Category: admin

So…

What have I been doing the last two months?

Getting fat and slow, mostly. When I went to the doc, he said to take at least a month off of running. So, I did.

Then the guy at PT (Who was MAGIC, MAGIC, I say, with the tape and the battery-delivered analgesics) had me keep doing the stretches I was doing, but, more importantly, didn’t mess around and cleared me to start running again, provided I kept stretching and using orthotics.

So, I’m painfully fat (Well north of 180), and painfully slow (Bike’s been averaging less than 16 mph), I’m at least running again.

I’ve also changed jobs, which should end up providing more time in the day. The pool’s a 5 minute walk from my office, and, even better, it’s only 7 miles door-to-door home to office. I’m still sorting out logistics with the job, but I’ve ridden my bike in at least once each week I’ve been working here.

My goals for the summer, as they have been for the last two, are to get well and get thinner. Let’s see how that goes…

Them’s got ears but can’t hear,

Them’s got eyes but can’t see.
Turn your eyes to the Lord of the Skies,
and take this airline plane.
It’ll take you home again

So, I was all ready to get broken up about not having run since Monday, when suddenly the evening opened up – we got back from taking Missy’s mom downtown for ice cream and watching the river roll out to sea, it was 8, and there was just enough sunlight to roll out 5 miles or so before bed.

Wow.

Weather – perfect. Shuffle kicked out a Wilco tune about a mile into the run, and I remembered why they’re the best band to come out of the post ’80s. Shifted the iPod over to do songs just from them, and the miles flew by. Life is good. Nothing like a big bass drum and a slide guitar to make your heels kick up, the heart rate peg, and give you reason to run until the sound of your heart resembles the sound of the drum.

Finally caught up on blogs – What a summer y’all are having. Now to bottle up this energy for the winter.

I’m completely behind on my consumption of Tour de France coverage, largely due to not having OLN in the house this year. Also, I’m still caught up in the World cup fever – Can’t wait for “DOMINGO, DOMINGO, DOMINGO!”. We’ve been watching the Univision coverage of the games (Don’t have ESPN either), and that’s been absolutely the best choice ever. My wife was fluent in Spanish at one point, and I’ve had 3 semesters in college (with a solid C average, thankyouverramuch), so it’s not just watching it with the sound off. I’ve been getting a team roster before watching a game, which gives me an edge on translation, since I can cue on the names.

And, let’s face it – even without speaking the language, sports commentary is pretty easy to follow once you figure out the players’ names. ‘Tain’t rocket science.

But back to the Tour – I’m excited to see Tommy Boonen and Thor Hushvold swapping the jersey in the first week, thrilled to see how Johan Bruyneel is, indeed, a tactical mastermind, and kind of excited to see a race that’s active from Day One, without waiting until the mountains to crank up.

But here’s what I’d like to make the Tour easier for me to follow:
1. A podcast of the same quality as Guardian Unlimited’s World Cup coverage.
2. Video coverage that’s (easily) accessable on a Mac or Linux box.
3. OLN at the house (which would mean we had the will to subscribe to basic cable, which we don’t, which is, overall a good thing)
4. A new MacBook with the chops to handle video podcasts in iTunes (plus Windows via Parallels)
5. A Fullbright Fellowship to take the family to Europe to study the UCI pro tour (Hey, if we’re dreaming)

The MacBook will probably happen this fall – I’ve been saving my pennies despite us putting a new roof on the house, and planning to get me a new car (complete with a useable back seat for the kids and 25% better mileage than my venerable Subaru in the summer.

The other thing that is giving me somewhat waning interest in the tour has been my lack of time on the road bike this year. Largely, that’s by choice – I am committed to becoming a runner first and foremost this summer, and a large part of that is getting my weight under control. Step by step. I can’t say I’ve missed the bike as much as I thought I would when I decided to skip the Tri season, but large part of that is just due to prioritizing work and family over recreation, but not wanting to completely fall off the rec wagon.

So – Pshew! It’s a great time to be a runner. The song’s Wilco, obviously, from Kicking Television among other albums. Check it out.

Team Discovery Channel Press Conference Teaser

I called in.

Johan and George were, indeed, there.

