Lisa and I went on a nice 12 mile run yesterday. I felt like I was gliding along at a really nice pace for the first 10.5 miles, and then I felt like I ground out a good finish up South Huntington, but my watch told me that I was just under 9 minute miles for the whole thing. That's a lot slower that I thought I was going (and hoped I was going) but I'm still pretty happy with the run overall.

This week tops out at 50 miles, 20 of which will be run on Sunday. I've never run that much in a week, and 20 mile runs are always a daunting prospect. This week will be a good indicator of where my training is now and how I'll be for the marathon.

Laura and I were at Cambridgeside Galleria this weekend getting some clothes and I decided to stop into the Petsmart there to see if they had any neons. They did and I ended up bringing home a dozen of them (although I only asked for 10). The attrition rate was pretty awful and I ended up losing five of them at an alarming rate, but the remaining seven seem to be doing alright. They are still pretty skittish and like to hide in the back corner behind some plants, but they were moving around pretty well when I woke up this morning. Their eating has been pretty sparse thus far but I'm sure they'll get hungry eventually.

I finally sat down last week and started painting some Waywatchers.

I have most of the major color blocks done (skin, tabards, cloaks, and cloak details) with just the leather left before the massive detailing begins. These models have tons and tons of little things all over them; my goal is to finish the leather in the next few days and then do the detailing on one or two a night. Even though these photos don't show it, the highlighting on their cloaks looks really good. I took my time and paid attention to where the highlights should go and at the end I was really happy with how it came out.

Also, photos from Laura and my trip to New York!

Laura and her brother.

Me looking weird.

A fountain in a park.

Times Square.

Again.

Post No Bills (I love these stencils).

After a good evening drinking with Jason (his last night in Boston - sad!) Laura and I woke up early on Saturday morning to build bookshelves.

Lumber arrives by night.

Framed.

Assembling the shelves.

Done!

Action shot!

This was a ton of fun and a great way to spend most of a Saturday. I learned a lot about making things like this (measure everything, don't assume anything) and when I get the lumber for for the smaller shelf I'm pretty sure I won't have any of the problems we had with the first two.

The top shelf there are miscellaneous unpainted models, including some Vostroyans, Chaos Marines, and a fair amount of Khador minis from Warmachine. Below that is 1000 - 1500 points of Space Marines that will be my project after the Wood Elves get done. Under them, barely visible, is about 1700 points of Wood Elves.

My running took a pretty big down-turn this weekend. Lisa and I embarked on what was supposed to be a 17 mile run down and back up Heartbreak Hill, but we both ended up walking the final three miles to our respective houses. My legs felt terrible the whole 8.5 miles out and while they felt a little better on the trek up Heartbreak (weird) by the time we got to the top I was totally spent.

I don't really know what's been going on with my running. I'm going to try to start paying more attention to my diet and being more rigorous sticking to my schedule but I'm not really convinced that either of those things are the culprit.

Spoony and I are going out to Framingham tonight to get some fish for my tank. If all goes well I'll come home tonight with a small school of Neons and possibly some Corys.

Total number of runs: 71
Total number of miles: 483.31
Total time: 67 hours, 08 minutes, 14 seconds

Before this is done, I'll have run over 500 miles over the course of more than 3 full days.

This past Sunday, Lisa and I ran 22 miles (check out the route) at an average of 8:30 pace per mile. Around the 16 mile mark my legs started to feel pretty bad, but some gel and water (from some very friendly people who set up aid stations on the course) got me through. We stopped at the top of Heartbreak Hill, but both of use were confident that we could have maintained pace and finished the whole thing. Hot damn! My confidence is through the roof and there are still 3 more weeks to get some miles in.

These last runs are part of our three week taper. I'm supposed to be taking it easy and letting my body recover from the precious 15 weeks of punishment, so come marathon day they have all of the strength and none of the damage. My understanding is that this is very hard to do, considering we've done nothing but ramp up the miles for the past 3.5 months. I think I can do it, and I'm excited to have some extra free time now that the runs are decreasing in distance.

I helped Laura move into her new apartment last night. She doesn't have much in there right now (just a futon and some clothes) but the place has a lot of potential. Over the rest of the week she'll be moving more of her stuff in, and her parents are coming up on Friday to help her finish it off.

