Yesterday I gave blood at my church for the Medic's blood drive they have there twice a year. If there are 70+ donations, then the cost of blood is covered through Medic. So, since I give 4 times a year anyway (since I still am qualified), I make my contribution here. Well, it was like all the other times… sign in… answer questions… give blood… eat cookies… get t-shirt. I wish they wouldn't buy the super huge XL shirts. I can't really complain because they are Free, but the XL is sooo big from their manufacturer that the shirts are useless to me. I end up sending them with the In-Laws as clothing donations to the Philippines during their medical missions. I also donate many of my race shirts that suck… why do I need to wear them? I'd love to have one of those T-shirt quilts made with my marathon shirts, but that is extra money I don't have. Maybe Later.

As I was plundering through a list of running community blogs, I discovered a program called Word Press. This is software that lets you have a blog on your own website and you host the program on your own server. It has many features that Blogger or LiveJournal have and so I investigated it out just a tad. I was able to get it loaded onto the jenandterry.com site and it worked. So, I will report more on it later. I am pretty sure that I would keep my LiveJournal Account, but that I might shift Eric's blog over to there as I can keep this more for Running.

Since I gave blood, no work out yesterday. I was running so incredibly late today that there will be no working out at lunch (no clothes) AND because I have moved my tutorees timeslots earlier… no workout tonight. I will have a chance to workout tomorrow evening, but that is only if I can get the forces of nature to work in my favor. Ideally, we can get 10 new team members today and then I can workout tomorrow without any guilt.

Here is a picture that I took on Friday while I was going to work. I LOVE having my Dimage X20 with me. It is so small and compact with a quick boot up that I can take decent pictures very easily. The picture is of the Sunrise while traveling East on I-40.

Yesterday was a pretty gloomy day here in East Tennessee. We had a light drizzle all day long and chilly temperatures. I wasn;t sure if I would make it outside to run or if I would be running on the treadmill. Marty was busy last night watching the kids, so I was flying solo last night, in the rain… ugh. As I made my way to the track, since Tuesday is speed work day, I noticed a ton of highs chool track people walking around. Sure enough, there was some major high school track meet happening at Tom Black track in the rain none the less. I guess that would limit the field events, but the track people should still be able to run. Anyway, it required that I would have to relocate my speedwork.

Seeing that it was lightly raining, I was not sure if the skies would open up and be deluged with rain. So, instead of hopping on the greenway, which is partial covered, I opted for running on campus. Although I wouldn't be covered in the event of a down pour, I would be much closer to the car and gym. I started out very quickly, I ran 0.35 mile in 2:29 which equates to a 7:06 pace. Then jogged to catch my breath, to go out again for 0.27 mile in 2:05 which was slightly slower at 7:43 pace. Seeing that I would keep this a short session I decided that I would add some sprints uphills to my workout tonight. Why not?

In these parts, there are no shortage of hills… so adding hill work is as easy as 01,10,11 (binary joke). The hill work went real well, I ended taking on two hills without having to stop. I got back to the car in 20:35 and covered 2.25 miles for a 9:09 pace. Not bad since I did some recovering walking without stopping the watch.

Today is going to be a rest day because I am giving blood. So no running until tomorrow, which may be limited because exams have started and my tutorees want to switch their timeslots. Fine by me, that way I am not on campus until 10:30pm.

Picture Albums of Eric have been added to the main website. Also pictures of the Trideltathon 2005 has been added to my Running Corner.

Pretty exciting that The Simpsons have reached this far. You would think that the show would have lost its luster and faded away. Although it has played musical time slots on TV, the writing is what makes it so good. Always making fun of itself, and FOX, plus whatever is currently happening in pop culture or the world. My generation is the generation of one-liners as replies and/or comments, thanks TV for being such a wonderful teacher and babysitter. Where else can you get replies such as
“EEEWWWWWWW, I'll take the clam juice”

'Best 16th
season … ever' — and more to come

At about 4am Jen wakes up with some major nausea. It took about half an hour, but we got her stomach back to normal and back to sleep…

5:30 time to wake up so that Gray and I could leave at 6am to rack our bikes at 6:30 for the 8am start. The night before, I had packed my bags and laid everything out ahead of time, much like I do for a marathon. If you don't have a helmet, you are disqualified, so there are certain things that you have to make sure that you have. A cup of coffee and half a bagel with peanut butter was the breakfast menu before Gray and I left at 6am.

