Author: jank

links for 2007-04-13

3 outta 7 ain’t bad

In my own minor way, I’ve managed to score well on the 7 deadly sins in the last 24 hours.

Lust – Women in the midwest are extremely underrated. None of the attitude from the coasts, and somehow avoiding much of the gluttony that’s beginning to ruin many southern women. Luckily for my lovely wife, I spent the better part of my time up here in conference rooms with engineers.

Gluttony – How do I eat thee? Let me count the ways – delicious hot wings, tasty pizza, too many cookies from the tray at lunch, and a root-beer float at the airport A&W.

Greed – Luckily, not so much lately. But I am finishing up my taxes – does trying to maximize my return count?

Sloth – Alarm went off this morning in the hotel. Looked out on nasty grey skies and the remnants of a wonderful midwestern thunderstorm, and reset the alarm for another hour of sleep.

Wrath – I’m in the midwest, surrounded by wonderful people. No wrath here at all.

Envy – One of the engineers in the meeting today was a beekeeper. 100 lbs of honey a year per hive. Hey, that one might be a double dipper!

Pride – spent the day in a room surrounded by people smarter than me. Definately no pride here..

So, no running today. Truth be told, I’m still a little sore after the strong beginning to the week I’ve had, so a day of rest probably isn’t a bad thing. But, the Wikipedia article is pretty interesting. GO read it.

Dude

So, the postscript to yesterday was that there is also a pretty decent bruise/scrape on my upper arm. Good stuff.

I was stood up for the lunch run by everyone else. Klink claimed that he got out of a meeting late – right, he’s got “meetings” and other “work” that he claims must get “done.”

The deep bruise on the left thigh is, indeed a deep bruise. I could feel every step.

Beautiful day, indeed. The run felt good, and since there was nobody to hold me back (ha!) I went 4 and a half. Good, good run.

So, now, I’m chillin’ in Cleveland – wait, Columbus. Cannot wait to run in the morning. There’s a thunderstorm rolling through, and I’d forgotten how much I loved midwestern storms.

Tonight – wings and beer and a good night’s sleep.

F’n Babies Heads

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped by Burlingame State Park on the way home to get in a little bit of singletrack. Perfect day for it – sunny, 40’s, and the ground was pretty dry.

As I was leaving the beach parking lot, two other bikers passed me. I fiddled around with my bike a bit more, and left, noticing the cleat on my left shoe was way, way out of position and more than a little loose. “Eh,” I thought, “fix it when we get back.”

From the beach, there’s no singletrack for about a mile – just a two lane road. Just before we got to the trail, I caught and passed the two riders. One was on a high-zoot Merlin titanium hardtail, the other on a nice full suspension rig. Nods and waves were passed.

I turned onto the trail just after passing them, got to the first real obstacle, a log across the trail, and

Biffed

Then, trying to get back up, my left cleat wouldn’t disengage, so I kind of wallowed around a bit.

The guy on the full rig stopped after he cleared the log to make sure I was all right.

“I’m Larry” he said. “Have you ridden here before?”

“No”, I mumbled. “But I’ve got a map from the Internet.”

“Well, you’re welcome to ride with us.”

So I did. Or tried to – “with” is a relative word, right? The trail was brutal. If I made 100 yards without falling or having to dismount (again, with a sticky left cleat) I was pleased.

After about 40 minutes, Larry came riding back down the trail just to make sure I was still alive. I acknowledged, and apologized for the string of vulgarities and epithets that were spoiling a quiet afternoon in the woods. “No problem” he said. “Just up ahead here, it gets a whole lot easier and we’ll point you back to your car.”

“Thanks” I said.

At a junction, we stopped for a minute. Larry lent me an allen wrench to take off my left cleat, which had lost a bolt by this time. “Hey, you’re bleeding. Extra points for that,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, chicks dig scars” I said.

The ride back down a different trail, was, as Larry had promised, much easier. But, having spent the better part of an hour lying beside the trail with my bike on top of me, my confidence was shot. When I tried, I cleared, but I didn’t try as often as I usually would.

Back at the car, I took inventory
– Bent seat
– Skinned both knees
– Deep muscle bruise on left thigh
– Skinned elbow on the left side
– Bruised ego

But, the ride was good, the endorphins were pumping, and I’m still happy to be alive.

Huge thanks to Larry and his riding partner – I was woefully unprepared, and in over my head, and a complete stranger, but they showed phenomenal hospitality to a total Fred. I need to be a better person.

links for 2007-04-10

Good Weekend, Good Monday

The cool thing? This post represents 11 miles, which is huge. The not-so-cool-thing? 7 days since I was last on a bike. The completely uncool thing? I cannot recall the last time I swam.

Friday

Three-ish miles on the cliffwalk with guys from work. There’s two guys on my team here at the lab. Both only a year or two out of school, both pretty fit in the rock-climber/gymnast anerobic kind of fitness, both novices as runners. Given that I’m in shape in the sense that “round” is a shape and need to get back on the wagon (not that it’s gone that far down the road), I figured I’d try to recruit these guys as running partners.

We hit the CliffWalk after work – three miles from First Beach down to Ruggles and back. Good times, good times. Jon, a EE (pronounced “Double E”, so it is proper to use ‘a’ instead of ‘an’) has a thing for jumping onto and over stuff, which is fun to watch. Weather was pretty crummy, 40’s, grey, and windy, so the walk was pretty deserted.

Saturday

That morning, I took the kids to swim class at the Y. My wife had headed down there a bit earlier, and the plan was to leave my car at the Y while we went and hunted the wily and dangerous Easter Egg. The hunt was successful – eggs were found by both boys, and no fists were thrown. Lunch and a nap for the youngest followed, and I set off to retrieve the car.