Her moving (and subsequent furniture search) has motivated me to try to finish furnishing my room. I've been working on a wobbly table with a stolen hutch for a desk since I arrived, but that solution becomes less and less viable everyday. I would also like another book case / display case for my little men, and I really need to get a real chair since the piece of crap I have now is starting to hurt my back.

I finished painting my Spellsinger, which means I only have two more Glade Guard models to paint. I can't wait to never have to paint those models again. I was excited about the painting on this model after the skin (especially the face!) and lighter green went on, but the dark green and brown didn't turn out as well as I would have liked.

I continue to lose at chess, although recently I've been encouraged because I'm no longer losing so badly.

Over the course of my training I've noticed that often times when I'm done running my stomach will get very upset. The worst instance of this was on Sunday, but it happened yesterday also and I can think of several other times in the past few months as well. I spent some time thinking about it last night, and the only actual cause I could think of was drinking. I can't say about any other times, but Saturday night I went to the Pour House, had a few drinks, and got sick after my run on Sunday. I went out Tuesday night to a fancy dinner, had a few drinks, and got sick after my Wednesday run.

I can see why drinking could cause this, but I know I've drank heavily and run the next day with no problems (my birthday and Friday night come to mind immediately). At least until the marathon, I'm going to cut down on the drinking before runs and see if the stomach problems go away.

Yesterday's run was a really easy 8 miler that Lisa and I did in 1:06:55. I love the fact that 8 miles now constitute a casual run for me. The first long run of this training program was 8 miles, and I struggled through it in 1:28:06. I can now happily run that distance 22 minutes faster with no effort at all, and can blitz it 28 minutes faster and still feel stronger afterwards. I'm not sure that I've ever been in this kind of shape and I'm really curious to know what sort of mile and 5k times I could put out right now.

Total number of runs: 67
Total number of miles: 447.56
Total time: 62 hours, 00 minutes, 12 seconds

I'm nearing the end of the Glade Guard models. I finished the basic 8 of them last night, which leaves me with just two musicians and a Spellsinger left before I never have to paint these things again; I can't wait.

I added some red to the models to break up the boring greens and browns, and I think it helps make the models stand out. My highlighting, while not getting any more technical, is certainly getting faster. I'm glad I can paint to this level at a greater speed, because doing it as slowly as it was going was starting to be a drag.

Only three more to go!

Total number of runs: 66
Total number of miles: 439.56
Total time: 60 hours, 53 minutes, 17 seconds

Running in San Francisco felt like running in jello. The hills were ridiculous and I don't ever want to try it again. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that I had rolled my ankle climbing in Yosemite, so I only ran twice that week.

I arrived home on Saturday, and on Sunday Lisa and I crushed 20 miles; that did wonders for my confidence. Sadly, it did the opposite for my right hamstring. After toughing out Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week, I took Thursday off to rest and came back terrifyingly strong on Saturday (I blew through 8 miles at 7:30 pace) and solid on Sunday. There is some lingering pain and tightness, so I plan to take Tuesday off as well.

My vacation was a pretty good time. Laura and I spent our first night in California sleeping in a tent that we pitched in a parking lot because there was snow on the campground. In the morning we went climbing in Yosemite, where I didn't even top 30 feet before rolling my ankle and ending my outing.

After that adventure, we spend the rest of the week wandering the city. We took a tour of the Haight (a fun commercial district in the city), saw the aquarium and an Asian Art Museum, and spend a day in Stanford looking at the campus and Tim's lab. All and all it was very relaxing and warm, which was what I was looking for. Some photo excerpts can be found below, and more here.

Some trees near our campsite.

El Cap, about 3500 feet up.

Laura cruising through a crack.

Me enjoying the highest point in my Yosemite climbing experience.

Since coming home, I've tried to finish painting my Glade Guard, but the models are so boring and I'm just not interested in them. They're mostly done, but I'm not sure I'll be able to hit the 200 point mark for this month. The monotony of this has left me thinking about finishing the models I have bought (a unit of 7 Wardancers) and putting the rest of the army on hold to work on something else. This same feeling has led me to seriously think about downgrading the size of my Blood Raven army from 1500 to 1000 points. If I do that, I will only have 3 Marines, a Land Speeder, and Dreadnought left to paint. I'd also like to finish the Tau army I have (2 Crisis suits and 5 Firewarriors left).

