Triathlon

One of my wife's life goals was to beat me in a triathlon.  The astute reader will notice that I used the past tense for her goal, which will ruin any suspense that you might have had.  I don't think it's surprising that she beat me in our most recent sprint triathlon, I think it's surprising that she was surprised.  You'd think after a week in which we got hit with a 5.9 earthquake and a hurricane that nothing would be surprising.

My wife is in great shape.  She's been swimming since she was a kid and is still an amazing swimmer.  Watching her swim is like watching an artist paint a masterpiece, it's just so smooth and fluid, she really makes it all look so effortless.  She was eighth overall in the swim for this particular triathlon - third among women, so it's not just me putting my wife on a pedestal - she's actually that good.

She does have room for improvement on her bike.  She tried her first triathlon on a mountain bike and as soon as she finished she decided she needed a road bike (I had tried to convince her before that there is just no way a mountain bike can be competitive in a triathlon).  I'm pretty sure the only way I won that race was because of her mountain bike.

She hates running.  She's good at it, but she will deny it to the end of her days.  I have been trying to convince her to come on runs with me for quite some time but she thinks I am this amazing elite running athlete (I'm not).  However, I do enjoy running when I'm not injured.

I started a new running program, after consulting my physician, to get in shape for a marathon (not that I have one planned), following a very specific schedule.  I got one week into the program before I injured my foot playing soccer.  Or rather, I should say before somebody else injured my foot playing soccer.  It happened two and a half weeks before the triathlon and it wasn't until the day before that I was sure that I'd actually be able to run it.

Despite the fact that I run far more often than her, I'm not that much faster than her.  When we do go running together, she has problems keeping up with me, but I think that's mostly my pride-endorphins kicking in (i.e., my mind says I want to look good in front of her so it gives me an extra boost of energy).  However, when we run separately, our times are very comparable.

The day of the triathlon, hurricane Irene was making her way out of the area, but it was still raining and windy.  Not so bad when you are the 29th person in the water (people went in one at a time on a 15 second delay), which my wife was, however, when you're 197th in the pool, standing on the pool deck in a bathing suit and nothing else for 50 minutes before you get in the water, that rain and wind can have a bit more of an impact.

For those keeping track at home, Jenny absolutely crushed me in the swim.  6:26 versus 9:15.  And the saddest thing is that 9:15 was a huge improvement for me.  I would have likely been in the 11-12 minute range without her training me over the course of the summer, so I was actually very happy with my swim time, despite the fact that I was in the bottom 50% overall.

I remember having a conversation with Jenny about the transitions.  We got an email that offered us a chance to sign up for a class on transitions.  Jenny scoffed at the idea, but I could understand why somebody would want to take the class.  Of course, Jenny had the quickest transition time out of everybody in the triathlon, so I guess she really didn't need the class.  I was a bit slower.  Over two minutes slower (3:23 versus 0:52).  Of course, I had my biking shorts, biking shoes and biking gloves to put on, so it's not as if I was taking a nap, though I certainly did not hustle as much as I should have, which can partly be blamed on the weather (all my stuff got drenched), and also partly blamed on the fact that the swimming tired me out and I wanted a little break.

The biking was difficult on the wet pavement.  The course was only 12 miles, which seems short until you're doing it.  I managed to beat her there pretty handily 39:39 to 44:36.  I would imagine we both would have done it quicker if it wasn't so wet out, but Jenny at least had some tread on her tires - mine have no tread at all - we both really had to slow down going into the turns.

When I got back from the bike, Jenny was waiting for me in the transition area - she had already completed the entire course, and I still had the entire run to do, which did not make me feel very good about my standings.  I'd like to blame Jenny for distracting me in the second transition, but really it was the bike shorts, bike gloves, bike shoes, running shorts and running shoes that slowed me down.  Jenny managed to drop off her bike and start the run in only 42 seconds, whereas it took me 2:21.

During the run my main goal was to run the entire thing which sounds like a silly goal, but I biked pretty hard and it took me a good 10 minutes of running before I had finally caught my breath.  I assumed Jenny would have beaten me on the run, but it turns out I barely eked out a victory there, coming in at 27:46 versus 28:41.

I'd like to write off the loss to the transitions, but they are part of the race and Jenny found a way to do them much quicker than me, beating me fair and square.

I think for our next race, I will get some pedals that don't require special shoes for my bike and maybe ditch the gloves (still going to use the bike shorts - they're worth the extra 20 seconds!).

