Reviving The Tradition

"The christmas you get you deserve"-"I Believe In Father Christmas" Greg Lake
Merry Christmas,Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa,holiday greetings to one and all.
For the fifth Xmas in a row and if memory serves me correctly the ninth since 85 I,m spening it alone.
A wise man{my father}once told me when I was younger"xmas is what you make it"for whatever reason over the years I,ve chosen to treat it as "any other day"this year was no different although for once I actually wanted to embrace all the good that comes w/ the holidays,who knows if I continue to wipe my slate clean from the ghosts of christmas pasts the ghost of christmas future may well make my christmas present a memorable one,I think I,m worthy of one memorable christmas.
In 05 I broke w/ tradition and actually ran on Christmas Day for the first time ever to accomodate house sitting in East Falls and going home to Port Richmond to feed Calvin and Hobbes,in 06 I ran from the apartment on Cedar Ave to City Hall and back for another 6 miler.
Sadly that tradition came to a grinding halt last Christmas due to a stress fracture and a cast on my foot!!however this year I have a clean bill of health so post lie in{10.15am....I know what a lazy bastard!!!!}and breakfast and a check of all the foot news back home it was time to reach out to "La Famalia"following the debarcle of the past two years it was nice we could chat this year,my family accept the fact it,s a glorified rest day for me and don,t brow beat me over my lack of preceived holiday spirit.
W/ said 5 miler in the bank now it,s a shower post blog,a spot of Chinese for dinner and a couple of movies on tv.
Lyrically I,ll let Oasis have the last word:
"Sailing down a river alone,I,ve been trying to find my way back home,but I don,t believe in magic life is automatic but I don,t mind being on my own"
"Listen Up"
Oasis.

Let The Spirit Move You

Hallelujah! after almost a week of crap weather I was able to get out and run today,take away Sundays race and it was six days since I last laced them up.
The weather gods claim it,ll be better weather the next few days so fingers crossed I can at the very least get out and train between tomorrow and Saturday b4 heading to Landover on Sunday to race.
A strange phenomenon has come over me the last few days......I,ve actually embraced the holiday spirit,now either I,m getting mellower in my old age,a weather induced lack of running has set off a chemical inbalance,"The Queen Of The Slipstream"is a bigger influence on me than I realized,or maybe a combination of all three w/ a little bit of that old holiday magic sprinkled in for good effect.
Not only have I wished co workers,delivery drivers and others happy holidays the past few days,but I,ve meant it,rather than find the negative aspect of the holidays as is more often my won,t I,ve tried to embrace the good feelings the holidays can bring,case in point for the previous 9 xmas,s at work I,ve avoided the storeroom xmas lunch like the plague,today I made a point to not only attend but go around the table and shake hands w/ everyone and wish them a merry xmas,very unlike me but you know what,it didn,t kill me and I,m glad I did it,who knows there may be hope for me yet!!!
Since it was Wednesday,YES "The Queen Of the Slipstream"came to visit me today,my get out of jail free card when I handed "her majesty" her gift bag of presents and she had none for me was that every week we,ve spoken since Aug 12th has felt like my B,day,Xmas,New Years,St Paddy,s Day and Halloween all rolled into one,it,s one gift I hope continues to keep giving throughout the coming year,that said my fair lady if you,re reading this and you still want to give me something for Xmas I,m rather partial to the two disc dvd of "Casablanca".
It,s almost midnite here,5am back home,millions of children will be waking up soon to see what Santa left them under the tree,I hope you get want you asked for.
Merry Christmas

