Category: life

Ah, Amigos, Rest Assured I have not forgotten about you

Boys and girls, interesting times are afoot up here in Mystic. Spring is always a good time to be in New England, and an even better time to be a runner.

I had a whirlwind trip down to DC early last week, in which I got to catch up with my brother-in-law and his wonderful wife, and got to head up to the Sausage Factory (eg the Capitol, from the immortal quote which I’m too lazy to google, which goes along the lines of “It’s terrible to see what goes into both sausage and laws”). I managed to stay downtown, and got in a transcendent dawn run on the Mall, and tried as to be as loud as possible in the hotel hall, as it was full of whipper-snapper teens down for one of the many “see how government works” programs, which, near as I can tell, involves a lot of running between rooms and giggling at about midnight. But I had beer with the brother-in-law, and a good walk, and it really didn’t matter.

Saturday was Pinewood Derby, and it was outstanding. Jake’s (mostly) self-made car (I will dig up a picture, but all I did was rough out the shape with a table-saw and do a little light soldering) came in 5th out of 8, and that was without him doing anything to the wheels or axles. “But daddy, I want to paint it!” We also headed out to check out the YMCA camp over by Burlinggame State Park in Rhode Island. I’m sending the kids for pretty much as long as they want to go. The camp’s got all the cool “camp” stuff, like swimming and canoes and sports and lanyards and musty cabins, and none of that modern stuff like PowerPoint and DVDs. I’m sold.

The boys and I followed up a little time in the woods with a hike over at the Ninengret National Wildlife Refuge, and a trip up to URE outfitters to buy a fishing license. The hike rocked – it was brisk and windy, but there was no whining by the boys, and on the way back,

Jake said “Dad, can I run back to the car?”

“Sure”, I said, “just turn around and run back to us when you get there”.

Off he went. Nate and I continued to stroll, and Jake met up with us a little quicker than I’d expected. “Did you make it all the way back?”

“Yep. I did stop to read the sign for a while, though, so I didn’t run right back”. Man, fast, and honest, too.

I finished up Saturday with 5 miles. It was supposed to be 4 miles in preparation for a long run on Sunday, but I took a new route, took a different turn to do some exploring, and added another mile. I didn’t make the long run on Sunday, but I did a bunch of walking after church, so I think it’ll all come out in the wash.

Now it’s Monday, and I’m feeling rested, excited, and pretty fired up about being able to get back on track. I hit the gym with my officemate at lunch. Calisthenics and some time on the exercise bike are good for what ails you.

CrossTrain

So, apparently I’ve redefined “cross training” today to involve Pop-A-Shot and chasing 4 year olds at novelty themed pizza restaurants. Let’s not forget eating cake.

The slack (not really slack – I did paint the laundry room today, too) got me thinking about races for the rest of the year.

  • The Physical Readiness Test is next month (April). I’m shooting for under 10 minutes for the mile and a half (more realistic is 11 minutes). And there – just cranked out a set of 20 pushups. I need to build that up to 70 or so in a month. Right…
  • Next race is the OKC HalfMarathon with the Doc. I’ve decided to wimp out on the full marathon, but cannot wait to see my niece and nephews.
  • Got the email that the Bluff Point Twilight Trail Race is Friday, May 16 this year. I cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot wait. This is hands down my second favorite race of the year. It could easily be my absolute favorite, but it’s superceded by
  • The New Haven 20K Road Race. I DNF’d last year, but man, oh, man, do I love this race. Let me take a minute to talk smack: Annalisa – I’m digging on your schedule for R2R; very similar to what I’m doing for OKC, so indeed, I am Down. Danny – Geeze, save us some food this year, OK? Jon – you do get one holiday each year, right? And AA & Dianna – man, I cannot wait for this race.
  • Lastly, JKRunning posted that the NYC lottery’s up, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. If I don’t get drawn, I’ll probably target either Hartford or the MCM, but we’ll see.

Skipped another long run

After the funk I had all last week, I skipped my long run this weekend. Only supposed to be 6 miles, but still.

I’m feelin’ pretty low on the old running stick-to-it-ness.

The upside was a great weekend with the wife and boys.

(Not Quite) Spring Fever

Hi, y’all.

Its been tough going lately, at least as far as running is concerned. There’s just not enough hours in the day for work and getting outside. And the ankle troubles are back. Not sure what brought them on, but I would hazard a guess that there is something to do with a little bit of inconsistiency in my training. Not so effective to try to cram a week’s worth of miles into the last three days of the week.

Looks like I’m not going to make the full marathon at Oklahoma City. But I’m happy with the half, ’cause I get to see my shiny new niece and nephew.

