Running and Chimays

I got out for a 3 miler last night. Opted to do this one at around an 8:30 pace, which is a little faster than my standard running speed that I can settle into easily. Due to exhaustion and my lack of running lately As a precautionary measure, I stopped and stretched at not only the halfway mark, but the 3/4 mark. Still, got it done. Knee feels OK today. This 3 mile cap may be the way to go for now. (I am SO jonesin' for going on a long run.. this just kills me!). I was supposed to do W2D3 of the pushup challenege last night. I'll do that tonight soon. LOL


On to the Chimay..



Chimay beers are Belgian style beers. They're made by Trappist monks, and that's as authentic as you can get.
For full disclosure, I'm not big into Belgians.. But, I can differentiate good from bad, don't get me wrong.

Most of my favorite Belgian beer comes from Ommegang, one place I'm going to have to visit in the near future. (It's not that far from me, I really have no good excuse why I haven't gone.) The glass I'm showing here is actually an Ommegang glass. hehe


I've heard good things about Chimay, so I thought I'd give them a go. Both of these came in a "big" bottle, so it was a good excuse to drink more sample the beers as they warmed up.

The Premiere Ale (red bottle) was the first one I had one night. Had a bit of a nutty flavor, I thought. Also had some yeast mixed in, which I really like. I know not everyone likes the extra "character" of having yeast in their beer, but I do. (So take that!)

The Cinq Cents (white bottle) was one I had last week. It was drier and far more hoppy than the other. Not IPA hoppy, mind you, but there were hops in it. It was a more golden color, and also had some yeast in it (I thought the red had more yeast, though)

Both of these beers are premium. There's a lot of character and tastes in them that I just don't have the palette depth to figure out. Both are incredibly smooth, and good tasting. For Belgians, they're top grade (even better than some of Ommegang's). Probably not good beers for the beginner, though.

I think I preferred the spiciness and hops of the Cinq Cents. Of course, those beers seem to match up well with me in the springtime, where as the other may match up well in the late fall and early winter.

Would I drink them again? Of course. They're delicious. (There's very little I wouldn't drink, sadly). I'll even recommend them, for someone looking for a Belgian. They probably won't make the standard rotation, though, just due to my preferences.

Keep on rockin', everyone! Happy April Fool's Day, too!!

Yes, I'm still here

Yes, yes, I'm still here. You can't get rid of me that easily.

Work has just been kicking my azzz this week. And, on the off chance that anyone at work might read my blog, I'm going to end my work talk there before I get into trouble.

First up, RunningLaur put together some virtual swag for the Hooray Spring 6 Miler. Here's mine:



I think it's great! Love it!


So, the weekend... I did go see Jon Stewart. They were really anal about people sneaking cameras and such, so this is the best pic I have, with my better-as-a-phone-than-camera:



Yeah, not so good.

But, the show itself.. funny funny stuff. He didn't do as much "current event" type material as I was expecting. That being said, I was laughing the whole time.. and, after all, isn't that why you go watch a comedian?

I did get a 4 miler in on Saturday, which pretty much wrecked my ITB for Sunday and Monday. I think I'm going to have to self-impose a cap for my runs at 3 miles for now.

The other exciting news is this:



Charlie Brown's Christmas tree is safely tucked away in it's box for the year. It's finally down. I was hoping to beat a certain blogger, but she beat me by a couple of weeks. :)

Alright.. I need to get back to it. I'll be back.. I have a bunch of beer reviews to do, too.

Tonight, I'm shooting for a 3 miler.. Looks like it's decent outside.

Keep on rockin'!

Friday Miscellany

• A few people seem to have adopted the 'write in bullets' style, so I'm going to give that a shot for a day.
  
• I'm not coordinated to do a dozen footnotes like some people.
  
• I'm going to see Jon Stewart this weekend.
  
• I'm stoked! If you haven't watched the series of clips with him and Jim Cramer, wow.. Put aside a half hour and check them out. Funny stuff!
  
• OK, here's some of the clips for you. here, here, and here.
  
• If you like NIN, Jane's Addiction,or Street Sweeper, there's a free EP sampler for their upcoming tour at http://www.ninja2009.com/
  
• I got 2 of the 4 games wrong last night in my picks. Ugh.
  
• Favorite quote from the basketball coverage last night: "Just because you're open doesn't mean you should shoot it" (after someone air-balled it)
  
• Best of luck to all of the racers this weekend. I know I'll forget some peeps.. (my bad if I forget you!). tfh, Melanie, Chad, RunToFinish, Lacey, Sassy Molassy, and anyone I forgot.
  
• Speaking of tfh, props to her for running her first marathon this weekend.. best of luck!
  
• That's all.. Keep on rockin', everyone!
  

TIaRT: Tips For Getting Faster

It's Thursday, time for a free topic to write about, courtesy of the Runner's Lounge. That's good, because I'm low on material today.

Today's topic is all about how to become "faster". Well, that's easy folks, buy her a few stiff drinks, and see what happens.

Oh... not that kind of being faster?

I see.

Well, thankfully, I have some advice for running faster too. A couple of days ago I measured my speed on a mile, and have noticed great progress from when I started. (First off, I can run a mile now, compared to when I started).

Some people will say "do track workouts" or "do intervals" or the like.

I'm going to go a different route..

What has worked for me is this:

Run more.

Plain and simple. If you don't do the time, you can't do the crime. Erm.. Got that wrong too.

