Tag: life

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.

Merry, Merry Christmas

Your Daily Pearls Before Swine

Seriously, though – Pastis knocks this one out of the ballpark.

The “Merry Christmas” part, though, is in the realization that we aren’t bound by Airplaneseatreclinology any more.

Oh, and Deene’s got a wonderful post about Christmas.

Postscript: Pastis proves he’s a softie at heart with my absolute favorite holiday special moment of all time:
Pearls Before Swine apes Charlie Brown's Christmas Special

Back to the grind

And a grind it is.

Actually, work’s great. Exciting and everything. Just had a huge brief, went well.

15 miles last week, all good miles. I kind of blew up the day the boat pulled back into Jax – tried to go 8+ after two weeks off, and man, did that suck.

But, we’ve done a Christmas pageant, shoveled snow, and life is good. Will write about running in the snow later.