Marathon Training

Time to put up, or shut up.

I'm training for a BQ, a Boston Qualification.

There. I said it.

As a 35 year old male, that means I need to run a marathon in 3 hours 10 minutes (or better).

Which makes my GMP, or Goal Marathon Pace, 7:15/mile.

My coach, a 40+ time marathoner, 3x Olympic Trials Qualifier, extremely gifted runner (and certified coach), has been giving me specific workouts to get me there.

The biggest thing I'm needing to concentrate on is consistency, getting a feel for the 7:15 pace.

The race I'm targeting is the 36th Annual Lincoln National Guard Marathon, which is May 5, 2013.

Specific workouts I've done, thus far, include:

• GMP 2x2
• warm up, then 2 miles at GMP, jog 1 mile, 2 miles at GMP, cool down
• GMP 2x3
• warm up, 2 @ GMP, jog 1, 2 @ GMP, jog 1, 2 @ GMP, cool down
• GMP 10k
• warm up, 6.2 @ GMP, cool down
• I did this one on my own, Coach was happy about the result, but "yelled" that it was too early to do this type of workout
• 3-2-1 Repeats
• warm up, (3 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, 2 hard / easy, 1 hard / easy) repeat x 4, cool down
• GMP 3x2
• 2 up, 3 @ GMP, jog 1, 3 @ GMP, down
• did this on my treadmill, which is quite a bit tougher than I thought

Movie Round Up!

A catch-up post? Yep. Sorry, I'm lazy.

I've been fortunate enough to take in a couple of the February releases:

Identity Thief: imdb | official site

A Good Day To Die Hard: imbd | official site

Safe Haven: imdb | official site

Identity Thief has two of my favorite comedic actors in it: Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman. I was expecting wall-to-wall laughs, the non-stop kind. That didn't happen. There were stretches where I was... bored. When it was funny, though, it was VERY funny. I nearly choked from laughter during the scene with Eric Stonestreet! 

A Good Day To Die Hard in one word: awful. From Willis' phoning it in, to the laughably bad "action" scenes, and the forced inclusion of the "Yippie Kiyay..." line, this movie has nothing the previous entries had. I've wasted $5 on worse things before, but, this is Die Hard for cryin' out loud! At the core was a really cool story too, just, wasted.

Safe Haven sucked. Julianne Hough needs to find a different gig, because she cannot act. Her portrayal of an abuse victim rang false, in every way. From the douche factory that vomited The Notebook onto the world, I didn't have any expectations for this "movie", and even those weren't met. It's an insult to films to call this turd a "movie".

Identity Thief, 3 outta 4 whatevers.

A Good Day To Die Hard, 1 outta 4 whatevers.

Safe Haven, 1 outta 4 whatevers (because Cobie Smulders).

Double Feature!

A good friend of mine was in town this past weekend, so we took in a double feature!

Had a great time with him, wish I could see him more often.

My reviews of the movies can be found on their individual pages.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Movie 43

Movie 43

Movie 43 Official Site | IMDb

Filthy, crass, raunchy and offensive: the perfect combination!!

This movie will not be for everyone, but, for those that enjoy humor, it's definitely one to see.

I kept thinking of The Kentucky Fried Movie. I also thought about MacFarlane's Ted, because like it Movie 43 had glaringly noticeable "misses". But when the jokes landed: VERY FUNNY.

If you go, be sure to stay through the first set of credits, for the short about Beezil (which has one of my favorites: Elizabeth Banks).

2.5 outta 4 whatevers

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters Official Site | IMDb

The classic tale retooled and told in a bounty hunter / mercenary style.

It worked perfectly! I found it to be a really fun film, more than I probably should; but, it was just that: fun!

Not shying away from an R rating also helped, a lot. They could have gone even darker with the story, but, oh well, not doing so didn't detract from anything.

I don't think the choice of Famke Janssen was a good call; or, she could have "vamped" it up a bit more (think  Theron in Snow White and the Huntsman).

3.5 outta 4 whatevers

Treadmill Workout: Incline Interval

In doing some research for The Wife regarding treadmill workouts, I happened across Peanut Butter Fingers. The author put together quite a few treadmill workouts, a few of which mentioned the words "incline" and "interval".

Her post, Cheese Please, caught my eye.