The Road To Indoor Nationals Starts Here

I hadn,t planned to race the Dec 21st meet at Swarthmore,"Charlie Dibble"is not a big lover of the facility,I on the other hand being a shameless romantic have sentimental ties to Swarthmore,it was here on Jan 9th 2005 I ran my first ever indoor race,an unearth shattering 10.26.50 3,000m,how times.....and distances have changed!!!!
Following on from last weeks heartning 400m splits I began to think about coming here for the 800m,problem was getting"Dibble"to give me his blessing,mother nature and my powers of persuasion aided and abetted that and so rather than mess w/ freezing rain and temps hovering just above freezing for outdoor mile repeats it was off to Swarthmore for a fast 800m indoor.
Part of my persuasive plea bargining to "Dibble" was that given how fast I,d cranked out 400m splits last Sunday I could in all probability come here and post a fast 800m time,use that as a seed time for Indoor Nationals{13 weeks and counting!!!}and then focus on the mile for the next three meets b4 coming back to the 800m in late Jan/early Feb and try and improve upon whatever I ran today,"Dib"gave me his blessing and here I was primed and ready!
I seeded myself at 2.02,an honest seed time/expectation,first indoor meet of the season and all that,coming off of a injury shortened indoor season in 07/08 w/ no great 800m times to show for myself I was hell bent on laying down a marker today,I think I did.
Lining up on the inside lane w/ the remaining 6 runners in heat 1 I knew to get out fast from the gun down the back straight and give myself as clear a start as possible,what surprized me was the tall purple clad Roman Catholic high schooler who blew by me on the home straight..........game on indeed!!!
I thought I heard 26 seconds for the first lap to be honest I was focusing on the back of this kids vest,58-59 was the 400m split, a brisk pace but one I felt comfortable to handle early season or not,w/ two laps to go I began to increase my pace,down the back straight I closed the gap on the high schooler who moved off the insideof lane but clearly wasn,t giving me the room to overtake him inside,rather than play possum I attacked b4 the bend and began to drive up the home straight to the bell.
Missed that split,1.28-1.30 I,m gussing it was all about the final lap now,it seemed my move had broken the high schooler as I cruised to a comfortable 2.03.01 winning time,a nice start to the 08/09 indoor season and a decent seed time to put for Landover on March 22nd w/ time to hone and sharpen my speed.
For the next few weeks I can look at the mile to get ready for Hartshorne first,Masters Invitational 1,500m second,Indoor Nationals third................oh it,s on now baby!!!!

Mexican Moon

Somewhere b4 lunchtime I was convinced today was a full moon,there was however no evidence of this on my 5 miler around Clark Park at 5.30pm!!!
Madness,Mayhem and Mexicans{just go w/ me on the last one ok!}seemed to rule the roost on my loading dock and yet I was able to smile and crack jokes throughout,given I,m two days from what would,ve been my wedding anniversary that,s kind of remarkable.
Any of my regular readers know that Erica anniversaries tend to offset my dark side and yet on this THE biggest of all my Erica anniversaries I,m surprizingly non plus about it.
I,d like to credit that to"The Queen Of The Slipstream"but in fairness that,s not the whole story,for once I think I just want to let go of the past,"respect your past,but don,t keep living it"I,ve had 22 years to grieve,morn,be angry,upset,pissed off whatever,as I,ve said of recent issues that,ve plagued me,draw a line in the sand,move on,get over whatever it is and move on.
An email from an unlikely source informed me Franklin Field is closed to the public till Jan 13th.....a winner for the holiday WTF Award if ever there was one!!!,granted tonite I couldn,t have ran there as planned as it was 4.25pm b4 I left work,remember,madness,mayhem,mexicans!!!but what I,m suppossed to do betwenn now and Jan 13th is beyond me re repeats,I,m looking into other options,I,ll check out St Joe,s if the weather this weekend cooperates to see if that,s an option.
Final thought,Spurs recovered from a 0.2 deficit to draw 2.2 at home to Spartak Moscow this evening and reach the last 32 of the Uefa Cup,an early xmas present for the N.17 faithful............or Hanukkah gift..........we are Yids afterall!!!

Going Old School

After yesterdays rain/sleet/freezing rain/snow................we don,t know what the bejaysus it was it was a joy to be able to get back out and run this evening.
An easier than most day at work meant actually getting out on time for once..............I know ,what a novel concept,that and not having any post work chores meant getting home by 4.30pm,so w/out haste I was changed and out the door pronto to get my 6 x Clark Park 5 miler in,the first three loops were in daylight,a rare commodity these days.
Opting for a track workout wasn,t an option this evening,I knew a transatlantic phone call was on tap tonite,I don,t have the luxury of seeing my clan on a regular nor semi regular basis so those phone calls tend to see me work my schedule around them not vice versa,as always it was good to catch up w/ my cousin John,fingers crossed work and weather will afford me a track workout tomorrow.
It was a shame today wasn,t a go for 4x400m repeat,not only had the work gods smiled upon me today but so to had the weather gods and frankly after a lunchtime visit from"The Queen Of The Slipstream"aka"My Girl Tuesday"{yes she,s back to visiting me on Wednesdays again!}I feel I could,ve lit up Franklin Field tonite.
I can,t...........or more,s to the point won,t divulge the inner most details of our conversations but I will confess to this much,we were w/out a doubt seperated at birth because we are SOOOOOO alike it,s not even funny and to quote a Rod Stewart lyric"You,re essay,you,re glamour,please pardon the grammer,but you,re every schoolboys dream,you,re Celtic,United but baby I,ve decided you,re the best team I,ve ever seen"
"You,re In My Heart"