After that, I'm not sure where I'd like to go with this hobby. Spoony, my primary (and only) opponent, is moving to California in September and once that happens, I won't have anyone to play with anymore. That being said, we don't play much to begin with, so mostly this hobby has been painting for me anyway. Who can say. I have been looking at a Death Guard army and a Blood Angels army recently, but I'd like to finish what I have now before starting anything new.

Laura and I are going on a date tonight to celebrate her getting an apartment and so I can thank her for taking care of me yesterday when my stomach revolted against my body.

I saw Dar this weekend and he asked me to be part of his wedding party. I was a bit surprised but honored. Now I just need to figure out what exactly that means. I sure do feel old.

Laura is all better.

Total number of runs: 53
Total number of miles: 322.05
Total time: 44 hours, 18 minutes, 02 seconds

The 17 miles last Sunday were tough. I felt pretty good for the first 75% or so, but eventually the lack of sleep and poor eating from the week before caught up to me and I struggled on the way home. However, I slept well over the weekend and have been eating much better, so the three runs during this week all went very well. Lisa and I are tackling 18 miles this weekend and I'm feeling a lot better about it than I was about the 17 last weekend.

I finished painting my Dryads last week. One of the units I painted to look like birch trees, and I think they came out really well. I have a unit of 10 Glade Guard, a unit of 7 Wardancers, and a Spellsinger assembled and based, but the weather has been brutally cold this past week so they haven't received primer yet.

Brown - I really like the skeleton in this unit.

Birch Trees.

About 850 points of Wood Elves.

I finally got around to working on my fish tank this past week. Through the wonders of the internet I ordered a bunch of silk plants, some driftwood pieces, and black gravel. The results of a few hours of moving plants and stacking gravel to get the wood to sink res

Everything looks a lot more yellow than it really is.

When I get back from California I am going to have Spoony drive me to a fish store so I can buy some neon tetras. My hope is that the black and bright green of the tank will help set off the reds and blues of the fish.

I've been playing a lot of e-mail chess with Joel this week (he's currently 3-0, with a likely 4th victory on the horizon). He's pretty good, although I'm bad enough to not know the difference. However, I'm very interested in learning how to play better. I ordered a book on Joel's recommendation that should arrive next week sometime.

Total number of runs: 38
Total number of miles: 209.69
Total time: 28 hours, 14 minutes, 40 seconds

On Wednesday I had to duck out on my first workout. Right before running I ate some cookies (a poor decision, but I was bored and they were sitting in front of me) and a few miles into my run my stomach was in knots. I managed to get through 5.5 of the 7 miles, but I wanted to die for most of it and my time was pretty damn slow. Yesterday's run went a lot better, but I'm still annoyed at myself for having to cut that run short.

I bought a bunch of Warmachine models today at work. In addition to the Battlegroup and Widowmakers from the previous post, I bought a box of Man-O-War Demolition Corps. The models are really awesome sculpts and the idea of men in steam powered suits of armour wielding giant hammers has a certain charm to it.

I received my Wardancers in the mail today. The models look really good, but I'm really intimidated by the detail that they have; I hope I can make them look good. This is the picture the seller posted on e-bay.

I couldn't have asked to win a better auction. There are seven models, which is the unit size I was planning on fielding. The group also has a musician model and a commander model, so I can field those things if I want to. They're all in excellent condition also.

My goal is to paint the Wood Elves before I get started on the Warmachine models, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen at all. I have 16 Dryad models primed and sitting on my desk, 10 Glade Guard models waiting to be assembled, a half converted Spellsinger, and now 7 Wardancers left to finish the elves, and I don't think I'll have the self restraint to stare at the Warmachine models and not paint them.

Total number of runs: 36
Total number of miles: 200.19
Total time: 26 hours, 50 minutes, 42 seconds

Two-hundred miles! Twenty-four hours! Awesome! The 14-miler on Sunday was quite the adventure. It took us just over two hours to do, which is a damn long time to be running. Lisa's ankle and calf started giving her a lot of trouble towards the end, but we still managed to average 9 minute miles. I started to get tightness in my groin and legs, and stopping at Sunset for some water didn't help much. I'm going to start stretching a little more and hopefully address that problem. Yesterday I did four miles in under 32 minutes, which translates to an average of under 8 minutes. I felt great doing it and it wasn't apparent to me that I was going that fast.

