Holly Jolly New Year
Here is a lengthy "nobody will ever care about this" update of my bliggidy blog:
Tuesday, 1/4/04
2.5+ mile warm-up to Johns Hopkins track (18.5 min), 4 strides. 3 X 2K "ins and outs", that is 200m fast (goal was 32s- 3k pace), alternated w/ 200m a little less fast (goal was 42s). Beautiful day. Around 60 degrees, although there was a strong wind.
31.26, 48.8, 31.8, 44.5, 31.89, 47.0, 32.6, 43.4, 32.29. 42 (6:25)
3:59 rest (800m jog)
31.3, 43.9, 32.59, 43.97, 32.17, 43.33, 33.23, 43.77, 32.64, 41.52
3:58 rest (800m jog)
31.57, 43.72, 33.2, 44.55, 31.87, 44.33, 32.5, 44.09, 32.07, 43.52,
2.5+ mile cool-down (19.5 min)
Tuesday total: 10.5 miles
Originally I planned to do a similar workout up at the Haverford indoor track to meet up w/ Marcus and local Nova guys. However, the weather down here was quite nice and Stacy held me captive. The faster 200m sections went very well, although I slowed a bit too much on the slower 200m portions. All in all felt pretty good. Wore some old racing flats I have down here, but they give me blisters.
Met a dude named Remus at the track today. Talked to him some before my workout and then for a while (20min?) afterwards. He actually did most of the talking, especially since I was so tired/hungry. He was doing 300m's in 45 seconds to prepare for a marathon this month(?). He assured me that he can run 2:45min marathons every week, and that his life is track and field. He has 4 kids and his 10 year old daughter is a "future super- star" that can run 5:20 in the mile. Nice guy, even if he does tend to boast. When he pulled my PR's out of me, he was impressed. We're going to meet for a run tomorrow, which will be nice I suppose. Hopefully I'll get to get to see some new runs. Oh yeah, Remus also wants me to meet his family and get free stuff from a local shoe store and invited me down to Miami with him this month. Think I'll try to take it a bit more slow...
Monday, 1/3/04
62 min, 9.5 miles. Ran from Stacy's apartment up through Wynman park to Druid Hill park and back. Perfect weather helped to make this a pleasant run. I was moving along. Always lots of dogs to dodge in the park, but I deal.
Was going to travel back to Bryn Mawr today, but decided to stick around, even though I only brought clothes to last me 1 day, and my Harry Potter book won't last me too much longer.
Weekly mileage: 74 miles. This was a decent week of training, though disrupted a bit by work and tiring. My longer tempos are certainly going well, though.
Sunday, 1/2/04
1hour 27minutes, about 12.5 miles. Ran from my apartment down and about the Willows trails (via the backroads). Started to rain on me almost as soon as I left, 40 degrees. Felt sluggish on the run, but got through it. Trails were mildly entertaining. Tired today, helped Stacy make the trek back to Baltimore. Tried my new waffle maker today, which worked well. I consumed 5 waffles and froze some for later. My first attempt, however, I overfilled the thing-a-ma-gig, and I had some major batter overflow.
Saturday, 1/1/04 (HAPPY NEW YEAR!)
PM: 36min, 5+miles. Did an easy run around the local, rocky park near my apartment and the hill prep school. Got back, and Stacy was waiting for me! Later that night, we went out to the Wild Onion, a bar about 1 mile from my place down Conestoga Rd. It was nice, very uncrowded.
AM: 50 min. Ran 1 loop on the boardwalk, and then finished up on the sand in Ocean City. Also did a couple barefoot strides on the beach. Going to call it 7.5 miles in all, but may have been a hair less. Was nice to run w/ Matt and the Brown twins, former high school teammates. This was a relaxed run, so relaxed that a woman passed us on the boardwalk (I swear she was working out). The run culminated in a nice dip into the Atlantic Ocean. GRRRRRRRRRRR, we are now members of the few, the proud, the polar bear club. It was pretty easy this year, since it was 60 degrees outside, but the water was still biting cold. A little tired today, slept on a couch last night.
