Everyday Normal Guy

January 30th: 5am wakeup. Go Lean Crisp for breakfast. Leftover dinner from Saturday for lunch plus an apple, Greek yogurt, and Cape Cod crack pepper and salt potato chips. Out the door at 5:40. Took the road less traveled and made great time. Took exit 11 (instead of exit 12) and rode the backroads. Easy day at work 6am-3:00pm. I rocked cords and a long sleeve purple polo. I was surprised that I didn't get more comments from the workers in the subfab. Only one from a worker. "Why purple?" I responded with "Why yellow?" He came back with "It's a little (the hand gesture that insinuated homosexuality)." I ended the conversation with "Don't worry about it. I have a girlfriend and it isn't a coverup." Home to relax by doing some dishes and dropping the kids off at the pool (bathroom) before the run.

Goupil and I were out the door at 4:45pm to meet Derrick. Normal loop plus a bit to make it 9+ (65:30). Felt good after the big weekend of faster mileage. Back for stretching, foamrolling, showering and making a monster dinner (Check Facebook/Twitter). Bed early for another day except that it's my birthday tomorrow. Informal work gathering this Thursday right after work.

Another Week Down

January 29th: 8:30am wakeup. Sleeping in felt amazing. Chilled out in the morning and conversed with my mom about my job/life for a couple hours. Whipped up a tomato and cheese omelette for her breakfast. I just had a mini cinnamon and raisin bagel with cream cheese. My mom packed up and headed out around 12:30pm. 

Out for a longish run at 1ish. Mapped out a route prior to departure. Turned out to be a fairly secluded run and nice weather. All dogs were either compliant with me or behind fences. Allowed me to just cruise through the miles. 13.4 miles (1:27:28). Just clipping off the pace every 3-4 miles. First 3 was 6:54/mile and the last 3.4 in 6:13/mile. Overall 6:31 pace. This happens when I run by myself. Solid weekend of training and 75 miles for the week. Rest of the day was a whole lot of nothing. 

Upcoming week will consist of no workouts and maybe a day off. Oh and I got into a bit of a cleaning frenzy. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Saturday Double

January 28th: 7am wakeup. Finished off the box of Honey Bunches of Oats. Relaxed on the couch for a couple hours before heading out for an easy morning run. Out and back 5+ (36:30). Beautiful out this morning.  Whey protein shake for post run recovery. 

I decided to do some research on laundry in the area. I found two places in Clifton Park. I made a few phone calls to check prices for each laundromat (Yeah, I did). One was $1.35 per pound for the washer and dryer. I was thinking, "Dang, that's gonna be expensive!" I only do laundry when I have a ton (not literally) of it. Called the second place and I couldn't argue the prices. Three sizes of washers ($1.25, $2.00, $3.00) and a quarter for every 8 minutes to dry. Pow! Though, I still checked out both laundromats in person to see which one I got better vibes from (aka wifi availability). Neither advertised. Hit up the laundromat with cheaper prices with my running clothes. Two loads down. Oh, and it had wifi! Total score!

Relaxed the rest of the day by grocery shopping (veggies, cereal, milk, OJ, and other essential items), running a second time, and tidying up my apartment for my mom. 

Second run was a bit faster than expected. Can't complain. Felt pretty smooth. 10 miles (61:24). 32 flat for the first 5 and 29:24 for the 2nd half. It was a fun solo run. I could just go. 10 mile "race" or tempo run in Albany next Sunday. Winter series from last week (15k). 

Out to dinner with my mom for a pre-birthday dinner. Long run of 15 tomorrow at some point after my mom departs in the mid-morning.

EZ Day To The Max

January 27th: 5am wakeup. Pouring rain out, but luckily the roads weren't bad at all. Arrived at work just before 6am. Easy day at work. Some overtime due to weekly report write-up and whatnot. Left with Goupil from work at 4:00pm.

Home to relax before a super easy day of running. 5 miles (39:58). It felt amazing. Kept it relaxed the whole time. Back to just chill out for the night. The only thing was the chicken and pasta gave me terrible rancid gas for the rest of the night. Luckily, I wasn't seeing anyone important tonight. Talked with my awesome sisters to "ketchup" with everybody. My mom is stopping by tomorrow evening after she goes hiking in the Adirondacks with a friend. The best part was that I got my first paycheck direct deposited today! Money in the bank! Literally! Rack city b****h!