On Monday I went to Marathon Sports downtown and bought another pair of running shoes. I'm not even half way into my training and I've already gone almost 200 miles on my Adidas shoes, so I was concerned about wearing them out and having to break in a new pair on a 20 mile run. I wanted to get a second pair of the Supernovas I have right now, but they've updated the model since I bought these in December and I don't like the changes. The woman at the store gave me a pair of Mizunos that felt incredible on my run yesterday. I'm going to break them in slowly, and then use them for the last few weeks of training and the marathon itself.

On Friday Laura took me out for my birthday dinner to Addis Red Sea. We both love it there and this time was no exception. I ordered a cabbage dish and Laura had a dish with potatoes and vegetables. The bread was delicious as always, and we were both able to order beers to go with the food.

Sunday was the Superbowl and chili cook off at our house. The Giants stole the Patriots undefeated season and were the victors; most everyone in the house was bummed out. There were five different chili entries and I tried all of them except Spoony's (his was way too spicy). There were some interesting chilies, including one with cinnamon in it. It was a very hearty way to eat after the 14 mile run.

Last night Laura and I bought our plane tickets to California. We're going to spend a week climbing in Joshua Tree and hanging out in Palo Alto with Tim. I'm really excited to travel with Laura and go climbing somewhere not in New England.

Since we moved our office, I'm no longer in walking range of the Dunkin' Dohnuts. I've been trying Starbucks and Campco coffee, but so far they're both terrible.

Lately I've spent a lot of time lately looking at the game Warmachine by Privateer Press. The models look phenomenal and the game mechanics seem to be more intuitive than 40k or Warhammer. Spoony has an older rule book that I've been reading and I'm pretty much sold on the game. I'm really excited to paint the models and play the game, but mostly I'm excited about the models. They all look very dynamic and well sculpted, and they have tons of details. Initially I'm going to purchase the starter army, which comes with a warcaster and two warjacks (the 'jacks are phenomenal looking and are what makes me want to play this game). I am also eying box of sniper models. After that I'm going to expand with another 'jack and some more human models.

Khador Battlegroup (Juggernaut, Kommander Sorscha, Destroyer)


Widowmakers


Kodiak


Manhunter


Vladimir Tzepesci

Total number of runs: 33
Total number of miles: 172.19
Total time: 23 hours, 16 minutes, 37 seconds

During the last three runs my legs have not felt as good as they have been. The muscles behind my shins are tight when I start the runs, and they don't loosen up until I'm about three miles in. It isn't really pain, and I don't think it is shin splints, but it is annoying and I wish it would resolve itself. I'm going to try a few stretches before and after my runs this weekend and see what happens.

I'm typing this from my new office. It sure it fun to say that. Yesterday David referred to the move as my "first big project." I did do a lot of leg work to make sure the office was set up properly and that we were packed and moved, but I didn't really think I was doing anything special. There have been a lot of problems with the office (missing furniture, incorrect furniture, paint screw ups, etc.) and with the move itself, so I'm not sure if I even want to be associated with the project. That being said, none of them were really my fault so even though this whole process could have gone a lot smoother, I'm happy with how I conducted my end of it.

We'll see how the unpacking and settling in goes before I render my final decision on my performance on my first project.

I finished the Alter Noble. I'm not really sure where to go now because I don't have any models primed, and it is too cold to get outside and spray. I have 16 Dryads sitting on my desk waiting for spray, and I have another 10 Glade Guard that need to be assembled. I am also bidding on some Wardancers, all of which is going to take my army up to the 1000 point level. I've never had 1000 points of any army painted before, although I'm close with the Blood Ravens. Since Spoony doesn't seem much interested in getting his Chaos army assembled, and has expressed interest lately in finishing his Imperial Fists and starting a Guard army, I might table the Elves and try to finish my marines.

Glade Riders

Mounted Noble

Alter Noble

Whole Army

Three weeks down:

Total number of runs: 15
Total number of miles: 70.34
Total time: 8 hours, 29 minutes, 09 seconds

This entire past week I felt phenomenal. Every time I went running I felt fast and strong and I was able to end each run with a good kick. Next week ends with an 11 miler which will be the longest run I have ever done in 12 years of running; that's exciting. Lisa and I are planning on running it together so hopefully it won't be too boring.

