FAIL

Again, pure exhaustion will keep this post short.

Oppressive heat will force me to run the 10k indoors. I am going down to the gym here at the Rio to hop on the treadmill. I will just set it at 6.2 mph. I'll let you know how the knee holds up...but it feels pretty good.

$10,000 playing poker with only a $500 investment? FAILED. I am loser on the trip and have already invested more than $500. Sigh. I had been riding an up and down roller coaster throughout the trip, but yesterday was particularly cruel to me. I will waste no time or energy in detailing the specific hands. It's just variance. When you consistently fall victim to the negative side of variance...that presents a problem, because see...you need money to play poker, and if you keep losing...well...you won't have much money for too long. I will try again next year.

I have the rest of the day to think about what I would like to accomplish in July.

Reeeeally quick.

In vegas. Been here since thursday night. I am down...but barely...on the trip. What a roller coaster. I will detail it more when I get back. I am just too tired right now.Another chance in a tournament tonight.

Woo. Gonna end up running the 10k here. Tomorrow.

HOKAY....SO

Here's the deal. I have not run the 10K yet. I will have to do it while I am in Vegas. Yes, it will be very hot. I leave tonight at 7:15

Redneck Hubris

I pwned that piece of clay.

Pics

Frustration

After having rested the knee for over a week, I took it out for a test drive yesterday at lunchtime. I probably got about 1.5 miles at a very gentle and slow pace before I felt the knee start to flare up. Its a sort of radiating "heat" on the outside part of the knee...the side. I stopped before it really started to hurt. I walked back to the gym and got on the Precor for 15 minutes, but the irritation had already begun as a result of the jogging and I had to stop after 15 minutes. Sigh. I'm no doctor and I am reticent to self-diagnose, but after talking to a lot of people, this really sounds like an MCL strain. I'm told that if I had actually torn the ligament, I would know it, and the pain would be much more intense. In any event, I am still looking for a sports medicine guy if any of you runners or injury-prone readers know of somebody good.

Also, if anyone has a brace that I can use to knock out this 10k, I would appreciate that as well. If running it proves to be more damaging than positive, I will simply hope on the Precor and get it done that way. I know its not the same (the pain and impact involved in running was a big part of the challenge) but I'm not going to just give up and do nothing.

More bad news on the poker side of this little challenge. I lost another $220 since I last updated the total. It was at my home game on Wednesday. I was up and down all session and sailed off my stack a few times by making big hero calls truly based on my read of the situation. It proved to be correct (the read) on two occasions, unfortunately my hand was not strong enough to beat my opponent's bluff. In these situations if you are sure of yourself and want to continue, it's obviously better to raise. Unfortunately both times I was in a position where I didn't really have enough raising chips to push my opponent off just in case they had a tiny piece of the hand and felt committed to a thin call. So, what does that all equal? JUST FOLD DUMMY! You don't have to try to pick off every weak tell you pick up on! It's called "picking your spots" and its something I continually fail to do at the home game. There is a very interesting dynamic in that everyone is playing metagame...since we square off against the same opponents week in and week out.

Despite all that, I managed to get my stack back to around par but then lost with JJ vs. AQ AIPF. That makes me about 3-9435 in coinflip confrontations. And then later I flopped a set and got snapped off by a J high flush draw that had been betting the whole way and got there. Sigh.

Well, the last stand will be at the WSOP next weekend. Maybe I will cash right before the stroke of midnight on the 30th. :)

MPH

Imagine one afternoon you are driving home from work, and just as you approach your house, a car smashes into you. At first glance it really appears there was nothing you could do about it. You were on a narrow street that you had to traverse to get to your destination, and even though you might have seen the car coming, there was absolutely no way to avoid it. You’re not hurt badly, just a few cuts and scrapes, but your car is all smashed up. It costs you money to get it fixed.

So, you go and get it fixed, but one week later another car smashes into you. Again, you are not badly hurt and the only real damage is monetary, but you have insurance so it’s not going to break you.

Amazingly, the very next week it happens again. You become understandably annoyed. Even with the insurance, this is starting to become expensive and troublesome. It is also unpleasant, and despite your best attempts, you begin to feel unfairly targeted by misfortune. So, despite logic…you begin to drive a different route. It takes longer and is not the best way to get home. It reduces your efficiency, but because of this string of incidents, it feels like it may be prudent to change something to try to break the cycle.

A week or two passes with and things seem to have returned to normal. But then one day you’re cruising along, it’s a beautiful day…BAM! ANOTHER CAR SMASHES INTO YOU! You can hardly believe it, but what can you do? You got get it fixed. You decide that there is no reason to be less efficient by driving a different route if you are just going to get crashed into anyways. You lament your frustration to your friends. They too have been in crashes, and offer that it is merely coincidence…but nonetheless they refuse to let you ride in their car for fear that they will get smashed into merely because of your presence.

