Levittown is for hicks?

So today was the day to start my marathon training. I got home a little late from work, but still was planning on going for a 10 miler. For some reason, I couldn't find my knee brace... but I don't really need the knee brace all the time, so I was gonna continue on without it. Then I could only find one of my running gloves. My watch was no where to be found. My pedometer... gone. Now, I'm not a superstitious fellow, but I sure as hell know a few signs when I see them. So I decided to postpone the training for one day, I can tweak the program for this one day, no worries. I did get a quick mile in, so the streak is in tact.

I'm convinced that the Tri County Flea Market in Levittown is the biggest waste of space on Long Island. Maybe even in the world. I went there yesterday to get a replacement cell phone charger. Now, if you need a replacement phone charger, Tri County is a fine place. They sell any charger for 15 bucks flat. But as I was walking around, I noticed that beyond phone chargers, they don't have much else to offer. There are about 12 different places to get your face put on t shirt, and those some places still sell Big Johnson T shirts. There are also 4 or 5 different Korean men selling Fila's, and another 5 Korean men selling hats. There's a redneck selling knives, and another redneck selling socks. And god bless her soul, there is still a woman selling pickles, and only pickles.

Even more surprising than the amount of crap they are selling at Tri County was the calliber of the people buying it. As I looked around, I noticed that the Levittown i grew up was slowly becoming the Levittown that would be in, umm, Texas. Everywhere I looked, there were families of hicks, hillbillies,common white trash if you will. Nascar jackets were everywhere. Fathers and sons with matching rat-tails, mothers and daughters with matching legwarmers (and not the trendy Hollister kind). Men and Women wearing The Rock T shirts were buying the aforementioned Big Johnson T shirts.

While I refuse to accept that my beloved Levittown is becoming Lubbock, I will tell you that Long Island as a whole is slowly becoming more and more "urbanly challenged." I don't know if it's because I grew up in sheltered Nassau County and was rarely exposed to the boondocks of Suffolk, but ever since moving to East Northport, I've noticed that the redneck population is rising on Long Island for sure. Going to the Wal Mart in Commack, which is a lot like Levittown, is amazing. You can't move your shopping cart 5 feet without hitting an obese redneck woman in a motorized scooter with 3 boxes of corn dogs on her lap.

A few weeks back, I went to a bar callled Matty T's Roadhouse. It calls itself "Long Island's only true country bar" or something like that. Coincidentally ,it's also in Commack. They have a mechanical bull sometimes, which is rad as hell, but they also have line dancing almost every night of the week. On the Saturday we went, there were probably 200 hicks line dancing like I've never seen before. Equipped with 10 gallon hats and spurs on their boots, these people were dancing up a choreographed storm. It was truly a sight to be seen. I had no idea such a population even existed on Long Island, but they were there in full force.

Now let it be known, Sean is all for diversity on Long Island. But I fear that we are heading in the wrong direction. I think Long Island needs less rednecks, and more Australians, and preferably more woman from Sweeden.

great day to be alive

Beautiful day today. Great day for an early morning 5 mile run.

So tomorrow I start a 10 week marathon training program. I've basically taken a 12 week prog and adapted it to my needs. I'm going to train using a 10:30 pace, which would give me a marathon time of 4:35:18. Realistically, I'm going to predict my marathon time, right here right now, at 4:55. If I could finish it in anything under 5 hours, I'll be stoked beyond belief. When I did the Disney Marathon in January 2007, I was aiming for 5:30, I did it 5:58 I think. My big problem there was the weather. For the 3 months prior to the marathon, I was running in the typical New York late fall / winter weather.. I get to Florida, and it was 87 degrees. I ran a few miles the day I got there just to attempt to acclimate myself, but it didn't help much. The day of the race, I had to be at Disney at 3am. 3am in Florida is a lot like winter in New York... cold. At 6am, when the race was about to start, it was already up to 68 degrees, warmer that New York for sure. About 10 miles in, the air temp hit 89 degrees. This totally messed up my breathing and everything else.

But I should be alright this time, since I'll be training in the same climate where I'll be running the race. However, one thing that is different about Providence compared to Long Island is the hills. I remember back in the day the Gravity Games held their street luge competition in Providence. One of the perks about moving out here to the country (and by country I mean East Northport, 10 minutes from the Nassau border), is the availability of hills to run on. I've incorporated one full day of hill training into my training program. I live about 5 minutes from the Cow Harbor course, so I'll definitely be running over there.

