Owner: 5ksandcabernets URL:http://5ksandcabernets.blogspot.com Join Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 12:23:54 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A man writes about marathons, wine drinking, and fatherhood. Site statistics:Click here
I need a certain kind of barber for my nappy hair 2008-03-28 06:49:00 I miss my college barber. You took a two minute stroll to his dorm room. You sat in the chair. You told him in one or two sentences what you wanted. He gave you a perfect hair cut. Everytime.Let me rephrase that. I miss my (black) barber.At Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college just north of Houston, TX, everybody that cut hair could cut hair. And when I say cut hair, I mean a black man's hair. Cutting a black man's hair is like an art form.In the 17 plus years that I have been out of college, I've had trouble finding a black barber.Oh, they are out there. But mostly, in the black neighborhoods. Not in the neighborhoods I've lived in where the options are mostly SuperCuts or ProCuts. Its hit or (mostly) miss at these places. If you are a black guy and want someone t Read more:certain
My marathon training is their warm-up 2008-03-26 21:15:00 I've run two marathons and three half marathons. But I'd probably be no match for CrossFit, a strength and conditioning regimen that some call cult-like.“How many reps would Jesus do?” jokes CrossFit member Trailgirl. In its March 23 story about CrossFit, the New York Times says a workout of the day, or W.O.D., might include, “50 kettlebell swings, 3 800-yard dashes in rapid succession and 10 pull-ups. Repeat. No breaks.”Let me just say this: CrossFit can keep its kettlebell swings. I'm proud of my daily 5-mile runs.
The tannins in my perspiration 2008-03-26 12:26:00 When I ran Monday, for the first time in 16 days, it was 38 degrees and I was floating.This morning, it was 68 degrees (Texas weather) and muggy.There was no floating. Flopping, maybe. Trudging. Shuffling. But this was not an easy day.I did 6.5 miles in 56 minutes and it had to be the hardest 6.5 miles I’ve ever done (if you don’t include the final 6.5 miles of the two marathons I’ve run).They say when it gets hot your blood works first too cool you off, then its sent to your working muscles. For that reason, your heart rate will always be higher on runs in the heat until you are acclimated. Well, I’m not acclimated. At all.Running 6.5 miles in 56 minutes in February (when its cool outside) usually means a heart rate that might top out at 80 percent, 85 percent max. This morning, I
Shameless self-promotion and revealing swimwear 2008-03-25 09:04:00 I discovered the Web site, Best of Blogs the other day. They are running this contest for, well, the best blogs. You can nominate yourself or have someone else nominate you. I can think of a dozen bloggers who are funnier than me or have more subscribers. But as a shrink I once had said, "If you don't love you, nobody will." So like a big doofus, I nominated myself. So go to the site and nominate yourself, or vote for me. Voting begins April 14.Another interesting thing I found on the Web this morning: Speedo has made a new swimsuit that has led to 12 new world records since February. The suit is $550. (You can get two regular suits for less at the Men's Wearhouse _ I guarantee it). It _ the Speedo suit, is made of extremely lightweight, water repellent fabric -- electronically bonded rath Read more:Shameless
Breathtaking marathons 2008-03-24 16:59:00 ForbesTraveler.com did a recent piece on the Most Breathtaking Marathons in the world. (At left is a picture the Great Wall Marathon, China. May 17.) The scenery of the marathons make them notable, the magazine articles states. I've never run Boston or New York, but I'm sure the scenery at those races is breathtaking.I've run Dallas' White Rock Marathon twice and running through Highland Park is nothing to write home about. But White Rock Lake has its own charm - if you like dodging bicyclists.
