Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day has to be one of my favorite days of the year; there are so many great activites to choose from. My favorite might be the Muir Beach Fireman's Picnic. Picture a gigantic meadow nestled in mountains, aging but authentic hippies, amazing music, terrific BBQ chicken and two dollar kegged Lagunitas and you have a good sense of this event, which celebrated it's 38th year. Today was the annual Mill Valley pancake breakfast and parade (I marched with the Little Girl's swim team) which are perrenial favorites. Combine this all with a great master's swim class, a few trail runs and a BBQ at our house and you the makings of an epic week.

Alas, reality beckons......

Sent from my iPad

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Fifth Grade Class Trip

To celebrate the impending end of fifth grade and graduation from elementary school, the Little Boy's school had it's annual hike and picnic. The hike was pretty epic - it was about seven miles and it winded through some of the nicer trails I have ever seen. The amazing thing about Marin County is that you can hike or run for a lifetime and still never see all the trails. Anyway, it was a great (and surprisingly tiring) day and I'm proud of the Little Boy. I still haven't got my head around the fact that I'm the father of a soon-to-be middle schooler.

Sent from my iPad

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Five weeks later

So, this is what the knee is looking like a little over a month since the accident. Definitely a nice little scar. Word on the street though is chicks digs scars, so I have that going for me.

The good news is that there doesn't seem to be any residual damage and I'm back running, with little issue. So, now I have to work myself back into shape and make up for some missing time. Looking at doing a 50k in late August, the Quad Dipsea (yes, I am a complete masochistic) and then the North Face 50k the week after the Quad. Will be interesting to see if I cam pull two hard ultras on two successive weekends.

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Monday, May 24, 2010

Beer Club

For my birthday, my office bought me a membership in a beer club that features local microbreweries. Today I received my first shipment; 12 beers (various ales, IPA's, summer wheats, and pale ales) from two breweries; Casco Bay Brewing out of Portland and Boone Brewing Company out of Boone, North Carolina. I haven't tried any of them yet but I am pretty excited. Full report later in the week.

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Come From Behind Victory

he Little Girl had a breakout day yesterday in her swim meet. Check out the backstroke action here, and apologies in advance for the crazy-father yelling towards the end. I try to keep calm, but well, that doesn't always work out so well. Real great day though and I am pleased my parents were able to check in our in person. More detailed recap of the weekend later.

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pop Quiz Time

Ok, let's get some comments going. It's been a little too quiet of late. Let's keep this simple because I'm tired and lazy tonight. The question(s) of the day is:

- what's your favorite movie of all time?
- favorite album?
- favorite gadget?

My answers are The Godfather, London Calling by the Clash and the original iPhone.

So - let's hear what you all have to say.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Reading and Listening

Currently reading The Imperfectionists, a new novel about the publishing industry which is receiving near universal accolades. So far, I'm finding it difficult to put down. Next in line after this is Sebastian Junger's news book, War. After that is Matterhorn, a novel about the Vietnam war which I am hearing is a book of the year candidate and possible Pulitzer prize candidate.

In terms of music, theres so much greets stuff that I'm listening to its difficult to keep pace. For starters, the new LCD Soundsystem, which received 9.2 today from Pitchfork, is excellent. As I type this I'm listening to the newly remastered Exile on Main Street, which is a masterpiece. The Bird and the Bee have a new album that covers - get ready for it - Hall and Oates' greatest hits. Don't laugh - it is excellent. I need to listen to the new Broken Social Scene a bit more but so far it is impressive. Same goes for the new Flying Lotus. And for you old school punk rock fand, dare I say you will enjoy the new Gaslight Anthem. Anyway, this is just a sampling. There is much much more, which I will write about in a separate post.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Photos from the weekend

Following are random photos from a very terrific weekend. Highlight was the boy's baseball game; they beat the best team in the league 1-0 in an incredibly well played and exciting game. And once again, the Little Girl swam very well in her second meet of the season. I managed two runs (including my first trail run since my accident - a 4 miler that I ran with the Boy), saw Ironman 2 and went on an awesome hike. Life is good.

And it's about to get better as the Old Man is coming to town this week. Speaking of that dude, not sure why but he appears to hae completely vanished from the comments. Maybe he got banned?

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Knee

Went to the doctor to take a look at the knee; still pretty bruised, but seems like it is healing fairly well. I definitely am the current world record holder for the world's largest scab. I have never quite seen anything exactly like this thing; it looks like an alien life form. Fortunately he put some adhesive bandages over it, so I won't have to look at it for a few more weeks to come.

