Lame post. Excellent bourbon.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Trolley Run
I had a lot of goals for this season, and between the late winter and my apathy, I didn't really train very well. I had some runs, not many rides, and not really feeling confident coming into the Trolley Run today. Fortunately the Trolley Run is a net downhill 4 miler through some of the prettier parts of the city, and I knew there would be a lot of people there cheering and running, so I knew I would do alright.
The race starts near Waldo Pizza (mmm...pizza) and finishes on Ward Parkway on the Plaza. I wasn't super amped up until I got there and then I had the pre-race jitters once I was milling about all the racers. I miss those. There is something about those jitters that I like. It is its own unique kind of tension, and the questions flood the mind. Did I train hard enough? Did I remember everything? Don't start out too fast...just relax...run your own race... The list goes on and on.
As I stood in the staging area/stockade, I had a lot of regret about not being more consistent. I will say this about being athletic. It's hard. It's hard to sit on your arse for 8+ hours a day, get home to get the kids working on homework/fed/sent to activities, get the kitchen cleaned up, play with the kids, try and have some sort of decent quality conversation with your spouse, then go hit the trainer or run, get back, shower, hit the hay, and do it all again. The important part is to do it all again. It's one thing to do it for a couple of days, but to keep at for weeks/months/years is tough. Being athletic isn't a 3x a week for 30 minutes kind of thing. That barely keeps you out of the doctor's office.
Back to the race, we got the usual "pep" talk and thanks from Sabates Eye Center (the title sponsor), and then the red (fast) heat went off...shuffle forward...blue (good runners) heat went off, shuffle forward...green heat (my heat) went off. I'd love to be at a running race where you actually got to run from the gun. Most races, like this one, start with "go", and then you stand around while the front takes off, and about 30-60 secs later you finally get up to the start line and your timing chip activates.
I started off feeling ok, passing a lot of people and getting passed by a few too. I just tried to settle into some sort of steady pace, and not get stuck behind anyone going too slow. That took a little effort the first half mile or so as everyone got sorted into their order. Once that was on, it seemed that the mile 1 marker took awhile to get too. I thought I felt ok, but knew I'd be walking soon enough. I know during my training, that I tend to run fairly fast (9:00 min miles), then stop and suck wind for a few hundred feet until my heart rate comes down. Interval training, I guess, but it'd be nice to have some consistent runs.
Anyway, I kept plugging along. By this time, my left calf was getting tight, even though I did my best to loosen them up this morning. I'm wondering how much longer I was going to run. I wasn't feeling like I was dying, so I kept my head down and knew I have some time to recover, but race time was right now. Mile 2 came up, and I felt a little happy knowing that this is probably the furthest I have ran non-stop in over a year or two. It was getting pretty warm at this point (67* at race start), and there wasn't much wind as Brookside Blvd. has a lot of nice trees and homes to block the wind. Every now and again you'd get a puff of wind and that was nice, but those were far and few between. I walked through the water station, guzzled half a glass of water as my mouth was super dry, and then picked it up again.
Mile 3 came and went, and about where a 5k would end (3.2 miles) I feel like I'm slowing down and getting hungry. I saw people walking, and really wanted to join them, but again I reminded myself that there's a big difference between running the whole thing and having to walk once, so I kept on. That was tough. Once I got close the final turn on Ward Parkway I tried to remember where the finish line was, and how nice it will be to stop.
I made the turn, and enjoyed a nice downhill with a hump over the Central St. intersection, then cranked up the heat for the last 100 m or so. Finished! I saw Penny, AB and K right at the finish line and I gave them a big wave and smile. Somehow K didn't see me, but he gave me a big hug when we finally met up. I started guzzling water and Propel and Door-to-Door Organics bananas, and then a chocolate milk. Of course the boys had their share of donut holes/chocolate milk/bananas as well.
