A Gajillion Onesies

I spent Veteran's Day decorating these:

2 College Pals with a Dream....

Mayank and Steve out in L.A. came up with their take on a will.i.am ditty....


Two college buddies had a dream to help a Senator from Illinois get elected president, but hated the idea of politics always being about money...especially since they had none. But they did have some free time, a will.i.am CD, and few friends willing to lend their talents. We hope you like our video, but most importantly, we hope you get out and vote on Nov. 4!

The latest in food porn

Today's breakfast: baked French toast, using Challah bread. Maybe it should be international toast instead...


And lunch - koosa fusion. Turkey filling instead of lamb, and an Italian twist on the sauce - garlic & basil in addition to the usual tomato.

The Four-Week, Couch to 10 Mile Training Plan

Well, suffice to say, my four-week couch to 10 mile training plan worked. It wasn't optimal, but I managed to do it without major mishap or injury. The plan: 20 miles/week for four weeks. The races: the inaugural Ragnar Relay in DC, and the following week, the Army 10-Miler. Why? Because I was injured all summer long.

The results.

Ragnar was brutal, but fun. A ~182-mile odyssey more or less down the C&O canal, from Cumberland, MD, to Washington, DC, overnight relay style, with 11 of your friends. And if they're not your friends to start, then they are at the end. Well, at least 5 of them are, thanks to having to be in 2 separate vans of 6 runners each. In the end, we had a killer singlet that our resident designer, Marc Harkness, designed. We were also the first team to cross the finish line in the time trial-style race, and we ultimately were 5th in our division (out of 54) and 17th overall (out of 109).


The ATM had its own challenges. For instance, I'd never run more than 8 miles at one shot. And I'd never had to fuel up during a run, but I knew that I tended to bonk at about 6.2 miles (convenient for 10Ks, actually). Sure enough, the first 6.2 miles went swimmingly. Even mile 7 to 8 went well. Then that dastardly and interminable 14th Street bridge showed up. And I'm convinced that the last mile is short (and consequently, mile 8 long). There is no way that I threw down a sub 9 minute mile there. All in all, though, I'm pretty pleased that I 1) didn't die and 2) averaged a pace under 9:30. The worst part of the race was running to catch the Metro after the race was over. Ouch.

A message from Metro

The latest from Metro:

Metro encourages race participants to use a SmarTrip card or a plastic cover to protect their farecard. In previous years, race participants have had their farecards demagnitized while participating in the race after they became covered in sweat.

So, this was posted on Metro's website, in preparation for tomorrow's Army 10 Miler. I don't even want to know where people are putting their paper metro cards while they run. Or even why you'd want to run with it -- so you can hop on at Smithsonian and take it back to the Pentagon? Granted, I'm not a fan of the baggage check stuff because it's usually a fiasco, but still...I mean, are they running with their house keys, too?