One afternoon we were trying to recall which year we lost in the tournament to somebody and which guys played together on various teams etc. and I got inspired to put together as much data as I could find over the course of couple of days. It was surprisingly hard to find and the data is pretty spotty.
Blogger I guess doesn't let you upload files so I made a little Google group (link)
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
8/21/07 Run Till You Puke
Garmin Data
So I needed to get 3 miles in today but had only a limited window before Meet the Teacher night. Lacking the common sense area of the brain that my wife claims everyone else possesses, the plan I came up with was to run the same distance I normally would but just to do it really fast. I should also mention that I had lunch about 1.5 hours ago (Wendy's greasy burger/fries and Dr. Pepper), it was 90 degrees out and I was running on about 5 hours of sleep.
I ran the first mile a little under 8 minutes pace. This is substantially faster than the anemic 11 minutes per mile I usually do. My idea was to do the mile fast then walk like .2 to catch my breath and repeat. Felt great on the mile and the walk, starting back up on pace was tough and I couldn't maintain for very long at all before I felt like puking. I alternated running and walking and had to work very hard to not puke. I felt horrible all the rest of the way and all through the night. Running faster is not a good thing.
So I needed to get 3 miles in today but had only a limited window before Meet the Teacher night. Lacking the common sense area of the brain that my wife claims everyone else possesses, the plan I came up with was to run the same distance I normally would but just to do it really fast. I should also mention that I had lunch about 1.5 hours ago (Wendy's greasy burger/fries and Dr. Pepper), it was 90 degrees out and I was running on about 5 hours of sleep.
I ran the first mile a little under 8 minutes pace. This is substantially faster than the anemic 11 minutes per mile I usually do. My idea was to do the mile fast then walk like .2 to catch my breath and repeat. Felt great on the mile and the walk, starting back up on pace was tough and I couldn't maintain for very long at all before I felt like puking. I alternated running and walking and had to work very hard to not puke. I felt horrible all the rest of the way and all through the night. Running faster is not a good thing.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Tell me again, why do I have nipples?
Garmin Data
I have not run 5 miles in a very, very long time. I'm pretty happy with how I felt during and after this run. The retarded dog got loose and followed me for the first 1.5 miles so I had to turn around and chase him home and then pick up another mile out and mile back going the other direction. He walks in the middle of the street and is a bad training partner because I keep having to either chase him back home or out of the street so as not to get killed.
It was overcast and threatening to rain which was perfect because it stayed cool throughout the run. I had no problems with my lower legs after a couple of long stretching sessions during the day. I could easily have done more distance as I was not winded at all. I think I should pick up the pace on my 3 mile runs during the week because my fitness is pretty good right now and it will probably speed me up a little. I'm still not worried about time, just about completing the distances and I'm on pace for my modified version of Hal's Novice Marathon Training Plan. I need to find a way to show my workout plan online because I have running, swimming and biking goals all mixed in there. Next week's long run is 9 miles, that is a big jump from 5 and I may smooth out the mileage increase over the next couple of weeks
Anyway, the nipple thing. I have never had a nipple chafing issue until the tail end of this run. Stupid G$ mentioned this (nipguards) product a few days ago and I replied that I had never had that problem. I obviously should have kept my mouth shut. I'm going to experiment with different shirts, this one was drifit but not one I had run in before. Stupid vestigial organs.
I have not run 5 miles in a very, very long time. I'm pretty happy with how I felt during and after this run. The retarded dog got loose and followed me for the first 1.5 miles so I had to turn around and chase him home and then pick up another mile out and mile back going the other direction. He walks in the middle of the street and is a bad training partner because I keep having to either chase him back home or out of the street so as not to get killed.
It was overcast and threatening to rain which was perfect because it stayed cool throughout the run. I had no problems with my lower legs after a couple of long stretching sessions during the day. I could easily have done more distance as I was not winded at all. I think I should pick up the pace on my 3 mile runs during the week because my fitness is pretty good right now and it will probably speed me up a little. I'm still not worried about time, just about completing the distances and I'm on pace for my modified version of Hal's Novice Marathon Training Plan. I need to find a way to show my workout plan online because I have running, swimming and biking goals all mixed in there. Next week's long run is 9 miles, that is a big jump from 5 and I may smooth out the mileage increase over the next couple of weeks
Anyway, the nipple thing. I have never had a nipple chafing issue until the tail end of this run. Stupid G$ mentioned this (nipguards) product a few days ago and I replied that I had never had that problem. I obviously should have kept my mouth shut. I'm going to experiment with different shirts, this one was drifit but not one I had run in before. Stupid vestigial organs.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Running With the Dog
Garmin Data
I have to run in the evenings now because it takes a good 30 minutes of stretching to get my lower legs to not hurt. I had to make dinner last night so I came up with the ingenious plan of doing a roasted vegetable pan in the oven and starting the charcoal for steaks right before I left so that when I returned the charcoal is ready to dump and the veggies need 20 more minutes. As I was leaving the dog started trotting along with me and wound up following me the entire run. He belongs to Tina's brother who is staying with us and is mostly mentally retarded (the dog not brother but....). Shady (the dog again, not the brother...do try to pay attention) has been an apartment dog nearly its whole life and living outdoors now is blowing his mind. He has even become a bit of a pack rat hunter which we totally need. I think he is an Aussie sheperad mix or something.
Anyway, we had a nice 2.5 mile run and he spent the first 1/2 running way ahead, side to side etc. The last mile or so he was beat and lagged way behind. I brought a plastic bag to scoop poop but when he finally decided to drop the load it was off in the desert and about 1/4 mile behind me so I didn't bother. We saw a pile of 4-5 big and dead packrats by the side of the road. I hope they were there as a warning to others.
This was one of the easiest runs I've had. I ran slowly and was barely out of breath. I hope to do 2 of these per week in very slowly increasing distances and a long run on the weekend opposite days of the bike workout. I think Hal would have me run 3 today and 5 this weekend to be on the novice marathon training pace.
