Posts from — October 2006

As a man, you know you are getting older when you go to take a piss and your dick won’t stop dripping urine after you finished peeing. Where it used to take you one shake to clear it, it now may take several squeezes to get out the last drops. It is really annoying when you don’t and you can feel it drip down your leg. Ah, the pleasures of getting older.

Perhaps it is for this reason that my lower legs seemed to have suddenly broken down. I am just getting old and decrepit. I just spoke to my friend David last night and we were talking about how ridiculous it is now that we are safely ensconced in our 40’s. We are amazed at how huge blocks of time have passed since we last hung out or even spoke. Time just passes in drips and drabs, but soon enough an entire bucket is filled. It was just yesterday how we would go out and drink all night. That was over 12 years ago. At least I am in relatively good shape. I just hope I can get back to training before I start completely falling apart. I feel like an old person who broke a hip and six months later they are dead.

It has been a very boring past few days at the lair of the Beast. No training and otherwise just passing my life away in the daily grind that is work, weekend and repeat. My reaction while leaving my office today was another day down the tubes. Is this how life is supposed to be, struggling your way through one day after the next? It can really get boring at times. Maybe I can find a way to live off the land. Prospect Park is filled with wildlife and vegetation that looks sustaining. The park has plenty of raccoons and rabbits. I can eat them and clothe myself at the same time. Get back to basics like the pioneers.

I saw my podiatrist today about my ankle. One of the findings was that I have weak ankles based on the way I wobbled when I stood up on my toes. I was sent home with a stretch band and a list of exercises to perform. That, rest and ice for about a week will hopefully return me to my running form. One can hope this is so. I am already feeling fat. A couple of days off and I feel like I’ve gotten completely out of shape. Becoming a fat couch potato dad is just around the corner if I don’t get back into action soon. I can see myself now with a greasy stained t-shirt, belly hanging out, sitting in my underwear watching TV. Not a pretty picture.

The doctor thinks one of the other main causes was switching my running shoes. Something to do with them being lower to the ground causing my ankle to tweak. Too bad they can’t make a shoe that doesn’t wear out. Just when my shoes get old, crusty and ugly looking is just when I like them the best. By that time though it is time to give them a rest. I put them with my other shoes that are piled up high in the back of my closet. I don’t like to throw out any of them because each one has a story. I still have my IMAZ shoes although I will never wear them again. Perhaps I should start throwing some of them out. Better yet I’ll throw them on top of some telephone wires this way I can see them whenever I want, but have them out of the way. Yeah, that would make a nice picture for my blog.

My ankle was feeling ok this morning which gave me some confidence to try a run today. I had to wait until the late afternoon since I had soccer duties this morning and my wife had a commitment through the early afternoon. I almost decided not to do a run, since I started to come down with a migraine, but fortunately some Excedrin was mostly able to cure me of it.

My wife took the kids out shopping around 3pm, giving me my window of opportunity to do a run. It was a gorgeous fall afternoon and as soon as I started running I felt great. The endorphins immediately started flowing and I could tell that this was going to be a run that I would enjoy thoroughly. I was going to fly through this run and it was going to feel effortless.

My ankle though wasn’t sharing in that feeling. It was kind of bothering me at first, but nothing serious. On a scale from 1 to 10 I’d say it would go from a 1 (no pain) to a 3 (mild twinges). I decided that as long as the pain didn’t get worse I would continue on. This is how I progressed until my second mile when I felt a shooting pain in my Achilles tendon; run over.

At first I didn’t really care as I was feeling great at the moment. The endorphin rush was giving me a nice high. I started to walk home still feeling good and not really at all concerned at all. By the time I exited the park though, I started to come down and think about the consequences. I started to wonder how long it will really be before I can/should attempt another run. I guess I’ll seek advice from my podiatrist. In the meantime it is going to be hard not to start sitting on my couch all the time eating cupcakes and watching TV.

Talking Heads › Once In A Lifetime

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful Wife
And you may ask yourself-well…how did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…

Water dissolving…and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? …am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!…what have I done?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…

I saw Primal Quest Utah on TV this afternoon. It is the type of race I always thought I’d like to do and watching it certainly confirmed those feelings. Taking on such a challenge though is probably not something that will happen in my lifetime. I don’t have the luxury of the time necessary to train for such an event; at least not until I can afford a very early retirement. Perhaps if I didn’t have two children I could get away with it. Maybe I can do something like that when they are off to college.