Look out, Jenny - I'm coming to knock you off the winner's pedestal for our next race!  I may not place second in my age group like you did, but I'm going to place first in our household!

Building a Bar Top Arcade

When my wife and I were looking for our house, I told her that a requirement of mine was space to put my pinball machine.  It has been in storage for the past decade, and of course it wasn't working when I finally moved it into my house (I got it repaired and it was working great, until it stopped working again.).

Having a pinball machine in my basement got me thinking about quite a few different projects that I could do for my basement - the first was making a house for my kegerator in the form of a bar, and the second was a MAME cabinet.

A MAME cabinet is basically a computer that uses real arcade controls to play real arcade games in a cabinet that you do your best job to make look like an actual arcade game.  Now, I had the space for the pinball machine, and I had the space for the bar, but I did not have space for a full blown arcade game.  So when I was talking to my wife about it, we decided on a cocktail cabinet.  That's the one where you sat down and played Ms. Pac-Man in the local pizza joint.

Of course, before I could build that, I had to build the bar.  And before I could build the bar, I had to build some bookshelves.  I did both of those things - and just in the nick of time, since my deadline was our rehearsal dinner which we were hosting at our new home, which was fall of 2010.

After doing those two large projects (yes, building bookshelves was a lot harder than I thought it would be and I definitely consider it a "big project.") I sort of forgot about the arcade cabinet.  I'm not really sure what re-sparked my interest in it, but I started planning it out.  And in doing so, I decided that a cocktail cabinet would take up too much space in my basement (although I still content it would make an awesome, albeit, awkward coffee table down there).

However, all was not lost, and I decided that a bar top arcade would be sufficient.  I did, after all, have a bar on which I could place the bar top arcade that I was building.

And so I've started the process.  I am using Google SketchUp to make a 3-D model of the cabinet.  I ordered the authentic arcade parts, I have a computer to load all of the software on, and I bought a new monitor.

I still have a ton of work to do, like actually creating it from the design, painting, assembling, adding the t-molding, making all of the graphics for the marquee, side art, and control panel.  It's a long road ahead, but I have an awesome idea for the art, the controller parts came in, and I found an awesome front-end to give a really cool arcade experience.

Once I have anything to actually show for the project, I'll be sure to post them.

Caps Catatonic Collapse

Getting swept in a series is embarrassing.  Winning two playoff series total over the past four years is embarrassing.  Having two chances as the number one seed in the East and only winning one playoff series is embarrassing, and I think it shows that something is desperately wrong.

What, exactly, is wrong?  I have no idea - I'm not a coach, I'm not a GM, I'm just a guy that enjoys hockey.  And I love watching the Caps play.  It pains me to watch all of the high expectations and stunning upsets.  I've grown accustomed to popping a Zantac before each game.

This year's exit was almost merciful.  No games seven to allow my stomach acid to percolate.  A quick series against New York with little to no drama, and an even quicker exit with Tampa.  Once we were down three games to none, I was glad that the Caps didn't draw out their death spiral any further.  I was also glad that I had an event I had to attend that prevented me from seeing the end of Game Four.  It's not as painful looking up the score on my phone as it is witnessing the entire meltdown live.

I'm not here today to talk about how upset I am over the Caps lackluster postseason play.  I'm here to talk about how, immediately following Game Four, I had a moment of clarity, aka, the great rationalization: The Caps are a great regular season team, and I get a good 7 months of watching them kick ass.

They didn't dominate this season like they did last year, but no bad teams are going to be the number one seed in the East, even if they don't clinch it until the last week of the regular season.

And I am holding on to this rationalization for dear life.  I am just going to keep telling myself that it's been 36 years now without a Cup, and it could be quite a bit longer, so I just need to enjoy the amazing product that Leonsis and GMGM have put together for me and move on with my life.  Take the enjoyment out of the game that I can and leave the rest there.

I've been a Caps fan since I started dating the woman who is now my wife.  I'll always be a Caps fan, even if they're terrible.  I'll look forward to watching them play and a Stanley Cup will simply be a feather in my Cap.

On a side note, I'm renewing my registration which means I get to pick out a new license plate and I'm getting the Weagle plate.

Go Caps.

The Problem with Promotions

I am usually pretty good about knowing my workload and what I can and can't handle.  If I don't have the time to do something, I will tell whoever is assigning it to me and go on with my day.  I never like seeing work that I'm supposed to do get assigned to somebody else, because it seems like I'm saying "no, I won't do the work that you're paying me to do."  But sometimes, that's just how it has to be.