On the road again 2008-03-24 09:02:00 This morning, I ran for the first time in 16 days, a week sooner than the doctor told me I should run, but just in time for my psyche and my waistline.I knew it was going to be a good morning when I slipped on my Asics 2130s. My feet were like, "Where have you been, good friend." It was like wrapping your body in a blanket you've just taken out of the dryer. Ahhh.I did four miles. From the first step, I felt great. My legs were just alive. Springy. Bouncy. Pick your adjective.Once my lungs caught up, it felt like I was floating on the Trinity Trails.I had to work to not run too fast. At one point, I looked at my Garmin for my mile pace and it said "7:50" Ohhhh, my. (Sorry, Dick Enberg).I ended up doing four miles in an 8:25 pace.From time to time, I felt a slight twinge in my right Achille
My dad writes this goofy blog 2008-03-22 21:08:00 Hi, my name is Noah.My dad writes this goofy
blog.He blew up my feet so they'd be easier to tickle.Do I look like I'm giggling?I think I'm gonna drool.
Schwag whore 2008-03-21 13:34:00 Thursday was the first day of Spring, and in the spirit of poetry, Runner's World challenged its online readers to come up with a haiku celebrating this day and why runners love it so much.Here's my take:In a rush for workI run an extra mile anywayBoss not mad I'm lateCorny? Maybe. But they are giving out a cool Runner's World T-shirt. I'll do anything for good schwag. (If you got a better one for me, leave me a message)Running update: Even though the doctor has given me the ok, I'm going to wait until next week to test my right leg. It feels fine. I just want to make sure I don't reinjure it. Though I'm raring to go. I drove to Austin last night for a friend's wedding and the scenery here is absolutely beautiful.
Barack Obama's NCAA Tournament Bracket 2008-03-20 18:18:00 He's got Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA and Pittsburgh going to the final four with North Carolina winning it all, according to media folks who are traveling with the Obama
press. Report says Obama put down $10 and filled out his tourney bracket to play with his campaign staff. Hmmm. Pittsburgh. He does need that city's votes for the upcoming Pennsylvania primary.
Read more:Barack
, Tournament
, Bracket
, Barack Obama
, NCAA Tournament
Everybody into the pool 2008-03-20 10:44:00 I love this time of year. You can gamble at work. You can watch TV at work. The boss doesn't mind. It's March Madness. Get your brackets, baby! I've got mine. North Carolina, Kansas, Stanford, and UCLA are in my Final Four. I've been a full-time employee for 17 years and I've never won anybody's NCAA office pool. Maybe this year is my year.
Read more:Everybody
Water-logged! 2008-04-01 15:10:00 I've heard of gaining weight because of water retention, but this is ridiculous. I was 166 pounds when I stepped on the scale Monday morning. This morning: 170.It was 5:30 a.m. and so I was a little groggy, up early to run with the Luke's Locker group. So I got off the scale. Adjusted it. Got back on. 170.I went to the bathroom and got back on the scale. 170.What the #%&*@#*How can this be? Four pounds in one day?I thought back to what I ate Monday: A glass of soy milk in the morning. A sandwich and soup from Panera Bread for lunch. Some sourdough pretzels and chocolate moth balls for a mid-afternoon snack. Some chicken noodle soup for dinner with a glass of wine. A cinnamon roll for dessert. A cup of hot tea sweetened with blackstrap molasses before I went to bed.This hardly looks lik
The best of me, though that's not saying much 2008-04-01 00:32:00 I'm feeling a little lazy, but still want to post something. So how about a list?Today will be the Top 10 pageviews for 5ksandcabernets. (To the 1 or 2 people who normally check this blog, I'll post something else later in the day)1. Shameless self-promotion and revealing swimwear: This post is only one week old. But in it, I link to the Science of Sport conversation about the swimsuit that is helping Olympic hopefuls set world records. The backlink to Science of Sport has drawn a lot of traffic, most of it, oddly, from other countries.2. Client 9 once wore bib No. X887: Some original research I did on troubled NY Governor Eliot Spitzer turned up the fact that he ran a marathon years before he ran whores.3. Stumbling, bumbling? Nahh. But I saw more than 600 tired people: This is my report Read more:though
, saying
My March running report 2008-03-31 09:52:00 Its short (injury kept me out 16 days) and sweet (I love Endurox)Miles: 54.62 on 9 runs (6 miles a day)Time: 8 hours, 3 minutes, 17 secondsPace: 8:51Longest run: 10 miles on March
8Fastest pace: 8:23 on March 4 (no races this month)Miles in 2008: 297.36 onTime: 1 Day, 20 hours, 51 minutes, 21 seconds (I really have been running
for days!)Pace: 9:03Longest run: 16.02 on January 12Fastest pace: 7:02 on January 1 (I won my age group in a 5K and got my name in the paper!)What's next: Komen Race for the Cure in Fort Worth on April 26 in scenic (well. scenic for Fort Worth) Sundance Square.
