$14 mojitos

It's been a while since my last post. Mostly laziness and travel have kept me from blogging or running.

Runs:

March 20-26

2, 3 mile runs (Friday and Sunday) on the San Juan beach on Isla Verde. Running on this sand was very difficult. The sand near our hotel was flat and packed near the waves, but as I ran east, the packed areas either became very slanted, or the sand was very loose. Thus, I had to run on the loose stuff, further away from the water, which was much harder. The temperature was 85 degrees and at least that % in humidity.

March 27-30
8 miles in 1:09 on 3/30. This was my longest midweek run. I wanted to get used to this, b/c that Pfitzinger seems to relish in making you run long during the week. One thing Old Higdon did, was make a program that conformed much nicer for working folks. Does Pfitzinger think that everyone can run 12 milers before work when we aren't running 5 minute miles?

We were in San Juan Puerto Rico for a wedding last week. We stayed for 5 1/2 days total and it was glorious. It was nice to do nothing. I sat on the beach. I drank my body weight in Mojitos. (The Ritz made teh best ones, however they were $14, ouch) I ate and lounged some more. Old San Juan is much more compelling as a tourist area, with the forts and the cobblestone streets, restaurants and nightlife. Unfortunately, we were a 20 minute cab ride from there. The running would have been much better there.

The first 4 nights we stayed at the Ritz-Carlton.
My wife works for Marriott, who owns the Ritz. Thus, we got a rally sweet $89 rate. The going rate was over $500/night. Unfortunately, the rate wasn't available the final 2 days, so we moved to a Courtyard. Nice by most standards, but not the Ritz. The real kicker was the Marriott rate at the Courtyard was $159/night!

I ended up paying bellman $15 to bring 3 bags to my room. The day we got there, there was a room screw up. I gave the bellman $5 as we got out of the cab, assuming that he was bringing up the bags. However, due to the screw up in the rooms, A different guy brought it up 30 minutes later. I tipped that guy $5. Then while we were at the Wedding rehearsal (my son was the ring bearer), there were supposed to move the bags to our new room. They didn't. So when we got back from the rehearsal, I had to tip another guy $5 to move the bags from our smoking room to the nonsmoking room we requested. I will say that they were all VERY nice to us. Actually, they were really nice to my wife. Hmm. I wonder why? "Ms. A, nice to see you today" "Ms A, how was your dinner" Not unlike the SNL skit where the Italian waiters fawn over the female diner, in front of her husband.

Ritz: Perfect hotel. Lots to do without leaving. Sports, food, drinks, pool. But at a price.
Courtyard: Adequate. Nothing fancy, but a good value. It shares the same beach as the Ritz. (Within 5 minutes of arriving at the Courtyard, there was a fight in the lobby. 3 ten year olds were punching each other. I was thinking, I ain't at the Ritz anymore!

Hills suck

Running

3/19 - Cary March Madness Half marathon 1:49. Last year I ran it in 1:51. It is a very hilly race and I have come to the conclusion that my body was not made for hills. My pr is over 8 minutes better on flat ground. Additionally, I am clearly not at my peak, but I was better prepared for this race than last year. Last year, I didn't appreciate how many hills were at the end and didn't pace myself. This year, I realized all the people yelling "This is the last hill" were all lying.

Lunch at Tracks. The same place we went last year. Realized that weekend was the first time I met many "V-teamers" and also met RFS and his wife N. In fact we all went to dinner the night before. Good times.

Life:
3/16 - lost my first patient on the table. Details are not appropriate for a blog. But just remember that life is short. And, that there are probably very few people that had a shi$$ier day than I did on Thursday. Mind you, I've had patients die. That comes with the territory. But, I have never had one die during a procedure.

I'm a wuss

Running
3/10- nothing.
3/11- the nicest day in Chicago since Fall, and I spent the day (a) at a children's' museum (b) at Walker Brothers eating large quantities of breakfast food (c) running around trying to find fresh produce and a pasta maker- , successful on one of those only

3/12 - New, low. Wussed out of running. We went to an engagement party for the couple's wedding we are attending in Puerto Rico next week. When we got there, N was still asleep in his car seat. So, I sat in the car for 1.5 hours, with nothing to read and an ipod without the headphones.

3/13 - No running

3/14 - 5 miles on my inlaws treadmill. 45-ish minutes.

I feel like buying a new car when we really don't need a new car. My wife's car is 3 years old and mine is 2.5 years old. I think that GM may not be supporting my wife's car brand much longer. She won't get an SUV or minivan. She would consider a stationwagon (logic please?)

I have been considering trading my car in for something with better gas mileage. I commute 50 miles roundtrip each day and my car was not made for great gas mileage. It I will be paid off in December, and I would like to have some time with either 1 or no car payments.

