Somehow, I have managed NOT to run for the past 8 days… since the Thursday before Christmas, my running shoes have been lonely. It’s not a matter of not thinking about running. Quite the contrary, I have thought ALOT about running. From needing to register for the Calhoun’s 10 miler or wondering how much speed I have actually lost…

The best chance of actually running was last night when Jen was at a class and the kids were asleep… but, there was a box-getting emergency and so that waylaid my plans of getting the kids to slumber and me on the treadmill. No, in 20 minutes, I rallied the troops, loaded them into the van and off to downtown. With Boxes secure, I was given the following command request.

“Daddy, I’m hungry,” my extremely picky eater elder son told me.

“What would you like,” I said thinking that he had no idea what he wanted.

“Pizza” he replied.

Well, like EF Hutton, when The Elder says he wants something specific to eat, he gets it. Well, except for “Daddy’s Cereal (aka Count Chocula)” or “Daddy Juice (aka Diet Coke)” and some other things that are Daddy Foods… they are usually NOT nutritious.

So, we went to Sam’s for dinner… $4.75 for dinner for a party of 3. Score.

Anyway, no running. Not sure if I can get it done tonight or tomorrow morning either. Perhaps Sunday.

I think I have “sort of” decided on a Digital SLR. I am leaning toward the Olympus E-500. Thanks to Michael at Boy and His Bike, giving me the heads up on the Olympus.

1) It’s only $699 (or so) for a 2-lens kit

2) Olympus received the JD Power award for DSLR over $600

3) The Canon XTi although more pixels, is not a highly touted as the Canon Rebel XT, which can be found but not a cheaper 2 lens kit

4) Nikon D80 which is SAH-WEET-TAH! Is twice the price.

So, the only problem is that Santa has already made his way back home… So I guess it’s up to me to save the pennies…

Well, until I get some more time…

I hope that everyone had a great day. Everything in the P3 universe went just fine… no broken bones, full tummies, and just a couple of fights over the new toys. But what do you expect…

Pictures may or may not be coming up and I do have a You Tubesday video but it’s not ready yet. It won’t be for the squeamish either… MUHAHAHAHA
No running since Thursday (I’m not quite depressed yet)… just sleeping… and shopping… and editing websites until 4am (twice).  Tomorrow we’re going to get the kids pictures taken for our Christmas/Holiday/Winter Card. Should be fun… I’ll be scoping out the camera that their using.

Hey MyCokeRewards players! I got this great email from Coke where I can DOUBLE your investment! That’s right 100% return on those 15digit codes on your specially marked packages of Coca-Cola products. If you have NO idea of what I am talking about and have at least… one maybe two ounces of curiosity, here is my last plea beg request for MyCokeReward points. (I’m now at 406 points)

You can get Double Points from holiday fridge packs and 20 oz bottle caps when you enter your codes on Wednesday, December 28th.**

What I don’t get is that Wednesday is the 27th and the 28th is Thursday, thus I the event is somewhere in the space-time continuum and will have to travel at Warp 9.999 around the sun to get there…

Out of everything I did last Saturday, this was worth some merit.

The scene, Jen was having two facials at the house starting at 2:30pm, so I was going to take the kids out and abound for some holiday fun. So, right after lunch, I start gathering everything that I will need to be out and also be ready for any emergency that might arise. Okay, not all emergencies… just a bathroom emergency.

I have a small bag specifically for this (of course) and so it was loaded, drinks were loaded (but hidden), had snacks and a few toys. I even tried to get Eric to watch a different DVD, but he must watch the video with “Boo Boo Choo Choo” song… over and over and over again. It is his favorite and he loves the one with Thomas and the Jet Engine.

So at about 2:15pm, I let the kids know that we are going out in the van and got their environment conditioning suits, just clothes… and they were playing around in the van. I can hear the hazard flashes going on and off, the doors locking, Ryan laughing, and all kids of other stuff. Next, I proceed to take everything I will need to the van.

I get Ryan buckled in and then Eric. I close the van door and go into get an envelope to mail Stacie’s treats. When I come back I open the door to get in and nothing happens…

Oh crap, the kids are in the van, it’s locked and both are in their carseats.

