Go read the rest of the list at PJ Morse’s Flashes of Panic
(Yes, it sucks)
Not the DMV. Definately not the DMV.
Man, talk about pulling freakin’ teeth. I went to get my driver’s license renewed this morning. Got there 15 minutes before it opened, and there were already 40 folks in line. Luckily, most of them were teenagers waiting for the driver’s test, so once the DMV opened, I was at the counter with my renewal form, check, and voter registration card (I’m now a registered member of the Connecticut Whig Party/Trotsky Brigade – maybe I’ll stop getting poll calls this fall). The dude took my picture and asked me to wait.
Fastforward to 2 hours later – someone finally checks the printer, and there’s an issue – no licenses have been printed at all today. FSCK. They reboot, and bang – I’m out of there.
Busy, busy day at work, but rewarding. I stayed late ’cause I had thought I was going to get in touch with an old shipmate from the war (honest to gosh). He ended up tied up, so I went shopping for Missy’s birthday (She doesn’t look a day over 16), and then went to do the 50 minutes I missed yesterday on Jamestown.
Man, what a day! Sunshine and blue skies, with the shadows starting to get long and, even though the temps were in the mid-70s, there was the smell of fall in the air. I stretched out the 50 minutes to 52 minutes – I wanted to do the turnaround at 6 miles, ’cause I ought to be able to run 6 miles in 50 minutes (~8:30 pace).
The trip back was amazing – negative split and all that. 28 minutes out, 24 minutes back, and Paula Radcliffe (Man, I’m still smarting from watching her limp into the Birds’ Nest) telling me I’d set a new personal best for the mile.
I floated in the cove for a while – the water was brisk, and I didn’t sweat all over the seat on the drive home.
I cannot wait for New Haven.
So, I’m trying out a new thought as far as blogging goes. A PowerBook180 – RAM measured in K and hard drive measured in MBs – has fallen into my use. So, I’ve got a platform on which I can, well, just WRITE. The only question that I have is one of how to move files off of the platform. The only easily accessible storage is good old fashioned 3.5″ floppy disks, which are “MAC” formatted. Very interested to see if they come off.
Although, I suppose I could find an ancient dot-matrix printer to plug into the serial port… Wow, that would be a cool, cool thing to do, wouldn’t it?
Running been berry, berry good to me lately. Saturday’s long run was both wonderful and miserable at the same time. I started off with about 4 miles of hills, and then headed down to River Road (have I posted pictures recently? I’m still stunned by how sweet of a ride it is) for a quick loop to finish off the 12 on the schedule.
I was a bit bushed – I’d run Thursday and Friday, as I’d missed my run on Wednesday and wanted to make it up – but I ended up gutting it out. The initial bit (before the obligatory stop at the coffee shop for hydration) was 9 consecutive miles, which is the longest I’d run without stopping in a good, long while.
At the coffee shop, I ran into my pastor and a bunch of his cycling buddies. Kind of cool to see people you know in a new and different setting. A little bit of hydration and glucose later, and I was on my way back home.
The last three miles up River Road were at once the best three miles of my life and the worst. There was an odd combination of feeling good and not so good while I ran – extremely tough to explain, but I wanted to curl up in the green grass on the side of the road and keep running forever all at the same time.
Cannot wait for New Haven. I think I’m ready this year.
So, I’m still coming off of my mental defense against a major doping scandal at the Olympics (the mental preparation that “If they’re catching them, prevention is working”. Which, now that i think about the scarcity of medals being overturned – is the IOC as lackadaisical as the ASO was in the ’90s?). Anyway, I’m all about the side-effects for these folks (nasty picture over at Wired):
He was a constant user of anabolic-androgenic steroids, of which acne is a side effect — as is damaged sperm and shrunken testicles, both of which he also possessed. [From Graphic Evidence Against Steroid Abuse]
So, I wrote a good post (that hopefully will make it up soon) about the great run this weekend.
And then I promptly miss today’s run.
Sometimes I feel like I suck.
But I’ll make it up tomorrow.
I rock.
Hey. for anyone out there in the RBF who still listens, I’ve got a training question.
For San Antonio, I’ve been on the following Schedule pretty regularly:
At the end of this month, I’ve got 14 miles planned on the 30th by the schedule. BUT, there’s two events that weekend – the Nike+ Human Race on the 31st and the New Haven 20K on the first. So my plan for the weekend is as follows:
I end up giving up two miles, but get the 20K race. So, whadda y’all think? Does it work?
Hey, y’all.
I’m still here. Doin’ well, in fact. Running. A lot.
