Wow, it’s been hot! Hot, hot, hot…Hotlanta. Yup, that’s where we are. Okay, enough whining.
A co-worker talked me into running the Dennis McCormick 5K in a couple weeks. (The check’s in the mail.) Di looked the course, and after confirming it with the race director, it looks like it’s pretty tough. The first half is downhill, and then you run back up it. Whew! I’m sweating just thinking about it.
It will be fun though, since I haven’t run a 5k in years. Plus, given that we’re planning on Waffle House for breakfast afterwards.
The distance will be just right for me, since right around 3 miles is what I’ve been doing lately. Been working on holding a sub 10 pace, and making progress. This last weekend, ran into BethM right as we were both starting, and did a lap around LMP with her. Although she said that I was wearing her out, I don’t believe her, but we did do the 2.2 mile loop in 20:40. For me, that’s cruising!
Work has me doing a rapid job on a HIPAA translator for a specific transaction set. Joy…look for more soon. Also doing some web services, and HL7. (Yeah, I know…living on the edge.)
Whew…I keep thinking I’m going to have amazing stories of exotic adventures to write about and share. But, as you’ve now realized, it hasn’t been happening.
For a while now, I’ve been thinking about doing a blog about work and stuff of interest besides running. I think I even mentioned it here before, a year or so ago. Well, I’ve finally decided that here is the place to do it.
Why? There are a couple reasons:
Believe it or not, there is more to life than just a single activity. Yeah, I know some of you may not agree, or even realize it, but really, there are lots of things going on out there.
It’s much more efficient to have a single site.
Not really a reson, but I really like this domain name.
So, what’s been going on lately? Well, for running, I was going to be a runner on our Blue Ridge Relayteam this year, but then they ended up finding someone to fill the slot. (Who goes twice as fast as I.) I’ll be the driver again, and back up in case there’s an injury…and that’s fine, I had a blast last time. Plus, I may manage to get 30 miles in, if I decided to run a 1/2 mile out at each exchange to meet the incoming runner. Not saying I’ll do it, but it might be a fun thing to try. (Gotta be careful though, because official runner isn’t allowed to have a pacer.)
My wife has recently started walking with all her friends, so now one day a weekend I go out with her for a couple miles. Little Man usually looks pretty bored in the stroller, but the playground at the end is a lot of fun.
Work is pretty busy. My boss and I had a black-op going on, where we were giving one team some support they needed as we had time. Officially, the work wasn’t sanctioned, so it was just providing support as we had time. And yes, we like making it sound like a spy thriller.
Well, as it usually goes, this operation has now turned into 50% or more of the hours each week. We’ve been given the clearance to work, as long as it doesn’t interfere with achieving our corporate goals. So, we’re busy with it, and trying to keep up with everything else. You’ll probably hear me talking about this in the future.
This weeks lesson from Little Man: Waffles are good food. Having a Waffle House hat with them makes them even better.
Oh, the heat and humidity of the south…Almost time for “inside season” to start.
My coworker and I managed to get out a couple times during lunch this week for a few miles. Now that he’s learning the names of the routes, he’s having a bit of fun mapping everything out. It will be nice once he finishes, so we can pick and choose, and not run the same thing all the time.
Unfortunately, seeing them mapped maps me realize that some of the names I came up with don’t really make sense. There’s one route, “q”, that got its name because it’s shaped like a lowercase q. Well, at least that’s what I thought…turns out it looks more like a kite, with a big triangle and a tail. Suppose it doesn’t matter.
We’ve tried a couple differently things lately. One new route is a couple miles just going up and down all the parking structures in the complex. As far as hills, I wouldn’t have thought it was tougher than what’s on the street, but it sure wore me out. Maybe we’ll try that again this week, now that I’m getting back in shape.
Last weekend, we went shopping, and that leads to this weeks lesson from the little man: Infant shoes are much cuter than adult shoes.
Whew…been a while since I’ve been here. With the little guy keeping my busy, work, everything else, time just gets sucked away. (Er, guess I’ll start calling him that.)
I’m still working out during the week, but weekends are usually booked up. Sorry guys, but going to gym class with the little man on Saturday mornings trumps most other things. We both have a blast, him running around and me trying to keep up.
