Posts from — August 2006

There is a first time for everything and this one consisted of my wife joining me and my kids for a 6 mile run/bike around Prospect Park. It was my wife’s own idea to go with us and I was almost floored at this turn of events. Hopefully this will become a regular occurrence.

If it weren’t for my family joining me for my run, I can honestly say I would not have done it. I was tired when I got home from work and just felt like vegging out on the couch (again). My kids wanted to go though and that was inspiration enough for me to get out the door. I am hoping that this sort of thing, lacking motivation and having my kids inspire me, happens more often. It would be kind of cool to have your kids saying “Come on Dad get off your ass, you have a race to train for”.

I am on my last day of vacation and then it is back to the old grindstone. Too bad it can’t last forever. My family and I spent the week at the Sagamore Hotel in Bolton Landing, NY on Lake George. We had a great time and I was able to relax, as much as one can relax with two children, for the first time in a while.

The trip started off with a stop at Saratoga Race track to watch the horses run. Watching the horses race was the closest I came to exercising for the day. The last time I had been here was 30 years ago. The fact that I can say that I was or did something 30 years ago is freaking scary. The place was as I remembered it, albeit smaller than I remembered. My father had taken me and my brother to Saratoga when we were kids and I liked the thought of taking my own children to the ancestral vacation lands. To top it off, I even picked a couple of winners.

The next day I got in an easy, but hilly 8 mile run. The workout was nothing so special, but the whitewater rafting trip we took was. We had a blast flowing down the rapids and jumping into the water during the calmer sections. Later in the day, we went to the beach by the lake and we met a woman with her two kids who were staying at the hotel. Her daughter was wearing an M-Dot Ironman hat and when I asked who the Ironman was the reply was a loud Ironwoman. Our kids were all the same age and we wound up hanging out with them for several days of our trip.

The first outing together was when we met at the kayak rental place. My plan was to swim around the island while my wife captained the kayak. Without another adult, Debbie, the Ironwoman had to row her kayak with her children in front and I tried to keep pace with everyone around the island. It was a good and satisfying swim. We stopped a couple of times where I played shark and would swim under the boats and pop up on the other side of them. Wednesday night we went to a Rodeo. It was a lot of fun to watch, but I am sure the calves that were roped would disagree.

Thursday morning I ran a bit longer going closer to ten miles. Later I went to the pool with my kids where we played “Rough Seas”. This involved me dragging them around the pool on a kickboard and making them heave to and fro and then tossing them high into the air. My daughter had made some friends in the pool by now so I was throwing around more than just my own kids. After the pool it was time for tennis. We played for around 90 minutes which served as some good supplemental exercise. Later that night we met my fellow Ironman and kids on a dinner cruise that took us towards Lake George Village to see a fireworks show. Our kids had a blast playing with each other.

Friday was our last day in Lake George and we made the most of it. Early morning was spent kayaking around the island, this time with me rowing my son in one kayak, with my wife in the other. Debbie and her kids were in a third kayak. We raced to various points, which became hard for me as my wife wanted me to tow her kayak since she was getting tired. The water was a bit rougher and that made it harder for her to row. My wife was also getting frustrated from my daughter barking out commands. This was my only exercise of the day, but it was quite strenuous. Later we rented a motorboat and took the kids water tubing across Lake George. My face was sore from smiling so hard at watching the kids having such a great time tubing across the lake.

After we returned the boat, we went fishing for a while from the dock. We didn’t catch anything, but had fun trying. We ended our day by watching a tennis exhibition being performed by the same people that are scheduled to put on a show at the US Open in Queens, NY. It was a good show which kept the kids interested the entire time.

Sadly, we had to leave for home after the show ended. It was time to go home much to my great reluctance. We got home around 11:30pm, in time to watch the end of the Yankee game on TV. I fell asleep on my couch in the middle of the game and didn’t wake up until the same point in the game during the YES encore. I went up to bed and got up a few hours later to do an easy 6 mile run. There was no way I was going to do a long bike ride, as I just wasn’t in the mood.

For the remainder of the weekend, I ran some errands and had some friends over with their kids. I wouldn’t be so down about my vacation’s end as long as I kept busy. While the kids were busy playing my friend and I went out for a couple of beers at a local pub to watch the Yankee game. We then went back to my house for dinner and then a trip outside for desert.

Sunday was a quieter day, but highlighted by a trip to the Prospect Park Lake for some fishing. It was cool and rainy and apparently the perfect day for fishing in it. We caught a bunch of fish, which were carefully released back into the lake. It was a good way to end the vacation.

