Chronicles of Beast

Getting a Bone Scan

2008-03-27T12:44:00.001-04:00

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I've Been Pimped Out

2008-03-27T09:53:00.003-04:00

Thanks to my friend Greg Barnett of Rock'n Motion Design (twitter @gregbarnett), I have a fancy new pimped out blog with my own domain name. You can now find my blog at

http://chroniclesofbeast.com

All of my posts going back to 2003 can be found at this location. I hope you like the new design. I think Greg did a great job and recommend him for all your web design needs.

Beast

3 Weeks and a Day

2008-03-24T21:22:00.001-04:00

It’s been 3 weeks and a day since the last time I’ve run. In that time a couple of things have happened to me. The good news is that my legs no longer hurt as much. It is no longer excruciatingly painful to walk down a flight of stairs and I can walk without feeling like I am hobbling along. On the negative side, I’ve become morbidly depressed. It’s not depression over not being able to run; it is more the fact that running for me somehow kept my depression from hitting me so hard. There is a simple ease in running and the longer I ran the better I felt. I could lose myself in running and all my pressures and worries just seemed to disappear. Having that taken away from me was like the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Yes I can go bike riding or swimming, but they are just not giving me the same pleasure that running gave me. I feel good after I get in a swim or a bike, but the effort that goes into doing those activities just seems to be too much for me at times. All I had to do for running was slap on a pair of sneakers and go. My mind could wander aimlessly as the miles passed by and I didn’t have to think of anything more complicated other than what my next turn should be. Swimming and biking take a higher level of concentration and doesn’t give me that Zen feeling. When I get on my bike or go to the pool, I am forcing myself to do so. It is not something I want to do. I don’t know what this means. My nickname of Beast came from the days that I would be up at 4am every morning to do mega workouts. I’d do this right through the dead of winter when not another living soul would dare to go outside. I am so far away from that person right now and that makes me sad. I wish I could recapture it. My inner Beast has escaped leaving me a shell of who I once was.

I’ve written about this before how in the past I would be heavily into training, but after a while I would burn out and return to slovenly ways. Normally a training cycle would last about 3 years. I’ve been going since June 18, 2001 and have made a very good run of it this time. I have no desire to return to being a fat bastard that is completely out of shape. I am not getting younger and it gets harder and harder to whip a body into shape. I know this in my heart and I feel much stress and pressure for me to continue to keep myself in shape. I need a catalyst to spark my interest in getting back into shape. The Vermont 100 Mile race was that catalyst for me this year, but that has been taken away by my sudden inability to run.

I am supposed to wait 6 – 8 weeks before I begin to run again. It’s going to be hard to maintain some sort of fitness during this time. I’ve been managing to work out around 4 times per week. Hopefully I can continue to do so. Also hopefully, I won’t lose interest in pursuing the Vermont 100 Miler by the time I can run again. It’s happened to me in the past, where I’ve been denied something that I wanted for a long time, but ultimately getting it at a later date. However by the time I got it I no longer cared about it. I hope that’s not the case with the Vermont 100.

Last week I was in New Orleans for a company convention. I had big plans to explore the city by running around it. New Orleans is a very beautiful place and as I explored it by trolley and foot, I felt an anger rising inside me that I couldn’t be outside running. I distracted myself from these thoughts by partying and drinking with my colleagues from work as much as possible. I will say I did succeed in distracting myself. I have some pictures to prove it, which I will not post here, lest one of them come back to haunt me in the future. Those who followed my Tweets on Twitter know somewhat what I was doing while in Nawlins and I am going to let that serve as my record of my adventures.

I need to find something that is going to give me pleasure in life and make me happy. Or perhaps more accurately, I am going to need to learn how to be happy. I feel like it’s a lost emotion and I don’t know how to find it. There are things that give me pleasure and make me happy (such as my children), but those are at time moment circumstances. It doesn’t stay with me. I am looking for it and just can’t find it. I am a blind man in the desert searching for water. All I seem to be able to find is dust.

Traffic. At least I have a view of the Full Moo

2008-03-23T21:56:00.001-04:00

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Walk the Earth

2008-03-22T01:19:00.003-04:00

Well, I haven’t been running for the past 3 weeks in order to let my shins heal. I’ve reached the point where it became too painful to run and in fact believe I finally have a stress fracture. I have a Bone Scan scheduled next week which will tell me definitively one way or another. In essence though, it really doesn’t matter, because either way, I probably need 6-8 weeks off from running to let my legs properly heal. In the 3 weeks since I’ve run, I could tell my legs have gotten somewhat better as it is no longer excruciatingly painful to walk down stairs.

My lack of running someone accounts for my lack of blog postings. However, I do have a couple of things to write about. One is about my trip to New Orleans for which I’ve already posted several pictures and this post which I would like to dedicate to my friend Jack Lhasa.

Jack is going to be doing something I’ve only dreamed about doing; and that is roaming around the United States; sort of like Caine from Kung Fu. Jack [@jacklhasa] and his friend [@scarab] are going to hit the road (USA) in search of work, home and enlightenment. They are young and will probably never have this chance to experience this country as traveling writers. They will also be looking for writing work along the way if you can utilize them. Did I mention these two are highly entertaining?

I ask that you reblog this and even contribute to their travels. Any amount is better than none. You can at least email them encouragement if you do not have the money or would like to offer a place to stay for a night or two.

Thanks!

Donations made through: [PayPal]
email address is: jackstravelfund at Yahoo dot com
blog: [Loki Listens] & [the entropy report]

My Alligator Head

2008-03-22T01:10:00.001-04:00

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Alligators in New Orleans Swamp

2008-03-22T00:35:00.001-04:00

These are the alligators I saw while on the Swamp Tour in New Orleans

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2008-03-18T01:41:00.001-04:00

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At the Dragons Den

2008-03-18T01:37:00.001-04:00

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Friendly Alligator

2008-03-16T11:38:00.001-04:00

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Driving Swamp Boat

2008-03-16T10:55:00.001-04:00

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On Bourbon Street

2008-03-15T01:08:00.001-04:00

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BBQ Sauce Courtesy of DaphneA

2008-03-10T21:45:00.001-04:00

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Cake - it makes my mouth happy.

2008-03-10T16:02:00.001-04:00

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Fluffernutter

2008-03-09T01:51:00.001-05:00

So yummy and delicious!

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NY Knicks at Madison Square Garden

2008-03-07T19:56:00.001-05:00

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Caumsett Park 50K

2008-03-04T19:38:00.006-05:00

It is hard to write a lot about a race that is over a loop course. The Camsuett Park 50K was held in a State Park over a 2.6 mile loop. It is the same thing over and over again, so it is not like you have changing scenery to describe. I really don’t mind a loop course though. I find that I get a meditative pleasure out of it. The key to running a loop course is to see how evenly you can do each loop and for the most part this is what I accomplished. In general, you are running with two types of runners. The first kinds are those runners who are faster and wind up looping you; and the second kind, those who are slower, which you loop. Obviously, I tried to loop as many runners as I could and limit the number of runners (and number of times) the faster runners were able to pass me.

I was looking forward to this race all week long. It was going to be the first real test of my shins and real distance racing. I didn’t know how they would react and whether or not the pain would build up and force me to drop out. Fortunately, the pain was never that bad, although I could tell that whatever is bothering my shins was greatly limiting my speed. I was able to keep a nice steady pace, but I was concerned with my inability to generate any real speed. This really is only a concern, because I want to run a Boston Marathon Qualifier at the upcoming New Jersey Marathon. I felt that with the number of 20+ milers I’ve done so far this year that I should have been able to maintain a faster pace. I really don’t understand why I have such a lack of speed and this is something I am going to have to discuss with my coach. Perhaps with my shins, it is just not possible for me to run fast at this point.

As with any long distance race, I was riding an emotional roller coaster throughout it. There were times that I seriously considered dropping out, when I was wondering why I was bothering to place this punishment on my body. The there would be times I felt good and wanted to keep on going. I am smart enough to know now that a lot of these feelings have to do with the timing of my nutrition. I mostly found that during the first half of the loop I was pretty miserable and wanted to quit, but by the time I got to the second half, the food I had taken in at the aid station/lap counting location would start to kick in and I would feel better. Ultimately though, what I think got me through this race was the announcement I made to my friends on Twitter that I was going to run a 50K this weekend. I didn’t feel like going back later on and telling anyone that I had quit the race because I didn’t feel like going on.

I did have a couple of low points. The biggest one was as I was just finishing up my 7th of 12 total loops. I was developing some nasty blisters on my right foot and I knew I needed to take care of them. I stopped at the aid station, grabbed some Vaseline and lathered it on my toes with the blisters. It helped somewhat and I was able to proceed without being in too much pain. The delay cost me 3 minutes which I came to rue later on as it caused me to miss breaking 5 hours on the clock. I came in at 5:01:40 and in addition got passed within the last few feet by another runner as we sprinted to the finish, but more on that later. If only I was man enough to deal with a little more pain, I would have broken 5 hours and moved up a couple of places in the standings.

I kept myself fueled throughout the race by drinking from a bottle of HEED that I prepared at home. I am really glad I took that I didn’t rely completely on the food provided by the race. The food at the race was mostly PB&J sandwiches, or which I did eat several, cookies, M&M’s and cola. I alternated my fueling with the HEED and PB&J and cola. It worked well for me and I was never really hungry or low on energy. During the entire course of the race, I was alternating between being too hot and too cold. There were times that the wind was behind you with the bright sun shining down upon you and I wished I didn’t have my running jacket on. Inevitably though, I would come around a last turn that led into the aid station which had a strong cold headwind blowing right through you. At those times I was glad to have my jacket. All I could do was marvel at those runners who ran in short sleeves, singlet’s and shorts. I was dressed for harsh winter conditions. Perhaps I should have dressed a little lighter, so I would have been encouraged to speed up to generate body heat.

Once I got past the 7th loop I knew I was more than half way home. At this point I thought I had to do 13 laps, so I was saying to myself, just keep steady and keep running. I guess the high point of the race came around the 10/11th lap when I finally realized that we only had to do 12 laps. I found this out when I was at the aid station and I asked the race director how many total loops we had to do. He told me 12 and I replied “That’s all”. He thought I was a little crazy so I explained to him that I thought we were doing 13. It was like being given a little present. My pace was starting to slow down from the mid 9 min/mile to somewhere in the 10’s. I was happy to know that the race would soon be over with.

Once I got into double digit laps I knew I has the race complete. I passed the marathon point at about 4 hours into the race so I knew I had an excellent chance of breaking 5 hours. I wasn’t really paying attention to my watch; otherwise I would have pushed it a little harder on my last lap. It was this last lap that annoyed me as someone passed me within 200 yards to the finish line. I let him take the lead for a little while and then decided to make a move to try to retake him. I held him off until about 30 yards in front of the finish where he caught me and beat me by 3 seconds. I should have waited a little while longer to make my move so as to have the surprise and more importantly, I shouldn’t have stopped to fix that blister, since that is really where I lost the time. In the end, it really didn’t matter though as that extra place had no impact on whether or not I won an age group award. It was though a great sprint to the finish and we both looked at each other and laughed and thanked each other for the strong finish at the end.

I felt pretty good after the race and took my time getting ready to leave. I drank some Recoverite to refuel and had a little bit of the post race food. I really couldn’t tolerate anything solid in my stomach at that point, so I was glad to have my recovery drink. Later on when I got out of my car from driving home, my shins were completely shot. It was agony walking to the front door of my house from my car. It made me a little nervous, because I was wondering if I just crippled myself. However, a few ibuprofen fixed me up and I was able to move relatively well after that. To further soothe my legs and shins I took an ice bath. That always a brisk and semi-torturous experience depending on how hot you are after a race. As it was winter time, this bath felt a little more frigid than when I race hard in the summer. I also knew that one of the reasons why my shins hurt so badly was running on worn out sneakers; well at least the right shoe. I wear them out unevenly. Here is a picture of my quite dead right show.

I did see my podiatrist the next day to get the blisters on my feet taken care of and to ask him about my shins. He gave me a bit of cortisone in each shin and fitted me with some special orthotics that he invented and is looking to bring to market. He is using me as a case study to see how they work. I need to wait 72 hours before I run again (after the cortisone shots), but I can’t wait to see how I feel in them. Hopefully, I will feel a lot better. I’ll also be starting on a new pair of sneakers as the shoes I wore for the 50K were very sadly worn out. There was no way I should have been running in them. Here is a picture of one of the shoes that shows how worn out it is.

Anyway, I hope I recover quickly. My next ultra race is the Queens 60 Kilo (37.2 miles) on March 29. It’s another loop course and I am looking forward to it. Hopefully, I’ll get to do it with a couple of friends. It’s always good to have company of these long runs.

2008-03-02T17:14:00.001-05:00

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ice bath

2008-03-02T17:10:00.001-05:00

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Ice Bath

2008-03-02T17:08:00.001-05:00

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ice bath

2008-03-02T17:05:00.001-05:00

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Sushi Deluxe and a Sapporo

2008-02-29T19:55:00.001-05:00

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Three Borough Tour

2008-02-26T22:10:00.000-05:00

Sunday (2/24) I went on another running journey with my friend Larry through New York City. We started out with a partial lap of Prospect Park, exiting through Grand Army Plaza and then down to Lafayette Street where we picked up the NYC Marathon course. The roads were a bit icy, but not too bad, although on occasion my foot would hit the occasional icy puddle and get cold and soggy. The course was nothing new at this point and we slowly and steadily made our way through Fort Greene into Williamsburg.

