Today marks the end of week 12 of 18 for training for New Orleans Marathon training, as well as week 1 of 18 for Green Bay (woo! for overlapping). This morning was also the Boston Prep 16 Miler in Derry, NH. I was (and I guess, am, or am trying to be) happy with my times today – despite a (“moderately challenging“) hilly course the first 13.1 was the fastest gun time (1:48:31) I’ve run in a half-marathon since… 2004? And my total 16 mile time was a PR (I have a local 16 mile route I run and my time today was ~2 minutes faster than my best there). Honestly the only thing that is bothering me is that I placed 47/50 in my age/sex division (M30-39) – this is disheartening. I know I really should be assessing myself against myself but it’s hard to look at the rest of the times and realize how slow I am in comparison with a competitive, motivated field.
But the Patriots won & are heading to the Super Bowl again so who am I to complain. All in all, all is well.
Song of the day is from Florence & the Machine – this came up randomly and kicked me across the last half mile.
I think I mentioned this before but since I have a tendency to repeat myself I’ll say it again. The Boston Prep 16 miler in Derry, NH is this weekend, and registration is still open! I have room in my car for anyone else who might need a ride up from Boston. The weather looks like it’ll be nice, sun out, above freezing. You should totally come run with us!
Although this is a preparatory race for Boston I’m not going to be running the marathon here again this year. That said, my fellow Boston Prepper VK is. He is trying to raising some cash for the Boston Arts Academy if you’re looking for a good cause and/or a tax write-off. I’m going to be volunteering at the race so if you’re interested in joining our little group for that check out this page and register with group TeamHB (PIN: 19761980).
I was going to post something else yesterday but as it’s not finished I’ll instead share this. After 20+ hours of being awake, 20+ miles run, a 20+ (ok, 35) point Patriot thumping of the Broncos to reach the AFC championship game again, I found myself at the Brighton Music Hall listening to the Scud Mountain Boys singing this song last night at 1am. An interesting day all around.
I’m not sure why daily mile thinks there were 53 weeks last year but no first week this year, but regardless. Today marks the end of week 10 of 18 in New Orlean’s Rock & Roll Marathon preparation. I bumped yesterday’s long run to 19 miles and have been feeling some effects from that since, but it’s a necessary evil as 3 of the next 5 weeks are scheduled 20′s. This weekend has been one of the warmest January weekends in Boston’s history – I was overdressed yesterday and quite comfortable running in shorts & no gloves today.
So – New Orleans. I’ve bit the bullet, booked my flight and hotel and now just need to find some sort of Sunday night tourist-type plan beyond the race to help justify the trip. It needs to fit into the realm of activities possible after running 4 hours (ie, nothing walking or standing) and in a best case scenario would involve a single impressive alligator or multiple smaller alligators. Ideas?
I don’t usually talk about investing on this site but hope you can humor as I’m just thinking this through as the new year gets rolling.
Last January I decided to put some money into a modified Dogs of the Dow strategy (basically, it involves buying the 10 stocks with highest dividend yields in the Dow – you can see all 30 of the Dow components here). I previously had been holding two of the stocks (Intel & Verizon) and decided to buy five more (AT&T, Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Pfizer). I didn’t buy the three stocks with the lowest dividend yields (DuPont, McDonald’s and Chevron – McDonald’s went on to be the top Dow stock of 2011, up 31%). The seven stocks I did go into were up (for me) ~16% for the year (not counting dividends paid) which was decent compared to the Dow’s overall 2011 return of ~5% and the S&P500′s 0%.
This year I’ve decided to repeat the exercise, reducing my relatively overweight positions in Intel & Verizon and moving into DuPont and the two new members of the Dogs of the Dow, GE and Procter & Gamble. The whole plan is way less diversified than an index fund but in theory somewhat safer than blowing everything back into Apple.
Yesterday I tried and failed to enjoy the leftover bloody marys from our post-Christmas funpeoplebrunch. Perhaps I did something wrong, beyond the omission of the juice of one lemon (purchased but forgotten) or the mixup between celery salt and celery seed. Troy Patterson, clearly, knows more on the topic than I do. On morning drinking.
The basics of the Bloody are tomato juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, black pepper, and vodka. Sea salt, Old Bay seasoning, curry powder, ketchup, capers, and pickling brine are excellent ways to step up your game, as is a squirt of Guinness. (Guinness is the morning-after beer of the cognoscenti; see also “Evelyn Waugh’s Noonday Reviver.”) I prefer V-8—not least because its presence invites playing the parlor game of naming the members of its vegetable octet —and I have dabbled with celery bitters, Heinz cocktail sauce, and anchovy paste. Don’t you know that you can put anything in a Bloody Mary?—browned shallots, broiled scallions, braised octopus, brain of veal …. Skimp on the vodka, but know your limits. For instance, the brand called Vodka City—distilled, perhaps even proudly, in Baltimore—proves perfectly effective on a chemical level but can be rather too morally debasing, in its cheapness, to serve as a spiritual pick-me-up. Nor does the plastic of its bottle offer much tactile pleasure. If you’re ordering a Bloody Mary in a restaurant, then Do request that it is made with well vodka but Don’t ask what brand that is.
So anyway, cheers to Baltimore’s Vodka City. That does sound like a promising mistake.
