Another one in the books. Early this week, I had tweaked my back, and missed several days of staying fit due to it. With all the free time, I attended a few happy hours, and last night went to the Skins game with a full tailgate and celebration of the 42-17 victory. What does that all mean? Bad news for a race. Hungover, bad back, and pretty tight from not having done anything in a few days.
The result, miraculously, was a good one. Last year, when fit, I ran 20:47 on what's about a 2-minute slow course (I was running 18:47 5ks at that time). This year, I ran 21:14; 30 seconds slower than last year. The weather was likely a bit better, but I definitely had more stacked against me. I doubt I have the leg turnover to run a 19:14, as my time would indicate, but my legs are proving they have some decent strength in them.
I don't know where I finished overall, but I went home with a snazzy new water bottle for pulling 3rd in my age group.
I've said it a few times already, but this running is ALL ON 5 MILES A WEEK! I'm beyond amazed at what I'm doing on strictly biking mileage. My legs feel better every week, and packing on some serious mileage becomes more and more of a possibility. Yay! 2011 proves to be a good year for me.
With very few exceptions, everything in the world is simple to fix. The key, I've found, is to not be scared, and just get your hands dirty. Over the years I've learned how to replace transmissions, swap a suspension in minutes, fix bicycles, fix computers, fix arcade machines and at this point, I'm quite certain I could fix just about anything I'm faced with. Again, the key is to be confident in yourself, and go for it.
A great example is a car. When you look at it as a whole, sure it's a complex system, however, when is the last time you've ever heard of someone having to work on the whole car at one time? Right, it doesn't happen. In all cases, they're merely working on a sub-system of the vehicle, all of which are fairly simple little machines. Brakes, for example, are ridiculously simple. Your pedal is connected to some things that push fluid around. When you push the pedal, the fluid doesn't contract, so it needs to find a place to go. Your brake calipers are the path of least resistance, so the fluid pushes the caliper out, which squeezes the brake pads, which makes the brake pads hit the rotor, which causes friction, which slows you down. A brake caliper, which might seem scary and complex, is really only made up of less than a handful of parts. No magic there...
Today, I was in a second-hand shop, and found two lamps that really interested me. They were priced reasonably, but one didn't work. I asked the salesman what they could do with the price, and he gave me 66% off the broken one. He said they had been working when the came in just a few days ago, but someone had broken it yesterday and not said a thing. Deal.
I brought the lamps home, got to work, and had fixed the issue in less than two minutes. Worst case, I would have had to rewire it, which I know is a pretty simple task as well, but I lucked out and just had to get the switching mechanism unstuck/unbent.
The step by step is below... See how simple things are? Go fix something!
The Lamp
Step 1 - Remove the shade
Step 2 - Remove the bulb
Step 3 - Remove the harp
Step 4 - Open the socket (these plastic ones screw open)
Step 5 - Figure out your problem (in this case, the chain arm was bent/stuck... it shouldn't be as far left as it is)
Step 6 - Pull on it and bend the arm back into place
This morning at the gym, I was in the middle of a set of shoulder presses when something in my back went funny. It was almost the feeling of losing my breath. I finished my set, but found myself unable to do any other upper body. Frustrated, but not ruined; I got my first lower body workout in quite a while done.
Got home, and the pain wasn't going away. I wrote an e-mail to work saying I'd not be in and instead would be working from bed. being the driven young employee that I am, I went in anyway and worked a full day. It was bothersome, but I don't think I did any harm, but probably would have been smarter staying in bed and getting it full rest. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.
At some point, I put out a feeler for anyone with some muscle relaxers. Illegal, I know, but I don't drive anymore so I need to get my law-breaking somewhere! I developed a few leads from folks who had major issues in the past year and had a few of the bad boys left over. Unfortunately, the earliest I could get some would be 9PM. Up until 30 minutes ago, I was resorting to drinking. Not too heavily, but enough to get my mind off the pain... 30 minutes ago, my pill arrived.
Being the geek that I am, I hop on the Internet and do research... after popping the pill. Generic Flexeril is what's in me. Along with a fair amount of alcohol (based on the number of hours I've been going at it, I could probably drive had I not taken the pill). If I don't wake up in the morning, you'll know exactly what happened and can tell the coroner to save the autopsy (Seriously though, someone should know... and I figure this is a better place to disclose the information than Facebook, eh?)
I kid, I kid... I'll be fine, but damn this stuff hits hard. I can almost feel the drug coursing through my veins. Unfortunately, my back still hurts I skipped working out this PM (got a run in this AM)... Really don't want to have to skip tomorrow, and definitely need to be better for a race on Saturday.
Just saw someone post this to Facebook. It's from Grey's Anatomy, which is hilarious because for years I had to put up with Caitlin watching it (it's not a bad show, but it's definitely not a guy show), but damn, good quote:
“At some point, you have to make a decision. Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That's how we're made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.”
