Zombie Snowpacylpse!!!!

What a weekend! A bunch of Zombies invaded the Lower East side.

Killing

Celebrating with nerds

Then mother nature played a trick on the Northeast

Guessing we got 3-5 inches? A lot of my coworkers further up north got 12-18" and lost power! Yikes!

I was supposed to go running with Jill in Central Park Sunday morning, but the heavy snow killed that opportunity:

So I tried to go run out in my neighborhood, got 2 blocks before I realized:

So I attempted it again at noon, and:

But I got my run in, dammit!

How did your weekend shape up? Did you dress up? I think EVERY girl was dressed up as a swan!

What is the difference between a "jogger" and a "runner"?

Because I don't know!

Both move their legs in a "running" fashion rather than a "walking" fashion.

Does a "jogger" not race?

Do "runners" not not race? (double negative folks, deal with it)

Is a "runner" only a serious runner and "joggers" don't take it serious enough?

Does being a "runner" mean you are above a "jogger"?

Are all "joggers" hippies?

Ok, I am grasping at straws at this point.

Perhaps I am also over thinking this issue and perhaps this sums it up?

Thanks to Jessica aka Copy Chic for sharing this on Facebook

What do you think?

The Top 15 Men & Women At Kona On Their Bikes and Kicks

Kona this year was a record setter. Crowie broke the men's record and while Chrissie didn't, had she not been injured, could have (and I think would have) destroyed her own record. Chrissie, as usual, gets the badass award for best finish. Cracked ribs? Slow swim? Slower than normal bike? And STILL wins the glory? She can't be beat.......ok, I lied, I think Rinny is cuter ;)

Anyways! Slowtwitch.com did an awesome job displaying the top 15 men and women Kona finishers on their bikes and in their running shoes. You can read these articles in the following links:

Top 15 Men on their bikes
Top 15 Women on their bikes
Top 15 Men on the run
Top 15 Women on the run 

My interpretation? Not thinking about time and speed and based upon looks alone (hey, its MY blog!), these are my top picks for badassness-looks-iness. I will also include a "special" award. Special can mean either good.....or.....gross ;)


Bike:

Men's Best: #8 Andi Bocherer

(source)

I have no idea who this dude is, but he showed up matched to race!

Men's Special: #10 Faris (no last name needed)

(source)

Some folks think he is the sexiest man alive. I just vomit in my mouth every time I see the speedo. Sorry Faris!

Women's Best: #2 Mirinda Carfrae

(source)

I think her pint sized super (hotty) awesomeness speaks for itself!

Women's Special:  #14 Natascha Badmann

(source)

She is like, 100 years old, rides the strangest fucking bike known to all triathletes, and yet STILL drops a 14th place at Kona! Natascha, you will ALWAYS be a great!

Run:
Men's Best: #5 Timo Bracht

(source)

You get the award because you are the only one displaying a true mid foot strike. Running a 2:47:26 prolly helped too!

Men's Special: #1 Crowie

(source)

Because you are Crowie. Nuff said.

Women's Best: #2 Rinny

(source)

See above^^^

Women's Special: #1 Chrissie

(source)

Chrissie?!?!?! Where and how the F___ is your leg going into your body?

What about you? Who would you pick?

PT Graduation Day!

This morning I completed my last and (hopefully) final PT session!

(source)

Its been a long haul 6 weeks of the same exercises, but it has been worth it.

We have determined, finally, that my Time Trial bike caused the knee damage, and running merely aggravated the problem, creating a different injury that was compensation for the original injury.

For some reason throughout the season, my left foot on the time trial bike became more and more crow footed. Why? I am guessing a muscle imbalance in my left leg that caused my left foot to pitch inwards to compensate. Over time, I became comfortable with this crow footed position, but it was doing overuse damage to my knee.

Luckily the knee held out until Placid.

However, once I was done with Placid and my body was recovering from the shock, my left knee had had it and revolted. First the pain started in the medial area (inside). It came and went and wasn't anything terrible.

