Boulder March 31, 2008
Posted by postalblue in Life.add a comment
Well, I’ve been doing a lot of research and I think I’ve decided: I want to move to Boulder, Colorado.
Apart from immediate family, I have no ties to any one place. I don’t have a home. My friends are scattered or scattering, so I must do the same. And I’m not going to be half-assed about it, either. If this is my chance to escape, to move away and experience another part of this enormous country, then I’d better take it.
Boulder sounds like the greatest place on earth. It’s a cycling mecca. The weather is nice. The scenery is incredible. It’s a young city, but a fit one. And it’s growing fast.
Dayton is a dead spot on the map. It’s dull. It’s grey and miserable. I know no one.
I guess that pretty much settles it.
Ten Miles! March 28, 2008
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I totally owned a 10 mile run this morning. It felt great! Granted, it wasn’t a very fast run… but speed is something I’ll have to work on once my ankles and knees grow accustomed to the distance. That nine mile run I did two weeks ago was rough as hell… but even a three mile run would be rough the morning after drinking a bottle of rum.
These ten miles felt great. Now a light run tomorrow (35 minutes) to loosen the legs before an off-day on Sunday and then the week starts again. Eleven miles next week. Bring it on!
Shrinking? March 26, 2008
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All this running I’ve been doing? It’s paying off. I was a little guy to begin with – I’m 5′8″ and in October, I was close to 155 lbs. Granted, I had been doing a LOT of lifting in October. I stopped lifting in November and December and deflated down to just under 150 lbs. That’s probably my body’s happiest weight – it gravitates toward that buck-fifty mark.
With all this running, though, that has started to change. Even at my top fitness during the swim season, I never lost weight – but after three months of running, I’m already hovering around the 140 lbs. mark. Holy crap, that’s almost ten pounds! It’s also about two pant-sizes. I’m fitting back into the 31×30’s that I used to wear to work when I was a sophomore in college. It’s a little bit scary – pretty soon, I could weigh as much as I did when I was a freshman in college: 135 lbs.
Weight loss really isn’t my goal, so I’m going to make a concerted effort to incorporate more lifting into my daily routine. If I’m going to be running this much, I might as well do some lifting to balance out my upper body. Adding some muscle mass will help me maintain some semblance of normal weight, too. If I could bulk back up to 145 lbs. while still running and dieting the same way, that would be awesome.
At long last! March 20, 2008
Posted by postalblue in Cycling, Life.add a comment
It’s been a long, emotionally draining winter for me. The weather wasn’t particularly bad, but the drawn-out finish of a once-special, four-year relationship made it seem colder than it really was. None of that matters any more, though, because Spring is here!
It’s past time to turn over a new leaf, meet some new people and start enjoying life again. The grass is always greener, new beginnings and all of that proverbial bologna – who cares! I’m not going to dwell on the past.
My bike came back from the shop yesterday, and just in time, too. I’ve already logged today’s thirty-minute jog, but that doesn’t mean I can’t ring in the new season with a quick bike ride. I haven’t been in the saddle in six months. Physically, this is going to hurt like heck… but mentally, this is going to be one of the best rides of my entire life.
Open road, here I come.
Rest March 19, 2008
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Last Saturday’s nine mile run marked the end of my first phase of training. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I’m happy with myself. To go from being a non-runner to running thirty miles a week in under ten weeks – that’s a feat! Thus, I built a rest week into the ‘master plan’ to give my legs a chance to regroup.
This week, I’m only pushing myself to do five thirty-minute runs. That’s it. No more, no less. I may turn one or two of those runs into interval sessions, but that’s as far as I’ll go. I think that’ll help me maintain my current endurance while allowing my muscles to recover a bit. My first ten-week plan was fairly aggressive and the next six weeks stick to that plan.
I’m participating in a 10-mile running event, the Broad Street Run, in Philadelphia on May 4. This gives me six weeks (after this one) to train. My longest run thus far is nine miles, so I’m going to increase the mileage on my long run by one mile every week for the next five. The week before the event will probably be another light one with some minor speedwork so I can be rested and ready to roll.
That means I’ll have runs of 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 miles under my belt by the end of April. If I can do them all at my average, nine-minute-mile pace, I think I’ll be set to hold something like 8:45 or even 8:30 on race day. Of course, it’ll all depend on how my legs hold up over the next few weeks. Aerobically, I know I can handle the workload – it’s shin splints, stress fractures and tendonitis that I’m worried about. I’ve had problems with all three in the past and I just know one of them’s going to rear it’s ugly head at the least opportune moment and ruin all of my best laid plans.
