Off to go see the movie

I am off for dinner and then to go see Spirit of the Marathon.

Don'cha just love date night???

Watch for review tomorrow!

Todays Rave pics

Today's Pictures

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This is Atlantic City from Graveling Point at the end of Radio Road.

The body of water is the Barnegat Bay

Another shot of a fishing boat out in the Barnegat Bay, to the left you can see the old Cannery (now abandoned)

This shot was taken with digital zoom (sorry for the graininess) its still Atlantic City, but if you look to the right you will what looks like construction cranes. These are actually electric generating windmills. These help power the city. AC is always turned on thanks to wind power!

I ran on Radio Rd, Radio Road gets its name from the great Tuckerton Wireless Tower. This is a picture of one of the three massive cable blocks that helped keep the tower up. This block is on North Ensign drive, and its in some one's backyard!
This is the tablet that commemorates the Little Egg Harbor massacre

Click on the link for a very good wikipedia page on the event.

Todays run

7.25 in 1:14:27 (10:16 avg)

over a minute slower than yesterday (1:13:12)

but I feel 10x better. I struggled with the middle miles yesterday. Today the miles came easy and I even put in a few very quick surges in the middle.

The Splits:
Goal was 10:00 avg per mile

10:18
10:04
10:01
12:08 (stopped to take pictures..will post them soon)
9:49
10:03 (took pictures here as well)
9:17
2:43 (.25@11:01)

The key compared to yesterday, I had a nice sized breakfast. Yesterday even though I put in faster splits (on the downhill miles) I just plain felt tired and out of it

The weather was cold, snow is starting to fall now, and I was running towards the bay so I had wind, but I felt great.

What a difference 24 hours makes

Spirit of the Marathon

The screening is tonight at 7:30, apparently there will be an encore, so don't fret too much.

Encore
As a result of the tremendous response to Spirit of the Marathon's January 24 U.S. nationwide debut, Fathom Events has added an Encore screening on February 21. The second engagement will again take place at 7:30 P.M. local time and will be available in approximately 250 theatres. Tickets will be available at www.fathomevents.com starting January 25.

yet another shoe ad

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Once again, 2 out of 3 were personal favorites of mine

Some pictures I found in one of folders

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This one is just funny. I can't remember where I found it.

The caption along the top and bottom border reads:

"I am the East Grandstand, Row 6, Seat 41. I saw every step Pre ran at Hayward Field. The Twilight Miles, the '72 Olympic Trials, the unbeaten streak - zero defeats above a mile as he thrashed every American record between 2,000 to 10,000 meters. I heard Pre's People chant, Go Pre! Go Pre! - the whisper as he entered the bullpen became one full tilt roar as he thundered down the homestretch like some Coos Bay Express. I saw the race of his entire life run full throttle, on fire, like the brief flash of a passing comet lighting our way, sparking our souls, lifting us through the last lap, the final turn, the home stretch...Godspeed."

Its Pre....need I say more???

The first shoes I bough...with my own money, the Nike Vortex

I loved this shot, this is called "The Stare" As they were getting ready for the last climb to the summit (I want to say this is at Le Alp d'Uez) Lance looks back at Ulrich to say lets go. All Jan can do is look back with "I'm cooked" Lance then dances up on the pedals and climbs to victory. This is called a "moment of truth" boys and girls. We have all seen it in one way or another, its how you choose to answer it, that makes the difference.

Looks like a new Running Blog/podcast/newsfeed

Just came over from http://runnerville.com/, found it by way of www.runningtimes.com . I am going to assume its a product of the magazine.

Calling itself "A new place to Procrastinate. A New Project from Matt Taylor, Tony Reavis, Amby Burfoot, Lauren Fleshman and more.

Looks like some very fine people are bedhind it. It comes complete with a Podcast, RSS feed, and some great little items that I am just now starting to explore. Looks like it will enter my dailky rotation.

Well if they can make low calorie Gatorade

Then I guess this might not be too far fetched.

I came across this at half-fast.org (a very funny blog, that I encourage all to read.)

Apparently Clif makes wine as well???

LINK

Todays run

7.25 in about 1:13:12 (10:06 avg)

Didn't eat before run, I had a apple for breakfast, so I bonked.
Weather was cool, then warm, then when running by bay it got real windy, then coool, then warm again. By the time I finished I was a sweating mess.

Could not keep pace. I just felt horrible.

Once again I need to eat properly. When am I going to realize that. My runs after eating properly are so much more enjoyable. Sometimes I just dont think.

Think we have it bad with the cold and daylight

It must be tough to be a runner in Barrow, Alaska. They have not had sunlight since November. Yesterday (January 22nd) the sun shown for the first time since November 18th. It lasted all of 57 minutes and they were in the middle of a blizzard. I guess a treadmill is a must.

Enjoy the video from http://www.weather.com/ (there is a 30 second ad at the start)

VIDEO

The results are in....

The poll has closed on whether or not you will be attending the Spirit of the Marathon showing on Thursday, January 24th.

