Haven't done this in a while. I checked the # of hits the other day, and for the past month Lets-Krong has been bringing in record numbers of visitors, despite the fact that Curran and I have barely been posting anything. How is this possible? 90% of the traffic is coming from "shirtless" searches. In all my years of webmastering, that was easily my greatest idea.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
KEYWORD ANALYSIS
Je voudrais un croissant
The site isn't shutting down just yet. Yesterday was Bastille Day and that means one thing: kicking down French harriers. I decided to rock the Lets-Krong threads for the 4-miler. I only took 3rd place, but neither guy in front of me was French, so once again the USA was victorious. I also won a pair of DC Road Runners socks. Score!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Stepping down as webmaster? Maybe.
Hey guys, long time no update. Get used to it, because I think Lets-Krong is going down soon. As many of you know, I'm moving to Vail, Colorado next month and one of the things I'll be doing out there (in addition to altitude training and SICK hiking) is starting a "professional career." So, the options are either 1) shut this thing down, 2) change it to Lets-Krunk.com (Nate's suggestion), or 3) require a password to log into the site. But let's face it, I'm probably not going to be doing much updating anyways. If I learned anything while traveling around this summer, its that I enjoy doing things a lot more than writing about doing things. Plus all the time I spend doing perfect pushups really cuts into my blogging time.
I'll write some more about the Tennessee Whitewater Rafting Trip soon. Everyone should get down there on the Ocoee River with Dusty and Brent. It was a GREAT time! And join the ROW facebook group!!!
ps. If this news makes you sad, just remember: lets-krong is on the level of Michael Jordan / Brett Favre... we've all retired several times, only to come back a few months later.
Monday, June 30, 2008
New Year's Resolutions Progress Report
6 month update on this post.
1. Complete my master's degree and get an exciting job
C+ I'm still working on my thesis (at the Univerity of Merkel - Arlington). Couple job prosects in the works. I'll decide on that in a few days, probably.
2. Visit 2 foreign countries that I have never been to before
A- Halfway there. Everyone knows I had a 10 day adventure in Costa Rica. I don't have anything else planned right now, but with my parent's living in PHX, I can easily bounce down to Mexico if need be at Christmas to check this one off. 
3. Visit as many national parks as possible
A+ During my trip out West I hit a lot of the big ones: Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, and Mt. Rainier. This past weekend I went to Shenandoah (picture to left). So that puts me at 8 for the year, which is pretty good. I also spent some time in the Rocky Mtns, but didn't technically go to the national park section.
4. Eat more fruit
B I haven't really made a strong enough effort so far with this one, except during the past few weeks.
5. Change my facial hair style
B+ I shaved off the mustache section
6. Stay up till midnight on New Year's Eve
Incomplete
Overall I would say I'm in the B+/A- range for the year right now. I think I'm going to make a list of mid-year's resolutions, so I'll post that next week.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
When we last left the CurranStat training log, I was struggling. I had
just come off my worst week of training in over 12 weeks. I am happy
to say though, that I have rebounded. I ran exactly 4 miles everyday
and got myself back into it!
Something that kept me going, surprisingly enough, was the treadmill
at the howard crossing fitness center. We had thunderstorms twice last
week in the afternoon so I ran on the treadmill a couple days. Instead
of my Ipod I watched PTI on the tvs and the 4 mile runs just flew by.
I also worked up a healthy sweat which contributed to further weight
loss this week.
I know saying that makes me sound like DJ Tanner in the episode of
Full House where she works out to exhaustion trying to lose weight,
but whatever. If it keeps me slim, I'll take it.
I thought about hopping in a two mile race put on by the local
striders for some variety, but I decided against it because I thought
I would get blown out. Afterwards, I looked at the results and while I
wouldn't have been taking home any medals, I was sad that I didn't
do it. They have the races all summer, most are longer then 2 miles,
and I think I will end up showing up to a couple.
The fact remains though that 4 mile runs, while a nice way to get
myself back into the habit of running everyday, are not the kind of
thing that gets you ready for a marathon. Now that I'm back to running
everyday, I need to increase the length of the average run and get
serious about my long runs. The plan for this next week is to continue
to run everyday, increase the runs by a little bit, and run a
comfortable long run.
