NY Giants First Quarter Report Card

Since I haven't posted much about the NY Giants this season, I thought I'd give my opinion on how they have done so far, one quarter into the season.

At the moment they currently sit on top of the toughest division in football, NFC East, at 4-0, 2 games ahead of their nearest competitor. This record has also put them at or near the top of some power rankings (CBS, ESPN to name a few). They have played hurt and with injuries, but to this point haven't been challenged, other than the Dallas game. Given their record, if they can win 1 more than 50% of their remaining games, they will make the playoffs at 11-5. The bad news is that their schedule gets much tougher after this week (Oakland at home) with games against New Orleans (4-0), Philadelphia (2-1), Arizona (1-2), San Diego (2-2) before reaching their bye week. They need to be somewhere around 7-2 to guarantee themselves a playoff spots. New Orleans high powered offense should be the deciding factor. If they can beat them then there shouldn't be a problem beating the other 3 teams. A loss there and things get interesting as Philadelphia always plays tough against NY.

Offense
Eli has played very well and the passing game is keeping teams on their guard. The running backs haven't had that breakout game, but it hasn't been needed. The amount that they do run has opened up the passing game. The offensive line has protected Eli nicely and are mostly healthy, so that should continue. The only negative side to the offense is the fact that they are having problems scoring in the "red" zone (inside the opponents 20 yard line) only converting touchdowns on 2 out of 11 attempts. This will need to change if they plan on making a run to the Superbowl.

Defense
To this point, the defense hasn't been stellar, but other than the Dallas game, haven't really been challenged. They have kept their opponents to minimal yards, which has made it easier for the offense. With only 7 sacks to this point, the absence of Coach Spagnolo is being felt and with a few injuries in the secondary, it will be crucial to see how they fare against New Orleans and Arizona who like to throw plenty. If they can pressure these teams and get a few more sacks, then the secondary should be fine. The coming weeks will be the real test for this defense.

Special Teams and kicking
I would have to say that kick defense is probably their weakest point as they seem to give more yards back than they should. Although no team has run back a touchdown on kickoffs, they are starting at better than their 20 yard line on average. Punts have been great, as Jeff Feagles is a master as pinning teams deep in their end zone . Field goals haven't been awesome as Lawrence Tynes has missed a few inside the 20 yard line. I will give him the benefit of the doubt as he is coming off an injury season.

Overall I would give the Giants an A-. They haven't been perfect and there are areas that need to improve, but they are 4-0 and are winning easily.

Check back in a few weeks to see my mid-season report card.

HHM Challenge - No Runs #2, #3, & #4

Well I've been sick since last week and haven't the energy to run, so I've missed all my runs to this point and will be missing today's run (#5) as well. I'm hoping to get back into it tomorrow (sick feeling permitting) and make up for the lost time/runs. The only good thing is that the date I have set for the run may be off by 1 week, which means that I would only be starting my training this week. Once I know more, I will update it all here.

HHM Challenge - No Run #1

Today is suppose to be my 2nd run for the HHM Challenge, but I'm feeling like crap. My head is all congested and my nose won't stop running, so I won't be heading out anytime soon. I'm hoping that I feel better tomorrow and will try to make it up then.

HHM Challenge - Run #1

This is the first run update for my Hypodermic Half Marathon (HHM) Challenge. The run was suppose to be a tempo run (80-85% of my Max HR) at a pace of 6:36/km. Unfortunately, since I haven't ran in 11 days, I'm not at the point where I can run for long distances without stopping. Today, instead of the tempo run, I did 3:1s and during my last 3:1 I had to walk an extra 1 minute to lower my HR.

Here is the breakdown of the run.

		My results	Comments
Type of Run	Tempo	3:1s	slower
Distance	3 Km	3 Km
Pace	6:36	6:53	slower
Average HR	145-163	164	slightly higher
Max HR	181	204	High
Calories Burned		368

As you can see, I was a little off on what I was expected to do, but as I run more, I should get closer. The one item that concerned me after my run was my Max HR, as it was VERY HIGH. I will definitely need to monitor this a lot closer as I don't want a heart attack to occur, especially while I am running.

Run # 1 is now in the books, only 87 more to go.

Run Challenge

It has been a while since I had something to run for, so I've decided to challenge myself to complete a half-marathon. The event I'm planning on doing is the Hypodermic Half Marathon scheduled for the end of January. The details about the event have not been posted yet, so I don't have a concrete date, but once I do I will post it here.

This should be an interesting event, as it is run in cold weather and it will also be my first event in almost 2 years. If I can manage to complete it, I  should be back on track with my running and will look to complete other events next year.

Run Update

I didn't manage to run yesterday, like I had wanted to, but I did get out today. This is the first time I have run on a Saturday in months and it turned out to be a very good run as I did another negative split, even faster than Thursday's run.

Here are my numbers.

			Difference
Date	Today	Sept 17th, 2009	2 days
Time	00:29:22	00:29:39	-0:17s
Style	2:1s	2:1s	0:0
Distance (km)	4.39	4.35	+0.04
Average HR	158	159	+1
Max HR	181	184	+3
Calories Burned	564	561	+3

As you can see, the runs are getting better. I really think it has to do with me losing some weight. I also lowered both my Average HR and Max HR even though I was running faster.

Overall, a very good run.

Run Update

Hard to believe but it has been 15 days since my last run. Surprisingly this run was a really good one as some of the numbers will show. No real reason why I haven't run over the past 2 weeks, other than lazy, so hopefully I can move forward and continue to have better runs.

Here are my numbers

			Difference
Date	Today	Sept 2nd, 2009	15 days
Time	00:29:39	00:30:00	-0:21s
Style	2:1s	2:1s	0:0
Distance (km)	4.35	4.23	+0.12
Average HR	159	158	-1
Max HR	184	178	-6
Calories Burned	561	539	+22

As you can see I didn't make it the full 30mins. The reason being is that I made it back to the start in less time than I went out (I turn at 15min). This is what is called a negative split, which is a good thing, especially since where I run, the first half is all downhill which means the second half is all uphill. The only negative thing about this run is my Max HR hitting 184. This number is higher than what my max HR should be for my age, so I will need to monitor this a little more in future runs so to not have a heart attack.

Overall, it was a great run and I'm hoping to get out again tomorrow.