CafeChatNoir

Because what else do you do on America’s birthday but go run a 5k?  Hauled myself out of bed this morning and headed up to Potomac for what has become my favorite July 4th activity.  Below are all the gory details, pulled straight from my race report over at BT.  Hope you get a laugh out of it.

Total Time = 40m 38s
Overall Rank = 1081/1247
Age Group = F 35-39
Age Group Rank = 61/72
Lap Paces:
1 – 12:26
2 – 12:25
3 – 14:27
.1- 10:49

Pre-race routine:

Got up, got dressed, drove there. Stopped for a latte. :) Coming off bashed foot and weekend plague, happy to be conscious.

Event warmup:

Just under 2 weeks ago, bashed the daylights out of my left foot. Much to my delight, the pain disappeared on Thursday. Just in time for me to be sick for the rest of the weekend.

Got my number, went back to the car to change into my running shoes, put on left shoe and….Owww. Why does that hurt? It shouldn’t hurt. IT WAS FINE THIS MORNING. Gingerly walked over to the warmup area and did a couple test jogs – apparently when I run I don’t push off with my two outer left toes, so all was well. Or I was favoring it and would end up with a twisted knee and a torqued hip, but whatever.

Passed on the group warmup being lead by a very enthusiastic gentleman and couldn’t help but look around and think, “You know, a bloody mary bar would be a perfect addition to this race…”

Had a bit of a sinking feeling at the race start as it was so humid that I was sweating even though we weren’t even moving yet.

Run Comments:

Given the circumstances, I had set my run/walk intervals at 1:30/2:30. Enough walking to deal with the fact that I’ve been out of the saddle for a while and enough running to keep me from being my usual idiot self and pushing too hard and blowing up. Plan your race, race your plan.

1st mile went very well. Stuck to the intervals with no problems, felt great when we hit the mile marker and listened to the voice in my head screaming “RACE YOUR PLAN!” as I went into mile 2.

Mile 2 went just as well, but I could feel myself getting heated up. The temps were coming up, the humidity didn’t seem to be going down and there was no breeze. The water station isn’t until just before the end of the second mile – a little too late for me. Not because I was thirsty – but because I was just too hot. Two cups, two sips and the rest went over my head and down my shirt. Un-sexiest wet t-shirt contest ever. Between this and the snot rockets, if there isn’t a rash of Missed Connections for #483, I am giving up on men in this town once and for all.

3rd mile was where the wheels came off. Overheated AND the sun came out! When the run intervals came around, just concentrated on short strides and quick turnover and thanked the heavens for the walk intervals. Really wished more people had put out sprinklers. Took my time going through the two that were on in that last mile.

Finally hit the turn to go to the finish. Love that turn. Nice and flat and then downhill. Somehow managed to pick up the pace in the last run interval – I think it’s easier when you know you can just fall over at the end.

What would you do differently?:

Not bashed my foot or been sick so I could have gotten some training in over the past 2 weeks. If I could have made the humidity lower, I would have done that, too.

Warm down:

My usual at this race – get bottle of water and dump ice down my shirt.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Coming off being sick, the humidity, and oh, yes, the fact that I am utterly out of shape.

and in an apparently brilliant attempt to recover, pulled into a tree.  I can only assume that he was driving in the fog with his brights on.  (It would seem this will in fact make me crash my car someday.)

The aerial shots of the “crash scene” are so very telling.  The story they tell is, “Tiger has a nice house.”

He’s already been released from the hospital, so he’s not dead.  The police have said alcohol was not a factor, so no scandal.

I can see where this would mention a 60 second spot in the sports report on the evening news.  Beyond that, there are very few people in the America that have a pressing need to know all this, and to know it every break during the football game.  (Or DURING the football game for that matter.)

Those people with a pressing need to know are his family, and I’m guessing they already are up on all the news.  Other than that, his agent and his sponsors, and I’m quite certain they’ve all been in communication today.

God I hate the 24 hour news cycle.

I suppose it’s better than 0-7, but not by much.  I’ve been a Redskins fan through the good years, the bad years, the injury-plagued years, and the countless rebuilding years.  This year it’s just downright painful.  Once again, turnovers killed us last night, and it seems that Zorn’s new duties are calling timeouts.