It was a bit odd doing the home-to-Y run, as I’m used to doing it the other way. But, it was nice, being that it’s downhill from our house to the Y. I think I’ll miss the Y after global warming washes it away, but it’ll be awful nice having the beach just down the street instead of a couple of miles away.

I stopped at the coffee shop as I jogged through downtown. A buddy of mine was fixing the front door (he’s a friend of the owner’s, and hangs out ther on Saturdays). I helped; we chatted. A doorknob was replaced, free coffee was offered, and I finished the jog down Route 1.

Funny postscript – sitting in church the next morning, another transplanted southerner by way of the Navy (my oldest’s got a crush on his daughter. As in the kind of 7 year old crush where the boy just wants desparately to be noticed by the girl and doesn’t realize that the girl just really isn’t that into dinosaurs or bugs) turned around before the service started, and said “Hey, I saw you running yesterday.”

“Yeah?” I answered.

He continued “Yeah, I was just heading out; we were getting ready to send off some folks who found new jobs, and I was on my way out to get ice and…” he just kind of trailed off here, in that weird kind of limbo that folks get in the south when talking about booze in the presence of the Lord. “uh, stuff”.

“Cool,” I said. “Good sendoff?”

“Yeah,” he said, happy to have someone else who speaks his language.

Monday

I’ve finally picked up running at lunchtime again. Jon B. went along again, and we added Jon K, my running buddy from last summer.

Something is in the air, for sure, ’cause for the first time in 3 springs here, there was literally no room to turn around in the men’s room/locker room in the basement of my building while we were dressing to head out. Crowded, crowded.

On the road, the day was phenomenal. Not too windy, not too cold. Which isn’t to say it was perfect – mid 40’s and on the verge of being blustry. There were a couple of legs of the run that still felt like a winter run, but there were a couple that were amazing. Jon B. ended up walking the last mile, but that’s OK. Jon K. and I offered to walk with, ’cause we’re both seriously out of shape, but B. waved us on. Only took once, ’cause it just felt good to be out.

Postscript

I think my ankle problems are a stride-related thing. I’ve gone back to being a heel striker, and I’m not sure if it’s a shoes thing, or a lazyness thing, or what. Regardless, I’m starting to wonder if maybe I shouldn’t try a pair of motion control shoes once I wear these out, or end up in too much pain to keep running again.

I’m also playing with my gait – picking back up on the “run on your toes” mantra. I watched a couple of other runners over the last couple of days, and the guys who were passing me never seemed to be touching their heels to the pavement at all, but running on the balls of their feet. Thinking about soccer last Sunday, it struck me that most of that running was ball-of-foot based. Sprinting and turning fast. Not a lot of heel there, and I felt fine Monday and Tuesday of last week.

I tried it a bit on Saturday and today, but am not sure if it’s going to take. I can only go about a quarter to a half of a mile that way. May have to look into Pose/Chi, ’cause I think that there may be the need for a total rebuild of my stride here.

Last gasp of winter

Following up on not having run:

Well, I ran on the way home. I blew off the soup supper at the church to do it (much like i bailed early on Lent this afternoon by snarfing down a chicken burrito), but I stopped at Arcadia (south) for a quick 5k on the trails.

It was fabulous.

The snow’s about all gone, and for the most part, the trail had firmed up. There was one section where the runoff was still fierce, and my shoes were completely and totally soaked at the 1K mark. No blisters – these Vasque trail runners are every bit as great as the folks at EMS claimed they would be. Plus, they shed water pretty quickly, and the virbram soles grab rock like a frat boy grabs drunk chicks.

I ran a new section of trail – a little bit closer to IH-95, but better – more singletracky, but less rocky at the same time. Can’t wait to try it on the bike.

About 500m in, I started wondering if the cottonwood were starting early this spring, but then realized that (A) I was surrounded by oak, and (B) it was snowing. Rock on – gentle snow in early spring.

The snow got decently intense while I ran – collecting on my fleece top and on the evergreens, but not really at all on the ground. I pushed on, having the fantasy I’ve always had running in the snow, pretending that the snowflakes were stars, and I was riding in the Millenium Falcon through hyperspace.

The run ended too soon – mud on my legs, and socks dripping. At home, my lovely wife had spaghetti (Barilla Super Pasta! extra protein and vitamins) and meatballs waiting. Two happy boys, a bath, and some bedtime stories later, and life is good.

links for 2007-04-06

Reality sets in.

Wow, I thought as I worked through lunch again today – I haven’t run since playing soccer on Sunday. What a slacker.

On the plus side, I haven’t had ANY ankle pain, even taking into account playing soccer on Sunday. So, I’m thinking that maybe the extra rest has been doing me good – maybe I’m finally “over the hump” as far as the foot/ankle/tendon trouble that I had at the end of January goes. Now, if I can only avoid screwing things up again.

One concession that I think I need to make from two months now of minimal mileage is to write off the possibility of a fall marathon**. Yes, I’d thought that this year would be the year I did 26.2 again. And, Yes, there are still more than 6 months until most of the October races, which is more than enough time to train.

Well, it’s more than enough time to train if your goal is just to finish.

I’ve finished two marathons, so I don’t think that I am going to be satisfied with just crossing the line again somewhere between four and a half and five hours. The sacrifice for building up to that high of mileage that fast isn’t worth it for another finisher’s medal. At least not this soon after my last campaign – the mental dumps of November and December 2005 are still too vivid in my mind to reconsider.

The upside to this realization? More time on the bike this year!

* The caveat being that I’ve entered the draw for NYC. If I get selected, I’m running the crap out of New York. One marathon I might be able to handle…