There is something to be said for having a high level of fitness. It really allows you to do things that most people couldn’t even contemplate doing. This weekend was a celebration of my accumulated fitness. I was able to swim, bike and run with apparent ease over large distances and felt great while doing so.

The weekend started out with a bike ride with my friend Todd and a bunch of guys from the Prospect Park Peloton. We met at the Brooklyn Bridge at 7:45am for a ride up to Nyack. It was an interesting and challenging ride. After riding over the Brooklyn Bridge we rode all the way up the West Side Greenway until we passed under the George Washington Bridge. I never rode up this was so far and taking this route was an experience. It passes through some interesting urban landscape. I wished I could have asked the peloton to stop on several occasions so I could have taken a couple of pictures.

Once over the GWB, we took the back roads and hit all of the hilliest sections. It made for a challenging and satisfying ride. We stopped at the coffee shop in Nyack and took about a 30 minute break to have a snack and grab a drink. On the way back we had lost one of our members. When this was realized, we all stopped on the side of the road in the hopes that he would catch up. After 5 minutes had passed, we came to the conclusion that one or all of us should go back and look for him. Questions were asked as to whether that was ok and if anyone one wanted to continue on. I think a few of us wanted to go, but none of us really wanted to leave someone behind. I mentioned that I needed to be home by a certain time, but would wait, since if it was me who was left behind I would want someone to wait of come look for me.

No sooner had I said this, I discovered that my front tire was flattening out. A couple of guys helped me changed it. It was like having my own Nascar pit crew. We got it fixed within a few minutes of the return of the guy who had dropped behind. We had no other delays on the way home and I made it back home with time to spare. I was very glad I did this ride. I don’t think I could have handled a 50 mile ride by myself in Prospect Park. The 78 miles I road with the Peloton was so much better in terms of the company, quality and quantity.

Today I met my friend Rob for a return run to Coney Island. We met at 5am in order to make it to the beach in time for the first annual Cibbows Breezy Point race. We ran a slow 6.5 miles in the darkness, but had the rising sun coming up ahead of us as we reached the beach. As we approached it, we could tell that it was going to be windy on the water and figured on heavy surf. This proved to be the case and many of the swimmers were wondering if it was going to get very bad in the water.

The original race plan was to swim towards Breezy Point to a buoy just off shore. Once there, you would either turn around and head back to the start or board a boat if you were going only one way. What happened though was that we were all instructed to just head to the beach on Breezy Point. For some reason they wanted to get all of the swimmers out of the water.

It wasn’t actually a mystery why. Once you were past the half way point in the channel the wave would break over you from behind with regular and fairly intense frequency. It was just about impossible to sight because of the heavy seas and the swimmers were all spread out as they got caught in the various currents. When I was informed that I should head to the shore, I had just started thinking that I would be lucky to not be pulled out of the water on the return trip. I didn’t see how I would be able to make it back in the allotted time when it was taking so long for just the way out.

I think most everyone was happy and relieved to be to have the race end on the beach. For me, it was the best of all possible outcomes, since I really wanted to land on the beach and was a bit disappointed in the race when I found out that a beach landing wasn’t one of the elements. So landing on the beach absolutely made my day and the fact that I didn’t have to make the return swim wasn’t so bad either.

On the beach I had a surreal shipwrecked kind of feeling. Dozens of swimmers were stranded on the beach awaiting “rescue” from the various support boats. Everyone was in good humor and laughing at the situation. Some of us got rides back on the boats, while several others got a Jet Ski ride back. It was fun hanging out on the beach and relaxing in the sun.

The boats returned us to the docks at Kingsborough Community College and from there we were driven back by people shuttling the return swimmers in cars. It was all so much fun. Back at the start/finish a small band was playing and there was plenty of food and stuff to drink. Rob and I hung out for a while talking to various people. The race director announced that there was one official finisher, a woman named Laurie that I swim with at CI regularly.

To complete the day’s workout, Rob and I decided to run back home. My legs were feeling great and I was setting a pace that Rob couldn’t keep. Rob told me to go after about 1.5 miles, so I headed out and began to push my pace. I was running with ease despite being weighed down by a backpack with thin rope straps digging into my shoulders.

By the time I returned home, it had gotten quite warm and sunny. I felt as if I was bursting into flames when I walked through the door and quickly headed for a cold shower. Even though I sprayed myself with cold water for about 10 minutes, I was still sweating profusely when I came out of the shower. It took about another 30 minutes before my body finally cooled down. Overall a very satisfying weekend of workouts.

Thursday, Aug. 17

I got to play hooky from work today, since a vendor invited me to a Yankee game. Unfortunately it was a complete blowout before the 7th inning, so it wasn’t much of a game unless you are an Orioles fan. It was a beautiful day outside though and I immensely enjoyed sitting in the ballpark, drinking a couple of beers and talking a mix of baseball and business. It doesn’t get much better than that in terms of making a living.

