Friday Rants and Raves

Today was the first day in a while that I felt good running. It is a wonder what a good night sleep can do. I ran 5 miles on the treadmill Wednesday and today. On Wednesday I ran the 5 miles in 42:20 and today I ran the same in 41:40. On Wednesday, I felt like I pulled something in my buttocks. It bothered me Wednesday and Thursday, but disappeared today. I will probably run a slow 6 miles on Saturday and how long I run on Sunday will depend on how I feel and how early I can start.

Rants and Raves

Michael Vick - Michael Vick is not a nice guy and and idiot. However, he has been punished enough for his crimes with dog fighting. In the poor rural south where Vick grew up, dog fighting is a part of the culture. I would like to see PETA focus more on stopping dog fighting rather than preventing Michael Vick from moving on with his life after spending almost two years in prison. However, I have a feeling they are going to be protesting and calling for boycotts against the team that Vick eventually signs with.

Lawrence Phillips was a major star in college at Nebraska that was constantly in trouble and there was always controversy about him. There was a lot of talk about the Ravens drafting him out of college. The Ravens made out well by selecting Jonathan Ogden instead of Phillips. I felt like there was so much talk about Phillips' off the field issues that they never focused on whether he was really a good enough player on the field to warrant being a top draft pick. Nebraska's offensive line was so good, anybody could have put up big numbers as their starting tailback. I feel the same way about Vick. He was pretty average in Atlanta. The one thing he has going for him is his speed and how much has he lost in the last couple of years? Vick will be 29 next month, which is the time when athletes start losing their speed and his training the last couple year has been limited. He will likely play some in a wildcat type offense, but it remains to be seen if the wildcat is a fad or a lasting part of NFL football.

Felix Hernandez - I play in an American League fantasy baseball league where we keep eight players each season. Felix Hernandez was a super prospoect as an 18 year when I drafted him in 2005. I have protected him every year since then so I have watched his career very closely. He has some of the best stuff in baseball, but is wildly inconsistent. Felix is still only 23. It always appears that Hernandez is much better when Kenji Johjima is not his catcher . http://bleacherreport.com/articles/182948-casey-at-the-bat-johjima-a-detriment-to-ms-pitching-staff Now Johjima has broken is toe and is out for six to eight weeks so it will be interesting to see how Felix does during this time. Johjima is also on my team, but it has gotten to the point where I was happy when Johjima was out of the line up when Felix was piching.

Peter Angelos - Peter Angelos was named by Sports Illustrated as the worst owner in baseball http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/05/08/mlb.owners/index.html?eref=T1. I would agree with this if this from several years ago. However, I think Angelos has finally learned to hire capable baseball people and let them run the team. I don't have a problem with anything that Angelos has done from the last few years. In addition, Ted Lerner of the Nationals, who was listed as the 5th worse owner, clearly deserves the title of the worst owner in baseball. The Nationals appear to be run as cheaply as possible and the honeymoon period of having a baseball team and new stadium in goodwill was over quicker than I would have thought possible.

Baltimore Orioles - Growing up I was a diehard Oriole fan. Right around the time that Alex was born, the Orioles got bad and I lost interest and started paying move attention to my fantasy team than the Orioles. I guess I am a fairweather fan but those were some rough years under Syd Thrift.

When the Orioles hired Andy MacPhail to run the team two years ago, the team started to make smart decisions. They have focused on young players, particularly pitchers. They has a whole crop of strong arms. The thinking is that some will make it and others will get hurt or not perform as hoped. MacPhail traded Erik Bedard to the Mariners in what looks like with one the great trades in recent year for a package including Adam Jones, Chris Tillman and George Sherrill. It takes time to turn a baseball franchise around especially in a division with the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays.

Since moving near Frederick about five years ago, I go to a few Frederick Keys games a year and see the Orioles propspects in High class A ball. It was clear the last two years that the Keys had more top prospects than previous years.