Once in Williamsburg, we stopped for a moment at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration . It’s supposedly the most beautiful cathedral in Brooklyn. Either way it made for a nice picture so I stopped and snapped a photo. We then ran into McCarren Park for a quick stop at the comfort station. Normally at this point we would then head for the Williamsburg Bridge, but today we decided to go for the 59th Street (Queensborough) Bridge.

To get to the 59th Street Bridge, we picked up the NYC Marathon course again and headed towards the Kosciuszko Bridge for our trip into Queens. The Kosciuszko Bridge is the half way point of the NYC Marathon and in my opinion one of the more difficult parts of the course. The view from the bridge is spectacular though. We were fortunate to come across someone walking over the bridge at the same time we were crossing it and asked this person to take a picture of us. Here we are on the bridge with the picture looking southwest towards midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building. The Newton Creek runs below the bridge and separate Brooklyn from Queens at this point. I also took a picture of the skyline alone so you can get a better idea of the view from here.

Once over the Kosciuszko, we ran through Long Island City towards the 59th Street Bridge. Larry and I talked about a future run in which we would skip the 59th Street and head to the Tri-Borough Bridge instead. In the meantime though, we kept running and made a pit stop at corner bodega about a half mile from the bridge. The pit stop was just in time as I was getting a bit hungry and I unfortunately forgot to bring some Hammer Gel with me, so I bought a Snickers bar and a Gatorade to refuel. It wasn’t what I preferred to eat, but it will do in a pinch. Honestly though when it comes to ultra running, you need to train your stomach to take on a variety of foods which includes something solid; not just gels.

After eating and drinking we made our way onto the 59th Street Bridge. This was undoubtedly the least pleasant part of our run. Only the north side of the bridge was open for running, which meant that you didn’t get the nice views of Manhattan. Plus this side was in the shade and also very icy, in addition to being very cold, windy, noisy and had freezing water dripping down on us from the upper roadway. I would have liked to have gotten several pictures from the bridge, but it was pretty miserable on it and I really didn’t feel like stopping. The only picture I took was looking north from the bridge, on the east side of Roosevelt Island. The most distinguishing landmark of this picture is the smoke stacks which were featured in the movie Conspiracy Theory starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts.

Once we made our slow miserable way off of the bridge, we headed south on First Avenue until we could make our way onto the East River Greenway. The East River was flat as glass and the path offered great views of Queens, Brooklyn, and the Manhattan skyline and was just in general a very pleasant place to run. As we made our way south, we ran into another ultra runner that Larry knew, so we stopped to chat for a while. This gave me an opportunity to take one last picture during the run. What you see here is a view of the east river looking north towards the 59th Street Bridge from somewhere around the 30’s (streets between 30-39th Street).

Once we got going again, we decided it would be non-stop until we made it back home. We ran along the East River path under the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges and made our way onto the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. We once again did a nice tempo run over the bridge into Brooklyn and made our way back up Flatbush Avenue, through Grand Army Plaza and back into Prospect Park to complete the loop we started earlier that morning. As we approached our normal exit/entrance to the park Larry asked me if I wanted to go for the extra distance and run down the hill to the Ocean Parkway exit to tack on a couple of extra miles. We were approaching 22 miles at this point and I could feel my pace slowing down a bit so I decided that I had enough for the day and said that we should just call it a day. I also figured that I should perhaps taper a little bit as only a week from now I will be doing the Camseutt 50K out on Long Island. Larry gave me no argument, so we exited the park at the Bartel Pritchard entrance and made our way to the local bagel store for some post workout bagels.

I was a bit tired after this run. I could feel it in my muscles. I attribute that mostly to having taken the past few days off running due to skiing and avoiding running due to shin pain. I hate how it feels like I lose fitness so fast. But maybe I am being just too hard on myself and this new course was a little tougher than I’ve been used to. Anyway, I knew I needed to refuel, so I make a delicious shake consisting of Soy Milk, Chocolate Syrup, 2 Scoops of Recoverite and some Malted Mix. I drank that along with eating Peanut Butter and Jelly on a Multi-Grain bagel. It was a lovely and quick and easy meal. I was satisfied with how my shin felt during the run, although I will admit it was a bit painful the next day. I am really going to need to learn how to ignore this pain so that I don’t even recognize it anymore.

At the Dentist Office

2008-02-26T14:37:00.001-05:00

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Enjoying @gregbarnett's Zinfandel. Delicious!

2008-02-24T19:51:00.001-05:00

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Sledding in Prospect Park

2008-02-23T17:17:00.001-05:00

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Snowmen

2008-02-23T16:42:00.001-05:00

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Cry Uncle

2008-02-22T14:18:00.000-05:00

So I finally cried uncle last night and gave up a run. I only made it around the corner of my block when I decided that my 9 mile run just wasn’t going to happen. It felt like I was running on stumps instead of legs. All I could manage was an awkward trot and a very painful one at that. If it was just pain in my legs that I felt I think I would have been ok, however, my form was very poor and resembled nothing like running. I finally had to decide that discretion was the better part of valor and turn back home.

Once inside I sulked on my couch for a good half hour. I sat there fully dressed in my winter gear thinking that perhaps if I gave the ibuprofen I took just before I went out a longer chance to take effect, that perhaps I may be able to salvage the run after all. I knew in my heart though that I needed to be off my legs. I think part of the problem was taking several days off from running when I went on my ski trip Sunday – Wednesday. I think my legs start to heal, but that when I just pick up running again my legs rebel and say what the fuck are you doing? We are trying to heal over here. Damn, I really think that amputation is a viable alternative at times. I haven’t read anything else that seems to offer a quick fix for shin splints.

So as I was saying, I sulked on the couch for about an hour, while my wife insisted I go get on my bike in the basement. I’ve been feeling very depressed lately, which is no doubt due in part to my lack of exercise for the past 4 days. I start to feel really bad if I don’t get a regular fix in. Missing workouts can also put me in a downward spiral as the longer I go without exercise, the worse I feel and the less I feel like exercising.

But anyway, I finally managed to get myself into the basement and onto my bike. I was pleasantly surprised to see my legs reacting well to the work and I easily and quickly ticked off two hours while spinning. I entertained myself while riding by chatting with friends on Twitter and on IM and watching movies on TV. I felt good and actually enjoyed the sweaty workout.

I don’t know when I will try to run again. It was both legs that were painful and I think they are crying for rest. Either that or amputation. I’ll try for another run this weekend.

Brooklyn Water Tour

2008-02-21T23:42:00.000-05:00

I switched my long run from Sunday to today since I am leaving for a ski trip tomorrow morning and won’t have a chance to run long. I think this is just as well as today was beautiful and the forecast for tomorrow is not as good. I decided to run along the Brooklyn water front, which is a run that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

I headed out from my house near Prospect Park and headed into Sunset Park. I ran along 2nd Avenue, which is still paved with Cobblestones and has trolly/train tracks running through it. I am fascinated by this area. I can imagine it 50 years ago and around the time of WWII. I could just feel all the activity happening in all these waterfront warehouses and all the train activity. This area used to be so vibrant with commerce and you can feel the ghosts of the past with every step through the neighborhood. Here is a picture of me looking into an alleyway of a warehouse that used to accept freight cars for the loading and unloading of cargo. There are many buildings like this along the way.

From Sunset Park, I continued up 2nd Avenue and ran into Bay Ridge. I went past Owls Head Park and ran onto the 69th Street Pier. The pier offers fantastic views of downtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. For me this view will be forever scarred. I can’t get used to seeing it without the Twin Towers. But life moves on and so did I. From there it was along the bike/running path that runs right along the water and underneath the Verrazano Bridge. I stopped at the bridge to admire the view and take a couple of pictures. The biggest shame about the VZ is that they built it without a pedestrian lane. Running over that bridge is great and something I only get to do when I am in the NYC Marathon.

Once past the VZ Bridge you can see the landmarks of Coney Island coming into view. My route was also taking me past the neighborhood where I grew up. I was able to see the building where I grew up across of the Belt Parkway. Many years ago the area I was running past was an illegal dump. I’ll never forget exploring in this dump one day when I came across a pair of sawed off horse legs surrounded by a bunch of losing Off Track Betting tickets. The apparent meaning was very clear to me, but that was almost 30 years ago and there was no sign of that now. I just kept going and made my way into Coney Island.

My first stop into Coney Island was on the bridge that crosses the Coney Island Creek. Years ago this bridge was a drawbridge and unfortunately, I never got to see it being used in my lifetime. When I was a kid you could still see fish swimming in the water, but I don’t think anything has lives in it for 3 decades.

From there is was into the heart of Coney Island and onto the boardwalk. I ran out over the pier and took a picture of the soon to be obliterated Astroland Amusement Park. I also got a picture of me underneath Brooklyn’s Eiffel Tower, the famous Coney Island Parachute Jump. I never got to ride on this, but I understand my parents did before I was born. I then ran the rest of the boardwalk into Brighton Beach and then took to the roads to run into Manhattan Beach. It had been years since I was in Manhattan Beach, having not gone there since and old friend moved out in his own. I ran to the end of Manhattan Beach, which is essentially the end of Coney Island and then headed back towards Sheepshead Bay. I ran over the small footbridge that crosses from Manhattan Beach into Sheepshead Bay, took a left and made my way back towards Ocean Parkway.

On my way to Ocean Parkway, I encountered what I believe to be the largest NYC rat I’ve ever seen. Fortunately it was quite dead, having been struck down by a car. At least I think this thing is a rat. You can judge for yourself with this picture.

Once I got back to ocean parkway I had run about 15 miles. I knew the trip back to Prospect Park would be another 5, plus one additional loop of the park would get me to my goal of 24 miles. It was getting late in the day, so I just put my camera away and ran a nice tempo pace all the way back to the park. I covered an uneventful lap in Prospect Park and exited it just as my wife was calling to inquire as to my whereabouts. Fortunately, I was able to tell her I was just a block away and would be home within a minute or two.

It was a very successful run and capped off a 7 day period that saw me running over 61 miles.

Here are some other pics from the day:

Running from Manhattan Beach into Sheepshead Bay

Shoot the Freak on the Coney Island Boardwalk

Extreme Snow Tubing

2008-02-20T19:39:00.001-05:00

Decided to go Snow Tubing today instead of Skiing. It was a great time!

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Extreme Snow Tubing

2008-02-20T19:33:00.001-05:00

Decided to go Snow Tubing today instead of Skiing. Great fun!

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Beer hot tub snow night and 25 degrees. Nice!

2008-02-19T20:49:00.001-05:00

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Juicy Prime Rib

2008-02-19T19:04:00.001-05:00

Just the ticket after a full day skiing!

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Skiing

2008-02-19T15:05:00.001-05:00

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24 Miles by Verrazano Bridge

2008-02-16T17:18:00.001-05:00

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7 Brutal Miles

2008-02-15T17:40:00.000-05:00

I had high hopes for my run on Thursday night and I went out looking forward to it, albeit a little tired. I am happy that my mileage is starting to increase as it starting to make me feel more comfortable that I am on the way towards putting in the distances required to run 100 miles in a single day. As usual, the one major wild card in all of this is the health of my shin or lack thereof. It is becoming increasingly painful as the days go on. It just gets fractionally worse as each day goes by, so unless there is a major increase in pain, the discomfit has to this point been manageable. Denying that I am in pain or that its affecting my running has been working. I just need to concentrate on the denial a little more each day. Kind of how I am tacking on just a little more mileage each week.

At first I thought my run would be ok. I wasn’t running with any sort of pace, but I was at least making decent progress. It is annoying to have runners passing me who in the past would have never had a chance to pass me while I was on a run, but I console myself with the fact that I am going for the distance and not the speed. I couldn’t keep up with the small group that past me, but my heart rate was ok and I was averaging around a 10 minute mile. I was ok with that. I got around the first loop in around 36 minutes, which was acceptable considering the easy pace I went out at.

My second loop was more of an adventure. I started to fatigue when I got down to the bottom of the hill and I caught myself wanting to stop and walk several times. I refused to let myself do that. I just kept saying how just one more step wouldn’t kill me and I kept on going like that for a while. I just put my head down and focused on the white lines painted in the road. This got me around ¾ around the park before I found myself forced to walk. My legs simply had no more juice in them. I would walk for a while and then try to run again, but it was painful. When I got back to the top of the park, I had 7 miles and decided to bail out on the last 2. Anymore than 7 would have just been very ugly, so I dejectedly walked out of the park and tried to do a slow trot home. The ending to the workout was upsetting, but not too surprising. There will be better days.

9 Glorious Snow Filled Miles

2008-02-15T07:11:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night was the first snowfall of the year and I went running in it. It was my regularly scheduled Tuesday night run with my friend Larry and I don’t think either of us would have missed it for anything. It’s so much fun to be out at night during a snowstorm. The world looks different, is all quiet and has a dreamlike quality to it. I will admit that running in several inches of snow is a lot tougher that running on dry pavement, but the extra work only added to the enjoyment of the run.

I wasn’t sure whether I should do this run as my shin is really starting to bother me. The snow outside, erased any doubts though as I really wanted to run in it. The snow lightened the impacts of my footfalls and was actually a help in that respect – it made the running easier on my shin. We practically had the park to ourselves and put in a strong 9 mile effort. The ground was slippery at times and the snow slowed our pace considerably. I remarked that when we completely two loops of the park, we were seriously behind schedule. It didn’t matter though, as it was just so nice to be out in the snow.

