I don’t remember a lot about my NYE celebration, though Weazer and my friends tell me I had a good time.

But I’m sure we didn’t celebrate as well as the fine folks in Olso, where it’s really freakin cold, and they allow everyone free and easy access to high explosives.

Oslo Celebrated New Year’s Eve with More Fireworks Than You

A truly civilized culture.

The madness that is the Bassett family Christmas is over. This year was a lot easier to deal with than others. I’m not sure completely why, other than I think I just let go and let the ‘joy’ wash over me.

Also, since I was fighting off the last bit of a cold/sinus infection I was too medicated to drink much, and too run down and tired to fight, so I just stayed out of the way.

Gift-wise it was a totally geek Christmas – new TomTom Go GPS and iPod Nano from Mom, (thanks Amazon wish list!) and a nifty Sony GC1 Net Sharing Camera from Weazer. Also lots and lots of DVD box sets (Soprano’s, Firefly, Lost Season 3) to occupy those cold winter trainer & treadmill sessions. Weazer seemed to like her new necklace & earrings, and other goodies I got for her. But the best gift for both of us was just to sleep in late and spend some quiet quality time together before the madness at mom’s house.

Training-wise, this week has been a total bust. I went home sick on Tuesday afternoon, and am just now feelng about 90%. Still a wee bit congested & coughing up a bit. I’m going to skip today’s workout and ease back in tomorrow. My coach just sent me an updated workout, that has the adjusted schedule. I’m really sort of suprised I got sick again, since I just got over being ill in October. I suppose it’s just that time of year again. A lot of people at work out sick over the last couple of weeks.

So tomorrow it’s back on the bike for a nice easy 60 min Z1 spin. Hmm, what do I want to watch?

For those of you who know me or even read this blog in passing.. Merry Christmas from me to you:

The Rebel Jesus – Jackson Browne

All the streets are filled with laughter and light

And the music of the season

And the merchants’ windows are all bright

With the faces of the children

And the families hurrying to their homes

As the sky darkens and freezes

They’ll be gathering around the hearths and tales

Giving thanks for all god’s graces

And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by the prince of peace

And they call him by the savior

And they pray to him upon the seas

And in every bold endeavor

As they fill his churches with their pride and gold

And their faith in him increases

But they’ve turned the nature that I worshipped in

From a temple to a robber’s den

In the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns

And we guard our fine possessions

And once a year when christmas comes

We give to our relations

And perhaps we give a little to the poor

If the generosity should seize us

But if any one of us should interfere

In the business of why they are poor

They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But please forgive me if I seem

To take the tone of judgment

For I’ve no wish to come between

This day and your enjoyment

In this life of hardship and of earthly toil

We have need for anything that frees us

So I bid you pleasure

And I bid you cheer

From a heathen and a pagan

On the side of the rebel Jesus.

I’ve been a fan of Aimee Mann for sometime. But I can’t quite put my finger on why these lyrics hit me so hard:

The Moth don’t care when he sees The Flame.
He might get burned, but he’s in the game.
And once he’s in, he can’t go back, he’ll
Beat his wings ’til he burns them black…
No, The Moth don’t care when he sees The Flame.
No, The Moth don’t care when he sees The Flame.

The Moth don’t care if The Flame is real,
‘Cause Flame and Moth got a sweetheart deal.
And nothing fuels a good flirtation,
Like Need and Anger and Desperation…
No, The Moth don’t care if The Flame is real.
No, The Moth don’t care if The Flame is real.

So come on, let’s go, ready or not
‘Cause there’s a Flame I know,
Hotter than hot
And with a fuse that’s so thoroughly shot…
Away.

The Moth don’t care if The Flame burns low,
‘Cause Moth believes in an afterglow.
And Flames are never,
Doused completely,
All you really need is a love of…
Heat.
No, The Moth don’t care if The Flame burns low.
No, The Moth don’t care if The Flame burns low.

So come on, let’s go, ready or not
‘Cause there’s a Flame I know,
Hotter than hot.
And with a fuse that’s so thoroughly shot…
Away.

Beyond the obvious literal translation, somehow I’m drawn to the words like, well… you get the idea…

– New FactCheck Article: Not Working 4 Edwards – tri.bassett@gmail.com

Money quote:

“The jobs didn’t move offshore. They were actually sent to Ohio.”

Yeah, to the rubes in Iowa, Ohio is a foreign country.

Tell me again why the press gives so much importance to the “Iowa Caucus”…..

Blech…

Vote for Mike! Hypocrite of the millennium…

Politicization of rape victims’ deaths ‘heartbreaking’ – CNN.com: “‘There are families who are truly, understandably and reasonably, grief stricken,’ Huckabee told CNN. ‘And for people to now politicize these deaths and to try to make a political case out of it rather than to simply understand that a system failed and that we ought to extend our grief and heartfelt sorrow to these families, I just regret politics is reduced to that.'”

Umm dude? The failure of the ‘system’ was 100% your fault. You were governor.
You had the power to stay the release of the scum-bag
You failed to act.
Your fault. Game. Set. Match.

Your God is watching you.

