Yowza….

me whilst I pop out for a lottery purchase..

Deeyumm. I can even get a wagon…

Been busy training and working and trying to maintain balance, so blog posting has taken a back seat. I’ve tried to twitter here and there to keep the flow…

So.. what’s da haps?

I’m finally, FINALLY beginning to believe everyone who tells me that flexibility, massage and stretching help with athletic performance. Big freakin DUH…

I got a really great massage at a new (to me) shop in Warren NJ Wesley worked me over good. He listened to what was ailing me, listened to my training schedule and went to work. Now this was less than a week after NJM, so everything below the waist was kaput. Wesley went to work on my upper back, and shoulders. While he was working, it sounded like I was the receiving end of a 4 year old working a roll of bubble wrap. I haven’t had obvious problems with my arms/shoulders/upper back but my body was telling me different.

When he went to work on my legs & hips, the trigger points really flared up. I never thought about ITB tightness before, but he NAILED several trigger points. He was working my hips, and my knees were sore; he worked a different angle and I got sensations in my feet. Amazing stuff.

After 90 minutes I felt looser, and better, but a little ‘out of sorts’

the next morning, I was headed to Minnesota I felt like I was coming down with the flu. Achy, out of sorts, generally ‘not quite right’. After the flight to MSP, I actually felt BETTER. When I got off the plane and was able to walk upright I realized that the massage must have dumped out a load of crap into my system; hence the crappy feeling.

Later that day I went out for an easy run and I felt GREAT. I took a meandering run through some streets and trails of my distant past and let the strong emotions move through me and push me forward.

At the end of the run, I felt great, 7 miles at 9:30 pace less than a week after NJM and I felt looser, stronger and better than I felt before the run. It certainly wasn’t the airline food, so I’m thinking it was the massage.

Gonna get me more of that rub-down stuff tomorrow.

Oooh… another goodie…

TOOL North America

I’m a bag whore.. I should turn in my man card today…

I’m a travel-bag junkie. I love back-packs, messenger bags, laptop bags, Camelbacks and all of the various ways of carrying my cruft.

These look really cool, if a bit geeky.

Lab Gear_ Top Flight Bags_ Packs_ Wallets

But some of the gear harness bags look pretty good for cycling, especially long distance/long duration cycling.

Umm, yeah.

if the MTB race wasn’t bad enough…

Question of the day today was “So how did you do at the marathon?

It went well, but not as good as I had hoped. I went out too fast, hung on until 16 miles (1:57 for 13.1) where a MANDATORY ‘pit stop’ added 2.5 min to my time, and caused my legs to start locking up. I never got the momentum back, and slowly started to disintegrate. The 4:00 pacers passed me while I was in the loo, and I managed to hold the 4:15’s off until 22.5 miles, where a 1.5 mile gradual uphill did me in. I managed to salvage a PR with a 4:21:49 watch time, but this was definitely not the race I wanted to run. I had plenty of energy, fueling/hydration felt spot-on, HR seemed in line with effort, but my hips/ITB seemed to give up the race right after the 13.1

The weather cooperated. A pretty nasty little cold front blew through Sat. night, and left wet roads and fog behind, but NO RAIN. Temps started in the upper 40s but with the fog it was quite warm. I dressed in a singlet, shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt, and cotton gloves. I dropped the tech shirt just inside the 1st mile, pulled the gloves off about 8 miles in. I never the temps except when the course turned into the wind. For the most part the course is well sheltered from the on-shore wind, so when there was a breeze, it wasn’t for very long. Had there been an off shore breeze, extra clothing would have been required!

It was an ugly PR, but a PR still and my 2008 streak stays complete. I learned that I need a LOT more practice in my pacing, and need to push myself a wee bit harder on my longer runs. I also need to work on core (esp hips and low-back) and find some new stretching techniques.

Official times:

Team Name         City,State                9.2 Mi   HM    22.3 Mi  ChipTime GunTime

Greg Bassett Basking Ridge,NJ   46 M    30 1:25:03 1:59:08 3:38:20  4:21:33  4:23:27

Jaguars appear in the US?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/05/05/jaguars.fence/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

And DHS wants to build a fence. Typical administration response:

“Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress “…there is no time to deal with “unnecessary delays caused by administrative processes or potential litigation.”

Somebody please pull Chertoff’s head out of the ass of Shrub. The poor boy needs air.

A fence across the southern US. Seriously? That’s the best that he can come up with?

Sports transcendence.

– Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship – College Sports

Outstanding story!

Test Post!
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Bob’s been pretty even handed with his commentary through the primary season, but it looks like he’s picked his man.

Reich’s Blog: Obama for President

Surprising , since he’s been a Clinton man (Bill) for some time.

With HRC’s support from close friends and long time supporters, how much longer does she plan to drag out the inevitable?

A couple of potential end-plays. Obama & HRC go toe-to-toe right through the convention, dragging the democrats down into a no-win situation for the general election

McCain surprises everyone and names Condi Rice as his running mate. Obama & HRC quickly close ranks, pick their running position and we’ll have a REAL race in November.

For me, I hope it’s the latter, and not the former.