and a guy setting up a telescope to take advantage of unseasonable warmth and beautiful clear skies.

Made it back to the car before dark. Felt great to get into the front seat and turn on the motor with it still blowing heat. Beautiful view of the last bit of color as I crossed the causeway between the north island and south island. Tasty pizza an hour later…

II. Wheels

Saturday – probably 50 degrees. I was pretty much bound to go for a bike ride, as was the rest of the Southeastern Connecticut cycling community. Great ride from the house to Stonington. Nothing spectacular was accomplished, other than actually catching and talking to another cyclist for a couple of hundred yards, until she headed down US 1 towards Mystic and I kept going to the Borough.

The bike was sweet – finally broke down and bought some high-tech chain lube (White Lightning if anyone cares). Silenced everything. Still need to adjust my front deraileur – I get chain rub if I’m in the big ring and anything other than the 4 tiniest cogs. Not an awful thing, but I’d like to get another two in the big ring just ’cause it looks cool.

Nothing earthshaking here; just a darn fine ride at an unexpected time of year.

II. 8,000 steps of True Love

Christmas Morning was as it should be – children jumping out of bed early but not too early, presents from Santa, good breakfast, more presents from people we love. Played Lego. Played Duplo. Played cars and planes and trains and everything else.

About 1, Nate goes down for his nap, Jake snuggles down with his Grandmother for some stories, and Melissa and I headed out for a run.

Have I mentioned I’m completely in love?

In any case, it was absolutely amazing – 4 miles to River Road and back, beautiful weather in the 40’s or so, and absolutely perfect pacing. I stayed half a step behind Missy to make sure I could slide behind when cars came. She’s gotten quick, she’s gotten confident, and I was in fine fettle chasing along. We laughed, we cried (no, not really), we bought the soundtrack. “Merry Christmas”es were exchanged with the walkers on the road.

10 years married, 15 years together. The absolute best Christmas gift I got this year was 8,000 steps of undivided attention.

Have I mentioned I’m a lucky guy?

Focus

Yesterday – another non-starter. This makes 8 days without significant physical activity. Mercifully, scale was still at 171 today – holding firm to that net gain of 4 lbs since NYC. Holding flab, I guess. The wife? Starting to show actual abs. <humor>Only a matter of time now until she leaves me for someone else who’s fit.</humor>

But I’ve been doing some thinking; spurred on by one of those stunning convergences that happen way too often to be completely the result of random chance: First, there was Jon’s rant yesterday and Blaine’s reply. I’ve also gone back and started re-reading my archives. As the final piece of the puzzle, I picked up a new tri book yesterday on my way home.
Continue reading Focus

Millions of Americans Need to Join the RBF

So says the Washington Post

Treadmill tests on a representative sample of more than 5,300 Americans ages 12 to 49 found that about one out of every five had poor cardiovascular fitness, including about one-third of teenagers and 14 percent of young adults. Based on the findings, an estimated 7.5 million adolescents and at least 8.5 million adults are out of condition, the researchers found.

So, following one of Brogan’s mantras – “Turn bad news into opportunity” (and if it’s not, it should be) – When was the last time you invited another non-runner to lace up the sneaks with you? Offered the guest pass to the gym to a co-worker thinking about getting back in shape? Put platform pedals on the “B” bike and asked the neighbor if she wanted to spin down to the Quickie Mart?

Continue reading Millions of Americans Need to Join the RBF

Wednesday

Wednesdays have been my nemesis the last two weeks. Got off to great starts both times, then got waylaid on humpday.

Not this week. (Or so I say on Sunday…)

Took the boys to Bluff Point today. Nate rode on my shoulders, Jake rode his bike (no training wheels!) It was great, if a bit brisk. In hindsight, I should have taken the jogging stroller and put in a quick two miles. But, it was Jake’s first trip on the trails, and I wasn’t sure how well he’d do.

He did fine.

That’s about it. Missy’s mom gets in right after work on Tuesday. May have to take her to Legal Seafood near the Providence Airport to kick things off right. Well, if her flight’s delayed at all – if it’s on time, we should be able to make supper back home. Last Christmas, she and my sister-in-law spent Christmas Eve in Cleveland, tied up in a snowstorm. THis year, she’s all about preventing that – hence arriving a week ahead of time.

Quick

Howdy y’all –

Been trying to keep busy with work and real life, and haven’t had much time to keep up with everyone. Will likely be touch and go for the rest of the month – good things are afoot at the Circle K. Huge congrats to Deene and the rest of the RBF Marathoners in Vegas, though.

Decided to give in to the flu shot last week and was a slug Wed-Sunday. But, lots of sleep later I feel great. Plus, I managed to get the garage cleaned and organized, and the wife’s car now has a warm home for the winter.

This week has been great so far regarding sticking to fitness. Weigh-in Monday was 170, weigh in today was 169, which means that 171 may have been a post-Thanksgiving, post-marathon plateau, and I might be getting my weight headed in the right direction. Jack’s eating my lunch, weight-wise. Well, I wish he were eating my lunch – maybe then I’d be 7 down instead of 2 up. But, I can’t really complain – I’m headed back in the right direction, and managed ot check the slide I usually take after a big fitness milestone. It’s all about making it a lifestyle instead of an accomplishment.

Today was 30 minutes on the stationary bike at the base gym over lunch, and a set of 30 sit-ups and 20 push-ups. Did the heart rate program, 30 minutes at 150. Nothing fancy, ‘cept the sauna that I was hoping to try turned out not to be a sauna.

Monday was probably the most enjoyable run I’ve had in a long while. Lunchtime again, from the base gym, out for the 3.4 mile loop. HRM, trying to stay under 150 again, and doing a much better job of it this time.

The weather was insanely beautiful. Blue skies, unlimited visibility, gentle breeze, temps pushing 40. Great day to be out for a run. Came to the steep part of the course at the same time as a woman running in shorts and a t-shirt, and sprinted up the hill. Pegged my heart rate somewhere around 180 for 45 seconds, and completely loved the burning in my throat, the pounding in my chest, and the feeling of my lungs being pulled into my bloodstream as the red blood cells tried to unload CO2 and suck in O2 as they flew by the alveoli.

The woman caught me again coming up to the bridge to cross back over to the gym, and it was all I could do to bite my pride and let her pass so I could keep my heart rate near zone. Every fibre of my body wanted to kick it up and finish strong back to the gym. But, I would have looked like a complete jerk for passing her twice. So, I kept plodding along, heart rate in zone, and ended up at the corner at exactly 30 minutes. 30 seconds slower since the last time I ran this route (Kind of can’t believe that that was over 2 weeks ago…). But overall, I felt better.

Pushups and situps before and after the run.