Gulden's and GU

These are really the opposite of each other: One has essentially no nutritional value, but just adds flavor. The other has flavor, sure, but the purpose of the product is to efficiently get easy to use calories into your system.

I tried GU for the first time while about 2/3's of the way through the Boston Marathon. I nearly gagged on it, but in fairness, I would have found it hard to stomach anything at that point. By pure coincidence I came into possession of the scanned GU (the same flavor as I had in the marathon) as part of a goodie bag given to participants of the Groton Road Race.

I'm not sure what value the GU is--I tried it because...well, it was there and free. It only has 100 calories and I burn around 800/hour while racing, so I don't see how it could have much impact. Even if you could choke one down every 30 minutes that would only provide 1/4 of the calories being used.

I put in the Gulden's mustard packet for scale and because I love their graphic design.

Some trainings this week

home 6.5----6.47----56:50:00----8:47:03----20-May-09

Bedford Neighborhood----4.15----32:32:00----7:50:22----21-May-09

Affy loop----5.2----39:53:00----7:40:12----22-May-09

Also, ran Mon and Tue but didn't keep track of the time or distance Monday or the time on Tue. Did run with a serious and fast runner on Tue, but he is getting back into the sport and is temporarily slower than he will get very soon. I will run with him while I can--he is 13 years younger than me and much more talented to boot.

Historical note:

The U.S. Senate had approved the the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution by a vote of 52 to 47 on Jan. 12, 1991 (the majority including 42 Republicans and 10 mostly Southern Democrats). The House of Representatives approved the measure 250 to 183, with 164 Republicans and 86 Democrats in favor of the use of force, 179 Democrats, 3 Republicans and 1 independent opposed.

Neither house would have passed the authorization without some Democratic support since they had majorities in both houses. If they had been as monolithically against it as the Republicans were for it--Bush would have invaded anyway and there were not enough votes in the Senate to sustain an impeachment.

Slow Cooking a Chuck Roast in the oven

1. Take the roast out of the fridge and place it onto an open roasting pan with a rack in it.

2. Preheat the oven to 500F

3. Make a rub out of Olive oil, crushed garlic, black pepper, herbs and a dash of prepared mustard. Rub the entire surface of the meat with this rub.

4. When the oven reaches temperature, reset it to 170F (or lower if it goes lower) and put the meat into the oven.

5. In an hour, turn the meat over and insert a temperature probe.

6. When the meat has reached 5 degrees less than what you want (I want medium rare, FWIW) Remove from oven. Cover with foil and then a cloth towel as an insulator.

Nice article on running in the WSJ

Running for Lean Times It's no accident that jogging took off in the 1970s..

What they don't point out is that most of the people taking up running now are the same ones who took it up back in the 1970's! Take a look at the race results from any local road race: The largest and toughest bracket is the 40- year olds. Even my time this year would have placed me 3rd in the under 19 bracket, while I came in 18th in my own 40- group. Just for perspective on how competitive running was when I was a kid: I was a middle of the pack B-squad cross-country and track runner. But when I was 18 I ran fast enough to have come in first in this years race in both the under 19 age bracket as well as the under 29 bracket.

The running rage in the 1970's attracted young people. If there is a resurgence, it doesn't seem to have worked its way down to the young yet. If it had, the young runners would be far more competitive. Here are the third place results for The Groton Road Race this year.

FIN10K - MALE AGE GROUP: 19 - UNDER

3 ANDREW RILEY 142 16 PEPPERELL MA 46:27

FIN10K - MALE AGE GROUP: 20 - 29

3 THOMAS WOLEJKO 68 27 ALLSTON MA 45:24

FIN10K - MALE AGE GROUP: 30 - 39

3 STEVE LEVANDOSKY 465 38 HOPKINTON MA 39:33

FIN10K - MALE AGE GROUP: 40 - 49

3 LIAM SKINNER 485 42 LOWELL MA 38:50

It is bizzaro world! The 40's are faster than the 30's who are faster than the 20's. Even I came within 21 seconds of the 27 year old third place finisher.

Added: Why the third place finisher instead of first? I am trying to show depth of talent for each group. Another way of putting it is that there were only 10 guys under 20, 27 in their 20's, 68 in their 30's and 102 guys in their 40's.

Turkey