Month: November 2007

We had a great day on Thursday. Right after breakfast, Fran spotted about 2 dozen wild turkeys running through our backyard: src=”http://lh6.google.com/tri.bassett/R0hH0WWky0I/AAAAAAAAAnU/4oRKBwfzi5k/s144/IMG_1288.JPG” />turkeys on the loose!

We see one or two at a time around here, but we’ve never seen this many in our backyard at one time. Right after I took the photo the flock ran into the neighbor’s yard, then took off and flew in formation over the neighbor’s house.

Later, I went out on my annual t-day ride with the loud guys:
Hugh, Jim & Dave

As usual, the ride included lots of chit-chat, lots of stopping to decide route, some nice climbs and a couple of sprints. Dave is recovering from knee replacement in August, so we kept the pace light for the most part. The weather was VERY warm, and I was way overdressed at the beginning. I took off the undershirt at Jim’s house, but I was still sweating like a pig at the end of the ride.

Later, we picked up mom and drove up to Glen Ridge to have dinner with Steve, Brenda and Maureen, their friend Heidi and her three kids, Carol & Arnold and their daughter Quinn. We had a GREAT time, ate WAY too much and took a lot of photos. The whole gallery of the day is here:

Thanksgiving 2007

Very cool! My YMCA now has masters swim sessions!

Schedule – Somerset Hills YMCA

$5.00 per session. Cheapness! I’m definitely going to check this out on Thursday night.

Weekly Results:

A so-so training week, capped off by a PR run. I suppose that works.

The job got in the way of a lot of training this week. I skipped Pilates on Monday, as I was already sore and tired from the previous weekend’s workout. Tuesday, I didn’t get up in time to get in the run. I worked from home, and spent the whole day in front of the computer dealing with problems until it got too late to go swim. Another big goose-egg. Wednesday, I got the brick done. Thursday, I got the swim, but got home to late to get the bike ride done. Friday was another work-from-home day, and I didn’t get the break to even get out for the 40 min Z2 run that I had on the schedule. I was able to do the short ‘loosen up’ run on Saturday.

Sunday was my first race of the ’08 season. I raced at the Giralda Farms 10k. The day was perfect; clear and cold. This is a good race with less than 400 people each in the 5k and 10k. We only run together for a short time at the beginning, so there isn’t a lot of crowding.

I went as hard as I could hold for the distance, and feel pretty good about my results: 49.27, 7:51 pace per my Garmin, which had the distance at 6.3 miles. This is about a 1:29 PR for me at this same race in 2005. That felt pretty good.

It seems that I must have missed the timing mats at the start, because there aren’t any official times for me. Just in case you need visual proof, here I am at the finish.

A the finish Giralda Farms 10K Run

I got home from the race, had some lunch and went out for my 1:30 Z1 “recovery” ride. Well, I got out a bit late, then got out a bit too far, then I got cold, and then it got dark. So I ended up with a solid 21 mile ride, totally in Z2, with over 1800 feet of climbing. As a result, I’m pretty sore today.

Looking back at the previous week, I realize that I’m skipping workouts when my job has me so frustrated that all I can do it flop in the chair and watch the boob-tube. What I need to remember is that just getting out there and “gettin ‘er done” is a lot better therapy than sitting around and letting my mind stew in the problems. That way lies madness.

So this next 4 weeks will be all about being more self-aware. When I’m headed into the dark side, I need to pull myself out of the chair and go train.

One more reason why cockroaches, dolphins, and bacteria will inherit the earth…

employee put on leave after wearing ‘offensive’ costume – CNN.com

If people like these (Chertoff, Meyers) are the best and the brightest that we can put in charge of our borders and our homeland security, and if this is the best action we can expect, then the terrorists have won.

Please, for the love of America, get out and vote stupidity off the island..

Another great training week, capped off by a fun weekend.

The training was solid. I only missed a part of one workout. On Wednesday morning, during my the bike portion of my brick, my rear tire blew out on the trainer. Since I was training before work, I didn’t have time to change the tire and complete whole workout, so I jumped on the treadmill and completed the run portion. I only lost 25 minutes of cycling time.

Friday’s workout was tough. The 15min Z4 was really hard. I still need a lot of work on mental focus during the tough stuff, in order to maintain form and pace consistently.

As for weekend fun, Saturday night was “boyz night out” so Hootus, Callaghan and I hit in Somerville for Dinner. It’s always a great place to eat, plus we got a GREAT bottle of pinot noir to go with dinner.

Sunday I got a lot of the yardwork done, and we closed up the patio for the season. It’s sort of sad to see all the patio furniture put away though.

Sunday night, Weazer & I went to the Somerset Hills Adult Day Care benefit “A Taste of The Hills”. We went with mom, and one of her sorority sisters who was in town for a visit. It’s always a great event, with tons of tasty nibbles from all of the local restaurants. This year, there was a great selection of wines to taste as well. We got a lot of new wines to try!

Bonus! Weazer once again showed her skill and great fortune and picked up two gift baskets in the drawings. I also won one of the two silent auction prizes.

Gotta love full, fun weekends like this!

Wow! honors and accolades!

TH3 WALL: TTW Challenge Breaking News

And a very cool t-shirt design to boot!

(he, he, get it? “to boot?”)