This Week’s Theme: Rare

This is a Rare shot for two reasons. One, there are not a lot of pictures of the inside of the container building in a Nuclear Reactor. Two, the chance NOW to even be in this room is rare, not that it wasn’t when I was there in 2001.

What you are looking at is the covered opening of where the nuclear fuel would be stored if this nuclear reactor was fully operational. Bellefonte was a nuclear facility that was about 90% complete before they stopped production on it.

My wife was an employee for TVA for a number of years, when her and her team went on this tour, I was excited to be able to participate. After all I have a nuclear engineering degree (don’t worry I don’t wear a pocket protector) and this was a chance to tour a nuclear plant and be in normal clothes.

Where this an active nuclear power plant, I would have not been in shorts, I would also have been in a rather significant radiation field as well. Also, the silver covering would have been removed, fuel been inserted and a dome covering on top would be there to collect the super compressed hot water. In very simple terms, the goal of a coal plant or a nuclear plant is to boil water somehow to turn a turbine, it’s just different scenarios.

I knew that there would be something that I would think of after I hit publish. It’s the New Diet Coke or rather Diet Coke plus.

The attractive sleek bottle of Diet Coke caught my eye as the Apple Computer Bondi Blue color caught my eye as I scanned the Diet Coke refrigeration depository, placed by Marketeers right at the checkout line.

Hmmm… what was this new creature and why hadn’t I heard of it before. Holding the bottle with all the reverence that all new products should get, I read “Diet Coke plus” in its rainbow colors with fancy little, something… leaf maybe… off the corner of the the “p”.

So what mathematical theory makes this Diet Coke plus? Is it better than Diet Coke minus and not as much as Diet Coke squared? I had to find out… What if it was Diet Coke integral, woah! THAT would be cool.

Diet Coke plus meant that it was Diet Coke “plus” vitamins and minerals. WAH?! vitamins and minerals? Just how many vitamins and how many minerals? Ehhhh, 2 vitamins and 3 minerals to be exact. In one serving (8oz) you get Niacin (15%), B6 (15%), B12 (15%), Zinc (10%) and Magnesium (10%). So it would only take 5 cans to get 100%+ in the first 3 and 75% in the last two.

So, what do these vitamins and minerals do? That’s a project for another day and who cares (I do) because it’s Healthy Diet Coke (as if)! But how does it taste? Funny you should ask… of course I bough one!

So for $1.19 + tax I bought a 20oz bottle that is more than twice as expensive as gasoline and 2.5 times as expensive as the organic milk we buy, so that I could tell all of YOU how it tasted to me… sip… eh, not bad… no horrible Splenda aftertaste… reminds me of… Diet Rite… except that Diet Rite has no Sodium but no Vitamin & minerals.

So there you go… Diet Coke+… you can read the “official” scoop on it here.

Oh, and don’t think that Coca-Cola’s contemporaries over at Pepsi are going to join the “let’s make soda (perceivably) healthier” band-wagon. Pepsi’s coming out (don’t know when) with Tava and this will be fortified with vitamin B-3, vitamin B-6, vitamin E and chromium.

So after 6 Diet Coke pluses and who know how many Tava’s you’ll get some of the daily requirements of some of the vitamins and minerals. You’ll spend more than buying a high quality daily vitamin/mineral pill and the same volume in water but I guess you’ll have all that extra aluminum and plastic to recycle when you do.

And Pepsi, in a Josta/Jolt-esque type move is going to introduce Diet Pepsi Max, which contains ginseng and extra caffeine.

It’s Friday…

I couldn’t be happier, wait… I could be happier, but I am pretty happy that in less than 2 hours of typing this word, I will be traveling home.

So, I probably should update you with my freaky rub problem. Once it knew that I was going to go to the doctor, it died in intensity, but not down to zero. It’s still here… sometimes it feels worse than others, but it is still there.