We need a new GM, a new coach, new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback.  And while we’re at it, the entire offensive line needs a boot up their collective asses.

However, I see no way to attract any talent because, really – who in their right mind would want to work for Daniel Snyder?

Danny boy, it’s time to sell the team to someone else that will be able to bring in real talent both on and off the field.  I realize you bought the team to get back at the kids who wouldn’t play with you in elementary school and the girls that wouldn’t date you in high school – but it’s not working.  Just get some therapy for that and sell the team.

In other football news, Braylon Edwards has been charged with misdemeanor assault.  My first thought should have been, “What the hell is wrong with people?”  Instead it was, “What does this mean for my fantasy football team?”

And oh, about 4 hours into the pre-game show.

I have absolutely nothing against the Super Bowl.  It’s fun and a great excuse to eat junk food and drink beer.  (I’ve even whipped up a batch of shrimp dip, even if it’s unlikely I’ll watch much of the game.)

And given the economy being in the tank, it’s a good opportunity to take a few hours and NOT think about jobs, consumer confidence, your 401K tanking, the stock market spiraling down the drain, among other things.

But, I don’t understand quite how it rates the level of media hype that is generated.  The media has been in Tampa for a week now.  A five hour pre-game show?  (With an interview with the President to boot.  Just let him have his Super Bowl party already – the guests are probably hogging the good food while he’s stuck in the interview.)

If you’re planning on watching the Super Bowl, you know when it is.  You know who is playing.  You know which channel it’s on.

No need to hype it for a week, folks will still be watching.

It was fun to watch GD’s turn into a full-on Phillies baseball bar this evening.

This was in no small part due to one of the bartenders being a HUGE Phillies fan, and a seriously happy fan to boot.

When you see someone who is just SO FREAKIN’ HAPPY that his team won – no trash talking or any of that crap, just HAPPY – you can’t help but be happy along with them.

I’m torn between Eight Belles and Gallego. She’s the only filly in the race, and he’s the horse of owners to got out of Cuba before it all went to hell in a handbasket.

I need a horseracing icon.

I realize that the empty net strategy works for some teams.  However, the Caps are not one of those teams.

Please stop trying it – it doesn’t work.  And the dog doesn’t understand why I am yelling at the TV.

First time I’ve seen Coach Boudreau smile all season.

We’re going to the playoffs!!!

The first day of the tournament isn’t even over and my brackets are already trashed.   Which is pretty normal for me.

Regardless,

GO PATRIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not a skier, in any way, shape or form. I seem to have some fear of careening into a tree at 70MPH. But I really enjoy watching skiing and other various and sundry snow sports in the winter.

The commentators just said something about one competitor “making a big error” – I watched and all I think is, “Hey, you don’t faceplant, you’re doing pretty good.” (One guy did faceplant off a jump today – that one I was able to immediately identify as a problem even before the commentators.)

I’ve come to the realization that the weekends that the Redskins have won any games have been the weekends where I have not seen a single minute of said games. For the rest of the season, it seems that it would be best that I not even take the time to pop over and check the score, much less actually watch a game.

Fortunately, this trend has not crossed over to hockey, as I have actually seen the Capitals win a couple times this season. (Even before they replaced the coach.)

I am afraid this trend is affecting the teams of my friends. I went up to watch the end of Philly/New England game this evening, fully expecting that the Eagles would be in the process of being slaughtered only to discover that they actually showed up to play, and I was quite stoked because it really looked like they would win. Many of my friends at the pub are Eagles fans, and I was heartbroken for them when the Eagles couldn’t quite pull it out. But they played one hell of a game – not too bad to only miss by 3 points when you go in with a 30 point spread.

In completely unrelated news, it’s not often that people genuinely surprise me in a positive way and it’s happened twice in the past week. It’s nice to have your faith in people restored every now and again. (For the most part, I can maintain my faith in humanity, it’s faith in people that gets a little shaky at times.)

It’s quite easy to tell that the Ravens game is not going well, given the loud cursing coming from the basement every 5 to 10 minutes.

I’ve already suffered through the Redskins and Caps this weekend. I’m almost afraid to watch the Chargers game later.

Last night I commented on the Yankees being “crushed” by the Angels, 18-9.

