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Archive for the 'running' Category
Ian’s Shoelace Site – Slipping Shoelace Knots, Crooked Bows.
It’s going to take me a while to process this, but I think it may help me finally tie my shoes properly.
via Anti-mega.
My sister asked me to provide a soundtrack for my nephew Max’s “robot dance party” 6th birthday party. He’s a Kraftwerk fan, so I used kraftwerkiness as a theme. Some awkward edits to avoid cursing, and a few obvious crowd-pleasers for the adults, but I’ve had fun listening to it for the last few weeks.
P Tron’s Mix for The Human Boy Max
I assumed a new identity for this mix: P Tron, a robot from space. That was probably the best part.
I’m told that the party consisted of listening to these jams and disassembling machinery including a broken DVD player and an old busted credit card machine from my mom’s library. And games and robot costumes. Sounds like a good time was had by all… wish I could have joined them.
The wonderful bookish blog A Journey Round My Skull has a post this week highlighting the fact that Charles Seliger: Redefining Abstract Expressionism is available (at least partially) on Google Books.
I was shocked to see Seliger’s 1944 work Organic Form in my RSS reader, as it’s a piece I’m well familiar with– it was the basis for my kind of project from 2004.
I need a big long project like this one again– I’m already getting excited about the possibilities for all the new basement space we’ll get in our new house (coming Saturday!).
Anyway, in honor of being reminded of this guy, here’s the final phase of my project, a short video, uploaded to youtube and magnificently degraded. Better versions here.
I ran the Tipperary Hill Shamrock Run 4 miler in Syracuse on Saturday. It was my first race since the Buffalo Marathon in May. It was great to be back with a group again, and I’m looking forward to the spring racing season here.
I missed getting my PR for four miles by 1 second! I felt pretty good, but even though I’ve been running a lot in Syracuse, but I was not ready for the hills on this course. My splits were 6:40, 6:54, 7:56(!), and 7:39. This is why I hate short races– my cruise control doesn’t work. Mile 3 featured some of the steepest hills I’ve ever run. My total time was 29:21 (I ran a 29:20 at a race in Central Park a few years back– that race, of course, wasn’t too hilly), average pace was 7:16/mi. I wanted to break 28 minutes, but I guess that’s a goal for next year. The hills in Schiller Park, near our new house, will be a great training ground. I finished 206th, which put me just about in the top 10%, but there were some superfast folks out there.
This was the first run I’ve posted in a while– mostly because my Garmin GPS wasn’t compatible with my Mac until recently, and I’m happily without a PC laptop from work. All my recent runs are up now, including my first couple of 5+ mile runs in months. I’m feeling great, and hope to be back up to some respetable weekly milage in a few weeks (I’m at about 15 now, hope to be up to 25 soon). Once I’ve got my base back, I can start training for NYC again– this time less ambitiously. I received my guaranteed entry email a few days ago, now I just have to shell out again.
Just sayin’. Let’s not overreact. We have a solid team.
We found a place last weekend in the Hawley-Green neighborhood of Syracuse. It’s half of an old house– 2 floors, 2 bedrooms. I should be able to easily walk to work, and there are plenty of little restaurants and a coffee shop nearby. The landlord (and the community) seem incredibly nice. Kelly, for some reason, felt it necessary to tell our landlord that I love wearing long underwear. I do, but dang. I thought that was private.
A street view view of our new street (taken in warmer times– we’ve noticed that the google van was in Syracuse on the most beautiful day of all time).
Oh, and I ran three miles on the treadmill the other day– it’s nice have sore quads again. I hope to get at least a few Prospect Park runs in before we leave. But it’s supposed to snow here, so we’ll see.
I had my wisdom teeth extracted on Friday, and it’s messed with my sleeping schedule so much that I was actually awake to watch the end of the Panther game tonight. What a great second half… I’ll never get to sleep now.
I had gotten up to about 3 miles at a time on the treadmill before the surgery, and everything felt great, so once I’ve fully recovered, I should be out on the road again. That is all.
I ran a mile yesterday. On the treadmill. Relatively no pain or twinginess. So, when everyone else is running the marathon this weekend, at least I have that. Plus, I can sleep as late as I want!
I”m in the Jet Blue Terminal at JFK this morning, on my way to Austin to take my qualifying exams. I meet with my committee chair Monday morning at 9, get my 4 questions, and begin writing around 50 pages worth of answers by 5pm on Friday. I polled some of my colleagues and have decided on the following as my game plan:
- As Joe suggested, I will plan all of my meals in advance. This should be fun and delicious, since I have a super long list of Austin restaurants I miss. Having Kelly and others around to deliver the meals, as Don suggests, is going to be helpful.
- Lisa convinced me that I should only spend about 3 hours each day reading and reviewing literature so I can force myself to write for the rest of the day.
- I’ve asked Kelly to reset my bloglines password so I can’t procrastinate with my RSS feeds.
- Everyone suggested avoiding staying up all night writing and trying to adhere to my regular sleep schedule, until perhaps Thursday.
- Save save save save.
I’ve brought with me my APA publications manual and a bunch of pdfs and things I’ve written, but that’s about it. I’m excited and nervous to see the questions I’ll be answering.
Kelly and I are staying in Austin until the 12th, so we’ll have time to relax once it’s all over.
The only real bummer I can foresee is that I’m still in physical therapy for my leg so I can’t run Town Lake at all while I’m there.
Ok, going underground….. now!