Asa r esult of this injury, I am woefully out of shape -- arguably the most out of shape I have been in since either going hypo/my thyroid surgery (the fourth anniversary of which was this past Wednesday) but today is the day I start all over. I went to the track today with the Little Girl to run a few mile repeats. Overall, the workout went well; three miles, each around 7:45 pace and while my heart rate was relatively high, I didn't feel all that bad either. So, maybe I am not all that out of shape.

I went to the track with the Little Girl, who ran about three miles herself. When we got there, we saw the last quarter of a high school lacrosse game. It was our local high school vs. the high school down the street - their big rivals. Our high school was winning by one point with two minutes left in the game. They ended up losing - on their own field -- by one goal. Two goals inside of 120 seconds; it was pretty devastating. It was my first lacrosse game and boy, was it painfully memorable. In fact, when the Little Girl and I ran around the track, two kids were still sitting on their bench, crying. As painful as that was to them, it severed as a lesson for the Little Girl, who was completely engrossed in the game.

The lesson? Don't give up. Never give up.

As a budding athlete herself, I hope it's one that she remembers.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Back From New York

Well, almost back, but not quite; I am currently 30,000 feet in the air and according to this MapTracker I'm looking at, somewhere over Nevada. It's been whirlwind five days and while it's always good to be back in my hometown of NYC, I'm also real happy to be heading back to my new hometown of San Francisco. I can't wait to see the Wife and Kids.

I watched two movies while in then air, both of which I highly recommend. Up in the Air was terrific but the one that really surprised was Pirate Radio. I'm surprised it didn't do much better in the theaters. Definitely worth renting.

While traveling, I tried a little experiment that pitted my iPad against my MacBook Air. If you are at all interested in the results, check out www.techdork.com.

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Monday, May 10, 2010

My Boys

Greetings from NYC. Been here since Friday night and head home tomorrow. The highlight wihout a doubt was watching my boys Payro and Todd finish their 50k. Payro as you all know is an old hand but this was a first time effort by Todd and he absolutely kicked ass. He couldn't have done a better job and I get the sense this might be the first of many ultra distance races for him. It was equally amazing to hang out with his terrific family (and by family i mean his parents, wife, kids and broghers) for a few days. Also got to see my main man Finkel - another regular of these pages - and his awesome family as well.

And me? I decided to do the smart thing and sit this one out from a running perspective. It wasn't easy but it was the right call. There will be other races.

Posted via email from Howard Solomon

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Drama

I feel like I spend much too muchtime on this blog talking about what ails me, be it cancer, my ankle, or now my knee. Trust me, I'd rather not be writing about any of these subjects. And if I had started this blog before I turned 40, I would be dealing with none of these topics, because I was, well, invincible (said tongue in cheek, y'all). But man, in a macro sense, my 40's have not been kind to me.

All this brings me to a topic I would rather not be writing about. My knee. I took it for a test drive gins am - a very easy - I mean easy 27 minutes. With two short walking breaks. And while them wound held up ok, the general knee area is aching pretty badly. Which makes me wonder if something isn't going on in there. Bums me. So, I see a lot of swimming in my future. And of course, I'm not even going to remotely attempt to run this weekend. Man oh man. Not a good 2010 at all from a running standpoint, that's for sure.

In other new though, the Yankees are playing some seriously awesome baseball. So I got that going for me.......

Monday, May 3, 2010

New York

So, I'm headed to New York this weekend. In. Worst case scenario, I will (gladly) crew for Todd and Payro. But after a good weekend in which I hiked, walked and ran an easy - and I mean - easy half mile, I'm encouraged by the knee. And I'm starting to formulate a possible game plan for Saturday.

Suffice to say, the 50k is out. But the 25k is still calling out to me and I'm thinking of a scenariomin which I might walk a mile, easy run a mile, walk a mile ...... You get the point. My plan is to do an east test run on Wednesday, see how that goes and make a decision from there. I'll be sensible about things though and might check with my doc to make sure I'm not risking a major injury. Don't want to ruin an entire season because of a bad decision.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Things That Stoked Me This Weekend

What a nice weekend here in Marin County, CA. Never hurts when the weather is of the hook. Soany fun activities including:

1. A great birthday celebration with friends on Friday night

2. Two - two! Met's victories this weekend. The are in the comeback trail and the Little Boy is playing really well.

3. An amazing performance by the Little Girl in time trials today. More on this later but boy can this Kid swim.

4. A nice hike on Horse Hill today. Note the horsies. There were eight of them, just roaming around. And the knee held up pretty well which I'm obviously pretty pleased about.

5. A super nice casual stroll with the kids yesterday alongside the water in Tiburon.

I have to say - life is good.

Posted via email from Howard Solomon