American Gladiators is the best show on television right now. The room mates and I watched the premiere last night and had such a great time that we're all going to watch the next episode tonight as well. Everything about it is ridiculous in the best way possible. If you're not watching then you're missing out.

These pictures are from a graveyard in New Orleans. I took them and my dad edited them.

The new Halo3 maps are fun, although I'm not thrilled with the 6v6, social format. Spoony and I mostly just dick around on them and I'm hoping they get more competitive when they enter full rotation on the ranked playlists.

I wanted to go on my third run of the week yesterday, but there was a huge snow storm in Boston that rolled in around 1pm and didn't let up until sometime after 8pm. In total, we got about 6 inches of snow and everything is now covered in a cold, wet, and heavy blanket of white.

The two runs I did take were 4 milers that felt very good. I can't recall what the first one was, but I know that the second one was done at an 8 minute mile pace.

Tonight Spoony and I are going to play poker with some of Dar's friends. I haven't played poker in a damn long time, so I anticipate this being an evening where I had a stranger a bunch of my money. The only reason I'm going to go is because it has also been a damn long time since I've seen Dar or Lauren (who is also rumored to be going).

Saturday Laura and I (and maybe Spoon) are going to see I am Legend, and then hopefully I'm going to work on my Warhammer table. Last night I put the basecoat on my last three Glade Riders, so I need to start working on the highlights and flesh to get them done for the end of December.

Laura and I making cookies.

The cookie army.

I've gone on two fantastic runs in the past few days. On Monday I went out for my 5+ mile run. It had snowed over the weekend, and Monday had seen more snow and rain until the late afternoon, so the sidewalks were icy and slushy. Combined with the bitter cold I wasn't terribly excited to get out and spend time running. But I dressed warmly and set out at a slow pace so as not to slip on the ice and it turned into a fantastic run. My clothes kept me warm and my pace kept my breathing easy. It ended up being a 50 minute run (10 minute miles or a 4:22 marathon) and I felt like I could have run the whole thing over.

Yesterday was another cold day, although thankfully most of the ice and slush had been cleared away. I had a 4 mile run planned and I wanted to take it a bit faster than Monday. I reached the 2 mile mark at about 17 minutes (8:30 miles) and felt so good that I picked up the pace to try and get a negative split on the way home. Apparently I was dead on my original pace, because I came home in almost exactly 34 minutes, which translates into about a 3:45 marathon. If I could train to run 8:30 minute miles for the marathon I would be very happy with my time.

After the run, I was so inspired by my success and feeling really good, so I sat down and polished off two of the Glade Riders I had sitting on my desk. I tried a few new things on them, including a less start highlighting scheme on their cloaks and some different techniques for painting the skin. I'm not sure how I feel about the cloaks, but the skin looks a lot better than my first tries (except the faces, which still need work). Overall I am happy with the paint, and they look good on the horses, but the models themselves don't look fantastic. The kits were a bit hard to assemble and these two riders (and probably the other four as well) are looking down, not forward. Oh well.

Laura, Spoony, Steve, Beth, and some other people went to a show on Tuesday night hosted by the Boston's alternative radio station WFNX (I assume this is what they are, I never listen to the radio unless I'm in Spoony's car). The show was a strange collection of bands and took place in a theater, which meant that we were sitting down the whole time.

The first band (whose name escapes me) was pretty good. They were tight and played some solid, if not terribly interesting songs. Mute Math was next. Their sound was definitely something I hadn't heard before, but they had a stage presence that I'm not sure I bought into. After Mute Math was Against Me! who were the reason I was there. They sounded really good, but the performance itself was not what I had hoped; they aren't a band you should see sitting down in a theater with a bunch of people who don't know the words. The penultimate band was The Cold War Kids, and apparently everyone was there to see them. I found their music incredibly boring and unoriginal (they sounded like Radiohead, OK Go, and Maroon Five at various points). Laura, Steve, and I spend most of their set identifying recycled drum and guitar parts and trying to figure out why this band was popular at all. Last to go up was Spoon, who is a very solid band. Despite this, I was ready to leave after The Cold War Kids and didn't really enjoy their set.

