Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Struggling

So I've been debating on what I should do in terms of getting my runs in.  I don't know what is more time efficient and it might just take some testing to find out what I like better.  Anyway my issue today was as I woke up I was pretty hungry so I had half of an english muffin hoping it would tide me over till after my run.  I thought I had enough time since it was about an hour and a half till my run.  Sadly I was mistaken.

My run started off alright and I made it through the first mile fine, then I had this constant feeling that I was going to puke in the middle of the streets of Boston.  It was pretty miserable and I cut the run short ending up with just 2 miles  

So now do I try to eat a small meal  before bed and hope it tides me over enough that I can get up at 5 and wait for breakfast till 8 or what?

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Wrapping up the month

Well it has been a while. I haven't run all that much this month, the adjustment to the new job and new schedule gave me room to make excuses and slack.

Basically, between my training schedule for work and lack of time to eat, I was starving by the time I actually got home, and I did not yet have my gym membership.  I do now have my membership and I am off and running in terms of work so it is easier to keep a somewhat regular schedule.  I just need to catch the early buses every day and get runs in before work. If I try to run at home then take a later bus in it would likely translate to me just hitting snooze too many times to get a run in before work.

Signs of improvement though.  So far I've been getting runs in the morning a little easier. I am not going everyday since I am unable to make myself go slow so I'd rather try to keep injuries away.  It doesn't help that there are lots of other runners around and I don't want to look like some fat slob that is out of shape even if that is what I am so another reason not to run a comfortable pace.

The more of a routine I get into the easier this will get I assume.  I am enjoying the gym membership even though I don't use the actual gym part it's nice that it is a method of forcing myself to exercise.  The downside is all the naked old men that walk around the locker room.

I will try to get into more of a routine blogging.  I think this site is blocked at my work, I've been updating my training log from my blackberry and maybe I will start even making blog posts from it as well.  If that turns out to be the case I wouldn't expect anything that is too long.  I might type it out and thing man this must be 2 pages of text but when I look at it on an actual computer and it's not even 2 paragraphs it's a little depressing.

Oh well, until next time.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Slacking

On blogging and kind of on running.  I've still been more consistent than I was in June but not as much as I should be.  One good thing that has come about recently was I decided to finally time a run, I forget which day exactly it was but I did a 2.86 run at night on the clock.  Not that it is very far but I figured I was around 8-8:30 pace.  Upon finishing the run I entered it into my log to find out that I managed to run it at 7:30 pace.  I felt good on the run and kept trying to slow myself down because I didn't want it to turn into a time trial.

I'm really boring lately, so I am not gonna write much more but I needed another entry.  My last two runs I've felt like crap but what can ya do.  I start my new job tomorrow so we will see what the new schedule is like.  I will have to check out the gym this week and see if I can get a locker etc...

Friday, July 23, 2010

What have you missed?

Alright I've wanted to blog the past few days really I have I just couldn't actually do it.  I'd be sitting on the couch after showering and eating thinking I should blog about that run but no blogs.  Anyway the last two days were pretty awesome runs.

Wednesday I went out planning on doing my longest run of the summer a whopping 4 miles.  I managed to make it through alright, struggling pretty bad towards the end though, had I not been on a main road I probably would have started walking but I was much too embarrassed to do that.  I might still have the scraps of a reputation as a runner in Burlington I wouldn't want to ruin that by walking on the main street.  Either way though I was happy to get an increase in mileage in.

Thursday I almost ended up skipping pretending it was justifiable since I went for a new long the day before.  I went to the movies with my friend Mike and saw Predators.  It was pretty good, can't compare to the original but better than the others in my opinion.  I was home by 10:15 or so and still had the run on my mind.  I decided I'd hydrate stretch and head out for a quick 2 miles or so with maybe a decent hill in the mix to make it worth it.  As I hit the hill I was planning on running I felt good considering the pace I was going.  I thought I'd go get some water at a fountain at the top of the hill do a loop around the common and head back.  I got the water and as I went up to make a left to head around the common I ended up taking off across the street to take a right.  I knew that if it turned out to be a bad decision I could easily cut through back home and cut off some mileage I'd just have to deal with a hill one way or another in order to do so.  I went on the extended loop not even considering cutting through.  I kept my quickened pace on the hills and off, I felt great.  I finally was coming down to the last quarter mile or so and I could really start to feel my legs shutting down.  You know that feeling when you think you're picking your legs up for normal strides then you hear your feet dragging against the ground?   Yea it's not good. The run overall however was great.  Still haven't found my watch or started trying to time my runs so who knows I put in my log that it was like 8:30 pace but who knows, it felt faster but what do I know.

Today I went out to do a quick 2 miles, turned around early because I felt like absolute garbage, it was probably 1.5 miles so I didn't cut off much but I just wasn't loosening up at all.  I'm happy I got it in though even if it was short and semi pointless it was important to actually get out.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I have not been blogging but I HAVE been running.

I've been lacking motivation to blog lately,  not sure exactly why but I had plenty of lame short posts in a row and I suppose I wouldn't subject my thousands of loyal readers to that.  I was tempted to skip a few runs over the past week but forced myself out. I've kinda been doing 2 runs 1 day off kinda thing with a few exceptions.  I am still trying to decide on today but I think I'm going to end up taking today off.

I have been getting bursts of motivation though.  Talking with friends and different people about running has been motivating me to get back in shape.  My friend Michelle is currently in the process of moving out to Colorado and before moving we chatted a bit about doing some races together down the road not local road races but marathon's or ultras something worth travelling for.  I've also been chatting with an ultra runner that has given me some hope in getting in shape in a reasonable amount of time, of course that is if I stick with running this time around.  Lastly last night I went and started looking back to my runs back in Jan/Feb before I stopped to see what the pace was for those.  I was surprised to see a few of the runs 7-10 miles that were run at sub 8 minute pace.  It was very reassuring that only 3.5 months ago I was running a reasonable pace and real mileage.  I hope that I can be back to that by the end of august but that may be a long shot.

I just need to work on eating better and sleeping better and maybe I won't be so tired all the time.  Other good news is though I've apparently lost 6 lbs.  I don't think I ever dipped under 172 or 173 when I was running in the fall and winter but maybe with all this humidity I can sweat out a few more lbs before the end of the summer.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

6 runs in 8 days. How about that.

So since I didn't blog yesterday I will recap yesterday and today.

Yesterday after work I went to my friend Jenn's house to meet up for a hill workout.  The original plan was to do it with 2 more of her fitness friends, one bailed early the other got stuck at work.  One of them lives on a pretty nasty hill I guess so we were going to do it there.  After that got nixed we just did it at a hill that Jenn lived on.  It wasn't nearly as difficult as I was expecting but it was still a good workout.

Today I got home from work kinda early, ran a few errands then headed out for my run.  I decided to do a loop for the first time from my house since starting up again.  I wasn't sure how long it was going to end up but I figured I could handle it.  It went much better than expected.  Turned out to be only 3.25 miles but I felt great finishing up.  A slight uphill to finish and I was still running strong unlike most runs I've done lately.

Today also is 6 runs in 8 days which is a good sign.  Just gotta keep this up so I can do a real run hopefully by the end of September.  I think I will set a goal for the end of Sept to be able to run 5 miles in 35 minutes.  Nothing fancy but we will see.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Just two miles

So after a good run later in the day yesterday I decided to get my run in earlier today since I was heading down to Hull to spend a day on the beach with some friends.  I got up at 8 to run, finally made it out a half hour later or so.  I was tired, sore from the run yesterday and not well hydrated.  I knew I would only do 2 miles I thought when I was turning around I could probably go further but it's a good thing I didn't.  I felt like total garbage finishing up but it's done.  Gotta go though time to head to the beach.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Feeling better

So despite going to bed at 5am after a long night of drinking then getting up for work int he morning I still got out for a run.  I didn't feel too bad this morning just really tired my morning was fueled by 2 iced coffees, I finally had lunch around 2 or 3 a couple of stripes of bacon and a chicken pie.  Finally motivated enough to go for a run around 7:20.

