Incommunicado

I don't even know if that's how you spell that, but I'll let it stand.

So, it's been what, a week or so since I posted last? Too long and that's more a product of being busy than slacking off. Work has generally been hit and miss, but I've been working steadily on some long term projects that have taken up more time than I thought, and I've gotten a few other items of more urgency added to my plate as well.

Plus, we spent a long weekend in the Midwest with the in-laws, so I really didn't have any opportunity to write anything from Thursday night through Monday. And I failed to pack my motivation to run, so you'll notice a nice four day gap in my training there as well.

Nothing very mind-blowing to report on the running front. I'm still mostly on track with my training for the half marathon and have a 7 miler planned for this Sunday, even though we'll be in DC for a wedding for the weekend. I'll post that route and elevation on Monday after we get back. I'm hoping I won't get off track with this run like I did with my run back in July. I'll be running mostly on Rock Creek Park Trail, so it'll be more difficult to go off the path this time around.

I have made good strides with my cross training, however. I started going to yoga classes at our nearby studio. My wife has gone for more than a year and has really liked it. Plus, she got me a free one-month membership for $15 (they normally want $99 a month!) to try it out, so I thought, why not? I can go to unlimited classes until September 15 and have gone to three thus far. And I have to admit that I really like it. It's pretty difficult for me, mainly because I'm about as flexible as a piece of steel. But also because I've never done (practiced?) yoga before. But, I've stuck to the beginners courses and have improved each time.

The challenge of the stretches and poses, mixed with the focus on relaxation of your mind and body appeal to me, I guess. At this point, of course, I'm just trying to make it through the class without falling over like an oaf, but I think as one practices more, you go beyond trying to physically do it and begin to focus on the mental aspects of yoga. Certainly, your improved strength and flexibility play a part in that as well.

As it stands, I sweat more in yoga class than I do while running (unless it's exceptionally hot out when I'm running, which is rare)! In fact, the only time I've sweat more was when I played squash in prep school and college. I went to a class last night and was dripping, literally, by like 20 minutes in. I weighed myself before and after class and found that I lost 3 pounds in 75 minutes! And this was not a "hot yoga" class! But, I drank a liter of water afterwards and felt really fine. Fine enough to head out for an easy run this morning.

I'm going to try to go twice per week until my month trial expires. After that, I plan on going at least once per week to the community classes they offer. The community classes are taught by the same instructors, but they're much cheaper. So, a monthly membership is $99, which is pretty high. We already spend $70 per month on the gym (that's for each of us...they don't have a family membership option, to my chagrin). Spending another $200 a month is a lot to ask, even though we both very much enjoy yoga. If you pay per class, it's $16. The community classes, however, are a cool $6 (cash only), which is much more reasonable. We can each go once per week and spend about $50 a month, which is a bargain.

Ideally, I'd like to go twice per week, but the community class schedule doesn't really fit my schedule wherein I could attend two classes per week, and I can find other things to use that ~$25 per month on anyway. So, I'm going to look into getting some sort of DVD program.

So, we'll see how it goes. I'll give it a few more weeks before I make any final pronouncements about yoga's ability to relax my muscles and mind and improve my flexibility, although I have felt great after all three classes. Even after the first class, which was painful and made me sore the next day, I felt good and slept like a baby.

New Comic Wednesday: Batman and Picard and Zombies

First, running: I had meant to get up and get my 3 miler in this morning, but I guess I turned my alarm off without realizing it, because when I awoke, it felt later than 6AM. And indeed, it was 7:10, which meant no run this morning. But, I may head out for an ultra-rare evening run to make up for the lapse. Or I may go to the gym and do it there, as further punishment for oversleeping.