It was a good race, I'm glad I did it, and it makes me want to shave 10 minutes off my race time for next year. I think I'll pencil that in for now, but will start looking for the next race!
my 26th Annual Trolley Run - 4 Mile results
I'm looking through Strava, and I had some weird splits. Maybe I should have just kept running!
mile 1: 11:18
mile 2: 10:12
mile 3: 9:55
mile 4: 9:32
The race starts near Waldo Pizza (mmm...pizza) and finishes on Ward Parkway on the Plaza. I wasn't super amped up until I got there and then I had the pre-race jitters once I was milling about all the racers. I miss those. There is something about those jitters that I like. It is its own unique kind of tension, and the questions flood the mind. Did I train hard enough? Did I remember everything? Don't start out too fast...just relax...run your own race... The list goes on and on.
As I stood in the staging area/stockade, I had a lot of regret about not being more consistent. I will say this about being athletic. It's hard. It's hard to sit on your arse for 8+ hours a day, get home to get the kids working on homework/fed/sent to activities, get the kitchen cleaned up, play with the kids, try and have some sort of decent quality conversation with your spouse, then go hit the trainer or run, get back, shower, hit the hay, and do it all again. The important part is to do it all again. It's one thing to do it for a couple of days, but to keep at for weeks/months/years is tough. Being athletic isn't a 3x a week for 30 minutes kind of thing. That barely keeps you out of the doctor's office.
Back to the race, we got the usual "pep" talk and thanks from Sabates Eye Center (the title sponsor), and then the red (fast) heat went off...shuffle forward...blue (good runners) heat went off, shuffle forward...green heat (my heat) went off. I'd love to be at a running race where you actually got to run from the gun. Most races, like this one, start with "go", and then you stand around while the front takes off, and about 30-60 secs later you finally get up to the start line and your timing chip activates.
I started off feeling ok, passing a lot of people and getting passed by a few too. I just tried to settle into some sort of steady pace, and not get stuck behind anyone going too slow. That took a little effort the first half mile or so as everyone got sorted into their order. Once that was on, it seemed that the mile 1 marker took awhile to get too. I thought I felt ok, but knew I'd be walking soon enough. I know during my training, that I tend to run fairly fast (9:00 min miles), then stop and suck wind for a few hundred feet until my heart rate comes down. Interval training, I guess, but it'd be nice to have some consistent runs.
Anyway, I kept plugging along. By this time, my left calf was getting tight, even though I did my best to loosen them up this morning. I'm wondering how much longer I was going to run. I wasn't feeling like I was dying, so I kept my head down and knew I have some time to recover, but race time was right now. Mile 2 came up, and I felt a little happy knowing that this is probably the furthest I have ran non-stop in over a year or two. It was getting pretty warm at this point (67* at race start), and there wasn't much wind as Brookside Blvd. has a lot of nice trees and homes to block the wind. Every now and again you'd get a puff of wind and that was nice, but those were far and few between. I walked through the water station, guzzled half a glass of water as my mouth was super dry, and then picked it up again.
Mile 3 came and went, and about where a 5k would end (3.2 miles) I feel like I'm slowing down and getting hungry. I saw people walking, and really wanted to join them, but again I reminded myself that there's a big difference between running the whole thing and having to walk once, so I kept on. That was tough. Once I got close the final turn on Ward Parkway I tried to remember where the finish line was, and how nice it will be to stop.
I made the turn, and enjoyed a nice downhill with a hump over the Central St. intersection, then cranked up the heat for the last 100 m or so. Finished! I saw Penny, AB and K right at the finish line and I gave them a big wave and smile. Somehow K didn't see me, but he gave me a big hug when we finally met up. I started guzzling water and Propel and Door-to-Door Organics bananas, and then a chocolate milk. Of course the boys had their share of donut holes/chocolate milk/bananas as well.
It was a good race, I'm glad I did it, and it makes me want to shave 10 minutes off my race time for next year. I think I'll pencil that in for now, but will start looking for the next race!
my 26th Annual Trolley Run - 4 Mile results
I'm looking through Strava, and I had some weird splits. Maybe I should have just kept running!
mile 1: 11:18
mile 2: 10:12
mile 3: 9:55
mile 4: 9:32
Friday, February 21, 2014
So what...
The codeine finally kicked in and 3 months later, my sister told me to get back to blogging. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
My legs are sore, I ran 3.5 miles yesterday. By "run", I mean mostly walked with occasional bursts of running. I've been pretty terrible about working out, just a little of this and a little of that. I've been doing some of the XBox fitness workouts, which are fun. But mostly they remind me that sitting at a desk 40 hours a week turns you into a bag of goo.