Well, “crushed” has been well and duly redefined by Texas today after their game with the Orioles which ended 30-3. No, that is not a misprint. Lord knows that was my first thought when I saw it.

Yup, watched the Washington Nationals become an unfortunate footnote in history as Barry Bonds hit #756 this evening. After beating my head into the bar a few times, I did at least applaud for him. (I don’t begrudge him #756, but why against the local team??) Juiced or not, it’s still an accomplishment. Doesn’t matter anyway, cause give it a few years and A-Rod will take care of the entire asterisk issue. (Against the Nationals, Orioles or Padres, I’m sure.) As we all said at the pub, “We’ll all know the answer to *that* trivia question!” as we watched “history” happen.

Doping in any sport really bothers me A LOT**, and I will admit that I am very disappointed that Hank Aaron’s record was broken by someone that will always have the steroid cloud over his head. C’mon guys, go old school and get there with beer and hookers like everyone else did back in the day.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most about doping is trying to figure out how someone can still sleep at night after “winning” something w/the help of modern chemistry. Even if you don’t get caught, won’t you always know that you didn’t get their on your own? Won’t you always wonder if you could have done it *without* being juiced?

Here’s to the next broken record not having an asterisk next to it.

** The past 2 years of the TdF have driven me up a wall.

The 2007-2008 NHL schedule is up!

No sooner had I finished perusing the schedule, I got a call from someone at the Caps asking how I’d enjoyed the games last season and was I planning on going to any this season – told him I had just finished looking at the schedule, and he said, “Wow, that’s only been posted for about 10 minutes.” Yeah, well, when it’s something important, I am on top of these things. :)

I was nice and didn’t say that I think the new sweaters are rather ugly.

Gotta give the Caps office some credit, too – it was a genuine courtesy call, didn’t try to sell me anything and just happy to hear I’d be back again this season.

In your really stupid sports news, the Oklahoma football program must forfeit all wins from the 2005 season and will lose scholarships as a result of players being paid for work they had not performed. Just how much of an idiot do you have to be to think you won’t get caught trying something like this?

I was watching the NBA playoffs this evening (I went to GD’s for a beer and SportsCenter was running late…I had no choice) and at the end, they did the usual post-game interviews/press conferences. This is something that has always mystified me. I would think that win or lose, you’d still have so much adrenaline going that being able to be coherent would be a huge challenge. If were me, I don’t think I could spit out much beyond, “We won, YAY!” or “We lost, I wanna go home now.”

In baseball news, it’s interleague play time!! Which means the O’s vs. the Nats, my beloved Padres vs. SusanDennis’ beloved Mariners among others. Personally, my level of expertise with baseball can be summed up with, “I like baseball.” Seems that interleague play drives the “purists” nuts. I don’t know why, but there you go. I have enough trouble remembering who is in the National vs. American league, and which one has the crappy designated hitter rule. I don’t care if they’re playing other leagues or their own – just play ball, kids. (PS, Sorry bout the trouncing this evening, Susan.)

and in this case, the one that has been blind in one eye since it was 3 days old. Go #5!

ETA: Dead last. This is why I stick with the stock market.

ETA 2: Nope, apparently 4th – not too bad considering this commentary @ kentuckyderby.com: He should be near the back of the pack early, and unless he has turned into a completely new horse in the last five weeks, he’ll probably stay there.

All my IMAZ chickadees are off the bikes and on the run!!

My buddy Lane, who tried very hard to up and die on us last fall, is doing IMAZ today! (2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on the bike and a 26.2 mile run)

He did the swim (2.4 miles in Tempe Town Lake) in 1:10:17 – that’s a pace of 1:50 per 100 meters. Mine is around 3 minutes…

He’s gotten at least to the 37 mile mark on the bike – unfortunately, they don’t have another chip sensor until the end of the bike, at 112 miles.

Welshy went a little slower on the swim w/a 2:44 pace, but he made it and also has passed the 37 mile sensor on the bike. Jess is seriously rockin’ out on the bike segment, too.

I am so proud of them!!!

Well, amazingly enough the pancakes came out pretty darn well despite the fact that I literally cannot remember the last time I made them. (Thank god for bisquick and buttermilk.) However, I do need to locate a better pan for it next time around, cause flipping them was a little on the sketchy side and there were a few that ended up in the trash. The paprika bacon was wonderful, no surprise there.

