It's coming together!

So I raced last week and came up with an 'Ata boy!' from my coach. I did the 9.3 mile race at an average pace of 7:06/minute mile pace. I'll take it. Decoupling rate was only near 2.5% which is kinda low....which means I could have gone faster. At the time it certainly didn't feel like it! The workouts are starting to ramp up now and , when it's nice out, I am converting to evening rides and runs. July is coming and I intend on going fast.

WOW.....and I thought I was smart!!

Hopefully it will be kids like this that will save our planet or get us into the stars properly. (if society doesn't ruin him/them first) Watch and listen to this kid. Something else for sure. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110329/ts_yblog_thelookout/for-12-year-old-astrophysics-prodigy-the-skys-the-limit

At this point....

Life is crazy. I'm beginning to think I see a pattern. My life is always crazy. It is a huge mess of kids, wife, events, work, trying to train.....let's not forget bills, sleep (when possible) and juggleing all these without turining into an idiot. We had a great wedding this weekend. Laura and Tom got married and we were overjoyed to be able to share their day with them. Alex went to Harvard and raced his events and relays with his team. Solid, albeit not record setting day. (I think he blew his gas qualifing and he just couldn't get 'up' to do the then necessary training, eating and sleeping to excel yet again. Hey, 13 is tough....lol) Running is going well.....biking is also going well......swimming.....sucks! But I now recognize that this atitude may be part of the issue. I invested in SwimSmooth "Arnie" program as to help get my issues related to my poor form corrected. I'm taking a slow deliberate approach to this correction. If and when I ever have another race season after this year, I'm gonna feel confident in the water if not Olympic. Race this weekend. May be rainy. I hope not or it will be a slogging 9+ mile run.

No long run today

Rain in the North East today....long and steady. Although it meant I didn't get in my long un today, tomorrow being my rest day I can move it forward. Present hopes are to run early before work. 12 miles.....ugh, It's gonna suck at approximately Cold, Dark and Too F'in Early O'clock in the morning.

Closing in on final purchase of the Power meter! Very excited about this. NOW I get to see whats what with the biking in a total and complete format. Heart rate AND POWER. No better measurements are available.

Off to shop for those healthy recovery foods. I'll need em after tomorrow. (Yeah, I'm whining already)

Build Week/Month almost done

My word!....Did I ASK for this training? 2nd build month is almost done. Everything going well save the swim which I seem to somehow 'find' it is the most inconvenient to get done. (flogs himself for being a wimp!) I'm on it tonight thought whether I want to or not.

Runs that are interval are just plain hard. 10 x 60" hard followed by 60" rest. Thank all that's holy it isn't descending rest or some such crap. I run an interval at 5'16" to 5'30" pace per mile. After a few of these I'm looking at my watch and saying there is NO DAMN WAY(!!) that that could have been 60 seconds rest. Throw in 1' 30" hill repeats as fast as you can go on another day.....which ain't very damn fast may I add, steep hill, and I'm just a broken 44 year old guy that needs a nap after.

12 mile run Sunday......one good hill and the rest rolling. Coach wants me to try and maintain 7' 45" pace per mile. Last time I did this course it was faster then that but it was a race. We shall see whats happened in 6 years and it now not being a race. Enough of me whining about hard training.

Alex is all set for the Harvard Champs meet come the end of the Month. Yet ANOTHER opportunity for his Dad to live vicariously through his son.....'cuz after all, why the hell did we even have kids if not to live OUR dreams through while pressuring them into all SORTS of things, situations, tasks and responsibilities we , now, as adults find to be truly important. I mean come on, isn't there some rule that this MUST happen? Just kidding folks. Alex is excited and he has one more shot at qualifying in the 100 meter Breast stroke next weekend. His mother is in a wedding that weekend so it seems it will be another male bonding weekend. Fun times and Boston is WAY more fun than White River Junction Vt. No offense to those in White River but ....just saying. I'll post up some results at some point.

Cool Space Shuttle Video

I thought this was a pretty cool link to a Space shuttle video as viewed from an airpane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_USPTmYXM&feature=player_embedded#at=77

CHeck it out

Continuation of the EVE primer

Alright, so we have established in the past post that Eve Online is just ludicrous in it's structure and learning curve. Let me show you a graph made by others about the different MMPORG's learning curves.

So you can gather that EVE is not for the faint of heart. The complexity and scope is what attracts devote followers of the game. We complain and moan against the powers that be....CCP....the company which made this game, but most of us will still be here in a year or so grinding out for our alliance or corp.