Start As You Mean To Go On.............Hopefully!!!

Wishing to build upon yesterdays repeats I was eager to get out and run this evening.
Work and weather cooperated,a nice easy day and unseasonably temps meant,no hat,no gloves,sleeves rolled up tonite.
W/ "Charlie Dibble,s"ringing endorsement still on my mind,quote"what the hell are they putting in your Cornflakes"{I,m more of a Frosted Flakes man personally!!}I went about easing the gunk out of my legs from yesterday,they say "no good deed goes unpunished"and if the soreness in my calves and hamstrings were any indicator I was plenty punished thank you,but like I said to Scott inbetween repeats yesterday"no pain no gain!"
I got my invitation to Hartshorne Memorial Mile today,I also need to contact Mark Cleary re the Masters 1,500m invitational in Boston at the USATF C,Ships March 1st,indoor season is here,my first scheduled race is at PGI Maryland Dec 28th, a sence of symmetry in some respects PGI Dec 16th last year was when I first suspected I had a serious foot injury,3 days later I was diagnosed w/ a stress fracture on my left foot and my first race back from injury not counting Millrose was at PGI on Feb 23rd.

A Good Ending To Another Week That Wasn,t

Another week lost to the three w's............Work,Weather and Wankers!!!
Knowing a track work out was on tap this afternoon I kept telling myself I could use this as a springboard into next week,rather than dwell on what didn,t happen this week and frankly after todays blistering simulated 600 repeats it,d be a boot in the nads NOT to kick on from here.
Conditions were surprizingly mild at 2pm when we met up at Wisahickon High School,no rain meant access to the outdoor track............I,d almost forgotten what one looked like it,s been that long!!!
After a mile warm up and the sheading of some layers it was "have at it time"5x 400m,200m jog,200m 400m jog,Scott asked me what pace I thought take the opener in,I answered honestly when I said 70 seconds................HOWEVER!!!
Maybe it was not being on a track in 5 weeks,maybe it was the feel good factor of seeing Chris Friday after he,d gotten the all clear to return to work in the New Year or maybe I just wanted to see what I,d lost over the past weeks but I blasted the opening 400m in 63 seconds,I think Scott was too out of breath to bitch me out b4 I lead us through a 28 second 200m.
I apologized for the briskness of the opener,I just suck at judging pace to begin w/ and having been away from repeats for a few weeks didn,t help,I suggested Scott lead out the second set,150m in I felt the need to pick up the pace,65 seconds followed by a 30 second 200m.
Delvin and Dave backed off and told Scott and I to do what we had to do,Scott later bitched Chuck out for sticking me w/ him.!!!!!
60 seconds for the third 400m followed by a 28 second 200m,I was as surprized as I was impressed,61 seconds/28 seconds for the 4th,I warned Scott I wasn,t holding back on the final 400m.......
58 seconds followed by another 28 second 200m...............GOD DAMN!!!
Clearly my lack of repeats over the past 5 weeks hadn,t deminished my speed,but b4 I get too carried away breaking my hand patting myself on the back,lest we forget I,m a miler and I need to get back into a regular routine of 600m/mile repeats and soon.
Silver lining time,granted the industrial size spanner into my routine of late has been ........a pisser to say the least,however having gone full tilt since the begining of April through early November maybe I needed some down time,there,s a LONG season ahead,I would never take time off of my own recogisence so maybe the break in training was devine intervention.
God willing work and the weather will cooperate w/ me this week,I,d like to get to the track Tuesday and Thursday evening and since I don,t imagine racing at Swarthmore next Sunday prehaps a series of mile repeats................what a novel concept!
To quote THE ALARM"I never left,I only went away"