Well I finished the marathon. It was a pretty amazing experience and a real test of will. I am almost sad that it is over, since it took so many months of hard work to reach this goal. I am really glad I was able to stick with the training, and feel really lucky that the injuries I suffered along the way didn't prevent me from reaching this goal.

I plan to keep running. I am already registered for the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon on Oct 4. My ultimate goal back before I even started was to make this a lifestyle change. I need the races (goals) to keep myself motivated, and I need the running to stay healthy.

I haven't had much time for poker lately, and I haven't played at all in the past 2 weeks.

Thats all for now

Well the Marin half marathon was just plain rediculous. Some of the slopes were so long and steep that even the elite runners were walking on the uphills. With hardly any uphill trail training this was just torture. I ended up doing really bad as the mountains just plain kicked my ass. At least it gives me another goal for the future. After the San Francisco marathon in July I am going to start training for trail runs and come back next year to own this thing.

That said last week I was really sore. The tuesday run I was in alot of pain. wednesday was a little better and thursday was normal. Last Saturday we joined the SF marathon training group for an 18 mile run. It is so much cooler in SF compared to the south bay. That combined with running as a group made the run pretty enjoyable.

Our training schedule has us running 20 in two weeks but the SFM training group is doing the 20 mile training run next weekend so we are going to modify our schedule to match theirs so we can join them. So after this 20 mile run we finally start to taper down before the actual race. I am really looking forward to this as my legs have slowly been feeling worse and worse. I have to take advil before runs now because it just hurts too much if I don't. I think thats defenitely a sign that I am pushing my legs a bit too hard but I'm not willing to deviate from the training at this point. After the race I wil address any problems my legs have developed.

As for poker I haven't played all that much. I played enough at the begining of the month to get 100 points a day to get Bronze level. After that I've just been getting a few points a day so I can get the Ironman 6month bonus cash thing. I final tabled two small tournies (90-300ppl) recently and bubbled two others where I was a chip leader and got it in good vs another chip leader who sucked out on me.

I am still on track to accomplish my running goal. Last Saturday I ran 15 miles. I got seriously dehydrated at around 13 miles forcing me to walk the last two miles due to pain in my bladder. I am pretty sure it is because I was only drinking water. From now on I am going to make sure to bring Gatorade and some electrolyte gels to eat/drink instead of just water.

We are registered for a half marathon in Marin in two weeks, when the training drops down to 13 miles. I signed up for it without really reading much about it before hand. I am a little worried now beacuse of the amount of hills. We are going to incorporate alot of hills into the next two weeks of training so that we dont die on this half marathon.

http://www.trailrace.com/maps/marin_21k_elev.jpg

I haven't played much poker. Maybe 1k hands in the last month with decent results.

Running continues to go well.

Last Saturday was a 10 mile run, which took me 2 hours 11 minutes, which compared to the previous weeks 9 mile run at 2 hours 14 minutes is a pretty cool improvement.

I got wednesdays 5 mile run down to almost 12 minute miles. I think I might have tendonitis on the outer part of my right foot. It has been pretty sore after runs. I am going to go to the running store to have them re-evaluate my shoes, since I've put about 160 miles on them from running and I wear them everywhere I walk as well.

This Saturday drops down to 7 miles. We are going to run in a local 10k race for fun. It's only 6.2 miles but at least it'll be something new. Two weeks from now our Saturday run is going to be 13 miles and I found a semi-local half marathon which we are going to give a try as well.

What I find somewhat amusing is that I am actually paying money, and sometimes going out of my way (1-2 hour drives) just to run, when 4 months ago you'd have to pay me to run. Irony


Lastly, why am I not rich yet?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4178652" contenteditable="false" href="http://www.pokerhand.org/?4178652" unselectable="on">http://www.pokerhand.org/?4178652

So two weeks ago I was having trouble with my left knee. It lasted a few days and eventually went away. I haven't had any trouble with it since. The problem is that during that time, I kept running. I learned a lesson the hard way, if you are experiencing "injury" pain, stop.