I would say that running in the snow was the best part of my day. However, after I came in from my run, I spent some time with my son wrestling in the living room. He has been on a huge wrestling kick lately and begs me to wrestle him every time I am around. Later, when I was tucking him into bed, I asked him about school, what he did and what was his favorite part of the day. This was the fateful question. He replied that his favorite part of the day was wrestling me just a few minutes earlier. This sent a stab through my heart as I suddenly felt bad about spending the time out of the house running. But it also melted my heart to hear that the best part of my son’s day was wrestling with his dad. My son just knows the right things to say to tear me apart emotionally. I just love that boy so much. I just wish I didn’t feel as though I am sacrificing time away from my children when I go out to do my training. It feels as though I could never do too much for them and what I do is never enough. I suppose that is part of being a parent. God I love my children.

2008-02-12T21:06:00.001-05:00

9 Glorious Snow Filled Miles

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Three Bridges Run – Brooklyn Side

2008-02-11T20:44:00.001-05:00

On Sunday I ran with my friend Larry over the 3 bridges that span the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. I say Brooklyn side, since this time we did the bridges in reverse and headed through Brooklyn to the Williamsburg Bridge for our first crossing into Manhattan. We got started around 9:30am and begin the day with a loop through Prospect Park, where we exited onto Grand Army Plaza. From there it was down Flatbush Avenue and onto the NYC Marathon Route through Fort Greene and into Williamsburg. It was supposed to be a cold and windy day, but in actuality it wasn’t so bad. At times it felt positively warm outside, especially when we were running in the sun.

When we got into Fort Greene we stopped at McCarren Park for a bathroom/water break. When we came out, the sun had suddenly disappeared and it felt like it dropped 20 degrees. We were only at about 7.5 miles at this point and the rapidly changing weather is what we had to contend with for the remainder of the day. It really wasn’t a problem as long as we kept moving. Otherwise, I tended to get a bit cold when standing still.

Once we left McCarren Park, we headed down Bedford Avenue for the Williamsburg Bridge. It was here that I decided to take my first picture of the day. I had brought my camera and asked Larry to take a picture. I am about ½ mile onto the bridge, just before the start of the bridges superstructure/suspension. If you can read the sign you can see that this bridge was completed in 1906. It is hard to believe they built these great structures so long ago. I wanted to take some more pictures once on the center of the Bridge, but felt it was poor form to ask Larry to keep stopping so I could indulge in my picture snapping habit.

It was a bit windy running over the Williamsburg Bridge, but the views were fantastic. The run over it took us to the Lower East Side. From there we headed back towards East River. We had a good view of the bridge from there, so we took another picture. Here I am trying to create an action shot. I hope it looks like I am running, though apparently I am heading right for a fence. After this picture, we headed down the east river towards the South Street Seaport and over to the Brooklyn Bridge. We stopped at a street vendor for some refreshments, who asked if we would like a hotdog. I have nothing against dirty water dogs, but not in the middle of a long run. We both got a Gatorade and then sat down on a bench by the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridges pedestrian path. I thought the Woolworth building looked particularly nice today so I asked Larry to take another picture. The building came out great, but I think I look like a dork.

We then did our run over the Brooklyn Bridge. The views from here are fantastic, but running the BB is a pain in the ass. It’s just too crowded. Once over the bridge we make a left onto Tillary Street and headed back into Manhattan by way of the south side of the Manhattan Bridge. It made for some excellent hill training. As we ran over it into Chinatown and we wondered if we would see any of the costumes for the Chinese New Year Parade. There was a lot of traffic, but other than that we didn’t see any revelers. We didn’t run for long in Chinatown and just crossed Canal Street for a nice tempo run back into Brooklyn on the North side of the bridge.

Once in Brooklyn, we headed back up Flatbush Avenue to Prospect Park. Larry and I were both wearing Polar 625x heart rate monitors which also gives you your distance ran. For some reason my monitor was reading about 1.5 miles greater in distance than Larry’s by this point. When we got back to our starting point in the park, I had just turned 20 miles, while Larry was at 18.2 miles. Larry wanted to turn 20 on his Polar 625x, so I accompanied him for a bonus 1.8 miles. For the record I think my watch was more accurate, so I am going to stick with my total distance on the day being just about 22 miles.

Once home, I ate, showered, ate again and then shocked my shin with my TENS Unit. After that I vegged out on my couch and iced my shins for about 40 minutes. My shin felt ok, not great, but not excruciatingly painful. Denial so far is still working out. For some reason, I was feeling a little tired by this point. I was a little concerned with this since 22 miles will have to feel as though it was nothing more than a warm-up at some point. However, I am not feeling tired or sore this morning so perhaps I was just running a little low on energy.

My shin was a bit painful today, but nothing too bad. I am still not limping when I walk. Developing a limp will be my litmus test to know I need to back off. In the meantime I am going to relish in my gradually increasing mileage. This week I am scheduled for two 9 milers, a 6 mile and a 24 miler. I am looking forward to them.

On the Spin Bike at the Gym

2008-02-11T14:46:00.001-05:00

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Applying the Denial

2008-02-08T17:17:00.000-05:00

Well, I am still running on my leg with the painful shin. I just apply some Denial and I am good to go. Denial is a great product, you can get it right off the shelf and all it really costs is some breakthrough pain in the morning. So far the costs have been manageable, although it does seem to get a little bit more expensive every day. But as long as it is just a little bit at a time I think I can manage it. I attribute these rising cost to inflation (aka inflammation), but just so long as the price rises slowly I think I will be able to keep up with it.

I am really not sure what I will do if the cost suddenly spikes and I find myself no longer able to afford it. My whole identity as an athlete right now is wrapped up in doing this 100 mile race. I want it very bad and I am willing to put up with a lot. I just don’t see myself doing anything else right now. Well, check that, I can, but I don’t want to do them. Maybe I can spend some time on the Elliptical Trainer at the gym as an alternative to running once a week. At least the motion is similar to running.

Last night when I came home from work, I was feeling very tired, slightly nauseous and the Denial was wearing off a bit so my shin was feeling a bit painful. I really wanted to just go to sleep and call it a day, but doing that is not how a 100 mile runner is made. So I lathered on some more Denial, took 3 ibuprofen (works great in combination with Denial) and went out for an 8 mile run. I have to say that once I got going, I started to feel much better. I was very pleasantly surprised. Sometimes when I am tired I get a mile from home, run out of juice and wind up walking. Not last night though. My legs carried me very well and I had a spiffy 8.1 mile run in 1:11:16; only 6 seconds slower than my run on Tuesday night. Not bad considering how I felt when I started and the fact that I once again overdressed.

So to answer my Twitter friend Darkgracie’s question “you are crazy! your shin will just hurt worse... is living in denial working for you? *wink*”, - yes, denial is working for me so far. People live in denial all of the time and survive. Denial can take you a long way. I just need my denial to take me 100 miles.

At Tao Restaurant Eating Lunch

2008-02-07T12:39:00.001-05:00

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Applause at New York City Center

2008-02-06T22:25:00.001-05:00

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Two Days Off

2008-02-06T10:37:00.000-05:00

Ah well, the unexpected has happened and it appears that I will be taking two days off from training this week. I hate when that happens, which is why I never plan for a day off or let myself slack very often. You never know when something beyond your control is going to come up and force you to miss a workout. When this happens, I begin to start feeling all out of shape. I need to keep up with a regular dose of exercise to feel normal.

My first day off was Monday. I had intended to spin on my trainer after I got home from work, but I was feeling a little lazy so I said that I’d do it after dinner. Well, that was the end of that. I sat on my couch after eating and promptly started to fall asleep. I just decided to screw the workout and went up to bed at 8pm. I guess I needed the sleep, because I slept through the night without any sleep aids until 7am the next morning. In fact, I wanted to sleep longer, work was my unfortunate reality.

Tuesday night though I got back into the swing of things. I had my regularly scheduled run with my friend Larry and we headed out to Prospect Park for a couple of loops (we ran 8.1 miles in 1:11:11). At first I was a little worried about doing this run. On Monday morning, my shin was hurting pretty badly and by Tuesday night it was only somewhat better. So far my method of ignoring the pain and hoping it will go away has been working, but if the pain starts to get any worse, I fear that I may have to revisit that strategy for dealing with the injury.

So anyway, it was with a bit of trepidation that I went out and hoped that the pain wouldn’t get any worse. I was feeling ok during the first few miles and I began to relax. The pain was there, but nothing too bad. At just before midway into the run, I remembered about a website on Chi Running that my Twitter friend Gracie told me about. It espouses the idea of running with a more forefoot stride. I changed myself to a forefoot stride a couple of years ago and that had been very successful until relatively recently. In fact it worked until I came back from an injury to my left hipflexor back in September of last year. Thinking about Chi Running, I realized for the first time that perhaps my stride had changed a bit since I came back from that injury. That could explain why my left shin has been such a problem lately. So I re-concentrated on landing forefoot, especially with my left foot and noticed an improvement in the way my left shin felt. It wasn’t much but it was progress.

I guess the real test came this morning when I first started to walk around. I was expecting the type of pain that I had on Monday morning, but it just wasn’t there. The shin was painful alright, but it felt different somehow. It was the type of pain I could definitely deal with, even if it is always present. I’ll just need to pay a little more attention to my stride, until really landing forefoot once again becomes natural.

So this leads me up to today (Wednesday), in which I need to take another day off from training. I have a school event to go to for one of my children that will take me into late this evening, so I have no chance of an evening workout. I suppose I could have made sure I got to bed real early last night, so I could have done a workout this morning, but I just didn’t feel like making myself go to sleep. In the past, I would take an Ambien to force myself to go to sleep, but that doesn’t really work for me anymore. My body has learned how to fight it off and stay awake right through it. So basically I am annoyed at myself right now for getting myself into a situation where I miss two workouts in a week.

Maybe that is a good thing though. Every time this happens to me, which isn’t too often, I get hard on myself and tell myself that it is time to focus and recommit. Every now and then I need to reset myself and get my act in gear. I have a big race coming up and I can’t be fooling around with it. What I put in today will show up tomorrow. It is all cumulative. If I don’t put it in now, I won’t have it to draw upon when I need it most.

NYRR Gridiron Classic

2008-02-05T09:52:00.000-05:00

Superbowl Sunday, 2/3/08

What a glorious day to be alive. It was cool, but not cold, clear and sunny with just the hint of a breeze. The perfect day for another running of the NYRR Gridiron Classic; an easy 4 mile run through Central Park. I had planned to once again run to the start, but I woke up too late to do so. But I wasn’t to worry, as I was able to get a lift to the start from my friend Chris (he was also doing the race) who lives next to me and was good enough to give me a ride. I am glad that this is the way it worked out. Instead of running to the start while it was still dark, I got to run home from the race on a beautiful sunny day.

Chris dropped me off near the NYRR club and then went to park the car. I went into the club to register for the race and then ran into another friend from my triathlon club on the way out. We ran down to the start together and headed to the Longest Football Throw Competition. This race and competition is held every year on Superbowl Sunday. I wasn’t going to participate in the throw, as I don’t have the best of arms, but after watching a bunch of pathetic throws from other guys, I decided to go for it as mine would be no more pathetic than the others.

I made my sad attempt at trying to match the longest throw and then hung around to watch others throw the ball. After a while the competition was over and I headed for the start in hopes of finding and running with my friend Chris. This was impossible as there were just under 5000 other people at this race. I stood up on a road divider to see if I could find him among the masses, but it was to no avail. I was however able to get this cool picture of myself while waiting for the start. As you can see from the picture I lined up pretty far away from the starting line. Usually I line up closer to the 6 minute mile flag, but I knew I wasn’t going to run fast, especially since I still had to run another 10 miles after the race.

I took it real easy while running. It’s nice to do a race without putting pressure on myself to do well. You would think that not trying to run your fastest in a race kind of defeats its purpose, however I was really doing the race just as a way to give myself an excuse to run in the city and to build up the 9 races I need to qualify for the 2009 NYC Marathon. Besides, its run to be running amongst 5000 other people. Since I wasn’t in a rush to get anywhere during the race, I even stopped in the middle of it to use a port-o-san. I still ran that mile in under 9 minutes. The race was only 4 miles and before I knew it, the race was over. I felt like I was barely warming up when I crossed the finish line. The highlight of the race was running behind a really cute girl with a spectacularly hot ass. She made the unfortunate wardrobe choice of wearing a Patriots jersey and a Red Sox cap, but truth be told I didn’t really mind such was the view.

Anyway, after crossing the finish line, I made my way through the finishing crowd, grabbed a cup of water and then made my way out of the park by Columbus Circle. I never run past this area unless I am running late to or from and appointment. On this day I decided to stop and chill out for a while (literally), checked my email and snapped a picture. From there it was over to the West Side Highway for a run down to the Brooklyn Bridge by way of the West Side Greenway.

The view of the Hudson River and New Jersey from the greenway was spectacular. It was so calm and clear and the river was flat as a pancake. On a day like this it seemed as though so many more people should be outside. I felt as though I had the path to myself. I stopped a few times to take pictures along the way. I love to memorialize my runs, especially when I am running in places I haven’t run before. I’ve ridden my bike up and down the Westside dozens of times, but I’ve never run it. It path is flat as can be and a nice and easy run.

