I Caught Hannah's Cold

And now I feel like poop.

Crazy Busy Day

Good news: We are now officially signed up for the Hartford Half-Marathon.

Bad news: It's been a crazy, crazy busy day.  Sick kids, wacky work, dinner, dishes, house... It's a very full schedule.  If I owe you a note or an email, please be patient with me.

Thanks.

First Ever Storyteller's Playbook Contest!

Okay, so here's the deal: we had a tag sale today, and one of the things I realized was that I have WAY TOO MANY paperbacks.  Way, way too many.  I mean, I sold some books today--mostly review copies of comics I'd had left over from when I used to review for Paperback Reader--but... I still have WAY TOO MUCH.

What I need to do, I think, is have a little contest to get rid of some of this stuff.  So, first off, here is what you will win:

1.  An autographed copy of Bronx Angel: Politics By Another Method.  BA: PBAM is my original graphic novel.  I thought all the old copies were destroyed in our basement flood a few years ago, but I just found a little stash, and I'll send you one if you win this contest.  A real life, genuine rare book!

2.  A grab bag of paperbacks from my library--as many as I can fit in a large Priority Mail envelope.  Mostly fantasy novels, but if you can name a specific author or genre, I'll make sure to include whatever I can that's appropriate.  I read A LOT.

3.  At least one random comic trade paperback.

So, what do you have to do?  Honestly, I'm not sure yet.  Anybody got any suggestions?

Connecticut Triathletes Facebook Group

In case you're wondering, I started a Facebook group for Connecticut Triathletes.  If that's you, please go join and introduce yourself:

Connecticut Triathletes Facebook Group

Thanks!

Pain Face

2011 Westport Kiwanus Triathlon Race Report

It wasn’t a bad weekend by any means save for the fact that my Tennessee Titans looked utterly inept.  As I noted on Saturday, we got home pretty early from swim lessons and shopping on Saturday afternoon, and I settled in to watch some pretty good college football.  I saw Army go down by three to San Diego State, and all things considered, that seemed like a moral victory.  Then the University of Tennessee laid the wood toCincinnati, setting up what looks like a pretty good game next weekend against the University of Florida.  I mean, Tennessee ain’t really Tennessee anymore, and I’m not sure how much Florida still looks like Florida, but the Vols’ QB and wide receivers looked pretty good Saturday—good enough to make me think that UT might actually be “Receiver U” again one of these days—and I don’t think I’m ready to buy into South Carolinajust yet.  So, bottom line, all predictions to the contrary, next week’s game might just be for the driver’s seat in the SEC East.  I know I’ll be pulling for the Vols with both hands. 

My parents and grandparents might be gone, but I can do at least that much to honor their memories.

Anyway, needless to say, I wound up downing that third beer Saturday afternoon.  Happily, I don’t think it affected me too much.

Pre-Race

Tri season is over, and to tell the truth, it’s basically been over for me since Litchfield Hills.  Moreover, right after Litchfield Hills, Sally and I decided to start training for the Hartford Half-Marathon, which means that I haven’t been on my bike or in the pool much at all in the past few weeks.  I’ve been running a lot, so I don’t think I’ve lost any actual fitness, but form is always a concern, especially in swimming.  Moreover, I’m still commuting on my folding bike, so although I didn’t think my riding was gonna be sharp, I was more concerned about not having swum in a month, especially in a race that’s decidedly swim-heavy.  The Westport Tri is unique in that respect.  It’s a full half-mile swim, coupled to a tiny bike ride and a short run.  So, bottom line, it tends to bring out as many well-rounded swimmers as actual triathletes.  Considering the way I race, that’s a potential concern.

To deal with that, Sally and I swam a bit on Saturday, basically trying to work out the kinks in our strokes and get warmed up.  I wanted to do just enough Saturday morning that I’d be able to warm up quickly on Sunday pre-race.  After that, it was time to get out, hit the showers, and go one with our lives.  After we got the kids to bed Saturday night, we packed our bags, made our Gatorade, laid out our clothes, and then sat down to watch some TV.  We got the movie Limitless from Netflix on DVD, and I liked it a lot. 