I have to run in the evenings now because it takes a good 30 minutes of stretching to get my lower legs to not hurt. I had to make dinner last night so I came up with the ingenious plan of doing a roasted vegetable pan in the oven and starting the charcoal for steaks right before I left so that when I returned the charcoal is ready to dump and the veggies need 20 more minutes. As I was leaving the dog started trotting along with me and wound up following me the entire run. He belongs to Tina's brother who is staying with us and is mostly mentally retarded (the dog not brother but....). Shady (the dog again, not the brother...do try to pay attention) has been an apartment dog nearly its whole life and living outdoors now is blowing his mind. He has even become a bit of a pack rat hunter which we totally need. I think he is an Aussie sheperad mix or something.
Anyway, we had a nice 2.5 mile run and he spent the first 1/2 running way ahead, side to side etc. The last mile or so he was beat and lagged way behind. I brought a plastic bag to scoop poop but when he finally decided to drop the load it was off in the desert and about 1/4 mile behind me so I didn't bother. We saw a pile of 4-5 big and dead packrats by the side of the road. I hope they were there as a warning to others.
This was one of the easiest runs I've had. I ran slowly and was barely out of breath. I hope to do 2 of these per week in very slowly increasing distances and a long run on the weekend opposite days of the bike workout. I think Hal would have me run 3 today and 5 this weekend to be on the novice marathon training pace.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Battlestar Galactica
I am going to defend this show and I'm not being ironic here. I'm not even being ironic about the irony. I legitimately think this is well written, nuanced and the right amount of cheesey.
First off I loved the original series when I was a kid. The spaceships, robots, pre-Top Gun fighter pilot bad-assnes all worked great for me then. I decided not to watch this because what you recall from your childhood can only be poisoned when brought out and examined. It is more pleasurable better to be nostalgic than accurate about what something was.
The basic rundown is that humans live on 12 colonies (a 13th 'Earth' is a legend that doesn't get referenced till the end of the first episode). Humans invent cylons to do work (you know pick cotton and sing spirituals etc.) and eventually the cylons decide that work sucks and so they go to war with the humans. We win or something and they go away for a while. The show starts when they come back but this time they have a few human shaped robots (I've seen 4 so far but I guess there are 12 total) and kill everyone on 12 planets. All except one battlestar (think space aircraft carrier) and a ragtag collection (can't you just hear Lorne Greene saying that?) of refugees who are the last 50K humans alive from the 12 planets.
Its about what you'd expect for a roster of characters. The Commander is Edwared J Olmos who is the grizzled old veteran and his XO who is the drunk grizzled old veteran. EJO looks alot like Tom Skerrit. EJO tricks everyone and says I know where that old 13th planet is. We are heading there now despite the fact that he hasn't got a clue. I hope that thread doesnt' get worn too thin.
Starbuck is the drinking, gambling super pilot with all the obvious insecurity and overcompensation issues you expect and interestingly a girl this time through. I thought that would be lame but its not. I'm interested to see if she does the playboy thing Faceman did in the original. She also has watched Top Gun.....ALOT. She does the chomp my gum in your face deal and sort of has Iceman's haircut. Plus the whole gender confusion I am thinking this whole show might be a kind of left handed Top Gun homage.
Apollo is the son of the commander they are estranged and he has to learn about leadership, blah blah blah.
Some people are cylons and all cylon women so far are SMOKIN HOT. I can't emphasize this enough. When those wacky robots sat down to make human clones, they did a GOOD JOB.
Baltar is the human scientist that had the secret code to everything in the the whole universe that he just sort of handed to the Cylon sex clone they sent to woo him. Because of his weakness for hot girls that want to nibble on him, billions of people die when the robots turn off the defense computers. Not that I am defending him but seriously the blond girl is yummy, you would consider it in his position.
As per standard science fiction, there are nearly no black people in space and not alot of brown really either.
I like the music, during space battle scenes they keep lots of quiet moments without background music...get it...space is quiet? When the music does come up its a kind of sparse, Asian martial sounding drum that definitely sets a tense mood.
There is the little geeky stuff like how the fighters fly and maneuver which seems alot more plausible than the old show.
Apollo from the old series makes an appearance. I guess you can't live on residuals forever.
I love the use of 'frak'. My hat is off to whoever came up with just making up a word so that people can cuss on tv.
And in the end (not the end really I've only seen 4 episodes) its a story about a journey. Those are the best kind I think and specifically the Odyessy journey home construct.
Its a cheesy show but not as cheesy as it should be. I don't recommend you watch it but I will, and I like it.
First off I loved the original series when I was a kid. The spaceships, robots, pre-Top Gun fighter pilot bad-assnes all worked great for me then. I decided not to watch this because what you recall from your childhood can only be poisoned when brought out and examined. It is more pleasurable better to be nostalgic than accurate about what something was.
The basic rundown is that humans live on 12 colonies (a 13th 'Earth' is a legend that doesn't get referenced till the end of the first episode). Humans invent cylons to do work (you know pick cotton and sing spirituals etc.) and eventually the cylons decide that work sucks and so they go to war with the humans. We win or something and they go away for a while. The show starts when they come back but this time they have a few human shaped robots (I've seen 4 so far but I guess there are 12 total) and kill everyone on 12 planets. All except one battlestar (think space aircraft carrier) and a ragtag collection (can't you just hear Lorne Greene saying that?) of refugees who are the last 50K humans alive from the 12 planets.
Its about what you'd expect for a roster of characters. The Commander is Edwared J Olmos who is the grizzled old veteran and his XO who is the drunk grizzled old veteran. EJO looks alot like Tom Skerrit. EJO tricks everyone and says I know where that old 13th planet is. We are heading there now despite the fact that he hasn't got a clue. I hope that thread doesnt' get worn too thin.
Starbuck is the drinking, gambling super pilot with all the obvious insecurity and overcompensation issues you expect and interestingly a girl this time through. I thought that would be lame but its not. I'm interested to see if she does the playboy thing Faceman did in the original. She also has watched Top Gun.....ALOT. She does the chomp my gum in your face deal and sort of has Iceman's haircut. Plus the whole gender confusion I am thinking this whole show might be a kind of left handed Top Gun homage.