I do believe I’ll have a Mardi Gras Guinness before the night is over, if nothing else to drown my sorrows if the Caps don’t win this evening. (3-2 Montreal, 10:15 left in the 2nd period.)

By sheer luck I stumbled on a link for the Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar via del.icio.us, clicked on it because it sounded intriguing and discovered it’s in Philly, less than a mile from where I’ll be staying next month. Oh hells yes, I’ve made a reservation for when I’m up there. Really looking forward to this trip.  Which also reminds me that I have GOT to figure out where on earth I put my camera.

Super Bowl Ads

Personally, I think Coke had the best ones, especially the takeoff on GTA. The rest were kinda mundane considering how much money & time they put into these.

I have come to the conclusion that the way to watch the Super Bowl is to have a team you like enough to cheer for but you’re not so emotionally invested in that you’re beating your head into the bar everytime there is a stupid turnover.

Still very annoyed about the car, to the point where I’ve been on USAA.com this morning playing with the ‘build your car’ feature, and thinking at some point I need to go really look closely at the GC Laredos & Limiteds to get a better idea of how they’re “different” other than the V6 vs V8 engines. As much as I’d love one, it’s very unlikely that I’ll have a new car by the end of the week, but I just have so little tolerance for broken cars, and at least pricing out new ones makes me feel a little better for whatever strange reason.

What I do like about USAA is that they’ll save the buildup for 90 days and then if you decide you want what you’ve built, just click a button and they’ll go find it and do all the negotiations for you. That is the part of buying a car I totally despise – just tell me when I can pickup the car and I’ll bring you a check. But for the moment, that button remains unclicked.

Apparently the Verizon Center is falling apart, as they’ve gone through 4 glass repairs in todays Caps game. It’s 1-1 at the beginning of the 3rd period, and I’m really hoping they can pull out a win today – they’ve just come off a horrid road trip and could really use a good day.

ETA: And they win it in the shootout!!!!

I always forget that the Super Bowl pre-game coverage starts at o’dark-thirty, and I’m always surprised when I sit down with my coffee and click on the TV and it’s already all about the game.

Did you know that 30 million pounds of snacks will be consumed today? It’s approximately twice the normal daily average, and I’ll be doing my part, as I see some cheese fries or crab dip in my future.

The amount of specualtion that goes on really amuses me, but when you have to fill lots and lots of hours with commentary, I guess you have to come up with something to talk about. Honestly, I’m not sure how many people are sitting around contemplating which quarterback is under more pressure to win the game today, but if they are, they’ll have tons of information with which to make an informed decision on the subject.

Sadly, in the shadow of the Super Bowl, is the Denny’s PBA Tour. That would be bowling. Honestly, I didn’t even think professional bowling even existed anymore, much less was televised.

Honestly, I somehow thought I’d shed the “hey, if you’re not from around here, please talk to me!” vibe I had going on. Granted, tonight’s misanthrope was already sitting in the jackass seat* when I got there, but damn…if you’ve not been in the area for even 5 years, don’t start arguing with a gal over the museum offerings when she has been here 20+ years and you’re a Eastern European import via 17 years in Boston, and she is currently a HISTORY major… Trust me, when I tell you something about the museums, I do know of which I speak, and NO they are not all free here in DC, you fuckwit. Secondly, if you hear me utter the words, “You arrogant prick”, you can rest assured I will not be accepting any drink offers from you, and most surely will not be heading out for another after hours watering hole with you… But if you’re too busy spouting off how much you “know” about the DC area, I suppose you won’t get it. And for the record, only going into DC to visit “gentleman’s clubs”, does NOT count as going into the city on a regular basis, nor does it grant you any privilege to speak of the various and sundry museums the city has to offer.

In less contentious, yet equally serious news, I discovered this evening that I was the only Duke fan in the pub as I was the ONLY one quite literally standing on my seat as Duke attempted a Hail Mary Three Pointer with no time left on the overtime clock, and dammit, missed it and lost to UVA.

