RunStrong

Christmas Card 2011

2011-12-10T12:55:00.002-05:00

Coming to a mailbox near you:

Modern Christmas Christmas

Personalize your holiday card this Christmas with Shutterfly.

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red sox ticket registration opportunity

2010-02-20T17:35:00.000-05:00

take a quick spin over to the red sox ticketing site for the chance to purchase some pretty awesome red sox tickets. here's a link directly to the registration page: http://tinyurl.com/yztykuz.

registering give you a chance to purchase tickets to games against the new york yankees which are scheduled for: april 4-7, may 7-9, october 1-3. as well as games against the los angles dogers, which is new since they have manny now. those games are on june 18-20.

you can also register for the chance at green monster seats for any of the 81 games at fenway park. i did this last year, and even though the prices were exorbitant AND the game ended in the 7th due to rain, it was still an amazing experience. and lastly you can register for the rightfield roof deck where you have to purchase 4 tickets and get a table and wait service. something i haven't done yet.

i highly suggest registering now (here's that link again: http://tinyurl.com/yztykuz) because the registration period ends for the nny & lad games on wednesday, february 22nd at noon. you can register for all there opportunities at once so you might as well do it now! if you do get selected, remember, it's only for the chance to buy tickets. you still have to go into the red sox "virtual waiting room of hell" and hope they have the games and seats you want. but i strongly suggest registering even if you're not sure you wanna go to the game. you can always sell your tickets on craigslist, plan a trip up to boston for a game if you're from outta town, or invite your favorite friend to a game - ya know, the one who reminded you to register (one more time: http://tinyurl.com/yztykuz). good luck!

beantown visitor

2010-02-05T00:32:00.000-05:00

tomorrow my first visitor of 2010 will arrive. my cousin, katie, who is on the east coast for work, will be spending the weekend here in boston. katie is in a rare group of visitors: those who have visited me in boston more than once. in fact, i think there are only two visitors in this exclusive group, and the other, the legend, will be making his 5th visit (i believe) next month. katie is a close second and if work keeps sending her to the east coast she could overtake the legend in 2010.

for a first time visitor to boston i can get away with little to no planning. this is in thanks to living in the city for more than four years now, and having had the privilege of showing many family members and friends around the tourist areas of boston. but for those visitors who have already walked the freedom trail (and those that have proposed taking a shot every time "freedom trail" is exclaimed during the walk), seen quincy market, and walked by or through harvard university, more planning and coordination is necessary to make the trip a success. plus, i'm not a fan of asking the question "what do you want to do now?" and hearing in response "i don't care."

so in light of katie's visit this friday, i've put together a list (or agenda if you will) of this weekend's plans. this allows those partaking in the activities a chance to veto something they're not interested in, while those in boston looking for plans an opportunity to participate.

friday, february 5th

7:30 pm dinner reservations (for 4) @ figs (gourmet pizza) in beacon hill
depending on katie's arrival, a pre-dinner drink @ brookline's regal beagal
after dinner drinks at the sevens in beacon hill

saturday, february 6th

breakfast is the most important meal, right? but breakfast is too early. and unfortunately, if you're not early @ brookline's zaftigs then enjoy the hour wait. that's why i'm going to suggest 11 am brunch @ johnny d's in somerville's davis square
since we'll be in a car and i've only done it once, a tour of the sam adam's brewery in jamaica plain in the afternoon is a must
time to get rid of the car, get ready for the rest of our night, and start using public transportation.
head down to the copley area and check out the boston public library and trinity church around 4:30
have a drink or two around 5:30 pm at the top of the hub in the prudential building
8:00 pm dinner reservations (for 3) at the south end's tremont 647
after dinner drinks at brownstone on dartmouth st

sunday, february 7th

this is a big sports day. yeah, i'm talking about the capitals @ pens hockey game at noon! i think there's a football game on later that day too?
with little time before katie has to depart back to the mid-west in the early afternoon, so seems like we'll need some coffee
a stop by the coolidge corner peet's coffee & tea
a walk past jfk's birthplace home in brookline
and a chocolate croissant from clear flour bakery
then it's off to logan airport and picking up some beer when i get back

if ya ever visit me in boston, including your upcoming visit mr. legend, you can count on hitting up a place or two from this list. like i previously mentioned, if you're in boston this weekend, whether visiting or living here, and some of these activities interest ya, get in touch with me and i'll let ya know where we are. reservations can be easily adjusted and we'd be glad to have ya. but be prepared to take a picture of katie and i to mark her visit.

on ice. almost.

2009-12-19T16:27:00.000-05:00

fenway park will be the sight of this year's winter classic - the new year's day hockey game played outdoors. not only will the bruins play, but boston university is set to take the ice on the 2nd of january. i was hoping to be one of the lucky 3,000 that got to skate on the ice on the 3rd or 10th.

earlier this week the city of boston announced they would be giving away 3,000 tickets on saturday morning at 13 locations. the only catch was that you needed to be a resident of boston (and show proof of such). also you need to bring your own skates if you receive a ticket. unfortunately, living in brookline doesn't qualify me as a boston resident even though boston completely surrounds my town. brookline never got on that boston train. but thankfully, my girlfriend's recent move into the city allowed us the privilege to wait in line this morning.

armed with our starbucks coffee and gloves and hats, we made it to the community center in the south end where they were distributing tickets 20 minutes before 9, which is when this process was to begin. my best guestimate was that we were between 60 or 70th in line, but the fact that each resident was allowed up to 4 tickets should have deterred us from waiting. but with a friendly "line family," as one person in front of us put it, we waited. and waited. and waited some more. and we got cold. then colder. then froze.

over an hour into the wait, w/ the worst part being the boston police not allowing the entire line inside due to space restrictions, murmurs of no more tickets started to rise. still 25 people deep, the police announced tickets were gone, but we could sign a waiting list. we had already invested so much time and hope that it would have been foolish leave so we waited a while longer to sign the waiting list. This now seems ironic.

the city of boston, the redsox, the bruins, and sun life financial corporation have put so much into this winter classic. it'll be a treat to watch the games on tv (i didn't even attempt to purchase tickets for the games) and a once in a lifetime opportunity for those who did get tickets today to skate inside historic fenway. hopefully those that made this happen see the interest in the public from today and announce another day or evening skate is available. i'd be happy to wait again for a chance at those tickets.

run rudolph run

2009-12-18T20:39:00.003-05:00

i haven't gotten into the christmas spirit yet this year. i think a major reason why is that i'm not working and that excitement in the air that's so contagious is something that i haven't found. but i did buy some christmas presents on thursday and i think that might have helped. also i visited a friend's place on thursday evening (after that awesome pens' win) and saw his perfect live tree decorated w/ care by him and his 2 young kids. it was funny to see some branches sagging w/ the weight of 3 ornaments. when a kid sees a good branch he's gotta give it some love.

so today i finally felt a little of that christmas spirit so i ran w/ it. i found the radio station in boston that was playing christmas music, and although i didn't purchase a tree this year i decided to string some lights around the apartment. so now my back windows are lit up and garland is hung from the window frame in the family room too.

and after putting off working out for the past several days i forced myself to do something. especially as this weekend looks to involve lots of going out and consuming adult beverages. while i could have gone to the gym and ran on a treadmill in shorts and a short sleeve shirt i decided that the drive to the gym would be too much hassle. i instead got dressed in my warm weather gear and proceeded to sit on my couch and start pounding beers. just kidding. i braved the elements, including the concrete sidewalks, and ran 3 miles! the distance isn't the big accomplishment, but rather the fact that i ran outside and in the cold. i haven't run outside for easily over a month, and that's even w/ some 60 degree days. the biggest reasons were some injuries, including a tweaked lower back. but as of now, a few hours after the run, i feel tired but my back feels fine.

steelers who? let's go pens!