Got up the next morning at five.  Loaded the car, grabbed the kids, kissed the dog, and off we went.  It was chilly and more than a little windy on Sunday morning, but check in and set-up went well, and I had plenty of time for pre-race yoga.  And by our appointed 7:30 race start time, the air was almost as warm as the water, so what do you want?

Swim

Like I said, it was windy.  Usually the Long Island Sound is glassy on summer mornings, but with the wind coming in, we had swells of about two feet by the time you got out to the first buoy.  I was in the first heat, and after we finally got pre-race instructions, they blew the air horn, and off we went.

I didn’t feel like I got a great start.  I was in maybe the second row back from the water when we started, and it took me maybe 150 yards to clear the pack and get into the open water.  Even then, I could tell that a few folks were ahead of me.  Moreover, it was hard to see—both competition and buoys—in the swell.  Between the waves and the people, I was on full burn all the way out to the first buoy, and when I turned, it was only with an effort of will that I was able to make myself calm down.  Even then, I still felt like I had to muscle the swim just to stay on course and firmly in control.

Well.  If it was hurting me, odds were it was hurting everyone else even more.

In any event, the swim felt long but wasn’t really.  After Hurricane Irene, the shape of Westport’s Compo Beach has changed, forcing a change to the swim route.  What was initially a 12-minute point-to-point half mile because a 10-minute out-turn-and-back rectangle.  Complete with rip currents.

Eh.  I checked my watch as I came out of the water.  10 minutes exactly.  Like I said, it felt like a lot, but really, it was nothing to complain about. 

It took me almost a full minute to run up through the loose sand to Transition.

Not-Quite a Half-Mile Swim: 10:51.1.  1/20 Age Group; 7/255 Overall.

As it turns out, I came out of the water somewhere between 3^rd and 5^th, I think.  So there were several folks in the following heats who would go on to beat my time in the water.  That’s kind of a lot for so small a race.

T-1

Crossed the mat into Transition, ran to my bike, flopped down, grabbed my spare water bottle, and sprayed the sand off my feet.  Then I carefully threw on my bike shoes—trying not to reapply the sand I’d just removed—before adding helmet, cycling jersey, and gloves.  All of that went well except the gloves, which had me fumbling like an idiot.  Some guy beat me out of T-1, but based on later placings, I think he might have actually come in before me on the swim.

Anyway, soon enough I was out on the road.

T-1: 1:37.9.  5/20 AG; 31/255 Overall.

Bike

The ride out of T-1 was a little more than a mile and a half of straightaway—straight into the morning’s wind.  I got down in the drops and felt okay, but I didn’t have quite the pop I’d’ve needed to really lay the law on a super-short ride.  At the end of the straightaway, there was a little climb into a left-hand turn, and a guy passed me on a very nice time trial bike.  No biggie; at this point I think I was in 6^th.  The next piece was rolling, into a little left-hand turn that led downhill, and then we were onto the flats.  By this time, we were three miles in, and I was starting to feel a little better.  With ten more miles, I’d have turned in a nice ride.  Anyway, we turned right into a golf course, and I gunned it, chasing down a 14-year-old kid—obviously one of those well-rounded high school swimmers I alluded to in the opening—and found myself alone on the open road. 

Unfortunately by the time I felt strong on the bike, there was only about a mile and a half left to ride.  I chased down one more guy, catching him just as we dismounted into T-2.  By the time I entered T-2, I think I was 4^th.

5.5-mile ride: 15:56.5 (18.7 mph according to my bike computer).  7/20 AG.  26/255 Overall.

T-2

Racked my bike, quickly but carefully changed shoes (yeah speed laces!), and dropped my helmet and shades.  I ran out of T-2 pulling off my gloves and stowed them in my jersey pocket.  Y’know, I actually planned that.

T-2: :50.7.  11/20 AG; 60/255 Overall.

Run

I came out of T-2 even with the 14-year-old high school swimmer that I’d passed on the bike.  That kid was having a good race, and I told him so.  His answer was dismissive: he put on a burst of speed and tried to drop me.  I let him.  In fact, I slid in behind him and let him pull.  I’m not sure how much drafting helps in running, but we were running into a headwind, and I try not to be any stupider than necessary when I’m racing.  I felt strong, and folks cheering on the sidelines called out that we were in 3^rd and 4^th overall respectively.  That worked for me.

