Friday, December 14, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Sunday, December 02, 2007
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Marathon pic
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Thursday, November 29, 2007
Sunday is the big day
So the day of the race you can go here and somehow monitor my progress http://www.lvmarathon.com/ (bib number 4248) I am also going to try to Phlivunningog (phone live video running blog?) taking videos from my phone every few miles and post them to the website at (http://bakerblog2.blogspot.com/). This is easily the best idea I have ever come up with.
Monday, November 12, 2007
20
View Larger Map
The run took almost 4 hours so this could be a long post.
Garmin Data (link)
Saturday night I decided to go with some asian (rather than italian) carbo loading at the sushi bar. The kids got some other food that came with rice so I really did load up and I think from an energy standpoint I did what I could to be ready. I didn't get to bed until about 12:00 which was clearly a mistake. I think it hurt my overall energy and probably recovery but I was sort of nervous and couldn't wind down (I also got sucked into watching the classic AZ v. Gonzaga 2003 2nd round NCAA tournament game on ESPN classic).
For this long run I wen with a headband (I'm a sweaty bastard), my lightweight running jacket over a sleeveless dri fit shirt, shorts and spandex, my water belt (phone, water, energy blocks and money) and my running hat tucked in the belt for when the sun came up. I also wore my old shoes, by old I mean the pair I bought at the beginning of training. I think I have upwards of 100 miles on them and was thinking this might be their last long run.
The alarm went off at 4:30 and I snoozed at least once and after all the preparations didn't get on the road until right about 5:30. It was insanely beautiful out, not too cold and no moon so the sky was full of stars. It wasn't long before the sun started to color the sky over the Rincons which was chasing away my view of the stars so I made a minor course deviation to start heading west sooner than originally planned. This was double good because now I get the fantastic star show directly overhead and the city lights out to the west.
I did all of the climbing I was going to do in the first 3 or so miles which coincided nicely with hitting the 3 mile cruise point. I felt good and strong. I was walking at the even # miles for about 20 seconds to drink some from the water bottle. Based on past experience I can get to about 10 or 12 miles using this method. I wound up swinging through the 7-11 at Broadway and Craycroft to get a Gatorade. The lady thought I was insane when I paid with a $5 for the $1.29 bottle and didn't want the coins back. Nothing really to report up to that point but I did have a breif and terrifying bit of chest pain right around mile 12. It only lasted about 1 second but nearly doubled me over. I watched the HRM carefully for the next 5 minutes and nothing seemed amiss so I pressed on.
I brought the shot blocks and took some at roughly mile 5 and 10. The idea is that you take them aobut every hour. I skipped eating at 15 for some reason that I can't recall and I think this put me in a deficit which I'm guessing I felt in post race.
A little after 13 is where I started to get tired. At some point (I think around 16) I started taking a little water and walking a bit every mile. No muscle cramps or other problems but my feet really started to get sore from the pounding. Each time I walked it got harder and harder to start running again. In the last 1.5 miles I was walking a bit at each 1/2 mile. Running up University toward Old Main was the perfect ending. Tina and Sophia were playing in the grass waiting for me and Soph ran with me for the last little bit.
It was incredibly tough, easily the hardest exercise I've ever done. I finished in almost exactly 3:50 which beat my expectation by 10 minutes and means I may be able to get done under 5 hours for the big day.
Post race was pretty brutal. I ate grapes and bagels and drank Gatorade immediately after to replace the energy. I think I'd add some OJ or other fruit stuff like an apple. I slept for 4 hours and woke up with a horrible headache that was on again off again all the rest of the day. After muching all day, it was 11 PM before I could actually choke down some solid food.
I wasn't totally dead at the end of the run but the last 6 are going to be tough, no question about it. I think wearing my new shoes will help too as they have alot fewer miles on them. I'll be sure to take in calories at 15, 20 and maybe even 25 to prevent being so much in deficit at the end.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Longmont Training #2 - 10 Miles
Garmin (link)
It was hard to roll out of bed this morning at 4:30 again but I only hit the snooze button once and was on the road at 5 exactly. I had only a vague notion of where I was headed and started off by heading to a bridge over Left Hand creek where I turned around yesterday. I found a path running along the bridge that ran through something called a Greenway area and despite having no lights, I sorta found my way through. The path crossed back under the road my hotel was on and went on into a neighborhood where I crossed and recrossed the water several times. One of the bridges instead of having a concrete floor for the pedestrian lane had only a steel mesh substance that I KNEW was going to collapse both times I crossed it. I stopped under one bridge for a sneaky pee. I hate doing this but when needs must.... I am finding that the first 3 miles are the 'hardest' motivationally speaking. Once I get past that 3 mile barrier for some reason I can settle into a cruising mode. So with walking water breaks at even numbered miles, a pee break and a stop to make a phone call (had to cancel my ride to the office) I came very close to finishing the 10 miles at a 10 minute pace.
It was brutally cold and I was running along a creek or through parks for most of the way. I think the weatherunderground site is in town so my actual temps must have been lower. I dropped the gloves about 4 miles in and my face went numb at around 5 miles. It was so cold that the skin on my legs was still cold to the touch after about 10 minutes in the shower.
It was hard to roll out of bed this morning at 4:30 again but I only hit the snooze button once and was on the road at 5 exactly. I had only a vague notion of where I was headed and started off by heading to a bridge over Left Hand creek where I turned around yesterday. I found a path running along the bridge that ran through something called a Greenway area and despite having no lights, I sorta found my way through. The path crossed back under the road my hotel was on and went on into a neighborhood where I crossed and recrossed the water several times. One of the bridges instead of having a concrete floor for the pedestrian lane had only a steel mesh substance that I KNEW was going to collapse both times I crossed it. I stopped under one bridge for a sneaky pee. I hate doing this but when needs must.... I am finding that the first 3 miles are the 'hardest' motivationally speaking. Once I get past that 3 mile barrier for some reason I can settle into a cruising mode. So with walking water breaks at even numbered miles, a pee break and a stop to make a phone call (had to cancel my ride to the office) I came very close to finishing the 10 miles at a 10 minute pace.
