Is it worth the gamble?

Taking a break from holiday activities Jan and I ended up in Niagara Falls, NY. We thought a couple of nights in a nice hotel (Hampton Inn) and a trip to the casino would do us good. Who can resist the chance of hitting it big in a casino? Not us.
We went on a strict gambling budget. Naturally being high rollers, this meant around $60 each. We have always avoided the gaming tables and stuck to the slots. Losing $5 to $50 per hand in Blackjack or one of the other games is just too scary and happens too fast. They need quarter tables for amateurs like us to begin on, then we can move up if finances and our comfort level increases.

What ten things did we learn in the past two days?
1. Sometimes it's nice to make our own schedule. Want to sleep in? No problem. Want to exercise in the hotel "gym" (3 machines and some free weights). Two in the afternoon is a nice time, people checked out from the night before and hadn't begun arriving for the next night yet. We had the room and, later, the whirlpool hot tub to ourselves!
2. We can eat a lot of food at the casino buffet. Why have one plate of food when three would suffice? Don't forget about dessert, just look at all those cakes and the yummy peanut butter mousse. Our diet doesn't begin until January 1st, so the man carving prime rib and I became close friends.
3. Evidently NY State Parks hasn't yet grasped the idea of salt on icy roads and walking paths. Visiting the Falls on Goat Island to watch them illuminated almost meant a slide into the Niagara river.
4. Speaking of the NY falls illumination, where were the lights? We only saw white lights along the river going to the falls, no colored, pretty, falls lights. That was a bust.
5. We forgot how smoky a Native American casino can be. Of course, they sell tobacco products so smoking is really encouraged. You have to walk through the giant smoking casino area to get to the non-smoking area that is maybe 20% the size. You walk through the smoke to get to the buffet, which thankfully has a large non-smoking area. The newest slots are in the smoking area. I almost bought a pack of cigs just to fit in.
6. In our mid-fifties Jan and I were much younger than the average patron in the casino.
7. We are polar opposites when it comes to betting. Jan loves the penny slots and bets maybe $.40 a game. If I play a game it's the maximum bet which gives the best return if luck is on my side. Inflation has evidently hit the casinos as the max bet on many machines is $2-$5 dollars. I found a few that were still $1-$1.25.
8. So who won? Well, Jan played the longest with her $60 and ended up after two trips to the casino with a loss of $10 - not bad for the hours of fun. I lost $60 the first day, a personal record. But taking another chance on the second day I hit one machine for $31 and a second for $71, a tidy profit.
9. People watching in casinos is fun. As Jan was losing $5 on the huge Wheel of Fortune slot over the course of 10 minutes, a man sat down on a similar slot and put in the max bet of $5. In less than one minute he lost $25 and left. I saw this happen to many people. Where do they get the money? Is this really where their Social Security checks and 401k money is going?
10. Other than three hotels around the casino I don't see where the area has been built up. I don't buy the argument that a casino makes a city better. I like, a little, playing in one, but really have not seen how it makes a big impact on the local economy.

2013 in Review

This was not a banner year for reaching the athletic goals I set up for 2013.

1. Run a 5k averaging under 7 minute/mile pace. My best was 22:53 at Medved Father's Day race, though I did get first in my age group in the Mutt Strut 5k in Alabama.
2. Run a 10k under 45 minutes. Not even close, ran one 10k in January, 48:09.
3. Lose 6 lbs. I gained 3, but I'm sure it's all muscle.
4. Bench press 200lbs 4x in a row on my home gym (200 is the most weight on the gym). I made this one, benching 200 5x in late November. I couldn't bench 190 when the year started.
5. Commute by bicycle to work an average of 1x/week from April - October. Maybe averaged 2x a month.
6. Beat Amanda and Jan on a virtual tour across the USA from Spencerport to Beaverton, Oregon, 3,000 miles. None of us have come close to that many miles yet. Jan is in Nebraska, I'm in Iowa and Amanda is in Illinois.
7. Perhaps the most disappointing goal not reached; Beat MW in races. This did not happen once, not even close.

One personal positive? I am 114/142 in the USA duathlon national rankings for the 55-59 age group. Not really sure how that happened.

Eileen was 34/62 for females in her age group national duathlon rankings!

2014 National Snowshoe Championships

The 10k championship race returns to the northeast this season. Woodford Ski Resort in Vermont, eight miles from Bennington and about sixty minutes from Albany, NY is the host site. Events begin on Friday, February 28 and last until Sunday, March 2. The championship 10k race is on Saturday.
Take a look at this video for more information.

More information can be found at the USSSA web site. Qualifying events (yes, you have to qualify to race in the championship - and be a USSSA member), are being held all over the country.

