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Showing posts from May, 2008

Great News

From the New York Road Runners Web Site: Hello, Andrew! Congratulations! You're in for the experience of a lifetime, the 2008 NYC HALF Marathon Presented by Nike! We are thrilled that you will be joining us on Sunday, 7:30:00 AM. Be sure to bookmark our site www.ingnycmarthon.org and visit it often for the latest news. Good luck with your training. The race is July 27 and features a great course. Here's the description: The course will begin on Central Park's East Drive (near 85th Street) and make a complete, clockwise loop around the park. Runners will then continue to the south end of the park and exit onto Seventh Avenue, heading south to Times Square. A right turn onto 42nd Street will take runners to 12th Avenue (West Street), where, after a left turn, the race continues along the Hudson River waterfront to Lower Manhattan. The finish is on West Street near Rector Street and Battery Park.

500 Miles....and Counting

More details to follow, but I crossed a big milestone today: I've run just over 500 miles since the beginning of the year. A few years ago I set out to run a thousand miles in a year, but broke down quickly as I didn't really know what I was doing from a training perspective. At this point I feel great, so barring any major surprises, I should be able to surpass the thousand mile mark (how cool does that sound?) some time this fall.

Jamming with Eli

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Waaaaaaaaay back in business school - in the first semester of my first year in 1992 - I read a book called The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement for my Technology and Operations Management class. The book made a big impression back then and is pretty much a must-read for anyone interested in improving the performance of manufacturing or distribution operations. Fast forward 16 years. One of our main priorities at work this year is to improve the performance of our supply chain - which in book publishing incluseds everything from printing to distribution to returns. Our work on supply chain led us to some consultants with a company called the Goldratt Group. As in Eli Goldratt. As in Eli Goldratt, author of The Goal along with a bunch of other books. Goldratt has a really interesting story as he's a physicist by training who has turned his scientific approach to solving business problems. Eli (pictured above with me and my colleagues and two consultants - Eli is the one on th

Hello from Amsterdam

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Hello readers, and greetings from Amsterdam! I'm here for a couple of days of meetings. Believe it or not, the picture above was shot at 10:12PM!

A Book Worth Checking Out

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Just finished reading Severance Package , a thriller by Duane Swierczynski; it's pretty close to a one-sitting read. The story is about a guy who goes to work one day only to find his boss plans to kill him along with everyone else who works at the company. Set near the top of a Philadelphia high-rise, the book is full of twists, turns, double-crosses, and fun action scenes. Reading the book reminded me of another one-sitting thriller I read 13 years ago: Vertical Run , by Joseph Garber. I was less than a year into my publishing career at that point, and I can still remember sitting in my hotel room at the Millenium Broadway in New York reading the book from cover to cover. I'd also recommend one of Swierczynski's earlier books, The Blonde . If you've read a great thriller recently, let me know in the comments!

Sometimes It's Good To Run Counterclockwise

When I run in Central Park I usually like to run clockwise; the hills seem easier (even though the total elevation change is the same regardless of which direction you run) and the people-watching is a bit better (since most people run counterclockwise). To change things up I ran counterclockwise today. As I was headed up the east side, I was thinking about how I never see my friend/colleague Kirk even though he's a regular early morning runner; not three minutes later, who do I see? Kirk, running with his fiancee Lindsay. Today's run was a good one - I completed the park loop at a pace of 8:07 - not bad for 6+ miles.

Butterflies & BBQ

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_DSC7826 Originally uploaded by aweber9 We had a great family excursion this past weekend for anyone interested in plants/butterflies/nature and.....barbeque. Early Saturday morning we set out for Rainbow's End Farm , a business whose focus is on butterfly education and habitat conservation. The farm sells plants and butterfly tchotchkes, but the real highlight is a small greenhouse where you can interact with the butterflies. You're actually encouraged to hold them - on qtips soaked in a sweet blue liquid. After the farm we headed over to Big W's BBQ , a restaurant in Wingdale, NY that's short on style (it's in a former convenience store in a small rundown strip mall) but long on great BBQ. Big W (Warren) is a former high-end chef who cooked in New York City but converted to pit-smoking BBQ when he and his family moved out of the city to the suburbs. After selling BBQ out of a truck on Route 22 for a number of years, he opened his restaurant in Wingdale a couple o

Excellent Article

Check out this article in Business Week: Beyond Blogs .

