Last Week of 2006

It is much easier being a triathlete when you don’t have to work a job. I’ve taken the last two days off and I find getting in my workouts to be much easier. I can sleep in if I want to and get out the door at my leisure. Then I can come home, eat, nap and then do a second workout if it is called for. It is such a better routine than swimming, biking and running before 8am in the morning.

I’ve started to strength train again. It feels good to begin building back some strength and I am somewhat reassured in my fitness when I realized I hadn’t lost as my physical strength as I feared. The first time was this past Tuesday. I went to the Dodge Y with my kids who said they would wait for me to weight train after we first went to the pool. The kids had a fun time swimming after and diving for their Water Toypedos. They would race to see he could return the most the fastest. It was a good way for them to build up their swimming endurance. After the pool, my daughter read a book and my son followed me around the gym while I did a quick 25 minutes weight training session.

On Wednesday, I went for a 6am run. The most memorable thing about it was that I was back in my house and back in my bed before 7am. I was able to sleep for another half hour before I had to get up for work. It was like the run never happened and if not for the file I downloaded from my Polar Heart Rate monitor I may not have believed I actually did a run. I also swam on Wednesday evening; a relatively relaxed 2300 yards.

Thursday morning was a trainer ride in my basement. I am liking riding my bike in the basement as opposed to dressing warm for an outdoor ride. I am able to space out and watch a movie, instead of dealing with the cold. Not that it has been cold around here lately, but it was chilly enough that I didn’t feel like dealing with bundling up. Later in the day I met my friend Chris at the Y for my second strength training session of the week. We did dumbbell press on a stability ball, one-arm dumbbell rows, leg press and abs.

Today I did another morning run. I asked my daughter if she wanted to come with me, but she wanted to sleep a little longer and said she would go to the pool with me later. I ate breakfast afterwards and hung around the house for a while. Then it was off to the pool, where my kids played in the water on their own while I swam 2000 yards. We got home a little after 2pm. My kids had snacks and watched some TV, and I did some chores around the house. After a while I cajoled my kids to go back outside. It was too nice outside to let the remainder of the afternoon pass by indoors watching TV. My wife felt I should just let them sit around, but there is something about wasting the time away watching TV when it is nice outside that just drives me crazy.

Xmas 2006

Christmas Eve

I was supposed to do a 12 mile run today, but I just wasn’t feeling it. My HR wasn’t getting to where it should be and I suspect I am just a bit tired from staying up too late and biking and swimming. I went swimming yesterday for the second day in a row. It wasn’t far, only 500 yards, but the two days in a row combined make it a lot more than I have been used to. I was able to get that swim in while my kids played in the family recreation lane at the Dodge YMCA. I took them to the pool for a swimming evaluation for determination of which swimming class they can take in January. So far I am making the most of my membership.

So instead of suffering through a slow and painful 12 miles, I went home to grill vegetables for the xmas eve party we throw every year. It’s nice sitting by a warm grill drinking a beer and listening to my Ipod. Add in wireless internet access and I am feeling no pain. All I needed perhaps was a football game on the radio but it was still before noon.

I noticed that I have love handle starting to develop again. If the sight of that is not enough to get me back into training, I don’t know what is. It is pretty scary looking. I’ve grown accustomed to the svelte mal-nourished look. Actually, I never felt I looked mal-nourished, but that is what some of my friends have told me in the past.

Christmas Day

Well I am making like Santa today and taking the day off. It was too much fun watching my kids open their presents and I just wanted to be with them all morning. Both my kids still believe in Santa Claus. I am starting to feel funny that they still do, but on the other hand there is something about their innocence that just melts my heart. I want it to last as long as it can.

My son got a Rubik’s cube and both of my kids got MP3 players. My son wanted Rock and Roll on his and when I asked my wife what I should put on it, he replied that he wants all of it. I don’t think his MP3 player has that sort of capacity.

It is a lofty responsibility deciding on what music to put on your children’s Ipods. Where do you begin? I have a decent library of music, but I am clueless as to what is appropriate. Is it ok to give my son Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Judas Priest? I am also without a clue when it comes to current music. Any recommendations would be appreciated. My parents didn’t have to go through this. I need a teenager to help me. Damn I am getting old.

At least I am not so old that I am too dense to figure out the Rubik’s cube. Once I figured out the instructions, it was a snap.

