Thursday, January 31, 2008

Call me Lance

This isn't actually the woman, the shoes and socks are close but picture sweatpans with that leotard tucked in and brighter colors

Tonight I made the 1mi jog over to MIT's gym for a 1hr ride on the stationary bike. It was actually one of the nice stationary bikes, not one of those plastic ones with times and blinking lights. It was a legit stationary that even Lance would love (if he were an amateur like me). It was another cool night, not too bad. But the gym was HOT. I was drenched.

I rode the bike for an hour. Warmed up for 10min then rode pretty steady on a decent resistance for the rest of the ride. At 20, 30, and 40 min I threw in a 3min up hill surge turning the resistance up quite high. I kept it steady, it wasn't a sprint. Then at 50min I threw in a 2min hard sprint. All of this was just to test myself, see what I could handle before I got too tired. After the hill at 20min I thought I wouldn't make it past 30. But around 35-40 the annoying lactic build up went away and I felt great. I was able to pick up the pace a little more and I really hit the sprint at 50min hard. I felt like Lance. Actually, I'm not going to lie, I was playing Lance Armstrong almost the whole time because there was a dude with a rugby type polo riding next to me. I thought to myself, this would be almost as bad as losing to the kid in the white necklace...never do it. So, I reminded myself of the injured days of playing Tour de France with Jokin on the Bikes in the OMAC. It was fun.

While I was riding , my genius former CTO and now board member and visionary (PhD at MIT, inventor of RFID chips (huge trust me) and basically the lead on every advanced military technology project for the DoD and Lockheed) saw me and probably thought I was insane. I was sweating like crazy, breathing hard, and pedaling my ass off. He tried to have a full fledged convo with me about the deal we're doing with MLB....I could barely talk, but I think he got the gist of what's going on with that.

Afterwards I lifted shoulders. I do 5 different workouts for my shoulders. It's hard to describe them all so I'll spare you that.

The funniest part of tonight was a woman who I swear had just stepped out of a Delorean from the 80's. I'm talking sweat bands around the forehead and wrists, leotard over spandex shirt, grey sweatpants tucked into massive two red stripped crew socks scrunched down, and the classic white Reeboks.....Wow! Watch out...hot stuff...coming through. No, joking aside though, this woman was serious. She wasn't looking for a laugh (she got them), but she was fucking cocked, locked, and ready to rock. She got up on that stepper and I expected Richard Simmons type climbing over there, I mean she was only like late 40s early 50s. No, no. No Russel Simmons stepper dancing, far from it. Slow...as...hell. I watched jaw dropped. I get a better workout standing on an escalator. I love that gym.

I cranked out some abs and stretched and headed on my 1mi yog home. I heard of a 5k today that is run in March in Boston with lots of beer at the end. I think I'll try that. Sounds like my kind of jam.

Quote of the day:
Everybody's doin' a brand new dance now
(C'mon baby do the loco-motion)
I know you'll get to like it
If you give it a chance now
(C'mon baby do the loco-motion)
My little baby sister can do it with ease
It's easier than learning your a b c's
So come on, come on,
Do the loco-motion with me

I expected that woman to bust out a boom box and blast that shit. Sadly, it only happened in my head.

Jan 30, 2008 - Picked myself up off the floor


Sorry for the period of nothingness there. I hit a small (read, massive) speed bump (backwards, with those things that make your tires pop) in my life and it took me a little while to get the motivation back. It's been a mental battle, but I'm hanging tough.

Yesterday was a rough mental day. For whatever reason, it was one of the roughest I've had since. So I fucking hammered 4 miles in 22min 3sec. It felt great. It was like the time Sarro and I worked out together (fast repeat 300s with very short rest) and I rocked the shit out of that workout and Sarro got injured (sorry buddy!). It was a cool night and I did my 4mi loop around the Charles to MIT's gym.

