Day 3: Aww Yeah

Late post—just got back from the Great American Music Hall here in San Francisco. I met up with my buddy Dan for some din din, then watched his band OK Go play. Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyable show. I'm a pretty jaded concert-goer; on top of seeing shows regularly from age 17 to age 25, I also bartended in a couple rock clubs way back when. It suffices to say I have seen just about everything. Twice.

But this was a truly fun experience. Not your average rock show.

(Convenient—and entirely accidental—timing, I just posted an interview with Dan, the drummer of OK Go at Hella Sound. Peep it out if you're curious.

Anyway, Day 3. Slept like the dead last night, got up, did the hip stuff, did the food stuff, then hit the pool and did laps for about 45 minutes. Freestyle, breaststroke and a bunch of frog kicks with the kickboard. It's cross-training for the Hal Higdon plan, and the frog kick—the kick you do for the breaststroke—is very therapeutic and strength-developing for the hips. So all around a good workout day.

Last night and tonight were both social eating and drinking nights, but I've basically been tweaking my diet to account for the beer and the restaurant food while staying (roughly) in the 50% carbs/35% protein/15% fats macronutrient breakdown and the 2200 calorie range. 2200 is a lot of calories to play with, and I'm glad to have such room to move. I'd be royally screwed if I was down to 1800.

Anyway, tomorrow's running and strength (plus all the other stuff). It'll be good.

*yawn* Goodnight.


Total Weight: -4lbs

6 Miler, Powered by Hot Dogs™

I love hot dogs. I can't help it—I was raised in Chicago, by two Chicagoans. That's what we do.

Being in Chicago this week, I had to make a stop at Portillo's, my favorite weenie vendor. I ate at this place 3 times a week during high school, as scary as that is. But it's delicious stuff. A chili dog, half an italian beef and a large fry and I was set.

Too bad I had to run 6 miles today. Greasy fast food isn't exactly the best way to fill up your glycogen stores, but whatchagonna do.

The Chicago lake shore was my chosen running route; Chicago sits on Lake Michigan, and a great running and bike path stretches from the far south side to well into the north. Plenty of space to stretch the legs and get some relatively fresh air.

Getting to the lake shore from our hotel—and getting back—was the only tricky part of the run. On the way back you can see the dip in my pace, where I had to wait for traffic lights and huff up a couple flights of stairs. All in all, though, it was a great run on a beautiful, moody-midwestern-weather day.

These recent trips have been a "Best Of" tour of the places I've lived. I haven't been back to Chicago in quite some time, but this is my "home" city, and the city I grew up. I had forgotten how amazing this city really is. Amazing architecture, interesting people, lots to see and do.

The trip to San Diego was interesting, too, because the move from San Diego to San Francisco is much more recent, and I still feel some ties. But San Francisco is much more like Chicago, and I have to admit: I'd almost prefer living in Chicago to SF. Granted, the weather's been nice here, and that's a major issue with Chicago. But outside of that, I really don't see why San Francisco would be so much more preferable to Chicago. Chicago's great, and at half the price, it's twice as nice.

Good to be back.

We were able to catch a show at The Metro—one of my old haunts. The band was Ha Ha Tonka, which is sort of an indie rock band with an inbred twist. They were good; 4 part harmonies, technically solid and proficient drumming, interesting song arrangements.

A good first day in Chicago.

Images courtesy midiman and pingnews.com on Flickr.

"Speed" Work Tuesday

Today I was slated for six 800 meter repeats, followed by squats, lunges and other weightlifting chicanery.

It was going to be tough to get down to the track to get a clearly marked 800 meter course, so I decided to bust a freestyle and run three 1 mile repeats instead. I'm not going for speed here—I'm really just training so I can finish the San Jose Rock & Roll Half Marathon. I'm not looking to break records. My PB will be finishing a halfie, you know?

I went down to the Marina, since it's a route that I'm familiar with and the out-and-back plops me right in front of the gym. Doing intervals proved to be difficult to do with the Nike+, so I mostly ended up winging it and basically hustling as hard as I could keep up for 1 mile increments, mixed with about 2 minutes of slower trotting in between.

It went okay, not great. As you can see, I wasn't exactly flying. But I cooked along above my normal plodding pace. I ended up gassing (again) before my third mile interval was complete, and walked the rest of the way.

The clock was ticking, though; I ambitiously thought I could make it down to the route, run, do my lifting workout, get back home, shower and get down to Bimbo's 365 to pick up tickets for one of my all-time favorite bands, Trans Am. After my run I realized this was stupid, so I stretched out, packed it up and headed home.

But hey, I got a run in and Trans Am was awesome. Fantastic. Kick anus. You gotta love a band that does the majority of their vocals through a vocoder/synthesizer. Inexplicably, halfway through the last song the bassist/keyboard player peeled (with one hand) and ate a banana while playing. Like it couldn't wait. Hysterical and highly entertaining.

Photos courtesy of jpctalbot and the Trans Am web site, respectively.