So far this xmas has been easy. Like right now, I am sitting in my car with my wife driving on the way to her aunt’s house. I get to relax and work on my blog (posting too, technology can be cool). Hopefully there will be no traffic when I have to drive home later.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

There is a demolition site along 56th Street in Manhattan that I pass everyday on the way to my office. As they tore the building, this funky painting of a mushroom was revealed. But now it is gone.

Hard Swim

I had the hardest swim workout today. It wasn’t hard in the sense that I went at it very hard; it was hard in the sense that it was difficult to do. I guess that is what happens when you don’t swim in almost 2.5 months; you lose all of your swimming fitness. I have to make sure I don’t take such a long layoff again. I feel like I am starting at the beginning. It was such a struggle just to get in the first 500 yards. At least after that point I started to feel a little better and swam a total of 1500 yards in a dismal 30 minutes. I also ran 6 miles earlier this morning, so today marks the first day I've done a run/swim combo in quite some time.

Getting back in the pool though was a major accomplishment. Perhaps I am back on the righteous path. I went to the Dodge YMCA, which is close enough to my house to make the commute to it painless. I had to sign up as a new member and the process was quick and painless. The front desk was even kind enough to lend me a lock since I forgot mine at home. It was a 4 digit combination lock and I was able to go to a locker which had the exact same number. This was very convenient and scary. Convenient because I didn’t have to remember the combination and scary because when I opened that locker door, there happened to be a young boy hiding in it. It was just pure coincidence and the kid got a real kick out of how badly he startled me.

This past Wednesday night, I did another run/ride with my daughter. I think we had our best conversation of all the times we’ve gone out together. We were just talking about life, memory, dreams and desires. Perhaps one day we will both talk about the guy we saw walking a white dog near a red stop light. It was a warm conversation which flowed naturally and easily. It made the run pass very quickly, which was a good thing because her small hands and toes were very cold by the time we got home. When we got back into the house, she wrapped herself in her Yankee blanket, lounged on a chair with footrest and drank a cup of hot tea. It all seemed so adult like, except for the fact that we watched Spongebob while she warmed up; but then again I know many an adult that likes Spongebob.

Ravings and Rantings

I hate the building in which I have to work everyday. It is completely ugly and depressing. Everything about it is geared to make you miserable. Outer offices are plagued by the incessant noise from the street below and the internal offices, like mine have windows that face inside the block and are surrounded by all of the buildings around it. You would never know if it was sunny or cloudy outside even if you could see through the grime encrusted windows. Actually, I don’t even have windows that face this middle of the block limbo, but rather a window that looks out onto the seating area that has a view if it.

Now that it is winter and the heat is on, we get an extra special bonus for working in this building – static electricity. The building is plagued with it. You can’t touch a metal surface without getting zapped. I can be feet away from something metal and the built up charge will arc over that distance giving you a zap worthy of bringing Frankenstein to life. The elevators are such a pleasure. They have the heat sensitive buttons and only activate by the tough of your bare skin. In other words, if you are wearing gloves you must take them off in order to press the button for your floor, thereby guaranteeing a shock as soon as you walk into the building.

At least things in my area of the building are getting interesting. They are demolishing the building next door, so I am treated to the incessant pounding of jackhammers as they slowly knock the building down. And when I say next door, I mean it. The building is right up against the wall of my office. My desk vibrates from all of the noise. Just beyond my office are windows that overlook the deconstruction site. We setup a “demo” cam to broadcast the demolition to our computer monitors. At least I can see my tormentors. Maybe one day my wall will accidentally be knocked away and I’ll be left sitting there overlooking a gapping chasm.

The building even tortures you in the bathroom. There is absolutely no ventilation causing the men’s room to stink all the time of everyone’s dumps. It can be quite putrefying and petrifying at times. Today while taking a dump a building maintenance worker peaked over the top of the stall door to hand me a roll of toilet paper. I was sitting there all comfortable reading a book and listening to my iPod when he scared the crap out of me. Why he felt I needed toilet paper I am not sure since there were already 5 rolls inside the stall.

While I am on a bitching and moaning fest, I may as well make a comment about the new Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0. I don’t know if it is possible for Microsoft to make a bigger piece of shit. The menu bars are all fucked up and can’t be placed in any sort of configuration that makes sense. Plus all of the commands and toolbars are located differently causing you to have to go through a big learning curve to figure it all out. If you are thinking of upgrading don’t or go to Firefox if you want that tabbed browsing feature.