I took a couple of pictures along the way down to Chambers Street, where I made my left turn to head to the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge was a lot more crowded and offers the most amazing views of the city. I’ve run/rode over this bridge so many times and I never get tired of the view. Words can’t describe it and pictures just can’t capture it. You need and IMAX camera to take it all in on film. By the time I got off the bridge I was starting to feel a little hungry. I thought of stopping into Juniors to get some cheesecake, but kept going. I wasn’t that far from home at this point and soon made it back to Prospect Park and then a short mile to home.

Once home I ate, showered and relaxed. I wanted to be rested for the Superbowl party I was going to later on in the day. I brought to the party a batch Guinness (beer) Chocolate Cupcakes that my wife helped me bake. Yummy. Watching the Giants defeat the Patriots was the perfect way to end a fantastic day.

2008-02-03T11:17:00.001-05:00

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At the Start of Gridiron Classic

2008-02-03T09:10:00.001-05:00

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At the NYRR Gridiron Classic

2008-02-03T08:44:00.001-05:00

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Ah Guinness So Refreshing

2008-02-01T17:51:00.001-05:00

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Masochism

2008-02-01T02:41:00.000-05:00

I am a masochist. I guess though that anyone who is into endurance sports is part masochist though. How else to explain why people push themselves through such great lengths to complete a grueling endurance event. The pain that they receive brings to them a certain level of pleasure, especially when the complete the event that they set out to do. That is a good pain.

These days though, I am experiencing a bad pain. The pain in my shins is really becoming a problem. It hasn’t stopped me from running yet, but the pain is almost always present. I am trying hard to convince myself that what I am feeling is pleasure. I need to rewire my mind so that I view this discomfit (understatement) that I am feeling in my shins should be relished the same way as I relish the feel of muscle soreness after a good hard workout. Only difference is that this soreness never goes away. I get to experience the pleasure of it all the time. I guess I am taking my masochism to a new level. I just don’t give a fuck this time around. I’ve let shin pain sideline me for several races in my life and I am fed up with it. I will command my body to do what my mind wants it to do regardless of the way my body feels about it. I will keep taking another running step until the point comes that my leg collapses because it is no longer able to bear my weight. Maybe then I’ll go for the amputation and run with one of those new fangled artificial running legs.

Pain is a very interesting thing. Some people are addicted to it like a drug and actively seek it out. For me, part of it is how good it feels once the pain is gone. The sense of relief and release stimulates endorphins in me and makes me feel good. I enjoy knowing that I got myself to the point of such hurt. What is pain anyway but the remembrance of it? Once it is gone, it’s over. It’s like it never really happened.

I’ve wondered what some people would do if presented with the opportunity to become filthy rich if they endured the worst horrific and agonizing pain they could imagine for 24 hours. Would they do it? Probably not, but then add into the equation that they would have no recollection of what they went through over the 24 hour period. Once the 24 hours is up, it would be like they fell asleep and just woke up with no memory of what they went through. Would it have ever really happened? Would you do it then?

Maybe I’ll do some permanent damage to myself and always have a pain in my leg. I wonder though if every time I feel the pain, I’ll look back and smile over the achievements I accomplished that caused what I am feeling now. Will it have been worth it? Right now I believe it will have been.

So anyway, getting back to the training I’ve done this week, it’s been pretty uneventful so far. Monday I did an easy one hour spin on my bike after I got home from work. I worked up a nice sweat, but didn’t push myself all that hard. Tuesday night was a good workout. I went out with my friend Larry and we did two loops of a virtually deserted Prospect Park. The park was so empty that it felt more like 2am, rather than 7pm. We talked about various shit, but especially the VT100 from the time he did it. I am amazed at how much recollection he has of the event. To help me remember it and to keep my friends informed of my progress, I plan on doing an Utterz every 10 miles or so. I should be very interesting to go back and hear how I sounded as the race progressed.

Wednesday night I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I was supposed to swim, but that is such a pain in the ass. I decided to skip the pool and spin on my bike for a while instead. My coach tells me it doesn’t matter what I do, that Wednesday s and Fridays are just recovery. I have to say that as of right now, training for a 100 mile running race has been a lot easier than training for an Ironman. But tell me to say that again when I start doing back to back 40 miles on the weekends.

Tonight I downed 3 ibuprofin and took my aching shins out for an 8 mile run. At first my shins were hurting and with every step it was as if someone was tapping the insides of my shins with a hammer. However, as the run progress, the pain from the hammer tapping diminished and I was able to resume a normal running pace. I was able to space out during the run and get myself into that runner’s zone where things just start to flow. As I slowly progress towards 8 miles, I began to get confidence that I will indeed be able to run the VT100. I have seriously doubted it from the way my shins have been feeling, but if how they feel now is the worse they will get, I will be able to handle the pain. It’s already becoming something I am accustomed to feeling all of the time, sort of like being accustomed to always have tired legs when you climb up a flight of stairs. I finished these 8 miles strong and filled with the confidence that I will have what it takes come this July. Does a mid-week run get any better than that?

2008-01-31T20:34:00.001-05:00

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Gigantic New York City Rat

2008-01-31T10:21:00.001-05:00

This guy pops up around town every so often. It's the Strike Rat. He shows up whenever there is a union going on strike.

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Cupcakes from Crumbs Bakery - Carbo Loading

2008-01-29T15:53:00.001-05:00

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Manhattan Half Marathon – 2008

2008-01-28T17:13:00.000-05:00

For today’s Manhattan Half Marathon, I decided to get to Central Park by way of running from Brooklyn. The race started at 8:30am so I needed to get an early start if I was going to make it on time. As usual, it took me forever to get ready and I made it out the door with not much time to spare. I wound up walking in and out of my house a few times before I actually got going, because I couldn’t decide how much clothes to wear. It was pretty cold and I wanted to make sure I had enough clothes since in essence I was doing a journey run; that is I was running away from my house and I would only have the things I was willing to carry with me.

As usual I headed down Flatbush Avenue. This led me past Junior’s Restaurant a veritable Brooklyn Institution. I recently sent a cheesecake from there to a friend in California who returned the favor by sending me a couple of bottles of wine that he makes himself. It promises to be a fair and equitable exchange. I had no time to fuel up on cheesecake though and I kept heading for the Manhattan Bridge.

It was an overcast day, cold and crisp and the air had the smell of snow; a perfect winter running day. I know I didn’t have time for it, but I decided to snap a picture while crossing the Manhattan Bridge. I told a friend I would send photos via my phone as I made my progress into the city. Once over the Manhattan Bridge, I made my way up the Bowery, past where the famous Punk Rock club CBGB’s used to be. I felt like stopping and taking more pictures as my journey progressed, but I realized I was not going to have enough time to make it to the race start. When I ran up 23rd Street, about 6.5 miles into my run, I decided I better take a cab if I was going to make it on time.

I cabbed it up to the NYRR’s club on 89th, got my race number and then ran back down to the race start. This gave me 7 miles of running before the race. I had a minute to snap a picture in the crowd before the race began and then put my camera phone away as the race was about to begin.

I wish I could say that I felt all warmed up and great and ran with the grace and ease of a gazelle. In actuality, my legs felt sluggish and slightly painful. I keep waiting for my legs to feel good again and for me to run with ease. It just feels like it has been so long since the last time I ran freely and easily. At one point I just felt like dropping out. I couldn’t do that though as I thought of those waiting and expecting me to cross the finish line. I wasn’t injured and I wasn’t sick, so I carried on. I relied on the many mental tricks I have to get through the race.

Pushing through the pain is such a mental game. Getting yourself to go on when you don’t feel as though you can, takes mental toughness and fortitude. Yes there can be such exquisite pleasure in pain, knowing that you got yourself to that point, but able to keep moving on. What do you do though when you think you can’t go on? How do you push yourself to keep going at that point? What happens when the mental tricks used up and you are down to your bare soul?

I never want to get to the point where I have nothing left in my bag of tricks and I give up. It would leave a bad taste it my mouth. Getting to that point would mean that I will quit. I need to load my mind with the ammunition it needs to push me through the darkest and toughest times. I am always looking at the example of others to learn how they are able to push through difficult circumstances. By reading about the experiences of others, I can draw on their examples to help me carry on. My mind is open to learning from the experiences of many a varied source; from the descriptions of racing from Steve Prefontaine, to the family that deals with tragedy or impossible circumstances to the sexual deviant who completely devotes themselves to a master or mistress. There is a never ending supply of people pushing through pain and difficulty to draw upon, that would make pushing through a simple running race look like a piece of cake. It’s like, if they can do that, I can certainly run these next few miles.

So in any event I persevered through the race. I even started to feel better as I reached miles 11 and 12 of the race (about 18/19 miles total running) and was able to increase my pace towards the end. I ran 20 miles total for the day and I was happy to finish even though I set a PW (Personal Worst – 1:57:26) for the half marathon distance. That’s ok. I am not going for speed these days, I am going for distance. Slow and steady will get me to my destination.

TwitterSwap Rules

2008-01-28T17:08:00.001-05:00

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Pancakes in the Morning

2008-01-26T09:37:00.001-05:00

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T-Bone and a Guinness at Rothman's

2008-01-25T19:37:00.001-05:00

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Walk in the Park

2008-01-25T10:16:00.000-05:00

This hasn’t been the best week of training for me and I am feeling out of sorts. Honestly, I feel like I am hardly doing anything ever since I started to train for the VT100. I am following my coaches training plan, but the schedule is light compared to what I was doing when I was training for Ironman. I think I am going to have to tell him to give me some more workouts just so I can keep my body in even balance. I am craving the workload and don’t feel right without it. To top it off, I haven’t been able to get to the gym at lunch to do strength training. I can feel my muscles atrophying and withering away. I keep bringing my workout clothes to work in the hopes that I will be able to go.

I suppose it doesn’t help that I took a day off from training this week. I decided on Wednesday that I was going to blow off my swim workout. I kind of felt like I needed a mental break. Usually when I feel like this, I call my coach who almost always tells me to go ahead and try to do something, even though I don’t feel like it. This time though he told me not to worry about it, since it was just a swim workout which is being used strictly for recovery. At that moment I was relieved and glad to be able to just go home. As it turned out however, I got a phone call at exactly 5:30pm which caused me to stay late. I would have missed my swim workout anyway. Call it providence that this workout wasn’t meant to be.

Since I took a day off I Wednesday, I was hoping for a good run Thursday morning. This was not to be. My shins were very achy and my body just didn’t feel like running. I absolutely hate when that happens. As usual I was the further distance into my run away from home when I knew I was going to have to slow down and walk. I know that sometimes this just happens. I try not to get upset over it as there is nothing I can really do. Sometimes my body just doesn’t want to run. I consoled myself with the fact that later that morning I was going to see a doctor that would give me cortisone shots in my painful shins. I looked forward to getting some relief to this nasty chronic condition and trying for another run in the evening.

The cortisone shots are painless. I took a couple of pictures of the needle being inserted into my leg for your viewing pleasure. As I left the office, I could feel the warmth of the cortisone spreading along the tissues. I looked forward to running later that evening.

I got home from work early for a change, relaxed a bit and then got dressed in my running clothes. I was eager to try out my new cortisone filled legs. While the pain wasn’t completely gone, the discomfit was greatly diminished. I ran a decent 4 miles around Prospect Park, so that combined with the mileage from this morning gave me 8 miles on the day. I didn’t feel like I ran 8 miles and I was tempted to do 8 alone in the evening, but I tempered myself and listened to my coach who told me not to push it too hard. It wasn’t just the cortisone that made this runs better, it’s just that sometimes I don’t have it in the morning, but I do later in the day. I guess it’s my body warming up and waking up as the day moved on.

Today was another light workout day as far as I am concerned. Just a one hour spin on my bike which I did in my basement while watching TV. It was nothing special and really not even worth writing about; so I won’t.

This weekend will be a real test to see how my legs are doing. I am running 6 on Saturday, but on Sunday I am doing the Manhattan Half Marathon, which I will warm up for by running to Central Park from my house in Brooklyn. This should give me around 20 miles for the day. If I am going to have any shot at the VT100, I am going to need to start banging out 20 milers like they are a walk in the park.

Cortisone Shot

2008-01-24T10:04:00.001-05:00

Mobile post sent by BrooklynBeast using Utterz. Replies. mp3

I’m Basically Lazy

2008-01-22T21:53:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that I work out as much as I can, I think of myself as a lazy person. I don’t do things I should do or maybe I just procrastinate a very long time. It has been my philosophy that if you wait long enough, the things you are supposed to do that don’t get done will eventually not matter anymore anyway. If that’s the case, why waste your time on things that don’t need a good getting done? Well, that’s not really true. Many things matter, the key is just deciding on what those things really are.

This morning I considered myself to be very lazy. I woke up around 2am with a headache, took a couple of Excedrin and then couldn’t fall back to sleep. I chatted online for a while and debated going out for a run right then and there. I even went so far as to getting dressed; two layers of tights, several winter running shirts and socks. I debated whether or not I should go out then or go back to bed. I eventually decided to be lazy and went back to sleep. I would have been much better off going out for the run.

When I went back to bed, I slept with all the slumber of a soldier catching some z’s on the battlefield. Basically, I didn’t sleep at all. I just lay in bed until 5am when I finally had enough and went outside. At least I was already dressed for the run. I went out with the intention of running 8 miles, but bumped into a friend just as I was coming onto my 7th mile. I decided to hang with him for a while, as I hadn’t seen him in quite some time and wound up doing 10 miles. That’s when I got lazy again – around my 10th mile…

As I exited the park I was coming onto 9.5 miles and I couldn’t leave it at that. I needed to round off the number at 10. However, I also needed to go to the store to pick up some soy milk and I didn’t want to finish the 10 and then have to walk back to the store. So rather than walking back there, I just bought a half gallon of milk and ran with it like a football for the last half mile, timing the ending to be right at my doorstep. It was better to carry it, than have to walk around the corner after I finished running.

