Skip to main content

Feats of Endurance

As it turns out, I attempted two different feats of endurance in the last couple of days: an eating contest & running a half-marathon. I like to mix it up to keep people guessing, you know? I was actually going to attempt both feats on the same day, but due to some scheduling problems (read: I wanted to sleep in), this was not to be.

The eating contest was a pho challenge in San Francisco - they serve you 2 lbs of meat, 2 lbs of noodles, and you have an hour to eat it. If you finish it within the allotted time, the meal is free. Otherwise, it costs you $22 for the attempt. For the record, this was not my idea, but once the idea was planted, it was a given that I was competing (amongst these friends, I've got one of the biggest appetites).

The run was part of the ongoing training for the October race/run. I get that it's possible to run "only" 10 miles the week before & expect yourself to be able to finish 13.1 on race day. I don't see why that should be the goal, though. Most of the training programs I've seen are 8 or 12 week programs, so you're already committed for a while. Given that, what possible harm could there be in turning these into 9 or 13 week programs and throwing in a 13 mile run? So, in that spirit, I decided to run the 13+ miles at least once before race day. I have enough time before October where that's possible, and again, why not?

So, without actually telling you what happened, here are the things I learned this weekend:
  • 2 pounds of meat is fairly easy to eat. 2 pounds of noodles, not so much
  • It's pretty easy to burn your tongue on broth that's hot enough to cook 2 pounds of meat
  • I can eat at a quick, steady pace for a solid 15 minutes. After that, I hit the wall
  • Even if you stopped eating 20 minutes ago, your stomach can retroactively decide that you were being dumb, and it can take matters into its own hands
  • Either I'm more boring than I imagined, or there aren't that many things to do in the Richmond after you've just had a meal
  • If you bump into someone 3 times as you're running, that person is more likely to smile or greet you than if you only see them once
  • Passing someone as you're running & then watching them take a shortcut so they get back to the starting point before you do is disheartening (Lake Merced has paths running across the middle)
  • I will no longer laugh at the makers of the nipple guards for runners
  • Jurassic 5's "Verbal Gunfight" is a fun song to listen to repeatedly if you're going to run long distances
  • My initial goal of a 12 minute mile for race day was far too conservative (I think the new plan is to finish faster than a 10 minute mile)
Coincidentally, I think that next weekend, I'm going to stick to not-blog-worthy portions of food & distances to run.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Copycat

So, my sister had a kid, so I have a new baby nephew these days. He's the first in my immediate family, so there's all sorts of excitement having to do with him. We are all very excited for his parents, and we're all very excited to meet him. My parents, understandably, were the most excited of the immediate family to meet him. They were the first to spend time with my sister and my nephew, and they were quite happy about the whole thing. The funniest part, to me, was that my mom insisted that my nephew looks like me. I didn't really think much of it, since there's almost always someone who insists that family member X looks like family member Y. Of course, my mom has years and years of experience with this whole baby thing. Also, she's MY mother, so she is one of the two foremost authorities on what I looked like as a baby. Not even I can say what I looked like as a baby, so I really should've listened when she threw out that particular tidbit. In fact,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Waiting for the Suck

I've mentioned it before, but I like to watch some Netflix while I do the dishes . I don't remember when I started the practice, but it's become a routine at this point. It gives me something to focus on while I do chores, and it makes the whole experience more enjoyable. All in all, it seems like a good idea to me. Now, I know that my screen time is limited. I'm certainly not going to wash dishes for two hours, so I can't watch an entire movie in one go. Heck, half the time, I can't even watch half of a movie in a single session. Ultimately, that drives my viewing preferences, so that I tend to favor episodic shows. Basically, that's how I watch some show or another: one dishwashing session at a time. Recently, that's been the Star Trek: Enterprise show. I never watched it when it first came out on television, so this is my chance to see the whole series. As with many series, there are some good episodes and some not-so-good episodes. Still, it's a...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Joys of Coding

I normally don't blog about what I do (I'm a software developer), because 1) I've already got a work blog that's more suited for that, and 2) I'm a software developer, so most of the time it's not amusing. Sure, I find it interesting, and I learn things every day. However, unless you already lean towards Computer Science, it's not going to be very amusing to you. So, for the sake of keeping my audience (all 4 of them) happy, I stay away. Today, I'm going to break that rule, because my work actually did cause mild amusement. So, without further ado ... I've got a deadline coming up fairly soon, so I've been coding away for the last few days. It's not busy enough where I'm stressing about it, but let's just say it's a little easier to concentrate on my work these days. In it of itself, that's not news-worthy, but because I've been more productive lately, I've also been generating more working code lately. That...
2 comments
Read more