Then I hopped back onto the time trial bike for the first time in over a month and belted out a 2 hour ride at race pace. Bad idea. This pissed off my knee even more. The next day I went for a 90 min trail run and this finally did my knee in. This was the run that the runner's knee fully developed and I went crying to my doctor and the orthopedist.

On August 31st I saw my primary doctor. He reffered me to the orthopedist. I got lucky! After my referral approval from my primary doctor, I called the orthopedist and was asked, "Do you want to come in tomorrow AM at 9:30, or you can wait until October." I got VERY lucky.

So after an X-Ray, a diagnosis, and immediately starting PT, I was on my way to rehab.

Or so I thought.

After a two week improvement via PT, I was readjusted on my TT bike by my coach, and I went out for a two hour ride on that bike. After 60 mins I was gritting the pain and stopped. I basically undid all of the improvement I had gained and was back to square one. The TT bike was the problem. Running pain was just a side effect. I am not blaming my coach for a bad TT fit. It didn't matter if I had the BEST fit in the world! My leg muscles were simply not balanced and strong enough to handle that strain to support the injured tendons in my knee.

So I quit running and biking for two full weeks and stuck to just PT. This finally worked!

I also requested an MRI to make sure nothing else was going on.

The results were a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst. Things were finally healing!

So far this week I have ran 3 times, with a fourth time on the docket for Saturday. I am slated to run ~18 miles this week!

Some things that helped a lot during PT were:

1) Staying consistent with it

2a) Shaving my legs (for the next item)

2b) Kinesio Tape - this gave me a LOT of support without needing a cumbersome knee support device.

3) Ice

So now looking forward?

No more racing for 2011. Lake Placid was enough for this year, and while I am bummed that I am giving NYC another pass, its ok. The down time has been needed. Its been making me HUNGRY for next year!

And this is why I am staying with my coach till the end of time because he understands my injury and is conservatively building me back up for next season. Ironman Mont Tremblant is still a looooooooong ways away, and that is the #1 goal right now.

However! I would like to make a good campaign attempt at the NYRR running circuit this winter and into the spring, as well as some destination races to explore other city's venues.

Have a great weekend!

#winning

(ignore the "cal"....quite humorous how WRONG it is)

It was a good run. I finally felt like a "runner" again.

How did your weekend go?

Oh. My. God. Dancing Zombie Squid

I don't mean to totally nerd out on you, but I find this VERY fascinating..........


........and quite disturbing......

......but mostly fascinating! Make sure you have the volume turned on. There may or may not be dancing frog legs....

Uh, Happy Friday!

Edit: Using the Zombie Booth app, I was transformed into a Zombie:

MRI Results and Finishing This Thing Off

The MRI results finally came in. I won't get started on what it took to get them. Ok, I lied, here is one thing:

But I got them. The short of it is this:

1) No evidence of an articular meniscal tear.
2) solitary small focus of chondromalacia patella
3) mild distal insertional quadriceps tendinitis/tendinosis
4) distal insertional semimembranosus tendinitis/tendinosis
5) minimal left knee joint effusion

First reaction? Well, duh! Only surprise is #4, the semimembranosus. Well, actually, that is where it all started so actually, its not much of a surprise but more of a relief that that IS what started it all.

Big thanks to Amy @ Welcome to Boston's other half, The Tall Girl, for giving me quick feedback and an anatomy lesson via gmail chat. This was a huge help that immediately calmed my anxieties over whether amputation was necessary or not. ;) So thanks Lauren!!!

But I wish I had gotten this done at the very start. I know MRI's are expensive, but I have learned that an orthopedist who takes 5 minutes to diagnose you based upon an X-Ray for tendonitis is NOT the way to make a proper diagnosis. Lesson learned again not to pick an orthopedist who has 50,000 patients. I am sure he is a great orthopedist, but man, the attention I got was NOT enough. And no, I am not some whiny little bitch. Waiting in the waiting room for 2 hours for a 2 min visit is, quite frankly, stupid.