One nice thing was that the weather was still very cold but not as cold as predicted. Maybe 2-3 degrees warmer. We made it to the Aquatic Center in plenty of time and found a nice spot for our bikes. we laid out all of the equipment we would need for the transitions, a place in the locker room for our stuff and then waited… for about an hour. At 8:00 they announced that we would be starting late and that the run would be started in waves. Runners with numbers 1-100 would run first, then 3 minutes later 101-200 would run, then everyone else. Gray's number was 148 and I had 145, so we'd be in the second wave.

As we made it out to the start line from the warmness of the aquatic center, we saw Jen, Lauri and Eric who were coming to cheer us on.

The Run: The run went fairly well on a less than flat course. I noticed that my first mile was in 7:45 which was almost a minute faster than what I could suffer through on Thursday. I knew that I needed to slow down a bit to conserve energy for the bike. My friend Gray has beat me every time in the Trideltathon (5 attempts) and I knew that him being a much better biker that any advantage I would get would be on the run, so that was motivational. I would accelerate up the hills and then use the downhill to get my breathing back on track. I felt good coming into T1 after the run and figured that I might have gained a minute or so on my friend and that I needed to get out on the bike ASAP. I crossed the mat for the run at 22:56 a 7:39 pace.

Transition 1: As I made it into T1, I slowed to a jog as I reached my bike. Right as I got to my bike, my friend Gray was right there. Oh well, so much for competing against him. It was now me against the clock. I put on my helmet and glasses and took off. Time in T1: 1:50

The bike: I had problems mounting my bike. I do every year. You would think that I would practice this before hand. I might it out on the course and tried to find a gear that was comfortable speed without too much pain. The bike is least efficient discipline and so I tried to keep a good cadence with little fatigue as possible. I knew that I wouldn't really need to use my legs in the swim, but I needed some energy for the later part of the bike course. The hills were never a problem for me as I made it to T2 in 19:36.

Transition 2: You had to dismount outside the transition area and then run your bike to your rack, then get ready for the swim. For the run and the bike, I had on my “almost tights”, clothe undershorts, swimsuit, two shirts, a jacket, a hat and gloves. I disrobed as fast I could grabbed my swim cap and goggles and took off for the pool. Time in T2: 2:02

The Swim: I got into the pool and started swimming. About 20 meters into the pool, I realize that I still have my clothe undershorts on. Oh well, extra weight, but not bad. I probably only stopped for about 3-8 seconds at the ends of lanes, mostly to stretch my triceps. I could tell that I was getting tired, but I kept my arms moving the entire time. As I started my 7th lap, I could see Gray standing on the pool deck. “Wow,” I thought “he did well.” I used my legs to kick as much as I could and finished the swim in 9:58.

Overall time: 56:22
Age Group Place 16/22
Overall Place 144/301

So I ended up beating my goal time of one hour. YAY

We a had a touch of cold weather here in East Tennessee starting on Friday afternoon, enough to prompt me to keep checking the weather for the Trideltathon on Sunday morning. Each time that I looked, it was getting colder and colder. From 36 to 34 and then the “feels like” temperature prediction of 32 then 29 and then 26. I could just imagine getting pneumonia again with temperatures like that.

Gray and Lauri showed up around 2am and proceeded to get right to sleep. I didn't blame them.

The only pressing matter on Saturday's Agenda was to go to Swim and Tri for packet pickup. Also we wanted to take them to Tijuana Taco because this is a awesome local mexican restaurant. It's like a gourmet Taco Bell only better. My favorite is the Nachos which is easily a HUGE meal.

we made it out to Swim and Tri around 3pm so that we could attend a Beginner's clinic they were having. Gray wanted to Lauri to see what was involved or really get some information from professionals on how to be effective in triathlons. The nice thing about the Trideltathon is that the short format, you can go all out in each of the discipline and be fine. Also, you don't need to train as hard to just complete the distance. The clinic was not very informative in terms of information about triathlons in general. It was very informative about the Trideltathon though. So it was worth hanging out in the cold. The one thing that we found out was because of the cold, the format was being reversed. That is, the run was first, then bike and then into the pool. Even though I like the traditional format, this was going to suit me just fine, because I would have a smaller chance of getting sick this way. Plus the pool is indoors and heated!