While my left knee was in pain, I was limping and ended up compensating by putting more weight and pressure on my right knee. This was a disaster. Although there were a few days after my left knee started hurting where I was fine, the damage had already begun. I overstrained my right knee and ended up developing Patella Femoral Syndrome (http://www.sports-injury-info.com/patella-femoral-syndrome.html). Now it is likely that I had been slowly developing this over time anyway, but I think the change in the way a run due to the limping made it much worse. I ended up out of action for a week because it started hurting so much. I couldn't even walk without sharp pains in my knee. I ended up going to a doctor to see if I had done serious damage. Thankfully I hadn't, as he diagnosed that I had Patella-Femoral syndrome, but he recommended I give it at least two to three weeks before starting up again.

Fortunately by yesterday the pain was gone when I walked, so I decided to give running a try. A friend of mine had the same problem and let me borrow a band that u wrap around your leg below the knee. It basically puts pressure on the tendon below the knee cap to prevent the knee cap from sliding up and down as much. I was skeptical but it was amazing. I ran the full 3 mile run yesterday at the fastest pace I've even run 3 miles. I was really nervous before the run, afraid that it was going to start hurting again as soon as I started. I would have stopped immediately if it did, but I was so relieved when I felt absolutely no pain the entire run.

One thing I noticed is that my quads are not developing evenly. There are two parts in the quads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Illu_lower_extremity_muscles.jpg

My Vastus Lateralis is very well developed, but I can barely even feel my Vastus Medialis. My doctor gave me a referal to a physical therapist, and I think I will go just to see how I can build up this muscle and improve my running form. If possible I want to try to avoid becoming dependant on the knee strap, and I think this will help.

Poker has been going well. I've been mostly 1 tabling HU 50NL with very picky game selection. The results have been good. I have been able to find some huge fish and am up a little. I should be up a bunch but some clown was playing retarded and managed suck out a few times for a few buyins. Was annoying but what can you do. Not bothering with ironman is hugely relaxing. I can just play when I want, or more importantly, not play when I want. At the rate things have been going, I think I have a good chance of making it to $5k by the end of the year.

So last week was a little strange. Tuesday and Wednesday were very difficult runs. I developed what I think was Runners Knee in my left knee. I was basically limping while running, which made my right leg very tired. I started doing some new stretches and exercises to strengthen my quads. Thursday was amazing. I'm not sure if it was the new stretches and exercises, or my Wolverine-like self-healing abilities, but the pain in my left knee was almost completely gone. I still had a little bit of a limp on the Thursday run, so it was a little more tiring than usual, but I was able to do the whole 3 miles. By Saturday the pain in my left knee was gone. I had developed a new pain on my right knee, but it is a different kind. It doesn't actually hurt while running, only while walking. It is pretty strange, but it had no effect on my Saturday run and I was able to do the entire 7 mile run without having to stop or walk. This is by far the longest I've ever run and I am extremely happy that I was able to complete it. When I started this whole mess I was really skeptical as to whether I would be able to reach this goal, but looking at how far I have come, I am almost certain at this point that I will be crossing the marathon finish line with a smile on my face.

As for poker, I haven't really been playing much this month. I defenitely won't be qualifying for ironman, but I don't really care. I take breaks like this every few months to clear my head and come back to poker fresh. I still play a little but mostly just the Midnight Madness tourney. This tourney is really wierd. I think because it is a late night tourney, alot of people buyin before going to bed and just play super fast/retarded. I usually cash and sometimes have a chance of going deep so I'll probably continue playing it.

Well to make a lame joke, it seems I had been "running" above expectation. More seriously, I think we've been ramping up pretty fast, and my knees haven't kept up. I've been having knee pains especially at the start of runs. Walking up and down stairs, especially down, hurts now. The symptoms I am having are pretty common to runners knee, so I assume thats what I have. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much I can do besides ice it regularly and ease up on the runs a bit to allow time for the knee to strengthen and heal. I went to a local running store to see if I could throw some money at the problem. They had me try on some band but it didnt help and they said I shouldn't waste my money. They didn't have me try one of the knee support sleeves, which is what I had expected to get. I am going to go back and try one to see if it does anything. Today's run was miserable, I was limp running the whole way, and stopped after 2 miles because it was just too uncomfortable, and my other leg was getting tired from having to compensate for the limping. It is disappointing but fortunately I don't think it is something that will prevent me from continuing, it may just slow me down a bit.