All of the sudden in the last couple weeks it seems like everything is coming together. The outfield of Nick Markakis, Jones and recently promoted Nolan Reimold looks like it may together for quite some time. Some of the young pitchers (Brad Bergesen Jason Berken and David Hernandez) are now in the starting rotation, while the top pitching prospects (Tillman, Jake Arrieta and Brian Matusz) are still being groomed in the minors. Today the best propspect in baseball, Matt Wieters will be making his major league debut. It has been along time for Orioles fan, but it is finally time to get excited again.

Memorial Day and Benjamin Button

I ran nine miles on Memorial Day. I was still feeling quite winded (lacking my normal energy) and it was extremely humid out as well. I did not time myself, but I believe I was doing about 9 minute miles. In addition, I did not bring my mp3 player on my run as I normally do.


Today on my return to work, it was quite rainy. I worked out for a half an hour on the rowing machine at the gym. I am planning to run on the treadmill Wednesday and Thursday, but how far and how fast will depend on how I feel. I have a 5k in two weeks and another 5k on Father's Day.


For Memorial Day, my parents came over and watched the kids while Virginia and I went out to lunch. Then they stayed for dinner, which was nice. Virginia wanted to go to lunch so that we could have some time with just the two of us, but she was distant while we were alone.


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button


Virginia and I watched Benjamin Button over the weekend. It is a very long movie at nearly three hours so we split it up in two days. Benjamin Button is based on a F Scott Fitzgerald short story. As an aside, I pass the church where F Scott Fitzgerald is buried every day going to work.

The story is told by a old lady in current times to her daughter while on her death bed. It starts with a clockmaker, who son dies in world war 1 so he makes a clock for a New Orleans train station that goes in reverse to bring back soldiers that died in the war. Benjamin Button ages in reverse. He was born as an old man at the end of world war 1. His mother died during childbirth and his father abandoned him to a lady named Queenie who runs a retirement home. The doctor who examined him when he was born said he had cataracts and other illnesses normally associated with the elderly and was not going to survive long. Queenie decides to raise him and he gets healthier. Apparently beyond the doctor examining Benjamin when he was a baby, they accept his condition and do not make any effort to determine why he is different. When he is about eight he appears to be just a regular old man. Benjamin bonds with a young girl named Daisy who was visiting her grandmother. We find out that the old lady telling the story is Daisy.

As the years go by, Benjamin gets younger looking. He starts to work on a tugboat. He meets Mr Buttons who does not tell him that Benjamin is his son. Benjamin actually looks older than him at this point. He starts to travel with the tugboat and has an affair with an older lady in England. Around this time, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and Benjamin and the tugboat crew go to the war. Much of the crew dies but Benjamin makes it home safely. He visits Daisy who is a dancer in New York and find that she has a boyfriend. Benjamin's father tell him who he is and that the father is dying. The father, Mr Buttons runs a very profitable Button shop. When his father dies Benjamin inherits a substantial amount of money.

As the years go by, Benjamin visits Daisy after she has a serious leg injury when hit by a car in Paris. As they both are in middle age, Benjamin and Daisy become a couple and have a period for several year where they are very happy. Eventually they have a daughter, the same daughter that Daisy is telling the story to. Benjamin starts to realize that his getting younger is going to cause problems and leaves when the daughter is a year old. Daisy remarries and twelve years later, Benjamin visits her and see his daughter. Benjamin is a teenager at this point. Several years later, Daisy is called by social services who found her name all over Benjamin's diary. He is a young boy found alone. He is suffering from dementia and Daisy takes care of him until he is a baby and passes away. Around that same time the clock that goes in reverse in the train station is removed.

The story was strangely powerful considering the idea of someone aging in reverse is so unrealistic. The film was well done and worthy of the Academy Award nominations except I did not think that Brad Pitt's performance was particularly worthy of nomination. There was nothing wrong with Brad Pitts performance, but I did not think it was special either. I give the movie a B+.

Race Report and The Biggest Loser

I had a poor race on Saturday and I had no shortage of excuses.

1. I had a bad cold all week so I only ran 3.1 miles since last Sunday. I feel like I lost a lot of energy from the cold.