Anyways, one thing that I have NOT blogged about very much around here is WORKING OUT and TRAINING, the entire point of this blog! I have been active, running in fact! Since the last horrible flare up 2-3 weeks ago, I have ran every other day, just 30-40 minutes at a time. No knee pain has shown up before, during, or after.

I have even gotten back to the pool! After taking a full 8 weeks out of the water, swimming 1500 yards is a LOT harder than I remember. Its ok, it will come back, it always does, and I always find a way to get even faster than the year before. Not saying this out of cockiness, its just my history with the pool.

After a discussion with my PT about the MRI results and where I currently am, we have agreed that next week, week #6, will be my "graduation" from PT. This is good, because while its a decent 60 minutes leg strengthening routine, I'd rather spend the time focusing on the bike or running or swimming. But I won't be going cold turkey with it. I have already discussed with my coach that we will be continuing with it for some time, just on my time.

Ok! Enough of the deeeeeeep thoughts. How bout this? (Thanks to my dad for sending me these!)

Note to Self: ZIP UP YOUR DAMN POCKET!!!!

I got lucky on Saturday. VERY lucky.

Coach said, "Don't run over 30 minutes!"

I ran 5.5 miles instead. Oops!

I didn't mean too! Really!

So my running buddy, Lisa, and I did our usual 2 miles out, 2 miles back routine. Lisa sometimes puts her keys in my car since my key is just a fob.

We run; my knee holds up; everthing is good.

"Easy," right? Well upon finishing the 4 miler I suddenly realize that my car key is NOT IN MY POCKET, and "easy" just got thrown out the window. My shorts pocket has a zipper, to, you know, keep the contents inside the pocket. I failed to zipp the pocket up and at some point along the run the key went flying. Awesome.

What the heck do we do now? I am on a time constraint and need to be home ASAP. Lisa's car is locked with no keys cuz they are in my locked car with a currently missing key. We decide that I will run back up the trail in the hopes of finding my key while she runs the 3-4 miles home to get her husband's car, pick me up in case I don't find me key, somehow get me into my apartment (my house keys were in my locked car) to get my spare car key, then play musical car chairs to get everyone back home.

That didn't happen.

I got lucky. VERY lucky and found the black car key in the middle of the trail less than a mile away.

Then I realized that I had to go get Lisa, who was well on her way running home, except I didn't know which way she was running home. Crap!

So I "sprinted," yes, a sub 9 min mile but slower than 8 min mile counts as a "sprint" for my creaky old knees. It felt good to go "fast" again. It really made me miss running and the running shape I was in when I dropped that 7:06 pace at that 15K last March :'/

But I found Lisa quickly. I started honking at her to get her attention, which does REALLY sound bad and makes me look like a total pervert. Even she said, "Oh great, now some pervert is honking at me to get me attention!"

Haha!

So note to self. ZIP UP THAT POCKET!

RanDUMB: Celebrity sightings and my biggest fan

Beyonce showed up at work yesterday. Where was I? In meetings. Except I walked RIGHT past her without noticing. A few weeks ago? Pele was here. Why was everyone walking around in their Blue Sky soccer kits holding Brazilian flags? Oh right......Pele. *facePalm*

My claim to fame? I shook Jessie Eisenberg's hand and gave him a presentation on how we groomed the birds of "Rio." (He was the voice of Blu, the main character and I did the feather groom)

I also met the mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

Lots of celebrities pour through here if they are doing vocal talent. Mostly they are out in LA recording, but sometimes they make a short visit. I can't tell you about some of them (which I would love to tell you!) but I'd rather keep my job, if you know what I mean! ;)

Speaking more of Rio, my biggest fan, my grandmother sent me this via the mail yesterday:

Thanks Grandma!

Always great to have that fan base and support!

And speaking of my job! We are hiring! Mostly entry level positions, but if you are in need of one, we are looking for an HR assistant, Recruiter Assistant, and Production assistant. Shoot me an email if curious/interested or seeking more info.