But, I was back running today, on a reduced schedule for the half. And the run was good.

Man, this feels awkward. It’s almost tougher to write again after a break than it is to run.

Either that, or I’ve just got less to say.

One thing I worry about is that it’s becoming much easier to consume entertainment on the web than is strictly healthy. I’m trying to pare down my RSS reading, and Hulu, as cool as it is, is as bad a time-sink as YouTube.

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Interesting Thoughts

So, I got back from work this afternoon, and an interesting thought occurred to me: “Man, I’m really, really looking forward to running.”

Funny thing, though – I was.

My lovely wife’s gonna blush, but one of my New Year’s resolutions has been to ask “What Would Missy Eat” (WWME) before I put anything in my mouth. I’ve talked about it in the past, but running with her over Christmas really made it stick for me. Here’s the diet program:

  • Lotsa veggies
  • Nothing but whole wheat
  • A little bit of lean meat
  • Never skip dessert.
  • Next to no fast food

I’m not religious about it, but I’m feeling better after a week of it. Haven’t had a chance to hit the scale, but I think it’ll be a pound or so.

And the run? Well, it was the first “Run Less, Run Faster” workout in preparation for the Oklahoma City marathon. Mile repeats – 10 minutes warmup, 3×1600 repeats with 1 minute rest, and 10 minutes cooldown. I did it, more or less, but it was probably closer to being 3×1400 repeats with about 3 minutes recovery between them.

But the run felt good, and I man, I’ve had some endorphins working at the end. Yeah, this running and eating well is good stuff.

8 for ’08

Missy and I started off the year right – 8 miles on New Year’s morning. She took it easy on me, and we both finished together. Even though she has to sandbag for me now, I still LOVE running with my blushing bride.

Sunday was 4 miles – early. Believe it or not, I made it out of bed to enjoy some “warm” weather. Funny how high 30’s can make everything better after some single-digits.

Lastly, I’m still on the Nike+ bandwagon, and am using the “resolutions” for this year. I’m targeting 700 miles for the year, with 70 miles for January.

Races? I’m running the OK City Marathon at the end of April, and registering for the NYC Lottery. My fall fall-back is going to be the Hartford Marathon. And, as always, the highlight of my year will be the New Haven 20K on Labor Day.

Missy’s targeting the RunVermont Marathon, and the boys and I are looking forward to Memorial Day in the mountains. She’s also looking at the San Antonio Marathon,

So, life is good, hope everyone’s on track for ’08, and keeping warm.

Cycle, Cycle Two (thousand and 7)

I finished out the year with about two hours on the bike. Not tough hours by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a good ride from the house out past the Borough and back through downtown Mystic. No major insights, ‘cept for an appreciation for a good latte at the end of a ride, and the eternal quandary about how much is the right amount to wear to balance being cold at the beginning and being too hot during the ride. I erred on the side of being too cold, and had chilly toes at the end.

While I’m at it, I outta sum up 2007, and review my resolutions. The short version?

Cow and Boy Comic StripThe longer version is below the break:

Continue reading Cycle, Cycle Two (thousand and 7)

My wife can kick my *$$

So, it’s official: Missy’s a far, far better runner than I am, or likely will ever be.

We’ve both given blood in the last week, and set out to run together this morning. Every downhill, she pulled away from me, and pretty much the whole first part of the run, I felt like she was really pushing me.

But, running faster’s the only way to get faster, so I hung.

We headed over Cow Hill towards downtown, and swung back north on River Road. I tried to bail just south of IH-95, but Missy goaded me into keeping on. About mile 5, I stopped and walked for a while as she went up about a half mile, and back about a quarter. I made it the two miles home.

I still love running with Missy, but it’s a different flavor. Now, I feel like I’m running out of desperation – need to get skinny so she doesn’t leave me for the pool boy (But Billy, you don’t have a pool! Tell me about it. Still can’t figure out why we keep paying for pool service…)

All kidding aside, life’s great. I’m taking about 10 days off, we’ve got company coming, and we’re going to trek into the Big City (NY) to take the kids to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I’m gonna get to see the cube at the entrance to the Apple Store outside of FAO Schwartz. And, we get to ride the train.

Running’s been great while on vacation – good run on Sunday, and Missy got me out the door on Monday, even though I wanted to rest. Christmas was good – I’d convinced Missy that we needed a Wii back in September, so it’s been sitting in our basement since October. I dig it – it’s as revolutionary a concept in video games as the Atari 2600 was. And the good folks who write games for Nintendo seem to be able to avoid the siren’s call of looks over gameplay. Not that the games aren’t pretty.

Gaah – 18 weeks until OKC. This is going to suck.