Adam, whom I mentioned a few posts ago as being a huge sissy, has made another bet with me. He believes he can lose more percentage body weight than me before July 4th. Now, I'll be training for a marathon for 10 weeks of this period. Training for a marathon is much more than just running. It's a totally different diet, more yoga, more gym times, etc;. So be prepared for July 4th, when I might just make another blog dedicated to Adam being a sissy.

Miles run today: 5 Year to date: 132.5

Funnel Fort

So yesterday New York got slammed with the biggest snow storm of the season. I have to commend the Town of Huntington Sanitation Department for doing a great job of clearing the roads in a timely matter. When I got home from work, I was going to run 2 or 3 miles, but Mike wanted to build a funnel fort* so I only ran one quick mile.

* A funnel fort is a fort, built from snow, that can comfortably fit two adults. It is also equipped with a funnel in the top of it, with the tube running through the snow. It makes the beer super cold and super awesome because your drinking in a fort.

So we started building the funnel fort, but we didn't finish it yet, as happy hour was calling our names. We shall finish it today.

Speaking of today, I woke up pretty early and got a 6 miler done before 8am. I don't know what gene humans have to make them sleep late, but I'm missing it. It doesn't matter what time I go to sleep, I can never ever sleep past like 830am. It's a real disease. I don't think I went to bed until about 2am, but I was up at 7. The crazy thing is that I can totally function on 5 hours of sleep. I might pass out for like 10 minutes while watching the tele or something, but I'll be good to go for sure.

Right now I'm watching The Tao of Steve. This movie got tons of indie critical acclaim when it came out back in 2000, but I don't think I know one other person that has ever seen it. It is an absolutely amazing movie.

I'm also waiting for Mike to wake up so we can continue to work on the funnel fort. A little known fact about Mike is that when he doesn't have work, he sleeps for 19 hours of the day.


Miles today and yesterday: 7 Year to Date: 125.5

adam is a sissy

So yesterday I wasn't in a particularly running friendly mood, so I only ran 2 miles after eating some fantastic Tex Mex from Burrito Loco with Mike. Today, I went out for 5 miles, but was distracted by Kimya Dawson, and I would up running 6.5 miles. It's supposed to snow tonight, but only 2-4 inches. 2-4 inches is just a nuisance. It's not enough to cancel school and work or to make a sick fort, but it's enough to make driving and running a real hassle.

So I did it. I signed up for the Providence Marathon on May 4th. On Monday, I'll start a 10 week training program. I was telling someone else whom will remain nameless, and they said "Why don't you start tomorrow?" Well my friends, training for a marathon is crazy. It's not like you can say "Ok I'm running a marathon, I'm gonna go for a jog." It needs to be planned out real specifically. Especially in my case where I am attempting to keep a streak alive. When I was training for the Disney Marathon, I would only be running 4 or 5 days a week. The 2 rest days are totally important. So I'm thinking for the days that I would normally take off, I'll just jog 1 or 2 miles, at a real slow pace. This will keep my streak alive, and hopefully will give my body the proper recovery it needs. It should be real interesting once I get to like a week before the marathon, when I should be tapering off and only running like 2 days. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

My favorite Canadian rock band is Rush. These are my favorite Rush songs, in top 8 order. If you are an old schooler like myself, you'll know that the top 8 is what Myspace originally had, not a top 40 nor a top 64. You also couldn't choose your top friends. It was in the order of who joined Myspace first. This system was good because I was in almost everyones top 8. But anyway, my top 8 Rush songs are as follows. (8 is my 8th fave, 1 is my top fave.)

8. New World Man
7. Working Man
6. Closer to the Heart
5. Limelight
4. Freewill
3. Spirit of the Radio
2. Tom Saywer
1. The Trees


Miles Run Yesterday and Today: 7 YTD: 118.5

P.S. If you want to know why the title of this post is "adam is a sissy" it's because we made a pact on January 4th not to cut our hair or shave our beards until July 4th. Keeping tidy was allowed. But Adam cut his hair yesterday. He took about 6 inches off. Therefore, he shall be known as a sissy for all eternity on the interwebs.

See Ya

i can haz marathon ?

So the terrible weather continued yesterday. More rain and incredibly strong winds kept me to a 3 mile run yesterday, but for some reason I completed the run in like 26 minutes, which is really quick for me. Usually I run a little slower in the rain, but not yesterday, so thats cool. Then this morning, the rain stopped, the sun was out, but the wind was pretty violent but I still got 4 miles in early this morning.