2009-12-18T01:19:00.000-05:00

thursday evening was the first time this season, and actually in the past 4 years since i moved to boston, that i went to a bar to watch the pittsburgh penguins. on tuesday the pens played their cross-state rivals the philadelphia flyers who they handily beat that evening 6-1. thankfully that game was on nationally on versus. however, thursday evening's game which was again against the flyers, this time in philadelphia, was no where to be found on cable. my plan was to check out the coolidge corner clubhouse - one of 2 bars (previously it was the only one) that i would visit in the immediate vicinity - and hope they had the game on one of the numerous tv's they had.

when i walked in and took a survery of the stations and games that were being shown, i didn't see any hockey let alone the pens. i stood at the bar - as i wasn't ready to invest in a seat in case they couldn't show the game - until i was able to ask if it was possible to show the pens @ flyers game. the new bartender wasn't familiar with what was available so she asked me to wait for a couple of minutes while she inquired w/ the manager.

i was standing 4 seats away from the corner of the bar when the bartender informed me they would infact get the pens game. does this mean i should go to the clubhouse for every pens game going forward? or i could just pay for center ice from my cable provider, right? so when i learned that they would have the pens game my evening got infinitely better, but that's also when i learned my negotiations weren't complete. and by negotiations i mean how i would be watching the games. they said they'd put the game on the corner tv even though i was sitting directly infront of one. by the way, the tv infront of me was showing highschool basketball. also by the way, i believe northland upset findlay. if you're really interested, check it out on espn.com since they were the ones broadcasting the game.

while enjoying ipswitch winter ales, and a free guiness, and some delicious chili on a cold winter evening i watch all 3 periods of the pens game. plus the overtime and shootout! after fluery stopped the second penalty shot and the pens had scored on their first, they had sid "the sniper" crosby take their second shot which he promptly put in the back of the net. pens beat the flyers for the 2nd time in 3 nights. i think it might be time to purchase center ice - seems like another stanley cup year!

keep things short, including the espresso

2009-12-17T00:17:00.000-05:00

short. quick. brief. i need to remind myself of this before i start writing a dissertation on retirement savings. now knowing the details of tuesday's post i hope you turn to it in the future if you ever have trouble falling asleep. no promises that this one keeps you up, and if not i suggest trying some espresso.

year's ago i found a starbucks espresso machine on craigslist. after experiencing first-hand that the machine worked properly, although the espresso the seller pulled tasted like crap, i quickly handed over my money for the machine. it's been one of the best investments. the only issue was when i purchased beans that were too finely ground and they clogged the filter. This was easily, but painstakingly, resolved but pushing them out w/ the use of a safety pin.

since i've had more time on my hands during the mornings (a benefit of not working), and no espresso blend, i've been making and drinking regular coffee. but wednesday i exhausted my coffee bean supply and knew i needed something for the next morning. so the need for caffine and the promise of a free afternoon coffee enticed me to plan a stop at peet's in coolidge corner. on my way i remembered i no longer had any biscotti which is the perfect compliment to an espresso. even though it required a double-back from where i came i headed to trader joe's and picked up some. a few hundred feet later and i was at peet's w/ a half pound of italian roast and a free medium coffee. they never disappoint, and i'm sure my espresso on thursday morning won't either.

retirement already?

2009-12-16T01:33:00.004-05:00

surprisingly, no one sent me a message saying they no longer wish to receive emails of my blog. victory! in fact, i even received some positive feedback. i bet this was the case because no one thought that i would post again till 2010. but here i am.

so during my unemployment stint, i tried to ignore an important financial area - retirement savings. i did this because i was confident that my skills and experiences would land me a job before anything got out of hand. this almost happened - twice. but unfortunately, investing money from my savings and leaving my 401k just sitting around in my former employer's plan weren't the best ideas.

i had been putting off talking w/ my financial adviser for months. events such as my initial lay-off, the end of my severance pay, or a return trip home would have all been good opportunities to have the necessary investment discussions. but i really thought i'd be able sneak by until i was once again gainfully employed. i realized after my latest near miss of employment, last thursday was when i was informed the company was "passing" on me, that i needed to talk to my financial adviser.

my call from monday was returned, and we spoke for over an hour and a half on tuesday. while these aren't necessarily the worst calls to have, especially if the market is improving like it has been since 2008, they're also not the most fun. i was able to suspend my investments in the mutual funds i hold for 3 months. i thought this was a good timeframe - enough so i wouldn't be worried about how rent's going to get paid, but also good motivation to get back to receiving a pay check and to go through the big process to get there. however, i always have the safety net of suspending things a few more months.

and as for my 401k, while i knew there were a couple of options i really wasn't sure what the best was - though i did know that cashing out was the worst. shortly after telling my financial adviser that i hadn't done anything w/ it, he started his pitch to open an IRA at his firm. it actually did make the most sense for the long run, but the 4.5% that gets chopped off immediately to have them manage my money was tough to swallow. and then i started wondering if he had my best interests in mind or was trying to make a quick buck for him and his firm. i think it's a little of both, but i've been w/ them for over 6 years so i feel pretty good about him as an adviser. in the end i was just glad to have done something "proactive" with my money, finally. now if only i could comfortably add more. hopefully soon.

time for my monthly post

2009-12-15T00:47:00.003-05:00

i don't think i'm quite made for this blogging thing. not sure exactly why not, as i post to twitter which only a few of my friends/family would read, so you'd think that writing a few more characters than the 140 that twitter allows wouldn't be difficult. i think that some of my writing is verbose, and this blog doesn't really have a theme anymore, so i'm gonna try to change things for the remainder of 2009.

with being out of work for a long time - much longer than i expected - and having the chance on a daily basis to look at what i've done w/ my time off i've been frustrated and disappointed that i haven't taken advantage of it. perhaps i think i should be traveling all around the world with this time off, but of course that costs money, and mine is slowly dwindling. it seems like a lot of the experiences one dreams of cost money or would be better appreciated if they were enjoyed w/ someone else. so maybe i shouldn't be so hard on myself?

as i was heading to my car to go to the gym on monday evening, i realized that i hadn't been out of the house all day. i was disappointed in myself for this. all this free time, and i'm seemingly wasting it. this feeling was in spite of the fact that i recently did something pretty awesome - taking a wonderful trip to new hampshire this weekend with my girlfriend, jen, to relax and snowboard/ski. so i thought to myself: self, wouldn't it be motivation to do something new / that i was proud of / great if i would post about it that day (or the next day in case it takes me the full 24 hours to do this thing). sort of like the reason this blog was initially developed: to help me train for the chicago marathon. it would also be a way regularly post to this blog instead of just writing a post once every month or two.

so here goes... the new thing: on sunday, while in new hampshire, i attempted cross-country skiing for the first time - specifically the "skating" style (as opposed to "classical"). i had always heard that xcountry skiing was a terrific workout, and watching the winter olympics it was easy to see these guys were studs - especially the ones carrying a rifle and shooting five targets throughout their race (technically the biathlon). anyway (gotta work on this verbose thing), i was terrible at the skiing. at the first turn, which was the one to get on the actual trail from the center, i bit it and tweaked an old should injury. that was one of many spills. though i did handle the downhills pretty well. jen tried her hardest to teach me how to skate on my skis, but i wasn't the best of students. it was pretty frustrating, and you quickly realize how much technique is involved in this sport. i would definitely be willing to try it again and hope the next time i do a little better.

