244 Flippin’ Times 15

1) As I headed out this morning to run I had to make a game-time decision to not run my usual 20-miler.  This made me a sad panda.  Instead I bumbled to the pool and ended up doing 6,100 yards continuously  This resulted in 244 flip turns.  243 of which were completed with some degree of success.  One resulted in surfacing directly into/under the lane line, which was less than elegant.  I enjoy long-continuous swims, but I don’t know why given I don’t particularly enjoy indoor pool swimming.  This swim puts me at 17,600 yards for the week, which I’m happy panda about.  So…why was I swimming instead of running?

2) Well, that’d be because I can’t exactly walk.  My calves are incredibly sore. You know how you feel after a marathon where you waddle everywhere?  Well, that’s me.  So how’d that happen?

3) I had two track sessions on Thursday.  Yes.  Two.  One was a technique session with the coach, and the second was a regular session.  The first one is actually what left me so sore.  We changed a few things with my running stride – not significantly actually,  very minor.  But that resulted in using some portion of my calves that I apparently have not entertained previously.  And the second track workout probably didn’t help (but it was a blast – easy 800’s at 2:53 a pop – weeee!).  Everything is quite well on target for a 1:19 Half Marathon in three weeks.

Other random thoughts…

4) Yesterday at the pool there was in a dude in the lane next to me, clearly attempting to engage in silent lap racing.  Which is fine by me.  I’m always down for some fun, even if I am 3,000 yards into my set.  Nonetheless, he lost…repeatedly.  But the loss isn’t what counts.  What counts is he had his name written on the ass of his speedo.  There should be rules here – but essentially, if you are going to have your name written on your suit, you need to be fast.  As Ben Collins is.  And as this dude was not.  Oh, and he only swam about 10-12 laps and then went to the locker room.  Fail.

5) I cleaned my bike last night.  It was in the mid 60’s here yesterday, yet tomorrow it’s going to snow 5”.  Anyway, I spent over 90 minutes making it all pretty and shiny.  I even had it on it’s back.  Yeah…I’m wild like that!  By time my ride is done tomorrow it’ll be a mess again. :-/

6) I found a massive 3 lb bag of gummy bears at World Market yesterday.  It’s been awesome thus far.

7) Oh, I forgot – at the track technique session my coach said I need some “Active Release Therapy”.  Hmm…I can’t be the only one who’s mind wanders with that terminology.

8) This evening, the girl and I made cupcakes.  While all the previous cupcake photos on this blog have been from a place in Old Town Alexandria – these ones are MINE (and hers)!  Tonight begins my foray into cupcakes.  First I had to find cake flour, which turns out is more difficult to find that I anticipated.  Then I carefully followed a recipe from this book, and made the Black and White cupcakes.  My goal is to make one cupcake batch per week and eventually be able to create my own. Oh, and these ones came out awesome. Mmm…cuuuuppppcaaakkkkeees.

 

The girl also made a recipe from the book – Hazelnut Brown Butter with a Hazelnut Cream Cheese frosting, which came out equally as awesome!

She then gave the cupcake two nuts…

…before deciding that perhaps going up north a bit and giving it some additional assets.

Bye! :)

244 Flippin’ Times 0

1) As I headed out this morning to run I had to make a game-time decision to not run my usual 20-miler.  This made me a sad panda.  Instead I bumbled to the pool and ended up doing 6,100 yards continuously  This resulted in 244 flip turns.  243 of which were completed with some degree of success.  One resulted in surfacing directly into/under the lane line, which was less than elegant.  I enjoy long-continuous swims, but I don’t know why given I don’t particularly enjoy indoor pool swimming.  This swim puts me at 17,600 yards for the week, which I’m happy panda about.  So…why was I swimming instead of running?

2) Well, that’d be because I can’t exactly walk.  My calves are incredibly sore. You know how you feel after a marathon where you waddle everywhere?  Well, that’s me.  So how’d that happen?

3) I had two track sessions on Thursday.  Yes.  Two.  One was a technique session with the coach, and the second was a regular session.  The first one is actually what left me so sore.  We changed a few things with my running stride – not significantly actually,  very minor.  But that resulted in using some portion of my calves that I apparently have not entertained previously.  And the second track workout probably didn’t help (but it was a blast – easy 800’s at 2:53 a pop – weeee!).  Everything is quite well on target for a 1:19 Half Marathon in three weeks.