It worked even better when it turned out that the kid had shot his wad trying to drop me right out of T-2.  I passed him about ¾ of a mile into the run, this time for good.  At this point, I was in 3^rd overall and starting to dream of glory.

See, this is why I hate running.  Yes, I’ve been running more.  Yes, I felt strong and actually passed somebody on the run.  No, I’ve not been running enough to hold serve against real runners of my own age and ability at the end of a triathlon. 

They finally caught me with about ½ mile to go.  Maybe five guys, all running decisively enough that I could tell right away that I wasn’t gonna have the burst to hold them off, especially when we made it to the final turn and started running in loose sand.  Agh!  That sucked!  Whatever dreams I had of sprinting to the end died in the quagmire right then and there.

2.2-mile run: 16:10.3 (7:20.9/mile).  12/20 AG; 48/255 Overall.

2011 Westport Kiwanus Triathlon: 45:26.6.  3/20 AG; 11/255 Overall.

I crossed the line in 8^th, but of course, there were two more heats behind me, and it looks like three of the guys back there were faster than I was.  Well, there are some really good 40-something triathletes in Connecticut; finding that out does not constitute learning.  Still, I finished in the Top 3 in my age group, and that’s cool, and if you discount the one relay finisher ahead of me, I was in the Top 10 overall.  Nothing to complain about there. 

The course was substantially different this year than last year, so I don’t know how much there is to be gained by comparing the two races, but on the one part of the race that was the same—the bike—I was about 30-seconds faster than last year.  Like I said, that ain’t bad.

Sally’s Race

You might remember that this was Sally’s first open water triathlon.  I’ve been working with her on her swimming for the past six months or so, and I was anxious to see what she could do here.  Still, I’ll admit I was nervous when I saw the size of the swells Sunday morning.  I thought it was tough; I was afraid Sally was gonna panic.

Well, Sally came through in fine fashion.  She even said she didn’t think it was all that hard. 

If you’re wondering, Sally finished the swim in just over 21-minutes; rode the bike course in 18:48, and ran right at 20-minutes even.  She said she must’ve passed fifty people on the run, and frankly, I don’t doubt it.  She’s a fantastic runner.  Her total time was 1:00:47, putting her 10/27 in her Age Group and 155/255 Overall.

That ain’t bad at all.

Next Up: Hartford Half

And that’s all for the season. 

We switched over to a pure runner’s workout schedule two weeks ago, and as I said earlier, the Hartford Half is our next thing (hopefully), coming in mid-October.  Personally, I hope that putting in a full season of pure running work will show up a bit next year, but that, of course, relies on my being able to stay healthy, which is something that I’ve not been able to do for that past two off-seasons.  I keep having knee, back, or hip problems. 

Hopefully yoga and a focus on running form will help this time.  I guess we’ll see.

Football Saturday

The girls started a new session of swim lessons this morning.  Sally and I went with 'em and swam ourselves, though we didn't do much because we've got a race tomorrow.  It's Sally's first open water triathlon, the Westport Kiwanus Triathlon.  It's not much of a race--half-mile swim, 5.5-mile ride, 2.2-mile run--but since the swim is, for once, the long part, Sally's been freaking out a bit.  Still, after watching her this morning, I'm convinced that she'll be fine.  She needs to get control of her nerves, but she's got enough swimming and enough just base fitness to handle it, but nerves are always tough.


Anyway, after swimming we went for lunch at a little Chinese/Japanese place, went to Bob's Sports, went to the local liquor store, and then got some groceries.  Not a bad little morning.  The cool thing about living in CT--in the shadow of NYC--is that the local liquor emporium had an actual sommelier on staff... even at noon on a Saturday! Needless to say, we ended up spending $160 on various wines and beers, including the Peak's Organic IPA, the new Sierra Nevada Hefeweizen , and American IPA from Thomas Hooker breweries, and several others along with a half-dozen bottles of wine.  So, bottom line, we're all set for football for a while.