It was brutally cold and I was running along a creek or through parks for most of the way. I think the weatherunderground site is in town so my actual temps must have been lower. I dropped the gloves about 4 miles in and my face went numb at around 5 miles. It was so cold that the skin on my legs was still cold to the touch after about 10 minutes in the shower.
| Time | 5:00 AM | 5:03 AM | 5:08 AM | 5:13 AM | 5:18 AM | 5:23 AM | 5:28 AM | 5:30 AM | 5:33 AM | 5:38 AM | 5:43 AM | 5:48 AM | 5:53 AM | 5:58 AM | 6:00 AM | 6:03 AM | 6:08 AM | 6:13 AM | 6:18 AM | 6:23 AM | 6:28 AM | 6:30 AM | 6:33 AM | 6:38 AM | 6:43 AM | 6:48 AM |
| Temperature | 23.6 | 23.5 | 23.5 | 23.6 | 23.9 | 23.8 | 23.9 | 23.9 | 24.1 | 24.1 | 23.8 | 23.5 | 23.5 | 23.6 | 23.8 | 23.9 | 24.1 | 24.1 | 24.2 | 24.2 | 24.1 | 24.1 | 24.1 | 24.4 | 24.5 | 24.5 |
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Boulder Training #1
I'm in Boulder this week for a bunch of meetings and am due training runs of Tuesday = 5 miles, Wednesday = 10 miles, Thursday = 5. Up at 4:30 AM today to get this one in before having to meet my ride in the lobby at 6:45. I always get crap for being gadget man but today requires a load of gear: Garmin watch + HRM, Ipod Shuffle, long sleeve dri-fit shirt, windbreaker, reflective vest, nike tights (looks dead sexy and works great), dri-fit socks (the green Go-Zilla ones with the yellow monsters on them), race shoes (I have 2 pairs of the GX220...the red ones are for races), water bottle belt (water, phone and room key), knit cap and gloves.
The lady at the desk offered that I should head down to the Longmont Rec Center as they have lots of trails. Good plan except that it was pre-dawn and there were no lights so I stuck to the roads. I felt good all the way through and took off my gloves for the last 2 miles as the sweat was really building up.
Garmin Data (link)
Weatherunderground Info (link)
The lady at the desk offered that I should head down to the Longmont Rec Center as they have lots of trails. Good plan except that it was pre-dawn and there were no lights so I stuck to the roads. I felt good all the way through and took off my gloves for the last 2 miles as the sweat was really building up.
Garmin Data (link)
Weatherunderground Info (link)
| Time | Temp |
| 4:57 AM | 27.20 |
| 5:02 AM | 27.20 |
| 5:07 AM | 27.00 |
| 5:12 AM | 26.90 |
| 5:17 AM | 26.70 |
| 5:22 AM | 26.30 |
| 5:27 AM | 26.00 |
| 5:32 AM | 25.70 |
| 5:37 AM | 25.30 |
| 5:42 AM | 25.00 |
| 5:47 AM | 24.50 |
| 5:52 AM | 24.20 |
| 5:57 AM | 23.80 |
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Tinfoilman Photo Finish
Simply put, my best tri ever. I felt strong throughout and finished with my best bike, run and overall time. Some pictures (link), my Garmin data (link it is kinda goofy because I forgot to start it until I was down the road a bit and didn't stop it until a while after I finished) and the overall results (link).
My historical data:
Collier and I carpooled as he is the guy with the dual bike rack on his car and Tina and the kids were coming down alot later. We racked the bikes and laid out our gear which is a whole process in itself. Most people put down a towel and then spend about 20 minutes obsessing over exactly how to lay out their gear for the quickest transition. Next comes the body marking. Unfortunate volunteers write your race number on each shoulder, the thigh just above the knee and put your age on the back of your right calf. I can only assume that the age thing is there to motivate you as you go around chasing people older than you. I saw an 80 (!!!!!) year old women getting out of the pool and paced my bike for a lap off a 72 year old man who damn near dropped me on the speedway climb from euclid to campbell. The should make anyone over 65 wear an eyepatch and carry a parrot.
The swim is first and we were in the 3rd wave of swimmers to start around 7:20. The idea is that they group you by your projected swim time so that each wave will finish roughly on a predictable schedule. The wave before ours was mostly the relay groups which featured several little kids that were swimming super fast. The lady in my lane in the prior wave was the last one to finish from that wave so I didn't get to do much warm up and was in the water about 90 seconds before the start. Collier who was all amped for a good swim time must not have heard the starter say that we had 15 seconds before start and decided to do a 50m warmup. Our lap counter and I screamed at him but to no avail. They started the race about the time he was at the far wall 25 m away. Obviously he caught up to and passed most of us but I don't think got the swim time he was capable of. I swam fine, felt strong throughout I'm just not very fast. I also constantly lose count of how many laps I've done. I popped up and asked 2x and was off by 2 laps each time. Getting out of the pool was not too bad even though the ledge is very high and the arms are kinda burning. I got to the the transition area and was just putting on my socks when Collier left on the bike. I put on shirt, socks, HRM, sunglasses, helmet and bike shoes pretty quickly and was on the road about 1:30 behind him.
I never did even see Collier on the road and I think we were both riding a really good pace (for us of course). Lap 1 was fine, it only takes a few hundred yards before you settle in, feel dry and find your pace. It's slightly downhill for the first bit which is nice to shake everything loose. Euclid going north was horrible, they seem to have patched over the potholes with series of Mexican topes. I rode behind the old man on that lap and he set a good pace. Looking at the garmin data I kept my average speed over 20 mph on the descent parts Campbell and Broadway and over 18 mph on the ascent parts Euclid and Speedway. I think in the future I can do better on the bike, I would love to get it under 40 minutes which would only be about 10 seconds faster per mile. Very doable. I also need to remember to not give Jackson '5' when I ride by at 25 mph. I can't believe his hand didn't break.
