Looking for Runs

Anyone know of any good runs near West Point, NY? I'm going to be up there for a wedding this weekend and bet there are some killer runs up at the Academy. Anyone have any that they know of, or am I going hunting...which isn't bad either

Collection of Hate Week Awesomeness

To Hell With Georgia

 Guess Some things Never Change..

 Even Bulldogs want to move up in life...

Even in the black and white era people new  

'nuff Said

To Hell With Georgia!

Just because it's hate week and I'm a Georgia Tech grad, which should be understood because I can use a computer. The picture below shows why UGA Monopoly isn't as much fun to play as Techopoly.

Besides I gotta get my digs in somehow, usually before the game b/c we haven't shown up the last few, but I'll be loud and proud on Saturday

Anyone know..

If there is heated body glide, or warming body glide? I mean i use BodyGlide the exact brand shown below, but in the winter nothing helps the nipples..so I was thinking is there a warming body glide? I mean vicks vapor rub kinda has that warming effect, and there's some other items that would work...but are definitely not meant for the runner

Yes, thoughts while running are strange...

Crushing Handshake of AWESOME!

Remember back to when we were young, for some that may be harder, but remember being taught that a solid handshake makes the introduction? That a crushing grip makes you feel like the man(or Woman)? Well to sound like a sales pitch, it is one, but a non-commissioned one based upon something I've started using.

The Heavy Grip brand decided to upgrade those little desktop ones which everyone can squeeze until they get tired, to something that gives a solid workout, stress release and fits into any corner of your bag with ease. The grippers come in sizes from 100 lbs up, by 50 lb increments to 350 lbs and are lightweight to carry but hard to close. I've worked my way up to 150 lbs reliably and can close the 200 lb one with some struggle, and it definitely has been working to develop my crushing grip...solely so i can open a walnut with my fingers by squeezing. ...

But seriously, I recommend them b/c they're easy to fit anywhere in the bag, lightweight and give an easy stress release/workout when your only other option might be doing laps around an airport terminal or parking lot. 

Cold Weather Gear is coming out

So it's that great time of year again...not time to break out the shorts, but time to break out the sweats, long sleeve shirts and cold gear. Each time I pull all the gear out I take a long look...go for a run on a treadmill...and realize freezing my butt off is much much better.

I mean I've reviewed treadmills, even though I swear there are only 2-3 commercial variants out there, and have zero interest in a home unit. But each time I run on one, I feel weird. I can do sprints but if I'm stuck indoors I prefer to throw the bike up on my trainer, the good ole Green Machine as I call it. Technically its the Kinetic, but for a fluid trainer its solid. I know purists prefer the fan one b/c the response is more realistic on acceleration and deceleration, but I'm not a purist, nor a professional so this is perfect for me. The big advantage is that i can throw the arm rests on the bike...and play on my ps3 while biking to keep it from being too boring(highly recommend getting a pair).

Otherwise, time to head outside, break out the cold weather gear and try to avoid getting run over by a reindeer.

My other blog

So I have another blog, and I'm going to do a shameless plug in this one...so bear with me. One of my passions is energy, specifically green energy and distributed/localized power generation...and I don't currently work in that industry. In order to keep myself active and up to date on the topics I keep a blog up at GreeneModel.blogspot.com called Green Energy Thoughts. As time goes on I plan to talk about issues associated with wind energy, fuel cells, solar etc and will probably even put some information derived from the models I make on the side for fun(yes huge nerd).

But take a look and let me know if you have any interests, or topics you'd like to hear about as I have ~10 years experience in Fuel Cells, Geothermal, Solar, battery tech and then grid analysis and load based power modeling!

The latter, load based power modeling, is how i came up with a lot of my runs back in the day as I was able to travel to some great(and not so great) locations. happy trails

NYRR Post, again

Still beating this horse, probably because I still have quite a bit of anger over how this was handled and how the CEO of the NYRR's basically punted the decision to someone else...while being the friggin CEO. That's the only thing a CEO needs to really do other than glad-hand....so she's basically useless.

The NYPost has a good article on how she should be fired, the latest in a long line of articles on that idea.

