I AM HARDCORE!!!!!!!

Ok I'll tone down the adrenaline a tad. Last night I decided to cram in a couple of campus loops at Central before my 7:00PM Computer Science course with Moscow's version of Bill Gates. as usual I was clad in long sleeves, beanie, gloves and shorts. ( wind pants are for wimps...or temps under 35 degrees.) Well according to my Subaru's handy dandy thermometer it was 40 degrees about 35 with wind chill, now most sane, smart, ...insert adjective here ...runners would pack it in and do laps of the indoor track, or hit the treadmill , but not me unless there's a solid sheet of ice on the ground I'm running on natural surfaces, or concrete, or asphalt, or vulcanized rubber....anyhow I did the first of my two 2 mile-ish loops around the fairly well lit campus. As I ran down the hill past the Orthodox Cemetery ( seriously is God trying to tell me to become Orthodox..granted I'm Catholic which is Orthodox light) and some moron took the turn to merge on to Route 9 to tight and flipped his Grand Cherokee on to its side, attracting a crowd of sympathetic collegiate by-standers....( you know the guys that are utterly wasted or going to get utterly wasted ..walking by going "dude, that guy flipped over.") As I ran past I tried to ask what happened but as I saw the driver climb out and start to talk with someone who had ran into the back of the jeep, I realized he was alright(at least physically), and my first aid skills would not be needed as I continued on my way. Other than the car flipping there was really nothing else of note from my run. the campus was fairly well lit ( so I was visible to traffic and anyone planning on mugging or " having their way" with me was in sight.) So I felt fairly safe. Once again physical exertion kept my legs warm against the biting cold. Serveral students watched amazed as I ran up "the Hill" with little effort. Also the looks of "Is this guy nuts?" epecially from the ladies, who were checking out my sexy defined calves and shit....well goto go the 5-o's in the office.
R.D.

Night Ride.....kind sorta

well for the first time since friday, I manned up and decided to ride The Bitch Stomper on its true domain: The open road. Braving Temps hovering in the low 40's high 30's I walked out layered well on my upper half ( Wool beanie, those stretchy running gloves, base layer tank top, dri release t- shirt, Holy Cross track long sleeve, Louis Garneau long sleeve jersey ( reflective yellow)) but was wearing only bike shorts and two pairs of socks covering the lower half, the logic was the constant climbing of the hills in the burbs would warm my legs. I managed to eek in 12 miles before it got too dark for me to be seen by speeding rush hour traffic, yet surprisingly most motorists gave me room (You guys who gave me room rock!) I descended down Lyman road at the wuss-esque 24 miles per hour ( stupid potholes.) climbed into Waterbury and road past Montoe Park then on to North main, past the Russian Orthodox Church and began the big climb back into Wolcott, as I approached the top I ran my hand over my head and felt only the soft wool of the beanie....I had done the first and most dangerous six miles of my ride sans helmet, two thoughts ran through my head as I pedaled back home to grab my blue plastic second skull, the first : I was bad ass like those guys who did the tour in the 80's . Nothing like descending the Calibier with your mullet blowing wildly knowing one wrong move and it's be au revior, Bernard* ( shameless reference to the 5 time tour champ.) the second was the primal fear of if I got hit I would be an instant organ donor. (I told my parents if I ever crashed hard and they were picking up grey matter off the road, then you might as well give my organs away because I most likely won't recover from that.) Any way I made it home got the helmet and desecnded the other side of Lyman rd. to Route 69 for my second 6. As I crossed 69 during a luck lull in the traffic, I made my way toward Scovil's dam. The cross wind kicked up and unlike in other rides where I slowed my pace , I kicked it up a knotch, with a "bring it bitch" attitude. I got around the lake then started the big climbs up Boundline rd. ( those of you wondering why I was able to climb geer mountain with out dismounting this climb is why.) The hill starts gradual with one quick burner then a nice false flat and a major burner that curves to the top. Well I kicked it into "lance armstrong mode" spinning as much as the gears would allow to the top, occasionally getting out of the saddle to push. I rode past the cemetery , high school and library descending down route 322 past Pat's IGA. I climbed up Beach Rd. a long gradual climb past the nursing home and then took it through my "old hood" before riding home. 12 miles wasn't bad for about 45 minutes. my legs held up well but my feet were blocks of ice so a set of toe covers is a purchase coming in the near future. All in all it wa a good day of training i went to class but the run never matetrialized although my bio professor and I talked for about 50 min. on training, treatment for shin splints, and other running topics so I guess that counts right. Well back to Work,
The Tell-Tale Teller
R.D.

