I think I am going to have to postpone the 13-miler until next week.
In the meantime, I am boning up on 6-milers - both yesterday and today, and will probably do one tomorrow, too.
yesterday's 74-minute 6 mile run was very difficult. I decided to run along a path I discovered when Geocaching. It is in the area of Saddle Brook, New Jersey. I thought the park was about 2 miles long, and would explore the paths and probably run every inch of it that day. So after a mile or so, I discovered an excellent running path with markers every tenth of a mile! This was great! On my side of the markers, it would say 1.1 miles, 1.2 miles, etc. So when I looked on the other side of them, they said 4.9 miles and 4.8 miles. Turns out that this is a 6-mile course that extends from near the i-80/GSP intersection, north behind the garden state plaza, across rt 4, and then north all the way to Ridgewood, without a crossing above a single steet! Every crossing went under the roadway next to the creek that this path runs along. It's great!
Anyway, I ran out to the 3-mile marker and back. It was pretty hot & I was spent by the end of the run. I had a cotton t-shirt that weighed about 10 lbs when I was done.
Today, I decided to run the other half of the path - so I found the start in Ridgewood and ran south this time to the 3-mile marker and back. It was a little earlier so not as hot, plus I had a tech tank-top top.
Now, along all of these paths, there are dozens of walkers, runners, rollerbladers, and bicyclists. I'm always jogging slower than the runners, bladers, and cyclists; and faster than the walkers. on the way back, however, at about mile 3.2, I spotted a guy in a blue shirt running in front of me - I was catching up to a runner! At 320 lbs, this doesn't happen very often. By mile 4 I was right behind him - and when he noticed my presense, he sped up! oh my word - a guy who didn't want to be passed. so he surged about ten feet in front of me, and, remembering some of coach glover's tips from the "competitive runner's handbook," i matched his pace. my competitive juices were flowing, and all of that information from the race tactics chapter (that I thought would never apply to me), flooded my brain. it's better to stay behind him, keep up, and surge past at a difficult moment to demoralize him. I'm a bastard, I know. So I made sure to run close enough to BlueShirt that he sensed my presense, and no matter how fast he ran, I would stay there. Then, my opportunity struck. Suddenly, we were on an uphill run - approaching a bridge over a creek. It's not that big a hill - there's probably about 20-30 feet of gain over a tenth of a mile. But I knew this was my chance. I kicked it into high gear and passed him - keeping in mind all the demoralizing tips from coach glover: keep good posture, don't let him see you breath hard, pass him quickly and decisively, and put some space between you and him. If you're trained, a hill is the perfect place to do this. Thank God for all that trail-running I've been doing - it's really been helping. I didn't look back for a while - I knew he was probably there, but now with him behind me, he was in a position to retaliate. In the meantime, there were a couple of more small hills that I was sure to surge up. After about a half-mile, on a turn before another hill, I looked and saw BlueShirt about 100 ft behind me. That was too close for my comfort, so I really pushed over this hill and maintained about a 10-minute per mile pace for the next mile or so - really fast for me. By the time I finished, he was nowhere to be found. He must have parked his car somewhere other than the end of the path. I wanted to thank him for helping me really kick my workout up a notch, but I guess it wasn't in the cards.
So, BlueShirt, whereever you are, thank you for providing me with the motivation I needed to get a kick-ass workout today.
Sep 8, 2006
Sep 7, 2006
stats geek time. can the mets win 100 games?
Here is what I gather looking at nothing but statistics..
Their current record is 86-52. Out of 24 remaining games, they'd have to win 14. that's 58.3%, and their winning percentage for the whole year at this point is 62.3%. To win 100 games at the end of the season, their winning % must be 61.7%.
Lets look at the opponents they have left:
4 Games against the dodgers (74-65, .532, 1st place NL west)
7 games against the marlins (70-69, .504, 2nd place NL east)
3 games against the pirates (56-84, .400, last place NL central)
7 games against the nationals (61-78, .439, last place NL east)
3 games against the braves (66-73, .475, 4th place NL east)
11 games against teams with winning records, 13 against teams with losing records.
The strongest team appears to be the hated LA dodgers, who are in a very tight race with the padres to win the NL west. The 2nd place team in the NL west will likely still go to the playoffs as the wildcard. They're 7-3 in their last ten, the same as the mets. They're also the next 4 games the mets play, and those games will be at Shea. The mets are stronger at home than on the road - 45-24 so far this year, a winning percentage of 65.2%. The dodgers are VERY weak on the road, with a record of 30-38, a dismal 44.1%.
The weakest team they'll play looks to be pittsburgh - last place in the worst division in baseball.
Their current record is 86-52. Out of 24 remaining games, they'd have to win 14. that's 58.3%, and their winning percentage for the whole year at this point is 62.3%. To win 100 games at the end of the season, their winning % must be 61.7%.
Lets look at the opponents they have left:
4 Games against the dodgers (74-65, .532, 1st place NL west)
7 games against the marlins (70-69, .504, 2nd place NL east)
3 games against the pirates (56-84, .400, last place NL central)
7 games against the nationals (61-78, .439, last place NL east)
3 games against the braves (66-73, .475, 4th place NL east)
11 games against teams with winning records, 13 against teams with losing records.