I’m going to try to get back to weekly posts, but no promises. For y’all that are on Facebook, you’ll notice I do very little there anymore. That just sucks up waaaaayyy toooo much time.
A decent portion of the company knows my co-worker and I workout during lunch. Sometimes, people even want to join us. During the winter when we were doing the stairs, at one point there were 6 or 7 others doing it to. Well, last week people have wanted to start running with us. So we had some company for a very casual couple miles once.
We didn’t intimidate very well, since this week one of the ladies came back for more. Well, it happened to be a day that I wanted to do speed work, so we ended up doing an indian run. Oh, it was a blast! Haven’t done that in years. By the end, we were all wiped out pretty good. (We’ve also started running up and down the parking structures, which are long and drawn out…for some reason it tires me out more than if we just run up hills out on the street. Probably because the incline is slight enough that I end up running more than I normally would.)
And lets see if I can add something new to the blog:
The Little Lesson of the Week (as taught to me by The Little Guy):
The option to disable the power button on the computer was put there for a reason. That reason is because 1 year old’s in the same room as your work computer don’t mix.
For the fourth time, this last Sunday I ran the ING Georgia marathon. (Well, 3rd time doing the full. The first year I only did the half.)
The Race:
The conditions for the race were good. Overcast in the low 50′s with a chance of rain. Naturally, waking up at 4:00 AM was way to early, but getting to the race wasn’t bad. I ended up catching the 5:15 train that was almost empty.
Having no plan, and being early, I wandered around a bit and eventually ran into Rico and Len, who I know from GUTS. Rico gave me some suggestions on pacing, which I actually thought about and tried during the race. Didn’t work too well this time around, but I’ll keep playing with it. A little while later, the “girls from Hamilton Mill” came around and said hi. (Er, I might need to have a better name for them.) Enough time wasted, I headed to the very back of the start. I’d guess when the gun went off, there were 50-100 people behind me.
The gun went off, and we [stood still, then inched forward and crossed the starting line 13+ minutes later] were off.
About a mile into the race, I came upon someone showing some pretty good walking technique. It was Steve, from Virginia, and we was going to racewalk the whole way, trying to finishbetween 5 and 6 hours. (He did 5:33.) I hung out with him for a good portion of the first 10 miles.
Right around mile 9.5, I saw a bunch of cars with GUTS stickers on them, so figured I’d see some people I knew. But they didn’t materialize.
A mile later, I was passed by someone who’s shirt said “99th Marathon”. It was a Team Achilles shirt, so figured I had to catch up and say hi. I did, and his support person turned around. “Hey!” It was Jenn of Team Vogel, super ultra runner and really nice lady, and someone whom I never run with because there’s no way I can keep up. Well, we spent the next 6-7 miles together, then leapfrogged the rest of the way in.
This was Kevin’s 99th marathon. For 100, he’s doing Boston.
Partway through Decatur, someone was giving out donut holes. And well, since America runs on Dunkin, and I was suppose to be running, figured I’d have one. Man, was it sweet! The sugar definitely kicked in, and the next few miles went by pretty good. I ran into two other people who were running their first merry. One of them had never done over 13 (due to being sick), so it was going to be an adventure. They eventually left me behind, but I caught them up right before going to into Piedmont park.
One memorable moment was when someone was trying to get up the street, driving on the course. I don’t know how they got as far as the did, but a cop came down and let them have it. (Everyone was polite, but there was no way that guy was getting through. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind about that!)
The miles flew by as the clock ticked on. At one point, I talked to a lady from San Fransisco, and she said our course is a lot harder than the SF marathon. Gee, I thought they were supposed to be hilly…
Piedmont Park added some new twists. There was an out-and-back added that just seemed to go on forever. I don’t know why, probably just because it was 21 miles into the race. But it seemed to last an hour. Coming out of the park was a new route too, which was a bit more interesting than previous years. At one point, there was a building being knocked down. Luckily, the rain had kept the dust to a minimum, otherwise that would have been pretty bad.
The final mile came. It was faster than previous years, but it still seemed to be a lot longer than a mile. Final 385 yards I had to myself, and I was going in….Wham! There’s the end.