The heat has finally passed a brief storm helped cool down the temp but did not help the humidity.  I went out planning on a 3 mile run and I felt pretty good about it as I got going.  No hint of any tightness or pain in my calf which is always reassuring.  I was probably sweating as much as any of the actually hot days due to the humidity which kinda felt good since I wasn't also dying of heat.  I felt a bit of a stomach cramp about a mile to go but that passed after a minute or two and I finished pretty strong.  I still didn't time it, I think I might have been around 8:30 pace or so but who knows.

Where did I go?

Alright so I hadn't blogged in a couple of days but thats ok and I will tell you why.  I ran both Wednesday and Thursday 3 miles each, Wednesday was much tougher due to heat/humidity and I was on my own so I cannot control my pace and run too fast.  Thursday I had a running partner that kept me going more relaxed so that was good.  I took Friday off from running because I was feeling pretty sore and I've been getting a hint of tightness in my right calf which has me a little nervous because my past issues with calf problems.  I need to be more disciplined with hydration, diet and stretching to curb this problem before it gets worse.

I have not yet run today but I plan on going later tonight after it starts to cool off and I've got some good food in me.  I had a very late night last night for my friend Tony's birthday, it was a great time but going into work for a bit this morning wasn't my top choice of things to do.  So far though it's been a very good day in terms of productiveness I just need to actually run too. I will try to do another 3 miles but if my running log updates anything less feel free to make fun of me via the comments section.

Kinda going backwards here I think my love of running is sparking up a bit again which I am excited about.  After my run Thursday I got home and showered and headed to Barnes and Noble to get a book a friend recommended to me(The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan that my friend referred to as the anti twilight meaning it's actually good)  It was around 9 at night and driving across Burlington with the windows down was beautiful.  It really reminded me of when I used to be in shape and doing night runs after work, flying through a run on a summer night at 6 or 7 minute pace for 10 or 12 miles was such an awesome feeling.  Still warm but you could feel the cool breeze and when you're running fast but you feel like you'd never get tired despite the sweat pouring out of your body.  I miss that, I really do and I need to get back to that as soon as I can.  It has been frustrating being so far from a run like that and I hope it comes back quickly so maybe some time in the fall I could hit a 10 mile run at 7 minute pace and feel like a real runner again.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Another day another run.

So that double I decided to do, possibly not the best idea I have had.  Granted it was only 2 miles each run but my right calf was a little sore the next day, so I took the day off.  Lucky for me it was not a big deal, I ran on Wednesday and no problems with my calf.  Still plenty with being out of shape but I'm working on that.  I don't feel like writing much and I updated my log so I should even post this but whatever I am going to.

Monday, June 28, 2010

What a difference the Sun makes

So the unthinkable happened.  I did a double, 2 2 mile runs oddly enough both were done at the same temp and same humidity(according to weather.com after both runs).  In the morning I was a little sluggish but it seemed really hot/humid.  Tonight when I ran it seemed much cooler.

I was thinking during my run what the best way of going about training.  I was torn between doing a lot of doubles to get my mileage up or just trying to tough out doing some longer runs and trying to make sure I go slow enough to make it home.  Either way I need to make sure I am keeping hydrated all day and potassium intake.  I would really like to make it through the summer running and not have my calf problem come up again.

Blah Blah 2 miles Blah Blah

Dragged myself out for a 2 mile run this morning.  It again was a pretty good run considering how out of shape I am and that for some reason at 7am it was in the high 70's with humidity also in the high 70's.  As I ran I could feel the sweat building up like it does on real humid days.  It's almost like the moisture in the air is so much that it's keeping me from sweating until the pressure is too much.  Then I end up covered, even on a two mile run my shirt gets soaked through, half because I'm so out of shape and half because I've always sweat a lot on runs.

 I am going to have to start timing my runs though, I've just been assuming it's been around 9 minute pace because of how out of shape I am but this morning right after I started the 1 mile back home the song Knocked Up by Kings of Leon started playing.  That song has a play time of 7:10 and I'd say it couldn't have been much more than a minute that it wasn't playing on the way back.  It's pretty sad that I'm only running 2 miles at a time but if I am doing them at 8 to 8:15 pace then I'll feel a lot better about it.

Now if I could only find my stopwatch.

Friday, June 25, 2010

The last few days.

So I haven't blogged since Mt. Washington but I at least got in 2 runs.  It took me a while to recover from the weekend, I think today is the first day I actually don't feel tired.

Anyway I won't remember all the details from the week but I'll start with Monday.  I didn't run I worked almost 12 hours and by the time I got home my fatness had me purely focused on eating and not running so what can ya do.  Tuesday I made it out finally after work.  I was feeling really good, I have no idea the pace I was going but it felt quick(probably like 8 minute pace since i'm out of shape).  So I went for the typical out and back 2 miles but on the way back far up ahead I see a blond pony tail.  I wonder if it's actually blondie since I saw her yesterday running on my street when I was driving home.  So naturally I pick up the pace, as I get closer I notice the form is pretty bad and it couldn't be her, but I can't slow down.  I don't know what it was if my body just enjoyed actually running vs the shuffle/jog I've been doing or what but I wasn't slowing down even though I wanted to.  It really didn't take much to realize it wasn't blondie considering I'm probably too out of shape to catch her on a run anyway, but as I continued at my quickened pace I was starting to really get tired.  It was bad as I got closer I can see that it's someone that needs to run more than I do, what a disappointment.  Oh well, at least I got in a pretty hard run for me I'll take them whenever I can.

Wednesday I took off on purpose since I really pushed it on Tuesday and I'm trying to avoid any small injuries since last time I had a small injury I stopped running for months.  So Thursday I had a busy day, I was out of work really early but I had lots to do. I got in a run after the quick thunderstorm which I was hoping would be easier since it'd be a little cooler but it just seemed to make up for the lack in temp with added humidity.  I finished the run well and should probably add in a few 3 or even 4 mile runs soon.  I don't want to push the mileage too fast but I'll have to stop with these 2 milers eventually.  Though I still can't believe how sweaty I was from a 2 mile run.  gross

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Mount Washington


So yesterday I made a trip up to Mt Washington to watch the 50th anniversary road race that was also the US mountain running championships.  The day didn't exactly have the best start, I didn't finish everything I had to do Friday night till sometime around midnight which was later then I wanted to go to bed.  It certainly didn't help that I could then not fall asleep, the last time I checked the time it was 2:30 so who knows when I actually did.

The 5am alarm wasn't as bad as I was expecting, I got up and was on the road by 5:30.  I am almost ashamed to say this was my first trip ever to Mt. Washington and even just the drive there was worth it, I took the route through Franoncia and was amazed.  I would have really liked to stop and take some pictures but I didn't really have time to do so and I take pretty awful pictures in general so it probably wouldn't have been worth it.

I made really good time and arrived at the base of the auto road just shy of 8:30 and met up with Jim Johnson.  Jim was nice enough to find a ride with a friend of his well he was running his girl friend I think was driving, maybe his wife I'm not sure.  Either way I can't remember her name but we had a nice chat on the way up so that was good.  There was plenty of time at the summit to enjoy the views before the runners made it up there so at least my first trip up there I had a chance to take my time.

Jim had a great race turning in his best time of 1:08 and change(I'm too lazy to look that up)  which was impressive considering it was pretty hot the whole way up the mountain.  Seeing some of the people finish was incredible, there were people completing it that I would say had no business running a flat race forget up a mountain.  It's one of those things that watching it made me think that it's a horrible experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone and that I should have been running too.