My levels at the doctor were normal, which reminds me that I need to call and see what my blood results say. Well, I am going to get a CT scan on my chest on Monday to take an internal picture of what the hell is going on in there. I hope this thing is fixable, because it’s getting annoying. And to make things worse I have been cursed ordered to limit my exercise to “easy”… which is like walking… so this means that all the chocolately high fat/carb stuff that I have been eating because I would burn most of it off has been gravitating to my mid-section.

I know that I have gained a few extra pounds, not many BUT it pretty much ends any type of PR time IF I get to run Expo 10k. I’ve already laid to rest the $20 that sent in prior to my rub coming back for May 5th’s Run for the Deaf. Now, I am not too terribly sad about this because the profits go directly to the Tennessee School for the Deaf, and listen to me… it’s a great place!

So May5th is out, but there is a chance for May26th and Expo 10k. I know that even if I didn’t run a mile until race day, I could finish the 6.2 miles. Wouldn’t be all that pretty but I could do it. The Rub is a Shakespearian dark cloud looming over my potential Marathon training.

It’s my intention to run the Quad Cities Marathon this fall (Sept) and so a 14week plan would start me on June 11th… and that was 14 weeks with a great speed base already intact at the beginning. So, this Rub could make it so that my start of training would be pushed back… I could push it back 2 weeks for a 12 week program and still be (personally) comfortable. Anything less than 12 weeks and I am skating on thin ice with how lean my April has been in running and what my May looks like. So, that’s looming.

If you have a podcatcher, you’ll know that Episode 10 of Gravity@1053: Volunteering at the 2007 Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon was uploaded on Wednesday. I was able to stitch the pieces together and get it up with little trouble. Also on Wednesday, I had a revelation while listening to Running from the Reaper that I could make my intro “static” and then go into the show intro, thus cutting down on my editing time (which for me, is the biggest hurdle of the podcast).

That’s all I got for right now… I am sure that when I hit the “Publish” button, I will think of more.

Once upon a time, there was a blog named Planet3rry. He was a good blogger. Always careful to type up a nice entry every day and share it with the world. One day a thing called LIFE came and kicked planet3rry’s butt all over the place…

I can only update this with my patented Reeder’s Digestible (don’t want copyright infringments) version:

The Tuna Can, Can You?
The biggest thing that has been keeping me from doing funstuff at work, is… well, work. I received a load of comments from the fine people up in DC (my taxes pay your salary!!) and have just now (today) finished incorporating them into the report. Most were pretty easy, some were quite a challenge. But after two long days, I sent it back up to DC for some more abuse comments.

I was going to have a new episode of Gravity@1053 ready on Monday, but the aforemention “The Thing that gives me cash” precluded me from putting the pieces together. I hope that on Wednesday, if I have time (see impending doctor’s visit)I can patch the pieces together and there will be joy and harmony in the world (and another episode too).

Rub A Dub Dub
I woke up Sunday morning and thought to myself, “Wow, no rub in my chest, today is a GLORIOUS day.” The sun was shining, the flowers were blooming and a blue bird sat on my shoulder. It wasn’t until about 5pm when I took a good look at that blue bird and it wasn’t quite blue and it qouth to me, “Nevermore”. And with that the rub was back and in Full Force (no, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam weren’t there). It was not gently rapping on my chest wall, it was rattling evermore and just as much as before, enough for me to call my doc-tor, should you scan me I implore, he told me wait ’til yonder morn and come calling at my office door, I shall see you and we will explore, this rapping and rattling and find the cause and eraticate it evermore. So, I see the doctor Wednesday morning. Details when I get them.

It sounds like Crease
Our Au Pair’s name is Christiane, but she goes by Cris. Now, the American pronunciation sounds like Chris. Well, unless you are from the South, then you are obligated to add an extra syllable. But with her Portuguese accent… come on now… not everyone speaks Spanish in South America… it sounds like “Crease” but you need to do it in her accent. The kids absolutely love her! The Younger, who requires 3 forms of identification before he will acknowledge you (unless you are Mommy, Daddy or Grandma), went right to her at the airport.