I was going to finish this post with A "how I got into college" document just like Jake's last post, but no document can accurately describe the sexual favors performed on colgate's admission board by the assistant cross country coach in order to get me in.
This is how I got into college
I found the recommendation letter that got me into Colgate when I was at my parent's house last week. This version has been modified (via white out) for a scholarship, but you can get a good feel for what I was dealing with. The first sentence, where my name is spelled completely wrong (its Jake or Jacob, not JaKob), sets the tone. The grammar mistakes and endless run-on sentences continue for 3 pages of nonsense. The part with 6 consecutive colons is one of my favorites, as well as the part where it says that I "think flexibly on my feet." That picture to the left is me and Jimmy Ray. He usually referred to me as "hey guy" because he always forgot my name (which is surprising...I was the f-ing 1600 and 3200 record holder for crying out loud!). And yes, I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt to school that day. I was clearly not the GQ stylish guy that I am these days.
The Jimmy Ray Recommendation Letter
Monday, June 23, 2008
CurranStat trip to Yankee Stadium
Sara and I were able to get tickets to Yankee Stadium this past weekend, and because this is the last year in the old stadium, we had to go.
We've been to a bunch of baseball games this year. Five at Camden yards, one at National's Stadium, and now one at Yankee Stadium. Even though the Yankees lost, it was still a really great trip.
I'd write more about the trip, but giving you a photo album is much easier. Here you go, check them out here!
Running News?
I flew into DC just in time to watch / photograph a big 4-mile race along the canal on Saturday. Tony and Luke ran well, but scroll down and look who won her age group in her first race over 3K!
More pictures after the jump...
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Forman woke up at 4:30am to go hiking!
This story is currently developing from Seattle, but I can verify that Forman woke up at 4:30am this morning, and by just after 5am we were on the road to go hiking at Mt. Rainier. He cut his hand during the hike but otherwise we had an excellent time. Highlights included several daring stream crossings and omlets at Charlie's Diner.
Update (6/19): Some pictures
Monday, June 16, 2008
CurranStat Training Log
Well, it's time to check in with the CurranStat training log...
First off, let me say congratulations to those of you who had week 14
in the "what week will Curran fall off the wagon" pool. Not a good
week training wise this week. Week 13 wasn't that hot either, but I
was at least getting out for a run most days. Week 14 just kind of
fell apart.
I'm not sure how it happened exactly. Week 12 wasn't great because of
the lingering quad problems, but I was still pretty motivated. Week 13
I ran 5 of the 7 days, but I only ran 20 miles total. Week 14 I ran 4
days, maxing out at 4 miles, for a total of 13.5 miles. Yes, 20, and
13.5 miles. At that rate, if I wanted to run a Marathon it would take
me a week and a half!
And like I said above...I'm not sure how it happened. I just got out
of my routine. We had the heat wave, we had thunderstorms right as I
was getting out of work, and I had other post-work obligations, but
these are not adequate excuses. Our apartment complex has an air
conditioned fitness center with treadmills that's open 24 hours a day.
Anything life throws at me, I should still have an opportunity to get
a 40 minute run in.
The fact is I'm just being lazy. That's really it. I have nothing to
say for myself. I think Adam Forman sensed something was up because
Monday this week he called me out via facebook wall, but even that
call out didn't get me motivated enough to get going.
if you read the last training log update and you are a believer in the
Curran/Krong inverse performance theory, then this week's results
should be no surprise for you. Jake has reported 20+ mile runs while
out west. That jerk!
The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem. I've got
that done. The second step is to just step up and get out there and
run. This is going to be a very important week for me. I need to prove
to myself that I can do this and I need to run every single day rain
or shine. The original training plan called for my first 40 mile week
this week, but that also assumed I wasn't going to crash and burn
during week 13 and 14. My goal for this week is 28 miles. Still not a
lot, but it is right in line with what I was hitting before I became a
bum.
if there is one glimmer of hope with this whole two week mess, it's
that I've started to lose weight again after a long plateau. I had
been stuck at 160 for a few weeks now. That drove me crazy because on
January 1st of this year I weighed 178 and I really wanted to be 158,
a cool 20 pounds down on the year and not 160, a meager 18.
