Intoxicated

I am intoxicated!

No, it's not booze and it's not the 30 mile bike / 10k run brick workout on Saturday morning. Nor is it the 6:41 pace/mile at the Thomas G. Labrecque Classic 4-miler on Sunday.

It's the smell of new Asics shoes. Go ahead and stick your nose in... I know you want to and I know you've done it too.

Take a deep breath and inhale the possibility, inhale the speed, inhale victory!

"Nothing awakens a reminiscence like an odour."
-Victor Hugo

About The Baby

Thank you for your kind words on my previous post announcing the pregnancy. Salena and I are very excited and are trying to enjoy this chapter of our lives to the utmost.

We had our suspicions about the pregnancy early in the year and they were confirmed on Superbowl Sunday.

It was one of those moments when the world slows down and your focus narrows to tunnel vision...

I was working at the computer when Salena came in the room behind me. Before I turned around I knew the expression on her face and the words she was about to speak. It was an intense and surreal moment. And not one I will soon forget!

At this point, we're about 16 weeks into the pregnancy and our first child - who is now about the size of an avocado - will be born sometime in early October.

I find it interesting that the first reaction folks seem to have after learning we're expecting is to inquire into the sex of the baby. I suppose this is a completely normal reaction and one I have more than likely committed repeatedly. Now, however, the health of mother and baby entirely trump the pink or blue nursery quandary.

I am happy to tell you that mother and baby are doing perfectly well and are under the care of a very gifted doctor at one of the best hospitals in New York City.

Now to answer your question: No, we do not know the sex of the baby. Salena is keen to know if we're having a boy or a girl. I am leaning more towards waiting until the baby is born to know the sex. I totally understand the physical, emotional and logistic reasons behind learning the sex of the baby ahead of time.

Conversely, how many genuine surprises do you get in life? Maybe someone throws you a surprise birthday party. Maybe someone gives you a fantastic gift for no reason whatsoever. Maybe someone proposes marriage and catches a lover completely off guard.

All wonderful surprises but not of the same magnitude as waiting until the day the baby is born to find out if its a girl or boy. Perhaps best of all, the surprise is a magnificent win-win either way!

"Wherever life takes us, ther are always moments of wonder."
-Jimmy Carter

A New Life

"So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be"
-Lord Tennyson

DNF: Brooklyn Half Marathon

For me, the Brooklyn Half Marathon did not go well but I did manage to drag my tattered self across the finish line... It wasn't at all pretty but I DID NOT FAIL.

I've been running and racing now for five years and generally run 4 or 5 half marathons a year. I have a healthy respect for the distance yet I somehow seem to take the half for granted. I just show up and run.

In the past this strategy has more or less worked for me but the trek from Coney Island to Prospect Park Saturday exposed the flaws of this haphazard training "schedule."

I should also note that I was laid up with flu earlier in the week (missing key workouts) and then overcompensated with a long, hard tempo run on Thursday night. An additional factor is the loss of specificity due to triathlon training. With the addition of swimming and biking to my regiment I am working out more often but am actually running less mileage.

Despite this, my poor performance in Brooklyn is most attributable to a lack of running long. Simply put, I was not physically prepared and I knew it very early in the race. This caused my mental toughness to breakdown and I honestly wanted to drop out at mile five.

The only thing that kept me going was my looming triathlon. Knowing the physical and mental demands of the tri will be tremendous I kept putting one foot in front of the other and tried to hold onto my diminishing pace and eroding willpower...

Amazing how an attempt to PR and break 1:30:00 can turn into a struggle just to cover the distance.

Here are my splits:

• Mile 1 - 6:42
  
• Mile 2 - 6:42
  
• Mile 3 - 7:01
  
• Mile 4 - 6:50
  
• Mile 5 - 7:03
  
• Mile 6 - 7:18
  
• Mile 7 - 7:22
  
• Mile 8 - 7:25
  
• Mile 9 - 7:29
  
• Mile 10 - 8:09
  
• Mile 11 - 8:13
  
• Mile 12 - 8:34
  
• Mile 13 - 8:28
  
• Mile .1 - 0:52

"Proper prior planning prevents poor performance."
-Dad

Feeding The Hand That Scratches Your Back

You may have noticed that I have put a Google AdSense button on my sidebar and I feel it worth an explanation.

Last time I checked, Google had a market capitalization of over $145 billion and was trading at about $464 a share. Clearly Google is doing fine financially. However, Google is in the business of making money. And Google owns Blogger - a free service.

While there is room for improvement in the Blogger platform I will say that it is fairly full featured, flexible and easy to use. And it's worth mentioning this again... it is free.

For this reason I've decided not to bite the proverbial hand that feeds my publishing whimsy. It’s just my way of saying thanks to Blogger and Google for providing this service. I hope that the addition of ads on my blog does not offend.

"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."
-Mark Twain

4 Days

On Saturday morning I woke up feeling kind of icky. By mid morning the icky had turned to full on sick. Unfortunate because I was hoping to get in a back-to-back long run and long bike in anticipation of the Brooklyn Half Marathon and Tupper Lake Triathlon. Given my nauseated state I decided to postpone the workout to Sunday.

I woke on Sunday feeling just as sick and in no shape to run 10+ miles and bike 30+ miles. And what little energy I could muster needed to be expended on cleaning house for Easter Dinner*.

Sunday night into Monday morning I tossed, turned and suffered from flu like symptoms the likes of which... I'll spare you the details, but I will say I didn't get much sleep! I called in sick to work and spent the day by alternating between sleeping on the couch with the TV on and sleeping in bed with a book.

Today (Tuesday) I woke up feeling a little better but still not 100% and in frequent need of a lavatory.

All of this is to say... It has been four days without a run, bike, swim or workout of some sort! I cannot recall the last time so much time lapsed between workouts. Even after the NYC Marathon I was back on the road in less time.

"The abdomen is the reason why man does not easily take himself for a god."
-Nietzsche

*Easter Dinner was spectacular! Kudos to the chef!