Penny and I worked probably 60 hours each this week, and I know I have more coming up this weekend. I can't wait for things to calm down. This is ridiculous.
That's all for now, I gotta get ready to do more work. Yay.
My legs are sore, I ran 3.5 miles yesterday. By "run", I mean mostly walked with occasional bursts of running. I've been pretty terrible about working out, just a little of this and a little of that. I've been doing some of the XBox fitness workouts, which are fun. But mostly they remind me that sitting at a desk 40 hours a week turns you into a bag of goo.
Penny and I worked probably 60 hours each this week, and I know I have more coming up this weekend. I can't wait for things to calm down. This is ridiculous.
That's all for now, I gotta get ready to do more work. Yay.
Monday, November 11, 2013
The codeine hasn't kicked in yet.
On Friday, I started getting a tickle in my chest, which turned into some interesting percolation type noises upon expiration. By Sunday, I had a fever of 600* and cold chills, generally achiness, enough nausea to dread it, savage headaches, and felt almost deathly. Not quite food poisoning bad (that's the worst evar), but quite sickly. That SO ticked me off seeing as I work for Barack Obama I had Monday off, and was planning on going on a nice long mountain bike ride at Shawnee Mission Park before the weather crapped out. So much for that, but thank you to all of our Veteran's. I wish we'd stop getting into so many wars and making veterans, but then that wouldn't be American. At least of the last 40 years or so.
Anyway, before this turns into a geopolitical summarization from an idiot savant, life has otherwise been pretty good. Penny got really sick, but she's nearly on the up and up. Kieran is working through a cold, and AB is healthy except for the fact he was playing football and ran into a retaining wall. He's trying to take after his old man.
Apart from the sickness, life has been good. I'm thankful this is all the sick we all get, and that in a week or so we're all back upright and taking names.
Speaking of thankful, Penny has been leading us at dinner every night where we each state what we are thankful for. AB is always thankful for sports, but tonight he was thankful for friends. Kieran is often thankful for things that may or may not exist in this plane of reality. But that's why we're blessed.
So, I'll be riding again soon enough, and trying to get some leg muscles again, and we'll all be ready for T-Day and Christmas. At the risk of sounding bah-humbug, why in the world do people have Xmas lights up the day after Halloween. As if Christmas wasn't struggling enough with capitalism...
That's it for now. I probably should hit the sack and hope for some decent, sweat-less sleep.
Anyway, before this turns into a geopolitical summarization from an idiot savant, life has otherwise been pretty good. Penny got really sick, but she's nearly on the up and up. Kieran is working through a cold, and AB is healthy except for the fact he was playing football and ran into a retaining wall. He's trying to take after his old man.
Apart from the sickness, life has been good. I'm thankful this is all the sick we all get, and that in a week or so we're all back upright and taking names.
Speaking of thankful, Penny has been leading us at dinner every night where we each state what we are thankful for. AB is always thankful for sports, but tonight he was thankful for friends. Kieran is often thankful for things that may or may not exist in this plane of reality. But that's why we're blessed.
So, I'll be riding again soon enough, and trying to get some leg muscles again, and we'll all be ready for T-Day and Christmas. At the risk of sounding bah-humbug, why in the world do people have Xmas lights up the day after Halloween. As if Christmas wasn't struggling enough with capitalism...
That's it for now. I probably should hit the sack and hope for some decent, sweat-less sleep.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Wild weekend
I hardly got out to ride this week. Today was my first and only ride, although it was a bit short it was great. Allow me to rewind to Monday first. This work week was a hell week if there ever was one. Firewalls constantly failing causing outages and for some reason I got stuck with both a Juniper and Cisco TAC case working on these pieces of junk. That's still not resolved, but I think things are stable enough.
At least I had Saturday to look forward too. My friends are in this band...no really. They needed a sound guy and I clearly knew nothing about so I decided to volunteer. That led to a 1:30am practice Friday morning, which so boosted my productivity that day. I was also getting antsy since I was going to sit in for "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. My playing is ok, but I was banking on all our friends being mostly inebriated before I hit the stage. Therefore, I would sound just like Jimmy Page. Er, I mean Gary Rossington.