There is a lunar eclipse tomorrow night, and the Vanderbuilt Museum just got this huge ass new high tech telescope so they are having a party. I think I'm gonna go. Then on Thursday night, there are two move theaters on Long Island that are showing a documentary called "Spirit of the Marathon." It's only being shown for one night, so I'll probably go check that out too.

Speaking of marathons, I gotta get back into distance running. I would like to run 2 or 3 full marathons, and maybe 2 or 3 half marathons by the end of this year. I was checking out some marathon lists, and I think if I start a 10 week training program, I could be ready for the Providence Marathon on May 4th. May 4th is also the Long Island Marathon, but after running in the Long Island Half Marathon the past two years, I've come to the conclusion that it's probably the worst course in America. And from what I hear, Providence is a decent town, so I think I should be able to pull it off.

Freekend

Even though I haven't really had a job for the past three weeks, I still consider myself to be one of those "working for the weekend" types. I say this because none of my friends really do anything during the week, which is understandable because they all have real jobs. We are in our mid 20's after all. So during the week it's mostly just beating Nick and Tommy in Madden, and the occasional trip to the bowling alley to beat Nick and Tommy at on the lanes. But for the most part, the week is kept low key, until Friday, when Happy Hour rears it's beautiful head. This past Friday, after a nice 6 mile run for me, we chose to go to the Nutty Irishman to see The Jumpers, who are the best cover band in the tri state area. I have a great story about them that I will share sometime this week, when I feel the time is right. I think the best way to describe Friday night is by using a simple math equation, and it goes like this: Plenty of cheap booze + an awesome swing cover band / Mike + Sean + Nick x hot little babies = A real bloodbath. I even fell down on the dance floor. Good Night.

Saturday, I was up at a disgustingly early time for a Saturday, so I took advantage of the nice weather with a 8 mile run. Then, I went to Blue Point with Torey, Martine, and Martine's friend. Blue Point is the greatest place in the world. I am convinced. After that, I went to go see Kris Roe, the singer of the Atari's, play at Backstreet Blues, which is actually called Vibe Lounge now. My friend Terence opened, and I really enjoyed his band. You should check them out here. The show was pretty cool because Kris Roe played the entire "Blue Skies Broken Hearts..." album straight through. It was acoustic, but it was still pretty cool. I used to be really into the Atari's, and Blue Skies was always my favorite album, and while we are it, "San Dimas High School Football Rules" is my favorite song. Not of all time, clearly, but off that album at least. But it was a good time, my friend Danielle was there, and it's always nice to see her.

Then today, Sunday, I worked with Tommy on a shoot for the game show "Bet the House." I met the Maytag Repair Man, and I believe that he is the greatest actor of our generation. I'm not joking either. But it was a really long day, and it started to rain at like 7, so I only got in about 1.5 miles just a few minutes ago. Kind of a waste, but whatever. I feel good about it.

Now I'm sitting here watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition and trying not to bawl like a little baby, eating some sunflower seeds, and will probably be retiring to my quarters in a minute. I start a new job tomorrow. A real job. With benefits and all. I've been calling benefits "benny's" because it makes me feel cool. I'll write more on the subject tomorrow or Tuesday probably. Not now though, because they are about to move the bus and I have a lump in my throat.


Miles run this weekend: 15.5 Year to Date: 108.5

BTW: This time last year, I had run 113 miles at this point. But that was including the Disney Marathon. I'd say I'm on a pace to surpass the 1200 from last year for sure.

Happy Thursday

I guess posting a rain blog yesterday worked, because today was sunny and beautiful. In case you didn't know, a rain blog is just like a traditional rain dance, but we're in 2008, no one dances anymore. And there might not be any Native Americans either for all I know. Anywho, it was real nice out today... a tad blustery, but otherwise a real pleasant day. Maybe it had something to do with it being Valentines Day, but I doubt that. In honor of Valentines Day, I was gonna attempt a 14 mile run, but then I realized I hate Valentines Day, so I went out for a 14K instead. It was nice to get out for a longer run today after two days of crap weather and only a few miles each day.

