Lex Lata

I think that I have finally decided to come to grips with reality and recognize that I won't be able to pursue "major" athletic accomplishments while in the current career path. Surprisingly, I'm ok with that. I'm referring to things like Lotoja, an Ironman, Ultramarathon etc... when I refer to "major" athletic accomplishments. I just don't have the time to train to finish those things the way that I like to finish athletic things. So, I'm going to just accept that fact and move one.

I have decided that I am going to pick up 5K racing again and see how low I can cut my time. I have previously run well under 16:00, but I doubt that I will be able to reach those times again as my training time is much less now than when I was doing this in high school. I hope to be able to run a few 5Ks throughout this year and next. After that, I will see if I continue to run 5Ks or want to jump up to the 10K distance.

My reason in doing this is two-fold. First, I decided that I would pick and compete in races only to keep me honest in my exercise and to make sure that I had some type of motivation to continue exercising. I didn't do this to do wild and crazy races. Second, as previously mentioned, I just don't have the time to train for all of that other stuff the way that I would like to. I don't like limping through events just to finish and check it off of the bucket list. I don't particularly have a problem with people who do that, other than the idea that they are primarily the reason that race fees have been skyrocketing over the past 5 years because the number of people that are doing a race for the first and likely only time has turned racing into an industry rather than a fringe activity that was largely unprofitable and reserved for weirdos.

I have decided that I will spend the next month in a base-building mode in preparation for my benchmark 5K. I will call this my "post-Competitive life" P.R. I'm going to run the Rex Lee Run with my wife and a few friends. Actually, I'm going to race it, so we'll probably be strewn about the course. I'm excited to pick up a manageable distance and not feel like my entire day is going to be consumed with trying to fit everything in around my training session.

A Few Reasons Explaining Why Seattle Is Better Than New York:

1. I was driving in the city the other day. You can't do that in NYC.
2. While driving in the city, I got into a sticky situation because I got a little lost. I waved apologetically to the car that I had forced to stop, and they waved it off as if it were no big deal. In NYC, I was in a similar situation with a taxi, except the taxi driver got into a yelling contest, complete with an ungodly amount of cursing and increasingly escalating threats, with the car that had to stop and wait for us.
3. Rain in Seattle won't burn your skin.
4. Seattle is built on 7 hills. This creates a minimum of 7 new adventures. Sure, NYC has its boroughs, but Seattle's hills all have a personality of their own, much like the boroughs. In addition, the fact that there are so many large hills creates for some very interesting and fun city planning and zoning.
5. Birkenstocks
6. While walking down the street the other day, I noticed that people would look me in the eye, smile and say "hello." In NYC, you definitely don't do that.

I just got back from a weekend trip to Seattle for some interviews. Going to Seattle for a quick weekend trip meant that I had to hop on an airplane and fly. I don't mind flying too much. In fact, I rather enjoy it and even marvel at how cool it is that we can be up above the clouds cruising at such a fast pace. I have flown quite a bit for my young life, but despite enjoying it and doing it very often, flying and me don't mix. I regularly get strip-searched, or get my carry-on searched at security for no reason. I often have ticketing problems because most airlines won't let me do online check-in. Airlines have misplaced or even lost my luggage on multiple occasions, including when I moved out to DC for a few months as an intern. The list goes on and on, but last night may have topped all.

I will summarize due to a lack of time, but you'll get the gist of what I went through:

1. Security opened up my bag to look inside it. The "questionable" item was a textbook.
   
2. The guy sitting beside my had epic body odor
3. The guy sitting across the aisle had incredible body odor
4. There were two girls immediately behind me, I'm guessing 2 and 4, who were fighting and screaming the entire flight
5. Their mom had a voice that could make the nails on a chalkboard sound cringe, and she was yelling at her kids the entire flight
6. One of the girls, who was seated right behind me, kicked the back of my seat for the ENTIRE flight.
   
7. My neighbor with b.o. decided that it would be a good idea to spill sugar on me during the flight
8. In his attempt to clean it up, he spilled his coffee in my lap

I'm sure there was more, but I can't quite remember.

Ok, so it has been 2009 for quite a while. This is a new year which is going to bring a lot of interesting changes to our lives. First, we'll have the first non Bush/Clinton president that we have had in 20 years tomorrow. That said, we still have a Clinton in a very influential position. We just can't quite get rid of the dynasty families, although I guess that two influential politicians in one family does not a dynasty make. Second, related to President Obama, Guantanamo will be shutting down shortly. Third, maybe the economy will turn around and all of us can find jobs!

This is going to be quite an interesting year.

I have spent probably 16 hours shoveling snow in the past week. I'm tired of it. That said, having 3+ feet of snow in your yard isn't half bad!

I purchased a pair of Zensah Compression Tights for recovery purposes following my runs after having great success with compression socks on my runs. Unfortunately, I'm not too impressed with these tights so far. They only come in two sizes "Small/Medium" or "Large/Extra-Large." What about us kids that are right between Medium and Large? That leaves you in a tough spot. Knowing how compression tights are supposed to feel like, I ordered the larger side so that I wouldn't run into a problem with getting them on. They pull on fine, but they don't provide the compression that I want. So, without any further ado:

Compression: Not great for the pair that I have, and I can't imagine that the smaller size would compress much better than these, based upon the composition of the tights.

Price: Great price at $59.99. Most tri companies sell their compression socks for that much, let alone full-length tights.

Comfort: They're comfortable, but not in the way that they should be. They should provide quite a bit of compression on my legs; they don't.

Logo: Pretty cool logo (for what that's worth)

Overall: I don't recommend purchasing them.

We have officially been coined the "Obama Generation." Regardless of your feelings on Senator Obama and his qualifications to be President (I'm still undecided but optimistic and open-minded), you've got to admit that it's pretty impressive that our generation is automatically associated with him to the point of being named after him. Let's hope that he does a good enough job to merit the approval that has been freely given to him by everyone.