Mystic Places Marathon

A huge thanks to the RBF – You stood by me through my venting, laughed at silly jokes, and, through your continued dedication to your own training programs, have continued to inspire, amaze, and encourage me. Huge thanks to Susan for showing up at the finish – sorry I was far from witty and erudite.

The short of it – I finished. 403 out of 577, 62 out of 72 in my age group. Just under 4:30. My little bro, god bless his heart, finished too. Sister-in-law provided brilliant on-course support, wife and boys were at the finish line, and Jake ran the last 100 yards with me.

The long of it – Continue reading Mystic Places Marathon

Redefining “Bike Geek”

Wired’s got a story extoling the benefits of steel and Campy. Gripes with the story – the guy didn’t take pictures of his “new (to him)” ride.

He’s got a certain point – there are some technologies that evolve until they’re pressing against actual laws of physics, and bicycle frame construction out of steel hit that in the 70’s and 80’s. I’ll buy his gushing about the frame.

But I don’t necessarily agree with his joy over Nuevo Record. Granted, my only experience with downtube shifting is the Suntour stuff that was on my first road bike. But man – STI… I also haven’t had much of an issue with durability on either my 105 gruppo or the Deore gruppo retrofitted to my mountain bike.

Sure, high-end components may be overengineered. But there’s still durability to be had, even in fancy new stuff. Likely at lighter weights than the old stuff, if not the lightest stuff out there.

Rest/Jitters/Baseball

So – I blew off Sunday’s run in favor of trying to completely lick this left foot thing. Think it was the right decision, the twinginess was almost nonexistent this morning.

Today’s supposed to be a rest day, but after a great day of twitching and wanting to sweat, I got the kids in bed, gave my annual kickback to my undergrad school, and headed off to go swim. Got to the Y and

Darn, no goggles.

guess I’m resting.

Should be sleeping, but there’s playoff baseball, baby! Love watching the ‘Stros at Minute Maid – George and Bar are sitting behind home plate, cheering like the rest of the unwashed. One of the few redeeming things about the Bayou City.

Here’s hoping for two teams in the World Series, neither of whom have been to the Series since 1959 (before there was a team in Houston). I’m going to have to pull for Houston, since they actually play baseball in Houston, instead of the watered down version popular on the South Side, Boston, and the Bronx, where only 8 of the players have to bat. My pop’s going to not speak to me during the series, though – a product of Dwight David Eisenhower High School in Blue Island.

11:32 – Stupid Eccstein – punching a base hit with 2 out in the top of the ninth. I want to go to bed.

11:33 – Eccstein again – stealing second with Edmonds at bat. At least the ‘Stros won’t lose to the Braves again. Though this St. Louis thing is getting old.

11:34 – Lidge goes way inside, almost hits Edmonds. This isn’t really happening. Nope, nope, nope. Choke City got killed in 1994 with the Rockets, right?

11:35 – Lidge walks Edmonds. I should have hit “Post” and gone to sleep 10 minutes ago. Acid in the stomach. Is my ankle twinging? Geeze.

11:36 – Pujols – makes the second grader in me laugh, even though he’s about to plant one in the Crawford Boxes. I may be ill…

11:37 – I was wrong. He hit it over the railroad track, bounced it off the window. The upside? More baseball to watch.

11:39 – Reggie Sanders. Took a huge cut for strike two. Went down looking. I dunno if I can make it through the next three outs without puking. Advertising helps – the first commercial was Gatorade’s “It’s 90 feet to first – no matter where home is” spot; possibly the finest bit of sports writing in the last two years, since Bill Simmons went all California on us (Sorry Jeff).

11:41 – Brief wish I were still drinking – at least I’d have fallen asleep at about the sixth inning.

11:42 – Pujols beats Willy Taveras, Rookie of the Year candidate, to first on a slow roller. One out. Minute Maid is absolutely silent.

11:43 – Jose Vizcaino? Wow. I thought he retired. Is Nolan Ryan warming up?

11:45 – Isringhausen is pitching. Grudzielanek plays in the infield. I wish I had the Card’s contract, per letter, for doing jerseys. Pujols makes another great play at first – two outs.