As stated above, I do not celebrate Valentine's Day. I only capitalize it because it's proper English to do so. Now I'm not going to give you the old I hate Valentine's Day because it's a holiday made up by Hallmark to capitalize on idiots excuse, nor will I admit that I hate Valentine's Day because I am a single male and just jealous that everyone else is blowing half a paycheck on taking their darlings out tonight. By the way, nothing says "I love you" then some saturated fat and slutty lingerie. I don't celebrate VD (properly abbreviated if I may add) because of what it does to people. It just causes more and more stress for people who really don't need it. I will always remember two years ago, on February 13th, I was playing hockey and I hurt my foot real bad. The pain was so severe that I could not sleep. At about 1am, I decided to get some IcyHot for my foot. I went to the 24 hour Walgreens in my hood, and I kid you not, I saw 35 grown men frantically tearing the shelves apart looking for the last pieces of chocolate and the remaining overpriced stuffed gorilla that says "I go ape for you." Every single person looked miserable. I overheard one dude say to another "I fear the wrath of my wife." These men were not going home to their precious dolls to say "I love you babycakes. Happy Valentines Day, lets cuddle and watch Cameron Diaz movies." No my friends, these poor bastards were going home to say "Woman, I just waited on a line for 50 minutes to get you these flowers that are almost dead, and this stupid cow that says 'you really moooove me'. Don't you dare forget about Steak and BJ Day." *

So there you have it. Valentines Day just causes misery for most people, and I hate misery, therefore I hate Valentine's Day.

* For Steak and BJ Day, I will take my steak in the form of a chicken burger or vegetable lasagna.



Miles Run Today: 8.7 Year to Date: 106.2

stupid rain

I had an appointment to donate blood platelets at 11 this morning, so I woke up at 8 to get a quick 4 miler in before I had to leave. When I woke up, it was torrential downpours everywhere. The stupid rain melted the stupid snow, which was nice, but I didn't feel like getting cold and soaked first thing in the morning. So being the gambler that I am, I decided to forgo the morning run and hope that it would stop raining sometime during the afternoon or evening. So I went and donated some platelets, and I actually got two free tickets to the Bronx Zoo for donating, which is very cool. By like 2, the rain was just as strong as it was in the morning. I feel like The Sun hasn't been out in like 3 weeks. So I kept stalling my run, I watched Beerfest, did a few things, then around 530 I was just like "ok, just go out and run. It's only water." So I went out, and to my surprise, it was only drizzling, and it was like 50 degrees. It felt good to run in my shorts again. I only went out for like 3 miles because I kept getting landsharked, and the roads were slippery as hell.

Watching the Roger Clemens Congressional hearings today, I realized that this country is still as divided as ever. Every single Republican at the hearings were attacking Brian Mcnamee, and all the Democrats were going against Clemens, albeit not in the same capacity the Republicans were calling out Mcnamee. Watching the hearings, it is clear that Roger Clemens, the Southern boy who has ties to the Bush family, is guilty of using some kind of illegal stuff, but the Republicans wanted nothing to do with him and everything to do with accusing Mcnamee of wrong doing. It's crap like this, and about 250 other things, that annoy me about the two party system we have in this country. Thats why I'm proud to be a registered Green Party member. Whoever winds up with the Green nomination (right now its Cynthia Mckinney, but we all know Ralph Nader will be the eventual candidate), will have my vote. I know they won't be the next President, but at least I know that my vote will go to a candidate that stands for the most important issues (see below), and not to someone else who is going to further split this country.

10 Key Values of the Green Party

Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
Ecological Wisdom
Non-Violence
Decentralization
Community Based Economics and Economic Justice
Feminism and Gender Equity
Respect for Diversity
Personal and Global Responsibility
Future Focus and Sustainability


Miles run today: 3 Year to Date: 98.5

Happy Lincolns Birthday

Hey so I just got in from a quick 3.5 mile run. Interesting story. I was watching Houseguest, which I believe is Sinbad's finest work, and I planned on running after it was over at around 3:30. But just as Sinbad was telling Phil Hartman the truth, I noticed it was snowing like mad outside. Running in the snow stinks, so I hopped up, got my stuff on, barely stretched, and started to run. Now I was planning on running 4.7 miles in honor of Abraham Lincolns birthday being today (4 score and 7 years ago), but like a jerk, I forgot to bring my running glasses out with me. The snow was more like rain at first, and it was just getting into my eyes and just annoying me. I ran my first 2 miles really quick, in like 17 minutes. Then the snow started to stick, causing me to shorten my stride and really focus on planting my feet. It took me almost 17 more minutes to run 1.5 miles. Bottom line is, running in the snow is annoying.