Friday, 12/31/04 (HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!)
14- 2 mile cool down,
42:59- 8 mile tempo run, all on the boardwalk.
15 min- 2.5 mile warmup/strides/etc.
Total: 12.5 miles.
This tempo run went quite well. As we were stretching on the boardwalk, a worker put up a barricade right in the middle of our route, so we had to adjust a tad. I don't understand why they had to set up a wall 12 hours before setting off a few fireworks. Anyway, I ran 1.75 mile stretches of the boardwalk, back and forth until the 8 miles was reached. Matt and the Browns lasted maybe 1/2 mile before breaking off and doing their own things. I averaged 5:23 pace, although one of the markers may have been a little off, as that quarter was consistently way fast. I think that the mileage sign was put on the last lamp-post available, but really should have been a little bit farther down. In any event, I kept my heartrate at 175bpm for a long time, which was the goal. Tough workout, but a beautiful, short-sleeve day. The 4 of us got multiple catcalls from the local high school girls team, who ran by a few times. Meow.
Later in the day, more folks arrived at Matt's beachhouse. We went to Atlantic City for a few hours and for once, I was lucky. I bummed around with the Browns there, who were expecting a little more glory and glamor, and a little less sleaze and bankruptcy. At least I knew what to expect. I lost $5 in a video poker machine, but lasted for a while. Later, at a nickle slot machine I made back $4, and at the end of the night, I found a penny slot machine that was in love with me. Eventually, I came out $12.75 ahead. I'm RICH! I would bet 5 cents a line on 5 lines at a time, riding out about 2 dollar losses until I would win $5 at a time. Since I was betting small, I could take these risks and be successful. It was rather fun. Everyone else seemed to lose, so I used my winnings to pay for parking and traffic tolls.
Later that night, we played 3 rounds of "Cranium", which is a decent boardgame (the first 100 times or so). I would have enjoyed it more if I wouldn't have lost 2/3. I wonder if artists or cartoonists ever get together and play Pictionary? I bet they would rule at it.
At midnight, we went out to the boardwalk and watched some distant fireworks. I called Stacy to wish her a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! It was too bad that she was too sick to make it down. I would've went up North to see her, but her family was sick, and it didn't seem like a wise decision.
Thursday, 12/30/04 (Happy Birthday, Karin)
66min, 10.5 miles. Ran back and forth on the boardwalk at the OC, about half of the way with Matt. Started to feel good and dropped some sub-6 stretches (especially when I would pass some decent dudes, I would accidently accelerate a half to5:30 pace). We put this run off all day, until finally, I had to do half of it in the dark. Oh well. We played video games most of the day, specifically old 2002-03 sports game that Matt bought for $5 somewhere. Keith didn't leave the couch all day, from 8am until 2am. Pretty sad, but nice all the same. I got a nap in, which was good, as I'm tired from the first half of the week.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
47min, close to 7 miles. Did this run late at night in Ocean City, upon arrival and rather famished. After working all day for Alan in Philadelphia, I took the train to Atlantic City, where Matt and Keith, my good buddies from high school, picked me up. The train was amazingly cheap and easy. I feel like the casinos may subsidize it to drain more people's money. We went to Ballys, where it only took Keith 15min to win $237, and for Matt and I to lose $15 each. Keith was in such a good mood, he reimbursed our losses, which was nice. Unfortunatly, Keith missed our exit on the way back and it took waaaayyy longer to return. The highlight was when we payed $2 to go through a toll, turn around, and pay $2 again.
I'm glad that my 3 day stretch at work is over. My running was starting to suffer, but I'm glad to make a few extra bucks and continue my relationship there. Alan thought he was paying me $1.50 more per hour than he actually is. That stung a bit. Before returning to work next year, I may hold out for a bigger raise than I already have (which is supposed to be to compensate for extra taxes I may incur as an "independent contractor.").
Tuesday, 12/28/04
PM: 18 min warmup, 2.5+ miles.