Got home, and what do you know, the Army team was on TV.  So I grabbed a beer and sat down to watch it.  They were playing San Diego State, and truth: I was planning to turn it off as soon as it got out of hand.  I thought the Auburn/Mississippi State game looked a little tastier.  But, y'know, the Army game actually wound up being pretty compelling.  Army lost by 3 points in the Fourth, but... what do you expect?  Still, it was a fun game.


Now I'm down and watching Tennessee vs. Cincinnati. Fun game so far.  Both offenses look pretty good, but neither defense has much going on.  Right now, it's 14-14, and if I didn't have a race tomorrow, I'd go for beer #3.

Hope you're having as much fun as I am.

TV TV!

Lately Sally and I have been watching this show called The Glades using Netflix’s streaming service, and I gotta say that I’ve been digging it.  If you’ve never seen it, it’s another Sherlock Holmes knock-off, this time done as a police procedural set somewhere in the Everglades, with our resident “Holmes” played as a former Chicago homicide detective exiled to rural Florida following an affair with his boss’s wife.  In typically Holmes fashion, the lead—here named Jim Longworth—is a borderline anti-social misfit, though The Glades’s producers have altered the formula somewhat by making him a decided ladies’ man rather than playing him as asexual the way that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the producers of the TV Show House tend to do. 

In any event, I’ve been loving the show’s first season despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that it so closely follows in Conan Doyle’s footprints, footprints that’ve lately become a well-blazed TV trail.  I mean, how many misfit TV detectives are out there right now?  Gregory House is the most famous, but I think Castle, Lie to Me, and at least a couple of CSI franchise shows also follow the format, and it’s a good bet that a number of shows from the new season will, too.  But who cares, right?  I mean, I love the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I’m happy enough that for once a sizable number of folks seem to agree with me.

Anyway, after The Glades ended, Sally and I wound up tuning into the GOP primary debate for a while.  I know I said I wasn’t going to, but in the end, we decided that we wanted to see the spectacle first hand.  So we watched as some of the minor candidates walked through a bit on school reform and then watched all of them tackle the question of immigration and border control.  To my mind, what we saw went something like this:

Questioner: Immigration reform is a big issue.  How would you tackle it?

Rick Perry (going Macho): I’d deploy the U.S. Army to screen the border with Mexico, and I’d throw all those illegal dirtbags out of the country, pronto!  They’re takin’ U.S. jobs.

Mitt Romney (vainly trying to sound tougher than Perry): We don’t need the Army.  We can do it with technology!  We can build a fence—

Questioner (in disbelief): You want to put up a 2,600-mile fence?

Romney:  Absolutely!  With TV cameras and satellite coverage over every square foot.  And guard dogs!  And… and… and… sharks with frickin’ laser beams!  We have the technology!  We CAN control the border!

Newt Gingrich (slaps forehead): If you build a fence, Mitt, the illegals will just bring a ladder.  Why, when I was in Congress back in 1986…  and Ronald Reagan… 20 million illegals already in this country, and many of them already have families…

Questioner: Okay, Ms. Bachman… Let’s say the fence is up.  What do you do with the 20 million who’re already here?  Do you break up their families and deport them?

Michelle Bachman:  A fence!

Rick Santorum:  Yeah!  A fence!

Questioner: But what about the families, Ms. Bachman?  What do you do with them?

Bachman (slams table with clenched fist): I said a fence!  With guard dogs!!!

Questioner: *sigh*  Back to the original question, Mr. Cain.

Herman Cain:  We don’t need no damn fence!  We got laws in this country.  We just need to ENFORCE those laws!

Jon Huntsman:  No.  What Newt said was right.  And Ronald Reagan!  And don’t break up those families… 

Rand Paul:  Fuck that fence!  Employers should be free to hire whoever the fuck they want, and if Americans are too stupid to get the jobs, then fuck them, too.  I mean, a fence?!  You wanna know why they want a fence?  I’ll tell ya.  They don’ wanna keep illegals out.  They want to keep Americans and THEIR MONEY in!  Mexico’s growin’ twice as fast as America right now.  Pretty soon, all our jobs and all our money’ll be headin’ down there.  And THAT is why they want to build a fence!  It ain’t to protect jobs.  It’s to protect them so’s they can keep gettin’ at YOU and your MONEY!