We had 3 votes, 2 for yes (66%) and 1 for "don't know yet"(33%)

For those who voted, thank you!!!

For the other person beside myself who voted yes, enjoy the film. For the one not sure, hope you decide to attend.

Can't we all just get along...

The violence in Africa has to end, the World has to step in and do something. There is way too much killing going on.

I just found this story on MSNBC, Wesly Ngetich, this year's winner of the Grandma's Marathon in Minnesota was killed by an arrow.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22786214/

Today's feature video

This movie had great cycling scenes (even if some were not all that realistic) some ok acting, and I have always heard it was Kevin Costner's first true roll. Either way I loved it. I have it on DVD and I watch it ever so often.

visit videodetective.com for more info

the Adidas TRX trainer

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The Adidas TRX Trainer (upper right hand corner of ad), these trainers were given to me by a team mate of mine who was a national class runner (Frank Melo.)

He got shoes and equipment from various manufacturers and he would always throw me his cast offs. Generally his shoes had about 100 mile son them, as he would wear a new pair every week it seemed. I loved the shoes, they always felt weird, but they were great for training in them. These trainers like trainers of the time felt light compared to today's standards. I really do wish that manufacturers would go back to this philosophy. The other great Adidas trainer of the time that I loved was the Adidas Oregons with there netted mid sole. Great shoes.

The racing flats

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The Racing Flats.... The top two, the Sock Racers and Spiridon Golds. I owned both.

Interestingly enough both shoes were used to set World Records in the marathon at the time. Ingrid Kristiansen (London '85 2:21:06) and Carlos Lopes (Rotterdam '85 2:07:12).

The Sock Racer was a very minimal shoe. It was essentially a yellow stretch mesh type fabric, with two black buckles on top. It was created for the then growing sort of Tri/Bi-athalons.
Nike created a Sock Trainer, that was not very well liked. I had a pair and they just didn't fit well. The shoe was very popular, but I think if Nike released it today, it would not be taken very seriously for its minimalism (The Nike Free was about as close as possible to this shoe.) Nike also had matching yellow and black "hoop" socks to match the shoes. Nike did re-release the shoe as a "retro" in fashion colors. I found a pair on eBay and bough them. They felt close to the original but not 100%. I ran in them for 3 mile son a treadmill. I have never taken them outside. While they are retro, the materials used were no where near the original.

The Spiridon Golds, I consider to be the best all time racing flat ever made, by any manufacturer. The shoes were outstanding. The original pair were actually (if memory serves me) a customized version of the Nike Air Edge, made for Carlos Lopes to wear at the 1984 LA Olympics. Now the rest is where this gets tricky, I remember reading this in interview in Runners World back in 1984. Nike wanted to make them in the Portuguese National colors (red/green), he told them to make them in Gold so it could match the medal he would win. They laughed, he said he was serious. They made him the shoes. He won the race and the Gold medal.
Nike decided to produce the shoes. As soon as I saw them advertised in a magazine, I knew I had to have them. Back in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, sprinter Michael Johnson also wore a all Gold pair of tack spikes, and was nicknamed "The Man With the Golden Shoes". I still hold that Carlos was the original, but Johnson did win more Olympic Gold ;-)

When I met Carlos a few years later, he saw my flats and nodded in approval. I told them I got them because he wore them. I still regret not asking him to sign them at the time.

I set all my road PRs in those shoes. I have scoured eBay for the last couple of years looking for them.

I still miss those two, along with my Nike Flames track spikes and Waffle Racer II, and Nike Zoom XC spikes; they were my my race day weapons. I set many PRs, and that led to my allegiance to Nike shoes.

(Edited 1/23/2008)

I found these pictures on a Japanese site years ago. I had them in one of my folders.

They also came in red, although I never seen them in this color.

The Nike V series

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The Vortex (the middle ones) were one of the greatest trainers I have ever run in.
I was 16 and had just started working. My first paycheck was for ~$60. I had just bought "The Runner" magazine, seen the ad, I called up a running specialty store in the back of the magazine and ordered the,

The day I got them, I took them out for a 7 mile run, ran through some mud and proceeded to get them dirty. I was mad! Ever since though it seems that I have always gotten my new trainers always dirty on the first run. Who knew?

Some cool shoe ads from the 80s

I will be posting some ads that were put upon http://www.runango.com/ shoe forum (thank you Skylon and Hoys2). These ads are significant to me as they contain some of my favorite shoes

Week in review for 1/14/2008 - 1/20/2008

Running this week sucked and I mean sucked bad.

Weather was bad, but not a factor. Work was a factor, but so was getting sick.

Training was relegated to 2 workouts 14.25 totals....Pathetic.

Let's hope this week is better

Great running themed movie

Saw this movie yesterday on HBO. Great story. It revolves around a coach and a gifted female runner in South Africa as he tries to get her ready to win the Comrades Marathon

visit videodetective.com for more info

Today's feature video

It's another ADIDAS comercial. It is very cool how they did it also.