Nearly three years ago to the day, I resigned from my fairly comfortable position at Anystream. I loved the people, I loved the work, but the company was being steered into a direction I didn't particularly care for, they were top-heavy, and management was pretty poor. It was a VC-funded business with a few too many egos, and I couldn't be around that; I'm too willing to tell someone when they suck... and I did... and poor management didn't handle it correctly.
This week, I would have more than likely been laid off. The company was acquired, and from what I know, the QA team is no more. I've now got a handful of friends looking for jobs in what's not the best job market of all-time... Could have been me. I wish I could help them out, but yeah, times are tough...
I've looked back from time to time wondering if I had made the right decision... Now I can rest assured. A company that willingly cuts 1/3 of its employees, some of them who had been there from the beginning, is the exact place it had turned, and I luckily had to foresight to see it.
I can only hope management is happy, their pockets are lined well, and
they continue to be on the fruits of the labor of some really special
people.
There is more humor to the acquisition, but it's not yet public so I'll hold off for now.
Today marks the official one year anniversary of me halting all running. To say I've started running again is kind of a joke; I've been doing about 25 miles per month for the past three. I feel I could probably pick that up a bit, but biking seems to be doing me pretty well for now.
Two months ago, I ran my first 5k since running at all... My time was 22:06. Today, I ran another, which turned out to be on the exact same course... My time was 20:46. Proof that biking can make you faster at running. I'm more than pleased; this combined with my mile time shows I'm ahead of where I was at this time in 2007, when I first started getting serious and ran a sub-20 5k in December... So I think that will be my goal... a sub-20 by the end of the year.
I still have the immediate goals of 175lbs and 20k calories burned by the end of the month. I did a lot of working out last month and didn't drop any weight, but that likely means my body was transforming from soft to hard... Hopefully it's nearly done and I'll start to see some weight loss. If not, we might have to see some drastic measures toward the end of the month
I came into the month with a goal of 50 miles run, 200 biked, and 5 swam. Looking back, it was a bit lofty; I kept busy pretty much the entire month and still couldn't do it.
I ended the month with 28.5 run (a post-injury record), 233 biked (most ever by 92), and 4.44 swam (most ever by double AND I missed an entire week due to my open wounds from the bike crash, which means if I kept up my pace, I'd have done about 6). Not too shabby to say the least... I've added a calorie count to my workout spreadsheet... This month I burned 16,717, to rank as my 4th best month ever (behind 18k in May and June last year, and 19k in August of '08). I think my goal for the next month will simply be to break 20k. In case you were wondering, there are ~3500 calories in a pound. Since starting my logs, I've burnt 100lbs. That's most excellent, but not nearly as high as I expected.
On the running front, my legs are still improving, but with all the biking and swimming, I haven't been finding the time to run more. I'm going to have to better balance the sports this coming month. I dropped a minute off my four mile time, and ran a sub-6 mile with ease in July. Things are looking up for 2011.
A couple weeks ago I finally rode all the way to Mount Vernon and back. It's something I've been wanting to do, but the timing never seemed right. It's only a 40-miler so nothing too special, but it's still a noteworthy destination. I don't think I'll ever do it again as the trail at and past Alexandria is horrendous; narrow, full of turns, full of people, damp (in woods). I also had my first real road crash... Fumbled putting away my bottle, ran out of real state, and threw myself on top of a wooden guardrail. I'm quite lucky I only had some rash on one arm and a leg. The bike fared well; scraped my shifter hoods and tore up my bar tape, which needed replacing anyway. The thought of [potential] massive splinters as I slid across the top of this guardrail? Ungh. Glad that didn't happen.
I then ran a race, detailed below.
And then I went to NC to visit the family. I spent half the week with my parents at their new place at Holden Beach, and then the other half with my sister and her kidlets in Wilmington. Overall, a good trip. I worked half days, which was nice (I was easily able to work ~6 hours a day as it's too damned hot down there to want to do anything between 10-4, and I hope to continue to do that a few times a year. Did some fishing, some crabbing, some beaching, some biking, some running, and some eating... Good escape from the usual day-to-day.
Since returning home, I've spent about an hour at my house. Immediately upon arriving, I had to head into DC to do some work, then I attended a swim meet on Monday night and did a night ride with a new bike light I bought until 1am. Tuesday night I had dinner with the family in Fairfax (they're all up for business trips), and installed/played some Starcraft II. Wednesday night I biked, biked to the pool, swam, biked to the track, ran a mile race (5:55 with 90% effort), and biked home. Today I'm headed to the Nats game in the middle of the day with work, and then remaining in DC to do some work. Tomorrow night, I bottle wine in Alexandria. Saturday I'm going on my first group ride in Reston. Sunday? I might take off; I'm out of underwear and that's the first chance I see me getting any laundry done I could use a break...
August is looking pretty free so far, which will be nice after a silly July. September gets back to the crazy with three trips: Tahoe for Labor Day, Outer Banks the following weekend, and a trip to NC for birthdays and to see my grandma toward the end.
Oh... So my Netflix is no longer posting to my Facebook account. I've messed with it to no avail. I've recently watched the following:
Inception. Saw this as a preview. Really liked it, but there were some plot bits that kept me from giving it 5/5. Still, best movie of the year IMO and one you should definitely see in a theater.