************************************************************************************

It's not often I actually get to the comic book store on Wednesday to snap up that week's latest new offerings. Usually, I hit Alliance Comics once every other Saturday or Sunday to pick up whatever new issues off my subscription list are waiting for me. I have to do this for a number of reasons:

1. While close by, driving from the apartment to Federal Hill on a Saturday afternoon is annoying. Parking is a pain and you're dodging hung over college kids stumbling out of doors for the first time at 1PM. Like I said, annoying.
2. If I went to the store every week, I'd be broke. I inevitably see something I want and risk impulse buying far too many issues.
3. A corollary to #2: spending that much money on comics would almost certainly incur spousal wrath. As most married men know or soon learn, a happy wife means a happy life. Words to live by. 

But this week was different. I had meant to go this past Saturday, but it just didn't happen. The logistics of my Saturday were such that I would not have been able to go to Alliance without doing serious backtracking or going out of my way. Despite driving an Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle, I hate backtracking and avoid it whenever possible. Moreover, while I had one new issue come out last week (8/8), I thought I had two coming today, so waiting made more sense anyway.  So, today at lunch I walked down to Alliance and picked up some reading for the rest of the week.

Batman #12

Source: DC Comics

I am unclear if this is the final entry in the Court of the Owls arc, or if it's the one-off between CoO and the Issue #0 installment that's supposed to come in September/October. As you can see from the cover, it doesn't say Court of Owls, but I had seen somewhere that this was supposed to be the wrap up for the story. I'm guessing this will be a stand alone issue with a little bit at the beginning about the Court and then a small lead in at the end with the new Joker story arc coming in October/November, which I can't wait to read.

Walking Dead #101

Source: Image Comics

It feels like it's been months since Walking Dead #100 came out, and I guess that makes sense. They really pushed hard to get to issue #100 right before CCI back in early July, which probably exhausted everyone. Then they actually went to CCI and did panels, autographings, interviews, etc. And even still, issue #100 came out the second week of July (I think), and it's only been a month. It just FEELS longer after two months of getting a TWD book every three weeks or so.

I typically re-read the previous issue of all the books I get before diving in to the newest issue, just to refresh my memory and get my narrative momentum up. I'll definitely do tat with TWD #100 and #101, too.

The Massive #3



Source: Dark Horse Comics

 The story concept for The Massive is compelling (check out the review of issue #1 from CBR for a run-down), and I really liked the art throughout most of the first two issues. But it has been plodding along a bit, with so many flashbacks interrupting the present-day action, the story has advanced very little. I'm hoping that changes in #3, which has gotten good reviews.

Star Trek 100-Page Spectacular Summer 2012



Source: IDW

 And a relatively last-minute purchase. I grew up watching Star Trek: TNG and caught wind of this book yesterday while perusing CBR in the evening. I have not really gotten in to the Star Trek comics, mainly because they tend to focus on the original series, or the recent re-make of the original series movies. And while there is a Star Trek: TNG/Dr. Who crossover book out there, I'm not a Dr. Who fan and the book has gotten only middling reviews. I'm waiting for Jonathan Hickman's new Star Wars comic coming in January and would consider something similar with a TNG book if one ever emerged.

Anyway, this is actually two stories in one: a TNG story and a Voyager story. I was never THAT in to Voyager (I'd rank them as TNG, Enterprise, DS9, Original Series, Voyager) but will always take a Star Trek story involving the Borg. I have high hopes for this and may look in to other IDW Star Trek books if this is really good.

Everyone is Running Downhill Except Me

So, turns out that the men's Olympic marathon was on Sunday and not Saturday...who knew? In the back of my mind, I thought Saturday was not the right day, but I plowed ahead anyway. And within maybe an hour I realized I was wrong, but really didn't feel like logging in to Blogger and changing the post, etc. So, my bad. Somehow I doubt it made much of a difference.

But, for those who didn't blindly follow my post and not visit any other Olympics-related website the entire weekend, Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich won the gold medal, claiming that country's first gold in the marathon in 2:08:01. Silver and bronze were claimed by Kenyans Abel Kirui (2:08:27) and Wilson Kipsang (2:09:37).