Perks? Free NEW YORK bagels on Monday, Fruit on Wednesdays, Donuts on Fridays, some celebrity sightings, and a huge wrap party with open bar to party your ass off every time we finish a movie.

Tough place, right? ;)

Dear Steve Jobs: Thank You!

Dear Steve Jobs,


Apparently at the ripe young age of 2, I was able to start up an Apple iie with no assistance from my parents.


This fascination with computers was a theme that started then and continues to this day.


I recall when I was 4, 5, or 6 watching my older brothers playing Lode Runner on this old Apple iie and messing around with extremely rudimentary spreadsheets. What the heck was a spreadsheet meant for?


Then we got our first Macintosh some years later. Carmen Sandiago, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, Prince of Persia, Sim City filled our lives for many years of game playing.


I was, in fact, a computer nerd :)


But Steve, what you did by rescuing John Lasseter and what made up Pixar at the time from the clutches of George Lucas set forth indirectly a new industry that was to benefit me in the future.


Yes, if it wasn't for Steve Jobs buying Pixar from George Lucas' ILM division for $5 million (he later sold it to Disney for $7.4 Billion), I might be doing something COMPLETELY different right now.


Using your innovative spirit allowed John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, and Alvy Ray Smith explore how to turn this primitive technology into an art, ultimately creating the film "Toy Story" which completely spawned the new 3D Animation business.


Because of them, other competition showed up to this booming scene with Dreamworks and my company, Blue Sky Studios trying to get a piece of the action.


So Steve, THANK YOU for helping spawn my industry because without you, I might not have my awesome job right now!


Best Regards,


-Jon

Side note: When my company was on the chopping block about to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy back in the late 90's, Steve Jobs came by to see what we were all about. He passed, as he already had Pixar which was currently owning the industry. Fortunately 20th Century Fox stepped in, bought us out and financed us through our first film, "Ice Age", which premiered in March of 2002. The rest is history. I showed up fresh out of college at the age of 22 (everyone thought I was 19) and I have been here ever since, about to hit my 6th year on the job.

You Can See Right Through Me

Hello. My name is Jon. This is me on the outside:

This is where I stick feathers, fur, grass, leaves, and hair onto characters.

And this is me on the inside, specifically my left knee:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Anybody know how to read an MRI? I am currently waiting on the results from the professionals. Isn't it amazing how much tissue there is surrounding your bones?

And of course, the original X-Ray

How NOT to do a flying Cyclocross Dismount

Alexa @ Just Keep Swimming posted this on her facebook a few weeks ago, then Emily @ Speed Laces did a cool post about watching a cyclocross race, so I figured it was time to share this video with the rest of the world.

Feel free to watch a few - hundred - dozen times! Poor guy, but man look at the air he got!

Ouch!

Sasquatch, Charlie Brown, and Darth Vader In One Post?

Oh yeah!......mostly the title was just to lure you in ;)

Guessing I haven't watched too much TV this year (due to training? HA!) so I have been seeing some commercials that stand out, either disgust me or make me laugh my ass off, or make me smile.

Here goes:
McDonalds Sunday Football
This guy.............JUST. NEEDS. TO. GROW. A. PAIR. Seriously dude!!!! Man card revoked!!!!

VW Young Darth Vader
I always wind up with the BIGGEST grin every time I see this commercial. Its been on since the super bowl last February and I still don't mind watching it over and over again. Basically that little kid was me when I was 5. And it has the greatest theme song of all time.

Planet Fitness "I Pick Things Up and Put Them Down"
Now I just laugh my ass off whenever this comes on. Its so stupid its funny and its a horrible stereotype commercial, but that dude is HUGE!!! Google search determined him as Silvio Kersten, who served 9 years in the German Navy and is a pro body builder and trainer.

Finally, in the spirit of Fall, Football, and Charlie Brown's eternal punishment:


Beef Jerkey, Messing With Sasquatch:

How'd your weekend go? Congrats to those who raced, PR'ed, or tackled new distances in racing and training!