The Lunch Request

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IMG_5427 , originally uploaded by aweber9 . Elizabeth is going on a field trip today to the Staten Island Ferry. The photo is her lunch request. Clearly she's big on list-making.....

Another NYC Runner/Blogger

I've never actually tried to figure out how many runner/bloggers there are running around NYC these days - it's probably quite a few. I don't remember where I first came across Running Down a Dream , but I've enjoyed it. Today's post on the Wall Street race I ran yesterday provides a great overview of the experience. Unfortunately (?) I missed out on the Wii Fit socks, but courtesy of Mrs. Longest Run, now own the real thing as of this morning.

Paying It Forward

I enjoyed this article by Jim Koch, Chairman of the Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams, Boston Lager, etc.) on his decision to share hops - a key ingredient in craft beers such as the ones his company makes - with competitors during a hops shortage. This was the killer quote for me: What can leaders in other industries take away from our experience? Of course a rising tide lifts all boat, but more than that, leaders can be the gravity that lifts that tide. Leaders need to be alert to situations in which the long-term interests of their companies are best served by putting the needs of their segments or industries first, even when that means enabling competitors to better compete for your customers in the short-term.

One Must Remain Flexible

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IMG_5423 , originally uploaded by aweber9 . Mrs. Longest Run and I had separate plans tonight, and with the regular babysitters unavailable, Elizabeth and Sarah were watched by someone they know and like but who is unfamiliar with the regular evening routines. Tonight's routines were off in any case as it was the grand finale of Season 7 of American Idol, and we'd agreed the girls could stay up for the first hour of the final show (which would take them to an hour past their regular bedtime). Once we were all home, we were swept up by the moment and agreed the girls could watch the entire show. Elizabeth, of course, had to amend the schedule she'd mapped out for the babysitter. Though we were split between the two Davids (I wanted Cook to win, Katherine wasn't sure, and the daughters wanted Archuleta to win), we were all ultimately pleased with the final outcome. This is the first season I've watched a substantial number of the shows, and it's been a lot

Great Race Tonight

I ran this evening in the AHA Start! Wall Street Run, a 3 mile run through lower Manhattan. After watching it rain most of the day and expecting to be wet and cold for the race, we were blessed with cool temperatures and overcast skies with just a few sprinkles. The race was tricky given the sheer number of people (4,300 entrants), narrow streets (here's the course map) , and big puddles. Though the course was pretty cool, I didn't have a chance to really look up until the third mile. At that point I had a nice view of clearing skies and the Statue of Liberty - not so bad. My splits were so strange I wasn't convinced the course was really the advertised 3 miles. According to my watch, I ran the first mile in 7:42, the second in 8:12, and the last mile in 6:48 even though I felt that was the slowest mile. The official results: 3 miles 22:36 minutes 7:32 per mile overall place: 885 (out of 4,301) gender place: 764 (out of 2,563) age place: 122 (out of 507) To put things in pe

Cool Twitter Discovery.

I've posted previously on the joys of Twitter here , here , and here . Courtesy of the post Endless Conversation: The Unfolding Saga of Blogs, Twitter, Friendfeed, and Social Sites on Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 blog, I learned today how to use TwitterFeed to have my blog posts show up as tweets. Not such a big deal for readers who already receive feed posts via rss and a feed reader, but cool for someone who might just use Twitter. To check it out, look for me on twitter as user aweber9.

Great Star Sighting.

Alex Rodriguez. Columbus Circle. Surprisingly free of hangers-on or autograph seekers. He looked tanned and well-rested. Good news, I suppose, for Yankees fans. What's your best star sighting, in NYC or elsewhere?

On the future of books and reading

I know some of you are interested in the question of where books are headed in the future. Earlier today I came across two articles which I found thoughtful and wanted to share them with you. Enjoy! Columbia Journalism Review - The Future of Reading A book publisher’s manifesto for the 21st century (5 parts with 1 part yet to come).

Ending The Week With A New PR

My running week starts Monday and finishes Sunday. Typically I run Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. The weekly long run is typically on Saturday. After a tough week, I was really pleased today to run a new PR (personal record) for my standard route in Connecticut - a 5.5 mile loop from the top of the Isle to the bottom and back. My previous best was 47.89 minutes; I finished today in 47.88. Next up: a NYRR 5K in downtown New York City on Tuesday evening.

Good News/Bad News. But Mostly Bad News.

