Super Bowl Prediction

I'm calling it now: Giants 27, Patriots 24. You have to go with the team with tremendous defense (Giants), momentum (Giants) and a red hot quarterback (Manning).

The championship game was a bit of a tough call for me as I've always liked the Niners and it would have been fun as hell to have seen them in the Super Bowl. This time there's no question: I'm going with the Giants all the way. There's no contest when it comes down to a team from New York versus a team from Boston. I'll always go with New York. Always. The only thing the Patriots have going for them in my opinion is Brady. Dude is the best quarterback of this generation and a tremendous Michigan man to boot.

Anyway, that's my call. Let's hear your predictions.

50/50

Nice weekend here in old Marin County, CA. The weather has been nothing short of astounding; 67, calm and blue skies. As you'd guess, that makes for a fun filled weekend of running (more like hobbling on this hip of mine; I'm pretty close to completely shutting down running until this starts to get better), swimming and CrossFitting.

The Wife and I also had the rare opportunity to go see a movie. We caught Contraband with Mark Wahlberg, which was entertaining though a little lite. Not bad though. We got home and then watched 50/50" the cancer movie starring Seth Rogen. It obviously hit a bit close to home, but I thought it was absolutely spectacular in every respect. It treated cancer accurately but at the same time was funny as hell. I've read mostly positive reviews but think this one is very underrated. It's out now on On Demand; if you haven't seen it yet, make it a priority. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Braces!

I was away for a few days for business. I came home yesterday to this - my Little Girl with braces. You'll note in this picture that she got them in her swim team colors. A real wack job, that Little Girl.

Anyway, she only has them on her upper six teeth and she will only have them for six months, so in the grand scheme of things it's not all that bad. That being said, she's definitely more bummed than stoked.

Hip Hip JORGE

One of the greatest Yankees of this generation, Jorge Posada, retired today. He probably didn't get quite as much attention as the other members of the "Core Four" - Jeter, Mariano and Andy Pettite and of the four, he's probably the outlier for the Hall of Fame, but damn was he an amazing Yankee. He was a stalwart presence behind the plate, was money when we needed him and always carried himself with grace and dignity. Sorry to see him retire - it marks the passage of an era - but I look forward to enjoy his well deserved moment in the sun during his retirement ceremony this season.

One last time: hip, hip JORGE!

That cheer never got old for me and the Little Boy.

Congrats, Giants

I was really torn all week as to who to root for: the team representing my hometown, or the team representing my new hometown. At the end of the day I was probably slightly biased in favor of the Giants, but it would have been fun as hell these next two weeks if it was the 49ers playing in the Super Bowl. Mostly, I just wanted to see a well played football game and that's pretty much exactly what I got. So, congrats to the New York (New Jersey, really) Giants on a feel deserved victory. Beating the Packers and then Niners on the road; that's big.  And I think Eli finally deserves acclaim as a top tier QB.

In regards to the Super Bowl, well there's no question; Giants all the way. Despite my affinity for Tom Brady, a real Michigan man, I'll never root for a Boston team.

Evah.

Hip Update Number 3,456

So looks like I finally got a firm diagnosis on what ails my hip. Apparently, I have two things going on: the first of which is this, which apparently is along the lines of what Alex Rodriguez had last year (note: what's the big difference between Arod and  I? About 225 million dollars - and I play through pain). According to my doc, it isn't enormously uncommon.

The second thing is a bit weird. Apparently I have a fairly large sized cyst in my pelvic wall. I'm goign to check this out with my cancer doc to make sure all is cool, but by all accounts it's a cyst that probably formed as a result of both the above and the fact that i definitely had a previous torn labrum.

I don't know - too much for me to get my head around. The next step is to see a rehab person who specializes in hips.

More information forthcoming as I know it.

Michigan Basketball

I listened to the Michigan-Michigan State game the other night while driving down to Palo Alto for a business dinner. The game was so crazy exciting that when I got home late at night, I watched the second half in its near entirety.

This Michigan team is imperfect - they run hot and cold and are a little too dependent on three point shooting for my taste - but they are a fun group to watch and very likeable. In fact, I think they just might be the most likeable Michigan basketball team I've watched since the Fab Five days (say what you will about that team and that era - and I know history isn't treating them particularly well - but they were as charismatic as hell).

The kid to watch though is this freshman, Trey Burke. He's about as exciting a player as I've seen in the NCAA this season and his upside potential is just scary. The Little Boy and I just love watching him play. I hope he sticks around - if so and based on our recruiting class that's coming in next year, I think we have some very good years ahead of us.

Go Blue!