Other random thoughts…

4) Yesterday at the pool there was in a dude in the lane next to me, clearly attempting to engage in silent lap racing.  Which is fine by me.  I’m always down for some fun, even if I am 3,000 yards into my set.  Nonetheless, he lost…repeatedly.  But the loss isn’t what counts.  What counts is he had his name written on the ass of his speedo.  There should be rules here – but essentially, if you are going to have your name written on your suit, you need to be fast.  As Ben Collins is.  And as this dude was not.  Oh, and he only swam about 10-12 laps and then went to the locker room.  Fail.

5) I cleaned my bike last night.  It was in the mid 60’s here yesterday, yet tomorrow it’s going to snow 5”.  Anyway, I spent over 90 minutes making it all pretty and shiny.  I even had it on it’s back.  Yeah…I’m wild like that!  By time my ride is done tomorrow it’ll be a mess again. :-/

6) I found a massive 3 lb bag of gummy bears at World Market yesterday.  It’s been awesome thus far.

7) Oh, I forgot – at the track technique session my coach said I need some “Active Release Therapy”.  Hmm…I can’t be the only one who’s mind wanders with that terminology.

8) This evening, the girl and I made cupcakes.  While all the previous cupcake photos on this blog have been from a place in Old Town Alexandria – these ones are MINE (and hers)!  Tonight begins my foray into cupcakes.  First I had to find cake flour, which turns out is more difficult to find that I anticipated.  Then I carefully followed a recipe from this book, and made the Black and White cupcakes.  My goal is to make one cupcake batch per week and eventually be able to create my own. Oh, and these ones came out awesome. Mmm…cuuuuppppcaaakkkkeees.

 

The girl also made a recipe from the book – Hazelnut Brown Butter with a Hazelnut Cream Cheese frosting, which came out equally as awesome!

She then gave the cupcake two nuts…

…before deciding that perhaps going up north a bit and giving it some additional assets.

Bye! :)

Review of Tech4O Trail Leader2 Sports Watch 6

Back in late December I was contacted to review a new sports watch that’s out - the Tech4O TrailLeader 2 Sports Watch. A couple days later it arrived on my doorstep – just in time for my various end of year trips, as well giving it an opportunity to test it out in various climates.

Unlike many of the GPS based watches out there today, this one is quite a bit more affordable (less than $100, with others in the series cheaper) and designed for a wide spectrum of uses. It also doesn’t require a computer. Though the watch is has a ton of features in it the major functionality pieces relevant to me are:

• Ability to track pace and direction (compass)
• Shows distance travelled
• Shows current altitude/elevation
• Stopwatch/timer functionality
• Temperature

With that, I unpacked the little box and found the watch inside. It’s rather reasonable and fairly normal in in size in comparison to my 305 GPS watch. It could pass for a normal watch if people weren’t paying close attention.

My first test for the watch would be to take it to Whistler for a weekend of skiing and running. While skiing it did quite well in showing my current altitude. In theory it can track total elevation gain for the day – but in practice I forgot to bring the manual with me onto the chairlift to remember how to do it. Anyway, I eventually figured it out – see below for the example of how it looks.

Next up was a running test that evening. I put the watch on side by side with my Garmin watch and went off for a nice run (in the ice and snow with my Yaktrax).

I was fairly impressed with how exact it was compared to the Garmin while outside. They were within 1/100ths of a mile the whole time – regardless of if I sped up or slowed down pace, nor the fact that I was running in Yaktax. Conventional footpod based systems would likely have been all dorked up due to the new stride – but since this uses an internal accelerometer it seems to do a much better job at tracking my pace that foot pod only systems (non-GPS).

The only problemo though was that it was less than 10*F outside. Which meant that the watch was a little unhappy and kinda slow. Sorta like being in slow motion. Of course, I rarely run in weather this cold – so I don’t see it as a major blocker.

Oh – how did I know it was 10*F out? Well, the watch told me! Most watches don’t do that! You can see the temp in the above photo, except, it was switching displays when I took the photo, so it kinda blended together.

One item to note is that the watch uses barometric altitude instead of GPS based altitude. Barometric altitude is much more accurate than GPS based altitude in virtually all consumer-level applications (obviously military and aviation-spec is different). It appears to be a feature on a number of their watches.

On regular non-cold runs I’ve found it also works really well – always keeping pace with my GPS watch. And the buttons are pretty easy to press – such as start/stop. However, I have found the menu system does take a bit of getting used to – like all watches I suppose.

I did give it a short on the treadmill last night, and it actually works! Which, upon further reflection is logical. Given it is measuring inertia with your arm, it wouldn’t really matter if your inside or out. I found it accurate within 4/100th’s of a mile.

