I didn't get up and run this morning but that is okay because I got most of my mileage in on Monday and Tuesday this week.  That allowed me to use Wednesday as a rest day and while I would have loved to have completed my 9 mile tempo run this morning, it's more realistic for me to do it after work.

This weekend is a cutback 13 mile Long Run and the next three weeks after, my weekly mileage will really pick up.  I hope to be up to 50 MPW by the time of the Ready to Run 20 miler --the only 20 miler I'm doing is going to come on Sept 21 and then I will cutback to only three runs per week including the Saturday LR.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Summer is just too short.  Essentially you get June, July and August and then it's over.  Even though the weather might be nice in September and even October, most of the world thinks of summer as the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

When June arrives you think, I have the whole summer ahead of me.  I usually think about doing a lot of the warm weather activity like playing volleyball, street festivals and of course marathon training.  Trips to Ravina for concerts under the stars get tossed around and plans are penciled in.

Soon it's July and you're trying to figure out who's cookout to attend and where to see the fireworks.  You still have a lot of summer left but you also realize that you have to make those plans a bit more definite.

Then August arrives and you realize that you just have a few weeks to squeeze everything in!  I'm at the point where people are scheduling things for September because August is so overbooked. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

One of the components of my marathon training is the tempo run.  There are several schools of thought on what a tempo run should be.  One theory is the Ladder, where you start out with a warm up mile, then -- depending how deep you are in the season and that run's mileage -- you might do a mile at marathon training pace, then marathon race pace then lactate threshold pace and finally 10K pace.  Then you come back down. 

Another idea is that you just pick a faster pace and run most or all your miles at your tempo pace.  Finally, a less popular idea is to simply run for a set amount of time at a faster pace, e.g. warm up for 10 minutes, then run tempo for 40 minutes, then cool down for another 10 minutes.  I'm sure there are other variations but you get the idea.

Whatever style you choose, you need to find a place to run those miles.  Running on the lakefront path during the week isn't an option for me these days.  And running through the hood isn't ideal for speed work either.  Luckily I've found a place where I can get the distance and speed needed without too much hassle from pedestrians or cars. 

Portage Park is a short drive from my place and I'm usually halfway there after work because I park my car near the Irving Park blue line station.  So as long as I remember to pack my running clothes in a bag and leave it in my trunk, I can use the pool facilities to change and then do my tempo runs around the park.  The perimeter comes out to about .95 miles so the more mileage I do, the further I move from my starting point.  It's kinda a little game to keep things interesting, at least as interesting as a long tempo run can be.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

So the Krazy Guatemalan sent out an e-vite last week inviting some friends to see The Blues Brothers at Movies-in-the-Park,  Since joining the consulting company, it takes an Act of God for me to be able to make MITP.  Either I'm sent out to the far reaches of suburbia for the day or I'm stuck working late on something.  So I responded with a well-intended maybe and hoped for the best.

As luck would have it, my Menace's new assistant scheduled me to be in Lisle this morning.  Which meant I would have my car.  It was only a morning assignment which meant that I got to park in a downtown parking garage on the company dime.  Evil Forces 0, Icarus 1.

Now the interesting thing is that the original evite had FWDWM on it as well as So-Suede.  I checked back a few days ago and FWDWM name was gone.  When I made it to the park tonight, I asked and it turns out that she decided that as much as she wanted to see the movie, she didn't want to be around me and/or So-Suede. 

And that's helps me feel like I was right to cut her out of my life.  I can understand not wanting to be around people who make you uncomfortable or have ill feelings toward you -- I was worried Angus would show up and talk about her wedding -- but the classy thing to do would have been to simple write on the evite that you already made plans to attend with some other friends but would try to stop by to say hi. Instead, she removed herself from the list. 

Also at the park was Andrea.  As usual, she spotted me before I saw her.  I was looking for Krazy Guatemalan's camp and we started chatting.  She asked who I was going to sit with and I told her So-Suede and KG.  Her smile left her face and she mentioned that she still wanted her CDs back.  I said "he's sitting over there, about 20 yards away.  You're relationship was based on always randoming running into each other...do you not see the irony!" 

Well, okay I didn't say the last sentence but I sure thought it.  She had asked me a while back to get the CDs for her and I was going to but then I thought well you made So-Suede do the heavy lifting by telling me that you were dating so maybe you should do your own dirty work for a change.

She eventually did come over and he got up and if you were watching carefully, you'd see that he was ready to hug her but she wanted nothing to do with that.  They did talk for quite a while.  I think they left it with plans to return her CDs to her somehow.   

The real irony is that six months ago they wanted each other so badly that they were willing to forfeit my friendship and now they can't quite stand to be 20 yards away. 