2. I woke up around 1:00 AM the night before and never fell back to sleep. I had about 4 hours of sleep for the night

3. It was one of the first sunny hot days that I had run in this year.

4. I forgot the little brace I wear around my knee since having IT band problems last November.
5. I have not found the right strategy for running a 10k. For a shorter race I am able to run under 8 minute miles and hang on. I thought with my marathon training that I could do it for a 10k. For longer races, I am able to do under 9 minute miles for a half Marathon and under 10 minute miles for my marathon.

I ran the first miles in about 7:30 and felt all right, but by the time I got to mile two in 15:13 I knew that I did not have a lot left. There were three times I stopped and and walked a bit. I ended up at 52:23, which was about four minutes more than I was hoping for before getting sick. That was about a minute and a half slower than I did in the same race last year. I ended up in 212th place out of 677 total. In comparison, I finished 97th out of 493 in a five mile race two months ago.

I ran about 7 miles lightly this morning. There are two types of limitations to long distance running.

1. My body, typically my legs ache and prevent me from going further or faster.

2. Endurance I don't have the energy to go further.

For the last six months, the body has been what limits me before the energy. However, this week every since I got this cold, it has been the energy that has impacted my running. Since I ran less this week, my legs have felt strong.

Since Monday is Memorial Day, I have been planning to do my long run on Monday this week. However, since I am getting my strength back, at this point I am thinking that I will go about 9 miles tomorrow on Monday.

The Biggest Loser

Alex and I like to watch The Biggest Loser together. We have watched it for the past three seasons. The episodes are two hours each and they really drag out the weigh ins. The show has a ton of product placement and producer related twists. However, there is an addictive quality to show of getting to know the contestants and watching them shrink physically and hopefully grow emotionally.

There are two trainers with very different approaches. Each contestant is assigned or chooses a trainer. Bob Harper is like a big brother that encourages and will get involved in game play. Jillian Michaels is more no nonsense and seems above the game play. In the end, Jillian's contestants win. Bob is like the Susan Lucci of The Biggest Loser and seems to get more desperate to get a winner each year. The contestants live at the"ranch" which is a nice place with facilities needed to lose wight. They are separated from their normal life and all their time and focus is dedicated to losing weight. The Biggest Loser is hosted by Allison Sweeney from Days of Our Life, who had a baby during this season and took hardly any time off.

There was a bit of a scandal this year they reported that one of the eliminated contestants, Dane had run a Marathon in 3 hours and 53 minutes. As someone who was in the midst of training for a marathon at the time with a goal of 4 hours and 15 minutes, it was shocking to see a person who was 400 lbs recently run a marathon in a faster time. It turned out that not only was the time actually 5 hours and 53 minutes, but that Dane got a ride for at least three of the miles. Dane did eventually complete a real marathon in about six hours. It was very disappointing that The Biggest Loser never went back and corrected the erroneous initial marathon report on the show.

For the last three seasons, the contestants have been grouped with a partner, typically a family member or friend. I would like them to go to individual contestants in the future. Each week, at the weight in the two teams or individuals with the lowest percentage of weight loss are "below the yellow line" and the other contestants then vote which team or individual is eliminated.

The rules bring a Survivor type element to the game with alliances and promises. In addition, there seems to a lot water loading that takes place where a team or individual has immunity for a weigh in, they will try to lose less weight that week so that their starting number for the following weigh in is higher. They did change the rules so that if they gain weight they lose their immunity. This is how Nicole was sent home the first week back at the ranch when she had immunity.

The main contestants this year included the brown team consisting of the father, Ron and the son, Mike who at 18 was the youngest contestant ever. Ron had a bizarre looking stomach from a botched gastric bypass surgery. He had a huge sense of entitlement and was not very likable. Mike on the other hand seemed like a good kid that really benefited from the opportunity to get his weight under control. The green team was friends, Tara and Laura. Tara was very competitive and won virtually every challenge. She was is in her 20s, a good runner and fairly attractive once she lost the weight. Her friend, Laura ended up with a stress fracture. The pink team was mother, Helen and daughter Shanon. The pink team was up for elimination fairly early in the competition and had had to send one member home, they decided to eliminate Shanon. This seemed odd since Shanon weighed more and typically a parent would put their child before themselves.