A snack, and went looking for Jenn (and Lane, her husband), and found them at the massage tent. Took advantage of the free massage offered by the school, and headed home.
Here’s the movie:
Post Race Analysis:
Uh, I should have trained. That would make it much easier. But considering I hadn’t, the race didn’t go to bad. Wasn’t in much pain, and the day after was bearable.
I took in Gatorade a little too early (mile 15ish), and had some stomach issues. I really should just stay away from it.
Losing my water bottle in the happy-can wasn’t good, since then I couldn’t really eat my trail mix. (Peanut butter pretzels, raisins, chocolate chips and salt.) But hey, I have to set some standards somewhere on what I’ll pick up.
Photo Analysis:
Carrying my big camera wasn’t much different than a water bottle, so really not that big of deal. I need a slightly longer neck strap though. During the light rain, I just tucked the camera into my jacket and it stayed pretty dry.
Although heavier, a IS lens would have been better, since most my shots were blurry. The downside to it is that the focus is slower, so maybe it wouldn’t fix the problem. I kept the camera on full-auto (i.e. the green square), and maybe I should have used sports mode.
I went through 1 battery. I think this was due to the mode constantly setting off the flash. If I switched to sports mode after the run rise, it also would have helped.
I only took 842 pictures. My goal was 2000 or so, but hey, I was running a race after all.
I’d like to do it again with a camera set to automatically take a picture every minute or so. The results would be a lot smoother motion once they’re put together.
The photographers on the course got a kick out of me taking their picture every time they tried to take mine.
Yes, that time of year has rolled around. This weekend, the ING marathon will be winding it’s way through Atlanta.
I’m as ready as I’m going to be. I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten at least 20 miles of training this month, and probably 40 the month before, it’s looking like it’s going to be a long day.
Last weekend, I did swing by the storeand pick up some new shoes. This time around, I went with some Ascics DS trainers. These were the same shoes I ran NYC in back on ’04, and I was happy with them. They are pretty light weight, but more durable than flats. And the heel isn’ t over sized, which make walking easier. Plus, this year they have a bright green sole, and you know how I like color.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Get to know your local shoe person and get your shoes from them. Buying my shoes this time around, I found another benefit to this. Thinking my shoes were almost a year old, Ryan was able to look it up and give me an appropriate hard time when we saw they were in fact almost a year and a half old. (Uh, guess I went a little too long.) Yes, my old Mizuno’s were bought in September of 2008, and they are still wearable. (And didn’t have any cushion to start, so it’s not like that’s missing.)
But, back to the race…Given my abysmal training, my only goal for this is to beat the cutoff (7 hours). I’m actually planning on bringing my good camera this year, and doing a photo document of the whole race. Yes, y’all can live vicariously, seeing what it’s like at the back of the pack. Of course, this plan might change there’s a good chance of rain.
I’ll admit…I have an addiction. For years now, when I’ve been out on walks or runs, if I see something interesting, then I’ll pick it up:
Money – Usually small change, although I found a $20 once, then actually found the person it belonged to.
Pictures – Usually people, but have found pictures from some car show where someone converted their car into a tank.
Shopping lists – Okay, I usually skip the shopping lists, but I’ve seen a number of them laying around
At one point, I thought it would be neat to make a coffee table book of all the stuff (well, pictures of). I think someone did this a couple years ago (after I had my idea for it).
Yesterday, I headed out for a longish run, figuring I should do at least one this month. I probably did 10-11 miles. Ah, it was nice and warm, with a comfortable breeze. I explored some new roads, and ran on some roads I don’t think I’ll run on again. (Braselton highway doesn’t have nearly enough shoulder.)
On a back road not too far from home, I found a cell phone. I grabbed it thinking I’d be able to turn it on, figure out who it belonged to, and try to get it back to them. Naturally, that didn’t happen because the screen was broken.
So, with nothing else to do before throwing it out, I pulled the memory card. Now, I figured there would be no racy photos or videos, I was curious. Turns out there was some music.
Yeah, I think I scored big! I’ve been wanting the Scooby Doo theme song for years!
It’s official. The 2 month weight loss challenge at work ended yesterday.