So anyway after I walked in the door and refueled, the only thing in the world I wanted to do was to go back to sleep. Had I not been lazy and went at 2am, I would have been back in plenty of time to get a few more hours of sleep; sleep that would have been a lot more sound than the 3 hours I managed to get between 2-5am. I won’t make that mistake again. Next time I wake up and feel like running, I am going to go.

Full Moon Run

2008-01-21T11:24:00.000-05:00

I really couldn’t sleep Saturday night. I finally feel asleep around 12:30am after sucking on an Ambien, but I woke up again at around 3:30am. So I went downstairs and had a bowl of cereal and decided that I may as well go for a run. My moving around woke up my wife so I told her my plans of going outside for a run. She thought I was insane and didn’t want me to go outside for fear that something would happen to me. I told her to make me a better offer than a middle of the night run. She offered up our basement treadmill as a viable alternative; that was not the offer I was hoping to hear so my middle of the night outdoor run became even more appealing.

I wasn’t sure where I was going to run. I thought maybe I’d stick to the sidewalks so at least I could be seen from the streets. I ran down to Grand Army Plaza and stopped to take a photo and make an Utterz to memorialize this event. I decided from there to go into Prospect Park. I’ve never had trouble at this time of night and figured I’d be better able to see someone coming from afar. It would be more deserted, but I felt safer inside the park.

I think I enjoyed this run more than any other run so far this year. I love the feeling of being outdoors in the middle of a January winter’s night, with the wind howling, leaves rustling and strange sounds emanating from everywhere. I felt like I was walking on the moon. It doesn’t matter how slowly or fast I run when I achieve this sort of feeling. I just love being outside with the world seemingly all to myself. The only company I had for the hour and ten minutes I was outside were rustling leaves and a solitary rat.

Normally when I am outdoors at times like this, I have music pumping into my ears. Unfortunately, the battery on my Ipod Shuffle decided to die soon once I entered the park. I normally like to seal off my senses from as much of the environment as possible to complete that spaceman on the moon feeling, but with the battery dead, I entertained myself to the sounds of the world instead. It at times got a little creepy. I would suddenly hear something rustling right next to me and I would get a start that it was some nefarious person out to do me harm. You hear so many different sounds at night when the world is still; sounds that are masked during the day.

My running felt very sublime. I was tired, but awake, running, but moving slow and I felt completely at peace with the world. Doing this run on so little sleep was a big confidence booster that I will be able to make it through the night at the VT100. I think I could have run all night long, but I knew I needed to get back home and try to get some sleep before the day began. I wanted to be awake to watch the football games later on TV.

I settled on doing just 6 miles. I let my course through the park meander a bit and I exited at a place that I don’t normally exit and enter the park. Doing so was divine providence. I had a clear view down a long street with the most fantastic full moon I’ve ever seen in my life. The moon was at the extreme western edge of the horizon and the sun which was still well below the eastern horizon was shining on it with a brilliant orange glow. It was the biggest full moon disk I’ve ever seen and I stopped me in my tracks. I stood in the middle of the road and stared in awe at this fiery looking orb for about 10 minutes. I am lucky the police didn’t come by or I would have been carted off to Bellevue Hospital. I tried in vain to get a good picture of it with my camera phone, but the street lamps would sort have wash out the effect of the moon. I felt like going into my house and waking everyone up so they could see it – for some reason though I didn’t think my wife would be amenable to getting up for that considering our earlier conversation.

So after completely cooling off while staring at the moon, I finally went inside, grabbed a quick bite and then iced down my shins. My house was very cold and between cooling down and icing; I became completely chilled to the bone. Fortunately, my wife was nice and warm when I got into bed. Heh hee.

Manhattan Special

2008-01-20T00:23:00.000-05:00

Once again I did the Two Bridges run. While last week I focused my run in pictures around the Brooklyn Bridge, today I decided to pay more attention to the Manhattan Bridge. First up, is a picture of me climbing the north side of the bridge. The picture can’t show it, but the Manhattan Bridge is pretty noisy. There are trains constantly crossing it and it can get really loud.

About a third of the way up the span, you get a great view of the Williamsburg Bridge. I'll be running on that bridge soon enough as my runs get longer.

I continued off the Manhattan Bridge and was greeted with the delicious smells emanating out of all the kitchens preparing the days lunches and dinners. I was tempted to stop at this particular restaurant serving Peking Duck - Yummy!

I then ran down to the water and snapped this great shot of the Manhattan Bridge. I am very happy with how it came out on my camera phone.

After that it was back to Brooklyn by way of the first bridge to span the East River.

Where I finish my run in my usual stomping ground Prospect Park. I am pretty sure the Peking Ducks from my previous picture are related to the ducks you see here swimming on the lake.

Definition of Insanity

2008-01-19T08:12:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, nothing changes. Which is part of the definition of insanity. And what is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But I am not trying the same thing over and over again, but still nothing changes. Maybe the thing I am trying to change is just unchangable. So in the end I am still insane.

Gray Chest Hair

2008-01-19T07:51:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning to find another gray chest hair. I thought I eliminated this problem a couple of months ago when I first discovered one of those bad boys and plucked it off my chest. It was much to my dismay this morning that I found another. I mean, how does this happen? It wasn’t there yesterday. Did a 1 inch strand of hair suddenly sprout out of my chest overnight? Did something happen to this hair follicle that caused it to suddenly turn gray? I haven’t been under any particular stress for such a dramatic event to occur so the whole thing is deeply puzzling. It’s enough to make me want to start shaving my chest again.

So anyway, I was discussing my gray hair with some friends over twitter, which led to the inevitable discussion over age. I started to ask if my friend Darkgracie understood why time seems to pass faster as we get older. She feels that it is a state of mind. That as we get older we are busier so perhaps don’t notice how fast time is passing by us. No doubt that this possibility is a contributing factor. However, what I truly believe causes this phenomena of the years passing by faster has to do with fractions.

You see, as we get older, each year becomes a smaller fraction of our lives. A year in the life of a 40 year old is not as significant as a year in the life of an 8 year old. To an 8 year old, 1 year represents a relatively large portion of his life; whereas to a 40 year old it’s a much smaller fraction. The interval of time we are measuring is the same, but as a total portion of one’s life, it becomes less significant as the years go on.

A 1 year interval to a child seems to be a huge amount of time, that’s because proportionally to their lives it is a large amount of time. As we age, each year is in proportion smaller amounts of your entire life which in turn makes the time seem to go faster. A 40 year old may have trouble remember which year something happened in since they tend to blend together after a while. One year ago for an 8 year old would seem like a very long time ago. At 40, you need to have many years pass before it seems like a long time ago.

You can read other people’s theories about why this phenomenon occurs here.

In a way I am glad I am doing the Vermont 100 miler instead of Ironman Lake Placid this year, just for the change of pace. As you start doing the same race over and over again, one year just begins to bleed into the next year. I was discussing this with my friend Larry who has streaked to 25 consecutive New York City Marathons. I asked him if he can remember something specific from each of the Marathons. He didn’t think he could; they all become the same after a while. Sure there were a few marathons at which he could remember specific things, but overall they all became the same. It begins to become like it was just yesterday when you were doing the previous year’s marathon. You are doing the same thing year after year only the number on the calendar has changed.

I guess you can also think of it as life starts to become easier as you gain more experience. When you were a young child it would take you a while to read through a book when you were first starting to learn to read. As you get older and got more practice at reading, the pages would turn ever faster and faster. It is easier to pass the time as you get more experienced with age. It just slips by.

Well, that is enough philosophy for one day. It is time for me to get out and do a run. I can’t miss days. Yes, one day in and of itself is insignificant, but they add up. July 19th will be here very soon. Before I know it, my first Vermont 100 Miler will have been several years ago. I know that too soon, I will be looking back at this event rather than looking forward to it. I want to look back at it knowing I made a good showing. In order to be able to have that piece of mind, I need to put in the work now while I still have the time. The day will be here soon enough.

Time to Swim

2008-01-18T18:05:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, 1/16, 6pm on F train heading towards Brooklyn

Today is a non-running day, which means I am heading to the pool. I really wish I did my swim in the morning, but as usual I slept too late to make it to the pool on time. I really need to get to bed earlier. I just don’t want to go to sleep so early. I just want entertainment at night, whether it is watching TV, chatting online or perhaps best of all, having sex with my wife. But even after all that is done I don’t feel like going to sleep. It’s like I’ve suddenly become afraid that I am going to miss something. If only we didn’t have to sleep.

I am really not in the mood to go to the pool. The whole point of the pool workout is to give my legs a rest, serve as active recovery and to keep my cardiovascular fitness improving. That is looking at it negatively though. I need to change that line of thinking. Swimming will give me a much needed upper body workout, balance out my body and for vanity’s sake and keep me looking good. I look back at my IMLP photos, especially from 2005/2006 and I see how cut I looked. I love the way I looked in those pictures and do want to get back there. Swimming is one way to do it. I just got to start swimming in the morning so it doesn’t seem like such a chore as when I do it at night.

Anyway, so I am on the way to the pool. Hopefully it won’t be crowded, or even better it will be closed because someone puked in it. Hey, that’s not good… Did I really just say that?

Thursday, 1/17, 9am on F train heading into Manhattan

I felt really good after my swim last night. As I stood in the locker room feeling the warmth in the muscles of my upper body I began to feel like a triathlete again. I guess in my heart I will always want to be a triathlete and not just an ultrarunner. Suddenly, I was feeling like increasing my schedule to incorporate more swim and bike training. However, that is not what I am supposed to do. I am an ultrarunner now and that’s what I have to focus on.

I ran 9 miles this morning. It was supposed to be 8, but I took a new course and misjudged how far I would go. I kind of knew if would go over, but I didn’t really care. I figured a little extra distance won’t hurt me and besides I was enjoying the run. My legs were a little sore from the previous days strength training session, but it was a good soreness. The weather was beautiful outside and I just wanted to run. I would have gone longer had time permitted.

Friday 1/18 6pm

I am sitting in my office drinking a Bud Light waiting for the poker game with my staff to begin. I am kind of out of sorts today. I woke up around 4am and decided to get out of bed. I had a bowl of Total Whole Grain Cereal and then decided to get on my bike for an hour instead of going back to sleep. I didn’t want to take a chance that I would go back to bed, oversleep and miss the workout. So I headed to my trainer in the basement, put on the season finale of Dexter on Showtime on Demand and spun easily for 60 minutes. I finished by 5:30am which left me 2.5 hours to go back to sleep before I had to get back up for work.

By the time I woke up again, I wondered if the workout had ever really happened. I had to check my HR monitor to see if I actually recorded a workout. I did, but I still felt as though I did nothing for the day. I called my coach later on and asked him if I did a workout in the middle of the night, went back to bed and then woke up feeling like I didn’t work out, will I have actually have done it. He said yes, so I didn’t worry about doing another one even though I still feel the need to get in some exercise.

Cooking in my Kitchen

2008-01-15T10:13:00.000-05:00

It was a pretty difficult run this morning. It was nothing about the course I ran, it just felt like my legs had a hard time moving. This happens sometimes and I am not sure why. Sometimes I think it just has to do with running in the morning, before my body has fully woken up and warmed up. I know there have been times when I’ve gone out feeling like I did, only to turn around, go back home and then do the run later in the day at which time I felt great. But I was already outside and I didn’t feel like turning back so I persevered through a 6.2 mile run. It wasn’t my best, but at least I did it and the morning was absolutely beautiful. Perfect really for a January morning run and much more enjoyable than yesterday’s one hour ride on the spin bike at the NYSC.

I wish though the run put me in a better mood for the rest of the day. I have to deal with an asshole at work; someone who insist on cooking inside my kitchen. She insists she knows how to bake my pie, but the only thing she is going to do is make a mess of things. I really need to tell her to go fuck herself. Lord knows she can probably use it as I can’t see anyone, male or female wanting to get anywhere near this creature. She makes stomachs turn and skin crawl. Maybe I can get everyone to start calling her Guffy - Gezz Ugly, Feel Free to Fuck Yourself. It so fits her.

I’ll just have to focus on more pleasant thoughts throughout the day. Like running through the woods during the VT100 when I am dead tired, achy and can hardly move. I get chills thinking about that. How bad will I feel? Will I be feeling bad at all? All of these are questions that I do not have answers for. The closest I have to knowing this information were the 5 times I’ve done an Ironman. If that’s the case, then I suppose I won’t know whether or not I could do it until I actually cross the finish line. I remember when I ran my best Ironman, an 11:11 effort at Lake Placid that I really didn’t know if I would finish the race until I started to head down the finishers shoot. I remember thinking I could blow up at anytime. I suppose that is what it will be like at the VT100. I’ll probably be at the 99 mile mark and still wondering if I could do it. You just never know. I could take a break at mile 99, sit down, fall asleep and then miss the cutoff. It’s an unlikely scenario, but possible. I am just going to have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I will continue working out, even on those days when I don’t feel so great. I must get used to training through all sorts of conditions and feelings. I am sure I will be going through many conditions and feelings once I start the VT100.

