I watched Ironman tonight and I was totally impressed.  I was really ready for total boredom, but it was an awsome flick.  Lots of suspense, lots of action, cool special effects.  Loved.it.

And when the hell did Gwyneth Paltrow look so hot?  I thought she was like 50 or something.  Apparently, she’s still very young (36?) and looks damn good.  Did even recognize Jeff Bridges until the credits.  His voice was so familiar but with the beard and bald head, I never knew it was him.  Perfect evil guy.

Robert Downey Jr.  I still have a hard time seeing him without remembering “Home for the Holidays” (one of my favorites), but he did good.  He does a good rich guy with poor morals.

I see a movie like that at night, and I know I will have flying dreams tonight.  (Instead of the one last night where I was trapped in a hotel room with 30 people, and I had to use the bathroom, but everyone had used up all the toilet paper.  I found myself considering tearing up sections of the cardboard cores.  Too much info?)

Sweet dreams.

OK, I’ve been very pathetic about writing.  But I have been running and running well.  The legs feel fan.tast.ik.  I can’t explain it.

Last weekend I had another blisteringly speedy 10K run, only a few seconds off the new PR.  And then repeated that again on Tuesday, followed by intervals on Wednesday, and then an easy 3 last night.

Sunday I missed my run because I had to resurface the driveway, which ended up stretching into the nighttime hours.  Unfortunately, the next morning (in the light of day) I could see a very distinct demarcation where I switched cans of coating.  My driveway looks pathetic.  Still, better than it looked before.  Meh, I’ll take it.

Today I want to get out for a nice long run.  Normally we would be rushing my son off to Aikido but we decided to skip it and go tomorrow in the hopes of getting him caught up on some sleep.  We’ve had a busy few weeks.  I’d like to do 10 today if I can.  I’m not sure if I have the time this morning or not, but 10 would be superb.

I also need to head to the track this weekend and somehow figure out my stride length.  I have a new gadget that I’m trying out and I need to figure out my stride length in order to use it properly.  Its kinda like a pedometer but a little different.  When I get it figured out I will post a review of it.

The days are getting darker in the evening now.  My Tuesday/Wednesday night run at the park is getting colder and colder.  I froze my butt off last night.  I had long sleeves and gloves but the cold air just goes right through running shirts.  Its about 10 degrees colder at the park because its up on top of a small mountain.  I will bring the cold weather gear next time.

Speaking of running in the dark, I received some samples of reflective iron-ons from See-Me-Run.com.  They sell iron-on designs designed for ironing onto running shirts so you are more visible and don’t get flattened by idiot drivers who don’t notice you on the road at night.  Believe, there are alot of them out there.  People reading here know that I spend a lot of time (and money) making sure I am visible at night.  This is one way to inexpensively enhance your running gear so that it is more visible.

Anyway, you can get all kinds of designs.  I had the little runner guys.  I was concerned that ironing my running shirts would just melt them to pieces, but the iron-ons are ironed at the permanent press setting which is where my shirts say to iron them.  Not that I normally iron any of my clothes, its just what the label recommends.

So I put some onto my marathon shirt and onto a dark shirt, just so you could see how they look.  I hung them in the hallway and took pics with and without the flash.  The first one shows my white shirt with the flash on.  The little runner guys stick out pretty clearly, even with normal lighting.  The same shot without the flash still has them standing out.

The one thing I noticed about this was how even though the flashlight is shining right on my white shirt, it really isn’t very bright.  At night I have seen people walking and wearing a white shirt, but in a car’s headlights, that white shirt actually looks very dim.  A white reflective surface is a million times more visible.

I also put an iron-on onto a dark running shirt just so you could see the contrast.  I generally wear light clothes at night, but if I had to wear something dark, I would make sure it had something like this on it.

There was also a small runner guy that I put on the sleeve of the dark shirt (you can just see the edge of it in the full shirt pic).  I liked this design best actually.  I think putting it on the sleeve helps with motion for drivers to see, while your arm is swinging.

So there you are.  Thank you to the folks at See.Me.Run.com for sending the sample!

I have a 10K coming up next weekend.  I decided to skip today’s 5K up the street.  I’m saving the $15 for a better race.  There’s a 5K on Thanksgiving Day that I want to run in.  By that time, I should be at my target weight (will postr graph when I hit my target) and just about as speedy as I’m going to get this year.  I’m still hoping for the 7:00 pace. :)

Ok, now I’ve taken too long to post this and I’m late for my run.  I hope you all have a great day!