Championship race courses are different and quite challenging. Lots of single track and typically hilly to mountainous, with many steep ups and downs.

Freezing at the Freezeroo!

"It's bad enough being miserable, but it is even worse when everyone else claims to be miserable, too." Eeyore.

A few days after coming down with the West Coast Virus (brought to NY by family from Portland), I decided maybe stopping running and sitting inside my house with a vaporizer, bottles of Mucinex, boxes of Kleenex and my warm sweat clothes on might be in order.

I don't like using sick days from work, at least not for being sick. I much prefer calling in sick when I'm really going on a fifty mile bike ride followed by five miles of running. This time, however, I was really sick and co-workers told me to stay away, so I did.  Cable television was not my savior. Even with 100 channels, or whatever it is, tv gets boring. How many DIY shows could I watch? Normally I feel inadequate after one handy show, but days of them? If I can pound a nail without striking my thumb it's a good project. Sports channels are another thing. I have several available, but they don't show much sport, it's all talking heads telling me about sports and gossip. I might as well watch Rona Barrett, the Hollywood gossip columnist.

By Friday I felt human again and decided maybe, just maybe, I would run a race I had pre-registered and paid for (unusual for this year). The first Freezeroo, a series of six winter races in the Rochester area, was being held just 8 miles away and was only a 5k. Even after five days of not running I could finish a 5k. Race morning came after a six inch snowfall the day before and twelve degrees. Almost 200 hardy souls showed up, and after a 2+ mile warmup I knew I could finish. It felt good to be outside breathing fresh air. MikeImnotreallyracingtoday Weinpress started next to me. I saw the back of his hat for half a mile, then I think we were in different time zones. EileenIwantmysnowshoes Weinpress also came to race.

Some runners flew over the snowy, icy, slick surfaced roads and bike path. I slow-danced the two-step, concentrating on not falling. MW ended up 4/18 in his age group, I was 7/18 (though 2 minutes behind Mike). Eileen, not in the series, at least not yet, would have been 5th in her age group. Next up is the New Year's Day 7.5 mile hilly race at Mendon Ponds. Here's one vote hoping for some bare pavement to race on.

Retirement on Horizon?

One of our own, hereafter known as Lou, will soon be retiring from 35 years of work from Lifetime Assistance Inc., headquarters in Rochester, NY. 
"Lifetime Assistance, Inc. has grown into a community leader – and is the largest, most comprehensive agency in the Greater Rochester area serving children and adults with developmental disabilities. Lifetime provides a full spectrum of services for persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Mental Retardation and Neurological Impairments." (quote from their website).
Lou was one of the original employees and became the executive vice president. We have been trying to figure out what Lou is doing during the last couple of weeks of his employment. Here are the top ten items;

Top ten things Lou is doing for the next 2 weeks at work;

   

1.       Brought a tanning bed into the office to prep his skin for Florida

2.       Planning his fantasy baseball acquisitions –spring training is right around the corner.

3.       Emailing Yankee management on trades/signings to make.

4.       Going from office to office and saying, “I’m still the boss, and you aren’t.

5.       Taking a morning nap.

6.       Going to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and coming back 2 hours later.

7.       Taking an online cooking class so he can make meals for his wife Joanne.

8.       Playing “football” with paper folded into squares on his empty desk.

9.       Watching The Price is Right on his work computer.

10.   Taking an afternoon nap.

Wind in the Willows

A serious debate has erupted within the local running community. Is wind chill a believable, useful tool or a myth perpetuated by weather people to assist in gathering viewers?

A strong, vocal minority of our usual running group believes the wind chill measurement is bunk. The rest of us are pretty sure this minority also thinks the earth is flat, astronauts didn't go to the moon and the Buffalo Bills will win a Super Bowl.

A cold Saturday morning (25 degrees) and a 12 mph wind from the S-SW found us debating which direction on the canal path we should begin our run. Common sense dictated going toward the west. We headed east, which meant the out and back run ended with the last three miles + going into the wind. Here is an explanation of wind chill;
"wind chill, also spelled windchill, a measure of the rate of heat loss from skinthat is exposed to the air. It is based on the fact that, as wind speeds increase, the heat loss also increases, making the air “feel” colder." (Encyclopedia Britannica).

 And from the National Weather Service, " The NWS Windchill Temperature (WCT) index uses advances in science, technology, and computer modeling to provide an accurate, understandable, and useful formula for calculating the dangers from winter winds and freezing temperatures.

Even without believing in wind chill, obviously it is easier to run with the wind at your back. But maybe the anti-windchill gang are diehard Bob Seger fans, "Against the wind,We were runnin' against the wind
We were young and strong, we were runnin', Against the wind."

Of course we are not young and still strong is also debatable. Winter has just begun here in upstate NY, I'm sure we will be having many more discussions on which direction to run in.

