Who likes snow?

If you said yes, you can have it!

First of all, thanks to all the nice comments about my poster boards. I did post a picture of them way back when, but I guess I didn't have too many readers back then. It is a big source of inspiration for me. Some of them are just plain numbers, but other ones are marked differently so I know which race they came from. That way I can see I only ran 2 races between the Colon Cancer Challenge in 2004, and the one in 2005. (I hope to have 4 between 2005 and 2006.) I'm looking forward to filling this whole board over the course of this year alone!

(If you're trying to figure out how to read them, I place the bibs from top to bottom first, and then from left to right. I thought about this for a while. I hope to one day have a whole room of these boards, and I figured this way the races can just go in chronological columns from left to right. Does that make sense?)

I don't post my stats on them, mostly because in the past I never really cared about my stats. I was usually just focused on finishing. (In the future I plan to put more effort into "racing" the races, as opposed to just "running" them.) One of these days I'm going to get around to making a separate list of all my times, and I'll keep track of my bib number. This way if I decide to attach the stats to these posters someday, I'll know which race belongs to each bib, and how I did in each race.

Anyway... let me update on the last few days. Thursday was interesting. I started out going to see an "open rehearsal" by the New York Philharmonic in the morning. They were performing Mozart's symphonies 39, 40, and 41. (Of course I missed 40 moving my car, but that's New York.) It was pretty much like a regular performance, except they weren't wearing tuxes, and it was a lot cheaper.

(that's not floor zero, that's "O" for Orchestra!)

Since I had my camera, I took a few interesting pictures from my car. (You probably need to enlarge them to see the details.)

mmm... "fresh young chicken". but wait, lets see the bottom of that truck up close.


ugh! gross!!


I think I'll take route 9A, the Henry Hudson Parkway. Now which lane is it?

Back to the recap. After the symphony I went to the hospital. The 3 year old son of a friend of mine had surgery, and I went to visit them. He's actually my friend too. He asked his mom when they could go to Danny's house. She asked if he meant "my friend Danny?" (as in hers). And he answered "no, my friend Danny", (as in his)! I love that story. Anyway, he's doing pretty well, and he looked so cute in his little hospital gown. I didn't get explicit permission to post pictures, but I think I can get away with one from the back.

How cute is he??

I brought Pizza and Garlic Rolls for lunch, so we "had" to get a Peppermint Pattie for our breath. Turns out it's a "low fat food". Who knew?


Friday was more of a normal day, and I did make it to the gym. I started on the treadmill, since I hadn't run since Sunday. Also my thighs were sore, so I didn't feel like cycling. When I started running my lower legs bothered me again, but a little different than usual. I'm not really sure they're shin splints. Either way, it's annoying! I was only planning on running 3 miles, and lately when I do short runs on the treadmill I try to do them a little faster than normal. It didn't seem to matter to my legs if I ran faster, so I kept ramping up the speed at each half mile mark. 6 mph for the first half mile, then 6.5. Then 7, 7.5, and then 8! This was pretty fast already, but I had half a mile to go. I started at 8.5 and then towards the end pushed it even higher just to see how fast I could run. I made it to 9, and then 9.3 (to get under a 6:30 mile) for the last .05 miles. I was really working hard at the end, but I was able to do it. I wouldn't have been able to keep it up for very long, but it was cool to run that fast. I don't think I've ever run that fast in my life.

(I was a little worried about this little experiment and my legs. However, it didn't bother me to run faster, so I kept going. I stretched a lot afterwards, and my legs feel the same as always over the last two days.)

After the treadmill I cooled down a little, and then headed over to the pool. (So that's why you have to shower before going into the pool!) I had a pretty good session, with another 30 laps. I'm still having trouble fitting in the breathing, but I'm getting better at the basic stroke. I tried to minimize my breaks, and also see how far I could go without stopping. I swam 10 laps without stopping or standing for the first time, so that's pretty good.

Friday night and Saturday (Shabbos) I spent with a friend in Queens. It was nice, and I did a little more socializing than usual. Good for me, I suppose. Anyway, it tired me out and I just stayed home for the blizzard tonight.




Tomorrow I hope to be able to get my car moving, and make it to the gym. (Truth is, I could really walk there if necessary.) I don't have anything scheduled until a dinner event later on. I have some big plans to install a new hard drive. So if you don't see me blogging for a while, you'll know that "little installation" didn't go so well!

This was a long post, so if you're still reading this, thanks for hanging in there!