Lastly, size-wise it’s a bit smaller than some GPS based watches I have lying around. Of course, this is logical given it has a much smaller feature set than some GPS watches. For example – you can’t download it to your computer, nor do you have any charging functionality (although, not having to charge is kinda nice).

For size comparison here’s a lineup:

(Left to right: Nike Wristwatch, Trailleader2 Sports Watch, Garmin 405 GPS watch, Garmin 305 GPS watch)

Overall, I think it’s a great watch for hiking or other outdoor activities, or for a new runner or walker not interested in GPS. They have a full lineup of similar watches with different functionality, so you can find something that fits you best. Here’s a quick list of Pro’s and Con’s:

Pro’s:

• Significantly cheaper than most sports watches
• Very accurate, equivalent to my GPS watches for distance
• Small and lightweight
• No charging/recharging – works like a regular watch
• Cool features like temperature to find out just how darn cold it is outside
• Uses barometric altitude instead of GPS based – much more accurate
• Ideal for runners just starting out, or those more casual about their logging

Con’s:

• Menu system can be a bit confusing at first
• Watch did have some problems with the cold, that would be an issue in very cold environments
• Doesn’t have anywhere near the features of the Garmin 305/405 or other GPS based watches – unlikely to appeal to data-geeks who log everything (not that I’m guilty of that or anything)
• Can’t download the workouts to your computer

Hope this helps folks out there looking at the two. As always, if you have any questions – feel free to ping me via either the comments here or e-mail on the sidebar and I’ll try and respond within about 24 hours.

Review of Tech4O Trail Leader2 Sports Watch 0

Back in late December I was contacted to review a new sports watch that’s out - the Tech4O TrailLeader 2 Sports Watch. A couple days later it arrived on my doorstep – just in time for my various end of year trips, as well giving it an opportunity to test it out in various climates.

Unlike many of the GPS based watches out there today, this one is quite a bit more affordable (less than $100, with others in the series cheaper) and designed for a wide spectrum of uses. It also doesn’t require a computer. Though the watch is has a ton of features in it the major functionality pieces relevant to me are:

• Ability to track pace and direction (compass)
• Shows distance travelled
• Shows current altitude/elevation
• Stopwatch/timer functionality
• Temperature

With that, I unpacked the little box and found the watch inside. It’s rather reasonable and fairly normal in in size in comparison to my 305 GPS watch. It could pass for a normal watch if people weren’t paying close attention.

My first test for the watch would be to take it to Whistler for a weekend of skiing and running. While skiing it did quite well in showing my current altitude. In theory it can track total elevation gain for the day – but in practice I forgot to bring the manual with me onto the chairlift to remember how to do it. Anyway, I eventually figured it out – see below for the example of how it looks.

Next up was a running test that evening. I put the watch on side by side with my Garmin watch and went off for a nice run (in the ice and snow with my Yaktrax).

I was fairly impressed with how exact it was compared to the Garmin while outside. They were within 1/100ths of a mile the whole time – regardless of if I sped up or slowed down pace, nor the fact that I was running in Yaktax. Conventional footpod based systems would likely have been all dorked up due to the new stride – but since this uses an internal accelerometer it seems to do a much better job at tracking my pace that foot pod only systems (non-GPS).

The only problemo though was that it was less than 10*F outside. Which meant that the watch was a little unhappy and kinda slow. Sorta like being in slow motion. Of course, I rarely run in weather this cold – so I don’t see it as a major blocker.

Oh – how did I know it was 10*F out? Well, the watch told me! Most watches don’t do that! You can see the temp in the above photo, except, it was switching displays when I took the photo, so it kinda blended together.

One item to note is that the watch uses barometric altitude instead of GPS based altitude. Barometric altitude is much more accurate than GPS based altitude in virtually all consumer-level applications (obviously military and aviation-spec is different). It appears to be a feature on a number of their watches.

On regular non-cold runs I’ve found it also works really well – always keeping pace with my GPS watch. And the buttons are pretty easy to press – such as start/stop. However, I have found the menu system does take a bit of getting used to – like all watches I suppose.

I did give it a short on the treadmill last night, and it actually works! Which, upon further reflection is logical. Given it is measuring inertia with your arm, it wouldn’t really matter if your inside or out. I found it accurate within 4/100th’s of a mile.

Lastly, size-wise it’s a bit smaller than some GPS based watches I have lying around. Of course, this is logical given it has a much smaller feature set than some GPS watches. For example – you can’t download it to your computer, nor do you have any charging functionality (although, not having to charge is kinda nice).

