Think About Carbs

Hola. So I'm a week into my beer- and soda-free diet and so far, no slip-ups. I had my biggest test last night, when I went to the UNH-BC hockey game at Conte Forum. My friend Rick had scored some tickets at the last minute, so I rode in with him and a bunch of his buddies. I knew BC didn't sell beer at the arena (the only local college I know of that does is BU, through some arcane grandfathered rule), but I also knew there would be temptations before and after the game.

We got a little turned around in Newton and arrived at BC around 6:30, a half hour before game time; the guys wanted to grab dinner and a few pops before the game, but I had promised an extra ticket to my friend Bob who was meeting us at the rink. So I took two tickets and got out to go meet him while the guys went in search of food and drink; temptation avoided.

Our seats were at the highest point in a corner of the rink. We could see just about the whole ice surface, but not the top of the scoreboard. UNH came out pretty flat and lost 4-2, but they had already clinched the Hockey East title last weekend. Hopefully they'll play better against Providence in the first round of the playoffs.

The rest of the guys showed up about halfway through the first. I ate only a pretzel and had a bottle of water at the game. Afterward, the crew (minus Bob)headed to a Stoneham bar for some apres-game libations. I had a BBQ chicken sandwich and about four glasses of water, despite the prevalence of Guinness and Bass at our table. The guys didn't give me any crap about it, which was cool. I have to say I was glad I didn't give in, but damn, that beer looked good.

It was a nice weekend, with temps in the 50s yesterday and 40s today. I got a 5-miler in yesterday and felt okay and planned to do 10 or 11 today. I was dressed and ready to go when I realized that my left ankle was really sore. It had been bothering me on and off recently, but it was pretty tender today so I backed off and went to the gym instead to lift. I'm going to ice it in a little while. I've got a half marathon in a month, so I don't want to make it any worse.

Cue the bullets:

• Mucho props go out to my brother-in-law Matt for his running of the Los Angeles Marathon today. He's actually running the Poconos Marathon next month, but was in LA for business and decided a month ago to do this race as a training run. Lunatic. It was 81 freakin' degrees there today! He took his time and did it in 5:25, and said he felt pretty good afterwards. Nice job!
• Speaking of running, there's been a lot of consolidation in the world of running publications and online forums lately. First, Active.com bought Cool Running, a running resource with race calendars, results and forums. Then it was announced last month that Rodale Press, which owns Runner's World magazine, had bought Running Times magazine. Running Times caters to competitive runners while Runner's World is suited more for casual runners. It'll be interesting to see how Rodale deals with its new acquisition; hopefully, it won't merge the two pubs, because they really do serve two different audiences.
• Ah, Ann Coulter. She's catching heat for using a gay slur to describe Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards (hint: it rhymes with "maggot"). Of course, regardless of whether she apologizes, she's playing right to her audience, which I'm sure thought her remark was hilarious. She knows how to drum up publicity, that's for sure.