Today, the winner was announced. It was close between the top three…but I pulled the lead with a loss of 14 pounds for the win! WooHoo.
My co-worker and I have decided to continue the challenge through the rest of the year. Of course, after losing weight, a huge challenge is keeping it off, and that’s what we really want to do. Ah, this should be fun (even though there won’t be a winners purse for this challenge.)
Today, someone asked how I did it. Well, that is, what was the work involved besides bringing in cake, cookies, scones, and brownies for everyone else.
The answer is pretty simple. I increased the intensity of my workouts. (Instead of running 11-12 minute miles, I bumped it up to 9 minutes. Sure, I couldn’t keep it up for more than a couple miles, but it did great for my heart.) And I reduced how much I ate most the time. (Not all the time, just most of the time.) And we switched to eating a lot more fruits and vegetables.
Wow, lately I’m getting bombarded by spam. Well, I suppose they could be real comments, but my Russian is very rusty. (Yes, I actually took a year of Russian in college…more than a decade ago.)
So, I’ve made a few changes to the site, so you can only leave comments on recent posts. Most of the spam is coming in through really old posts, so hopefully this will help.
On the running front, things are good. I’ve been increasing speed a lot, mainly on the treadmill. I’m running comfortably at speeds I haven’t seen in years. (I carried on a conversation the other day while going 9 minute miles. Wow for me!) Unfortunately, the distance hasn’t been happening, which is going to make ING one really long day.
Having just had a birthday, I decided to head out to try to run a really long ways…the plan was for either 8 hours or 41 miles, whichever came first.
Arriving at the park where I was going to run to find Beth M and Ryan R waiting to do a little bit with me. Todd M showed up a couple minutes later, and after a few minutes of chatting, off we went.
The first lap (each lap is 2.2 miles, plus a 1/10 of a mile to get to the car/trail) was quick. The first mile was about 10:20, and the whole lap in 23. Yeah, that might not be fast compared to what some of you run, but for me, that’s flying. It was also exciting, because believe it or not, that’s the first time that I’ve ever run the entire lap. Yeah, I’d think as many miles as I’ve put in there, I’d have done that before, but I don’t think I have.
The one thing we all noticed right away was that it was cold and windy. The weather report the day before said it was going to warm up a bit. I eagerly awaited that.
We also noticed the flooding. The water lever was up probably a good foot, and the base of trees we normally see were underwater. At the dam, you could see where the water level had gone 10-15 feet up the embankment higher than usual, and has come back down.
About 3/4 of the way through the second lap, Ryan K showed up. Kindly, he gave me a hard time about being old. Apparently, this is my mid-life crisis.
Matt showed up to do a couple laps too. (But I don’t remember exactly when.)
Our next lap (with Beth, Ryan and Todd), we walked most of. Half way through, we ran into Helen and stopped for a moment to say hi. I had to laugh as everyone gave me a hard time about walking too fast and they had a hard time keeping up. (Note to self: I really should work on my walking to be able to maintain the speed a lot longer.)
And then, it was just me and Ryan for the next lap. The wind starting to pick up more each lap, and at this point, it definitely felt colded. As Ryan was getting ready to leave, he offered to bring me back some coffee or hot chocolate, which I happy accepted. So at the end of the next lap, I had a nice treat waiting.
The next lap was a lot colder and I was definitely starting to feel the mileage. The knees were aching a bit from the concrete, and the bottoms of my feet were sore. Oh yeah, it was still cold out, and at this point I was annoyed at the weathermen, since it hadn’t warmed up at all.
As a couple more laps went on, I was really starting to feel the fact that I hadn’t done ANY distance training, but less on pavement, in a long while. So, after 18ish miles, I decided to call it quits for the day. I feel like I got the training out of the day that I wanted, and the next day, I’m a little sore. (Telling me I stopped at the right point.)
David C, Carol, and Beth M (again), who were going to come out in the afternoon, thanks. (David called right as I was pulling out of the parking lot.) Beth is planning a long run on the silver comet in April, so I may try this distance again then. (After ING, I might be done for a while.)
A glutenous burger at Red Robin finished off the day. For those interested, if you sign up for their email, they give you a burger every year on your birthday. (And Waffle House will give you a waffle.)