Apollo is the son of the commander they are estranged and he has to learn about leadership, blah blah blah.
Some people are cylons and all cylon women so far are SMOKIN HOT. I can't emphasize this enough. When those wacky robots sat down to make human clones, they did a GOOD JOB.
Baltar is the human scientist that had the secret code to everything in the the whole universe that he just sort of handed to the Cylon sex clone they sent to woo him. Because of his weakness for hot girls that want to nibble on him, billions of people die when the robots turn off the defense computers. Not that I am defending him but seriously the blond girl is yummy, you would consider it in his position.
As per standard science fiction, there are nearly no black people in space and not alot of brown really either.
I like the music, during space battle scenes they keep lots of quiet moments without background music...get it...space is quiet? When the music does come up its a kind of sparse, Asian martial sounding drum that definitely sets a tense mood.
There is the little geeky stuff like how the fighters fly and maneuver which seems alot more plausible than the old show.
Apollo from the old series makes an appearance. I guess you can't live on residuals forever.
I love the use of 'frak'. My hat is off to whoever came up with just making up a word so that people can cuss on tv.
And in the end (not the end really I've only seen 4 episodes) its a story about a journey. Those are the best kind I think and specifically the Odyessy journey home construct.
Its a cheesy show but not as cheesy as it should be. I don't recommend you watch it but I will, and I like it.
A Series of Near Misses 8.11.07
We decided to ride the Amado to Arivaca (link) road in place of the mountain for a change. I grabbed my Dad's truck (the inside of which always smells like ketchup, I don't think he eats ketchup per se but all his vehicles smell like ketchup...strange) picked up Collier, Dan, the bikes and gas and we were on the road before 6. Arrive in Amado (which appears to be 100% deserted like an apocalyptic dream) and park across from the (they claim) world famous Longhorn Grill. Unloading the bikes we find a bulge in Collier's back tire. Immediately after (coincidence? I think not) a car of Jehovah's witnesses screech to a stop in front of us and they make the 15 year old kid in the tie offer us 'maybe something to read later'. After a quick agnostic roundhouse kick they left.
With all the practice we have had in the last few bike rides, the tube is swapped out in short order. Leaving it fully inflated we go off to gear up but then suddenly hear what must be a gunshot. Obviously the JWs are back and they are pissed. After I got Collier to quit crying (ok not really but I think he was crying on the inside) we figured out that the tire had popped and the echo off the buildings was responsible for scaring the bejeezus out of me.
More tire work.
Repeat.
Change tubes and tires.
Explosion.
Watching creepy people driving by with bass boats and (I'm assuming) dark motives along with a few Border Patrol vehicles we eventually just gave up and decided to go for breakfast at the Longhorn Grill. In front of the Longhorn Grill was a prison transport bus with a broken something that forced the guards to get out and scratch their heads. The restaurant was closed so we declared the entire adventure a bust. I am sure that the ride and breakfast were near misses in that we would surely have died along the way. I am making a movie about the prison bus.
We would have required a hot female to make a solid group of 4. Think American Flyers meets Speed. One guy is the disgraced champion kicked out of cycling not for using illegal drugs but actually having robotic legs replace his own. Cut to the evil scientist (probably Christian Bale cause cycling is pretty Euro and he has sinister teeth) making him the faustian deal in the past, you can tell its the past cause the light is sort of washed out and everyone has funny haircuts. He will sacrifice himself at some point to get redemption, maybe just lose the legs all together. During the closing credits maybe he becomes world champ wheelchair racer as Peter Cetera (like a knight in shining armor....) plays in the background.
One guy is the wise cracking former track star (ie black and because this is Hollywood sure to not get the girl and die...sorry Collier) who as a punishment for his practical joke (something involve icy hot and jockstraps or spiking an oppoents water cooler with Viagra maybe) is assigned to the cycling team of misfits and ne'er do wells. He will be the first to die when we first learn how B-A-D (and we'll thrown in racist to make him reeaaaalllly B-A-D) Christina Bale in fact is.
The hero is the guy with all the potential but no killer instinct who can never win the big one. We know several things about him: 1) he will talk like Keanu Reeves 2) he will get the girl in the end (hmm...that sounds bad) and 3) he will very obviously save the day by riding his bicycle in some way that is impossible (maybe backward at 30 mph or something?). Cut to him trying the impossible thing in the past (que lighting and funny hair) and failing and Michael Caine as his cycling coach (who is probably Christian Bale's dad) saying something profound and cliche along the lines of 'winners don't ride backwards, winners win who don't lose to losers who ride backwards" or some other nonsense.
The girl has ALOT of curves and VERY tight fitting clothes that will be quickly ripped and indecent. I'll be casting Rosario Dawson and Scarlett Johansen in these roles for no real reason other than this is my movie and I respect their work.....or something. Despite being 5'1 and 105 lbs. she will at some point kick the snot out of a couple of 300 lb Samoan guys.
Billy Bob Thornton will reprise his creepy mechanic role from the movie U-Turn as the grease monkey sidekick who fixes up the bikes to go insanely fast or make eggs or whatever.
There are several chase scenes through the mountains, possibly jumping off of things and something along the lines of a Deadman's Curve that no one has ever made it past. The hero will have to eventually catch the bus, climb on, get dragged, jump in and finally save the girl. The bus will obviously blow up at some point and he'll escape with her riding on his handlebars (thats the movie poster btw) to safety.
This is a pretty good movie but it will need some karate/ninja to make it perfect.
With all the practice we have had in the last few bike rides, the tube is swapped out in short order. Leaving it fully inflated we go off to gear up but then suddenly hear what must be a gunshot. Obviously the JWs are back and they are pissed. After I got Collier to quit crying (ok not really but I think he was crying on the inside) we figured out that the tire had popped and the echo off the buildings was responsible for scaring the bejeezus out of me.
More tire work.
Repeat.
Change tubes and tires.
Explosion.
Watching creepy people driving by with bass boats and (I'm assuming) dark motives along with a few Border Patrol vehicles we eventually just gave up and decided to go for breakfast at the Longhorn Grill. In front of the Longhorn Grill was a prison transport bus with a broken something that forced the guards to get out and scratch their heads. The restaurant was closed so we declared the entire adventure a bust. I am sure that the ride and breakfast were near misses in that we would surely have died along the way. I am making a movie about the prison bus.
