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Dave has been given posting priviledges. Guess which post is his.

Hi. My name is AC. We have set the events. Now I am regretting entering this competition because I realize I will lose to DO in all of them. Oh well! Poopy poopy caacaa! MEOW!

The competition is tentatively scheduled for June 31, 2009, but may be expanded to two days. Events were chosen by drawing muscle groups out of a hat. Each competitor then chose the specific exercises for the muscle groups he drew. Felix drew back and legs. AC drew shoulders and biceps. DO drew chest and abs. The events are as follows:

Dumbell Press: 2x5
Pulldowns: 2x5
Shoulder Press: 2x5
Bicep Curls: 2x5
Squats: 2x5
Incline Sit-ups: One set until exhaustion with a 25lb plate.

Felix has worked out twice since the competition has begun. Dave looks like a beast already and he is scaring me.

New Contest - New Contestants - New Prizes

Felix won the running contest. He is a better runner than I am. Congrats Felix.

Okay. New day. Dave Owen (DO) came up with the suggestion that we need to have a weightlifting contest in prep for summer and the beach. We are currently ironing out the details in ongoing closed negotiation sessions with the contestants and their duly authorized representatives with the final logistics meeting taking place at the Epic this Saturday. Shiri will be the acting moderator.

So far, we have agreed upon the following terms:

Contest End Date: June 30, 2009

Prize: Winner gets a meal at any restaurant in NYC paid for by the two losers in the following manner. (2nd place pays the lesser of either the cost of drinks or the cost of the meal. 3rd place pays for remainder)

General Format: We will choose specific exercises within 6 general muscle group categories upon which to compete. Each person's performance will be adjusted based on weight and thus will only have to outperform the competition on a relative weight-adjusted basis.

More boring details to come during the next few months along with fun pictures.

Below, are computer generated projections as to how I, Felix, and Dave (pictured in order) will look by the end of the competition:

Running Ceasefire Being Negotiated...

As some of you may know, I have been getting crushed at work. Over 3 days this weekend, i got 5 hours of sleep. This included a 40 hour marathon session. Felix and I negotiated a running cease fire. More on this when i have time to write. (Credit goes to Dave Owen for brokering this deal. He is now working on Israel/Palestine).

Day 77: Felix closes the Gap

This weekend was not conducive to running. On top of face-melting cold, the weather gods decided that it was high time for a Saturday blizzard. The Puerto Rico trip cannot come fast enough.

On Sunday, Nick "The Worm" Stocker had an early birthday party/pot luck/Giants pep rally. While the food was outstanding and drink aplenty, the G-men lost, further crushing our collective spirits.

The only people in the room cheering were Shiri, Stev-o and Crowe.

Ok. So what did that mean in terms of the running contest? Surely neither Felix nor I would find motivation to go run. If this is what you thought, you were 1/2 correct.

Felix decided that he would rather slip on ice and break his ankle or get pneumonia than lose in the contest. He ran 9 miles in the snow on Saturday and another 5 after a day of eating and drinking on Sunday. Smart? Probably not. Crazy competitive? Absolutely.

New numbers with 23 days to go.

Distance Contest

1. AC - 146.87

2. Felix - 136.82

Note: Over the weekend, Nick Stocker drunkenly bet me $100 bucks that Felix would win this contest. He wanted to make it $1000 but his brain managed to sober up for a second and realized that this would be downright idiotic since he should know that beating Felix and not money is my sole source of motivation. But I will gladly take his money.

Day 72: Holiday Recap

The holidays posed a threat to our running productivity but I think Felix and I managed to put up some decent miles.

Felix went to Florida and then complained about not being able to run because he was playing "sports." I assumed he was playing nintendo and not sharing the controller. Felix also has to add 31.4 miles to his total due to technical difficulties associated w/ his chip. Lame.

I went to Tel Aviv and spent my time running away from missiles. In this contest, those miles count as well.

Here is the current standings for distance.

1. AC - 133.73 miles
2. Felix - 113.6 miles

There are no changes to the speed times.

With 28 days to go. Can Felix pull another upset? Or will he be crushed by a superior athlete?

Day 58: Distance

Quick distance update. This was a bit of a slow week after reaching the 100 mile mark. Cut down on the longer runs to give my legs some time to recover. I'm feeling pretty strong and ready to start the final push. I leave for warmer shores (Texas, Tel Aviv) from today until Jan 4 so hopefully this will boost my running motivation.

Felix is still heartbroken from his loss.

1. AC: 109.01 miles (1.88 miles/day)
2. Felix: 86.71 miles (1.50 miles/day)

Mr. Kwan enters the fray

Dennis is also in the competition. Apparently he is crawling:

Day 52: Speed

Here are the speed numbers:

1 mile:

1. Felix: 6'44"
2. AC: 6'57"


3 mile:

1. Felix: 20'36"
2. AC: 22'08"


5 mile:

1. AC: 38'53"

2. Felix: 38'54"

Day 52

There are certain days where the water just tastes sweeter and you just can't figure out why. Today, my water tastes sweeter because it is mixed in with Felix's tears and part of his soul. I would imagine that Felix's nostrils are cringing at the smell of defeat over there in Florida.

On day 52, I reached the 100+ miles milestone to clinch Mini-Contest 1: "First person to 100 miles." I ran 20 miles over 3 days. Crazy? Maybe. More satisfying than 10 superbowl victories? Definitely.

Prize: 2 cases of good beer.

Overall Stats:

1. AC: 101.85

2. Felix: 86.71

Best Travel Workout Tools

I went to India last December and wanted to keep mildly in shape. So i did some research and bought three items that allowed me to replicate a full gym workout while abroad. These are all awesome for anyone looking to keep up w/ fitness while on vacay. Let me tell you, after 1 week of no working out/eating/drinking without some form of weight training will make you look like this fast.

1. Perfect Push Up

These things are freaking tough and take push-ups to a whole new level. They even have a travel unit that takes up even less space. Sweet.

2. Ironman Ab-Wheel

Ten bucks for a sick ab burn. Plus they come apart. 'Nuff said.

3. SPRI Resistance Bands

Hook these into the door hinge or stand on them and take care of all your Back/Chest/Biceps/Triceps needs.

These take up the space of 2 footballs. Not bad if you have the room.

The competition: Day 50

So Felix and I decided that since we compete in everything, we would both buy the Nike+Ipod running system and have a running competition. The first trial competition was to see who could run more miles in 30 days. This came down to the wire, and Felix took the prize after running 15 miles on the last day. Garbage.

So we stepped it up and decided to see who can run the most miles in 100 days with the winner earning dinner/drinks at any restaurant in NYC paid for by the loser. In addition, we added some built-in mini competitions including i) first person to 100 miles, ii) fastest 1 mile, iii) fastest 3 mile, and iv) fastest 5 mile. These have smaller prizes.

Here are the details.

Start Date: 10/26/08
End Date: 2/02/09

This is currently day 50. We are officially half-way and this is where we stand.

Main competition:

1. AC: 80.81
2. Felix: 77.59

I will update as we go for all you well-wishers/idiot-friends. To the amounts below, Felix gets to add 19.4 miles to his total since he forgot his ipod on several runs.