Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Shopping, shopping and more shopping.

D’s in town from Brisbane and the first thing he wanted to do was shop. The US dollar is very weak currently compared to the Australian dollar, so everything is relatively inexpensive when compared to home for him. I believe my favorite quote was, “It’s like going to Bangladesh!” Thanks for the monetary and tax policies, Mr. President.

Did get in some proper touristy stuff on Sunday with a visit to the Corcoran Gallery’s Modernism exhibit. If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it, it was well done. We dragged Tod and Doug out with us and then zipped to a late lunch after. But cold, so very cold this weekend. Easter is not supposed to be colder than Christmas in this hemisphere. Not to mention the brief snow Saturday morning. Brr!

Last day at work this week for me today. More touristy stuff and shopping with D the next two days, then I’m off for my half marathon on Saturday down near my parents. I offered to do a 5k with a friend who’s not done one before when I get back, so looks like I’m adding to my race schedule, though a 5k isn’t going to kill me. And it would be good to have a benchmark prior to my next Sprint triathlon the first weekend in June.

1:45:39 chip time (heart rate monitor time). About 1:57 on the course time. AHR: 174; MHR: 185 (yeah, I burn high). 49-50 degrees out, light to no breeze, overcast.

Cool conditions. Ran into a few tri clubbers, both before the race, during, and after. We really need more cooler weather gear to wear, but that’s another story.

Forgot to lap time the miles as we went past them until mile 5 (0:52:06), and then there was no mile 7 marker. Sometime past mile 5 I felt like I had a rock in my shoe, so stopped twice (at about miles 6 and 7) to see what was up with it. Couldn’t find a thing. I suspect that somehow, no matter that the shoes have never done this, they were pinching the outside of my foot. Have a nascent blister developing, but no biggie.

Was running with two clubbers up until mile 5 when I hit that max heart rate and decided to pop back into the average range. I used to be able to run at 181/182 and that was about my threshold, but I think I’ve dropped back a bit to 179ish. Considering I’ve done no threshold training as yet this year, that’s not too surprising.

Was very glad I dumped the jacket at bag check as I heated up pretty well once we got running, and even more happy that I’d brought it afterward. The wind picked up a little while we were out, and being soaked in a cool breeze at 50 degrees out is pretty chilly.

Maintained a pretty steady 10:30 pace, which was great. I was expecting to come in closer to 2 hours for my finish for it based on my training runs, so I’m quite pleased with the chip time.

The cherry blossoms are at peak today, and they were absolutely gorgeous. Little fluffy white clouds of flowers attached to the trees. A good part of the early and late race are around the Potomac and the Tidal Basin, so we saw some great ones.

Happy to have finally run this race, which was shaping up as my nemesis after sports injuries kept me out the past two years. Was tons of fun, and great prep for the half marathon in two weeks!

11 miles on the Heart Rate Monitor, which means 10 in actuality. 1:53. Negative split, and the faster pace I kicked it to in the 2nd half is going to be doable for next week. Looks like a cold front is expected in next weekend, so the Cherry Blossom’s going to live up to its nickname of the ‘Chilly Bloosom,’ but at least we’re not losing an hour’s sleep just before the race (the one advantage to earlier DST?). So looking forward to finally running this race!

I’m killing the Uberlist for this year. I’ve gotten up to 80 items and I just can’t go any further, and now half the things I’ve put down I’m not sure I want to do this year, so phooey on it. I think I’d rather set up a rolling list of goals, like paying off two of the sub-loans with my student loan providers, and then build up from there. I do have temporal goals that will suit themselves to a yearly list (i.e., race goals), but some of the other stuff I found myself wanting to concentrate on is likely more multi-year than not, especially the financial stuff.

Long day of cleaning. It was very much needed, I’d let the dining table become a junk depository and it needed emptying, and laundry needed doing, and vacuuming, and dusting, and all that stuff needed to happen. Was more motivated than usual because FJ!! popped by before MG and I ran him up to BWI to fly home to LA. All was in order for his visit, so face was saved and he didn’t see how junky it looked 24 hours previous.

Not to say it’s a show apartment, but it’s gotten much better as I’ve concentrated on fixing individual areas.

One thing I had decided to do this year on the list was a charity event. With AIDS Marathon pulling out of DC due to the incomprehensible actions of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, I think I’ve settled on a biking event that helps Food and Friends here in DC. I’m going to an informational session for them tomorrow evening, and if I like the info I see from them I’m likely to sign up. The ride’s in July, and that’s a good time to build up to the distances we’re looking at. I like the work the charity does here in DC, so I’m favorably inclined to them, but I still want the chance to ask some questions before I make the plunge.

After the odd email exchange about our newbie program, the volunteer meeting yesterday went well, though I found out I’m the sole co-leader from last year who’s continuing on into this year. Ack! So, whole new crew, but with a lot of infrastructure set up for this year. It’s going to be a fun season. Now we just have to find a goal race so we can get some of the other information into focus. As the one carry over I’m getting a lot of questions, and that’s fine. Just call me Mr. Triathlon.

