The Joe Nation 2007 NYC Marathon Log

bloody well done, Joe!

Joe(having the time of my life)Nation

Joe~

What's your plan for marathon prep?
Are you going to be following a schedule?

~George

Did Joe take up running?

Hey, Slacker, you run today or what?
65 degrees here. I ran in shorts and t-shirt.
Outstanding!

Ahem.... The slacker got in a very quick (29:37) three miles last night by running up the East Side and around the North end of the reservoir. I should say The Reservoir. It's the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis reservoir and it's where all the famous models and people like Madonna are supposed to trot their stuff. It's nice and flat and round and I never see any famous models or Madonna running around it. What you see are a lot of British tourists leaning against the fence and looking at the ducks.

The ducks were having a fun time yesterday. There is still a thin layer of ice on some sections, way too thin to support a person, but just enough to let a duck stand on it without sinking. If the light is right it looks as if the birds are walking on water or at least standing still on water which would still be a good trick.
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I have a schedule of training set up through the NYRoadRunners website. There's a diet and exercise part too. And I am going to a seminar on the 21st to listen to some training tips and get some more information. The routine outlined on the site is only about eighteen weeks so I am going to do two routines, if that makes sense (and I am not sure it does). Basically I am going to prepare as if the marathon was in July (and maybe look around for one to run in Connecticut or New Jersey or just do the distance in the Parks and then take off a couple of weeks and re-train for the BIG ONE. I don't like to have all my eggs in one basket
===
Yes. Gus, I have taken up running. How is your exercise routine going? What was it? Advanced rug-hooking or something connected to hookers, right? Good luck with that.

Joe(Maybe it was wearing a rug while... .)Nation

Interesting plan. I'll have to check out the NYRoadRunners website.

When I was marathon training (long time ago), someone gave me a
schedule devised by Amby Burfoot. As I recall, it was 16 weeks. I had at
least twice that much time so I did each week twice, making it more
gradual, at least in theory. Not matter how long you take to get there,
those 20-mile sessions are brutal.

A slow two-and-a-half in the drizzle for me today.

Keep on keepin' on.

I am bummed out.



I was really looking forward to making a big (six mile)Loop, but now I have to go down to the basement and find those snowshoes or the crosscountry skis.

Hey George, have you been back up to NH for the skiing?

The training site on NYRR is NYRRTRAINER.ORG . The dot Org is the tipoff that it will cost you money to get on BUT (except for the deep winter times there are a LOT of people who want to talk about, dream about rant about, rage about, muse about and generally schmooze about running.

I was supposed to go early this morning, but I thought I THOUGHT I would just do a nice long jog at six thirty and then come home and watch some college basketball, INSTEAD it is frigging freezing cold and blowing winds out of the North at umpty-ump miles per hour, so I took the train home and am now trying to decide if I want a Second martini.

I am going to do six more miles this week !

Joe(Yes, I am)Nation

Damn. I didn't know that people still drank martinis. With or without the olive?

You are the real johnboy. In this town there are perhaps two dozen bars whose only claim to fame is the three dozen martini recipes on their menu. I have never understood why anyone would want an Apple Martini or a Watermelon Martini, but they are two of my sweetie's favorites. Oh, and for our anniversary, I made up, from scratch, about six ounces of ginger sauce made from real ginger and lots of sugar and a squeezed fresh lime. One scoop of that stuff and some Grey Goose makes a Ginger Martini that no one can forget.

As for myself, I am down to one martini a week usually on a night before no run is scheduled for the next day.

Very Simple.
Three olives, a little olive juice and two shots of frozen vodka- tis all.

Joe(sipped, not swallowed)Nation

I hate these so-called "martinis".

In my book, if there's anything other than gin or vodka and vermouth,
than it just isn't a martini.

Vodka martini, straight up, twist of lemon for me, thanks.

Julius Caesar walks into a bar.
He orders a martinus.
The bartender says "You mean a martini."
Caesar snaps back "If I want more than one, I'll ask for it."




Tiddy-boom.

Johnboy, the real Johnboy, blushes and looks down at his bare feet. He drags his left foot around in the dry red clay of Albemarle County, not far from where that other Johnboy grew up.
Johnboy, probably even both Johnboy's, have never tasted a martini. But sometimes, when I was young, I was given the olive. It tasted good.

I am glad your race was held last weekend. The weather, at least here, is deteriorating. Heavy rain, then sleet and now some snow.

I am so grateful not to running through this mess. It's still coming down outside (7:06pm) and it's SLEET.

Joe(brrrrrrrrr)Nation

Wind chills in the mid-teens again. Waiting until this afternoon to see if I can get a few miles in, walked by the gym yesterday morning, but couldn't stand the idea of treadmilling it.

Who has tried those ellipical machines, the ones that make you look like you are wearing huge shoes???

Joe(any good?)Nation

I did something really stupid on Friday. I needed to be alone for awhile so I started a walk through the snow and sleet. I wore these huge LL Bean Duckboots , heavy socks and enough clothes and a Goretex wind breaker. By thetime I finished I was over 6 miles through fields and woods. I actually came along side the Conowingo Dam, so I got back onto a main road and hitchiked back to about a mile away fdrom home. By my calcs I did 7.5 miles and I was exhausted from the heavy shoes. But I wasnt cold. I must have been glowing like a radiator.


Yesterady, it was just windy so Mrs F accompanied me and we did about a 3 mile strtch to a large pond where the deer come down in the afternoons. It was peaceful.

That sounds great.

Joe(where are the frigging pictures?)Nation

soon as I get my new computer. I wasnt configured well (and I have only a large ish SLR digital camera) I guess I could take along this little Pentax film camera and have the film printed as a CD . I guess I could send those. I dont wear any gear when I hike because it gets caught in snags and brambles and Im all trussed up in vines . Its very annoying with a back pack or even a fanny pack if you come crashing down on it or get hung up with it.

Ill see about carrying the Pentax film camera.
I heard that , later this year, the prices of SLRs and other cameras will come WAAAY down so the concept of disposable digital cameras will be of age.

I also need to go find those instructions on posting pix on A2K.

We'll look forward to that.


See, I've become such a citysissyboy that I've forgotten all about hiking on trails that aren't four feet wide. (Even in the 'wildness' of Inwood Park, so many have trampled their way through every whichaway it's easy to find a path in what otherwise would be the underbrush.)

Half of the fun of trout fishing with my father was trying to find a way through to the river. If we were lucky we would spot a little break where a deer or two had passed, we would try to follow, keeping as low as a doe's back and ignoring the grasping thorns tearing at our bluejeans. We carried our waders, lifting them above our heads, so they wouldn't be full of holes by the time we got to the water's edge. We must have appeared to to the other creatures of the woods like some odd boot-headed monsters.

Our dog Tip was always at the river before us. Not a thistle nor a goathead in her fur. I always told my father we should follow her rather than to try and find a way on our own.

Joe(Still 29 degrees and blowing here)Nation

Farmerman, I must have been picking up your vibes. I pulled on the
Beaners hit the trails in the Middlesex Fells during Friday's snowstorm.
I was out about an hour and it was gorgeous.

Early this morning I did 3 miles though the streets of town.

Joe, elliptical machines are a great workout, but I feel silly on one.