Culinary:
Sunday, I made an awesome Marinara sauce with fresh zucchini, mushrooms, onions. I bought some fresh basil and Italian Parsley from here. It is an awesome little produce store with very fresh stuff. Small mom an pop place with a tremendous variety. The food tastes so much better when you use fresh ingredients. I used canned whole tomatoes, but in the summer, I'll use tomatoes from our garden.

I'm making the same thing for my father in law for dinner tonight(his birthday). We also bought him an Ipod Nano. I hope he likes and uses it.

Eminem is the perfect running partner

Running:
Tuesday - 6.3 miles - 52:40. I ran a new loop and had a good run. It had flashes of what I used to be able to do.

Thursday - 5 miles on the treadmill before work in 47 minutes.


Thanks Steve Jobs. Ever since the most recent Itunes commercial has featured Eminem's Lose Yourself, I have wanted to download it. I finally did, and found that it had an almost perfect beat for my running cadence.

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo

Me and 20 mpw are back together again

Runs

Thursday - 5 miles on the treadmill in 50 minutes. A progressive from 5.0 mph to 10.0 mph at the end. Most were between 5.5 and 6.0

Sunday - 10 miles in 1:36 with Bob and Sonny at Waterfall Glen. Nice run. It started snowing a mile into our run. It was peaceful, and picturesque. No plantar fascia issues.

20 mpw (miles per week) and I are like an old couple that always seem to get back together. I can try and spice things up with 30 mow or even 40 mpw, but my body tells me that I was made to be with 20 mpw. That's the mileage that I can sleepwalk through without trying. During the summer, I am going to make an effort to do the Pfitzinger 55 mpw plan. My body has never handled much more than 40 mpw so we'll see. I think I am ready for this new mistress.

Culinary
Friday - had dinner at Francesca's hole in the Wall. It's a small, Italian place that doesn't take reservations. It is small, and the owners walk around and mingle with the customers like old friends. They have a daily menu and can make anything you want. I had a Cappelini with tomato arrabiata sauce with Spinach and Artichokes. Out of this world. We eat there about 1x/year- which makes no sense since it is one of the best places we go to. We went and saw Syriana afterwards. I really liked this movie. I was a big fan of Traffic and Crash, both of which have similar styles of moviemaking. They follow several storylines that seem to be unrelated, but are actually very intricately connected.

Saturday - I made 2 loaves of wheat bread, mixing the dough in our new KitchenAid. I made white bread last week. Later that day, I made corn tortillas. They were all very good.

Sunday - I made some Pizza dough. We made 2 pizzas
Pizza #1: Sun dried Tomatoes, Fresh Buffalo mozzarella an basil
Pizza #2 - mozzarella (Buffalo), Roasted red Peppers and Artichoke hearts

I bought some unglazed quarry tiles from Home Depot to serve as my pizza stone after our "Authentic" stone broke. The tiles I bought from Home Depot cost $2.75, for 2 12 inch tiles. The "Authentic" stone was $30 or 40. Good move, if I say so myself.

Wunderlich Test

Did you hear that Vince Young scored really low on his Wunderlich test at the NFL combines. Apparently, this means he has the mental capacity of a piece of burlap. Never mind that this guy is MONEY. He dominated two Rose bowl games. He went into Ohio State and single handedly willed his team to victory.

Yesterday, we had a meeting with our Son's speech and occupational therapist. N was not talking much at 2 years of age and the state of Illinois has an early intervention program to provide services. Turns out we don't fall into the income level to be able to utilize this program, so we have to pay out of pocket. No problem, anything for my son. This will only be the beginning of a long and expensive money train that will end up with me hopefully paying for him to go to college, grad school, etc. I'm happy to do it and that's how I was raised.

in addition to the speech delay, the OT thought he had Sensory aversion disorder, since he likes crunchy foods way more than soft foods. This was all based on "standardized testing" This is where I got off the train. But, if it doesn't hurt, then ok- it's only money.

Fast Forward 6 months. N won;'t stop talking. He can count to 10 in 6 or 7 languages. He can put together 6-7 word sentences. He is basically caught up with other 2.5 year olds.

We had a 6 month status report- Speech- "7% Delay". What the Fok does that mean? Apparently, based on standardized testing he has a 7% delay- which means he qualifies for continued speech therapy. Whatever- it's only money.

The whole point of the OT, however, was to get N to eat better. He has a very narrow range of foods he likes and doesn't eat much else. He doesn't even try new foods, unless you sneak it. For example, we went to a pizza place. He never eats pizza or the crust. He ate 2 pieces of crust, until he saw my m-in-law cutting another piece. Then the wall went up. The OT was meant to "help" him overcome the sensory issues he supposedly has in his mouth that causes him to favor hard foods.

I told the therapists, that I thought the speech was fine. If they felt he might benefit from more therapy- fine. I made it clear that the food stuff wasn't improving and now he is in full Terrible Two year old mode and his resistance may be all defiance issues now.

So, like Vince Young, testing says my beautiful son is "messed up" a little. I don't think so and only time will tell.