Why DFMC?

Why am I running for Dana Farber? Here are ten reasons that come to mind...

1. for My grandmother who showed us all that you can have a renaissance in your life at any time.

2. for my grandfather, cancer did not take him, but it certainly took pieces of him when it took his wife and life partner.

3. for Johnny who taught us to appreciate the small things and reminded us that if your driver is not working, leave it in the bag and use the club that is.

4. For Andrew, who followed his dream and lived a vigorous life

5. Because five years ago, my Father started running for DFMC and when he couldn't this year, I could not allow the torch of Hope to go out.

6. Because cancer sucks

7. read a few of the recent posts at http://www.38pitches.com/

8. I like running in the cold, snow, dark, ice and salty frozen roads of New England in the winter

9. Because Dana Farber wants a world without cancer and so do I.

10. Because as Dana-Farber works towards a world without cancer, maybe the money I raise can help ease some pain and suffering for cancer patients in the here and now.

Thanks!

D.O.M.S.

It stands for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It's when the pain of a hard workout/long run doesn't set in for 24-72 hours.

It is what I am feeling right now.

Week in review, Week 4: 1/20/08-1/26/08

Sunday 1/20: Off (skiing, driving, Patriots game)
Monday1/21: Off (not planned to be off)
Tuesday 1/22: 7 plus
Wednesday 1/23: 6x800 on Indoor track. Total: 6.5
Thursday 1/24: 4.5
Friday 1/25: 3.5
Saturday 1/26: 17.5 (Hinsdale to Keene, more hills than I thought)
Week Total: 38.5
2008 total: 113.5

Looking Back: Great week, despite slow start.
Looking ahead: No long run scheduled this week!
Things I craved during my long run: Egg, cheese and bacon bagel sandwich; Pancakes; The pasta I knew was in the fridge at home; Chicken Lo-mein
My Patriots prediction: late in a close game, Bellicheck hands the ball to Papelbon who shuts New York down 1-2-3!
Fundraising outlook: envelopes being stuffed and stamped!

Thanks for reading. Spread the word!

In the Meantime, I get back in the groove

After sort of a down week last week, not feeling great and struggling through a few runs, the past few days have seemed to bring me back. I did an easy seven miler yesterday and a good hard workout today (6x800). I would have added another 1-2 repeats, but I had to get showered and get to work. Every so often, I hit these ruts, usually because my body is tired and the workouts are taking their toll, it is always just a matter of getting through it and knowing that I always come out stronger.

The seven miler yesterday was made all the easier because I had Helmet's Meantime playing on the iPod. I think "pummeling" is a good (and frequent) way to describe this album. The lead guitarist has a Jazz performance degree and he uses it to make full on, wall-of-guitar, assaulting heavy metal with subtle shifts in time signatures and riffs that make Jimmy Page weep. This is some serious stuff. As I mellow out as I grow older, some albums lose their appeal because they are just too much. Meantime just gets better and better. I think that not being hung up on how loud and fast a band can play, but how they use loud and fast as an ingredient in an overall meal that manages to both rip your face off and be graceful and subtle at the same time.

Of course, I could just be full of crap. Maybe it just makes running easier because it pushes my testosterone levels into the stratosphere and brings me back to the macho world of high school athletics. Since I am training for a marathon, maybe that is not such a bad thing.

3 Months to go

It is 1/21. The marathon is 4/21. Three months to go!!!!

Week in review, Week 3: 1/13 - 1/19

Sunday 1/13: 3.5
Monday 1/14: Off
Tuesday 1/15: 2.5 felt like absolute crap
Wednesday 1/16: 6 (COLD!)
Thursday 1/17: 4.5 easy on a treadmill
Friday 1/18: off (work then a long drive)
Saturday 1/19: 3.5 followed by a full day of skiing.
Weekly total: 20
2008: 75



Looking back: not a great week. Thought this would be a little better but, I've been working hard.
Looking ahead: This week will hold my longest run so far.
Fundraising outlook: still preparing for the mass mailing.
Patriots outlook: 18-0! One game to go!

Winter Mornings in New Hampshire

"Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary."
- Henry David Thoreau

Just make sure you hear the weather report right: If the weather person on the radio says "...19 degrees" make sure that it was not preceded by "today's expected high is..." and be certain you did not miss when the weather report informed you that it is actually 4 degrees.