Lots of miles this weekend. Some grocery shopping. No Goupil. Par-tay! True meaning: relaxing and some Wii. Maybe a bit of cleaning.

Switch It Up With A Workout

January 26th: 5am wakeup. Honey Bunches of Oats. Lunch already made from the night before. Just had to throw it in the bag. Bam! Got dressed. A light dusting of snow over the night hours so I had to clear off my car. I decided to be a nice roommate and clear off Goup's car. On the road at 5:37am (record, usually it's 5:40 or 5:41). Made it work with time to spare. Easy day at work except for my left pinky toe being in excruciating pain. I was sporting a pimp walk/gangsta lean through the subfab. Gave me some street cred and I got mad respect from the contract workers. AKA my fellow co-workers were questioning my strange walking style. Got through the day. Made it home by 3. Performed some major surgery on my blister and cleaned it out with some hydrogen peroxide. Ouchies!

Tossed a bandaid on it and headed out the door at 5pm. Warm up 20:39. 3x2 mile. Turned out to be about 35 seconds or a tenth mile short of 2 miles. Some major snowfall added a twist to the workout, but didn't phase us much. 11:17 (6:01, 5:16) 11:05 (5:15, 5:50) 11:00 (5:51, 5:09)
10:19 for a slow cooldown. 11+ on the day. Happy with the results. Goup had a solid workout as well. And no pain on the toe. It was a miracle!

Pasta and chicken for dinner. Bed. Tomorrow is Friday! Woohoo!

One Step Ahead

January 25th: 5am wakeup (nothing new). Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast. Quick preparation of lunch for work (double decker PB&J). Quick day at work. Well, at least it went by in a flash. 6:10pm-2:40pm. Made it home to relax for a bit before Goupil walked in the door. Washed some dishes, watched some television and took out the trash. Now only in NY would I find a Christmas tree in the dumpster. The best thing was that it looked like it was in fairly good health and it's almost February. Weird.

Out the door for a run at 4:30pm. It was still light out when we started! Yessss! Plus, I got dressed for the run before Goupil made it home so I didn't feel as rushed. Paid off. We cruised the 10.8 mile loop (72:21). Some secluded roads and a couple rollers. We avoided most of the commuter traffic. Might become a staple run if I can convince Goup to do it weekly. Last 2 miles in 12:02 (split it secretly) and rocked the last mile in probably 5:50s. Real solid day overall.

Back to shower before 7pm, which is a 1st for me. Usually I jump in right before bed. To top it off, I ate dinner before 8pm. Tortilla hamburger. Amazing! Tomorrow possibly some 2 mile repeats.

Another Recovery Day

January 24th: 5am wakeup. Work 6am-3:30pm. Getting that overtime, uhhh! Started forming a hot spot on the outside of my left foot. Possible pinky toe blister. My sock might of been scrunched up or folded to cause the irritation. Lunch was bomb today! Sausage and homefries topped with mexican blend cheese. Heated it all up to schmelt the cheese. Tossed some ketchup on top and mixed it all up. Meeting with a couple big dogs at 2pm. Dan Steel from the Singapore branch of Global Foundries. Afterwork, I cruised over to Home Depot to purchase some real safety gloves instead of my thin winter Nike gloves from TJ Maxx.

Goupil got home at 5:30pm. Ran 10+ miles (70:20) with a taped up wittle toe at 6pm. Nice loop for a Tuesday evening. Legs felt way better than yesterday. Calves still a little sore. Relaxed by not showering and eating chocolate chip cookies after the run. Of course after my protein shake. Big Bang Theory. Cheddar cheese 4 egg omelette for dinner. Bed a little late. 9:45pm.

Super Easy

January 23rd: 5am wake up. Bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats. Work 6:00-3:30pm. Filledmy tank up with gas and it took me like 10 minutes to travel the 1/2 mile home becuase I couldn't make a left turn out of the gas station. Then I hit the crazy 4 way intersection at completely the wrong time. It made me a little frustrated. I will need to figure out a more efficient way to get gas on the way home from work next time. Run with Goupil and Derrick at 4:45pm. 8 3/4 (66:40). Super easy. Calves were rocked from yesterday. Oreos, whey protein shake, more Oreos, chicken/rice combo (lunch and dinner) and a bunch of chocolate cookies (from my mom from 2 weeks ago, can't let em go to waste). No nutella today because I am waiting to open the 2nd jar. First jar was finished in 2 weeks. Relaxing day overall. First paycheck will be this Friday, which I am pretty pumped about. Shorter post today because it was kind of a blah day. Shooting for 75 miles this week. And my birthday is next week. Woohoo!

