roadtorobusto

So awesome.

Entity — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:46:29 +0000

Nashville Debate in Song and Dance

Grr. Still busto.

Entity — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:09:07 +0000

I haven’t run since the last injury. I’ve been into one doctor and have an appointment with an orthopedist in two weeks, and will probably get an MRI. The doc said it doesn’t look like a stress fracture, but might be some sort of ligament damage, which explains why I’ve felt it a few times over.

Until then, it’s swimming, weightlifting, and other non-running based exercises. I’m pretty bummed but I’ll get over it.

Whoops. Foot = bustoville.

Entity — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:45:23 +0000

Had my first running related injury since the half marathon I ran a year and a half ago, in the same area of my foot. I’m going to head in for some treatment (massage therapy) to see if it’s something minor, but after my last run I think I pushed myself way too hard (3.01 in 23:52 for a 7:56/mi).

As a result I had to take the weekend off, missing my 7 miler on Sunday, and I’m hoping that I’ll be ok by Tuesday — right now just pushing myself through typical treatment (R.I.C.E ldo) and hoping that I recover quickly. If it doesn’t feel good in a week I’ll probably head in and see if an MRI can tell me something useful about what I keep doing, as I’ve gone in for Xrays on this before and it’s never told us anything helpful diagnostically.

Work vs. running: and I surprise myself

Entity — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:27:47 +0000

So I had a post worked up talking about why I didn’t make it out to run today; I’ve got another few hours worth of work to get done and Kate is heading in for an MRI tomorrow, so I’m going to be in hanging out with her rather than in the office. Just as I was about to hit “publish,” I realized that today’s scheduled run (a 3) shouldn’t take more than 30min to clear, and no matter how busy I am, if I’m going to run this marathon I’m going to have to get used to clearing time.

So I did.

And wow, I’m glad I did. I decided to go for a hilly short route, just a tad over 3 miles, and I took Echo along with me. We started out at what felt like a fast pace uphill, but I wasn’t keeping a great eye on my watch, so I wasn’t sure. By the time we hit the crest of the hill at 1.5 miles in, we were only about 14min into the running, meaning I had averaged a faster than 9:30 on the hillier portion, where I normally hold around a 10, and with a hair over 1.7 left to go, we (well, mostly I) decided to press.

Finished with the fastest time for me of the year, 3.22 in 28:04, for an 8:42 pace.

Like I’ve disclaimed many times over, this is nothing special for a good runner, but I consider myself a dedicated runner more than a good runner. Maybe someday speed will be my goal, but for now I’m just focused on the run itself, having a good time, and being consistent — and after today’s mini-challenge, I’m glad I did.

Running, I less than three you.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

Entity — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:33:49 +0000

Cloudy and gray all day, but tolerable — but the second we decide we want to jet out for a 5mi run (today’s group run @ Greenlake), it starts to pour. Oh well, we’re committed.

We burned the pace for the first 2 miles or so as a run with me+Kate+Lindsay, then tacked a few people on for the last 3 miles at a more casual/comfortable pace, which is pretty normal for Tuesday groups. Overall I ended up putting in a 5.07 (technically I was assigned to a 3, but I was feeling good today) in 47:07, for a 9:17 pace.

At some point I’m sure I’m going to have to be a bit more by the book (when it says 3, run 3, damnit!) but despite the weather, I was feeling it too much to hold back for a shorter run today. Happy with the results and the way I feel; now it’s time to go enjoy some omnoms.

Dip it pop it shake it drop it

Entity — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:33:59 +0000

Best run of the year (so far) IMO. Flat course from Ballard out to Gasworks park and back — 6.5 miles in 59:46. Started with insanely high sugars (thank you, Chipotle) but I think that may have actually helped fuel me. I started out around 320 (normal human range is 80-110 or so, FWIW), and took a small bolus of insulin. By the 2.5 mile mark, I was feeling my sugars crash, so I crammed in about 25 carbs, and though my pace slowed from miles 2.5-3.5, I picked it up and burned the last 3 miles at a sub-9 pace, which is a decent clip for me. I’m sure I’m going to feel it tomorrow, but holding 9:11 over 6.5 is worth it to me; it’s nothing to brag about by runners standards, but it’s definitely a boon to my confidence.

Next week is a 3/4/3/7. I’ll probably aim for T/W/Th/Sat this time around and not skip the shorter run. Holla.

Coming up a bit short

Entity — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:56:05 +0000

I need to start mapping my routes a bit better. With nasty weather outside and a stomach full of not-so-good running food (eggs+salsa = bad idea, even 3 hours before), we (Kate, Lindsay and I) bolted out for a 5mi run. Unfortunately the route we mapped in our heads was a bit short, and we ended up with a 4.74 miler, just a hare short (like my 4mi attempt yesterday).