Maybe I'll add some more pictures later but I gotta run now so until then you'll just have to wait.

Friday, June 18, 2010

And Back.

So I broke my laziness that turned 1 planned day off into 3 but I didn't like it.  So I obviously watched the Celtics game last night only to be disappointed with the result.  I'm not sure if it was worth staying out late for considering I didn't finally get to bed around 2 needing to be up at 6am for work.  I thought I was going to be meeting up with someone at 7:30 then another person at 9, it turned into the 9 meeting at 10 and the 7:30 not until noonish.  I was forced to think of all the sleep I could have had or if I just made myself a real breakfast at least but no instead I had an ice coffee and 2 bottles of water to try to fight of the dehydration.

 Lucky for me I didn't have to work too late today and made it home by 1:30ish I think at which point I decided I'd have some soup to get something in my stomach then head out for a run two hours or so later.  Well 5:30 rolls around and I find myself laying down struggling to stay awake.  I tried to motivate myself to get up and changed for a run and it wasn't working.  Finally two hours after that I manage to get out of bed and drink some more water hoping to hydrate before a run and somehow hoping that drinking water would some how stop the immense hunger I now felt having only had a bowl of soup and some coffee with some water mixed in since 6am now 13 hours later.

The water unfortunately did not stop the hunger even a tiny bit but the dedicated runner that I am I went for a run first since I know I wouldn't go back out if I had dinner first.  I stuck to the same 2 miles as usual and I felt much better than expected  the out i was running with an actual stride instead of the shuffle it turned into on the way back.  Between going out too fast and not being ideally prepared for a run when I'm this out of shape I knew it'd be not a fun finish.  Overall though the average pace was probably still as quick as any other run so something to be slightly pleased with I guess.

Overall though it was good to get back out, for me any time I get out for a run no matter how short it's a win. Just need to get back to doing 8-10 mile runs even if it is at 8minute pace, at least I could go a real distance then.

Now to shower, eat and prepare for the trip to Mt. Washington tomorrow to watch Double J run sub 1:05 for the 7.6 mile uphill race.  That is if I can get my lazy ass up early enough to make the drive.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Painful Reality

So as I went out for my run today it was just starting to rain.  There are some people who love rain and some who hate it.  I love rain sometimes and by sometimes I mean in the summer when I'm running.  Despite my current fitness I actually ran at least half of the run today like a real runner.  I no longer felt like someone that would struggle to run an 8 minute mile even if I was being chased by a bear.  My form was fluid, my stride open for a second I forgot how much of a douchebag I am for letting myself get thins far out of shape in such a short time.

The run was again just 2 miles, this time It was certainly quicker even though I struggled the second mile I was going much quicker the first.  I am hoping to be able to get in at least 1 8 mile run in before the end of the month.  It will be a stretch but we will see.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Small realization

Well this morning I got up around 8 and decided to go running, 3 and a half hours later I actually went.  Just another 2 miles nothing excited.  I did go faster this time, I didn't time it but it was noticeably quicker, either that or I really felt like garbage.

Anyway I had a small realization about my training, not something blog worthy but something I feel good about.  I suppose it was something I've known for a long time but never really thought much about it other than that.  Now I've spent some more time thinking about it.

Friday, June 11, 2010

I'm a long way out.

So I finally decided to see how far I had been running all this time.  Turns out the shortest of the previous runs I've done the last two weeks was just over 2 miles, the longest being 2.8.  I was pleasantly surprised by this as I figured for sure I'd be over estimating the distance.  Anyway so I did this before going out for my run today and I figured since I felt alright on the last run of 2.8 I might as well make this one 3.  As I got to the 3 mile mark which was just past a quick downhill I felt alright so decided to add on a bit more.  I struggled some on the way back(which I finally realized today is almost entirely uphill) but not too badly and I finished strong, well strong for me considering.  All in all a good run and another step closer to getting back to at least 5 mile runs.

I think I'll have to set that as my first goal I suppose being able to run 5 miles.   As pathetic as it is, gotta start small.  I just need to be able to run 8:30 pace for 5 miles then I might be able to find people to run with.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Today was a good day...

So I originally planned on running yesterday but things did not go as planned.  Sunday night I went to go to bed around midnight a little later than I wanted but what can ya do.  The only problem was I never fell asleep, laying in bed all night I tried reading watching movies etc... all the tricks to fall asleep minus getting really drunk.  So around 4am I gave up and went to make breakfast so I could run at 6.  Well I got side tracked then took longer to make breakfast so I didn't end up going before work.  I worked from 7 to 3, before I was done with work I kept zoning out and I'd get short bursts of energy where I could actually focus and get work done.

Anyway so Monday was a waste today was better except I didn't get to make myself a good breakfast before work.  I ran further than I have the past few runs I'll still count it as 2 until I feel like I deserve to count runs for more than 2 miles(probably when they start being 2 miles in the first place...kidding).  I felt good though my body is remembering what it's like to run which is nice.  It's going better than I expected after the first run.  I expect to be back up to 5 mile runs by the end of the month but we'll see.

I'd write more but I'm really hungry and I gotta go make dinner.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

A small sign of progress

So, I managed to get out for a run again today with a little help form an encouraging(more like demanding) text message.  Now despite the two previous runs this week feeling like the first two runs I have ever done and that a 10 to 15 mile run at 7 minute pace was beyond possible in my lifetime, I felt better.  I still only ran 2 miles(I'm still guessing I haven't really timed or measured it I'm just going by distance from runs I did back when I was in shape.  Anyway, despite it being hot and humid I felt better today than the previous two runs. Even though it was probably 2 miles in 20 minutes I actually felt like a runner that was out of shape instead of someone that has never run before which was promising.  Now these little optimistic views won't really matter when it comes down to it considering my track record with running but it's progress and I'm happy about that.

Lets just hope it continues.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Twice in one week

This is going to be short because the Celtics game is about to start.  I did another 2 miles today, felt equally crappy to Sunday but oh well.  Maybe I'll edit this and make it longer later or just have a separate entry.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Well I did it.

So it finally happened and I broke the streak.  Feb 11th to May 30th.  I went for a run, not I'm not sure if I can really count it but it but it was a step in the right direction.  I am calling it 2 miles I didn't and will not measure it but I was gone just over 20 minutes(I didn't bring my watch) and it was probably the most horrible experience of my life.  I could go into more detail but I really don't want to.  Either way it's done.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Alright well I think I waited long enough between posts

I was a disappointment even to myself today.  I went to bed early last night, around 10pm, hoping I'd be able to fall asleep early and wake up at 6.  I fell asleep right away and just happened to wake up at 4am.  Now did I take advantage of this rare opportunity of having a decent nights sleep and being awake at 4am.  Of course not, I basically stayed in bed browsing the internet until almost 6 then went to work.  I got there almost a full hour early and started on a side project I've been doing on my own lately which was nice but what really bothers me was what I didn't do.

I didn't run.  4am with plenty of time to spare I didn't even put shoes on for a 20-30 minutes run.  I might have gone further had I been able to drag myself out but I couldn't manage that.  Anyway pretty lame but what can you do.  I should just hire someone to run with me 6 days a week, how do you think that would cost?  Could I pay them in massages?  If thats the case I'd have to hire a chick cuz you know, it'd be gay otherwise.  Seriously though, I'll make someone brownies once a week if they make me run.  So for all of my readers keep in mind next time you're craving brownies....

Saturday, May 1, 2010

I just do not blog that often anymore.

I don't know if it's a lack of time or just that I don't run so updating a blog I started for running is just kinda lame when it's no longer running updates.  Anyway, nothing really exciting has happened since my last post.  My day to day life is still boring.  I wake up, go to work and don't do much before going to bed when I get home. Although I have started planning out good things.  I am trying to make a list of places I want to hike this year and try to figure out when I can do each or them and if I can find anyone to go with me.  I suppose it wouldn't be bad to do them alone I could just bring an ipod but it'd be nicer to have company.