Maybe I am irritable because I didn’t work out this morning. I am still having trouble getting up early in the morning. Most likely because I have been watching too much TV at night. After watching several weeks of CSI (various versions), Law and Order, etc, I think I have had enough. The shows are really nothing so good that I should be getting to bed late and blowing off working out. It is time I started to focus again and get back into my old routines. I think I’ll be much happier once I do.

Legs

F Train - 9am.

Succumbed to the Holidays

I’ve been out late for the last few nights in a row, making it impossible to wake up in time for a workout. Truth is though I am being a little lazy; at least that is what I tell myself when I start skipping workouts. The current streak started Sunday when I let myself sleep too late to get in a full workout on Sunday. We were at a Hanukkah celebration Saturday night and I got in late. Then after a birthday party on Sunday, I totally blew off going to the pool on Monday morning because I felt I needed more sleep. Top that off with a holiday party Monday night and I am working on two days without any significant workouts. I of course slept in this morning, so if I don’t get something in tonight, I fear I will blow back up to a big fat slob before New Years. I am already finding I have to let my belt out a notch.

I can’t let that happen though. I’ve now fully committed myself to doing Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon on June 3. TriCalifornia got their act together and sent me a corrected link to register, plus refunded my money for the mistakenly registered Wildflower. I even booked a hotel room and the economical rate of $104 per night only about 5 blocks away from the transition area. Now I just need to pay for airfare.

Alcatraz is all about the swim. How many times in a lifetime do you get to swim from the Rock like a convict trying to escape the place? 55 degree water, choppy, full of currents and sharks; sounds like fun. I want my family to go with me, but right now my wife is objecting to that notion. She doesn’t know it yet, but she doesn’t have a choice and is going. The trip will be an experience for me and the kids. I don’t want anyone to miss it. I think it would be a crime to do so, just in the name of saving a few bucks. It’s a life experience and as far as I am concerned you need to take every good one that gives you.

So all this being said, I need to start swimming again. I am completely out of swim shape. I probably couldn’t do a lap around my bathtub right now. I bet I can probably float real well from all the extra weight I put on. Ok… from this point forward, I am going to think swim. I am a swimmer; I am one with the pool. I am not cold all of the time and the water will feel refreshing. There is nothing like positive thoughts to kick start your motivation.

Lucky Day

I’ve forgotten what it is like to suffer because you are pushing very hard in a race. I haven’t done so in a very long time. Yeah, I’ve done a lot of long stuff, but never at an intensity that brings about that suffering feeling. I am not used to it anymore. Today was the first time I've pushed myself hard throughout an entire race in quite some time. It yielded my first sub 7 minute mile pace in almost 3 years. It's nice to know I can still have it in me.

For my pain, I was able to set a PR for the 10 mile distance and a PR for my Age Graded percentage. According to NYRR I ran at a 67.7% level which is the best I’ve ever done. I guess this means that I am in the best shape that I have ever been in, but I really can’t go by that since I haven’t “raced” a NYRR race in quite some time. Perhaps I was stronger in the past, but never knew about it. My finish time for the race was 1:09:13 which took over 2 minutes off my former PR.

Today was another spectacularly warm and sunny December day. I wasn’t even cold before the start and I was able to shed all of my warmer layers of clothes. I ran in shorts and lightweight long sleeve top. I even ditched my gloves although my hands were still a bit cold throughout. The only downside to this warm weather is the lack of snow to go sledding with the kids. However, it does make it great for racing, running and biking.

On other good news I just found out that I am the winner of a lottery entry spot into the 2007 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. I am shocked, awed, dismayed and excited all at the same time. I understand that it is very hard to get into this race and I am not going to pass up an opportunity to do it. The only downside to the race is that it is exactly 1 week before the Eagleman Half Ironman. I don’t know if I can justify to myself disappearing for two weekends in a row from my family to go race. Maybe I can get them to come to San Francisco with me.

I was so excited about winning an entry through the lottery, that I immediately followed the link I received in the email to sign up. It wasn’t until I paid and completed the entry process that I noticed that the race it said I was signing up for was the Wildflower Triathlon on May 6. Hopefully they will straighten this little problem up soon or I guess I will have a conversation with my credit card company.

Speaking of age grading I was watching TV after I got home today and saw a commercial for The Heritage Plan; a Funeral Pre-Planning product offered by some life insurance company. They are looking for people born through 1966. It’s nice to know I qualify for something else today as well.