Fortunately, I somehow bypassed that milestone completely and this
morning I was checking in at 156.5. How this happens during my worst
week of training in 12 weeks, I have no idea. I also never caved into
fast food. I had two sodas on the weekend, but that's it.
To recap: Sucked the past two weeks, this next week I need to recover
from the aforementioned suckness.
Randy Johnson is bad at baseball but I am good at finding mascots!
Went to Chase Field over the weekend and saw the Big Unit & the D-Bags get smoked by the KC Royals. Luckily I got my picture taken with the mascot and the giant poster of Coach Mike across the street at the US Airways Center. I still can't figure out why the mascot is a cat, though? Shouldn't it be a rattlesnake?
Raft One Whitewater
I've been bouncing around out West for the past few weeks, having all kinds of fun doing outdoor sports. But one of the things I'm looking forward to most this summer is going to take place back East: Rafting the Ocoee River in Tennessee with ROW (Raft One Whitewater). As many of you know, ROW is the rafting company that Dusty started earlier this year. It looks like a ton of fun and should make a great weekend roadtrip from DC. Let's try to pick a weekend within the next month or so where we can get a big group together and go down there for a few days on the water!
Ocoee River Whitewater Rafting
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Pictures of Utah ROCKS!
Pictures from Zion, Bryce, Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Moab, the Colorado River, and Flagstaff are up on my Picasa page.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Rim-to-Rim Hike Pictures
I'm back from Utah, and I've been getting all my photos uploaded and organized. Here are the pics from my rim-to-rim hike across the Grand Canyon. And here's the last (small) batch of Colorado pictures.
Over the weekend I'll be posting my pictures from all the National Parks in Utah, which were unreal. Next week I'm going up to Seattle for a few days, so you can also start getting ready for lots of pictures of Forman!
I also have videos from Colorado, Grand Canyon, and Utah - lots of stories as well. Lets-Krong will start to pick up again in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned, and check in over the weekend for more photo galleries.
Friday, June 6, 2008
This just in from Jake Krong:
"Rim to rim in 7 hours and 36 minutes. The Grand Canyon is my bitch! In Zion now. It is Amazing!"
Jake may be in Zion National Park right now, but I prefer to think that he made a typo in his text message and was texting me from a movie theater where he was seeing You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Rim-to-Rim... the Grand Canyon is about to get served
Tomorrow my AWESOME 2 week stay in Vail, CO comes to a close. I'll be taking the red eye from Denver to Phoenix, meeting up with my parents and heading straight up to watch the sunrise over the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Then, about 20 seconds later, I'll part ways with my folks for the remainder of the day, and head down into the big ditch. I'm going to attempt a day hike from the South rim to the North rim (where my parents will drive 200 miles around the canyon to meet me). Its going to be quite a challenge, as I'll be descending from 6,000+ feet down to the canyon floor, hiking ~20 miles in 100+ degree temperatures, and then climbing back up to the North side, which is at 8,000+ feet. Most people do this as a 2-3 day trek; I'm going to try and bag it in under 12 hours. Should be a good time.
Then, assuming I survive, we're off to Utah for a week of camping. Zion National Park will be the first stop, where I'll be tackling the Virgin River Narrows, another very strenuous (but beautiful) day hike. Another 20 mile venture, but the Narrows hike is completely in the river (up to your chest at times, depending on the water flow), and goes through slot canyons that are only 20 feet across but with walls 1000-2000 feet high. Hope there aren't any flash floods!I won't have any internet access while in Utah, but I'll be sure to text message Curran the results of my Grand Canyon trek and he can post my time.
Monday, June 2, 2008
CurranStat Training Log
It's that time of the week again. Last week I never got around to posting the training log, so this week it's a double feature!
Week 11
Monday May 19 - 0 miles
Tuesday May 20th - 4 miles - Meadowbrook
Wednesday May 21st - 10 miles - Long Run Home from Meadowbrook
Thursday May 22nd - 4 miles - Meadowbrook
Friday May 23rd - 3 miles - Meadowbrook
Saturday May 24th - 4 miles - Neighborhood
Sunday May 25th - 4 miles - Neighborhood
Total - 29 miles.