If you aren't logging the miles, you can't built up speed. I haven't done a lot of speed workouts. I do a moderate amount of hill workouts, and I think those help too. What has mostly helped is an increase in overall mileage and quantity of runs per week.

Running 2 or 3 days a week is great, don't get me wrong. It's far better than doing nothing. If you can bump that to 3 to 4 days a week or 4 to 5, you're going to notice more results. Your legs will be more used to the action, your muscles will be stronger, you'll be able to withstand more.

Keep that up, you'll be getting faster.

That's my tip. Keep on rockin' everyone.

--

Last night's run log: 3 miles, 30 minutes.

Six Twenty One

Well, last night I went out for a run. I really couldn't decide what to do. I didn't want to do hill work, none of my normal routes appealed.. I figured I would just get out the door and see what happens.

Started at a fairly normal pace, waited for a car in the intersection, the usual. After a brief uphill and a brief downhill, I said to myself, "You're moving pretty good. Why not? Go for it."

I decided to go all out and see how fast I could bang out a mile. The last time I did this, I wound up at 6:50. This route was similar, but it had the little uphill and a little downhill.

I tried to work on pacing, on not going out too fast, leaving some for the end.. Not sure how well that worked, but......

6:21, baby! Woot! Fastest mile for me ev-ah!

I'm going to have to drag my ass to the track one day and try it there, to get a real feel for it.


So ya, after that, my lungs were not feeling too good. I was coughing up all sorts of crap the rest of the night.. Oh well.

I did a "recovery" run of .8 after I walked it off a bit, and called it a night, running-wise.


I got home, cleaned myself up, and then did the dishes, cleaned the toilets, cleaned the sinks, did a few loads of laundry. All that good stuff. (Yes, I make a good little beeotch)

Maybe I should put an ad out? "Dude with mad skillzz, energy, and endurance. Available to do whatever is needed around the house"

I'm sure that would get some responses..


Lesse, what else? Oh yeah, I scored this little bike repair kit as a free gift:



It even came with a little knock-off CamelBak. It's tiny though. Not for any serious exercise hydration. It might handle a bottle of wine, OK, though... hrms..

Alright everyone.. keep on rockin'!

Hooray Spring 6 Miler

On Saturday, I did my entry for the Hooray Spring 6 Miler. RunningLaur was kind enough to organize this race, and I'm glad. Without it, I probably wouldn't have tried.

So, my goal was to do 6 miles at an 8:40 pace.

I threw on the Garmin, and out I went..

Since I don't really run any races, you'll get a full race report here. It makes me feel like a real runner.

Mile 1: Thinking to myself, keep it nice and slow.. plenty of time.. Long race..

End result of mile 1- 7:09.

I think to myself... "Aw, shit." Yeah, there's no way I was maintaining that pace. So, I did the ol' classic race antics and went out too fast.


Mile 2: Thinking to myself.. slow down, mofo. Lot of race to go.

End result of mile 2- 7:58.

Ugh. Yeah, I really need to work on pacing. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Mile 3, I wound up with an 8:29. Pretty close to where I wanted to be. Around this time, I started thinking "Good Lord, people race 10Ks for fun? What the hell is wrong with them?"

I passed the 5K mark at 24:23, which put to rest my question of could I run a sub-25 5K. I wasn't at the puke threshold either, which indicates I can do better...

Mile 4 punched in at 8:26.. At a steady pace now.. My knee/ITB started tweaking a bit at this point.

I ran a little farther and had to stop at an intersection. (Stupid cars)

Yeah, that was it. I stopped, my ITB said "I'm not going again". End of race.

So, I get a big fat DNF on the 6 miler.

Final results: 4.08 in 32:44.

Thanks to RunningLaur for putting this together!

TIaRT: Spring Training Tips

It's TIaRT time, once again. Today's topic is tips for spring training.

I guess I'll be upfront and say, I have no street cred with regards to this subject. This is my second spring of running. Last spring, I was sporadic, at best.

But, as many people do, I will pontificate regardless.

Tip #1 - Don't do too much too fast. It's not like I listen to this tip, though. Exhibit A: cardinal sins post. So do as I say, not as I do (another good quality of someone spouting off).

But, it is important to heed this. You may have been cooped up inside all winter and are ready to bust out, remembering where you were at the end of the fall. If you haven't been working out in the winter, you're probably not where you were months ago.


Tip #2 - Run with someone. It's a lot easier when you have someone out there with you. That person doesn't want to let you down (ideally), and you don't want to let that person down (again, ideally). Plus, you can chat and all that good stuff while grinding out the miles.

Alas, my running buddy is moving away this weekend. Not that she and I have been running a lot together lately for various reasons, but it still stinks. I did like running with her, and I like running with others. Blah. So, there's the second tip I'm going to be disregarding.

Tip #3 - Have fun.

(I can do that one at least.)


So, aside from TIaRT.. last night, I went out without my Garmin. I went and chugged up a monster hill. It was sprinkling. The fresh smell of rain. A breeze in the air.
And, that's as poetic as I can get.

It was awesome, though. 4 miles down, I felt great. I almost wished it was raining more. And to think, I used to not run in the rain.

Oh, and I have no idea about the 'Friend Connect' thing. I saw a bunch of people post that, so I figured I'd be a follower. I thought it was supposed to include the 'following' crew, but it obviously doesn't. No idea how it works, how it's different or anything like that.

Keep on rockin' everyone!