Have done some little wanderings around the edges of MAL this year. MG and I went to the hotel last night and chatted with friends for a couple of hours. Then today we went to the market and I plunked down far too much money on stuff from Nasty Pig (but it’s going to look lovely once I get the jeans hemmed, and wear the bar vest out to the Eagle). Ran into tons of friends, saw some folks whom I though I recognized but wasn’t quite sure enough of to go say hello, and generally enjoyed myself. Did end up a little dehydrated at the end, I think, but am making up for it now that I’m home.

Need to do lots of cleaning tomorrow, laundry and general straightening. FJ!! is going to stop by, I think, while he waits for his flight after leaving the hotel, and the place definitely needs to be made more guest-worthy if that’s to happen.

Up early this morning to run and get to work early for a meeting (I was in the office at 8:30, which is unheard of for me). Forgot, as usual, to body glide my thighs before the run; I always seem to remember that about 5-6 minutes into a run… Anyway, was irritating, but not fatal to the run. Did discover that my usual running path is very well lit, even before the sun comes up.

Inside scoop on the budget is that we should have our full-year CR the last week or January, or by February 1st. Which is good, since the executive budget proposal comes out on February 5th.

Swam after work. Also expressed a bit of irritation with some of the leadership of my tri club. I volunteered with our new triathlete program this past year, was in fact one of the co-leaders. Had attempted to get in touch with the other co-leaders in early December, was not quite blown off, and now suddenly a couple dates have been set for things for this year already, without any attempt to involve me. I let them know I was disappointed. I’m still going to help out, and hopefully I’ll still be a co-leader this year as I really do believe in the program, but was not pleased at how that was handled.

That said, if you’re in the DC area and you want to try your hand at triathlons, drop me a note.

Nice dinner just up the street tonight with MG. He’s currently off at the grocery store picking up snack stuffs. I’m trying to cool the apartment down – it’s in the low-to-mid-60s outside, but in the middle 70s in here. Too. Freakin’. Hot. This is supposed to be January, not April, ferheavenssake. At least it’ll be nice to get out on the bike tomorrow morning.

Not quite done with the Uberlist for this year, have about a third of the way to go yet, but have ideas to go do file. This weekend I should be able to post it, I hope.

Despite prediction of temps above freezing there was plenty of frost out this morning when I ran. Yay for fleece tights. Knowing that it’s the beginning of getting back to regular workouts I took it a little easy, shortened the run down from my usual, and enjoyed it. Was up early enough to get it in, still get a good breakfast, and bike into work without being late. We’ll see if I can replicate that (though with a bike ride) tomorrow.

Also swam this evening, again cutting it a little short, but still getting in a good workout.

Signed up for another race, in October, and looked into two others (one of them I had to print a non-fill-out-able file to write in and mail in a check. wtf?!?! 2007 here folks!). So I think that’s now 3 races I’m confirmed for, and one more to mail off tomorrow. Busy Moose, and that’s how I want this year.

Work went well. Cleared some stuff off the desk to make room for the current two big projects (I so, so need to file things, though, and clear out a bunch of books left by my predecessor). Passed a bunch of corny puns to my team leader while asking to go in late Tuesday to get fitted for new orthotics (“thank you from the bottom of my sole!”). Will be good to get new ones – my current ones are just about to have the front part shear off from the two years of abuse I’ve given them. I’m hopeful they’ll still be okay for work, in which case I’ll leave them there and have to remember one less thing when I pack to bike in.

Oh, and I fussed at a car tonight. Jerk had the audacity to blow his horn at me with 10 seconds left on the light. I turned around, put out a full hand (not just the middle finger, though it was tempting), palm out and told him to chill. And then turned around and sat in the lane as I’m legally allowed to do. Sorry, not putting up with your impatience, car driver. If I were a car, you’d have to wait, too, so suck it up.

The rain held off, barely.

Got myself up and ready and biked down to West Potomac Park to check in and get my race shirt and number (555).

The field where the tents were set up was pretty muddy from the rain the previous day and that morning. Folks were jumping around the larger puddles and trying not to step in the smaller ones by accident. Check-in was pretty painless, got my shirt and went back over to the bike to change shoes.

Just before the race started I spotted a friend from the tri club who was running with a friend of hers. Started chatting and just ran along with them for most of the race. They set a good pace (31:50 to finish, just under a 10 minute mile average), and it was fun to run with someone else and talk. I suspect I’d have run faster, but not had quite such a fun time, had I been running alone in the crowd. We did pick up the pace in the last 500 meters or so (the tri club women smoked us there – her friend and I just picked up a little and let her zip on ahead).
Simple course, an out and back. Mayor-elect Fenty was there running as well, and they got him up to say a few good words about the organization sponsoring the event, S.O.M.E.  Bonus that the race fee was a donation, so tax deductible.
Post-race I hung out enough to cheer a bit more, and grab some water before changing shoes and heading home. As I pulled up to the building I started to feel the rain coming down again – just made it in time. Was a great start to a nice holiday.