Oh, and the Giants win!

Race Report? I guess so.

January 22nd: Race in CT was cancelled due to icy roads. 15k in Albany was a low key one with a $5 entry and not a crazy amount of competition. Goupil did the 30k and there was a 5k as well. Bowl of a single packet of instant oatmeal. Race started at 10am. Arrived at 9am. Warmed up just short of 4 miles at 9:10am. Threw on the Katana Racers for some weight reduction. With the temperature starting in the teens, I rocked half tights, a t-shirt with a light pullover, gloves and the Nike featherlight cap (no ear coverage). No big deal. Everyone else had full tights, winter hats, full head covers and other nonsense. We all started at the same time. 5k to the right at the fork and the 15k/30k to the left at the fork. Ran with an ARE (Albany Running Exchange) guy for most of it. Made a small move at 3.5 miles, but it was covered quickly. Made another much stronger move at probably 10k (not really sure because I don't wear watches and no mile markers). Dropped the pace down to 5 flats (according to the ARE guy's Garmin). Then things got messy. Missed a turn for the finish and went out for a loop of the 30k course. Ended up running 51:30 for 15k (5:24 pace, split from the Garmin watch) and a 5k cooldown back to the finish the the ARE guy at around 19+ minutes. Finished at 12.4 miles in sub 71. 5:45s or so. Not real mad that we missed the turn, but my legs went from feeling good to major soreness when I realized I was running more than a 15k. A little less than 2 mile cooldown afterwards. Waited for Goupil to finish and headed home.

Relaxed all day. Ate a bag of beef jerky, yogurt with granola, finished off my box of black licorice and a banana. Shake out at 5:30pm of 3 miles slow. Call it 20+ for the day and 70+ for the week. Solid week with a day off.

GO GIANTS!

Double Whammy!

January 21st: With a full day open, Goupil and I decided to double up on runs today. The day was broken up with a passing through of Fleet Feet, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Sports Authority and Da Chopper (aka Price Chopper). Somewhat successful. Walked away with a yellow polo for 10 bucks.

Woke up at 9:30am. A banana with nutella. 5.5 (44:19) at 10am. Whey protein shake and some yogurt with granola. 4 hours out of the house. Back to relax before the evening run by eating Oreos with nutella. 6.5 (49:43). Spaghetti and sausage for dinner. Big Bang Theory marathon. Ghosts of Girlsfriend past before bed.

Local 15k tomorrow. 10am. Goupil is running the 30k. Should be fun. Not too cold tomorrow. We will see how it turns out!

Unscheduled Day Off

January 20th: 5am wake up. Finished off the box of Go Lean Crunch. Made a decent lunch and headed out for work at 5:45am. Lunch made the day because I actually packed a tupperware of yogurt and a seperate one of granola AND a banana. Mixed those up, bam! A little overtime this week with Friday being the main reason with an extra hour of work. Typed up my weekly report to help our project administrator, Alyssa, with some of the overwhelming workload especially at the end of the day. Made it home by 4. Goupil home at 4:30. There was an informal work gathering at the bar and reestaurant, Peddlers, to celebrate a couple birthdays.

Goupil and I were going to attempt to double up on the runs in the afternoon, but decided to just run after the shindig. Plans slowly went into flames as we arrived at 5ish and others arrived after us. It was originally supposed to be from 4:30 to 6:30. Turned into staying until 10pm for multiple reasons. Some of the contributing factors were ordering more beers, ordering food at different times, and delightful conversation. The main one was the waitress messing up the bill to the nth degree. Our boss left early and paid for a portion of the bill. The waitress was going to take the amount off at the end of the night. They didn't happen and almost everyone was paying for their meal and all their drinks. After a couple of the guys had an hour+ debate with the waitress and the manager in the backroom, it was basically resolved. We left, sat on the couch for a bit before conking out.