Back into the transition area and I was racking my back as Collier was heading out on the run. This transition is pretty quick as you just have to drop the helmet and change shoes, a quick drink from the bottle and off you go. The first 1/2 mile is literal hell, legs feel like lead and its sooooo hard to get a pace going. Most people look like some form of duck when they get off the bike to run. Collier forgot his belt that had the race number they pull at the end to mark your time so I threw it in my shirt pocket and hoped to catch him later. We basically ran from the pool area over to Cherry, up to the mall and then did 2 laps around the mall from Cambpell around Old Main. Tina and the kids were out at the Campbell end kicking the soccer ball. Its crazy how much it helps seeing freindly faces out on the course, it really gives some kind of adrenaline boost. I was only 20 yards behind Collier at this point and starting to close. Jackson was jogging with me so I had him take the belt up to Collier. Sophia even ran with me which really made me think I could kick up the pace. I think I passed Collier about 3/4 of a mile into the 3 mile run. I didn't see him again until the end and looking back I should have looked back more to see where he was. I ran a comfortable pace but never even looked at the watch to see how fast I was going. The course wasn't marked for distance at all or I never noticed where it was but the visual of going around the mall twice was plenty to roughly guess where you were. I passed alot of people from earlier wave that were doing the run/walk thing. A couple of them were huge and frankly props for getting out there. Coming up to the right turn to Cherry to finish a lady passed me and said 'lets kick this' or something that is lame but sounded inspiring at the time so I sped up a little. About 10 seconds later Collier comes by saying something about 'footsteps' so I try to push a little harder to keep up with him. We chased the lady to the finish and he had a great kick in the last 100 yards to get past her. I didn't have anything left and we finished each 1 second apart.
For the overall this put me 3 seconds behind Collier but he lost at least 30 seconds with his goof at the swim start.
I felt better after this race than ever before. Partly I'm in much better shape and partly being able to have someone to chase really helped.
My historical data:
| Date | Swim | Bike (Transition) | Run | Total |
| 10/02 | 19:00 | 50:22 | 32:51 | 1:42:13 |
| 10/03 | 18:43 | 45:31 | 32:50 | 1:37:04 |
| 3/04 | 18:03 | 47:25 | 33:10 | 1:38:38 |
| 10/07 | 18:25 | 42:12 | 28:03 | 1:28:41 |
Collier and I carpooled as he is the guy with the dual bike rack on his car and Tina and the kids were coming down alot later. We racked the bikes and laid out our gear which is a whole process in itself. Most people put down a towel and then spend about 20 minutes obsessing over exactly how to lay out their gear for the quickest transition. Next comes the body marking. Unfortunate volunteers write your race number on each shoulder, the thigh just above the knee and put your age on the back of your right calf. I can only assume that the age thing is there to motivate you as you go around chasing people older than you. I saw an 80 (!!!!!) year old women getting out of the pool and paced my bike for a lap off a 72 year old man who damn near dropped me on the speedway climb from euclid to campbell. The should make anyone over 65 wear an eyepatch and carry a parrot.
The swim is first and we were in the 3rd wave of swimmers to start around 7:20. The idea is that they group you by your projected swim time so that each wave will finish roughly on a predictable schedule. The wave before ours was mostly the relay groups which featured several little kids that were swimming super fast. The lady in my lane in the prior wave was the last one to finish from that wave so I didn't get to do much warm up and was in the water about 90 seconds before the start. Collier who was all amped for a good swim time must not have heard the starter say that we had 15 seconds before start and decided to do a 50m warmup. Our lap counter and I screamed at him but to no avail. They started the race about the time he was at the far wall 25 m away. Obviously he caught up to and passed most of us but I don't think got the swim time he was capable of. I swam fine, felt strong throughout I'm just not very fast. I also constantly lose count of how many laps I've done. I popped up and asked 2x and was off by 2 laps each time. Getting out of the pool was not too bad even though the ledge is very high and the arms are kinda burning. I got to the the transition area and was just putting on my socks when Collier left on the bike. I put on shirt, socks, HRM, sunglasses, helmet and bike shoes pretty quickly and was on the road about 1:30 behind him.
I never did even see Collier on the road and I think we were both riding a really good pace (for us of course). Lap 1 was fine, it only takes a few hundred yards before you settle in, feel dry and find your pace. It's slightly downhill for the first bit which is nice to shake everything loose. Euclid going north was horrible, they seem to have patched over the potholes with series of Mexican topes. I rode behind the old man on that lap and he set a good pace. Looking at the garmin data I kept my average speed over 20 mph on the descent parts Campbell and Broadway and over 18 mph on the ascent parts Euclid and Speedway. I think in the future I can do better on the bike, I would love to get it under 40 minutes which would only be about 10 seconds faster per mile. Very doable. I also need to remember to not give Jackson '5' when I ride by at 25 mph. I can't believe his hand didn't break.