Unfortunately, the Yankees weren’t having a good day at the office. To the right is Derek Jeter taking a pitch for a strike. The lopsided score (12-2) inspired us to leave early. Perhaps I will get home early enough to make up the bike ride I should have done this morning. I was too tired to wake up and get out. Perhaps because I was struck by insomnia at 2am, which was only overcome by a midnight snack and watching pathetic videos on youtube.com. I couldn’t believe the crap I saw on this site and the amount of time some people spend on video documenting their lives for the entire world to see. Maintaining a blog is one thing, but recording and posting your dirty laundry or exhibitionist tendencies is something else entirely. It is completely foolish in a world where future employers will “google” your name to see what sort of dirt they can dig up on you before making a hiring decision. It is something I will have to make sure my kids never do.

Speaking of my kids, I went out for a run last night with my daughter accompanying me on her bike. It is becoming more and more pleasurable as time goes on. She is really able to set a pace while running that presents a good challenge for me to keep up with. Not that I didn’t want my son to join us, but I was afraid he couldn’t push the pace as my daughter can. After the workout, I took my daughter to a local bakery and bought her a baby chocolate cake. When we walked back into the house my son howled that it was unfair that his sister got something and he didn’t. He insisted that the next time I go out for a run that she doesn’t get to go and that only he will get something. I guess that is one way I could’ve inspired my son to come ride with me the next time I go out for a ride.

Friday Aug. 18

Last night when I got home from work, my son insisted that we go out for a run/bike ride. I guess not getting a treat from the bakery the night before inspired him to pursue physical fitness. I told him he could get something only if he completed two loops of the park without complaints, just as his sister did. I am glad to say that he more than adequately arose to the occasion, even doing the workout with me faster than his sister did the day before.

It took a bit more encouragement from me to get him up the big hill. For inspiration I sang a song of how the hill was taunting him that he couldn’t make it up all the way. The then sang a contrary verse saying that how my son was going to kick the hill’s butt. He found this rather amusing and I continued to cheer him up the hills whenever they were encountered. He sometimes complained that his back or legs hurt and I let him know that this was good, because it meant that he was working hard and that he should feel some discomfit when doing so.

I hope that these run with my kids continue as I am finding my workouts much more enjoyable over training by myself each day.

This morning I thought I would get on my bike for a while and then head to the pool. I don’t know what it is, but I have sort of a mental block when it comes to getting on two wheels. I just have no desire to ride lately. I could make it to the pool (which I did today) or go for a run, it’s just that getting on my bike seems to be a major effort. Maybe it is lingering effects from my torturous ride at Lake Placid.

To make up for a lack of land based workout this morning, I am going to play tennis with my wife this evening. This should be an interesting experience. We are both terrible at it, plus I think I’ve lost the ability to move side to side after all of these years of running/riding in a straight line. Hopefully I won’t pull a muscle swinging the racket.

My Palm Treo 700W is without a doubt the biggest piece of shit excuse for a phone/PDA ever created by mankind. This device is something that only a true masochist could love. This infernal piece of shit drops call, freezes, craps out and malfunctions without warning. Actually, a crisis that requires you to use the device should serve as a warning because inevitably, this is when the phone is at its worst.

I guess it’s really my own fault for believing that Microsoft can program an operating system as basic as making a phone work, when its flagship products are themselves buggy and faulty pieces of shit. How they can botch up something as simple as cell phone operation defies all logic and reason. Stay away from this phone at all costs unless you relish in your suffering.

I know I like to suffer through long sessions of physical training, but working with this phone is ridiculous.

This day was so boring that it hardly worth mentioning, much less blogging about. But I am so bored that I figured that perhaps by writing about it I will at least have found something to do while I wait for the subway to convey me home. Even my subway car is lacking anyone or anything of interest to look at. Just a bunch of people tapping away at their cell phones. Pictured to the right are two boring people flailing away at their phones.

Too bad they don’t allow open containers on the subway. A six pack of beer would be useful right about now. I can share it with this person sitting next to me who keeps taking a peak at my screen to see what I am writing (shame on you for being nosey). Maybe I should bring a book, a very long one so I have a big fat story to keep myself occupied for the next couple of weeks of riding. But then I’d have to carry the fucker and my bag is already heavy enough.

I’ve noticed I don’t make much use of curse words in my blog. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. I certainly curse enough when I speak, but for some reason I don’t do so while writing. I guess my written self is much more elegant and refined. My true persona is a vulgar Brooklynite. Perhaps I learned to curse so much from watching Saturday Night Fever too many times as a kid. It was the seminal moving during my formative years.