So were real, honest-to-God, journalist types from real, honest-to-God, media organizations like USA Today, PezCyclingNews, the Associated Press, etc.

I didn’t get a chance to ask a question, but am not actually sure my mouth would have functioned given the chance. Most of what I wanted to know was covered.

Conference was about an hour, I’ve got about 4 pages of notes. Would have typed them up, but I forgot my laptop at the house. So, come back sometime this evening, once I’ve gotten home, and I’ll dish.

Another ToDo on the site

So, like I said – been using Breaking the Tape lately. Love it.

‘Cept apparently, the HTML interface for WordPress strips out  any embedded javascript or code besides HTML. Which kind of blows, ’cause that’s what runs all the “cool” new web 2.0 stuff, or so I’m told.

I got the workout entry in the other day ’cause I was posting from Ecto at home, which I guess goes straight into the entry databse without getting scrubbed by the WordPress editor.  But, trying to use the web interface isn’t getting me anywhere. Googled it and found a couple of entries about editing a “my-hacks.php” file, but won’t get around to that for a while.

So, chalk this up as my first real complaint about WordPress. Which doesn’t make it so bad, at all.

Switched theme

The three column thing was giving non-Firefox users fits, so I’m doing this until I get a chance to get under the hood.
BTW – the all lowercase? It’s in the theme. I’m still writing with caps, ’cause I like the way they look.

Word.

Semi-Hiatus

Hey, y’all –

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Cycle, Cycle, Too is going on semi-hiatus for about a month. Couple of cool projects at work, the perspective of a cool project at the church (set up a system to digitally capture sermons, burn CD’s instead of the cassettes we have now, and possibly put the service out as a podcast), a potentially cool pair of projects at the house (completing repairs on the kayak and building a new boat), some not-so-cool projects at the house (roof), and longer days with which to try to burn off some of this lingering belly flab necessitate that I spend a little less time with the RBF. I’m still running, will still race (some), but won’t have a ton of time to read and comment. I’ll likely keep posting, ’cause this works well as both an mental outlet and a log.

So, for the time being, I apologize in advance. Hope y’all have a great spring!

Public Apology

I’d like to take this space to issue a public apology to Al Trautwig. I took a cheap shot only because I figured VeloNews would publish me. I’m shallow, venal, and really like seeing my name on other people’s web sites. That, and because I endured one too many obvious comment on French culture over the past few Julys.

What I failed to grasp until watching the 50K XC final on the Olympics last night is that Al has happily made a career trying to make endurance racing understandable to non-endurance athletes. It’s not a leap a lot of programmers or talent have been willing to make.

Watching the 50K, Al’s appreciation for what the skiers were doing was apparent. And if listening to Al gets me more of the content that I want, then I’d listen to Al every Saturday and Sunday during the classics season happily. Doubly so if they keep him on with Bobbke.

So, here’s hoping that somehow my apology makes a difference. After the 50K, I’m still glad Al was in Turin. But for a completely different reason.

As a bonus, dig on today’s Frazz:
A bicycle race? In February? Up in Belgium? They don't sell enough waffles to afford a Jimmy Buffett album?
More on Het Volk.

New Theme

For the time being, I’m using this one. ‘S got the layout I want, and other minor details, like coming up with an image for the header, etc, can come later.

Things I really like?

  • It’s clean. Not a whole lot of flash
  • Not so many colors for me to worry about clashing
  • “Blogroll”/links list shows up much sooner
  • The person who wrote it seems to be an all-right person.

Haven’t hacked into it, so I dunno if there’s much I don’t like. Great big Internet thanks to the author, whoever it is over at GFXEDIT.com.

Powerball is $300 million tomorrow night. Must be meant for me, since I didn’t buy a ticket on Saturday.

Updates

I’ve added a couple of things –

1. Over on the top of the ubiquitious sidebar, I’ve added some pure “Admin stuff”, like contact information, in case you’re not getting enough Bill from the pages here.

2. Also began an ongoing list with pithy and unoriginal thoughts about why I really, really dig what’s going on with technology and blogs.

Pretty much it. I’m still struggling to get into a workout routine this year. I’m loving it when I do get out, but while the body is willing, the mind has been weak.