Alliance? Yeah, alliance. Individuals who play can band together to form a corporation. These corporations will have a purpose or goal that all of the players may want to pursue as a group, sharing skills and abilities toward the common goal(s). Corporations can than band together to form a more universal alliance. Alliance's may have industrial corps that build stuff for infrastructure or for those corps that specialize in PvP. (Player vs Player) Make no mistake about it, when EVE is distilled down to it's most basic element .....its about survival of the fittest, strongest and smartest players. Presently my 'toons' belong in a corporation of the Northern Coalition. I say 'Coalition' because CCP does not, as of yet, recognize coalitions. These are groups of alliances that have made a NAP (Non-Aggression Pact)with each other and vow to come to each others defense. As can be assumed, alliances often break down along time zones or ideological ideals. Presently the NC is fighting the 'Evil Russians' and the Red Block alliances as they wage war over Geminate, a region of space held by the NC. Don't get me wrong, the NC DOES have some Russian based corps within it. These are great guys and I have won and lost battles along side them. But every war needs to have a propaganda enemy and for us it's 'Evil Russians'.

So is this game a game where when you log off you can just forget about it for months at a time? Ermmm, No. You need to log in from time to time to select a skill to train so you as a character get stronger and more capable to fly bigger and badder ships. Sometimes those skills can last weeks to months so this isn't imperative based on that alone. But remember, the game NEVER sleeps accept for a brief downtime ever day. 20-30 minutes where resources are reset, asteroids repopulated etc.....those things that are necessary to have so players can make items for the rest of us to buy at some point. If you want your corp to prosper and grow, you have to have people that PLAY on a regular basis. In lawless space (0.0 security level) there are constant Call To Arms and Home Defense fleets going on to protect and keep what's yours. (CTA's and HD's)

This is something worth mentioning, Space in EVE is broken into security zones. 'Empire' is broken into 4 regions and has varying degrees of 'protection', Sec Status 1.0 means the 'cops' of the empire faction you are in will be there in milliseconds if someone attacks someone they shouldn't. (wars excluded, one corp or alliance can 'declare war' on some other corp or alliance and is thus excluded from the faction police) Empire space goes all the way down to .5 sec status and the delay time for police arrival is significant compared to 1.0 but by no means very long. Trouble happens when you go into .4 or lower. There is NO Police, only gate guns and stations guns. A pilot will get a lowering of there personal allowable security status for shooting someone else unprovoked, but the can still do it. Do it enough and you may not be allowed into .5 sec space or higher. So, low sec PvP always has a cause and affect for or against the pilot. Hence why my toons are in Null Sec, or 0.0 lawless, no standards and no gain or loss of personal standing for shooting someone. Just make sure it's not someone that has been set blue to your alliance or corporation. Doing that may get you bumped OUT of said corp or alliance and playing alone, again. Next post will discuss the real time 'economics' of EVE and why it's "REAL"......lol

A few respectful moments about my other hobby: EVE Online

What IS Eve Online: Eve Online is a MMPORG or Massive Multi Player Online Roleplaying Game. ( a small note from the blog writer: Role Players are stupid asses, I don't role play)

Is it like WOW (World of Warcraft) and others? Are you freakin kidding!? It makes those look like childs play. THIS is a tough game.

Why is it tough? A) The learning curve is rediculous....making getting 'there' all the more worth it in the end. B) ALL players are in the same 'pot of soup', on the same server, at the same time if they choose to log in. So yes to the idea that a brand new 2 day player could get 'butt raped' by an much older player.....as a matter of fact......a new player should plan on this. C) It's awesome spaceship killing frenzies! D) It is almost entirely a PLAYER supplied and driven market which means that .....for most things, if you buy it someone else probabaly had to do massive skilling and efforts to make it. Thus, the market of EVE has real time economists watching it to see exploits and issues with said market so that the economic platform of Eve works as it should.

I started playing this 'stupid spaceship game' about 2.5 to 3 years ago. Haven't looked back. In that time I have had 'The Word' given to me by my wife on several occaisions. I am slowly learning that spaceship internet games, no matter how many real life friends you make in it, does not make for keeping a happy wife. I still say they should have named the damn game 'Fred' or some shit. I mean really, EVE? Yeah, thats how to spark a nice glint of jealousy with the significant other.

Triathlons and training also helps to keep me sane and out of game. Somtimes though, like yesterday the stars allign and I get a 'hall pass' for an all day Eve fest. No work, kids out, wife out etc etc......it was glorious! I have som fun photos and numbers that may make the whole crazy idea give some heft or weight to the whole game idea. But those will be for next time.

Can anyone say TITAN KILL MAIL!!!!!????

Running with the wife and training hard

Andrea is a bona fide sand bagger! Went for a run with her on sunday. I worked my butt off to get 8 miles in 1 hr 1 minute over a not flat course. She rolled in 3 minutes behind me. I 'circled up' at 3 miles so I could run with her and then spent the next 2 miles CHASING her! Witch! You just know she kicked it into gear. Finally, on a tough hill, I was able to reel her in. Hmmmm ,maybe our coach needs to here of this....