One interesting tidbit… we are going to be getting here a mobile phone for when she is with the kids, we can reach her. We can get a plan for her that includes unlimited access to some Brazil radio station and she can use the Nextel walkie talkie feature to talk with her parents… included! Hopefully that will keep the ole homesick “send me back home” feeling.

This Week’s Theme: Steps

I could not decide what definition of “Steps” that I wanted to use. Whether it was Steps (of a Process), Steps (actually walking/running) or Steps (of a stairs). After looking through my pictures I went with one of a staircase, or platforms that help you ascend or descend to different levels.

This picture was taken in November of 2006 when I went to the U.S. Island American Samoa for work. One weekend, I went out on a hike to the top of the mountain and down the otherside. Thankfully there were these “steps” here to help climb up some of the more steeper parts.

Here are the two part (steps?) blog entries (with more pictures) about this trek on the only U.S. territory south of the Equator.
What Goes Up and Down Part One, Part Two

Our Au pair is here in Knoxville! The kids love her… The Younger took to her immediately…

pictures soon!

Through a series of divine interventions, the ability for me to run the Spring Sprint 5k came to life at about 10pm Friday night. Even though I was coming off an injury, I was drooling at the ability to run a 5k, it would give me the feel on how:

1)the status of my healing

2)See if attacking my 5k PR time on May5th is still feasible.

The only thing I had to do was get 20 bags of mulch.

I had run the Spring Sprint 5 other times, so I was very familiar with the race location as well as the race course. I knew that a Lowe’s in Alcoa wasn’t to far away. I could (in theory) take the van, get down to Lowe’s, get the mulch, go to the race, run the race, go home and unload the mulch.

This could all be done before 10:30am. When I checked the forecast for the morning, it didn’t look good. Actually it looked all green (rain). This was the same system that in 2 days would pound the runners at the Boston Marathon.

But when it was morning time, it was wet but not bad. So, I was off at the crack of dawn to Lowe’s. I was running about 10 minutes late, but I had some buffer of time to work with. If I could just get to race signup with 15 minutes to spare, I should be okay.

My plan when I go to Lowe’s was to get one of the flat carts, put the 20lbs (40 cubic feet) and haul it to the van. When I got to the garden center, the door wouldn’t open… oh great. But an employee came through and I was in the outside part of Lowe’s. Next, I needed to find a flat bed. Sure enough, someone had put tons of flatbeds all near all the big bagged outdoor stuff (mulch, grass seed, soil, etc). So that was nice…

Then I realized that 20 bags of mulch is going to be ALOT of mulch and that I would need 2 flatbeds instead of 1. So, I find the mulch that I need and start piling it on, 10 bags to a cart. Then I have to pull the cart through the garden center back into the store because the garden center’s gate was closed and locked.

But another sign that I was going to make it to the race, one of the workers comes over to check me out and let me out the door. However, the machine wouldn’t read my card, but she worked it out and opened the gates. I wheeled the cart over to the curb, ran to the van, drove it over, piled 20 bags of much in it, which took 2/3 of the van floor and headed to the race.

I made there in plenty of time to register, get back to the van. I even recorded new audio for Episode 10 of Gravity@1053 which details my experience as a volunteer on the Knoxville Marathon course. My previous attempt at recording ended in me getting very angry at the wind! Bastard!

So, I moseyed to race start, not really sure what to expect. Would I run fast? Would I run slow? Would the rub come back? I didn’t know… I was running on proverbial unchartered territory.

The gun went off and I moved with the mass of 200+ runners. The start is downhill for about 0.2 of a mile and then proceed to go up a hill for about 0.3 of a mile. I proceded with caution as I hit the uphill. I wasn’t sure how the hill would affect me, if at all, but I found a groove that seemed to feel good but I wasn’t sure exactly how fast I was going… I couldn’t tell if the pace exertion was because I was still injured, out of shape, just going up a hill or a combination of them all.