Favorites from 2007

Music has been my true lifelong passion. My relationship with music predates running and fills in the brief gap in my life where I was too involved with extra curricular activities in college and I did not run. In the past few years, my relationship with music has evolved to a point where I no longer try to own or listen to EVERYTHING, just everything. I gave up being a running "snob," insisting that all runs must be done to the sounds of the world. Now I run with my iPod about 70-80% of the time. Why keep apart my passions?

My wife will still insist that I am a music "snob," but it is tough to slough off that title after years of playing in bands, working at a community/college radio station and independent used record store. I'm not a music snob, I just have a more refined musical pallate and I know more about music than the average person. Some people talk wine, some people dream fashion. I breathe music.

Introduction aside, I have decided to post my favorite albums from 2007. These are not the "best," and I am not going to rank them. They are just the albums I enjoyed thoroughly, and I am presenting them in alphabetical order. These albums are pretty relevant to my marathon training as they have accompanied me through many workouts in the past months. These albums are all over the Blogosphere and on various best of lists, so ultimately, my list is not too original. However, I think that says something about these albums!

!!! (Chk, Chk, Chk) - Myth Takes. How many runs was I on when "Bend Over Beethoven" came on and I did an 8 minute interval without realizing it??? More than thrice.
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam. I still haven't figured this album out.
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible. Along with Spoon, the best "rock" album of the year. I don't get tired of this album.
Battles - Mirrored. Modern Prog-Rock, pristine sound, and fun. Battles are carrying the torch of "POST" rock and making it very interesting.
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup. Not on this album is one of the best tracks of the year "Elephant Gun," available on the Lon Gisland EP. Beautiful Melodies over a mishmash of horns, strings and ukulele. Beirut is mainly one man, Zach Condon.
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity. This came out at the beginning of the year. It is tight, noisy and no one else sounds like Deerhoof.
Iron and Wine - The Song of the Shepherds Dog. Iron and Wine are a full band now, but it is still Sam Beam's voice and lyrics that make us shiver.
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver. Will anything be worth listening to in 2008? Depends on if LCD Soundsystem gives us another album. Let's hope for one. It's dance music you can rock out to; no it's rock music you can dance to. "Get innocuous" is one of my favorites from '07 what with its sloppy ride cymbals and Kraftwerk robot synths.
Jens Lekman - Night Falls over Kortedala. I don't know what is more impressive, that this the music on the album is made up of mostly samples or that you can sing along to the whole thing. This brings the Sweden count to 1.
Liars - Liars. I grew up loving Sonic Youth, so I have to love this album.
M.I.A. - KALA. This may be my favorite album of the year. It may also be one of the most socially important. And you can dance to it.
Panda Bear - Person Pitch. Like the Animal Collective, I have not figured out what makes this so great yet, it is engrossing headphone music.
Powerhouse Sound - Oslo/Chicago: (((breaks))). My favorite Jazz album of the year. Ken Vandermark is the saxophonist/leader.
Radiohead - In Rainbows. They are the Beatles of my generation? Popular and really good at the same time? NPR thinks so. The music speaks for itself.
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Along with MIA, my other favorite of the year. A lot has been said about it. Do you have a favorite track? I do, it's "The Underdog."

Other Notables:
- the song "Other Girls" by Tigercity - this is my favorite song from 2007 and my play counter agrees. Some combination of Cheap Trick and Prince make up this song. Perfect Power Pop!
- No Wilco on my best of 2007 List: they sound too much like the Eagles. I hate the Eagles. The songs are good and Nels Cline is awesome. But why do they have to sound like the Eagles so much? Thank you Nels Cline for rewarding my repeated listens.
- Giraffes?Giraffes! - Friends Ken and Joe released an awesome album available here http://www.lovesinheatrecords.com/ It is very good.
- 2007, the year I made peace with Fleetwood Mac: Tusk is a great album. They were a good band. There I said it.
- Jay-Z. American Gangster. I like this album. A lot. One of my favorite tracks of the year is from this album, the track is called "Ignorant S***."
- One of my other favorite tracks from the year is from Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Magic, which is a very solid effort from the Boss. "Living in the Future" is a great track for running to and I use it during repeats on the local indoor track. There are maybe one or two tracks on Magic that keep it from being one of the best of the year, but it does not disappoint!

Ok, it is getting late. I am tired. I have to run tomorrow. As I've said, I'll be peppering this blog with some music thoughts. I write better when not in list form, so hopefully it will be more focused. It will also be related to my running because I get most of my best listening done when I run.

Thanks for reading. Check out some of the other DFMC blogs I have discovered!!!

