Time Is Like A Broken Watch

On Friday the Reebok crew pushed the envelope a little more than usual and we ran for one hour. We pushed the paced from the start even if it was just coxy taking the piss by pretending to hammer from the gun. When Ryan thought he may actually be serious he bridged the gap leaving Dan and I straggling about 50 meters back. They kept it up for the first 2 miles before they were cooked and decided to wait. But what it did was it meant our easy pace was still faster than usual and when we added on through Houghtons pond the joy of running fast engulfed everyone and we basically started fartlek training over the last few miles. So much happiness and joy. Knee was 6 out of 10 on the pain scale and got worse in the afternoon but not so bad that it took anything away from the wonderful run. When I got home I jumped on the bike and did a short session that I didn't time. I was tired and bored after so I went to the Wild Colonial and met up with Brien Lang for a pint of Dog Fish Head 60 minute IPA. Twas lovely. While I sit here I have to admit that my left knee is feeling a little sore. The bone on bone issue I get as a result of my osteochondral defect is actually bothering me for the first time in many months. I now have 2 very sore knees - not great.

It's fair to say that I am going to bed in a pretty dull mood. The house is quite but the noise in my head is very loud. I needed to revisit some of the old reliable tunes to ease me into a blissful sleep. Usually when searching for answers I needn't go further than Moz. He always tells it as it is. Real + Honest.

Love Kel

-one of my all time favorite songs. never gets old or tired or normal.

Full Speed Half Blind

Nice one. On Wednesday at lunch time myself, Dan and Ryan ran Ponky. Nothing out of the ordinary, just the usual lunchtime run. Except Ryan decided to do his best Alberto Contador impression and started hammering. Deep down inside I was really happy about this because I have wanted to attempt some faster running to see how my knees would react. When i say hammering, it must be used in the context of our current fitness levels. We may have dipped under 6 minute pace over the last 2 miles, not fast by any means but fast for a group of dudes struggling with all sorts of ailments. We got back to the track and I felt fantastic and over-joyed at how things felt. About an hour later that joy dissipated when BOTH my knees started aching. Got home earlier than usual so jumped on my bike and did a 2 hour ride with some hill repeats up burlingame that hit the spot. Knees still felt sore and my energy was really lacking. In fact, it would be fair to say that I felt horrible over the last 30 minutes. Everything was hurting and I had zero energy. All in all a great day of training.

It was important for me to get a good day in on Wednesday since yesterday I went to NYC for the day - early train down, later train back. No training, although my bike punctured on the way to the station so I had to run back to the house in panic mode and get my car.

Interpol played on david letterman last night. Solid performance of "barricade" and worth staying up for. The video is below. I bought my ticket to see them in NYC on November 5th which will be awesome since it ends their NA tour and I'll be down in the city for the NYC marathon anyway. good stuff. So thats the buzz. Today will be a good day,

Love Kel

Mountains Beyond Mountains

Missing Tuesday night smackdown was a bit of a bummer. I got on my trainer and did some intervals and since it was after 8pm when I started starvation took over and I limited my session to about 1 hour of work. Earlier in the day Dan Mazz and I did a loop of Ponky nice and easy. So for what was supposed to be a challenging day of work with limited time I still managed almost 2 hours of training. I am not keeping a diary and certainly not posting daily on this site (I have no idea why) so I don't really know what I'm doing or what my plan of attack is. Not committing to a training program has been very purposeful. On any given day I can do 3 hours of exercise but more often I do about 30 minutes of terrible exercise laced with a good dose of pain. I have no energy to complain because it would be a daily occurrence. With that said, I am running more so I should kind of track what I'm doing even if it is slow. I must be fairly fit in the general sense.

The Interpol show from the weekend was outstanding. Toad's Place in New Haven is small and like the gig in Rochester the show had a bit of a pub band feel. I moved around a lot, standing up near the front for a while and then seeking better sound I moved towards the back. The speakers aren't the may west but Interpol made it work. The set list was similar to Rochester with an additional new song in the main set and "Stella Was A Diver, And She Was Always Down" added to the encore. I love that song. They ended with "Not Even Jail" again and the crowd loved it. Only one song from "Our Love To Admire", once again proving that they really didn't think much of the work. The crowd were shouting for "Rest My Chemistry" and I wondered what Paul was thinking. At one point it was deafening. I guess this one group really wanted to hear it. Overall, the Rochester gig was better. Sound was better and the crowd didn't keep chanting for songs that they would obviously not play. I wonder if it ever works? I never understood shouting requests. Its called a SetList lads!