Back into the transition area and I was racking my back as Collier was heading out on the run. This transition is pretty quick as you just have to drop the helmet and change shoes, a quick drink from the bottle and off you go. The first 1/2 mile is literal hell, legs feel like lead and its sooooo hard to get a pace going. Most people look like some form of duck when they get off the bike to run. Collier forgot his belt that had the race number they pull at the end to mark your time so I threw it in my shirt pocket and hoped to catch him later. We basically ran from the pool area over to Cherry, up to the mall and then did 2 laps around the mall from Cambpell around Old Main. Tina and the kids were out at the Campbell end kicking the soccer ball. Its crazy how much it helps seeing freindly faces out on the course, it really gives some kind of adrenaline boost. I was only 20 yards behind Collier at this point and starting to close. Jackson was jogging with me so I had him take the belt up to Collier. Sophia even ran with me which really made me think I could kick up the pace. I think I passed Collier about 3/4 of a mile into the 3 mile run. I didn't see him again until the end and looking back I should have looked back more to see where he was. I ran a comfortable pace but never even looked at the watch to see how fast I was going. The course wasn't marked for distance at all or I never noticed where it was but the visual of going around the mall twice was plenty to roughly guess where you were. I passed alot of people from earlier wave that were doing the run/walk thing. A couple of them were huge and frankly props for getting out there. Coming up to the right turn to Cherry to finish a lady passed me and said 'lets kick this' or something that is lame but sounded inspiring at the time so I sped up a little. About 10 seconds later Collier comes by saying something about 'footsteps' so I try to push a little harder to keep up with him. We chased the lady to the finish and he had a great kick in the last 100 yards to get past her. I didn't have anything left and we finished each 1 second apart.
For the overall this put me 3 seconds behind Collier but he lost at least 30 seconds with his goof at the swim start.
I felt better after this race than ever before. Partly I'm in much better shape and partly being able to have someone to chase really helped.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Wyatt, I Am Rolling
I haven't posted in a while and took a little 9 day break from exercise a couple of weeks back. I went to a wedding and wound up (along with the entire family) getting sick for a couple of days. I dove back in way to fast when I was feeling better and went for a long run without having done any shorter ones as prep. It was a disaster, I only finished 9 of the planned 12 and felt horrible the whole way.
This week I did much better doing some 4 and 5 mile runs during the week plus some swimming on Saturday in preparation for the 15 miler on Sunday.
Garmin Data
At 5:30 PM (an hour later than I planned due to general farting around) I took a couple of Advil, ate 6 Skittles and took off. I didn't watch my pace real closely in the beginning just trying to find a comfortable rhythm. I planned a route that would have me do some loops near my house so I could refill my water bottle at roughly the 7.5 mile point and shoot another couple of Advil. I need to research if that is a un-supported mod or not. I think it helps reduce the overall pain (specifically knees) but it could be a placebo.
Halfway through it was quite dark, the stars were out and if not for the fact that I was you know...running it would have been cold. The second half went great and I didn't really start feeling tired until about 11.5 miles in. I was surpriesed to notice that many people had fires burning. I think it was 65 degrees or something.
Dinner cooking at all the houses I ran by was torture and I began to fantasize about McDonalds (?!?!?!?!) around mile 9. When Tina picked me up and I had consumed my Big Mac value meal, I felt awful but happy. The watch says I burned 3,000 calories and I'm sure I put 3,500 back in eating that garbage but cravings are weird things.
The results were quite surprising. I unintentionally ran a faster pace the last 6 miles than the first. I guess thats a good thing but its also pretty much downhill the entire way. 2:41 was a great time for me, much better than the 3 hours I expected.
I had alot of trouble getting to sleep last night and a weirdly debilitating headache this morning but otherwise just the normal not-too bad knee pain. I think I've drunk a couple of gallons of water between last night and this morning though the always thirsty feeling is finally fading now.
15 is the farthest I've ever gone and for the first time I actually think the 26.2 is legitimately doable.
This week I did much better doing some 4 and 5 mile runs during the week plus some swimming on Saturday in preparation for the 15 miler on Sunday.
Garmin Data
At 5:30 PM (an hour later than I planned due to general farting around) I took a couple of Advil, ate 6 Skittles and took off. I didn't watch my pace real closely in the beginning just trying to find a comfortable rhythm. I planned a route that would have me do some loops near my house so I could refill my water bottle at roughly the 7.5 mile point and shoot another couple of Advil. I need to research if that is a un-supported mod or not. I think it helps reduce the overall pain (specifically knees) but it could be a placebo.
Halfway through it was quite dark, the stars were out and if not for the fact that I was you know...running it would have been cold. The second half went great and I didn't really start feeling tired until about 11.5 miles in. I was surpriesed to notice that many people had fires burning. I think it was 65 degrees or something.
Dinner cooking at all the houses I ran by was torture and I began to fantasize about McDonalds (?!?!?!?!) around mile 9. When Tina picked me up and I had consumed my Big Mac value meal, I felt awful but happy. The watch says I burned 3,000 calories and I'm sure I put 3,500 back in eating that garbage but cravings are weird things.
The results were quite surprising. I unintentionally ran a faster pace the last 6 miles than the first. I guess thats a good thing but its also pretty much downhill the entire way. 2:41 was a great time for me, much better than the 3 hours I expected.
I had alot of trouble getting to sleep last night and a weirdly debilitating headache this morning but otherwise just the normal not-too bad knee pain. I think I've drunk a couple of gallons of water between last night and this morning though the always thirsty feeling is finally fading now.
15 is the farthest I've ever gone and for the first time I actually think the 26.2 is legitimately doable.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Turkey Day Drive
I'm thinking about going out to visit the wife's family for Thanksgiving. The gang in Kansas live about 1,200 miles away, something like 17 hours of driving time each way. We want to take the brother in laws with us and even with my miles its going to be something like $400 per person. I don't relish the idea of driving that far but 1) its alot cheaper and 2) it will be nice to have some time to hang out with the 2 knuckleheads.
I think we'd leave Tuesday night and plan on driving straight through. Theoretically we have 4 drivers but I would be shocked if I actually let any of them drive. I like the idea of driving through the night so that the kids are asleep for as much of the trip as possible.
Outbound:
Return:
View Larger Map
I think we'd leave Tuesday night and plan on driving straight through. Theoretically we have 4 drivers but I would be shocked if I actually let any of them drive. I like the idea of driving through the night so that the kids are asleep for as much of the trip as possible.
