Ankled Again!

It sure seemed innocent enough. As our girls' XC race was nearing its conclusion, I was jogging/shuffling back to near the finish line. Somehow, I caught a patch of terrain that was like a "gutter" and my ankle flexed much like your wrist would when it's bent back too far. I kept on shuffling and it seemed a little sore, but seemed fine.

I wake up this morning and it was REALLY sore and stiff. Not another ankle! This time the right ankle. I tried it out for my run today, which was supposed to be 2 x 5 miles at marathon pace. Yeah. That didn't happen. After my first few strides, I thought about just turning around and going home. But, I hobbled on it up to my favorite place when I have sore body parts - the turf at our local high school's track/football stadium. I hobbled up a 9+ minute mile to the track then decided to try to break up and do some 1-mile intervals on the turf to see what the ankle could do.

Here's what it looked like as I wore a path in around the football field. According to the GPS, Coach A was right - 5 laps do equal just over a mile.

First one...7:29. Still kind of stiff on the ankle, but better than that 9:00 pace

Second one...7:25. Felt like I couldn't possible go any faster, but determined to try to pick it up on the next one

Third one...6:25. Finally started to feel a smoother stride. Decided to go for 6:00 on the next one...

Fourth one...5:39. Okay. The only thing limiting me was more muscle and lung fatigue.

The ankle's healed, right? Wrong. I go to jog home from the track and just the difference in the turf and the road made it agitated and I hobbled home in 9:25 pace. So, some icing, compression, and manipulating of the ankle in hopes of it being ready for Sunday's Great Race. This one doesn't seem as bad, though, considering it was more of a "jam" instead of a "roll" or "twist." We shall see over the next few days I suppose.

Cross Country is going well again. Both our boys and girls teams are ranked in the top 10 in the state. They need to keep up the great work and stay strong over the final 5 weeks.

In other news, the Pirates had an EPIC collapse over the last 6 weeks. I thought it may be entertaining to see, as of Friday, September 7th, which local sports team will accrue the most number of wins in the rest of 2012. Here's the current Standings:

1. Pirates - 4 wins (with 8 games to go)
2. Pitt - 2 wins (with 8 games to go)
t2. Penn State - 2 wins (with 8 games to go)...assuming no more wins get vacated
4. Steelers - 1 win (with 13 games to go)
5. Penguins - 0 wins (with what was SUPPOSED to be 38 games to go in 2012...but there's that whole lockout thing)

Can the Pirates hold off the other teams...

Raise the....

...White Flag on the Pirates' season (I wish I was saying Raise the Jolly Roger instead). I conceded the year after Sunday's defeat against the Cubs. They have gone on and lost four more in a row for good measure. The funny part is that they are still only 3 games out of a wild card spot. A little win streak would be them right back in it but that would be hard to believe at this point.

In other news, amazing athlete and all-around good guy Ben completed his first Ironman distance race in sub-10 hours. He was drafting it yesterday so it may be getting posted soon. Kim also had a great day there!

Cross country is off to a great start. In the first big invitational of the year, we racked up a couple of runner-up spots on the boys and girls. It's just a matter of keeping the effort and hard work as we work towards making it to the state meet. We did have some crazy horizontal rain just before the girls' JV race started. The winds were so fierce that it snapped our tents.

My training has been moving along. The ankle issue seems to have gone away. My mileage is back up in the 60's with last week hitting 72. I had a real good 25+ mile run on the Pittsburgh marathon course last Sunday. My pace was right around my "PR" of 3:14. It's amazing what a little cooler weather can do. The Great Race is coming up in a few weekend and then October 21st I'll be in Columbus.

We Went to Chick-Fil-A

So the other week there was this big controversy over quotes concerning the definition marriage by the President of Chick-Fil-A.

Many people got very upset about this and hurled many negative, hurtful, threatening, and hostile remarks about Mr. Cathy and the Chick-Fil-A restaurants. Unfortunately, many of the remarks were ill-informed. The biggest thing I wish in any disagreement is that people come to the debate well-informed, ready to address the issue and not reduce it to a mud-slinging, name-calling affair.