However, American Meb Keflezighi came in fourth after being as far back as 19th around the halfway point in the race. That's a fantastic finish for Meb, who is 37 and was the silver medalist in Athens in 2004. He covered 26 miles, 385 yards in 2:11:06. Here's an article on Runner's World about his race. These were his final Olympics, and I'm happy to see he went out on such a positive note.

Anyway, this weekend saw some wonderful weather here (for August, of course), and I completed my 5.5 miler under a cloudless sky in high 70s temperatures and low humidity. The sun was intense and it was definitely toasty in the sunlight versus the shade, but compared to some runs earlier in the summer, it was nice. I ran around the harbor and down into Federal Hill/Locust Point before turning around and coming back up into Mt. Vernon.



As you can see from the elevation chart above, the route has some decent elevation changes and the final mile or so is all uphill as you climb from sea level at the harbor up into Mt. Vernon. But I swear every time I ran uphill, I passed several other runners going downhill. But then when I was running downhill, I never once saw anyone else running uphill in the opposite direction. More than once I was trudging uphill only to be passed by another runner cruising downhill at warp speed. They ran almost effortlessly as I seemed to drag myself up the side of a mountain. Yet I never got the reward of feeling (mistakenly) athletically superior to those poor saps heading uphill as I glided, as if on two little clouds instead of shoes, downhill. "Well, everyone's a freaking Olympic marathoner when running downhill," I kept thinking to myself. Yet that didn't take away the indignity.

OK, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, but still, when you run up a hill, you want SOME form of instant reward. "This will pay off in October" only does so much to take away the burn of the lactic acid in one's legs, you know. At some point, one needs to see someone else suffering a little to take away that sting. Yet on Sunday, it seemed I was stuck in some sort of runner's punishment where I run uphill and a.) it always feels awful and b.) never run downhill and feel satisfied that someone else is suffering too, which makes the next uphill feel more awful.

But, them's the breaks, I suppose. And really, it will all be worth it come October. Right?

Men's Olympic Marathon Reminder

Almost forgot! Tomorrow morning at 11 AM in London (6 AM here on the East Coast, 12 AM Sunday morning if you're reading this from Tokyo), the men's Olympic marathon gets underway.

I'll be rooting for Ryan Hall, as he has the best chance of the American delegation. However, his best time of 2:06:17 is still the 69th fastest in the world. As this post from Runner's World's Amby Burfoot points out, the top 33 times in the world this year are owned by Kenyans or Ethiopians. So it'll be an uphill battle for Ryan and everyone else in the field tomorrow.

Nonetheless, I'll be TiVO-ing it to watch after I get back from the gym in the morning.

Impromptu Tempo Run and Friday Misc.

My battle with myself over sleep schedules continued this week and impacted my running. I did well with getting enough sleep early in the week, but faltered on Wednesday night, going to bed after 11 PM with the intention of waking up at 6 for a run Thursday morning. Needless to say, it didn't happen. So, I needed to wake up this morning to make up for it.

Unfortunately, I awoke to a sky that was as dark as night...I got dressed and walked outside to see dark clouds rolling in overhead. I looked on the radar back inside and sure enough, a mass of heavy rain was moving in at 6:15 in the morning. I don't mind running in bad weather, so long as I don't start my run in bad weather. For instance, beginning a run with cloudiness that turns into rain a few miles in is no big deal. But it's demoralizing to begin a run when it's raining. By the time I did all that, it was nearly 6:30, so I decided t bag the outdoor run and hit the gym for a short tempo run. My 2 mile run got me finished about 7. Just in time to head back in pouring rain. Hooray! So, my tempo run was a little longer, as I ran home, getting soaked along the way.

An interesting side story: there were two people (one man, one woman) working out with a trainer while I was there. They were downstairs at first, but then ran up the stairs and did a jogging circuit around the gym. Then they came upstairs to the treadmills. At one point, they got on the treadmill and proceeded to run way faster than they were capable of running. The woman was beside me and I could tell she was going faster than her legs could carry her because her feet were pounding on the treadmill as the mill took her feet out from under her. Luckily, the trainer was there and slowed it down for her. Otherwise...well, you've seen the YouTube videos of people getting swept off treadmills.