and on monday i was proud that i already posted the pictures jen and i took during our weekend on facebook. usually it takes me a few days to take the pics off my camera's memory card, and then a few weeks to upload them for sharing. my normal timeframe is about three months to get them onto facebook (and in the correct order w/ interesting captions). for instance, when the legend and his wife came up in march 2009 for his 30th birthday it took me till my last day of work in june to get them onto facebook. and that was only because my computer was being confiscated! check out the pics of this weekend's adventure here.

i hope i'm able to keep this up and i hope you enjoy it. if you get the emails of the blog, but no longer wish to just let me know. i promise it won't offend me (for more than a day). and it'll free up a space for someone else. and if you feel like making a comment, come to the blog and post it here instead of sending it directly to me via email. of course, if you do just send it to me i'll be sure to post it on here for ya.

rainy days

2009-10-25T00:57:00.001-04:00

i got some violent hate mail today. you should really check out all the comments from my previous posts. unbelievable stuff - really. like the one that shook me up was : "it's time that you publish a new post, homeboy." you can imagine what it's like being called a "homeboy" right? it shake's your shit up! it leaves you questioning who your fans are. so without further ado to my "homie" friends...

this saurday while seeming like any other saturday ended very much like i would like. first, it was a birthday brunch. i didn't know the birthday girl, though i know her husband very well as he's a key member of our trivia team, but who's to say no to brunch food? not very many, but my catholic guilt and semi-sense of style told me not to come empty handed so i stopped at party favors, a local bakery, for a delicious cupcake to present upon my arrival. the brunch was good... good waffles, good fruit salad, good mimosas, good company, and good video games. when i returned home i started checking out gamestop online and craigslist.com for the best prices of guitar hero and rock back. i never played one of these musical games until earlier this afternoon, and sucked at it, but was hooked. i wanna be a rock legend, as xbox would consider, and am interested in buying the equipment. i haven't purchase anything as i was pre-occupied with episodes of "entourage" and then the boston university and michagan hockey game.

craig and i meet up for the game and after getting near the arena discovered that any place would be a wait for dinner - including sunset cantina which was an hour so off to 937 commenwealth. after a bit of waiting we found a spot and were able to order a tasty dinner and a few beverages. it was off to the arena to watch bu pound michigan - and vice versa - as there were 2 game misconduct penalties which in college hockey is a rarity! so after bu scored the go-ahead goal on a stupid clearance by michagan's goaltender, who was way out of his crease, craig and i headed to the coolidge corner clubhouse for some drinks.

oh, yeah, we walked in a downpour - it was terrific. sarcasim, of course. one of those weather nights when there's no way you'd leave the house, which a few buddies texted, and rightfully so. but the clubshouse has beers so that's where craigers and i celebrated while he hit up the jukebox. now, back home, it'll be a little entourage with hopes of the steelers winning tomorrow against favre's vikings, as well as buddies coming over for a drinking game conceived around nesn's "the batter's box," and of course my own guitar hero - whether it's from gamestop or craigslist.

Strongest Man Competition

2009-09-30T19:54:00.001-04:00

Remember those World's Strongest Man competitions that they used to show on ESPN? I think they're probably airing on ESPN Classic now. The ones where they'd hollow out a VW Bug and the guy would stand in the middle of it and try to walk 25 meters before his back broke!

Well, on my way home from the dry cleaners where I picked up over 40 shirts that were pressed (yes, I have that many dress shirts) I decided it would be quicker to walk the four minutes home instead of throwing the shirts in my nearby car and driving. With each arm carrying 20 shirts I thought the first minute was a cake walk. By the second minute I was thinking about this post and how this could be a new competition - World's Strongest Business Man! Men would compete in numerous events like the dry cleaning walk, the paper ream dead lift, and the printer toss. By the time I was at three minutes I was grimacing and reminding myself to breath. I felt like Mangnus Samuelsson and wondered when the exhaustion would hit and I would tumble to the ground along with all my clean, pressed shirts.

And then I got to my apartment's front door, held all the clothes with one arm while getting my keys, and made it into the door. Only to realize that I had three more sets of stairs to climb. This was a decent first training session, but my sights will be on the 2010 World's Strongest Business Man competition! Where's my masseuse? My traps are killing me.

karama

2009-09-24T16:06:00.003-04:00

Wasn't there a story several years ago where an old lady would go around w/ her bag of spare change and fill expired or close to expired parking meters? I think this was in Pittsburgh and if my memory serves me right, I think that the old lady got a ticket herself for obstructing justice or at least obstructing city revenue.

As I was walking down Beacon St this afternoon on my way home, I noticed the meter maid in front of me. She was doing her job - checking for the desired red notification so she could break out her pen and pad and write a ticket. It just happened that she found one and stopped to fill out her paperwork. I kept walking and noticed only a few cars ahead that there was another expired meter. Instead of giving the meter maid joy in writing another ticket, and extending her quota by 1 more today, I reached into my bag and dropped a quarter in the meter for an additional 20 minutes. I'm hoping that my good deed brings me good karma - I could use some!

RTB, Part I

2009-09-18T21:44:00.001-04:00

So here's my attempt at a mobile post as we're currently enroute to finding some food and rest after our van's first segment at the RTB. For more info on the relay itself, check out the right hand side for a link to their website. But the gist of it is that groups of no more than 12 people run approximately 200 miles in total as fast as they can. We've split our group of 12 into 2 vans, and I'm in the second van which takes legs 7 through 12 initially, 19 through 24, and 31 though 37.

I ran leg 9 which was 3.5 miles. Before I took off, as we were trying to get to the transition are where I would meet Artie who's running before me, we hit some traffic in the small town. We thought we might have been late, making Artie wait, but as we pulled into the parking lot I jumped out and sprint towards the transition are to catch Artie and get our wrist band to continue on. It was a much better hand-off then the American women's 4x100 team has been doing of late.

The beginning of my run was fine, nothing remarkable, though I did pass a nice looking restaurant w/ outdoor seating called "Almost There" and then caught my first runner. As I kept chugging along, I saw my first hill and was ready to eat it alive. After getting 100 or 200 meters up the hill, I realized there was someone honking. At first I thought they were honking at me to let me know that I had dropped a blinker from my night gear, which I wouldn't have cared about since we had plenty of extras. But then looking back I realized they were honking at me because I had missed the turn and was running the wrong way! D'oh! I didn't feel too bad after my leg was done, which I ran @ a 7:19 / mile pace, and my team said they missed the turn too, but ended up driving the wrong was for about 3 miles. Glad someone helped me out - I owe them a beer.