Scottsdale, Arizona

We had a very nice time in Scottsdale. We did the race on Sunday, which you've probably read about. Yesterday we woke up, had a great breakfast and then headed to Camelback, which is a famous mountain (mountain? rock formation? Not sure exactly how to categorize it, exactly). It was a terrific though at times technical climb. Funny, these words coming from my fingers, but my kids have been hiking since they were three (the girl, anyway) and it really showed; they scrambled up this thing like it was nothing. A pretty impressive sight, if I do say so myself - not a lot of kids could do this particular one.

Once we were done, we hung out poolside (note: if you are looking for a very nice little hotel in the Scottsdale area, the recently-renovated Saguaro gets two thumbs up from us - it was a great 50 yard pool and one of the best hotel gyms I've ever seen) and then left for the airport.

I always enjoy visiting Scottsdale. I like it just find, but not quite as much as the wife. She is crazy about it and can see herself living there. I need to be closer to the water and there's too many old people for my taste (respect, old people). Reminds me a bit of when I used to visit Miami Beach as a kid, and the average age seemed to hover somewhere around 85.

Nevertheless, a very nice area all the same.

Phoenix Rock n Roll Half Marathon

Greetings from Arizona. We came here for the long weekend (given how much I fly Southwest, flights to Southwest destinations don't cost us a thing). As par of our trip, the Little Boy signed up for the half marathon really. He was going to run the first 6.2 miles and I was going to run the rest. That was the plan, anyway. But I felt strange leaving him along among the tens of thousands of runners this am, so I called a last minute audible and ran the entire thing with him. That ordinarily wouldn't be a big deal except that I haven't run more than 5 miles over the past three months. Literally. At best, I've been running twice a week.

Anyway, the Little Dude did well; we hit 10k in 55 minutes. He started to suffer bit during miles 5 and 6. Despite my hip killing me, I soldiered on and somehow even managed to pick up the pace at mile 8, once my hip opened up a bit. Managed to do 8-11 at around 7:40 pace, which really stoked me. We finished in 1:52, which I'm pretty darn happy with all things considered. This was my first true test of CrossFit and there's no question that it's helping immensely. I wasn't even that cooked at the end though it would have been another story had I ran another rile or two.

But anyway, it was great fun. I love running with that Kid and I think vice versa. For sure, he was getting a lot of attention - he had to have been the youngest kid in the race.

So, all good. Will post a few pictures later.

Hip Update

I haven't complained too too much on these here pages, but those of you who know me know my hip has been bothering me pretty bad these past few months. So, I had a MRI about a month ago and today took them to a sports orthopedist that was recommended to me by Coach Phil. She wants me to get a series of X-rays to go along with the MRI, but so far she's seeing:

- a fair amount of scar tissue from a previous torn labrum that I must have ran through (word!)
- what appears to be a cyst in my hip joint. Let's hope it is a cyst, anyway
- the kicker: what appears to be signs of early arthritis. ARTHRITIS!

The net net? I am officially old. I've kept my running dialed down (though I am running a half marathon relay with the little boy this weekend) and will probably continue to do so until I get this thing in better working order, but one thing I can say for sure - I ain't done running yet.

No way, no how.

Business Travel

Greetings form LA where I am on my first business trip of the new year. Last year (and probably the year before, too) I flew so much on Southwest in particular, that I reached some sort of exulted status; the Wife now gets to accompany me for free whenever I travel. That's pretty cool and evidenced by our upcoming trip to Arizona this weekend, it seems like she is going to take them up on this deal.

In regards to business travel (actually, let's just call it travel in general) I am going to set the over under at fifty total flights (a total flight equals a roundtrip - any additional trips in the middle count for a quarter point). Could be a fun parlor game; I suspect I will surpass that without too much trouble, barring unforeseen circumstances.

Sunday Nights on Showtime

I think Showtime has the best TV offerings out there: Dexter, Californication, Homeland, Weeds, Shameless - the list goes on. Even the ones I don't watch (Dexter) are good - I'm not certain how they do it so consistently.

Though I will miss Homeland, which I think is without question the best new show on TV (the operative word being "new") the new Sunday night lineup that kicked off this weekend past is truly off the charts: Shameless (definitely a top five show and good lord is Fiona hot), the new Don Cheadle show House of Lies (while I didn't love the premier, you can see that is has potential. And Cheadle is an amazing actor) followed by Californication, which as far as I'm concerned is the gift that keeps on giving.

My advice? If you have cable, enjoy watching good TV and don't get Showtime - subscribe now. I promise you won't have any regrets.

National Championship Game

Ok, I'll make a prediction here for tonight's National Championship game: LSU 21, Alabama 14.

I actually think Alabama was the better team last time they played and I do believe they are looking for more than a measure of redemption. It certainly wouldn't be an upset if they won.

