The soup du jour

This coming Sunday
Lance Armstrong, the seven time Tour de France champion, will take on the ING New York City Marathon.
How fast could Lance do 26.2?
I’m guessing 2:35

What do you guys think?

I went to see Black Label Society

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc dvd

last night at the Water Street Music Hall. They were awesome! It’s been a long while since the last time I saw a decent Rock concert. I got to the venue right at 6:00 as they opened up the door and somehow managed to squeeze my way up to the front row.

Zakk was playing through 6 Marshall JCM 800 100 watt heads with six 4 x 12 cabinets. Since I was way up front I was able to hear the sound from the amp instead of from the PA speakers.

The moment when he hit that open E string with the overdrive and wah effect, plus the missile like downbeat from the bass drum, I knew I was in heaven!!! A heaven surrounded by hells angels. (There were a lot of them last night)

Right now my ears are ringing like crazy. Everything I hear feels like a big echo in my brain. LOL

Here are a few pics I took from my phone.

OK after all the riding comments that Matt made, I must repost a couple clips from the the film First Descent. My winter obsession!!

Movie Trailer

Terje Haakonsen’s first descent

The Alamo hd

Murder at 1600 release

The Alamo ipod

Hi welcome to the soup du jour, the admin of this site is feeling a little lazy today. Therefore all of you guys will be stuck with my pretty face until the next post.

After 25 weeks of training and a somewhat strict diet, it is time to let loose for a little. I had been eating pizza, wings, and clam chowder for lunch and a few pints of nice beer in the evening. It is nice to able to drink a pint without thinking how many miles I will have to run to burn it off. Right now my plan is to rest for remaining of the week and resume back into some low impact cardio next week.

A lot of people had been asking me “What’s next?”

Well registration for the Musselman Triathlon July 2007 will begin next week. And yes I will be entering the race. Musselman is a half iron distance event consists of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike and a 13.1-mile run.

Over the next 4-6 months I will be focusing on improving my swimming and cycling. My goal is by the end of winter my body will be in good enough shape to begin my 18 weeks triathlon-training program.

Pictures from the weekend are up! Check it out!

Just a little over a year ago I finished my first marathon in Rochester. Back then I was a very amateur runner, I remember I started out at a 9 minute mile pace and hit the wall after the 16th mile mark and ended up crawling my way to the finish line with a 5:37 finishing time. I remembered clearly that I had a hard time accepting my result, and I promised myself I must do better the next time.

1 year later…….Chicago

I left Rochester on Friday night with 2 goals set in my mind. I need to beat my PR and I want to finish the marathon in less than 5 hours (That is the cut off time for the HK marathon). I told myself as long as I keep running at a steady 11 minute mile pace I will have no problem reaching both of my goals.

4:00am
I woke up and had some breakfast

5:00am
I went outside my hotel to see what the temperature was like
It was cold and windy. Base on the weather report from the newspaper today, it was 41 degree (5 C) with a 20-25 mph wind

6:00am
We began walking from our hotel to the starting line. Again it was cold and windy.

6:30am-7:30am
I spend a few minutes jogging around to warm up and stretch. It was impossible to get a good stretch due to the low temperature.

7:40am
I checked in my warm up clothing to the gear check tent.

7:45am
I was standing with my 4:45 pace group. Despite the fact I had no jacket on, I actually felt quite warm, since there were 40 thousand runners around me blocking the wind.

8:00am
Race Began

8:16am
I finally crossed the starting line.

8:20am
Cold weather had some serious effect to my bladder; I had to step to the side and take a piss in some tunnel.

6th mile mark
I was a couple minutes behind my pace group leader, but I wasn’t worry since I still have 20 miles to catch up with him.

7th-11th mile mark
I was feeling great; my body finally got warm enough so that I no longer feel the cold.

13.1 mile mark
I caught up with my pace group. I started to think if I run a bit faster I might can catch up with the 4:30 pace group, and then I told myself I really should wait until I cross the 20th mile mark and see how much juice I have left.

15th mile mark
I had to step a side to stretch my calf due to some cramping. I was behind my pace group again.

16th mile mark
I speed up a bit to catch up with the pace group, I was still going strong with lots of legs and lungs left.

17th mile mark
I ate a power gel to get some energy. And then………disaster!!!!

Apparently there was a banana station right after the gel station. There were thousands of banana peels all over the road.

I was so focus running after my pace leader I didn’t even pay attention to the road. Next thing I know “Crack!” my left food stepped on 1 of the 6000 banana peels on the ground. Oh I forgot the mention the road was kind of wet from the rain.

I twisted my left foot, while I was trying to maintain my balance I got bumped by a runner behind me. I fell forward almost hitting my face flat onto the pavement. I was in pain. I was in lots of pain. I dragged myself to the side of the road. I tried to walk it off, but it wasn’t working.

I managed to limp to the nearest aid station and had my foot looked at. I told the medic “Don’t even think about calling me an ambulance, DNF is not an option”
She said “I totally understand, let’s ice it for a few minutes and get you back on the course” As I was sitting in the aid station I could not stop looking at my watching knowing that my sub 5 hours finish is slowly fading away. Those 3 minutes in the tent felt like an eternity.

I could not wait any longer I put my sock and shoe back on and began to run again. I had to run on the tip of my left foot since I couldn’t put any pressure on my heel. I finally reached 35k (21.7th mile mark) it was some where around 4:05:30. I was in extreme pain. Since I was running on the tip of my left foot, I ended up putting a lot of pressure on my right thigh to support my body. Next thing I know my right quad started to cramp. I had to slow it down to a walk since due the pain I was in. But because of walking instead of running my body heat went down rapidly. With the outside temperature being so low plus the wind blowing from every possible direction, I got so cold that I was shaking as I walk. Since I knew for sure that the cold could put me out of the race just as easy as the busted foot, I decided to stop by the aid tent around the 23rd mile mark to warm up and ice my foot again.

Final 5K
I moved as fast as I could, every step I took felt like someone was cutting my ankle apart. I finished, I crossed the finish line with a 5:15 finishing time.

Am I disappointed?
Yes I was very disappointed, since I couldn’t finish it under 5 hours. I knew I could have done it if I was more careful.
But I will admit one thing I tried my very best and gave it everything I had, and last but not least I did beat last year’s result by 22 minutes. (With a busted left foot)

I must call my doctor tomorrow.

Pictures coming soon!