I had a pretty intense 48 hours this weekend. Just a couple of thoughts about those days and the week to come.
1) Kale does work pretty well in a peanut butter/banana smoothie.
2) Mom recommended someone who should cut my hair, a woman at the Hair Cuttery in South Elgin. She did a good job. But damn, she talked my ear off. Newsflash, when I'm leaning back in the leather chair, my eyes closed, and you're applying Tea Tree conditioner and massaging it into my scalp, do me a favor. Shut up and let me relax!
3) Nick's Pizza in Elgin. Great people, very friendly, very subpar pizza. the bottom crust needs to be crisp! If I can smell garlic in my car when the pizza was only inside it for 20 minutes and the smell is pungent three days later, it's a problem!
4) I had never heard of the card game euchre. Apparently, it's a big deal in the midwest. And one of my new friends, Neil, was hosting a tournament at his house in Elk Grove Village. I had no plans to go, but I did arrive late, and it was a pretty good experience. There were a few of us who had no idea what we were doing, so we sat at a triangular table in the kitchen and played for the sake of learning. After about 30 minutes, it started to make a little sense. I'm not sure I'm ready to formulate strategies, but I can handle the fundamentals of the game.
5) Speaking of which, I may have met someone at that tournament who may turn out to be very memorable. Then again, I've been through this sort of thing before. I don't want to expect disappointment, but I feel I have to beware of it.
6) I ran 5.6 miles in 46 minutes, which is about an 8:15 per mile pace. I've run six miles once or twice before but not at that fast of a pace. I hope I can maintain it for Sunday. Or maybe do even better.
7) Two amazing wins by the Rangers over Columbus and the Devils on Friday and Saturday. Bring on the playoffs! They really need to finish in the top 3 in the Metro Division to do some damage. If they finish with one of the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference, they will play either Boston or Pittsburgh in the first round and they cannot afford to play either of those two teams.
8) Tableside guacamole: needs to be more widespread. It's so amazing!
9) I cannot wait for 50 degrees and up to arrive.
10) Five days till the Mets open the 2014 baseball season! Stay true to the orange and blue!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
5 days till the 8k
So on Sunday, March 30, I will run my first 8k (5 mile) race. I'll be participating in the Shamrock Shuffle in downtown Chicago, probably the biggest 8k in the country. I honestly don't enjoy running; it takes a toll on my arched feet when I go more than a couple of miles. Typically, I used to run three miles when I would push myself hard. But I have pushed myself incredibly hard on the treadmill over the last five weeks. Maybe I should have ran outside? OK, when the temperature hits 50 degrees, then I'll consider it.
Here's the list of runs I have done in the last two months.
1/27 3.50 miles in 28:00
1/30 5.0 miles in 43:00
2/8 5.0 miles in 42:00
2/12 5.02 miles in 41:00
2/18 5.05 miles in 41:30
2/23 5.0 miles in 40:00
2/25 5.0 miles in 40:00
2/28 5.02 miles in 39:55
3/4 5.20 miles in 41:00
3/8 5.05 miles in 39:45
3/10 3.50 miles in 26:32
3/13 3.51 miles in 26:45
3/15 2.0 miles in 16:00
3/17 4.5 miles in 34:00
3/19 5.0 miles in 39:45
3/21 3.0 miles in 23:00
3/23 5.6 miles in 46:15
3/25 3.0 miles in 23:00
Going back to January, I have cut more than three minutes off my five miles running time. So I'm feeling pretty proud about that. As for Sunday, I don't know how the elements are going to affect my speed and endurance. Thankfully, there aren't hills to deal with and weather is supposed to be nice maybe 50 and sunny. I would be thrilled if I could finish in under 40 minutes, or under 8 minutes a mile. I definitely want to finish in less that 45 minutes though.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
MLB Predictions
Almost time for baseball to start. Here's what I imagine happening.
As far as the Mets...if Matt Harvey was healthy and had a real SS, I'd pick them for 84 wins or so. Right, now I'd say a record of 76-86.