Back to my puzzle though since it's a little dark out to go for a real run! Of course football is also on in the background because I can never focus on just one thing.

Running in Orlando

Where do people run there? I assume not near Universal Studios or Disney b/c the roads around there are a disaster, no real sidewalks or space on the side of the road for runners. Anyone out there have a clue? I'll be going there regularly for work and need a spot to run. Help!

My 2 cents on the NYC Marathon

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a few days now, but wanted to see how the entire debacle played out during the week leading up to the marathon. For reference, I was registered to run the race, after years of trying to get in, and was all set and ready to go Tuesday after the storm finished dropping rain on Southern Maryland. At that point, the NYC government and the NYRR race Director, Mary Wittenberg, should have had a good idea of the situation on the ground. I say should have because I had a good idea of how bad it was, and I live a few hundred miles away, but I don't know they knew. The race should have been cancelled, or pushed off then and there. No questions, no waffling, further analysis or any waiting to see if miracles would happen; they didn't.

Instead Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC race committee said the race is on, and with that people started to make arrangements. The 10,000 to 15,000 international runners, those that could get flights, started the 1 to 2 day trek to NYC. Runners on the US West Coast started their trek across the country and the professional runners started to arrive then and the next day, creating by Wednesday evening, a nice stew of disaster and stupid. Why did everyone travel? Because until the race was actually cancelled Friday night, they had to travel otherwise everyone lost all their money. The hundreds of dollars in hotels, flights(thousands for some), cars, food etc.

On Thursday morning as the devestation in Staten Island started coming out, and subsequently Friday morning as it continued....it was obvious to most everyone this race couldn't go on. The city wasn't ready, the course wasn't ready, and there was no way most runners would have the race they wanted due to the atmosphere. Instead of cancelling, the leaders still hung onto their olive leaves shouting the race would go on, the race must go on...instead of showing real leadership and cancelling this race.

By that time, I had to make a decision. Thursday evening I made the call to cancel my entry until next year and lose the entry fee..potentially the rest b/c this was not the time, I was not kicking someone out of my hotel room to run a race. So I cancelled, and thankfully get allowed into next years race, like many thousand others had at this point, sacrificing our entry fee on the altar of NYRR greed.

Thankfully the race was cancelled on Friday night, allowing all the runners who made the trek to get into the race again next year, assuming the NYRR doesn't find a way to screw the runners again. Thankfully the race was cancelled so the water and food for 45,000 runners was able to be given to people who needed it to survive and stay healthy. Thankfully the 1MW of power sitting in central park was able to be rented elsewhere to keep a family warm at night. Unfortunately though it came too late for my image of the NYC Marathon, my (unwarranted) idolization of the Marathon that takes years to get into, gone was the naivete that this race was solely about fundraising and the idea of running. Instead the Mayor of NYC and the CEO of the NYRR showed me this was solely about money for them, and personal pride.

The way they handled the race and the cancelling of the race did nothing but force runners to come to NY and pay for being there, thus brining the city money. The numerous people who cancelled(deferred) sacrificed their money for the registration by cancelling, only to have the race cancelled at the last minute. The people who traveled from other countries lost their money on the travel...and couldn't run the race. Instead they get to try again next year, and if they fundraised...there was no race so they may not be able to make their donations. What the runners got instead was an email from the NYRR's on Saturday morning at 2am, requesting we donate money to a charity they founded.

Here's a thought, take my registration and donate all $160 of it to that charity instead of lining your own groups pockets with it. Or rather how about every runner make a donation on their own, or if you live in NY

Instead, it's just clear that while i still want to run the NYC Marathon, my image will be forever tarnished by how badly this was handled and how the two 'leaders' in this farce cared solely about their image and making money vice the impact on runners. In the end the runners got screwed, the residents of Staten Island got screwed b/c they were not consulted...in general it was just a train wreck and honestly showed a complete lack of any real leadership. The easiest thing to say is always "The Show must go On".

sometimes the show must not go on is the right call.

...But back to training and let's get my time down to qualify for Boston...or go and run the MCM in DC again, which is an amazing race, put on by a great group!