34 min workout. 8X3minute pick-ups. 1 min rest. 2 min rest after the 3rd and 6th, when I increased intensity. About 6 miles. Ran around neighborhoods, just trying to find flat areas.
The track 'twas closed and snow choked the grass,
Thus I struggled with the workout, which became half-ass.
15 min cooldown, 2 miles. Total: 10.5 miles. Woke up early, got ready to run, then went back to sleep. I feel for all the guys who work fulltime and train, it's quite draining. I've been there before, but am not digging the experience.
Monday
56min, 8.5 miles at 6am. Ran around the Bryn Mawr grad college, etc. Very very cold, and snow on the ground. Had to return the Antelope from the train station, so that I could ride it back. Ran pushing it, and my hands became icicles. Not a stellar run, but ok. Not fun to run before/as sun is rising. I'm working for Alan this week, my old job in Philly. The train ride is about 25min, and I managed to catch the train by about 10 seconds all week. Some quotes from Alan this week, "Where the deuce (is that paper)?". "Can you believe that [expletive deleted]." "We are so [expletive deleted]." Alan tends to take things pretty hard and work is high stress. I helped to prepare some tax filings, among other tasks this week.
The small, center city office has its own lore, which I hope that I've passed on to Ty, the current legal assistant. I've seen some interesting temps come through there as I was trying to leave. For example, there was the wacked out woman who wanted to be violent with Alan, got physically ill because she disliked the job so much, and showed me the website on witches that she made in her spare time. Oh, she was also incompetent. One of my favorites was the midget accountant, who couldn't reach the boxes on the upper shelves, and muttered to herself, so you could never tell if she was talking to you or not. There were also at least 3 or 4 that quit after 1 week or less. Ty may make it 1 year, which is impressive. I may have quit, but I certainly didn't burn any bridges. Jackie, my predecessor, came in to work one Monday morning, and announced she was quitting that day. She was to to an accelerated orientation with me all day. She left around 10:30 am while Alan was on the phone. He really wasn't a fan of her and even to this day, she is a proper scapegoat when something is incorrect.
Tuesday, 1/4/04
2.5+ mile warm-up to Johns Hopkins track (18.5 min), 4 strides. 3 X 2K "ins and outs", that is 200m fast (goal was 32s- 3k pace), alternated w/ 200m a little less fast (goal was 42s). Beautiful day. Around 60 degrees, although there was a strong wind.
31.26, 48.8, 31.8, 44.5, 31.89, 47.0, 32.6, 43.4, 32.29. 42 (6:25)
3:59 rest (800m jog)
31.3, 43.9, 32.59, 43.97, 32.17, 43.33, 33.23, 43.77, 32.64, 41.52
3:58 rest (800m jog)
31.57, 43.72, 33.2, 44.55, 31.87, 44.33, 32.5, 44.09, 32.07, 43.52,
2.5+ mile cool-down (19.5 min)
Tuesday total: 10.5 miles
Originally I planned to do a similar workout up at the Haverford indoor track to meet up w/ Marcus and local Nova guys. However, the weather down here was quite nice and Stacy held me captive. The faster 200m sections went very well, although I slowed a bit too much on the slower 200m portions. All in all felt pretty good. Wore some old racing flats I have down here, but they give me blisters.
Met a dude named Remus at the track today. Talked to him some before my workout and then for a while (20min?) afterwards. He actually did most of the talking, especially since I was so tired/hungry. He was doing 300m's in 45 seconds to prepare for a marathon this month(?). He assured me that he can run 2:45min marathons every week, and that his life is track and field. He has 4 kids and his 10 year old daughter is a "future super- star" that can run 5:20 in the mile. Nice guy, even if he does tend to boast. When he pulled my PR's out of me, he was impressed. We're going to meet for a run tomorrow, which will be nice I suppose. Hopefully I'll get to get to see some new runs. Oh yeah, Remus also wants me to meet his family and get free stuff from a local shoe store and invited me down to Miami with him this month. Think I'll try to take it a bit more slow...