Definitely a tough run as Kate and Linds are up to the 5/8/5/16 portion of their training, so while it was one of my longer runs it was one of their shorter runs. They set the pace at a steady 9:19 (44:11 for the course) despite a horrible headwind for the first 2miles and some decent hills in the latter part.

Looking outside now it looks like we finished just in time, though, as we completely avoided rain and it’s pouring and blowing about 25mph outside right now — had we tacked on another quarter mile I’d probably be soaked and chilled to the bone. I’ll take it.

Aiyaa! First run back.

Entity — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:44:48 +0000

After six days off, back in the saddle again. I left intending to go for a slow four mile run, but after burning the first mile (hilly route, first mile in 9:15), I decided to just exhaust myself over a slightly shorter course. Turned out to be a good decision as I don’t think I had enough food in me to run a 4 anyway.

Overall I churned out 3.65 over 34:28, which was slightly sub-9:30 overall. Not bad given the course. I’m supposed to be on for a 3/4/3/6 pace this week, but am probably going to miss one of my 3mi runs, so I’m going to run a 3.65 today, a 5 tomorrow, and a 6 one one of the weekends — probably Sunday, depending on weather. That’s not quite ideal as I really need to run the short runs to build my base over time but I knew going into this that SXSW was going to throw a small wrench into my plans.

I still feel like I’m keeping up to my overall plan to be able to finish, but I’ve got a loooooooooong way to go.

SXSW wrapup (almost)

Entity — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:50:44 +0000

It’s just a little after 1 and I’m more or less recovered from the night before. We went out with with Flawless, Cassie, and the rest of the DC crew in Austin (@SXSW) — had some amazing steak at Lambert’s and then went out to some bar/club to drink and chill. After sleeping in (and feeling a bit guilty about it) for the first time at the conference, I’m perched next to an outlet waiting for former head Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki and Chris Anderson (The Long Tail, Free!) for the Monday keynote interview.

Despite being exhausted beyond belief, I’m still pretty pumped on the whole SXSW experience. I don’t think everyone else has had the same reaction to it that I have, but that’s probably fine; I’ve been lucky in the panels that I’ve attended and the few that weren’t the most engaging still gave me some good insight to how to respond and react to problems in business development, community management, and more. There was only one panel that was bad enough that I had to walk out of it, which based on my talks with Aaron, Jay, and Chuck, was way hotter than anyone else ran.

Most Engaging: Gary Vaynerchuck’s (winelibrarytv.com) keynote. As the twitterset has said, he’s like Tony Robbins on crack for the .com crowd. It was hilarious, entertaining, and the most eminently quotable speech of the weekend. I’ll post some links to the videos of it when I find them.

Most Inspiring: Kathy Sierra’s keynote on Changing Your Life in 50 minutes. She focused on how to make breakthroughs happen and gave great examples of tips and techniques that can facilitate big changes in your life and business; I think we’re on the right track with a lot of them, but it’s important to have some perspective on how you got where you are (being a game changer) and what you need to do to change the game again. It definitely gave me some ideas I’m looking forward to rolling out.

Most Valuable: Scott from Behance, Inc. on Making Ideas Happen. As a remote team of five, focusing on productivity can be tough when creativity is valued so highly. Takeaway message: IDEAS DON’T HAPPEN BECAUSE THEY ARE AWESOME. THEY HAPPEN BECAUSE YOU EXECUTE THEM. As an organization (and a person), you can’t just be creative, and you can’t just be productive; doing amazing things requires some degree of both and the ability to know when you have to focus. I’ve picked up a lot from this and have started using their tool Action Method Online to help me get more in the zone.

Beyond those talks, there were some great panels on visual thinking (Being a UX Team of One, Shift Happens) that I enjoyed tremendously, and most importantly, a lot of awesome people I met during and after the panels. I’m 1000% coming back next year. The keynote is about to begin, so I’m gonna shutdown the blog (unlike half the audience here) and soak up my remaining time at #sxsw.

Number 9…number 9…number 9…

Entity — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:53:29 +0000

Ran solo today for the first time in a long while. No pups, no sister, no wife. I think it’s a good thing as Kate normally helps me pace myself, and my pace was a little up and down over the course, so I need to continue to work on that. That said, my overall pace was good (9:30 on the dot), as I ran the 5mi course with a decent hill in the middle at a 47:32 clip.

