For your viewing pleasure

With this you can do this.

Powerpoint in the final briefing, i have a tough time getting tired of it.

If the sound on this one doesn't sync up perfectly, hit reload.

Pablo Picasso never ran a Yasso

Yasso 800's, there seem to be as many believers as doubters in this particular workout.

We did our second night of these last night on the Fat Boy 5K course which was fun. These are modified Yasso's for the half marathon, so we only do 6. You take your desired half marathon time, double it, and that is the pace that you should run your half mile in. In our case, 1:35 x 2 = 3:10 and there's your target. Of course the company you keep has a profound impact on how these turn out. Last night with Tim, Charles and Scott as my compadres, the pace was swifter than planned.

no 1 - 3:06 rest - 3:02
no 2 - 3:00 rest - 2:59
no 3 - 2:59 rest - 2:51
no 4 - 3:04 rest - 2:57
no 5 - 2:59 rest - 2:59
no 6 - 2:59 cooldown - 15

Don't ask me why our recovery was so whacky, i guess we were chomping at the bit. Three miles gets done in 18:07 with 14:48 of rest in between. I agree that it is a cool workout, only made cooler with a large group of people coming in and departing at separate times.

I think the notion that some sort of mathematical constant exists between your 800 time and your marathon time is intriguing, sort of like America's preoccupation with medical dramas. But I disagree whole-heartedly with the notion that i could ever approach a 3:00 marathon, or a 3:15 or a 3:30 for that matter, so that part doesn't jive with me, but hey, maybe i'm wrong. Maybe if i started sleeping in a hypoxic tent, running 70 a week, yada yada yada...

Congrats to Lance Bo Bance who smoked the Chicago Marathon, while he didn't qualify for Boston, he can take solace in the fact that at least he didn't finish like race winner Robert Cheruiyot. That just looks horrible, but he was released today.

Good things come to those who wait...

For anyone out there who ever thought of getting an SRM or Powertap but thought both options sucked, the Microtech Revolution might be the answer, only $499! what a bargain

the run that was

I know running isn't as exciting to read about, but when headlights are showing up on cars at 5:30 in the evening, it's obviously that time of year.

Tonight we enjoyed another light workout in our easy/recovery week. It was a 2 mile out, 2 mile back course around the lake BUT no watches were allowed. Instead, Jenni recorded everyone's best predictions and the runner to come closest to their pace would win a new pair of shoes. Ryan and i huddled up, considered the various sidewalk and bikepath crossings and came up with 32 flat.

The run went well with very few slowdowns and no dropped toys, so we ended up at 30:18, not good. Amy came in within 35 seconds of her prediction which i thought was very good, but not good enough. The winner came in 1 second under her predicted time, i was impressed.

an open letter to esquire magazine

Dear Sirs,
Once again i am confused by your Sexiest Woman Alive feature. In each of the six issues leading up to the November issue revelation, i witnessed an unattractive and unsexy mystery woman in unflattering poses featured in the same magazine as more attractive but less heralded women. Now i am supposed to believe that the newly revealed Scarlett Johansson is the Sexiest Woman Alive (page 136) when a much sexier woman, Emmanuelle Chriqui, is clearly shown on page 149.

This fact would be hard enough to swallow on it's own, but what has caused me the greatest consternation is the uncanny resemblance of Ms. Johansson's centerfold pullout to 70's pin-up star Leif Garrett. Google (image) it and you will be afraid, very afraid as am i.

Please tell me now, has your editorial staff been taken over by late 30-something women caught up in a hazy Tiger Beat induced coma? Keep up the great writing and leave the gimmicks to Maxim.

Sincerely,
David A.
Baton Rouge, LA

Oh sweet interbike porn

there's just too much to look at, but my favorites

an affordable Colnago?
dimple-hubbed madness
the new P3 paint job
and what i hope will be my new tt bike

Lance at the NYC Marathon

Any takers?
Only 23 days to go and he claims to have not yet run more than 13 miles.
I've got him down for 2:53:21.08, anyone else?
Eternal UCC Glory to the guy who picks the closest.
I think it would be cool if he attacked the Kenyans and ran the first 4 or 5 miles faster than them, but that's probably not possible. It would just be funny to hear the announcers going, that is if they still televised it.

if a bear poops in the woods, does it still stink?

So maybe Opera's simAquarium isn't for everybody, but this is great.

I wielded a $100 lightsaber this weekend at the Halloween Superstore. I mean sure it's cool that it has both power up and power down sounds but $100? I know i'm White and Nerdy but who would buy this? Thanks Taylor, now i can't stop singing that. It took 3 or 4 viewings to make out the PacMan in red lights behind Weird Al.

On the running scene, we did 9 miles Saturday morning with 4 one mile pickups sprinkled throughout for effect. Tonight the plan is 5 easy, but we're also meeting Sam Thompson who's going to talk about his accomplishment, i don't know if he's running with us or not. Wednesday, Dean Karnazes will be passing through town doing his thing and you can run with him if you like for only $100, i'm thinking maybe the lightsaber might be a better deal. Isn't running 26.2 enough? geez

Saturday night we put on a track race and ... 7 people showed up. That took me back, back to the old days. Way back, when i used to race track. I remember once Norm and i did an entire night of racing against Lorenzo. Ever done a 3 person points race? Drama, pure and simple drama.

Well, Saturday night didn't suck, what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality as Team Chad Harris and Jaro came in from New Orleans, and Butch made the drive from Natchez. Representing Baton Rouge was Tre, the only real track racer in the city, and probably a dozen skateboard punks who just wanted us to get off the track so they could get all Tony Hawk and stuff. I'll have the results up on the Delta site tonight.

Just when you think 80's trivia is occupying your brain for nothing, last night Amy bet me that Steve Perry didn't sing Oh Sherry solo. She thought that he had formed another band after Journey by the name of Extreme (you know More than Words) and they sang it. Talk about bonus, she now owes me a P3 Carbon. How sweet is that!

got Opera?

If you browse with Opera, i highly recommend the simAquarium. It's an addictive addition to your desktop. You accrue a dollar per minute, plus your fish breed and can be sold for more cash. I left it open Tuesday night and when i returned the next morning, i had this school of 48 pirahna to greet me.


Dolphins and discus are nice looking, but don't reproduce.


Of course, this one is nice too.

weekend that was

good times, good times

saturday morning's marathon training run was a 10 miler, two miles chillin, two miles at race-pace, one mile chillin, one mile race-pace then 2x1/2 milers scattered over the way home. All the activity, plus running in a group made it go by fast and we got back to the cars in 1:16 which i was pleased with.

Ryan and i spent some quality time at Gymboree which was cool, imagine 2000 square feet of stuff that can't hurt your child, padding, foam, etc all led by your tour guide, perhaps the most well-versed person i've ever met in nursery rhymes.

In what's becoming a habit for us, we hit Our Daily Bread for the lunch special in this case .... Baked Tempeh ... mmmmm.

Sunday we caught Diamond's Du Bayou Du out at Hooper Road, very envious of all the suffering that was going on there. The number of curse words heard while the racers came by attested to the difficulty of the course. Caroline wins with "I'd rather have gum surgery than do this again", well-played.

I put the flyer out for next weekend's track race. The theme being mass start, mass start, mass start.

I noticed that Dash Rip Rock will be playing the Live After Five series on the 13th which should be a blast, i haven't seen them in ages and i was surprised, although i shouldn't be, to see that they actually have a wikipedia entry. Not sure how that particular crowd is going to react to Let's Go Smoke Some Pot or P-Whipped, should be interesting to say the least.