Race with Grace

Congratulations to the awesome team of Mike and Eileen who each finished third in their age group at the Thanksgiving Day Race with Grace 10k. Mike beat 57 runners in his age group. Eileen was 3/28. They were also 13/58 in the husband/wife team competition, which includes runners of all ages. Over 1,100 runners completed the race on a cold 20 degree day.

Should I Race or Should I Go?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Lots of food, football and this year my daughter, son-in-law and 1 yr. old granddaughter will be with us in Spencerport, flying from Portland, Oregon. My oldest daughter flies in Friday night from Alabama, so the clan will all be together, which doesn't happen much anymore.

Tradition also has it that Jan and I run the Race with Grace 10k on Thursday morning. I have run the race 18/21 times, missing it for a trip to Disney, a winter storm and the birth of Ellowyn(grandchild). Last night a winter storm hit the east coast, giving the Rochester, NY area around 8 inches of wet, heavy snow and making traveling a hassle. At 9:20am tomorrow the Portland crew arrives after flying all night, first landing in Newark, NJ, then on to Rochester. The RWG begins at 9am.

Jan has already said she is skipping the race to meet them at the airport. I have permission to race, since I would be home shortly after 10am, probably around the same time as the Portland crew. But is running a race the right thing to do? This classic song by "The Clash" seemed to fit into my thought process, though they are talking about a slightly different relationship issue. (you can click off the ads in the video)

Triathlon Speed Part 3

In the book, "Faster: Demystifying the Science of Triathlon Speed", the author uses scientific research from studies done around the world to help athletes go faster in triathlons without taking out a second mortgage.

Now we concentrate on the run, the last part of the series.
Want to get faster?  Lose weight, your own body weight. This will help on the bike and the run. Don’t spend $3000 on a bike to save 2-3 pounds, go on a diet, eat less and healthier and lose the same or more, for free.  This will also change the rate at which your body generates and expels heat, giving you a faster run time (p141).
The past three days I ran 19 miles and lifted weights. I gained 2 pounds! Not the result I was seeking.
Sure the wonderful coconut frosting birthday cake I ate might not have been the best for dieting. Thinking back, Saturday, after an 8 mile run my lunch consisted of a huge piece of cake, but I did drink water with it. That may not have been my best choice for a meal. Maybe I should follow the advice of Barefoot Pete who told me, "Mike, why don't you try fasting for one day a week?" when I complained about being 10+ pounds over race weight. I seem to be able to fast for about 2-3 hours, then I start eating again. I'm pretty sure that isn't what Pete meant.
Anyhow - more free speed; Don’t overstride, aim for 180-190 strides per minute, for most runners this mean having a shorter stride. There will be less vertical force used, less braking force and less time on the ground, all of which make you a faster, more efficient runner – for free! A slow cadence puts a lot of force on your joints and slows you down.

There you have it! Some great ideas to get faster in your next triathlon without spending much, if any, money. Swim technique, a decent but not the most expensive, wetsuit; learn to bike aerodynamically, research and choose the best clincher tires, maybe buy an aero helmet; and, finally, learn to run without overstriding and having a quicker stride rate. Oh, and for most of us, lose weight. 

Triathlon Speed: Part II

In the book, "Faster: Demystifying the Science of Triathlon Speed", the author uses scientific research from studies done around the world to help athletes go faster in triathlons without taking out a second mortgage.

Now we concentrate on "The Bike".

Of course you can spend untold fortunes buying a light, fast bike (a bike is not fast though, the rider makes it fast –bikes just sit there without someone pedaling).  So – work on your engine, this only costs time.
Also, and most important, work on being aero throughout the race, down on the bars.

Not satisfied? Then spend a little money by getting an aero helmet, a relatively cheap method to decrease drag. Helmets with shorter tails and steeper taper angles are the best. (p92). Secondly, research tires, there is a significant difference on rolling resistance between clincher tires. It’s really where you can get the most bang for your dollar (p.106). The best tire can save you about 60 seconds over a 25 mile race, doing an IM – that’s 4:30 saved just by having the right tire. Remember, the time saved is also energy conserved for the run. Tire pressure is also important, aim for 110psi, any higher and the ride will get bumpy and diminishing returns in rolling resistance.

Disc wheels, depending on wind direction, can be more aerodynamic, but how much money do you want to spend? This is about spending the least to get the most, not looking cool with the shiniest equipment.  

Drafting on the bike, in most triathlons, is illegal, it does give a huge advantage (think Peloton at Tour de France), so forget that technique. The author does strongly suggest getting a Power Meter for your bike, the most effective method of training and measuring your effort during a race. Power Meter’s cost a few hundred though, so it may be out of reach for some people.