Years from now, some of us might be in the same room at someone's funeral.  Hopefully we can all project the class and grace that we are failing to emulate today.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I sent a couple of friends a photo I took of one of them along with a casual invite to join me sunday at an event. 

Dan, I'm gonna be at the IAHC on Sunday for Irish Fest.  You should definitely come.  Karen, the IAHC is very close to your parent's home so you should stop by too.

The likelihood of either coming is slim; Dan doesn't like to leave his comfort zone of Old Town and Karen lives in the burbs with hubby and children.  I only mentioned it because dan has gone in the past -- back in the day when he was married and happy and not a shell of his former self.

But what I want to gripe about today is Karen's ditzyness.

She writes me back and asks "what's the IAHC".  I realize that it would be a stretch for most to figure out from my email that the I stands for Irish, the A is American and Heritage Center isn't a term that comes to mind.  So I write back and tell her Irish American Heritage Center and hope that is the end of it.

She writes back and asks where is it.  I demonstrate remarkable restraint and don't write back "as mentioned below, it's by your parents place."  Instead, I write that I don't know the exact address but it's at Wilson & Knoxx, near your parents."  Of course I couldn't resist adding "U2CG -- which is one way of saying "you too can google". 

This could have gone on and on, especially after she replied "Oh, you think I understand text-lingo?  YOu're so wrong."  But I just let it go with a "i'll try to remember that."

But it is one that does kinda irk me because I have to modify my behavior to accomodate someone and I find that is something that I've been too reluctant to do in the past.  That probably explains things like why most of my friends weren't jumping on the bandwagon to travel to Europe with me this year.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Why can't I do this every morning!  I managed to get up and meet my speed workout group for only the second time in six weeks and only because it was track work which occurs closer to my home than our usual lakefront meeting point.  And can I really say our usual since I haven't made it there once yet? 

As usual, at the beginning of the workout I felt like I wasn't going to make it through and wondered why I put myself through this...then once it was over, I felt like if I can just string together a few good weeks of consistent training, I will do better at races.  That's sort of the point of training.

************
Missing the island:  Sometimes I wonder if I did make the right decision, leaving the no-name software company.  I had good benefits, flexibility in my schedule and could even work from home at least one day a week.  But then I remember that there were legitimate reasons for leaving.  For one thing, my technology skillset was severely behind the curve and I wasn't learning anything new.  Plus there were some ridiculous policies, proceedures and politics that I just wanted to get away from.  And with some internal restructures, it would not have surprised me if I was axed at the next headcount check.

So I'll stick with my decision and say that at the time, it was the right call.  Of course, now that I've been at the consulting company from hell for a year, it may be time to move on. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I've been off the grid for the last couple of weeks.  For the most part, it's been a combination of being busy with work and spending my free time with my girlfriend and/or taking care of things outside the cyberworld. 

Last week was at the St Mike's fest.  One of So-Suede's ex girlfriends -- the one before FWDWM -- asked me if I was talking to him yet.  I was a little caught off guard because I hadn't thought about it in a while and I didn't realize that he would have told her about the situation.  I said that we were talking and even did Guys-Night-Out in April.  She said that was good and that she was on my side with respect to what happened.  I said thank you.  Because at the time, it didn't seem like a lot of people were on my side.  Ironically, those I thought would see my point were telling me to get over it and those whom I thought would think I was making a big to-do about nothing backed me up. 

It's strange: this was so important, so consuming a few months ago and now I can barely remember what the big deal was.  I vaguely remember that I bitched, whined and moaned about it like it was the end of the world.  I do recall that it felt like I had brought this upon myself.  I introduced Angela and So-Suede.  And I know that I didn't handle the two encounters with them in the same room with anything resembling Grace.  So I really should just count myself lucky and move on. 

Yet part of me wants to hold on so as not to forget least it ever happen again.  As if forgiving would be giving So-Suede a free pass and dismissing what he did.  Because I can respect that they felt a spark for one another that Angela and I didn't share.  And since the only person I know who wants to be with someone more than me is So-Suede, all is fair in love and war.  But he could have told me sooner and he could have acknowledged that I spent a Guys-Night-Out pseudo crying in my beer that I had taken a chance on dating a friend and it didn't work out. 

Leia, another friend at that fest -- one who knows me and Andrea and another friend that I also briefly dated -- mentioned that me and my girlfriend seems so good together.  Leia meet the girlfriend at Angela's bday party the week before.  I said thank you and that "I traded up."  Leia said tactfully said that often it is a matter of timing.  She is very right, of course.  But it is also a matter of recognizing a good thing when it is in front of your face.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

While I did not "have" to run today and certainly not before work, I did have to be at work precisely at 8:30am.  Somehow, I managed to get up early enough to get a 4 mile run in with plenty of time to get ready for work, have a light breakfast and still get to work at exactly 8:31 am.  I was delayed a little bit coming into the front door by co-workers who wanted to know about my vacation trip. 

