Definition -

1. exclusive control or possession of something; “They have no monopoly on intelligence”
2. dominance, ascendance, ascendancy, control — the state that exists when one person or group has power over another.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Monopoly. That could be because I played it with my children a couple of times over the weekend. That is an exercise in patience, arithmetic, deal making and decision making; all in an attempt to gain as many monopolies as possible to take control and win the game.

I suppose if you have multiple personalities that you have control over, you have a monopoly over yourself. That is what I am going to strive to achieve. While I do not believe I have multiple personalities in the classic sense, I do wear many hats that require different aspects of my personality – husband, father, athlete, employee, etc. If I have complete control over every aspect of my life, then technically speaking I have a monopoly on myself.

One thing I need to get control over is my running. I am suffering from wicked shin splints in my left leg and I need to make a change that will let me get the problem under control. I am a hard heel striker. My coach advised me to shorten my stride, which will hopefully cause me to land more towards my forefoot.

Starting out my run with a new form wasn’t the only thing that was going to be different today. My daughter decided that she was ready to ride her bike with me while I ran around Prospect Park. I was very happy and excited to hear this. She has said for a while now that she would one day ride alongside me while I ran.

It worked out as good as can be. She was able to keep up with me or stay ahead of me over the hills and 6.5 miles of riding. Absolutely no complaining and only one snack break. I asked her if she wanted to try some of my vanilla Hammer Gel. She did, but did not find it to her liking. She decided to stick with her bite size tortilla chips, while I downed some gel and a swig of orange Heed.

I was amazed at how fast the miles passed with her. I would have liked her to keep me company for longer, but I knew she was tired and ready to go home. We stopped at a local pastry shop for a well deserved slice of chocolate fudge cake. I dropped her off at home to enjoy it and I continued for the remainder of my run.

By now my soleus muscles were pretty sore. I went back to my old stride and my muscles couldn’t take the new form any longer. Now that I was alone, I decided to incorporate a trail with that had a long stairway built into it. It was very enjoyable and allowed me to get in a few extra hundred feet of climbing for my run.

In total I ran approximately 16 miles in 2:21:55. All totaled it was a perfect day all around. I had great weather (go global warming), great company and a satisfyingly completed scheduled run.

If global warming means calm 50 degree temperatures in the middle of a New York City winter, then I am all for it. It gets two thumbs up from me. It is great to be able to ride outdoors in January, rather than being trapped on the trainer in my basement.

Today’s great weather inspired a great ride from me. I felt as good as I can remember feeling in a long time. My power, cadence and heart rate were all indicating good numbers, which echoed the way I was feeling. If anything I had to concentrate on taking it down a notch instead of trying to spur myself to pick it up.

The only negative for the day was that I stopped my ride short from the amount I was supposed to do. For some reason I thought I was only to go 50 miles and when I clicked off my 51st mile I headed home. I feeling good enough to go more, but I didn’t want to push it. Turns out I should have pushed it, as I would have got in the 60 miles I was supposed to do. Hopefully, inadvertently cutting my ride short won’t ruin my upcoming Triathlon season.

Ride Stats:
Time: 2:55:05
HR: 145/163
Distance: 51.4
Cadence Avg: 99
Average Temperature: 48 Degrees
Power: 256/520
Pedaling Index (how round): 25/73
Left/Right Balance: 50/50
Calories: 2287

I could have looked at today as the cup is half empty, but I decided to have a more positive outlook. My day started around 3:45am, with my wife having a coughing and sneezing fit, which made it impossible for me to sleep. Instead, I chose to use her racket as incentive to get myself out of bed. She was infinitely better than an alarm clock.

I still wasn’t convinced I wanted to go to the pool this morning, but I decided to forge ahead. I took my daily dose of Race Caps, a Gurana pill and a pre workout shake and then moseyed to the bathroom. I took a nice little rest on the porcelain throne.

After I finished my bathroom business, I found myself dilly dallying ferociously, but at least I was still getting ready. About this time, I felt a migraine headache coming on so I popped a couple of Excedrin – the wonder drug when it comes to curing headaches. My wife then came down from our bedroom since she couldn’t sleep, so I took the opportunity to delay my departure to the pool some more.

After a few minutes of talking, I was fully dressed with my coat and hood on and she was ready to go back to bed. At this point, my headache was in full bloom, so I took a bonus Excedrin pill. I closed my eyes on the couch for a few minutes and then got annoyed at myself and left the house.

About a mile after leaving my house, I made a right hand turn through a stop sign. It was still very early in the morning and I didn’t even come close to making a full stop. My heart almost stopped though when I saw the flashing lights of a police car through my rearview mirror pulling me over. I thought for sure I was being pulled over for not waiting out a red light a block earlier.

Being in the cup is half full frame of mind, I was grateful for the fact that I was pulled over for the stop sign instead of the red light – a much more serious offense. The officer asked for my license, registration and insurance certificate. I gave him the first two items, but I couldn’t immediately find my current insurance card. This turned out to be a blessing, because it gave the officer an excuse to write me up for a missing insurance card, instead of the stop sign. Now at least I have a way to beat the ticket; again a half full cup. Also the time it took for the paper work to be completed gave me enough time for the Excedrin to fully kick in and get rid of my headache.