My nerves were getting a little amped for the solo, but fate hadn't played her hand yet....
A few hours before sound check, Penny got a text from a couple of her friends that the lead singer, (Coach) Brad, had been in a car accident. Turns out it was pretty bad, and he ended up staying the night in the hospital. So the show was cancelled, and now I can go back to plunking solos out in A minor. I think he'll be ok soon enough, his body took a pounding though.
Since we didn't go out and subsequently I was in pretty good shape (no hangover to recover from), I went out for a BuRP ride, and had some decent legs and cleaned a few technical parts of the trail I haven't cleaned in quite a while. So that was good. I gotta get some more miles in before October is over though so I can earn a Strava badge (250k in October). That's pretty lightweight for some people, but that's a lot for me, especially since the back is still occasionally bothering me.
That's it for now, I'm already getting tired. The boys are all amped so I know they won't go to bed easily...sigh.
At least I had Saturday to look forward too. My friends are in this band...no really. They needed a sound guy and I clearly knew nothing about so I decided to volunteer. That led to a 1:30am practice Friday morning, which so boosted my productivity that day. I was also getting antsy since I was going to sit in for "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. My playing is ok, but I was banking on all our friends being mostly inebriated before I hit the stage. Therefore, I would sound just like Jimmy Page. Er, I mean Gary Rossington.
My nerves were getting a little amped for the solo, but fate hadn't played her hand yet....
A few hours before sound check, Penny got a text from a couple of her friends that the lead singer, (Coach) Brad, had been in a car accident. Turns out it was pretty bad, and he ended up staying the night in the hospital. So the show was cancelled, and now I can go back to plunking solos out in A minor. I think he'll be ok soon enough, his body took a pounding though.
Since we didn't go out and subsequently I was in pretty good shape (no hangover to recover from), I went out for a BuRP ride, and had some decent legs and cleaned a few technical parts of the trail I haven't cleaned in quite a while. So that was good. I gotta get some more miles in before October is over though so I can earn a Strava badge (250k in October). That's pretty lightweight for some people, but that's a lot for me, especially since the back is still occasionally bothering me.
That's it for now, I'm already getting tired. The boys are all amped so I know they won't go to bed easily...sigh.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Riding, and an old video worth a re-look
I left work a little early yesterday to get a few road miles in before the crappy weather hit this weekend. I figured between the bad weather and the soccer games my riding chances wouldn't be very good. So I got a solid 24 or something like that, and it felt great. I pushed into a headwind the whole way out, and I bet I went at least twice as fast on the way home. Something about flying along like that makes it so fun. I ran out of gears a few times, which either means the tailwind was strong or I have some easy gears on. Probably a bit of both. My legs are definitely talking to me today, and I love that feeling.
Penny is really sick, she's on a z-pak trying to stave off pneumonia or something like that. She's had a fever for a few days, and has a nasty cough too. I've been sleeping in the guest bedroom and trying to keep my distance while still taking care of her. It's a lot of work trying to keep up with the house and kids, but Lord knows she takes care of me the other 361 days of the year.
AB's last fall soccer game is this weekend, and it's going to be frigid. I bet it'll just be me out there. I'm going to have to bust out my thermals, wool socks, and winter boots. It'll feel like cyclocross except for the lack of cowbell.
Now for the video, or "The Rant"...
Penny is really sick, she's on a z-pak trying to stave off pneumonia or something like that. She's had a fever for a few days, and has a nasty cough too. I've been sleeping in the guest bedroom and trying to keep my distance while still taking care of her. It's a lot of work trying to keep up with the house and kids, but Lord knows she takes care of me the other 361 days of the year.
AB's last fall soccer game is this weekend, and it's going to be frigid. I bet it'll just be me out there. I'm going to have to bust out my thermals, wool socks, and winter boots. It'll feel like cyclocross except for the lack of cowbell.
Now for the video, or "The Rant"...
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Riding again
I've been riding a bit more since I have this extra time off thanks to Congress (I'm furloughed). I had a great ride at Minor Park today, and hopefully can get some more rides in this weekend but it's pretty action packed.