Me:  Sitting in the chair after hygienist, “Nancy”, has cleaned my teeth.

Dentist: I hope I don’t catch Nancy’s cold.  It sounds pretty awful.

Me: !!!!!!

Last night I had speed work on the schedule but I skipped it.  I got home, it was raining, and I felt annoyed.  So I sat and ate far too much honeydew melon.  I was all set to get to bed early and then I remembered I had to sit on the board of review at boy scouts, so I had to spend the next hour putting the emblems on my leader uniform.  I’m not sure how I got roped into this.

Bed at 11:30, up at 6 am.  Bleh.

This morning I have the dentist, where he will once again try to convince me to get xrays (please go away radiation man) and will do a lame job cleaning my teeth.  I so dearly miss Dr. Coco (yeah, isn’t that cool?) in Ann Arbor.  I went to her for like 10 years and it was great.  Out here, services are not so very good.

So tonight, no running because of the board of review, which is why running last night was so important.  Damn.  And if I can get to bed early, maybe I won’t be dead tired today at work.

On a happy note, the legs feel fantastic and I have no idea why.

Egads, I’ve totally fallen apart about posting.  Missing chocolate friday for eternity.

Ok, I went running today.  I squeezed out 6.11 miles in 50:40 (8:18 pace), which would have been a 10K PR if I had run another .1 miles, even at a 10 minute pace.  My one and only 10K was less than a minute slower.  And this one was late in the afternoon too.  I’m thinking I am back in the swing of things.

Interestingly, I had reverse splits on this training run.  8:42 going out and 7:53 coming back.  I had put the Forerunner on a new display mode so I could see the average pace on each lap.  I think it gives me a better estimate of my pace than the “instantaneous pace”, which is mostly wrong.

The legs feel pretty good, although the right leg is a little twingy along the front, like when I flex my ankle.  Not painful, just feels a little sore.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings for that.  Tomorrow I have an hour of cardio at the gym.

The next race coming up isn’t until October.  I have a few weeks to prepare for the 5K and then the 10K after that.  I’m really looking forward to the 5K.  I’m hoping for nearing my 5K PR.  I’d like to hit a 7:00 pace, but this might be too early yet.  There’s always the Turkey Trot in November.  :)

On another note, I had a political discussion tonight with an old friend.  I don’t talk politics here on the blog, but let’s just say that this friend and I have opposite views.  Ever since the Gore/Bush race, there has been outright hate between Republicans and Democrats (or more properly, Conservatives and Liberals).  I have known many people who, once they learned my political preferences, have no longer spoken to me.  Its sad that it comes to that.  I have found that my old friend and I have this same issue.  I can tell that even though we have been friends for a long time, now that politics has become so filled with hate, that even he has discounted me.  Sad.

I’m still here.  Just busy.  Spend the weekend at the cape.  I got my 8 and 3 mile runs in on the Cape Cod Rail Trail.  I picked up the trail in West Dennis.  Lots of bikers.  Just one runner who tried to catch me but I ran too fast.  :)  Hearing her footsteps reminded me of a race and I couldn’t let her catch up.  :D

Hope you all had a good week.

Today (the day after the 5K) my legs feel really really good. There’s really no reason for it. Normally my legs would be crap today and I’d be hobbling, but I’m not. And this is a week after a 20K besides. As I recall, after the last marathon, my recovery time (i.e. time until I was walking normally) was only a few days, instead of the agony of over a week when I ran Detroit.

I’m telling you folks, its the shoes. This is me talking. The guy who breaks stuff constantly. The guy who had shin splints since he first started running. All that is really really gone.

Throw out your high heeled shoes. Buy the flats. Learn ChiRunning.

Yes, you will be starting over and you will get calf pain when you first start. That’s your Achilles being stretched to a normal length, instead of the shortened length from wearing high heels. That is all temporary and it will subside. Just run short distances at first (you know, like starting over again).

Can you do ChiRunning in high heeled shoes? Nope. I tried. There’s really no way to land midfoot (especially downhill) with those big heels. Buy the right shoes and do it right. You’ll see.

