Saturday, May 31, 2008

Chill Saturday

So far today I have managed to exactly 5 things:
1. Pilates: 8am - 9am
2. Breakfast: The usual ... you know, croissants, pain au chocolat, fruit and yogurt
3. Nap
4. Run - 6.5 miles
5. Eat (again)

Yep, another exciting day in Paris! As I type this I have to ask myself, 'do I take living in Paris for granted?' I really do not think that I do, I cannot be go,go, go all the time like Joe-Tourist who has exactly 4 days to see centuries of history, architecture, and other cultural highlights. Instead, after a long week of work I typically need a day to plug in the rechargeable batteries so that I can do it all over again!

My run at Bois de Bolougne went as follows:
7:41/7:31/7:28/7:26/7:27/7:11/7:10 (last 0.5 miles) min/mile

Jennie left for a walk before I left for my run. I met up with her after my run at the edge of the Bois de Bolougne. And after several days of here telling me that she nevers sees trannys out in the park and was curious has to how I always seemed to bump into them, she greets me with, "I saw 2 trannys today!! I cannot believe that they are out here on a Saturday afternoon with the families and kids." C'est la vie I guess. Plus, I guess everyone has different circadian rythyms so, why not Saturday afternoon?!
Tranny total = 12

Ok, time for some napping/French homework!

Peace out homies!

Friday, May 30, 2008

C'est Vendredi (It's Friday!)

Homies,

Today I had good intentions of buzzing out of work a little early to get out and enjoy this near perfect day in Paris a little earlier than perhaps the boss-man would like, but even the best laid plans can go awry. Just as I was about to leave I got roped into helping prepare 'Meeting Minutes' for a meeting that took place last week. So, an hour and a half later, and much of the best part of the afternoon behind me, I headed home. Now, I know I will never reach "accountant status" in terms of hours work, but seriously, 'meeting minutes" at 6pm on a Friday?!!

By the time I got home I was totally pooped, but I figured a nice run would pick my energy levels up and, indeed, it has. I ran my usual mixture of trails in the Bois de Boulogne for 7 miles. My Garmin was all over the place today...here are the splits as Garmin saw it:
6:21/7:08/6:54/7:03/7:08/7:05/7:18 min/mile

Now, I know this is not true because I have a fairly reliable 3mile marker that Garmin was waaaaay ahead of (almost exactly 1 minute). If I redistribute that minute throughout the first 3 miles, and assume that I ran the same pace for all 3 miles, then my real pace was something like 7:06 min/mile. Based on my exercution level and the rest of the splits afterwards I think this correction is a more accurate depiction of my run.

Technical geek stuff aside, something funny happened today while running. Running from our apartment, I run down Boulevard Pierre, which is a one way street. I was running along on the sidewalk when I noticed a car driving along beside me going the exact same speed as me. After a few seconds I was, naturally, curious and I decided to look over at the driver. There he was, sitting in the drivers seat with both hands off the wheel, and was pumping his arms up and down on either side of his body in the identical way a runner pumps their arms while running. He looked over, saw me looking, and then he took off on up ahead. This all happened so quickly that I really did not know how to respond (or even have a chance too). But like all great responses, I thought of it 30 seconds later when I thought that I should have taken my arms, held them out infront of me, put my hands in the 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions and pretended I was driving! Oh well, next time I am definitely prepared with a witty comeback for if/when that happens again!

After the run I came home and stretched out while watching Bloodsport with VanDamme dubbed en francais! Yep, this is what my Friday night in Paris is all about! But here is a question, everybody always picks on Jean Claude VanDamme for his lack of acting skills, but how come nobody has given him grief for wearing his pants so high? If you ever watch this movie again, because you are being interrogated by terroists who are subjecting you to torture, check out how high he wears his khakis. Obviously I could spend much more time analysing all that is wrong with anything written in this last paragraph, but I will move on!

Oh yeah, Michelle I was jamming to Rythym is a Dancer on the Ipod...remember when that was the only song that you would listen to?

Tomorrow I have some sweet pilates in the morning, some french home-work, running in the afternoon, and an Argentinian dinner party that Jennie has hooked us up with. So, tomorrow should be really good with plenty of opportunities for disaster throughout!

