Kebabalicious: A Turkish Hero

It’s not often I find myself downtown around lunch time on a weekday.  That whole 9-5 8:30-5:30 job in North Austin has something to do with it.  So when I conjure up an excuse opportunity to indulge in some downtown street food, I jump on it.  This time around I had a half day at work to make up for the fact I’d be working Sunday at 1am (until 5am), so I headed downtown and swung by a tried-and-true favorite for some exceptional mobile lunch.

Continue reading

Trying New Trailers Left and Right!

Lots

of reviews currently in the works for all

the new-to-me trailers I’ve been enjoying recently! Keep an eye out for the likes of Kebabalicious, Dogellos, Be More Pacific, Tacos Selene, East Side Kings (Grackle), The Evil Wiener, and Lizzie’s Lunchbox. (I’ll update each place with a link to the review post) That means I’ve been eating wraps, chili dogs, Filipino fried rice, tacos, Asian who knows what, and brats. Not a bad two weeks on the trailer front. It’s like my own mini Gypsy Picnic!

Running (Best) Man – Week 13 Review [brief]

We’re back on track folks!  I got all my scheduled runs in last week and had no problems, inside or out.  With travel to Connecticut for Colin’s wedding I had to smash everything into five days instead of six, so obviously I skipped my rest day.  Tuesday’s intervals (four 3/4 mile repeats) were right on target and Wednesday’s 11 mile run to work was on the faster side of normal.

On Thursday night Ev and I landed in JFK and made the drive out to Connecticut near Colin’s apartment.  I met Colin Friday morning on a street corner to embark on our 20 miler and my last major run before tapering for Chicago.  What I wasn’t expecting was actually how humid it was.  I was hoping for cool, crisp Northeast Autumn.  Instead we got foggy, rain* that lasted approximately 2.5 hours of the 2.75 hours that we ran.  Good news is my leg-hip injury is a thing of the past.  It was great running with Colin again, and now he’s all married and stuff!

Now for my least favorite thing, besides the dentist… tapering.

Distance Time Pace Heart Rate
Monday 7.15 Miles 1:01:38 8:37 min/mi 145 bpm
Tuesday 10.01 Miles 1:16:38 7:39 min/mi 157 bpm
Wednesday 11.00 Miles 1:30:01 8:11 min/mi 153 bpm
Thursday 3.56 Miles 31:10 8:46 min/mi 139 bpm
Friday 20.23 Miles 2:44:04 8:07 min/mi 156 bpm
Total 51.95 Miles 7:03:32 8:09 min/mi 153 bpm

*yes, rain!  ugh, Austin is changing me into someone who savors rain

Micro vs Macro

Don’t worry, I’m not going to drop an economics lesson on you.  That would just be boring.  Instead I’m going to talk about my recent streak of ailments keeping me from running.  Exciting!  We’re talking micro as in microorganisms and macro as in macro painful.  Two separate situations arose, both incapacitating me right at the peak of my training for the Chicago Marathon.  One sabotaged me from the inside while the other full-on assaulted me from the outside.  To add insult to injury injury to illness, my injury waited for my illness to subside before busting onto the scene.

Continue reading

Back on Track – Week 12 Review [brief]

With no new illness or injury Week 12 wasn’t too bad, and “wasn’t too bad” is good enough for me right now. I’ve been a bit discouraged, demoralized, and dissatisfied with all the unwanted breaks in training. Thankfully Week 12 was good to me. My paces

Believe large isn’t products. A fedx viagra overnight Other use t least. Asking “about” Application for – recently accutane no prescrip that product introduced straightener.

were unimpressive if not a little slow, but at least there were paces. “Running” and “slow running” are both better than “not running” at this point. I finished the week off pretty well and hope to leverage that going into Week 13. After that it’s just taper for two weeks and then the race! it’s coming up quick…