This sort of thing continued for about 10 minutes and the woman would speed back up, only to start grunting, gasping, crying out and wailing until the trainer slowed it back down. Then she'd keep saying, "It's too hard! I can't do this!" and so forth as she walked to catch her breath. Then they chatted about preseason football and the Real Housewives show on Bravo. Then he'd speed her back up and the weird cycle would begin again. I kept thinking the woman would realize how much energy and breath she was wasting with the melodrama and chatting, but it never happened. Eventually, the shenanigans ended and they moved on to some other part of the gym.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

In other news, tomorrow is my bi-weekly comics run, and I'm looking forward to picking up this month's Batman issue, which has gotten strong reviews all around. I found the first trade paperback combining the first seven issues of the comic (this month is issue #12) at the local library, so I now only need to read issues #8 and #9 to be fully caught up. All the issues are strong, but I think issue #5 is perhaps one of my favorite comics ever. Full stop.

This weekend is Wizard's World in Chicago, which is their comic-con. Here is an interview with Greg Capullo (lead artist of Batman) from the Chicago Sun Times.

I'm also picking up The Massive #3. The jury is still out on this book, and the third issue will be pivotal in determining whether I continue to read the book or not. It got a good review on Comic Book Resources, but I feel they engage in grade inflation to maintain access to creators and artists, so I will see for myself.

Embryonic Cross Training Routine

Now that I've gotten my running legs back, somewhat, I need to add cross training to my weekly routine. In the past, this has been a weak spot for me, as it's much easier to classify a rest day as a day to sit on one's ass, rather than as a day to do some activity that's not running. I'm certain this has put a ceiling on my fitness in the past and this time around, I'd like to fix that.

But, I also know that going to gym and lifting some weights and riding the stationary bike won't cut it, either. For one thing, I don't know what the hell I'm doing when it comes to weight training. And I don't want to pay for a personal trainer. So, the strength training will be a relatively smaller proportion of the routine than it might be were I not aiming for endurance over building lots of muscle. Secondly, I like variety and get bored in the gym easily. Doing the same routine twice or three times per week for years at a time is not for me. Thirdly, I'm not flexible at all and so my cross training must integrate some activity that improves that deficiency to further help me avoid injury over the longer term.

So, I think I am going to try a series of activities on my non-running days and we'll see how it goes. First, spinning classes. I don't own a road bike and frankly, riding a bike in Baltimore is a terrifying prospect. Spinning classes are free at my gym and can burn serious calories while building endurance over time.

Next: basic strength training exercises like some light free weights, push ups, core work, etc.

Next: a consistent stretching routine for running and non-running days. Admittedly, I have no concrete idea as to what this will entail. But it sounds pretty great, right?

Finally: yoga. A. has gone to hot yoga classes off and on for a few years now and she likes it a lot. Our local studio offers community classes weekly for beginners at $6 a pop, so that sounds like a good place to start. Once a week is perfectly fine.

We'll see how this goes for the next few weeks and adjust as necessary.

Operation Cannoli Follow Up (also Running Stuff, Too)

Operation Cannoli was a great success, although we ended up going with Italian cookies over cannoli, simply because of the potential mess factor. But the overall plan worked like a charm. We had the cookies in a bag and got no trouble walking in with it. We also bought a large drink and soft pretzel, so the theater company got plenty of our money for the evening anyway. The only problem was that once the movie began, it was impossible to see the cookies to see what kind you were eating. Next time, as a logistical improvement, I'd arrange the cookies in a particular order so we knew what we were blindly eating. However, freshly made Italian cookies beat Twizzlers any day.