Slight panic attack… okay, we have spare keys to the minivan don’t we? I think so… let me go check.

When I went inside, I relayed my predicament to Jen. “Guess what? The kids are locked in the van.”

“Eric can unlock the door, but you have to be quick because he clicks it too fast”

“Well, he’s in his carseat…” I added.

“We have talked about this before…,”She started. “We Have?” I interrupted. “Yes, we have, I never leave… [edited]”

OKay, so I find the spare keys, a normal key, a valet key and the clicker-thingy. So, I push the open button… nothing.

“Oh [edited],”I thought, “I am going to have to go and get a new battery and have the kids wait in the van for like an hour or so…”

So, I take the battery out and see it’s a CR2025, I check the Grand Prix spare keys and the clicker battery is a CR 2032 and so that won’t work. I’ll definitely have to go out now, oh great, this is going to mess Jen’s stuff up and I am in hot water.

Then, what you all have been thinking FINALLY donned on me… (see the light bulb illuminating above my head) I have the actual keys… the piece of metal that when inserted into the keyhole will unlock the van.

All I can is that sometimes the answer is right in front of you the entire time, but your thought process can make all the difference…

Of course, since I am so not street smurt and more book smart, I had to find out about the history of key/lock mechanisms… you can entertain yourself, at your own discretion by following this link.

Uh, I got the finger pointing on not having an update on the family website about the kids, so I will have to copy some of what I post here… oh screw it, I’ll just leave the details with kids for another day.

At my work, we were given a half day. However, I wasn’t going into the office as I had a pediatrician date with The Younger. Since it in the morning, I just sandbagged the whole “work” thing. The Younger is a small ass kid. He’s 10-25% in height and 5-10% in weight compared to other kids his age. But he’s healthy, smart and FREAKING LOUD!

The boys and I ran a few errands after the doctor’s we went to Sam’s where we experienced a meltdown from The Elder. Headed by the Vet to find Skip’s collar. Collar NOT found, but a new Rabies Tag was secured. Wal-mart for a new collar. Panera for some bagel food. And all this in the torrential downpour of wet weather we had all day long.

Once the kids were down in the evening, Jen and I stayed up until about 4am working on her website. I was able to get the Drupal thing working and so were doing some major updating and transferring files over. In fact, I probably should go work on that…

Episode 005 of Gravity@1053′ is uploaded, if you don’t subscribe to the feed with a podcatcher, you can follow THIS link to download the show the ‘old fashioned’ way.

This show is about Runner’s Safety and includes some important safety tips from the road runners club association (RRCA).

For those who have been reading this blog for a while know that there was a stretch of 2-3 months that I would forget very important articles when going to work out lunch. It was not uncommon for me to forget socks, underwear and towels. It was like anticipating a train wreck on what I would forget next. So let me present you with this List:

Things I Needed in my workout bag today

• Shampoo/Body wash
• Towel
• Bandaids

Not too bad. Right?

I mean, I’m a guy, so the shampoo/body wash is really optional… come on. Towel… luckily for me, I knew that I didn’t have a full-sized towel with me before I left my office. So, I brought 3 hand towels that I keep around as spares. The most important thing was bandaids.

The Bandaids are used to protect me from chafing in today’s weather.

Yes, oh do I? Yeah, it is a bit nipply out. I mean nippy. What am I saying, nipple? -Clark W. Griswold

I was worried that I would not be protected from the weather and would end up with bloody (or at least raw) nipples… very painful. I had a technical (Coolmax type) shirt and so I put my faith in the fact that it would do it’s job and not leave me an invalid.

This’ll be the last workout from UT for this year, so I wanted to do something special, but had no idea what to do. I thought that I would do a little exploring and hopefully get to the 5 mile mark for the run.

My Route is HERE, if you are interested.

I took off my normal Market Square Fab 4 route, but instead of going up the hill, I went to the other side of library. Then cutting around campus, I have two easy ways to cross Cumberland (the main street that bisects campus and very busy), one is the bridge that I take during my Fab 4 route, the other is the 11th Street garage bridge. There’s actually one more that I could use a little but didn’t want to take it.

I crossed over to the entrance of World’s Fair park, which I usually pass up and head right into downtown. But today, I swung down and around and cruised through world’s Fair Park. I mean, it is a historical part of Knoxville.