September in December

I am struggling again to get myself to work out. So far I’ve been successful in getting myself out of the door, but it has been difficult. It is much easier when I have someone to go out with me. That is what got me outside last night. Larry called to see if I was up for a run. I told him I was but asked if he might not like to go for a ride instead. He asked me if a ride was my preference, to which I replied it wasn’t, but a ride is what I had scheduled for this day. The weather was nice and warm, perfect for an evening ride, so I think that is what convinced Larry to want to ride over a run.

The weather has been fantastic or crazy, depending on your point of view. It is the middle of December and the temperature yesterday afternoon was 60 degrees. I was walking around Madison Avenue around 3pm and based on the mild conditions, you could have sworn it was just September rolling around. When I left my office around 5:30pm, I was kind of surprised to see it do dark outside. The lack of sunlight didn’t jibe with the warm temps and September feel to the day.

Riding in Prospect Park last night was like riding on country roads during a cool summer’s evening in the country. There was dense fog throughout the park, give the whole place a ghostly feel to it. The air was completely still and hardly anyone was outside. I would have thought on such a calm and warm night more people would have been outside. Perhaps they are all at various Holiday parties.

I am supposed to get into the pool twice this week. That is definitely not happening. I can manage to begin riding, but the thought of going to a pool is too painful just now. I suppose that once I go, I’ll feel much better and glad I went. Maybe I’ll psych myself up for it over the weekend and schedule a couple of days next week.

Omega Man

Omega Man, the Charlton Heston classic about a doctor in Los Angeles who is one of the few survivors on Earth after biological warfare and must protect a life-saving serum while repelling mutant attacks was on TV this morning. I was unlikely to see something so good in Prospect Park, so I elected to run on the treadmill and watch it while running.

After my run, I notice from my Polar file, it was very hilly. My basement must be l undergoing a gravitational flux, causing my elevation level to change in great leaps and bounds. My Polar file says that through it all I ascended 400 feet. Hopefully this will continue, because doing hill training indoors through the winter is something I can get used to.

Movement

I spent all day Sunday moving around. It started with the NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10K in Central Park. It was my ninth NYRR race for the year and officially qualifies me for guaranteed entry into the 2007 NYC Marathon.

To save time on getting to and from the city, I decided to drive to the race. I needed to make the commute to the city a fast one since I had to take my son to basketball practice at 11:30am. The race started at 9:30, so I calculated about 45 minutes to do the race, 10-15 minutes to get back to my car and 20 minutes home. This would give me about a half hour to spare. If I took the subway, I could count on the trip being about an hour which would make us very late for Basketball. I made it home a few minutes before 11am. I would have bet there were people still out on the course while I was already home in Brooklyn eating breakfast.

I hung out before the race with another runner named Mike. He started talking to me as we walked to the Road Runners club to pick up race souvenirs. We had both parked near the club, but it turned out he parked illegally so had to move it. We drove together closer to the start and we hung out inside it for a while to avoid the cold. That is the great thing about doing these races; it is so easy to befriend a fellow athlete and have a lot in common to talk about.

The race was over quickly. I did it in 44:50 with all negative splits. I ran the miles as follows: 07:53.0, 07:32.4, 07:12.2, 07:12.5, 06:57.9, 06:45.2 and 01:17.1 for the last .2. I ducked under the tape for the finishers shoot as soon as I crossed the line and ran a leisurely mile back to my car.

My son and I got to basketball practice on time and for the next hour and a half, I helped coach the kids. I would have liked to just veg out for a while, but fatherly duty called. After practice there was still no time to rest, since my son now had an ice skating birthday party to go to. So it was a quick trip home to get our skates, a snack and then off to the rink.

This is where the real fun began. In the past when I have skated with my son, it was a lot of me towing him around while he stood. Miraculously though, he seemed to learn to skate since our last trip to the rink and was off on his own for most of the time. This was a very good thing, because the mother of the birthday boy asked me if I could help her son around the rink. He is a very nice boy and very enthusiastic, but skating is definitely not his forte. The child couldn’t stand on the ice for more than two seconds without falling. I spent a torturous half hour trying to get the kid on his feet and suggesting that he just go to the side and slide along the boards. He didn’t really want to do that though, and let me tell you this kid was no lightweight. I could feel the strain in my hamstrings every time I tried to lift him up. I was afraid I would soon pull a muscle. Watching him on ice was like watching a comedy scene where you have a bunch of people constantly falling down because they are slipping on marbles. Mercifully another parent in our group came by and I was able to beg off the responsibility. I needed to for my own physical health and sanity. I finally got to skate with my son for a while and we had a grand ‘ole time sliding around in the afternoon sun.