We also had a good time at Tijuana Taco afterwards. We tried to see some of the NFL draft and how are teams were picking. Lauri's grandparent has season tickets to the Steelers, so she goes to a game once a year. Gray is a big Raiders fan and I like Green Bay. Jen doesn't have an absolute favorite team but likes football in general. After Tijuana Taco and all of us stuffed out of our minds, we went to Ross to get some clothes for Eric. Since the change in weather, we have run out of clothes for Eric to wear. He has about 6 outfits that fit him and are seasonal for the spring time. So he constantly wearing the same thing over and over. Well, we picked up a few new outfits from Ross, so at least we potentially have a choice on what he is going to wear. Dessert was on the menu now… a trip to Marble Slab Creamery for some ice cream. I actually didn't get any ice cream but everyone else enjoyed the treats.

Gray and I ended up watching Star Wars that night. He ad brought with him some Arrogant Bastard Ale in 22oz bottles for us, which was very good. It had around a 7% alcohol content, which meant that only one bottle was sufficient to provide the desired effect.

Yesterday was a good running day for me. I met up with Marty to do a nice easy run. Although I should have known that since Marty is in better running form that a easy day for him is a tempo day for me, right now. Anyway, we met up at the UT track and was going to run out Third Creek to the Super Bi-Lo and back. Our trip would be around 7.3 miles given our starting point. We cruised out there and had a fairly good and quick run out to the Bi-Lo, I had measured one of our miles and it was a 9:15 pace. It was a little difficult for me but not enough that I couldn't keep talking although I was getting a stitch in my side. we lallygagged in Bi-Lo for a while as we got some water. Marty used his charm to get Angel, bakery person to offer us some of her own personal Coconut Macaroons. Now this is an example that runners will eat anything when they are in the zone because I don't like coconut but I sure ate the macaroon. I noticed on my watch that I had to get back quickly so that I could shower before my tutor session.
I finally got Marty out of the store and we started to cruise back toward campus. I measured one of our miles at a 8:55 and again, it wasn't that bad even though it was faster. We made it back with me have 5 minutes to spare. I ended up only washing my face and extra sweaty as I went to tutor.

Split Times:
Out: 3.7 miles in 36:43 minutes for an average 9:56 pace
Out: 3.6 miles in 34:07 minutes for an average 9:22 pace

Miles for March = 17.4
Miles for 2005 = 151.8

When I got to work this morning, things seemed all normal and dandy. That was, until we saw two of our coworkers from the other building, looking up into a tree. The weird thing about this despite not being an everyday occurrence, was that it was caddy corner across the street. No where near were they work. So, out of curiosity, Tom and I stroll out of our house to see what all the fuss was about this tree. What had happened was that a bird was stuck in the tree. It had some how managed to get his foot caught in a branch from what it looked like from the ground and was fluttering around upside down. A girl was there and later found out that she heard the noise the bird was making and proceed to get Richard and John to come out to help her get the bird out and this girl was obviously distressed about the bird's situation. It was obvious that the bird was making things worse for itself and that the only was to get it out was by manual extraction. Either cut a branch, severe a leg or something. So, as the employee with the most athletic prowlness, I volunteered to go up the tree and rescue it. The tree is a fairly old tree with thick round branches. The branches are easily round enough to walk one without little worry, but on the other hand, some the branches were dead. So I managed to get up into the tree and onto the branch that the bird was stuck on. The bird was about 10-12 feet away from the base of the tree and would require me to move outward on the limb away from the tree. Knowing Physics, I knew that I was on a lever and that the farther I traveled out on the branch, the greater the amount of force I would be putting on the tree limb. I worried that the my downward force (thanks gravity) would be stronger that the force the tree was suing to hold onto the branch.

I was armed with a pair of very very dull scissors, so any type of cutting would have to be the hack and twist motion as I tried to find the sharpest part of the blades. Such is life, I guess. I made it out far enough that when I stood up on the branch I could reach out and get the scissors near the bird. At this point, I could tell that the bird was a Robin and that it had wrapped a piece of string around the branch and subsequently around it's foot. As I got closer, it started making freaking out and trying to fly away. I tried to talk to the bird to assure it that I was only out to help it and not to hurt it. I slowly reached the scissor tips up to the bird foot to make a cut of the string and immediately tried to think of all the diseases that birds carried…hmmmm. The first cut was not effective as it did nothing to remedy the situation. The next cut was a cut closer to the leg of the bird, with the intention of making another cut on the otherside to free it completely. As soon as I made the second cut, the bird fell about two feet in the air then proceeded to fly away into another tree to regroup itself. Looking at the string, speculation was that it was trying to gather things to create a nest but had somehow managed to entangle itself in the process. I made it out of the tree without any problems. My forearms were a little scratched up from the tree back and I found a couple of pieces of bark in my shirt pocket, but other than that I was the hero of the morning.