When I ran the Knoxville Marathon this Spring, I learned a few new side streets from the course. So, I took one of these new route and came out near the Old City. I cut across Gay Street and into the Old City, then headed back up to Market Square. At this point I hopped back onto my Fab 4 course. This would allow me to measure my pace en route and not later. My mile split, in the middle of the run was a 8:27, yeah… about what I expected.

I headed toward the other bridge that I normally take and instead of following my normal route back, I took a hard right and took a new path. This path seems to be right about the same distance as my normal route, which is nice to know.

I ended up with 4.57 miles in 39:07 min which averages out to a 8:34 minute pace.

Thank you Greg for reminding me… 

Crap, I wrote the ending in my brain, not in the blog entry…

The run ended with all pieces and parts of my nipples chaffing free -YAY!!

But I do need to go buy more bandages…

Like I promised, here are some of my favorite Christmas songs and a little blurb about them. I looked at my Christmas music stash and I have over 300 songs that have some sort of holiday theme. If I had time, I would have broken down some numbers on the frequency of songs.

For example, I have Jingle Bells by Jimmy Buffet both in the Christmas Island CD as well as in Now, That’s What I Call Christmas Vol 1. Also, there is the number of different covers of a song. So for Jingle Bells, I have Jimmy Buffet, Singing Dogs, Harry Connick Jr., Bob Rivers and Snowy Mountain Jazz Cafe.

White Christmas - Bing Crosby: It’s what is emblazed in my mind when I think of Christmas. I would love to have a white Christmas “like the ones I used to know”.

Mary’s Boy Child - Harry Connick Jr.: This is a new fave of mind. I love the horns in this arrangement. Our church played this song with some horns as well and I have been finding myself humming along to it.

Christmas in Hollis - RUN DMC: Whether you like rap music or not, this is a great song about being rewarded about doing the right thing and family traditions.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2: This is the song that starts the Christmas Season for me. It’s fast and fun. But Baby, Why aren’t you here?
Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano: I think that I like this song more because of the message that it sends. Don’t get me wrong, you can seriously get some funky jams going with this song.

Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses: I would patiently wait each year to hear this song. I had no idea who sang this song or how to get it (in the pre-internet era). It’s a Christmas song that’s on Speed and Caffeine, it always puts me into a good mood.

Christmas Through Your Eyes - Gloria Estefan: This is just a nice pretty song

I am Santa Claus - Bob Rivers: Nothing says Christmas like a parody of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man

Children Go Where I Send Thee - Natalie Merchant: Love the bass and it’s not a song you hear very often

I Saw Three Ships - Sting: Short, fun song usually paired up with Good King Wencelas, but his one works for me by itself.

Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney: Another one of those great Christmas songs.

Thanks for Christmas - XTC: I couldn’t leave any musical list without a song by my favorite group, XTC. I love this song because it suggests that we should have the Christmas spirit throughout the entire year!

I Wanna Hippopotamus for Christmas - Gayla Peevey: Really, who DOESN’T want one?
Rise Up Shepard and Follow - Acappella: This carol is very slow and purposeful and very well done.

Honorable Mentions

O Holy Night
Little Drummer Boy
Trans-Siberian Orchestra SOngs (just introduced to them, so I can make a particular claim on any particular song, but I like what I hear.
Rock Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
12 Days of Christmas - The Muppets (Beaker steals the show)

In an effort to update my wife’s website to something a little more up to date, you know in its current state it’s soooooo 2004. I am looking to put a CMS as the driver for the website. I currently have WP on there as a test, but I am not interested in making all the edits to make it less like a blog and more like an information website. So, I downloaded Drupal and have been frustrated as Drupal has not been able to install despite following all the suggestions instructions.

(aside)The title of this post is a quote from the late Princess Di
Well, on to the run.

I was going to title this post “My Other (Running) Brother Darrell” as all I could think about was his little question in the comment section of my I gave Blood Post:

As a benefit getting most of your own blood volume back should have less of an effect on your training. What do you think?