We would have required a hot female to make a solid group of 4. Think American Flyers meets Speed. One guy is the disgraced champion kicked out of cycling not for using illegal drugs but actually having robotic legs replace his own. Cut to the evil scientist (probably Christian Bale cause cycling is pretty Euro and he has sinister teeth) making him the faustian deal in the past, you can tell its the past cause the light is sort of washed out and everyone has funny haircuts. He will sacrifice himself at some point to get redemption, maybe just lose the legs all together. During the closing credits maybe he becomes world champ wheelchair racer as Peter Cetera (like a knight in shining armor....) plays in the background.
One guy is the wise cracking former track star (ie black and because this is Hollywood sure to not get the girl and die...sorry Collier) who as a punishment for his practical joke (something involve icy hot and jockstraps or spiking an oppoents water cooler with Viagra maybe) is assigned to the cycling team of misfits and ne'er do wells. He will be the first to die when we first learn how B-A-D (and we'll thrown in racist to make him reeaaaalllly B-A-D) Christina Bale in fact is.
The hero is the guy with all the potential but no killer instinct who can never win the big one. We know several things about him: 1) he will talk like Keanu Reeves 2) he will get the girl in the end (hmm...that sounds bad) and 3) he will very obviously save the day by riding his bicycle in some way that is impossible (maybe backward at 30 mph or something?). Cut to him trying the impossible thing in the past (que lighting and funny hair) and failing and Michael Caine as his cycling coach (who is probably Christian Bale's dad) saying something profound and cliche along the lines of 'winners don't ride backwards, winners win who don't lose to losers who ride backwards" or some other nonsense.
The girl has ALOT of curves and VERY tight fitting clothes that will be quickly ripped and indecent. I'll be casting Rosario Dawson and Scarlett Johansen in these roles for no real reason other than this is my movie and I respect their work.....or something. Despite being 5'1 and 105 lbs. she will at some point kick the snot out of a couple of 300 lb Samoan guys.
Billy Bob Thornton will reprise his creepy mechanic role from the movie U-Turn as the grease monkey sidekick who fixes up the bikes to go insanely fast or make eggs or whatever.
There are several chase scenes through the mountains, possibly jumping off of things and something along the lines of a Deadman's Curve that no one has ever made it past. The hero will have to eventually catch the bus, climb on, get dragged, jump in and finally save the girl. The bus will obviously blow up at some point and he'll escape with her riding on his handlebars (thats the movie poster btw) to safety.
This is a pretty good movie but it will need some karate/ninja to make it perfect.
8-9-07 Ride to Collosal Cave (almost)
We got off to a super late start due to it being retardedly early when we ride and the near certainty that one of us will oversleep on any given day. Once we got going we set a decent pace and things were going well until we got past Camino Loma Alta and started through the ups and downs of the washes. I was riding close behind Dan when we saw a thick track of sand across the low spot in the road. Dan took what looked like the least difficult track and immediatley sank about 6" into the muck. Now we have several problems. First Dan has to try and get out of his pedals (the basket kind but still holding him tight to the bike), second I have to stop so as not to crush him and third I have to get out of my pedals. I'm not 100% sure how it worked out but Dan fell into relatively soft sand and I avoided crushing him or breaking any of my own limbs. We decided that was plenty for the day and turned back about 3/4 of a mile short of the goal.
I remembered that JB was headed off for the first day of school so I really pushed hard to go fast and make it back in time to see him off. Collier stuck with me most of the way and then blew a tire at the base of the bad hill coming out of the riverbed. Same spot that got Dan the week before.
If not for tires, I see no reason we can't do the full 109 mile Tour de Tucson in November.
Garmin Data
I remembered that JB was headed off for the first day of school so I really pushed hard to go fast and make it back in time to see him off. Collier stuck with me most of the way and then blew a tire at the base of the bad hill coming out of the riverbed. Same spot that got Dan the week before.
If not for tires, I see no reason we can't do the full 109 mile Tour de Tucson in November.
Garmin Data
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Wrestling and NASCAR Suck
I stretched about 6 times through the day including the 'dog' and 'tree' stretches I found on a Yoga for Runners website. It made a world of difference and my calves never did tighten up. If finished the 3 miles running a bit over a 10 minute pace and kept my heart rate below 160 almost the whole way. I was getting worried that a long term running goal might not be possible but now I'm thinking the last outing was a fluke.
The downside to my run was the Sports Guy podcasts. I loaded 2 of them plus a This American Life just for good measure. Sports Guy #1 was Bill interviewing a NASCAR guy who drives the 33 car (this is only relevant because it was Larry Bird's number) as a job interview to become the drive Bill would follow. Appearantly the doofus being inteviewed didn't realize that the whole thing was a goof driven by that fact that he was from Indiana and drove a car with Larry Bird's number. He didn't deliver on any of the softwball jokes TSG threw him and just sounded dumber and dumber the more they talked. He continually referred to himself in the 1rst person plural ('we' love driving for the team, 'we' have alot of nicknames etc.). Everything about NASCAR sucks and I don't mind having that idea reaffirmed over and over. I hit skip about 2 minutes into it. Podcast #2 was TSG interviewing a guy that writes a wrestling magazine about the Chris Benoit guy that killed his family and himself. This could not have been worse. #1 wrestling is not a sport, its fake. I know everyone knows this but I think secretly some people don't KNOW it or something. How can they talk about who are 'good' wrestlers and not even in the contrived good guy/bad guy sense but in the skilled/succesfull sense? Am I missing somethign or isn't it all scripted? Damn you Sports Guy, Damn You.
I ended up on a This American Life leaning about how hard it is in the world of art to be an artist. To illustrate this point we listened to the story of a balloon animal creator guy who was no longer being taken seriously by his peer group for having 'sold out'. There was lots of isolated stereo sound of balloons squeaking and ponderous silences as we were left to contemplate the tragedy that is a tortured soul balloon clown.