I would like to do Franconia Ridge, but the hike I at least that found that covered most of it was a 9 mile hike and I figured I should probably start out easier.  I'm sure I could do it but especially if I am going alone I'll start off with something shorter.  That way I can be sure if I get up at like 5am on a Saturday to drive up to some mountain or trail I can not only make it there, but get through the hike and stay awake on the drive home.  Anyway so that is the plan, who knows if it will actually happen but I'll try to make a trip over to REI soon and get some stuff so I can start hiking.  Let me know if you'd like to come along.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Temptations

So again taking way too much time off from blogging but what can you do.  Anyway I'll start my recap off with Thursday. Last week I had Thursday and Friday off from work.  I decided that on Thursday I'd head up to Methuen and get some chicken pies, it was a decision I do not regret.  It had been a while since I've had them so I was over due.  The one problem is that as I was stuffing my face with chicken pies on the ride back I happen to pass by the river trail in I think Andover but I'm not sure.  I ran there a few times with Jim and a few with Michelle.  It got me thinking about how great trail running is and how much I missed it.  Only problem was I don't even know where my running shoes are since moving and I was stuffing my face.  I got home and figured well maybe later today if I have time(I had a long list of things to do) or tomorrow I'd head to the trails for a few easy miles.  Well obviously I did not end up going because lets be serious I am me.  I didn't finish the stuff I planned to do Thursday, then the nice weather disappeared along with my motivation.  I suppose I can pretend the good news is I at least dug out my running shoes so I am aware of where they are now.  I will keep you posted if the unthinkable happens and I go for a run.

I think I just need to accept I am just not a self motivated person.  I really enjoy running and even running alone but apparently not enough to get in shape by myself so I can actually go for runs with my friends.  I think I'd just need someone that wants to get back in shape or just in shape and forces me to go with them.  That'd probably be a lot more likely to work than me actually getting back in shape on my own and staying that way.

The rest of the weekend wasn't too exciting.  Friday I did go to the Beer Summit in Boston which was really cool. If you are a beer drinker I'd definitely recommend going next time they have one.  50 different microbreweries and 200 different beers(and some ciders).  Next time though I'll have to figure out a way to document all the ones I try because there is maybe a handful of what I actually remember drinking.  I remember things like the expresso beer I tried that tasted a lot more like coffee than it did beer, it was pretty good but I can't remember at all who made it.  The same with the pear cider, it was different but pretty good and again no clue who made it.

Anyway I will leave you with this picture that I came across after Easter which had the funny headline "the lord has risen"  apparently some religious people have a problem with this picture.  I thought it was pretty funny.

Monday, April 12, 2010

The Gunners Dream

So to recap the weekend it was pretty fun.  Went out to Patriot Place on Friday night which is pretty cool.  The rain made it less fun walking around but still that place is impressive.  I had never been in a Bass Pro Shop before and it's odd to say but being inside that store has really made me want to spend more time outside.  Sunday we had our last regular season games of the regular season.  We had a double header due to 95% of our team being in Toronto next weekend for Mike's bachelor party.  The first game was a bit of a disaster from the start, again the league has the scheduled screwed up and gave people incorrect times, the field we played on was absolute crap which I'm sure we didn't have a permit for.  Anyway very few bright spots between the two games.  Between a couple of guys getting banged up in the first game and 2 guys having to leave before the second game we were tired and very short handed so we didn't stand much of a chance the second game against a team that was undefeated.  Anyway to highlight the day, I had two plays I was really happy with.  The first catch was a high ball that was a jump between me and the defender that I came down with.  A tough enough catch that the teams that played in the previous game that were still on the sidelines were commenting on it and giving me high fives as I went back to my huddle.  It was a bit awkward but cool that it apparently looked that good.  The second was just a great throw by Dan outside of the defender so only I could get it. I dragged my feet to stay in bounds and got a first down.  Sadly those type of plays were probably the only kind of highlights of the day since we got beat so bad.  Oh well it's been a fun season and now we know two things.  We need to find a better run league to join since this one sucks, and we need to find more people(specifically more committed people) since probably half of our games we had 2 or less subs.  Actually to be more specific we need more big guys since our lineman generally played both ways the entire game just about every game.  

Moving on.  So I've been still eating pretty poorly but one thing that has improved is breakfast.  So instead of either nothing or junk food for breakfast during the week I'm now having fruit smoothies.  The weekends I still go a little overboard with french toast, bacon and eggs or something like that.  Anyway so this is a picture of the smoothie pre mix.  
  So what I have in there is an orange, a banana, two kiwi's, some mango, blue berries, strawberries and raspberries.  I think thats everything at least.  Then I add green tea to it, it's surprisingly pretty good and I'm sure better for me than pop tarts or nothing.  

Saturday, April 10, 2010

I am about as good at blogging as I am at running.

So it's been about 2 weeks since my last post.  Woah, ok that sounds a bit too much like catholic confession so I have to stop.  Anyway  I've been pretty busy lately, obviously not with running.

Where to start, well since I started this blog to be about running I'll at least start with football since it's the most exercise I get without running.  So well my left ankle is still swollen to about twice the size of my right one.  It doesn't hurt really, I don't ice it which is really dumb of me but since it doesn't hurt I really don't think about it except on Sundays.  The first game of the last two weeks was awful.  We showed up at Arlington High where our game was at and started warming up etc... only to find out that our game was an hour after it was scheduled since AGAIN the league did not get a permit for the field and the early game was forced to play on a separate field and it delayed the start of all the games.  It makes me wonder what we paid $600 bucks for since we supplied our own uniforms, flags, ball, tee, and we pay ref fees every game.  We haven't played at the same field more than once with the exception of double headers and we were only supposed to have one game that wasn't on the same field.  Anyway  I'm not sure if it was the delayed start, or what but for some reason our team was just not in the game that week.  The opposing team was good but very beatable and we just couldn't get it together.  Needless to say we lost.

The second week we played a game at 8am on Easter Sunday in Milton which was pretty shitty since it's like 45 minutes away.  Anyway because of the holiday we only had 8 people show up for an 8 on 8 game.  No subs and we ended up having to play with some nagging injuries the entire game.  Not only that our quarterback was one of the people who could not make the game forcing me to step in as the backup.  I was not really looking forward to that but what can you do.  Somehow early in the game I'm not sure if it was dehydration from being out drinking for a friends bday the night before or what but I had my right calf cramp up pretty bad.  This isn't just a normal cramp this is a recurring thing  with me, I've had it happen before just from running and it's bad enough that on one run with my friend Michelle in the Dracut/Tyngsboro woods she noticed me limping and refused to continue running despite being fine herself and me insisting that we continue on.  Now imagine that playing football with lots of cuts and sprinting instead of just running at a measly 8:30 pace(I have no idea what we were running but it probably was close to that).  So this cramp came up within the first 10 minutes of the game which was nice since we had no subs, but at least I was quarterback so on offense I didn't have to run too much.  The first half of the game went alright Mark bailed me out of a bad pass and ended up scoring a TD which was my first throwing for the season and I think Mark's first receiving since he's been out with a bad foot.  We kept it close, I scored another TD running the ball to keep the score tied at 13.  The second half however was when our lack of subs really killed us.  Jeff hurt his leg so he couldn't run too well so he needed to switch with me at QB.  So now limping around I was still playing receiver, which I did well enough at but at this point in the game we had too many people either tired, hurt or not playing their normal position and we gave up a couple of big plays and were not able to respond.  So that was that, another game we could have won but did not.  We need to find a better run league and maybe some more players so we aren't always so short handed.