Here is the quote from the President of Chick-Fil-A:

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that … We want to do anything we possibly can to strengthen families. We are very much committed to that."

Somehow, it got turned into the equivalent of a 1950's segregation stance. Nowhere in his quote did he say "we don't want homosexuals in our restaurant" or "we don't want business from those kind of people." However, the feedback of comments seen on twitter and facebook sure made it seem that way. Mr. Cathy is living out his values and our lives should reflect what we believe. If you hadn't noticed, Chick-Fil-A isn't open on Sundays because of this.

The one thing that I will completely respect from the dissenters is their choice to not support Chick-Fil-A through a boycott and to voice this dissension. However, I completely disagree with the negativity aimed at Mr. Cathy and the restaurant because they are simply stating what they believe. How would you feel if someone belittled you for what you believe? And, as was seen, the response to the declared boycott brought many people out in support of Chick-Fil-A. I guess it can work both ways.

I'm all for debates and arguments. But let's stick to the facts and be sure to attack the issue and not the person.

.....

Oh yeah, where this was all going was that Beth and I ended up going to Chick-Fil-A on the conservative talk show established "Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day." (Note, it was not established by the restaurant but rather by citizens). We were on our way down to California University of Pennsylvania for a great talk that featured TWO big-time runners, Chris Solinsky and Amy Rudolph, at their high school cross country camp. Rudolph was a two-time Olympian and Solinsky broke the American 10k record and would have probably been in London for the Olympics if it wasn't for an injury. How did those two end up at the same cross country camp in rural southwestern PA during the olympics? Great motivation and inspiration from two people at the top of the sport.

Anyway, Beth and I needed to grab dinner and we have a calendar of coupons that we got back in January for "The Chick" because we really like their food. So, we used our August coupon and waited in some really long lines but it felt worth it to show our support for a company that we believe in their morals and where we also really like their food.

Again, all I ask of the many facebook and twitter and bloggers and whoever out there: feel free to disagree--that's an American value and right. However, make sure to hold debate and discord in a well-informed way that addresses the issue and does not attack the individual.

Not Welcome at PNC

Well, that one hurt for the Pirates. Up 7-1, they manage to lose 9-8 (even after retaking the lead 8-7). Chase Headley sure would've looked nice in a Pirate uniform tonight. He couldn't be stopped. James McDonald was not able to capitalize on the leads he was given, not the sign of an elite pitcher that he looked like earlier in the year.

They are now 1-2 (.333 average) when I've gone this year. Keep in mind they have the BEST HOME RECORD IN ALL OF BASEBALL!!! They are 34-17 (.667 average...twice as good) at home when I don't go. Sorry everybody. I even tried the inside-out rally cap in the 9th to no avail.

On a brighter note, apparently it turns out that when you pour a Heinz Ketchup Bottle, an Andrew McCutchen comes out.

Of course, can't make a post about going to a Pirate game without giving a shot of the magnificent downtown skyline. 

The Swing and Ankle Update

The past few days we were celebrating the life of Beth's grandfather. One of the recurring themes at his viewing were people who came up and said that he either was their neighbor or had built their house. Being a good neighbor and an excellent homebuilder are two great qualities to be remembered for.

There were sad times, but lots of good memories as well. At his home, he had a swing (and many of the neighbors mentioned how the kids loved coming to play on the swing!). So, Beth wanted to give it one more try while we were down there and it was fun.

Here's a few shots of her swinging.

Then, she twisted the swing and spun around and here are the results:

Kind of like at minor league baseball games with the in-between inning entertainment where they get fans to spin around on the baseball bat and then ATTEMPT to run in a straight line to the other side. To quote Beth's uncle, watching her do that was "a hoot."

In other news, my ankle has FINALLY come around after four weeks. Monday I ran 15 miles and then today (Tuesday) I did 3x1600 under 6:00 pace. Here's a revised summer racing schedule:

7/14 Knoch 5k (not doing because of ankle - read on)
7/22 Quench 5k (a friend's church is putting it on to raise money for a water system in Haiti)
8/4 St. Barnabas 5k (Enjoyed my first time racing it last year)
8/11 Brookline Breeze 5k (This will be new race for me)
9/30 The Great Race (Seeded spot!)
10/21......the Columbus Marathon (that's right, I'll be subjecting myself to another shot at that 2:59:59)

I'm not sure about going to this weekend's race, but we'll see how the ankle feels. The big target(s) are (obviously) the Great Race and the Columbus marathon.