Two Bridges Run

2008-01-13T13:35:00.000-05:00

I had a fantastic run today. I decided I was going to do the Two Bridges run, which meant I would run through downtown Brooklyn, over the Manhattan Bridge and then back into Brooklyn by way of the Brooklyn Bridge. I was a breezy and cool, but still well warmer than normal for a day in January. I started the run off with a run through Prospect Park to warm up. I was looking forward to getting out of the park though; since I am getting a little stir crazy being in there all the time.

Exiting the park through Grand Army Plaza, I made my way down Flatbush Avenue to the Manhattan Bridge. The MB is a neglected jewel for running. Hardly anyone uses the pedestrian walkway. It a free and clear shot into Manhattan with spectacular views of the Brooklyn Bridge and downtown Manhattan. It is a smooth run, but can be a little noisy and the subway runs right along the side. Every time I run over the bridge I can’t help feeling as though something is missing from the skyline as I cross it. Maybe one day it will look right and whole again. The best part of running over the MB is the view it afford of the Brooklyn Bridge. You can see it from end to end and the boats passing underneath.

Once off the bridge it was a quick trip through the sights and smells of Chinatown. It is quite a contrast from the Brooklyn side of the bridge. I quickly ran through Chinatown and felt my stomach rumble as the smell of duck and port wafted out of the kitchens. I bee lined out of there and headed for the East River, down under the FDR drive. As you run along the water, you can see a small beach exposed just under the Brooklyn Bridge. I snapped another photo from here. I would have liked to have posted this one to utterz, but I was getting cold just standing around. Instead I got on the move again and headed back up to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Few people remember that the original walkway on the Brooklyn Bridge used to be broken up by staircases on each side. This was changed back when the bridge was renovated back in the 80’s. Now it is a very pleasant by crowded run over a wooden walkway. I took a photo of the suspension cables holding up the bridge. Please excuse my thumb in the bottom left of the picture. The BB, is actually a combination of Suspension and Cable Stay technologies. The combination makes for a beautiful spider web type effect. It is really a very beautiful piece of architecture.

Once off the bridge, I just made my same way back to Prospect Park to finish off the run. I was schedule for 12 miles, but decided to do a baker’s dozen. Thinking of a baker’s dozen got me in the mood for bagels, so I stopped and purchased one before I got home. I had it with a schmear of cream cheese and a couple of easy over eggs.

So here are the stats for today’s run: 13.1 miles in 1:58:56. Avg/Max HR: 149/159 Ascent 600 feet.

I run to see who has the most guts

2008-01-13T00:30:00.000-05:00

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Steve Prefontaine.

What a damn animalistic quote. I absolutely love it. You need to be maniacal to push yourself like that. There is a certain joy in pushing yourself beyond your limits. Really what are your limits anyway? How do you ever know you’ve reached them? The only way to do so is to keep pushing harder.

I won’t say that today during the Fred Lebow 5 miler in Central Park that I pushed myself to my limits. However, I did push myself at a faster pace than I have done so in quite some time. It felt good and bad at the same time. It always does. I wasn’t sure how fast I would be able to run at. I just ran a pace that I felt I could sustain. I measured my progress by the number of runners that I passed or passed me. For the most part I stayed with the same group throughout the race; at least it appeared that way to me. The defining part of the race, was just at the start of the Cat Hill section of the course. Another runner had come up on my right and I felt irked enough not to let this person pass. I thought of the Steve Prefontaine quote at this point. I decided I wanted to see who had enough guts to make it up this hill first. I started to really put in my first competitive hard effort since the Staten Island 6 hour run. It felt really good to hold this person of and in fact drop him before I got to the top of the hill.

At this point it wasn’t that much further to the finish line. I managed to drop my pace by 30 seconds per mile to 6:47 and finished the race strong. I wasn’t even winded when I crossed the line and stopped running, which let me know I still could have gone a lot harder. I didn’t want to push it though, my HR was at around 95% of max and I didn’t want to risk injury. I put in a good hard effort and took a good measurement of where I stand fitness wise. I learned that I still have a lot of work and fitness to recover, but I am not as bad as I feared I would be. I’ll be happy once I run my races in sub 7 minute miles.

Lap Time Lap Time HR Max Avg Min Dist min/mile
1. 0:07:38.2 0:07:38.2 168 169 157 116 1.008 7:36
2. 0:14:50.6 0:07:12.4 168 171 168 165 1.027 7:08
3. 0:22:12.6 0:07:22.0 171 172 170 167 1.021 7:15
4. 0:29:32.3 0:07:19.7 175 176 172 168 1.006 7:17
5. 0:36:25.9 0:06:53.6 179 179 176 174 1.018 6:47

Drinking Again

2008-01-11T22:12:00.001-05:00

I think I blogged something about trying out sobriety recently, but I just couldn’t help myself tonight. A friend called me beyond the last minute (I was way to leave the office) and asked me if I wanted to go out for a drink. We always have a good time together, so of course I said yes. I wound up in Papillion and had 4 beers and a plate of fried Calamari. Not the best thing to eat and drink the night before a race, but what the hell, you only live once. At least I am not as drunk as this guy sitting next to me on the train. Whenever the train starts moving again after a stop, he falls into my side. I don’t mind though, I think I’ve been there before. At least he doesn’t smell.

Tomorrow I am doing the Fred Lebow 5 miler in Central Park. I need to be at the New York Road Runners Club to pick up my race number by 7:30am. I am going to meet a friend there at this time. It should be really interesting to see if I make it in time. It’s already 9:30pm (as I write this on the subway), I haven’t eaten dinner and for the life of me haven’t been able to get out of bed before 8am for the past few days. I know I’ll do it, because this year is the start of the new me; the one that’s seriously training for the Vermont 100 miler.

Well, that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll post this entry when I get home, after I recycle some beer of course, and then eat dinner and go to bed. I’ll probably wind up driving and spring for a parking garage somewhere on the East Side. I just don’t see myself waking up by 5:30am to make the subway by in time to make it to the race on time. Hey, I make enough money to splurge every once in a while. Thank G-d for that.

Give Up Drinking?

2008-01-11T10:32:00.000-05:00

I suppose I should give up drinking now that I am committing myself towards training for the VT100 and the fact that the alcohol tends to exacerbate my headaches. However, I told myself I should live my life in moderation and giving up all alcohol would be abstinence and not moderation. I believe that total abstinence is the right policy for very few things in life. I like to try most everything at least once in a while. Think about it… I can’t even say that I totally abstain on killing. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill a cockroach running across my path.

Yesterday I did manage to drink again. I was with a large group of colleagues from my office and we were all at the Marriott Marquois Times Square bar chilling out after attending a day of conferences. At first I decided to only drink water, but the temptation of free booze and getting a little loose with a group of people I for the most part liked was eventually too great. I decided to have a Guinness beer or two while we were hanging around waiting for a post conference party to begin. I was careful to monitor myself and not drink too much as I didn’t want the headache I had in the morning to return. That headache required a shot of Imitrix in my ass to get rid of it. I didn’t feel like going back there.

So anyway, I drank 1.5 beer mug size glasses (or was it 2.5) of Guinness before we headed to a Mexican restaurant/bar for the after party. There I had half a glass of a frozen marguerita, which I didn’t like and hence only half a glass and then a bottle of Bohemia, my favorite Mexican beer. I ate lousy, noshing on tortilla chips and an assortment of Quesadillas that were being served as cocktails. While I was there, I was talking to another colleague who does a lot of training as well. She was telling me how she decided to take today off from training. All I could think about was how I missed my training this morning and how I really felt like I should have done something today. I decided right then and there that I was going to cut the night short and go home for a run in Prospect Park. I said my goodbyes and made for the subway.

I got home pretty quick, but feeling minimally headachy and tired. I forced myself out the door though, since I know come the VT100, I’ll be more than headachy and tired come 1am in the morning when I will have been running for over 18 hours. I need to get used to running when I don’t want to. Perhaps drinking and making myself not feel so great is a great strategy for preparing my body for this type of training. I’ll have to check with my coach on that one.

So anyway, last night’s run turned out to be a decent 4 miles around Prospect Park. I felt really good about getting myself out there and I enjoyed a nice run in solitude. It was just the type of calming thing to help me fall asleep later, without the need of an Ambien.

Chills

2008-01-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

Well I ran longer than I should have this morning, especially considering I shouldn’t have run at all. This morning was a scheduled pool workout, but I woke up too late to get the swim in and make it to work on time. So I went out for what should have been a short run, but instead I went ahead and made it longer. Only 6.3 miles, but it turned what should have been a sub 30 minute workout into almost an hour. So now I am just as late to work as if I had gone to the pool. Maybe not that bad, but still I am pushing the line with how late I’m going in. What’s worse is I have a meeting I am going to be late for. Oh well. I was just enjoying my run too much to stop it short.

Unlike yesterday I was running pretty well today. I averaged about 9 minute miles pretty effortlessly. My HR is still a little high for a 9mm effort, but that will come down over the next couple of months. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on the fitness I lost over the late fall. The key is to just keep from getting too exuberant with my running to prevent potential injury. That is going to be hard to do though if I keep feeling the way I did during this morning’s run. It was one of those days where I get chills down my spine from feeling so good. Part of the good feelings was thinking about what I am going to be doing in July. In fact I am getting those chills now as I type this blog entry.

Running the VT100 is going to be something that is great. A real point in my life that I will remember. I think of myself now running alone in the middle of the night. Will I be delirious? Will I be happy? Will I be thinking about lying on the ground, rolling into a ball and dying? I have no idea and that is part of the excitement. I will be pushing my body to a point it’s never been to before. I’ll be exploring uncharted territory; reaching the unknown. I’ll be a modern day explorer searching my own soul for answers. I’ll measure myself as a man, see what sort of guts I have and run for 100 miles. Failure at this endeavor is not an option. Knowing that I am going to be doing this, well, it’s not a feeling I can easily describe.

I am going to make a concerted effort this year to fully document my training online. After all, it’s not every year where I will be training for a 100 mile race. I should pay respect to what I am going to do and document how I got there. Half if not most of the event is all of the training you do leading up to it. I’d only be telling half the story if all I wrote about was doing the event itself and not writing about what I did to allow me to accomplish my goal.

Focusing on the Vermont 100 Miler

2008-01-08T21:54:00.000-05:00

Winter, it’s the new Spring. I just love Spring in the Winter. I am able to go to work without a coat and I can run outside without having to put on tights, hat and multiple layers. Not that I really mind the cold. If you dress properly, the cold should not be an issue, even on the most cold and windy of days. But nothing beats getting home from work and hearing your kids tell you that it’s so warm outside that they want to ride their bikes with you while you run. I love when they accompany me. Besides the company, I know they are getting some much needed exercise and a break from the usual gamut of cartoons on TV.

Yesterday worked out perfectly for me. I wanted to go for a run at lunch in this sunny and warm weather, but I was invited out to a power lunch to welcome a new staff member to my company’s management team. I couldn’t gracefully turn it down and I harbored hopes of being able to sneak out of the office later in the day to get in the run. How happy was I, when my wife called me later in the day to tell me that my kids wanted to ride with me when I got home from work. It made my day and once again thought how everything happens for a reason.

This morning I started to get back into my training routine after being off of it for a little over a week due to travel and a cold. I need to get focused if I am going to have a shot at being successful for the Vermont 100 miler. I got outside this morning while it was still dark, in shorts and light jacket (Go Global Warming!), and did a slow 7 miles in Prospect Park. I had the energy to do the run and the music I was listening to made the run go by pleasantly enough, but I was a little concerned with how slow my pace was. I was only averaging about 10 minute miles which is obscenely slow for me. I was wondering what ever happened to my casual 8 minute mile training pace.

I could already hear in my head the conversation I am going to have with my coach later in the day when I complain to him about my pace. He is just going to tell me not to worry about it. I guess I really shouldn’t, especially because in the Vermont 100 miler I would be very ecstatic with averaging a 10 mm pace and I know I will not be averaging that. For the VT100 I’ll be quite satisfied coming in at 24 hours which is just under 14:30’s per mile. That pace just sounds so doable, but we are talking about moving at that pace for a straight 24 hours. We will just see how it goes. Those back to back 8 hour training runs that will come up in the real Spring should be a good indication of my VT100 pace.

One of the biggest things I am coming to grips with over doing the VT100 is the fact that I am pretty much giving up on Ironman for the next two years. Well, at least IM Lake Placid. I won’t be doing it this year, and I won’t be able to register myself for next year. Ironman is just something I’ve been holding onto for the past 5 years and its feeling weird letting go. I suppose I could drive the few hundred miles from Vermont to Lake Placid to register the day after, but I think that might just be a little insane; just a little. I really can’t worry about that though. I need to focus completely on the VT100. Perhaps I’ll be able to get into the Badwater 135 the next year. For those reading my blog that don’t know, the Badwater 135 is a 135 mile run starting in Badwater, Death Valley in the middle of the summer. It starts from the lowest point on the North American continent (285’ below sea level) and winds up on top of Mt. Whitney at 8360'. If I can do the VT100, I should be able to do that. It’s only an extra 35 miles. Oh the suffering should be so damn good.

