4.30.2011

Updates of a sorted variety

I am currently suffering from too many thoughts for posts and not enough time to post them.  So I will resort to the bulleted list:
  • I've been thinking about switching over to tumblr.com.  I've known about them for years but didn't really see any advantage until Wifey started using it.  Of course that would require time and dedicated effort (neither of which I really have right now).
  • I have a Twitter handle: what _runnery.  But don't get excited, I've had it for about a month and just posted my first tweet today, a tweet that has nothing to do with running.
  • Might adopt a dog today--there are a couple adoption events in the city today and we're visiting two of them.
  • I donated blood on Wednesday.  Unexpected side effect to giving blood: running becomes really hard!  It's bad enough that I'm pushing myself hard for this training cycle, but now I'm fatiguing like no one's business.
  • Summer is so freaking close...meaning that it's almost BBQ season!  I can't wait!  Not only will the sRod household BBQ be firing up weekly(ish) but we've already purchased VIP passes to the Big Apple BBQ Block Party.
  • I'm eyeing up the Mount Desert Island Marathon in Maine for October.  Registration is filling up fast so I might be registering in the week or so.
  • The Historic Half is 2.5 weeks away and I'm...not prepared.  I've been trying to run faster, but I think I found my ceiling.  It doesn't help that I've been traveling like crazy during training (Miami, Philadelphia, and Hong Kong, just in the past six weeks).  It's also allergy season now, so my sinuses are about as useful as a cement-filled drain pipe.  The blood donation above doesn't help the situation.  This race will be interesting indeed.

4.12.2011

Fast boat to China

I got back from my Hong Kong work trip on Saturday night.  What a wild week that was.  It's 16-hours straight from JFK to Hong Kong plus a 12 hour time difference.  Coming from New York, it's a pretty awesome city: a lot like San Francisco, except there is an Hermes or Cartier store on every corner (seriously, Hong Kong has Hermes stores like New York has J. Crews, it's insane).  We ate a lot of Chinese food--Beijing, Shanghai, Canton cusines--but I was very impressed by the diversity of international cuisine, there was even a Cuban place: my people have made it to Hong Kong!  The meetings were very intense, but productive.

Despite being way off my time and sleep cycle, I did all my runs last week.  Since the machine only displayed kilometers, I had to take a little cheat sheet with conversions for distance and pace.  Now if I completed the runs or did them as fast as I was supposed to is a different story--but I got on the treadmill four of the five mornings I was there.

When I arrived back on Saturday night I passed out.  I slept for 10.5 hours straight.  For those who know me that is close to impossible.  I think the last time I slept that much was one time I was sick in middle school.  And this is the first time ever that Wifey has woken up before me--first time, ever.  It was great--except that it completely blew my plans to run 12 miles that morning.

Finally, an apology to Laura: I'm sorry, but I didn't get pictures of the gym.  Every time I remembered to take a picture of the gym for you there were people in the gym.  And I didn't want to be the creepy guy taking pictures of sweaty people at the gym.  If it's any consolation, the view from the treadmills was kinda like this (notice the cargo ships in the background, they are always coming in or out):

4.02.2011

And the clusterF rolls on

Damn.  I had a good streak going with pretty consistent posts.  And for once I didn't have a lack of things to write about.  I have genuinely not had time for any blog writing since March 15.  Life has been a complete clusterF the last half of March.  Wifey was out of town for a week and a half for business, then we visited my family in South Florida--where we met our new little niece, Giada (no pictures because we left our camera at home, boo!)!  On top of that both of my clients at work have been extremely busy while my team has been snatched away to work on trying to get a new piece of business.

And the best part?  It's not over yet.  Wifey is in the middle of flying back and forth to meetings across the country.  And I--not to be out traveled--am getting ready to go to Hong Kong tomorrow.  That's right: Hong mother-effing Kong.  I'll be sitting on a air plane for 16 hours (deep vein thrombosis anyone?) and going to the other side of the world for a series of client meetings.  And while I'm excited, I really could have done without the super late nights I've put in to get our presentation together (10p here, 1a there).  And our poor apartment: it is so unloved and such a mess.  We haven't cooked in days, the laundry pile is sky high, and thanks to Wifey's doubled efforts to get a decent tomato crop this year, we have lined every free square inch of the apartment with tomato seedlings--it's a greenhouse in here!

And while I am usually able to stick to my training schedule during the toughest of times, the past few weeks have just wiped their ass with my training plans.  The past eight days are just a series of missed and incomplete runs.  It looks pathetic on the training plan, but there is no way I can wake up at 530a after having stayed up until 1a working on a presentation.

But the good news is that the worst appears to be behind me--and the hotel in Hong Kong has an excellent gym from what I can tell online.  Maybe I'll even be able to do my first ever post from abroad next week!