I am thinking about going for another quick run after work today, and I'm really excited for a Die Hard Christmas on Monday.

The photo is a bit dark, but these are the first two completed Glade Riders.

Last night was Laura's long awaited 21st birthday. Her and I went out to a very expensive and pretty good dinner at Eastern Standard. I had meat loaf that tasted a bit too much like sausage and mashed potatoes that were phenomenal. Laura had scallops that looked pretty good, but I didn't try them because I'm not so much a seafood fan. We both ordered drinks but our waiter didn't card either one of us, which was weird.

The celebration proper started at 9pm at Crossroads. About 15 people trickled in and out through the course of the evening to contribute to the festivities. Laura got good and drunk, but not nearly enough to ruin the night. All in all it was a very successful day of celebrations.

I had some high hopes for the Turkey Trot on Thursday, but I don't think anything much is going to come out of it. Come race day I won't have run in over a week, and my training was typically less than 10 miles a week over two days of running. I'm going to see what happens but I've lowered my expectations considerably.

Many girls.

Mostly boys.

We stumble home.

Pictures from the comp last weekend.

Team Barecca

The arena

Getting this problem on my second try (beta stolen from Mike)

Heel hooking my way to the top. I can't imagine what my next move was, although I remember it working out really well.

Tim successfully defended his thesis last week so a bunch of people went on a bar crawl through Cambridge to celebrate. Tim had a fantastic time (which was the point), but everyone else had one too. It felt good to let go and have a really exciting, really drunk evening with a lot of people that I don't see a lot anymore. I'm going to miss Tim, but this was a very solid send off effort.

In some bizarre news, I lost one of my earrings that night. I told Cassie that her earrings were pretty and that I wanted to wear them. I took one of mine out and tried to put it in my mouth (I do this a lot so it isn't as weird as it sounds) but I missed and it fell on the floor. Obviously I was unable to find it, so I've been wearing a straw in my ear since then. There is a set of dark blue, 6ga plugs in the mail right now.

After the fun of Friday night I woke up early and made my way to Metro (with a substantial amount of Team Barreca) to compete in the Mammut-EMS Bouldering Championships. I wasn't in the championship part, but there was an amateur comp as well. I had never competed before so I was excited to see what happened. The climbs were fantastic, but the atmosphere was very chaotic and poorly run, which detracted a bit from the fun. I sent three V4's and two V3's, which put me in fourth place in the beginner division (Mike took second). I know I could have done better, which is exciting considering I've only been climbing for two years. The results are posted here.

After the comp was over, they cleared out the gym to set routes for the pro comp. We all came back to the gym and they had set it up like a theater with spot lights on the climbs. The pros (both men and women) were phenomenal. The setters had designed the routes to be gimmicky so climbers were forced to do crowd friendly moves; there was a lot of cheering and amazing climbing going on.

Sunday was a day off. Laura and I lounged around all day before going to see the RX Bandits at night. The Bandits are my favorite band and I was very psyched to see them play, but overall I was disappointed. They only played one song off of my favorite album (Progress) and focused a lot on their new album (of which I am less of a fan). Since they lost Steve Borth it sounds like their horn section is lacking something, which makes sense because they are. I also felt like the sound quality was not very good and it made a lot of their songs sound like sludge. It was a good show, but not what I was hoping it would be.

I had the day off on Monday and used it to do a variety of things I had been meaning to do. I had a brisk but enjoyable run in the daylight, which was something I haven't done in several weeks. I also managed to get paint on five of my six Wood Elf horses. I'm not terribly excited about any of them, but I am learning a lot each time I do it; hopefully I'll be able to apply it to something later. After the horses I assembled my two new crisis suits. They look very dynamic and even unpainted put my old (and painted) suits to shame. Finally, I bought some wonderfully tight black jeans.

Photos from the Mammut-EMS Bouldering Championships
MetroRock - November 2007

Sydney McNair sending Women's #4

Vasya Vorotnikov on Men's #1 or #2
a month or so ago he sent Jaws 2, a 5.15b at Rumney (I was there that day)

Paul Robinson on Men's #4
he would go on to win the comp and the tour

Ryan Olson sending Men's #3
he was the first person to send this (of two)
Laura and I are visible in the crowd just behind the man in pink near the middle left