Sick and Taking it Easy

2008-01-06T01:09:00.001-05:00

1/4/07

I’ve been sick for the past few days so I haven’t done any training. I hate when that happens. I start to get used to just lying around and it gets hard to start up again. I get used to sleeping late and taking it easy. The old habits of sitting back and watching TV begin to take over and I can feel myself becoming a couch potato slob again. But maybe this is happening for a reason. My shin has been bothering me and I have to get it to heal. In just 7 months time I’ll be running 100 miles through the hills and trails of Vermont. I need to have my leg completely healthy. Perhaps a cortisone shot will help

1/6/07 1:00am

Well I can’t fall asleep again which has been nothing new. I feel as though I can take a bottle of Ambien and I would still stay awake. At least I was able to get in a run Saturday afternoon, despite the fact that I am still feeling sick. I did just an easy 4 mile run around Prospect Park. It felt great. I was running with a feeling of exhilaration as I thought about how in just 7 months time I’d be running 100 miles. If that thought isn’t enough to motivate me during this short stuff, I don’t know what would. All I could think of would be the sense of accomplishment I will have once I complete that race, hopefully less than 24 hours so I can get the special buckle.

I am going to finish sucking on this Ambien in a few minutes at which time I’ll try to go to sleep again. I feel like waking up early enough to do a moderately long run. This just means I plan to run for as long as I feel like. I am not sure how far that will be at this point, but I at least want to give myself a chance to do so before I need to start running errands for the day. Well, that’s all for now, I am hoping to sleep soon.

2007 into 2008

2008-01-02T22:31:00.000-05:00

So 2007 was not one of my better years in terms of training and racing. The year was plagued with illness and injury and I never really had a chance to get going. The highlights of the year in racing were the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, SOS and the Staten Island 6 hour run in which I came in 7th overall. Ironman Lake Placid was a total bust this year, but that is ok. I wasn’t well before the race and at least I attempted it. Many people would simply have said screw it. The best time I had training were the two weeks I had in Spain where I ran about 150 miles in two weeks and swam about 8 miles. At least I finished 2007 strongly and setup to have a good 2008.

The light year was reflected in my overall distance. For 2007 I had 2425 Cycling miles, 1200 Running miles and 92 swimming miles. I’d like to see my 2008 distances be more in the range of 4000, 2000 and 150 respectively. These are just arbitrary numbers I am coming up with; I have no idea if I’ll be able to do so much. I’ll have to take it one week at a time.

In any event, 2008 started off with my usual New Year’s festivities. First was an early morning run with my friend Larry around Prospect Park. It was a cool rainy day and we were both feeling tired from the evening before. Larry from drinking and staying up a little too late and me from having a full day skiing, bowling and eating in the Bershires, followed by a mad 183 mile dash home in my car to make it to my friend’s New Year’s Eve party before midnight – which I did make. However, the run woke us up and afterwards we reconvened for our annual Polar Bear New Year’s Dip in Coney Island. Fortunately, it had stopped raining by then and 1000’s of people were out on the beach all ready to plunge into the icy Atlantic. The group I was with all plunged ourselves into the water several times. It is such a rush going into the freezing cold water in nothing but a thin bathing suit. I felt so good every time I came out of the water. An amazing sense of well being infused my body and I was laughing and smiling and yelling in joy. After getting out of the cold water, the air temperature felt so warm that we all just hung around in our bathing suits and threw a football around. It was a great day to be alive.

After we left the beach, we headed back to Larry’s house where his wife had prepared the most delicious chili and her secret recipe for Hot Toddy’s – A drink consisting of tea, run, fruit juices, spices and other ingredients which shall remain secret. I hung around for several hours eating, drinking and talking until I started to feel the tiredness creep through my body and I could no longer hold my eyes open. I said my goodbyes and walked back home where I promptly took a much needed nap.

Unfortunately, on this second day of 2008, I awoke with a cold and sore throat. I am not going to rush my training and let the cold subside before I pick it up again. There is no point in sucking in my cold germs and giving myself Bronchitis. I’ve had that the last two January’s in a row and don’t want to go through that again. I’ll just rest until I feel better.

Lastly, for a great bit of news, I walked into my house this evening to find out I’ve been accepted into the Vermont 100 mile running race. I am so excited, nervous and a bit sad. Excited, because I’ve wanted to do this race for a while, nervous because my shin has been problematic and sad, because it means that I will miss Ironman Lake Placid this year. It will be the first time in 5 years that I will not be doing Lake Placid and I might not be able to get into IMLP for 2009 if I don’t go up to the race site. But that’s the price you have to pay sometimes to get and do the things you want.

So it’s time to get serious about rehabbing my shin. I finally shaved my leg and broke out with my TENS unit. Hopefully its regular application will help alleviate the problem. I’ll just have to see how things go over the next few weeks and months.

Yeah, sure, whatever

2007-12-30T01:01:00.001-05:00

I am not sure what I am still doing up. It’s 20 minutes before 1 am and I won’t let myself go to sleep. I have a headache, I am a little drunk, I feel like going for a run and I am tired. I also took a couple of Excedrin to battle a headache I have coming on, so the caffeine is battling it out with the Ambien I am sucking on. Let’s see which will win.

Anyway, I had an excellent week of training up until today… Well now, I mean yesterday, it is past midnight. In summary here is what I did this past week:
Monday - 4 mile run, 3000 Yard swim and 40 minutes Strength Train
Tuesday – 7.4 mile run
Wednesday – 40 minute Spin Class, 3000 yard swim
Thursday – 5.5 mile run, 40 minutes strength training
Friday – 24 mile bike, 3000 yard swim, 30 minute Core Strength training.
Saturday – I bailed out of a run. I drove up to MA for a ski trip and when I arrived at the hotel, figured I’d go on the treadmill. However, the treadmill sucked. It was very narrow, the speed regulator didn’t work, it was in a claustrophobic unventilated room and my shin hurt. It would have been very unpleasant so I said fuck it. I don’t regret it other than my streak of 26 straight training days has now come to an end. Dammit. I would have gone outside, but there is really no place to run around here.

Anyway, during the time between xmas and New Year’s, I generally get to take it easy from work, which includes several days off. It’s one of my favorite training times of the year, because I get to act like a fulltime triathlete. I wake up late, do my training, come home, eat and relax feeling all tired and satisfied. It is quite the lifestyle. I was born to it. Too bad you can’t make a living at it. How great would it be to have a job where all you did was train your body all day long? I guess that opportunity passed back when I was a teenager. How I would like to go back armed with the knowledge I now have. I’d be the greatest fucking triathlete there ever was. Well maybe not, desire can only take you so far. Naturally ability has to come into play, and apparently my genetics is playing tricks on me with a bum fucking shin. I think self surgery may be in order in the near future. I just want to cut the fucking nerve that is transmitting the pain up to my brain right out of my body. I’ll do it with a steak knife, I don’t care, I just want to get rid of this nagging pain.

So anyway, tomorrow I’ll go skiing. I wonder if that counts at all towards training. I already know the treadmill at this hotel sucks, so if skiing doesn’t count as training, then tomorrow will be another off day. I am not going to run on snow banked encrusted roads with cars whizzing passed me at 60mph. I may be a touch crazy, but I am not stupid. I actually feel like going now, while the traffic is light. Nah, I’ll probably get run over by a drunken Patriot’s fan that was out celebrating his team’s undefeated season.

OK, I am going to end this and force myself to go to sleep. I will make myself lie in bed with my eyes closed until sleep overcomes me. I’ll wake up several times, but at least I’ll be in bed. Maybe I will wake up feeling refreshed and relaxed. We will just have to see. Goodnight.

2007-12-27T13:36:00.001-05:00

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Xmas Run

2007-12-26T23:41:00.000-05:00

As much as my training has been going well lately, I have still been getting distracted. I find myself going to bed way too late each night to effectively get up and do a morning workout. I really need to cut these distractions out of my life as they are not productive. They are entertaining no doubt, but only entertainment. If anything, the distractions only serve as a reminder as to how boring my life can be in other areas. I need to work on the real world areas of my life and not escape into fantasyland.

Though I have been distracted, I still have been managing to get in the critical workouts. I even managed to get in a workout yesterday (xmas) late in the evening. I was down in Lakewood, NJ and planned to run the 5 mile Mannasquan reservoir loop. However, it was getting too late in the day to run through the woods and I forgot my headlamp at home. Instead I did a 1 mile loop through the streets of Lakewood. At first I wasn’t thrilled about doing a 1 mile loop in the street, but it turned out to be a very pleasant run. As it became dark there we many houses with xmas lights lighting up the way. The one mile loop was very easy to do and I found myself getting lost in it. It was completely dark save for the occasional street light and my ears were filled with the musical styling’s of Motorhead. I love running while listening to Motorhead. Lemmy and company have such a loud and fast paced beat which makes it so easy to keep a high cadence. The darkness and isolation of sound from the real world put my on another dimension and I was completely immersed in it.

Anyway, I intended to go 4, maybe 5 miles. However, I was just feeling so good that I just kept going. I eventually went 7 miles and thought of continuing until someone from my aunt’s house started to get worried about me and they came out to look for me. In the end, what got me to stop was my coach’s admonition to stop training while I still had the desire to do more. And damn could I have done more. I could have run an ultra. It was only with great reluctance and a touch of sadness that I finally decided to call it a night and head back inside. I knew I had xmas dinner waiting for me and I went inside looking forward to that.

Flay the Body, Strengthen the Spirit

2007-12-24T02:29:00.000-05:00

It is a little before 2am and I just got back from a loop around Prospect Park. It wasn’t perhaps the smartest run I’ve ever done, but it was one of my better runs, at least for my spirit. I was feeling a little down and a run under the beautiful moon lit sky seemed like just the ticket to brighten my spirits. A little flaying of my body to strengthen my spirit, if you will.

What is keeping me going on my training lately is the sheer pleasure of it. I have a nice relaxed feel for it and look forward to it. I want to do more than I am scheduled to do. It’s been bringing me real pleasure. I was just telling a friend this evening over drinks, that for a couple of years my aggressiveness and enthusiasm towards training for Ironman was fueled by anger. Now this worked very well for me and I wouldn’t trade the feelings that pushed me in my training during that time for anything. However, after the anger was worked out of my body, I found myself lacking in desire and unable to push myself towards really training for the Ironman. Just look at what happened to me at this past year’s IMLP. I think I’ve finally developed a healthier attitude towards my training. I’ve finally discovered the pure joy in doing it.

I am not saying that I didn’t get joy over the past several years. I got enormous pleasure out of it. There is nothing like the feelings of well being that you get after you push yourself hard and work out your aggressions. It’s just that now, I am not working out aggression, but I am still getting the same pleasure out of my training. No, the training wasn’t working out aggression all the time, but that was a large part of it. And I am sure now I will use my training to work out some anger that I am feeling. These days though it is “more” about doing it for the fun of it. For keeping a healthy lifestyle. For setting an example for my family. And most of all just for me.

Long, Hard and Far

2007-12-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

Well, I am definitely over the hump. My fears that I was going to become a couch potato, inactive bum and blow back up to over 200+ pounds have finally begun to subside. I am definitely back into my training and eager to do more. I think part of the reason for my pleasure in training has a bit to do with my reading Christopher Bergland’s book “The Athletes Way” He takes a lot about creating a flow that has its origination from the cerebellum part of the brain. I am badly paraphrasing what he discusses, so you will just have to get the book to find out what he is talking about. Let’s just say that I am trying to think with a different part of my mind or at least in a different way when it comes to training.

So far it has been working well. I am viewing each workout as a pleasurable experience and I am leaving myself wanting more. Today I ran a fantastic 7.4 miles in Prospect Park. I was with my friend Larry who wanted to stop after two loops. I wanted to go a third, but I decided that I was going to stop wanting more. This way I remain eager to get out there again. I don’t want to get burned out. I want to keep this feeling of anticipation and wanting more. I like wanting more. I like the feeling of still wanting to go longer, aching to see how far I can take it. I want to work myself back up to the point where I am running for hours and it feels like I’ve only gone for minutes. I want to get back to the point where I come home from a workout, completely spent and satisfied.

I love the distance. I love the pain of it. I am not satisfied when I can’t take it long. I feel like I am not doing my best when I am unable to go long. For me it has always been about the endurance and how extreme the event/workout is.

Speaking of extreme events, I am happy to report that I have once again won a lottery spot into the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. I didn’t think I would get it and doing so, brings with it a measure of sadness. The event falls on the same day as the Eagleman Half Ironman; another event I was greatly looking forward to doing. I am supposed to go to that event with my friend Todd and I really want to go. However, getting into Alcatraz is so damn hard and it is such a unique and challenging race, that I don’t see how I can turn down the opportunity. I’ll have to reconcile this somehow.

In a Good Mood

2007-12-13T22:30:00.000-05:00

I’ve been in a pretty good mood lately. Each day I am looking forward to doing my training and breaking a sweat. I am not doing anything too strenuous and perhaps that is good. It is keeping me from burning out and looking forward to more. I’ve been particularly enjoying going to the gym during my lunch hour and doing strength training exercises. I could feel the difference in my strength the other day when I did a swim session. I had worked on my lats the day before and I could feel the muscle fatigue every time I pulled through my stroke. It wasn’t so much a fatigue as it was more of recognition that I had worked the muscles recently. In fact, I felt stronger pulling through the water than I have in a very long time. If felt good. I swam for 3000 yards and wanted to go more. I resisted the urge though and pulled myself out of the water. I want to keep the feeling of wanting to do more.

Besides my training, I’ve also been balancing out my life with a fair amount of partying. I’ve gone out with friends or to parties several times in the past week or so. I am drinking as much as I feel like and enjoying myself. It is a pleasure just to live a relaxed life and not be so disciplined with my training, but not ignoring it either. For now I feel as though I’ve reached a balance between work, training, family and play.

