arandia.net

worried

My leg is still gimpy. I haven't run in a week. I'm hoping once I can get passed this I can get back into running already. I was already behind before. Now, I'm 3 weeks behind now. man.

damaged

Like an idiot, I went snowboarding yesterday. Not only on a damaged knee, but also having lost some training time. I sure hope I can get back into it.

Oh, but I learned how to snowboard...badly. I believe I can get better though. The revelation is that if you know how to rock back and forth on your feet, you can snowboard.

The major obstacles are mental. I had the damnedest time getting the board to go where I wanted it to go because I was focused on the things I was going to run into. If the fat lady was on the hill below, naturally, the board seemed to want to send me into the fat lady. At the last second, I would have to save the fat ladies life by falling into the snow.

I feel dozens of times. Most of the time, it hurt really bad. Really killed my wrists. Today my neck, back, knee, and ankles ache. There may be a bit of damage on my right pec and the upper parts of my arms. I'm going to try to go ahead with my marathon training. I think I'll just be missing 20 miles out of my training schedule.

Fleet Feet

I finally made it to Fleet Feet today. Prompted by my knee, I decided that there were definitely some stuff wrong. The Fleet Feet folks video'd me while running on a treadmill. They confirmed my overpronating stride. And I got me a pair of comfortable stabilizing running shoes.

My knee is so bad that I didn't go out to Hooters like I said i would to Charlie.

Anyways, I spent the day limping around work. So, along with new shoes, I got brand new magic socks and a bunch of gu. Also, an elastic knee brace that might make things feel better.

I'm supposed to go snow boarding on saturday. I'm not running tomorrow night. I'm just gonna do the elliptical maching in my living room that I haven't touched in weeks. Hopefully, that low impact stuff will make my knees be alright for snowboarding.

6 miles

It was an "easy does it" day. It took a couple of miles for the shin splints to wear off. But, my knee never stopped hurting. The last mile I had to walk. But in doing so, I realized that my normal jog is way above 3 miles an hour.

My knee worries me. Tomorrow, I need to get one of those elastic knee braces. I think I need new shoes. I don't know what I can do about finding someplace to run that has softer surfaces. Public parks aren't open at midnight. My planned 4 miles on Friday probably will be a cross training session. I got snowboarding to do on Saturday.

I like running at night. The other weird thing about tonights run is that I didn't really get warm. Probably because it's so freakin cold.

5 mile an hour boy

I did two short circuits around Secaucus to fulfill the 4 mile run in week 8 of my non-runner's maration training. God, if I didn't know there was something to look forward to after the first couple of miles, I'd have quit a long time ago.

The first couple of miles tonight felt like the worst running ever. It was painful. I think my legs are going out of wack. My knees probably have no cartilage left in them. There's this weird rubbing on the right side of my right foot that became a sharper pain later.

It wasn't till somewhere in the middle of the second circuit that I noticed that I no longer felt pain and that I was in actuality flying. Not literally flying. But running like really fast. I completed my run in 70 minutes. If it were 4 miles, it's slightly less than 4 miles an hour. If it's more like 5 miles, it's more like 4 miles an hour.

I don't think I have to worry about being pulled off the marathon for being too slow.

tonight's song in my head was One Last Breath by Creed except when I past Bazooka's and they were playing Pink Floyd's Run Like Hell.

ps-I think I definitely need to go to Fleet Feet and maybe get better shoes. I think I know I'm an over-pronator.

monday night

means karaoke. Tonight was pretty good. I started out doing Boot Scootin Boogie. Then Slide by the Goo Goo Dolls. I actually rocked out that one. How You Remind Me didn't turn out as good as it was in Jamaica.

I saw Kenny Loggins' For the First Time on the list. I had to do it because it's Valentines Day. I think I did okay with that. I finished up with Higher by Creed which I felt good about because I knew it well. Next week, I'm hoping to do One Last Breath and Island in the Sun.

Oh, I got Karaoke Revolutions Vol. 3. It's just more of the same as the other two volumes. This one contains duet potential though. That would be interesting to do. I did Under Pressure by myself. And Love Shack doesn't work with just one person.

10 miles

10 freakin' miles. It was a journey through heaven and hell. 4 laps around town. And there were angels and demons all around me.

One guy, I think he was a cabbie in Secaucus Plaza, he was yelling at me, "Are you running for mayor?" And I said, "No." And he said, "So, stop running!"

Demon.

Another guy, a shadowy figure standing in the door of the laundry room of building C of my condo complex yelled out to me "You can do it, Dog!"

I thanked the angel. Now, every time I pass that section of my course, I'm going to be thinking "You can do it, Dog!"

I finished a sliver under 3 hours. I'm not gonna tell you what the pedometer says because it is so way off. I think I'll quit using that.

I think I'll maybe get one of those wrist mounted gps doohickies.

And around 6 miles, I got to have my vanilla flavored goo and some water. The water was really refreshing. The goo was sweet.

I dunno if it gave me any more energy. But I had found a comfortable pace. And it seemed to be too much hassle to push myself harder.

I need to get faster. According to the marathon rules, if I don't make it to mile 17 in 4 1/4 hours, they'll pull me off the course. That's 4 miles an hour. I would be sad if that happened.

I have a couple more months training. I know I'll be faster by then.

And I really haven't been running that long.

If my map software is correct, the true length of my course was 11.64 miles. That puts me close to 4 miles an hour.

My folks want to be there at the finish for me. I have to figure out what I'm gonna do.

major armstrong

ha ha!

the extra mile

According to my mapping software, my normal 2 mile route is actually 2.5 miles. So, my 4 mile run today is really 5 miles. And that I'm actually going 5 miles an hour. I'm a 5 mile an hour boy!