My legs feel better today than they have in weeks. My left knee is still a little tweaky, but I when to a cycling class today and felt good as new. My leg actually felt better after the hour ended. It was nice to sweat without grimacing in pain, been a while since I did that. Stretched more and iced afterwards, and, as of 10pm, still feeling great. We’ll see how I’m feeling in the morning.
Planning to hit up a couple of more cycling and yoga classes this week, and then I’ll have some recovery stories to tell (I hope) when I finally get in to the physical therapist next Monday.
Sound wise, I just realized that my current (and several-months-standing) favorite band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, has a free EP available on their site to get us excited for the “Drippers” EP, which drops scratch-n-sniff CDs & 10″ vinyl soon. A few other mp3s on there site as well. Enjoy.
I was feeling so good after Sunday’s 2 miles, I decided to go to an easy yoga class Monday evening, then try for another 2 on the treadmill. I was nice and stretched out, but about 3/4 of the way through my run, I got stiff in my left knee, this morning it was very sore and weak again. I guess I’m not ready for two-days-in-a-row again yet, no matter how loose I am.
I had visited my doctor just before the yoga class, and we spoke about where I should strengthen. He know’s I planning to run the marathon, but he didn’t seem worried. Interested, though. I think he’s just glad he doesn’t have to break any bad news to me. He told me to beef up the ibu dose, ice more, and gave me a referral to physical therapy that he seemed to think wasn’t so important. I am, however getting worried that the next 7 weeks will breeze by with out a chance to recover fully. I’m making the promise to myself that I won’t run if I’m not up to it. Even kinda not up to it… the aftermath of no running for weeks is not worth it. I can always just run across the bridge to Brooklyn and straight into an ice bath. No shame in that.
It is amazing, though, how much a little strecthing can make unbearable pain disappear immediately, I’ve been good about getting at least 2 20-30 minute stretching sessions in daily, even despite the working late so much. I found my knee brace today, and hope that’ll give me the support and compression to get me though the day between stretches.
I was meeting with a good friend and music professor on campus today, and when I told him about my sorta injury, he asked to make sure I was using the RICEV method.
me: of course! Wait, what’s the V?
him: Vodka. It goes with the ice.
So I actually made it through 2 miles on the treadmill today, feeling rather well all along. The back of my knee was still a little bit sore and weak, but I think I’m getting better. From the looks of RunLog, other people may be in the same shape as me– no one’s posting miles this week.
I’m going to keep up the 2-miles-at-a-time on the treadmill for most of this week, I think, then I’ll head back to the park.
But, now that it’s Sunday, running is irrelevant: Football is on. Kelly and I are scouting new places to watch the Edwards-led Bills and the Smithless Panthers. I love the fall.
1980s Pioneer SE 20A BR
First post-paper weekend is such a relaxing thing. Had a late week at work, teaching a few library instruction classes. Last night, my class ended at 8:30, but the library closed at 8, so I sent my class out to realize that they were trapped in an empty, darkish library. Nice. A long week indeed.
Despite the weird schedule this week, I managed to get 3 yoga classes in and have doubled up my stretching routine– once in the morning, and once at night. Now that i’m ready to run, though, we’ve got all this Hannah rain, so I may start out the treadmill for a few miles in the morning.
Headphones-wise, a few mixes & tracks of note:
- Catchdubs’s 90’s mix is good (though I’d rather be without a few of those tracks!)
- 1988-1992: Songs Dave Kendall Taught Us is pretty much in the same vein, but pitch perfect.
- & Greg’s “robot bathes, feels taken away” mix is perfect for these pre-fall evenings.
I’ve also got a new mix in to Libby, that maybe we’ll see soon. In the meantime, check these oldies of mine:
My convienient semi-injury freed up some time this weekend for me to actually finish my qualifying paper. Two years in the making! I feel like a new man– and as I just told a colleague– like maybe I’m doing what I should be doing for the first time in a while. Just waiting for some feedback to make it official, then down to Austin for my exams.
Running-wise, though, my cookie has crumbled a bit. The fatigue hast totally left my legs, but my knee is sore in places it hasn’t been sore before (partially because of a bruise from yoga), but once I stretch it out it usually feels mostly better. Sitting is what kills it.
I’m heading back to the gym tomorrow to try some sorta cardio and to do some strengthening on my calves and shins. Two weeks off of real running has been a bummer, but at least I’m still getting things done.
I made a lot of progress on my paper last weekend, and got some very helpful feedback from my doctoral committee chair on Monday night. Tuesday night, I went for another see-how-it-feels run that ended badly. At the 2-mile point, my knee was barely hanging on, so I walked another two (walking is painless) and headed to an easy yoga class. The good news is, every day since Wednesday, the fatigue has been gone from my legs, and the pain is reducing. I still fully intend to run the marathon (8 weeks away still), but I am not going to push the training at all– definitely not going to try and get back up to the 40/50 miles a week range. I ran the last marathon with only about 25 miles a week, so I’m not worried about finishing. Maybe it won’t be my fastest race ever, but I’m going to do all I can to keep from injuring myself.
Paper-wise, though, I’m at the point where I’m putting the finishing touches on this thing. Nearly two years in the making, it’s the biggest milestone I’ve had since starting graduate school. The next step after it is accepted (might have to do a revision or two) is to fly down to Austin the first week of October and take my qualifying exams. Once that happens, and after some relaxing and celebrating, I’ll begin my dissertation proposal.