Photos of the week

blowin' bubbles



get on the bus



smilin sisters



Lucy hidin' out from Big Weez



@ Monument Circle



Enjoy!

The Girls...

Pictures to come. Tech issues tonight with uploading the pictures.

Race Report: Fishers Freedom Festival 5K, June 23, 2007

For the third consecutive year I raced in the Fishers Freedom Festival 5K race. This year was to be slightly different from the previous two years as I was planning on pushing Anneliese in her BabyJogger since this is a stroller friendly race (and there ain't many of those). For weeks we have talked about our strategy and built up excitement for the race. First we planned on me pushing, Anneliese riding. Then she decided she should push and I should ride. Finally, we decided to go with the original plan of me pushing and Anneliese riding.

Race day rolledaround on Saturday. I woke up to find that it had rained in the night. Oh, and it was still raining. It would not be Anneliese's day for a race. I slipped out without waking her to get to the race. I will run in the rain but I did not want Anneliese to have to endure it.

The weather was cooler than previous years. It was 62, off and on rain, humid. The race has grown from about 300 people the first year that I ran to 500 to 700 this year. The winner crossed the finish line in 15 minutes flat. That is a blistering 4:52 per mile pace. I was right behind him in a equally awe inspiring 26:34. Not my personal best, not even my best on the Freedom Fest course but a good workout anyway.

Anneliese was a little upset about missing the race. I wish she could have been there. Just gives me an excuse to sign us up for another race :)

Over the Hudson....

Hello, hello, hello. Back from my trip to the NYC area complete with a night in Atlanta (well more like 5 hours) on the airline's tab. If you are ever stuck in Atlanta and need a hotel room, go with the Hyatt Place Hotel. It is clean, nice and within a 5 minute ride on their shuttle. The staff made it more comfortable for the 15 or so of us that checked in at midnight last night by smiling and moving through the line quickly.

NYC

As always, NYC was a pleasure. I likes the big city, I likes it a lot. Here are a few shots I have taken over my last several trips there. Included are some pictures from the Mets/Twins game we went to on Tuesday night at Shea Stadium.

Empire State Building


Lady Liberty (taken from a ferry in spring '05)


Lower Manhattan


Corporate HQ for the Company I work for


Shea #1, Paul Lo Duca at the plate


Shea #2, Johan Santana completes his motion to the plate


Ready to Roll!

Anneliese and I will be racing in about 36 hours! I was bad, bad, bad this week and did not get a single workout in. I think we'll take the race a little easier than I originally planned, but who knows? Maybe I will come back a little stronger from the extra rest! Here is Anneliese showing off her ride, I'll be pushing her in the BabyJogger this Saturday:



And we have added a double stroller to the rotation. (Sadly we got excited about ordering this stroller, I mean it, real excitement, we don't get out much)



Race Across America Update

Both NF Cycle teams finished the journey from Oceanside, CA to Atlantic City, NJ. Congrats to all riders for an amazing accomplishment. Hats off to you. The Soldiers made it across in 7 days and about 15 hours while the Angels rode for 8 days and 14 hours. Keep in mind that means someone from each team was riding at all times during that period. I'll see if I can wrangle some pictures.

This is a running blog...

So I will mention that the USATF Outdoor track championships are here in Indy this week. I am hoping to get downtown to see the 200 meter finals if nothing else. There are some solid competitors going for the win in that distance: Tyson Gay, Dix, Spearmon, Wariner, and Carter. From the USATF website:

FAST FACTS

World record: 19.32, Michael Johnson, 1996

American record: 19.32, Michael Johnson, 1996

Meet record: 19.66, Michael Johnson, 1996

Time schedule: 1st round 4:30 p.m., Saturday; semifinals noon Sunday; final 2:20 p.m. Sunday

Should be a great race. I'll run a 200m tomorrow and post the time. Don't expect any threat to Michael's records :)

Greetings from Pittsburgh International!

DELAY/DELAY/DELAY

I am sitting in councourse A at Pittsburgh's International Airport. My connection to Newark, NJ was supposed to leave at 4:00 PM. There was a delay until 5:50 posted when I stepped off my flight from Indy. Then 6:05 and now 6:39. If things stay on track now then I will get in to Newark at around 8:15. Tempers are flaring! Not mine, but I have overheard some people blowing up at the Gate Agents because they were bumped for people with higher frequent flier standing. Curse words were flying even though the planes apparently are not. A gate agent talking to another customer said that all of the flights out of Pittsburgh today are oversold more than usual. Cha-ching for the airlines and the restaurants and stores in the airport mall. For us lowly passengers it is just sit-and-wait time.

Lesson for the air traveler: don't blow up at the gate agent, he or she is not the target of your anger!



Airport workout

I have made use of my 3 hours of unplanned idle time to do some work email, laps around the concourse, and update this blog. I will not make it in time for dinner with my colleagues tonight but maybe in time for a drink.

As promised...here are the girls

and




Just cause I think the technology is cool, here is a bird's eye view of our house courtesy of Google Earth(in the middle of the screen) taken soemtime before I built our deck in July '05.



Race updates...Anneliese and I are a week and a half out from our race. I have a run scheduled for this weekend and will try to get a picture of us in action. Our NF friends in the RAAM have completed 488.9 miles (Shannon's Soldiers) and 389.9 miles (Ari's Angels). Speeds are between 14 and 18 MPH!

Songs for the open road...

I listen to my iPod Shuffle on about 1/3 of my runs. I'm in limbo on my song library because the songs that are on my Shuffle now are stuck there since I had to do a "Destructive Hard drive Recovery" on our PC which wiped out my original library and disassociated my Shuffle from our computer. To further complicate, I received an iPod Nano as a grad gift when I finished my MBA in May. As far as I can tell there is no way to get the songs off of my Shuffle and on to the Nano. I'm missing out on such classics as Pour Some Sugar on Me, I Walk the Line, One (Metallica), Ridin' Dirty, and others...Plus a few that are nice for a pick me up on those long runs like Devil Went Down to Georgia, Battle Hymn of the Republic (don't laugh, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra nailed this one), Now is the Time to Worship, and I Run. I do have some great new downloads on the Nano and I am sure eventually I will figure out a way to carry over. FIXED IT!


RAAM



Today the Race Across America started in Oceanside, CA. This is a bicycle event in which indivudals or teams bike from CA to Atlantic City, NJ. Some 3000 miles. Among the 195 riders competing are 16 NF fundraisers including the NF Marathon Program Director Steve Kendra. Relay teams will have riders on the road 24 hours a day for 10-12 days in order to complete the event. This is an amazing test of endurance and mental toughness (I am guessing since I have never done anything close to 3000 miles). I hope to do a question and answer with Steve when he finishes. I will post his responses. In the mean time be sure to follow their progress at the link above.

The old Irish Blessing applies here for the riders: May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be at your back!

Last 2 workouts

Sunday, Anneliese and I went out for a 4.5 miler. We stopped at the park so she could hit the slides and swings while I added a few seated dips and pull ups to the work out followed by an 800 m sprint home.

Today, track workout day. The plan called for 2X1600 meters, anticipated to be ran at 7:30 min/mile, and 1X800m with 400 meters between for recovery. Here is the breakdown (I added a 100m to kick things off):

1 mile warm up from home to track
100m: 14.9 seconds (WR 9.76)
1600m: 8:02
1600m: 7:59
800m: 1:44
1 mile cool down


I wasa little bit slower than anticipated. Somedays you have it, somedays you don't. The 800 time was a pick me up after the slow 1600's (about 1 mile). Next run is a tempo on Thursday.





Check back tomorrow for some pictures of the girls!