training, pride, stuff

So here it is mid-June. I am happy it is June, but at the same time, June is making me angry. Summer is suppose to be warm, nice clear skies, and maybe night time showers only during the week and clear weekends (unless I am camping on vacation, than it should just be clear and dry the WHOLE time.) So I have been keeping busy training for this crazy half marathon and marathon wondering how I am going to do and what not. I have had some AWESOME training days lately but that seems to last for two weeks and then I have a bad training week WTF!?!? Also I have the schedule from NIKE+ that I follow but the saturday runs always get screwed up with Pride parades or moving (we are moving this weekend.) So I have been moving my long run to Monday, nothing wrong with it, but I would rather run a long run on a weekend when I don't have to take a good chunk out of my day just to run. Soon my long runs will take up more then 2 hours...when I get there...I guess I get there, but those days will be in September when I have more weekend time. I digress. I have start to love running again, and since I am losing weight, or fat maybe (down to 199.6!!) It has become easier for me to run, yah yah yah I know the deal the less you weigh the faster you go, but you know I am okay with me being a little bigger, I guess it is where my body wants to be, and I am a healthy individual, I eat good, I exercise, I am active in community activities...I am happy and healthy. So why does some person who is skinny and probably can spend hours and hours at the gym and lots of money of all the healthy food in the world tell me the size that I need to be? A friend of mine works at Banana Republic and is in the fashion industry (or use to be...not sure anymore) but she has the same rant, it is true, the world as we know it does not like fat, and they don't like anyone who is not the "ideal" the worst thing in the world is a fat doctor, or ever slightly overweight doctor (which for 5'8" apparently anything over 160 is overweight.) Seriously, I don't think I have been 160 since 7th grade...and I have never looked overweight. I think I would look funny if I weighed 160. I am aiming for 185 to start, and even that is overweight, I am apparently teetering on the obese edge. Yah sure, you look at me and say WOW THAT GUY IS WAY OBESE!! I really don't understand where this comes from. I mean I may not be long, lean and slightly muscular (the perfect man APPARENTLY,) but I am healthy damnit and until I drop dead, I am going to be healthy, no matter what so F U BMI chart...F, U!

NYC Marathon??? ME?!?

So just because I wanted to run a marathon, I don't know if I really wanted to do it so soon, I was a little upset when I bought my membership to the NYRR (New York Road Runners) and saw that I would only qualify for the NY Marathon in 2 years and not next year if I ran all the qualifying races this year because I registered 2 weeks or so late. What a kind of silly rule. Put a qualification in the middle of the month instead of the end. So I decided to do the next sensible thing and enter the lottery which I did just to see if I would get accepted. Knowing that I would never get accepted because I have only run a Half Marathon, and am not the fastest runner (some races have those silly qualifying times like Boston,) I looked for alternative like raising money for kids or Lupus, or cancer, something like that, but again, they want you to raise $2500 and up. In this economy, I really don't think that is likely. So the other day I was checking my email and I got an email from Marathon mailer (thinking the worst of course,) thanks for trying but sorry try again...instead I got this letter:




Yup so you guessed it, I beat the lottery and now I am sure there is a line of pissed off marathoners who did not get in through the lottery. I am sure they will not be cheering me on (just kidding how do they know I got in through the lottery.) SO I am going to give it my all, and realize my newest goal of running a marathon before I turn 30. Amazing, I didn't think I would do it, but it happened I am going to run 26.2 miles...26.2 miles...26.2 miles...through all five boroughs and lots of bridges and some not so fun hills...wish me luck cause damnit I am going to need it. I also think maybe I will raise some money for something. Who knows.

It's been a while...Let's get reaquainted

Hi all my three followers and stragglers who come everyone once in a while to get those oh so precious updates from me, your friendly blogger. I really have not had much happening in the last month since I ran my first half marathon. I really think it gets you in this mindset of I can do this more often, and I want to do this more often, so I am. I signed up for a 5 miler in June and another Half in August. Great an August race is JUST THE BEST DAMN THING! 13 miles is hard enough by itself, but add in the scorching August head, lots of water for me. I might also add that I have added some new restrictions to my diet. Yay.