Day off. I didn't mind after a long week of work. Big weekend of mileage ahead, plus a local 15k in Albany because I decided not to head home with the weather possibly complicating the trip home to Connecticut.

Standard Day

January 19th: 5am wake up. Yogurt and granola for breakfast. Packed my double decker cheese quesdilla with a small tupperware of salsa and Texas Pete hot sauce. 6am-2:30pm work day (scheduled hours with 1/2 unpaid lunch). Home for a couple hours before Goupil got home at 4:30pm. Started getting ready at 5 and took us a solid 20 minutes to actually walk out the door for our run. Mostly it was the movie I Love You Beth Cooper that was preventing from heading out.

I mapped out a new run after work and it turned out to be a somewhat secluded adventure run. Ran through some residential neighborhoods to avoid the busyness of the evening commuters on the main roads. 10 miles (69:17) Started rolling in the 2nd half.

Pancakes for dinner! Classic!

Late Night Run

January 18th: Up at 5am. Go Lean Crunch for breakfast. Made lunch real quick. Work 6am-2:45pm. Standard day. Constructive meeting with our supervisor Bob R. Peanut butter and nutella sandwich, black licorice, a cow tale, Oreos, and a banana. Goupil was working until 5 so I relaxed in the couch until he got home at 5:30pm. Run at 6pm. Semi exploration run down Plank Road and Bruno Road. Picked it up to low 6's for the last 3+ miles. 10+ miles (70:13). Foam rolled, whey protein shake, and iced after for some immediate recovery. Oh and it's the second day in the new pair of Lunarfly 2s (black/volt). Matches my bright green Brooks jacket! Saaaaweet!

Relaxed the rest of the night. Pancakes for dinner. Made tomorrow's lunch before bed.

Simple Day

January 17th: 5am wakeup. Easy day at work. Basically from 10-2:30, I was on fire watch because a section of the subfab had the sprinkler system deactivated. Nothing too exciting, but I did get to carry a bullhorn around. It helped break the ice with some of the contract workers and there was definitely a few jokes being thrown around. It was amusing and made time pass by quickly. One comment was "Please don't yell at me, I might s**t my pants."

Made it home around 3 and waited for Goupil to get home. With the snowfall in the morning and the rain showers throughout the day, we decided on a shorter easy run. 7 miles (54:24). Well deserved recovery after 9 straight days of decent mileage.

Quesdilla for dinner. Bed before 9:30. Chyeahhhh!

Starting the Week Off Right

January 16th: Woke up at 5am next to my beautiful girlfriend :) Up for breakfast (bowl of Go Lean Crunch cereal) and made lunch. Packed some leftover pizza, avocado and tomato, fruit salad and some more fruit. Kimber got up with me to help me get ready for my first "real" day of work. 6am-2:30pm. Commute to work was a bit risky with my vision being limited to the small patch of windshield I scraped. Made it to work and totally got my photo access badge. Ca-chang! Out at 2:45pm to head home for a little organizing of my belongings especially clothes. Goupil rolled in the door at 4:30pm and we were out the door for a run at 5pm.

Explored a bit and turned out to be a very relaxing and enjoyable run through some neighborhoods and finished up back through the Chen campus. 78:42 (11+).

Leftover pizza for dinner and packed the lunch for tomorrow. Expected wintry ice mix to slow down the AM excursion. Should be interesting.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

January 15th: Woke up at 7:30am. Rolled around in bed before finally making some breakfast (another instant packet of apples and cinnamon oatmeal). Checked the weather for Albany and it was going to be in the single digits with a RealFeel (Accuweather term) in the negatives. Suited up with shorts, calf sleeves, half tights, full tights. The top half consisted of a sleeveless shirt, t-shirt, long sleeve, pullover, Brooks LSD Lite Jacket II Nightlife (Courtesy of Erin, Dominic and Katie). Doubled up on the hats with a skullcap and a winter hat. Out the door at 8:30am to drive down to Albany for 12-15 miles with Tom O'Grady.

1:45:35 later, we battled the elements to finish our 15 miles. At about 8 miles, Goupil and I believed that we were going about 11-12 miles ended up being conned into the extra mileage. Paid off, immediately jumped into the car to treat ourselves to some hot chocolate. Fail! The hot chocolate machine wasn't working. So we took the best course of action by punching the cashier directly in the face and running out (kidding!). Back to Clifton Park for some Belgian waffles with bananas and strawberries. Yum! Relaxed the rest of the day with some Giants football @ 4:30pm. Ca-Chang!