The finals was a three hour extravaganza that dragged on. It can be broken down in several parts.

A. From the last weigh in the two contestants that were below the yellow line were voted on by viewers to determine the last person in the final three. The two contestants were father and son, Ron and Mike. Both wanted Mike to win. Last season the two contestants were also teammates, husband and wife Ed and Heba. Both asked that Heba win, but they were so unpopular that Ed won with 84% of the vote. Heba won the award for the biggest loser of the eliminated contestants and would have been The Biggest Loser if she had advanced to the finals. However, this year since Mike was well liked, he won the viewer vote and advanced to the finals.

B. The consolation prize went to the oldest contestant ever, Jerry, who was eliminated in week two, but lost about 48% of his weight. Despite losing all that weight, he did not look very healthy and looked much older than 64 years old.

C. They introduced us to two people who want to be on the show next season. Both worked out with Bob and Jillian and viewers voted on who they wanted to become a contestant. Both were young, overweight and blonde. It was hard to tell the difference between them.

D. The finals consisted of Mike, Tara and Helen. Both Mike and Tara lost about 50% of their weight and looked healthy. Helen did not look healthy and looked older than 48, but lost 55% of her weight and ended up at 117 lbs to become the new Biggest Loser.

I am not sure if it was because they were older or that they went to unhealthy extremes to lose the weight, but Helen and Jerry did not look nearly as good as the previous two winner, Ali and Michelle who seem to be important parts of the Biggest Loser franchise. I would like to see more details about the training and less game play, but the show is a guilty pleasure and an enjoyable show to watch with a 10 year old. I give The Biggest Loser a C+.

Still Not Feeling Well and Down River

I have continued to not feel like myself. I ran on the treadmill at the gym today. However, I was feeling more winded than normal and decided to only run 3.1 miles. I did this in about 28:20. This was my shortest workout in several months. Last time that I was sick, I kept extercising until I ended up with strep throat. This week I have reduced by miles during the week from 12.4 planned to 3.1. Unless I feel much better, I will not run on Friday since I have my race on Saturday.

My options for the race are,

1. Race as normal and go for my orginal 48 minute goal.
2. Go for a leisurely run and not push it.
3. Do not attend the race.

As of now I am leaning towards going to the race and see how I feel before decided how hard I run.

We continue to have problems with the neighbors. They were out making noise until around 2 AM. I believe I was actually sleeping thru it but awoke when Virginina asked them to be quiet. They stopped but I never was able to go back to sleep. I have a feeling the parents are not around this summer at their house.

Book Review

This morning on the train I finished Down River by John Hart. This book won the Edgar Award in 2008. Virginia's cousin gave her the book and it has been in my briefcase for about six months before I started reading it.

Down River is about Adam Chase who returns to his family farm in North Carolina after three years in which he had no contact with his family. He left after being found not guilty of murder. His family is extremely dysfunctional. Adam's mother committed suicide and his stepmother was the primary witness at his murder trial. Upon returning he finds that much of the town is upset with his father over a land development opportunity. Shortly after Adam returns, crimes start happening and he is again a prime suspect. Adam must work to investigate the crimes and uncover old families secrets in order to prove his innocence and understand his family dynamics.

River Down was an easy read with a story that hooked me within the first couple of chapters. However, it was not a very deep book and fairly violent. I give this book a B. I would like to read another book by John Hart and he happens to have a new book out called The Last Child that I plan to get soon.

Sick and Lost

I have not felt well the last couple of days. Usually I very rarely get sick. I have no energy. I am taking the Zinc cold medicine and hoping I get stronger soon. I worked out on the rowing machine on Monday, but did not run on Tuesday. Hopefully, I will feel better and be able to run on Thursday. I slept good the last two nights and still feel incredibly tired. The neighbor kids were making a lot of noise last night but I slept right thru it.

A part of me is stir crazy because I took a day off from running today. I have been fortunate to be fairly injury free. However, if I had a serious injury and had to take an extended time off, I don't know how I would handle it. Running really keeps me sane and I think I am addicted.