This week was a pretty weird week of training. I took Monday off
because I was still hurting from graduation. Normal run on Tuesday. I
did the long run on Wednesday. Then the rest of the week, my left quad
got really tight. I felt like I was taking it a little too easy, but
now that I look back on the total, it's right in line with every other
week before it.
The best run of the week was definitely the long run. I started at
Meadowbrook, ran the two mile loop, then ran an 8 mile route home to
the apartment. Afterwards Sara drove me back to my car. The run was
hilly and I averaged 7:35 pace on it. I felt really strong during the
entire run.
As I mentioned above though, I might have gone a little too hard
because the rest of the week my left quad was really hurting me. The
longest run after the long run was four miles, which, I mean, isn't
terrible, but it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for.
No fast food all week, as usual. McDonalds sent us coupons for free
Southern Style Chicken Sandwiches, but I gave them to Sara to use.
Nice Try Mickey Ds!
Week 12
Monday May 26 – 0 miles
Tuesday May 27 – 4 miles
Wednesday May 28 – 8 miles
Thursday May 29 – 3 miles
Friday May 30 – 3 miles
Saturday May 31 – 0 miles
Sunday June 1st – 0 miles
Total – 18 miles
Not a very good week all around. My quad hurt all week long. I took
Monday off in hopes of letting it relax a little bit, and it did feel
a little bit better on Tuesday. I then jumped into my long run on
Wednesday. My long run was an out and back and I originally planned to
go out 6 and back 6 for a total of 12. Unfortunately, my quad really
really flared up after about 3 miles. I kept trying to get it to
loosen up, but it only got worse. I turned around at 4 miles and
hobbled back home very slowly. Thursday and Friday I tried shorter
runs just trying to get it to loosen up. I stretched and massaged it
quite a bit after each of them. On Friday I felt good for the most
part but towards the end, again with the quad. Then on the weekend I
just said "F it", and took it off hoping that a couple days off might
let it recover enough that I can train with some regularity. On Sunday
I didn't run again, but Sara and I did a lot of walking while we were
at Hershey Park in Hershey PA for my company picnic.
It bums me out because I'm now ending the second stage of my training
plan on a pretty sour note. I really need to shake this quad thing.
Adam Forman had a theory that goes all the way back to freshman year
of college. It more or less stated that Sean Curran and Jake Krong are
unable to both run well at the same time due to some sort of weird
balance held by the universe. I won't run down the specific examples,
but there was a pretty convincing set of cycles where I would run my
best times when Jake was injured and vice versa. Fortunately, Jake
was always a bit more prone to injury, so I got the nice end of the
stick in this deal. Last week though, Jake went out to Colorado and
has been having a great time running at altitude and generally just
being awesome. Could Jake's happy running lead to my sad quad-hurting
running? I don't know, but it's incredible at how Adam's theory still
holds water 6 years later.
Regardless, I'm ready to shake this quad problem and get back to
business. While I was ahead of my plans 6 weeks into the training, I'm
not quite where I want to be at the 12-week mark. My long runs are
progressing, but now they need to become a more key feature in my
training and the length needs to start increasing.
No fast food this week. I had soda twice, once while I was at the
theme park on Sunday, but I figured, I'm at a theme park, I can get
away with a Mountain Dew. I also saw a new blue Mountain Dew at a gas
station during the week and I had to try it. It was awesome, by the
way.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
CO Pics
"I'm pretty tired, but I'm also kinda wired"
That famous line from Shark Attack 3: Megaloden sums up how I feel right now. I've been on the go 24-7 since getting to Colorado. We've enacted a "3 sport rule" where we have to participate in 3 sports every single day. Running is the easy one that starts off the morning. The remaining activities have included hiking, biking, snowshoeing, downhill skiing, tennis, BBQing, etc. The weather has been incredible and the mountains are unreal. I've posted all of the photos I've taken so far at my picasa site. Nothing is captioned yet, though. I'll bein CO for a few more days, then its off to Utah.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
GREAT Drinking Game
Sorry the CurranStat training log is late this week, the holiday really set me back. In the meantime, enjoy this incredible Michael Kay YES Network drinking game put together by the good folks of Scott Proctor's Arm. If you've ever watched a game on YES, you'll appreciate it.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
I'm in Colorado
Yesterday I started on U Street in DC at 9am and after a Metro - Metrobus - Airplane - Van Shuttle - Greyhound Bus combination, I arrived in Vail, Colorado around 9pm. A few hours later I was sitting in an outdoor hot tub as snowflakes were falling down. Not exactly roughing it like I was in Costa Rica.
