Remember that shot? Yeah… that was last fall. That was also the last time that I was fit. Training was so easy last year with the Nike+ device, because I would just login every morning and my training program would tell me how far to run and how fast to go. Since I have switched over to the Garmin, I have had a much more difficult time getting motivated to train. It was much easier to stay motivated when I had a little computer program putting another notch in the spreadsheet and telling me “good job” at the end of each run.
Starting yesterday, there are only 18 weeks until the Chicago marathon, and only a handful after that until NYC. If I were to run either of those today, it would probably be the most painful experience ever. Since I have been craving structure so badly, I broke down yesterday and decided to go with a Hal Higdon training program. Reagan has trained with his programs before, and so have several of my friends. So I figure that I will give it a shot. To be completely honest, I don’t need a “training program” as much as I just need a little thing to check the boxes and keep me organized. So Hal, you’re it, buddy!
From now until November 7th, Friday’s will be my only lazy days. Actually, I will probably take a lazy week after the Chicago race, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
To keep myself accountable, I’m going to start posting a Weekly Running Evaluation again (just when you thought this blog couldn’t be anymore boring, hehe). So far, the training has not gone well. I had a very bad run yesterday and today. I am currently as sloppy and ridden with extra body-blah as I have ever been. So, it’s a good thing that I’m starting now. I’m headed out of town later this week, so I might miss a few days. But, I’m sure that they will be replaced with some high-altitude cross training.
This is a bonus paragraph for those who made it all of the way through this post– Tomorrow morning I’m posting the biggest giveaway so far, on JNB. If you are into photography, or know someone who is, you might be interested in this round.
Reagan and I have been working all year long to gain guaranteed entry to next year’s New York City Marathon. We have been doing the NYRR 9+1 program. We have had all of our races (plus a few extra) finished for quite some time now. But when we got online to sign up to volunteer, everything was booked except for the last two races of the year. Good thing that we didn’t procrastinate any longer than we did.
Reagan and I woke up at 5:30 on Saturday, so that we could be in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, by 7:30. It was a gorgeous day. The temperature was in the low 20’s but it didn’t feel that cold, because we were bathing in sunlight. The photo above is of Reagan dancing to Madonna’s “Holiday,” which was playing through the PA. So, it is official now. We will be running in Nov. 2010. We also had that chance to talk to another volunteer, who was near us, who has run NYC and Chicago for like the last 15 years straight. He said that they are spread almost perfectly apart. We have wanted to run Chi town for a while now. We are debating possibly doing both of them next year.
In Piper news, the date that she is scheduled to move back to NJ, has now been pushed from Tuesday to Thursday. We took advantage and had a super long and fun visit with her today. She is a clapping and smiling fool, these days. It is really fun to goof around with her and watch her smile and make little squeaks, like she is trying to laugh.
Reagan told me that on Friday, she was clapping Piper’s hands together, and when she stopped Piper kept clapping by herself. I couldn’t wait to see it for myself. To my amazement, I had her bouncing on my knee, clapping her hands, and she totally kept going, when I took my hands away. I was busting up laughing. One of the cutest things I have seen. It is especially cute the way she turns around and looks at me for approval afterward. We took some video today, that I’m hoping to get posted at some point. Anyway, I have rambled too long. Below, is a shot of Piper being so patient while Reagan works on her hair.
With such an anticlimactic Valentino Rossi world championship victory, this year, I almost stopped paying attention to the GP headlines. But, today Vito Ippolito, the president of FIM Confirmed the rumored change in engine specs for 2012. This should make things interesting. You may recall when the bikes changed from the first 4 stroke size of 990, to 800 ccs of displacement, Stoner and Ducati dominated. Ducati had not really even been on the radar before that. I mean sure, Stoner had something to do with it, but I’m just saying. Also Nicky Hayden, who had won the world championship on the 990 cc Honda Repsol, the previous year, had a tough time even finishing in the top 10, on the 800 cc bike. All I’m saying, is that the new specs could shake things up, a bit.
For 2012, the maximum displacement limit will jump from 800 ccs to 1000. There will also be a limit of 4 cylinders, with a maximum cylinder bore measurement of 81 mm. The 800 cc bikes are pushing 200 mph. I can’t wait to see what the factory teams will be able to do with the extra 200. According to MotoGP.com, Mr Ippolito said:
The main changes we have decided on are new rules for the MotoGP class. We will have four cylinder engines, 4-stroke of course, with a 1000cc maximum, and the bore of the cylinders will be 81mm. This base will give all the manufacturers the opportunity to start work. At the beginning of next year we will produce the new rules in a more complete format, but that is the basis; 2012 will be the year of a new era of MotoGP.