If you follow my little section of the photoblog you may have seen the sad news that my big camera has (…maybe) bit it, not with another loud flashy bang across the pavement it deserved, but a sad & sucky ambiguous error message indicating Something, Somewhere has gone wrong. Honestly – I’ve been using SLR less and less on a day to day basis since I got my new phone, but it gives me considerable anxiety to consider not fixing or replacing it. So I’m not gonna do that. I want to have a real camera, whether I still carry it every day or not. I do though think it’s prudent to stall a couple months til I’ve squirreled away a little cash (and until the new T4i comes out).
Today ends training week #7 of 18 for New Orleans Marathon. The past few days have been the toughest temperature of the season but I am still frostbite free.
An ex wrote with the news that my first husky puppy Zaiga passed away last Monday. She lived to a respectable age of 14, a long and good life for a husky. I last saw her a few years after I moved to Boston, maybe 2003, but it was still hard, more difficult than I would have thought. A lot of the emotions of losing Majia this past summer came back, along with a complicated layer of memories and mistakes long since made and absolved.
I don’t have many photos of her (relative to the other), but here are a few. She & Maija met on a number of occasions – when I lived in Natick we took them both out to Callahan State Park to run run run together. I’m not sure that they were ever exactly friends (huskies can be aloof like that) but on some level that we all knew, they were sisters. Zaiga was a good dog.
Today marks the end of week 6 of 18 for New Orleans Marathon training. I also noticed this week I’ve hit 10 consecutive weekends with half-marathon or longer length long runs, and 20 consecutive weekends with a 10+ mile run. That’s decent. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to continue that streak through the holidays until the Boston Prep 16 Miler I’m doing with VK in late January. It’s not too late for others (you?) to come smash some snowbanks with us.
ps. Anyone for a college bowl pool? I’m guessing on most all of these like you probably will be too.
Dishearteningly, the guys on the BCS selection show reminded us that K-State hasn’t won a bowl game since 2002. Our Cotton Bowl opponent Arkansas lost two games this year, to #1 LSU and #2 Alabama. I’m not sure how I feel about all this, but honestly I’m not terribly confident about how this is gonna turn out.
Today ends week 5 of 18 in my training cycle for the New Orleans Marathon. I’ve had a pretty good week, both mileage and pace-wise, taking advantage of our extended moderate temps. As long as the snow stays away, I’m optimistic about the possibilities for this March.
Oh also, today was our annual joint birthday party for my sister & her daughter. It was pretty much exactly like this with slightly older nieces pieces. Isaboo went with me to the mall to help me find gifts for everyone, for which I am extremely thankful.
I shared this before on (the sadly defunct) google reader, but want to again here. This song comes up frequently on my long runs, enough so that I look forward to it and get a noticable endorphin rush when I hear it queuing up. I had taken to thinking of it as the theme song of the winter training season. Then, last week I noticed it got nominated for a record of the year Grammy. Am I still allowed to enjoy it now that it’s gained pop cultural equivalence with Bruno Mars and Katy Perry? Unclear. Anyway, Bon Iver, Holocene.
I’ve only just realized that I won’t be able to run the BAA Half Marathon next year, as it’s on the same friggin day as the previously committed to Amica Marathon in Newport, RI. I’ve run the BAA Half five times previously and while I know running something different should be exciting but still I’m a little bummed about this. If you want to cheer me up please consider coming down and running Newport (half or full) with me! Registration is open now, the half is only forty bucks!
Meanwhile, if you don’t have plans for January 22nd…
One other thing to be thankful for – two more of my photos were recently published on the Universal Hub. The guy on the left is from yesterday’s Gobble Gobble Gobble in Davis Square. My official but totally BS time was 31:00 (I timed myself at 29:20 and the race clock said 30:50 when finished – truth lies within that range). More GGG ’11 photos are up here (& hondo’s are in here. The second is from the Christmas tree lighting at Faneuil Hall a few days back. Mayor Menino & Jerod Mayo were there, but the highlight really was staba’s 2-for-1 holiday sale on peppermint mochas.
(You can see previously published photos in my UH tag)
On an objective level, I have much to be thankful for. I’m healthy, racing, no twisted ankles, progress being made and a plan for the future. I’ve got a job, living a non-destitute life in this beautiful city, work/life balance in check. My parents and mostly non-dysfunctional siblings are all within easy reach, no airport horror stories or tarmac nightmares for any us this weekend. I have a good & kind group of friends, who only occasionally indulge in baby-mama melodrama. I’m consciously thankful for all of that, all of them. I’m well aware that things could be far worse for me, or for us.
But the subjective reality, my lived experience, is that I’ve been struggling to find gratitude or thankfulness in my heart. I consciously know how I should feel, but often I don’t. This past summer I lost my dog, who spent twelve years with me. She was my constant, for all of my adult life. I also lost the woman I love, in the abruptly startling fashion that comes about when one partner is blinded to another’s reality. It’s hard to experience gratitude for the good things I still have this Thanksgiving when I can so strongly remember what is missing. Particularly on days like today, when the sneaky lurker under the table is so noticeably quiet. And the person who I would have thought to be always on my side is, quite literally, not there for me.
What I want, on today of all days, is to feel thankfulness. I want to get back easy access to that emotion. I’m just not sure how to get there.
I haven’t posted my mileage here recently, and the tabular form was too complicated and in reality no one cares enough to think through numbers. A new idea, here are my weekly totals for the past six months in handy bar chart format. I’m going to come up just short of finally reaching my (2010) resolution of 1000 miles this year, but in 2012, definitely.
I think I mentioned this 
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