Thursday, March 27, 2008

Getting a Bone Scan




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I've Been Pimped Out

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

Monday, March 24, 2008

3 Weeks and a Day

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.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

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



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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Walk the Earth

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



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Alligators in New Orleans Swamp


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

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008



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At the Dragons Den




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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Friendly Alligator



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Driving Swamp Boat




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Saturday, March 15, 2008

On Bourbon Street




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Monday, March 10, 2008

BBQ Sauce Courtesy of DaphneA



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Cake - it makes my mouth happy.



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Sunday, March 9, 2008

Fluffernutter



So yummy and delicious!

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Friday, March 7, 2008

NY Knicks at Madison Square Garden



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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Caumsett Park 50K

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.

Sunday, March 2, 2008



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ice bath




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Ice Bath



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