Garmin Data
The downside to my run was the Sports Guy podcasts. I loaded 2 of them plus a This American Life just for good measure. Sports Guy #1 was Bill interviewing a NASCAR guy who drives the 33 car (this is only relevant because it was Larry Bird's number) as a job interview to become the drive Bill would follow. Appearantly the doofus being inteviewed didn't realize that the whole thing was a goof driven by that fact that he was from Indiana and drove a car with Larry Bird's number. He didn't deliver on any of the softwball jokes TSG threw him and just sounded dumber and dumber the more they talked. He continually referred to himself in the 1rst person plural ('we' love driving for the team, 'we' have alot of nicknames etc.). Everything about NASCAR sucks and I don't mind having that idea reaffirmed over and over. I hit skip about 2 minutes into it. Podcast #2 was TSG interviewing a guy that writes a wrestling magazine about the Chris Benoit guy that killed his family and himself. This could not have been worse. #1 wrestling is not a sport, its fake. I know everyone knows this but I think secretly some people don't KNOW it or something. How can they talk about who are 'good' wrestlers and not even in the contrived good guy/bad guy sense but in the skilled/succesfull sense? Am I missing somethign or isn't it all scripted? Damn you Sports Guy, Damn You.
I ended up on a This American Life leaning about how hard it is in the world of art to be an artist. To illustrate this point we listened to the story of a balloon animal creator guy who was no longer being taken seriously by his peer group for having 'sold out'. There was lots of isolated stereo sound of balloons squeaking and ponderous silences as we were left to contemplate the tragedy that is a tortured soul balloon clown.
Garmin Data
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Bike Old Spanish Trail 8.1.07
Took a slower pace today because I have been feeling a little rundown and I want to pick up my running over the next couple of days. D had a tire pop again, he never should have spit on that llanteria brujo guy. The poor guy has probably spent $150 on tires/tubes.
Garmin Data
Garmin Data
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Hoops 7.30.07 and a Birthday Hangover
Basketball was good last night, everyone behaved and we successfully implemented a sign in board to manage the 17 guys that were there.
I felt pretty terrible yesterday and today after the bike ride even after a nice big Mexican breakfast and a 2.5 hour nap. I kinda zombie-walked through the day and I think I might have been de-hydrated. The 2 days before the ride were my birthday extravangzas where I ate WAY too much and drank more than normal.
Friday morning my wife and daughter wanted to take me out for breakfast so we had Bruegger's Bagels (my daughter's favorite place). If you have not had a jalapeno cheese bagel sandwich (I get sausage and cheese w/ no egg) you are missing out.
For lunch I met up with the guys at a place by the U of A called No Anchovies. They do gourmet slices where you pick from a prepped pie in a case and the rebelliously attired pizza man puts it in the oven so that its fresh and perfect. I've had the buffalo chicken wing several times before and its freaking awesome: blue cheese, wing sauce and tender strips of chicken. The other slice I had was a surprise and I think better than the wing slice. It was simple mozzerela, basil, crazily fresh tomatoes and a little cracked black pepper.
For dinner we had a great meal at Vin Tabla with my parents, kids, wife and sister. I'm lucky that my kids are behaved enough and willing to try things not necessarily on the normal 8 and 4 year old menu so that they can come out with us for a nice meal. Frankly nothing at Vin Tabla but I LOVE but the small plates concept is great and without exception everything we had was very good including a 2000 vintage bottle of sparkling wine from Roederer (?) and a great classic tasting French Burgundy that I didn't catch the name of but that the wine steward got all wound up about. I could eat the salume and cheese plates pretty much every day forever and the truffle fries are just silly with their goodness. The highlight for me was the red snapper ceviche. Just enough time in the citrus to give it a texture but not overdone/rubbery. Perfect summer food.
Saturday night my Mom made the old chicken fried steak standby including mashed potatoes, cream corn and gravy. I think I gained 12 pounds just from that meal.
I felt pretty terrible yesterday and today after the bike ride even after a nice big Mexican breakfast and a 2.5 hour nap. I kinda zombie-walked through the day and I think I might have been de-hydrated. The 2 days before the ride were my birthday extravangzas where I ate WAY too much and drank more than normal.
Friday morning my wife and daughter wanted to take me out for breakfast so we had Bruegger's Bagels (my daughter's favorite place). If you have not had a jalapeno cheese bagel sandwich (I get sausage and cheese w/ no egg) you are missing out.
For lunch I met up with the guys at a place by the U of A called No Anchovies. They do gourmet slices where you pick from a prepped pie in a case and the rebelliously attired pizza man puts it in the oven so that its fresh and perfect. I've had the buffalo chicken wing several times before and its freaking awesome: blue cheese, wing sauce and tender strips of chicken. The other slice I had was a surprise and I think better than the wing slice. It was simple mozzerela, basil, crazily fresh tomatoes and a little cracked black pepper.
For dinner we had a great meal at Vin Tabla with my parents, kids, wife and sister. I'm lucky that my kids are behaved enough and willing to try things not necessarily on the normal 8 and 4 year old menu so that they can come out with us for a nice meal. Frankly nothing at Vin Tabla but I LOVE but the small plates concept is great and without exception everything we had was very good including a 2000 vintage bottle of sparkling wine from Roederer (?) and a great classic tasting French Burgundy that I didn't catch the name of but that the wine steward got all wound up about. I could eat the salume and cheese plates pretty much every day forever and the truffle fries are just silly with their goodness. The highlight for me was the red snapper ceviche. Just enough time in the citrus to give it a texture but not overdone/rubbery. Perfect summer food.
Saturday night my Mom made the old chicken fried steak standby including mashed potatoes, cream corn and gravy. I think I gained 12 pounds just from that meal.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Mt. Lemmon Ride 7.29.07 (10 Miles Up)
Felt really good going up today and didn't crash at all coming back down. I finally figured out how the watch stores data and so I made a quick table below to show the altitude changes. 10 was a good milestone and from the looks of it the next 2 or so will be relatively easy followed by a big climb up to Windy Point.