75 miles for the week. Solid start towards the 2nd marathon training.

Productive Weekend (Saturday)

January 14th: Woke up at 7:45am. Washed some dishes to ease the mind. Made an instant packet of apples and cinnamon oatmeal. Gathered the workout clothes into a pile to eventually put on layer by layer since we were bundling up to head out in 22 degree weather (RealFeel 8 degrees). Out the door just before 10am. 19:58 warmup. Goal was 3x1mile between 5:10-5:20. The course was a mile through the Shen High School campus. Quarter miles marked was a plus. 5:22 (2:41, 2:41), 5:16 (2:45, 2:31), 5:06 (2:29, 2:37). Roughly 2 minutes or 1/4 mile rest. Goupil wasn't feeling it after the first interval. No biggie. Solid workout. 1.5+ cooldown (12:36). Happy with the workout. Nothing crazy and achilles is loosening up each day.

Perfect timing with Kimber's arrival from Bennington. Chilled out for the day until my mom arrived around 2. Picked up pizza before the Olympic marathon trials coverage started at 3. Kimber and I hit up the Marshall's/Homegoods after my mom left at 5:30. Scored a couple clearance items (obviously some corduroys, purchased a bunch of fruit at Hannafords (apples, pears, strawberries, kiwis, nectarines, a lime and lemon) and returned at 8 to make dinner. Fruit salad with some lime juice and pasta with butter and lemon. Mmm. Relaxed the remainder of the night and mentally prepared for a chilly morning long run the following day.

It's Friday!

January 13th: Full work week. Just over 40 hours (for the first time). Got home around 4. Out the door at 4:30. Met up with Derrick (Goupil's friend from the Willow Street running team). Some random kid joined us from a side street as well. Survived for a couple miles. Turned around through the apartment complex. We continued on with the same loop from the other day. We were already cruising along within the first couple miles, but we picked it up a bit until we split from Derrick 7 miles later. We settled back down for a mile or so before bringing it in for the last couple miles. Just shy of 11 miles (74:39).

Oh, Derrick is 53 years old running 80 minutes for the half marathon and 17 low for the 5k. He's a talker and makes the runs interesting. It was a windy one today so we did alot of single file, which limited the conversation. Not necessarily a bad thing.

On the down side, Kimber only made it to Bennington, VT because of the road conditions. I will have to wait until tomorrow to see her. Small workout tomorrow morning. We will see how it goes.

First True Snowfall

January 12th: Solid day at work. 6:45 to 3:15. Nothing special. Goupil and I explored some side road off of route 146. Found some sweet friggin trails. A small dusting of snow this morning made the terrain a bit slick, but perfect for recovery. Sidewalks were mostly clear so it allowed the last 2-3 miles to be at a good clip. Finished up at 78:12 (11 miles). Awesome run and cannot wait to explore some more loops.

Next race next Sunday the 22nd back in CT. 15k In Ridgefield. Should be a interesting one. Longest race other than the marathon. Excited for this weekend as well because Kimber is coming up to visit :)

Back to the Basics

Back on board with the blog and the running. Post marathon recovery went well after the sub 2:40 finish at the Smutty Rockfest Marathon. Ran a few races at the end of October through Thanksgiving. Not where I wanted to be with my fitness so I took off the month of December from racing and came back with a BU mini meet on New Years Eve. 9:00 3k and a 2:02 (negative split) 800. Content with results, but got some work to do. Moved up to Ballston Spa, NY for a contract safety job with Colden Corporation. Jeff Goupil got me the job and I am now his roommate in Clifton Park.

Last 6 weeks have been 58, 54, 68, 65, 69, 60 with a 10k race in Norwalk (31:48 for the win).
http://clubct.org/Results/12Results/12BB10kRes.html

This week so far.

January 9th: 10+ (76:33) 1st day of work
January 10th: 10 (71:57)
January 11th: 9+ workout with the Albany team at 6pm. 10 x short hills.

I'll get into more detail on a daily basis, but just had to get that first post back after so long. Until tomorrow!