At the gym I still had a lot of energy and it showed in my lifting. I was lifting a little too fast but I was able to put up a little more than normal. Funny what adrenaline and emotion can do. I did chest and biceps. Incline press, bench press, and decline press each 3 sets of 10reps. Incline was with 50lb free weights, bench was 160lbs, and decline was 160lbs. While benching the due on the bench next to me let one rip while he was lifting and it fucking CLEARED the area. It was like a biological weapon went off because everyone all of a sudden ran to the other side of the building for a "drink of water." I've never seen a longer line for the bubbla. I was one of them. Seriously, that kid stayed behind, I'm surprised he's not dead. I know everyone likes their own brand, but really, that was not healthy. Biceps were 3 different workouts that I don't know how to describe. All 2 sets of 10 reps at 60lbs and 1 set of 10 reps at 70lbs. I threw some abs and stretches in there and sprinted the 1mi home for good measure. At home I did some lunges and calf raises and called it a day.

Just got home from work and I'm about to head out for more.

Can any of my runner friends answer this for me? The Boston Marathon, if you're running for a charity do you still need to qualify? Or is it like the NYC marathon where if you're running for charity you can just get in. I was planning on running for a breast cancer foundation for Natalie's mom and aunt. I never got to talk to her about it and I'm not sure she'll want me to anymore, but I can at least still run for the foundation. But I'm not sure if I can get in without a qualifier and I don't think there's any way for me to qualify before then. Let me know what y'all think. If not, maybe I'll train for the San Diego one in June.

Quote of the day:
Once a Runner - "Running to him was real, the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free."

Because it was just that kind of run. Freeing.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Cumberland

The famous Cumberland Monastery (now a library)

I have an appointment for my car early in the morning near my house in Cumberland so I took a train home after work. I went for a 4mi yog on the old arnold mills race course but instead of the regular last 2mi I went up a LARGE hill called Lonsesome Pine. It's a 3/4mile hill that makes Freeman repeats seem fun. It was cold. I haven't run in that cold of weather for a while and I quickly remembered why. It was pitch black so I was running a little quicker pace but happily felt comfortable (until that hill). I borrowed my Dad's watch and I finished in 26:13. For some reason when it's dark I just run harder and don't feel anything, like someone is stalking me and I have no choice. Part of the run was interesting because lots of snow was falling from trees in front of me. Im positive squirrels were fucking with me because it was dark and had my iPod on. I also smelled an intense grape smell at one point in the run and it made me think of the quote/story of the day below. The 3/4 mile hill comes just after the start of mile 3. I was very much looking foward to the downhill of the last half mile until I got there. It wreaked of skunk. As I continued on and it was still bad I was afraid I had gotten sprayed without knowing it. But when I got home I was in the clear. I did some abs, stretched, and lifted biceps.

Quote/Story of the day (not a movie quote):

The setting was the infamous and record setting slowest run in Brown XC history by myself, Tushar, Jokin, and I think Quick. 4mi in approx 39min. We were proud.

During the run I was running next to Jokin and he would say, "Do you smell grapes?"
I'd say, "yeah, I've been smelling grape this whole run, its like grape juice"
And we kept smelling it everywhere we went. It was so intense we could taste it.
So we ask everyone else if they smelled it so we don't think we're crazy and Tushar says:
"I've been chewing grape bubbalicious gum the whole run."
Fuckin Tushar.

The grape smell during my run smelled exactly like that.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Day off

Central Park in NYC...it's so big


So today I took a day off (not because I'm lazy.....ok, I am, but that's still not why). I had a long day in NYC but I got a LOT of walking in while I was there so that's at least something. I woke up at 4am, left Boston at 6am, arrived in NYC at 9:45, and hurried over to 9th ave and 15th for a meeting with MLB's VP of Business Development. Then I took a long walk from there to kill some time up to Madison and 91st (took a great route through central park) to have lunch with Natalie and her mom at Jackson Hole (their burgers are the size of my head). Then I had a meeting on 66th and central park west with ESPN's head of business strategy and then rushed from there over to 5th ave and 51st for a meeting with pretty much the head of every department of the NBA. All in all it was a really cool day and I walked from every place to the next, so lots of walking, nice day for it too. I left NYC at 7pm and arrived at south station at 10:30, took the red line to central walked the mile home from there and got home around 11:15. Long day, but great day. Craigger, I called you while I was there.

Quote of the day:

Lois is great at karate and can kick everyone's ass and the NYers are in New England for the foliage and Peter walks into the bar:

Peter Griffin: Jets sucks, Mets suck, Yankees suck


Because they do.