American League
East
y-Boston
w-NY Yankees
Tampa Bay
Baltimore
Toronto
Central
y-Detroit
w-Cleveland
Kansas City
Chicago
Minnesota
West
y-Anaheim
Texas
Oakland
Seattle
Houston
National League
East
y-Washington
x-Atlanta
NY Mets
Philadelphia
Miami
Central
y-St. Louis
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Chicago
Milwaukee
West
y-Los Angeles
x-Arizona
Colorado
San Francisco
San Diego
ALCS
Detroit over Boston
NLCS
Los Angeles over Washington
World Series
Los Angeles over Detroit
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Quite the Saturday
I think I'm finally recovered from last Saturday and as I type this, we're on Thursday. I woke up at 6:30 am and spent three hours working on my 5 page paper for grad school. I wrote about the contingency theory of leadership and how it applies in a global setting. I'm sure that makes for thrilling dinner conversation. I included topics such as the expansion of the Willow Creek Church Global Leadership Summit and the international growth of the National Football League. Don't know my grade yet, but I hope it turns out well.
I left around 11:30 for the gym and ran 5 miles in around 39:30. My speed is picking up. But I still haven't ran outside yet. Sorry, but I have no plans to start running outside until we hit 50 degrees. I hung in the sauna for maybe 20 minutes and headed home. I made a new shake with peanut butter, banana, and kale. It could have fooled me, I could hardly taste anything in that drink except the kale. I know it's super healthy, but my goodness, kale is not one of the best tasting foods I've ever had.
I took off around 2 pm and drove 45 minutes to Cumberland. I took the blue line to Clark/Lake and transferred over to the brown line. Little did I know what an adventure that would be. I only had to go four stops north to Armitage. Unfortunately, the tracks were being worked on so I wound up waiting 16 minutes in 35 degree weather. I found myself staring at the monitor, just waiting for that countdown to say "Train Due." Finally it came. I noticed we were moving very slowly, maybe a couple of miles per hour. After we reached the third station, the train suddenly stopped. The conductor said we had to go back south so another train could pass. That only held us up a couple of minutes, but I started thinking I should have just walked from Clark/Lake to Armitage!
But we got to Armitage and I went to Burger and the Butcher, voted the manliest burger place in the country by Maxim magazine. I was intrigued because they have eight burger options (Grass fed beef, pork, turkey, shrimp, salmon, etc.) as well as nine house made spice rubs (Chicago steak, coconut-curry, Sonora desert chili, cajun, etc). I ordered a grass fed burger with fries and a Mexican Coke. Gotta love any place that serves Coke with real sugar in it. The Kennebec fries were fresh cut and very thick. They tasted crispy and tender, just as fried should be. Since I'm not a ketchup fan, I would have liked a few more sauce options. I also god one of their homemade garlic dill pickles. Little did I expect to get a carving board four huge spears. They were a little sour, but incredibly crisp and flavorful. The taste of the burger was quite good. One problem: I asked for it to be cooked medium and the inside was definitely not cooked through. For $20, that was pretty disappointing.
From there, I walked around 1.5 miles to the Squared Circle. I ordered a 5 Rabbit beer and waited to take the party bus from downtown to Chicago Ridge, where Ring of Honor was running that night. I also met Nick and Matt Jackson, the Young Bucks, who were riding the bus with us before fighting Red Dragon for the ROH tag team titles. The 20 or so of us on the bus all got special t-shorts for the occasion. On the 45 minute ride, we watched Night of Hoopla, one of the craziest but most fun ROH shows ever.
At the autograph signing before the show, I met Chris Hero as well as Red Dragon, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish. I got autographed pictures and took pictures with them, which was very cool. The show itself was very good. The Bucks won the tag team titles in what was definitely the best match of the night. I did not expect them to win, so it was a cool surprise. Kevin Steen vs Cedric Alexander was a really good match too. Adam Cole vs. Chris Hero for the world title was good, but it never hit that extra gear that I think we all wanted it to hit.
The show ended at 11. We waited rather impatiently for the bus to pick us up and take us back downtown. Unfortunately, the driver thought the show was ending at midnight. So he came back 45 minutes late. We picked up some PBR for the bus and I drank my first one on the ride back. It wasn't horrible, but I don't think I would buy one for myself. I met up with Q, Mangold, and Jerome at the Squared Circle and I settled in. I hadn't eaten since the burger, so despite it being 12:30 am, I ordered a slobberknocker pizza which has fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and JR's hot BBQ sauce. And maybe a couple of carbs to boot. It was awesome!