I sent the info to The Wife, she did that workout, and then sent me this:

Ha!

Which meant, of course, that I wanted to do it!

After The Kids were bedded down, I headed to our "home gym", to meet my old friend:

Samuelson Home Gym: Treadmill

Her workout calls for Warm Up of 4MPH @ 6% incline and then repeats of intervals of 7MPH @ 1% for 3:00 followed by inclines of 4.5MPH @ 6% for 2:00.

I modified the WU only slightly, and then did:

MPH	Incline	Duration
8.0	2%	3:00
6.0	7%	2:00
8.0	2%	1:30
8.1	2%	1:30
6.1	7%	2:00
8.0	2%	1:00
8.1	2%	1:00
8.2	2%	1:00
6.2	7%	2:00
8.1	2%	1:00
8.2	2%	1:00
9.0	1.5%	1:00
7.0	6%	1:00
6.0	8%	1:00
5.0	10%	1:00
4.0	12%	1:00
3.0	2%	1:00

Short? Yes. Intense? Yes. A hot mess at the end? You know it.

twenty

HUGE shout out to my mothertruckin' friend @koddrambell on this, his 20th year of #oneDayAtATime. #XX #damnProud twitter.com/carljsamuelson…
— Carl J Samuelson (@carljsamuelson) January 24, 2013

He's done more for me than he'll ever know.

Mama

Mama: Official Site | IMDb

If you know me, you know I'm a big fan of horror movies. The scarier, the freakier, the more unnerving... the better!

Mama is about two girls raised in the wild (by "Mama"), who, when returned to society, bring "Mama" along with them. There are quite a few spots where I jumped, and one scene in particular (involving a camera) that was very, very tense. The story, while good, wasn't great (no spoilers, so I won't go into detail).

There were a couple of parts that were just laughably bad. Enough to detract from the overall score.

Finally, the ending; wow! It was very unconventional, but, completely worked: everyone got their happy ending.

Mama: 3 outta 4 whatevers

Ouch

Yesterday, during my run, I took a tumble at the end.

I caught my foot on a frozen dirt clod (similar to when you catch the edge of the sidewalk), and rolled my ankle/foot. 

Where'd I get that softball? Ouch.
(apologies for the gross foot picture)

So I poked around the internets and came up with a suitable treatment: rest, icing and elevation (three of the RICE components) combined with heat / cool alternating applications.

Will it help? It's certainly feeling much better today. How long to rest it? Can I run tomorrow on it? I'll know by the end of the day today. I'm guessing I'll have to stay off of it, running wise, until the weekend (hoping to run Saturday).

The bigger one on the left hurts!

Update, 1/17: the swelling has greatly reduced, and some minor bruising has become evident.
I ran a little bit on it, feels fine!

Sticking to an elliptical session tonight though.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook: Official Site | IMDB

After waiting for an eternity, Silver Linings Playbook finally came to Omaha! 

The stars aligned and The Wife and I were able to venture out to screen it.

By now, you know the story, and you've seen that Jennifer Lawrence was awarded with a Golden Globe for her performance. And, very rightfully so. Proving that Winter's Bone wasn't a fluke (at all).

There's the rub, though, this movie is not a sum of it's parts. 

As a whole, it just felt off, but the performances (not just by Lawrence, but, just as much by Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro) are outstanding. Just outstanding.

Movie: 3.5 outta 4 whatevers

Performances: 4 outta 4 whatevers

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty.
Links: official site imdb

Just wow. WOW.

I went into this knowing the outcome (like Argo); but, just like Argo, I didn't know all the details that led to said outcome. Those details, and the portrayal of them playing out was just fantastic.


I have one complaint though: the casting of Chris Pratt. 

Don't get me wrong, he's a fine actor, but he's "Andy" on Parks & Rec; and, every time he was on screen I was taken out of the movie. That said, Chastain's performance is enough of a counter.



4 outta 4 whatevers.

no clue what to write about

I have not a clue as to what to write about.
Running? Sure, but is that overdone?
Movies? Sure?
My kids? Nah, too open to skeeves of the world.

I guess I'll concentrate on the running and the movies for now, see what sticks...

it's time...

I've been the owner of this blog for years.

It's time to actually put words down, let thoughts pour...