Outbound:
| Tucson | 0:00 | 11/20/07 10:00 PM |
| Hatch | 4:00 | 11/21/07 2:00 AM |
| Albuquerque | 2:36 | 11/21/07 4:36 AM |
| Amarillo | 4:00 | 11/21/07 8:36 AM |
| Oklahoma City | 4:00 | 11/21/07 12:36 PM |
| Wichita | 2:30 | 11/21/07 3:06 PM |
Return:
| Wichita | 0:00 | 11/25/07 10:00 PM |
| Oklahoma City | 2:30 | 11/26/07 12:30 AM |
| Amarillo | 4:00 | 11/26/07 4:30 AM |
| Albuquerque | 4:00 | 11/26/07 8:30 AM |
| Hatch | 2:36 | 11/26/07 11:06 AM |
| Tucson | 4:00 | 11/26/07 3:06 PM |
View Larger Map
Fall TV
Last week my DirecTV HD got zapped during the rainstorm. It flipped on and off a couple times in the power outage and apparntly that made it forget all that it knew. So with the new fall season kicking off I thought it was an opportune time to start it all over and consciously pick the shows I am recording. Fortunately there is a history button that shows all the things you have recorded and deleted so the process wasn't as daunting as I'd expected. I first flipped through and got the season passes that I knew we wanted without having to think much.
The Office
Lost
Extras
Hell's Kitchen
Heroes
Saturday Night Live
Friday Night Lights
Ken Burns 'The War' mini series
Prison Break (sooooo lame, probably won't finish the season this time)
The Contender (ff all the talky talky parts, the fighting is interesting)
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dirty Sexy Money ( I don't even know what this is about, it just has a funny name)
Stuff not in HD right now:
Top Chef
Mythbusters
Survivorman
No Reservations
Tim Gunn's Guide to Style (for the wife but I don't think she has watched an episode yet)
Los Ninos en su Casa (something in spanish for the wife)
Wildcat Rewind (cause I'm a glutton for punishment)
New Season stuff I am going to audition and will likely hate:
Chuck
Journeyman
Bionic Woman
Kid Nation
K-Ville
The Office
Lost
Extras
Hell's Kitchen
Heroes
Saturday Night Live
Friday Night Lights
Ken Burns 'The War' mini series
Prison Break (sooooo lame, probably won't finish the season this time)
The Contender (ff all the talky talky parts, the fighting is interesting)
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dirty Sexy Money ( I don't even know what this is about, it just has a funny name)
Stuff not in HD right now:
Top Chef
Mythbusters
Survivorman
No Reservations
Tim Gunn's Guide to Style (for the wife but I don't think she has watched an episode yet)
Los Ninos en su Casa (something in spanish for the wife)
Wildcat Rewind (cause I'm a glutton for punishment)
New Season stuff I am going to audition and will likely hate:
Chuck
Journeyman
Bionic Woman
Kid Nation
K-Ville
Lick Myself
Its not what you think.
Or maybe it is. This weekend at the wedding in Prescott someone brought along a cd of Triumph the Insult Dog's greatest hits. 'Lick Myself' was the track that somehow became the sort of theme song for the weekend. Its foul and funny and you'll find yourself humming the polka tune relentlessly. Don't listen to it, save yourself.
The wedding was fun and we had a good time drinking all weekend with old friends. Prescott was a surprisingly cool place.
Or maybe it is. This weekend at the wedding in Prescott someone brought along a cd of Triumph the Insult Dog's greatest hits. 'Lick Myself' was the track that somehow became the sort of theme song for the weekend. Its foul and funny and you'll find yourself humming the polka tune relentlessly. Don't listen to it, save yourself.
The wedding was fun and we had a good time drinking all weekend with old friends. Prescott was a surprisingly cool place.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Dirty Knees, Look at These
Editors Note: There is a 100% chance you don't care about the first few paragraphs and a 4% chance you will find the last 2 paragraphs funny. As always, I recommend you read something else.
City League game last night down at El Rio ( I think thats the name, its the neighborhood center over by the rodeo grounds at Irvington and 6th). We moved up to the 'A' league this season after winning the 'double B' last season without much effort.
We won our first game against a team that was also in 'double B' last season and who we played like 4 times. I think we split with them in the regular season and then had them twice in the double elimination playoff. This time around they were missing their big guy and we were really on and wound up beating them by about 12.
The second game was against what looked like a very strong team that included Neal (he played at Sahuaro a few years behind me and has only gotten quicker over the years) and a couple of other guys I don't know but looked kinda good. They only had 3 guys show up so we won by forfeit but scrounged some extras that were standing around and played anyway. The lady running the clock actually ran the clock even though we had no refs. It was a fun game, close the whole way. We were down 2 with about 30 seconds to go and hit a tough 3 pointer to go up by one. They came down and got a quick 2 and nearly stole the inbounds pass, it got tipped around to Eric who hit what had to be the ugliest off balanced one handed layup of all time to win the game. For a game that wasn't actually real, it was a blast.
Last night's game was against a very strong press team and we didn't have a true point guard to handle the ball for us. They were all good athletes and had played together quite a bit and though we were up as much as 11 in the first half as we wore down our turnovers increased. Even though they missed a bunch of free throws down the stretch to give us a chance we turned the ball over on 2 of our last 3 possessions. Down 3 with 1.7 seconds to go we managed to get a long baseball pass off to Krump who (amazingly) managed to jump about 30 feet in the air and tip it to a wide open Adam (who had hit a huge 3 just a few minutes ago). Unfortunately he missed the shot so we didn't get OT but it was a great game.
There was a weird moment mid-way through the 2nd half. They had this skinny white guy that could really leap. He had thrown down 2-handed on a dead play and tipped in a pretty nice alley oop from their point guard(conspicuosly wearing his Tucson Summer Pro League jersey, come on dude....be serious) but he wasn't very strong. I posted him up every chance I got and he had 4 fouls by halftime. This play I had the whole side cleared out and Jason was coming to me with the entry pass. When playing post defense from behind, you are taught to never square up completely, it gives the offensive player all the leverage. Instead you are supposed to either get around to the side of his body (usually the lane side to keep him from the middle) or to put your outside knee sort of between his legs so that you get the leverage advantage back and can move him around. It also forces his hips forward so that he can't get a good base to push off from.