I won't bore anyone with a review of The Dark Knight Rises, other than to say I think it was a.) the best of the three Christopher Nolan Batman movies (although they're all great) and b.) the best superhero movie I've seen maybe ever, and that includes Superman II. But, I like Batman darker and grittier like Nolan envisioned him, so that has a lot to do with it. Plus, as I've noted before, I'm not a big Spider-Man fan. I will say that this movie and the first Iron Man movies are close in my book, but my affinity for the Caped Crusader seals the deal for me.

I also had a successful running weekend and managed to get both my intervals and long run done. No major problems, although the weather was very humid, so the long run was a tough slog and it was a challenge to keep my heart rate under control throughout. From here on out, I'm going to be focusing on ramping up my mileage as the half marathon in October approaches. So, this weekend will be a 6 miler, building up to 10-11 miles the week before the race, ideally. To supplement that, I'm going to be much better about cross training, stretching, etc. I need to improve my aerobic fitness, but also my flexibility, as I don't want to pull a hamstring trying to get through a long run.

Cutting out Italian cookies might be helpful too, now that I think about it.

And, in a brief follow up to Saturday's post: Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher came in 10th and 11th in Sunday's women's Olympic Marathon, respectively. They were up with the leaders for much of the race and, given the heavy hitters in the field, I think they did great. The winning runner set an Olympic record, so being the 10th and 11th fastest women in the race is nothing to feel bad about at all.

And the Curiosity rover touched down on Mars early this morning (in the east), without any problems, which is really unbelievable. The rover sent a few pictures back from the surface already and it's incredible to think that hundreds of scientists and engineers were able to put a car, basically, on another planet, after shooting it into space and building a computer to navigate the millions of miles from Florida to freaking Mars.

Here's a link (courtesy of The Atlantic and NASA) to the video of the control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the minutes leading up to the confirmation transmission from Curiosity that it had reached Mars. I think I'd be jumping up and down ecstatically too, if I had spent years working on that project.

Saturday Reminder

What? A post mid-weekend when we're all out and about? That's right. But I forgot to add a few things to my Friday post. Two reminders, really.

First: the women's Olympic marathon is on tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM Eastern time. Yeah, it's crazy early, but that's an 11:00 AM start time in London, so it could be worse. Imagine if they decided to start at 8:00 AM GMT. As it stands, I'm going to set the TiVO to record the whole thing so I can watch it later in the day. I'll be up, but out running myself when they cross the finish line.

The Americans in the field are Desi Davila, Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan. Here's an article from Runners World laying out the odds for the Americans in the super stacked Olympic field. Kenyans Mary Keitany and Edna Kiplagat, along with Russia's Liliya Shobukhova Nonetheless, I'm rooting for them and hope at least one of them gets on the podium tomorrow.

Secondly, and not running related, early Monday morning NASA's Curiosity rover vehicle will approach and then land on Mars. The mission kicked off last November with the launch of Curiosity into space for the ~150 million mile journey from Earth to Mars. At around 1:00 AM EST on Monday morning, the craft will begin its descent into the Martian atmosphere. If the landing is successful (fingers crossed!), the 2K pound rover will explore an area of Mars thought to have a good chance of once supporting water, and thus possibly life. The rover will operate for several years, although the small nuclear reactor onboard (!) can power the craft for up to 14 years. The descent will take seven minutes, but it takes communication 14 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth, so NASA will receive confirmation that the craft has started its descent seven minutes AFTER it's already landed. Crazy!

Anyway, here's a story from NPR about the anxieties and challenges of taking a huge multi-billion dollar spacecraft, shooting it into space at another planet and landing it safely on said planet. Amazing stuff.

And with that, I bid you a fond weekend until Monday. Details on Operation Cannoli then as well. Maybe also some running stuff.

Dark Knight Cannoli Smuggling and Weekend Training Schedule 08/03 - 08/05

Another week is gone and another two days without having to sit at my desk are just a few tedious short hours away. I have no desire to work on the project(s) that sit before me, so I'll write this instead and kill some time. See? Positive thinking!...

Anyway!