Aside from that work is going really well.  Things are finally after a few years coming into place for me.  Plenty of money coming in and I've decided I need to get my CFP within the next year.  Now if it happens who knows I need to take 6 classes and shell out over 6 grand before I can even take the test so we'll see if I can get all that done soon so I can start studying for that wonderful 10 hour 2 day test.

Another reason I have been busy is I have some how beyond everyone I knows expectations I have manged to get myself a girl friend.  How this has happened is still to be determined but it's been going pretty well so far considering my general retardation when it comes to girls.  And since people will find a hard time believing me I will offer a picture as an attempt at proof.
Trust me this has nothing to do with my recent download of photoshop.  Anyway thats it for tonight.  I have a double header for football in the morning and I'm just hanging out at home by myself for the night.  I'll try to keep the posts coming more often than once every 15 days.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Double Time

I already posted once today but it's your lucky day I'm making a second very quick post.

You ever wonder what would happen if Mark Wahlberg and Steven Colbert had a son together?  Wonder no more

Catching up.

So it was brought to my attention yesterday that it had been 8 days since my last blog entry...whoops.   Sorry about that.  Anyway it's been a pretty busy week but I will start recapping from last weekend I suppose.  So we had a double header for football a game at 10am and a second game at noon.  Now we weren't exactly off to a very good start losing the first game 32-0 then the second game 18-0 at least we could say we had improved.  What helped us this past weekend was those two teams played each other in the game before us and it was close.

We saw the team we were playing against as they arrived and it was hopeful, they didn't have a lot of big guys and unlike last week they didn't have an offensive line that all played semi pro football and were 6'4 300+.  So the game starts and we controlled it from the start.  I don't remember enough details now about the game so I'll just highlight a few things.  My first catch was a stretch that I could not hold my balance after so I went down(which ends the play if you fall) but it was a good gain, then Pete made a great catch that caused him to land on his head and sit out a couple of plays.  I had 3 touchdowns 2 in the first half the first one catching a tipped ball in the end zone for the teams first score, then catching the 2nd cutting across the back of the end zone for another.  One pretty cool moment was my friend Mike's parents had swung by because they were in the neighborhood so they watched for a decent chunk of the second half, right after they showed up Dan called a deep pass to Mike, the defender bit on the fake bad and Mike was wide open for a long touchdown.  I ended up scoring once more in this game where I don't even remember how I caught the pass, I just remember coming down with it and heading for the end zone and as I ran away from the defender I heard "How the hell did he catch that?"  so that was pretty cool.  That was pretty much it for that game, game 2 was a lot more exciting.

So game 2 gets started and it was a lot more competitive, granted this team had 2 players from the team that beat us week 1 filling in for some of their guys but still it was good.  They scored first I believe on somewhat of a broken play.  The QB was forced outside and I thought he was going to run so I bit as did Jeff who was in man coverage, only the QB didn't run and saw Jeffs man open deep and tossed him an easy touchdown.  On our next possession I ended up scoring on a deep pass that was thrown a bit more to the middle than I was expecting but unsuspecting to the CB covering me who I think thought I had no shot at it but I slipped behind him and came up with the TD.  Only right after I caught it I rolled my ankle pretty bad so I hopped off the field to my first aid kit where I had an ace bandage to try to wrap it up some.  The pain subsided and with my newly wrapped ankle I was back on the field.  The problem was on defense Jeff made another mistake of letting his guy get behind him and scoring again so we were down 13-6 heading into the second half.  We decided to mix up the defense a bit early in the second half taking me out from safety and putting Mike in to play linebacker and really getting a lot more pressure on, it worked perfectly.  We were able to stop them from scoring the entire half, we had a late score from a great catch and run from Pete, then we only went for 1 on the PA to force OT which Pete made a great play on again.  The overtime rules are kinda cool but not what I expected.  Each team does one play from 3 yards out, and you go until someone scores.  So we missed out first scoring chance, but stopped them on theirs, so we went to the second round, they were up first and Doug came up with a huge stop after it seemed like his man had him boxed out.  Then we were back on offense, Doug completing his great game comes up with a huge catch to seal the win.

It was really cool how close the game was and to see how well we improved in the second half so it was a great confidence booster.  One of the refs told us after the game it was one of the most exciting games he's reffed in years so we were glad we weren't the only ones who thought it was awesome.  Thats about it for Sunday though.  I've been pretty excited about how that went all week and looking forward to our next game this weekend who this team against our team from the first game of our double header they won 30-15 which is a good sign for us.  If that team was able to score off them we should have a field day with their defense.

The only other really interesting thing from this week was going out Wednesday night.  I headed out to trivia in Chelmsford which was a good time then decided it was still a bit early so I headed to the Brewery in Lowell for some pool since it's free Sunday-Wednesday.  Walking from the parking lot to the door I see a very large "woman" standing outside smoking.  Then I remember hearing someone say a week before that they do Tranny nights on Wednesday nights on the 3rd floor so that was a bit interesting.  Granted this "woman" was probably at least 6'2 without the high heels on and bigger than some NFL players, I considered trying to recruit for the football team since our lineman don't really have many subs but then I decided against it.  Either way had a good time playing pool despite not being that good at it.

That about sums up the week, of course I'm still not running.  Oh my ankle that I rolled last Sunday is still about twice the size of my other ankle.  I don't really have any pain unless I try to move it side to side but walking it's been fine.  I haven't run on it or done any cutting/football moves on it so we will see.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I'm not sure how this is happening.

Well, as I've stated before I haven't run at all since mid Feb, just football stuff a few days a week.  I've drank a lot more than usual lately because I've been going out yet some how I keep losing weight.   Now I had lost some when I was running before and when I stopped I slowly put it back on, now this isn't a lot of weight mind you but still since Jim insists I'll be pushing 200lbs in no time I feel I need to make this point.  I weighed myself this morning which is what I normally do and the decline continues 171.7.  I checked to see if someone had switched the scale to kilograms to play a joke but nope still on lbs.  I suppose I have been eating less junk food than usual since I'm not really home as much so I'm going to assume that was it but I figured the added drinking would change that.  I need to start doing something to get me working out more though, I might start the 100 pushup challenge again and try to go 0(well probably like 40-50) to 100 pushups in 6 weeks.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Ignore me doing this

So as you can see it's been a month today since my last actual run.  That is pretty crappy, but I haven't been completely lazy in that time.  Football has kept me pretty busy, despite it being completely disorganized I've been able to get a lot of running in when people have been around to get together for practice.  I've had sore legs pretty much the entire week.  Today they feel pretty good, mostly because I took yesterday off so I had a chance to recover a bit.  I probably would have at least gone and done some hills since it was nice out but I had a date believe it or not.  A girl I met last weekend I've been talking to a bit gave me a good excuse to be lazy.  We went to trivia at a bar near her house that she's been to a few times.  It started late and there were only 4 teams, all of which had at least 5 people against just the two of us.  It didn't go well for our team but we had a good time anyway.  I didn't run at all today either but I will have to start some things up tomorrow again.  I've got plans to meet up with some friends in Allston tomorrow night for a trip to the Sunset Grill which will be a good time.  I still need to work on posting more often, I get a bunch of views every day even if I am not posting so apparently I've got some people eagerly waiting for my next post and I keep disappointing them.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Total Chaos

So the good news is I didn't have to play quarterback today, the bad news was I don't think it mattered who was there.  This was our first game together as a team and half the team had never even played organized football before.  The other team however has been playing together for the last 5 years and were extremely organized.  This basically caused everything that could possibly go wrong to go wrong.  I don't really need to go into details but it was bad.  I will say I didn't see everyone playing cuz I had to play myself but from what I did see Sweetland probably had the best game out of everyone.  The upside is we got our first game out of the way and now we have a much better feel for what we need to work on, granted there is probably too much to work on but still we've got our starting point.  Another good thing was the other team was really cool they were having a lot of fun(easy to do when you're winning by as much as they were) but hung around and talked after the game and gave us some info of what to expect from the league in general and what they though we needed to work on most.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Backup

I haven't blogged all week, not exactly sure why but I've been kind of annoyed.  I have my first football game tomorrow morning which I am pretty excited about overall.  The only part I am not excited for is that our quarterback is in Florida so my life as a career backup QB forces me into playing.  My excitement for being the backup now is about what it was growing up.  I just have never had interest in playing quarterback but year after year growing up I was forced into it nice to see how things change.  Oh well.  Maybe it will be nicer on my groin not running receiver routes since I still have soreness, nothing that would affect running around but still it's there.  