I’m curious to see if this will open the door for a new factory team to dominate the premier class of motorcycle racing.
Reagan took me to a futebol game today. It was in the Maracana, which is one of the largest stadiums in South America. It has held as many as 200k people before.
Here we are field level about an hour before the game started. Also about 5 minutes before we took our shirts off. It was 40 degrees in Rio today. I’m not exactly sure what that translates to in Fahrenheit, but I can tell you that it is pretty freaking hot.
The game was after we spent the morning on the beach, before it became incredibly crowded. I’m wondering if the the beach is this nuts here during the week. Anyway, I really enjoy this shot the Reagan took, when we were passing through a feira.
After the game, we went out to the point between Ipanema and Copacobana beaches to take some sunset shots. We kind of missed the sunset, and it was kind of cloudy anyway. But we still snapped a few. Hopefully we can have better timing/weather on a different night.
This one is of Reagan, with a little cove in the back.
When I was just a little tyke, snowboarding was just starting to become an acceptable sport. What I mean by acceptable, is that it had it’s foot in the door, among the alpine sports community. There was only one resort along the Wasatch Front that allowed snowboards in, and it was only on two lifts. Yes, that’s right, segregation. Brighton, and it’s parent Boyne was like of the like JFK of snowboarding, trying to usher in the era of peaceful co-existence between snowboarding and twoplanking.
Not long afterward, several other Resorts along the Wasatch range decided to allow those pesky mogul wrecking “ski-boarders.” The early 90’s brought in the Jim Crow-type of era for snowboarders. “Sure, you can come on the lifts with us, since you are buying a ticket, but don’t get too comfortable around here, you lateral stance hip-hop loving freaks.”
What happened next, I still have mixed feelings about. Snowboarding was ushered in as an Olympic event, which was kind of the catalyst for world acceptance of the sport. Before that, I think that it was still viewed as a passing fad, to a certain degree. It was so exciting, as a snowboarder, to feel validated. At the same time it was kind of sad, because snowboarding was losing it’s edgy nouveau freshness. Suddenly snowboarding was all the rage. All of the little silver spoon turtleneck wearing Austrian tourists were riding, instead of skiing. Those were the same kids that we got in fights with on the ski-bus bus in jr. high.
Suddenly the sport was flooded with tons and tons of money. From the perspective of a kid who had to save for months and months to buy his first deck, and who wore Sorel boots, because he couldn’t afford Burton, it felt kind of sad to see the sport change directions so abruptly. It felt like the sport went from a bunch of rag-tag hoodlums to glitz and bling, over the course of a few short years.
After 2002 SLC, I embraced the new “snowboard culture.” I accepted the fact that, like anything else, the sport, and culture associated with it is an organic thing. I was a little irked at Park City Ski resort, that vying for the Olympic bid, is what it finally took, for them to finally open their doors to snowboarders, and buy a pipe dragon. There are still a few resorts that don’t allow riding. Not surprising, two of them are in UT. One is Alta, another is Deer Valley. I like to think of them as the dirty south good old boys of ski-resorts. Since Alta is located on BLM land, there is no stopping riders from poaching early season pow, before the lifts open. In honesty, I prefer the bird anyway.
Before this rant/manifesto carries on too much longer, I’ll get to the point. One of the things that I absolutely love about the modern snowboard culture, is that the roots rowdy originality that has always surrounded the sport still comes through in modern snowboarding innovation. Only, now is super deep with funding. The DC mountain lab is a great example of this. I’m sure that Ken Block isn’t the first dude to come up with the idea of a rally car-style snow cat. But since DC supplied the cash flow, he was able to make it a reality. When I saw this video, I was smiling ear to ear. Who else is getting stoked for snowboarding season?
BTW: all references to the American civil rights movement are tongue-in-cheek. This post is not meant to diminish the struggle for racial equality, in any way. I fully understand that the struggle for snowboarders to be recognized as athletes, can’t even be measured on the same scale as the magnitude of the civil right movement. So there is my disclaimer
This year was the 40th New York City Marathon. It was such an awesome race, for so many reasons, including the fact that an American won the mens’ race for the first time, since 1982. For me, though, it was especially cool, because I was able to photograph it from the photo bridge at the finish line. It is a borderline spiritual experience to watch these athletes come through. It was so heartbreaking to see Paula break down in tears, after falling back into fourth place at the end of the race, when she lead, practically the entire way.
^—-Paula and Grete embracing.
Here is a shot of the TV crews that were next to me.