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Teased, tired, and now back to basics 2008-03-31 01:51:00 So after 16 days of inactivity, I ran 25 miles last week.Probably ran way too fast. 8:30 miles are a smidge faster than easy pace and the week has left my legs feeling achy.I guess I came back too hard too soon. Its just that that first day back teased me. It was so easy, so inviting. I had that runners high thing going on that the scientists discovered last week.But now, after an 8-miler Saturday and rest Sunday, my feet hurt. My legs hurt.Reality has hit me over my freshly cut head: Running is hard. Running is grueling. Running can break your heart. But its one of the loves of my life, and so I keep coming back.This week its back to the basics.*I'm swigging the blackstrap molasses to keep my electrolyte balanced.*I'm going to try to be in bed by midnight.*I'm going to limit the wine drin Read more:tired
I almost mugged a homeless guy 2008-04-03 14:19:14 I think I'm losing my mind.I had a computer training meeting in downtown Fort Worth Wednesday morning.Before I left the house, I grabbed my phone then grabbed a handful of quarters for the meter.I get downtown. I feed the meter, run across the street and realize I don't have my phone.Must have left it in the car, I thought.I check the car. Its not there. Must have put it on top of the car while I was feeding the meter. Its not on the car or on the ground.The whole time this is going on, a homeless
guy had walked by and was now about three blocks away. He must have my phone, I thought.I ran down Fifth Street and caught up with him before he crossed Throckmorton Street.I wondered what I should say to him. Should I pat him down?"Excuse me, sir, " I asked. At least I was nice."Yeah," he said, Read more:mugged
But mom, do I have to eat my vegetables? 2008-04-02 17:58:37 Mommies and doctors always tell you to eat your vegetables, and I'd be a better runner if I did. But this video of frozen veggies catching fire in the microwave gives me another excuse not to eat them. No sirrrreeeee!
Feet. Don't. Fail. Me. Now. 2008-04-02 02:07:27 Like the release of Hillary Clinton's tax returns, I've been waiting anxiously on the Science of Sport's post on the foot strike of the elite runners. (Heel vs. Midfoot vs. forefoot: How do elite runners land?)I assumed that because the elites run 5-minute miles, that they must be on the balls of their feet all the time. And in the few times that I've been in an all-out sprint (at the end of 5ks and 10ks), I've found myself on the balls of my feet.In late January, I decided that I would try to do most of my runs on the balls of my feet, or at least on the midfoot. Part of the reason was because I was having some shin pain in my left leg during some races that would subside when I went from a heel striker to running on my toes.My training pace times became faster, but I also hurt myself, an
The shape I'm in 2008-04-08 10:19:06 Today was my usual Tuesday 6 a.m. run with the folks from Luke's Locker off of University Drive. We usually do 6 or 7 miles at a pretty quick pace. And for me the pace is faster than half-marathon pace but slower than 10k pace. I use the run as an indicator of the kind of shape I'm in. So I was pretty happy when I hit the stop button on my Garmin 305 and it read;Miles: 6.12Time: 48:27.Pace: 7:54Woooo-hoooo. Thats a workout PR.Now, there are a couple of things worth mentioning. At mile 3 or so, we usually stop at a water fountain. It's about a 30 second break or so. During this break, I hit the stop button on my Garmin. So the total time does not include that break. Last week, I didn't stop for the water break, and my pace was 8:03.Still, I'm not going to apologize for being smart to take a