Monday, 1/3/04
62 min, 9.5 miles. Ran from Stacy's apartment up through Wynman park to Druid Hill park and back. Perfect weather helped to make this a pleasant run. I was moving along. Always lots of dogs to dodge in the park, but I deal.
Was going to travel back to Bryn Mawr today, but decided to stick around, even though I only brought clothes to last me 1 day, and my Harry Potter book won't last me too much longer.
Weekly mileage: 74 miles. This was a decent week of training, though disrupted a bit by work and tiring. My longer tempos are certainly going well, though.
Sunday, 1/2/04
1hour 27minutes, about 12.5 miles. Ran from my apartment down and about the Willows trails (via the backroads). Started to rain on me almost as soon as I left, 40 degrees. Felt sluggish on the run, but got through it. Trails were mildly entertaining. Tired today, helped Stacy make the trek back to Baltimore. Tried my new waffle maker today, which worked well. I consumed 5 waffles and froze some for later. My first attempt, however, I overfilled the thing-a-ma-gig, and I had some major batter overflow.
Saturday, 1/1/04 (HAPPY NEW YEAR!)
PM: 36min, 5+miles. Did an easy run around the local, rocky park near my apartment and the hill prep school. Got back, and Stacy was waiting for me! Later that night, we went out to the Wild Onion, a bar about 1 mile from my place down Conestoga Rd. It was nice, very uncrowded.
AM: 50 min. Ran 1 loop on the boardwalk, and then finished up on the sand in Ocean City. Also did a couple barefoot strides on the beach. Going to call it 7.5 miles in all, but may have been a hair less. Was nice to run w/ Matt and the Brown twins, former high school teammates. This was a relaxed run, so relaxed that a woman passed us on the boardwalk (I swear she was working out). The run culminated in a nice dip into the Atlantic Ocean. GRRRRRRRRRRR, we are now members of the few, the proud, the polar bear club. It was pretty easy this year, since it was 60 degrees outside, but the water was still biting cold. A little tired today, slept on a couch last night.
Friday, 12/31/04 (HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!)
14- 2 mile cool down,
42:59- 8 mile tempo run, all on the boardwalk.
15 min- 2.5 mile warmup/strides/etc.
Total: 12.5 miles.
This tempo run went quite well. As we were stretching on the boardwalk, a worker put up a barricade right in the middle of our route, so we had to adjust a tad. I don't understand why they had to set up a wall 12 hours before setting off a few fireworks. Anyway, I ran 1.75 mile stretches of the boardwalk, back and forth until the 8 miles was reached. Matt and the Browns lasted maybe 1/2 mile before breaking off and doing their own things. I averaged 5:23 pace, although one of the markers may have been a little off, as that quarter was consistently way fast. I think that the mileage sign was put on the last lamp-post available, but really should have been a little bit farther down. In any event, I kept my heartrate at 175bpm for a long time, which was the goal. Tough workout, but a beautiful, short-sleeve day. The 4 of us got multiple catcalls from the local high school girls team, who ran by a few times. Meow.
Later in the day, more folks arrived at Matt's beachhouse. We went to Atlantic City for a few hours and for once, I was lucky. I bummed around with the Browns there, who were expecting a little more glory and glamor, and a little less sleaze and bankruptcy. At least I knew what to expect. I lost $5 in a video poker machine, but lasted for a while. Later, at a nickle slot machine I made back $4, and at the end of the night, I found a penny slot machine that was in love with me. Eventually, I came out $12.75 ahead. I'm RICH! I would bet 5 cents a line on 5 lines at a time, riding out about 2 dollar losses until I would win $5 at a time. Since I was betting small, I could take these risks and be successful. It was rather fun. Everyone else seemed to lose, so I used my winnings to pay for parking and traffic tolls.
Later that night, we played 3 rounds of "Cranium", which is a decent boardgame (the first 100 times or so). I would have enjoyed it more if I wouldn't have lost 2/3. I wonder if artists or cartoonists ever get together and play Pictionary? I bet they would rule at it.