To be safe, I was “drafting” behind other runners to get me up the hill, but I was picking people that were slowing down on the hill, not maintaining their speed. So, I was forced to move forward when I could. At the top of the hill, it leveled off and I tucked behind for a few steps before pulling alongside him to pace off of him as I recovered from the him.

At the first mile marker, there was a sign saying Mile 1 and there was even a guy with a watching, looking at his watch as if to say the time at the split. But nothing ever came out of his mouth, nothing, no indication of our times. I was kind of anxious to see how I was doing, I could tell that I was running a good tempo pace but with the lack of running for over 2 weeks, the feel of that pace would be relative.

The runners in the group I was in started to mutter about not getting their split time, even though the guy was acting as if he was going to do it. So, I looked at my watch and called out “Seven forty-two give or take a few seconds.”

7:42? Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. That’s no landspeed record but it sure is speedy given my conditions. So, I’m in the race now… and my thinking changes. It drifts to Episode 91 of Phedippidations, A Duel in the Sun, about the 1982 Boston Marathon in which Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley battle in warm conditions during the Boston Marathon. One of the methods that Salazar used during the race was to draft behind Beardsley to keep up with him and match his pace; Beardsley would watch Salazar’s shadow and adjust his pace accordingly if Salazar sped up.

So, there I was, looking ahead at the runners before me, getting ready to attack the longest hill, with a renewed sense of victory for this race and thinking “What can I do?” I saw a guy with a bright yellow shirt with the number “32″, way far away and thought he was too far, but there were 10-15 other runners between us, so I make a plan… over take runners.

During the climb on the hill I paced alongside another runner sizing up who I could catch and who I couldn’t. I knew that I had less than half the race to go, so I would have to run a little gutsy. The one thing that doesn’t intimidate me is hills, in fact, pass the milk, I eat hills for breakfast! So on the climb, 4 or 5 runners were history.

At the top of the hill, it was judgment time. Here was the last flat part of the course, I was at the lead of the pack of runners and not too far, but not very close was another pack of runners… so what do I do? Do I play it safe with a 7:42ish pace and hang where I am, or do I speed up and catch the runners ahead. Time was running out, I was running out of flat meters before hit a substantial hill and then undulating hills to the finish.

My mind drifted back to the Phedippidations episode and I thought, “what would Salazar do?” He’d run “balls to the wall” and so in a “I race to see who has the most guts” Prefontaine move, I sped my pace and pushed it to leave the pack that I was running with and catch the last runner in group ahead of me.

Mile 2: 7:37

I had to recover while going on the uphill, but still managed to keep my pace. As I crested the hill, but who did I see Yellow 32 dude, a whole lot closer…

New goal… catch Yellow 32.

The one part that I hate about hills is going down them… I don’t have enough proper technique practice to make running downhill efficient. So, I would pass people on the uphill, but would get passed on the downhill. I was pushing to keep my pace, to catch Yellow 32.

The final approach to the finishline, is to turn right at the midpoint of hill you ran up at the beginning of the race. This means that the last 0.2 of a mile or so it slightly up hill but where you turn, you still have 0.2 of a downhill to negotiate. So, I turn for the final approach and lock onto Yellow 32.

I will have to give it everything I have to catch him and even then, if he knows that I am coming (and trust me, I sound like a loud elephant when I sprint) he can speed up and it’s all over. I speed up some, there are 4 runners between us. At the base of the hill where police officers are guarding the intersection, I pass 2 more runners, 2 runners now between us.

I turn on the juice and am running nearly 90% for the last 0.2 of a mile. I have just a small boost if I need it, but the exertion level is eating that up quick. I pass another runner with 0.1 of a mile. I am at full throttle now… I am giving it everything that I have and the finishline is closing rapidly but the distance between me and Yellow 32 is not.