I learned a lesson this morning: don't ever look at the New York Road Runners web site before heading out for a run - it's potentially demotivating. Checking the site this morning, I noticed that the date for the Staten Island Half-marathon has been moved....to October 12th. For those of you who have been following regularly, you know that October 12th is the day of the Chicago Marathon (now only 148 days and 19 hours away). Now, I've noticed that the dates for some of the NYRR races can move around a lot, so there's a chance that the race date will move again, but it's a bummer to think I might be denied in my quest for the Grand Prix when I've already completed 3 of 5 races. That's the bad news. The good news is that the weekend the race was originally scheduled to take place - September 13/14 - now has a NYRR marathon training run on the schedule; that will likely give me a chance to do one of my extra-long marathon preparation runs (20 miles +) in Centr

A FANTASTIC Evening

Last night Katherine and I had the chance to attend the taping of Jon Stewart's Daily Show with a friend of ours from the kids' school who used to work at Comedy Central. We got the total VIP treatment - hanging out in the employee lounge before being seated in the studio, getting seated first and in totally prime seats (on the front row just to the right of Jon Stewart in the video below), and meeting Jon after the show (he's really down to earth!). It was cool to see all the work that happens behind the scenes to put on a tv show and fun to be in the audience. One highlight was watching the comedian who came out before Jon Stewart to warm up the crowd; he's a guy by the name of Quentin Heggs, and he's very, very funny (sorry, couldn't find any videos online which are safe for the blog). Who knew there were comedians to warm up the crowd? After the show we walked a couple of blocks to a terrific restaurant called Taboon at 52nd St. and 10th Avenue here in New

Scary Stuff in Houston

The New York Times reports MILLIONS of crazy ants in Houston.

The List

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IMG_5422 , originally uploaded by aweber9 . Preparations are underway for the school talent show tonight. The older daughter will be singing Castle on a Cloud from Les Miserables with a classmate. She made this list to prepare herself for the show.

Fishing In Westminster

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IMG_5421 , originally uploaded by aweber9 . I had the chance to go on a short fishing outing with some colleagues at work this week. We actually had some success, catching about 15 fish of all shapes and sizes, including smallmouth and largemouth bass. The picture is of one of the larger bass I caught. The fun part of the story is that I was fishing basically at the office. There's a county park right outside our distribution center in Westminster Maryland that has a small pond in it. Many years ago I learned the state of Maryland stocks (well, stocked) the pond with trout, so I'd wanted to fish there for a long time. Things finally came together this week and we had a little expedition on an absolutely beautiful day. Unfortunately the fishing in the pond at the park wasn't so good. Fortunately a couple of people who were with us told us that the fishing in our retention pond is actually quite good; we went over there and had a lot of success. I've included a sat

World's Best Bird Feeder?

On the heels of my recent post on grosbeaks, I got into an email discussion on birdfeeder strategies with a friend of mine. Birdfeeder conversations inevitably turn to squirrel conversations, and I mentioned the Yankee Flipper bird feeder (by Droll Yankees) to the friend. He found this video on YouTube.

Taking A Day Off

After working out 7 days in a row and 12 of the last 13 days, including running 48 (!) miles in 9 days....I'm taking a day off. Last week was my highest mileage week yet - 34.9 miles - and I'm pleased to report my knees feel great. I'm hoping to maintain about 30 miles per week going into my training for the Chicago Marathon, which I expect to start in a few weeks.

A Return Visitor

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Grosbeak 2008 Grosbeak 2007 Last weekend I took a picture of a bird that I don't see very often - a rose-breasted grosbeak; I'd only seen one once before, When I went to look through old photos to figure out when I'd seen the last one - it turns out it was almost exactly one year ago. I suppose the grosbeaks may just pass through our area on the way to somewhere.....

Try to get your mind wrapped around this Twitter application

Business Week article twitter experiment I'd say if you can figure out how to follow and participate in this one, you've got the whole twitter thing nailed......

Ambient Intimacy

Courtesy of Jeff Jarvis at Buzz Machine - who in turn is blogging a post by Leisa Reichelt - comes the idea of ' ambient intimacy '; given previous explorations of twitter and blogging I found the idea very interesting. Reichelt also has a post on the three kinds of bloggers that's worth checking out.

A Little Taste of Texas

I'm sitting at a restaurant in NYC where Katherine is eating what she says is her 'favorite dessert in the whole world' - Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. The ice cream is imported from a little creamery in Brenham, Texas. We ate dinner at Momofuku Noodle Bar then walked over to Hill Country restaurant for dessert.