I’m leaving for South by Southwest Interactive tomorrow at 6:50AM, but just in case, I’ve decided to bring my running shoes. I think the overall chances of getting a run in are semi-slim but I might be able to sneak in 3 or 4 miles on Sunday or Monday, which would leave me feeling like I hadn’t completely neglected myself, and would help to get in an actual 3/4/3/5 pace next week.

Overall I’m happy with my progress so far, and I’m really enjoying the runs, which is a huge benefit as well. More updates to follow.

I guess this was #8

Entity — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:16:30 +0000

Ran with my sister, who is training for the marathon with me. She just got new shoes (Newton’s — http://www.newtonrunning.com) and is focused on her form a lot more as she’s had a ton of shin pain in the past. Overall I did a lot of running in place to show her how to work on avoiding heelstriking, which left me jogging pretty slowly but getting a great calf workout out of it. Overall, 4.03 miles, 41:52, which I’m happy with given the focus of the run. I’ve got one more run this week (5mi) before I depart for SXSW and will be taking a few days off — probably not the best for my overall training schedule but I’m just not sure that I’ll be able to find ample time to run while I’m down there. I might bring my shoes anyway just in case — no better way to learn a city than to run through it, I guess.

Short run, short update…

Entity — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:28:56 +0000

Group run again today. With SXSWi coming up I’m going to forgo the 3/4/3/5 plan and just run a 3/4/5 both this week and likely next week, then get back into training. Today’s run was a group run w/friends, felt slow but was actually ok. Greenlake always goes at a faster pace than other runs because it’s so damned flat. It was gorgeous outside but cold, and I think the sun gave us an extra boost — overall, 2.82 in 26:54, for a 9:32 pace. I actually thought it was a lot slower, more like a 10:15 pace, so I was happy to see that when we finished.

Slow but steady…

Entity — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:52:38 +0000

Run #6 yesterday. 4.02, 38:04 time. Training my body to recognize a 9:30 pace quite nicely overall, which is my goal for the entire thing — eventually I’m going to incorporate some faster runs, but not until I’m up to running ~12’s for my training runs — I think that’s 7 or 8 weeks away.

Mahna Mahna

Entity — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:47:19 +0000

#5

Entity — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:02:04 +0000

Group run, so a bit slow (Tuesdays will usually be). 3.98 in 40:12. Very flat run, rainy and windy but otherwise fun. I’m pretty wiped now but moreso because it was a long day and running at the end of the day is always tougher than running at the beginning.

Monday morning running

Entity — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:29:20 +0000

3.24 miles, 30:51. Total elevation gain 367ft (most runs around here are v. hilly).

Woke up this morning to a bit of a sunbreak. Rather than showering and immediately heading into work I decided to grab the dogs and run down to the marina and back. I started out feeling pretty sluggish but by the last mile or so had woken up. Guess that’s what I get for running before my morning coffee.

After a sporadic week of running last week, I’m going to begin my official training this week, running a 3/4/3/5 routine.

Time to stretch, unload my Amazon Fresh grocery order (!!!), and head into the office. Great way to start a day.

Run #3

Entity — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:51:11 +0000

DC meetup in Seattle put a bit of a delay in my running. Today was the first day I had a real chance to get back in the saddle. Unfortunately, the battery on my watch died, so I’m missing exact stats on the run, but the gist was 4 miles in ~36 minutes. I ran the first two miles with Kate and Lindsay who are training for a full marathon and were started on their 12 mile run, so I think they started me out on a good pace, and I ran the rest pretty quickly with Echo and Neeko tugging me back home. Flat runs are SOOOOOOOOOO much nicer than hilly runs (this was to Fremont and back which is 100% flat).

I’ll probably run a 3 on flat terrain tomorrow, then take Monday off, then start officially with Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Saturday or T/W/Th/Sun runs for the foreseeable future.

Goddamnit. Chuck’s blog is too epic.

Entity — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:02:12 +0000

I can’t compete.

How did they win!? ANYTHING. “Hey I’m Han Solo, this is my Millennium Falcon. It goes super fast and I’ll drive you somewhere for some cash.” Translation “Yeah baby, I graduated High School back in ‘96 but still like to see how my old track coach is bringing in the young bucks. Oh that, that’s my iroc. I hit 105 on the highway once. You wanna go for a ride? Great baby. Wait, do you have gas money?”

http://www.justicewagon.com

No running today

Entity — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:47:25 +0000

Day off, both because DC founders are in town (hai guys!) but also because I shouldn’t be running every day. I’ll probably take tomorrow off as well because of DC worktime, but hopefully will be back in the swing of things by Wednesday or Thursday.