Vail is at 8,100 feet, and this is the first time I have really ever been at altitude. After running with Rachel for about 40 minutes this morning, I cranked it up for another 40 and felt fine. This past semester has been terrible in terms of mileage run, so now that I have nothing but free time, I need to start cranking things back up. The Rocky Mountains are a good place to get started.
I'll start getting some pictures up soon.
ps. The 2 hr Greyhound was everything I could have hoped for and more. The interactions on that bus ride would be a compelling story, so I'll have to type it out.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
CurranStat News Links
How about some links to keep you busy....is that something you might be interested in?
- ARod talks about his time on the DL in his most recent blog entry. It turns out all he did was watch Days of Our Lives.
- Speaking of updated blogs, Alex and Kaitlyn check in from Nicaragua with their latest update.
- Screenshots from Ike's new movie "Goodie Two Shoes", I think the guy in the blue shirt is Ike, Nate says it's not. Anyone else?
- A copy of the comic book that Richard Alpert brought John Locke on LOST two weeks ago sold for $405. That's a lot to pay for an easter egg.
- Latrell Sprewell's home was foreclosed on. Page 2's DJ Gallo offers him some financial tips. A lot of them involve choking people.
- Saratoga Irish profiles Michael Curran this week. Check next week for a recap of his trip to Baltimore next weekend.
- Also from Page 2, The Jobalation Machine. I could play with this thing all day long.
- This link is solely for Sara Thomas....why now is a good time to buy an HDTV.
- Finally, I don't know if any of you have ever seen the commercial for The Shamwow, but it is incredible. Jake Krong, you will love the guy in it, I guarantee it. The commercial is so incredible, in fact, that Slate.com did a long piece on it. Worth a read.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
CurranStat Training Log
It was a mixed up week as far as CurranStat training goes, so let's dive right into it.
Monday May 12th - 10 miles - Meadowbrook
Tuesday May 13th - 4 miles - Centennial Park
Wednesday May 14th - 4 miles - Meadowbrook
Thursday May 15th - 4 miles - Meadowbrook
Friday May 16th - 0 miles
Saturday May 17th - 3 miles - Wiley
Sunday May 18th - 0 miles.
Total - 25 miles
Ok. We talked about monday's long run last week in the recap, but I'll
touch on it again just a bit. I felt really great while doing the run,
and really happy afterwards. I just could not recover from it though.
Tuesday I was sore, but ok. Wednesday and Thursday though, I still
couldn't get it back together. The runs got worse throughout the week.
I feel like my body was adequately recovered by Friday, but I drove up
to Colgate immediately after work and didn't fit a run in. Saturday I
ran with some of the guys up at graduation. I wanted to do more then
three initially, but their comfortable pace was a little quicker then
I was used to, so the 3 mile wiley took a lot more effort then I was
anticipating. It was a better quality run then I have been doing
though, so I'll take the mileage hit. Sunday was a very rough day
following the Saturday of graduation, and with another 5.5 hour drive
home, the run got cut out again.
So I ended up with 25 miles in 5 days. Not a terrible average, but not
the best total.
And as I write this monday morning, I still feel like absolute
garbage. I've lost my voice and my whole body is sore. My upper body
is really hurting. I'm not sure if it's from the weekend of binge
drinking or if it was from the Perfect Pushup workout we all did on
Saturday.
Overall, It wasn't the worst possible week for training. Every run but
the long run was too short and I missed two days, but Graduation is an
extreme weekend and I think we all acc