Just do it

We made it, folks! Our first 10K done together. We both managed to come in around 1:03 which put us at approximately 10:10 minute mile! (The GetInGear10K.com website is cool about giving you an exact read from when you first cross the starting line to when you finish, thanks to this handle little electronic device placed behind your run number) I'll do my best to spare you the minutiae ("Went to be early, got up, drank 1 liter of water and a glass of Muscle Milk. Breakfast was 1/2 banana and a slice of wheat toast...") Blah and nope. Instead, we had some observations which we found interesting, weird, perplexing, and gross. I'll save the most gruesome one for last...

1- Holy crap it was crowded. It was a cold and drizzle McTizzly morning when we arrived at the VA med center parking lot. They had buses shuttling people to the starting gate but the line was prohibitive to say the least. (Per Moda: "If there is one thing I hate, it's waiting") Since it was only a mile to the pavillion we opted to hoof it. This was a good call. It got us warmed up, and our legs nice and springy . And it made for better people watching. (Maniacs. Seriously there were people sprinting past us. Hard. F. Core.)

2-Once again, I find myself feeling like the "Bad News Bear" of the particular sport I'm involved in. With karate, it was usually just a simple case of having mismatched gi's or hand-me-down bo's. No biggie. Here, I'm running in a t-shirt and swimtrunks (which, to be fair, were totally appropriate due to the biblical level of rain) when everyone else is wearing Under Armour or rain resistant mesh by-weave and special running gloves. (What? You need gloves to run? Why is this blowing my mind?)

3- I did pass a dude who was running in jean shorts. Jean. Shorts. So, you know, at least I wasn't that dude. Epic fail for him, and the dude hiking through Moab in penny loafers.

4- There was a distinct lack of Kenyans. IJS.

5-Never discount the power of a cheerleader. I won't lie. 6.2 miles might not seem like much to some folks but there comes/came a point, ohhhhh, around mile 4.5 or so when I was feeling it. Not that euphoria hooey either. My breathing became labored and I think I got first hand what an asthma attack feels like. .2 miles left and my vision got fuzzy. And past mile 5, my quads were singing a horribly off-tune song.

But the folks who'd yell "Great job, runners!" and "Almost there!"...heck, there was that weird girl who kept materializing every other check point (who, unless she was triplets, had to be driving from check point to check point) were really helpful in pushing through to the end. Thanks, nameless masses with the cowbells who laughed when I yelled back "MORE COW-BELL!!!"

6-A lot of runners have nice asses.

7-There are still quite a few that don't.

8-Moda was chagrined at the noticeable lack of Vibrum runners (for the record, due to the rain she refrained from wearing them. This time) but you should have seen her head dart around after hearing that distinctive clip-clop noise on the pavement.

9-We've been training for around 2 months now and our long runs have been 8-9 miles so far. But in spite of a fairly flat (and scenic) course, 6.2 miles kicked our asses two ways from Sunday. When we were done, Moda's already frassy hip and my frassy lower back were screaming. We swung into Pizza Luce' afterwards to reward ourselves and to watch her cross the street was like watching a senior citizen who forgot their walker. Seriously.

10- Female marathonists are also hard core. While we were waiting in line for our shuttle they were announcing the female half-marathonists coming around the bend...an hour and a half after the race had started. 13 miles in 90 minutes. Whoa.

11- Thankfully, there were no sightings of anyone making a mess in their pants. (Which Mo gah-RACIOUSly was able to direct me toward on the interwebs. Note to self- There are entirely too many YouTube videos of people s#itting themselves. PS- Martial Arts peeps can check out the BJJ match where this happens. Dude picked the wrong day to wear the white gi.)

12- UNfortunately...there was a bleeding nipple sighting. Gah. I can't believe I typed that. We were waiting in the long queue to exit the parking lot which was next to the shuttle drop off point. We'd periodically comment on the folks we'd see. (To the people who were still running? Quit showin' off. Martyrs) Mo was futzing with her Ipod when I saw the dude just...walking across the parking lot. In a white t-shirt. With bright red bloodstains running from his cannons...And you know, why white? Really? You need to advertise? Sheesh. Any way I pointed this out to Moda who took a second for it to register but her reaction was pretty damn stellar if I may say so. ("Hey look at that. Bloody nipples."/Beat...beat..."oh my God....OH MY GOD!") I mean, I guess I lucked out with only a little chafing around my belt line and a dime sized blister on my arch.

Hell of a thing to see in real life. I mean why white, dude. Gah.

Anyway, we hobbled home and later that night treated ourselves to pizza and Thai food for a job well done. Next up? Over twice that distance. While I'm certainly starting to understand the run-culture which has Moda in it's thrall, I'm not too sure I'm meshed in with it. One thing is for certain, and that's realizing that training is only about 60% of it. The rest? Mental. And here's me, who can't keep focused on one topic for more than 20 seconds.

Eep. D-Day indeed.

And I was running...

