Do Do Do

Banged out another 6.5 miles tonight on the treadmill listening to the Stones Brussels Affair or at least part of it. This is a nice compilation from the tour supporting the new Goats Head Soup album in 1973. Goats Head Soup is one of my favorite Stones albums and what is kind of odd about this recording is that Mick Taylors playing does not stand out like it does in Get Your Ya Ya's Out or the Classic Ladies and Gentlemen the Rolling Stones from the 1972 tour which is an outstanding video in which Mick T's guitar work is front and center. Anyway, if I remember correctly, this was the tour with a lot of very creepy inflatable penises and such with Billy Preston on keyboards. Not sure I get all that but I was only 14 at the time so maybe the 70's were that fucked up.

Hurricane Sandy Douchebags, Chia Seeds and Stop the Madness!!!!

The running has been excellent over the past few weeks. I am almost at 90 miles over the past 30 days so I am very pleased with that but my right ankle is a bit squirrely so that hasn't changed. I am in the middle of reading 'Born to Run' and I would highly recommend this book to anyone, not just runners. It  is a great story so far about long distance running, hidden Mexican tribes out in the middle of drug country. I had no idea that there was this tribe of ultra long distance runners. It's a very interesting story. and I will be buying some Chia Seeds to see if these are truly magic beans.
Anyway, the only thing worse then the political adds on TV right now is the local news coverage of this storm. I realize they have to fill air time but jesus christ, stop acting and talking like we have never seen water, waves and flooding. Fucktards. Given the inclement weather, I will be on the treadmill this afternoon. Oh, and if you didn't know already, a vote for Mitt Romney or Scott Brown will send the U.S. into an apocolyptic hell with tax breaks for millionaires and baby eating indentured servitude for the rest of us. STOP THE MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Only Rock and Roll But I Like it...

So the Stones have announced 2 live shows in London and 2 in Newark NJ. Not sure I get the Newark angle but whatever. I checked the premium ticket prices as I would only go if I could sit up front and center and the tickets for London in rows 6-12 are about a 1,000 Sterling so that is around 1,600 USD if my memory serves me right. Put on top of that the 1,000 USD to fly over and whatever you would get raped for a hotel in London those nights and it is clearly not in the budget. Would have been nice to see them over there but hopefully they will tour the states and another opportunity will come up again. I had the good fortune of sitting in the front row when they played Gillette Stadium here just south of Boston in 2004 and I would do almost anything to get that kind of an experience again. I was amazing but as I just came back from London 4 weeks ago, not dropping that kind of coin any time soon. Too bad.

Anyway, the running is going ok, post marathon. My right ankle is a bit swollen and tweaking after I run now. I did a 5k 2 days after the 1/2 and then banged out 6.5 miles last night. I should back off a bit so I don't injure myself but it is so hard not to run. The wife and I biked about 30 miles on Saturday. The weather was fantastic, cool but not cold, around 55 degrees but bright sunshine. Biked the length of the Minuteman trail starting in Cambridge all the way up to Bedford and then jumped on the Bedford/Billerica spur. The Minuteman is all pavement and can be crowded in places as it runs through Arlington center and then Lexington as well. The second half is nice as it is mostly dirt but in great shape with virtually no one on it. Especially those douches racing at breakneck speed pretending to be Lance Armstrong amongst the walkers, skateboarders and kids. Some of them are real assholes.

BAA Half Marathon

So I finished my half marathon last Sunday without sustaining any major injuries. Some soreness in my right ankle but other than that unscathed. I was hoping to come in under 2 hours but I clocked in at 2:03 so all in all it wasn't to bad as my time was 12 minutes faster than last year. The weather was fantastic as it was in the 60's the entire race and cool overall. Much better than the 80+ degrees from last year. Now the quandry is whether or not I sign up for the Boston Marathon with one of the charity groups. I would have to raise almost $5K to join so I am thinking that I need to pick another race to enter and hopefully qualify at some point. Not sure I want to be on the hook for $5K if I can't fundraise it or get injured in training and don't even compete. Anyway, the pictures are from the start of the race, unfortunately I was running alone this year so no after race pictures.

Nothing new to say

Nothing new to say. Glad I made the decision to go to bed at half time last night. Anyway, here is another picture from our trip to Ireland. Didn't run at all Sat or Sun but did get 6 miles in Friday night which is probably why I never made it to the Big Dog 5K on Saturday morning that I was signed up for. T-minus 13 days now for the BAA 1/2 Marathon.

Well I have not blogged for a month or so now and don't have any particularly good reason. The running has been great, I am trying to boost my miles now as I am signed up for the BAA Half Marathon in 3 weekends from today. My wife and I did just return from a long vacation (10 days) in Ireland and England. We started in Dublin on the 30th of August with my sister and brother in law for the Notre Dame/Navy college football game. Game day was great and spent with some colleagues from work for a pre game party and then the next 5 days were just roaming the Irish countryside, staying in some very swanky hotel/castles/resorts and admiring all the sheep. There are so many sheep in Ireland all you smell is sheep shit. It permeates your senses after a while. Anyway, after touring the Ring of Kerry, the Dingle and several amazing rounds of golf, we headed back to London for the last 2-3 days.

The best part of the trip was the weather. It was all sunshine and blue skies which we were told were in short supply over the summer. Something like the most rain in a hundred years or something like that. Glad to be back home though, the cat was pissed beyond belief that we were gone as long as we were, he really needs way to much attention if you ask me. Below are some nice pictures of the trip.

So I have not posted for quite some time and I don't have a great reason why but I have had some fantastic runs in of late and tonight I have a 5k that is set up by work so I am looking forward to this one. On a much sadder note, a friend that I have through work was training for the Pan Mass Challenge and managed to get into a very bad accident a few weeks back and is still recovering in the hospital. Along with a broken collarbone, fractured ribs and discs with punctured lungs, he managed to sustain a very serious head injury. He will most likely make a full recovery but it was disturbing to see him lying in the hospital with all these injuries.
Apparently his helmet did it's job and he would have suffered traumatic damage if he did not have one but it was kind of un-nerving. The Pan Mass challenge is a bike ride across Massachusetts that ends in Provincetown that raises money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and is the largest fund raiser of this sort in the country. They make quite a big deal about it around here. I have thought of participating myself in the past but have yet to do so. My friends accident made me second guess my use of my motorcycle given the inherent dangers in that activity as there was an accident locally that same weekend where a couple the same age as my wife and I crashed and the wife was killed with the husband in critical condition. It might be my age but it brings my own mortality into my thoughts given these unfortunate incidents. Not sure how much longer I want to role the dice so to speak.
Anyway, I have been running a ton and feel fantastic so full steam ahead!