ANYWAY...this guy tried the knee trick because I was actually physically restraining him from coming around the side. I don't know if it was because he was extra skinny or what but when he pushed his knee at me, instead of it knocking me off balance it sort of pushed between my ass cheeks. I jumped like I'd been hit with a cattle prod and the ref immediately called a foul thinking the guy had shoved or punched me. Me and the defender both kind of recoiled and I think silently agreed to never speak of it. He didn't argue the call and I went home to check WebMd and make sure that knee to ass contact doesn't put me at risk for any kind of disease. I still feel kind of violated.
No exercise today, I'll be taking 30 showers and trying to forget what happened.
City League game last night down at El Rio ( I think thats the name, its the neighborhood center over by the rodeo grounds at Irvington and 6th). We moved up to the 'A' league this season after winning the 'double B' last season without much effort.
We won our first game against a team that was also in 'double B' last season and who we played like 4 times. I think we split with them in the regular season and then had them twice in the double elimination playoff. This time around they were missing their big guy and we were really on and wound up beating them by about 12.
The second game was against what looked like a very strong team that included Neal (he played at Sahuaro a few years behind me and has only gotten quicker over the years) and a couple of other guys I don't know but looked kinda good. They only had 3 guys show up so we won by forfeit but scrounged some extras that were standing around and played anyway. The lady running the clock actually ran the clock even though we had no refs. It was a fun game, close the whole way. We were down 2 with about 30 seconds to go and hit a tough 3 pointer to go up by one. They came down and got a quick 2 and nearly stole the inbounds pass, it got tipped around to Eric who hit what had to be the ugliest off balanced one handed layup of all time to win the game. For a game that wasn't actually real, it was a blast.
Last night's game was against a very strong press team and we didn't have a true point guard to handle the ball for us. They were all good athletes and had played together quite a bit and though we were up as much as 11 in the first half as we wore down our turnovers increased. Even though they missed a bunch of free throws down the stretch to give us a chance we turned the ball over on 2 of our last 3 possessions. Down 3 with 1.7 seconds to go we managed to get a long baseball pass off to Krump who (amazingly) managed to jump about 30 feet in the air and tip it to a wide open Adam (who had hit a huge 3 just a few minutes ago). Unfortunately he missed the shot so we didn't get OT but it was a great game.
There was a weird moment mid-way through the 2nd half. They had this skinny white guy that could really leap. He had thrown down 2-handed on a dead play and tipped in a pretty nice alley oop from their point guard(conspicuosly wearing his Tucson Summer Pro League jersey, come on dude....be serious) but he wasn't very strong. I posted him up every chance I got and he had 4 fouls by halftime. This play I had the whole side cleared out and Jason was coming to me with the entry pass. When playing post defense from behind, you are taught to never square up completely, it gives the offensive player all the leverage. Instead you are supposed to either get around to the side of his body (usually the lane side to keep him from the middle) or to put your outside knee sort of between his legs so that you get the leverage advantage back and can move him around. It also forces his hips forward so that he can't get a good base to push off from.
ANYWAY...this guy tried the knee trick because I was actually physically restraining him from coming around the side. I don't know if it was because he was extra skinny or what but when he pushed his knee at me, instead of it knocking me off balance it sort of pushed between my ass cheeks. I jumped like I'd been hit with a cattle prod and the ref immediately called a foul thinking the guy had shoved or punched me. Me and the defender both kind of recoiled and I think silently agreed to never speak of it. He didn't argue the call and I went home to check WebMd and make sure that knee to ass contact doesn't put me at risk for any kind of disease. I still feel kind of violated.
No exercise today, I'll be taking 30 showers and trying to forget what happened.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Marathon Heroes
I've been watching the Heroes show on the DVD and its not bad all in all. It has its soap opera moments of bad writing and general cheesiness but it has a cool look to it and I think the Japanese guy Hiro (Snowcrash?) is hilarious.
I actually signed up for the actual Vegas marathon today so I'm actually $90 worth of committed now. God help me.
Edit: I forgot to mention about the Heroes show that whenever one of the people uses their powers they make the "i'm pushing out an uncomfortably large turd" face. Its annoying to look at after the 100th time.
I actually signed up for the actual Vegas marathon today so I'm actually $90 worth of committed now. God help me.
Edit: I forgot to mention about the Heroes show that whenever one of the people uses their powers they make the "i'm pushing out an uncomfortably large turd" face. Its annoying to look at after the 100th time.
10 Miles = Success!!!
Garmin Data
It irked me that I couldn't finish my run this weekend so I decided to move my off day from Monday to Sunday and redo the long run on Monday. This might turn out badly because I have basketball games Tuesday and Thursday and my buddy Hal says I'm supposed to lay off basketball for the duration. Apparently its bad on the joints or something.
Preparations for the long run included taking 3 Cliff Blok Shots (Lemon/Lime), Tina's phone (mine is about 20# and thick as a brick) and a 1/2 water 1/2 gatorade bottle in one of those SUPER cool fanny (not the British 'fanny' you dirty bird) packs. I also recently got some new shoes GT-2120 to replace my old GT-2110s. The people at Fleet Feet over by Sakura on Tanque Verde are incredibly helpful and spent alot of time with Tina on the treadmill etc. figuring out her arches and making recommendations. I highly recommend them and you should support your friendly local whenever possible. But ANYWAY...........I loaded up some podcasts (Allen I hope your eyes are not bleeding because despite that fact that its in fact an .mp3 I calls it a podcast cause its a thing I subsribe to and magically shows up in Itunes everyday) from Bill Simmons and This American Life and took off.