After parking my car and walking to the pool, some maniac decided to make an illegal turn by gunning his car in reverse into a driveway for maneuvering room. This driveway was the exact place I happened to be standing. Fortunately it is my cup that runneth over and not my body. The car missed me by just inches. The driver didn’t even pause to issue an apology. Where are the police when you need them?

Finally in the pool, I entered a 50 meter lane that was occupied a bunch of people that looked to be pushing the age of death. It was the least crowded lane and really my only choice. This actually worked out well, since I was able to throw in the occasional sprint to pass these slower swimmers. It made for a satisfying swim workout.

The rest of my day from that point on has gone pretty good. I got in a nice 10K treadmill run, with limited shin pain. I think I will stick to my weekday runs on a treadmill to allow myself a softer surface in a warm environment. My shin definitely hurts more when I run in temperatures below 40 degrees, especially on the cold and frozen surfaces.

After I finished my run, I had less than 20 minutes to shave, shower, dress and move my car. I skipped the shave, showered quickly, threw all of my belonging together is a large sweaty pile and dashed for my car. I made it with plenty of time to spare. Too bad I didn’t use that extra time to brush my teeth before I left, but at least I have all of my teeth to brush later.

Ok, I am up and ready to head to the pool, but I am not convinced I want to go. I guess I’ll find out after I do my swim.

Its time to change the music. My brain keeps playing sad songs and it is time to start infusing it with something more positive and upbeat. This morning I heard in my head songs by Pink Floyd such as “Wish You Were Here”, which is always a major downer for me. I get so depressed hearing Floyd that I find it hard to live. Next I heard Destroyer by The Kinks, which while is a more upbeat song, is about suffering from paranoia. While I didn’t feel as depressed as I heard this in my head, I started to feel very nervous and jerky. I guess it also didn’t help with it only being 5:10 am and 27 degrees. It was cold and dark which suited my mood.

I am not sure which song I need to hear to pick up my spirits. I think I will skip Metallica’s One, a song about someone who has no arms and legs. While this does have a very good beat, with my the way my left shin has been feeling, I am wondering if I wouldn’t be better off hacking the damn thing off and putting on a prosthesis. I found some nice models here.

I don’t know what song I heard in the shower today, but it was along the lines of not being able to go on and wanting to quit. This describes my run this morning. I was scheduled for 8 miles after an 80 minute bike ride. I managed to run for 12 minutes before I had to stop. I just didn’t want to continue and my shin was really hurting. Even if my shin wasn’t hurting, I would have stopped. I just didn’t have anything, physically or mentally to continue pushing forward.

Truth is, I’ve never pushed my training for this long. I’ve trained in the past for endurance type sports, but never for this long. The longest I’ve gone prior to this go around was just over 3 years. This is my 6th year for this go around and is completely new and uncharted territory for me. I know am starting to sound like a broken record as I keep complaining about being depressed, tired and not wanting to go on, but I can’t help it. It is what I am feeling. I wonder how many people reading this blog will actually remember what a broken record sounds like. Humans of the modern age do seem to outlast all current forms of technology. I just have to see if I can outlast myself.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the temperature in NYC reached 57 degrees and this morning the temperatures reached 27 degrees with a -2 degree wind chill factor. It snowed over night and the ground has a nice 2 inch cover of snow and ice. I love this kind of weather, even more than I like foggy weather.

Adversity brings out the best in many of us and adverse weather conditions bring out the best in me. One of the things that contributed to today’s harsh conditions was the salt spreader truck roaming around Prospect Park. It would shoot salt out of the back and the force of the pellets hitting my legs would sting something awful. I have several red dots over my thighs and calves of both legs from encountering this orange beast many times over the course of my run. You can see the salt coming out of the back of the truck.

The temperature wasn’t the only major contrast over the past couple of days. My run today was absolutely spectacular compared to my foggy day run. I knew it would be good the moment I took my first step. I felt calm and relaxed and my legs moved with fluidity that I haven’t felt in a while. I knew I would easily get my 12 miles in and I wondered if I should try for more.

Soon into my run, I met my friend Chris. We quickly fell into a steady conversational pace. I kept exclaiming how beautiful the conditions were, but he was not convinced. He saw a nasty, cold and windy winter day, while I saw amazing winter wonderland conditions. We talked about various things, which included complaining about our wives. I think bitching about one’s spouse is almost a universal thing to do, at least when it comes to athletic spouses complaining about non-athletic spouses – or maybe it is just a guy thing to do.

Chris kept me company for my middle two laps. For my 4th and final lap I turned up my radio and simply enjoyed the scenery. Music sets the mood and the tunes on the radio were making me feel very upbeat. I finished my run feeling like a million bucks and looking forward to many more days like today.

I woke up this morning with a very foggy head and splitting headache. So I took a couple of Excedrin and went back to bed. Usually, the caffeine inside the pills wake me up, but I was so tired this morning, that I fell back to sleep for another 3 hours. By the time I roused myself out of bed I was way too late for me to make it to the pool.