Freedom !!!!!!! For at least a couple days.

Ding dong, the cholera paper is as dead as the 40,000 Londoners it took to an early grave in 1854 ( to qoute stalin, " One death is a tragedy, 1000 is a statistic"). So now after being repremanded for only using five sources (I thought they were pretty good, but I guess I need to spend more time looking at articles that say the same damn thing..boring yes tedious, yes but necessary. My next paper the bibliography will be as long as the paper itself.) So I have a slight reprieve from the paper writing for the moment giving me a couple of free days to train, before I hit the library and ransack the sheleves of medical journals, discussing the unsanitary conditions of Gulags, refugee camps, and the dreaded Nazi concentration camps as breeding grounds of un-holy plauges. Yes, another real upper of a paper. Ok getting out of my acadamea fueled rage Tonight holds on tap a swim, of hopefully 4000 yards. Tomorrow a 5am wakeup call awaits me followed by my first double session in almost 4 days. It will most likely be a swim and a late afternoon run followed by a night searching the web for research materials. ( hopefully 5 articles ) I will most likely hit the trainner on Thursday followed by a post work, pre-class run. Friday, Masters, library, register for next semester, research till I can't research no more...seriously it is like some law of medicine that you must quote 50 guys saying the same crap. alright rage done...hitting the coffee shop then the pool.
The Repressed Researcher.
R.D.

Fifa, Long Runs, Steve McQueen and cholera,

These four almost non related items are what made up my weekend.
Fifa World Cup 06 for my xbox took the boredom out of procrastination as I struggled to get 3 pages ( at post time I'm currnetly on 5 ) of my 8 page cholera paper done. Surprisingly I have made the U.S. a power in World FOOTBALL! ( yes I said it it's football.football football football you wankers.) the highlight of this video game football mania was me beating Germany 2-1 for the world cup..so yeah I was sitting around on the good black box of laziness for way too long.

On Saturday, after my plans for a long ride were dashed by a phone call from the boss lady. I went for a long Zen out/ hallucinogenic 13 mile run in the lovely cross winds. no for anyone who's read my comment on Angry's site, yes I am crazy I was running clad in my blue wind pants a long sleeve bike/ running jacket, with my fuel belt 4 bottle endurance clasped around my waist running my loop of the town. the start and the finish weren't so bad but the middle 3 miles where I was running past Scovils's dam were brutal. Wind kicked up off the water blowing me around with tremendous force and I gritted my teeth and plowed through it. About mile 6 or 7 I started seeing a vision of some buddist monk, whether he was encouraging me of taunting i'm not sure, all I know is if I'm seeing shit it probably means I'm not hydrated enough. After taking a few swigs of gatorade the Dali Lama disappeared and even more random shit starting going through my head, first I was envisioning Willie Nelson's whiny manager's interview slot on the Kona 2006 dvd. then I got scenes from the Rocky VI training video stuck in my head, by the time I finished my 13 mile run I had been through a whirl wind of visions, training montages, and tracks from my i-pod that I some how committed to memory. My head ...well it's a scary place to visit....and no to answer everyone's question I was not on drugs....

The cholera...or slim fast gone wrong as I like to call it, has already been mentioned. It's my medical Anthropology paper which is due tomorrow. and for the sake of all my readers who are not in the medical field I will not go into details all I will say is this if you've got cholera you should grab about 6 IV's of Saline, some, minocycline, the last six issues of triathlete , inside triathlon, and runner's world , a gallon sized jug of Pepto and barricade yourself in the bathroom....if that hasn't given away the effects of the disease nothing will.

So where does Steve Mc Queen feature in all of this random garbage. Yesterday, as I was procrastinating, I mean researching and working diligently on my paper I happened across one of my favorite you tube videos and quotes of all time. The video was from the movie Le Mans ( yes I have a thing for sports car racing especially the endurance shit, nothing like watching a group of 3 guys bitch stomp the hell out of a 911 for 24 hours, while about 70 other psychos are doing the same shit to other exotic marquees.) the most philospophical item I was able to pull from this 7 minute clip of Rock music, and automotive carnage came in the last two minutes of the clip. when he describes racing, it's similar to my view on triathlon. To qoute Mc Queen:

" Racing is important to those who do it well. Anything you did before or after is ..well...just waiting."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ORa-y0TkFA

R.D.