11:46 – Chris Burke is the last chance to end the series tonight. Granted, he was clutch to break the Braves. Not tonight.

D’oh.

Hmm, this may be the last play-by-play I do for the ‘Stros. Though, got to hand it to the Cards, and Eckstein, especially. It ain’t over till it’s over.

This is what I’ll remember from mile 26 to 26.2…

Meme o’ riffic

David reminded me that Dianna had tagged me for the fifth sentence in the 23rd entry deal. Here it is:

There was a park at Savage Mills along the middle branch of the Pax river that was between the lab and the hotel.

Well, unless we’re not counting parenthetical sentences. If we are, it’s:

Good times.

Which, frankly, I kind of prefer.

I chose not to tag anyone, mostly ’cause this is last week’s meme. Sorry. One day I’ll be with it enough to catch one of these before they’re over the hill (BTW, that’s a submariner metaphor, not an age thing).

Invitation

I’d like to extend an invitation to folks who might be near Mystic next Sunday to a post-race shindig at our place.

What? Post marathon celebration/consolation
When? Sunday, 23 October, 4 to 7 PM
Where? Chez Jank in Mystic, about 15 minutes east of Rocky Neck State Park (leave a comment, will send directions)
Why? Celebrate fall and running. And ’cause i’m gonna be hungry

Rain Madness

Bleh. Yesterday – rain was getting me down. Laid down about 1 to read a bit and let the baby nap. Boy conspired to keep me awake. Sun came out.

Cleaned on the basement/garage a bit.

Wife got home from weekly sanity time and the gym. Looked at me and told me to go run. I did.

Great run. Cool temperatures. Moon rising over the river, breeze blowing, everything smelled clean. Five good miles.

I am feeling good for next Sunday.

Podcast #3 – Howl, by Allen Ginsberg

Podcast #3.

Disclaimer: Rated “R” – very explicit language, imagery, and content.

NPR, way back a week ago Friday (7 Oct), let drop that it was 50 years ago that “Howl” was first read by Allen Ginsberg. Me, being a huge Mike Meyers fan, said “Huh. I’ve never read/heard the poem in its entirety.”

So I skedaddled down to the library, paid my fines, and skedaddled home with a big ragged volume of Ginsberg’s collected works.

For the record, the actual reading went like this:

part 1. Really kind of don’t get it. kind of wonder if I really want to post it. Decide to go ahead for historical value, given I record a

disclaimer.

Last bits.

The raw files sat on my desktop for a couple of days. Edited it tonight.

Here’s what I used:

Amadeus II – Picked it up when I got my iBook so I could record some books for the Boy (he was still the Baby then) before I went overseas for the war. Works great. Not extremely fancy, but it works like a champ. And it supports Ogg Vorbis, whatever the heck that is. I usually just record straight to MP3.

Garage Band – I’ll just go ahead here and say how cool is this bit of software. Works like a champ. I’ve barely scratched the surface. I also won’t dwell on exactly how long it took me to figure out that I could just drag the clips into the window to add them as tracks. Uh, no. We won’t dwell on that.

iTunes – Garage Band exports to iTunes. iTunes exports to MP3. Amadeus downsamples to make the file manageable.

Hardware – old iBook G3 800 MHz. Cheap ($5) microphone from the Navy Exchange. Griffin iMic. Oh, and I turned off the dehumidifier.

Apologies for podcast 2 – listened to it, and it’s bleh. I’m blaming doing too many things at once on the computer – bogging down bandwidth and processing. ODEO runs a web-based recording studio. My guess is that between getting new podcasts off the web, moving my music library to a backup drive, e-mail, and trying to record, something got lost. But, it’s a datapoint for the developers. The recording service is still in Beta.

Oh, and if anyone wants to sponsor a T1 line and a new PowerBook, feel free.

Peace

Is a dirty word; it used to be a painted bird, baby.

No, peace is a wonderful thing. Peace is what I found yesterday. While running, of all things. Cranked out a good 3.5 miles over lunch. Didn’t feel sore. Didn’t feel winded. Didn’t feel nothing but peace.