Speaking of being a backup it's kinda strange that lately I've had two girls I know tell me if they hit 30 single and I am also single that I don't have a choice in either marrying/having kids.  The friend that said having kids I don't think mentioned marriage just kids.  Also which I'm not sure about is a girl I knew through a mutual friend a few years back got in touch with me this week and that she's approaching 30 and single has me worried given my recent trend.  

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Either Way

This is about how I feel this morning.  I've been awake since 4:30 listening to some great music and it's been pretty nice.
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Aside from that my birthday was on Thursday.  29 years old, I suppose it went fairly well.  I'm not really a big birthday person for example on my 21st birthday instead of going out to a bar or doing something normal, I instead went to the movies with two girls I had a night class with.  Anyway now that facebook reminds everyone about my birthday the last two years I have actually gone out for my birthday(maybe it was 2 out of the last 3 I dunno).  Anyway the plans tonight are to head to Buddha's Tavern in Peabody that is owned by my friend Jeff and my friend Tony is hosting karaoke there.  Karaoke wouldn't be something I would have thought I'd choose to do but last time was pretty fun.  Granted I won't sing but still, Josh should be attending and he can sing pretty well, and my friend Karen also I think is going who surprised everyone last time with a very impressive singing voice.  So it's not the standard drunken awful singing, at least not the entire time.

So thats that, I still haven't done shit in terms of running.  Zero motivation and I don't know why.  Oh well.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

This is just NOT my month.

So despite everything that has gone wrong this month, between having my car puked in, then broken into, my xbox breaking and my overall lack of motivation it gets worse.  So today I got together with my friends for football "practice" instead of being in shape and doing a long run.  Now my friends are generally lazier than I am which might be hard to believe but it's true.  Well maybe not overall but at least when it comes to football apparently.  Since we had people that couldn't all make 1 time we had 2 practices set up and a few of us ironmen(Me, Tony and Mark) were at both practices.  So for my commitment to my team and effort put forth to practice football for 6 hours I am rewarded with a broken finger.  Now I don't think it's actually broken it might actually be worse than a simple break but I'm not sure.  Anyway it's not that big of a deal because it's my left pinky but just on top of everything it sucks because seriously what else can go wrong this month?  Well I am sure it will get plenty worse, my birthday is Thursday and I know I won't hear from some people I'd like to which again not a big deal but things have been piling up.

Alright was that enough bitching?  ok good.  Anyway aside from that I am excited for football it's helped my motivation for being active which is good, it'd just be a lot nicer if we had more sunlight so I could get some time to throw the football around during the week after work.  I think that'd help my motivation because I AM SLOW and that sucks.  I am still MAYBE the fastest out of my friends but I'm not used to it being close I didn't have to worry about this through college and it'd be nice to not have to worry about it anymore.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Why is picking scabs so much fun?

Seriously why do I enjoy it as much as I do?  It was a week ago friday that I had ended up with this road rash on my leg and for a little but it was annoying then that went away and it was all scabbed over.  Now that the scab is starting to come off I of course am picking at it.  Man it's fun, it's about 2 or 3 square inches I guess so there is only a little bit left that just isn't ready to fall off.

Anyway, I've bee slacking on the running quite a bit but I've been doing some other stuff working out.  Not quite the same or good enough so I need to get on the ball.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Goddamnit

So didn't run today, played football instead. Anyway after I went to play some xbox and got redringofdeath'd  so this week I had my car puked in, then shit stolen out of then and on top of that i got rrod.  it should be free to fix at least but still very annoying.  Now to start plan on creepily talking about how i will hit on olympic athletes or maybe even blondie who is actually no longer blonde.  anyway his is a very weird post so deal with it

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Friday Night Football

So I'm not sure if I have mentioned before or not that I'm joining a flag football league with some of my friends but I am.  The league it outdoors and starts Sunday the 28th.  So we had our first "practice" last night at Turf Time in Woburn.  It's a small indoor turf field which was fine, except we didn't actually practice.   We threw around for a bit which is fine to warm up, then did a scrimmage which is completely useless in my opinion.  It was complete disorganization and of no help to anyone on the team.  We have plays made up well not so much a specific play book but specific assignments for each position that we will call in the huddle then run.  Now not sure who decided this, but instead of teaching everyone that it was decided to just scrimmage instead.  Some of the people have never played any kind of organized football before so they didn't know what they were doing.  Anyway thats my rant I guess, so I think I will have to take charge next time and keep it organized.  Also if we end up doing another indoor practice I'd like to see us go to Tyngsboro instead since they have a larger indoor field more for football too not just soccer.  Anyway I've got a lot of stuff to do before heading out tonight so ummm see ya.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

So I guess it was Glenn Beck's Birthday Yesterday


I saw this online and thought it was pretty funny.  I should have printed it out and taped it to my dads TV before he got his daily dose of Glenn.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Robbed

Today I woke up went to go to work only to find out that someone had been in my car last night, making a mess, well more of a mess than it already was but taking my GPS and Ipod out of my car.  So today pretty much sucks, and I'll have to start planning out my vigelante justice of walking around Burlington with a batman suit on fighting crime.  Not so much fighting crime but scaring all the junkies out of town.

If you somehow stumble on to this blog after you stole my shit I want you to know that I hate you.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Great Friend or the Greatest Friend

I've always thought of myself as a great friend to have but recently came another example.  So this weekend was the Super Bowl which is less exciting since there was a lack of Patriots but still the Saints have a few ex Patriots not to mention a coach that admits to trying to emulate the Patriots it was easy to choose a team.  Oh that and I HATE the Colts so it really didn't matter who the other team was.  


On to the point so as normal I was driving so I wasn't out to get wasted not the case of my friends.  Pete however took it as a challenge apparently.  It certainly didn't help that shots kept getting served where we were and who was he to turn down that.  Anyway after the game ends we end up going outside to throw the football around with a couple of other people.  Upon returning to the party we find the rest of our friends left which was fine but everyone else we had met for the first time.  As Pete finishes off some random drink that was on the table he declares he has to go outside and puke.  Someone asks "did he just say he was going to throw up" so I said I thought so and would go check on him.  I go outside to find Pete and he responds with alright we gotta go, that figures though if he's not feeling well, it took a turn for the funny when we get to the car to hear him say "I had to get out of there before I banged a fat chick".  I lost it then considering there were a few heavy hitters there so probability was not going to help.


Had I known what was going to happen I might have considered ditching him.  We are driving home and as I got on to the highway the window went down.  I was like well hopefully he can hold off till we get back but this is not an unfamiliar situation. I ask him if he wants me to pull over, he says no and waves me on.  You might think well why not stop? Well since this is now the 3rd time he's puked out the window of my car I figured he's made the first two without incident he could pull off number three.  Man do I regret t hat, so I make the mistake of assuming he's doing a good job of keeping it all on the outside of the car, until I hear him puke then feel a mist blow back in my face.  That is pretty awful for those of you who haven't experienced that.  So he says he's done I don't remember if he actually was or not but I know the damage had been done and I just wanted to get back to his house.  So we get there I go inside to get cleaning supplies and Pete just heads upstairs.  I do what I can in the limited light I have  and get everything for the most part.  