As much as I tried to avoid grabbing an early copy of the new Arcade Fire I couldn't deal with people talking about it anymore. I don't feel bad about downloading it because I will buy a hard copy on Aug 3rd and perhaps a t-shirt at the gig that I'm going to in Boston. Premature evaluation is that the album is very good. I expected it to be good but didn't expect the new instrumentation displayed amazingly well on the song below, "Sprawl II (mountains beyond mountains)" which is fantastic and my fav from the album so far. It sounds like a song Blondie or Siouxsie and the Banshees could have sang. Regine Chassagne (Butler’s wife) sings “Living in the sprawl, Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains, And there’s no end in sight”, and I love this theme. Very emotive and catchy. Loving "Ready To Start"as well. The album is immensely exciting and I can't wait to give it many listens over the next few weeks.

Love Kel

As If You Didn't Know That It Would Sting

Tuesday night means Mark Nicholson Smack Down and I was in the mood for punishment. Inflicting pain on ones self is considered deviant behavior or even psychotic but when it comes to training it is encouraged. I might get a little too much enjoyment out of it (note chronic injuries for 10 years) and tonight was no exception. We had a solid group of 9 riders and the pace was uptempo from the start. I did the long false flat pull out of town and for some reason didn't want anyone else to lead. An attempt at a pull through just encouraged me to up the pace. The group fractured at after the first long climb and I felt bad because the goal is not to break the group up early, I was just in the mood for some hurt. The result of the early pace was such that I could not participate in the first sprint line as I felt since I pushed the pace I should go back and pick up the last guy and pull him up to the group. Once we regrouped I got back in front where I'm comfortable and pulled hard, actually breaking away until the second regroup spot. Onto Tourtellot hill I went hard with Aaron on my wheel for a bit. I put the head down and ended up having good legs, enough to break off the front by about 40 seconds. Ont he way back into town the strongest riders all took turns at the front. I am still amazed at the difference between pulling and drafting on the bike. GeWilli would go past me in a big gear and put 20 meters on me instantly. I would have to pull all the stops to get back up to him. I certainly lack power and peddling efficiency. I noticed that I spin a lot more than everyone else keeping my chain in the small ring on the front unless I'm descending. This is because I don't have the strength to ride big ring and I don't know if my 100 rpm is efficient? Lots to learn. Overall, a fantastic ride and I am pretty annoyed that I'm going to miss the next couple.

Next week I see Interpol in concert for the second time this year. I suffered an anxiety attack when I realized that I won't see Wolf parade again this year and maybe not again for several years. This displays two significant things. 1. Wolf Parade are AMAZING live and 2. I have to accept that I am a bit of an uber fan. It will be nice to see Interpol again to change things up, I do after all consider them one of my favorite bands. I've posted the video for new Interpol song "Lights" and now we get another Interpol single. This was played when I saw them in Rochester and no doubt will be played again in New Haven. It has a "Slow Hands" feel to it. Building in vocals and instrumentation with lots of layers, harmony and emotion. I love it.

Peace,

kel

Little Vision Come Shake Me Up

Awesome weekend of training and recovery. It kicked off with a trip out to central MA for a medium long ride around Quabben Rez with Ben P. The thing is, the heat beat the crap out of the two of us. 90 degrees and steep climbs make for tough times. I set out hard in order to give both of us a very painful day and seeing as I am stronger than Ben on the bike right now I felt I obliged to take the lead and pull, pull, pull. However, in my leading I forgot to drink for the first 50 minutes. It was only when Ben noticed that my bottles were untouched that he rolled up next to me on a decent and told me I was going to be in trouble if I didn't start drinking asap. I am an amateur when it comes to nutrition on the bike. It definitely hurt me later in the ride but overall I was strong and my climbing was very satisfying. By the end we were both done for and on the last climb which was about four or five minutes long I bonked. I got to the top and waited for Ben, who may have been stronger in the last 10 miles than me, and when I saw him I was draped over handle bars seeing stars. We only had a .5 mile downhill back to the car so it was all good, as was the pizza I ate afterward and the cans of coke I washed it down with. The ride was only about 66 miles but the heat, the 4500 feet of climbing, and the pace was enough to flog me. Bliss really. I came home and listened to the new Klaxons song about 20 times. The video is below but it may get removed since that seems to be the buzz lately. I mean, record companies try to prevent people from promoting their bands. That's why they all suck, that's why people steal music, and that's why bands are now using independent labels or releasing music themselves. Having said that they may not remove it but I stand by my comments. I love you all,

Kel

I've Got A Hand So I've Got A Fist, So I've Got A Plan

Where has the last month gone. And why have I not been blogging? The simple answer is that I've been busy. Silly busy, between work travel and wedding travel. I am on a train home from NYC right now after a meeting and my third night in a row seeing the magical Wolf Parade live. I'm tired and have lots to report but not right now. There is plenty of time to catch up. Pressing issues take priority and an endless amount of starred emails that need attention. Knee is still sore and I am thinking of asking the doc to take another look in the joint at the end of the summer.

Love Kel