I qualified for Ironman level this month. I did it mostly 9 tabling 100nlhe. I didn't really enjoy it, and I am way below expectation, so I am going to stop and just go back to playing whatever and whenever I feel like it and probably only qualify for Bronze level again next month, if I qualify at all.

Running continues to get better. We did 5.4 miles on Saturday without a problem. It is pretty cool how far I have come, from nearly dying (figuratively) running 1 mile, to being completely compfortable during a 5.4 mile (20 laps in outer lanes at the track) run.

My co-worker injured his foot running yesterday. It swollen and hes going to be taking a few days off so I'm on my own for a bit. I don't expect this to be a problem for me as I am now at a point where running is comfortable and I don't have to struggle every step of the way. Hopefully he'll be alright and able to rejoin next week, as running alone is pretty boring.

The four person ironman SNG was rescheduled to last saturday. I lost which was disappointing. I made a pretty bad call to get knocked out early. I was on the button with Q9s and flopped top pair on a 965 rainbow board. I cbet and the guy called with AJs. Turn was a 2 of his suit giving him a flush draw. I bet and he called again. River was a queen of his suit giving me top 2 pair. I had planned to check behind most rivers, but when I improved I bet and he shoved. The problem with my call is that when he shoved, he couldn't have expected me to fold given how much I had already put in, so I don't think it could be a bluff. All I can really expect to see is a straight or a set. I was pretty suprised when he showed a flush, but not very suprised that I lost the hand. Oh well.

Cash games have improved some. I'm up a bit in plo recently. 16 tabling nlhe was not going well so I cut it back to 9 tables. Results have improved so I think I'll stick with it. The problem was that I was playing way too tight, and losing alot of money to the blinds. With 9 tables I am able to examine spots better to pick up blinds here and there so that I am not hemoraging money from the blinds, and still making money from my big hands.

Well Saturday was pretty awesome. It's funny because last week I jokingly told my co-worker I run with how little I look forward to Saturday's now that we have to run every Saturday morning.

Started out by running 4.3 miles (16 laps at the track, but every 4 laps is 1.08 miles in the lane I was in). I felt good the entire time and didn't have to stop to drink or even walk at any point. This felt great as it is the first long Saturday run that I've completed without walking. This has given me new optimism towards reaching my goal, as I had been consistently having problems with the early morning (8am) Saturday runs.

The Ironman bronze freeroll started later at 1pm. Usually this is good for some free money. It is pretty hard to not cash since half the field usually doesn't show up. Even some of the people who don't show up cash. I ended up winning the whole thing which is redonkulous.

The 4 person SNG didn't happen. When it came time for the tourney to start, nobody was registered and it was voided. I contacted FT and they are investigating but said it may take a while. Hopefully they work things out and we get to play, or at least get some sort of cash payout, I'd be happy either way.

Running has been going well. We've been able to stick to the schedule. Yesterday we incorporated some hills into the 2.5mile run which really sucked, but we need to get used to it because San Francisco has alot of hills. This weekend is 4 miles. I really want to try to increase my speed a little bit this weekend because every marathon guide I've read insists that your training run per mile time be two minutes faster than the pace you want to keep in the marathon. Right now my training runs pace is just barely fast enough to allow me to finish within the 6 hour time limit, so I need to start picking up the pace. It's kind of funny though because a few weeks ago my only concern was just to finish the run, and now I'm at a point where I have to worry about my speed. It's a better problem to have than the previous I guess.

Last Saturday and this Tuesday I ran into a problem with my foot going numb towards the end of the run. I think I was tying my shoes too tight. I loosened them up yesterday and it was fine, so hopefully its nothing serious.

Poker has sucked balls lately. I manage to get my money in good so much and am punished accordingly. I think Full Tilt is punishing me for running well in that tourney. After losing about 12 buyins playing 25 and 50 PLO, running far below expectation, I decided to take a break from PLO and short stack 100 NLHE (buying in for 20). Yesterday was ok, made a little but the day before was simply amazing. In a one hour period, i managed to lose about 300 without getting my money in bad once. I lost holding AK against AQ all in preflop 5 times in a row. I lost with overpairs all in preflop 4 times (out of like 9 or 10 times total). And I only won 4 or 5 races out of about 15. Its obviously a small sample but it still sucks. I am truly amazed how horribly people play against short stacks. I am going to continue doing this for a while as it is so much less stressful than plo, and seems extremely profitable.