Instead of going into more details than I need like I already have I'll move on.  It got me thinking, as gross as it is puke doesn't really bother me.  Aside from not smelling too well and the thought of what it actually is it doesn't bother me.  I've cleaned up puke plenty of times from drunk friends so it's not new, cleaning when someone misses the toilet in their attempt to upchuck, just the middle of a floor, clogged sinks, my car and the list will continue to grow I'm sure.  The best part is I can always wash my hands etc... after so I don't really care.  What this got me thinking about though is I'm really a great friend to have and I want to let everyone who reads this know that I'm aware of their under appreciating of my friendship but I'm okay with it as long as you keep the puking to a minimum or at least make up for it with buying me breakfast the next morning.

To use a quote from Seinfeld to describe me I will quote Jerry mom "How can anyone not like you?"

Anyway feel fee to use the comments section to write testimonials of how great of a friend I have been to you.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

I Need A Running Partner

I made my way back out to the roads tonight.  This will be short because I'm writing this as I stretch and I need to shower and eat dinner.  Anyway  I only ran for 34 minutes, it's probably just over for but I'm just going to call it 4 instead because I don't feel like measuring.  I probably didn't run the best route considering my recent calf issue rolling hills didn't seem to be a good idea.  The last uphill I went up my calf was feeling a lot tighter not to the point that it was like when I woke up the other day or previous times it's bothered me but it didn't feel good. I decided to cruise the rest of the way until I got to the last uphill to my house and I'd walk in in from there.

Less than ideal run but I need to stop getting distracted from stupid other stuff like my job(s) and make eating right and running a priority.

Anyone know someone in or near Burlington that wants to run with me a few days a week?  Preferably a hot chick so it's more motivation to not slack.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

How the hell did I manage to do this?

So I've done quite a bit of slacking off recently which is right on par for what I normally do.  Granted I had an awesome weekend and was reminded how great the friends I have are.  Friday night out in Lowell with most of my friends was probably one of the most fun I've had in quite a while. Then Saturday night I drank and cleaned my friends house which for me is surprisingly more fun than it is for pretty much anyone else.  I cleaned the first floor while Pete cleaned upstairs, so I was blasting some good music and basically alone most of the time but still something I enjoy because well, I was out of my house.

Anyway talking with a friend last night about how I needed to stop slacking and I was going to head out for a run around 8:30 or 9pm  then between getting 2 different phone calls that lasted a while from 2 different friends.  Suddenly it was 10:30.  While I was on the phone I gave up on the idea of running and changed back out of my running clothes and decided to slack again.  Now I probably should have still gone but I kind of let myself get talked out of it for fear of having a tough time falling asleep after a late run but in reality a run that late isn't going to change anything about my sleeping difficulties.

Regardless of that I also mentioned again to my friend about how I was hoping to avoid a recurring calf injury that I've had a few times when pushing myself too much when trying to get back in shape but it was normally in the summer so I thought it was almost hydration related.  Oddly enough I am proven wrong.  This morning I wake up and get out of bed to turn off the alarm.  That all too familiar pain is in my calf again, a pain that is deep in the muscle and is almost impossible to find a way to stretch it out.  This cannot  be happening right, I mean something that normally made sense when it happened all of a sudden happens in my sleep?  It's always been running too much or playing a long game of ultimate frisbee before I felt my calf give out.  Is this some sort of mental block I have where I'm actually making it up to the point it becomes a physical problem?  Maybe it could be just a sign of how bad my diet really is, a complete lack of proper nutrition bad enough to cause injuries while sleeping.

Whatever the cause of this is, I should try to improve everything I think could have caused it instead of doing one at a time.  Then maybe life will just get a whole lot better overall, and this stupid injury will finally go away for good.

Friday, January 29, 2010

The End is the Beginning






This song is pretty awesome, if you disagree don't talk to me we have nothing in common. It has nothing to do with the title of this blog, in fact the title of the blog is another awesome song by The Smashing Pumpkins. I was never really a smashing pumpkins fan before when they were apparently popular. It was on The Watchmen soundtrack but it was not the original version, or at least not that I know of. The original is much quicker paced.


Anyway end to an awesome week, Despite a shitty week running wise since I missed so much time I'm still very optimistic about pretty much everything not just running. So anyway now I am off to Lowell to hang out with some friends and have a good time. Have fun reading my blog.... jk no one will read this tonight.


P.S. Good Luck to Jim Johnson this weekend at the snow shoe qualifier race.




P.P.S. Apparently posting a embedded video messes up the text below so it's a little jumbled. I'll fix that later.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Poor Timing

So today was an odd day, it was as far as I saw above freezing all day then around 1pm it started snowing.  I wasn't sure how much snow to expect since I never watch the weather but I was wishing I could run then before too much snow accumulated.  Then I ended up talking to my friend Jim about meeting up in Wakefield for an easy 10 miles.  So we decided to meet up at 6pm and we'd learn later how bad an idea that was.

The snow in the afternoon didn't really stick to the ground at least not the pavement it was mostly just melting.  The snow seemed to stop close to when it was time to run and as I drove over I noticed the temp had then dropped below freezing.  As I pulled into the parking lot and we got ready to run suddenly blizzard conditions hit the lake.  It didn't last very long but it was heavy enough to put a layer of snow over all the pavement  within maybe 5 minutes.  There were no tire tracks from when I drove in but it was clearly covered when we started our run.  A thin layer of snow normally wouldn't be a big deal but since all the snow previous had just been melting and the temp was dropping the snow that had just fallen was covering a thin sheet of ice pretty much around the whole route we were running.  Now the plan was to run 10 miles and as we went along my legs were feeling worse and not like they were loosening up so I wasn't looking forward to the rest of the run.  Anyway we finished our first lap kinda a slower than normal pace because of all the slipping.  It really felt like at some points it was trying to run across the frozen lake instead of on pavement.  Anyway we started the second lap and in my head I was thinking since my legs had no felt any better that I might just make it 2 laps instead of 3.  That would have been fine until we approached one side where it was apparently much more slippery and Jim went down pretty hard.  Going down with his full weight on his right shoulder he was hurting. After waiting for the pain to subside and debating on weather we should cut the run short or not.  Instead of finishing that lap we just turned and headed back since we were not yet half way.  He has his snow shoe national qualifier race this weekend and I didn't care if I cut it short or not since my legs felt crappy.  We finished the run in 42 minutes and it was probably between 5.25 and 5.5 but I'm just going to call it 5 since I don't really care to map it out.

To complete the night when I got home after the run the power was out, either strong winds or some idiot that can't drive in winter conditions took out a pole and knocked the power out who knows.  Anyway so instead of getting some candles going and showering by candle light I just gave my friend a call and got some clothes and headed over to shower there and hang out for a bit.  Now it's approaching 10pm I am home again trying to figure out what I want for a late dinner.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

A Lack of Consistancy.

Well another week without a run pretty much.  I finally got back out there today and despite having my legs feeling extremely sore from football on Sunday I still managed to get in a good run.  I did a loop just shy of  7 miles with a little add on to make it 7 even.  I finished the run in 51:47 which comes out to around 7:24 pace for the entire run.  I'm pretty happy with that considering how my legs felt and that I slowed down on the second lap of the run because my left achilles felt a little tight so I didn't want to push it.

One thing I need to do better is stretch a lot more often, I don't do nearly as much stretching now as I did back in high school or even college.  So hopefully that combined with eating better will help recovery a bit and stay ahead of any injuries that I might run into.

Conflicting Interests?