One of the guys that I worked with said that “no good deed goes unpunished” and that some activist group is going to yell at me for disturbing the balance of nature, on Earth Day nonetheless.

I got a voicemail from Jen this morning saying that I she had something that I could blog today. Well, today was the first that Eric, by himself, put on his sandals. When we went to get him out of his crib this morning, we played in the room for a while. During which he brought his sandals over to us. He said “shoes” and played with the velcro closure. I left for work and then got a voicemail during my travels that he had gotten his sandals and proceeded to put them on his feet. He was able to put the correct shoe on the correct foot which was a 50-50 chance. They only thing that Jen helped him with was to show him where the velcro strap was since he couldn't see it.

I am meeting with Dr. Guess this afternoon to discuss a paper that I am helping him and Dr. leon write. The paper is actually an extension of the paper that I did for my Master's Project. Right now we are looking to find other papers that reference the paper that we used as our basis Gaver DP (1963). The paper will deal with unavailability of systems that have components in a parallel system. An example of a parallel system is a string of christmas lights that when one bulb goes out, the string of lights stay lit. The other type of system is called a series system and that is the cheap string of light that when one bulb goes out they all go out.

Today's workout is an easy run of about an hour as I will have both my tutoree this afternoon. I am going to see if Marty can run with me and head out on the Greenway. Should be a good run and I hope that the rain holds off until I am done.

Chris is coming to crash at our place tonight. He is traveling to Charlotte, NC and wants to break the trip up. Then Gray and Lauri come in on Friday night. So welcome to Chez Higgins…

Originally uploaded by Nad.

How cool is this! This was taken at the London Marathon on Saturday. I could not imagine that someone could run the whole thing in a stormtrooper suit. I'll have to see if I can get their finishing time.
I found out who this was… at first I looked for the number 1256 and that runner came in 3:11. Not even if he had the Force working with him, could he make it that fast… so I went through the number thinking that his bib was 1256X, and the answers were:
12567 RACHEL L. WHITTAKER W20 3:56:46
12563 TIM M. PERRY M20 4:11:32
12560 WILLIAM J. WEAVER M50 4:39:21
12564 JOHN. PICKARD M50 4:40:21
12569 TERENCE. RYAN M40 4:47:59
12566 STEPHEN M. BUCKLEY M30 5:44:07

I'm guessing Mr. Buckley…

May the Force be with You!

Not that anyone noticed, but in my last post I only mentioned two of three disciplines of triathlons. The 3rd, which was last night was Speed Intervals, which are done to (just as the name implies) increase your speed. The sessions are shorter than your average runs and should not be more than 10% of your total weekly mileage. A standard term in interval training is “repeats” for example, if I see someone write “2x 800m tempo” or “2x 800m tempo,90″ this means that I will run 800 meters (1/2mile) at my Tempo pace with a 90 second recovery run, then will repeat once.

My session yesterday, some with Marty ended up like this:
1.5 mile warm up (9:00-10:00 pace)
800m speed interval (7:46 pace)
400m recovery (9:30 pace)
400m speed interval (8:08 pace)
200m recovery (9:30 pace)
2x 100m sprint intervals with 100m recovery walks

There were some standing around time and stretching between the actual intervals, so don't think that I did all this in one continuous session. The 800m repeat was tough and so I did only 1. I was running out of time so I ditched the 200m repeats I wanted to do and only did 1 400m repeat because I wanted those 100m sprint repeats… and it felt like I was FLYING.

Last night I was a little sore when I got back to the house, but it was the good kind of sore. I took two ibuprofen and was feeling fine this morning. I went to the pool today at lunch for another training session, actually, my last pool workout before the race. I think that I am going to ditch working out on Friday since I don't want to over do it before the race, plus I think I'll now be watching Eric while Jen is at her next doctor's appointment (no ultrasound) so that'll preclude me from working out anyway.

I had forgotten to mention that on Monday afternoon, I took Eric to the automated carwash so that I could wash the Civic. I thought that he would enjoy himself, but it seems that he did not. He started getting upset and tried to reach for me while in his carseat. After traumatizing the boy, we went straight home. Jen got some funny pictures of Eric from yesterday. I'll have to download them when i get a chance.

Website update: I have added a script that generates a random running based quote. I collect 299 quotes this morning and put the script in and is up and running. You can get there by going to my website (if you are accessing in LiveJournal) and then clicking on the RUNNING link up in the header.

Miles for 2005 = 144.5
Miles for April = 10.1