Yellow 32 crosses the finishline and all I can do is tuck behind the runner infront of me as we cross the line. My net time (not official time) 23:40. I ran the last 1.1 mile at a 7:36 average pace. I was exhausted… it took me a while to catch my breath and I could tell that my rub was back. It didn’t hurt and it didn’t hinder my race, but it was back… poo.

I went to the post race area to get some water and bananas and tried to access how much of my rub was back. During the awards ceremony, I won no door prizes… and there was a glimmer of hope that my 23:4? time might have clout to win an age group award. There was another big race in Knoxville that day, plus a popular race in Chattanooga that would draw some runners.

When they announce my age group with “…in third place with a time of nineteen…”, I left. I was very pleased with my time and though trying for my 5k PR time at the beginning of May seems a little far, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I would have to drop 2 minutes off of my time. I think technique and a flatter course would take 15-30 seconds off, so it would be conditioning for the other and what I am doing now will show up near race day. So, even if I couldn’t get the 5k time, it would set me up for my 10k time at the end of May.

After the fact: Yellow 32 dude finished only 3 seconds ahead of me. My official time was 23:46, which was my second fastest time for this course. I finished 61 out 214 finishers and 8th out of 17 in my age group.

This Week’s Theme: Hobby

Sorry it’s a little late, but I couldn’t find the picture that I wanted for a hobby. Then it came to me that I wanted to use model rocketry because this truly is just a hobby, not a dream, not a passion but a hobby. I like doing it when I can but it’s never going to make me any money… it does provide plenty of entertainment though. I am looking forward to shooting this rocket off with my sons when they are old enough to “get it.”

We had a few road bumps, but Cris our Au Pair is going to be coming a little earlier than planned. She’ll be here Thursday. As, in less than a week! How cool is that! I don’t have anything other to report on that at the moment though.

My legs today were a little sore… after a 3.6 mile run at a 9:24 minute per mile pace, there was soreness! Soreness! What’s up with that, oh yeah… those 16 days that I didn’t run probably contributed to it.

My brain seems to be sending me lots and lots of different signals on what to blog, so there is no apparent cohesiveness to this post, it’s just me noggin’.

If you are anywhere other than New England, I can let you know that Monday is Patriot’s Day… and you all know what that means right? An extra day to submit your taxes? Partially… what is really means is that Monday is the Boston Marathon. And if you want to be “In the Know”, you don’t say “Boston Marathon” you just say “Boston”, it’s alot like Madonna or Elvis. You just have to say the word.

Boston is the premier marathoning event in the world. Now, there are other high profile marathons out there which much faster courses (Berlin, Chicago, New York, London - notice all just one word). But there is something to this point-to-point run through Massachuessttes that has made this “The Race”. Perhaps that you have to have a tough (but not impossible) qualifying time to enter the race, or perhaps the history of the 110 other runnings of the race. Whatever it is, this is accepted as the Superbowl, the Daytona 500, the World Series (best 1 of 1) of the marathoning community.

So, on Monday over 10,000 22,500 [ed. Thanks DPeach for the catch, source: www.baa.org] people are going to line up and run 26.2 miles to Boston… the only problem is that a freakin’ Noreaster is forecasted to lay havoc in the area on Monday. For all the runners, Something Wicked This Way Comes. This doesn’t mean that end is near and all is lost. It just means that the difficult level will be up a notch or two or three. Godspeed Runners.

For my running, Friday was a rest day. Partially because of the soreness, but partially because I was thinking I was going to have to leave work early, but that didn’t manifest. So, I got to sit at my desk and work on the computer some. But now I am practically caught up on listening to my podcasts, I was able to restructure my email so that the message rules are doing more useful work and less making me miss messages. Also the cold has decided to return again. Well, not really cold per se but chilly weather… upper 40s/low 50s for most of the morning and afternoon. So it was better for me to stay here than to get out and it that weather and get sick.