This morning I opened to a page from my training play book that I haven’t looked at in a long time. I was awake by 4am in the morning and after a quick snack, decided to go out for a run instead of back to bed. It was cold and dark and Prospect Park was completely deserted. I made it around the entire loop without seeing another living soul on it. Just the way I like it. I love being in the park at that hour of the day. I love how desolate it feels, how lonely. I feel like I am a Martian walking on an alien planet. The only thing that marred the run for me was the fact that my bowels decided to no longer be constipated when I was the furthest point from home. I spent two miles of my run praying that I could make it back home without shitting myself. I contemplated ringing the bell to the house of a friend that lived nearby, but I didn’t think he would appreciate being woken at 4:30 in the morning because I wanted to take a shit in his bathroom. I made it back home without completely soiling myself.

After doing my business and cleaning up, I went back to bed and woke back up at 8am. I felt completely rested and refreshed and if not for the file stored on my Heart Rate monitor I would have had no proof that I actually went outside at 4am. It was really like the run never happened. I was literally the bear that shat in the woods that no one saw. I was feeling so good today, that I even ducked out of a meeting at work for a while so I could escape to the gym and do a strength training workout. I finally feel like I am getting back in shape.

Still Drinking

2007-12-06T05:24:00.000-05:00

So I haven’t exactly learned my lesson regarding drinking since my big Migraine this past Sat/Sunday. I wound up going out for drinks both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Fortunately, I didn’t drink to excess; that is I didn’t come home completely fucked up. No, I just drank in moderation like an upstanding American male. So far though, I’ve managed to get in all of my workouts except for a swim last night. I’ll give myself a pass on that one though.

Last nights occasion to be out drinking was at a “well know search engine company’s” customer appreciation get together at the NikeID Studio at Niketown NYC. They had an open bar, which contained Captain Morgan, Hors D'Oeuvres, pizza, dessert and best of all, you got to design a customized pair of Nike sneakers.

By the time I left it was getting to the point where if I didn’t get home, I wouldn’t be able to see my kids off to bed. I decided to forgo a swim workout in order to spend some quality time with them. I was glad I did. I had a lot of fun with my children in the short time I had with them before they went to sleep. Definitely more fun than swimming a lonely 2000 yards in the pool. I can always make up a swim, I can’t recover lost time with my children.

Migraine

2007-12-02T15:43:00.001-05:00

So today is a day off. The first one in over a week. I went out with my friend David last night to my annual Triathlon club holiday party and got myself completely toasted. I came home with a migraine headache which only got worse as the morning wore on. I started to beg my wife to take me to the emergency room. I thought I was going to die. Fortunately, my brother is a doctor and he was able to phone in a prescription of Imitrex and some sort of suppository to help control my nausea. I was in total agony, hallucinating and throwing up mouths full of stomach acid. I couldn’t even keep down water.

I’ve now been up for over 24 hours. I don’t know what is keeping me awake. At least I am starting to feel hungry again. I should try to eat soon.

Inspiration

2007-11-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

So I’ve been sadly lacking for inspiration to train, but perhaps I finally did something inspirational. Before my wife left for Spain in the beginning of the summer, she had sent to my office as a surprise a 3 poster set of the Ironman World Championships in Kona. Well it took me 3.5 months, but I finally got the posters framed and hung in my office. Now when I walk into my office, I am reminded of the athlete I once was and how it would be nice to get back into that sort of shape.

On the night that I hung up the posters, I had my first desire in a while to get on my bike. It was only 45 minutes in my basement, but it was a start. I backed that up with another 1 hour ride this morning and then a 4000 yard swim this afternoon. My first double workout day in quite some time.

What it is though, is that I need something in my life beyond training. I need a closer and warmer relationship with my wife. The closeness I have with my children is great, but I am left feeling empty and lacking for adult companionship. My training took away that loss for quite some time, but 5 years into my training, I find myself wanting more. I just don’t know how to get it. Maybe as I walk into my office everyday, I’ll see those posters and the fire to be the best triathlete I can possibly be will come back. Training hard makes you too tired to care about anything else or at least makes you forget what you are lacking in other areas for a while.

Tomorrow I am going to do the Turkey Trot in Prospect Park with my friend Larry and his family. At least the one thing I have through my training is a network of friends that I can share my experiences with.

Las Vegas Day 2

2007-11-17T17:22:00.000-05:00

It is really possible in Las Vegas to go for days at a time without sleep and not know how many days have passed. You stay up so late at night, that your next day begins even before the prior evening has ended. I won’t say that is what I did, but it was almost. When I got in the night before, I was so wired I couldn’t fall asleep. It took two Ambien to knock me out and I didn’t wake up until late. When I checked my email the next morning, I had a message from the CFO asking me to join him for lunch. That is what I did to start the day.

After lunch, I attended a real estate conference. It was completely lame. They were talking about how to start a blog. Like who in the technology or marketing field doesn’t know how to start a blog at this point. It was an insult to be in the room; a room which happened to be in dungeon like conditions in the Flamingo Hotel. BTW, the Flamingo is a cesspool and I highly recommend that you don’t stay there. Fortunately, I am not staying there, but my colleague Matt is. He has welts all over his body from the chiggers and bedbugs. At least that is one of his primary complaints.

After the conference, Matt and I took a quick change into some casual clothes and to kill some time gambling while we waited for another coworker to join us for dinner. Matt killed the BJ tables again and I churned up and down for a while and eventually settled on a $48 loss for the night. I am just not aggressive enough gambling, otherwise I would be up much more. I just don’t have the stomach for it, I guess that is what happens when you have a mortgage to pay and two kids to send to college at some point in the future.

We ate at Joe’s Stone Crab. Needless to say, we had some stone crab and 20oz bone in rib eye steaks with creamed spinach, sweet potato fries and . While eating, we also continued our drinking spree which started several hours earlier. I am back to my old ways of downing Captain Morgan and Coke like it was water. For a change of pace I switched it to Capt. Morgan and Red Bull. I think I like it with Coke better, but Red Bull does give it a better kick. The steak I had was about the best I have ever eaten. There was no way I could get the whole thing down into my stomach. I left a good portion of it over and I felt a little emotional when they took the remainder away. I wanted to take it with me, but I couldn’t see carrying around a hunk of dead cow flesh with me while we hopped around from club to club and casino to casino.

The first place we went to after dinner was On top of The Palms Hotel at the Ghost Bar. The Ghost Bar is on the 55th floor and overhangs the building. To make it interesting it has a glass bottom floor. It was freaky taking a step onto it. The view of Las Vegas from there was fantastic. We had a bunch of drinks at this place and admired the hot girls walking around. The place wasn’t exactly hopping though, so we left to try to get into another club in the next building over. There was a big line to get in and the bouncers wanted 50 bucks a person to expedite our entry. We would have paid 50 for the 3 of us, but we just didn’t see the utility of paying so much just to get ahead of the line. So we ditched the place and eventually wound up back at the Bellagio. We gambled some more and then called it an evening. It wasn’t the greatest night, but it sure did beat staying home and watching CSI on TV.

The Last Frontier

2007-11-17T17:16:00.000-05:00

Tonight was a great night to be in Las Vegas. Well, nothing was so great about this particular day, I just had a great time. It started out slow with a dinner for the top 200 real estate professionals in the US. Somehow I was invited to be a representative member from my company to help honor the number 1 real estate agent, also from my company. So the whole dinner was a lot of sitting around waiting for them to announce rewards for every ridiculous type of category. It was almost 3 hours of boredom. The worst part was that you couldn’t order hard liquor or beer. The drink selection was limited to two colors of wine or sparkling or still water. Those drinks were not among my alcohol consumption plan for the evening.

After this drudgery of a dinner finally ended; I and a couple of other managers escaped over to the Blackjack tables. I quickly hit on a good winning streak bring my up several hundred bucks. Even though I was winning I was a bit annoyed with myself, since I wasn’t following my planned betting pattern. Had I done so I would have been up closer to a grand. As it ending up, I won $150 dollars after giving $100 back to the casino. I said waking a away from the tables with a 150 profit was my bottom line and by gosh I was going to do it. I hung around with my coworkers while they continued to play, occasionally offering them playing/betting advice based on my handy BlackJack Pocket Reference card. The card was right on most occasions and my two colleagues both walked away from the tables winners.

As we were wrapping up on the BJ tables, I get a call from my friend Matt who is over at the Wynn hotel with two other coworkers. I walk over to their BJ Table just as Matt is coming off of a couple of thousand dollar win while another was already down for the count. You could see him and my third colleague almost outwardly rooting for Matt to lose as he placed each additional wager. Granted what he was doing was sick. Matt would just walk up to a table drop a 100 bucks, get a double down hand and walk away with 4 stacks for $100 chips. He did this time and time again everywhere he went. I thought it was hysterical while the other guys were getting disgusted. Once Matt cashed out completely, the 4 of us were standing around thinking about where to go and what to do.

I wanted to try out a Club called Jet at the Mirage. It was the type of club with velvet ropes blocking off the front entrance and only by being know in the club or armed with a special pass phrase could you get by. Matt and I went to check out Jet while my other coworkers elected to go pursue some other endeavor. Luckily I knew a name I could use, which was good enough to get us through the crowds waiting outside, but not good enough to get us comped entry or drinks.

Fortunately, I did run into the person whose name I knew, and once he found out how I knew him, he gladly bought us a round of drinks on the house. Having secured free liquor, we hung around and watched all of the hot young women dance around on poles. Lots of Lecherous and desirous looks were shown their ways. I couldn’t help thinking about the fact that the last time I was in a place like this that the current girls I was looking at would have been in diapers. Girls sure do grow up fast. I felt so completely out of place in the club and was wondering to myself had there ever really been a time when I did. I think the best way for me to enjoy myself at these VIP type clubs is to just sit back, relax, drink and take in the marvelous views. I sure as hell know that no one wants to see me dance. But perhaps, maybe it is not too late for lessons and a better club going look.

After Jet, it was a quick pit stop back to our hotels. We needed to get our cameras and warmer clothes in order to hang out and film the Implosion of the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. To get a good vantage point for the demolition, we went onto the roof top parking garage of the Wynn Hotel. There were about 1000 likeminded people all waiting to see the building fall. They led up to the final moment with great suspense, by providing a rather long pyrotechnics show before the actual big bang. However, when it came it was definitely worth watching. One moment the hotel was there and the next, it was just a puff of dust. A rather large puff of dust that started to descend onto anyone that was in its path. Once the smoke got on top of you it was just about impossible to breathe. Bits of debris would rain down upon you and coat your hair, skin, clothes and eyeglasses in a smooth sheen of dust. I had to ball up a fleece I was wearing in order to take in some reasonably clean air. Standing in the fallout zone of the implosion was not a good idea; however, we got some fantastic photos of it. I’ll post them latter as I down size them for this blog.

After we made it back into the casino in the relative safety of filtered air conditioning, Matt decided to play another couple of hands of Blackjack. In a span of 3 minutes he took another 200 and turned it into 500. You couldn’t stop him. Not even on the walk back to our hotels where he quickly won 40 bucks on a slot machine while I was taking a piss. After I left map, I did manage to get lucky one last time on my own. A particularly attractive woman of color started talking to me and asking how I was doing, where am I going, etc. I told her back to my hotel, to which she explained that she is an Entertainment Girl and would I like to avail her of her services. In light of the fact that this was my only offer from a girl all evening, I considered myself lucky to even get one and a pretty good one at that. Any form of entertaiment I could think of. Ooooh the possibilities. But as it was a late hour after 3:30am, I felt it best that I turn this offer down for now and to think about it for some other day.

Florida

2007-11-17T17:12:00.000-05:00

So I am not sure what I am feeling about this recent trip. I had decent time for a couple of nights and managed to get in a couple of swims. I tried to run a couple of times, but my leg was having none of it. The 60K that I have to do to for a NYC Marathon Qualifier is looking doubtful. I’ll try to do it anyway.

Not much happened while I was in Palm Beach. The weather was warm, the hotel was fabulous and the meetings ranged from boring to interesting. At one point I had trouble to stay away during the meetings because I was out past 3:30am the night before, getting drunk and acting foolish. I was told that one of the highlights of the trip for everyone was when I put on someone’s high heeled shoes and raced one of my gay colleagues down the hall. Some of the gay guys then started to wonder if perhaps I was bisexual. Fortunately, none of them started to hit on me.

A couple of other things happened that I will not recount here, since certain people from work that read my blog should not be exposed to it. My only real disappointment for the trip was not getting in a swim on the last day I was there. I wanted to swim in the ocean at least one time, but I never made it. I thought I would on the last day, since my flight was not until 8pm in the evening, but my last meeting ended early and I was able to make an earlier flight. I decided to give up the swim in order to get home to my children before they went to bed. As it turned out the earlier flight was an hour delayed and the limo service I booked to pick me up from the airport took an hour to make it from the JFK parking lot to the terminal at which I was waiting. But my kids were still awake so all ended well. I got home around 10:35 which didn’t give us much time to stay up, since my son had an 8am soccer game the next morning. This was pretty brutal as it was freezing cold outside in the morning and a stark contrast to the breezy high 70’s I was experiencing just a few hours earlier.

First, but not the First

2007-11-15T18:01:00.000-05:00

This is a continuation of a previous blog. All will be explained later.