Damn, there is not even one pretty girl to look at today. Just one overweight blond wearing a skirt that is too short for her chubby legs. Am I being mean? Is
it ok to be mean in your own head as long as you don’t let the person know you are thinking mean thoughts? Am I sinning by making fun of one of g-ds creations in my own mind. Oh please let something interesting happen before I go insane.

Last stop in Brooklyn… Let’s see what happens once I go under the river…

Brooklyn – Nothing happened other than I am a river closer to home. At least the train is above ground for a couple of stops. I get to have a view of the world and it’s time to start getting ready. Just about home. Maybe my kids had an interesting day.

I hate when I go out for a workout and feel like shit. It tells me I should have just stayed in bed and gotten some extra rest. I guess my legs were tired from my workouts over the weekend. Why I should be so tired is beyond me, since I’ve had much bigger weekends, but maybe I am still recovering from Lake Placid; or maybe I’ve lost all my fitness in the 3 weeks since Lake Placid has passed.

Anyway, I am looking towards a big weekend coming up. I am doing the Breezy Point 5K on Sunday and the plan is to run to the start in Coney Island and run home after the race. It should be an interesting day, especially if I get tired during the swim and swept out into the ocean. I will try to avoid that from happening though.

Hopefully, this week will be easy and relaxed. I am going on vacation with the family next week to the Lake George area and I am looking forward to relaxing for a change. I’ll probably bring my bike with me to at least pay lip service towards keeping an exercise routine going. I’ll just have to see how I feel. At least I know if I do ride the scenery will be nicer than I had yesterday. I didn’t realize how ugly some parts of Long Island can be, especially Hempstead LI. The place was so ugly looking that I could feel all the energy of my spirit and soul being sucked out of me. Maybe that is why I am so tired today.

Today we went to my brother’s house in East Hills Long Island. I didn’t physically go with my family, since I had my wife drive the kids, while I took my bike for a change of pace in my weekend ride routine. If I went the shortest route by street the ride is about 25 miles. However, I decided to take the scenic route to get my mileage up to 50 miles.

I started out by heading into Bay Ridge to ride along the Shore Road bike path. This took me along the lower Hudson Bay and under the Verrazano Bridge. From there it was into Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. I then rode along the Belt Parkway to Flatbush Avenue for the ride over the Marine Park Bridge and into the Rockaways. I was able to make excellent time, since the wind was blowing west to east. I flew down Beach Channel Drive averaging around 24 mph and soon headed onto Atlantic Beach Bridge for the ride into Long Beach.

My average speed suffered a bit as I crossed the Atlantic Beach Bridge. They have strict policy of walking bikes over it and failure to do so is punishable by a $250 fine. Several riders were ahead of me walking their bikes so I had a feeling that the rule was serious and I was best off doing the same. I didn’t relish such a steep fine for riding over a quarter mile bridge.

Once into Long Beach, I rode down Beech Street through the main strip, and then went onto Park Avenue until it was time to cross back onto Long Island by way of Long Beach Blvd. I had turn by turn directions courtesy of Microsoft Streets and Trips, however I missed a turn and found myself too far east for where I wanted to go. I had a general idea of where I was and stopped by a Dunkin Donuts to ask someone directions to the various major highways. Unfortunately, the guy I picked to ask only knew directions for purchasing his favorite donut. It was clear he lived in the area but was completely clueless as to where things were. He just stood there with this stupid look on his face as if to say “I am really freakin’ clueless as to where I am, I just want a donut.” There was not much to do except thank him and ride on and head to the next major intersection.

Fortunately, I figured out where I was and headed back north and west. I had only gone a couple of miles out of my way. I arrived at my brother’s house 2 hours and 45 minutes after I started. Not a bad time and I averaged just under 20 mph for the trip including all stops.

Food was already being served upon my arrival which made for a very convenient finish. I drank a liter of water and ate some shrimp cocktail. I then grabbed a quick shower and felt completely refreshed.

My brother has a decently sized backyard which had several trees cut down a year of so ago. The remnants of which were stacked along the yard in the form of large logs waiting to be split for firewood. I grabbed his axe and spent an hour or so chopping wood. I hadn’t done that in many years and it felt good to get an outdoorsman type workout. My relatives couldn’t believe that I wanted to chop wood after riding 50 miles from Brooklyn. My wife called me a freakazoid. Why chopping wood would elicit such a response from my wife is beyond me. She just doesn’t get the pleasure one can get by doing physical activity.