So as I move forward and backward on my journey back into shape as expected there are plenty of things getting in the way.  Some maybe shouldn't be an issue others maybe they should.  One thing that has come up recently that could cause me to alter my goals and training is football.  My friends and I have seriously started looking into getting a competitive flag football team together and playing in a league.  This of course is a great thing because on any given day if I had the option to do anything playing football is likely to be a top 5 choice every time.    

This is something that could work out very well for me or not well at all.  What it comes down to is if I come home from work on a Friday night and I can either go for a run or meet with my friends(teammates) for a football practice, I'll be taking practice.  One because I love to football but two because I'm going to be running the offense for this football team so basically a captain/coach in addition to being a player so it becomes more difficult to skip practices.  That being the case it will force me to alter my running schedule.  Something I should probably do anyway but am not forced to do unless we go through with this football team.  If I start doing my distance training in the mornings it simplifies everything.  Then at that point the only thing I have to worry about are injuries between over training and all the stop and go cutting that is involved with football it could beat up my body more than I can handle.  After all I am closing in on 30 and have been out of shape for a while.

These kinds of situations though I have never really handled well in the past though football vs running really isn't as big of an issue as others.  When it comes down to what I want versus what is best for me I end up doing something other than picking one or the other.  Sometimes I've tried to force the things together, other times it's waiting it out and hoping that what I wanted eventually became what was best.  Either way it rarely works out.  These decisions are something I end up spending more time on than they are worth because I tend to do that with everything in my life.  When you do that you end up a whole lot worse off than had you just accepted something for what it is instead of what you either thought it was or hoped it was.

Anyway enough off topic ramblings for today.  What it comes down to is I need to start running in the mornings and forcing my sleeping problems to go away.  Being wide awake until somewhere between 2am and 6am just isn't going to help anything and needs to stop.  I suppose being awake as much as I am I have no reason to not blog more but oh well you have to deal with it.  I  will keep you posted on progress in the future.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Funny I come across this on a Sunday morning.



Also not surprising that religious people would value going to church over an education.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Progress...kinda

So despite being a little lazy for a few days I managed to get a run in finally.  Last night after work I met up with Jim back at Wakefield to attempt 3 long laps.  Lucky for me Jim had done a track workout the night before and was late getting there so did it with no warm up and was paying for it.  By 6:45 or so we finally started our run, nice and slow which of course I'd rather go quicker but since it'd be my first run of this distance since last spring/summer.

We were probably well above 8 minute pace on the first lap, which was fine, not all of it was clear running, there was plenty of black ice along the route we had to be careful of.  We picked up the pace as we ran, nothing drastic but by the end of the run we were probably hitting 7:50 at least.  My breathing was completely fine but I started to feel my legs getting sore at the start of the last lap and they just felt progressively worse as the run continued.  Now at almost 1pm the day after they are still incredibly sore.  Getting out of bed this morning was a task.   Still though it's a good feeling and it's good to know that at least breathing wise the 10 miles was easy to do so even though I've been taking too many days off I am still getting into better shape.

Also another good sign is weight has started to come off, and I've seemed to get somewhat of a runners hunger back.  There has been a few times in the past week or so that I've been more hungry than I've been in months, something that runners can get when training or people with tapeworms get.  It's great though it just means that what little running I've done so far is taking effect, so I just need to keep it up, well hopefully run a little more consistently but at least for now no real injury problems.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Whoops where did that week go?

Well it was brought to my attention last night that I had gone a week without a post by my only reader so Jim here is another one for you.  I haven't updated it because I guess I really haven't had much to say.  I have been running though actually had a great run on Wednesday night.  6.7 miles at 7:36 pace definitely the best run I've had so far since getting back into it.  It's a lot nicer now that my runs over at the lake I'm not dying at the end of one lap and debating on if I should try for the second.  I am still going to do a few one lap runs and take it easy on days to hopefully avoid injury.  I think that is one positive about my laziness is I've gotten plenty of rest over the past month or so but I am still improving which is nice.  No calf issues yet and I have wondered if I am just lucky so far or if maybe it happens in the hot weather solely because I don't hydrate enough anymore at least when it's hot.  I drink plenty of water but I don't think as much as when I was in real good shape.

Anyway I will try to keep the posts more up to date but I still update my running log so it can always be checked to see if I am actually running.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Staying on Track

Last night I did another short run, 3.43  my legs were still feeling fatigued from the previous two runs.  I think the snow/ice has taken it's toll just making it a little bit more difficult to run and it's now catching up with me.  I am undecided if I am going to take today off yet. I will probably try to go another 3 or 4 miles which is behind the schedule I want to be at but still it's a run that I'd be getting in.  

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Wakefield Winters

So New England winters can be annoying when it comes to running.  I don't overall mind it, I have a bigger problem with the town I live in and their lack of clearing any sidewalks.  Considering how narrow the roads are to begin with it makes it pretty difficult to run safely at night.  So most of my winter running as long as their is snow covering the sidewalks will be done in Wakefield.  Not that it's really a problem it's not too far away and since in the nicer months in the cases I do end up running I don't normally run there because there are better options so I don't get too sick of it during the winter.

Well since it is now 3:30 in the morning, I should say that Monday(no longer yesterday) I ran the lake with Jim Johnson and got in 2 laps which totaled 7 miles.  We ran it in just over 54 minutes which isn't too bad of a pace for me.  I felt awful starting out, Jim had shown up early to do a quick lap before I got there so he was warmed up well and going quicker than I would have liked for the first half of the first lap.  I paid for that the rest of the run.

Tonight(well last night since it was 10 hours ago)  I headed back to the lake to take an easy lap around, and from my start and finish point it's 3.4 miles.  I felt pretty weak at the start of the run, but I also felt loose.  I didn't need to warm up to run a quicker than normal pace but I didn't feel like I could sustain it very long.  Instead of trying to hold myself back I just went with it and figured I'd see what happens.  I covered the 3.4 in 25:21 which is 7:21 pace I think, either way without checking back at previous runs I'm pretty sure that is the fastest I've done any run since I've been keeping track again.

Definitely more encouraging information, also despite my lack of running in the recent past I still have managed to start losing weight.  Not that it's really a surprise I was doing regular runs before the holidays hit, but it's nice to see the weight start to come off as I've dropped 3 lbs.  Now All I have to do is keep it up so I can make it back down to the 140 range.  Maybe at that point my shin will stop hurting though I'm not sure if my rolled ankle will be completely healed by then, it doesn't affect anything but I still notice the pain now and again.

As to my yearly goal of getting a minimum of 2,010 miles in I'm certainly behind after the missed days.  A total of 17.66 right now when I should be at 27.5.  I figured I'd start off behind considering I'll be doing 3 mile short runs instead of 5 but still i've missed more days than I should have.  It shouldn't be an issue to make up seeing how I'd like to get up to 70 miles per week by the spring which should be easily doable.  If that is actually accomplished I'd be caught up rather quickly.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Year Shmoo(Is that spelled right?) Year

So today is January 1st 2010, the first day of my challenge for myself to see how long it takes me to run 2,010 miles.  I made a post about it before here.  I am not going to go into the details of my day but it started off pretty crappy and ended pretty good.  I didn't go running until 9pm which is probably why I am writing this at midnight and I feel like it's maybe 9 or 10 instead.

I did a longish run today at least for me at the moment, 7.23 miles is what it was mapped out to be.  I went slow partially due to wanting to and I was also kind of forced to, there was still an inch or so of snow on just about all the sidewalks which made it slippery especially going up hills.  I ran for a total of 59:37 which comes out to like 8:15 per mile much slower than runs were at least before the holidays and my laziness of not running.

So not that I will average that per day, hopefully it's more for the entire year but if I average that out for 6 days a week it would take 46 weeks to hit the 2,010 mark.  Anyway stay tuned and keep track on the widget on the side that keeps track of the running.  I may not always write a blog entry every day but I will update the widget to keep track of each run.  I also map each route with mapmyrun.com.