Never gonna...

Stop....

Running?

Let's just say I lost again this week. The sad litany of beverages consumed during the Margarito-Cotto fight (and holy crap what a fight!!) rendered Sunday's 6-miler an unequivocal disaster. Let's just move on. The theme song for this week's extended trudge through the park was "Aqualung." At least I did it. I'm still on schedule.

This week's gonna be good. I'm gonna be good.

Short post today- I leave you with this food for thought:

Separate ways

Hey there gang-

So, I'm in the midst of a liquid lunch on a lazy Saturday and thought I might bring you up to speed on the week's happenings (or lack thereof). Runs since my last update are a Tuesday 6 miler, and Wednesday-Friday 3 milers. They're still just Central Park loops- I'll start including more pics when the runs get more spectacular. Back in the LES, I used to do bridge runs over the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Willyburg, but my best transatlandic options these days involve short trips to the South Bronx. Despite my recent investment in a more eclectic lifestyle (I saw The Dark Knight at the Magic Johnson AMC on 125th the other day), I'm going to have to build up to the Willis Ave. bridge.

I'm still a day behind my schedule, and need to do a long run tomorrow. Expect a beer tally too come Sunday-Mondayish.

Complicating matters is the Cotto-Margarito fight tonight. These guys should really kick the crap out of each other. Come to Petrov's- should be good. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this for a primer.




I think we all need to take a moment of silence, as my man Casey Blake played well enough this year to provide value return on a deadline deal from the Tribe to to the Dodgers. Few of you know who this guy is, and for good reason- he's a middling third baseman / outfielder who (now formerly) plays for a last-place baseball team. He's also a guy that played 8 years of minor -league ball before getting a shot to play third on a (then-rebuilding) Indians squad and turned himself into a ballplayer. He's a good guy, too. Sure, if you had 9 Casey Blakes playing for you, you'd probably suck. That's not the point. I liked Casey, even if Cleveland didn't. Best of luck to the Blakester in LA.



I became aware of this via random linkage this week. It's available at Wal-Mart. Now, I don't approve of Wal-Mart, as I believe it to be quintessentially un-American to shop there; I also don't believe in overpriced junk tech marked up via branding coalitions with long irrelevant rock bands; however, were someone to buy this for me, I might crap myself with joy.

Finally, since I can only link and not embed (thanks SonyBMG!), here's something to bring it home. You can thank me later.

Thanks to those donating to St. Vinny's on my behalf since my last captain's blog. Have a great weekend!

I quit

Kidding! I won't be quitting for a few more days yet. ;) I'd like to informally thank everyone who's donated something, small or large, to my latest Vision Quest and St. Vincent's Hospital. I also appreciate the support of those who have joined my Facebook group. If you haven't yet- why not? Don't cost nuthin'.

Let's take a look and see where I ran last week:


So, Monday and Sunday I ran from 118th to the north side of the Jackie Onassis Reservoir, across the top end, and back up, while on Wednesday and Friday I ran around it and back up. I managed to run 4 days of the seven, which is good; I had to skip Thursday and run Friday instead because of Funtana's bday bash, so I'm a day behind my overall schedule. This week I intend to run Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Saturday, to get myself back on track.

Something occurred to me as I was slugging beers this past Saturday night- I think I ought to have more tangible training goals than just "be able to run for a half hour without vomiting." So I've decided to do something that could be potentially horrifying for everyone, including me: I'm going to track the proportion of drinks consumed to miles run on a weekly basis. I feel that ideally the latter would consistently eclipse the former. Let's see how we did this week.

Miles run: 16 (Assumption is my short run is 3.5 miles, while the longer run is 4.5.)

Drinks consumed:
Thursday- The Funtana Birthday at the Maritime Hotel precluded my evening running schedule. I had it in my head that I would leave by 10pm so I could wake up early and run in the a.m. Of course, By 10 I had consumed 3 beers (1 Heiny, 2 Amstels) and was walking over to Popburger for a couple of sliders and a Tecate. After a Sierra Nevada in the back bar and a muted viewing of "Pumping Iron" with the Governator and Lou Ferrigno, I shot over to the Hog Pit for one or two more drinks with the Birthday Girl. I'll conservatively say I had 3 PBRs while (poorly) playing Big Buck Hunter with Doyle.
Tally: 7 beers

Friday: Riddled with guilt, I ran Friday night after blowing off my intended morning run (due to my 2am bedtime.) Despite some peer pressure from Frisbie, I managed to stick to my guns and stay in.
Tally: 0 Beers. (Yeah!)

Saturday: Ugh. Two Bud Heavy tall boys at Petrov's followed by dinner at Kenka on St. Mark's. Over the raw fish, three people split two bottles of sake and a pitcher of Sapporo. Unfortunately, I was one of those three people, and another was a 100-pound Asian girl. On to the Cherry Tavern after dinner, I participated in no fewer than two Tijuana Specials, the shot of Tequila with a can of Tecate. I capped the night having a beer with Fris at Angels & Kings.
Tally: Approx. 14 drinks. Yikes. At least I ran on Sunday.

Week's Damage: 16 Miles run, 21 drinks consumed. I lose week 1. The only mitigating circumstance is that I didn't come up with this tracking idea until Sunday meditation (aka hangover nurture time.)

An inauspicious start, for sure. We'll be looking to improve over Week 2. Thanks again for your support, and check in regularly!

So it begins!

Greetings, all!

It's with the kind of wild-eyed enthusiasm that can only be found at the 1% completion point of a project that I welcome you to the only official Mark A. Matuska 2008 ING New York City Marathon Training Blog (MM2K8INGNYCMTB). There may be other "unofficial" blogs out there, but this one's the real deal. Don't trust the pretenders- get your news straight from the source.

I suppose I should set the stage:
5'-nothin'
200-somethin'
Barely a speck of remaining athletic ability

I'm on a 16-week training program. We are in the midst of week 1 below.

16-Week Marathon Training Schedule

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total
1	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	5	Rest	15
2	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	6	Rest	16
3	3	Rest	4	3	Rest	7	Rest	17
4	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	8	Rest	19
5	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	10	Rest	21
6	4	Rest	5	4	Rest	11	Rest	24
7	4	Rest	6	4	Rest	12	Rest	26
8	4	Rest	6	4	Rest	14	Rest	28
9	4	Rest	7	4	Rest	16	Rest	31
10	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	16	Rest	34
11	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	17	Rest	35
12	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	18	Rest	36
13	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	20	Rest	38
14	5	Rest	8	5	Rest	9	Rest	27
15	3	Rest	5	3	Rest	8	Rest	19
16	3	Rest	3	Walk 2	Rest	26.2	Rest	34.2

I'll let you in on something- I felt like death after Day 1. Day 2 went better, though. Keep checking- I'll be updating with progress, maps, photos, and daily thoughts as the race gets closer.