So.  I’ve read a few summaries of the debates, and most of them said that Romney came off pretty well.  I didn’t see that myself.  For my money, Rick Perry was the only Alpha Male up there.  I mean, his idea of deploying the Army to screen the border with Mexico is ludicrous on its face—and yes, he did really say that—because it would take the entire army deployed 100% full time to successfully screen a border that large, and even then it’s an extremely iffy proposition.  But the way he said it, well, the man delivers his lines with conviction.  Watching him debate, I find that I can believe that he really does go jogging with his pistol on. 

On the other hand, I thought Romney came off stiff and awkward, Huntsman seemed the non-entity that he is in the polls, and New Gingrich looked like he was—easily—the smartest man in the room.  To put it another way, Gingrich was Gandalf to Perry’s Aragon and Romney’s Boromir.  Rand Paul at least came off as Samwise Gamgee—wise and tough in his own way—but poor Jon Huntsman was Pipin, Gandalf’s “fool of a Took!” while the rest were such complete non-entities that they didn’t even make it out of the Shire.

Gingrich won’t get elected, and I don’t want him to, but with the possible exception of Rand Paul, he’s easily the most well-informed on the issues, and he has something interesting to say about each and every one of them.  His defense of school choice via vouchers was well thought-out and concise (full disclosure: I loathe the idea of school vouchers), and his story about Ronald Reagan’s attempt at comprehensive immigration reform back in the 1980’s not only managed to name check the party’s patron saint, it also brought up a pair of excellent points about illegal immigration.  First, you can’t tackle the issue of immigration solely by securing the border, and second, there are a lot of long-term illegals in the U.S. who’re established members of our society.  Breaking up their families to throw them out of the country would be both inhumane and economically stupid.  Meanwhile, Newt’s finer points seemed to escape everyone but Huntsman and Rand Paul, and even Huntsman could only add that he thought that Newt was basically right.  I mean, Newt was obviously right, but no one else besides Paul and Huntsman even try to answer intelligently.  They all just stood there rattling their swords and trying to act tough.  In that, Bachman was actively ludicrous and Romney came off like Doctor Evil-light.  Paul’s answer, the strict Libertarian answer, was interesting theoretically, but as with a lot of what he says, for me it’s not realistic in the real world.  I just don’t know how much I believe that government is really trying to hold people in!  That’s a little too Orwellian for me.

In any event, I read a few debate summaries this morning to get a feel for the rest of the action and came away disappointed by the lack of depth to the coverage.  Still, my favorites came out of Slate and The Guardian.  Check them out if you’re interested. 

Or you can just wait for the next debate.  They’ve got something like six more scheduled for later in the fall.  And maybe that’s why the coverage of this particular debate was a little light.  The newspapers didn’t want to burn all their matches in one shot.  Something to that, I think.

Notes 9/7/11: Presidential Football Preview

·         It’s not like I thought he could win or anything, but having just read a breakdown of his campaign on Slate.Com, I’m now more convinced than ever that Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign is dead in the water.

·         While we’re on the subject of politics, I’ll tell you that I downloaded Mitt Romney’s 59-point plan for fixing the country today, but that I haven’t had a chance to read through it yet.  That said… how many other people are go get and actually read this thing?  I mean, I’m planning to skim it and offer a synopsis as best I can, but the thing is LOOOONG, even for a political junkie/college European History major like me.  Ugh. 

C’mon, Mitt.  For a smart guy, releasing this huge tome was an awfully DUMB move.  Nobody reads anymore, big guy.

·         Last thing on presidential politics for the day: The big Republican debate is tonight.  You’ll recall that that’s the one that Speaker John Boehner protected by refusing President Obama’s request to speak to a joint session of Congress about a prospective jobs and public works proposal.  Thus, we had the ugly spectacle last week of Obama’s request to speak to the nation being denied by Congress so that it now conflicts with the first game of the new NFL season.  And I think most folks who pay attention recognized this as a rather transparent attempt by the White House to simply overshadow the Republicans.  So although I don’t usually like Boenher a lot, I thought his response here was the right one, really the only one he could give.  That it happened to embarrass the Hell out of the President was simply a nice bonus

If you’re wondering, I don’t plan to watch either the debate or the speech on Thursday, mostly because I find it easier to read the synopsis in the New York Times the next day.  Politicians tend to use so many words to express so few actual ideas after all, and the Times’s summaries are usually both fairly complete and inclusive of some context when necessary. 