Precious. Was good, but not nearly as good as I was expecting from all the hype. I can't recommend seeing it, but I also can't recommend not seeing it.
The Book of Eli. I don't think the critics cared for this much, but I really enjoyed it. A nice bit of action, and a very nice bit of "think deeper." If you're an idiot, this movie might not work for you. The VERY ending (like last two minutes) was kinda lame and cliche, but I'm not going to let that spoil the whole movie.
This morning the weather forecast didn't look good, which I had mixed emotions regarding; I didn't want my friend to have to reschedule his race, but at the same time I'm pretty sore from my bike crash this weekend and I slept maybe three hours last night. During the day, it cleared up, but a stray shower managed to show up just before the race... Cooling things off, but sending the humidity close to 100%. I don't have data on that, but I've never sweat more in my life. My shoes are still soaked (2.5 hours after the race) as if I had dunked them in a body of water... With sweat. So it turned out to be a pretty gross run.
This race is held on a bicycle commuter path so the start was kind of a rush... I was just talking to friends and then we noticed people starting to roll... I didn't roll through the start line until about 15 seconds after the race had started. I'd have to catch my competition, but at the same time, anyone I finish near I'll have actually beaten pretty handily... Kinda fun. Oh you out-kicked me? Well I was actually 15 seconds ahead of you
So it was a sweaty one, but I've been feeling better and better, and have been logging some good biking mileage. At the start of the race, I actually had no hamstring pain, but it was still tight/nagging. Around 1.5 miles in, I developed what's probably the worst stomach cramp I've ever had. I slowed a bit, but apparently so did everyone around me... No places lost, but I was closer than ever to throwing in the towel... It was REALLY painful. Around the 3.5 mile mark, some traffic caught me, and the pain seemed to take a back seat or just subside altogether. I worked forward with a couple folks I know, and actually raced against them. It's kind of neat racing with these folks whom I always see at races, but am usually far ahead of... Hopefully that doesn't sound elitist... it's not meant to be... I'm just racing new, but familiar faces, and it's a fresh feeling.
Anyway, I gave it pretty much all I had by throwing in a few surges [and then dying] towards the end. They took everything out of me, but they also got me a few spots so I guess they worked. Racing is a good portion mental; fly by someone [even when you have nothing in the tank] at the finish and they're likely to break.
All in all, it turned out to be a good race. My final time was 28:26, which is 7:06 pace, which is a faster pace than the 5k I ran when I first started running again AND on a worse day. Definitely improving... My leg hurts now, but I'm convinced I'm continuing to simply break up scar tissue; I've been hurting fairly badly a few days after each race, but afterward feel better than ever. I'm convinced the biking is really helping something too; I feel superb a day or two after a long ride.
1:04 faster than my last 4-Miler [that was 4 miles] , but still 1:45 slower than I ran this same race last year, and that was just an easy training run. Will get there... Will get there...
In it, goes my respect for LeBron James, goes Cleveland tumbling down a spiral towards "shit-town," goes any class the NBA still had.
In case you've been living in a hole for the past few months, LeBron James, a basketball player of Michael Jordan caliber, became a free agent. He grew up in NE Ohio, and has played his entire career with his hometown team, the Cavaliers. In his tenure with them, he has set numerous records, been to the finals, earned several MVP awards, led them to being the most winning team in the league a few years, but has never landed the big one, the championship. In becoming a free agent, he became one of the biggest free agent names of all-time. Not only because he's a stellar player, but he alone could have saved an entire region from [what's now] certain downfall. They were already falling, but the bottom just got a lot closer.
What happened? Well, he decided he'd rather win a near-certain championship by forming a "super-team" with two other NBA stars, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade. I find the move to be incredibly weak because sure, a dream team can win... What does that really say about the individuals? It would say a lot more if they were able to do it on their own, like many before them have... You know, the legends.
LeBron is all about becoming "a legend." The best move towards that would have been staying in Cleveland and winning a championship on his own, for his people, for his state. A Miami Heat championship is an empty one... Dwayne Wade is the star of the Heat... That's not going to change... Do you think people will remember Scottie Pippen forever? No, they'll remember Michael Jordan... LeBron just became Scottie Pippen. I can only hope he revives the haircut. Hiiiiigh and tight.
What does this say about the NBA? Well, I suppose not much, but I'm sure it hurt a lot of fans. I miss the days where players play in a city their entire lives... It wasn't too long ago that they did that... Kobe, Duncan, Jordan (his Wizards tenure does not count), Stockton. Hey Bron-Bron, Stockton never won a ring, but he's gonna be a legend because he reeked of class. You don't... You stink, and I wish you the worst (within reason).
(Seriously though, someone should know... and I figure this is a better place to disclose the information than Facebook, eh?)
I skipped working out this PM (got a run in this AM)... Really don't want to have to skip tomorrow, and definitely need to be better for a race on Saturday.
I could use a break...
, but still 1:45 slower than I ran this same race last year, and that was just an easy training run. Will get there... Will get there...