Hey, yeah, what? That's right. Tomorrow is the big day! 1st race of the...wait. I actually don't think I've participated in a Something-K since, oh, 1992? Since starting to run/jog outdoors in 1994? Huh. And it's all because Moda got a bug up her butt to start training a few months ago and now she's all wearing Vibrums and can peel bananas with her feet while wearing shoes and s#it. (I kid, I kid. Why? Because I love)

I honestly can say I'm feel a little trepidation even though we've been running over 6 miles fairly smoothly for the last month or so. (Ask me about our 8.5 mile behemoth we ran out of doors on Sunday at Hyland Park. 90. Degree. Hill/trail.) Not that I won't finish, or will be the slowest (I guarantee there'll probably be at least 100-200 Kenyans there). No, we've both remarked that our legs are pretty strong and the soreness I feel isn't isolated to the joints. (My calves and quads being sore where they should be for this much training) Nope, it's work.

The last 2-3 weeks or so, mandatory overtime has been in place. So I've been sequestered to a desk for anywhere from 48-50 hours a week, 6 days a week. Now, in spite of what you read in magazines about "stretching at your desk" or "taking frequent walks" (which, um, they kinda frown at being that there's this, I don't know, weird expectation that you work...) It's just the sitting and working has made my lower back frassy. Now, to be fair, when I'm training it actually feels fine. Doesn't make me bat an eye. But end of day? Taking off my shoes? That becomes a bit more of a struggle.

So on our nights off, we sit on the couch with either a bag of frozen peas or an ice pack and watch "Mad Men" (Moda has a frassy hip flexor) and will take turns rolling on the foam roller (yeah. I never thought I'd get one either. Shup. The dumb thing works) and popping 800 mgs of Ibuprofen which don't usually help too much. It's great fun.

So tomorrow around this time we'll be home probably icing our respective bits. High-fiving on our first run-like accomplishment. For my part, I hope to finish under 75-80 minutes which should be accomplishable. If you're in the area, I'll be the pale whale under a blue poncho. (Yeah, it's supposed to rain too. Natch) Until then, tonight is our complimentary carb load up at the site. Wahoo.

Duplicity...or WTF

This is topical, but it's been stewing in my mind since last night-

So I get Moda back for around 4 months while she takes a theatrical summer vacation and last night was technically our first real "night" in on a school night. It was a breezy evening w/Chinese Food, "Mad Men", and the newest on her NF queue- "Duplicity". Now, I knew going in that it hadn't the greatest of reviews but I was willing to give this more of a chance than other craptastic filler films that've been released in the last 5-10 years or so.

That being said, I've watched mini-series that have sped by faster than the first 40 minutes of this movie. It was so head scratchingly awful, that the only 2 things I could think of was that (1) Julia and Clive wanted to do a movie together where they could get paid an a$$ load of money and spend their time travelling the world during the shoot. (Locations included NYC, Rome, Bahamas, Miami, and Zurich. And Ohio, natch. This is also called "Ocean's 12 Syndrome")

The 2nd reason was so they could put there own little "6 degrees" game together for film dorks (like moi) to get antsy in the pantsy and at least try and figure out why they put together this addled confusing mess of a film. Let me show you starting with the big guns-

Julia and Clive were in "Closer" together and must have had a good time and wanted to snog on camera together.

Way further back, Julia was in a movie called "My Best Friends Wedding" with Paul Giamatti playing the role of a sympathetic bell hop.

Denis O'Hare ("Duke") was in "Michael Clayton" which also starred Tom Wilkinson.

Anyway, these aren't all loose. The dude who played "Homer Stokes" in "O Brother" was also in the flick, which starred George Clooney who does crap with Julia and was also in "Michael Clayton" which was another hoy palloy flick (albeit intensely and insanely better) than this tripe.

My theories may be crazy, but there seems to be a hint of truth. I found it funny (in a movie that wasn't very) the lineage between Chive and Julio regarding how much $ they could get ("$20million?"/"I was thinking 40Million") could easily be analagous to how much $ they're getting.

Ridiculous.

For chuckles

Nothing great. I just found a trailer that made me laugh a bit.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810116447/video/19060028

Wooden gun, btw.

Training, Learning, et.al.

Okay, so the saga of the bogarted break-room creamer clearly didn't keep you all rapt. I understand. For me, it's the little stories that add spice to life. Like, for instance, my cat. Who was such an annoying pest the other night- licking my head, knocking over my lip goo/water bottle/NEARly my lamp before I actually chucked his ass underhand out of my bed. He promptly went into daddy's room (the Bean) and started caterwauling until he got up, went downstairs, filled his bowl, and went back to bed.

Folks, there was food in the bowl when I went downstairs not an hour before. 15 minutes later Georgie comes back into my bedroom where I can hear him stop at the foot of the bed. He then proceeds to puke (mind you- every time this cat vomits he emits a low, low growling moan) so this lead me to believe that I pissed him off, he coerced the Bean into feeding him (effectively "re-loading") went back upstairs and proceeded to do a spite-barf. He didn't even run off as I got out of bed and watched him lazily pad back out of the room. Ass cat.

