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

Context...

Our road has been freshly paved and is now wonderfully smooth. In honor of this, I decided to take a ride on it and check-out how the neighbor boy is doing with his lemonaide stand.

On the way back, I ran into my wife taking the dog for a walk and asked her if she had any money. No. "Okay, I'll get some at home and meet you at the stand". When I got back, on foot, I paid for her drink and ordered one for myself.

After the drinks we set-off on the walk and began to chat.

Wife: I talked to the gardening lady on the way down to the lemonaide stand..."

Me: What did she have to say?

Wife: She asked me if I knew you.

Me: I'm sure she has seen me with you and the kids walking them down to the bus stop.

Wife: Well, you know how it is when you see someone out of context.

Me: Yeah, I guess she has never seen me riding a unicycle before. So what did you tell her? Oh, that's my husband--the idiot?

How come the liar gets a pass?

President Obama was asked his view on gay marriage during the presidential race said that as a Christian, he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman.

I think he got away with this because everybody got something out of it: Conservatives figured he was lying, but he was agreeing with them so that was fine. Liberals figured he was lying, but it wasn't a problem because he is really on their side.

Miss California was asked the same question and gave the same answer the President gave. And incidentally, gave the same answer as Californians when they voted on it last Fall. There was a failed attempt to strip her of her crown and she underwent a huge amount of criticism.

Why?

Because everybody thinks that her answer is her actual view!

The deceptive guy, okay. The honest gal, not okay. It is an upside down world we live in.

A good illustration

HT NRO

"... the buff older gentleman puffing his way up one of the more strenuous climbs in New England?" There are no strenuous climbs in New England. Only a sissy would think so. Although, I suppose what you make of the terrain counts: Taking all day to hike up Mt. Washington, not strenuous. Running up Mt. Washington, strenuous. I regularly see stickers on the back of cars around here bragging about having driven up Mt. Washington. Pride in very small accomplishments is more common than it ought to be. IMHO

Wednesday Run

This took 1:47:24--8:11/Mile

Three, or more, beautiful things about the below run...

The weather: It was breezy, but in the low 60's and sunny--really quite perfect other than the dust that got kicked-up and stuck to my sweat-dampened person. The grit in my eyes reminding me that perfection does not occur in this life.

Honey for sale: On the Old North Road, someone had set-up a stand selling honey from their hives. It gave a pleasant reminder of when I raised bees and a reminder to drive-by sometime to buy some. Also, it was nice to see an honor-based outlet. Trust still exists.

A loud motorcycle buzzed past on Rt. 225 and I did not mind the noise because it was compensated for by the wonderful view of speed and acceleration as the rider flouted the posted limits. Just after the bike passed, a large branch fell from above and crashed to the road about 2 feet in front of me. It wasn't large enough to have killed me, but would have caused much pain had it hit my head. I wondered for a second if the vibrations of the loud motorcycle caused the branch to fall. I think it was the breeze and that the passing of the bike was a coincidence.

I decided along the way to extend my run from around 8 miles to around 12. I didn't feel good at the time the decision was made (around 6 miles in), but I was glad I did: I felt much better in the final 4 miles and ran with a feeling of strength. The overall time was not great, but I think the tail end of the run improved things and that is usually where I am weakest.

Sunday Run

I'm not sure that I trust the distance given by the above map, but if true then the pace was a little dismaying. 1:39:42 for about 8:10 per mile. I felt faster than that.

Happy Mother's Day!

Saturday Break

With the help of my 12-year old daughter, I changed my front brakes this morning.

Breaks are a job I dread: You've got to jack the car up. The pads are usually rusted into the shoes. Brake fluid gets everywhere. If you do it wrong, you crash, etc.

Surenna helped by pushing on the brake pedal while I bled the lines. Now that she knows she can reach the controls, she is very interested in learning to drive. For the sake of my clutch, perhaps I will wait a bit.

The Drill SGT said... Can somebody explain how polar bear became a distinct species in the last 500 years or so? DBQ has it right. It is a little known fact that polar bears and grizzly bears can still interbreed. Which in a technical sense, means that they are not a truly distinct species.

A day off of this-and-that...

It was raining, so I saved changing the brakes on my car for another day--probably this weekend. They fade and pulsate, but they will probably stop the car for another two days.

Instead, I did some work on the addition: I rubbed-off bits of cement residue from the glass-block wall with steel wool and a small spatula. Then did some final sanding on the plaster prior to putting a primer coat of paint on it.

Went for a run--see the below post. I've made this run a few times, but finally mapped it into "Map my run", so now I know how far it is.

After a nice long shower, I set to work on dinner for the family: Chicken Cacciatore. It is pretty straight forward. I just make my regular red-sauce and then brown some chicken, add the sauce, cover and simmer for a while. My wife had gotten a deal on some skinless, boneless thighs--which is perfect for this dish, though I would love to try it with rabbit sometime...

Today's run

74:23, so about 7:51 per mile.

Faun Lake.....5.5.....42:20.....7:42/mile....5/8/09

An International Sandwich

I only realized it after it was made and partially consumed: My sandwich was from a lot of countries.

I started with a French bread sub roll, which I toasted the inside of.

Then I covered the inside with a couple slices of American cheese.

I microwaved some leftover Indian tandoori chicken and put that in.

I added some Italian chopped hot peppers.

Finally, I topped it with some Greek yogurt.

It was very unusual tasting and very good.

I "couldn't" take a picture of the sandwich because even though the camera was literally within reach, I was too hungry to wait. So here is a cute puppy picture instead.

Saturday Run

I took about 85 minutes, so the pace was a pathetic 8:23/mile or so.

The party is at Noon so I had to go early in the morning and I am not really a morning person when it comes to running.