Rowing is hard

So today I made the 1mi trek to the gym and I decided to try rowing. I'm experimenting with different forms of aerobic activity until the winter weather is over. I learned that rowing is HARD and so far I don't like anything more than running. I sat down and of course some chick had to grab the one next to me. My Dad does 2000m x 3 with 3min rest in between so I figured I'm young, it's only 2000m, running that's nothing, I can handle that. WRONG!
I was dieing, my arms were getting so tired (I was probably doing it wrong), and the chick next to me was rowing merrily merrily merrily merrily gently down the stream (that bitch). I thought I was almost done, I'm in the hurt tank, looked up and I was just nearing half way (F me!). So I managed to pull through and finish and I talked myself into doing one more (went out slower the second time). My arms burned and the middle of my back hurt and that girl was still going. So I hung my head in defeat and went on to lift shoulders, do abs, and stretch. Because I got worked over by the rowing machine I BOOKED it home. Seriously this time, I'm not joking, according to the song I listened to on my iPod I got home in about 5min 30sec, I was moving (get off my back).

Quote of the day:
Ron Burgundy: I'm gonna punch you in the ovary, that's what I'm gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the babymaker.

What I wanted to say to that girl who showed me up rowing.

Monday, January 14, 2008

How Hamel got his groove back

Sunny San Diego...which of course in German means a whales vagina

Technically I started to get back into things Thursday Jan 10, 2008 while I was in San Diego. I ran 4 miles. I'm not sure what the exact pace was because my watch is broken, I went off of how long each song I listened to was. By my estimate I was going an ass hauling 7:30 pace, and yes I ran with an iPod, I'm a recreational jogger now. Anyway, over the next 2 days I was sore as hell and took those days off to enjoy the San Diego sun. I returned at midnight on Saturday and Sunday afternoon I went for another 4mi yog (still sore) to the gym. The weather was pretty nice, low 40s and sunny so I went with shorts and a long sleeve shirt. For the record, I wear long shorts now, my ass doesn't look nearly as good in running shorts as it used it. I'll use getting back into those as one of my goals. Although I was sore, that 4 felt pretty good, I think I dropped the pace to a blazing 7min pace...watch out Jokin, I'm coming for you. At the gym I lifted back and did some stretching and abs. Then I ran (pronounced speed walked) 1mi home for a grand total of 5mi on the day (yeah, I stepped it up big time).


Today the weather was shiiite. It wasn't that cold but it snowed I guess 4" or so this morning. They surprisingly cleared the roads pretty fast but there are still puddles and crap slush everywhere. After work I ran the 1mi to MITs Zesiger Center and rode a stationary bike for 30min (again timed by my iPod). I planned on going 45min but I was nearly dead after 5min. The only thing that kept me going was I was riding next to a total goober who looked like he was kicking my ass. I couldn't let that happen. I went faster and harder (that's what she said). The only embarrassing part was when my feet slipped out of the pedal straps and the pedals went wild and I looked like a fool trying to stop them. That was 10min in...I needed the rest. I felt dumber when he looked at me and said "If you pull up on this it acts as a break and will stop the pedals"...."Thanks Madden, I didn't notice the words that said BREAK," I said in my head. I actually said "Thanks man" and continued my pedaling. Then I stretched, lifted tris, and did abs. Tonight was apparantly meat-head night at the gym. Bunch of bulked up d-bags walking around with their chests puffed out. I swear I heard one of them say, "Yeah I get my swell on at the gym. I want everyone to see how jacked and tan I am. WHUUT! WHUUT! WHUUT!" Oh, and there were lots of Asians (it is MIT...Sarro you would love it). With that, and a slight cramp in my side, I yogged the 1mi home. In case anyone cares (you know you do) I was wearing one of the old Brown xc sweatshirts from the 70s. I looked good....I mean REALLY good.

The MIT Zesiger Sports Center

Every post is going to end with the quote of the day. The best quote of the thousands that come into my head while I work out, when it came into my head, and if there is one, a reason why.

Quote of the day:
Walter Sobchak: You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me.
The Dude: Yeah, but Walter...
Walter Sobchak: Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish. These fucking amateurs...

Came into my head when my feet slipped out of the pedals and that guy looked at me like I was a fuckin amateur.