The strongest team appears to be the hated LA dodgers, who are in a very tight race with the padres to win the NL west. The 2nd place team in the NL west will likely still go to the playoffs as the wildcard. They're 7-3 in their last ten, the same as the mets. They're also the next 4 games the mets play, and those games will be at Shea. The mets are stronger at home than on the road - 45-24 so far this year, a winning percentage of 65.2%. The dodgers are VERY weak on the road, with a record of 30-38, a dismal 44.1%.
The weakest team they'll play looks to be pittsburgh - last place in the worst division in baseball.
Sep 6, 2006
steve tursi pilots a REAL plane
Here's a really cool comment posted to an earlier livejournal entry of mine:
How cool is that?
Well, steve, if you're still here - may I point out to you the livejournal entry from May 9, 2006 where I, too, googled my own name and found half-a-dozen other steven tursis, including the myspace page of a steven tursi from queens who happened to be a pilot. Any relation? That myspace page is now gone, by the way.
Moving right along, I thought I'd share some inspiring before/after pictures of people who've lost a lot of weight.
First off, we have Dennis from California, who went from 395 to about 225 between September 2005 and July 2006. I came across him on a running message board.
(edit - I had to rehost the images because blogger prohibits external links)
Then, via a link from a skiing message board, we have a John Doe, who went from 465 to 190 between December 2004 and September 2006 (scroll down a bit.)
Dennis' weblog can be found at http://athlete395.blogspot.com
running update.
I ended up taking 11 consecutive days off from running, which was way too much - more than I needed - but I did need some time off to recover from the training I had been doing. My last run before the hiatus was a 9 miler on August 24th, which I did in just under 2 hours. On September 5 (yesterday), I ran a 3 mile tempo-run around Rockland Lake. It was raining. My time, 31:15, about a minute slower than my last 3-miler, indicated that I had indeed lost a little bit of the cardiovascular fitness, but it wasn't drastic or severe. Still, I was dissapointed. Today, I did three miles on trails - and for kicks, I included a ½-mile long hill where I gain about 400 feet. It was tough, but definitely doable and I am excited about starting to incorporate hills into my training program.
My immediate goal is to stay on schedule and not fall behind. To that end, I am scheduled to run 23 miles this week with a 13-miler long run, and I'm going to do my damnest to get it done. The plan is to run a 3,3,4,13, and I've already done the two three's. However, I feel like I really need to re-acclimate myself to longer distances before running the 13er, and 4 isn't going to cut it. So I am instead planning on running a 6-9 miler tomorrow, taking friday off to recover, and then the 13 miler on saturday.
I'll have a better idea of how saturday will go after tomorrow's run.
-steve
How weird! 2006-09-05 06:05 am UTC
Well, lets see.. I just randomly stumbled upon this site when I did a google search of my name. Would it be weird if I told you that I used to work as a flight instructor out of Teterboro? Would it be stranger to also tell you that I have flown that very same aircraft (tail# N89721) you all are jogging after? I got a better one for ya, my name is also Steve Tursi! What a strange coincidence that two of us were literally feet away without ever knowing it! What a small world! haha
How cool is that?
Well, steve, if you're still here - may I point out to you the livejournal entry from May 9, 2006 where I, too, googled my own name and found half-a-dozen other steven tursis, including the myspace page of a steven tursi from queens who happened to be a pilot. Any relation? That myspace page is now gone, by the way.
Moving right along, I thought I'd share some inspiring before/after pictures of people who've lost a lot of weight.
First off, we have Dennis from California, who went from 395 to about 225 between September 2005 and July 2006. I came across him on a running message board.
(edit - I had to rehost the images because blogger prohibits external links)
Then, via a link from a skiing message board, we have a John Doe, who went from 465 to 190 between December 2004 and September 2006 (scroll down a bit.)
Dennis' weblog can be found at http://athlete395.blogspot.com
running update.
I ended up taking 11 consecutive days off from running, which was way too much - more than I needed - but I did need some time off to recover from the training I had been doing. My last run before the hiatus was a 9 miler on August 24th, which I did in just under 2 hours. On September 5 (yesterday), I ran a 3 mile tempo-run around Rockland Lake. It was raining. My time, 31:15, about a minute slower than my last 3-miler, indicated that I had indeed lost a little bit of the cardiovascular fitness, but it wasn't drastic or severe. Still, I was dissapointed. Today, I did three miles on trails - and for kicks, I included a ½-mile long hill where I gain about 400 feet. It was tough, but definitely doable and I am excited about starting to incorporate hills into my training program.
My immediate goal is to stay on schedule and not fall behind. To that end, I am scheduled to run 23 miles this week with a 13-miler long run, and I'm going to do my damnest to get it done. The plan is to run a 3,3,4,13, and I've already done the two three's. However, I feel like I really need to re-acclimate myself to longer distances before running the 13er, and 4 isn't going to cut it. So I am instead planning on running a 6-9 miler tomorrow, taking friday off to recover, and then the 13 miler on saturday.
I'll have a better idea of how saturday will go after tomorrow's run.
-steve
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