Lost
Season five of Lost ended last night. Virginia and I have watched it from the beginning. It is the only show we currently watch together. Lost is certainly a completely unique show and creatively far superior to any other tv show ever. However, after every show, I need to spend several hours on the internet figuring out what happened.

I am not a science fiction fan, so at times I don't enjoy that part of the show. However, the characters are very good and the mystery is fascinating. I assume from the beginning they have an explanation for what happens on the island and from the beginning I was interested in how they reveal answers on a tv series that the creators hoped would last for a number of years. After a great first year, they did struggle a bit in the second and beginning of the third year. In the middle of the third year they decided that the show would end after the sixth year and with a set number of episodes they were able to plan out the resolution of the series. The finale of season three which turned out to be a flash forward instead of a flash back was a turning point in the show and one of the most talked about episodes. Lost started out as a rating hit in season one, but eventually became more of a cult hit. It is not the type of show that you can miss episodes and continue to watch. A person has to invest a good amount of time into following Lost.

The finale started with the introduction of two characters never seen before. Jacob had been much discussed, but the other character whose name is unknown, was completely new and likely to be a big part the mystery. The season ended with more questions than ever. For the characters living in 1977, Sayid was shot, Juliet was pulled down a huge well, but survives enough to apparently ignite a hydrogen bomb that the 1977 characters are convinced will prevent the 2004 crash of flight 815. Meanwhile in 2007, Ilana and her followers reveal John Locke's dead body. This means that Locke was not revitalized on the island and that someone has taken his form. The fake Locke convinces Ben to stab Jacob, who apparently represents good in the island struggles. I give the season finale a B+.

The final season will start in January and we don't know what time period it will take place or even if it will be on the island. As far as I am concerned if they are able to finish the show on a strong note, Lost will be the greatest tv series of all time. I gave the series an A.

Preakness Weekend

Running: I ran about 5 miles on Saturday around the neighborhood. Typical Saturday run where my legs did not feel that great. it was definitely the most humid day of the year.

On Sunday it had been raining, so running on the C & O Canal was out of the question. Rather than run around the neighborhood, I decided to shake things up and run to the Elementary school and back and then did my 3 mile route in the neighborhood. It was a hillier run than usual, but I felt pretty good. It was about 13.6 miles and I did it in about 2:05 hours.

I plan to run 10ks on the treadmill Tuesday and Thursday. I plan to run most of these at 7.4 mph. Monday I will work on the rowing machine. Aaron has a soccer game on Wednesday. Friday is a rest day. Saturday I have my 10k. I think 48 minute is reasonable and will be a pr.

Rant: I watched the Preakness on Saturday. I tried to use the girl angle with Rachel Alexandra to get Alex interested in it, but she still was not really into it. The race itself was entertaining with Rachel Alexandra holding onto to beat Mine that Bird. Mine that Bird was very impressive and certainly proved that the Kentucky Derby was no fluke. The Belmont looks like there is only two viable options. It could be a nice race if both go, but could also be a nothing race if RA or MTB don't run or are too worn out to be on top of their game.

The state of Maryland is battling to keep the Preakness in the state and due to gross mismanagement by both the state and owners of Pimilco and Laurel, the entire racing industry is barely hanging on. I used to enjoy going to the track, but have not been in years. The tracks are a depressing site.

The latest disaster was the decision to not allow people in the infield to bring alcohol as a result of rowdy behavior. From what i understand the fans have gotten out of hand. They could have hired additional security and thrown people out that were out of control. Instead they banned people from bringing in alcohol and about 30,000 less people attended. They thought that by having a ZZ Top concert in the infield that it would make up for the alcohol ban. I doubt ZZ Top is very popular with the under 30 crowd. Hopefully they will admit their mistake and change it back next year.

Movie Review: I watched The Reader last night. It was the first movie in a long time that both my wife and I liked. It was about a German lawyer that had an affair with an older women when he was 15 in 1958. The women disappears and several years later is arrested for Nazi war crimes from World War II. Kate Winslet won the best actress Oscar for this movie. I give it an A.

My wife and I actually had a nice Saturday night after the kids went to sleep.