We're back home and have about 3 hours to get some food and rest. Not sure how much I'll be able to sleep as I'm not much of an on-the-spot sleeper, but hopefully the Harpoon Brown Ale I'm enjoying now will help tire me out as much as the run. I've got a 7+ mile run tomorrow @ 4 in the morning... So until then.

parking

2009-09-16T22:36:00.007-04:00

as i mentioned in an earlier post, parking in brookline where i've resided for the past 4 years can be nightmarish and deserved it's own post. well, this is that post.

a little background for those unfamiliar with the laws of parking a vehicle in brookline, ma. first rule is think of the most absurd general parking law (not like street sweeping first friday of every monday from may through november, though this is a law in the city of boston itself). so have you thought of that absurd parking law? well, make it three times worse and you're getting close to being able to be a lawmaker in brookline. the first and most ridiculous law in brookline regarding parking is no overnight street parking. so this should read that unless you have a driveway or your enormous apartment complex has a garage, you're screwed. the second bogus law is that you're not allowed to park in the same on-street parking spot for more than 2 hours. brookline actually did a nice thing for residents by selling an annual daytime parking permit for only $25. this solved that issue for probably about 90% of residents. the other 10% live on certain streets (or even certain parts of streets) that do not qualify for this resident permit parking. guess into which group i fall? i live a block and a half from the largest commercial section of this town and for that reason or some other crazy one i don't qualify for a permit. oh, and the 4 floor, 16 unit, no elevator apartment building i live in doesn't have a garage where its tenants can park.

but it does have a parking lot. unfortunately, it's owned by the town of brookline, and furthermore it's only an overnight parking lot! so during the day its reserved for employees of business in the area, meaning you need to move your car. oh, and the town charges $100 / month for this luxury. in all honesty, only about 5% of residents are affected by brookline's absurd parking laws (guests can be as well, since remember, there's no overnight parking. but don't worry, you can buy a one-time guest overnight pass for a mere $10!) but for me it's been a perfect storm. i need to park overnight and i moved to brookline for the convenience of public transportation so i can't leave my car anywhere for more than two hours.

the only solution for people like me is to rent a parking spot from someone else. i was actually able to survive the first couple of years without having to pay a dime except for the occasional parking without a permit ticket. and then finally my little tricks started to run out and luckily i found a spot very close by and for a more than reasonable price. unfortunately, the spot was connected to a condo that was for sale so after several months the it was sold and so was my parking spot. though i have yet to see anyone park in it. i've noticed this as i've walked by it many a times in the last few days having to move my car. after being in complete limbo for the past two weeks, parking in the lot behind me without having a permit, i finally found my spot, and a stable one at that. i'll be shelling out $165 per month for this spot, but the good news is that it's 24/7 access, non-tandem, professionally snow plowed lot only three minutes from the door of my apartment (i timed it three times today). although the other spot i was considering was an underground garage, 24/7 access, non-tandem, but asking was $210! that's a lot of money, but hopefully this winter won't be making me rethink my decision.

beautiful day wasted

2009-09-15T16:27:00.008-04:00

so last i wrote, almost 6 months ago, i was training for the pittsburgh half marathon and hoping to break 1:40. my race weekend preparation wasn't the best (primanti brothers for dinner and the bucco's game for entertainment) and at the start line i felt i was still carrying some of that turkey and cheese sandwich. the one time i saw a set of porta-johns around mile 6 i strongly debated whether i should stop and relieve myself. while i would have felt much better, i would have lost a ton of time and not been anywhere close to my goal. as it turned out, i finished in 1:41:28 (that's 7:45 / mile pace) and got to see jen and dave twice cheering me on as well as chris and erin in the south side! it was great to run in my hometown city and if i didn't want to run a half in every state, then i'd consider running pittsburgh again.

so this year's fall marathon will be the hampton rockfest sponsored by smuttynose brewing co. in hampton beach, nh. the race is two and a half weeks away, and i think my longest run (and i won't even call it a training run) was 8.1 miles back on july 31st! i've been logging mostly 5 mile runs, but this weekend i'll definitely be doing a 7 miler, along w/ a 3 miler and a 2 miler - all in the same 24 hour period. jen and i were lucky enough to grab two open spots on a relay team that's running the reach the beach relay that takes place in nh. i actually don't think the running will be the toughest challenge. i'm betting that it's all the logistics and situations that occur as part of a 12 person 200 mile 1 day relay!

i've actually wasted away a beautiful boston day. maybe one of the last nice days of the year until may peaks it head out from the 4 feet of snow that boston is sure to see this winter. most of the day has been spent in doors, searching for jobs, though i have been able to get out to move my car from parking spot to parking spot. it's been weighing on me heavily - the fact that i haven't been taking advantage of my time off, and this gorgeous day especially. but, i'm also waiting on a pair of new asics trainers to be delivered by ups (who i did see a job posting for, but didn't apply - it was for a driver!). hopefully my increase to a size 10 gives my foot a little more room as my 9.5's have been tight, and i can get out for a run this evening w/ jen and a couple of others on our relay team.

maybe this relay is what i need to get me started blogging a bit more. and perhaps i'll tweak the content as well, though my blog's name is "runstrong." i'm sure hearing that my last four holes were bogey, bogey, par, birdie wouldn't interest you as much as it would me.

summer in april

2009-04-28T16:52:00.001-04:00

this blog has fallen by the waist side. my last post was at the end of december - almost 4 months ago. a lot has changed, while a lot has stayed the same. i'm still in boston; i'm still employed at the same firm; and i'm still running. actually, a lot has stayed the same. same apartment; same cat; same love of upper crust pizza. the major change is a new girlfriend - jen! :-) like i said, a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. haha! more than actually change, i've experienced a lot in the last 4 months including my first time in seats on the green monster at fenway park to watch the red sox, a relaxing weekend in maine with stops in portland and portsmouth, nh; best friends visiting for an awesome weekend; and the annual marathon monday party on beacon st.

in those last 4 months i've continued training, specifically for the pittsburgh half marathon. actually, i wouldn't classify it as training, though i ran a couple of sunday long runs with jen's training team, and did a speed workout as well as a hill one. regardless, i feel pretty good though physically and during my runs my goal of 1:3X:XX seems possible. but i'm still nervous. this is going to be my home race, and while the legend will be there cheering as he's done for a bunch of races, there should be a few more familiar faces in the crowd - or at least i hope so.

last night i did a 4 mile loop that combines a few hills. i ran it at an easy pace, and enjoyed the warm weather (it was in the mid 60's) and crowds of people around the neighborhoods. though at one point, coming down com ave and running near some buildings i imagined myself running in the half and the building the crowd coming out into the street and being right next to me. if the crowd is anything like building, i should feed off them and feel like i'm running on a cloud. a peak at my watch showed a 7:19 pace at one point, and i had to pull on the reigns to slow down and remember this was just a tapering run.

i'll probably go out for one more run on wednesday, and then rest for the remaining days till the half. i usually run pretty well after a long rest, so 3 days of no activity won't hurt - hopefully. ask me that question at mile 12. actually, forget the questions - just shout my name!

burgh

2008-12-26T18:51:00.007-05:00

it's been over a week since my last run, and even longer for a real run, i finally made it out this afternoon. i'm back in pittsburgh for christmas for a week to celebrate w/ family and friends. but due to the proximity of my gym from my brother's place where i'm staying, as well as the freezing temps and social obligations, [and insert a good excuse] i haven't logged any miles. although my bro and i did walk around for some errands on christmas eve, but nothing worth blogging about.

so i figured i'd take advantage of the nice late-december pittsburgh weather by running a few k. i threw out the suggestion of trail running, as i wanted to stay in the sun, so we mapped out a route on mapmyrun.com that was a good mix of a residential and urban sights. the sun was actually shinning (shockingly, since it's been reported that there are 59 of such days per year here), and equipped w/ my polar hrm (sans footpod to measure any type of distance or pace) and oakley’s i headed out for what i thought would be a little more than a 5k. after 10 minutes or so i was on 5th avenue in oakland and could have hit my halfway point to start heading back at st. paul's cathedral (where my family went to christmas morning mass). but i was feeling good. and it was a beautiful day. and i needed to experience a more urban feel. so i continued down fifth past the university of pittsburgh's campus and made my turn to go by pitt again and headed up to carnegie mellon university. i haven't gone by these universities in anything but a car for years, but running by them and seeing the details of the surroundings reminded me of years ago when these universities were clients of ours and i worked there.

