16mi to 10mi

Had my 16 mile long run planned today. Typical with my luck on long runs the weather was awful. It was raining slightly and it was cold. Thankfully I was able to convince R that she would join me on her bike for the last 12miles.

The run started pretty well , my legs felt good and the weather was getting slightly better. By the time I was in Milford I was thinking this would be nice TP run back. I started doing 8min/miles to see how much I push myself. It was then on the backstretch that I started really feeling the strain of the weather and the run. By the time I was passing milford beach for the second time I decided that was it. I was Done. I stopped and took off my shoes and walked right into the ocean to cool down. 10miles at a tough I thought I would call it a day

Good food

I can’t begin to explain my passion for good food. It is almost at the same level as my passion for working out,biking ,running. If I was to concisely debate why enjoy exercising so much I would have to conclude that is because it allows me to eat the food I like.
Like most athletes I like to have a good balanced , maybe a not so healthy meal both before my run and after.
So before my 14mile odyssey it was Kabab king And wonderful orgy of meat. Kababs have are so much more enjoyable after you have gone to a bar with some friends before.

After the run on Monday R and I decided to try a new Italian joint up the street from us. It is Al Dente in Stratford. It had gotten great reviews and since Al Paccino had eaten their several times I figured it had to have some authentic Italian nature to it. We went their straight after work , skipping my Monday swim (it’s only oct) . Ordered a good glass of wine and some bruschetta to start. The wine was good and the bruschetta was to my enjoyment, wonderfully simple. I hate it when some over ambitious, snotty chef decides to over-complicate a simple dish. Simplicity is always the bueaty in life. This was crisp fresh bread with a drizzle of evoo fresh tomatoes and basil. Simplicity and wonderful.
My salad was a bit of dissapoijtment. Being drenched in balsamic sauce I felt I was having vinegar bottle. But againt it was fresh and good pallate cleanser.
Finally to the main course. My shrimp al dente was wonderful. I could taste the “ala vodka” sauce as it had cooked with the shrimp. The pasta was perfectly cooked and then tossed with the sauce and the Shrimp making it that absoulte wholistic dish that you wish a chef would create just for you. The tiny addition of the peas and pruchitto offered the variation in texture and taste in the dish.
Rhian got the spaghetti bolognese can’t really say much about it since I was so satisfied with my own dish. Will try the leftovers tonight.

14 miles

Just finished my 14miles long run. After the last Sunday run disaster it was a mental boost to do the longer run and keep with the training program.
Started off slowly for the first 4 mi clocking in 8:45s. Got interupted twice by work on the phone. So it was nice to have an iPhone.
By the time I got to 10miles it was painful and I was running out of nutrition. I had do the last 2 miles at lower pace and it reminded my how you sometimes get into this zone during a workout.
After the last 2 miles I has to do a 2 mile fark-leg which was painful to see the least.

Repeats are Tough

Running repeats is almost as tough as a long run. It can be gut wrenching. Had to do mine on Stamford high track by the end of it was dead tired. Ready for a couple of beers followed by some kababs.

New Phone

After 4 broken, overused blackberry phones. R and I finally
decided to switch to a iPhones. The switch was fairly straightforward, walk into the apple store, choose the phones and go through a 10 min registration process. By the time we walked out of the store the numbers had switched and we were able to download apps. By the end of the train ride back home I had downloaded the apps I wanted and had my email setup.
By the next day had all my music And Nike pod running (thanks to R) setup.
In all the switch is going well. I have most things I needed setup and sending emails is not as bad as I thought it would be.

Vdot 2

So my 2nd vdot test and as painful as it was I managed to run the 5k in 21:18 . Still not my best time but an improvment over the last time.

So my new vdot is 46.27 . I just have to make sure I can physically keep up the marathon pace for the entire 26.2 miles.

The House of Saud

If I could say one thing to the House of Saud it would be “Leave Pakistan alone” . The following is an interesting article , which is just the tip of the iceberg, of how for the relatively short history of Pakistan, our dear friends of the Arabian peninsula have played such an influential role.

As a Pakistani, I feel I share no cultural , ideological, theological, political, religious ties to the Arabian peninsula. Then why should I allow the House of Saud to poison my countries religious, political, cultural enviornment.

Being lazy

Its comes down to being lazy. Or just inherently burnt out.

Week 6 of the marathon training plan and I don’t feel like doing any workouts. This weekend was bad weather only went out for a bike ride and then skipped the run. Should have been the opposite

Through the week didn’t do any of the workouts, no run , no bikes. It grounds me to the fact that if I didn’t have this crazy routine how many hours in the day I have to do anything . Which in this case turns out to how many hours in day I have to do NOTHING.

Time to get back. Adjusted my plan a bit haven’t lost too many key workouts between now and novemeber. Plus the plan was sort of easy right now . Running 14 mi , that was something I was already conditioned for during tri season . So now its a matter of hitting those speed workouts, getting those long runs in.