But LSU has home field advantage for this one and they are a very, very good defensive squad - one of the best I've ever seen.  So - that's my prediction. I'll be rooting for them too: my main man Payro is an alumn and their coach, Les Miles is a Michigan man. That's all the reason I really need.

Geaux Tigers!

Weather

Crazy weather we are having here in NorCal - and from what I understand, across the country. It must have been 70 degrees with blue skies. Absolutely perfect and just what I signed up for when we move to California. We ended up spending the entire day outside, which is pretty par for the course for us on weekends.

Highlight of the day was the Little Boy's little league tryout. Baseball is just around the corner! Hope springs eternal.

Committed

Well, after three months I bit the bullet and invested in a pair of CrossFit specific shoes. Key kind of stoke me, too. I guess there's no going back for me now - I'm fully committed.

I'll try my best not to make every other post here CrossFit related - I can see your collective eyes glazing over and I don't want to come across as a total homer, ala my triathlon days. But I have to say that I haven't been this stoked about a new endevour since probably my Kung Fu days back in Chicago and triathlon before that.

Of course I don't count running/trail running. Once a runner, always a runner. That will always be my passion. But this CrossFit business is addictive as hell, there's no doubt about it. I can see why it's growing like a weed.

If It Came Down To One Device....

Someone asked me the other day if I had to winnow all my devices - and lord knows, I own many - down to one, which one would it be? My answer took a nanosecond; no question about it, my iPhone. It does absolutely everything I need and it's fundamentally a computer in a pocket. It's not even close, but if phones didn't count, it would be a very close contest between my iPad and McBook Air and I might actually go with the iPad. It's a pretty practical device too, in the spirit of the iPhone, but now that I have a Kindle Fire in the house, I really wish the iPad came in the same size. I suspect we might actually see that in the coming weeks.

In the same spirit, if I had to winnow all of my websites down to one, it would be twitter. Twitter is invaluable to me and is my conduit to the news of the day and more. Facebook would probably be my second choice though I am quickly growing tired of it. It seems like my entire newsfeed is nothing more than a large group of moms bitching about hard they have it. I recognize that that statement probably won't garner me any friends but alas, it's true. And respect to those moms - I know they don't have it easy - but sheesh.

If I could create my dream product, it would probably be a nuclear-fuled super battery of some sort; I am tired of having to charge my devices - most particularly my iPhone - every hour.

Back to the device - curious as to your pick, iPhone notwithstanding.

Diet

So, as I posted earlier, I'm really thinking about revamping my diet this year. I feel like it's the missing ingredient in my life right now. It's not that I eat poorly - I don't. In fact, I think compared to the mass, I eat fairly well. But I take for granted that I don't have weight management issues and therefore don't eat as healthy as I should - and I'm afraid that will have down the road ramifications. I also think that eating better will have a more positive impact on my running/swimming/CrossFit performance - so I'm willing to make the commitment to see where it all leads.

Right now I'm thinking of the paleo diet, though at the same time I am trying to be mindful of not drinking the CrossFit kool aid. So, for starters I am thinking about baby steps (relatively speaking): eliminating sugars, processed foods and most dairy and seeing where that might lead.

I'm curious if anyone out there has done something similar and if so, what kind of results it might have yielded for you personally.

Sugar Bowl Champions

It wasn't pretty. In fact, at times it was downright ugly. And it took more than a little measure of luck, which isn't exactly something us Michigan faithful are used to. But damn if we didn't pull off a miraculous win tonight.

I'm not sure how we did it and I'm not sure I will have the energy to recap that one - even as a rerun it will be emotionally and physically draining. But regardless of how it happened it was a win - an immensely big and important win for our program. It's the kind of win you can build off of for years.

I can't articulate how thankful I am for Coach Hoke and his staff. He set the tone for the year and made these kids believe in themselves. Man oh man - if you told me one year ago that we would go 11-2 with a win over Ohio State and a BCS game victory I'd literally laugh in our face.

So, thank you Coach Hoke. Very well done - you saved our program.

Climbing

Fun today at Planet Granite. Both kids are really terrific climbers but especially the Girl. She's light and strong - a great combination for climbing.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year all. I wish you and your respective families health, happiness and prosperity in the new year.

We had a terrific New Years eve. We had dinner with friends downtown and desert at their house. Afterwards the Little Boy and I ran a midnight (11 pm, actually) 5k. It was fun as hell though a struggle less than two hours after lamb chops, mashed potatoes, chocolate cake and a beer. The Boy ran like the wind - he held 7:08 pace - and I was holding on for dear life. We came in 18th place overall and he had the time of his life. It's only a matter of time now before I can't race with him. It took everything I had to keep pace and I think he can run much faster.

Anyway, we got home in time to see the fireworks in San Francisco from our deck. All in all, a great time.