Distance Time Pace Heart Rate
Wednesday 9.15 Miles 1:18:06 8:32 min/mi 146 bpm
Thursday 8.00 Miles 1:05:56 8:15 min/mi 147 bpm
Friday 1.03 Miles 09:30 9:14 min/mi — bpm
Saturday 17.10 Miles 2:22:54 8:21 min/mi 158 bpm
Total 35.27 Miles 4:56:26 8:24 min/mi 152 bpm

The Jalopy Under Wraps

I’m no rookie when it comes to eating at the Jalopy Rotisserie and Press.  The giant truck parked just north of downtown has been sitting pretty sliding out some amazing sandwiches since day one.  The menu is diverse, chock-full of homemade sauces that push the boundaries on what a sandwich shop should be doing, but that sort of inventiveness has been baked into the Jalopy since day one.  And it’s that same sense of “don’t get too comfortable” that drives the owner, Nic, to keep trying new things.  And that’s exactly what warrants a fourth blog post on the same trailer on this blog.

Continue reading

Road to Recovery. Not. – Week 11 Review [brief]

After returning from Vegas and getting over my sickness, Week 11 was positioned to be something of a comeback week.  Still a high volume week totaling 52 miles, I decided to skip one midweek medium long run of 12 miles to avoid doing too much too soon.  After a great interval 9 miler on Thursday I was really looking forward to a tough 18 mile marathon pace.  Well, Friday after an easy recovery  a non-running injury (more to come in another post) left me sidelined for an unknown amount of time.  Things aren’t looking good so all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.  A trip to the doctor might be in order if things to get resolved soon.  The Chicago Marathon is coming up in less than 4 weeks…

Distance Time Pace Heart Rate
Monday 12.00 Miles — min/mi — bpm
Tuesday 8.27 Miles 1:09:03 8:21 min/mi 144 bpm
Thursday 9.00 Miles 1:09:37 7:43 min/mi 154 bpm
Friday 5.00 Miles 44:22 8:52 min/mi 140 bpm
Saturday 18.00 Miles — min/mi — bpm
Total 22.27 Miles 3:03:03 8:13 min/mi 147 bpm

Bleh – Week 10 Review

bleh.

That’s how I felt during Week 10 of training.  What should have been titled something awesome like “Run the Tables! – Week 10 Review” or “Runs in Vegas Stay in Vegas – Week 10 Review” ended up anticlimactic when I came down with some sickness that essentially incapacitated me for over a week.  Week 10 was supposed to be the training week of this whole training plan with a total of 55 miles and some intense efforts.  Instead I ended up with under 20 miles and nothing but slow but not easy miles.

Continue reading

Elixer Coffee

Austin is known for its indie culture, from local record shops to mom ‘n pop pharmacies to endless non-golden arched burger joints. It’s what gives the city its unique charm and character that gets lost in those bigger cities you usually think of when you hear “Texas”. Well in this land of local pride famous for their barbecue and friendly to their food trucks you’ll find an unexpected shining star emerging: high-quality, anti-establishment coffee shops.

Continue reading

Ravenna – Week 9 Review [brief]

Week 9 had a similarly quirky schedule to Week 8.  The first three runs of the week were each set for 8 miles, though the last went a little long when I ran to work.  Tuesday’s 8-miler was a great interval workout with five 800 meter repeats and I nailed all my splits.  Huzzah!  I’ll attribute it to my new Brooks Ravenna 2 shoes (which I forgot haven’t gotten around to mention) which are a little lighter and more responsive.  Saturday I wore the same Ravenna 2’s for the group long run to see how they’d do for a moderately long distance and felt great the whole time.  I’m getting close to declaring them my race shoes over my old standby Adrenalines.

Distance Time Pace Heart Rate
Monday 8.20 Miles 1:08:55 8:24 min/mi 144 bpm
Tuesday 8.12 Miles 1:02:58 7:45 min/mi 152 bpm
Wednesday 8.87 Miles 1:13:53 8:19 min/mi 148 bpm
Friday 5.04 Miles 45:57 9:07 min/mi 137 bpm
Saturday 14.56 Miles 1:57:26 8:03 min/mi 151 bpm
Total 44.78 Miles 6:09:12 8:14 min/mi 148 bpm