Yesterday was the final weekend of 2009 Summer Streets. It just happened to coincide with the weekend that my dad and youngest brother were in town for the tour-de-revo-war ‘09. It wasn’t the best of weather, in fact Hurricane Bill threw a pretty nasty burst at us the previous night, taking out 500 trees, in the City’s parks. In the photo above (taken by my brother Pete) part of a cordoned off downed tree can actually be seen in the back ground, as we rode/skated through Riverside Park.
We were not deterred by the rain though. It had actually stopped raining, for the most part, by the time that we left for Park Ave. My dad and brother were on bikes. My friend Col, decided to tackle the 20+ mile route with me, on a longboard. It was a really good ride, even though my bearings have since, completely seized up.
After we went all of the way down Park Ave. (and Lafayette) to the Brooklyn Bridge, and back to CP. We met up with Reagan and Col’s family at Bro. Jimmy’s for some barbecue. It was delicious.
I was up bright and early this morning, to get to Central Park in time to get some shots of the NYC Half-Marathon, which started at 7 AM. It is a good thing that it started so early, too, since it was such an extremely warm day. After shooting the start, I booked it down to Battery Park City, to the finish line (which happened to be right outside of my work). Tola won today for the men. It was really exciting. But the real story, was Paula Radcliffe winning for the women. It isn’t some big news that she won, or anything. She has won 8 of the 10 major marathons that she has started, including the NYC Marathon, 3 times!! She has been nursing a foot injury, and this is her first race of the year, with a late entry at the middle of last week. It was really cool to see her in person, and shake her hand.
It has been really tough, to keep myself from running, while my knee recovers. But sometimes it is really cool, just to show up and be amazed by how great these athletes are.
Reagan and I are going camping with some friends, weekend after next. We are totally excited about it. We are going to this place near Bear Mountain, which also happens to have some climbing nearby. Ok, it doesn’t just happen to. My friend Col and I looked for about 2 hours on-line, one afternoon, to find a place not too far away, that we could camp and climb. So, in the spirit of not being totally embarrassed of my diminished climbing abilities, I accepted an offer from Col, Aubrey and Leslie to join them for a bouldering session in Ft. Tryon Park last night. It was a lot of fun. Aubrey had to bail a little bit early because of rowdy kids, and Reagan couldn’t make it because of a hair apt. Leslie and Col were both exhibiting some serious skills. Here are a couple of shots of them.
As pathetic as I was, I still had a lot of fun. I definitely have not used those forearm or back muscles for way too long.
Speaking of getting in shape, I have my first physical therapy session today, for my knee. I will be going to the orthopedic Dr. tomorrow for x-rays and such. I don’t have any races for the entire month of August. So I’m hoping that they can whip me into shape in time for our next race on September 12th (then a half marathon on the 20th). I’m going a bit stir crazy, not being able to run for more than a hand full of miles at a time.
Finally, a funny story about this morning: I parted my hair and combed it over to the side this morning. I don’t know. I just thought I would switch it up, a bit. When I came out of the bathroom, Reagan said “Hey, you look like Don Draper!” I was like “yeeahhh, baby.” I continued getting ready, and was contemplating buying a gray flannel 3 piece suit, when Reagan came walking down the hall and asked if she looked like Don Draper too. I turned around and she had slicked all of the hair on the top of her head over to one side. Hahahahahah. Nice.
^—–Reagan sitting in an old cannon installation on Governor’s Island
Reagan read this great article in Time Out NY, earlier this month about Governor’s Island. I had been reading random things about it on Gothamist for the past couple of months as well. We finally decided to check it out today. When I say check it out, we really went for it. We rode our bikes from our house, to the Battery Maritime Terminal (took the ferry to the island) did a lap on our bikes and rode home. It was probably a little over 30 miles total. Reagan was resisting a little on the way back, but ultimately pulled through. She still looked great too.
^—Reagan riding through Riverside Park in the evening.
She is especially tough, being that in honor of the NYC Triathlon happening tomorrow, we also logged a few miles running this morning, as well. She didn’t quite make it through the movie tonight and had to head to bed early, but I don’t really blame her.
^—–Chillin’ on a bench in Colonel’s Row on Governor’s Island (timer shot).
On the way back, I was putting the camera back in my basket, after shooting a few shots of Reagan, in Riverside Park, when this really nice lady offered to take a photo of us together. Notice how I am totally sticky and beat-down. Notice how Reagan looks looks fresh as a daisy. Totally typical.
^—-Riding through Riverside Park, taken by a very kind lady, out for a walk with her kids.