On the road again....

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Had a nice run this morning of just over 5 miles. I wasn't too sore from Saturday, but it was nice to get out on the road again. Last night, I was reading Bob Glover's excellent book The Competitive Runner's Handbook: The Bestselling Guide to Running 5Ks through Marathons . I came across this passage which I think really captures what's exciting to me about running half-marathons and a full marathon. In the chapter for first-time marathoners, Glover writes: Why would anyone in their right mind want to run a marathon? The training involves a lot of time and effort, and increased risk of injury. The race itself is grueling and unpredictable. It's long enough to fully tax your body, mind, and soul. Your energy supplies, muscular endurance, emotions, and psychological strengths are fully tested. Therein lies its appeal to participants and spectators alike: It isn't easy. The marathon is an epic struggle. Exciting, daunting, and scary, all at the same time. I've

Pictures from the Brooklyn half-marathon

Brooklyn Half-Marathon - The Full Story

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Lots of details I want to share with you about the run yesterday. Before I do that, though, I want to say thank you to the many readers who reached out over the past few days with well wishes and positive thoughts; your support meant (and means) a lot to me. As I struggling through the latter part of the race I thought a lot about the goals I'd set and shared with all of you; that gave me extra motivation to keep up the pace.... As challenging as I found the run, it was an incredibly satisfying experience and a really fun day. Here's how it unfolded: I got on a yellow school bus in Manhattan at about 6:20. By 7AM we were at the boardwalk on Coney Island, so I had two hours to burn before the race started. I spent the first hour walking down the boardwalk (this was my first time there) - taking pictures and checking things out. At about 8:20 I checked my bag and started to get ready for the race - stretching, jogging to warm up, 'eating' my PowerBar chocolate gel for bre

What is it about publishing people and half-marathons?

Funny on the day of my third half-marathon to come across Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt's blog entry about his experience last week at the Country Music Half-Marathon. I think the entry nicely captures a lot of the things I've enjoyed about my experiences so far this year.

The Results Are In.....

Tough, tough run, but a new personal record: 1:54:04. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my friend/colleague Betsy, who came out to cheer me on. She was waiting for me in my darkest hour - running up a loooooooong hill in Prospect Park around Mile 11. Thank you Betsy!!!!

Almost there.....

Just over an hour to go to race time. The bus arrived on Coney Island at 7AM, so I've had some time to walk the boardwalk and take a bunch of pictures. I'll check my bag shortly and start warming up. Best news so far - while it's still cool and breezy, it is dry. Fingers crossed it stays that way. More to come after I'm finished!

On the Bus

I'm on the bus on the way out to Brooklyn. Since it's been so long since I've been on a yelllow school bus I'd forgotten how incredibly bumpy they are. The weather is pretty icky, but at least it's not actually raining. It's in the high 40's, breezy, and very foggy.

Sweating the Details....

Tomorrow is the big day! I take a bus (at 6:30) from the East side of Manhattan out to Coney Island. Not sure exactly what time we arrive but I expect to do some standing around before the race starts at 9AM. The training work is done and all that's left is sweating the details (I was going to say managing the details, but I suppose one can't really manage the weather....). What kind of weather will we have? The AccuWeather forecast shows rain between 9AM and 10AM; the Weather Channel says cloudy with 20% chance of rain. I'm hoping the worst case is scattered showers. Running in the rain can be fun, but not for two hours, not when it's 50 degrees, and not when you have to wait around for a race to start. The uncertainty in the weather means uncertainty on what to wear. Long-sleeved or short-sleeved t-shirt? Tights or no tights? Hat or no hat? I've got my bib/number and assigned corral - the 7-8 minute/mile group. It looks like my corral is based on the time I ran th

On Animals

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Courtesy of Cal Vornberger , photographer and author of the terrific Birds of Central Park , check out Natalie Angier's NYT article Noble Eagles, Nasty Pigeons, Biased Humans , which will resonate for anyone who has tried keeping squirrels away from birdfeeders or animals out of one's garden. Full disclosure: I've recently battled woodchucks in my garden and fully identify with some of the people characterized in the article....

The View From The Park

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Gorgeous morning. Had a nice easy run - more like a jog - this morning as the final tuneup for Saturday's race. The apple and cherry trees around the reservoir are in full bloom.