You consider stopping driving altogether. But when you analyze the situation you can find no real reason why you should get involved in more of these accidents than anyone else. Nevertheless, you and others notice the unusually high frequency of occurrence and are perplexed by it. You become frustrated and feel put upon. As you are driving along one morning on your way to work, now completely paranoid and frazzled, concentrating all your efforts on being defensive, you watch as another car driven by a coworker goes zooming by you with the radio blasting swerving across 5 lanes of traffic at 110 mph. At one point he actually goes into a spin but somehow recovers it and gets to work 10 minutes before you. Upon arriving at work, you learn that he just got the raise and promotion hat you had been trying for.

Apologies for not posting

Well, its been awhile since I posted. I had been waiting for the professional pictures from the Mud Run, but the Pendleton site hasn't posted the photos from our day yet. I have some here that Scott took, and I think there a bunch from after the race that were on somebody's digital camera.

The Run was a lot of fun. I know...waking up at 6 am, so you can drive to Oceanside, and then sit in single lane traffic for over a hour after getting on base, so you can park and then take a bus to the race area...all so you can run 6.1 miles in the mud might not sound like fun...but somehow it was a blast. We will definitely be going back next year.

There was a group of us running together and because of the slower than normal pace that I took, I wasn't too affected by the side cramp. My knee however, is a completely different story. I'm not sure when or where the original injury took place (I seem to vaguely remember twisting it during a snowboarding trip either last year or further in the past) but its certainly something that has bothered me from time to time for awhile now...but nothing like this. I literally limped through the last mile or so, sometimes skipping along to try to keep as much weight off it as possible. After getting home I iced it down for hours. The pain persisted for a few days.

Suffice to say, I have not run on its since. Even light exertion makes it flare up, as I experienced at JBC on Sunday. I did get on the Precor elliptical trainer at the gym yesterday and put in a good 30 minutes with no pain at all...so that's good. I plan to get my stamina back up that way while taking all the stress off the knee. Obviously, I should get it looked at, but I need suggestions as to who to see. A Sports medicine doctor? Honestly, Ive never been to anyone for anything like this, so I don't know where to start. Input is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Will this stop me from this month's goal? No way. Unless someone tells me that I am running the risk of serious permanent damage, I will gut it out and get it done. I will just get a brace or band or whatever I need to hold everything in place.

On the poker front...well things were going along smoothly and I hit a losing streak yesterday and the day before. I had been very swingy, playing a lot of Omaha 8/b online. People play WAYYYY different online and its very spastic. There is almost no reason to ever limp/raise in Omaha preflop unless you are just a gambler and want to pump the pot. The fact is there is almost no way to really get a good assessment of where your hand is until after you see a flop. Even AAK2 double suited can get counterfeited in an instant. Oh well, it was a juicy game both days and I believe I was +EV. An unfortunate thing happened yesterday in the game where I was obviously a victim of collusion. A player actually typed into the chat box telling another player that he had a "low", after the other player hesitated to call a bet on the river. Sure enough the opponent made a super thin call with only two small pairs and took the high portion of the pot, while Mr. "Low" took the bottom end. I reported it Full Tilt as it was an obvious case of collusion where the cheater accidentally typed the information he was providing to his buddy into the poker window instead of his instant messenger. I lost $400 in that game. Who knows how many times I got squeezed out...lame. I'll be staying away.

I played some live cash last night as well. It was an 8/16 holdem game and I was running poorly. Many missed draws in a wide open game half full of fish, and then one guy that flopped set after set and hit every two pair imaginable to stack up more than half the chips in play (he eventually left with 7 racks). I eventually cut my losses after hours of grinding down and went and sat in a NLHE game. I promtly tripled up there and then added a little more to get me positive for the session. But then I flopped top pair a few times against short stacks and had to double them up. This is where game selection becomes soooo important. Two action players left the game to play at a higher stakes table and the action dried up...along with the money at the table. This is not a good scenario as you too often will have to open up your starting requirements and then get trapped/priced in when a short stack moves on you. I even texted to my buddy that the game had dried up, but yet, I continued to play in it. MISTAKE. I stopped the bleeding and got up a $175 loser for the session. At first glance it looks not so bad seeing as how I was in for over $400 at my low point. But a second examination shows that i was actually positive $150 and allowed myself to sit in a shitty game with lots of "gotcha" problems that I know enough to avoid. That's bad. There is always another poker game another day. Dont stay in a bad one just becaause its late and you're looking to make a score before bed. Bad, bad, bad.

So here is the long and short of it. I was up $2375 for the month prior to this losing streak. This knocks me down to $1655. I owed myself money (quick explanation when your poker bankroll gets to $0 you have to replenish with your own cash) and I had to pay myself back. That leaves me quite short...and honestly without enough cushion to play much live action. So...its back to the tournaments. I can still do this! It's just one or two final tables away!

Setback

Well I ran the Camp Pendleton 10K Mud Run on Saturday with Melina, Frankie, Steph, Sean, Scott, and others. It was a really fun time. They had obstacles, walls, mud pits, river crossings, serious hill climbing, etc. I definitely did not go non-stop, I walked a few times to wait for the rest of my group. So, nope, I have not achieved that goal yet. Many pictures were taken, I just haven't gotten them yet. I will edit this post and include them when that happens.