Except for when you're up for a promotion, which I am now.

Out of the blue, my boss' boss' boss' boss (yes, that's 4 management levels above me) asked me if I would be willing to take over the coordination of a monthly newsletter.  I had no idea what goes into it, but it didn't matter.  It could involve me flying to Australia every weekend for the rest of the year and I'd still have agreed to do it.  Not really much of a choice when you're up for a promotion, and the man who asks you to do the work is also the one who ultimately decides whether or not you get the promotion.

This particular task is what I would call an extracurricular task, where it doesn't have anything to do with my actual job, but you can't advance in my workplace without doing some of these things.  In this case, it's coordinating a monthly newsletter.  I have no problems working on a newsletter - writing an article, doing some layout, editing, etc., but coordinating can be like pulling teeth.  Writing the articles, after all, is an extracurricular activity for the writers as well, which means it doesn't always rank high on their priority scale.

On a side note, I was already involved with this newsletter as an editor.  Simple copy editing stuff, but it's not as if I'm completely unfamiliar with the work that's involved.

I guess I should be happy that this is the only thing extra they've asked of me so far, because until I see that first bump in my paycheck, I will say yes to every single request they have.

New Happy Hour Site

Just started a side project with some friends called Five 2 Nine 365.  The idea is that we will post a happy hour place every day for a year until we have a comprehensive list of the entire Washington DC Metro happy hour scene.

One of my favorite (albeit, extremely inconvenient for me to get to ) places is Mad Fox Brewing, which we just wrote up, and now there is a Living Social deal for the place.  We were hoping to get some traffic from that, but since the site is so new, it hasn't started showing up in the search results yet.

It's pretty cool to be ahead of the game in terms of content, but it still sucks that the content most likely isn't going to be found until the deal of the day is long dead.

Marathon Training: Week 4 Postmortem

So this idea is apparently a failure.  Not because I couldn't keep up with the paltry workout schedule, but because my shin splints have come back in full force.  I thought if I started out running less than a mile a week, spread over 3 days, there would be no way for me to re-injure myself.  I thought using the Vibram Five Fingers would prevent me from smacking the pavement in that heel-toe movement that is supposedly so bad for runners. I thought the soccer games I was playing on turf fields would have no impact because of the inherent cushioning properties of the Astroturf.

But alas, here I am.  Only a month in to the workout, and already needing to take a break.  I don't like taking advice from infomercials, but I think this time I will actually consult my physician before starting back up again.  I'll let you know what I find out from the medical professionals, otherwise, this workout plan is indefinitely cancelled.

Marathon Plan: Week 1 Postmortem

After a little over a week, everything is happening exactly like I expected it to. I guess in my old age I'm getting good at figuring out how I think.

The short distance has been both a blessing and a curse. It's been a blessing because running conditions are generally bad: it's cold, there's snow all over the sidewalks, and it gets dark early. Keeping the runs short keeps me from making excuses from running. "It's just 10 minutes" I tell myself. And I change into my Vibram Five Fingers, put on a running jacket and some pants, and I do it.

I'm hoping that doing all of these early short runs now will create a habit of running for me, which will be important when I'm running longer distances.

Of course, the short distance has also been a curse. Just yesterday I had to consciously stop myself from running when I hit my set distance. I really wanted to keep going. Especially since if I don't plan out the run appropriately, I can have a long walk home. It's also frustrating getting all dressed up to go running, and then going for such a short distance. My warm-up (5 min) is longer than my actual run.

I've been using RunKeeper to track my runs. It's a great free app (for iPhone and Android) that is perfect for running. You can even use an optional Bluetooth heart rate sensor. And of course, after each run, all of the information (distance, pace, heart rate, elevation) is beamed to the internet where it is overlaid onto Google Maps and you can see exactly what your pace/elevation/heart rate was at any point along your run. It then takes the information for every run you've done and gives you the aggregate and trend information. Very cool nerdy stuff.

I've set up RunKeeper to give me 5 minutes of brisk walking for my warmup, at which point it notifies me that the next segment of my workout should begin. I have that section set to a distance, which is what I am running for that particular week. After it announces (only a couple of minutes later) that I have reached my desired distance, I immediately stop running and start walking home.

Of course, it tracks all of my information for the warm up and cool down sections, which makes it look like I am running longer distances than I actually am, but on the website it gives the option split out the results for each section. Again, a very good utility for this exact sort of thing.