It'll be a busy weekend, both running-wise (hoping!) and otherwise. I had meant to finally get back to my weekly interval training at the gym I pay to not go to, but staying up late to watch the Olympics on Tuesday night killed that ambition. So, I rescheduled my return to the treadmill for tomorrow, after a volunteer orientation at the Maryland SPCA in the morning. I'll start out modestly, maybe going for four or five 400m repeats and seeing how I feel. Then I should be able to get up early on Sunday and get a five-mile "long" run done, as we have no commitments to speak of.

"But wait," you say. "Interval training and a long run on back to back days? Is that wise?"

Well, maybe not. But hear me out. First, neither training session is going to be particularly grueling. I mean, 4X400 is very meager in the grand scheme of interval sessions. Second, a five mile run is not going to wear me out. Third, I do what I want. Taken together, this means it'll be fine.

Outside of running, we'll be going to see The Dark Knight Rises tomorrow night. I'm really excited to see this movie, as my previous comments about Batman will demonstrate. I've heard mostly good reviews and the bad reviews have generally gone with the "the movie is just too unrealistic." To which I say, it's Batman...a guy who dresses up like a bat and fights crime. If you want realistic, I'm sure there's an independent movie theatre showing some French documentary on dissident Algerian poets nearby. If you pay to see a movie based on a comic book, well, you should try harder to suspend your disbelief, is all I'm saying. Nonetheless, I'm excited.

Even more exciting will be our theatre fare. We go to a theatre down in the Harbor East neighborhood of Baltimore, which is the super yuppified part of town. As in, you can buy Hagen Daaz for $10 and then go buy "designer" flip flops for $100 next door before buying a $35 "designer" T-shirt next to that. But the movie theatre is awesome! The seats are large and comfortable and because it's in a part of town made up mostly of young couples or old empty nesters, you get very few obnoxious people (i.e. kids and teenagers) messing up the movie. Plus they have a decently-enforced no cell phones and no texting policy. They throw you out if they catch you. And the tickets are just as expensive ($10) as any other theatre. So, win.

The theatre is also near the Little Italy neighborhood, so we're going to try to buy some cannoli to smuggle in to the theatre to enjoy. I think the "hiding in plain sight" tactic might work: get the cannoli and cookies in a nice box and put them in a shopping bag and just walk in the theatre. It might work.

Sing in Me Muse...

Sorry for the posting hiatus; the weekend was hectic and not very run-filled, and this week my running blog muse has gone on vacay, leaving me with little in the way of inspiration.

A quick recap of my weekend to explain: Friday we took Tedster in to the vet for a deep dental cleaning. His teeth were kind of a mess when we got him from the rescue organization back in December 2010, but this was a product of his original owners, whoever they were, not caring for him at all. His breath had gotten worse as of late, so we decided to pony up and have the deep cleaning done. They ended up extracting four of his top teeth, which were rotted, in addition to the cleaning, so they gave him some pain meds and we took him home Friday evening. But later that night, his breathing became very shallow and the vet said to bring him back, so we ended up back at the vet that night (it's a 24 hour animal hospital). THey agreed to keep him overnight for observation (no charge). But that meant I had to get up and go get him Saturday morning, which meant no Saturday morning run.

My mother-in-law flew in later that day to visit us and my wife's sister in DC. Unfortunately, she stepped on an uneven piece of sidewalk in DC and (we found out later) fractured her foot in two places. So, she stayed with us Saturday night but we got up and drove her to National airport the next morning so she could catch an early flight back. Thus, Sunday's run was also nixed.

So, as you can tell, the weekend training really didn't happen, unfortunately. But not for lack of trying! I've been more successful this week in getting out the door and some short runs completed. Pretty standard stuff, which also explains the lack of posting. I'm trying to avoid "junk posts" just as you would try to avoid junk miles during training. And while I have plenty of non-running ideas floating in my head, I want to limit them as well since this is supposed to be primarily a running blog.

In closing, I'll try and get some running posts up here shortly. Just as soon as my muse returns from her holiday.