Midweek workouts

I took Monday off.. no running, no work.. just goodness. My wife and I hit some of the wineries on Cayuga lake. The usual assortment of wines, except we stopped at Six Mile Creek Vineyard as well. (We usually don't hit this one, because it's out of the way of the others.)

The most awesome thing there was that they had some real spirits there. Woot! So, I threw my dollar on the bar and asked for a sample of their vodka. Very excellent. They kept it chilled (in a fridge, not a freezer). The vodka was made from Seyval Blanc, and was very very smooth. Went down nice, no bite. It did have a bit of a pleasant scent to it, as well. Not quite grapey, but you could sense something. The taste of that smell wasn't too strong, no doubt partly from it being chilled. It's pretty expensive, ~$25 for a small bottle. But, worth a buck for a sample.

I also saw that they'll have some gin soon.. I'll have to venture back. I do love a good gin. Some time after Thanksgiving, I was told.


Anyways, Tuesday I did a run after a rest day, and banged out 3.2 miles. It was pretty non-eventful.

Wednesday, I did 20 minutes on an elliptical. I wound up having to change the batteries midway through the workout, and never really got into a rhythm. I decided to try different cadences, different foot positions, and alternating between going forward and backward, just to mix the workout up a little. It worked, my legs felt really worked out, and that's good. (Certainly seems to use more of the 'cycling' muscles than the 'running' ones, though)

Thursday, I hit the pavement again. Wound up doing 3.5 miles, and I felt really good. I thought my IT band might be acting up, but I made it through without any severe issues. Calves felt good. Honestly, it was one of the better runs I've had in a while. Too bad it was so short.

No running tonight, but I'm hoping to do 4-5 on Saturday.

Idle Weekend

I opted not to run this weekend, in order to let my legs rest up and heal. That approach seems to have worked, I only have one or two spots that feel 'twingy', compared to the 2 dozen I had on Thursday.

I'm looking forward to getting out and hitting the pavement tonight, though. The time off can be maddening.

The only workouts I did this weekend were some pushups yesterday. It was supposed to be an exhaustion test, according to the plan... I opted to do the following: 45, 45, 45, 30, 35. That put me at the 200 mark. The first 45 were with my 'perfect pushup' gear. The rest were au natural.

That qualifies me to move on to week 6. I've decided that I'll jump over to the 'easy' column for week 6. Then, I'll probably move to the middle column, followed by the last one. I was barely squeaking by, so this will give me a chance to earn my keep for the week.

I went out to a new (to me) bar this weekend. They had this beer on tap:


It's the Purple Haze by Abita Brewing.

The bartender was kind enough to give me a sample. That was ample for me.

It's a wheat beer, with very strong fruit tones to it. Reading the web site, there is raspberry pulp added to the beer. When drinking it, I knew nothing of it. I did immediately notice the fruit. The fruit really was overpowering.

I preferred the Raspberry Wheat Ale from Southern Tier Brewing, as far as a raspberry beer goes.

The bartender also told me that her experience was that most people tried a taste and moved on. Those that sampled really never ordered a pint of it. I guess I added to that list.

Interesting to see that this bar also had the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat on tap. Not something I see too often around here.


I also had the opportunity to try out Three Olives grape flavored vodka.
I thought the vodka was very smooth. There certainly was essence of grape which you could easily taste. Unfortunately, the grape flavor had an odd aftertaste. I prefer the grape flavor found in Grape Pucker. Maybe it's because the vodka wasn't sweet, that the flavor wasn't balanced out the way I'd expect. Trouble is, though, most of the other flavored vodkas (Van Gogh, Absolut, Smirnoff) I've had haven't left any kind of weird taste in my mouth.

I'm willing to bet that the plain Three Olive vodka is very nice, however.


That's all for now...

Thursday pictures

Thursday was another trip to the ballpark... woot!

Warmed up with a bottle of this:


Cooperstown "Back Yard". It's a pleasant IPA, with decent hops. Nothing like that Hoptical Illusion, but not too shabby either. I did enjoy it, and would certainly get another.

Home team had an 8 run inning. I was curious what they would do with the scoreboard had the team hit 10 runs. Each inning only has one digit for runs, and it's an electronic scoreboard.. But, I'm just that kind of guy who would think about these things.


While there, I noticed this phenomenon..



What you see there are pretzels and such just laying on the ground. The disgusting part is that the kids who owned these items would just pick them up and eat them. Repeat. I guess I could understand if they had some paper towels or such underneath.

One of my friends at the game noticed this too.

I dunno.. maybe it's just me (and him, since he noticed too).


It was also fireworks night. Here's a picture:







After I got home, we tried a sampler of Van Gogh melon flavored vodka:





I really enjoy the Van Gogh vodkas. This was no exception. A very nice watermelon flavor. Not a 'Jolly Rancher' sort of watermelon, but real melon. The vodka was very nice and smooth, goes down without a problem. The Van Gogh page discusses mixing it with melon liqueur, grenadine, and OJ for a martini... I don't know about that. It would certainly work, and it would make a great 'top shelf' martini.. but, I think you'd lose some of the flavor of the vodka and couldn't appreciate it as much.

Van Gogh has a gin, as well, but I can't find it around here. Sigh.


That's all I have for pictures right now, and it's time for me to go get some more coffee..