Saw the folks walking to the galley. I ran.

Saw the cars driving by, windows sealed against the pending rain and fall chill. I ran.

Saw the trees, holding on to green leaves thanks to unseasonable warmth and rain. I ran.

Saw great V’s of geese headed south breaking through the bellies of clouds fat with rain. I ran.

Nothing fancy today. No sprints. No great distance. Nothing but redjazz.com’s podcast.
Continue reading Peace

Thursday Triumph / Sunday Suckage

First, a public apology: CT RBF, I am sooo sorry that I didn’t make it up to Hartford to lend moral support Saturday Morning. But I think y’all understand. In any case, huge congratulations to Susan, Dianna, April Anne, Sarah, Michelle, and anyone I’m forgetting. What a crappy day. What a huge inspiration.

After the 19 miles of triumph last weekend, life caught up with me, and I didn’t get around to running until Thursday afternoon. Melissa called at the office, said “Hey, you’re staying home on Columbus day, right?” Yep (one of the perks of having clients in government is their schedule). “Well, the office wants me to make a teleconference in Hartford. Why don’t you work late tonight, or go for a run or something? I’ll get TV dinners for the boys”. I hung up before she could change your mind.

Parked at the soccer field on Jamestown, and remixed my loop of the north end of the island. Cut through the reservoir to North Main Street, headed up the hill, out to the north end of the island. Decided to loop back over the hill to north main – whatever. Good run. 8 miles, 65 minutes. Didn’t feel terribly winded afterwards, either. Was feeling really happy in advance of Saturday’s long run.

Went to bed early (10 or so) Friday night. Alarm goes off at 4AM, and I hear rain pouring like a showerhead outside of the bedroom window. Hmm. Snooze until 5. Heavy rain again. 6 – heavy rain. 7:30, the boy bumps into the bed, and it’s official – I’m blowing off the 20 until Sunday. Play with the boys, get new tires, clean the basement since it’s almost winter, and I’m going to be cooped up down there for the next six months or so. Check the belt on the rollers – good to go. Check the treadmill – may have to call for a new belt.

Sunday morning – 5AM – raining. 6 AM raining, but the opportunity to run without impacting the day’s schedule is about to go over the hill if I don’t hit the road. So I strap on the shoes, pull on a long sleeved shirt! for the first time of the fall, and hit the wet roads.

The run’s crummy, I didn’t hyperhydrate the night before. Bleh. I made it to downtown Mystic, took a big drink from the water fountain near the river, and headed back. 10 miles, a long time, and I head back wet and grumpy. Liz kicked my butt as far as coming close to goals goes. Here’s praying for sunshine for Mystic Places. Someone remind me to buy about 8 pounds of Swedish Fish.

I’d feel worse about the run, but it’s the two week taper, baby. My two little disease vectors had brought back a cough/cold, and I think I caught a little bit of it. I was exhausted Saturday and Sunday despite getting near 8 hours each night, so likely I was fighting something off. Running in the rain probably didn’t help much. Made Family Swim at the Y after naps Sunday afternoon. Packed, but we got to splash. Jake swims decently well for a 5 year old – no actual strokes, but he keeps his head above water and tries to swim underwater (kind of funny, since you see a butt sticking out of the water while he kicks). Library, too. ‘Cept 10 minutes before it closed. We sprinted to the children’s section, grabbed two books that may have been dinosaur books, and one book on birds.

Today is official rest day. Having been completely slack about sticking to the schedule for the last month, I am going to religiously follow the two taper weeks. Early to bed and all that stuff. Missy, as mentioned, is off at work today. Boys and I are sitting in a kitchen which is rapidly approaching disaster area status, despite my at least thinking about keeping it clean. Guess there’s actual work involved. Jake’s playing; running commentary about fire trucks. Guess something happened that’s good for the world, ’cause he just mentioned there’s “New Bad Guys and New Bad Girls” showing up. Guess that’s progress – I remember only talking about “bad guys” when I was playing.

OK, that was an official ramble. Off to the aquarium for pumpkin painting. Congratulations to all of the CT RBF again.