So because of this book, and some thinking to myself, I am no longer eat diary, eggs or caffeine, (and soon no meat) but I am not one to drink tons and tons of coffee anyways, just a cup now and then, and even then it would take me a while to drink that cup. Oh well, in 30 days we shall see how this is going to go. Apparently the book states that Cheese and Milk has this enzyme in it which is like Morphine so our bodies become addicted. Well in 30 days, we shall see. Also if you cut it, you will drop weight, which I could drop a good 20 or so pounds, again, we shall see, as of Tuesday I was at 207 so hopefully by the end of the summer 185? I think that is reasonable, as long as I keep up the running and the dieting, I think 185 will work great and be achievable. The other thing is running this fangled half marathon in about 2 hours...that may be a stretch but so far my long runs have been pretty good, my last 9 mile run was something like 1:27? so that would make at Half around 2:07 which would be AWESOME! I am aiming for under 2:30, but we shall see. Hope all is well out in cyber-land. By the way I highly recommend this book if you are looking to change the diet! There is one for girls too, called Skinny Bitch (can I say that on a blog...I think I have said worse)

half marathon and bloody nipples

Hi readers,
I thought I would recount my last few months of training for this freakin Half Marathon, which yes I set my mind to and completed. I must say I surprised how nice it was to run with a group of others who are not fast runners and who are doing this for other people not just themselves. While I always run by myself and the music coming out of my headphones into my head I always think about things and wish I had something I could write on or save these great ideas while I was running. The next run I will have some names on my shirt so people know I am not just doing this for myself, but also for some people who have passed away. My new found love of running/jogging and competing against myself has made me think more about training and going to the gym instead of just running. I think I will need to drag myself to the gym and use the membership I never use. I guess I need to do some weight training help out my muscles and stuff. I also need to find a cure for blisters and chafing. I must say one of the most unpleasant things in the world is chafing, bleeding nipples...OUCH! I mean yes I have had my nipples pierced a few times but this is a WHOLE NEW type of pain. I mean I didn't realize my nipples (only one actually) was bleeding when Jeremy said he saw one guy with blood streaming down the front of his shirt, so I looked and said "eeee, so THAT is what that pain was!" (seriously I say eeee, instead of EEEK) Now I need to wash that shirt. Also I signed up for the NYC half Marathon, may not be ready for a full marathon, but you never know, I could be next year, so my goal of running a marathon before I turn 30 is still on the back burner but there are still some marathons in Jan and Feb that I could run! We shall see!

running...over coming fears

I just want to start by saying since I started running again, and according to the NikePlus site (which records all my running activities,) I have run 105.52 miles, now for someone who is 200lbs, that I mean is a lot, maybe not some small skinny little thing, but i admit my frame is neither small nor thin. I would qualify in most long races as a "Clydesdale," seriously...that makes me feel great about my weight, you are equated to a giant horse that pulls beer trucks around, whatever. So my upcoming race is looming in my mind and I hate, hate, HATE treadmills, so I refuse to run on one...period, end of story! It has been raining weather crappy, and me in a foul mood, I don't want to run either, but I will finish, oh yes, I will finish. Here is today's time for my run...it is always in mile 7, 8 and beyond I slow down, I know there are services during those miles, so hopefully that will help.




So my second reason for posting is because well, I am admittedly not fond of heights. So when the opportunity to walk the Brooklyn Bridge rears its ugly head at me, I refuse. I did it once and was on the verge of panic needing an Adivan after. I'm telling you, wooden walk way, bikes, tourists, cars zooming under you...not fun at all! So today I did an appointment on the Brooklyn side of the bridge and said myself...SELF! do it...walk the bridge...and I did it gritting my teeth the whole way, trying not to look down, of course I did, and survived. That's all, my story, all written down so you don't have to write it!

HACKED!!!

So for all the readers out there, if you happen to know me and my bad grammar you know it is some what bad, BUT if I were to send out kind of an S.O.S. message from a old email address I would probably a) let people know I was going on some kind of trip (such as Africa, news like that travels fast) b) post something of the sort with updates on facebook c) I would capitalize my freakin I's. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE! I have never work on AIDS/Malaria research of any sort...and probably never will...well I won't say never. I would also put the name of the hotel in the email. Because if I was at the "city library" I doubt I would have all day to wait for emails and then return emails. So far the culprit has not emailed me back, my email went something like, "You don't know ho you are messing with jackass, none of my friends and family are dumb enough to send you money, the police have been notified..." really the police will do nothing...but oh well empty threats but my friends and family have been notified. Here is the letter...jackass.