Week in review, Week 2: 1/6/08-1/12/08

Here is my weekly training log:

Sunday 1/6: Skiing with Liz (no run)
Monday 1/7: 3 easy
Tuesday 1/8: 4x 3:30 up ash hill rd. (about 4tenths of a mile up a good grade): daily total 5.5
Wed 1/9: 4 easy. Yoga PM
Thurs 1/10: 6plus Fartlek
Fri 1/11: off
Sat 1/12: 14
Total: 32.5
2008 total: 55

Looking Back: Tough week, legs tired all week. Warm weather made for black ice in the morning. Hills were tough!
Looking ahead: Not much change, just a few extra miles. Looking forward to Yoga class on Wed. Night.
Fundraising outlook: had a near miss when the computer crashed!!! Fortunately, it has been rescued and everything is on track.

I'm going to try to link to fellow DFMC bloggers as I find them. And, being inspired by one of them, I am going to start offering my thoughts on one of my biggest passions: music. Granted, there are gigabytes written on music blogs out there but, I have some of my best insights into music when I run. If only I can remember them by the time I untie my shoes...
As always, thanks. AND Donate!

Yoga for Beginners

I'm going to a Yoga for Beginners class tonight. Hopefully, this will help me learn to stay loose and help me be more aware of my body. I'm tight and sore right now. I'm looking foward to it, I imagine it will help my overall training.

I'm in the middle of a tough week, but my reward is a full day of skiing this Sunday. It is tough balancing two sports I am passionate about: skiing and running. Right now, I think the mental break I get from skiing makes it the most valuable cross-training tool I have. Hopefully, this global warming weather we are having doesn't erase too much of the snow the mountains have.

A note on the blog, I changed the settings on the comments, so anyone can comment now.

Week In Review: Week 1, 2008

Week 1: 12/30/07-1/5/08

Sunday 12/30: 12 miles.
Monday 12/31: off
Tuesday 1/1/08: 8 Miles in a snowstorm
Wednesday 1/2: 4 plus on slippery roads
Thursday 1/3: 4x800meters on indoor track with 400 meter recovery. 5 total miles.
Friday 1/4: off (see previous post for excuses)
Saturday 1/5: 5.5miles - roads and sidewalks pretty slippery, legs tired. Went night skiing: my legs are beat!
Week total: 34.5 miles
2008 total: 22.5 miles
Looking back: Workout on Thursday was solid with short recovery. Indoor track was Hot and dry.
Looking ahead: Skiing again tomorrow, probably no run. Looking forward to hill workout and 14-16 miler this week.
Fundraising outlook: Business cards are in, letters in are in final stages of editing, addresses are nearly complete! Donate online now and I'll donate the postage I save!

As always, thank you!

Being smart

The 3 reasons I did not run today:
1. It was -6 degrees outside
2. It was the day after a hard workout.
3. It is the day before a long run

I'd rather be smart than frostbitten.

This should settle it:

The song "Long Distance Runner" by Fugazi is a better song than "Long Distance Runaround" by Yes in regards to actually running. However, Yes' "Heart of the Sunrise" is a great way to kill 10 minutes of a long run.

Both Yes songs are on the Prog-rock classic Fragile while the Fugazi song can be found on Red Medicine which contains another great song for running called "Bed for the Scraping."

I recommend against combining Fugazi and Yes because of the combination of prog-rock and innovative post-punk may create an unstable environment causing one to run faster and farther than one intended.

Inspiration on a New Year

First run of 2008: 8 miles in 8 inches of snow. It is a lot easier to track through fresh snow than to try to run in the tracks laid down by the cross country skiers.

The thought going through my head during the run was that the Boston Marathon doesn't get pushed back a day because of snowstorms. I guess it helps that I love snow and cold weather, so running in a snowstorm is kind of like a treat. A little slower going, but motivating.

The other day, during a run, I was thinking about what Dana Farber is and how in some small way, I am doing something good. To try and raise money to fight cancer by running a marathon makes me feel that for once in my life, I am doing something truly good. A good friend has a saying: "At the end of the game, the kings and the pawns get put back in the same box." This is not about being a person among persons, a king among kings. It is about taking the time we have and filling our role to the best of our abilities. When I don't feel like running, or I get anxious thinking "I am sending a fundraising letter to who?" I have to confront myself by asking, what did you do today that is going to make you strong on 4/21/08? How did you train today? and finally, why are you training? The last question is the important one.

Why am I training? Because Dana Farber's finish line is a world without cancer and at Boston, some finish lines just mean more!

Thanks. As always, please donate. (Don't worry, letters will be in the mail by 2/1/08)