Anyway, I have more immediate concerns to worry about. It appears that my right foot felt jealous of my left foot receiving attention from it recent injury, so my right ankle started acting up. I started to get sharp pains shooting around the ankle bone on the outside, wrapping around my Achilles tendon. Where this issue came from in beyond me. I started to feel it yesterday morning and it has only seemed to get worse. I had to stop running today and walk home because the pain was just getting more intense if I continued to try to run on it. This could only be a result of trying to switch running into a new pair of shoes. It is the only thing that makes sense to me and I am sticking with that explanation.

I don’t know what I will do if I have to take a layoff of any significant time. I definitely find my mood is improved if I get a workout in first thing in the morning. I am crabbing and anxious if I don’t get one in and I just feel like I am in a sour mood all day. I guess I’ll make another trip to my podiatrist to see what he says about this injury.

My ankle isn’t bothering me so much that I wasn’t able to spend the day outside with my kids. We started out the day kicking the soccer ball outside our house. This was a warm-up for their soccer games at noon. I wasn’t able to watch my daughter play, since I coach my son’s team and the fields were in opposite locations. However, my son played his best game yet and toughed it out when he was hit hard by the ball several times. He was very proud of himself and so was I. We took a break after the games to eat lunch, watched PQ and then played in Prospect Park for the remainder of the day.

I now have a pain in my right ankle. It started 5 miles into my 8 mile run this morning. I don’t know where this shit is coming from. It is not like I’ve been running a lot lately. It must be the transition to a new pair of running shoes. Maybe I’ll go back to my worn out, broke down shoes. I didn’t have any problems until I started to run on new shoes. At least it was a beautiful day for a run; cool and clear with a spectacular sunrise to greet me.

Thursday – 10/12 9pm

I had two good days in a row. Last night was a pleasant 8 miler by myself in the pouring rain (1:02) and today was a solo 18 mile bike, followed by a 4 mile run with my friend Larry. It is always good to run with him. As of late, he has been parceling out needed information as to what to expect for the JFK 50 miler. I am trying to soak in this information like a sponge. The only negative thing for the day was a sudden pain I developed in my left soleus while running. I don’t know where it came from, so rather than pushing it over 4 miles, I just went home. My coach thinks is a result of my favoring my PF foot.

I can tell the pain of doing the JFK 50 is going to be intense. How intense however, really depends on how I start out on the day. I suppose if I go out too fast, I will really be suffering later in the day; not that I won’t be anyway even if I go out with perfect pacing.

Friday – 10/13 6am

I am going out for a morning workout. I just noticed that it is Friday the 13th. Hopefully the boogieman isn’t lurking in the park. It is still dark outside.

Lately I haven’t felt like contributing to my blog. The last couple of entries were forced, as if I had a writing assignment that needed to be done. I guess that is a form of writers block.

I haven’t done anything since the ING NYC Marathon Tune-up. Monday was a recovery day and I spent it with my family hiking around the Cattus Island Nature Preserve. It is this area of bay, beach, swamp and woods down around Tom’s River, NJ. It was a pleasant way to spend the day and kept me active enough to serve as recovery for my legs.

Tuesday I saw my podiatrist to get his prognosis on my Plantar Fasciitis. He told me it was a very mild case, taped it up and gave me guidelines on how to proceed with my training based on how my foot feels. Right now I am not experiencing any pain and I have the green light to run to my hearts content. This is what I am going to try to do tonight in the rain.

Yesterday, I was supposed to ride, but I decided to bail out of it. I think god was trying to tell me to forget about doing a ride. I had several signs telling me this was so.

I did head out for the ride though, but first I had to stop at Jackrabbit to get a new pair of running shoes since my current new pair had something wrong with the stitching and seriously cut into the side of my foot. After I left the store I intended to ride around Prospect Park for a while. By now it was completely dark and I got an iffy feeling about riding alone. I debated internally for about 10 minutes about whether or not I should ride and even entered and exited the park a couple of time while I struggled with my indecision. After entering the park for the second time, I just said to hell with it and went home.