For size comparison here’s a lineup:

(Left to right: Nike Wristwatch, Trailleader2 Sports Watch, Garmin 405 GPS watch, Garmin 305 GPS watch)

Overall, I think it’s a great watch for hiking or other outdoor activities, or for a new runner or walker not interested in GPS. They have a full lineup of similar watches with different functionality, so you can find something that fits you best. Here’s a quick list of Pro’s and Con’s:

Pro’s:

• Significantly cheaper than most sports watches
• Very accurate, equivalent to my GPS watches for distance
• Small and lightweight
• No charging/recharging – works like a regular watch
• Cool features like temperature to find out just how darn cold it is outside
• Uses barometric altitude instead of GPS based – much more accurate
• Ideal for runners just starting out, or those more casual about their logging

Con’s:

• Menu system can be a bit confusing at first
• Watch did have some problems with the cold, that would be an issue in very cold environments
• Doesn’t have anywhere near the features of the Garmin 305/405 or other GPS based watches – unlikely to appeal to data-geeks who log everything (not that I’m guilty of that or anything)
• Can’t download the workouts to your computer

Hope this helps folks out there looking at the two. As always, if you have any questions – feel free to ping me via either the comments here or e-mail on the sidebar and I’ll try and respond within about 24 hours.

Jumping into the deep end 13

The last few days have been a nice change of pace as I’ve got a recovery week which started this past Saturday through Friday.

(The Pacers Running group getting ready to head out pre-run)

This change of pace gave me a chance to enjoy a short 80 minute three-territory slow-build tempo run on Saturday from Roosevelt Island (Virginia) over into Georgetown (DC) and then up the Capitol Crescent Trail (Maryland).  We made good time and had a blast coming back down into DC.  I love it when my long tempo-ish runs are short like this (compared to the usual 20 milers).

As we finished we ended up on a small pedestrian bridge over a portion of the Potomac River.  We were both tired and warm (despite the temp being 26*) and my running pal turned to me and said:

“Wouldn’t it be nice to jump in?”

I pondered for a second.

I looked at the ice on the banks of the river and pondered for another second before responding.

“No…no…not at all, thanks though”

Following a post-run core and weight room workout I swung briefly by a new Rec Center that opened up in Old Town Alexandria on Saturday.  It has a pool, so I was trying to find out when it might open (the pool is outdoors) as well as the length.

Best of all – the Rec Center is actually free.  Four nice new treadmills and weight equipment, as well as a gym and the pool.   All free to city residents. It appears the pool has two designated 25y lap lanes.  But I’ve got an e-mail into some city folks to find out the deal (the people at the Rec Center didn’t know since the pool wasn’t opened yet).

Anyway, moving on.

I did my usual post-run spin and went to check out a new trail extension they are building a few hundred yards from my house.  I’m pretty excited about this.  It’ll be along the river and extend the trail about half a mile connecting to the remainder of the trail that goes a few more miles.  Functionally speaking it’s duplicate with the trail across the street, but it basically keeps you from having to cross the street.

Sunday…

Rumor was that Sunday actually started with snow in the morning.  But given I was comfortably in bed until quite a bit later, I wouldn’t know anything about that.

But I do know is that by time 2-3PM came along, it was in the mid-30’s and sunny with no sign of wetness on the roads.  So we headed down to Prince William Forest Park for a incredibly nice looping and hilly ride.  Given there was only a handful of people in the entire 15,000 acre park (perhaps 7-8 peeps), it was great to just enjoy the quiet outdoors via bike.  And the deer only nearly trampled me once while I was riding…it was their way of reminding me who’s boss.

After the ride we did an ultra-fast transition to formal wear and headed downtown for a really nice dinner at Il Mulino.  It was the last official night of DC’s restaurant week (three course meal for $35.09), and we decided to hit up this otherwise rather expensive location.  The food was very good, I’d highly recommend it.

Also – a ton of places have extended the $35.09 deal through the end of the month (including Il Mulino and the place I went last week Farrah by Olivia).  Here’s the full list.  Note that the ‘general concept’ with restaurant week is to eat at places that you otherwise might not pay for.  Meaning…sort the Opentable list by price ;).

Since I didn’t take any pictures during dinner (maybe I will on Wednesday when we go out again for $35.09), I did take a picture of some BBQ Chicken Breasts I made inside over the weekend.  So I’ll leave you with a photo of that instead…