around cmu the flatness of pittsburgh ran out and i was i heading up a small incline. it leveled out, but my bigger concern was that now i was on my own and off the familiar path. but i have driven around this area a lot 3 years ago, so as the oncoming traffic was halted by a green arrow the way i was going, i jetted across the street onto beeler st. i've driven this road a bunch, and remembered it being really short. so after a few minutes of running on it, i came to the a good right in the street and after making the turn could see the end of the street was much further than i had remembered. oops. this is where the hill training started - the left onto fair oaks street was fun, as well as the left onto s. negley, but even better was when i crested the hill and started the decent. i swear that my first thought was "this is as steep, and as long, as a ski run!" most importantly i took caution on the sidewalk so i didn't end up tripping on a crack or slipping on some loose stones and doing a 'header'. thankfully i didn't and shortly after i was back near my brother's and cooling down.

while some people are lucky enough to have a hot tub at home and can just jump in for their post-run recovery, mine is the stick! i'm just glad i was smart enough to use it!

no, i do not play for a symphony...

2008-12-18T10:23:00.001-05:00

but this is our company's holiday greeting card...

Birds

2008-12-11T06:31:00.001-05:00

Getting up at 4.15 in the morning is for the birds, and people with 6 am flights apparently. I'm hoping for a little sleep time on the way to JFK and then even better sleep from there to Barbados! I'll be in Barbados facilitating a training and then enjoying the 80 degree weather. While Boston was in the 50's yesterday afternoon, it rained the entire day! That didn't stop me for getting in a little less than 2 miles, but that was more out of necessity than desire.

Parking in Boston can be nightmarish, especially when learning the system! That's a story for a whole other post. So last night I parked in a garage by my gym, which is about 2 miles away. Can you see what I mean by nightmarish? Anyways, the garage is safe but most importantly it's in expensive. Well, not normally, plus it's not the type of garage that caters toward or even expects multi-day stays. It's more of a multi-hour garage. But thankfully, my gym must have a deal w/ the garage that allows for self-serve validated parking at the gym. Again, I'm thinking that their intent was a couple of hours at max, not days. So half a year's of membership fees (I've got a good family deal) usually pays for itself during one of these trips.

So after dropping the car off my ticket home is a run. It was quite chilly and rainy at that point in the day, but my REI rain jacket worked wonders and I might have even been over dressed. It's was a run that was a far cry from when I trained for Chicago in that I can't give you any numbers on the run, except the total time. I didn't use my heart rate strap, and since losing my footpod I have no ability to gauge my pace. But I did feel a little sluggish and I attrubuted that immediately to the hard run the previous day. But it was nice to get out, even if it was for only 16 minutes and based off necessity. I think today will be a rest day, or maybe a easy day with walking around the island, but hopefully I'll get at least 1 good running story from the trip. Saturday my host said there was a run w/ beers and rum after it in a group setting. Sounds like my kind of run. As well as for the fact it'll be in the 80's!

Dave

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man vs. machine vs. man

2008-12-09T23:50:00.002-05:00

so what a difference a day makes! from sunday's snow, and even this morning and noon time frigid temperatures, came temps in the low 40's this afternoon. while i was hoping last night for an invite to run this afternoon, it didn't come and figured i'd have to make the trek to the gym to get in a little exercise. but i was blown away by the warm temps when i walked out of work this evening. i figured that i might as well take advantage of this unexpected mid-december new england weather.

so shortly after getting home and putting on a long-sleeve t-shirt and shorts (you'd think i was in barbados or something - wait, that's on thursday!) i was off runnin'! same route as on sunday, minus the snow flakes and winter weather gear. this run also had the purposes of dropping off my apt keys so my cat, leo, can continue to be feed this weekend. after a slow first half of the run to kenmore, shortly after getting onto comm ave. i noticed a trolley emerging from underground. this happens to be the 'b' line on the larger green line, which goes through the heart of boston university and is the slowest of the green lines. one time when i was riding the t from boston outbound, but the 'c' line which is slightly quicker, i noticed a girl that was keeping with the t and would pass it during stops. i was quite impressed, and when i saw this 'b' line t on my run this evening, i figured it'd be an easy race. i picked up the pace and caught the t at the bu central stop and didn't look back. although, i did have to look slightly forward and to my right as the t passed me around the bu bridge. but that was the last i saw of it! continuing on comm ave. and shortly after the bu bridge i noticed another runner. now i'll confess that he did have a backback, but a lion doesn't feel guilty for a kill of a limping gazelle so neither will i. in fact, i dropped the hammer on an uphill portion and before i knew it the race was over and i turned off comm ave. onto winslow st. the victor. definitely an exhausting run. i think i saw my heart rate in the 180's! but thankfully after dropping off my keys i had a few minutes to jog and wrap up another successful 5k!

check out the right side of the web page - added a couple of gadgets this afternoon (another reason i had to run so i could post something about the slight changes i made) which i hope will make it easier to keep up w/ the blog without me having to send out updates. keep those comments coming and looking forward to tomorrow's run in the 50's!

snow

2008-12-07T16:32:00.003-05:00

today was my first outside run of the winter season. only fittingly, it was snowing. i'm sure that if i had more time i would have gone to the gym instead, but waiting until 45 minutes prior to the steelers game left me two options: 1) bundle up and run my 5k route, or 2) stay warm inside. surprisingly i got bundled up, earmuffs, gloves, and all, but my first step out of my apartment door had me looking at my watch and questioning if i really could get in a 5k run, along w/ a shower, before the start of the lers / boys football game. that first step is really the hardest - especially when you're not training for anything (except not being fat) and it's snowing!

with some small flakes falling in boston, the first of the year, i headed down the eastbound side of beacon street - a nice downhill start. coolidge corner was obviously bustling given the time of the year (earlier i was even asked if i was leaving a parking spot as i crossed a street to the back of my apartment with a gap shopping bag, to which i replied "no. thankfully i live right there."), though i only saw 4-5 runners during the 3.1 miles i covered. some runners don't even acknowledge another runner's existence, but i'm now going to make it a point to throw a wave to all runners i pass - especially if the temperature is below 32 degrees! we should be bonded by our insanity!

at kenmore square 11 and a half minutes later I started up commonwealth avenue, where i realized i had a nice tailwind going down beacon but now was faced with a headwind. that seems to be the case here in boston - there's always a wind and you don't realize it until you're running into it. the sane students of bu were comfortably warm in the starbucks. i definitely noticed that, and even contemplated stopping for a warm espresso - i think that would have made the final mile into the wind a little easier. left onto babcock st put me into a residential part of brookline that i know well from all the training runs i did in the summer. a cooldown starting on harvard street in coolidge corner, and a runner's high, delivered me back to my apartment nice and toasty, and in time for the steelers game. time for a celebratory beer - for my run, not the game (yet)!