Which brings me to my ailment, The Rub. I could feel just a few itty-bitty little rubs when I took deep breaths. So, it should be gone now. I’ll stick get a recheck on Wednesday to make sure that everything is A-OK.

I had some unexpected childcare last night (those are the best) and that freed me up for about an hour and a half. My initial thought was “How can I fit in a run.” That thought would be harder to bring to fruition in the real world as opposed to my mind.

Now that I had 90 minutes to do what I wanted, a couple of tasks, sans kids, would be much easier came to light. I had to go pick up some barstools that we had ordered, go to Home Depot and then go to Earthfare. The good thing for me was that they were within a reasonable distance of each other and Earthfare was even near a trail head for the Turkey Creek Greenway.

So, I solidify my internary and head off. But as I am backing out of my garage, the yellow “Feed Me” light is staring at me from the dashboard. Okay, so now I have to get gas. Judgment Call: Do I have enough gas to do what I want to do and get gas afterwards, Answer: uhhhh, yes?

So with low fuel light, I head out to the first stop: barstools. Pickup a breeze… in the minivan and I am off. Next, the H.D.. Got my hooks, but wait… Home Depot has those glasses that I use for biking that was lost last Monday (the Sore Ass Post). If I could find another pair, I’d be happy. And for the record, I did retrace when I last had them… running to catch the bus with bike in hand… and they weren’t there. No yellow pieces, just gone. Hopefully someone (who runs with scissors) is wearing a nice pair of Z87 certified, yellow lens, safety glasses.

Okay, which big aisle has “Safety” on it? Should I look for gloves and maybe the glasses would be cohorting with them. Now, I have a genetic disposition, really a code of honor, not to 1)Ask for directions and 2)Ask anything a Home improvement store. So I am a small little fish wandering through the super-mega store looking for a small little item.

When all of a sudden, I see a past friend/coworker from the environmental engineering company that I used to work for before I went back to school. We talked for about 10 minutes or so catching up on what as been going on, when all of a sudden, hanging on a strip were the very glasses that I was seeking. Thanks Universe!

So, I have my glasses, the hooks and then I debate on whether to get the 5′x8′ pink insulation board that Jen wants. It’s the right shade of pink for Mary Kay stuff and seeing that it’s 1″ thick, it’s absolutely perfect… plus that it’s 8 feet, there are lots of things that she can do with it. So, I go for it… I am here… sans kids, it’s a lot easier to do it now since it will take most of the van.

Well, when I saw most of the van, I really mean all of the van and even a little bit over my head. Thank goodness that the foam is flexible or it would never have gone in! But I finally go it in and now to Earthfare, or rather run then Earthfare.

Unfortunately for me there was quite a bit of rain in the area and when I left Home Depot, there was no rain there, but 1/2 mile down the road, there was a down pour, sigh. So, I contemplate running in the rain.

I’m not sick, I just have inflammation. I could get sick, but I am not sick now.

Well, the rain never let up and since one of the things I needed from Earthfare had to be refrigerated, I opted out of running for that day, perhaps on Thursday.

So, today, I was all gang-ho for running at lunchtime. I was curious on how I would do, both lungswise and legwise (it had been a while since I had run). I ran a 3.6 out and back course through Tyson Park and part of 3rd Creek Greenway. I was even recording material for Episode 10 of Gravity@1053 but the wind was so strong that 1) It over powered my speech and 2)It pissed me off. Plus it seemed that it was train shunting time and so there’s trains doing train stuff in the background *sigh*. I am not sure how much is usable, but we’ll see. I might be able to record tonight.

I completed the 3.6 miles at a 9:24 average pace. I know the wind slowed me down some and I think the stitch in my side was a direct result of the clearance Easter candy I bought on Monday…

So, the rub is still there, it’s pretty subdued, but still there… this afternoon, I am taking the kids to a birthday party at one of those inflatable playground places… should be fun for them and dad.