I ran in the Bruegger’s Bagel Run this AM.  Its a 5K here in Albany.  The race was not so very large, but it was a good turnout just the same.  Like most races here, this was a certified race but no chips.  I’m not competing for a winning spot, so no loss for me really.

We had some nice cloud cover early with a little breeze, but the sun was out by the time the starting gun went off.  I hadn’t run since Wednesday but I have been watching the calorie intake to keep myself from exploding again.  I had a good pasta dinner last night, but reasonable portions.  I think I still stayed within my target caloric intake for the day.

My wife was very kind to let me out of household duties so I could get to bed early on Friday night, and I think the extra sleep helped me recover from New Haven, so I would be ready for today.

I started out faster than I had planned (as is my custom), and tried my best to just hold on to that pace, but ended up going even faster.  I remember seeing the instantaneous paces on Forerunner as sub-7:00 a few times. This was a pretty flat course so if I was going to get some speed, this was the course to do it on.  Surprisingly, I did pretty damn good only 6 days after a 20K:

mile 1: 7:50
miles 2+3: 15:12 (never did see the mile 2 sign)
mile .1: 0:49

Overall: 23:52 (by Forerunner), 7:41 pace. Damn! Considering I was just a hair over 8:00 pace on the last 5K, I’m pretty pleased with this. That puts me about 30 seconds/mile slower than my 5K PR. For the first time in 3 years, I feel like a new PR is finally within reach. And I think that all the racing is helping me get faster. I’ve never raced this often before. Fits the old saying “If you want to learn to run faster, then run faster.”

Cool race bling: Technical race shirt and the bag that it all came in was one of those reusable grocery bags from Hannaford. My wife uses them so maybe this is the one I can keep in my truck and use myself.

Food at the race? Meh. Bagels, banas, pears, and little cups of Nantucket Nectar. We all headed for 2nd breakfast afterwards. I had a bagel with lox. Heh. By my calculations, I’m still within my target calories for the day, even with the extra race food and second breakfast. ‘Course, no lunch today, but I’m not really hungry anyway after two breakfasts.

Speaking of food and weight, my weight graph is telling me that if I stay on my present weight loss rate, I will hit 175 before the high school reunion. Yet another bonus today!

I was digging through old posts while writing this one and came across another where I am contemplating my next set of races.  It made me laugh to see myself saying I wanted to get my weight down again.  I had listed about half a dozen races I wanted to do.  I wanted to try barefoot running.  I wanted to get into running with flats to fix my form and stop the injuries (check!).

I made the post in October of 2005 (was it really that long ago?) while I was studying for the patent bar, and only a few months before I landed the rotten job that brought me back to NY, leaving all those races behind.  I got a chuckle at my closing line:

This all depends upon what is going on in the rest of my life. You can make all the plans you want but somehow the rest of the world expects you to carry on with your job and family life at the same time. Geeeeeeez.

Funny how life teases you like that.  :)

This is not a meme.  Its just a small piece of philosophy that I’ve had for a long time.  I’m sure I’ve told it to people I know, so here it is in written form.

There are lots of things in your life that are important to keep you healthy and happy.  Some you can control and some you can’t.  You can avoid smoking, you can eat organic food, you can wear your seat belt, you can move to someplace other than next to a toxic waste landfill, etc.

Among all these things, there are three that top the list for me.  Three things which I feel are very much in my control and which I do everything I can to make sure that they are the best I can do with regard to them.

Here they are in random order:

Water

Our bodies are made up mostly of water (by weight, no matter what the scale tells you).  I know there is an exact number out there (somewhere between 70 and 90%), but the point is that we are mostly water.  The water isn’t just sitting in a big sealed container inside us.  It is circulating, being excreted, reacting with food to make energy, and lots of other biological things far too boring to mention here.  The water comes in and the water goes out, in and through every cell of our bodies.

With all this water constantly being brought in an exchanging with the other water in our body, it is absolutely critcal to have clean water, because pollutants and toxins and chemicals that are dissolved in the water, do not stay with the water they came in with, waiting patiently to be harmlessly excreted.  No, they go off in search of organs to poison, cells to damage, and fat tissue to hide in until the right moment.  Some do get removed eventually, and some never leave, ever.