Okay. I'll take that extra mile.

The stupid pedometer is telling me I did 2.843 miles in 3754 paces. I don't believe that at all.

I'm actually running I think. I'm feeling lighter or something.

Now, feeling a little apprehensive about the 10 miler I'm doing on Sunday. No, not really. I think I can do it in two 3 mile loops(3.32 miles) and two 2 mile loops(the 2.5 milers.)

This will be the first time I give myself water and gu breaks. I discovered a Fleet Feet near me.

They supposedly have helpful folks to give advice about running and sell you running related stuff. I'll be going there tomorrow.

not paying attention

Apparently, for the past 6 months some company has been charging my credit card $9 a month.

WLI RESERVATIONREWARDS - 800-7327031 CT  MAIL/PHONE is the line on my credit card statement.

If this is happening to you go to reservationrewards.com and plug in your email address under "Forgot Password".

You'll be able to log into your account and cancel your "subscription". I got refunded 9 bucks, but what the heck. They got 48 more bucks before that.

bastards. this is no small time scamming operation. These people made $86 million dollars in 2004.

There are plenty of articles that show that Webloyalty is a bunch of ripoff artists.

"Webloyalty is able to obtain people's credit card numbers directly from many of its partners and will charge monthly fees for a service some people might not realize they've signed up for."

"Rick Fernandes, Webloyalty's chief exec...confirmed that arrangements exist with at least half of Webloyalty's 70 corporate clients to obtain consumers' credit card numbers without the individual being asked to provide it."

My only hope is that what comes around goes around. They are scamming not only regular folks but the companies that they create these little rewards programs for.

I, for one, will never buy anything from fandango again.

miscalculated

I decided to make a spreadsheet of my planned runs. I discovered that I'm 2 weeks off. When I did my 8 miles two days ago, I thought I might have been a week ahead. But instead I'm behind.

No worries though. I just did 6 miles tonight. 6.370 miles by the ever miscalibrated pedometer. That's 8410 paces for those keeping score. I'll do 4 miles on Friday. The newly recalibrated schedule has me doing 12 miles on Sunday. But I'll only do 10. Do 12 next Sunday and 14 the one after that. I'll catch up to 16 three weeks hence and thus be on schedule.

My pace was very easy-does-it. I'm sure I probably look like a waddling old man. If I were to run the marathon today, I doubt I would do it under 8 hours. Luckily I have more than 2 months more training before I do it.

Last night, was Mardi Gras. I spent the evening with old pal Pyxy and the internet fan club of Seth Horan. We got to watch ole Seth perform at DTUT. I'd never seen the guy before. It was pretty good. I got a free cd.

DTUT seems like a happening place. It was fun to hang out with the artsy crowd again. It's the kind of place where one moment you're drinking Brooklyn Lager and eating Cape Cod chips and the next moment you're having espresso and cooking S'mores on one of those table s'mores burners.

It was also Happy New Year for the Chinese. It is now the Year of the Cock. I am a Cock. Therefore, I expect some wonderful and exciting changes in my life this year.

ps-based on this morning, I think I would have thought that this run's song would have been Cracklin Rosie by Neil Diamond but as I was running past Houlihan's they were blasting Run Like the Wind.

8 miles

This is the long march that I was supposed to do this weekend but I flaked. I did a 5 miler saturday night. But, it went crazy and I got lost. I like to run in the middle of the night. But saturday night, I planned the run through the Secaucus outlets. And at night, it's super dark and super spooky. Even on normal runs, I start to thinking about dead women in dumpsters haunting me as I run by. But there it was very much lonely and scary. I plan to keep to my 3 mile course around brightly lit downtown Secaucus from now on.

Tonights run was 8 miles. According to the faulty pedometer, I did 10.417 miles in 13752 paces. That's assuming a 48 inch pace. But if you calculate 13752 paces into 8 miles you get 36 inches. So, I think the truth is maybe somewhere in between. I did more than 8 miles because I kinda have a little extra in my course but I was also taking smaller steps on purpose. Like it might be like 3.19 miles or something. But I don't think I did 10 miles.

Anyways, I'm supremely happy with tonight's run. I did the last couple of miles without stopping. That is to say, normally, I run a while then walk a while then run more. But, I think I managed to perhaps do 2.6 miles without stopping. This is for me is a major accomplishment.

It may have been a combination of the ibuprofen and the big spaghetti dinner, but after about 6 miles I felt no pain and had a lot of energy. I found a small step running pace that I felt like I could keep doing forever.

I'm learning to keep the pace going up hills and letting the hills take me down. Sort of like controlled falling. Just sorta leaning forward and falling toward the ground while letting my feet catch me before my face hits.

I'm also rediscovering the being in the moment thing where you don't think about how far you've been or going to go. You simply are thinking about breathing and moving your feet. And letting your breath and feet take you along for a ride.

I don't time my runs because i don't want to feel bad about how slow I run. But I think I did pretty good time.

Tonights song in my head was the amazingly poppish This Love by Maroon 5.

Oh, and Karaoke Guy did make an appearance at Cheeseburger in Paradise earlier to do only one song, Hanging by a Moment by Life House, before going home to run.

ps-I'm worried about this ache I have in the part of my right foot right under the toes. I have it on ice right now.

Karaoke Guy strikes again

...at Cheeseburger in Paradise in Secaucus. Did my favs, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant and Semi-Charmed Life. Plus my new song in my repertoire, Blurry. And of course, the good ole standby, Day-O.

Some good singers there. Some real ruiners of songs. I think this guy slaughtered It's a Wonderful World and Donna on purpose. Not to mention, he did the blatantly evil Ice Ice Baby. What's wrong with people?