I mapped out a route consisting of a loop around my house and then working down the long jogging trail following Old Spanish Trail to where it meets Broadway. I live on a high ridge so its pretty much all downhill no matter which way I go. When possible I try to set it up so that I do some up hill in the early part of the run and save the downhill for later. The only problem with this particular run was that I started late and so it was very dark with almost no moon. Running down Freeman was a little nervy, I only saw 3 cars but they all tried to run me over and I couldn't see the shoulder well enough to get over much ahead of time. I think I nearly fell in a few holes but in the end no harm done.
The loop was fine and by the time I got to the downhill section I was cruising and felt fine. I changed the route a little and ran by the house my parents lived in while I was in high school. This took me a back way to Jessie Owens park along a road being chip-sealed which was smelly, gravelly and annoying. Made the turn on Broadway and did another mile and half back up OST where Tina picked me up.
I felt great throughout the run, my knee was still a little sore but nothing too bad. I'm due for a 12 miler this weekend but am going to be at a wedding full of drunken bad influences so I'll have to try for another Monday evening run next week.
By the way, I like Adam Corolla's appearances on the Simmons podcasts. He gives plot rundowns on fake movies and in particular this week he presented 'Snapper' the story of Blitz Rusher who is the fallen world's greatest long-snapper seeking redepmtion etc. I also listened to a This American Life about a Iraq war vet who had PTSD and couldn't stand being around brown looking people. He eventually joined a Muslim student association and everything worked out. Its actually better than it sounds.
It irked me that I couldn't finish my run this weekend so I decided to move my off day from Monday to Sunday and redo the long run on Monday. This might turn out badly because I have basketball games Tuesday and Thursday and my buddy Hal says I'm supposed to lay off basketball for the duration. Apparently its bad on the joints or something.
Preparations for the long run included taking 3 Cliff Blok Shots (Lemon/Lime), Tina's phone (mine is about 20# and thick as a brick) and a 1/2 water 1/2 gatorade bottle in one of those SUPER cool fanny (not the British 'fanny' you dirty bird) packs. I also recently got some new shoes GT-2120 to replace my old GT-2110s. The people at Fleet Feet over by Sakura on Tanque Verde are incredibly helpful and spent alot of time with Tina on the treadmill etc. figuring out her arches and making recommendations. I highly recommend them and you should support your friendly local whenever possible. But ANYWAY...........I loaded up some podcasts (Allen I hope your eyes are not bleeding because despite that fact that its in fact an .mp3 I calls it a podcast cause its a thing I subsribe to and magically shows up in Itunes everyday) from Bill Simmons and This American Life and took off.
I mapped out a route consisting of a loop around my house and then working down the long jogging trail following Old Spanish Trail to where it meets Broadway. I live on a high ridge so its pretty much all downhill no matter which way I go. When possible I try to set it up so that I do some up hill in the early part of the run and save the downhill for later. The only problem with this particular run was that I started late and so it was very dark with almost no moon. Running down Freeman was a little nervy, I only saw 3 cars but they all tried to run me over and I couldn't see the shoulder well enough to get over much ahead of time. I think I nearly fell in a few holes but in the end no harm done.
The loop was fine and by the time I got to the downhill section I was cruising and felt fine. I changed the route a little and ran by the house my parents lived in while I was in high school. This took me a back way to Jessie Owens park along a road being chip-sealed which was smelly, gravelly and annoying. Made the turn on Broadway and did another mile and half back up OST where Tina picked me up.
I felt great throughout the run, my knee was still a little sore but nothing too bad. I'm due for a 12 miler this weekend but am going to be at a wedding full of drunken bad influences so I'll have to try for another Monday evening run next week.
By the way, I like Adam Corolla's appearances on the Simmons podcasts. He gives plot rundowns on fake movies and in particular this week he presented 'Snapper' the story of Blitz Rusher who is the fallen world's greatest long-snapper seeking redepmtion etc. I also listened to a This American Life about a Iraq war vet who had PTSD and couldn't stand being around brown looking people. He eventually joined a Muslim student association and everything worked out. Its actually better than it sounds.
Monday, September 17, 2007
10 Miles = FAIL!
I only did 4 miles of a planned 10.
I got a late start which meant it was hot but that wasn't the problem. The first 5 miles were pretty much all up hill but that wasn't the problem. I was running on a road w/ 4,000 road bikes constantly flying at me but that wasn't the problem. I forgot to slather my sensitive chest areas w/ goo but that wasn't the problem.
The problem was my knee. I fell on Thursday afternoon and bruised my knee on some asphalt. There was a kid w/ a 60 year old truck (that is roughly true) stuck on the uphill driveway to McDonald park. The high volume of cars coming down Harrison meant that for him to simply roll back into traffic (esp. w/ no power steering) would have been dangerous so me and a couple of other guys pushed it up the hill for him. This satisfied my good deed for the week but also cost me a nice long run. The knee felt fine when I played basketball Thursday night, in fact I kind of forgot that it happened. It was (and is) a little sore to the touch but not a big deal.
Around the 2nd mile when the hills/grade really started to get intense I think maybe the swelling started and in any case the bastard really started to hurt. I tried mixing in some walking with the running but to no avail. Everytime I tried running again, he started up. I bailed and will add some more miles to a run hopefully today.
I got a late start which meant it was hot but that wasn't the problem. The first 5 miles were pretty much all up hill but that wasn't the problem. I was running on a road w/ 4,000 road bikes constantly flying at me but that wasn't the problem. I forgot to slather my sensitive chest areas w/ goo but that wasn't the problem.
The problem was my knee. I fell on Thursday afternoon and bruised my knee on some asphalt. There was a kid w/ a 60 year old truck (that is roughly true) stuck on the uphill driveway to McDonald park. The high volume of cars coming down Harrison meant that for him to simply roll back into traffic (esp. w/ no power steering) would have been dangerous so me and a couple of other guys pushed it up the hill for him. This satisfied my good deed for the week but also cost me a nice long run. The knee felt fine when I played basketball Thursday night, in fact I kind of forgot that it happened. It was (and is) a little sore to the touch but not a big deal.