I hurt me knee again. Its one of the ligaments...ACL or MCL or something. I don't know which one. Its been bothering me off and on for over a year, but I really messed it up this time. I really have no idea when the original injury occurred...but it was probably snowboarding. Anyhow, I was laid up all day Saturday and Sunday with ice on it. It feels pretty good today, but suffice to say, its going to make my goal of a non-stop running 10k this month quite difficult if its doesn't heal quickly. I should really get an MRI and see whats the matter, but I've got to find out what kind of portion I would have to pay outside of my insurance coverage.

The poker remains as it was since my last post. I played last night and broke almost dead even. I'll likley play some more tournaments this week. I'll keep you "posted".

Cheers

For June

Let's just start a whole new blog for this month.

Click here to go to 10K June.

Early progress.

Just a quick update. I'm easily running a 5k in about 22 minutes now. That's nothing to brag about, but its an improvment. I had another nice jog around Washington DC yesterday. I am still plauged by the side stitch. The point at which it strikes me varies, but it shows up eventually. I have two friends that are distance runners, and I'll try to utilize their expertise and see if I can do something to stop it or avoid it. Some people say "you just gotta power through it." That does not work for me. When it strikes, its a matter of minutes before it becomes absolutely debilitating. I can hardly walk, much less breathe.

I've been running hot in online poker tournaments lately. I've had 3 final tables in the last week, but I will exclude any results before I set my goal...(conveniently since I lost most of it back in cash games) So, last night I invested $20 in a tournament. There were 653 entrants, and I finished 6th. That was good for $956. The blinds were huge at the final table and I had to go broke with KQ suited after I made a button raise and got put all in by the BB. At first I was very disappointed in myself for going broke with that hand, but after I ran it through a few times, I realized it was almost unavoidable in that situation. It's still very disappointing though as I was average in chips before the hand began...and first place was $4700. Ouch. That would've put me halfway to my goal really early.

Ok, more later.

Reflections

Well, I will not make this too long or dramatic. $500 May was a success for the first time since I started doing it a few years back...likely because this is the only year I really took it seriously. I finished with $34 to spare. Next year it will be $466 May. I'm sure I can beat it. I missed out on a public transit subsidy that my company provides...and I definitely splurged towards the end.

So what did I learn? Well, nothing that I and you probably didn't already know.

1) Walking is good for you. The skating and nightly trek up the hill on top of my normal exercise has strengthened my legs and increased my stamina. You also see more when you have the time to look around. And apart from the chances of a random sliding SUV running you down...its probably safer too.

2) Eating out is really really expensive. Just taking my old eating habits into consideration, I saved about $800 on food this month.

3) We (most of us) eat too much. Having to ration out my servings left me hungry at first. But once I got used to eating normal portions, I realized I just don't need much food.

4) Driving is overrated. Am I giving it up completely? Of course not, unless I get another speeding ticket and the court forces the issue. Riding to and from work takes more time...sure...but if you budget it properly you're really not losing it. If anything it affords you the opportunity to more of those things you've "been meaning to get to." I read 4 books, and caught up on lots of sleep. Oh and another thing. No road rage...ever. Sit in the back and kick your feet out. You can't get annoyed by the people on the road if you can't see them.

5) Schedules aren't a bad thing. "Break free. Don't be bound by social conventions." Without discounting those ideas, I can say that having to be at a given corner, at a given time, every day, instills reliability...not to mention a courtesy that seems to be absent far too much 'round here'.

6)Documentation. Writing for all of you, helps me. It allows me to gather up my experiences and reflect upon them in a meaningful way. That's it. I promised I wouldn't get dramatic.

So its a new month and the blog gets a new name. 10k June. It's a duel goal.

1)Run a 10k without stopping. I've gotten close in last few months, but sooner or later the debilitating side cramp gets to me. There simply has got to be a way to get around that. I will have my first opportunity this weekend at the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. Likelihood of a non-stop completion: a very optimistic 30%.

2)Win $10k playing poker, without investing any more than $500. I know it sounds grandiose at first, but I know its possible. I've gotten to a point where I need to acheieve a goal like this ( or get close) or seriously think about just hanging it up. I've got far too many leaks that will continue to break me if I don;t make major changes. Hopefully the same sort of dedication that I applied to my last goal will carry over to this one.

It should be noted that the first goal is the more important of the two.

Getting off track...I guess I need another day to reflect

The summary of $500 May will have to wait a bit longer and June is starting off with other interesting stuff that is occupying my mind.
I'm in Washington D.C. I flew in last night and will be here til Friday attending a course put on by the NAB. It runs from 8-30-5 everyday, so I wont get to go to many of the museums. I did take the opportunity to go running around the capital today. I haven't been here since I was a kid, but my internal compass sort of brought me the right direction. Here is the route I took.