For this reason, clean water is one of the three things that I put on my 3-thing list.  Your water should be as clean and pure as you can possibly get it.  For me, I use double filters for my water at home.  I may sometimes drink bottled water.  I will NOT drink water at a drinking fountain in a factory.  In the US, clean water is readily available and chemicals can be filtered from it very cheaply, so make sure you are drinking clean water because you are what you drink.

Bed

Roughly a third of your life as a water-filled organism is spent sleeping.  We can’t go very long without sleeping before our brain tries to kill us.  I once when 52 hours without sleep and I fried part of my brain.  I had visual and auditory hallucinations, and went through some very strange mood swings.  Your brain needs sleep to survive.

For the most part, people here sleep in beds.  Most beds I have seen have a mattress.  The mattress is the most important part of the bed.  Bad mattress = bad sleep.  Bad sleep = brain disintegration.  If you are going to spend a full 1/3 of your life lying on something, it had better be something damn good.

I buy the biggest, best mattress that I can.  I want my mattress to be perfect so that my sleep is the best it can be.  Its a third of my life after all.  If I spend $2000 on my mattress set, it might seem like a lot of money, but amortized over a 10 year life of a mattress set, and that’s $200/year, less than a dollar a day.  Not so bad.  You spend more than than on cable TV, and you don’t spend half the time in front of the time that you do sleeping (one would hope).

Shoes

When your soggy body is isn’t sleeping, its up on its feet walking around (well, alot of times anyway).  The full weight of that giant sack of water bears down on those feet.  Now runners certainly appreciate the importance of good running shoes, but everyday shoes are also important.  You probably walk a couple miles a day in your “regular” shoes, and what those shoes do to your feet is just as important as what your running shoes do.

For children, shoes are especially critical.  Barefoot is really best, but you can’t go barefoot to church or the store, so you have to compromise.   Their feet are growing, and if you are going to stuff those growing feet into shoes, how the shoes fit them is very important because it can impact how their feet grow.  I know that kids go through shoes like Dixie cups, but when those shoes get worn out, their feet are then constantly walking or running on some really messed up soles.

I buy the most comfortable shoes for my feet, regardless of price.  I may try on two dozen pairs before I find one that is perfect.  I wouldn’t buy running shoes that didn’t fit perfectly, and so there is no reason to wear bad shoes the rest of the day either.  If I am going to strap those things around my feet, They need to treat my feet with respect.  I can’t become crippled and injured to save a few bucks on shoes.  Again, if the shoes cost (eek!) $200, and they last me a year, that’s less than $1 a day for shoes.  Again, not too bad, especially if you work in an office and those shoes actually last longer than a year.

So there they are, the three most important things to spend very good money on when you buy them.  My personal feeling is that there isn’t much that is more criticial and which you have as much control over.  Feel free to pass this along to everyone you know and allow it to turn into some giant viral email chain that ends up on Snopes.  Just remember you heard it here first.

Disclaimer

The author is not a licensed physician or an attorney.  The preceding is strictly the author’s personal opinion and in no way, shape, or form constitutes medical advice, legal counsel, or actual fact.  No way, no how.  Author assumes no responsibility for any action taken by an individual based on the above opinion, even when the action results in extreme financial loss, severe bodily injury, and/or traumatic public humiliation.  Readers are advised to seek the advise of a physician before make any changes to their diet, lifestyle, wardrobe, or home decor.  Do not stand forward of the white line while bus is in motion.  Close cover before striking.

I ran an easy 3 miles last night.  My calves were still feeling tight, but the run helped loosen them up, and this morning they are feeling pretty good.  I think I will be in good shape for Sunday.

I also discovered that I am losing a toenail, due to my cavalier attitude about preventative lubrication on my toes.  I had always used vaseline on the little piggy that stayed home, but lately I’ve been skipping it.  I guess I thought that a 20K was far enough to give me trouble.  I was wrong.

Last night I had that sore/pressure feeling in my toenail and after careful inspection I realized I had a blister beneath it.  I guess I had suspected as much after New Haven, but eveything else hurt so badly, I didn’t really look closely at it.

Get the needle.  Sterilize.  Lance.  Eeeeewwwww.

Well, now after the fluid had drained I can see very clearly that just the edges of the nail are holding it on.  So it remains in place until the new nail comes up undeneath.  Lessoned learned, my toes need vaseline for the long runs.

I hope nobody was eating breakfast and reading this.