But, I’ve been working. Work is good. Really good, in fact. But, time is short (I’ve been sleeping).
I got to catch up with RandomDuck (aka Rudi, who’s got a great new theme) down in DC. Good food, great conversation, and a neat trip around Dupont (who, interestingly enough was Navy). Man, I need to get on the bike.
I will pass on one tidbit, both bike and running related: Sometimes, being a dad is an amazing thing. A couple of weeks ago, I had 8 miles on the Saturday long run. I was getting ready to go, and said “Hey, Jake (oldest boy) – do you want to try to ride your bike around the river with me?”
“Sure,” said Jake.
I thought “Crap” – my initial fear was that this was going to be disaster – 8 miles for an 8 year old boy on a BMX-ish bike is a long, long frackin’ way. But, I figured there wasn’t much to lose, so we laced ’em up, and went for the run.
Let me be honest for a bit – my goal at San Antonio is to finish, as it’s been nigh unto 3 years since I’ve done 26.2, I’m still above 170 lbs with the hard part of marathon training just kicking off (the bit where you’re ravenously hungry all the darn time and can’t really lose any weight and still focus for more than 30 seconds), and I haven’t been completely on schedule until about 3 weeks ago (and I still missed an easy run last week).
So, part of the loop around the Mystic River (not the one from the eponymous movie, but the one from the Pizza) included a stop at the coffee shop to say howdy and get a drink. About 10 or 15 minutes of break, then back to the bike/sneakers.
Jake’s great to ride with – full of questions, and starting to “get it” as far as riding in traffic goes. We’ve been watching the ospreys that nest on the river all summer, and it’s been fun talking to him about their recovery. Actually, the questions get kind of old about the 7 mile point, but they keep him engaged.
The first trip was great. Jake pooped out on the hill on River Road and had to walk, but there wasn’t any complaints until he realized we were about a half mile from the house. And then, the complaints were about being hungry.
The experiment’s been a success – the next week, he started asking if we were going about Wednesday, and last week was great – he just wanted to be sure we’d had breakfast first. The last two weekends, we’ve actually done the double – Jake and I would do the long run, then Nate (the younger) would beg to go for a bike ride. So, we headed down to go see the Art festival one weekend, and just to look at the river the next.
So, yeah, I’m digging life. It’s cool when you don’t have to work getting the kiddos to like fun stuff.
Why are we failing at math and science? Because it isn’t fun any more. When you put safety on the highest altar, what do you give up? When fear of lawsuits — not to mention fear of technolog [From Why We’re Failing in Math and Science – O’Reilly Radar]
Amen, brothers and sisters. I think I’m giving the boys soldering irons for Christmas.
Hi, Internet.
Hi, Bill!
I suppose you’re wondering why I’m talking to you today. Here’s the deal. I’m tired of being above what’s considered a healthy BMI, and I want to do something about it.
But Bill, isn’t that why you run?
Sure, I suppose so, but in actual fact, I’ve been running more to mitigate a lack of consciously healthy lifestyle. See, I’ve viewed running as a band-aid which lets me eat crap. When, as my gloriously fit wife has demonstrated much to my benefit, it ought to be a supporting part of eating well and sleeping well.
But enough about that, Internet. I want to, right now, dwell on the glories of running in New England in the summertime, with the breeze coming off of Narragansett Bay, the birds singing, and wild blackberries.
It’s been a good week up here in Mystic, my hometown, out there on the edge of the Long Island Sound. I’m on program for running, think I’m going to finally get on to Week 3 of the 100 pushups plan, and my folks are up to entertain the children.
Jacob and I did my long run together on Saturday, he on his bicycle and me on my extremely white pair of Asics. I’ve been alternating shoes between them and my Nikes this campaign, and my legs feel great.
Jake was a trooper, exuberant when we stopped by Bartleby’s for something to drink mid-run. It wasn’t until we got within a half mile of home that he realized that he hadn’t whined at all for 8 miles, and didn’t have much chance to make it up before we got home. So, there was a little gripe about a hill, and a little about being hungry, but his heart wasn’t in it, and he had a smile on his face while he complained.
Sometimes kids just need to feel like their existance is acknowledged.
The rest of the week has been good. I was a bit spent on Wednesday, so didn’t get the full impact I should have from intervals. Oh, and went into a presentation still sweating. Which wouldn’t have been bad, but the guy I was briefing had gotten some third channel bad information, and has a bit of a grudge against my boss’s boss. Which made the sweat look like flopsweat, and robbed me of the ability to make a joke about running at lunch.
But other than that, things are good.