One good thing about starting this streak now is that yesterday was, according to the major news outlets, the coldest ever. So I ran yesterday wearing track pants, a t shirt and a long sleeve shirt, thin glove liners, and a hat. And I really was not that cold. Let it be known, I absolutely hate and despise running in pants. I actually just hate wearing pants in general, but thats a different story for a different day. The coldest run I've ever done came in January of 2007, a 5 mile race at Sunken Meadow State Park. I wore shorts and a technical shirt, gloves and a hat. I felt fine. But these past couple of weeks while running in shorts, I've been getting some nasty wind burn on my legs after running, so I've
come up with a general rule that I'm going to follow: Under 25 degrees and windy.. I wear pants... Under 25 and calm.. game time decision. But anything under 20 degrees, I'm gonna wear pants. As long as I'm wearing my glove liners and winter hat, I'm good for anything over 25.

I just realized I wrote "interesting story" up top there. This was not interesting. If you are reading this, I promise this blog will be more entertaining as time goes on. Running in the snow isn't as bad as it seems, but running in the slush and the crap that road sanders leave, that sucks, and thats what I have to look forward to tomorrow.


" Abe Lincoln, God Bless him"
- Bishop Allen


Miles run today: 3.5 Year to date: 95.5

A Streak Begins (Hopefully)

In 2007, I ran over 1200 miles. This included a full marathon (Disney in January), two half marathons, and a bunch of 5k's, 10k's, 15k's, etc.... 1200 miles, at my average (and extremely mediocre) 9 minute mile, is the equivalent of running for 7.5 days, if my math is correct, and there is a good chance it's not. Now running that much seems kind of cool,and I'm totally proud of myself, but after reading about the phenomenon of "streak running," I realized that I'm kind of a sissy when it comes to running.

Late last year, I read a story on espn.com (read the story here) about a guy in South Florida, Robert Kraft, who is going to reach his 100,000th mile ran this year. He has run at least one mile, every single day, for the past 33 years. And the crazy thing is, he doesn't even own the longest streak in the country. There are some others that have been running at least one mile every day for 37 , even 40 years.

After reading Kraft's story and researching tons of others, I decided I wanted to start my own running streak. At the time, I was in a bit of a running funk, so I decided to start the streak on January 1st, 2008. January 1st, I ran 6 miles. January 2nd, I took a bad spill on a waveboard, and hurt my back real bad. I could barely walk. My streak was already over. After like two weeks of rehabbing the back, I figured I would try to start the streak back up again. I was going real good up until February 9th, when after a hard night of birthday celebrating, I decided I was in no shape to run, thus ending my streak again.

Today, February 11th, 2008, 4 days after my 25th birthday, I said to myself - "Sean, you just turned 25. You have not done much. Get out there and do something." So I went for a 9 mile run. And on my run, I decided that today would be the day that my streak really, really begins. No more stupid excuses. No more riding waveboards and getting hurt. Just run. At least a mile every day.

So why start another blog? Well, during my run today, I was trying to think of ways to keep myself motivated to run every day. And in my warped mind, I thought to myself "Hey man start a new blog, and people will fall in love with it, and they are gonna want to read it every day, and you can only write stuff after a run." Well, there are a bunch of running blogs out there that I read all the time, and the running community is pretty tight, so maybe there will be a few other runners out there that would be interested in this blog and will keep me going. Also, while running, I tend to think more than I usually do, and I do enjoy writing, so this would be a good place to keep me going. I've had a couple of blogs in the past, like this one, but I never really kept them updated on a regular basis. So if I'm going to be logging my runs, I might as well be blogging my thoughts.

So yeah, thats that. I'm gonna do my best to get this streak really going. I've come to the conclusion that I probably won't be a famous skateboarder or rock and roll star, so maybe this will be a way to leave my mark on society. I'm not saying I'm going to be the next Robert Kraft, but hell, I also didn't think I would ever run a full marathon, or 1200 miles in a single year.

On a side note, February 12th is Abraham Lincolns Birthday. If you know me, you know that I'm a bit of an Abraham Lincoln enthusiast, so I will leave you with a few of my favorite Abe quotes that pertain to my newest endeavor.

" I say try, if we never try, we shall never succeed"

"By no means say 'if I can', say 'I will"

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important that any one thing"

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today"

"Live a good life, and in the end, it's not the amount of years left in the life, but life left in the years"


Miles run today: 9 Year to Date: 92