Rain

2008-05-27T19:52:00.000-04:00

at first when i started posting to this blog again i thought it would mostly be about running and my training, knowing how exciting that is for everyone to read. then i talked to my brother and told him a story about my barber here in brookline and how on a saturday morning he was completely wired and sniffing, a lot! he suggested i blog about everyday stuff like that, with all the interesting details, and i thought that was a great idea. until i realized i'm lazy (i'm sick of saying i'm busy. in fact, i'm sick of everyone's excuse of they're busy. there's fat we could all trim from our day, but i get joy in watching around the horn every evening on my dvr!) and couldn't manage to post every time something interesting happened. so it's back to me running - maybe with a twist thrown in for good measure.

it seems as though the best time for me to post is on tuesday evenings in my office downtown after a run with the city sports running “club”. so if it works, stick with it, right? today was the second time i've run with the "club," and i use that term as loosely as possible because after a decent turn out last week, today the "club" consisted of 4 members:

1. me (the regular)
2. bill* (the guy from atlanta who was in the store because he needed a pair of socks)
3. kyle* (city sports "leader" - i'm using that term loosely as well)
4. alex* (kyle's brother, who also works at city sports)

* - refers to the fact that these names may or may not have been made up by me as i don't really remember their names.

missing from the "club" this week was the running shoe / apparel company rep, who was supposed to be from nike this week. this leads me to one of the points i'd like to make quick mention of - runners love freebies! kyle mentioned that "so-and-so" from nike wouldn't be here, but not to worry, he'd give us a free nike technical t-shirt after the run. this immediately prompted me to inquire if puma actually gave something away last week. in fact they did, according to kyle - one of those small nylon drawstring bags. damn, my cooldown cost me the opportunity to add to my nylon drawstring bag collection! grrrrr. no worries, i did get 1 red nike coolmax shirt today. i picked it from a box that contained about 45 red, blue, and white shirts. really, they couldn't have spared one more for me - the regular club member? i guess it wouldn't have hurt to ask, but i would have insulted myself further by having to ask for an additional freebie.

i normally haven't run with people in the past. i've done most of my training hans style - solo. i think the biggest reason is that it's hard to find the right people to run with - either they're too slow and they hold you back, or they're too fast and you get shattered. however, recently i've been running more with other people - the city sports "club" and a couple of guys from around my neighborhood with whom i work. the area that i've found running with others most beneficial is accountability. when i make plans to go running with someone else i feel obligated to run no matter what - except a real emergency (which doesn't mean "i feel tired"). this past thursday i made plans to run with a partner from work who i've run with on occasion and even gone out with for dinner / drinks. keith is a cool dude, and even dominated the boston marathon this year - his first marathon! as i was driving home that evening, i noticed an apocalyptic sky directly above brookline. after parking and strolling into my apt, it started to rain. not sprinkle, but rain. nine times out of 10 i would have bagged the idea of running. the one other time i would have went to the gym for an easy 5k. but, because keith wasn't interested in staying dry, i had to get out there and run with him. yeah, it was a monsoon. about halfway through the sky opened up and it just started pouring! but, at that point who cares because you're already wet, right? and then the weather in boston has been interesting today. overcast morning, humid and sunny afternoon, downpour at 4, sun trying to break through with sprinkles as i walked to meet up with the "club", and i'm sure you can guess what happened as soon as we took off on the run. yep, cats and dogs were falling from the sky in the form of raindrops! we kept going, because if you don't wuss out immediately and head back to shelter, you might as well log the almost 4 miles we got in tonight. i guess this is a good sign also that i'm not being affected by the weather much. my running is evolving into training... scary.

i'm going to leave off one additional subject that i wanted to mention. it has to do with races, so before i make statements based of my first race of the season on sunday (5 miler - 7:50 pace), i'm going to wait a couple of weeks till i do a couple more. see if my observations really are true.

next week brooks running is going to be the sponsor for the city sports running "club" so i'm going to have to do some name dropping, thanks to julie and her connections at brooks. maybe i'll even wear my brooks hat? and hopefully afterwards, i'll have a free shirt to wear with it.

Are You Fit?

2008-05-20T20:07:00.000-04:00

i'm such a liar. "more to come." actually, i'm not a liar at all - here is more. it's just several weeks later than i originally anticipated. but since i didn't write "more to come later" or “more to come in a day” i'm not a liar at all. hah! i feel so vindicated. anyway, before posting to this blog i enjoy reading my previous post, so that's where i read "more to come" at the very end, but that more never came - until now.

no, i'm not drunk (unlike the previous post). i am high - on a runner's high. i just got done with a "training" run for a couple of races that i have comin' up. this one was sponsored by city sports - although i'm not really sure how it was "sponsored" by them since all we did was meet at their store on boylston st. anyway, it was also "sponsored’ by puma (again, they didn't give out freebies) and harpoon - as their 5 mile road race is coming up in the beginning of june. so before we headed out on the run, the leaders - one from puma and the other from city sports - decided that there was going to be 2 distances, a 3 miler and a 5 miler. i thought i would try the 5 miler, but i didn't commit to anything, until i passed that last bridge. hah! i went out with a couple of guys and a couple of girls, and paired up with one other dude as we headed towards the science museum. armed with my trusty polar hrm, i glanced down and my running partner asked what pace we were clocking. 8:30 - just about right for me for this run, but apparently too fast for him. it was like in top gun when maverick says "i'm gonna hit the brakes and he'll fly right by" and merlin says "you're gonna do WHAT?" the dude practically stopped on a dime, and i was on my own - in no-man's land, trying to bridge an impossible gap. i wasn't able to close the gap, but it wasn't a race so i wasn't too upset. and apparently i was the gap between the 5 miler led by the puma dude and 3 miler, of which i already passed the bridge on memorial drive so i was stuck doing the 5 miler. i still had the 5 mile group in my sights, until we got onto the windy esplanade where i lost sight of which bridge they went over to get back into the back bay area. anyway, to make a long story short (too late, i know), i decided to go with the 5.25 mile group - there was only 1 person in it, me - and ended up in beacon hill, which was about a half mile back to where we started. on my way back (i figured i'd head back in case they were worried about me - i'm sure everyone was wondering "where's dave?") i was making excuse of why i went further like "I didn't know if you guys were going to do a cool down, so i wanted to make sure i got that in." when i got back the 5 mile group was still there (it consisted of 4 people, not including me) and the puma rep who lead it.

i didn't have much to say except "can i get a water," so i was ready to leave after assuring everyone i was still alive (you should have seen the worried faces just as i made it back), and said thanks to the puma rep and the city sports guy (who was maverick hitting the brakes). the puma rep guy then says, "i've seen you around running." now, i love how people communicate - it fascinates me. i've always observed that it's easier to confirm someone's statement or question, and proceed with what you were doing or about to do the second before they opened their mouth. so naturally i said "yeah, i'm sure." i've never seen this dude before, and quite frankly probably will never see him again (he's much faster than me so even at races i won't see him). instead of that being the end of the conversation, or him ending with "well i hope to continue to see ya around" he says "yeah, you run down here with that ethiopian guy." now, kenyan's get all the hype about being the best runners in the world, but there are some pretty amazing ethiopian runners as well - for instance haile gebrselassie. anyway, to be mentioned that i, me, dave papp, run with an ethiopian guy is hilarious - i mean, i probably couldn't ride a segway as fast as an ethiopian guy can run!

what makes this story even more remarkable, and the reason that i'm sitting in my office at this hour having to write this down now, is that i felt similar when i was hanging out with my friend julie, who visited in april to run the boston marathon. julie is an awesome runner, who has even won a marathon OVERALL, and is very involved in the sport. julie knows some people at brooks running, who are great guys, and we visited their booth at the expo the day before the marathon. we talked to a couple of guys specifically, both who exceed at marathons - 1 of who was running boston and the other that was pacing him since he ran london and placed in the top 20! so needless to say, i felt intimidated, but both asked, "are you running boston?" i guess it's not that strange of a thing to ask while at a marathon expo, but along with all the talk about "are you fit?" and racing strategies it made me laugh and feel pretty good.

oh, so my response to the puma rep who said i run with the ethiopian guy was a mumbled "i... don't... know..." and a quick departure from the store.