Once back home I still didn’t get to relax. My brother-in-law was over so my wife had us move a heavy item into the basement. Fortunately that didn’t take long and I got to sit on my couch for about 10 minutes before we went out again for my daughter’s dance recital. It was off to a small and overcrowded neighborhood theatre, where my daughter was waiting to perform with her Hip-Hop class. It is always great to see your child perform and the look of happiness on their faces when the do so.

After that, I finally got to relax a bit. We got take out Japanese food for dinner and soon got the kids to bed after that. I didn’t get much relaxing time on the couch, because I started falling asleep and I figured I may as well have gone to bed.

I am a Lucky Guy

I went for a run last night with both of my children accompanying me on their bicycles. It doesn’t get much better than that. For a while it became clear to me how lucky I am to have two beautiful children who adore their father so much that they think a good time is to going bike riding with their dad on a winter’s night. We talked about all sorts of things, from when I was a child and doing some sort of sport, to picking out a X-mas tree, presents and decorating the house. I felt a warmth come over me and a feeling well being that I too rarely feel. It is amazing how something so simple as running with your kids can make you feel so good.

I felt so supremely proud to be going around the park with my kids as other runners and cyclists past us. It was like look at what my kids can do while yours are home sitting on the couch watching TV. My kids insisted that they wanted to go with me and would have been very upset if I told them they had to stay home. I don’t think words can express how much I love them and telling them so a million times a day is entirely inadequate to express the feelings.

After completing one loop around the park, we hung out by the entrance where they climbed on the monuments and insisted we take silly pictures of us together. We kept taking shots until we felt that we had a really good one. We didn’t hang around for too long, because I was starting to cool down and getting very cold. So we left to go back home where my kids raced their bikes to the end of the block.

My son was sneaking though, and took a head start. This upset my daughter tremendously so I had to figure out another sort of race that didn’t involve going back down to the end of the block to race bikes again. I decided on separating them about 20 feet from each other on different sides of the house. I then had them spin around until I counted to 20 and said they had to race up the stairs to the front door of the house. I made sure they kept their helmets on so they didn’t smash their heads in case they were so dizzy they fell down. My son started to make it up the stairs first, but at the last moment he lost his balance and my daughter was able to squeak by him. It was hysterical to watch.

Two Chances to Win

The 2007 Ford Ironman World Championship Lottery is now open for registration. For a mere $35 I can have a chance to win a slot to the big race in Kona. If I spend an extra $50, then I get a second chance to win entry. I’ve done this for two years in a row, but don’t know if I feel like throwing my money away again on a small chance to win. It is not like I get any value for my money if I don’t win a slot. If at least I got something worthwhile, then maybe I would fork over the cash. Oh, I do get a plastic card that says Ironman on it with the years of my IM finishes on it. I think that is hardly worth $50. Neither are the crappy discounts you get from the various Ironman stores. I think this year I will pass; better to earn a spot by qualifying anyway.

Raced All Weekend

I raced both days this weekend. On Saturday it was the NYRR Holiday 5 miler in Central Park and on Sunday in was the Peter Rabbit Cross Country 3 miler in Prospect Park. Sunday’s race was definitely the highlight of the two even though it was the slowest 3 miles I’ve ever run. It was a PR for my daughter though who also won her Age Group. I am not too concerned with my slow time, or the fact that I was last and she beat me.

This was the first real race my daughter has participated in. I was very happy when she said that should we give it a try and smiling as we headed down to race registration. We looked around at the other runners and tried to figure out who we could beat. We saw one older gentleman putting on a number on top of his down jacket and figured we could beat him. I thought a few other kids would be in the race considering it was so short, but my daughter was the only one under 16 in attendance.

The race start is very informal with everyone lining up on a grass field. There was no particular starting or finishing lines and we all went when someone yelled go. We started out running and were with several other runners for quite some time. After a mile or so she started to get a little tired and we began to take walking breaks. We undoubtedly went out too hard, but she was a trooper and wanted to keep going on. We walked, we ran, we ran holding hands. It was a great time. For a long time we had another runner within out sights, but eventually she got ahead of us and out of sight. We kept turning back though to see if the older guy was behind us. We learned that he was walking the race and kept checking to make sure we weren’t going to be passed. With about a mile left in the race we found out that the walker had dropped. I think we were a little disappointed, but it didn’t really matter.