A few things came together as I struggle with an 8:45 pace as almost a tempo pace. That No, it will not have less of an effect. Now, it terms of blood volume, getting the plasma and white blood cells back was definitely nice, sort of not needing to drink as much water to get my volume back up. And Super Nurse Pam mentioned that I got my Whities back and that will help with  my immune system (and with 2 kids, I need all the help I can get!)
But what about the Red Blood Cells? I think the fact that I can’t donate for an extra 8 weeks on top of the standard 8 weeks for using Alyx is a clue. The Medic website was not of any great use to the intricacies of Alyx, so I can’t comment about that. My unprofessional guess is that I have lower RBC count than I would if I had just done the straight ‘poke and drain’ method.

Since RBC are the carriers of Oxygen to all parts of the body, I have less guys to cover energy demands of the body. Thus, when I am running, I am getting tired faster as the RBC can’t supply enough oxygen for the level of exertion during my workouts. I could take a hit from an inhaler to help ‘open the doors’ of the lungs a little more…
Troubling? Nah, not when I imagine this is the cause. I mean, if I wasn’t sure, then yeah, I’d be upset that a 8:30 min pace is kicking my ass when just 2 weeks ago I could still crank out a 7:30 pace without much trouble.
So, how do I take advantage of this? Keep running… again non-professional conclusion is that I can train as if I am at Altitude, but I have to be careful.

If at altitude, say Colorado Springs, then there is less oxygen present in the air. So, the less oxygen intake means less to carry to the rest of the body. So, if I have less blood to carry the oxygen, there should be some proportionality (maybe not 1:1) to the effects of training at altitude and less RBC from donating.

If I run at the speed levels that I was running before lying in the comfy chair with Alyx, I could lead myself to an injury, most likely a muscular injury due to some form of oxygen deprivation. Much like the calf injury that I got a couple years back when I decided that I would run 13 miles, the same day that I gave blood. Not only did it act up then, but it was nice enough to flare up during some of my longer runs.
So I should wear my heart rate monitor, as it can at least tell me the level at which the heart is working. I don’t want to have too much training at the Max Heart rate level, but I should be able to know when I can push it.

Steve Runner on his podcast, Phedippidations, recently went over new gadgets and gizmos and talked about the new features of some of the heart rate monitor-computers. The HRM that I have is a barebones basic version, it can tell me heart rate and beep if I get out of a range that I set. Perhaps next year I can look into investing into a new one.

So this is what I ran today:

Mile 1: 8:20
Mile 2: 8:38
Mile 3: 8:47
Mile 4: 10:15

For an even 36:00 minutes, for a 9:00min pace.

I did run 3 miles on Monday at about the same rate. Started out a little quick and then burned out.

I should be fine for my 10 mile race at the end of January… more on that next month.

The podcast is recorded and needs some editing, it may be a date late, but never a dollar short.

I won’t run tomorrow because it’s our office’s Christmas Lunch. Last Year I got a popcorn tin with the movie Madagascar on the side… I know now why we had lame ass gifts like that, but’s for tomorrow.

I have a few new readers/commenters now (I don’t really check my stats) based on, well, my comments and so I wanted to refresh everyone on that fun little game that we are calling… wait, we are not calling it anything are we?

Short-Short version: I’m a sucker for slick marketing.

Result: I’m drinking Diet Coke (yes, I know it’s bad for me, but work wouldn’t go for the Tequila shots, so Diet Coke it is) so that I can collect the My CokeReward codes to get free stuff

How you fit in: You drink Coke related products and send me the codes.

What’s in it for you (the reader)? You might win something… Everyone from last round (should have) gotten something as a result.

What’s in it for me (Terry)? I like the email, plus, it’s fun

No, really, what’s in it for Terry: Well, I did get a bag (short-short version: I have a bag fetish)

AND just when I thought they were going to stop the program, Coca-Cola added more NEW stuff… and a bag.

So I am going for this:

It’s 769 points and as I wrote this I had 371 points

So what do I do? If you want to help me try to quench my thirst for bags, bags and more bags. Collect the special code on specially marked Coca-Cola products and email the 15 digit code and what product (flavor & size) to me. Oh, you don’t have my email? There’s a contact link that will send the a message to me and we can go from there.

Easy enough? And as an added incentive… I’ll have a winner this go-around too, just one this time.