Got prop bet at dinner/beers with the guys that Chuck would take me at 5:1 over Chris in basketball, game to 11. Unfortunately we won’t have time to try it this trip but I think it’s a good bet on Chuck’s side. Thanks for the vote of confidence, amigo.

Journal entry, run #2

Entity — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:39:32 +0000

2.81 miles, 25:48. Average pace, 9:10/mile — this course was hillier than my first run, going from about 70ft to 300ft at its cap. Decent elevation gain overall (for a run) at 80ft/mile. Wore a heart rate monitor this time, and I’m definitely running at about my max pace for long-distance jogging — I ran at about 180bpm for most of the run, which is really higher than I should be aiming for once this turns into more serious training.

I’m definitely loving the Garmin 305, but only two days into my training, it’s hard not to love a new toy. We’ll see how it stands the test of time.

Run #1 over

Entity — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:18:36 +0000

2.79 miles, 26:09. Not bad for a flabby out of shape geek, but I’ve got a lot of room for improvement. Forgot to wear my heartrate monitor, still getting used to my new toys. The Garmin 305 is definitely awesome though.

My goal for the first marathon is just to finish, but ideally I’ll finish in a sub-5hr time. Given that I’ve never been a distance runner this would be a good accomplishment for me; the only distance run I’ve done before was a half marathon in a 2:20 time. I think sub-5hr is definitely doable and once I see if I like the training, I’ll set my sights higher. Overall that means I’m going to try to keep at sub-10min miles for all of my training runs; we’ll see how that goes as I start to get into the longer runs where balancing my blood sugars, etc., becomes more difficult.

That said, 1 down, 70 more (give or take a few) to go. It’s on.

Starting my running program early

Entity — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:06:41 +0000

As I’ve said before, I’m planning on running a marathon in June (June 27, to be exact). My training for it is supposed to start on March 8th, but yesterday I bought myself a baller watch (eat your heart out, KRANTZ). It’s 60 degrees and gorgeous outside, so I’m going to test its calibration with a short run, probably three miles or so, later today and force myself to get out and enjoy the weather. I’ll be blogging with updates on my runs (it’s not poker, but it’s something) as I get closer and closer to D-day for the marathon. The first week I start with a 3, 4, 3, 5 pattern (3 miles, 4 miles, 3 miles, 5 miles) and by the end of my training I’ll be up to a 5, 8, 5, 18.

Wish me luck.

Battlestar is way too addicting for my own good

Entity — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 06:31:06 +0000

I’m through the first three seasons and am about to start on season four. For those who haven’t watched it, well, you’ve probably heard tons of people raving about it and have rolled your eyes (as I did), quickly dismissing the cracked out fanboism of techie geeks who love sci-fi way too much. I don’t blame you — generally speaking I don’t really care for sci-fi a ton (I did like Firefly, but it took me a while; I hate all forms of Star Trek), but BSG is just…different.

The lit nerd in me would say that it’s much more character driven, actually understands the importance of a longer-scale story arc, and asks a lot of questions from theological and philosophical standpoints that hold my interest a lot more than most shows do: what is the nature of a soul? Can salvation only be attained through redemption? The agnostic bullshitter in me really enjoys these sorts of things, and that’s what makes it so damned addicting for me.

Okok — enough blogging about TV. Back to turning my brain into mush I go.

Super Bowl = Super Blah

Entity — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:54:05 +0000

Pretty boring to watch — didn’t really have much invested in either team and didn’t care enough to bet on the outcome. There were a few good commercials as usual, but many more that made me stunned in the phenomenal amount of money that companies throw away all in the name of marketing. Godaddy continues to surprise me, year after year. If I still hosted my domain names with them I’d have even more reason to switch, but whatever.

I’m going back down to Vegas in two weeks, this time with Kate, Chris, Courtney, Joe & Michelle and others, which should be a hell of a lot of fun — really looking forward to a mini-vacation with Kate. We’ll probably catch La Reve down there as well as a few yummy dinners and get some more sun before coming home.

I haven’t had any time to play any poker since my last few posts, but we’ve got a small surprise coming up for you Secret HQ guys at DeucesCracked early next week that I’m excited to roll out. In addition to that, PygmyHero has announced the continuation of RLMG (Passing the Torch) and I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes. It’s nice to see the cycle of people getting better and better at poker because of DeucesCracked.

Enough of this blather for now, though. Back to the grindstone I go.

Twitter feed added

Entity — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:18:39 +0000

Since I twitter a lot more than I blog, I figured I’d add this to keep up some relatively fresh, albeit short, content. Look on the right and you can see my lovely stream of 140 character updates.