To keep our focus on the race and to avoid completely walking in the latter stages, we picked out landmarks in the distance and would run to them. I’d give her a head start and we would race to it and then follow that up with a walking break. We did this for a mile or so and it served to make the time go by quickly. We finished the race running side by side and were greeted across the finish line by some cheering spectators, along with Mom and Brother. The race director gave Sophia an award and she proudly wore it home.

We didn’t have time to go back to the registration area for bagels and hot chocolate, since I had to race again to get my son to basketball practice. I told Sophia that for the rest of the day should could sit on the couch and do nothing by watch TV. We both felt she earned it. I wish I got to do that as well. After basketball, but I had to help my wife geocode the locations of Monk Parakeet nests located around Flatbush Brooklyn for a school project. I am now intimately familiar with the familial locations of many Monk Parakeet homes.

For Saturday’s Holiday 5 miler, I finished in a crisp 37 minutes. The start of the race kind of got away from me and I found myself all the way in the back of the pack when the gun went off. I don’t like being that far back at the start of the race and it irked me to wait the couple of minutes to cross the starting line. I always get a twinge of nervousness when this happens, as if I don’t get further forward fast, I will somehow by left in the dust. I think that was what Sophia was feeling today when she wanted to know that someone else was behind us.

I ran the race harder than I should have, but I just did what felt good. Here is a chart of my splits. With this race out of the way, I only have one more to do in order to guarantee entry into next year’s NYC Marathon. Hopefully, I will be able to get it in on Sunday at the Joe Kleinerman 10K. Perhaps I’ll even go for a PR.

Pulled Along

I’ve gotten my workouts in everyday this week so far. This definitely would not have been the case, had I not had someone to pull me along. On Monday, I came home from work feeling distraught and exhausted. It was a bit difficult to make it through a day of work after having a nice and relaxing 4 day weekend. When I got in the door I headed up to my bedroom and could have collapsed for the remainder of the night on my bed and felt quite satisfied. However, I could let myself do that since both of my children felt like bike riding with me while I did my run.

It was a beautiful night and I had a great time outside with them. I was reasonably certain, that I was the only father running around with their kids in tow at 8pm in the evening on a school night. It felt good to know that I was doing something with them that was perhaps out of the ordinary. We ran down to Grand Army Plaza where all the TV network news trucks were around to tape the lighting of it for the evening news. It was a warm and peaceful night and the stillness was only broken by some big heaving, coughing and hacking guy that caught up to us at one point during the run.

On Tuesday morning I made arrangements to run with my friend Chris. Normally, I am not much for doing a night, followed by morning run, but I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to have some company while working out. Global warming was doing its thing and made for beautiful spring like conditions.

I didn’t think I would get a run in Wednesday, since I had early morning and late evening appointments. However, my friend Larry called me up and asked if I was willing to go for a run that evening. I told him as long as he didn’t mind it being around 8pm, I was definitely up for it, so we firmed up to meet at that time. We ran down toward Grand Army Plaza and then reversed direction inside the park and did another full loop back to our starting point. It was a decently paced run on another beautiful night. We talked about various ultra races that could be in our future and I look forward to doing some with him.

Thursday night was my only solo run in over a week. I think it was the warmest it has been all week – two thumbs up for Global Warming. I saw a couple of people I knew in the park, but other than that I was on my own. I felt pretty good and got a sense of what it might feel like to be running on your own in the night during a very long ultra marathon. I was in the groove and kind of felt like running all night, just to get a sense of what it would be like for when I do my first 100 miler. If I didn’t have to get home so my babysitter could leave, I probably would have stayed out for quite some time.

Today (Friday), I fear may be a day off. Besides doing an evening run last night, my wife needed me to stay up to help her with Microsoft Excel. I knew she needed a lot of help with it, the moment she asked me how to create a table in Excel. If you know Excel, then you know how dumbfounding that question is. I could get it in tonight, but I have the Asphalt Green Triathlon Club party to go to, plus I am doing a 5 mile race in Central Park tomorrow morning. Because I must do that race (I need it in order to get 9 qualifiers for the NYC Marathon) and I am thinking of going to this party, I may just be better served by taking the day off. I guess I’ll see how I feel later on this evening.