Part of the reason why I was so tired, was due to a Cibbows meeting last night that saw me arrive home past 10pm. We were discussing the swim races we have planned for this summer and targeting various companies to sponsor the races. By getting to bed so late, I missed my swim this morning, literally because I was too tired from talking about swimming.

Even though I was tired and woke up late, I still had time to do my run. It was a beautiful foggy day, so I grabbed my camera to take some pictures inside Prospect Park. I love the way everything looks when it is heavily foggy. I wanted to immortalize this strange warm and foggy winter we have been having. The conditions this January have been more San Francisco than NYC. This suits me just fine as I can’t take the cold anymore, but love the fog.

Unfortunately, I didn’t run well. I just didn’t have any form or pace and the run was a struggle. So I just shuffled along, looking for some decent opportunities to snap a picture or take in the surroundings. Since I was already outside, I may as well have enjoyed the scenery. Here is a picture of Prospect Park’s lake and the next photo is a picture of me looking way too serious.

I’ve done some renovations to my blog as you can see. I now have an Ironman USA Lake Placid countdown clock, as well as relocated my Feedblitz subscriber button. I’ve added more stuff to my profile to tell fans a bit more about me.

Credit for the Ironman countdown clock goes out to “Bolder in Boulder”. His blog contained helpful helpful instructions for how to put it on my page. Thank you very much. I also snagged the code from his page to display the weather. Now everyone can see what sort of day I am training through.

I am also debating on using my domain name runnyc.com for the hosting of my blog, rather than relying on the runnyc.blogspot.com address. My original thoughts concerning runnyc.com was to make an Athlete’s community website, but the time and resources to accomplish such a thing is taking much too long and costing too much to do so. I think I may abandon that plan and just use the address for my blog. Much like Wil of Through Th3 Wall, just started doing with her blog.

I am also attempting to renovate my mind (brain). Or perhaps it is more of just an early spring cleaning (this statement seems oddly déjà vu, I am going to have to see if I wrote something like this before). I need to clear out all of the negative thoughts and emotions that have been weighing me down as of late and rediscover my drive, focus and passion. Much like a house is reborn and beautified after all of the years of stagnant old paint has been scrapped away. I need to know down a few mental walls and open up the space in my mind.

To that end, I got a jump on my training this morning. This is in spite of the fact that I got in late last night after I night of bowling and drinking with my coworkers. The bowling was fun, but I definitely felt like the old man of the group. It warmed my heart though to know that while they were most likely sleeping it off during the twilight hours, I was awake and in my basement pounding out an 80 minute bike followed by a 40 minute run – All before 7am. The workout was immensely pleasing and for some reason I had no trouble with my get up and go this morning.

So I will continue my renovations. Hopefully – no strike the hopefully – More good renovations will soon come on my blog and my mind as well. I may as well try to have a positive outlook – its such a happy color, but very tough to apply.

Via Email to coach@slb-coaching.com
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Neil -

I rode for 80 minutes today on the trainer. I did the workout almost as you prescribed. For some reason, I couldn’t hold form for the 1 legged drills for more than 2 minutes, so I stopped it at the 2 minute mark for each leg. I repeated this 3 times. I kept my heart rate low throughout. You can see exactly how the workout went from my attached Polar file.

I say struggling along in the subject line, because I am battling a major case of depression ever since the start of the New Year. I haven’t felt right since I backed off from my training when I developed Bronchitis again. Tomorrow should be a telling day as it is the first sort of big workout day – Bike/Run/Swim. Hopefully, I won’t be too tired around noon, as I am speaking at a real estate industry conference. Hopefully also, I won’t make a fool out of myself. I am sitting on a panel and the subject matter is “Innovative Broker Strategies”. I have no fucking idea of what I am going to say, but I usually react well under pressure.

I am not sure if I am still sick with Bronchitis. Every now and then I cough up some phlegm and it is slightly discolored. It is coming more from the back of my throat, rather than my chest. Maybe, I am just possessed by an evil spirit. Most likely that is not true, but thinking the worst possible case and finding out that is not true should prove to be a major relief when you find out the cause is something less insidious.

The Exorcist was on cable TV over the weekend. I remember when I saw it the first time. It was in 1973, I was 8 years old and my parents thought that it would be a fine movie for me to see. What a wholesome family movie! For years afterwards I would have trouble standing by the foot of a bed as I was afraid that the possessed girl’s hand would reach out from under it and grab my ankle.

I feel like I could use an Exorcist now though. Maybe illnesses in its various forms are small demons that infect a person. Could an Exorcist cast the demons away? Could an Exorcist get rid of the voice in my head that tells me to stay in bed and get more sleep?

I definitely raged an epic battle to get out of bed this morning. I was so warm and comfortable. I felt like I was being held down on the bed by a demonic force. Once I got up though, the demon lost its grip and I was able to do my workout. Granted my battle was nothing like poor little Regan Teresa MacNeil’s (the possessed girl in the movie) and for that I am thankful.