I say that I didn't have to run because I'm between marathons and not really training for anything.  I have about 3 weeks before Chicago Marathon training begins and I'm using the down time to get myself back into pre-vacation shape, especially working on my weight and muscle tone.  I'm also trying to figure out which training program to use for what will probably be my last marathon.

Not trying to sound the drama alarm but this one will be number 20 and its a nice even number to end on.  I've proven that I can do the marathon thing and since I'm not getting my BQ time or setting any new PRs, it is probably time to turn the energy to other neglected areas of my life.  I won't say I'll never do another marathon, especially if my training goes well and I do set a new PR or BQ this fall.  However, it's kinda like a couple that is trying to have a boy or girl, after a certain number of pregnancies, you gotta get the tubes tied.

Tonight I have a 5:30pm foot doctor appointment, one I hope to be my last.  I don't know how I will make it from my last project to the doctors office on time, but that is the challenge of the day.

****

It's been a long time since I've had to do that:  On the way to the El station I sometimes stop in this diner for a cup of coffee.  Not wanting to break my last $20 bill, I grabbed about two dollars worth of change from my car ashtray.  When I was paying for the coffee, I was counting out the change, trying to avoid giving up quarters since I might need those for meters.  The lady at the counter thought I didn't have enough money and said I could pay her tomorrow or whenever.  What probably compounded the situation was that she asked me if I wanted a donut -- they have a coffee & dougnut deal -- and I turned it down. 

I found it a little amusing but also remember that there was a time about a decade ago when I was counting my change, wondering if I had enough for a cup of coffee and train fare home.   

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

In a few minutes I start my long journey back home.  I catch a flight to Frankfort and then a connection to Chicago.  I didn't get much sleep last night because my cell phone rang.  It was my mom, but she didn't stay on the line or lost

20080515 Wieliczka Salt Mine, Poland 095

the connection because it only rang once.  Attempts to return the call from my cell phone failed. 

At the Wieliczka Salt Mines, I made a new friend.  Along with our guide Stefan, we also had an employee of the mine who was there to make sure we moved along in a quick and orderly fashion.  I can see why it was necessary with a large group and other groups wanting to get their time in.  But it got old quickly as people were trying to take photos and the Mine Nazi was saying "Move along please."  He didn't seem to appreciate it when I responded "oh, I'm sorry.  I don't understand Polish."

DSC03404

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I have about 14 hours left in Warsaw before I head home.  Since I'm pretty much toured and museumed out, I haven't done much today except go for a run this morning and check out the town square.  Yesterday, after Brian left, I took a walk around the area and found a small grocery store and a pharmacy -- Warsaw's version of a Osco and a Walgreens -- and was able to purchase some items at a very reasonable price.  I also had a good dinner nearby that was half the cost and twice the food of the hotel soup I had for lunch.

When I left my hotel this afternoon, I passed a bank that was running a promotion.  If you apply to open an account, you get to spin the wheel and win a prize.  The lady dressed as a clown brought me in even though I told her that I wasn't "from around here."  They still had me fill out a form and let me spin the wheel.  I won a pen but convinced the manager that giving me a T-Shirt would make more sense since my wearing it back home would promote it to hundreds of thousands of Polish-Americans. 

Next I ran into two American missionaries from the Church of Latter Day Saints.  Since I was starving for some conversation in English, I chatted with them for about 5-10 minutes and then politely dismissed them.  Nice enough fellows but obviously brainwashed into a life that doesn't mess with mine.

Then I walked through the town square, which is smaller than Prague or Krakow's, but still fits the template: some fountain or monument in the center and beer gardens around it.  I walked a little more and found a display of Bears with their arms up, as if surrendering.  A quick Google reviews that these are the Buddy Bears  that represent the 138 countries acknowledged by the United Nations.   My camera ran out of battery power at the Mines or else I would have taken some photos. 

Near the Buddy Bears, was a stage that had some choir singing some songs in Polish.  I decided to take a seat in a nearby garden and nurse a couple of beers to enjoy the performance.  Sitting there and watching the crowd walking back and forth, I realized it wasn't very different from sitting at the Taste of Polonia back home and watching the mix of Polish-Americans, newly arrived Poles and non-poles who were there to see the fest.  You have the same mix of good and bad fashion.  Same mix of good looking ladies with guys who somehow traded up.  And the requesite amount of smokers.  The only difference is that there seemed to be more young people on their own. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend