Next stop Carson, California?

So things have been moving along over here in Maui at the usual snail pace that everything seems to function at. The latest update with subbing is still "Your information is being processed and you will be notified as soon as you have been approved." thank god this isn't something important and I am not relying on the money I could be making from subbing.

Well, while that aspect of Maui is really sucking right now everything else is pretty good. My knee has pretty much healed up and I'm back to running for real again. Did just over 70 miles last week and even got in a quality 17 mile run with the last 4 miles being around 6:45 and faster. Considering the hills in this area that is pretty balling. Feeling pretty confident about this marathon coming up in January. I could possibly be looking at my first marathon win if I continue to improve over the next couple months. I still wish it did not start at 5:45 though.

Barnes and Noble is going well. Everyone loves me there (not exaggerating either) and the bosses apparently think I am amazing when it comes to selling the new Nook Colors. I've been at it for just over a week and right now am the 2nd best seller in the store. Considering the person in 1st works twice the hours I do I really feel I am number 1. But the benefit is that they are giving me whatever hours I want. I can call in the morning and ask to come in and work that afternoon and our store manager literally gets giddy with excitement. She actually likes to stand there and watch me try selling this thing to people. Her exact words "Geez Louis, it seems like you've been doing this forever and not just 5 days." Apparently she didn't realize I'm a born bullshitter. By the way, selling these things are not easy. You are trying to get people to buy a $250 product when they are mostly coming in to buy a book or just look around. On average people sell about 1 or 2 of theses every couple days. I'm selling 2-4 of these in 4-6 hour shifts. Yeah, I'm that good.
Which leads me to the best story everrrrrrrrr: Carson, California.
So this past Wednesday I was trying to sell Nooks at the front door of the store. As people walk in I offer to show it to them. This one guy comes in to use the bathroom. I point him in the direction and tell him to stop by after and check out our new Nook Colors. And he does. I go through my routine, show him the bells and whistles of it. I joke around with him and explain the benefits of this over things like the Kindle (Amazon version) and the IPad. After I'm done he is unsure but I think I can hook him. I ask him what he's unsure about and he tells me he just isn't a book reader. He usually just reads magazines and newspapers. I hear the swiss of the ball as I go through how he can download any major magazine or newspaper in the world for fractions of the price of actual subscriptions and purchases. He takes one, a 2 year warranty, and cover for it.
After the purchase he comes over as I'm talking to my boss and hands me a card. He asks me my plans for the near future and I explain how I'm in Maui until late May then its off to Cape Cod for the summer. He then tells me to give him a call come this fall if I' looking for a job. He is the general manager of a car dealership chain for GM in Carson, Cali. He offers me a job in his main store. He'll put me up in his home until I can get my feet under me if I have no place to stay. With that he walks away after making me promise to keep it in mind. "You'll make a shitload of money if you can sell cars like you can sell these things. I read like 3 books a year and you got me to buy one."
My boss just looks at me and laughs. Then she says to me "You ARE coming back here in the fall right?" I just awkwardly laugh. A free place to stay, a job, southern california? I kept the card.

Thanksgiving turned out to be better than I expected. Jon, Matt and I were invited
to hang with a handful of their Hula Grille friends at this kid jake's place for dinner and festivities. So I offered to cook the turkey and we all went over there for the evening. MAssive amounts of food were consumed along with mixed drinks and wine. I am pretty sure over the course of the evening even I downed like half a bottle of wine. Some epic battles in scrabble were played, stories and adventures were shared by all.
It may have not been any classic McGrails Thanksgiving but it was a good time and definitly beat sitting around my apartment watching useless reruns. The one downside: The 2 mile walk back to our apartment with leftovers at 12:30AM with it starting to rain on us. Thankfully the three of us were still buzzed from the
night's festivities.

Other than that things have been mellow. Did some snorkling with Jon and Kelsey; one
of the girls I work with. Was a good time. Water was pretty rough due to strong waves coming in so there was not too much to see other than schools of fish. Am planning on buying a surf board within the nxt month. We live near some killer surfing locations. I am kicking myself right now because I just finished downloading some killer pictures of Kapalua trail and I accidently deleted some of the bst pictures. The more I go out there on my runs the more I fall in love with it. The crazy thing is that it is not even a long trail to run on. It stretches less than 2 miles and I have to run like 3 1/2 miles just to get to it. There is jsut something about it, the running along the cliff edge as waves crash below you. Leaping across the rocks while waves are crashing aroun you. It is like something from another worl almost. It has quickly become my fallback running destination. Kind of like the cemetary back home.
I was hoping to be able to post this amazing picture of a massive rainbow stretching across the sky and disappearing into this cliff jutting into the ocean. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to come and visit to see it.

Well it's time to go relax for a couple hours before bed. Busy day tomorrow opening a new back account since the only Bank of America location here is near the airport and it tuns out it is only a mortgage lending branch. So I have like 3 paychecks sitting in my room being useless.
Also, I strongly suggest everyone try this: Make a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich using 2 smores poptarts as bread. Mike, you remember these from our skiing trips right? Well they're back. Trust me people, you'll fall in love with them.


Til next time...

I don't wanna turn 29 on Tuesday!

"Have you had a chance to try out the new Nook Color?"

So apparently I am destined to be a salesman in the world of Barnes and Noble. The other night I was working the floor just hlping customers and pretending to be useful when one of my bosses decided to put me on Nook detail. Barnes and Noble has jsut started selling these new ereaders that are pretty much a smaller version of an Ipad. It is alot of fun to play with and you can do alot with one of them. Not gonna lie, if I had money right now I would be buying one. It is also good because you can go online no problem and you pay a fraction of the price for books. Well, after playing with one for about 20 minutes I started approaching people to see if they were interested. The first couple hours were tough but once I got the hang of it I was on fire. In the last 2 hours of the evening I sold 3 colors and an older model. Not bad considering these things are going for 250 bones and people probably ae not expecting to drop that kind of cash in a book store on electronics. Bosses were happy and now that is my top priority at work. Hopefully it will also get me more hours too. Yesterday was not so good though. worked an 8 hour morning shift and spent last 4-5 hours pushing it. No luck, just a couple reservations. It is nice though cause I'm being paid to talk to people, play on the Nook and walk around. Gets me out of zoning.

Did have an uncomfortable 40 minute period at work. An older couple came in because the wife's older Nook was not downloading books. The husband was livid, yelling at me and demanding I fix the issue. After calling customer service and explaining the issue and then calling his local B&N (they're from Michigan) we figure out the isue is with his credit card. This only makes him angrier of course. I spend the entire time apologizing fo the problems andtrying to calm this idiot down. After all i said and don this guy finally calms down after claiming this is completely unacceptable. Yeah, your damn attitude is unacceptable.

So I took a couple days off of running due to an irritated knee. It had been bothering me for about a week and working at the bookstore does not really help. Sidenote: I had ben wearing sneakers lately to work because they help my knee but yesterday my boss came up and killed that plan. Dress shoes only. Serious downer. But anyway, so started running again Friday after 2 days of. Jon and I ran out to Kapalua boardwalk and back. A nice 8 1/2 mile loop. The problem was I woke up a little late so didn't get to eat breakfast or drink more than a couple sips of water. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
We head out on our run around 10:30 Saturday. Right away we are running through some good hills. As we are heading up the highway a couple miles in we are already sweating buckets. About 4 miles into the run we are goign along the trail to a cliff edge thats our turnaround. It is hot out. I am starting to feel crappy and realize that I'm dehydrated. We stop for a second to look out over the ocean and right away I get dizzy and need to sit for a little bit. Then we head back. We are moving at a decent pace along the trail and up to the road. Cresting a big hill on the road my legs are feeling weak. At this point I'm just hanging onto Jon as we are still moving pretty fast back. It's at the bottom of the hill, about 2 miles from our house, that it finally ends for me. My legs just stop working for me. I literally just fall to my knees not knowing whats happening to me. I am super dizzy and feel like I'm gonna throw up. Imagine having been drinking and you have the spins really bad. Add a bad headache and nausea to it. Plus cramped legs. I've pretty much blacked out for about 10-15 seconds while on my knees on the side of the road. I've also stopped sweating. As I regain focus I see Jon realized I wasn't with him and has come back. He tells me I'm really pasty pale so once I can stand again we make out way to the office of a nearby hotel. The woman lets me into the employee bathroom around back and I soak my head and drink water for about a minute. I continue to get random dizzy spells and can only walk for about 100 feet at a time. I sit on a bench with a towel wrapped around my shoulders while Jon runs back to the house to get my moped. After about 10 minutes of sitting there with no more dizzy spells I decide to start walking back to meet Jon somewhere in the middle. I then start lightly jogging as I'm feeling somewhat better. I make it a mile before my body decides it was a bad idea. Jon comes around the corner so perfect timing. And he brought watered down juice. We switch positions and I motor home. The rest of the day I felt like crap. Sadly I had to work all evening after that but that was the evening I learned I was a good salesman so not all bad.

The next day I workd 8 hours but made sure to eat and drink lots of water before my swim/run workout. Actually had a good tempo run that evening. And today I felt back to normal on my run. So recovered and lesson learned. Ate a poptart and drank water before todays run. Also, spent a couple hours snorkling. Life is tough sometimes.

My birthday is about a week away. Am I really turning 29? Is it possible to go back in time about 4-5 years when life was easy and fun? Planning on hiking a mountain this weekend to celebrate getting old. 10,029 feet of elevation. Not too shabby.

Thanks to Kelli my bike is enroute to Maui. Really looking forward to getting back onto that thing. There are some serious routes out here that will test me.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Out of Gas and 6 AM should NOT exist

Whelp now we play the waiting game with this whole Survivor things. While I wait to met the casting directors in a couple months I have to get my passport. A person can get their passprt while they are in a different state than their home state right? Let's hope so. No way am I flying all the way back to Massachusetts to get that. I don't even know if my body can handle weather below 60 degrees now. By the way, since I've been here the coldest its been during the day has been 76 degrees at 6:30 in the morning and at night it gets down to a chilly 73. The best part is that we have two air conditioners set up in the apartment and we have not even unwrapped the cords because there is a constant breeze coming in so it never gets hot. Anyway, so I've spoken with this guy Derek Rogers. He's the head talent coordinator guy in charge of sending the different reality shows people and apparently he's set up a profile page of me so that the different shows can view it. I had to send about a dozen different pictures and a lengthy bio about myself. So now I belon to a talnt agency. So long as it gets me on either Survivor or The Amazing Race I'm cool with it.

So I fel like I'm back to teaching again. Well at least the getting up at 6 AM to get to work for 7. I got up this morning and really considered crying. I really hate getting up that early for anything. I cna tolerate doing it for races. For example, the marathon in January starts at 5:45. That means gettting up at like 3:45 to get there in time. But to go to work... come on. The place doesn't even open til 9. How much dusting really needs to be done? 6 AM should not exist. By the way on a sidenote: Did you know Hawaii does not do the daylight savings thing? Hawaii and Arizona are the only 2 states that do not acknowledge it. We all learn new things. Barnes and Noble is a fun gig though. It is really easy stuff. All I do is "Zone" book areas. That means I scan all the barcodes of books on the shelves and my scanner tells me if the book stays or its time to send it back to publisher. ALso make sure books are in right spots and everything looks clean and neat. I'll be working at registers too once I am familar with zoning. The other workers are really nice. The bosses are super cheery though. Almost overly nice. Mostly women too. Of course the ones I have worked with already think I'm awesome. Big surprise. I can see all your eyes rolling already. Trying to get as many hours as I possibly can. Still not working nearly enough to support myself out here. I shold start subbing though in about 2 weeks so I really just have to make it for 3 weeks thn real money will start coming in. It's kinda cutting it a littl close.

So jsut warning you now: many of you can expect Barnes and Noble XMas presents. Better start looking and hinting to me book ideas now.

So I didn't take the job at Bubba Gumps. I went in for my first day of training and alked out less than 30 minutes later. Apparently I was to spend the first 2-3 weeks only working 2 5 hour shifts each week in training, making like 6 bucks an hour cause I would merely be shadowing other servers. I would not get any tips. That equals like little to no money. After those couple weeks I would then be allowed 2 tables of my own to work for a couple weeks. Again, only 2-3 4-5 hour shifts during slow periods to get me comfortable. I understand the theory behind it but I did go in there telling them I was trying to work 20 hours a week minimum and thy said no problem. After explaining this to them again I was told that this is how it was done. If after the 4-5 week training period I was showing promise, I would be given more tables and hours. So... I thanked them and declined. I did get 2 sweet shirts and a hat out of it. Not a total loss.

So in the 5 days the following has happened: A frog on a boardwalk caused me to trip over my own feet and fall into a bush. I was running, it was dark, the thing hopped in front of me, I tried to jump gracefully over it and to the side at same time. The frog just sat there as I attempted to extract myself from said bush. This happened around 7pm in front of a beach front restaurant. Lots of people in attendance.

A coconut fell from a tree and landed about 2 feet from me as I ran by. Minor heart attack. The thing could have killed me. This also comes with an interesting side story. I was running back and forth on this mile and a half stretch of trail along the ocean bordering Highway 30. There were city workers trimming back the coconut trees along the highway so the wind would not blow the massice dead leaves into the road. I watched one of the workers taking swigs from a 40 of malt while her was on his break. This went on for about 20 minutes. I ran by him twice while he did this. In that 15 minute span he downed almost half the bottle. Then he went and "directed" traffic. Meaning he stood there near the cones and stared off at the other workers, ignoring the cars. The city at its best people. This guy seriously looked like he just roled out of his big cardboard box alley home, threw on one of those neon green vests and walk over to work.

Saved the best for last: So apparently the gas gauge on my scooter is broken. How did I find out you ask. I can sense many of you know what's coming. So today I got back from work and made plans with Matt to meet him down at the beach in front of Hula Grille after I finish my run. So I go do my little run, get cleaned up and head down there. About a mile from my destination, as I'm driving along the very busy highway 30, my scooter sputters its last breaths and dies on me. The gas gauge suddenly goes from just over 1/4 tank to NOTHING! I literally yell out "Are you fucking kidding me!" and get off the bike. I quickly discover the mean little trick my scooter played on me. If this were a Dane Cook sketch I would be saying "Shame on you little scooter. That wasn't funny at all. Oh yoouuuu..." But it wasn't. I was left there on the side of the highway, cars zipping by and a mile to walk to the beach. So thats just what I do. Fortunatly the last quarter mile of it was downhill so I coasted it to the car garage. By the way, scooters don't have to pay the parking fe. We park at the bike racks just inside the ticket taking devices and just scoot out around the barrier when we're ready to go. So I enjoy a couple hours at the beach with Matt, do a little swim, nap for 30 minutes. Life is good. Then I google the closest gas station. If I go left back toward my place it's 2.2 miles away. If I go right and head toward Lahaina it's 2.3 miles away. I am sitting almost in the exact middle of a line between the 2 places... yup that would happen to me. I choose right cause there is a cheap supermarket near that station. So off I go. I trudge with the scooter into the sunset, literally. The sun was setting in front of me, a bit off to the right. And there is no downhill. Other scooters beep on by. How I hate them and their happy, gas filled lives. Fortunatly there are still nice people in the world. With about a mile to go a guy calls me over and asks if I'm out of gas. Instantly in my head I think "Nahhhh, I just fel bad for always sitting on the guy and wanna give him a little break." But instead I explain the situation. He hooks me up with half a gallon of gas from his spare gas container. He even refuses to accept any money. All he wanted was a blowjob in his truck. What the hell, if its gonna save me a mile of walking... NNNNNOOOOOOOOO! I offered to throw him a couple bucks and he said no wories. Geez people come on!

Anyway, Jon returns tomorrow. Matt and I go to pick him up around 12:30. Will be a good time. Now we can have 3 of us sitting around doing nothing with our lives. It'll be nice to have someone to train with again. Life is getting lonely out there being the only one being attacked by frogs, coconuts and vehicles. I guess the whales will start passing by the island in the next month or so. Matt says they come in pods and you'll see handfuls of them swim by, breaching the water as they head west to give birth. Then around March/April they come by again with their young. Really looking forward to seeing that.

The exciting life I lead huh... though I am planning a possible XMas trip over to Oahu to do some camping and hunt down the Lost beach.

Training going well. Averaging about 80 miles a week running. Lost another 3 pounds this week though. Hovering around 142ish.

Work and Survivor

So since the Halloween extravaganza not much has ben happening over here in Maui. Mostly just because I am almost broke and finally starting on a couple jobs. Been running alot though. Been getting about 78-82 milesin each week for the past couple weeks. Signed up for the Maui Marathon January 23rd so if your around for that come on down. Only problem with that: Race starts at 5:45 in the morning. Serious downer.

Working at Barnes and Noble. Had my first actual day of work today. Really going to like the job. Not only is it easy and I mostly walk around helping people find books, movies, etc but I get a seriously good discount on Starbucks and books and there are some really good looking girls who work there and go in all the time. I think I can tolerate that. The one draw back is that right now I only work like 12-14 hours a week but can get extra hours most days apparently. Oh, and I have to be there by 7 AM 2 days a week. Which means back to getting up at 6 again. Love it. Sometimes my life is just soooo damn hard I don't know how I can handle it.

Also working at Bubba Gump Restaurant. Not sure how I am gonna like this job. Where B&N is a very laid back casual job with literally no stress, this job looks like it may be a hassle. It is always busy and there are a million things you have to learn and do. Other than there are some cuties working there I am unsure how long I plan on staying there. At the longest I'll stay til I start subbing. Once I have that going I plan on bouncing out of Bubba Gumps. Hopefully in abou 3-4 weeks.

Speaking of subbing. So I had to purchase another phone for the job. Apparently the way the system works is that an automated machine calls subs the morning positions open up.But it can only call local numbers and since I don't have a local number it would never be able to call me. So either change my phone number or get another phone. Well if I changd my PN then I would not be able to get all the adoring calls and texts from all my friends back home letting me know they miss me and whatnot. Oh, wait a minute...
So I got one of those pay as you go phones and put some minutes on it. Pretty much it is going to sit there next to my bed and be used only for that one job. Then I can just sell it for like 10 bucks or something. The more I think about this subbing the more of a hassle it is to me.

So onto something a little more exciting going on right now. A couple weeks ago I was browsing around the internet and stumbled across a posting for the next Survivor. Now people have told me in the past I could probably do pretty well on the show. So I decided to apply for shits and giggles. It killed 30 minutes of my day so whatever. Well yesterday I get a call from a guy who represents the show. It is his job to pick the people who could be chosen to be on the show and pitch them up to the casting people. Apparently he and his people have been narrowing down the selection to the 100 people they will pitch to the casting reps for the next Survivor and he wanted me to be one of them. Right away I start thinking "Yup, and all I have to do is send him hundreds of dollars for it." Nope, no money is needed. He read through the stuff I sent him along with some pictures of me competing in triathlons and fels that I am a perfect fit for the show. All he needed was for me to send some more pictures and more information, answering questions he sent me and whatnot. He is meeting with the people Thursday and will let me know by Thursday evening. If I get through this round then I would do a sit down interview with the actual casting people in LA. Obviously there is only a small chance I could get onto the show. I am up against 99 other people but this is still pretty sweet. I guess something like 8-9 thousand people submitted for Survivor just in the past couple months. He also mentioned I could do very well in The Amazing Race so long as I know someone witha similar background and personality as myself who could compete in the show. I mentioned I knew a few people... (Brian, Paul, Jon).
The one drawback to this: Aparently shooting would possibly be done in the summer. This would not only mean I miss out on lifeguarding down at the Cape but would also miss out on the Lake Placid Ironman. But as I said... very little chance I would be able to do the show. Hell, I would not even be able to afford the plan ticket to get to LA for the in person casting interviews. Maybe I could talk them into coming to Maui and meeting with me here...
How fucking awesome would that be though, being on one of those shows. Or maybe The Biggest Loser? Hell they measure it by percentage of body fat right? I may not be the best to cast for that I guess. So lets all cross our fingers. I could be standing there in the tribal council trying to convince everyone not to vote me off. We all know how good I am at sweet talking people.

So it's actually sinking in that I am here for the long haul. The past couple days I have been going through small stints of missing Worcester and all it has to offer. For the most part I have been enjoying things over here but every now and then it occurs to me I will not be spending any holidays with anyone really. I mean Matt and Jon will be here for Thanksgiving and Paul will hopefully be here in December. I have been missing people lately. As I think about my life I also wonder if I did the right thing coming here. I mean, I gave up a really good job, threw away security and a steady paycheck to come here, train, and pretty much dick around for a year. A part of me has started to wonder if what I did was the right thing to do. I sit here slowly becoming poor with all those close to me 5000 miles away. I am constantly wondering what's going on back home. It's just doubts. They were bound to start sooner or later. But I do miss being back home. I think cause it was something that was steady and normal. I knew I could handle things back there and friends were always around when I needed them. I am confident I will make it here once things start getting into a routine. Once I have a steady paycheck coming in. Once I get my triathlon bike over here. Once Paul finally gets his butt in gear and officially quits his stupid job.

Jon gets here in a week so got that to look forward to. Harry Potter in 9 days so theres that to look forward to. My birthday in 20 days... oh god. I don't wanna get old.

For those ladies who read this... I am betting you all will be purchasing this:

https://www.getshakeweight.com/flare/next?tag=im%7csm%7cbi%7ctm&a_aid=011&a_bid=bc3062b6&chan=B&data1=TM

Training Posting

This post is more for me. It is going to be my training log. This way I don't have to end all my other blogs with boring training stats and whatnot. Those will be more my little adventures and shenanigans. My goal here will be allow myself to follow my own training, see how I was feeling after certain workouts and watch how things progress as I slowly start building up my training.

Week to week I sort of make things up. I usually have a rough idea of what I want to do but I don't like having a specific plan set into place weeks in advance. The reason why is because I hate knowing too far ahead about what workouts I have to do. It's kind of depressing for example knowing that next week I have to do 12 by 800s or a 60 mile bikeride with 5 by 8 mile tempos. So I stick with developing my training days only a couple days in advance. Usually I look at what i have done the past couple weeks and go off of that.

So each day I will simply add to this blog what I've done, how I felt, aches, pains, gripes, the usual crap.

Oct. 31st- Nov. 6th: Ocean water prety intense this week. Strong surge cause rough conditions and strong shore break. Swims in ocean not happening.

Sunday: 10:30pm: 4 mile light run in the pineapple fields.
4:30pm: Attempted jelly donuts in the ocean. Waves too rought. Had gotten through 6 minute swim, run back, 5 minute swim, run back, 4 minute swim, run back, then had to call it when a wave knocked me into reef. After that did pickups down and back on the beach. 6 minute pickup, 2 minute jog, 4 minute pickup, 2 minute jog, then 4 by 2 minute pickups with 1 minute recovery. 2 1/4 mile warmup and cooldown.
800 yards swam and 12 miles run for the day.

Monday: 12:00pm: Swam for an hour in the pool. Did mostly light stuff such as drills, kicking, form work. Covered about 1800 yards.
5:00pm: 10 mile run out to Kahana Seashore trail and back. Decent tempo coming back. Did mixture of striders and drills after run.
1800 yards swam and 10 miles run for the day.

Tuesday: 4:30pm: Long run in the evening. 17 miles in 2 hours 7 minutes. 1st hour all uphill in pineapple field into woods out behind it. Steep climb entire way. Wound way back through fields and onto road. Ran down to beach and back for last 4 miles. Miles 14-15.5 were around 6.20 pace. Felt good.
17 miles run for the day.

Wednesday: 12:00pm: Swam about 2300 yards in the pool. Did series of 100s and 50s working on form and slowly building back endurance.
5:30pm: 6 1/2 miles run on the beach today at a nice pace. 8 long striders afterward. Legs felt a bit tired first couple miles. Upper body a bit sore from swimming.
2300 yards swam and 6 1/2 miles ran for the day.

Thursday: 12:30pm: 3 mile easy run in rain.
4:30pm: 7 1/2 mile run, very hilly. Meant to do evening workout on track but vould not get on.
10 1/2 miles ran for the day.

Friday: 1:00pm: 2000 yards of swimming in the pool. Started with 300 warming up different strokes, 1000 straight increasing pace every 200 or so, 100 of kicking, 300 pulling, 300 cooldown different strokes. Then quick change and 2 mile run with drills and striders afterward.
6:30pm: Very dark out. 2 mile warmup to park. Stretching, striders. 4 by 12 pickups around the park w/ 3-3 1/2 minute recovery between each. Covered between 2-2 1/4 miles for each pickup. Very difficult workout. Hard seeing where I was going, footing very tricky. Happy with workout overall. 2 mile cooldown.
2000 yards swam and 15 miles run for the day

Saturday: 2:30pm: Easy 9 1/2 miles out to Kahana Ridge trail and back. Even though it is a mostly road run with about 1 1/2 miles of actual oceanside boardwalk and trail it is worth it. Very hilly. Legs tired from yesterday's workout. Stopped at a beach with 1/2 a mile to go. Striders and drills. Jumped in water. Slow jog back. 1st half of run around 7:30 pace. 2nd half around 7:15 pace.
9 1/2 miles run for the day

Weekly total: 6700 yards swam and 80 miles run

Nov. 7th-9th

Sunday: 6:30pm: Easy run in the evening today. Feel very sluggish and lazy. Out and back to beach boardwalk near Hula Grill. Did a small pickup along boardwalk coming back. About 7 miles in 52ish minutes.
7 miles run for the day

Monday: Still very tired. 1:00pm: Ran 2 easy miles. Swam for 35 minutes straight then did drills in pool.
6:30pm: Workout. Jogged down to park then did 25 minute hard tempo around parks in dark. Was supposed to do 40 minutes but legs not having it and sprinklers came on all over fields. Jogged 2 miles back. About 8 1/2 miles of running.
2000 yards swam and 10 1/2 miles run for the day.

Tuesday: Day off. Did nothing today, legs were jsut not feeling it. Very tired. Meant to go swimming but was stuck at work filling out paperwork too long. Was dark by the time I got out and pool also closed.
Nothing for the day.

Wednesday: 12:00pm: Ran for 2 hours 20 minutes. Very hot out and mildly humid. Legs still sore. First 45 minutes straight uphill into pineapple fields. Then roamed them for a bit. From there ran to Kapalua Coastal Trail and back. Randomly felt good but overall too hot for that kind of run.
18 1/2 miles run for the day.

Thursday: 11:30am: Ran for about 38 minutes along a beach trail. Started out slow, sore from yesterday. Got faster last couple miles. Drills and striders afterward. Just over 5 miles.
4:30pm: ran 3 miles down to the beach. Swam 30 minutes straight in ocean. Ran about 4 miles afterward at a quality pace. Got serious chaffing from salt water but still fast coming back. Finally found a quality place to swim where I can get in good swim.
About 1600 yards swam and 12 miles run for the day.

Friday: 2:45pm: Light pool workout. 500 warmup, 500 in drills. Then 5 by 100 pulling w/ 25 second recovery, 50 kicking, 6 by 25 all out w/ 20 second recovery. 200 cooldown.
6:30pm: 76 minute run. First 8 miles slow. Very tired from working. Then next 6 minutes pace picks up until around 6 minute pace. Hold for next half hour, sometimes faster. 15 minute recovery jog. 6 by 1 minute hard pickups uphill. About 11 miles for workout (probably more).
2000 yards swam and 11 miles run for the day.

Saturday: 11:00am: Very tired today. Ran 4 miles easy then did a mile worth of drills and striders. Swam 1600 yards afterward. Mostly drills and pulling work.
6:30pm: 7 mile run tis evening. Decent pace the entire way. Around 7 minute pace. Legs really been tired this past week. Still getting adjusted to mileage.
1600 yards swimming and 12 miles run for the day.

7200 yards swimming and 71 miles running.

Nov. 14th-20th

Sunday: 11:30am: Easy 8 1/2 mile run in about 62 minutes. Legs pretty tired still. Ran in pineapple fields so lots of uphill going. Very hot out and humid.
8 1/2 miles run for the day.

Monday: 6:00pm: One long running workout today after work. 8 by 1 mile with 2:45-3 minute recovery. Did first 4 on the beach. Very tough going. 6 minute break. Then final 4 on boardwalk. Beach miles were between 6:10-6:20 pace. Boardwalk ones were between 5:40-5:50. Legs tired entire time but good workout. 2 1/2 mile warmup and cooldown. 1 1/2 miles worth of jogging between intervals.
14 miles run for the day.

Tuesday: 12:30: Ran out and back to the Kapalua coastal trail. Easy pace going out. Legs tired from yesterday's workout and working this morning. Decent pace coming back. 8 1/2 miles in about 63 minutes. Hilly route and very hot.
4:00pm: Swam 30 minutes in the ocean. Constant waves entire time.
7:00pm: Ran for 35 minutes out and back to the Weston. Again, easy going out with faster pace coming back.
Left knee kind of sore and minor pain in right shin.
1600 yards swam and 13 miles ran today.

Wednesday: 5:30pm: Ran out and back on the hotel boardwalk with Jon this evening. Decent pace. Knee aching tonight pretty bad. Did some stretching and light drills afterward.
8 miles run today.

Thursday: Nothing. Taking some time off for the knee. Aching pretty bad in the morning and sore at work. Did alot of hard core work today.
Nothing for the day.

Friday: Nothing at all today. Last day off. Knee feling better. Not as tight and aching.
Nothing for the day.

Saturday: 10:30am: Ran the Kapalua trail with Jon. Decent pace for majority of it. Overheated and dehydrated. Collapsed a bit with 2 miles to go. Couldn't finish run.
8 miles ran for the day.

1600 yards swam and 51 1/2 miles ran for the week.

Nov. 21st-27th

Sunday: 3:30pm: Swam 2200 yards straight in the pool pushing it every other 250. Good swim, felt decent though still shaky from bad run yesterday.
7:00pm: Ran Kapalua loop again. Felt better than yesterday. Tempoed the last 3 miles at around 6:10 pace. Jogged mile afterward. Light drills and striders in grass.
2250 swam and 9 miles ran for the day.

Monday: 10:00am: Ran an hour with Jon today. Legs a bit tired at first then hit a decent pace rest of the run. Ran through hills of pineapple fields. Jumped in ocean afterward.
8 1/2 miles ran for the day.

Tuesday: 9:30am: Ran 4 miles with Jon in the morning. Felt alright. A little sore and tired. Not fan of morning runs.
3:30pm: Swam in the pool. 1700 yards. Tempo 500, some drills, kicking, then 500 where I really stretched my strokes out. 6 mile tempo run right afterward. Kept knocking down the pace each mile. Closed in around 5:50 last mile. Very hot out.
1700 yards swam and 10 miles ran for the day.

Wednesday: AM?:Ran for an hour today. Can't really recall exactly what kind of run it was. Am assuming it was at normal pace though.
3:30pm: Swam to Black Rock and back with Jon. Jumped off it finally. Really good swim.
1 mile swam and 8 miles run for the day.

Thursday: 12:00pm: Workout in pineapple fields. Shorter than I wanted. Pressed for time. Ran about 3 miles into fields. Then did 3 sets of 5 by 45 seconds up a hill w/ 45 second recovery. Felt pretty good through whole workout. Did about 3 1/2 mile cooldown with a couple good hills in it.
9 miles run for the day.

Friday: 11:00am: Ran through the pineapple fields today. A good number of hills climbed through the first 40 minutes of the run. Decent pace the whole way with a last mile and a half fast. Felt good the second half of run.
10 1/2 miles run for the day.

Saturday: 8:45am: Long run today with Jon. 2 hours and 15 minutes. Ran through pineapple fields for first hour and a half then got onto roads and did Kapalua loop. Slowly increased pace over last hour of run. Last 4 miles all 7:10 and faster with last mile around 6 flat. Very very hilly first hour. Felt good, tired by end.
17 miles for the day.

5550 yards swam and 71 miles run for the week.

Nov. 28th- Dec. 4th

Sun:11:00am: Ran just over an hour today through the pineapple fields. Felt pretty good considering the long run the day before.
2:00pm: Swam down at Black Rock. Good swim. 30 minutes.
1600 yards swam and 8 miles ran for the day.

Mon: Ran with Jon today. Did a semi easy run. Cut it short, legs felt crappy, real hot out. Ran for 55 minutes.
Ran 7 1/2 miles for the day.

Tues: 10am: Workout today. warmed up for 2 miles then tempoed for just over 25 minutes. Covered around 4.7 miles. 3 miles of running afterward.
10 1/2 miles covered for the day.

Wed: 10:00am: Good run today. Went out by myself through the pineapple fields and the lower road. Moved at a good pace for the most part. Drills afterward.
11 miles run for the day.

Thurs: Nothing for the day. Went hiking with the crew for the day then up volcano.
3 miles for the day.

Fri:5:00pm: Ran with Jon after work. Hilly run, legs pretty tired after hiking yesterday. Started out tough, got fast as run progressed. Ran for 76 minutes.
11 miles ran for the day.

Sat: 1:30pm: Swam in pool. Lot of pulling over the course of the workout. Did about 2300 yards. 1100 of warming up: 500 freestyle, 200 kicking, 300 pulling, 100 breast stroke. Then 500 of just pulling with every other 50 hard. 50 kicking then 10 by 25 hard freestyle. 300 cooldown.
6:30pm: Overnapped. 10 mile run at quality pace. Averaged around 7:10 for run. Then 8 by 1 minute up steep hill with fast jog back down. 1/2 mile cooldown. Felt crummy starting but loosened up after about 20 minutes. Felt good last half.
2300 yards swam and 12 1/2 miles ran for the day.

3900 yards swam and 63 1/2 miles ran for the week.

Dec. 5th- 11th

Sun: 4:00pm: Pineapple fields today. Decent run though legs very tired. Started out really slow. Ran for around 80 minutes then did drills on the lower dirt path. Tired.
11 miles run for the day.

Mon: 11:00am: Ran for 22 minutes with Jon in the morning.
5:45pm: Workout on lower pineapple path near airport. Warmed up for about 25 minutes. 6 by 1 mile along the dirt road. Very dark. Barely see anything around us. 5:56, 5:35, 5:43, 5:42, 5:22, 5:21. Very fast workout. 3 minute recovery between each one. Happy with workout. 11 minute cooldown back to house.
14 miles for the day.

Tues:7:45am: early run to get things out of the way. Ran with Jon and Curtis first mile and a half then Jon and I continued on. Ran Kapalua loop. Easy pace entire run. Legs felt good after yesterday. 65 minutes.
9 miles run for the day.

Wed: 8:45am: Long run with Jon. Total of 2 hours 23 minutes of running for me. Average pace throughout the run with a couple surges up hills and a hard 2 minutes about 2 hours into the run. Felt good most of way. Ran a couple more miles after Jon broke off.
20 miles ran for the day.

Thurs: 6:00pm: Ran with Jon and Curtis first mile and a half. Then kept going down along boardwalk and back. Added a couple miles going up toward Kapalua trail. Legs felt ok after long run day before.
10 miles run for the day.

Fri: 3:30pm: Ran down to the hotels and swam for 35 minutes. Ran back from the swim at nice pace. Felt pretty good. 55 minutes of total running.
1800 yards of swimming and 7 1/2 miles of running for the day.

Sat: 7:30pm: Run in the evening. Didn't get out the door until late. Decent run though. Started out slow and managed to build up to a decent pace. Out to Golf course then down to lower road.
10 1/2 miles ran for the day.

1800 yards swam and 82 miles run for the week.

Dec. 12th- Dec 18th

Sun: 4:00pm: Super easy day. Legs really tired from the past week of training. Went for 40 minutes with Jon then called it a day.
5 1/2 miles run for the day.

Mon: 12:30pm: Borrowed Jon's bike and did a hard 2 hour 15 minute ride. First ride in a really long time and bike was not a proper fit for me. Body aching and sore by the end of it. Very windy on the route back.
42 miles on the bike.

Tues: 10:00am: Ran with Jon. Decent pace first 25 minutes then started hammering for the next 2.2 miles. Moved at a very fast pace until we reached the McDonalds. Almost all out. Jogged about 12 minutes after. Total of an hour long run.
2:30pm: Nice easy swim at Hula. Swam out and back to Black Rock. 34 minutes.
8 1/2 miles run and 1800 yards swam for the day.

Wed: 3:00pm: Very lazy day. Tired and feeling the past couple weeks of training. Did a long swim and thats it. 45 minutes down at Black Rock. Body sluggish first half then felt real goo second half.
2700 yards swam for the day.

Thurs: 10:00am: 26 minute easy run in the morning with Jon. Legs feeling really crummy. Very little stretching afterward.
5:45pm: Decent run up highway to Kapalua trail and down Lower Road with Jon. Bug in eye, very painful. Kept uping the pace as run went on. Afterward did 8 hill repeats. Quality repeats that got faster each time. Very tired by end. 5 minute walking around afterward.
14 miles run for the day.

Fri: 6:15pm: Evening run. Very sluggish and tired today. Long day of work. Ran down to airport, along boardwalk, back along lower road. Decen pace entire time. Legs stale.
10 1/2 miles run for the day.

Sat: 8:45am: Hard tempo workout. Warmed up for 12 minutes then 41 minute tempo along Kapalua route. Ended tempo at Times. Jogged 2.2 miles back to house. Very tired.
3:00pm: 34 minute swim at Blackrock. Felt pretty good.
1800 yards swimming and 11 miles run for the day.

6300 yards swam, 42 miles biked, 50 miles run for the week.

Dec. 19th- 25th

Sun: 1:30pm: Long run in the pineapple fields. Very hilly and tired. 90 minutes total. No real stretching or anything after. Late for work.
12 miles run for the day.

Mon: 2:30pm: 23 minute swim at Blackrock. Super waves coming in, not much fun.
5:30pm: Workout along pineapple road along highway. 13 minute warmup, 10 by 2 minute tempos w/ 2 minute fast recovery, 20 minute cooldown. Quality workout, tired.
1400 yards swam and 9 1/2 miles run for the day.

Tues: 6:30pm: Ran for about 68 minutes. Decent run. Felt tired after the past couple days. Legs pretty heavy.
9 1/2 miles run for the day.

Wed: Day off. Much needed. Did nothing at all but worked.
Nothing for the day.

Thurs: 8:45: Long run. 2 1/2 hours into mountain area behind Honolua Bay. Lot of uphill first hour and 20 minutes.Came back faster. Felt pretty good until last 20 minutes.
21 1/2 miles run for the day.

Fri: 3:30pm: 54 minute swim. Long swim at decent pace.
6:30: 55 minute run in the evening. Decent pace considering run the day before. Drills and striders afterward.
2800 yards swam and 9 miles run for the day.

Sat: 11:00: 45 minutes run for the day. Hot and very humid. Tired. Easy day.
6 1/2 miles run for the day.

4200 yards swam and 67 miles run for the week.

Dec. 26th - Jan. 1st

Sun: 9:15pm: Ran for 73 minutes with a 43 minute tempo in the middle. Felt good after about 20 minutes.
10 miles run for the day.

Mon: 11:30am: Ran for 63 minutes. Very hot and humid. Legs very sluggish today.
8 1/2 miles run for the day.

Tues: 11:30am: Ran for 83 minutes in the pineapple fields. Headed up for 30 minutes then wound way down to Times. Last 1 3/4 mils back along highway. Hot and humid.
11 1/2 miles run for the day.

Wed: 3:30pm: 33 minute swim down at Black Rock.
7:15pm: Ran for an hour and 15 minutes. Average pace. Felt alright.
2000 yards swam and 10 minles run for the day.

Thurs: 9:30am: 60 mile bikeride with Jon and Gordo. Had some hard pickups on hills throughout the ride.
6:00pm: 30 minute run in the evening. Legs felt real tired from the bikeride.
60 miles biked and 4 miles run for the day.

Fri: Nothing today. Worked and felt real crummy all day. Throat real sore, swollen glands and allergies really acting up.
Nothing for the day.

Sat: 10:00am: 30 minute run with Jon out and back to Airport.
9:45pm: 63 minutes of running after work. Pace average, legs still feel real weak after being sick. Still under the weather.
12 1/2 miles run for the day.

2000 yards swam, 60 miles biked, 56 miles run for the week.

Jan. 2nd - Jan. 8th

Sun: 3:30pm: 26 minute ocean swim with Jon. Very hard, pushed swim right form the start. Throat real sore from being sick. Ocean water did not help.
6:00pm: 73 minute run to Kapalua trail to Times and back. Mild tempo with 9th mile hard (under 6 pace).
1800 yards swam and 10 miles run for the day.

Mon: 11:00am: Hard 36 mile bikeride with Jon. 2 hard pickups in it. First one 10 miles heading out averaging 23 miles an hour. 2 mile recovery. 7 mile hard tempo into wind coming back. Average 21.5 miles an hour. Cruised last 6 miles back.
Decent 4 mile run right after with last .7 miles fast.
36 miles biked and 4 miles run for the day.

Tues: 2:30pm: 85 minute run in pineapple fields then onto lower road. Decent pace throughout. Lot of core afterward. Legs tired.
12 miles run for the day.

Wed: 3:30pm: 37 minute swim at Black Rock. Tough water conditions coming back.
6:15pm: 67 minutes of running on Kapalua loop. Decent pace throughout run. Then 8 hill sprints afterward. Legs real tired today.
2000 yards swam and 11 miles run for the day.

Thurs: 3:00pm: Out and back at the pool. Went in to swim but the place was closed so only got in an hour run.
8 miles run for the day.

Fri: 3:00pm: Only got in a 35 minute swim today between jobs. Worked 13 hours today and yesterday.

Sat: 11:00am: Workout with Jon. Did 2 loops of a 7 mile loop from hourse. First loop around 7:20 pace then second loop close to 6 minute pace. Started feling exhausted and weak about 10 minutes to go on second loop. Good workout.
16 miles run for the day.

3700 yards swam, 36 miles biked, 60 1/2 miles run for the week.

Jan. 9th- 15th

Sun: 2:30pm: 65 minute run at average pace and 20 minutes of drills and striders on the dirt path.
10 miles run for the day.

Mon: 6:00pm: Ran with Jon in downpouring rain for 47 minutes. Average pace. Legs heavy and wet. Lot of core afterard. Shin sore.
6 1/2 miles run for the day.

Tues: 3:00pm: 36 minute tough swim. Water very rough at Blackrock.
6:00pm Ran 53 minutes with Jon. Average pace, nothing intense.
1700 yads swam and 7 miles run for the day.

Wed: 10:45pm: Very late night run. Worked all day so had to run after work. Out and back along Ocean boardwalk. 65 minutes. Legs felt heavy in beginning but loosened up heading back.
9 miles run for the day.

Thurs: Tired and hurting so took day off. Shin really aching. Need to start icing it.
Nothing for the day.

Fri: 3:00pm: 1550 yards swam in 30 minutes at pool. Followed by 45 minute pool run with 4 hard 5 minute pickups in the midle. Then 5 minute jog and 6 striders afterward. Lots of stretching and icing.
1550 yards swam and 8 miles run for the day.

Sat: 11:00am: Biked for 2 hours out and back going South. Good, quality ride. Legs felt pretty good. got in 31 miles on the bike. Put on marathon shoes and ran a good 5 1/2 miles, pushing the 2nd half of the run. Shin a little sore but not too bad. Iced afterward.
31 miles biked and 5 1/2 miles run for the day.

3250 yards swam, 31 miles biked and 46 miles run for the week.

Jan. 16th- 22nd
Week before Marathon:

Sun: 3:30pm : Only have an hour in the pool before it closes. 100 yards swam in the pool and 45 minutes of poolrunning. Did 4 25 yard pickups in the pool while running.
Shin feeling ok. Will test it out tomorrow on a run.
100 yards swam and 6 miles run for the day.

Mon: 11:00am: 13 mile run with Jon in 1:28. 4 by 1 minute pickups then 4 by 30 sec. pickups. Stretching, icing, core.
13 miles run for the day.

Tues: 2:30pm: 2500 yards swam in the pool then 25 minute pool run. Stretching.
2500 yards swam and 3 1/2 miles run for the day.

Wed: 2:30pm: Track workout. 2 1/2 miles warmup. 3 by 1 mile w/ 400 jog recovery.
6.29, 5.58, 5.10. Felt really good. Warm out. 1 1/2 mile cooldown. Had to get to work.
8 miles run for the day.

Thurs: 3:00pm: 35 minute swim in ocean before work. Rough waves.
1900 yards swam for the day.

Fri: 4:00pm: 45 minute run with 6 20-30 second pickups in the middle of it. Stretching and icing afterward.
6 1/2 miles run for the day.

Sat: 1:00pm: 30 minute run with 8 striders afterward. Legs feeling alright. Stretching and icing afterward.
4 1/2 miles run for the day.

4500 yards swam and 45 miles run for the week.

Jan. 23rd - 29th

Sun: 5:45am: Marathon Day. Started out great. Hit pace up until mile 17 (Averaging 6.20 miles). Hamstring pulled realy hard. Covered next couple miles around 8 minute pace then last 5 miles took 47 minutes. No running for at least 10 days.
28 miles for the day.

Mon: Day off. Hamstring really sore and calves super tights.
Nothing for the day.

Tues: 3:00pm: 26 1/2 mile bikeride north. Very hilly. Legs not happy.
26 1/2 miles biked for the day.

Wed: 3:00pm: 42 minute swim at Black Rock today. Very rough waters.
2500 yards swam today.

Thurs: 3:00pm: 41 mile bikeride out and back South. Lots of aerobar riding.
41 miles biked today.

Fri: 3:00pm: 1 hour 2 minutes of swimming at Black Rock today. Felt real good. Water pulling pretty strong coming back.
3200 yards swam today.

Sat: 11:00am: 62 mile ride to Kehei and back. Did 2 by 20 mile light tempos along the way.
62 miles on the bike today.

5700 yards swam, 130 miles biked, 28 miles ran this week.

Jan 30th - Feb 5th

Sun: 11:30am: 41 mile bikeride with a very hard 2 mile tempo in the middle.
41 miles biked for the day.

Mon: 2:30pm: 3000 yards swam in the pool. Workout of 1000 warmup and drills, 5 by 100 pulling, 1000 alternating 100 kicking and 100 freestyle, 200 pulling, 200 cooldown.
3000 yards swam for the day.

Tues: 2:30pm: 2000 yards in the pool: 500 warmup, 500 pulling, 1000 tempo. 22 minute run afterward.
2000 yards swam and 3 miles run for the day.

Wed: 11:00am: West Maui Loop. Very hilly climbs. Tons of steep climbs first 25 miles. Fast pace last 33 miles. Stretched then easy 3 mile run after. Very tired afterward.
58 miles biked and 3 miles run for the day.

Thurs: 2:30pm: 2100 yards in the pool. 1000 warmup then very hard 500 in middle. 500 of breast stroke then strint freestyle after. 100 cooldown.
2100 yards swam for the day.

Fri: 4:00pm: 35 minute beach run. Got to beach and forgot goggles.
4 1/2 miles run for the day.

Sat: 12:30pm: 52 mile bikeride. 2 by 30-40 minute aerobar tempos along the way. Stretched for about 35 minutes then went down to Black Rock and did a 34 minute swim. Very tired by end of it.
2000 yards swam and 52 miles biked today.

9100 yards swam, 151 miles biked, 10 miles biked for the week.

Feb 6th - 12th

Sun: 11:15am: 28 mile bikeride with 5 by 1 mile hard the second half. Quick change then 55 minute run. Did Kapalua loop. Very hilly and hot.
28 miles biked and 7 miles run for the day.