And Scott, if you made it all this way, I only saw 1 tranny tonight. I figured that being a Friday night that they would be offering extra specials and incentives so I tried to stay clear from the hot-spots in fear that I might accidentaly cut a path between buyer and seller...
Tranny Total = 10.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Bois de Boulogne - Easy

Ok boys,

After yesterdays first attempt at track, today's plan was to have a nice, easy recovery run. Well, it really depends on what standard you want to use of whether or not you would call this a 'recovery' run or an 'easy-hard' run or an 'intense-easy' run. If I go religiously by Mr. Jack Daniels, then today was probably and 'intense-easy' run (Or otherwise known as a typical Strider run!!!). But, semantics aside, the run felt great and I could still feel my legs looking for a little speed (that perhaps they missed from shortening the speed session from last night).

I ran 8 miles and they shook up as follows:
7:29, 7:17, 7:20, 7:17, 7:17, 7:14, 7:16, 7:16 min/mile
AVERAGE: 7:18 min/mile

Weekly Total: 24 miles

Running in the Bois de Boulogne, especially in the evening hours always makes for an interesting run. For the most part, I just see other more serious runners, loads of bunnies out along the path munching away on whatever it is that they have been craving all day, and a few transvestites advertising their "wares". Yes, you did read that last sentence correctly, the tranny's sort of have a bit of a reputation of hanging out in the Bois de Boulogne. Now, if Bois de Boulogne were not so close to chez moi and if it were not such a great park to run in, then perhaps I would look for someplace different to run. But, it is and, it is, so I find myself running every night trying to avoid their catcalls, flashing, kissing sounds, and whatever else they decide to do in hopes that I might "take a break" from my run. So, why do I mention this? I figured I will start a tranny counter (once I figure out how) and see how many there are in the wonderful Bois de Boulogne!

Tranny Count: 9
Total: 9

On a different, but somewhat related theme (stay with the story, it will become clearer later), I borrowed my wife's Ipod to run with today and found myself starting my run with one of her all-time favorite songs: Meatloaf's, I would do anything for love. Part of the chorus sings as follows:

"I would do anything for love, but I won't do that....ohh no, I won't do that"

That line got me thinking, what would I NOT do for love? I started going through a laundry list of items, scenarios, etc and I could not think of anything...until my thoughts somehow managed to settle on the tent scene in Broke Back Mountain. Ok Meatloaf, I do agree, I won't do that!
And would you believe that the last song that I listened to during my run (and keeping consistent with this theme) was George Michael's "Faith"....I guess I could have easily re-titled this post, but whatever!

Ok boys, I hope your running is going well in the heat...I think I forgot to mention that today was nearly ideal conditions!

JD: Phase 2 - Quality Workout #1

Well boys,

I decided to start this little blog to keep you updated as to my progress (or lack therof) and to hopefully provide a little motivation as we are all training separately, yet still trying to be accountable for the hard workouts!

Yesterday I headed down to my new 1/4 mile track on Isle de Neilly and under nearly ideal conditions I did the following (exact paces to follow - they are not handy right now):

2 mile warmup: 7:25 min/mile
5x (800m 'hard' + 3 min recovery)
1. 2:51
2. 2:49
3. 2:46
4. 2:44
5. 2:47
2 mile cooldown: 7:25 min/mile

TOTAL mileage = 8 miles

(ps - I did 8 easy miles (avg. pace ~7:25 min/mile) on Tuesday to make this week's total 16 miles so far).

Now, JD I know that your schedule called for 5x1200m at I pace. Given that this was my first speed session, I was very reluctant to do anything stupid since speed has been directly related to all of my pains so far this year. I know that it is not like me to actually think that way, but the decision was easy once I hit 800m!

I pace (VDOT=58) for 800m works out to be 2:46 splits. So, I did work on my V02 today by hitting the pace, but as Jack has mentioned in his talks, I guess I only hit V02 for ~1 minute each interval. Anyhow, next week the schedule calls for the same workout and my goal is to do the 1200m repeats then. I feel more comfortable with this now after I have seen my body's reaction to this first bout of speed!

Surprisingly, I feel really good today. My legs do not feel heavy and my usual tender bits are not causing me any pain. During the workout I was not surprised by how out of breath I was after 800m but a little bothered by how out of shape I feel when doing speed. My breathing started to whistle like yours does sometimes JD!

Ok boys, back to work for me. When I have time I am actually going to get this blog thing presentable, but for the time being I thought it would be a great way to smack talk and to keep each other informed as to our training!

Have a good one!