Joe Kleinerman 10k Map
12/9/2007

I missed the cut-off for online signup, so I had to schlep into NYC on Saturday before the race and sign up in person. I decided to make a whole afternoon adventure out of the trip, so after running into NYRRC and grabbing some lunch, I drove over to Brooklyn to visit R&A Cycles. I spent about an hour talking bikes with the staff and drooling over all the sweet rides, frames & gear in the shop.

I actually sported a semi feeling up the awesome Felt DA frameset (2007 model), and it really wanted to come home with me too, but I knew that my heart belonged to another (her 1 year younger sister) and handed it back to the staff and headed home.

Fast forward to race day…

Driving into NYC early on a December morning is a thing of beauty. Just under an hour from my door to a different, CHEAPER parking garage. The day before it was more like and hour-forty five.

I get to the race start at the 102nd street entrance, and find my way over the baggage check-in. I grab a seat on the rocks overlooking the baggage check area, and get into my mental zone. Within a few minutes I’m starting to get pretty cold, and start to worry about how I’m going to make it through the race without freezing my chest or ears. I have compression shorts and a light set of tights for the legs, but only light, long-sleeved technical shirt, light gloves and an IM running cap. I have a heavy, hooded sweatshirt and knit cap for after the race, and I consider running in the hoodie & cap, but don’t want to get overheated. I don’t mind running hot, but the hoodie and cap are all I have for after the race. What to do?

I decided to just hang loose until my warmup time (about 25 min before the race). I never really felt any warmer, despite walking around a bit, so I dropped by bag off at the check-in, and headed out to warmup with the hoodie & cap. About 1/2 way through my warm up, I knew that there would be no way I could run in the hoodie. It was cotton and would hold every drop of sweat that left my body and would weigh a ton at the end of the race. When I got back to my bag, I left the hoodie & cap behind, put on my lucky IM cap and jogged over to the race start. I got there with less than 2 minutes to go until the race start. Perfect!

The horn sounded and we stood there. And stood there, and stood there some more. Eventually we started to shuffle off toward the starting line, and almost 2 minutes later, I hit the mats and started my watch. Although I said that I wasn’t going to race with the Garmin, I really wanted to have the race mapped on MotionBased, since it was going to be in Central Park. I have a lot of non-athlete friends that live outside of the metro-area and they wanted to see the maps.

I had seeded myself midway between the 7 and 8 min mile pace sections, but it seems like any self-seeding was random, at best. I got blocked in a bunch of times at the very start and was starting to worry about how hard I would have to go later to make up the time. After the 1st 1/2 mile, I managed to get in behind a lovely young lady who seemed to be hitting the same pace I wanted, and off we went.

I missed the 1st mile marker, but it must have been fast because about 3/4 of the of the 1st mile is sharply downhill. Then it climbs back up a good bit. I like this course better than Giralda because the hills aren’t as steep or long. At mile 2 I hit my watch: 15:46. Gaak. 7:38 avg? WTF? Where did THAT come from.

I’m a dead man…

I keep plugging away, but it’s pretty apparent that my young pacer-girl is going a bit faster than I can hang with, and still finish strong. I let her go on and try to focus on my form and hitting the course apexes.

Mile 3 goes by (dammit, I missed the water station!) 7:38. No freakin’ way. My Garmin has to be broken…

Miles 2.5 to 4 are pretty much downhill. but then you start to climb. My stomach is starting to complain a bit, so I make sure I hit the water station and get a gulp down to settle it. Mile 4 comes into view and my watch tells me 7:48. I’m starting to FEEL like I’m running that fast. I haven’t been watching my HR, but I’m sure it’s showing “911”.

At mile 4.5, my stomach decides that it wants to be a spectator for the rest of the race. There is a pretty steep up hill for a little bit more than 1/4 mile. I was pushing myself pretty hard up that hill, and wasn’t paying attention to how I felt until I started to gag. That was a big indicator that I needed to ease back. I also knew that I would not be able to get back up to speed quickly, so I began to run smarter. I would back off a bit on the inclines, but push harder on the descents, and let my body tell me what to do on the flats.

Mile 5 came by in 8:07 – stupid stomach, stupid hills..

The rest of the course is flat to downhill, with a nice big downhill finish from 5.5 miles. My stomach was turning cartwheels but I thought I might have a PR coming, so I jumped into the hurt locker, and dropped the hammer. Mile 6 went by in 7:43 and the last 2/10 in 1:34. 48:41 by my watch, and a new PR by 46 seconds. Sweet!

I’m just thankful that I had given my breakfast time to get past my stomach, otherwise I would have shared it with the spectators & volunteers. Eeek.. I’ve gotta figure out how to keep the nausea at bay at the end of these hard sets.

When I got home I got an e-mail from my coach indicating that I didn’t have any results?

W-T-freakin-F?

I log into NYRR’s web site and search for my name, and my bib number (7385). Nothing. BUMMER!

I made a conscious point to stomp the starting mats and hammered through the finish mats so I’ve got no idea why there is no official time for me. That puts me 0-2 for official times in my 1st two PR goals.

I hope that this nonsense stops before tri-season starts!

HR Chart here:

And for the data-obsessed: Motion-Based link: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=156449&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=4578051

I’m not committing or anything but…

Antonio Marathon, Inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Texas Marathon and half Marathon

Hmmm….

It’s a big toss-up. Go home and run an inaugural event, or stay local and run a 1/2 IM

Seafood or Tex-Mex. God help me, my head is going to explode.

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.