Hello Dear,
I know this message will come to you as a surprise since i did not inform you of my trip to Africa for an International Seminar on "The devastating effect of poverty,H.I.V/Aids,Malaria on sub-saharan Africa" This is an extended programme taking palce in three major English Speaking west African countries of Ghana,nigeria,and The Gambia.I thought i could use this time out to see what Africa looks like.Hey its been a horrible experience.
It's been a very sad and difficult moment for me out here as iam stranded as a result of the loss
my little bag containing my money and some important travelling documents. I actually forgot it in a taxi i boarded from the airport in Lagos back to my hotel.Efforts to retrieve the bag has been unsuccessful.The problem now is that iam so distressed iam unable to pay up my hotel bills.This has been so embarrassing as the hotel staff threaten to seize my luggage and handing me over to the Hotel management.
I have never been this embarrassed in my whole life as iam so stranded that i find it difficult to feed since i do not know where to go for help.
This place is kinda hell!!.Please help me with some money ,i will pay back to you as soon as iam back.I need $800 to pay up the hotel bills and at least $500 to sort out other minor problems.I will want you to send me a total of $1,300 which i shall pay back to you immediately i arrive home safely.
Please try and understand how urgent i need your help.I am sending you this e-mail from the city Library because i do not have access to a telephone here. I will appreciate what so ever you can afford to send me for now and I promise to pay back your money as soon as am back home.
You can send the money through Western union money transfer or MoneyGram to the Hotel manager whose details i shall send to you as soon as i hear from you.
Iam counting on your urgent assistance.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks,
andy



Every I write better then this, and those of you who have corrected any of my writing know that. Also I capitalize I's and correctly space between sentences. Also all the spelling mistakes I would pick up on spell check...jackass.

when I grow up?

Today folks I thought I would take a trip down memory lane, mostly because the books I have been reading of late have been "easy" reads for me and well I finished them in a day or so. The other thing is I have been thinking about how I am almost completely different then I was when I was a weird-o pre-teen/teenager and how the education that kids get now is almost different then when I was a kid...kind of academic sounding huh?

I started to write this big rant about how I hated school mostly English, writing, Science and Math, which leaves me with Social Studies, Music, Gym, and those electives we had to take, but then I erased it all. I just was thinking how when I am FORCED to read something, I don't want to, and it is uninteresting and blah blah blah, but when I am generally interested in something and it flows and kind of follows my thinking pattern. I like it. Just as an example in the last few months these are the books I have read:

Salt
Cod
Schyuler's Monster
Various Issues of National Geographic
The New Yorker

On the outside people would say huh pretty non-fictionish selection of reading material and I would say yes, it is. I would also say that they are interesting reads. I picked up Salt on a recommendation from my newest Brother-in-Law Ansgar, he is intellectual and well read, MBA from MIT, sailor, cool, and German. Plus I hadn't read anything in awhile, I picked it up and read maybe 100 pages the first day and after that I almost missed stops on the subway because I was so into it. I mean yes, honestly it is about what the title is: Salt...but come on do you know all about salt??? Well Cod is written by the same author, so I thought I would give it a go...finished it in 2 days, and again, it is about just what you think...the fish. So the third on the list is about a father and his quest to be a good father and his daughter who he is discovering can not talk. His struggle with becoming a father of a "word-less" child and so on. I finished it in one day albiet I did have two flights today and I just stayed up for 3 hours finishing it and I have been following his blog, but it was a good read. When I read with fervor I just feel like I am my father's son. I remember growing up and he would spend hours upon houses devouring the latest John Grisham novel or Stephan King book. He would also read them in like a day. I enjoy read when I am interested, when it's forced, it sucks...nuff said, but just to beat a dead horse here is my list of the novels I can remember being forced to read...and hating every word I did or didn't finish:

Moby Dick
William Shakespeare...honestly nothing stuck out to me
Chaucer...hearing my 12th grade english teacher recite them in Old English...
Frankenstein...apparently I didn't "get it"
I am the cheese
Clan Of the Cave Bear
really anything I had to read in High School...sorry I didn't enjoy reading them, I have tried again and again, but to just sit down and read one of those books...makes me want to sleep...

Although the ones I did enjoy:

1984
Animal Farm
The Time Machine
Walden
The Client
Jurassic Park
The Sphere
Andromeda Strain
lots of historical books I found for 5 dollars or less
and others.

Point being... don't like to be forced to read books...but I still like to read, so why force kids to read certain books? Go ahead cut me down...but do you find relevance in Moby Dick in your life or was it time you could have spent reading a different book you were more into?