Pre-Game

2008-04-06T02:48:00.006-04:00

to respond to the one, and only, comment about my last post (which i'm not sure of how it was viewed so quickly when i didn't make it public), no - there isn't a "desire" to run the nyc marathon. there's no pleasure of running 26.2 in one day, in under 5 hours, that makes you want to do it again and again. but there is some type of enjoyment of having a routine, when ever day, or at least ever few days a week where you know you have to run - where you have to train so that the marathon itself it's as painful as it could be. but, that being said, apparently my desire to have a routine isn't high thus far since i haven't been running much. in fact, i haven't run since - yeah, i don't know. it might be about a week by now.

but, that's the fun of not having much responsibility. i'm single, i have a good job, i don't have any children, i don't even own a home now, so i can just stay out after work or do whatever i want to do. that's what happened on monday. one of the reasons that i saw a bright spot in life. i always appreciate it when there's a large meeting for work, where many important people are - manager, sr. manager, and partners - and you hang out when yo don't have to. by now, most of the people in these positions are comfortable with where the are in the firm. but a consultant or sr. consultant in the same situation, they'll do almost anything to get face-time with people noted above, especially parnters. but regardless of your status in the firm, you can never be or work with the people that really matter in your career or life. so after a large meeting on monday, and after "everyone else" had their one or two cocktails in the office and decided to leave, a core group of us, including a couple of partners and a couple of sr. manager, we decided to go out to dinner (a freebie). grill 23. my naiveness didn't comprehend where we were going, but after a glass or two of the chosen wine (by the partner), i started to get the sense of it. the filet was amazing; the sides were awesome; but the company was really the best part of this work dinner on a monday evening.

so, isn't blogging at 3am the best? like i said on my first return post - i wanted to this more for myself than anyone else to read. it was a fun evening tonight; after an afternoon of recovery thanks to a Guinness night last night. it started with the ncaa final four (after taking a nap) and at half time of the blow out between ku and ncu, went over to a friend's for the pre-gaming of a sing-a-long (more of that to come). by the time i left my place, there was only about 1:30 max to pre-party, but i brought along 4 beers - the blue moon spring ale. not too shabby of an ale. anyway, i knew i had to be in high gear and even though i had to take 1/4 as a to-go cup, 3 and 3/4 beers were downed at the pre-game. the sing-a-long itself was a blast, although i was displaced from sitting with 3 beautiful girls to sitting next to "the guys" - in the middle of two committed guys. whatever. it was a fun time. and definitely more to come.

The Blogsphere

2008-03-30T20:42:00.004-04:00

i'm not sure exactly why i'm writing a new post to a blog that was about my training for the 2007 chicago marathon. yes, the marathon that was 85 degrees the first weekend in october - in chicago! i survived, although some people were shattered beyond belief, along with my running companions. it really was like a battlefield out on the race course though. people on the side of the road with either support staff or spectators around them, but out of the race for sure. i'll always remember the sight of some of those people with their eyes glazed over just starring out into space. i remember afterwards saying it was the best first marathon that i could have run. that's because it was so much more difficult than most other marathons (thanks to the weather) and it would never inspire me to run another. in fact, some of the others i ran with decided to do the akron marathon in september, but it didn't even come into question for me. i settled on doing the half.

but... something's got me more interested in running another 26.2. i think it's the fact that the boston marathon, the most traditioned marathon in the world quite possibly, is quickly approaching. it's a terrific day to be in boston - especially if you're not running it! ;-) i don't have any desire to run the boston marathon - at least not right now - but i know i won't be qualifying for it any time in the near future, if ever. prior to starting this post, i checked out the NYC marathon website. they are accepting applications. the processing of the application will cost $11. if randomly selected, the registration fee is $155. wow. that's a lot of cash - to punish yourself voluntarily. but wouldn't it be cool?

anyways, so some of my other friends have picked up my slack since falling off the blogging wagon and started their own. i enjoy reading them, and have found a cool tool developed by google called 'reader' that allows you to create an online 'inbox' of all the blogs that you'd regularly check and read. it's pretty sweet. but more so than other people reading my blog, i'm interested in reading this months later and see what was going on back then, or now, or whatever. so i'm not going to email everyone and say i have a blog again. because knowing me, this will be something i do for a couple days until i get busy again. busy like training for a marathon? not yet..

Ghost Writer

2007-08-22T07:24:00.000-04:00

Amazing how much slack I've gotten for this blog. There's a direct relationship between running and the amount of posts on this blog. If you saw more posts that's when you should give me crap - that's when I wouldn't be running. But this lack of posts is a good thing since I can't manage a minute between work, runs, and that 50 minutes of free time I have to see "Man vs. Wild."

However, I'm flattered by an amigo who inquired as to if he could be my ghost writer. Here's his first attempt at a post for me:

"I haven't run since, uh, the last time George W. Bush had a thought more complicated than 'I need to take a dump, pronto." I considered running on Saturday, but then I saw this cloud on the horizon, and I thought it might rain. Past experience has taught me that I'll melt if I get wet, so this was obviously a chance I couldn't take. Instead, I spent the entirety of my day alphabetizing the contents of my pantry while singing along to my newly purchased Abba box set. Sadly, I don't have an iPod record of my heart rate to prove to you that it spiked when I was blasting 'Dancing Queen.' I'm hoping to run at least once on Thursday or Friday, but I'm deeply concerned that I won't be able to train this weekend, as the annual My Little Pony Convention is coming to town."

Just for the record, I'm not a fan of My Little Pony - so I'd never go to a convention of theirs! I think there's some promise to his post, and this is another time saving opportunity (I recently stopped doing laundry - but still have clean clothes. How you ask? Wash & Fold service at the laundry mat. I save 2 hours of my life, which I think is worht $25). We'll have to begin fee negotiations now...

Six consecutive days of running. I feel pretty good too! Last night was a 4.5 miler after I dropped my car off for service. It was down along the Charles river, which has some great views of downtown Boston from the Harvard side. Tonight is an 8 miler which should be fun. One of the hardest things is finding new and exciting routes around Boston. Plus, trying to stay off the concrete sidewalks.

Weak!

2007-08-07T17:20:00.000-04:00

I know, I know - I'm sooo weak! This blog is sooo weak! But hey, it takes time to train for a marathon - and work a full-time job! Later I'll share some info on someone who shows no weakness! Lately these days I don't find myself with too much spare time - and when I do have a moment or two, I like to unwind by watching Formula 1 (how about this Lewis Hamilton kid?!?) or any type of TV for that matter (I highly suggest "How I Met Your Mother" for a good laugh - it's legend - I hope you're not lactose intolerant - dairy!). I've just gotten back into high priced video games too - mostly because I'm looking forward to connecting with my brother online and kicking his ass in a race or two!

The running has been going well thus far. My long run, as of this past Sunday, of almost 14 miles was an eye opener - a painful one at that. I've never run over 13.1 miles. Never had a reason. As soon as I crossed that barrier, it became mental. It had to have been, because the parts of my body that hurt the most were my feet. It'll be an interesting 2 remaining months, and I hope to continue to build my endurance.

