Month: January 2011

One Week Down

Man, 2011 is going to be my year. Good stuff the rest of the week, including another spin class on Friday, more bike-fu, and a pretty decent run Thursday.

Good late afternoon run with KC on Saturday. Waited at Gym 109 for him; he didn’t show, so I started without him. Original plan was to run to downtown Newport, but there was a cold wind blowing out of the north. I was feeling marginal to begin with, and didn’t want to run against the wind after I was tired and sweaty. So, I headed north. About a mile and a half in, KC calls.

So, head back, pick up KC, and head down to the pier. Somehow missed Colors, and had to stop at the porta john about a mile before the end. Only drawback to the whole day was forgetting to restart my GPS after the portapot, but other than that, life is good.

But, long run felt great. First week ends as a success.

Next week we start working on weight.

Saturday was an interesting experiment. Completely unanticipated, I ended up with a meatless day. Lunch ended up being a veggie omelet, and supper was a guacamole burrito. Not completely healthy, but no meat. Felt good on Sunday morning. Eating well is good.

2011, Continued!

Hey, Amigios!

Isn’t this great? I’m already meeting my monthly average number of posts, and we’re not even a week into 2011! Frankly, it’s kind of creeping me out, this whole needing to share again, but my writing gear’s a little dusty, and I kind of miss the whole thing.

Man, winter is a drag. I still haven’t motivated myself to head outdoors again after Sunday’s slog in the fog. Sunday’s run was a huge milestone, though. Missy came back in from a “short” six miles or so, and since we didn’t have Sunday School, there was still over an hour before we had to be bundled into the car and trundled on down to the house of worship to get some religion. I felt like crap – there was some alien bug brought forth from Oklahoma over the holidays, and it laid waste to my and my youngest’s intestinal tracts. (In my case too much Clyde’s Cider probably helped)

But, it was pushing 50, and I pulled on the Garmin, pulled on some pants, and laced up the sneakers. The new (that we’ve been in for a WHOLE YEAR) house is at the top of our neighborhood; so I slogged down the hill, and out onto the Gold Star highway. I felt awful, so why not climb? There’s about a 1.5 mile long uphill from the entrance to our neighborhood to the top of the hill at Flanders Road, and I slogged on up

Felt.

Like.

Crap.

But, I did it.

It was a foggy, foggy New England day – cold, still snow-covered ground held back rosy-fingered dawn. Ink-black night had transitioned into unseparated-colors-and-whites pasty grey; the air was wet with condensation. No wind, and the kind of dead silence that’s usually not found unless one’s out to sea. Not many folks up early to practice religion the day after the New Year.

And, sucky though it was, it gave me hope. Made me remember what I love about the road, remember the good things that happen in my head when there’s nothing to think about except for turning circles with the feet, staying light in the knees, and following the white line or crushed
gravel.

At the top of the hill, I turned around and headed back towards the house. Funny thing with running, going down isn’t any easier than going up. But, when I made it back to the ‘hood, I figured I’d head the long way around the block to get home. Legs let out about halfway up the hill, walked for about a quarter of a mile, but ran the last quarter mile, uphill.

As I walked in the door, the hiccups set in, and Missy started laughing. Dunno why, but working hard in the cold always gives me hiccup. With my stomach still in a knot, I also got to re-sample the morning’s kashi (yum) [not], but managed to choke it back down.

So, the streak’s still alive. Monday, I snuck into spin class at the Y. 45 minutes of lungs searing on no breakfast may make Billy a slightly skinnier boy.

Streak continues today.
After a crummy adventure with the car in which I fell victim to terrible service and wrongly questioned someone who I’d usually known to do good work, came home to a great supper with Missy and the kids. Put everyone to bed, then TO THE LAIR! 45 minutes on the rollers, 26 minutes on the treadmill, shower, write, and to bed.

With an actual paper book that no-one but me’s requiring me to read.

All hail Discordia

2011 kickoff

Ah, blogosphere, if there’s any left.

The end of 2010’s been rough, running-wise for me. I completely failed at Fat Cyclist’s lose 10 pounds by Christmas challenge. The start was good; but the finish left a whole lot to be desired. For a variety of reasons, primarily work-related, I fell off the wagon and finished off on Christmas Eve right where I’d started.

Which I suppose is a large part of the story of 2010.

I didn’t really make any real resolutions for 2010, so there’s no real way to sum up the year. I suppose I could chunk my dailymile.com feed (Love, love, love that site) to figure out how this year compared to last year, but, frankly, I’m afraid it’d depress me.

I ran the Vermont City Marathon in May, and then pretty much sat up in the saddle for the rest of the year. Vermont City was a great race, but, as usual, my training was sub-par, and I faded hard at the end of the run. What was different, though, was that I felt completely compelled to finish the race when I cramped at 16 miles.

Melissa ran New Haven this year instead of me, which was completely fair, and about which I have no regrets other than pure jealousy. But I think that without that as an end of summer goal, I kind of wandered…

My alternate goal was to lose 20 lbs between Memorial day and the end of summer – absolutely no progress there.

Overall, though, I’m cool with it – this was a tough year at work, and I’ve pulled through with general success. My fitness hasn’t lost anything since this time last year; my relationship with Melissa has probably never been better, and my oldest kid isn’t getting notes sent home from his teacher on a regular basis, and actually got a smokin’ good report card this last marking period.

There are prospects at work that look promising both professionally and in terms of work-life balance, and I’ve been selectively de-committing from some of the non-work stressors that I have.

So, I’m upbeat but realistic about 2011.

Enough so that I think I’ll set some goals:

1. Run Vermont City again. Loved the race, and Melissa wants to run Flying Pig. Which means if I want another family weekend in Burlington over Memorial Day, I need to suck it up and run. Oh, the sacrifices I make.
2. Finish FatCyclist’s 10 lbs plan by the end of January. Frankly, it was working while I was able to reschedule priorities. January looks to be somewhat less chaotic than December was, and it’d be nice to roll into training for Vermont City at 175 instead of 185.
3. Tri, tri again. I really regret not doing an olympic tri last summer. I especially regret not doing one with my buddy Dave W, who is no longer working at the same place with the part-time job. So, hopefully, I can do a win-win here and keep in touch with someone who’s been a good friend (something I’ve been notoriously bad at in the past), AND work out my tri demons. I’m also good for the NAVSTA Newport tri in August – it’s a sprint, and I’d love to see what I can do with some good training and 20 lbs less baggage.
4. Not get onto Jon’s list of dead blogs. I really miss posting as much as I had in the past. I also need some inspiration – who’s writing well?

Here’s hoping to get back to you all in 364 days with a great 2011 wrap-up.