Perhaps I don’t post enough. I don’t seem to get very many comments on my blog. Maybe they just aren’t provocative enough to spur spontaneous commenting.

Anyway, I am stilling on my couch at 4:45am, since my wife is having a coughing fit in bed and waking me up. She would never consider leaving the room and letting me sleep in peace. It is something I would do in a heart beat should the situation be reversed. Oh well. Nothing I could do about it except stuff a sock down her throat or go downstairs, eat a bowl of cereal and complain about it on my blog. As you can tell, I chose the later option as the former would ultimately yield sub-optimal long term results.

While I got time to kill, since returning to sleep at this point is useless, I will recant my day from yesterday. It was perhaps the most perfect summer day that I can remember in many years. It started out at 7am with a run from Prospect Park to Coney Island with my friend Robert. The running felt easy and we easily cruised the six miles, down Ocean Parkway into Brighton Beach. The beach was still mostly empty and the water was clear and flat.

We entered the surf carrying all that we brought down with us. It was training for the upcoming SOS race. It felt kind of weird walking into the water fully dressed and still wearing my socks and sneakers. I thought I would try swimming with them on to see how it would feel. It felt like I was towing an anchor. By the time I reached the turnaround point on the swim, I had decided that I was better served by taking them off and stuffing them inside my shorts. I stroke felt better as soon as they were off, but I can’t say the swimming got easier.

That is because on the way back, the current was pushing with great force against me now. If I stopped swimming for just a second, I would be pushed back 3 – 5 feet. Robert went slightly further than I did and I could see him swimming towards me. I thought about waiting for him to catch up to me, but he is a much stronger swimmer and would do so without me staying still and losing ground.

The current was worse than a treadmill. On a treadmill, you can at least slow down the pace. Here I either had to swim faster than the current of get pushed out into the channel. When Rob caught up to me I expressed to him that I was afraid I would have to swim out of the water in order for me to make it back to the start. He told me to just stick with it as we were only swimming for 20 minutes up to this point.

A large while building served as a landmark up on shore. I couldn’t for the life of me get myself to move past it. Eventually I redoubled my efforts and started to make headway. I also headed slightly into shore to move away from the full brunt of the current and finally started making progress home. At one point though I had to head back out in order to make it around a large jetty. Here the current was really pushing and easing off just slightly caused you to lose ground. I started to dig in and suddenly saw Rob swim right up next to me. It took me about a minute to realize it was him, since just earlier he was quite ahead of me. We both swam hard and eventually made it around the jetty and then headed a little closer to shore. Rob said he must have been swimming too far out and had to take the full force of the current.

Anyway, staying closer to shore eventually allowed us to swim back to the start without too much more difficulty. As we exited the water I saw my coach heading onto the beach with several swimmers for an open water swim clinic he holds. We talked for a few minutes and then Rob and I left the beach for our run home. The running felt really good, surprisingly so, especially after the hour in the water. We pushed the pace all the way home and finished by running through Prospect Park. We made tentative plans to do this workout again before SOS on September 10.

I returned home around 10am, which was still early enough for me to make pancakes for the kids. I love when I am able to get back from my workouts before they eat breakfast for the ritual pancake preparation. We ate breakfast took showers and then soon headed to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on our bicycles to see the famous Corpse Flower that just bloomed.

Unfortunately, the smell from the flower was already dissipated. I think we were all disappointed that we didn’t get to sample the odor after all the hype and anticipation surrounding it. The flower was interesting enough to look at, which you only got to do after standing on a long line to walk it past it.

After the flower, we went to follow a stream that runs through the garden to determine its source. At one point we stopped by the stream and built a dam across it. This is something that my kids have come to love to do and I’d put their dam building talents up against any beaver. We were able to successfully block off the stream and cause it to begin overflowing up its banks. We would then knock the dam down to watch the backed up water go rushing down the stream. We did this several times until late in the day when a security guard chased us away saying that we weren’t allowed to do that. I guess the several other children we attracted to the dam to play with us drew the guard’s attention. No matter though as it was getting late and time for us to ride our bikes home for dinner.

Ah, some quality time by myself at home. My wife is at work and my kids are having a play date at their friend’s house. I thought of going to the pool, but my coach told me that as long as I had a workout in today, I could kick back and relax. I won’t feel too bad about missing the swim, because the plan for tomorrow is to get up early and run to Coney Island, swim and then run back home with my friend Rob. It will be good training for the upcoming SOS race.

What I really feel like doing now is putting my feet up and downing a few beers to catch a nice buzz. I am not going to do that though, because I will feel like shit in the morning and it would sabotage my workout. Nah, I’ll just sit here, veg out in front of the TV and wait for my kids to come home. It should be soon.