Around the 2nd mile when the hills/grade really started to get intense I think maybe the swelling started and in any case the bastard really started to hurt. I tried mixing in some walking with the running but to no avail. Everytime I tried running again, he started up. I bailed and will add some more miles to a run hopefully today.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Allen, I'm in your RSS reader writing LOLcat-isms
Interesting lunch discussion today that I thought I'd spend a minute fleshing out. Allen pointed out that cause we are not co-located (we being people that work together for this company for which be both work for (?!?)) we need to find a way to get the synergy back formerly realized from working co-located. After first delivering a roundhouse kick to the skull for using the word 'synergy' we talked about what some of the elements of a meta-chat (if you will) or meta-forum (if you still will) would be to improve communication in a distributed team.
A couple of definitions up front. A distributed team can mean just about anything, I've been in a chat were 90% of the group was physically sitting in the same room. Fundamentally this is about capturing the conversation that goes on when people are working together on something and actually being together. The right analogy for the conversation is probably something like a river, the river flows on and people (people are the boats? or are the ideas the boats? this is getting pretty thin either way) can join or leave as necessary. In the river or not, an observer can look from the outside at the river, the boats or especially the topless sunbathers on the shore. Lets abandon this paragraph now because I'm either going to use the word meta too many times or the metaphor is going to be extended to the point that the fish in the river will be the ideas and the boats have dudes fishing from the great river of of conversation for some scaly truth. As I said, moving on.
What I want is an IRQ style interface for my team. I want this to be an extension of the IM client we use now for no real reason other than we are using it now. The key though is that its basically just a kick-ass chat machine. I'm using the IRQ model because I don't like the fundamentally asynchronous mode that is a forum. Plus I just have this suspicion that weird people hang out on forums.
By the way, if this plants a seed that grows into a piece of software that you make a botilion dollars on, remember the little people.
A couple of definitions up front. A distributed team can mean just about anything, I've been in a chat were 90% of the group was physically sitting in the same room. Fundamentally this is about capturing the conversation that goes on when people are working together on something and actually being together. The right analogy for the conversation is probably something like a river, the river flows on and people (people are the boats? or are the ideas the boats? this is getting pretty thin either way) can join or leave as necessary. In the river or not, an observer can look from the outside at the river, the boats or especially the topless sunbathers on the shore. Lets abandon this paragraph now because I'm either going to use the word meta too many times or the metaphor is going to be extended to the point that the fish in the river will be the ideas and the boats have dudes fishing from the great river of of conversation for some scaly truth. As I said, moving on.
What I want is an IRQ style interface for my team. I want this to be an extension of the IM client we use now for no real reason other than we are using it now. The key though is that its basically just a kick-ass chat machine. I'm using the IRQ model because I don't like the fundamentally asynchronous mode that is a forum. Plus I just have this suspicion that weird people hang out on forums.
- A history of the chat should be maintained so that someone not logged in for any particular session will still have the full history of the conversation . This could apply even to a new team member, as soon as they join the group they instantly have access to all 'tribal knowledge' (I hear this phrase often, I wonder if its offensive...and if so to whom?) of the group. I guess its incorrect to say 'all' the knowledge but certainly all that was present in chat.
- The client needs to have a strong filter compoenent to both highlight and ignore posts as necessary. For example, I would want the word 'late' or 'delay' to be in giant red/bold letters. If my team is talking about being delayed or late, I want to know. Conversely if the thread heads off to the plot intricacies of CSI:Desperate Housewives I want to either actively ignore that or mark it in fuscia so I know its likely skippable. It is important to note however that the 'off topic' conversations are just as (possibly more) important than the direct work stuff. The piece that really is missing when a team is spread out is the bonds/relationships that grow intra-team. I have found that people who on projects for me are more likely to work late, take on tough assignments etc. if I have had some off topic time with them. We could call it the Beer to Work index, the more beers we have shared the more work I can expect.
- We'll need a couple of levels of alerts included: if I am not paying attention to the stream and someone needs me to perk back up there should be a yahoo style
- I would want a piece of the filter to hav ethe ability to select dates. If I am out Friday, I want to come in Monday and quickly review just the Friday conversation to see what I missed.
- There needs to be a way to tie entries together. Often in a multiperson chat, multiple unrelated questions are asked and the answer I give could apply to any of them individually. Its important to maintain the overall flow of the chat (not a recursive kind of thread system) so I am imaging a very messy, ugly arrow system where I click on the question I'm answering.
- A billboard should be in a sizeable window that keeps all the links refernced in the chat. So often the information/answer/shared experience is a link out to a website that drives conversation. The team lead should have the ability to make some 'sticky' as in keep them on top for . Otherwise they need to be indexable by date and frequency of use. Its possible that files could also be stored in somethign like that but I think that might be one of those add-ons that ends up sucking due to permissions/version control/packrat-edness.
- I've mentioned filters but we also need the general search functions (think google desktop here?)
- It is axiomatic that screen caps and animated gifs are a part of this tool.
- Private conversations of course will go on and there needs to be a way for a section of private text to be added to the big conversation. You'd probably want to make both parties click ok to allow it or something.
- Most people are on multiple teams and have various private chats going all the time. I personally like the tabbed interface we have in the current chat client which lines up along the left of the window all the chats I currently have open as opposed to managing multiple windows. Its a stylistic difference of course and we'll need it to accommodate either.
- Not sure its needed but the tool should be sort of self aware and do things like automatically build glossaries and keep stats (top five pies, common phrases, blabbermouth award).
- Polls and Voting
By the way, if this plants a seed that grows into a piece of software that you make a botilion dollars on, remember the little people.
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