My legs/lungs/heart are in sad, sad shape. I guess that's what happens when you take 10 months off or so. But I feel like they are getting a little better. There are few joys in my life greater than when I'm going fast on a bike. It's so invigorating and liberating. Especially when you are riding well and in the zone. Awesome. I've gotten a few short bursts of that since I started back up, and it's pretty addicting. I do remember when I was in decent shape a couple of years ago and was an ok racer. I had some speed, some handling, but there clearly was a large gap between myself and the guys who rode 100+ miles a week. Not to belittle my efforts and accomplishments, but that's a TON of work to keep yourself in real, competitive race shape. Like you need to be on the bike 6 days a week. It just didn't mean that much to me and I got tired of being tired. But now I'm round-shaped and ready to get back into some other shape.
Enough about that.
AB lost his 3rd tooth a couple of days ago, I tried ripping it out of his head but that just ended in tears. He woke us up at 3am that night to let us know it came out. We've been waiting at least 4 months for that thing to finally wiggle out. It is his top front tooth, and has been loose for as long as I can remember. The other top front tooth has been loose about the same amount, and hopefully it'll pop out here fairly soon. Not that I'm anxious to go visit the ortho, but I'm interested in seeing what kind of budget trauma we'll have to sustain.
We are going to see the Miami Heat tomorrow night, and then a bevy of soccer games, swim lessons, and AB is getting his 3rd grade bible tomorrow. I think it's one of those things that he might not appreciate for awhile, but the most important thing I could ever teach him is that the world is much, much bigger than him, and there is something real that binds it all together. The sooner he appreciates those two facts, the sooner he can find lasting happiness, which is what any parent wants for their child.
Sigh.
There is always more to write, but I felt I should at least write something since it's been a bit, and I haven't had a good excuse not too. I've more or less enjoyed my time off, but it's about time to get back to work (which is going to be a disaster of epic proportions), and I want to make sure we get back paid. We have some float, but I'd just as soon use it to cover something we did, rather than congressional ineptitude.
Doesn't get much better than this...
My legs/lungs/heart are in sad, sad shape. I guess that's what happens when you take 10 months off or so. But I feel like they are getting a little better. There are few joys in my life greater than when I'm going fast on a bike. It's so invigorating and liberating. Especially when you are riding well and in the zone. Awesome. I've gotten a few short bursts of that since I started back up, and it's pretty addicting. I do remember when I was in decent shape a couple of years ago and was an ok racer. I had some speed, some handling, but there clearly was a large gap between myself and the guys who rode 100+ miles a week. Not to belittle my efforts and accomplishments, but that's a TON of work to keep yourself in real, competitive race shape. Like you need to be on the bike 6 days a week. It just didn't mean that much to me and I got tired of being tired. But now I'm round-shaped and ready to get back into some other shape.
Enough about that.
AB lost his 3rd tooth a couple of days ago, I tried ripping it out of his head but that just ended in tears. He woke us up at 3am that night to let us know it came out. We've been waiting at least 4 months for that thing to finally wiggle out. It is his top front tooth, and has been loose for as long as I can remember. The other top front tooth has been loose about the same amount, and hopefully it'll pop out here fairly soon. Not that I'm anxious to go visit the ortho, but I'm interested in seeing what kind of budget trauma we'll have to sustain.
AB wouldn't open his mouth to show off his gappy tooth, so Kieran volunteered
We are going to see the Miami Heat tomorrow night, and then a bevy of soccer games, swim lessons, and AB is getting his 3rd grade bible tomorrow. I think it's one of those things that he might not appreciate for awhile, but the most important thing I could ever teach him is that the world is much, much bigger than him, and there is something real that binds it all together. The sooner he appreciates those two facts, the sooner he can find lasting happiness, which is what any parent wants for their child.
Sigh.
There is always more to write, but I felt I should at least write something since it's been a bit, and I haven't had a good excuse not too. I've more or less enjoyed my time off, but it's about time to get back to work (which is going to be a disaster of epic proportions), and I want to make sure we get back paid. We have some float, but I'd just as soon use it to cover something we did, rather than congressional ineptitude.
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