The New Trick

I guess there's time in the summer to do things like teaching your dog a new trick. Roxy was a good sport about it at least!

Buccos and Superheros

How about those Buccos? I never got around to writing a season preview, but it probably would've been something like this:

Hitting: Hopefully Andrew McCutchen can continue his improvement and have a stronger 2nd half this year. I'm concerned about Neil Walker and hope he doesn't regress. I'm intrigued by Casey McGehee and his power he had in Milwaukee. Hopefully we'll get something out of Alvarez this year, closer to what he did back in 2010. Barajas and Barmes seem like decent pickups and should provide some veteran leadership.

Pitching: Will Charlie Morton continue his 2011 first half success? Will James McDonald get past the 5th inning in his starts? He's got the stuff. I'm interested to see if A.J. Burnett has anything left in the tank and will be a positive for this team. Since he got picked up for relatively little it's a low risk and anything the Pirates get out of him will be good. If Bedard stays healthy, will he contribute? Karstens stuff is unimpressive but he finds a way to pitch effectively (a crafty righty). Can it continue for a whole year.

...
Fast forward three and a half months and the Pirates' roller coaster season has them 11 games over .500 and in first place (1 game ahead of Cincinnati and 2.5 games ahead of St. Louis).

The success has translated to the ticket office, too. I went on a Monday at 1pm and this is the line I found to buy tickets. Awesome!

The offense was HISTORICALLY inept in April and May yet has been among the best in the entire majors in June and July. Go figure. To compensate, the pitching was off the charts in April and May and has held its own since.

Individually, there's not much you can't say about Andrew McCutcheon. Leading the team in nearly every offensive category and among the leaders in the majors. This has been an MVP type year. Neil Walker has come on and is hitting .291. Pedro Alvarez almost got sent to the minors and now has 16 HR and 50 RBI. Double those totals and that's a legit middle of the order power bat. They need more production out of their table setters (Presley, Tabata, Sutton?) and hopefully the callup of Starling Marte will help with that in the 2nd half. I can't wait to see his defense that I witnessed on several occasions in Altoona.

Pitching, you just hope their arms don't fall off. McDonald has the makings of an ace and now goes deep into games. Burnett had two bad starts all season so far. Karstens is just so efficent and hopefully he keeps it up. Will Bedard rebound? If not, give one of the AAA lefties in Indy (Locke, Owens, Wilson) a shot.

How about that bullpen? The Pirates are undefeated when leading after 8 innings. Hanrahan, Grilli, Lincoln, Hughes, and Watson have been amazing. Cruz and Resop have been up and down. If they falter, there's some good choices in Indy there as well.

Will there be a collapse this year? Hopefully the veteran leadership and experience of last year will help propel them to meaningful August and September (and October?) baseball.

Here's a few shots from our seats at PNC Park from when we went last Friday. One of the best views of a city skyline in the country. 

Naturally, in spite of having the best home record IN THE ENTIRE MAJOR LEAGUE, they managed to lose. Oh well. Just keep winning all the other games I guess.

Performances like that of Andrew McCutchen brings comparisons to superheros. Last summer, Beth and I were joking around how some local runners give phony names for races. Some pick celebrities (Theo Huxtable, Peyton Sawyer). Others make up a name, such as the "Northside Dragon." We presume this is because this runner lives on the North Side of Pittsburgh and perhaps went to Allderdice, whose mascot is the Dragons. So, while brainstorming, we thought what name would be appropriate for someone living in a town with the name Heights as part of it? Also, someone who enjoys racing up hills? Well, our conclusion became "The Heights Hilltopper." Kind of catchy, eh?

Of course, you can't have a superhero without a picture. So, with an evening of no baseball, here's what I came up with tonight.

Hopefully those black and gold superheros keep it up for the 2nd half. Let's Go, Bucs!