But in the “all crap has it’s silver lining” category, because of my freak friend, I discovered that GD’s is “selling” bar side seats for the Super Bowl. You buy a $25 gift card and you get a guaranteed bar seat for the game. Little bro will be inebriated w/his friends down in Blacksburg this weekend, and well hells bells, why not? I actually like the Colts enough to cheer for them, why not do it with a barside seat? (I even got to pick my spot.) Quite literally, I need to remember that I have to be there by 6PM Sunday… Little bro has offered to text and remind me, just in case. Hell, why not?

And apparently SkySports will be showing the Super Bowl this weekend, for folks that are into “American Football” – and they’re asking who will be doing halftime… Hell, I don’t even know that.

*The jackass seat: It’s an odd phenomenon, but it would seem that whomever sits at the far leftmost bar seat (as you walk in the bar) is a jackass. I’ve seen it happen too many times to write it off to coincidence, it is truly the jackass seat. There have been evenings where I have taken it solely for the purpose of defeating it’s karma and just been pleasant and very quiet all evening, but it has not erased the predestination of that particular barstool.

So, Cal Ripken, Jr. was voted into the Hall of Fame today.

While I am not a rabid baseball fan, I’ve always been a HUGE fan of Cal. He embodies everything that is GOOD about sports, through both his words and actions. No slacking, a gracious winner AND loser, respected the fact that he was getting paid to play a game, and an all around good guy.

Bravo Zulu, Cal.

Now THIS is hockey.

Watching the 5th fight in 30 seconds of clock time in the game against the Thrashers.

I think both teams are going to run out of players, and there’s only 42.8 seconds left.

Oh my god, the bike porn on OLN right now. It’s the time trial prologue – a 7KM time trial, no packs or anything, you’re just on our own. They were showing some of the early times that have come in, sub 9 minutes – I had to stop and do the math. Holy crap, that’s fast.

I think the chase cars & motorcycles would be unnerving, though.

Edit: And Floyd Landis (team Discovery Phonak, I don’t know why I put down Discovery since I am actually LOOKING at the jersey) just lost about 8 seconds on his time, he wasn’t in the chute & ready to go – someone mentioned that he was waiting for the chase car to be ready, not sure what happened there, but that is bad, considering had he started on time, he would have been 1 second out of first.

Well, the Tour de France sure got interesting all of a sudden – all cyclists who have been implicated in a Spanish doping probe are OUT for the tour – these are the big names – Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich, Oscar Sevilla…

Personally, I don’t think this is a bad thing. I think it’s going to bring some good attention to the remaining cyclists who are clean but had been in the shadows up until now.

I realize when this is your livelihood (pro cycling or any other sport), it can lead to taking desperate (and frankly, stupid) measures. But it’s bad for the sport, it’s bad for the fans, and it’s especially bad for aspiring athletes. IMO, it sends a message that you can’t be great without doping or other outside means. I’d rather see athletes that might not be quite as “incredible”, but at least it’s ALL them.

Granted, if caffeine ever becomes a banned substance, I’m screwed. ;) (Cause you know I’m the one the officials at my races are looking at & thinking, “Yeah, she’s juiced up.”)

Off to ride.

Olie Kolzig gets the King Clancy award from the NHL for humanitarian works, and Ovechkin wins the Calder trophy.

Might not have been the best season we could have asked for, but a nice way to finish it all off.

I’ll admit, I was pulling for Edmonton in the series, and I was THRILLED they managed to make it a 7 game series. But once again. the Cindy kiss of death kicked in, and they couldn’t hold out for that last game. That being said…

– Cam Ward (Carolina goalie) is PHENOMENAL. To be a rookie and thrown into that and maintain the level of composure & skill he did is amazing. Totally earned the Smythe trophy.

– I can’t grudge Carolina the win because they earned it. And, yes, I’m happy they had to fight for it – I’d rather see a team win that had to go 5 to 7 games than a 4 game blowout.

– I still think the empty net is the damn dumbest strategy on the planet. Yeah, I know it supposedly works enough to justify it, but every game I’ve seen with it, you don’t just lose, you REALLY lose.

And watching the Carolina players after they won – well, I couldn’t help but smile – they were SO happy – how can you not smile along with it?

The post-game loser press conference – I hate this in ALL games, regardless of sport or series. They lost – leave them alone for a while, OK? Go bug the winners – they’re in a much better mood!