I've heard from some of the others that will be running Chicago. Keep up the hard work girls (no really, most of them are girls that are running - this wasn't meant to be an insult - although, Em, forward this link to Tesh!)! One of our friends, who unfortunately isn't running the marathon (but maybe will make a support visit?), is having a terrific running season so far! What would you say to a 26 min - 4 miler, a 18:42 - 5k, and a mile in 5:25? I'd say that would be quite a career of Personal Records! Julie would call that a weekend. That's right - a WEEKEND! Julie ran in the Tour de Pain this past weekend in Jacksonville, FL which hosts those distances starting on Friday evening and continuing on Saturday and Sunday! To see the full results, and where Julie finished overall, check it out here! Way to kick some ass Julie!! Congrats!

To Run Now, or to Wait

2007-07-14T13:40:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning to move my car, and wanted to get out early for my five mile pace run. However, I hadn't eaten anything or fueled, so by the time and got some energy in my body and put some new tunes on my iPod shuffle (those are great for running), it was 11 am. The past couple of days in Boston have been quite hot and humid, so when I was finally ready to role and looked outside, I wondered if I was making a mistake running at 11:30. I was thinking, maybe I should go sometime this evening when the sun goes down. There I go again, trying to make excuses. But, even though when I got in the car it felt like a sauna, I drove to the Brookline Reservoir. Boy was I wrong, it was gorgeous out! The sun was shinning, but it was only in the mid 70s with low humidity and even a breeze. Although, later I find out on the backstretch of my loop that there was a pretty good headwind. I managed to crank out 5 miles in just under 40 minutes (not sure how accurate this is as I re-calibrated my running computer yesterday) - a 7:57 / mile pace. Average heart rate was 166 with a max of 182. The last quarter mile I was picking it up, and then when I saw someone approaching I tried to hold them off, but couldn't...

Yesterday (Friday) was an active rest day. I did manage to re-calibrate my running computer because of some troubles from my Wednesday run that I noticed on Thursday. After recalibrating from jogging 400 meters, I decided to jog another 400m, walk a 400, and jog one more. Then was able to have a good stretch - around 20 minutes. Good rest day!

Thursday was a simple 3 miler at the gym, so that I could get some stretching in as well. Went late to the gym, so got my pick of treadmills and opted for the one right under the overhead fan. Still, I was sweating a lot - maybe from the water I had been drinking during the day. The run was good - as good as a treadmill run can get. But because I was frantically hitting buttons on my watch at the end of my Tuesday run, I think I hit something I shouldn't have, and put it into Bike mode. Whoops - so my distance and speed readings weren't accurate. I kept the heart rate info and kept things simple with an average of 141 and a max of 160.

So far things are going great. I'm happy that I've been able to run two 5 milers in the last week, and am looking forward to the long run tomorrow. I'm definitely going to do it in the evening because I don't wanna be completely exhausted for the entire day. Hope everyone else's training is going smashingly! Remember to runstrong!

High Five

2007-07-11T23:35:00.001-04:00

Remember that episode of Sienfeld when Jerry's buying a new car from David Putty, and Putty keeps saying "High five" to Jerry? High five! That's me asking you for a high five - for the five miles that I busted out tonight in the sweltering heat and humidity this evening (had to be 90%+ humidity at 8.30). I didn't feel too sore this evening, except for the first couple of steps, but I'm sure I'll be paying for this run tomorrow. I was exhausted afterwards and in need of some food so I started cooking, and then ate, and then needed some down time so I never got around to the stretching. Ugh, tomorrow will be fun. Average heart rate during the run was 165 beats/minute, with a max of 179. Check out the graph for my ever rising heart rate. Again, nothing to write home about with my pace - 8:47 per mile - but for the second run, a 5 miler at that - I'm not gonna complain. I'm just happy that I got out again! Tomorrow's a 3 miler and a little strength training. I'd like to do it in the morning at the gym, but it's pretty late right now. I'll get it done at some point during the day!

No Peaking

2007-07-10T23:02:00.000-04:00

Today was the first step of the rest of my training. I managed to make it out this evening - and was looking forward to it all day - for a few miles. Three easy miles around the Brookline Reservoir with a little Josh Rouse "Subtitulo" kickin' on my iPod - mellow, but upbeat enough to keep me movin'. The proof is in the pudding. Okay, actually, the proof is in the data - which I had to post! Nothing to write home about (but plenty to write on a blog about - ha!), with an average heart rate of 148, maximum of 158; and an 8:59 mile pace. Like I said, nothing to write home about but it's a start. Gotta give it up to Em for her track workout on Monday of mile repeats - 4 in the mid to low 7's! Impressive. Maybe that'll be be me in several weeks, but right now I'm looking forward to tomorrow's comfortable 5 miler!

Inspiration & Slacker

2007-07-09T23:16:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this expirement is not going well thus far. Although I have yet to go for a run since my first blog (this pains me to write it just as much as it pains you to read it) - and I have plenty of excuses to justify this lack of running - my one initial post has inspired someone else to jump into the cyber space library. Glenna Wilson, Jenn's lovely mother, decided that it was time to immortalize her words on some server somewhere for the entire world to read - if they can find it. So that you can find it, check it out here.

Another positive note towards my first running step of this training, is that I have secured the services of my brother, Joe, to train me. Joe knows a thing or two about endurance sports (check out his CV here) - so I feel confident in his abilities. Or, will this be a continuation of the tormenting he did to me as children? Actually, I think this will be more painful. After accepting Joe's offer to train me, he indicated that I should enjoy the weekend because it would be my last free one till October 14th! I heeded this advice and sat on my butt most of the weekend (except for helping my gf move to a new epartment).

Today's workout was "30-60min of cross training." Hmmm... I had to wait for my new bed (a Miralux) after work, but I did mop the bedroom floor in like 80 degree heat and worked up a good sweet. I don't think it was 30 minutes of areobic activity, but at least have a clean bedroom floor and a bed to sleep on!

Oh, I also restored all my Polar Heart Rate data since it was lost when I upgraded laptops. Now I can look BACK to when I used to train! Okay, no joke. Tomorrow's gonna be a good day. Can't wait to show everyone my workout summary!

More than 3 Months

2007-07-05T17:32:00.000-04:00

So, who'd a thought I'd post on a blog, let alone create one so that people can read it? I guess like brother, like brother - check out my bro's blog. So the primary reason for my blog is to note my efforts, currently lack there of, towards my training for the Chicago Marathon. I have a little over 3 months to get my butt in shape - the marathon is on October 7th. I figured that if I was accountable towards more people than just myself, maybe I'd have more motivation to get out and log the necessary miles - and there's a lot of them!

I know, the first step should have been to create a training plan, not a blog. But this is an experiment. I'll get to the training plan shortly.

I ran a half marathon over Memorial Day weekend in Boston - the Boston Run to Remember. 13.1 that I wasn't prepared for. The warm weather and the boring 5 miles down Memorial Drive didn't help. Unfortunately, I posted my second worst time in a half. At least for the Chicago Marathon I'll establish a PR! That's what happens when you've never run a marathon before...

So today is a beautiful day in Boston (that's what I said yesterday about the 4th of July and it ended up raining in the evening). I worked from home so could have easily made the move to log the 4 miles that I wanted to, but that's when my lack of motivation kicked in and I decided to finally create this blog. I didn't even run yesterday. My excuses have been weak these past 2 days, and they revolve around having to help my girlfriend move to a new place. We're going to pick up a couch for her tonight, but I could have easily gotten in 4 miles beforehand.

Feel free to post to this blog - maybe for those I'm accompanying to Chicago we can use this as a motivational tool. Post your ups and downs, and we can all get motivated, or feel better about our lack of miles thus far. Again, I've got 3 months - I can do this...