Death by blogging? 2008-04-07 16:38:53 My throat has been kind of itchy lately. I've had the chills, and a headache. I thought it was because my son, who was sick over the weekend, gave me his cold. Or perhaps they were running the air conditioning too much on the job.But then I read the New York Times this morning. They say I could be blogging myself to death.Here is an excerpt:"Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and in
I needed directions to stay on the yellow-brick road. 2008-04-07 01:26:22 I went to Austin this weekend to see my 8-month-old son, Noah. For the first time, I decided to run one of Austin's most famous trails: Town Lake.In my short time as a runner _ exactly four years this month _ I've run several trails in Texas. (In Houston: Memorial Park, Herman Park, and the trail around Rice University; In Dallas: White Rock Lake, and the Campion Trails in Las Colinas; And in Fort Worth: the Trinity Trails)So, I consider myself somewhat of an authority on decent places to run in Texas. And I'd say Austin's Town Lake stands as one of the best places to run, though there is some room for improvement. (Through the magic of my Garmin Forerunner 305, Motionbased, and GoogleEarth, I've embedded my run at the bottom of this post. I ran clockwise.)A quick review for anybody going
I knew that Thespian honor would come in handy one day. 2008-04-09 08:13:07 I took drama classes in high school just for opportunities like this: At you can sign up to be in a running movie.At this very moment, a new movie studio is planning a documentary that will follow two extreme athletes running from San Francisco to New York. They need hundreds of runners for filming which starts June 1.From the studio's web site, "NEHST is casting 5 people per mile - you can only run one mile with (the runners) officially, but can drop back and continue to run - to run with these athletes to raise money for the charity H2O Africa and witness history being made first hand."Any runner of any ability can apply.This also means any "actor" of any ability can apply.I'm coming for your job, Denzel Washington.
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He really does run the show in Iraq 2008-04-08 12:27:14 As Gen. David H. Petraeus (he is the guy who heads up our troops in Iraq
) was testifying before a Senate panel Tuesday about whether or not we should get the heck out of dodge over there, the astute editors at Runner's World dug up an article they wrote about Petraeus last December. Turns out, Petraeus is just like one of us, a runner, though, a bit more extreme than many of us.The Runner's World writer, Willy Stern, got an interview with Petraeus in Iraq. Petraeus and 21 other soldiers did a 5.7-mile loop, writes Stern.Petraeus came in at a pace under six minutes per mile, and, Stern notes that this is a guy with a metal plate in his pelvis and a gunshot wound on his chest (courtesy of a training accident).Here is more of the Runners World interview with Petraeus.