Everybody loves a Snuggie...

I look back upon the various Halloween costumes I've had over the years and admit I've had some good ones. The epic cowgirl costume of 2007 comes to mind. The year I was Death and had all my angels with me (2005) if I remember correctly. I've also had some lame ones with little to no creativity put into them. Lifeguard and 6 year olds knight costume (last fall). But most have been pretty good and gotten some attention. Well this past Sunday I outdid myself without even realizing it. Who would have thought that a Snuggie would be so popular with so many people out at the bars? Yup, not realizing I was doing anything for Halloween I did not bother to go get a costume. Then on Halloween Matt tells me we are going down to Front Street.
Apparently it is a pretty big thing here. So I go out looking for a costume that afternoon before my workout. There is nothing left. All the stores are pretty much sold out. After an hour or so I go into a Walgreens and they have nothing. But they do have Snuggies. I don't even question the decision. 20 minutes later I am back at my place with a costume. I keep it to myself until later that night. As Matt and I are pregaming with some girls he knows I bust out the costume and it is an instant hit. It may have something to do with the fact that I am also sporting the shortest
running shorts I own underneath the Snuggie. But who doesn't love a tie dyed snuggie? Fast forward 5 beers and a couple swigs of capts and we hit Front Street.

Now there are some out there that remember this past 4th of July in Ptown. Pretty crazy huh. Well take that and place it in Lahaina on Halloween and you get the picture. Crazy costumes and alcohol induced shenanigans everywhere you look.
We pick up some girl that Matt's friend knows named Angelica who is dressed as Pocahontas. Of course she is beautiful, looks just like Pocahontas (by the way, from this point on she will only be referred to as Pocahontas because that’s all I called her. She spent the entire night calling me Snuggie. I didn't complain) and has had a boyfriend for like 6 years. We get to the bars and the fun begins. We are not in the first bar 5 minutes when a beer appears in my hand and someone buys us all double tequila shots. Not realizing what I was being handed, down it goes. Then I realize. We kill our beers and wander around taking pictures and soaking up the chaos around us. Pocahontas and I go over the band area and get pictures with some kinky costumed characters and the crew from Gilligan’s Island. Then all of a sudden we lose everyone else. After another round of drinks we decide to go to another bar called Da Kitchen. It seems this is where all the chaos collects. There are women with no tops, a handful of 1980 wrestlers, and everything in between. For the past hour I have not had to buy myself a drink because as soon as people realize what I'm wearing they will not take no for an answer and pass me random drinks. At this point I decide I'm a damn celebrity (it may have been the alcohol) and am just walking up to groups of people and introducing myself "Hey, how are you? I'm the Snuggie..." I only know this because Pocahontas was with one of the groups and recounted the story at the end of the night when I had kinda sobered up. I was also going up to girls and asking them if they needed to stay warm, offering to share my snuggie. Hey, they're made to fit 2. Finally 1:30 rolls around and it's time to go, mostly cause they were serving no more drinks. We get outside and find ourselves surrounded by hundreds of drunken party goers in a variety of costumes in various forms of completeness. There was alot of inappropriateness going on out on the streets. Also, about 100 police officers were milling about looking to throw some drunken costumed heathens into jail. So Zorro, Cowgirl/Scarecrow and I (sadly we lost Pocahontas and Silver Hooker) try hailing ourselves a cab. Matt at this point was kind of eating a burrito and laying on the grass near the sidewalk. I am pretty sure we were getting the suspicious eye from a couple cops so we stepped up our game with taxi hailing. Pretty much we got right into the street and made one stop for us. After a short ride back home it was time to sober up and get to bed. That meant housing a bag of Cheetos and a couple bottles of water. Though when I went to bed I definitly had the spins and woke up in the middle of the night still drunk. But I did not get sick and whe I got up the next morning (5 hours later mind you) I was pretty much good to go. There is nothing like eggs and toast the morning after drinking yourself stupid.


Since then I have been keeping it pretty mellow. Started going to the Lahaina swimming pool. Its a state pool opened year round. 13 lanes to swim in. Been hitting it up mostly cause the conditions in the ocean are pretty rough right now. A huge swell has been coming through making swimming out there nearly impossible. After getting rocked into some coral last Saturday I'm staying more on the cautious side. Yesterday 5 people had to be rescued by the fire department because they were idiots and tried swimming out in the crazy surf. This happened at the beach I swim at about 25 minutes before I got down there at the end of my run. If I had to go out after them I would simply say "You're an idiot" as I pulled each one out.
Been to a couple interviews at Bubba Gump Restaurant. It's in downtown Lahaina. Went to drop in an application there the other day and the manager happened to be at the door. We got to talking about triathlons since I happened to be wearing a shirt from a race. That led to marathon talk and he mentions his wife is runing the Maui Marathon. Once I mention I am too and am a pretty good runner he mentions how his wife could use some advice. Then he brings me right in and shows me around the place. After that he passes me over to one of the servers and tells me to just shadow him for about 10 minutes. He comes back and tells me to come by Wednesday (today) for the second interview. Did that today. Went pretty well. Also met a guy working there who is from Worcester. Went to North and graduated 2008, lived of of grafton street. Knows a bunch of the saem people. Small fricking world. Tomorrow I have an interview at Barnes and Noble. Actually looking forward to this job. Big discounts on books. I like to read me some books.
Big Karaoke night coming up Friday night, the place also serves half price sushi. I miss The Sole. Speaking of buying food: Here is a small idea of how expensive things are out here. I've been shopping a few times so am getting to know prices. Milk: 4.39 a gallon for cheap stuff. Doritos: 3.99 a bag when on sale. Eggs: 2.99 a dozen on sale. Ice Cream: 4.99 a half gallon for cheap stuff. Cereal: 3.99 for store brand. O.J.: 6.39 a gallon. Yup, thats about what I've been dealing with.

Training:
Training has been going alright since Saturday. Been getting in a steady amount of running and more swimming. Once I get my bike here I can really start gearing things up.
Sunday:4 mile run in Pineapple field in the morning. Did numerous 5-3 minnute pickups along the beach and back to my house in the evening. All told about 12 miles for the day.
Monday: Swam about an hour in the pool. Lots of drills and straight laps. Ran 10 miles out into Kahana Ocean Boardwalk and back. Really nice run. Striders and drills afterward.
Tuesday: 17 mile run through the pineapple fields. First hour straight uphill into the hills. Got lost as it got dark. Then got really lost and it got really dark. Random small, white birds scared the hell out of me when they took of right near me. After jumping a fence and cutting through some back yards found my way back to civilization. Ran down to beach and back.
Wednesday: 90 minutes of swimming in pool. Did repeat 100s and 50s. All told swam 2300 yards. Ran almost 6 1/2 miles on the beach in the evening. Felt pretty good after about 2 miles. 8 long striders afterward.

Weight: Up to 145 now and holding steady. Eating alot more food lately. Pretty much nonstop.