So news. First-

The weather lately has been fantastic for early Spring. My tulips, day lillies, and many of my perennials that I planted, oh, two years ago? Are all popping up en masse. More importantly, all nine of the garlic bulbs we planted are starting to sprout! (My 1st count last week I only saw 6, so I chalked it up to zealous and hungry squirrel-terrorists. As it got warmer, boom. 3 more) Between that and the seeds Moda planted that are exploding we're going to have a veritable bounty. It'd be such a nice contrast with last years relatively weak harvest. I've even been contemplating expansion. GASP!

Second-

My contract here at the BGWC will be extended through the summer (if they like me) as opposed to running out in Spring. I guess the housing market is still buyer-centric and judging by how swamped we've been I should still be gainfully employed with a chance of mandatory overtime forseeable. (Boo...I mean YE$$$!!!) The downside is that I had to pull out of Paul Bunyan and it marks probably the first time in nearly 20 years of performing that I've ever done so. I need the dough, I know. It just sucks. A show would have been nice. That show would have been nice.

Third-

I'm currently in week #3 at the BNI's performance track class. I hemmed and hawed but the classes are pretty challenging and as an actor are helping make some discoveries. I don't want to get too poncey about it since it's a lot of what actors have heard before, sufficed to say it was a good choice and I'm getting a lot out of it. Class tends to always go over and we hash over what we've just worked on that night. So yeah. Playtime. Thanks, dad.

Fourth-

Since I've been in a learnin' state of mind, I'm going to take Choy Li Fut for 8 weeks. It's a class I'd been hankerin' to take (along with Wing Chun and Capoeria...and ball room dancing) for a while since I received the community circulars so I thought I'd give it a whirl. We'll see. Kiiiya.

Fifth-

Run training is...well it is. I've already made it past the 10K mark, topping off (as of late last March) at 7.5 miles. However, the nice weather has been taking me off the 'Mill and putting me on the proper roadways/trails. Except, and I won't lie... it's a bitch. I commented to Moda that I can definitely feel my legs getting stronger and my knees (knocking on wood) have felt okay. Holy Moly, my anterior tibalis and gastrocnemius are the devil. Just yesterday on an "easy" 4.5 miler I had to stop 4-5 times just to stretch it out. I'm hitting the gym to strength cross-train, but the out of doors is becoming a bit daunting. I might have to go back to the treadmill in spite of good weather. Frass. And here we did our first (and my longest) outdoor training run around Lake of the Isles/Calhoun last weekend.*

The races are 4/24 and 6/6 respectively. Think healing thoughts.

Sixth-

Vay. Cay. Shun. That's right, kids. Moda and I are West-coasting, heading out to OR to see L and D's wedding. Then it's a few days of scrabbling up and down the coast before heading home. Damn straight I'm happy. First proper vacation I'll have had in over 2 years. I need the ocean. And it gives my roommate his precious "house to himself" days.

Seventh-

Moda finally comes to the end of a long run of consecutive shows in less than two weeks. It'll be nice to have my cooking/gardening/frassing buddy...well to get my girlfriend back. It's gonna be Farmers Markets, dirty hands, bike rides, happy hours, and sunshine for buddies.

WaHoo.


(*Perspective- MD is running a 100K marathon for OXFAM. Holy crap)

Well...not all of them.

I checked out Moda's show last Friday. ("Safe as Houses" at the Theatre Garage. Get off yer duff's and see it, fools!) And I was remarking later that the lead bears a striking resemblance to Redwright's hubby. Which, of course, gets me olde gears spinning since I ran into another actor who bears another uncanny resemblance to my roommate, El Bean. So I'm pontificating this yesterday (meaning- putting off raking) to him while he's doing the dog and pony show which is making his breakfast, and he seems genuinely interested in spite of the fact that (A) I have no story and (B) my idea is solely based on the fact that two pairs of actors look like one and other.

Anyway, our dialogue. For your enjoyment:

M- "So that's it. You and _____ are brothers and _____ and _____ are brothers. Cool?"
D- "Okay. Just don't cast any annoying actors."
M- "Which ones?"

And it's the A-hole FTW!

They threw it out.

This epic opus I've been on this week to see if my creamer would go unsullied comes to a tragic and abrupt end this morning. As I made my bleary eyed way to the fridge, I mindlessly reached in the back to obtain my beloved coffee mate only to withdraw empty handed. "But, but...it was there yesterday?!? And with puh-LENTY to spare. So clever, you are, my friend. Writing snarky notes works the BEST! Ah. Ha. Haaaa".

Nope. My initial deduction is that some mammy-jam read the little novella I taped to the side of the bottle and was grossed out. If there is any justice in the world, it'll have been the yahoo who was bogarting my creamer.

That's some redonkulous bullshit to start a Friday.