Anyway, this off week is making me feel really lazy. I might dust off my bike and do some cross-training… but that may do more harm than good. Fitting rides in between runs is going to be a tricky subjec, and one that I’ll have to tackle another day.
Nine laps March 17, 2008
Posted by postalblue in Life, Running, Strange Happenings.add a comment
It was an interesting weekend. I managed to imbibe entirely too much liquor during the day-long St. Patrick’s Day celebration on Friday. There were a ridiculous number of people in Savannah this weekend and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I probably would never have believed it. River Street, a quaint, pub-lined riverwalk, filled to overflowing with more than 5,000 festive partygoers! The parade route was lined – six people deep in places – for more than five miles and lasted more than five hours. Not only that, but every little square and scrap of grass had been claimed by someone’s tent, kegorator and makeshift tailgate.
It was a sight to see!
Saturday night was even more interesting: those same 5,000 folks returned for another night of River Street debauchery – and were greeted by a power outage. Yep, the entire city of Savannah blacked out (literally, not figuratively) before 11 PM and the power wasn’t restored until 8:10 AM the next morning! I sat with Alex and his housemates on their porch and watched a spectacular lightning display and listened to the seeminly endless sound of sirens. I don’t know what went down on River Street that night, but I bet it was a pretty frightening place to be.
Before that whole business with the blackout, I managed to run nine miles. That may not sound too impressive to all you track stars out there, but it’s one hell of a personal victory. Ten miles next week!
Anyway, not only did I run nine miles, I ran them outside. Savannah has a gorgeous park called Forsythe, the perimeter of which is almost exactly one mile around. The run felt great – well paced, not too hard on the knees – until the final lap. That’s when the heat (it was warmer than 75 degrees and humid) and my lack of hydration started to get to me. There were a few moments during that last mile that I definitely thought I’d have to pull over… but I managed to perservere.
I probably should’ve pulled over, though, because I spent the remainder of the evening trying to recover. It was almost like a forced hangover – I felt so dehydrated, my stomach was a mess, and I had spells of nausea. Mental note: figure out a way to drink more [water] during those long, hot runs!
Firefox 3 Beta 4 March 11, 2008
Posted by postalblue in Strange Happenings.3 comments
Mozilla released a new beta for it’s award-winning Firefox browser in the past 24 hours. As an enormous Firefox fan, I jumped in immediately. I love to see what developers are adding or tweaking as a software project evolves. Unfortunately, and I hate to say this, I’m disappointed.
Maybe I’m missing something, but the new OS-specific icons they’ve been talking up for a few weeks now aren’t really that great. They look cheap and unfinished. And the worst thing? There’s no HOME button. There’s not even a home button on the ‘customize toolbar’ option window. I don’t understand how you can build a browser and then forget to include that vital piece. Surely someone else is missing that convenient little button?
Maybe there’s some spiffy new shortcut that replaces that functionality – but if there is, it’s too arcane for me to figure out on my own. Anyone know how to get the home button back onto my toolbar in Firefox 3 beta 4?
150 in 3 and the Primary March 5, 2008
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One-hundred and fifty minutes of running over three workdays. Thank God tomorrow’s an off day, because this morning was rough. My legs are definitely hurting. Remind me to stretch tonight!
Monday was a long, sixty minute run. Yesterday was only 45, but it was a quicker-than-normal 45. Today was supposed to be intervals. I did them, but I didn’t do them well – my legs were just too tight this morning. I had the hardest time getting warmed up.
In related news, I’m deeply saddened by the state in which I currently reside for choosing the wrong democratic candidate last night. Sigh. I don’t know what that party thinks they’re doing, but I may have to vote for John McCain after all.
Ahead of Schedule March 4, 2008
Posted by postalblue in Running.add a comment
About three weeks ago, I set a goal to run 85 miles in 4 weeks. That works out to three miles a day for 28 straight days. Not too aggressive, but not exactly coasting, either. Well, I’m proud to report that, with a week and a half remaining, I’m already six miles ahead of schedule. At this rate, I’ll hit the 85 mile mark half a week early!
That’s a pretty big deal, but it was really just designed as a stepping stone. I haven’t settled on a goal over the next four weeks: I may bump the mileage up only slightly and try to focus on speed. Otherwise, I may go for the big one-double-oh – a hundred miles in four weeks. That’d be a huge step for me if I’m able to accomplish it!