Q drove me the Logan Square station and I took the subway 30 minutes back to Cumberland. After 45 more minutes of driving, I settled in bed at 3 am. Except that it wasn't really 3 a.m. Since DST was taking effect that night, I really wasn't asleep until 4 a.m. Somehow I slept till 10 a.m. and I'm glad I had the option to go to church at 11:15 on Sunday morning.
I left around 11:30 for the gym and ran 5 miles in around 39:30. My speed is picking up. But I still haven't ran outside yet. Sorry, but I have no plans to start running outside until we hit 50 degrees. I hung in the sauna for maybe 20 minutes and headed home. I made a new shake with peanut butter, banana, and kale. It could have fooled me, I could hardly taste anything in that drink except the kale. I know it's super healthy, but my goodness, kale is not one of the best tasting foods I've ever had.
I took off around 2 pm and drove 45 minutes to Cumberland. I took the blue line to Clark/Lake and transferred over to the brown line. Little did I know what an adventure that would be. I only had to go four stops north to Armitage. Unfortunately, the tracks were being worked on so I wound up waiting 16 minutes in 35 degree weather. I found myself staring at the monitor, just waiting for that countdown to say "Train Due." Finally it came. I noticed we were moving very slowly, maybe a couple of miles per hour. After we reached the third station, the train suddenly stopped. The conductor said we had to go back south so another train could pass. That only held us up a couple of minutes, but I started thinking I should have just walked from Clark/Lake to Armitage!
But we got to Armitage and I went to Burger and the Butcher, voted the manliest burger place in the country by Maxim magazine. I was intrigued because they have eight burger options (Grass fed beef, pork, turkey, shrimp, salmon, etc.) as well as nine house made spice rubs (Chicago steak, coconut-curry, Sonora desert chili, cajun, etc). I ordered a grass fed burger with fries and a Mexican Coke. Gotta love any place that serves Coke with real sugar in it. The Kennebec fries were fresh cut and very thick. They tasted crispy and tender, just as fried should be. Since I'm not a ketchup fan, I would have liked a few more sauce options. I also god one of their homemade garlic dill pickles. Little did I expect to get a carving board four huge spears. They were a little sour, but incredibly crisp and flavorful. The taste of the burger was quite good. One problem: I asked for it to be cooked medium and the inside was definitely not cooked through. For $20, that was pretty disappointing.
From there, I walked around 1.5 miles to the Squared Circle. I ordered a 5 Rabbit beer and waited to take the party bus from downtown to Chicago Ridge, where Ring of Honor was running that night. I also met Nick and Matt Jackson, the Young Bucks, who were riding the bus with us before fighting Red Dragon for the ROH tag team titles. The 20 or so of us on the bus all got special t-shorts for the occasion. On the 45 minute ride, we watched Night of Hoopla, one of the craziest but most fun ROH shows ever.
At the autograph signing before the show, I met Chris Hero as well as Red Dragon, Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish. I got autographed pictures and took pictures with them, which was very cool. The show itself was very good. The Bucks won the tag team titles in what was definitely the best match of the night. I did not expect them to win, so it was a cool surprise. Kevin Steen vs Cedric Alexander was a really good match too. Adam Cole vs. Chris Hero for the world title was good, but it never hit that extra gear that I think we all wanted it to hit.
The show ended at 11. We waited rather impatiently for the bus to pick us up and take us back downtown. Unfortunately, the driver thought the show was ending at midnight. So he came back 45 minutes late. We picked up some PBR for the bus and I drank my first one on the ride back. It wasn't horrible, but I don't think I would buy one for myself. I met up with Q, Mangold, and Jerome at the Squared Circle and I settled in. I hadn't eaten since the burger, so despite it being 12:30 am, I ordered a slobberknocker pizza which has fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and JR's hot BBQ sauce. And maybe a couple of carbs to boot. It was awesome!
Q drove me the Logan Square station and I took the subway 30 minutes back to Cumberland. After 45 more minutes of driving, I settled in bed at 3 am. Except that it wasn't really 3 a.m. Since DST was taking effect that night, I really wasn't asleep until 4 a.m. Somehow I slept till 10 a.m. and I'm glad I had the option to go to church at 11:15 on Sunday morning.
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