At midnight, we went out to the boardwalk and watched some distant fireworks. I called Stacy to wish her a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! It was too bad that she was too sick to make it down. I would've went up North to see her, but her family was sick, and it didn't seem like a wise decision.
Thursday, 12/30/04 (Happy Birthday, Karin)
66min, 10.5 miles. Ran back and forth on the boardwalk at the OC, about half of the way with Matt. Started to feel good and dropped some sub-6 stretches (especially when I would pass some decent dudes, I would accidently accelerate a half to5:30 pace). We put this run off all day, until finally, I had to do half of it in the dark. Oh well. We played video games most of the day, specifically old 2002-03 sports game that Matt bought for $5 somewhere. Keith didn't leave the couch all day, from 8am until 2am. Pretty sad, but nice all the same. I got a nap in, which was good, as I'm tired from the first half of the week.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
47min, close to 7 miles. Did this run late at night in Ocean City, upon arrival and rather famished. After working all day for Alan in Philadelphia, I took the train to Atlantic City, where Matt and Keith, my good buddies from high school, picked me up. The train was amazingly cheap and easy. I feel like the casinos may subsidize it to drain more people's money. We went to Ballys, where it only took Keith 15min to win $237, and for Matt and I to lose $15 each. Keith was in such a good mood, he reimbursed our losses, which was nice. Unfortunatly, Keith missed our exit on the way back and it took waaaayyy longer to return. The highlight was when we payed $2 to go through a toll, turn around, and pay $2 again.
I'm glad that my 3 day stretch at work is over. My running was starting to suffer, but I'm glad to make a few extra bucks and continue my relationship there. Alan thought he was paying me $1.50 more per hour than he actually is. That stung a bit. Before returning to work next year, I may hold out for a bigger raise than I already have (which is supposed to be to compensate for extra taxes I may incur as an "independent contractor.").
Tuesday, 12/28/04
PM: 18 min warmup, 2.5+ miles.
34 min workout. 8X3minute pick-ups. 1 min rest. 2 min rest after the 3rd and 6th, when I increased intensity. About 6 miles. Ran around neighborhoods, just trying to find flat areas.
The track 'twas closed and snow choked the grass,
Thus I struggled with the workout, which became half-ass.
15 min cooldown, 2 miles. Total: 10.5 miles. Woke up early, got ready to run, then went back to sleep. I feel for all the guys who work fulltime and train, it's quite draining. I've been there before, but am not digging the experience.
Monday
56min, 8.5 miles at 6am. Ran around the Bryn Mawr grad college, etc. Very very cold, and snow on the ground. Had to return the Antelope from the train station, so that I could ride it back. Ran pushing it, and my hands became icicles. Not a stellar run, but ok. Not fun to run before/as sun is rising. I'm working for Alan this week, my old job in Philly. The train ride is about 25min, and I managed to catch the train by about 10 seconds all week. Some quotes from Alan this week, "Where the deuce (is that paper)?". "Can you believe that [expletive deleted]." "We are so [expletive deleted]." Alan tends to take things pretty hard and work is high stress. I helped to prepare some tax filings, among other tasks this week.
The small, center city office has its own lore, which I hope that I've passed on to Ty, the current legal assistant. I've seen some interesting temps come through there as I was trying to leave. For example, there was the wacked out woman who wanted to be violent with Alan, got physically ill because she disliked the job so much, and showed me the website on witches that she made in her spare time. Oh, she was also incompetent. One of my favorites was the midget accountant, who couldn't reach the boxes on the upper shelves, and muttered to herself, so you could never tell if she was talking to you or not. There were also at least 3 or 4 that quit after 1 week or less. Ty may make it 1 year, which is impressive. I may have quit, but I certainly didn't burn any bridges. Jackie, my predecessor, came in to work one Monday morning, and announced she was quitting that day. She was to to an accelerated orientation with me all day. She left around 10:30 am while Alan was on the phone. He really wasn't a fan of her and even to this day, she is a proper scapegoat when something is incorrect.
posted by MDB at 2:04 PM
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