Garmin Data
Mt. Lemon Data
Garmin Data
Mt. Lemon Data
| | Altitude | Altitude Change | Grade % |
| Start | 2,888 | 0 | 0 |
| Mile 1 | 3,132 | 244 | 4.63% |
| Mile 2 | 3,389 | 257 | 4.87% |
| Mile 3 | 3,659 | 270 | 5.11% |
| Mile 4 | 3,930 | 271 | 5.13% |
| Mile 5 | 4,220 | 290 | 5.50% |
| Mile 6 | 4,493 | 273 | 5.16% |
| Mile 7 | 4,736 | 243 | 4.60% |
| Mile 8 | 5,095 | 359 | 6.80% |
| Mile 9 | 5,316 | 221 | 4.18% |
| Mile 10 | 5,485 | 169 | 3.20% |
| Week | Bike Miles | Run Miles | Swim Miles | Basketball Hours |
| 1 (7/16 - 7/22) | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 (7/23 - 7/29) | 25 | 2.5 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 (7/30 - 8/5) | ||||
| Total | 65 | 2.5 | 4 |
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Training Run #1
Running hurts and it sucks. I ran 2.5 miles today, the first time I have been running in months and it was painful the whole way. My cardio was fine, I never got over ~155 which is as the Mythbuster guys always say....the 'butter zone'. But my shins were killing me, specifically the inside part of my shin where it appears to be only bone and no muscle. I know it will pass once I go for a while but I just want to be on record as anti-running.
Marathon here I come.
Marathon here I come.
| Week | Bike Miles | Run Miles | Swim Miles | Basketball Hours |
| 1 (7/16 - 7/22) | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 (7/23 - 7/29) | 2.5 | 2 | ||
| Total | 40 | 2.5 | 4 |
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Hoops 7/23
Not a whole lot to say here, it was a good run but with 21 guys at one point an awful long wait between games. Its a bunch of Raytheon and IBM guy plus a few strays and things run pretty well. We hit a tipping point though when we went over15 guys and a few others walked in late. They insisted that they should play in the next game because they had not played yet. They are idiots. We let them play even though I was forced to sit out 2 entire games and we then all agreed to institute the uber traditional write your name on the bottom of the board when you arrive system to avoid any drama.
A few notable moments included one skinny jumping guy who attempted the longest traveling jump stop I've ever seen. He literally picked up the ball around the hash mark and took 2 gigantic running strides and then a leap to land on 2 feet. He was cool about it when we called traveling but it was actually a pretty impressive athletic feat. I on the other hand am a shadow of my former self. I still finish pretty well and rebound but have alot of trouble getting my own shot from the post.
A few notable moments included one skinny jumping guy who attempted the longest traveling jump stop I've ever seen. He literally picked up the ball around the hash mark and took 2 gigantic running strides and then a leap to land on 2 feet. He was cool about it when we called traveling but it was actually a pretty impressive athletic feat. I on the other hand am a shadow of my former self. I still finish pretty well and rebound but have alot of trouble getting my own shot from the post.
| Week | Bike Miles | Run Miles | Swim Miles | Basketball Hours |
| 1 (7/16 - 7/22) | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 (7/23 - 7/29) | 2 | |||
| Total | 40 | 4 |
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Mt. Lemmon Ride 7.22.07 - Blown Tire
Exciting ride today. We planned to go up 8 miles from the base which is 3 further than I have ever gone. We got off to a late start and 1 guy had a flat on the approach to the mountain and the 4 of us didn't actually start climbing until 6:25. We missed a guy we were going to hook up with at the base but apparently he did the same ride on his own.
Knowing this was going to be further than past rides I went more slowly on the first couple of miles and I felt pretty comfortable throughout. This was the first time I've taken my new bike up the mountain and I loved it. The last bike only had 2 gear choices in the front and it was great having a whole new range on the 3rd (smallest) ring. I tried hard to stay off the easiest gear to keep that for 'the hard parts' but that ended up frankly being most of the way. I wound up stopping a little short of mile 8 at the Bug Trail parking lot. Like a donkey I missed getting out of my pedals and fell and got a booboo on my elbow. I am a dork.
Coming down was alot of fun until it wasn't. I started last and quickly caught up to the gang finally getting onto the big gear and really cranking along. The views descending were truly incredible and for some reason I had my first real 'oh sh**' moment coming around a curve and staring into an abyss of a canyon. It felt like I was a million miles up.
Chill and I set a pretty good pace and according to the little GPS machine we peaked at 40.7 mph until I hit a rock. Apparently going about 36 mph I hit something with my back tire and knocked a chunk out as you can see below.
click the tire for a blow up of the blow up
Having never blown a tire at speed before I instinctively grabbed both breaks too hard and then my front tube popped. I fishtailed a little but managed to get it under control and amazingly my heart rate barely moved. Once I got stopped all the adrenaline kinda left me with the shakes but luckily in the moment I basically stayed cool. One of the guys was kind enough to ride down and get a truck to come get me because there was no way to repair the tire. I was annoyed I didn't get to finish the ride, all that climbing and then to miss out on the run down the mountain sucks.
MotionBased GPS Data:
7/22/07 Mt. Lemon Ride (Climb)
7/22/07 Mt. Lemon Ride (Descent - Blown Tire)
Knowing this was going to be further than past rides I went more slowly on the first couple of miles and I felt pretty comfortable throughout. This was the first time I've taken my new bike up the mountain and I loved it. The last bike only had 2 gear choices in the front and it was great having a whole new range on the 3rd (smallest) ring. I tried hard to stay off the easiest gear to keep that for 'the hard parts' but that ended up frankly being most of the way. I wound up stopping a little short of mile 8 at the Bug Trail parking lot. Like a donkey I missed getting out of my pedals and fell and got a booboo on my elbow. I am a dork.
Coming down was alot of fun until it wasn't. I started last and quickly caught up to the gang finally getting onto the big gear and really cranking along. The views descending were truly incredible and for some reason I had my first real 'oh sh**' moment coming around a curve and staring into an abyss of a canyon. It felt like I was a million miles up.
