First Run 2011

IDEAL run: Wake up, alert, nourished, properly hydrated, put on shorts, a tech tshirt and running shoes and dominate some 60 degree weather with a fast pace...be in shape.

ACTUAL run: Wake up super hungover, swear at yourself for agreeing to do a race on New Years Day, contemplate vomiting, decide to save it for a runner who tries to pass you.  Wipe pizza off of your face, drink as much water as is tolerable.  Put on clown costume, be out of shape, put on running shoes, hate your life.  Run a 5K.  Don't get beat by people pushing strollers(somehow I accomplished this).

 Colleen, Myself and Tina.

 688 runners stupid enough to wake up on New Years Day and run.

 Tina and Colleen being pretty.

 "Best Gift of 2010" AWWWWW precious, but she didnt beat me

The Brett Favre of blogging

Guess who's back?  Back again, Jamo's back, blog to a friend...guess whos back, guess whos back, guess whos back....bonus points for naming that terrible song.

So no I never claimed I was retiring from blogging, but twice now I've made the mental commitment to begin blogging again and completely failed (Favre).  This isn't a New Years Resolution (I don't believe in them) because it is still 2010.  Either way this Christmas was one to inspire me to get back into running more/blogging.  The family made off with about 34 hours of child labor worth of Nike gear (tasteless yet true.)  Hopefully the wages have been improving because I thoroughly enjoy all things Nike.

Anywho, my lovely sister Sweatonceaday got me a Garmin 305 for xmas...legit right?!?  Added to yak tracks, head band, gloves, hoodie, shorts, tech gear I probably have no excuse to not get out and run right? So although I haven't been running, I have been getting my swell on.  I took a month break from athletics after my May marathon, and had a nice eating span of "it's fine, I just ran a marathon"  like 6 weeks worth of post-26.2  SOOO I needed to reshape up.  I've been hitting the gym, and hard for a while, but I've been avoiding running, why?? Good question.  Laziness? I dunno, but it is so expensive/hard to keep lean muscle on, and run, the two just don't go hand in hand.  "Hi yes I'd like to burn 600 calories a day running, another 400-500 lifting, and also be putting on a pound of muscle every few weeks or so while working full time." Unless my nutritionist is Dr. Steroid it is probably not going to work out.





So today I threw on some new gear and went for a nice run with my recently injured sister.  Which was advantageous because we did 3 miles @ 9min/mile.  (I haven't run in well over a month)  My triceps have been looking delight though. (Taken Christmas morning, wait til a Wed. (Arm Day))

My Life As A Giant

All my life I've been dealing with the difficulties of being a larger than average person, and no I'm not even that tall.  I'm 6'3" which is tall, but I'm not a 7 footer.  So when I had my first car, a Volvo station wagon, I would accidently kick the door compartment everytime I got out of it, and only this past summer have I upgraded to a roomier spacier Ford Escape.  The vehicle on the right is a version of my car, but not my actual automobile.  (I wanted an offroading picture to illustrate manliness)  So anyways onwards with the story, and how it relates to physical activity.  I was smart and got a warranty with my "Ape" (EscAPE, ye you get it) and the deal is, if the vehicle must be held overnight for repair, I am given a complimentary rental vehicle.  So I decided to pick the rental the morning after my car was housed, just so I could drive it to the gym to do my back day (top 5 favorite workout days of the week...I only work out 5 days/week).  So being that I was getting a free rental to go to the gym, it seemed stupid to have a roomie/friend drop me off, SOOO I decided to run to pick it up.  It is just a few miles away and on the way to the gym.  I talk to a guy on the phone, oddly enough also named Jameson, and he says yeah come by whenever.  So I run there and there is a great sign on the door "HERTZ Rental be back ASAP"  great, so I stretch out on this busy road and hang out waiting.  The other Jameson explains how the basic rental is what comes.  Last time I rented a car, the basic rental was a Jeep Compass.  SO anyway, he tells me yeah this Chevy, leather seats etc etc...cool cool, it turns out to be a Chevy Aveo, See pictured below.  I only had the car for about 8 hours or I would have taken pictures of myself driving in it or preferably it being run over by a small truck (it is just that small)  I had the seat alllll the way back and I was still scrunched up.  Of course there were 3-4 in the parking lot, and I'm given the BRIGHT red one, like Marilyn Monroe lipstick red.  Such is life.  YEah pretty much same color as below.  I had to laugh the whole time I was in it, I must have looked absurd.  So point in case, what is up with people picking on the poor tall people?  I guess I cant complain, a free rental is a free rental.  But it happens other place, I was playing basketball in Boston a little while ago, and I was picked first because of my height, I wasn't the best player, don't get me wrong I'm silky smooth, but the real talent was picked after me.  One of these days the world will even out.

I really am TRYING....mancave

Bloggers,

Slowly getting back onto the blogosphere.  Been super busy with work/training so yeah.  Besides RUI's, running under the influence... I've been working out a lot, running with a training client, and making my personal mancave/workout room in my house.  The roomie and I put up a heavy bag in the middle of the room, brought a nice stereo down, brought in an easy bar, and adjustable dumbbells with over 200 pounds in plates so we're pretty set there.  I had an exercise ball and purchased another.  We also have a SHAKE WEIGHT!  Amen that the roomie got that for his birthday, because a mancave/workout area would NOT be the same without it.  I've been on a consistent workout routine for the past month and a half and I'm finally beginning to be pleased with it.  All I can do now is keep on training and hope for more results.  Ive been working for www.racevermont.com helping out at triathlons, which has been quite an experience.  More on that in a future post.  For now, here are photos of my roommate and myself training, aka flying/dragon kicks.  You never know when we are going to be attacked and the only solution is to leap into the air to kick an attacker down.  As you can see I created two sneaky exercise ball holders, aka string, that keeps them out of the way.  We have to throw a big shoutout to Walmart, where we purchased our decorations.  Ironman posters, transformers posters, boondock saints, nikesoccer poster was commandeered a while ago.  Of course we have a map of the world because we are YoPros, aka Young Professionals.  Side note, I'm in the blue, roomie is in the white, his head isn't in the photo because he jumped so darn high.