The mental DNA of 5ksandcabernets 2008-04-10 01:04:59 I'm like most people who blog. I wanna let people know how I feel. What makes me tick. What I'm all about.On my job, we've all participated in this "strengths" program to help us understand ourselves better, and to help others know where we are coming from.First, we took a test. Lots of questions. The computer spits out this profile. It's the five "strengths" _ out of 34 _ that you rely on more than other "strengths" in social settings. It's supposed to be your mental
DNA.The test is based on the Gallup Management Journal and published in a book called, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" It is supposed to help me understand how I and those who work around me "filter" information. There is a blog on the whole subject of strengthfinder.I took this test three years ago and its helped.Here are my
NFL scouts would not like my measurables 2008-04-11 15:30:43 I’m 5 feet 9, 166 pounds and I run the 40-yard dash in 9.5 seconds _ on a good day.Why mention my 40-yard-dash time? The NFL is holding its annual draft in two weeks and the 40-yard-dash is its signature test.Most linemen run it in 5 seconds; most wide receivers and running backs run it in 4.5 seconds. Most super-humans (the really really fast guys) run it under 4.4 seconds.In my prior life as a sportswriter, Deion Sanders once told me, “I run 4.2s for breakfast.”Needless to say, the NFL scouts
would scoff at my time.Of course, if all I had to do was run 40 yards, I could run it much faster. In college, I ran it once in about 4.8 seconds. But that was more than 20 years ago.No, my 9.5 second time in the 40 as I near the age of 40 is more about my 5K pace.This morning, I did 4x1000 me
Boston Marathon: Interview with a real live BQer 2008-04-14 00:34:27 A week from today, they will run the 112th BostonMarathon
. It is the Super Bowl of marathon running. Or the World Series. And with its strict qualifying standards, many of us have never known what it feels like to run Boston, arms raised, crossing the finish line on Boylston Street.And that includes me. To qualify for Boston, I would have had to run a previous marathon in 3 hours, 15 minutes. That's a 7:26 minute per mile pace. I've never kept that pace up for a 10K, much less the two marathons I've run.But, I know somebody who has.So, today, I thought I'd start Boston Marathon week blogging with a question and answer session from one of my co-workers, Tom, who qualified for the 2007 Boston Marathon with his marathon time in the 2006 Austin Marathon. When I first started running four yea
200 bottles of wine on the wall, 200 bottles of wine 2008-04-16 10:19:15 People who think I am a wine snob always ask me: "How do you know what a good bottle of wine tastes like?"I always answer: "Go buy some wine. If you like it, it's good, if you don't, it's not good."Now, that's being a little simplistic.Someone with a refined palate, who has tasted hundreds and hundreds of wines, will be a little more adept at discerning "good wine" than someone whose only wine experience is the Bolla they had at Macaroni Grill.But who is right? Do critics know more about wine than the average weekend drinker?The New York Times' wine writer, Eric Asimov, tries to tackle this subject in his The Pour blog post titled, You Can Please All Of The People, Or You Can Make Great Wine.Asimov comments on findings in a book titled, "The Wine Trials" which analyzes the results of blin
Running with the big boys 2008-04-15 09:04:48 I've run with the Tuesday morning Luke's Locker folks long enough to know some of their names. As it turns out, many have either run the Boston Marathon or have qualified to run Boston in 2009.Noreen, who normally leads the group, has run, I believe, more than a dozen marathons and Boston is one of them. Richard and Kimberly have qualified to run Boston next year. I'm not sure if Dave or Krista have qualified for Boston, but Krista is usually the fastest runner in our group and so I wouldn't be surprised if she did.So, I figure the more I run with these real marathoners, the faster I'll get.And it seems to be working.This morning was our 6-mile tempo run. I finished in about 46 minutes, which is a 7:40 minute-per-mile pace. This is definitely the fastest I've ever run in training, but I di
Hurricane force winds blowing my confidence away 2008-04-17 12:06:05 Today was the nitty gritty phase of my training to set a 5K pr: Intervals.Four sets of 1,000-meters with a rest period of 3:30 in between each interval. The rest period is so you can recover, get your heart rate back to under 75 percent.It was 65 degrees. Humid. And windy. Very windy. (This is tornado season in Texas, right?)I probably should have skipped this workout on the weather alone, but off I went.And I felt good on the first interval, which I completed in 4:13. (A 6:48 minute-mile pace). This was against the wind. I was feeling confident.So on the second 1,000-meter interval, with the wind, I popped a 4:01 (6:29 pace). That's fast.But I wasn't feeling too good. I wanted to throw up and my heart rate was still over 85 percent by the time I started the third interval.And it was again
Trying to figure out where my son gets his looks from 2008-04-19 00:58:11 My mother?My grandfather?Me? (His mother made him wear these "Easter Ears") His mother?Folks, I'm tired. Leave my dad a message when you figure
out who I might look like.
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