Chill and I set a pretty good pace and according to the little GPS machine we peaked at 40.7 mph until I hit a rock. Apparently going about 36 mph I hit something with my back tire and knocked a chunk out as you can see below.
click the tire for a blow up of the blow upHaving never blown a tire at speed before I instinctively grabbed both breaks too hard and then my front tube popped. I fishtailed a little but managed to get it under control and amazingly my heart rate barely moved. Once I got stopped all the adrenaline kinda left me with the shakes but luckily in the moment I basically stayed cool. One of the guys was kind enough to ride down and get a truck to come get me because there was no way to repair the tire. I was annoyed I didn't get to finish the ride, all that climbing and then to miss out on the run down the mountain sucks.
MotionBased GPS Data:
7/22/07 Mt. Lemon Ride (Climb)
7/22/07 Mt. Lemon Ride (Descent - Blown Tire)
| Week | Bike Miles | Run Miles | Swim Miles | Basketball Hours |
| 1 (7/16 - 7/22) | 40 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 (7/23 - 7/29) | ||||
| Total | 40 | 2 |
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Bike Gear
Let me start by saying I know close to nothing about bicycles. I just like riding. Recently some jerk broke into our workshop and stole my old bike along with a ton of tools. It was a fine bike, but now I don't miss it. With the insurance replacement money I bought a slightly used bike and alot of replacement kit.
First, I got the really very yellow KHS Flite 500. I have Northwind Hornet shoes for giant men which attach me to the bike via Speedplay Zero Pedals. I have a little bag that sits under the seat in which I carry 2 spare tubes, tire levers and 3 CO2 quick refill cartridges. There are 2 water bottles that I usually keep 50-50 with water and Gatorade. For data collection I am just about to get the Garmin 305 (link) w/ Cadence (link) and Bike Mount (link). For music I used to take our 30 GB Ipod and soft of velcro it to the handlebars but have lately been using the much smaller and easier to mount 1 GB Ipod shuffle. Laundry cycle notwithstanding I usually go in my school colors AZ Wildcats jersey. I carry my phone in the back jersey pocket and a wallet in the underseat bag. The blue Bell Helmet is a must and when recnetly shaved I wear an UnderArmor skull cap to keep the helmet from chafing my head. I don't have racing sunglasses per se but the blue Oakley Minute shades I have work pretty well.
It's alot of gear but I don't think it's too, too much.
First, I got the really very yellow KHS Flite 500. I have Northwind Hornet shoes for giant men which attach me to the bike via Speedplay Zero Pedals. I have a little bag that sits under the seat in which I carry 2 spare tubes, tire levers and 3 CO2 quick refill cartridges. There are 2 water bottles that I usually keep 50-50 with water and Gatorade. For data collection I am just about to get the Garmin 305 (link) w/ Cadence (link) and Bike Mount (link). For music I used to take our 30 GB Ipod and soft of velcro it to the handlebars but have lately been using the much smaller and easier to mount 1 GB Ipod shuffle. Laundry cycle notwithstanding I usually go in my school colors AZ Wildcats jersey. I carry my phone in the back jersey pocket and a wallet in the underseat bag. The blue Bell Helmet is a must and when recnetly shaved I wear an UnderArmor skull cap to keep the helmet from chafing my head. I don't have racing sunglasses per se but the blue Oakley Minute shades I have work pretty well.
It's alot of gear but I don't think it's too, too much.
Training Ride 7/17
Rode the Colossal Cave out and back (link) today with Chill and Big D. Great weather and a really nice ride. I didn't know the exact distance we were riding and set an arbitrary 1 hour goal for myself on the outbound leg. Finished in 1:01:01 so not bad considering we went about .6 miles past where we should have. I didn't keep track on the way back but its much faster being mostly downhill, we averaged 30 mph for a big chunk of it between Camino Loma Alta and where the road turns north out of Rincon Creek. Feeling like a tough guy I passed an old guy who got on Old Spanish Trail at Camino Loma Alta and pretended to be polite saying 'Good Morning' as I blew past him on the big downhill. Apperantly Chill did and said the exact same thing right behind me and it was all wonderful until he passed and totally dropped me on the hill coming out of Rincon Creek. I'm a total noob on the bike and days like this help me remember that.
The new Garmin 305 (link) w/ Cadence (link) and Bike Mount (link) arrives today so I'll be able to post some detailed maps with all the good data along for future rides along with a review of the 305.
The new Garmin 305 (link) w/ Cadence (link) and Bike Mount (link) arrives today so I'll be able to post some detailed maps with all the good data along for future rides along with a review of the 305.
| Week | Bike Miles | Run Miles | Swim Miles | Basketball Hours |
| 1 (7/16 - 7/22) | 28 | 2 | ||
| Total | 28 | 2 |
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
The Over Ambitious Plan for 2nd Half of 2007
To celebrate my 33rd year I am going to go for an athletic triple of things I've always wanted to do. I definitely see myself continuing on the bike but after the El Tour I don't see running as part of my long term exercise plans. Running kind of sucks.
9/16 /2007 Climb Mount Lemon (26.5 miles and 6,500' climb)
11/17/2007 El Tour de Tucson (66, 81 or 109 mile bike)
12/2/2007 Las Vegas Marathon (26.2 miles)
There are a couple of sub goals I hope to accomplish along the way.
10/21/2007 Get Moving Tucson 10 Miler
10/28/2007 Tinfoilman Triathlon (825 yard swim, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run)
This is of course way, way too much. Right now I am playing ball 2 hours on Monday and riding the bike 2x per week, hardly in good enough shape to make this work but I'm working on a plan to get there. I'm going to use this space to makes notes on my progress.
9/16 /2007 Climb Mount Lemon (26.5 miles and 6,500' climb)
11/17/2007 El Tour de Tucson (66, 81 or 109 mile bike)
12/2/2007 Las Vegas Marathon (26.2 miles)
There are a couple of sub goals I hope to accomplish along the way.