I think I was rewarded then for making this decision. The first sign of this was the garbage truck coming unexpectedly down my block for pickup at a time that it had never appeared before (it was doing the previous days pickup). I was able to get to my house and take out the trash before the truck arrived.

The second sign of making the right decision was being able to watch my son practice all of his new Kung Fu moves with an unbridled enthusiasm that only a kid could muster. He had me smiling ear to ear within seconds of walking back into the house. If I had done the ride it would have been his bedtime by the time I returned and I would have missed this spur of the moment opportunity. Watching him was much more satisfying than riding in Prospect Park alone at night could ever have been. There was a time that had such enthusiasm to be the odd one and be out alone at night, but my current responsibilities and love for my children dictate that I can longer engage in such trivial pursuits.

But I must get in a workout tonight. My body is ready to do something even though the devil inside me is telling me to just kick back and relax and play with the kids. As much as I’ve enjoyed evening workouts lately, it is time I transitioned back to the morning. It is a much more efficient use of my time if I want to spend more quality time with my kids.

Today I did the 18 mile NYC Marathon Tune-Up. I wasn’t sure if I would go until about 30 minutes before I left my house. It was a late start (9:30 am), which meant I would be away from home until early afternoon. I am always loathing spending time away from my kids, especially when the day is as beautiful as it was today. I also wasn’t sure I should go, since I was concerned my Plantar Fasciitis would rear its ugly head and I didn’t want to be so far away from home if I needed to walk off of the course. As it turned out, my foot didn’t bother me and I had a decent race.

I drove to the start of the race so I could minimize the amount of travel time. I found a spot pretty quickly and made it to the start with plenty of time to spare. I was able to do a 2 mile warm-up while waiting for the appointed time. It was a pretty crowded start with over 3700 people showing up to do the race. I had to dart and weave through many runners as I loosened my legs.

With my foot acting up over the last couple of days, I probably should have taken this race easily. However, once in a race I find it impossible to run at an easy to moderate pace. Something compels my body to strive for race pace and that is what happened to me today. I pretty much ran a steady pace throughout the race with the average being a 7:20 pace. My legs started to get fatigued at the end, but I forced myself to maintain my even or negative splits. I was surprised that my legs were speaking up as I began my third loop. I’ve got the distance in lately, so I was wondering why the later miles should have begun to feel like a struggle. My running watch was a comfort though as it showed my pace was holding steady or was increasing. At one mile marker I had thought I just ran my slowest mile, where in fact I had just run one of my fastest. Maybe I am just not used to running fast for distance.

After the race, I grabbed my bag quickly and headed back to my car. I was able to see many runners still running on their second loop. I was really glad I was finished and not only two thirds of the way through. I exited Central Park at 102nd Street and 5th Avenue and happened upon a taxi unloading passengers. The temptation to relaxing in a can instead of the mile back to my car was too tempting to pass up. Besides, I wanted to get home as quick as possible. Unfortunately, a Fresh Direct truck was blocking me in so I had to give up some of the time I saved to wait for the truck driver to return. It wait wasn’t so bad and I was back in my house by 12:30pm. I was back home in Brooklyn, while many people were still completing the race.

It would have been nice to spend the rest of the day relaxing around the house, but I have two children at home and it was time to get them active. We went down to South Beach in Staten Island and walked along the beach around the end of the island and under the Verrazano Bridge. The walking over giant rocks and plenty of large stones wasn’t very relaxing on my legs, but it did make for a very nice adventure. To the right is a picture my daughter took of me.

The beach is very interesting around this area. All sorts of debris wash up on shore. The kids loved climbing over all of the rocks as well as collecting a bunch they found interesting. My daughter also found a playmate on the beach as another family happened to come out and explore the view under the bridge. We wound up hanging out together for over an hour and everyone had a great time.

It looks like my Plantar Fasciitis crisis is over for right now. I woke up this morning pain free and ran 5.5 miles without any problems. Of course, my legs felt like shit this morning, but that is usually the case after a couple of day layoff.

The run was half the distance that I had scheduled, but I didn’t want to push it too much on my first day back. I now find myself at home without that usual feeling of being a bit tired after a workout. I don’t know what do to with myself now. I have a lot of energy left over, so I started bugging my kids to get dressed so we can go out and do something. My wife is telling me to just leave them alone, let them relax and do nothing for a change, since its nasty outside anyway.