I forgot what training hard was all about since it's been since 2003 that I REALLY had any type of plan to follow. Now, 8+ years later I'm working with a coach again and the 'Dogs of War' have been released! Defiently a case of 'be careful what you wish for'.

When 5:20 am in the dreadfully cold North East chimed on my alarm I was like.......OOOOOOHHH god, not already!? I rolled out of bed, got my lovely wife and muself a coffee at Mrs. Murphy's and gird for battle with the bike and trainer. 8 minute Aenerobic intervals don't sound bad. I mean 8 minutes. How bad can it be? BAD. Add that there are four of them with only 2 minute rest intervals and by interval number four.......your begging for those 480 seconds to be done.

Triathletes are sick for sure. Here is a link of what it's REALLY all about. You'll split a gut laughing....but it's ALL true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B03dFMG8nR4

Qualified!!

So Alex and I rode up to White River Juction for a USA regional Championship meet. He swam terrific. Liteally above himself. Beat his 200 yard Breaststroke by 12 seconds!! WTF!?!?! Who does that? 12 seconds!? He then proceeded to chop another 1/2 second off his 50 meter freestyle which got him to qualify for regional New Engalnds YMCA. \0/ (thats a cheer for those that are emoticon illiterate) 26.4 seconds for 50 meters.....now think of this.....the 100 yard dash is done in say 11-12 seconds for a 13 year old average. Maybe more in fact as an average.

He then had a 100 meter freestyle the next day and he wanted to do well but qualifiing wasn't in his head. He beat his PR by about another 1/2 second. (PR=Personal Record) He then went on to kinda implode at the 100 breaststroke which he was hoping to qualify for. Hey, 3 out of 4 is a banner weekend in my book!! He'll put that behind and qualify for more races next year.

All dad did was cheer, feed and transport him. Handed over a lot of one and five dollar bills now that I think of it. Ahh...the price of being a proud dad. :-) Guess we will post at the end of March how it went at Harvard for YMCA New Englands.

Weekend of Swimming!!

Yeah!....Anyone that has ever had children on swim teams knows my pain. Swim meets are incredibly long and uneventful affairs......interspersed with You're kids events. There we are as parents pointing at our kids for all of 25 seconds to 5+ minutes and then we sit, drink coffee, read our books, feed our kids etc.....until the next event.

This weekend Alex is heading to White River Junction Vt. for the USA regional champs. He qualified in all his events and is going to see what its all about. He is presently in the 13-14 age bracket so is the bottom of his group age and development wise. I think his goals are to use this meet to qualify for YMCA New Englands which is actually harder then USA. My fingers are crossed for a fun and 'qualifing' weekend or it will be a long ride home. The kid has been becoming a rocket though so we are confidently hopeful while not being cocky about it.

While you all are out there doing whatever.....think of me in the pool yard for 2 days.....

Tonight get my swim in. (man am I pathetic compared to Alex....omg) and a bike and run. Rest week. Training amps up again on Tuesday.

ROFL....remember back in '07 when I said I "Was Back"...

I lied obviously.

Time flies by. Kids, Marriage, trying to keep sane.....job, health, family.......lets not forget bills, friends, all the things that define our life, can sure keep a person busy.

Guess we should use these next few posts just as a catch up so to speak.

Star Date: 2/07/2011

Current Situation: Married to an amazing woman, Andrea
2 amazing kids, Alexander and Audrey. Love em to death but could also want to kill them at the same time. Sigh. I'm sure other parents know of this wonderful emotional tightrope.

Job Status: Working for my good friend Dr. Christopher Keroack within his practice of Pioneer Valley Weightloss Centers. I do the Nutritional and Activity components of the patient care.

Athletic Goals: Keep up with Andrea! Maybe train for some Triathlons. Working with Will again from Tri-Hard coaching. This time I promised to actually DO what he says. It's January and I'm more fit then in the past so it must be working.

Sideline Hobbies: Fencing. No not the type that makes a yard but the type with a sword. Presently they are a bit mutually exclusive to Tri training......but that may change. I do this sometimes with Alex and Audrey. Alex has eclipsed me big time in this and Audrey does a different weapon, but it's still fun. Reading, of course. Presently big time into Military Sci Fi. Love it if it's fun and good.
This brings me to my other Sci Fi hobby. Eve Online. Don't ask as over time you will get to know the other life that is Eve Online. MMPORG, although I don't role play as that's kinda gay. I just try to go around and shoot people. More on this later.

In the great scheme of training which is a big part of our families life, I just finished my first 'building block' for the summer season. As usual, Will got me nice and tired and sore for my recovery week. Damn, he nails it every time. I shudder the think what will happen if and when I scrounge up the cash for a Power Meter.

More to some I hope.