Where has Jameson been?

Holy Crap, it has been so long since I blogged, it is about time I at least ATTEMPT to get back into the swing of things.  I wanted to write another post before three months of no blogging.  So after my marathon I said heck no to exercise, and heck yes to greasy food and adult beverages.  So since I went on my bar binge and eating competitions I fell off the blogosphere.  So I wanted to kind of give an overview of my last 3 months.  Basically I moved out of the motherland, aka BTV and settled in the outskirts.  What this means is that after the bars I can no longer walk home.  What it does mean is I can run home.  So to do that I would go to a local pizza place at about 2:30 AM, carbo load with bbq chicken, and then by 2:45AM I was ready to run home.  As a personal trainer and seasoned runner I know this is the correct way to carbo load.  So I made sure to include pictures of me at the bars.  This is how I roll, making tiger claws/faces.  And then I would jog home in jeans.  Because I am just that smart.  Soon I learned to wear my running shoes TO the bars, what a thinker I am.  So along with running to the bars and carbo loading, I finally have gotten back on top of strength training, something I neglected during marathon training.  Esp. important because in my month of saying "Its okay I just ran a marathon" I'm pretty sure I put on anywhere from 10-20 pounds.  So I soon realized I needed to get back on the exercise train.  As you can see in my jetskiing photo (first time, loved it) I was looking a weeee bit scrawny.  More updates to come soon of training/and as my mom would hope, less of drinking.

I am now a Marathon finisher

I think the best way to do this post is a play by play.  First off, I apologize for the lack of photos/posts in general recently, the poll for personal training name ended in a tie, oops, we'll figure that one out. 

Wednesday May 5th Jameson runs 17 miles, foot tendonitis acts up, only runs a meager 2 miles after this before Marathon (May 30th), bikes to work every day until May 25th to crosstrain.

Friday May 28th 2:30 AM, Jameson asleep squating in friends apartment... "lets f*** with Jameson."  Deep sleep=over for next 2 hours when soccer balls come flying into the room and Jameson anti-rests for marathon.

Saturday May 29th, Jameson is moving stuff into new apartment and is anti-resting for race on Sunday, eats baked Ziti, loads on carbs.

Sunday May 30th, Mile 0, Jameson listens to dubstep at start line and gets jacked up.

Mile 1.23ish Jameson finds mom and decides to run with her for oppurtune possible photo moments. 

Mile 3.67ish Jameson tells mom "I'm gonna flirt with pace and go ahead for a bit"

Mile 4.3 Jameson finds cute girl in blue and decides he may as well keep pace with her.

Mile 6 Jameson sees pace improving judging by clocks, excitement comes

Mile 8 blisters from hell come

Mile 9 Feeling great and still hanging around girl in blue, batwoman is also running nearby

Mile 10.4 find boss at water station and give her a sweaty hug, amazingly she smiles

Mile 12.2 Man this is easy, and I'm under a 4 hour pace, sweet.

Mile 13.1 "Jamo want me to run with you"-Emily "No its cool, I feel great, I'm crushing I'll definitely be under 4"-Me  "Ye you look good keep it up."-Emily says excitedly as she takes off down the crisp bikepath towards the inevitable finish of her soon to be PR. (How dumb is that sentence)

Mile 14.2 Girl in blue is sneaking away, crud

Mile 15ish, Taiko drummers are within hearing distance, the ominous Battery St hill is next, around the corner Jameson sees Taiko drummers and hears beyond vividly, Battery St is lined with screaming spectators, Jameson feels chill and numb as he experiences the best runners high of his life!  He begins to crush the hill and the 4 hour pacers sneak upto him. 

Mile 16.5ish Jameson's legs seize and he must stop to walk and he is at his lowest of lows.  Foot tendonitis kicking in hard, Jameson wished he had the ability to have run in the past 3 weeks, but he decided to be smart and not injure himself prerace, he saved it for during the race.

Mile 17-19 Jameson goes back and forth between walking and running, never out of breath, just angry and cursing himself.

Mile 20-25 Jameson debates quitting and has to walk more than he can run because his legs are just so mad at him, he watches the 4:15 pacers, 4:30 and then the 4:45 pacers pass him.

Mile 25 after making the goals of finish under 4, then under 4:20 and then just try to run a mile here and there, Jameson has saved up energy and it is time.  Legs engaged, no more walking, Jameson passes the 4:45 pacers and is running as hard as he possibly can.  All he wants is for the race to be over so he can go and eat chicken tenders.  Pounding across the finish in around 4:45 Jameson has successfully completed his first marathon.  He realizes it is the hardest physical thing he has ever done and probably the hardest emotional thing to do too.  Not being able to run because of legs at mile 17=stop, cry and wait for the Wahmbulance to take u back to the family, somehow Jameson overcomes this urge and has to walk by people he knows after initially saying he would never walk.  Jameson completed a marathon and came in 1000 something out of 3000 something.  Team "crush it" feat. Emily and Jameson, came in 35/210 for mixed gender half marathon.  Next year I may focus on just the half and maybe crush it goes for the win!

We have a poll

Be sure to vote, there is money riding on this for somebody, I will accept late names to jhalnon@gmail.com, but they have to be pretty epic to be accepted late...