Still, the debate might get interesting.  It seems that everyone in the field now has a vested interest in tearing down Rick Perry while Perry himself looks more and more like the only guy in the race with an actual clue about how to run a successful campaign.  Personally, I’m expecting fireworks.  With any luck, either the stage itself will spontaneously combust, or they’ll scrap the format altogether and let the candidates go straight at it, Thunderdome style.

·         I’ve been working a little around the edges with my friend Alan Evans on a potential new comic project.  There’s not much to it yet, but I’ve enjoyed the chance to work on creative writing a little bit.

·         Finally, Tennessee Titans football starts this Sunday.  With that in mind, here’s my really, really quick season preview:

Game	Prediction
@ Jacksonville	W
Baltimore	L
Denver	W
@ Cleveland	W
@ Pittsburgh	L
Houston	L
Indianapolis	W
Cincinnati	W
@ Carolina	W
@ Atlanta	L
Tampa Bay	L
@ Buffalo	W
New Orleans	L
@ Indianapolis	L
Jacksonville	W
@ Houston	L

If you’re wondering, that’ll put the team at 8-8.  Not a bad record, all things considered. 

Of course, there are games in there that could easily go either way—Cleveland, Indy (depending on the state of Peyton Manning), etc—but I think you can count on winning a game or two you think you might lose and losing a game or two you ought to win.  So… 8-8.  That’s my official prediction.

That’s all I got.  See ya tomorrow!

Wrong Link!

Don't know if any of you tried to listen to MCM Radio off the link I provided yesterday, but if you did, you might've noticed that it was the wrong link!  Oops.

Here's the right one:

Listen to internet radio with MCMJimmy on Blog Talk Radio

BTW, the Titans play the Jaguars this weekend, and what with the Jags deciding at the last minute to cut ties with QB David Garrard today, this suddenly looks like a lay-up to start the season.  I hate to say that, but man... what a wacky decision.

Cutting your QB less than a week before the first real game?  Folks that's something that only dysfunctional organizations do.

Tennessee Titans Season Preview

Okay, so I was gonna write up a little season preview thing for the Tennessee Titans this season.  But I've not been following the team all that closely this preseason, and quite honestly, I have no idea what to say.  So I'm gonna let my friends Jimmy and August from the Music City Miracles blog do it for me.

Enjoy!

Listen to internet radio with MCMJimmy on Blog Talk Radio

And BTW Jimmy (if you're reading this), yes, I've been meaning to donate to the show.  But I'm under the impression that you guys are set for the season.  Do you still need money to keep it going?

First Saturday in September

Okay, so yeah... I took yesterday off in order to take the kids out to Six Flags, but as it happens, Six Flags was closed when we got there.  And that sucked.  But we went to the Hartford Science Center museum and ended up having a pretty nice day.  Not exactly the day we'd planned, but I can't complain.

Training for the Hartford Half-Marathon seems to be coming along.  Ran a touch over 8-miles last week and a touch over 9-miles this week, and I felt pretty good doing it.  As I posted on Facebook, my first half hour or so felt pretty good.  Then I struggled from, say, the 45-minute mark until I got to about 55-minutes or an hour.  Call it 15 minutes of suffering.  After that, I kind of broke through and settled down and actually managed to pick up the pace a little.  Ended up making it back in 1:21:59--right at a 9-minute/mile pace.  Which is not bad at all for me for a run of that length.

If you're wondering, the Half is on October 15th.  So with a race next week--the Westport Kiwanus Triathlon, a mini-sprint that's also the last multi-sport event of the season--bottom line, we've got four training weeks and two rest weeks to go before the race.  It seems like we're on track in terms of mileage, but I'd like to get in at least one 10+ mile run without injury before we actually sign up for the race.

And... Sally and the kids are home.  Have a great weekend!