10/21/2007 Get Moving Tucson 10 Miler
10/28/2007 Tinfoilman Triathlon (825 yard swim, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run)
This is of course way, way too much. Right now I am playing ball 2 hours on Monday and riding the bike 2x per week, hardly in good enough shape to make this work but I'm working on a plan to get there. I'm going to use this space to makes notes on my progress.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Richmond Trip #1 Monday
Got in very late the first night but I really appreciate that on this project they are building in travel days, whole entire days so I didn't bother to leave until about 1 PM and landed at like 10 or something. This time of year of course its 3 hours worth of time zones which is insane but when I come east I realize that even with the artificial time zones in place, the sun still goes down much later which seems weird.
The trip out itself was the usual mix of pain in the ass and interesting sociological study. For example I became obsessed in Dallas listening to the girl from Georgia behind me say 'mewved' for moved for 20 minutes. Our flight from big D to Richmond was held for a bit after everyone got on as we waited for a connecting International passenger. Its always fun to be THE LAST person on the plane because everyone watches you as you board, some staring lasers but the point is that everyone is looking. The lady that got on board was hefty, porcine really. In fact the first words that jumped to mind were 'Chris Farley'. This was helped by the fact that she looked to have put on a new coat of lipstick over her pancake makeup during some very, very bad turbulence. It was layered thick and sort of all over the place. She was loudly describing as she passed through THE ENTIRE PLANE how her flight from London had arrived late which forced her to run all the way through the terminal ruining her buzz. I just don't know what to say, it was terrible and fantastic all at once.
The Embassy Suites was about you'd expect except I got room 520.....get it? 520 like my area code!!!! I was unnecessarily proud of this all week. The desk man said the TGI Fridays in the adjacent parking lot was the about the only thing open that late so I went by for a beer and a sandwich.
TGI Fridays at midnight on a Monday is a hard place. On my left a gangster looking black guy cadoodling with the girlfriend on his left while ignoring for most of the night the completely bored looking bodyguard looking friend on his right. I call him a bodyguard cause he was like a man mountain. He appeared to be angry that he was there then, and in fact that anyone else was also s he scowled throughout the whole evening. On my right were 3 empty stools and on the other side were 2 groups. 1 a motley collection of well-worn desperate looking local bimbo types and a growing gaggle of what seemed to be servers from other restaurants that had recently closed. The servers were pretty laid back, seemed to know the bartenders well and were having a good time. The bimbos however all had an edgy sense of desperation. Didn't speak to anyone throughout, staring silently like predators. It was unnerving.
The trip out itself was the usual mix of pain in the ass and interesting sociological study. For example I became obsessed in Dallas listening to the girl from Georgia behind me say 'mewved' for moved for 20 minutes. Our flight from big D to Richmond was held for a bit after everyone got on as we waited for a connecting International passenger. Its always fun to be THE LAST person on the plane because everyone watches you as you board, some staring lasers but the point is that everyone is looking. The lady that got on board was hefty, porcine really. In fact the first words that jumped to mind were 'Chris Farley'. This was helped by the fact that she looked to have put on a new coat of lipstick over her pancake makeup during some very, very bad turbulence. It was layered thick and sort of all over the place. She was loudly describing as she passed through THE ENTIRE PLANE how her flight from London had arrived late which forced her to run all the way through the terminal ruining her buzz. I just don't know what to say, it was terrible and fantastic all at once.
The Embassy Suites was about you'd expect except I got room 520.....get it? 520 like my area code!!!! I was unnecessarily proud of this all week. The desk man said the TGI Fridays in the adjacent parking lot was the about the only thing open that late so I went by for a beer and a sandwich.
TGI Fridays at midnight on a Monday is a hard place. On my left a gangster looking black guy cadoodling with the girlfriend on his left while ignoring for most of the night the completely bored looking bodyguard looking friend on his right. I call him a bodyguard cause he was like a man mountain. He appeared to be angry that he was there then, and in fact that anyone else was also s he scowled throughout the whole evening. On my right were 3 empty stools and on the other side were 2 groups. 1 a motley collection of well-worn desperate looking local bimbo types and a growing gaggle of what seemed to be servers from other restaurants that had recently closed. The servers were pretty laid back, seemed to know the bartenders well and were having a good time. The bimbos however all had an edgy sense of desperation. Didn't speak to anyone throughout, staring silently like predators. It was unnerving.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Vegas Final
I never posted anything else on my Vegas trip with good reason. It nearly killed me and I think I am only just now recovering.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Vegas Baby -- part 0
Finding my flight delayed now for 2 more hours I thought I would spend the time setting down some thoughts for the trip.
I am heading out today for the final delivery part of main segment of the project I have been running these last months. There are 400 people coming to a conference at Bally's in Las Vegas who need a new application on their computer. For reasons too painful for me to even recall, the best solution finally agreed to was to take a new hard drive for all of these laptops and build it in a configuration center in Illinois and then ship it to Vegas. Once there, each person in the group will arrive and drop off their laptops so that we can pull their old hard drive to replace it with the new one. To get to this point has been a HUGE effort as we encountered all the problems that we were possible and ended up in a huge rush over these last few weeks.
The next several days will be extremely busy making the swaps but if all goes well we should hand the last one back on Wednesday and then get to have a little fun Wednesday night and Thursday. From there I am meeting a group of friends for a bachelor party starting w/ dinner Thursday and etc etc. until I leave on Sunday. Its going to be a long week and if I'm lucky I'll have a few interesting anecdotes along the way.
I am heading out today for the final delivery part of main segment of the project I have been running these last months. There are 400 people coming to a conference at Bally's in Las Vegas who need a new application on their computer. For reasons too painful for me to even recall, the best solution finally agreed to was to take a new hard drive for all of these laptops and build it in a configuration center in Illinois and then ship it to Vegas. Once there, each person in the group will arrive and drop off their laptops so that we can pull their old hard drive to replace it with the new one. To get to this point has been a HUGE effort as we encountered all the problems that we were possible and ended up in a huge rush over these last few weeks.
The next several days will be extremely busy making the swaps but if all goes well we should hand the last one back on Wednesday and then get to have a little fun Wednesday night and Thursday. From there I am meeting a group of friends for a bachelor party starting w/ dinner Thursday and etc etc. until I leave on Sunday. Its going to be a long week and if I'm lucky I'll have a few interesting anecdotes along the way.
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