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.

Marathon Plan

I love running, probably a little too much.  I went through a half marathon phase several years ago, wanting to eventually run a full marathon.  However, during my training, in which I purchased the entire Nike+ system, including brand new Nike+ shoes, the Nike+ transmitter and iPod receiver, as well as a new iPod.  I was excited, motivated, and feeling great about it.  I was running every day, which is not surprising because this is when I lived with my grandma and I really wanted to get out of the house.

That year I actually ran three half marathons, but before I ran my first half marathon, the furthest I had ever run was 6 miles.  My plan was obviously to go further than that, but I got overzealous and got some heinous shin splints. At first I thought I could just power through them, and I did, but it literally got to the point where it was painful to even walk up stairs.  I had to completely halt my training, which is one of the most frustrating things I've ever done.

I ran all three half marathons that year without any more real training because every time I tried to start up again, I would get those nasty shin splints.

I've been trying to run ever since then unsuccessfully.  Every time the shin splints come back as if they never left. Of course, it's always minor pain, something I could easily run through, but I know how that worked out before.

I've bought new shoes, I've tried ramping up my work out, I've tried specific stretching, but nothing seems to work.

Of course, a large reason for that is because my version of "ramping up" is going from sporadic elliptical training at the gym, to running three miles.

Last year I bought Vibram Five Fingers.  They are in the minimalist category of shoes.  The idea is that you do a mid-foot strike instead of the heel-toe that is encouraged by all running shoes.  This reduces the stress on your joints (as well as reducing shin splints).

Running in these shoes is a whole new experience and one that frustrated me a great deal, especially since I couldn't keep up with my wife, who claims she is a terrible runner (though she's not!).  Just like every other ramping up period, I didn't give the shoes a fair shake, so I've decided to truly ramp up.

I want to be able to run a marathon by this time next year without worrying about shin splints, and I have a very simple method for doing it.

I am literally going to start out running 1/4 mile three days a week for a week, and then bump that up 10% every week until I am able to run 26 miles.  It will take me exactly 50 weeks.  It sounds kind of silly to say, but I am determined not to run more than a quarter mile for the first week.  In fact, it's going to take me 16 weeks just to get up to a mile and another 12 weeks after that to get to a 5k.  This will probably be an extremely difficult regimen for me - not because the distances are too large, but because of how slow of a ramp up it is.

However, I plan on reminding myself at the end of my 4 minute workout that this workout isn't for cardio; it's to get my muscles in shape after such a long period of inactivity.

We'll see how it goes this time.  I plan on starting today.

America's Got [Everything]

In this particular case, America's Got Stories.  I'll spare you the buzz words and get down to brass tacks.  This is a contest where you write a short story in a particular theme (in this case, supernatural is the word of the hour) in order to win wonderful prizes.

You write your story: if you win, your story gets published in a compilation book; and if you are the grand prize winner, you get an iPad.

I was actually kind of bummed out when I was asked to be a judge for this contest because I had what I thought to be a unique take on the theme.  In fact, my short was going to be a Sci Fi piece with technology ripped from the headlines in a "what could be" story.

I may still write that story, because it seems interesting in my mind, but I'm really curious to see what other submissions we get.

Everybody's got a story - what's yours?